Posted: 01.16.2024
REVIEW:
Female Body (Mika) with Mini Skirt Chinese Dress Outfit
figma 1/12 scale articulated figure
My first of the figma Styles series — Female Body (Mika) with Mini Skirt Chinese Dress Outfit! Talk about a mouthful!
Mika is approximately 14 centimeters (roughly 5.5 inches) tall, the average height for most figma action figures.
With a cute dress and a few swappable parts, Mika is a decent value for your money.
Overview
Cloth outfit
Mika's main selling point is her highly detailed Chinese dress. The dress is made of nylon, polyester, and PVC.
Standard figma body
figma's female body is meant for part swapping and customization, allowing you to swap heads, hands, feet, etc. Creating your own custom figure has never been easier.
Box & Packaging
Simple! Red! Minimalist!
(by figma standards)
Mika comes in an undersized cardboard contraption, roughly 3/4 the size of your typical, modern figma box. There is no clear window to show her off, so if you're the kind of person who prefers to examine figures for paint flaws or QC issues before purchase, you're shit outta luck.
Photographs of Mika can be seen on all four sides and the poses they chose for her are elegant and attractive. If you find this figure on a shelf at your local shop, this box does a great job at advertising the figure and outfit.
SHE'S NAKED!!!! I guess this is why they decided to forego the standard box window. Gotta protect the poor innocent children.
Mika's dress is packaged separately behind her plastic prison, forcing you to start playing dress up right away. The gold tassels are individual elements that must be applied manually.
Accessories
What’s in the box?
If you've ever bought a figma before, this assortment should look pretty familiar.
You have your standard inclusions: booklet, storage bag, extra wrist joint, and so on.
Hands
8 hands are included.
A nice grouping of: peace signs, grips, fists, and splayed hands.
The typical figma hand tree is included, as expected. I've always liked those.
Stand
Your standard fare figma stand.
It's the normal, small stand (which is fine, she's not a large figure). Angled adapter is included, of course.
Feet
A pair of a pair of feet!
Choose between shiny red heels or have her walk the earth as God intended, the choice is yours.
Dress
It wouldn't be a figma Female Body (Mika) with Mini Skirt Chinese Dress Outfit if she didn't come with the Mini Skirt Chinese Dress Outfit, now would it?
The soft-goods dress is well made and is secured in the back with a strip of hook and loop fastener (don't you dare call it Velcro). The neck piece is a loop that wraps around Mika's neck; pull off her head, slide the dress on, and then reattach her (or any figma's) head.
The 3 plastic gold tassels are not attached to the dress out of the box and you must apply them yourself. Included is a small sheet of double stick tape squares that... literally don't do anything. I attempted to use all 6 but none had enough adhesiveness to stick to the gold decorations and barely grabbed hold of the dress. I assume they intended for the tassels to be taken on and off at your leisure, but I ended up supergluing them to the dress. Luckily, I don't plan on ever removing them anyway.
Articulation
figma has been making figures for about 16 years now.
Even back in 2008 with figma-001, the articulation scheme was impressive. Over time, it's only gotten better and better. Modern figma engineering is at a level that most companies have trouble matching, and Mika is no exception to this standard.
With your classic Good Smile joints from top-to-bottom, Mika can pose any which way you desire. That's the beauty of such a simple body design with very little sculpt to interfere.
Her hips are the biggest detriment here, having very little side-to-side movement. Mika will not be doing any splits and will struggle to get into a decent Jack-O' pose.
I'm still not a huge fan of the "floating underwear" design figma has been using these past few years. Certain poses results in huge gaps in the sculpt, but it's not like I have any better suggestions to alleviate this issue.
This figure moves well and holds her poses perfectly. For the price paid, I don't have any complaints.
Conclusion
Smash or pass?
The figma: Styles line is not for everyone.
I didn't buy this figure to have Mika. I bought this figure to get her body and outfit. The Mika head will probably live in my parts drawer for the rest of it's life or maybe I'll toss it up on Mercari one day. It's not bad! The sculpt is nice, paint is clean, colors pop - I just don't need it. My intention has been to use this body to bring more life to existing figures I already own (looking at you, Peko-chan).
I like the dress. I don't love the dress, but I like it. I feel it's a bit billowy, especially in the back. Being the dress is held together by a hook and loop fastener, there's only so much you can do with cinching the dress around her waist. Said dress does have a tendency to fray easily, so extra care for her one item wardrobe will be important.
MSRP for Mika is about $46 USD, which is quite bargain compared to the average going rate of a figma these days ($80+ USD). Almost half price for a good quality figma buck, useful for quick kit bashes. It's a good value in my opinion.
If you can find Female Body (Mika) with Mini Skirt Chinese Dress Outfit for MSRP or under, you won't regret your purchase.
While she may not fit in aesthetically with the Gourmet Guild, I have to put them grippy hands to good use somehow.
Thank you for reading another one! Or if this is your first, go read a second!