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Review: 1/7 Menace Review (NSFW)

Hey there all, I’ve finally recovered enough from doing that horrid Yukari review and subsequent gaming binge to get back to reviewing! And to start us off after that trainwreck we have Menace, a figure that I’ve taken forever to actually photograph!

"I choose this picture entirely to annoy a certain someone, haha."

This time our half-naked lady is made by Amiami-zero — the same fine folks that help send me closer to the poor house month after month! Having never owned a figure from them and having not payed much attention to reviews of their previous releases, I wonder how this Menace will stack up against Griffon’s previous Queen’s Blade disgrace

Menace is a pretty awesome character. I know the most obvious reason to like her is the skimpy clothing and the absurdly nice body, but I dig the fact that even though she gets classified as a “villain”, all she really wants is to recreate her own little hedonistic kingdom in the sand again.

Sure she may not use the most…ethical means to do it, but in all honesty, there are far, far worse fates than being her slave doling out oil massages on a daily basis. So here’s hoping that someday our princess realises her dream! :p

"Those things are pretty annoying to actually get on her."

Well to start off,  there are absolutely no instructions included with this figure, despite the fact that it’s one of those figure that actually needs it. Her shawl thing just sorta awkwardly wraps around her arms with nothing really to hold it in place. This is fine if you don’t touch her at all, but try to move her even slightly and parts of it will fall off.

The bigger problem is the little piece of transparent material that’s supposed to be her loincloth. You basically just sorta press it in and it VERY loosely holds in place without even the security of having something to wrap around like the cloth on her arms (This piece is also so small I’ve since managed to lose it entirely…)! This means if you so much as look at her funny it is gonna come off (And sometimes falls off even if you don’t do anything whatsoever). An attachment point of any kind would have been useful. >_<

“This has to be the most distracting figure I’ve ever tried to shoot…”

Putting aside the annoyances of attaching the few scant pieces of clothing she has, the rest is rather easy. Setra slots in nicely, her crown sits neatly on her head, and best of all, her chest piece pops off (or on, if you so wish) without a fuss. So in the end, I’d say the fact that she’s so easy to strip makes up for the fact that it’s so damn annoying to get her clothed…This is a Queen’s Blade figure after all. :p

Alright then, I know what your thinking: “Enough about the damn clothes already Ash, what about her body sculpt?!? Bring on the nudity!!!”

"I mean just LOOK at her...christ...Curves everywhere!!! Makes you wanna take a bite..."

Well my friends I am happy to say it is in a word…superb!

"She is just...gah...words fail me to describe how much I love her body sculpt."

Beautiful softly curving lines flowing one into another abound across her large tracts of exposed skin! The sheer amount of attention payed to her mid-section is absolutely jaw-dropping, I mean just look at how nice her stomach is! The way that it displays the muscles moving subtly to support her upper body…When was the last time you saw detail like that?!? Every little knook and cranny on her curvaceous body has had this level of loving attention lavished on it, much to my delight.

"Her breasts aren't my favorite shape, but the godly paintjob on them makes me love em just the same!"

Her front has the aforementioned beautiful midsection, as well as her lovely legs that strike a beautiful balance between supple smoothness and muscular detail. As for her breasts, though they aren’t shaped quite to my tastes, but they have enough natural curvature to them to avoid the Ikkitousen beach ball syndrome of looking like some disgusting porn star’s fake rack.

"Don't you just want to run your fingers up and down that supple back?"

Her backside is just as impressive as well. An improbably thin waist gives way to some lusciously wide hips and meaty thighs. This is no Black Rock Shooter, that’s for sure! Her cute face has a slightly bemused look and a well-detailed Setra (her talking cat scepter) really finish bringing this entire sculpt to life!

"Look at the detail there! That, my friends, is pure skill plain and simple."

To top it all off they even immacutely sculpted every last one of her toes replete with cute painted toenails! That’s dedication! That coupled with the extremely well-detailed shoes she’s sporting makes her a dream for a foot fetishist like me~~~

"I adore her thin shoulders too! Such a contrast to how large her upper body is. Check out the detail on her neck piece as well!"

