Referring to the vote, you wanted to see the review about the Nekomura Iroha figure first.
This figure was released on November, 30th 2011 and I received her as christmas present.
The figure has no specific scale, but since she has a height of 175 mm which makes her around the same size as the 1/8 scaled lat type Miku from GSC, this figure could be labeled as 1/8.
I haven’t heard many good things about Griffon Enterprises, the manufacturer of this Nekomura Iroha figure before. But I liked the design of this figure and wanted to give this company a try.
Nekomura Iroha is a vocaloid, she was originally designed by Sanrio, the company behind Hello Kitty for Comiket in 2009. Iroha’s voice provider is a professional singer, and thus she is cabable to sing in high and low tones. I listened to a few songs, but they weren’t really my cup of tea 🙁
She was illustrated by manga artist okama, somehow I’ve never heard of a Nekomura Iroha vocaloid before. Well, Im not at home in the vocaloid culture so that shouldn’t mean anything.
The figure comes with a big and white base in the shape of a Hello Kitty head, normally Griffon seems to use the same black bases for most of their figures, but this base is designed different. The base has three small holes for the two speakers and a microphone on transparent rods. The nice speakers have a ball joint and can be adjusted in different angles and directions.
Hair & Face
Nekomura has two exchangeable heads and an attachable ponytale, so she can be displayed with or without helmet. Both faces have different expressions, without helmet she hows a a neutral friendly face expression, with helmet she shows a happy and energetic expression. The open mouth has a clean shiny finish as well as the eyes. At the backside of both heads is a hole for the ponytale, this part has a very loose fit and falls of everytime you move the base, a bit annoying.
The plain orange hair is not very exciting, I don’t know something is just missing. I prefer the helmet head, it resembles a mechanized cat head. The painting, the shading and the shiny finish are very well done. Underneath the detailed helmet Nekomura wears a set of black headphones.
A nice part of this figure is her dynamic pose and the small body, well she looks rather undeveloped and more like a child, but that makes her appearance very cute ^^
Her eyecatching red outfit is a mix of a yukata and a tight body suit, the upper part around her shoulders has a bright to deep red gradient effect. A big Hello Kitty batch is applied on her chest. At the legs and on her hairband there are nice small details, the white screenprints are applied in a clean and sharp way.
The speaker gloves are called Dynamic-Phonon Buster, they remind me a bit of megaman, but Nekomura only uses them for peaceful purposes, must be really funny to see someone dancing with speakers on the fist “POW!”.
Final Words
Nekomura Iroha is a very cute designed figure, the tight red suit, and the pose are appealing. Both create a cool look and also the diorama like base emits the feeling of a Vocaloid on stage.
The overall quality can be considered as good, not so good is the stiff and plain looking hair with the always falling off ponytail. Also the figure itself isn’t that well connected to the base, you have to be cautious when moving her around, to prevent from falling. I would lie when I say that there are no differences in quality between Griffon and other manufacturers of the figure industry, the figure has rough edges, the skintone appears like the cheaper sort of PVC was used fir her face.
She isn’t one of my favorite figures, but when Im looking at her on the shelf, I admit that I like this figure quite a bit. Nekomura Iroha looks very nice next to my other small 1/8 figures.
The figure probably wasn’t worth the full price of 7540 yen incl shipping, even though a lot of stuff, like 2 heads, speakers and a special base are included. You don’t get the same quality for your money as with figures from other Companys like Alter or Max Factory or Orchid Seed.
Next time you can enjoy my Princess Bitch review, stay tuned.
tanohsimini
Thanks for the great review and amazing pictures.
I think maybe the quality of the hair could be done a bit better and maybe that would of made it a bit better, seemed like they went tacky on the hair^^” As they just seemed to group them all together.
I really like the design of the leg + kimono, looks amazing and that’s what I think draws me to this figure.
Sorry to hear that the ponytail is very loose. As I like how the pony tail looks
The figure is quite expensive for that price but it does seem like a lovable figure. But then again, it includes shipping, so not too bad^^”
haha I’m not too much of a vocaloid fan too as I can’t really stand techno music
Looking forward to your princess b*** review XD
wieselhead
Haha thx , but no they aren’t amazing, a lot of postprocessing was neccessary to make them nicer 🙂
The hair just could look a bit better, more details and some shading maybe.
