Phat Company 1/7 Sakura Futaba

For now, this is the last of the reviews of my friend's figures. I have a few more things of theirs I have to ship out, so who knows, you might see a bit more pop up at a later point. But in my backlog of pictures this is the final one. Feels a bit good to be done with them all, considering the mere size of the backlog.

This was another figure bought secondhand for a way lower price. And I'm pretty sure it's because of damage to her. I think she came out to somewhere around 110 USD and was bought through Mercari JP or Rakuma. The price is just... okay. That's around where you can get her in the states, if not a bit cheaper. Guess it really depends on how much you want her.

Because I reviewed her the night before I was meant to ship her out, I forgot to take a photo of her with a bunch of props. Originally I was going to edit some over her, but I really didn't like the way things were looking. So for now, you just get a plain shot of Futaba.

She's not a bad looking figure. I definitely have my gripes about her, and you'll see why later. But for the most part she looks pretty good when she's completely assembled. Honestly, for a while I wanted one of my own, before deciding that collecting Persona is a bit on the expensive end, and debating if I really want to commit to it. I think just from the default look though, she's pretty solid.

Standard box. Really not too much special here. Big window in the front, small windows on the back and top, and mostly covered in pictures of the figure, displaying things like the interchangeable parts. The box itself was kind of damaged, but that hardly matters, considering there's no real visible damage, it just didn't close completely. I suppose that's bad if you don't want dust or anything getting into the box, but it's probably just the wear and tear of used figures.

Standard blister. Not a ton of one time use plastic, but I suppose that's a good thing. Most of the plastic was to keep morganna and her other parts safe rather than the body itself. I think it's kind of weird that they didn't try to put things like the arms in their own slot of the blister, because it feels like they'd be safer that way instead of taped up and put into a bag.

Anyways, onto our 360 view. I decided to group the shots of her both with and without her jacket together. While I think the jacket look is very good, it's pretty unfortunate that there's no real way to place Morganna unless she doesn't have her jacket on. And as you can tell, without her jacket... she has quite a bit of paint transfers. Like, a lot. I'm unsure if that's a user error, or if that is just par for the course on this figure. After all, there was no sheets of plastic between her and her jacket. Normally I'd say "absolutely user error," but I've also not really heard a lot of positive things about Phat Company in general over the years, so I'm very much on the fence when it comes to placing blame.

Time for the detail shots.

The detail on this figure is pretty good despite some of the issues I have with it, as well as the incredibly glaring paint transfers. Her head definitely has a bit of damage at one part, where it's like, oddly shiny. I'm not really sure what the cause of that is, or why it's like that, but considering you can only see it if you're looking at the top of her head when she's turned around, it's not too bad? Like I honestly wish I could say nothing is wrong with this figure, but unfortunately... We have to now talk about what's wrong with this figure. Aside from the sculpt on the bangs because that is also just... not a good look.

My biggest issue with this figure is honestly just this mess. The assembly of the alternate parts. Like, what were they thinking? Was it an attempt to save cost on not having to make an alternate body and thus have a bigger box? Admirable attempt, but I don't think they were on the right track with this one. In fact, I really wish they just did something similar to what they did with Tae, where you slip a softer plastic around her body that comes all in one piece rather than having to assemble this mess. The giant seamlines in the jacket not only look good, but the plastic is hard to take apart and constantly made me feel like it's about to break when putting it together. That's not a reassuring feeling, and this is coming from someone who's incredibly careful with their figures, especially when they're older ones. Another thing about all this that is just odd is the placement of the 2 red pegs and how they're needed? I guess? To keep things from falling out? Like we couldn't just have the arms slot in regularly? You had to add whatever this weird stuff was? This really should have had an extra body, because the engineering on the parts like this wasn't good. Something feeling like it's going to break when you attempt to swap out the display isn't a good feeling. Arms that slide out are also not a good feeling. The worst part is that it ends up with her shirt getting full of paint transfers for swapping (or possibly not swapping. I don't know!) out the parts on the figure. It feels like you're punished for wanting something advertised on the box. I could only guess on how this figure was handled beforehand, but who knows, it could just be Phat Company's fault.

The base is just a base. There's not a whole lot that's bad about this. It's in an alternate color, the logo is on it, there's designs, and it's not a huge space hog. Not my favorite kind of base, but nothing that's too bad either. It does it's job.

Yeah, I won't lie. I wanted to like this figure, but the assembly of her alternate parts, and the fact it's so easy for them to get tons of paint transfers is what makes me just not like it. It's not a bad figure, but it's something that personally makes me wary. I think if you don't mind the transfers, it's a fine figure. Having 2 alternate ways to display a character is always fun, especially if the alternate way doesn't make it feel a bit naked (Motions to Kotobukiyas YGO figures.)

The Positives

• The details are nice
• Doesn't take a lot of shelf space
• I suppose swappable parts are a positive to a degree
• Paint work is generally pretty fine.
• Aftermarket isn't good, but it's not bad either. I suppose it's right where it should be considering the popularity of Persona 5 and the age of this figure.

The Negatives

• The assembly on the alternate parts is some of the worst assembly I've seen in a while.
• Prone to paint transfers
• The sculpt on the bangs does not look good in some parts. I suppose it's a lot less noticeable far away.

I want to like this figure. Hell, I even wanted this figure. But after seeing her in my hands and getting to just take pictures of her, I don't think I'd be picking her up, unless she was heavily discounted. I think for the most part, I'm fine without owning her.