Real Action Heroes: Miku Hatsune Review

Hey everybody! Today we’re going to look at somebody a little special. I’m sure we’re all familiar with Miku Hatsune, our favourite virtual diva since 2007, the star of the Vocaloid 2 series. She has been immortalised in countless scale figures, figmas and nendoroids over the last handful of years. After amassing a dedicated following, the Good Smile Company announced that they would be working together with Medicom Toy to bring Miku to life though their Real Action Heroes line. That day was almost a year ago, and this refreshing interpretation of the virtual singer has been on the market for almost a month. So without further ado, let’s see what all this fuss is about.

Costume

At first glance, this is the Miku we’ve all known and loved for the last seven years. RAH Miku is dressed in her original futuristic-looking school uniform. What you might notice next is that her clothes aren’t the plastic sculpt we’re all familiar with – they are actually stitched with some kind of material.

Material clothing is not terribly common with smaller action figures marketed towards adults, but they are a staple of the 1/6^th scale action figures. I’ve never bought into this scale before and have only ever owned completely plastic figures before, so I was very curious to see how Miku’s clothes were put together and if I would like them or not.

Straight out of the box, I had a minor issue with Miku’s shirt. One of the flaps on the back had been folded up against her body, so it sticks out rather obnoxiously and no amount of smoothing down will fix. I’m not sure how to fix it either, since I’m not game enough to try and smooth it down with water. Thankfully it’s on her back, but it kind of detracts from her overall appearance when I can see it.

I can’t find anything online listing what materials her clothes are made from, but my guess for her shirt would be some kind of cotton. It’s a little shiny, which is a cool effect. She wears some white elastic knickers too, which nicely cover all of her private joints. Stripes would have been good, but that’s not exactly regarded as canon so I’m not too concerned. There are plastic clips on her tie and on each of her sleeves. Her skirt and her sleeves might be some kind of nylon or polyester – they’re a solid black, nice and shiny, and rather thick. Her sleeves come off with a bit of effort, and you can tell she was never meant to take them off by how skinny and strange she looks without them. They won’t fall off on their own if you don’t take them off too many times, so don’t be too worried about it.

Her thigh-high boots are a glossy black plastic, which I thought was rather pragmatic. The only other cloth-clothed Mikus I know of from the top of my head are from the Pullip line, which has her in cloth boots that loosely fit. They look more like loose socks and they actually look okay on the super-deformed Pullip bodies, but for the RAH Miku plastic boots were a better choice. They have some nice piano keys printed on the side that you might miss if you weren’t looking for them. There is a dab of blue paint on each kneecap to add that little extra detail.

I am in love with the shape of her feet. It was them along with one other thing – to be discussed a little later on - that eventually pushed me off the fence and onto the buying side. Her shoes are lovely with their sculpted blue soles and slight heel. The soles are smooth with copyrights to Sega and CFM printed on the right sole.

Overall, her costume is put together well and has grown on me significantly, despite a few issues. I am a fan of her original look, and after so many years of new and creative costume changes, it’s nice to see Medicom sticking to the basics for their very first Miku. It could be the result of a licencing issue, but her school uniform translates to real fabric much better than her append look ever could. As a big Miku fan I’m a little pleased to see that Medicom has stayed true to Miku instead of imagining their own spin on the character. Other people might not see it that way, but we’ll see what the future brings.

Articulation

I’ve found that the Real Action Heroes line is not terribly well known outside of a few toy-collecting circles. I myself had only heard about the line when the upcoming Asuka Langely was announced, and after spending some time looking at that beautiful plug suit and wonderfully sculpted hairdo did I stumble across Miku. Upon discussing the RAH line on a public forum, it seemed that nobody really knew much about how the figures are put together. Aside from stock photography, it’s remarkably hard to find any photos of the figures. I have seen reviews for the line, but only for certain characters. At the time of publishing I have not seen any reviews for the RAH Miku.

Because of this, most of my comments on how she’s put together will have to simply be educated guesses. If I learn that anything I’ve posted here is incorrect or misleading, I’ll revise it.

Starting from the bottom up, her feet are not on the ball joint typical of a smaller action figure.  I cannot deduce exactly what kind of joint it is just by looking at it - my guess is some kind of hinge joint - but it’s easy to move smoothly and holds her up firmly. Miku can stand on her own just fine, but I wouldn’t recommend it simply because she is so tall and heavy. A fall might just break something. Because her ankles aren’t a regular ball joint, her feet do not move in the way I’d expected. Her feet move up and down just fine with a good range of movement, but to move them side to side is rather odd. They seem to swivel from her heel and do not move up and down at all once they have been moved from the original position. They can swivel almost 180 degrees around, bringing her heel up to the front and sending her toes down an impossible angle. Though there is an incredible range of motion here, it looks terribly unnatural.