I like that as well, her outfit is very unique and pretty, the helmot is so cute.
Im not too convinced about everything about this figure, mainly the skintone and hair look cheap, but I like her.
I probably can’t finish it this week, but next week I will present it on my blog, she’s so pretty *Q*
feal87
@wieselhead, some days you will have to train me into making this kind of photos. They’re really incredible…:P
wieselhead
sure I can give you some humble tips, if you’d like ^^
exilehero
I didn’t know she came with the little speakers, pretty neat! I also didn’t notice that her suit was supposed to be a yukata hybrid thing. Her head without the helmet looks a little too big :p.
She does look a little rougher than the promo shots. Looks like it’s a griffon figures aren’t as crisp and clean as the other manufacturers.
Her hands remind me of this one doujinshi that featured mega busters and jumping out of windows. Wonder if she’s in the same situation hahaha.
Bokeh!
wieselhead
The base looks cool like this, the speakers are nice items and appear very well done.
The big head lets her appear quite tiny, well maybe she is just a small person.
Also her face had a better top coat in the promo pictures, on the final product the skintone appears a little strange.
I don’t know if they slack in that regard, because they want to save money. With their experience as figure manufacturer, they could deliver better quality.
Bokeh is all fake, maybe 20% are real in my pics ^^
exilehero
The bokeh is all fake?! There goes my hopes and dreams.
wieselhead
Sorry XD
Well, it’s not entirely fake, but in the end it’s easier to fake the bokeh with a brush.
Miette-chan
Oh hey, this figure was released on my birthday.
Seems like a nice figure, finally got to learn why it had Hello Kitty on the title too.
The outfit sure is an interesting combination between two very different attires. I think I like how she looks more without the helmet than with it. Such a shame that expression loses the fang.
This figure also seems nice overall, my bias against Griffon is slightly less negative now.
wieselhead
^^
I was a bit puzzled about collaboration vocaloid and Hello Kitty, but I was mainly interested in Nekomura’s outfit.
The fang is just an reflection from her shiny mouth, but a fang would have been a cool detail 🙂
Mine not really, but I admit that the figure has a very good design and looks cute.
Persocom
Griffon aside, I think she looks quite nice. Then again I’m a fan of okama’s odd but captivating character designs (he made two Busou Shinki girls) and I would love to get my hands on this figure. I have to admit, the link in this review is the first time I’ve actually heard her voice. Now I feel compelled to hunt around and see what else she’s done that I might like. Thanks for reviewing this figure first, I have strange preferences XD
wieselhead
I had no previous experiences with them and I don’t know if I’ll buy a figure from them again.
But I like the look of the Nekomura Iroha figure, even though she’s far from perfect.
I didn’t know that he also illustrated Shinki characters.
No problem, I found the idea of a vote interesting even though it was not much feedback.
No, no don’t say that I just happen to like ecchi as well as cute figures ^^
Aya
she looks cuter than i expect although the hands reminds me with megaman’s cannon instead Speakers ^^ and seems other than the hair she looks great 😀
wieselhead
I guess she would look great as villain in Megaman, nyahahaha 😀
The dress looks great, but face and hairl could have been better.
Nopy
She looks better than Griffon Enterprise’s Touhou lineup, but I see that they still have some problems with making hair look good. She definitely looks better with the helmet on.
wieselhead
Maybe it was thx to the new sculptor who worked on this Nekomura figure.
With their experience in making figures you would expect that they would improve someday.
The helmet is really nice ^-^
Zai
I hate it so much when something falls apart every time you nudge it! I tend to not go near figures that do that, haha.
She looks a lot cuter to me with her helmet on too, her hair looks a bit flat otherwise. Nice to have that option though.
The deep red of her outfit is a lovely colour and probably my favourite part of this figure. It looks so nice in photographs!
