Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 3 Capsule Figure
Collection Gashapon Set

Product Information/Specifications

Introduction

When I heard that there was a Pia Carrot!! 3 gashapon set coming out, I was excited & quickly looked for pics of it in the net.  After seeing it, I went to J-Hobby.  I was going to buy it when I first saw it, but I realized that I didn't have enough money.  When I came back the second time, it was gone.  Luckily, the owner & I are pretty close & he helped get a set for me when I came back the third time.  When these first came out, they were selling quite high.

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

The Review

Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 3 Capsule Figure Collection gashapon paper

This gashapon set contains five figurines: Nana Kimishima, Akemi Hasegawa, Sayaka Takai, Tomomi Aizawa, & Miharu Fuyuki. 

The assembly work is quite hard actually as some of the pieces don't snug in.  They tend to fall off at times when you touch them.  For example, Akemi's broom is actually loose.  It has no pegs to attach to her hands.  Tomomi & Akemi can come off their bases quite easily.  With the exception of Miharu, all the girls need to be on their bases.  The base that Miharu has is probably used to match the set properly.

The poses in this set isn't too bad.  They reflect the characteristics & personalities of the girls.  Out of the whole set, I like Tomomi the most.  That one gave the most energy.

In terms of the details, I was expecting something above average quality since it cost ¥300 a piece.  I was quite pleased & a bit disappointed of the quality.

Let's observe some of the clothing of each girl, starting with Nana.  The stripe pattern on her vest & dress well done even though it was etched on.

Sayaka's Paro Paro Type uniform isn't too bad.  The white lines on the brown parts of the uniform is painted & it's actually isn't too bad, especially the ribbon on the hat.  The patterns on the dress did suffer some unevenness from painting it as a straight line & the amount of paint used to draw it.  You can see the white not being solid.  Those small hole dips on the hem of the dress is pretty good.  The holes were surprisingly lined up quite straight.  I assume a machine was used to it.

The grayish-blue patterns on Akemi's Tropical Type uniform are clearly etched in & looks pretty good.

Tomomi's Floral Mint Type uniform & gear is surprisingly well done too.  The tray she carries is no doubt etched in, but it looks pretty good on an item that small.  The green lines on the white parts of the uniform are quite solid, especially on the dress.  I was amazed how even it was painted and shocked to see very minor paint bleeding.

Miharu's swimwear is painted quite poorly of all the figurines.  I would image the whole piece was white since it would be more easier to paint the design out.  The green parts aren't painted well as you can see; it is quite messy.  Uneven & bleeds on that bikini top.  Although it is a small piece to paint & it's difficult to do, I felt the amount of mistakes could be a bit more less than what it should be.

The faces of the waitress of Pia Carrot #4

Painting the faces on gashapon figures is very difficult & they tend to make the figures ugly in some cases or look like something different.  For this set, they don't seem to look like the ones from the game.  I'm not sure what it is that makes it different.  I'm thinking it's the eyes.

The eyes seem like they are painted as they are a bit glossy.  Actually looking at the product, it's etched really.  I haven't noticed until I took the pics that there are yellow lines above the eyes.  I think it looks weird as it clashes with their faces.

The facial expressions are average in my view.  Some give some energy, while others look like neutral.  They aren't really good, mainly because of the designs.

Overall Conclusion

The Pia Carrot!! 3 Capsule Figure Collection set is an above average set really.  The pics look good until you get the product in your hands.  I like the poses the figurines have, but the detailing department could use some work.  Currently, I have these gashapon figures in a display case & never have put them into my storage.

The Pia Carrot!! 3 Capsule Figure Collection set gets a seven out of ten overall.  The poses the figurines & detailing of the clothing were the good points.  The bad points come from the assembly area as some of the parts fall off & the facial expression are somewhat hard to describe.  I recommend gluing the parts together to make the figurines stable. 

Getting this capsule collection set is hard now.  Initially, the prices of these figurines were quite high when it first came out.  Then, the prices have dropped below the Japanese retail price.  At that time, they have been popping up at some stores as leftover stock & never re-released.  There was still some demand for these gashapons back then.  Now I'm not sure as I haven't seen these for sale now.  There are some places that actually still have them as dead stock.

On a side note, there's a special Pia Carrot!! 3 figurine of Sayaka Takai in a Floral Mint Type uniform that was available before the Pia Carrot!! 3 Capsule Figure Collection.  Included with the figurine is a B5 sized eight page booklet containing, I believe, prototype drawings of the Capsule Figure Collection figurines.  I believe it contains some drawings also of the next Pia Carrot 3 Figure Collection set.  I have seen this before on eBay for a high price.  No one brought it as it was re-listed twice.  I don't know if the booklet came with the figurine.  If it did, I would have brought it since the Sayaka figurine is a limited production piece.  Only 5000 were made worldwide.

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

Last updated on April 11, 2008