Mutsumi
Company: Spring
Release Date: October 2003
Price: ¥3,500
Scale: non-scale (15cm)
Material: PVC
What made me brought Mutsumi was her wings. It impressed me when I saw pics of her wing span. I was very iffy about the figurine & decided to buy it after some long thinking. However, I was wrong about purchasing her. I sold her away on eBay & is no longer part of my collection.
Mutsumi packaged
Mutsumi was displayed before & was put back into her box. She should look something like that when you get her. With the exception of the wings, she doesn't need to be assemble unless you want to change her face or hands. The included display base requires minor assembly.
Mutsumi from different sides
The only thing great about Mutsumi's pose is the wing span. If you span them out as pictured above, it measures at 30cm from tip to tip. The extra hands & face allows you to customize her a bit. The entire figure is static.
Extra parts
You can change Mutsumi's hands from fists to open hands & her face to a singing one. Changing the hands requires some strength as the pegs are really solid when you connect them to her arm. The face was a bit easier, but still requires some strength.
The display base with stand
The included display base has two parts: the stand & the base itself. You need to put them together. You need to use the base in order for Mutsumi to stand proper. The wings are heavy & she can't stand on her own. But the display base is poorly designed.
I had a very hard time putting Mutsumi on the display base. She doesn't have any pegs to connect her to the base. You have to use the "L" shaped stand to support her & that stand is of no help. It's loose & really can't support her. I don't understand why Spring used a "L" shaped stand instead of a "T" shaped stand. That stand can only support one wing. In fact, when I tried to take pics of Mutsumi from different sides for this review, I had to hold her to do it. The stand frustrated me to the point to do that.
Since this is from Spring's Deluxe Figure Series lineup, I excepted some good quality workmanship from this figure. It wasn't the case. Check out the yellow & silver panel lines. Pretty poor quality. The same can be said about the red trims of Mutsumi's boots. Ignoring the trimmings & panels, the paint job was quite bad. Lots of bleeding & uneven areas. The best thing about this figure was the wings.
The workmanship on the wings was probably the only thing good about Mutsumi's body. It's molded nicely & painted in chromed dark blue. It's feels like it's made of PVC-like rubber since the "feathers" are bendable.
The faces of Mutsumi
The paint job on Mutsumi's faces are somewhat better than her body. The proportions were uneven still. Her red eyes had some bleeding. The faces were pretty bad, but it was somewhat accepted.
Overall Conclusion
Mutsumi was really a bad purchase for me. I didn't expect a lot of problems with it. The paint job & frustrating base that put me to the edge was really a letdown. It was so bad that I decided to put her back into the box & never display her again. As mentioned, I sold her away on eBay.
On a scale of 10, Mutsumi gets a 5. What gave her such a low score was the poor paint job & stand on the display base. Also, the head is very loose & won't stay in the position I want it too. Most of the time, she's looking down with her chin touching her neck. It was the wings & her faces that helped Mutsumi from losing more points.
Unless you are a die-hard fan of Utawarerumono or have an obsession for big wings, I strongly recommend not getting this Mutsumi figurine. But if you do want to get this figurine, you may have some problems finding it since it's been discontinued for a long time. I have seen only one online store that still has this figurine. When the anime comes out, the market value of Mutsumi may go up if it gains a lot of popularity.
Photos were taken using Sony DSC-F828 digital still camera.
Last updated on October 22, 2005
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