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Review: 1/8 Yakumo Yukari

When we took a look at Suika and I managed to determine Griffon’s “quality control” is still absolutely abysmal, but also that they do have it in them to make a pretty decent figure in spite of this large handicap. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the only other Touhou figure they’ve made since then that has managed to pique my interest…Yakumo Yukari!

First I’d like to apologize for the delay on this review…Originally it was because she took so long to get to me, but during the course of that I determined I didn’t have the proper equipment to do the shots I wanted of her so this was cause for further delay. Hopefully the resulting eye candy will be enough for you to forgive my lateness. Or not…*explanation at the end*

Now getting back to our lady here last time I didn’t really have it in me to explain Touhou and well…I still don’t (Chag: It’s a series of top-scrolling bullet hell shooter games produced by Team Shanghai Alice which has inspired a large body of fan content from the online community — that wasn’t so hard, was it? =P). But I will at least interject some more personal thoughts on the series: the thing that makes me so attached the series is probably the aspect that’s most intimidating to new comers — its massive cast of characters. This  makes the entire world of Gensokyo feel alive. You know at any moment from the mountains to the underground some characters somewhere are doing something, and to me that’s the hook that keeps me interested.

"She doesn't look too bad from afar with a strong light source blowing her out, eh?"

Anyway enough of my rambling its time to talk a little about Yukari! She is…errr…well, as hard to describe in the same way Touhou itself is honestly. She is an immensely powerful youkai (think godlike levels) with the ability to manipulate boundaries, but she also sleeps a great deal and generally spends most of her few waking hours goofing off. Yet Yukari tends to have this air of loneliness around her that makes you almost feel it’s all a front. You have to wonder what godlike powers and extreme long life might do to a person after all. (I highly suggest reading this Doujin if you have any interest in Yukari. Just make sure you have some general Touhou knowledge first) One last thing of note about her is her dresses: the one on display here is from her first appearance while in subsequent games she wore the more eastern looking dress you see in the video above.

"...Or from behind, for that matter."

So let’s see if Griffon did our lovely gap hag fresh young 17 -year-old girl justice! *Fun personal anecdote time* I actually didn’t open this box for 3 days because I was so afraid Griffon had butchered one of my favorite characters. So there’s the degree to which I like Yukarin for you! And of course since this is a Touhou review we can’t forego the requisite epic music!

"Take this as an omen for whats to come... By the way why didn't you put packing material in the WHOLE box as opposed to half of it, hmmm Amiami?"

*Ahem* Right then lets see what Griffon has in store for us this time…Well, to start: good job Amiami for not putting  any packing material on the top side of the box! Because of the large empty space that produced, the top of Yukari’s was damaged. Oh well, it’s not like I was going to resell her anyway! Thankfully, the contents of the box were not damaged, although this does not speak to the credit of Griffon, as neither the box nor the plastic tray had any tape holding it shut…Brilliant!

"So on closer inspection what do we find? "QUALITY!" Also, this is AFTER I had tried for however long to remove a lot of it off her face...yea."

Well since barely anyone cares about boxes, lets move this right along to the figure itself,  and on initial inspection the thing that strikes me first is…she has a rather large noticeable bit of black on her nose…what? Is it some sort of smudge or dirt that managed to get into the bag or something? Why no — it appears to be paint!  Joy! And now that I’m looking at her face I notice lots of smaller little bits of black around her cheeks… Was the painter drunk when he did her eyes and let his hand slip then thought “HEEEY who’ll notice, eh?” It’s good to see Griffon’s “QC” is alive and well!

"And even more awesome "QUALITY". Everyone likes random black crap on their figure, amirite?"

Ok, so once again we’re not getting good impressions, but lets soldier on, shall we? Since we’re already on the topic of paint lets keep going on that tangent. First off let’s look at that voluminous hair of hers: first off all, it has no shading, but this hardly phased in comparison to the large black smudge on the front lock of her hair…lovely. The bows are also on the same quality level that Suika’s clothes, that is to say a brief step above trading figure quality.  The hair also has lots of random bits of red splattered here and there from when the bows were painted with some of these red spots nowhere even near said bows. Only other noticeable thing is there’s quite a bit of clumping and general mess in her hair but due to how it’s sculpted they are hidden somewhat when viewed from a distance.

"And even more "QUAL- No, I think we can stop with that, because these shots are already painful enough as-is...Who needs to bother painting anything properly when you can half-ass it?"

Oh, and they somehow manged to throw a bit of that red onto her gloves too just for good measure…wouldn’t want any part of her to feel left out!

"Gotta make sure we get at least some red paint on every part."