Overall her body flow is just an incredible treat for the eyes, improbable as it may be. Her slight shoulders and arms give away to an oversized rack only to slim down again into a small waist and finally blowing up into a gloriously full lower body. I know someone who’s a big fan of the sculptor of this piece, and I have to say I’ve become one as well! I’ll be sure to look for the name Osiris in the future.

“They even did her hands beautifully with nail polish and a great looking ring!”

The paint does an awesome job of really complimenting Osiris’ hard work as well, especially in the skin. Menace being a desert princess has just the right complexion I’d say — as a member of the aristocracy, she isn’t tanned like the poor slobs working out in the sun all day, but their is still a subtle amount of bronzed shading to her that avoids making her look too pale.

"All of her little accessories are of the same great quality as well. Just look at how detailed the paint on Setra is and it doesn't have a single error on it!"

Everything else is fairly well done, especially her cloth shawl which has some subtle shading along with the various metal accessories and Setra. Her bindings on her lower legs are slightly messy in spots, but nothing too distracting. I do wish a little more attention had been paid to her panties since its such a focal point, but they’re far from the worst I’ve seen. :p

"I do wish her panties had some more detailing like say wrinkles, but look at how beautiful those shoes and the bottom tip of her scepter are!"

The pose itself is just magnificent and one of the main reasons I ordered her in the first place. She has a very subtle and sultry body language going on here that entirely suits her character, unlike the more action oriented MegaHouse version (And whatever Griffon’s is doing…). I can just imagine her lazily sitting in her throne room watching something amusing. The fact that she has Setra positioned between her legs right under her panties is just the icing on the cake. ~_^

"Have I mentioned I like this figure! Pose is just so great."

The only slight negative about the pose is that it’s very downward oriented, and on a figure with an already low profile, you’re definitely going to want to put her somewhere slightly above eye level to truly appreciate all she has to offer.

"Not much to say about the base though...ummm...nice bevel?"

As with most sitting pose figures, the base is rather unneeded and you can almost tell that Amiami just didn’t really care much when they made the base, seeing as it’s just a light pink plastic disk. It does its job of protecting Menace’s bum if you’re worried about damaging her, but that’s about it.

"Boring base askide, just look at how nice those rings on her side and the shawl are! Incredible skin tones too."

Pros

  • Incredibly detailed sculpt striking the perfect balance between realism and style
  • Beautiful pose that completely suits the character
  • Perfect paint on her skin…

Neutral

  • …But not quite as perfect on things like her leg bindings and panties

Con

  • Poorly designed cloth accessories barely stays attached and are easily lost
  • Lame pink disc base
"Her other foot is just as detailed!"

As my first Amiami figure, all I can say is that I’m EXTREMELY pleased with the 1/7 scale Menace. Going from Griffon’s disaster to this is like night and day. Her cast-off is exquisite with no errant mold lines or paint errors to be found anywhere, making her a perfect candidate to be displayed in all her half-naked glory!

"Her face is really cute too! It's just that incredible body distracts one's attention..."

As a Menace fan, if you’re trying to decide between the various renditions out there all I can say is that this has my whole hearted recommendation! Bravo Amiami and thanks! You brought a tear of joy to this pervert’s eye ya did! ~_^

“Menace was just what I needed to get over the whole Yukari disaster! She reminded me just why it is I love collecting! So bravo to Amiami for making such an incredible figure with perfect quality.

I’m still trying to learn the camera so the colors and what have you kinda vary wildly as I mess with settings and what have you, but then I’ve never really aimed for true “accuracy” when I take pictures…If you want that feel free to look at the shots Amiami and Hobby Search take, haha.

If all goes to plan Rise should be next and then either Al Azif or Racing Miku depending on how long it takes Miku to get here. Until then cya all next weekend!”

