Saturday, April 15, 2006

1/8 Naru Narusegawa Max Factory

Name: Naru Narusegawa
Anime/Manga: Love Hina
Company: Max Factory
Sculpted by: Chieri
Price: 5040 Yen
Released: 30th November 2005
Added to collection: 8th December 2005

This is one of my favourite figures in my collection. She's the best sculpt I've seen which looks the most like the character design from the manga. I've noticed that the characters look abit different in the anime and I think that they look much cuter in the manga.
I'll be posting pictures of Naru taken from the anime as well as the manga later to show the difference.

She comes with detachable jean shorts as well as a pink top to which she can hold onto. She also has a silver cross around her neck. Her orange hair is transparent, giving her an interesting effect. Her face is flawless- her eyes are 'printed on' rather than painted. Her body seems to be molded from one continuous piece and therefore no joint-lines visible except where her bikini is. The skin is lightly sanded to remove the shininess of the usual PVC surface and slight shading gives it depth and realism. The details on her leaf-bikini and her shorts are well-done.

The main mold-line runs along the left-side of her body, right down to her foot- Max Factory should've done a better job. There're other mold-lines in the usual places (e.g. along the sides of the legs and arms) but as usual, they're only visible up-close. There're also 2-3 small molding blemishes- just a region smaller than 1mmx2mm- which I suspect is from when they clipped-off the extra PVC bits from the molding process.

This is a really beautiful sculpt with an excellent pose. Lastly, her bikini bottoms are magnetic (!) so that her shorts (front and back pieces) stay on because they have a small metallic piece embedded in them.

Here is a huge gallery by Danny Choo.


See also:
Old Blog Entries
Naru: Anime vs. Manga

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14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

i alwat wondering why she has red transparent hair. I didnt buy her, and juste because of that! She doesnt look like the real Naru,,

4/2/08 1:06 AM  
Blogger Cloud said...

red? looks pretty orange to me.

4/2/08 1:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

yep for me too ! i wouldne buy her because of her transparent hair...it's the first one i see like that. hope it's the last ! it looks like an unfinished job to me...this is why i got the one from tokyo mint company...she's just like the real naru !

26/2/08 5:25 AM  
Blogger Cloud said...

you have a link to the pic of naru by toky mint?

26/2/08 10:21 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I really, really want this figure. It's beautiful and awesome.

The trouble is I CAN'T FIND IT ANYWHERE. Except for nearly $200 on eBay... one listing. There are many listings (some using the picture with the clear hair) that are only resin recast kits... in other words bootlegs of this item. But I can't find the original any cheaper than $199!

Does anyone have ANY IDEA where I could find this figure at a lower price? I'm very interested in it. The clear hair looks great to me, and the sculpt is just wonderful.

Any help would be appreciated. ^.^

29/3/08 12:39 PM  
Blogger Cloud said...

haven't seen her in the shops here :(
i'll let you know if i come across one.

29/3/08 1:50 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Thank you! That would be very helpful ^.^

I'm not sure what the anonymous person was referring to about a Tokyo mint figure (though there are a lot of different Love Hina PVCs and plastic Story Image Figures and such... and those awesome, sorta-rare Skyluv action figures), but as I referred to earlier, there's another version of this very same Max Factory PVC that is commonly sold (although unless I'm mistaken, I believe they're mostly or completely bootlegs) as "resin kits", unpainted and in need of assembly.

This is an example of what I'm talking about: http://cgi.ebay.com/Love-Hina-Naru-Leaf-Bikini-1-8-Resin-Kit_W0QQitemZ260124808033QQihZ016QQcategoryZ49210QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQ_trksidZp1638.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem

These things are all over eBay... I've considered buying one, but I'm a little worried about getting something like a broken or mismolded product. Plus the official one with the clear hair and all would just be so much cooler anyway ^^'

2/4/08 8:37 PM  
Blogger Cloud said...

@mitsukara

the one on the ebay is a resin kit. this figure of naru originated from a resin kit (like most PVC figures).

Resin kits are another niche of anime figures since you have to assemble and paint yourself (and its of different material). You can get original resin kits (expensive but good quality) as well as 're-casts' (cheap but not as good).

I get the impression (correct me if i'm wrong) that you think the resin kit on ebay is an unofficial one of the PVC Naru (with clear hair). Resin kits and PVCs are 2 different things , both have official and bootleg versions. hope that helps:)

3/4/08 10:51 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Oh. Yes, I had been thinking that the resin recasts were taken off of this figure as some kind of bootleg thing (based on their extreme commonness). But I'm guessing it's more an issue of the recaster companies continuously having old supplies, or something like that.

That makes a lot more sense and gives me more hope about buying one (although I'll see if I can find a non-recast maybe). I don't mind having to paint it although I'm not sure I'll do it right, but it beats not having anything.

I'd still love to have one of the Max Factory plastic ones though...

3/4/08 12:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like very much Naru and she became rare has to find...
You make very beautiful pictures ;)

14/9/08 9:08 PM  
Anonymous Chu said...

I love these Naru figure and so I painted a resin kit. It came out beautiful but since I've had it for a wile (+-2005) it got damaged in several parts, like the hair and the arms. 2 weeks ago I was looking up things on e-bay and found the PVC figure for US 80,00+ 30 for the shipping...I knew these figure's rare and these price is a way chepper than the ones you usualy find. I took my chance and bought it. Fortunately it was the original one and in PVC!!! Now it wont get damaged ^^

19/8/09 10:42 AM  
Anonymous Chu said...

Several people say that these Naru doesn't look like the original Naru...In my opinion they're mistaken...coz she does look like the one in the manga to me! Since the manga came first, she is perfect the way she looks!

19/8/09 10:47 AM  
Anonymous Chu said...

well...the who wanted these figure a year ago, may not want it any more, but these site looks like a good deal to me. I think they are from tailand, but they shure do have the options in english. Hope you see these post mitsukara

19/8/09 11:09 AM  
Anonymous Chu said...

http://www.gameclubretro.com/product-en-457073-1561754-Love+Hina+Naru+Narusegawa+Swimsuit+Ver.html#

19/8/09 11:09 AM  

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