Hellooooo everyone and welcome to the formerly third part, now second, of our Ranka figure reviews!
Like the last Ranka review we’re looking at another MegaHouse rendition. I find it rather odd that all three mainstream Ranka figures involve MegaHouse, which mostly known for making Queen’s Blade and One Piece figures, while the other figure makers have completely ignored the popular series (Or like one certain company abandoned their plans in the prototype stage…). But odd as it may be, I’m sure we can all be grateful that they’ve filled in the void and I hope to see more from them related to the second Macross Frontier in the future (Come oooon mahou shoujo Ranka)!
At this point I don’t think there’s much need for me to explain who Ranka is really. If you’ve never watched the series I’d highly recommend watching the first movie at the very least, which does a great job of summarizing the first part of the TV series and improving on several aspects of it while setting up nicely for the second movie!
This Ranka figure here is based on her waitress appearance she sported while working at the Chinese restaurant “Nyan-Nyan” near the start of the series before finding her calling as our adorable idol (Although she did do some advertising for them later on)!
She’s unfortunately languished in her box since I bought her because I didn’t have a clue how to photograph her, seeing as my neck of the woods has a distinct lack of anything even vaguely Chinese in appearance. That being the case I finally just did what I hate to the most and plunked down some money for something that looked the part (I find stumbling upon things in my travels to be much more interesting in general) and here we are!
So without further ado lets crack this bad boy open! I’m sure Ranka is more than a little tired of being cramped up inside that box!
Ok first impressions then…Whoa she’s a big girl! It looks like she is still 1/8th scale doing a direct comparison to the other Ranka’s in my collection, but her long outstretched arm and the extra height given to her by the base definitely makes her feel slightly larger than you’d think a 1/8th of a petite girl would be, giving her a fair amount of shelf presence! Sadly she is not cast-offable, which really surprised me considering all the other Ranka figures that MegaHouse has done are. When I look at her legs, I think that’s kind of a shame because I bet she has a damn nice body sculpt under that dress! Pity that…
On a closer look, Ranka’s MegaHouse quality really shows! Her skin tones are very lifelike, giving her skin a nice smooth warm feeling to it and the metallic paint of her dress that MegaHouse loves as much as Max Factory loves transparent hair is generally well done. Although if you inspect it very close you’ll see lots of small imperfections in it, but thankfully you basically have to mash your face against her under high light to even spot them. Otherwise, they just sort of blend in with all the shininess.
Her hair would probably be the most lacking thing paint-wise, seeing as it’s completely devoid of any kind of shading, but then again, Ranka’s hair appears like that at times during the show (As well as inexplicably changing hues many, many times) so I can’t knock them too much for that. I do wish her socks were more white instead of the plain and slightly ugly grey they are, however, as it blemishes the beauty of her legs. The socks also have a few paint errors in it most prominently near the gold bits and on the bottom of her left foot.
Oddly enough, I’d say one of the best painted things on her aside from her skin is the silly apron she comes with that I could care less about about. The apron its rather painless to initially put on her —  just pop her head off and fit the straps around the neck. However, getting it properly secured is another story altogether, since it’s made using MegaHouse’s typical cast-off clothes peg system. Her right side pops together easily, but the left…well let’s just say I gave up getting it to fit together snugly after a goodly amount of time futzing with it.
Frankly I wouldn’t worry too much about it, since I doubt many people would want to keep it on. It’s well-painted like I said earlier, but it’s also painfully bulky looking and really ruins all the nice body lines her tight-fit China dress gives her. It’s like dumping a sheet over a beautiful statue…meh.
One word of caution I will give is if you’re removing her apron, absolutely do not grip it at the bow on the back! It’s only attached with a minimal amount of glue and does not make for something secure to pull on. Instead, grip at where the pegs connect and pull at that point.
Being a MegaHouse figure, it’s natural that Ranka should have a rather yummy body sculpt. Her legs are nice and long, but still proportionally true to her status as a petite girl with some deliciously plump thighs to ogle at as well. It’s just a shame those damn socks ruin them to a minor degree. I know it’s accurate to the anime that she wears socks with this outfit, but this is one of those instances where I wish MegaHouse had taken some creative liberty and done away with the damn things.
Other than that, Ranka has a decent backside, although there’s nothing too attention-grabbing, as the dress unfortunately obscures the shape of her butt for the most part. The front fares better with a nice smooth stomach and a pair of well-shaped breasts. I do lament that she has no visible belly button, though — with an outfit this clingy, it’s lamentable to see that detail missing.