Mmm, the skintone on Griffon figures always looks a bit strange to me and we haven’t been brave enough to purchase a figure from them yet. They seem like they are improving though so maybe sometime in the future we’ll take the plunge! 😀
wieselhead
Yeah thats horrible if that happens and it doesn’t help when figure itself is far way from a stable stand *shake* *shake* *shake* XD
The helmet gives her outfit a nice futuristic direction and its so shiny.
She’s even that red in person ^^, a nice color in my figure collection.
I think the strange skinetone comes from the PVC they use, a better color coat could improve this I guess.
I wouldn’t really recommend Griffon as figure manufacuerer except there’s a figure you’d really want.
Fabrice
She really does give the word “cute” justice.
The costume is quite funny to watch but cute at the same time, ive never heard of her so i guess your the first one to introduce her to me ^^
The only problem i can find with the figure and its a shame is the hair, well the back of it without the helmet, i find it a bit out of place with not much details to the hairline where it then goes to the ponytail. Its like she hasnt got any hair on her head lol ^^
But other than that C-UTE!
wieselhead
@Fabrice,
Yes definetely a cute figure.
I love the design combination of this figure.
Youre absolutely right about the hair, it looks rather like a smaller hat than hair you normally see on figures :I
feal87
it’s a wonderful figure, that sure is a dynamite body to behold…:Q__
But still I don’t quite like the face…I don’t know why….:(
Dinara
Her hair is very plain, and I wouldn’t be able to stand her pony tail falling out all the time either… I didn’t know she was a vocaloid! She always reminded me of Megaman though with her gun, I mean speaker hands.
I don’t really like her a a figure though. She is cute but, just not my cup of tea.
wieselhead
Yeah she is not that well made made, but it isn’t horrible either. ^^
Bloodfrost
Super cute figurine, we were gonna get it but we decided to pass on it. The hair bugs the hell out of me from behind!!! but you cant see it from up front so its ok. I have a soft spot for the cute girls with their mouths open like that, she just looks a little beaming. Lol reading the comment above mine, apparently my wife doesn’t like it =p.
wieselhead
The best part about her is the cuteness and also the dress.
Unfortunately the hair is badly made like that
seems like she hated her a bit XD
Luth
Whoah, she looks decent for a Griffon figure. Interesting character design too. It’s cool how they included extras like the speakers, hair bit, and helmet.
And wow, I’m missing all these crazy Vocaloid’s popping up out of nowhere, I must be living in a cave.
wieselhead
More decent than woahh, but the overall package you receive with her is good and cute.
As I was looking for infos about Nekomura Iroha I was surprised by the fact, that she is quite a bit popular.
Hoshiko
Oh I didn’t know she’s a vocaloid. Is she a new character or something? I’m not very familiar with vocaloid >.<
One thing's for sure though, she's very cute =) I love that last picture, looks as if she's on stage – the star.
wieselhead
Im also not very familiar with them, from the info I’ve gathered she’s from 2010.
Yeah she is, thank you ^-^
Sevie
Hm ^^” Die Figur an sich gefällt mir irgendwie nicht sehr gut. Außer der “Neko-Helm”, der ist echt niedlich : D
Aber auch wenn mir persönlich die Figur nicht so gut gefällt, sind deine Bilder natürlich wieder einmal unglaublich gut geworden :3 Besonders schön finde ich 002 und 009. Die Perspektive, der Ausschnitt und das Licht ergänzen sich einfach prima : D
Freue mich schon sehr auf deine nächste Review ; )
wieselhead
Ich hatte auch etwas mehr erwartet um ehrlich zu sein, die Hautfarbe und das Haar sind nicht so toll geworden 😀
Oh dankeschön, bei den Bildern war ich doch etwas unsicher diesmal.
Ja, kommt bald muss nur noch den Abschlussteil schreiben ^^
Duqs
IMHO, she looks waaaay better without the hat. They couldve just added some robotic cat ears instead of adding an entire cat helmet.
I love how the upper part of her clothes looks very snug like cloth then as it goes down it becomes tight like a plugsuit.
Very nice speakers, would want to get one of those myself for the house
wieselhead
@Duqs, Oh you think so, thats interesting, I love the helmet ^^
The suit is really nice, only the tace texture and the hair turned out as letdown.
Haha floating speakers would be cool