Princess of the Crystal

It’s a heartwarming story: a very lucky friend of mine went to Japan. She took pity on my incredible jealousy, and brought me back toys. Including a little something that’s really hard to get in my neck of the woods – “Mawaru Penguindrum” statue. Behold, ladies and (mostly) gents: the Princess of the Crystal!

Now, this isn’t the fancy-chancy stuff we’re use to looking at on Hobby Search; this beauty came  out of a crane machine. As such she has a few minor issues, but we’ll get to that.

Here’s the box:

And from another side:

You can see that the box isn’t made of premium materials. It’s a flimsy cardboard number, super thin and taped shut.

And here’s the masterful packing job inside the box:

And here are the pieces of the statue:

Ready to assemble? Here she is all put together:

This figure, for a bargain toy fished out of a giant crane machine, has some pretty impressive movement in the sculpt. Every time I look over these pictures, that’s the thing that stands out most. Everything about this lovely Princess suggests floating, graceful, fluid movement. 

Here she is from the side:

From the back:

And, naturally, from below:

There’s not a whole lot of detail here, but it doesn’t stop her from looking right. For example, her face is mostly eyes and landscape, but that’s okay.

And get a load of the penguins! Because what would our princess be without her penguins?

Have a gander at some penguin feet (and numbers):

Let’s talk about what’s not so great here. The paint job has some impurities. They aren’t glaring, but they’re certainly noticeable. 

Look around Threetie’s face. She’s got a little bit of blue leaking out into the white. 

The Princess has a bit of  problem with her legs as well. While lovely, they seam where they fit together is very, very noticeable. 

And check out this picture:

You can see a little more paint gone awry or scuffs on the puffy sleeve. Put this picture also shows us a wee problem with the sculpt, as well. While not huge, the seams weren’t sanded down properly, which makes for a bit of roughness around the edges. You can see it along the beads. She has a few weird bumps in her hair as well – again, right on the edges. 

She measures in at just a little under a foot tall, and sits wobbly on her stand. Not enough to hamper displaying her, just enough to notice. 

That said – a lovely character, a fluid design and fun in the shape of three fat little penguins makes this a delightful statue to me. I’m pleased to own her.