Lastly, she has a very cute and lively face that’s extremely accurate and works well with the pose. The only other thing of note sculpt wise is her little meat bun steamer, which has a rather frightening amount of detail in its construction, from the weaved look on the top lid to the etching on its side, right down to the little meat buns sitting inside and the slats at the bottom! I honestly have no explanation for the amount of attention to detail here other than to wonder if the sculptor either worked at a Chinese restaurant or just really enjoys frequenting them.
The steamer does sit on her hand well for the most part, but it lacks any means to securely connect it to her hand. For a figure in a one leg pose that wobbles if you so much as touch her, this omission is pretty preplexing to me. I’ve already had it fall out of her hand by bumping the desk twice spilling its contents all over the place, and I can’t help but wish they had made a peg or something to attach it to her hand!
And then lastly of course we have the base, which actually is surprisingly nice. It bears the logo and general motif of the Nyan-Nyan restaurant! Good job on that, MegaHouse!
Positives:
- Cute face
- Lively Pose
- Great use of metallic paint
Negatives:
- Bulky apron is difficult to attach securely
- Ugly grey socks
- Meat bun steamer easily falls out of her hands
So overall I’d say she’s a cute fun figure of Ranka, but easily my least favorite of the three that I own of her.
If you want a cute more clothed Ranka I’d say go for the Alpha x Omega version (pictured above). If you want a nice half-naked one of her to drool over, then the Nose Art version I reviewed will scratch that itch. This particular one though falls between the two and feels somewhat mediocre because of it, as it’s neither servicey enough nor as charming. It’s not a bad figure overall really, but it’s not something that will set you ablaze like the other two.
And so ends the Ranka love fest until I can actually find all of Alpha x Omega’s missing parts (doubtful)… Ah well, it’s not like I was looking forward to screwing with her cast-off anyway. *shudder*
19 replies on “Review: 1/8 Ranka Lee (Nyan-Nyan Ver.)”
Oh wow she’s lovely, Ranka couldn’t win my heart in the anime, but in this figure form, Im very pleased.(damn I need to get her XD)
I love her happy face expression with this detailed eyes, as well as her attractive china dress in combination with the curves, even the pose looks great. Thisbun steamer are a cute accessory, to bad they fells off easily.
These first three pictures are looking awesome with this big red fan in the background, the lighting is great as well 😀
As the prop freak I am, I can say that it is perfectly chosen ^^. I would like to have such a pretty fan in my prop box.
a very nice review and a very pretty Ranka figure *drool*
Yea Ranka didn’t impress much in the anime, but it seems like MegaHouse has a knack for making figures of her!
That steamer is annoying…So annoying in-fact I actually broke the handle on the top! When I was reshooting that one odd image that lacks the fan it fell out of her hand and…yea… >_<
Heh the nice thing is its actually just a super cheap party prop and not even an actual fan more like a flattened paper lantern…thing.
What a gorgeous photoshoot, Ashlotte. I really enjoyed looking at the photos! The umbrella thing you bought really paid off, I think! It makes me want to ditch the cardboard backgrounds I use even more, lol.
I’ve always liked the look of this figure, I find her dress really nice looking. Those meat buns are pretty incredible too.. haha. I want moreee MegaHouse figures.
Must get around to watching that Macross movie sometime..
Creativity is the spice of life! Or was that variety? Ah well they both apply I suppose…But yea I quickly abandoned the whole indoors shooting against construction paper thing early on because it bores me to tears! I look forward to what you two can concoct from here on! :p
Yea Megahouse are easily one of my favorite makers! Their quality is almost always good and they really know how to do body sculpts and paint skin! If only they’d design a better cast-off system…
She looks good but the alpha omega one looks better. Now we just have to wait for a Sheryl that can please everyone.
Yea you can’t really beat the AxO one with its iconic pose and my favorite dress of hers really!
Haha a good Sheryl figure…oh god I can only dream…
“I could stare at those legs all day…China can’t be all bad if they can originate a dress like this!â€
Four thousands years of history and it all boils down to the little red dress, eh? China gets no credit these days. Did you know the Chinese invented the compass and gunpowder? Doesn’t that count for something?