The only other real offender is the umbrella. It has bits of faint red smear on the top in several places and…I’m not even sure…Dirt? Just a discolored smear area I guess is what to call it along with some flecks of errant black paint.  The underside has these random flecks of black too. I’m starting to understand more of how those ones got on Yukari’s face. And of course, the ribbons on the umbrella also look like junk.

"And yet more random black..."

Now that we have all the spite out of the way, let’s check out the good! Which is mostly her dress. It’s very VERY lovely looking.  The dress is well-shaded all around and almost entirely free of any defect whatsoever. I’m really amazed at how impossibly well done it is while almost every other part of her has some random paint from who-knows-where. It isn’t just the outside of that dress that’s nicely painted, because even though its hard as hell to see them, her legs are exquisite! There are sadly still some random black smudges here as well, but the actual skin tone is just beautiful and really helps to make those slender legs look quite enticing.

"It isn't all an absolute train wreck though -- that dress really does look as good in real life as the photo makes it out to be."

Her mob-cap (The non ribbon part) is also beautifully shaded and the same goes for her umbrella where the random paint splatter didn’t ruin the splendor. Also of special note about the umbrella is the handle and the support arms are all metal…It’s a shame that the tip at the top isn’t as well though.

"The same goes for the legs where the ever-present black paint didn't actually land."

So now that we know the paint is hit or miss, what about that sculpt? Well again the dress is the real winner here with its numerous subtle folds and the delectable way it hugs Yukari’s body from the hips upward. Also again her legs are a very nice treat for anyone gutsy enough to peak up her skirt — they’re long, slender, and just begging to be stared at! If ever there was a figure that I would have liked a cast-off skirt this would be it. Guess I will just have to settle with tipping her over and staring up her skirt occasionally like the perv I am! Those lovely legs however do not end on a good note as her feet are pretty underwhelming to look at. Her shoes have very little detail and the fact that they painted on the ribbons on her ankles dropping any pretense of realism, which really doesn’t help the area look anymore attractive.

"I don't even..."

Her gloves have somewhat noticeable seamlines on them, but they’re nothing too terrible. Sadly, the area where the gloves attach to her upper arm look like someone stopped half way while attaching them. Her hair is sculpted fairly well, although like Suika the front is far inferior to the massive flowing locks of the back.  Her face is OK in general although not quite as seductress-like as I remember the promo shots looking. The top of the umbrella has been finely sculpted with its various sections carved out perfectly. Unfortunately, not as much praise can be laid on the skirt or ribbons of it ,which again look slightly better than trading figure level. One has to wonder if this was all done by the same sculptor or not…

"The foot doesn't touch even when it's flush. I showed you this because she starts coming off the pegs on her own after a short time..."

And then of course THE BASE…I think I’ve ranted about this enough in my previous reviews, so I’ll just say its the same as it ever was: black…too big…hollow…cheap looking…just an all around uninspired piece of junk. Also, for some reason her left foot doesn’t touch the base but rather hovers over it, because she’s affixed to a raised plastic bit. Not a huge deal, but it’s kinda silly looking having a small gap between her foot and the base.

"Get used to looking at the umbrella like this after you get her...Of course, a short time after this she won't even be able to hold it at all.

Last oddity of note is her umbrella. It doesn’t slot into her hand very securely and tends to flop over awkwardly at the slightest movement (Or none at all it seems…). This problem is of course made worse by the fact that her base is the hollow cheap piece of junk that it is thus making her wobble easily. And actually after getting it slotted right the first time she simply won’t hold the thing at all anymore because the umbrella weighs so much it pried her fingers open too far…Awesome!

"Not like you'd want to look at the umbrella anyway...The "ribbons" are just...ugh."

That weight coupled with the poor base design also has a fun side effect of making her lean slightly to her left when you do actually managed to get her to hold the umbrella, which could possibly warp her legs over time or even break the base pegs due to stress…even more fun discoveries, yay! *sigh* The only solution to the problem is to glue both the umbrella and the base more securely, then if any leg warping (i.e. leaning) occurs, I’ll just have to correct it with any of the normal means for leaning. Still, the fact that Griffon never thought that such an obvious problem (This is not something that happens days after displaying her, but hours) didn’t need fixing just boggles the mind.

"This is just...I have no words..."