My ankles feel sore just looking at it.

Moving up to her knees, they’re similar to the ankle joint in that they look like some kind of hinge joint and the way that they move back and forth. The plastic on the front of her knees is sculpted to meet nicely when her legs are straight, and the plastic on the back looks smooth. There is a deep line running around her knees, but it isn’t too noticeable on her glossy black boots. It looks a lot more natural than the ball jointed knee I’m used to on figures, and her knees don’t bend forward at all like figmas are known to do. Once her leg is bent, the look is a little jagged, but it’s not anything too major. The downside to this joint is while Miku can move her legs back and forth without any problems; she cannot twist them at all. As a slightly duck footed lass, she can't kneel without her feet knocking into each other or crossing her shins over each other. With her big feet, things can get a little awkward. It’s a bit of a detriment to play value, but as she displays better standing up it shouldn’t bother too many collectors.

Her hip joints are covered nicely with some snug-fitting elastic knickers. That’s nice if you want to take some lewd pictures, but it makes it a little difficult to see just how her joints are put together and how she works. Her legs go back and forth without an issue but they do not swivel at all. I’m forgiving about the lack of mobility in her knees, but I’m sore that her legs don’t have that kind of articulation at all. You don’t realise just how much you rely on legs to twist around until you can’t do it – posing her to sit down is a little tough, making her walk can look a bit stiff and the more dynamic poses are unachievable. That being said, Miku stands just fine and I’m quite fond of her duck feet, but because she’s so heavy her stand does not hold her up completely. It just keeps her steady. She needs to have both feet in contact with the ground – even just a tippy toe or the vey back of her heel works just fine – to remain standing, so she’s not a figure for any crazy poses or extremely dynamic scenes. Perhaps that’s why Medicom felt safe in excluding that extra bit of mobility, but it still detracts from poseabillity when she isn’t standing up.

Her clothes cover her pretty well from here on up to her neck, so this is where my guesswork comes into play. She has a joint around her waist that bends back and forth, which is good for bending over, standing up straight and sitting. It’s not a terribly essential joint but it does add just that little bit of extra flexibility, so it’s a good addition. Side-to-side mobility would have been nice too, but let’s not get greedy.

While we're in the area, it's interesting to note that Miku's torso is made of some kind of soft plastic. After researching around I believe it might be soft PVC, but I could always be wrong. I’m not sure why this is the case, but it adds a little mobility to her shoulders and keeps her from being too heavy. Her chest feels hollow.

Our first ball joints are up in her shoulders. They have a good range of motion typical of ball jointed shoulders. Her upper arms are cut very similar to a typical figma, so they look nice enough. Moving down to her elbows, her sleeves can actually be pulled off with a bit of effort revealing some kind of hinge joint that has two pins through an independent piece of plastic. It looks a little strange, but it leaves ball jointed elbows in the dust with its incredible range of motion – Miku can actually reach up and touch her face.

I’m quite impressed with that.

Her hands use the tried and true ball joint, and each of her six hands comes with its own. I like that much better than only having two joints, in case one breaks or something.

Finally, her neck and her pigtails use some very thick, sturdy looking ball joints. Good articulation here, though one of her pigtails fell out while I was holding her upside down messing with her knees for a few minutes. Her pigtail joints make a rather alarming creaking sound when I move them around, but they move smoothly enough for me not to be too concerned. I treat them with caution anyway, as her pigtails are big, heavy, and important. It gets quite warm in my room so hopefully that will help loosen them up a little with time.

At my count, Miku has sixteen points of articulation, which seems to be a pretty standard number for figures of her likeness. Her joints are sturdy, well-hidden and easy to use. I do not believe her to be fragile at all, so don’t be afraid to unbox her, but if she takes a dive off your desk or topples over at the wrong angle she could very well break due to her sheer size and weight. So do be careful when you display her – keep her standing upright with both feet firmly planted on the ground, particularly if she’s in an area that is prone to getting bumped and shaken about, like a desk.

Sculpt & Paint

I said earlier that one of the things that finally convinced me to buy Miku was the shape of her feet, and the other is her hair! The sculpt is amazing.

Her fringe has many finely sculpted strands that kind of remind me of the way her hair was animated in MikuMikuDance. A nice touch is a loose strand that looks almost like it’s been glued to the top of her head. It looks quite delicate, so avoid lifting it out or pushing it down.

The back of her head has some nice sculpting where the hair is pulled up into her pigtails and where it parts down the middle. Not only is it sculpted, but the paint is toned a little darker around the lines. It adds a whole new volume to her hair and looks fantastic.