26 replies on “Review: 1/7 Menace Review (NSFW)”

Well, I’m jelly.  Menace is definately one of my favorite designs from Queen’s Blade.  Though having the Revoltech and the Banpresto Menaces isn’t so bad.

For some reason, the base doesn’t seem too bad to me.  Haven’t seen too many translucent pink bases around.  You should have taken at least one picture with her on the base!

Maybe it’s just me, but one of those pictures looks like there’s some leftover fluid residue on Menace…

Haha well then my job here is done! Yea I really love her design too…Just hits all the sweet spots it seems.

Haha I dunno it just seemed so random…Pink really doesn’t seem like it would be her color? Ah anyway I was having too much fun with the pillows to bother shooting on the base. >_>

ROFL damn you have an observant eye! I was trying something with making her wet to give off that look like she was sweating slightly in the heat, but it ended up looking like crap…I guess I didn’t do a complete job of wiping her off afterwards.

Oh no she looks just too good !Nosebleed fountain! haha just kidding a bit.
Well, you’ve made such a nice review of her and the pictures are great, especially the last one ^_^
Menace was a favorite character of mine, in QB the whole team “Swamp Witch” was cool, but Menace was the best with her lazy attitude and of course her sexy body. The face of this Menace here looks really cute and adorable with the hairstyle and somehow fits to her sexy pose. I guess when I write that I prefer smaller breast sizes in general again, no one would believe me anymore. Anyway the ones from this figure are shaped in such a pretty way, the same goes for her whole body :p

Shooting a sexy figure can be quite distracting, I agree. I also noticed that during my Soniko shooting. A few times I just thought *damn* what a hot piece of plastic XD

*lol* I want her now, but I guess she’s sold out everywhere

Thanks Fab!

Yea she’s easily my favorite too, which is odd for me because back when I didn’t know anything about the show I thought I would like Ymir best haha.

I know some people have said they didn’t like the face that much, but I find it quite lovely as well~~~

Haha I know what you mean for sure…But it does tend to drive me to take A LOT of shots too. :p

Sorry about that…I wrote this review almost a year ago when she was first released, but I just kept dragging my feet on actually photographing it. >_<

Don’t feel sorry about it I found the figure at a german shop, maybe I’ll order her there.
My june order list is already so full one more figure won’t hurt XD

Edit: Argh they’ve canceled my order, the in stock icon was wrong *oh noes*

Nice to see that you have recovered from that terrible Yukari!

Man, I didn’t know Amiami made such nice figures. I’ll definitely have to keep on eye on their releases from now on.

Mmm.. loving those feet and hands. I don’t usually cast off figures but her body sculpt looks so phenomenal that if she was part of my collection, I would make an exception!

Gorgeous photos, as always! My favourite is Menace-Review-5.jpg, the colours are stunning and I really like the processing.

Indeed! ^_^

Yea they actually make pretty good figures. A few aren’t quite on the level of this one, but in general the quality seems to be pretty solid! Sadly they don’t make many figures per year…

I’m actually the same in that I rarely display figures casted-off but with Menace…yea I leave the clothes off. Makes sense to me anyway her being Menace and all she’s not incredibly fond of clothes anyway. :p

Thanks Zai I’m still basically fiddling with the camera so hopefully I can try some more ambitious stuff once I’ve got the basics down!

I always enjoy seeing Queen’s Blade figure reviews. I really like this Menace, probably my favourite out of all the versions of her available. If I had to nit pick I’d say her eyes aren’t all that exciting to look at, in my opinion. They just don’t seem to match with her seductive pose, they’re too calm and collected I think. I’d probably have preferred a style similar to the  MegaHouse version where her eyes look wild and manic.

It’s unfortunate the pieces of white cloth don’t stay put when placed on her. I’d say she looks fine without them, but then if you’re given the option to use them they should “work as intended”. It sounds like a similar situation to Alleyne and her hat. Her hat continually falls off without warning. You’re sitting there minding your own business – “clang” hat hits the glass.

