Fraulein Revoltech Series 004 Pocco

Product Information/Specifications

Introduction

When I first heard about the next Fraulein Revoltech being Shunya Yamashita's Sweet Dreams original character Pocco, I was actually iffy about this figurine like many people.  For me, it was the face while others say that Shunya's art shouldn't be made as action figurines.  After a lot of thought & trying to find something to use my $5 off coupon from YesAsia on, I decided to preorder this since I became a Shunya fan.  Plus, I wanted to see how good the Revoltechs are; especially the E.L.F. system.

Although it was scheduled to be released on the first of every month like all Fraulein Revoltechs, Pocco got released a day earlier.

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

The Review

Fraulein Revoltech Pocco Figurine in box

This is the same standard box that Kaiyodo uses for its Fraulein Revoltech series.  The thin tall box.  That box was hard to open.  Because of my past "gotta have a mint box" behaviour, my methods of keeping the flap mint didn't work well.

Pocco out of the box

Pocco comes with two extra pairs of hands, her sword, & the standard Revoltech base & stand.  When you remove Pocco out of the box, you need to remove a plastic protection around her waist.  It was hard to pull it out since it was wrapped tightly around her waist.

Pocco from different sides

I was impressed that Pocco can stand very well on her own feet on most footing positions.  Anyways, Pocco is said to have 20 points of articulations. 

Pocco has moveable joints on her ankles, knees, legs, arms, wrists, elbows, shoulders, back wings  (as shown above), that ribbon around her right arm, & head.  Playing with a bit before shooting for this review, I was pleased with the articulations.  But her feet are limited a bit due to those leggings.

Like my past experience with Kaiyodo's action figures, some of the joints came off easily.  Her right shoulder came coming off after I tried to change her right hand.  By the way, pulling out that hand was hard for some reason.  The left one was easy.  After having the whole right arm come off, posing Pocco became difficult as the arm kept coming off.  That limited me from doing many poses that I want.  Plus, there were some poses that I couldn't do due to her wings, leggings, & that cloth around her waist.  Also, it seems like some of the joints are a bit loose as some of the poses that I make go out of position for some strange reason.  Probably the work of gravity & the weight of the parts.

The base is the standard Revoltech one.  The adjustable top with crooked clamp that allows easy snap-in for Pocco.  On the base, Pocco's name & origin is etched on it as well as the Fraulein Revoltech name.  The pivot ball allows you to adjust the height to make Pocco look like flying or jumping.  However, the lowest point of the height doesn't allow Pocco to touch the base.  Instead, she will be floating as shown above.  There's about a cm difference.  Any movements around the base will cause Pocco to shake.  In fact, as I'm typing this review Pocco is shaking a lot as she is placed on top of shelf of my desk.  As for the clamp, you can rotate it in 360 degrees.  So you can have Pocco do a jump kick or fly like Superman in a sideways position.

The molding job on Pocco is average & yet poor on some areas.  Her sword is done well as it has some dents in it like it is old & used a lot.  Her arm guard is nicely done as well with its fairly even shape. Also the back of her wings is nicely done even though there are no original artwork drawings of it.  The creases on the leggings are beautifully done. 

For the other molding parts, the goggles are out of shape a bit on the edges near the eyepiece.  Also, the hair has some heavily lines on where the connection joints are.  The wings aren't too good as well.  Some of the tips are large than the other & aren't symmetrical to the other wing.  A word of advice is that the tips are very sharp than it looks.  I was surprised how painful it was when I touched it to catch Pocco from falling.  Plus, they are quite fragile as they are very thin.  Almost razor thin & was easy to bend.  One of the tips was bent out & I was able to fix it back with little force.

The paint job isn't too good nor bad.  There are parts where the black lines have breaks in the middle such as her belt & straps.   There are some bleeds from this as well.  Most noticeable are the wings.  On mine's, one of her left hands has some purple paint on her forefinger.

Pocco's face was what made me not want to buy this figurine in the first place.  Although it's a nice 3D replica of Shunya's Sweet Dreams cover girl, that face gives an expression of "huh?"  There are some (if not, a lot) of poses that can't be done with that kind of face.  It really looks dumbfounded & some of the awesome looking poses aren't going to look go with that expression.  You will need to experiment a lot of poses to see which ones would look good & not strange.  This is a major challenge to the designer since there is only one illustration that is made & known to the public about Pocco.  There are no additional pictures of her in the Sweet Dreams illustration book.

Overall Conclusion

Fraulein Revoltech Series 004 Pocco is a bit better than what I expected.  The figurine is nicely done in terms of appearance.  Being my first Revoltech figure, I am quite pleased with it how it much Pocco can pose.  But that loose right arm is giving me memories of my past experiences with Kaiyodo action figures.  Currently, as mentioned, I have Pocco displayed on my top shelf of my desk.  I do plan to play around with her & possibly find some interesting poses with that face.

Fraulein Revoltech Series 004 Pocco receives a 7.5/10.  The figurine met beyond my expectations on how good it is.  With that E.L.F. system, she does possess some human like poses that you can't usually do with other action figures.  But her face will be a challenge in find poses that would match it & the parts coming off easily can be a problem in attempting to pose her the ways you want her to. 

Pocco is still easy to find in the market as not many people are going for her.  I do foresee price drops of her to get rid of stock.  I don't really want to say that, but it will happen.  Shunya's works are usually sought after, but this one won't take the cake.

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

Last updated on May 13, 2008