Pros:

  • Beautifully constructed dress in both sculpt and paint
  • Hat and Umbrella (Where they didn’t flick random paint at it…) is equally well shaded.
  • Yummy legs well painted (Again excluding the random errors…) and sculpted

Neutral

  • The pose is better than the average Griffon Touhou figure, but it’s still not quite as appealing as the promos made it seem

Cons

  • Total lack of QC on the figure in general resulting in random paint flying all over the figure with the exclusion of her hat and the dress.
  • Crap base is crap
  • Umbrella poorly secures and near impossible for her to hold.
"It's like this almost everywhere on her hair..."

So there we have it folks! Now like Suika, does the presentation overcome the problems this time? Well…no, not really. Suika’s face was a good deal more accurate and her pose was enjoyable in a way that Yukari just isn’t. The problematic umbrella isn’t really helping the annoyance I’m feeling either. In the end Suika puts a smile on my face, but Yukari just comes off underwhelming in almost every way and really doesn’t “feel” enough like the Yukarin I know and love…

Yes her dress is lovely, but the utter lack of QC truly drove me crazy while reviewing her. It seemed like everywhere I looked, I found some stupid mistake or another…disheartening would be the best way to describe my feelings as I slowly found all these screw-ups. So I think this is it for me and Griffon…I love Touhou, but I have no interest in gambling with my money and accidentally getting stuck with another botched figure like this one again due to Griffon’s complete inability to ensure the quality of their products (This is the same reason I don’t order figures from other mid-tier manufactures in general…I have little interest in taking unnecessary chances).

More than the annoyance at buying an inferior product is the fact that they’ve managed to, in my eyes, disrespect a favorite character to the point that I’d almost want to tape over that name plate that bears her name, and in the end, that’s probably the worst offense of the whole affair — more than the feeling that I got ripped off by paying too much. I don’t quite understand why ZUN — who has in the past done his utmost to protect the integrity of his intellectual property — let these people put products like this out there. It’s fairly clear that Griffon is just barreling forward as fast as they can cranking out as many characters as possible with no care for quality while trying to make a quick buck. This really is just another cash cow for them like Queen’s Blade before it and Ikkitousen before that, which is a true shame…

*sigh* So anyway, as the saying goes: “three strikes and you’re out!” Moving forward, I’m going to be giving Phat Company and Ques Q a chance to fulfill my Touhou fix (I don’t buy Kotobukiya figures anymore due to my own personal experience with their quality as a mid-tier company…plus I find some of their choices in sculpts to use not much to my liking, but I’ll keep my eye on them.) so you can look forward to those!

"And one last random bit of red to close us out...now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go sob in the corner..."

*Personal Note on the photos*

“I’m sorry the photos aren’t of the greatest quality…This wasn’t exactly how I wanted to do my first review with the new camera. I didn’t get into figure photography to try to photograph every gory detail, but instead for the creative possibilities. So a lot of them lack clarity among many other problems because I just simply don’t like taking such shots…Probably an “unprofessional” attitude, but as this is a hobby I prefer to do what I enjoy in the end more than being professional.

There are in fact numerous other problems on her I didn’t photograph (Specifically on the umbrella and her legs) because I started feeling physically ill doing this, so I hope you’ll forgive me for not taking every angle of every problem…I barely even made it through post-editing just what I took here so…yea…I just didn’t have the heart to keep doing shooting…This figure is assuredly going on the back wall of the room along with Claudette where my gaze rarely reaches…”

33 replies on “Review: 1/8 Yakumo Yukari”

Griffon seems like it should be a cool figure maker since they do so many characters and alternate outfits and whatnot, but seeing all these problems they have makes them more like some kind of demonic figure maker.

“Oh, you want a figure of Girl With Nice Hat X, whom you like?  Well guess what?  We make the only one!  HA HA HA HA!”

Maybe Yukari will get a Figma or something.  Actually I wouldn’t want that either because I don’t really care for Yukari and MF could do someone else I like better instead!

Well three figures with three massive QC problems and yea…I’ve had enough.

Awww no love for Yukarin is it? Do you have a favorite Touhou Hamster?

Nah, not too big on Yukari.  And she’s usually paired with Reimu or Yuyuko, and I like those two in their other pairings better.

I think Reisen’s my favorite, along with the rest of the Eientei girls.  There’s one guy that makes some amazingly cute and compelling Kaguya/Mokou doujins!

Haha so were the exact opposite! I’m a huge Reimu x Yukari guy. :p

Who do you like Reimu with? Marisa?

Ah see I could never get into the Imperishable night crew except for Tewi haha. And the few doujin I like seem to all be Kaguya x Eirin / Mokou x Keine / Tewi x Reisen haha. But then like I said the great thing about Touhou is there’s something for everyone so I’ll never disrespect anyones preferred pairing. :p

Reimu/Marisa works really well for me, especially since they can be anything from non-romantic best friends to having magic babies together.  Also don’t mind Reimu/Sanae.