Her pigtails are shaped a little like a spoon, which is rather typical of plastic Miku figures. The outside of her pigtails have a lovely sculpt giving the illusion of her straight, silky hair. They are also slightly two-toned, with darker paint in shadowy areas as well as up top near her hair ties giving the appearance of highlights in realistic places. I also like how the pigtails can fall close to her body, almost behind her shoulders. It adds some variety to what you can do with them.

After so many Miku figures with transparent hair, the solid colour is like eating your favourite meal for the first time in ages.

The sculpting of her two faces is nice, but nothing special. Her open mouth/singing face is a lot more appealing than her neutral face, so I usually display her with that. Her eyes have a lot of detail and depth to them, even though they’re just printed on. They are the typical Miku shape and look very cute.

The details printed onto her sleeves and her skirt are nice and sharp. Her iconic 01 on her right shoulder is printed on neatly as well, with “Hatsune Miku” printed just below in teeny tiny font. It was hard to catch a photo of it as I don’t have a stand for my camera and I never had the steadiest of hands, but it really is a tiny detail that I missed the first few times I went over her.

 

Finally, she has blue paint on each of her fingernails. It’s a slightly glossy paint too, so it looks nice against her matte skin. Something I was impressed by is the fingernails on her fist hands are painted too. I shouldn’t be impressed by it, given the size of these hands, but I’m used to tiny figma hands that can only be detailed like that when the fingers are stretched out.

I was disappointed to notice there are two scratches on my Miku – one on her fringe and another on the back of her thigh. The one on her thigh is quite noticeable from the back. They’re small and the one on her fringe isn’t terribly noticeable, but two scratches suggests a slightly low quality control. This figure retails for over twenty thousand yen, so I would expect to pull it out of the box in pretty much pristine condition.

My only other complaint about her sculpt is minor - her faceplates have ears. They look nice and they’re sculpted pretty well, but the problem is they go into a small cavity in her headphones and it’s impossible to get them in and out without scratching the paint. You never see her ears, so it isn’t an issue, and they help to hold her faceplate onto her head, but it’s still annoying.

Accessories

Miku comes with six hands and two face plates. I’ve said pretty much all I need to on them.

Miku comes with a pretty cool prop too – her Yamaha DX7.

Released in the early 80's, the DX7 was the first digital synthesizer and remains one of the best selling synthesizers of all time. Miku has a bit of a history with this model, if the stories are to be believed. This is a scale replica and it is incredibly spot on. The sculpting is amazing – each of the keys on the five octaves are perfect and the buttons and switches are so tiny but accurate. If I take a photo of it from the right angle it almost looks like the full sized keyboard.

The paint is perfect too – each key is black or white respectively, and the printing on the top of the board is incredibly neat and detailed. Next to Yamaha DX7 it actually says “Digital programmable algorithm synthesizer” in the same teeny tiny font as Miku’s arm. I had to get a magnifying glass out to read it.

To the back of the keyboard there are actually sculpted ports for cables and such as well as a switch. With my background as an electronics salesperson, I can tell they’ve modelled each of them after a real port with a real purpose. Five of the ports look like typical auxiliary ports most keyboards use, three look like optic fibre ports - or perhaps MIDI ports - and two look like power ports. That level of sculpted detail is amazing. There’s also an auxiliary port on the front too.

I display this thing on its own; it’s just such a detailed and beautiful accessory.

The stand is pretty impressive too. It has a glossy finish and is actually collapsible. It comes with a miniscule pin that you put through a hole to hold the stand up, so be careful not to lose it. It fell out while I was handling the stand one time, so treat it with caution.

As impressed as I am with the keyboard, I’m a little sad they didn’t include her leeks. I think this is the first Miku figure I’ve owned aside from the Race Day figmas that didn’t come with her iconic vegetable. Aside from that, her stand is adequate but not incredible. It reminds me of a huge figma stand, but it’s not strong enough to hold Miku up alone. It has three points of articulation though, so you’ve got a few options to play around with.

Conclusion

Miku is big. Really big. And though she has a few small issues – some scratches, a clothing issue, mobility limitations with her legs and a lack of accessories, I’m very glad to have her in my collection. She is the tenth Miku figure I own and is a suitably special figure to match that milestone. Although she seems at first glance like just another Miku, I believe her scale, clothing and sculpt to be different enough from her figma iterations to warrant a purchase. Of course, if you have no attachment to Miku or to the Real Action Heroes line, you might be better off excluding her from your collection.

I’m pleased to see Miku stepping over to other brands of action figures after Good Smile has monopolized her for so long. The last time that happened we ended up with the Bandai Miku, which was unique and refreshing but with a host of problems. This time, I’m happy to report, we have a figure worth your time. Not quite worth her price tag, but hopefully her price will come down in the future and in the second hand market.