Nakahara Tomoe by Native
Project details
A partnership between manufacturer Native and artist Tony Taka resulted in Nakahara Tomoe from his T2 Art☆Girls series being turned into a collectible item.
Arriving in a large red box adorned with golden leaf-ridden branches gives the collector a warm welcome to what awaits inside. Within lies the figure, a bench, a plastic cloth piece, an actual cloth piece and an unassembled paper parasol. You also get a card featuring Tony Taka’s original illustration of the character.
Assembly may cause frustration as the construction of the parasol is both time-consuming and fragile. Supplied instructions feature both Japanese and English texts, a small comfort for the task at hand. Seventeen strips of double-sided tape are to be placed around the parasol holder before the top portion is aligned through a suggested clockwise maneuver.
Native have learned from previous annoyances with figures appearing shaky when sitting on various objects by letting a magnet residing inside the figure attract its counterpart found within the bench, easily clipping the duo firmly together.
Optional semi-castoff allows one to remove the figure’s underwear.
What’s not to like about Nakahara Tomoe? Not much, despite the assembly testing your patience the finished piece is a sight for sore eyes. I don’t think the optional cloth piece offers anything other than too much red and will most likely end up missing once the figure is placed upon its display.
Production value is as high as one has come to expect from a premium maker such as Native with a finely tuned sculpt and precise paint job. Teaming up with one of the most recognized artists in Tony Taka is a wise choice (just look at Alphamax/SkyTube) and hopefully we’ll see more of this partnership in the future.
SCALE
1/7
ART DIRECTION
Elegance
PHOTOGRAPHY SETUP
Flash, diorama
Probably Not My Real Name
Wow! What a great backdrop, great lightning, great angles…just great photos all around! Although, I’ll admit that when I read the figure had gone full commando, I went back up and down through all the photos looking for something that could confirm or deny that statement.
This is a stellar review with stellar photos…I just wish there were more of them. Lots more! I like this figure a lot, and I hope she looks as good in real life as she does in your photos.
Nightmare
It’s a personal preference when it comes to forbidden fruit, your mind knows and desires something that is just out of reach.
Going through reviews prior to this one I think this one had a few more shots than what I usually include. This figure is for me, one of the best this year had to offer. She does look fantastic up close, Native did a great job with Nakahara.
wieselhead
For a Native figure, she’s full of dignity ^^
She turned out nice, the wide forehead makes her quite adorable and there is this marvelous cleavage hehe.
I also had her on order, but last minute I decided against it, the 1,5% difference from the prototype turned me slightly off. I don’t think she’s not beautiful now, but slightly different than I desired.
nice setup
Nightmare
Tony Taka doing what he does best with elegance is one thing, teaming up with Native is even better. I think the chest size could’ve been a tad smaller, similar to the source illustration.
I’m not familiar with any specific changes during production for this figure but it’s sadly something that does occur on occasion even though a prototype is just that. While you may come to regret your decision in not getting this figure you will not regret not assembling the parasol.
wieselhead
Yes, I think this combination of illustration art and manufacturer is very good. To me it seems as japanese rather like it a tad bigger these days, when I look at anime media. I doesn’t bother me (๑>ᴗ<๑)
I probably would have liked Nakahara over here,
the little changes were only seen by me XD
Sometimes Im just trying to be extra nitpicky to manage the size of my figure collection.
Ahaha the parasol was apparently a difficult task, disassembling was probably not intended either ^^