I must not be good at finding doujins, I’ve hardly seen any Kaguya/Eirin or Reisen/Tewi ones.  I’d also love to see some Reisen/Reisen II but alas, the Internet fails me.

It’s kinda neat how any Touhou character can be paired with any other Touhou character so easily and without needing much explanation.  EVERYONE IN GENSOKYO IS GAY!

There is no such thing as a “Crack pairing” in Gensokyo! Honestly I think I’ve seen at least a picture of just about any coupling you can fathom haha…

Ouch, I can imagine you writing this review sitting in the corner of
your room with one hand typing and the other mopping up tears. This figure really looked like it had potential too. I see you’re getting the Phat Company one to make up for it though, hopefully they do that one justice.

That’s not that far from the truth honestly…Even now I can’t even look at this review. I usually re-read it one last time in full after its up to catch any last errors, but yea…This time I can’t even scroll up. The thought of looking at it is turning my stomach. >_<

I'm hoping it turns out ok! If not I guess I have Ques to fall back on…

That sounds really disappointing. I only have one Griffon figure (the first Flandre Scarlet figure) and the paint job isn’t near as bad as Yukari’s. I can’t believe that parts of her start to deform only after a few hours due to poor weight distribution. That really makes you wonder if anyone in the company actually keeps some of the figures that they make.

Well glad to hear someone has a non-trainwreck griffon figure…Honestly after 3 bad ones in a row I began to wonder.

Haha they probably keep the hand-sculpted/painted master figure in the office and that’s all. :p

QUALITY. QUALITY. QUALITY. DEM LEGS. INSTABONER.exe

You should do a separate review just on DEM LEGS.

 

When you listed out the pro, neutral and cons I thought it
was the end of the review as that’s where it normally would be listed. And I
thought you had done it intentionally to reflect what this figure feels like to
you – unfinished. Hah.

 

It is truly unfortunate that such abominations are even
allowed to be sold. I’m sure there are bootlegs that have higher quality paint
than Yukari here. With such deceiving promo pictures I can understand how you
were tricked, even I at one point considered pre-ordering her because she
looked so damn good on amiami. No-one can blame you for not getting another
Griffon figure after this, I’m surprised you gave them 3 chances.

 

While I’m not very knowledgeable in the Touhouverse I do
find some of their character designs interesting in addition to some songs. I
was mesmerised by the GK of Yukari that Phat company is making. My hope for a
PVC rendition of that was also another reason I did not fall for the Griffon
ver.

 

What do you think about the change in facial expression
though? I think I prefer the smile more. I know it’s something we see too much
of on figures these days but the 😮 face just looks out of place.

Haha true although they do have some black smudges on them the skin tones and sculpt are extremely delicious!

Heh I think I like your idea better then what I did…

Probably! I do have to laugh on the few occasions where that actually is true and this could very well become one of them! It’s up to you bootleggers to save Yukarin!

Yea I have high hopes for the Phat one even more so now…Guess will see what happens.

Honestly I was too busy being sickened by all the other problems I didn’t give it much mention, but yea her face I dunno I though it looked nice in the promo with a bit of a pout sort of. This one isn’t terrible, but its not as good as I’d hoped for like Suika’s.

The photos are great! It looks beautiful when you got some range from her, but the honesty of your camera captures her lack of QC in closer shots 😀

Haha I dunno about them being great, but yes…The closer you get the more terrible it is. >_<

Wow. I don’t follow Touhou closely and I’m not particularly attached to Yukari as a character, but boy did I feel your pain after reading/editing this. Still, you DID put the DSLR to full use here with capturing all the annoying specks here and there. If owning this figure is painful, photographing it under a macros lens must be excruciating.

Pretty much…I wasn’t even looking very hard when I shot them so some of the focus is rather iffy to put it mildly, but…yea…I…Ugh yea on one hand I want people to know that Griffon are a bunch of lazy little shits that screwed up one of my favorite characters, but on the flipside I really just want to forget I ever had anything to do with this figure and bury this review… >_<

Well… man… this was the first Griffon figure I seriously thought of getting, I had high hopes for this rendition of Yukari. I really liked the pose since it kinda felt like Yukari was teasing. I love the way the dress hugs her body and I can’t stop looking at that picture of Yukari’s legs. For all that was done well the crappy QC is inexcusable in my opinion, I can understand a one off but repeatedly like this? Not so much.

Alright, Yukari, I’m placing my bets with Phat’s rendition.

Argh this is worry some, I was thinking of getting Griffon’s Kogasa but now not so much.