The detail on Menaces’ clothing (what little there is of it xD) is superb, Amiami have done a great job. Her Crown in particular looks amazing and adds volume to her rather plain looking hairdo. She looks so exposed without it on her head.

When I saw the first prototypes of this Menace I initially thought about getting her myself. But then Menace wasn’t really up there as one of my favourites so I decided against it in the end. She’s more down there with Melona (who also seems to be quite popular) and Melpha sadly. 

Yea I can understand that…Me personally though I like her somewhat silly personality from the second season and OVA so this kind of look is fine for me. :p

Haha I just leave her naked pretty much…I might try re attaching those bits later though as they don’t look too bad on her like you said.

Lumping her in with Melpha?!? Bah…Haha oh well I guess everyone has their favorites when it comes to QB. :p

Menace was the reason why I became interested in Queen’s Blade. Since I am supposedly such a big pale skin hater, it only makes sense that I am especially appreciative of Menace’s slightly bronze complexion. Her love of oil massages only makes the deal sweeter. If I had my way, I would have MegaHouse make an oil massage figure with the attendants and all tracing their hands all over her upright body. But alas, that would be unreasonable.

It’s pretty amazing how different this figure feels from the MegaHouse version. The Amiami version is looking damn fine in your photos. I wonder who is responsible for the production of these figures, because I doubt Amiami actually owns factories for figure production. I bet they contract help elsewhere, and if so, the questions is whom. Hmmmmm…

Anyhow, great photos. You are pretty gutsy with the bokeh in some of these shots, but you never pulled a Narwhal. I think they really payed off, as the shots have a really nice soft feel to them without obscuring the the things that matter. Bah, I really need to try this as well…I hope my lens (which only goes as far as f3.5) can pull off something similar. Bah, summer Saber can’t come soon enough!

And here I thought I had the monopoly on unreasonable figure ideas. :p

No clue…They only make a handful of figures at a time and I know their first ones had massive delays so maybe they do make them themselves?

Meh still very much in the experiment phase…Messing with F-setting specifically to see what works and what doesn’t. I don’t plan on them all being super blur background, but I figured since I bought a lens who can do it I might as well work on mastering that first then get back to getting more sharp backgrounds.

Ah, I was wondering when I saw that shot in MFC. Like the processing, she looks very dreamy and damn, giving that macro lens a good workout! Brave man taking your half-naked figure outside too!
Dang that is a really nice sculpt. I remember seeing an AmiAmi figure before and it looked around Wave quality so I dismissed them but this definitely makes me look again. That body sculpt is very nice and the details on what few clothes she has looks good. Kinda funny that they’re so hard to keep on, must be telling you something! Removing Setra’s head actually makes it look even more perverted, lol

Haha most of the time if you see a shot yea a review is coming it just took me awhile on this one still fiddling with the camera…These shots where taken over the course of 4 different days? Maybe it was 5…Ah yea I do love soft lighting and dreamy esque shots I can’t argue that. Not that brave though this was mostly shot underneath a bush in the area haha…

Yea they surprised me with this one honestly…Nice surprise though! Eh yea Setra was really annoying because he blocks a lot of angles so I just got annoyed and removed him…But then as you say it looks like she’s getting herself off with a rather large pole instead. >_>

I enjoyed the review and the photos, as always. Glad the figure turned out well! Two disasters in a row would have been too much. I wasn’t a fan of that body type before but thanks to your review… well, I’d give up my freedom to massage that body all day. Just saying.

Really looking forward to the Rise review, I’m a HUGE Persona fan!

Haha well to be fair I’ve had this review written forever and had her unboxed for just as long so I kinda purposefully picked her to shoot. :p

Ah yea sadly Florida weather being what it is we have overcast skies and storms it looks like for at least two weeks so it might be a while before I actually can photograph Rise. >_<

You, sir, are a dirty ho.

