Kotobukiya Cu-Poche Dark Magician GirlReviewPrevNextPrevNext

Kotobukiya Cu-Poche Dark Magician Girl

Every popular series has that one character or item that everyone recognizes and maybe even collects, despite having never seen the series, or knowing much about the character. Dark Magician Girl is one of those characters/things. She is not a character in the show per say, but a card! A lot of us know her because of Yu-Gi-Oh's English dub debut, but I think even without the dub we'd still love this character.

Packaging
Packaging on this figure is beautiful and fun, maybe even a little flirty ;D The colours are bright and beautiful, pictures are crisp and well edited, and some of the graphics used are even humorous. This box just oozes the cute you expect when you buy this figure.









Authentication sticker. Important, but there are no bootlegs for this figure yet


I have no idea where this leads. I haven't tried it out yet.



Lots of thick, and organized plastic packaging. It was taped on each side, and kept everything securely in place.



This is my least favourite part of Cu-Poche figures. Instead of proper packaging spots they've provided a bag and packaged the hands in the bottom.


Assembly and Fit
Dark Magician Girl (DMG) comes in approximately 26 different pieces, including the parts that detach from accessories, the figure itself, and the individual base pieces. Overall fit seems good. Her hands were incredibly tight and difficult to pull off, and insert upon opening, but that isn't particularly a negative thing.




Despite being top heavy with her hair and hat I was able to balance DMG on her magnet base on one leg, and without the base arm to hold her. While this was HILARIOUSLY fun for pictures I don't recommend it for this figure during display. Due to her weight it may not hold for a long period of time, and if it DOES hold the risk of warping her leg still exists.



I'm placing this photo here for "fit". The plastic gems attached to her outfit began sliding off almost immediately after removing her from the box and handling her. Once of them appeared on my finger and since I didn't realize what it was I brushed it off and into my carpet only to be lost forever. I highly recommend gluing them on when you receive her. Use a toothpick or a needle to apply as these are INCREDIBLY tiny. They were definitely easy to slide off and around her arm simply by touching them without much force and most likely will require attention.

Sculpt and Posing
Despite her small size DMG sure has a beautiful amount of detail. She's relatively easy to pose, although lifting her arms very high is difficult because of her hair and shoulder pieces. Regardless, everything flows and fits perfectly together, and she's fun to play with. My favourite is the scared face.


Looking past the paint job her face plates are very cleanly sculpted, and help accent the expressions perfectly, while still keeping an easy to make shape that's fairly the same across the three. Although you can't see them with her hair on her ears are cute and event tinted.


It's mind blowing just how detailed her little hands are. Left and right are the same, so they've been positioned to show top and bottom.




The strange shape in her hat is the rest for her head. It holds the hat up and in place... which unfortunately means there isn't much ability to pose it.


In regards to just the sculpt DMG's spell book is nicely detailed. Considering how tiny it is the clean lines are. The book seems to be based on the Magic Formula card seen here: yugioh.wikia.co...





DMG's staff is nicely detailed, and pulls apart at the top to allow for the staff to fit into her closed hand parts.


Upon my second pulling apart of this piece the peg broke off. I recommend being careful as mine was bent the first time I pulled the top off, and it was very tight. Due to the size of this staff repairing it won't be easy.


Parts on the back of DMG's top/cape move so that the shoulder pieces lift, and the cape separates and creates the illusion of movement. This is difficult to use though as when you put her head back on her hair hinders this option.


Magnets in her boots make her super easy to pose and hold position. This is a feature I hope makes it onto more figures. They're strong and seem to hold onto the figure very well. Despite the strength of the magnet it shows no sign of becoming loose any time soon.


Although it took a lot of balancing DMG is able to be posed on her own without an arm too keep her standing upright. For a pose like this it's not recommended that you let it stay that way for long. It may not hold and you risk the chance of damaging your figure.





These pieces are clean, cute, and great for expression. They fit into both the base holes, and her hat (there's a hole on the (her) left side). While they look too basic for use, they're surprisingly effective and entertaining.


Painting

The painted rectangles on top of her hands is definitely not of the best quality. There is a tiny bit of over spray probably from the template not sticking well enough.


Her faces are clean and adorable. If you haven't noticed my favourite might be the scared face. It's usually the quirky one of the bunch that I LOVE photographing (and I admit to doing it on purpose for these reviews). As a character who is actually a card meant for kicking butt though, I think she could have benefited from an angry face. These are certainly cute, clean and pretty enough for display though.


Her hat is painted rather nicely, but you can tell that the entire piece was either moulded or painted blue, and then the pink was added later. This is alright and not really an issue, but there are some areas where the pink is not quite thick enough and the blue shows through it.


The same issue appears on her breast plate and shoulder pieces. You can especially see it near the star/pentagram pendant holding her shoulder pieces together.


The outside of her book is painted spectacularly. The only issue I have is with the feathers on the front of the book. I didn't even know they were feathers until I looked up the card for this review.


Err... no comment necessary...? If you close the book a certain distance the paint is no longer a problem, but it's difficult to lay it flat and display the book. Alternatively, removing the paint would cause issues on the book spine when it is closed. So it begs the question, why didn't they just paint the entire joint purple? Despite not depicting a book properly, it would have been much more eye-pleasing.

Identify Bootlegs
As of October 21, 2013 there are no known bootlegs of this figure. if you suspect one exists, or you've discovered one, please comment and link so I can update my review with a warning and guide on how to spot it.

Overall

This figure is so cute I have new cavities. Upon her announcement I fell in love, but held back as she was part of a series I didn't care for anymore, and I wasn't sure I'd care about owning her. Giving in and going for the order was well worth my time, and despite not owning anything else from Yu-Gi-Oh I am not disappointed, and she does not look awkward on my shelf!

Well worth the purchase, fun to photograph, and brings a happy vibe to my shelves.

In comparison to my other Cu-Poche, Madoka, she is also a better, more proportioned sculpt.