Ever since the late 80's with the explosion of the OVA and doujinshi market, Mecha Musume (mechanical girl) type characters have been littered throughout various fandoms. The most famous of these were Mika Akitaka's MS Girls. The same designer of the Double Zeta Gundam created a series of illustrations of cute girls clad in Mobile Suit armor. I feel that Konami's Busou Shinki line in an interesting take on the Mecha Musume concept. These figures represent 1/1 scale miniature androids that do battle over an online game called Busou Shinki: Battle Rondo. If you're interested in the game, there's some videos floating around youtube.

With regards to the figures themselves, Busou Shinkis are highly articulated and highly customizable figures. Each one comes with its own themed arsenal of weapons and armor parts which can be added to the standardized body. Each figure has its own unique head design and name to give it some kind of persona. Recently Konami has been releasing a few "Light Armor" figures that come with fewer parts than either a full Busou Shinki set or even the optional parts sets. I actually like this idea as while the big set are nice, they tend to have too many parts to keep track of or even use all at once. A Light Armor figure can serve as simple fun or as a gateway into the line.

Angel Commando Werkstra on her own is a typical Busou Shinki gal. I like her very basic style. These figures have several plastic washers in their wrists, thighs, and biceps which can be replaced with washers that include attachment points for armor and equipment. One thing I don't like about these figures is the tiny wrist washers. I'm always afraid I'm going to lose one and they don't come with extras. If I had to compare her face and hairstyle to a recent anime character, I'd have to say she looks like Eureka from Eureka 7. I'm not sure if the name Werkstra means anything special. It certainly doesn't sound "angelic."

Werkstra comes with an extra head with closed eyes so that she may pray like a good little angel. Right now I think she's thinking about delicious cake.

Enough with the basic figure. HENSHIN!

Fully equipped, Werkstra starts looking like the love-child of Eureka and KOS-MOS from Xenosaga (perhaps KOS-MOS is built to the same spec as Aaron Stack and contains many "useful devices"). As my other two Shinkis are Fighter Type Asuka and Dog Type Howling, this figure gets major points from me for having useful feet. I think a few too many of the fully armored characters depend on their included stand pieces. Werkstra is stable even with her armor. I like to display these figures with their silly headgear, and I think Werkstra's sensor hairband looks nice. She has some basic protection in the form of a chest plate that replaces her chest part.

Werkstra's main weapon is some sort of futuristic P90 style weapon. It comes with an optional bayonet that also serves as an assault knife. Her shield is mounted via one of the extra wrist washers. She comes with two fists, two open palm hands, and two weapon holding hands.

Like the big sets, Werkstra comes with a display stand that plugs into one of the many Microman-esque ports on her body. This stand is much simpler than awkward looking ones from the big sets like Asuka or Howling. It consists of an oval shaped base with a long pole with a joint on the end. The pole itself is comprised of several different pieces so that you may adjust its overall height. The joint is secured with a tiny screw which can be loosened to adjust the angle of the attachment point.

From the rear we can see that Werkstra's default configuration is concentrated into one single back unit with two boosters. Each booster has a detachable missile and fin. Since I'm a terribly uncreative person, I don't really know what else to do with her. I like her default look. I'm not really sure how boosters, missiles, and a wicked gun makes you an angel but then again I'm not a Japanese designer.

Wekstra's equipment is nice and compact so it doesn't affect her flexibility. Here you can see the knife detached from the gun.

As a collector, I'm not deep into Busou Shinki but I do like the ones I have and Werkstra is no different. I hope Konami continues with these Light Armor style figures but in the end its all about which figure you find appealing. I like the way Werkstra looks, and I also think she's a good introductory figure.