Good Smile Company Pop Up Parade Hatsune Miku (Little Missing Stars Ver.)

Hello, once again I'm back with another review, and this time I have a Pop Up Parade for you all. This is the Little Missing Stars Miku. This time, she's actually from my own collection. When I saw her, I had to have her. I absolutely love this design, and it's super rare that we get Vocaloid/Piapro figures that are based off of PVs instead of their default outfits, random outfits, or just stuff from Project Diva. Basically, the instant I saw her I sat there and debated on preordering, but I took the plunge pretty quick. I'm happy I got her, because I'm well aware that other PV based figures have gotten quite high, no matter what the age is. So I figured she would have the same happen.

I preordered her quite a while back on the Goodsmile US store (Which I don't advise doing, even moreso now.) I got her for 34 USD and after taxes & shipping she came out to 39.75. So 3 dollars or so in shipping, and practically 3 in taxes. Not the worst, but it's whatever. 35-40 seems pretty standard price for a Pop Up so you get what you pay for.

Decorated photo of Miku

Anyways, here's a look at her. A super pretty figure despite the fact that she's essentially the equivalent of a nicer prize figure. GSC did pretty well with her, but go figure, GSC and Miku tend to be a pretty good mix most times. For the most part she's all around good, but I'm not keen on the base. I'll talk about that more later, though.

360 view 360 view 360 view 360 view 360 view 360 view 360 view 360 view

So, here's a 360 view of her. Unfortunately she isn't shaded, but that's the standard for pop ups. I think just a touch of shading would really go a long way, especially with the twintails. I think any sort of iridescent paint on them would really make them stand out. Honestly, if I had any skill with customizing figures (or maybe just even had the tools to do so) I'd do it myself. If there's one thing that really stands out with her, aside from the super cute dress, it's the color of her hair. It's really pretty. I love the gradient.

Closeup shot of Miku

Alright, time to go over a few of her details.

Overhead view of Kaiba, looking at the Duel Disk Shot from behind, looking at the cards
A shot of his coat A shot of his pants, belt, and kneepads

I feel like there's not too much to say this time around. After all, she's just a prize figure and most of what I pointed out, I had already said in the 360 views. The dress design this time around is super nice though. I know it's just a variant of her regular outfit, but I feel that the additions, as well as the white really give her a different vibe. Matches well with the hair. Her skirt and leggings are pretty standard for Miku, even if they don't have the usual "school uniform" feel. I tried to take better shots of the twintails close up, but I feel like I definitely failed on that though. Just trust me when I say they're nice as is. I do wish you could detatch them though.

A giant black wide hexagonal base.

So, normally I'd see a base that's black or white and be like "Well, at least they bothered to give it a shape that isn't a circle, so that's a step up." But this really isn't a step up here. Instead you get something stupidly wide simply due to the twintails.Personally, I don't think the twintails need a wider base to support them. They're super light and they just hang downward. They don't really need to be supported, and the rest of the figure doesn't need support for them. So I'm wondering why they decided to make a base like this for her. Seriously, if I was decent enough at modifying figures I would clip off the nibs to slot into a base and just make her a different base. Because this isn't a good base at all. It's just wide and ugly and the shape doesn't do it much favors. They could have at least made it that clear frosted plastic or something so it'd be visually interesting, but no. They handed us this. Ugly.

Another focus shot of Kaiba

In general, I feel like this is a pretty cute figure for her price point. She could definitely be better in some places, but when you pay for figures that are essentially a budget line (and therefore thought of as "prizes" in the eyes of most of the community) that's just kind of what you get. I feel like with more effort put into her, she'd be spectacular.

The Positives

  • Design is based off a song's PV, which feels a bit rare with Miku figures
  • Outfit is incredibly cute.
  • Fairly affordable price point. She's not the absolute cheapest, but she's not breaking the bank either.

The Negatives

  • Lacks shading, like most PUPs do.
  • The huge black base is not only not needed, but ugly.
  • Twintails aren't detatchable.

Since I can't embedd it to the bottom of the review, I'll leave the link to the PV here so you can check it out.

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