With all the manufacturers – MegaHouse, Griffon, Daiki Kougyou, Alphamax, Kaitendoh, and a few more that I do not care to name, it is amazing that she has not yet received a figure.  I’m thinking that there’s a conspiracy here.  I’m not sure what it is, but it must be vast and intricate to have held her down for so long.

I haven’t seen many Amiami figures – okay, I haven’t seen any Amiami figures – so it’s nice to see that they did a pretty good job with Menace.  It’s not so nice to see that they are obviously part of the aforementioned conspiracy, which means they are obviously part of a great axis of evil.  I hold hope that one day, justice will be done, a savior will step forth to right this wrong, and this evil shall be vanquished forever.

It looks like they got Menace’s personality spot-on with this figure; I don’t know anyone else who could look like royalty while lounging in her underwear.

Haha…yea it’s pretty impressive in a way.

Ah well unlike all those others I don’t know that Ami is really into the series as they’ve only made just this one QB figure, which honestly seems a bit random.

Wow. I think that single word would describe my reaction all throughout your review.

First off… You’re such a brave soul to actually shoot Menace outside! I remember shooting my figures outside one time or another and I felt awkward already… and to think I was shooting nendoroids then! I can’t imagine how many people would give you looks if they noticed that you’re taking photos of a hot piece of molded plastic modeled after a fictional character.

I’m actually amazed at how detailed this figure looks, and I’m pretty amused that her toes and fingers are well detailed, and all her nails are painted nicely. After looking through this review, I had to see what else Amiami had released, or had planned to release… and I found that they don’t release a group of characters from the same series like the other figure companies… which is both a frustration and probably a blessing for our wallets. I am wishing a Nanael one would come out from the same sculptor because the Nanael figures I’ve seen… I don’t really like them. Queen’s Blade aside though, I’m intrigued to find Mina Tepes in their line up, and not the loli version either. http://myfigurecollection.net/item/42219_dance_in_the_vampire_bund_mina_tepes_true_form_ami.

I also looked up the sculptor, and I actually wanted one of the figures that was also sculpted by him. http://myfigurecollection.net/item/14066_lineage_ii_dwarf_1_7_orchid_seed Check out the details on her bow!

I’m glad that you finally got a good figure on review after your misfortunes with Griffon. Hopefully the next figures you’ll review would be the same! 😀

Haha I think it’s just a lack of caring what others think…Most of the time when someone seems to be staring at me when I’m shooting I’ll actively walk up to them and say hi. To me this hobby has no stigma to it…Their fine pieces of art made in the plastic medium that I photograph outside, so I have nothing to be embarrassed about. ~_^

Ah yea Ami is like that. The only series they seem to have stuck to is Strike Witches with everything else being rather random. That is quite a stunning figure though! Looks like she has a nicely detailed body sculpt.

Ah yes I had forgot he did Dwarf as well. Lovely bum and some nice details on that figure also with some nice shoes again…I suppose the sculptor is a fan of shoes? A very good thing for me as I’m a fan of them too!

MMm well the one that looks to be next has some flaws, but she’s far from a disaster haha.

Oh man, this character design is too much for me. A scantly clad, curvaceous, cute girl and wearing shimapan. Anyways, this figure look goods I can’t say I ever have taken a look to a figure coming from AmiAmi. I’m curious to see if this Menace is the norm or not. The sculpt, posing, painting and detailing tickle fancy, specially the face.

Yea in a series with a lot of great chara designs it’s pretty impressive that Menace still manages to stand out. ~_^

I haven’t seen too many Ami figures but the quality seems decent although maybe not quite as high as this one.

I’m always skeptical about how much detail can actually go into figures that bare it all, but I’m surprised at how much you find in this one. Her shoes look great, and the same goes for the painted nails.

I can’t say I’m an expert on boobies, but I would’ve thought those were fake if I saw them on a real girl 😛

Haha it’s true if you look at like say…A wave swim suit figure you’d wonder that, but you can get figures like this that go the extra mile. :p

Ah you my friend need to look at more boobies then! But yea they are borderline, but everything else is so nice I can forgive it.

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