Dead or Alive Ultimate Gashapon Set

Product Information/Specifications

Introduction

When I stopped by J-Hobby, I decided to buy the Dead or Alive Ultimate Gashapon Set.  The designs of the clothing are what interested me in buying it, plus the secret figurine was there.  I never liked the game, but it was only the designs that did the trick.

The DOA Ultimate gashapon figurines have been sold out for a long time now & were never reissued.

The Review

Dead or Alive Ultimate gashapon paper

The DOA Ultimate gashapon has a set of five + three + one figurines.  There are three different variations of three characters & they are mostly based on player two colours.  The full set is as seen below.

The full DOA Ultimate gashapon set with variation & secret figurines

The girls in this set are Kasumi (three types), Ayane (two types), Lei Fang (two types), Helena, & Tina.  The secret figurine is Kasumi in a skimpy Santa suit.  All of the variation figurines have the same pose & designs as the originals.  Kasumi is an exception as her clothing has sakura petals on her player two colour instead of the crane in the original colour.  Also, the pose is slightly different.  She sticks out her left arm a bit & her body is leaning towards her right side.  Lei Fang leans to right a bit in the player two colours, which makes the difference hardly noticeable.

The assembly of the girls isn't too hard as most of the work is done for you.  You mainly need to stick the legs, base, & upper body together.  All the work was done on the upper body above the waist.  Tina is an exception since you need to do her arms as well.  Most of the parts snuggled in nicely with little force needed.  Some didn't want to go all the way in though.  But overall, the assembly process was easy to understand.  Kasumi's Santa hat is a bit of a problem as the grooves on her head to hold the hat isn't good.  The hat comes off easily as it didn't have a peg system.

Let's look at the paint job & there are quite a lot of pics to look at here.  The etching of the designs of the clothing are very clean, especially in areas where the clothing are wrinkled.  In terms of the painting, there are some bleeds here & there.  Some are minor, while others are quite big.  Most of them come from Helena's outfit on the gold trimmings.  At the price these gashapons are selling at, it's pretty good in terms of the paint job from what I seen.

The faces of the DOA Ultimate girls

The two Ayane faces are exactly the same.  Kasumi & Lei Fang are different though.  Anyways, the faces of all the girls are mostly realistic looking, but they aren't close to the original game designs.  This is probably because they are hard to do since they are computer CG designs.

The paint job isn't too bad.  Some of the girl's eyes are not painted well in terms of their eye colours.  The lips are done ok.  I'm impressed how well Ayane's red lips are done since it is small.  It looks almost real as her upper lips are shaped nicely.

As for the facial expressions, they are pretty plain.  Barely any life to them.  Helena & Tina's faces are almost the same & it was a bit hard for me to tell who was who when I was sorting out the pics.  Luckily, the hair colour was different.  But the eyes of each girls does give some distinction & character.

Overall Conclusion

The Dead or Alive Ultimate gashapon set is pretty nice in terms of the designs.  The poses are quite natural, but doesn't give off a lot of life.  Because of this, I've sold these away after displaying them for a long time.  I was never a DOA fan anyways.  This set is probably not a recommended item for non DOA fans, but may be worth to collect.

On a scale of ten, I give the DOA Ultimate gashapon set an 8/10.  The high points were from the sharp designs & paint job.  The lost points were from the plain poses, un-lively facial expressions, & some major paint bleeds, even though they aren't visible from a distance.

Die-hard fans of DOA will enjoy this set & would be a recommended item to collect.  Although it doesn't have a high sexy factor, it's pretty good.  Regular collectors may not want to get it. 

Getting the DOA Ultimate gashapons may be a bit of a problem.  I haven't seen this product on sale for a long time now.  But, I'm pretty sure there are a lot of stores carrying them in their storage & don't bother to display them for sale.  Last I check, the price for a full set is roughly the same as the retail price.  It can be cheaper or expensive at times.

Photos were taken using Sony DSC-F828 digital still camera & HP scanjet 4470c.

Last updated on February 5, 2008