1/8 Didi (Hobby Japan Exclusive)

Product Information/Specifications

Introduction

When I heard & saw this Hobby Japan exclusive Didi figurine, I was on the fence about it.  I like the character design of Didi, but this figurine wasn't too attractive at the start.  Although I knew I could get it from eBay, it really took me a long time to think about it.  There are other method to get her as well.  I decided to take the risk & pre-order her on eBay.  More riskier was pre-ordering her from a seller that I didn't know about it.

Didi is only available from Hobby Japan as an exclusive item to that company.  Readers from Japan were to send in a coupon & payment to Hobby Japan's office before the deadline to place an order like other HJ exclusives as a limited time offer.  You need a Japanese residential address since this figurine wasn't available overseas.

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

The Review

Didi in box

The box has its standard four sided windows.  Other than that, it's quite plain as there isn't any photos of Didi on the back.  But this box confirmed to me about the English Warning printings.  There are on the Japanese boxes indeed.  But, this one only have the Japan UPC code as the US one isn't present.

Didi in plastic casing

Not surprisingly, Didi comes with little amount of accessories.  She comes with a base & two umbrellas; one normal one & the other being a sword.  I've never seen the sword in the game & I'm assuming it's something new for this figurine.  As for the base, you don't really need it as it doesn't have a peg or groove system to hold Didi.  Since she's in a kneeling position, there isn't a strong need to the base as she can balance on her own.  But since you are given one, why not use it anyways.

 
Didi from different sides

The pose that Didi's in is static.  Judging from the way her hair is swaying, the sculptor probably added a wind effect to it.  Honestly, I'm not too keen with that pose.  At different angles, that pose looks weird; especially the sides.  The way that Didi bends her upper body seems funny.  The back side of her hair is strange as well.

The colour used is dull which is what I personally like.  It gives the figurine a non-toy-like appearance. The closed umbrella may be a different story.  The skin colour has a more natural tone.  More flesh like.  However, the paint job on it sometimes makes the legs look like they have a molding problem when they actually don't.

The paint job isn't the best.  The orange parts on Didi's dress are uneven & have bleeds.  There is a fair amount of it on all sides.  The gray areas are ok as the bleeds aren't too noticeable.  For the umbrella sword, the red lines on the handle has horrible bleeds as it gets to the end of the handle.  The red markings on the blade is nice though.

The molding job isn't too bad.  The creases show some of Didi's figure.  The only problem in this area is her stomach area.  It's pretty flat.  The flowing of here hair is nicely done.  The way it's position is otherwise as mentioned before.  The bottom part of her dress is something that I don't like too much.  They look cluttered & messy.  However, it gives off a more natural appearance since it's not made cleanly.

The molding on the umbrellas are superb.  The creases of the closed umbrella is very nice & the skeleton arm on the sword handle has that creepy effect.  Although I like the sword very much, I have Didi holding her normal umbrella instead since that's the one that I've seen most on.

Putting the umbrella in Didi's right hand is confusing at the start.  Look at how her hands are positioned.  Her left hand does get in the way.  Luckily, it's flexible.  You need to put the handle of the umbrella by snapping it into her right hand.  The sword one is a bit confusing.  I have the skeleton arm pointing towards her instead of away due to the left hand.  I think I got it backwards, but it seem to be the only position to put it.

Didi is does have the castoff feature.  If you are wonder, I didn't buy this figurine for that purpose.  Anyways, it's done in two parts.  There's a lower half & an upper half.  It was a bit confusing to me on how to remove her clothing since there was no instruction telling you how.  The dress uses a peg system as show in the pics above.  The upper one is a bit hard at that ribbon thing does get in the way as it's not removable. 

Naked Didi! O_O

Without the yellow censorship, that's what Didi looks like naked.  As an interesting note, the pink of her nipples are smuggled onto her upper dress.  I guess either it's easy to scratch the paint off or the paint wasn't dry yet when they put on her dress part.  By the way, this is the first Kotobukiya figurine that I own that is has the castoff feature.  I think this is the first castoff figurine from that company since I never heard of any other figurines from them that have this feature.  But I've been out of the loop from this company for a long time now.

Didi's face was something that really threw me off.  This was one of the reasons why I hesitated on her as well.  The face doesn't look too much like her.  The eyes are small & the face is a bit long.  One thing that I didn't notice until I got her is the long neck.  It's pretty long for some reason & I don't know why.  Anyways, the eyes are etched like many figures & the lips are painted.

Overall Conclusion

Didi is somewhat a nice figurine.  I did have buyer's remorse at times & sometimes I don't regret buying it.  This figurine does have some mix reactions.  Currently, I have her on the shelf.  I don't think I'll be putting her back in the box unless another Didi that is nice comes out.

Out of ten, Didi gets a seven.  The figurine has a nice dull colour, but the paint job could use more work.  I don't know why this figurine was delay for one month with that much trouble.  Moldng is good & the castoff feature is a nice addition for people that are into that thing.  The umbrellas are very nice in terms of the molding job.

Finding Didi will not be difficult than I originally thought.  Although it's limited to the number of orders that Hobby Japan received, collectors will need to just pay a bit more for her.  There some online shops that do offer her & the price isn't too bad even though it's higher than retail a bit.  It's not a huge price difference.  Depending on how many Didi fans are out there & this figurine going to be the only one available in the market, chances of a future price increase may occur since Jingai Makyo somewhat has a strong brand name.

Photos were taken using Canon EOS 40D with EF 28 - 135mm lens.  Photos were reduced in size for easy browsing.

Last updated on June 30, 2008