Well I got my hands on this 1/6 original cast figure of Kan’u Unchou from E2046. The people at E2046 have clearly been putting a lot of effort into their ORI product line, and I was right in saying that this has to be their best attempt so far. Not that there aren’t nits to pick.

The figure looks really impressive, both from far and up close. There’s little sense of scale in my photos, but at 1/6 scale the figure looks rather huge and has a very strong presence if put on display. Although there are no metal parts — except for a single piece supporting the rear wheels — as far as I can tell, and it feels heavier than I expected. The height is about 24cm.

There is a special base that comes with preorders. There are six LED spotlights on the side that actually light up, which is cool but somewhat gimmicky. I don’t have any AAA batteries to test them out.

The LEDs are on the side

The most impressive part is probably the attention to details. The paintwork is significantly improved from my prior experiences with E2046 products. Boundaries are sharply defined and there is almost no jagged lines to ruin the illusion.

This is probably not very surprising for real collectors who are used to excellent craftsmanship from professionally-made resin figures, but the fact that E2046 is doing this on a semi-mass production basis is commendable.

There are actually two rear-view mirrors but I didn’t attach them because they kept dropping. If you are assembling the figure for long-term display, adhesive is required to keep certain parts on, which may complicate things if you ever need to repack the figure.

The size, the attention to details, and the price tag of this figure places it well out of the realms of regular collectibles. It is definitely the most well-made figure in my possession. There is no way mass produced PVCs can ever hope to rival this level of workmanship until robots gain sentience and overthrow humanity.

I like the tattoo on her chest, which is a skilfully-applied decal. However, the use of decals on the motorcycle is in my opinion somewhat excessive and tacky. I would have preferred a blank motorcycle chassis with just the characters “Ikkitousen” on it. I guess this is mostly a matter of personal taste. But then again, I have good taste.

All in all, a very good release from E2046. It’s almost too good for displaying because I can’t imagine having to clean the dust out of this thing. I guess the advantage of PVC figures is that I don’t really care about what happens to them when they are put on display. Maybe it’s about time I invest in a proper display cabinet.

E2046 is taking preorders for the next production batch. US$ 319.99 excluding shipping for preorders and US$ 351.99 after that. Preorders come with the special LED display base.

Of course, while I do count Ikkitousen (Kan’u in particular) as one my guilty pleasures, I didn’t have to cough up $320 for it. This figure was sent to me for review by E2046’s marketing department. But that said, the significant improvement from their previous releases has made me quite excited about their future releases. A decent Kallen figure of this level of quality (school uniform pls) might just find its way into my well-fortified bank account. >_<

On another note, I am convinced that a future investment in a proper macro lens and some proper lighting equipment will be in order…

I’ve blogged about E2046’s prepainted resin figures before, such as their cast of the BUBBA Bunny Haruhi and Yuki Nagato.

As part of their ORI series of products, E2046 has created an original Kan’u Unchou (from Ikkitousen) resin figurine that looks like the most thorough work in their pre-assembled product line thus far.

I’m not sure when Kan’u ever rode a motorcycle in the Ikkitousen, but she sure looks good doing it. Somehow figures look better when they come with a motorcycle.

As usual, pre-assembled and professionally-painted resin kits don’t come cheap, although E2046’s pricing is definitely cheaper than paying a hobby shop to do it for you. This particular one costs 300 USD excluding shipping, and you can get the unpainted garage kit for 100 USD. Generally, resin figures do look more impressive than mass-produced PVC ones, and E2046 has a pretty good track record so far.

Nice…uh…tattoo

More pictures available in the official gallery. (With even larger watermarks!)

I have no idea how well these things sell, given their limited nature (each one is assembled and painted manually) and pricing as compared to PVC figures, but E2046’s version of BUBBA Haruhi Bunny sold pretty well, enough to warrant remakes. It seems that E2046 has been trying quite hard to duplicate that success with an original sculpt of their own. Besides this, they also appear to be working on a sculpt of Shunya’s Asuka.

From my experience, most people who coughed up over a hundred bucks for Haruhi (like me) were fanboys of the show rather than collectors of resin figures in general. I wonder if Ikkitousen has enough fanboy appeal. Well, do take a look at the product page for yourself. Also, Miku.

Full disclosure: I’m not being paid for this post, but it was solicited. The opinions above represent my own.