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Taiga Aisaka

Taiga Aisaka
Name:
Taiga Aisaka
Number:
185a
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SRP:
¥ 3,334
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Review by Animaven

If you like your ladies tiny and full of uncontrollable rage, then have I got a treat for you. It’s Nendoroid Taiga Aisaka, the palm top tiger, from “Toradora!” 

Let’s look at the box:

taiga nendoroid

Pretty standard. You can see her number - 185a. 185b is Taiga in her black and white school uniform. 

Now the case:

taiga nendoroid

You’ll notice the first major problem with Taiga - where are all her accessories? Somewhere else, clearly. She only comes with two faces, three sets of arms, an extra hand and a tiger? It’s pretty sad. 

taiga nendoroid

And here she is out of the box! She looks pretty unhappy, doesn’t she? Like she might kick your ass pretty quickly. Her hair is lovely, though. The sculpt is really well done, and recaptures the look of the character. Taiga’s most defining feature in the anime is all of her hair, so it’s appropriate that it would be the focal point of the sculpt. 

taiga nendoroid

From the side you can see the biggest problem with the figure itself: the cavernous gap between the front and back hairpieces. Good Smile is usually much better about making the hair pieces meet up - this is the only time I’ve really seen that much gap. 

From this angle you can also see the base, which is very poorly done. To make Taiga stand up, you have to really wedge her into that W-shaped stand. It’s not easy, and more than a little frustrating. However, if you don’t get her all the way in, she tips over, head-first. Taiga’s head is very heavy, and it makes balancing her kind of obnoxious. 

taiga nendoroid

From the back, you can really understand the scope of the largeness of that hairpiece. Just giant, really. 

taiga nendoroid

A close-up of her main face, the tsundere face. 

taiga nendoroid

And here’s face #2. She looks forlorn, hungry, and maybe like she hasn’t beaten someone into submission for a while. 

taiga nendoroid

Nendoroid’s stock tsundere arms, the crossed arms. This is an arm sculpt they use over and over again. It’s fitting, if not a little tired. 

taiga nendoroid

And, of course, the hands on hips pose. It’s especially useful for bossing people about. 

Now to arm this little she-beast:

taiga nendoroid

While the sword is great, the way it sticks in her hand is just… baffling. From this angle, it looks like the sword is stuck to the back of her hand, as opposed to in her hand, with her fist closed around it. The sword is actually stuck inside her hand, so this bit of sculpt kind of defies the laws of physiology or logic or something. It just looks dumb. 

taiga nendoroid

From the back, though, everything looks just fine. 

taiga nendoroid

Of course, Taiga comes with her own palm-top tiger. Cute, n’est pas? 

All in all? Cute girl, problematic sculpt, stand, and underwhelming accessories. Taiga gets a C-. 


Posted 12 March, 2012 - 11:43 by Animaven