Metamo Figure Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Haruhi Suzumiya Bunny Version

Product Information/Specifications

Introduction

When I saw Bandai's next Metamo Figure featuring Haruhi Suzumiya in a bunny girl suit, I was thinking about this.  It barely met my 25cm & above requirements, but the colour changing idea was an attention grabber.  I managed to pick up one at J-Hobby after some time consuming & mindless purchasing.  I only decided to get it after seeing it on display from a different hobby store.

Some of the pictures aren't clear & good.  If I have time, I'll redo the bad ones & repost them.

Metamo Figure Haruhi Suzumiya in box

The packaging of Haruhi is the same as the previous Metamo Figure.  It comes in an enclosed box.  Open the front cover of the box & you'll see the figurine behind a window.  For some reason, the cover was taped when I brought this.  I have no idea why it was like that.  Even though you get pictures of the product around the box, it may not be enough for potential buyers that are thinking about this.  People want to see the actual product.

Haruhi out of the box

My concerns came true.  When I took Haruhi out of the box & started to assemble her, the colours changed on her body due to my body heat when I was holding her.  As a result, it made my figurine into a mess.  You can see the results in the pics above.  It looks more like a figurine with a very bad paint job.

The figurine changes colour based on temperature.  If the temperature is under 16ºC, Haruhi's legs will have black stockings & her bunny suit will become black.  If the temperature is 30ºC & above, her legs will be exposed & the bunny suit will become white.  Between 16ºC to 30ºC, Haruhi will sport a black bunny suit with exposed legs.  That's what Bandai proclaims.  It's more like light brown stockings & a gray bunny suit.  That's how she was when I first brought & took some pics of her as the temperature was around the 20ºC range at the time.  The material used for the colour changing feels rougher than average PVC figures.  It's more like a coating on top.

Haruhi from different sides

Haruhi comes with a SOS Brigade advertisement sign & a base with a stand.  The white base comes with the famous Haruhism logo molded on it.  The stand is to hold Haruhi upright by balancing her bending left arm on it.  Putting Haruhi on the base & stand wasn't a problem, but the sign was.  The sign uses the peg system design that connects to her right hand.  However, the pegs aren't for connecting; it's for holding.  I had a lot of difficulty at the beginning trying to connect the sign to the base & her hand.  It looks likes you have to put the figurine on the first and then the sign.  Once you have the sign on the base, then you position the end of it to her hand for holding.  Plus, her bunny tail has to be assemble to her body.  It required some force to put it in.

The molding job is pretty good.  The creases & bends of the bunny suit & ears are clean & well designed.  No weird bumps or air bubbles as well.  But, the hair is kind of a different story.  The mold looked okay at the start.  But when you look at it more, it looks like a lump of clay.  It's somewhat done ok, but there are many figures out there that have a better job than that.

Can't say much about the paint job as most of it is from the colour change effect on the bunny suit.  However, it's hard to get the colours to be balanced.  Aside from seeing how the mold of the bunny tail is  which looks almost like a snowy fuzz ball, see how that area is still white.  I placed Haruhi in my fridge for about five minutes & that area didn't seem to get better.  Plus, I don't know if her right leg that connects to her waist is suppose to show like that.  It's more of a coating problem for the colour changing material.  It doesn't change at all.  Not sure if it's a production problem for this figurine or the mass.  But the skin toning is pretty good & well balance.  The darker tones are on the joint areas which makes it look nice.  As for the hair, it's pretty much one tone.

Haruhi's face matches her personality very well.  That signature face is etched in cleanly with light colours.  Her mouth is outlined in red while the inner part is in a light pinkish red.  Very nice.

Overall Conclusion

Metamo Figure Haruhi Suzumiya is a nice figurine with an interesting twist.  Personally, I don't like bunny girls.  But the colour changing idea & her pose is what drew me to her.  Technically, my idea of getting this figurine was basically for temperature readings.  Knowing the range of where the colour changes gives me somewhat of an idea of how hot or cold my room is.  However, she doesn't agree with my idea & it's not going as planned.  It was a stupid idea really.

On a scale of ten, Metamo Figure Haruhi Suzumiya receives an eight.  The figurine is solidly made & the bunny suit, pretty much overused, is one of its selling points.  However, the handling of the figurine is a challenge.  Touching the wrong areas can cause colour changing problems where Haruhi would look like she's having a fashion disaster.  Depending on where you live, it can be hard to get her into one solid colour.  For me, I may have a tough time getting her in white suit evenly.  In fact, I don't think I'll be able to see it.  Another problem is assembling her.  The bunny tail & sign isn't easy to figure out.

Getting this version is going to be hard now.  Bandai released a version 1.5 of the figurine.  Instead of white, red is used instead.  If you like black & white, finding the original version may require a lot of work.

Photos were taken using Sony DSC-F828 digital still camera.

Last updated on February 27, 2008