I’m loving these shots as usual, and you’re putting my photos to shame with these. If I don’t step it up a little, my reign over these lands will be usurped! I can’t wait for exams to be done with.
Yea gunpowder…Gee China thanks a bunch for that one! :p
That was the general idea honestly…I can’t seem to convince you to be creative by just using words so I figured I need to one up you and light the fire under your butt! Good Luck with exams though young man…God knows I’m glad to never be in school ever again when I see you talk about that stuff…
Fantastic shots! So much red… That umbrella makes a perfect prop, nice buy.
That Ranka looks really nice, lovelove the metallic paint. Clear plastic + metallic paint = awesome figure. Ohwait, doesn’t KOS MOS have both? Omfg.
Sucks about the meat buns, I guess they didn’t want to put a peg so it still looks good without the plate but if its going to fall from the slightest nudge, thats pretty useless. Maybe try blu-tack or poster putty?
I’m a big fan of that dress as well (it’s called a cheongsam btw). I’ll need to get a real one someday for a certain someone 😉
When I pick a color I go with it ALL THE WAY!!! >_>
Metallic paint is indeed nice, but rarely seen outside Megahouse figures it feels like…
I don’t like the thing that much and considering it broke anyway I’m just sticking it with all the other useless loose accessories.
Meh it’s always going to be China Dress to me no matter how many times I see the real name…It just has that certain ring to it~~~ :p
You just did something someone hasn’t done in ages for me. You just made me want to buy a figure. Out of the three Megahouse Rankas I find this one the most appealing. Up until now I hadn’t seen her up close, your pictures did show rather nicely Ranka’s assets.
I think I want to buy this figure to look at those nice legs all day now. Although, I could have sworn this one was castable, oh well.
Yea I have no idea why she isn’t cast-off while the other two are? Weird…
Haha glad I could…help? I feel odd saying that because I curse reviews that get me to buy stuff personally. >_>
She does have indeed have nice legs! I have her on a pretty high shelf so thats mostly all I see of her and I’m fine with that haha.
Ranka is really cute and for some reason, her figures seem to be more attractive than the way she looks in the anime. I kinda thought about getting Bandai’s version of her a while back … you know, the one with her in a bikini and hardhat. I kinda figured it might turn out terribly, though, so I never did.
This reminds me I probably ought to take pictures of Klan Klang one of these days. Ol’ torpedo tits doesn’t seem to have nearly the variety of figures that the other girls have.
I can’t really argue against that…Ranka isn’t BAD per-se in the anime, but these figures are a lot more appealing then she ever was to me in the show itself it seems.
I know which one your talking about though I almost bought it myself too because I thought the whole construction worker + bikini idea was hot, but yea I pulled back like you because bandai sucks at figures and I was right…saw her on discount a couple times though. Vaguely tempting…
You should! I’ve seen you do sets for Japanese figures and a bunch of other stuff…Trying to remember if I’ve seen a tech-ish looking one from you…
I’m not a fan of belly buttons showing through clothing, so I actually like that they left it out. My favourite part about her is her long legs, they look so smooth and well-proportioned.
Awww really? I guess I’m into them because of loli’s with the general trend of having a somewhat plump belly…So cute!
The legs really are what makes the figure though this is true! They have just the right thickness to them.
I think this is my favourite Ranka figure, actually, over the Cinderella version. For some reason that one just doesn’t do it for me as much. Maybe it’s the pose, who knows…
Nice work with the red umbrella, it looks much better than whatever I had before – I can’t even remember what I used as a background for mine. LOL I was really surprised how much detail they put into the steamer and the buns, huge kudos to MH for that. I wish they made some sort of groove beneath the steamer plate so it would be more secure, mine kept falling off too.
The single leg support also causes some concern, but I’ve had her out for about a year and so far no leaning issues. I’m a bit curious as to how the limited blue dress version would look in person. But I think the red suits Ranka more.
@c7d63c106a85f525e3104ed5fa2cd85e:disqus Awww no love for Kira! ? Heh well I can understand this one is still pretty nice in its own way.
Yea my 5 dollar party favor I used haha…Did work out better then I thought though so I shouldn’t knock it! The amount of detail in that steamer really is frightening though for sure. But yea mine already fell and broke because of the lack of anyway to secure it.
Mah I’ve been fortunate to not own any leaners so I really don’t worry about it yet I guess. And yea I think Red really carries the Chinese theme better then blue to me.
Kira is so overplayed! XD