They sucker punched me good on this one I’ll give em that…But yea I thought she was going to be incredible and I guess she was in a way… >_<

Haha yea I never condemn a company for one misstep…But after three figures it's hard to pass it off as you got one of the "bad ones".

I hope to hell that Phat one is great…Even mediocre really. Anything thats not as bad as this at least…

Haha I know that was one of my reasons for soldiering forward and actually doing this review when I would have rather stuck needles in my eyes then write it…I'm not generally in the habit of telling people what to do with their money, but it felt important to show people what Griffon's level of quality on the finished product really is and help them decide for themselves whether they want to take the chance or not.

Ok, thats really horrible I feel honestly sorry for you, I think I would have completely lost my temper when receiving a figure with such a sloppy quality, all these splatters of paint everywhere *urgs*. does she really stand this shaky on her base ?
Now I know that I will never buy a figure from that Company.
I guess Phat Companys Yukari will turn out a lot better 😉

That’s disgusting and I feel so sorry for you, Ash. The promo shots of this figure made me start to pay more attention to Griffon’s Touhou line but I think I’ll go right back to ignoring it now! Great honest review though, good job on writing it when you obviously didn’t want to.

What is it with that black paint though? I got a figma covered in random clumps of it once.. even though black paint was used nowhere on the figma itself.

Heh thanks for that Zai it means a lot! T_T

Yea those shots looked great (same with Suika) but they really fall flat on their faces when it comes to the finished product in a big way…

Yea I honestly have no idea. If anything I would think it would be purple or yellow since her dress and hair have the largest amount of paint with next to nothing being black?

 This actually made me think twice when buying ANY Griffon related merchandise. i think aside from crafting, its very VERY important for these toy manufacturers to truly deliver the quality they offer through intensive QC procedures

Pretty much how I feel as well. I covet consistency above most any thing else honestly.

Let’s me start off with, YAY MORE TOUHOU! 

Quote Chag: “I highly suggest reading this Doujin if you have any interest in Yukari.”

That doujin…  How can I put this… it’s one of those godly doujins that has the power to end my Sakuya fetishes and kick me straight into a pool of Yuyu-fandom.  I would personally recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about Yuyuko and Yukari’s past.  As far as the story goes, it did a very good job on depicting the story behind Perfect Cherry Blossom.  Cuz ya know, ZUN only goes so far about WTH is happening and why you are being pelted by a bazillion bullets, the rest is up to the fan-base.

There are two types of people on this planet.  Ones who have read that doujin, and those who haven’t.

It is indeed! It was one of the ones that really helped to drag me into Touhou…It was just so emotional and incredible compared to most of the professional manga I was reading I was blown away!

Really sucks about the quality control, especially as the character design is so awesome. Makes me wonder if Griffon has any QC at all… how do you let a figure ship with like a million paint specks on it?

I’m looking forward to Phat Company’s version, as it’s sexier and has a cooler concept IMO.

I kinda think they don’t honestly. It feels like they have no oversight at all so once the last guy finishes the figure they just toss it on down the line to get boxed… >_<

Yea I'm really really looking forward to Phats one and I hope to hell it doesn't disappoint!

Ouch. I cringed and died inside when I read this review. I couldn’t imagine how painful it is for you to shoot, reprocess and write a review for a botched figure of a character you love.

I had been thinking about picking up a Touhou figure, and was primarily interested in Griffon’s Suika, but the QC is making me think twice about forking my money over for such a poorly finished figure. I can’t even think why people are not raging at Griffon’s bad, bad job with the Touhou characters (and to think they’ve released quite a handful of characters already).

I haven’t really kept a close eye on the Touhou figures, primarily because I’ve only played Imperishable Night and know so few of the characters… I guess I can ask you guys when deciding on a Touhou figure since you seem to have a handful of them already. Great job on sticking to review this figure ’till the end.

Ah yea this thing kinda killed my motivation to review for a good couple weeks…But then everytime someone says “Oh well maybe I won’t order that griffon figure now” makes it all worth it haha.

I don’t think people complain about it as much because since it’s a QC issue not everyone gets such a terrible copy. Like I know some people that got Suikas where the skirt looked fairly good. But then your taking a chance anytime you buy a Griffon figure…She may looks fine or she may look like a disaster like this poor one here.

Haha I haven’t played anything beyond Scarlet since I’m horrible at Bullet Hell games…I just like the music, the doujins, and the art. >_>

Haha well I’m going to get some from two more manufacture soon and at some point if Koto makes one I’m interested in I’ll assess their quality as well!

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