Review: 1/7 Menace Review (NSFW)

Hey there all, I’ve finally recovered enough from doing that horrid Yukari review and subsequent gaming binge to get back to reviewing! And to start us off after that trainwreck we have Menace, a figure that I’ve taken forever to actually photograph!

This time our half-naked lady is made by Amiami-zero — the same fine folks that help send me closer to the poor house month after month! Having never owned a figure from them and having not payed much attention to reviews of their previous releases, I wonder how this Menace will stack up against Griffon’s previous Queen’s Blade disgrace…

Menace is a pretty awesome character. I know the most obvious reason to like her is the skimpy clothing and the absurdly nice body, but I dig the fact that even though she gets classified as a “villain”, all she really wants is to recreate her own little hedonistic kingdom in the sand again.

Sure she may not use the most…ethical means to do it, but in all honesty, there are far, far worse fates than being her slave doling out oil massages on a daily basis. So here’s hoping that someday our princess realises her dream! :p

Well to start off,  there are absolutely no instructions included with this figure, despite the fact that it’s one of those figure that actually needs it. Her shawl thing just sorta awkwardly wraps around her arms with nothing really to hold it in place. This is fine if you don’t touch her at all, but try to move her even slightly and parts of it will fall off.

The bigger problem is the little piece of transparent material that’s supposed to be her loincloth. You basically just sorta press it in and it VERY loosely holds in place without even the security of having something to wrap around like the cloth on her arms (This piece is also so small I’ve since managed to lose it entirely…)! This means if you so much as look at her funny it is gonna come off (And sometimes falls off even if you don’t do anything whatsoever). An attachment point of any kind would have been useful. >_<

Putting aside the annoyances of attaching the few scant pieces of clothing she has, the rest is rather easy. Setra slots in nicely, her crown sits neatly on her head, and best of all, her chest piece pops off (or on, if you so wish) without a fuss. So in the end, I’d say the fact that she’s so easy to strip makes up for the fact that it’s so damn annoying to get her clothed…This is a Queen’s Blade figure after all. :p

Alright then, I know what your thinking: “Enough about the damn clothes already Ash, what about her body sculpt?!? Bring on the nudity!!!”

Well my friends I am happy to say it is in a word…superb!

Beautiful softly curving lines flowing one into another abound across her large tracts of exposed skin! The sheer amount of attention payed to her mid-section is absolutely jaw-dropping, I mean just look at how nice her stomach is! The way that it displays the muscles moving subtly to support her upper body…When was the last time you saw detail like that?!? Every little knook and cranny on her curvaceous body has had this level of loving attention lavished on it, much to my delight.

Her front has the aforementioned beautiful midsection, as well as her lovely legs that strike a beautiful balance between supple smoothness and muscular detail. As for her breasts, though they aren’t shaped quite to my tastes, but they have enough natural curvature to them to avoid the Ikkitousen beach ball syndrome of looking like some disgusting porn star’s fake rack.

Her backside is just as impressive as well. An improbably thin waist gives way to some lusciously wide hips and meaty thighs. This is no Black Rock Shooter, that’s for sure! Her cute face has a slightly bemused look and a well-detailed Setra (her talking cat scepter) really finish bringing this entire sculpt to life!

To top it all off they even immacutely sculpted every last one of her toes replete with cute painted toenails! That’s dedication! That coupled with the extremely well-detailed shoes she’s sporting makes her a dream for a foot fetishist like me~~~

Overall her body flow is just an incredible treat for the eyes, improbable as it may be. Her slight shoulders and arms give away to an oversized rack only to slim down again into a small waist and finally blowing up into a gloriously full lower body. I know someone who’s a big fan of the sculptor of this piece, and I have to say I’ve become one as well! I’ll be sure to look for the name Osiris in the future.

The paint does an awesome job of really complimenting Osiris’ hard work as well, especially in the skin. Menace being a desert princess has just the right complexion I’d say — as a member of the aristocracy, she isn’t tanned like the poor slobs working out in the sun all day, but their is still a subtle amount of bronzed shading to her that avoids making her look too pale.

Everything else is fairly well done, especially her cloth shawl which has some subtle shading along with the various metal accessories and Setra. Her bindings on her lower legs are slightly messy in spots, but nothing too distracting. I do wish a little more attention had been paid to her panties since its such a focal point, but they’re far from the worst I’ve seen. :p

The pose itself is just magnificent and one of the main reasons I ordered her in the first place. She has a very subtle and sultry body language going on here that entirely suits her character, unlike the more action oriented MegaHouse version (And whatever Griffon’s is doing…). I can just imagine her lazily sitting in her throne room watching something amusing. The fact that she has Setra positioned between her legs right under her panties is just the icing on the cake. ~_^

The only slight negative about the pose is that it’s very downward oriented, and on a figure with an already low profile, you’re definitely going to want to put her somewhere slightly above eye level to truly appreciate all she has to offer.

As with most sitting pose figures, the base is rather unneeded and you can almost tell that Amiami just didn’t really care much when they made the base, seeing as it’s just a light pink plastic disk. It does its job of protecting Menace’s bum if you’re worried about damaging her, but that’s about it.

Pros

• Incredibly detailed sculpt striking the perfect balance between realism and style
• Beautiful pose that completely suits the character
• Perfect paint on her skin…

Neutral

• …But not quite as perfect on things like her leg bindings and panties

Con

• Poorly designed cloth accessories barely stays attached and are easily lost
• Lame pink disc base

As my first Amiami figure, all I can say is that I’m EXTREMELY pleased with the 1/7 scale Menace. Going from Griffon’s disaster to this is like night and day. Her cast-off is exquisite with no errant mold lines or paint errors to be found anywhere, making her a perfect candidate to be displayed in all her half-naked glory!

As a Menace fan, if you’re trying to decide between the various renditions out there all I can say is that this has my whole hearted recommendation! Bravo Amiami and thanks! You brought a tear of joy to this pervert’s eye ya did! ~_^

“Menace was just what I needed to get over the whole Yukari disaster! She reminded me just why it is I love collecting! So bravo to Amiami for making such an incredible figure with perfect quality.

I’m still trying to learn the camera so the colors and what have you kinda vary wildly as I mess with settings and what have you, but then I’ve never really aimed for true “accuracy” when I take pictures…If you want that feel free to look at the shots Amiami and Hobby Search take, haha.

If all goes to plan Rise should be next and then either Al Azif or Racing Miku depending on how long it takes Miku to get here. Until then cya all next weekend!”