Back when I talked about Seena, I mentioned that the promo photos are sometimes misleading, that sometimes the actual figure looks better than what you expect.
The flip side of that, of course, is that sometimes the figure looks as bad as you expect. Or worse.
This is my second Sheryl figure, my first being done by Alter and MegaHouse’s collaboration imprint Alpha x Omega. Like the earlier figure, Sheryl is in 1/8 scale and is about 10.5 centimeters tall. When I pulled her out of the box, I thought she looked peculiarly small, even for 1/8 scale, but after breaking out the tape measure, I’d guess that she’d be about 20 centimeters tall standing up. I suppose it’s just her crouched pose that is throwing me off.
Let’s start with the good stuff. I still haven’t watched Macross Frontier, but I’ve seen some of its promo artwork and I’ve noticed that Sheryl typically doesn’t wear many clothes. This figure holds true to this trend by dolling her up in thigh boots, shorts, and a scant bustier, the latter two of which can be removed.
Not being familiar with the show and Sheryl’s character in general means I am uncertain of her ethnicity, but whatever language Sheryl speaks, I have to wonder if “Galactic Fairy” translates to “ho” because that’s what she looks like. She’s got some slinky fishnets under her boots held up by a peculiarly thin garter belt. Her pants can be stripped off to reveal some low-rise drawers which look remarkably uncomfortable, and she’s got some charming pasties covering her breasts once her top is removed.
So yeah, her costume is awesome. More anime characters ought to follow her sartorial sense.
Moving on to perhaps her most controversial feature … I knew her face looked a bit strange in the promo photos, and while I was hoping very much that it wouldn’t look quite so odd in person, I cannot deny that Sheryl’s face is scary as hell, particularly blown up to full size on a computer monitor. She’s got a rather freakish leer and an intense, clown-like, cross-eyed stare that is really disconcerting. The vertical halves of her face are clearly delineated by a sharp crease, which gives her something of a robotic look.
Admittedly, bright photography lighting and wallpaper-sized pictures really don’t serve to flatter her. At a normal viewing distance with normal room lights, she doesn’t look quite so bad, perhaps because she doesn’t look quite so cross-eyed. Still, saying that one needs to darken the environment for her to look her best is not exactly high praise.
Fortunately, one can simply turn her in some other direction and still admire her. She’s got some cool detailing, such as the lightning bolt necklace and the alternating colors of fingernail polish. She’s got angular, ribbon-like hair that doesn’t look quite so plastic in real life as it does in photographs.
MegaHouse sometimes incorporates a very convoluted castoff methodology with their figures, but thankfully Sheryl is not one of them. Her legs separate from her torso allowing her shorts to be pulled off, and her top simply comes off by separating a couple of pegs built into its left side. Getting her top back on all the way is a bit trickier, but I surely didn’t buy Sheryl to keep her dressed.
She comes with a couple of plastic bullets, a curious accessory. The artwork and promo shots depict her holding herself above the ammunition in a blatantly sexual manner, which is pretty much the main reason I purchased this figure. The larger bullet is a bit too big to fit under her but the smaller round is just right.
If you don’t have a Sheryl figure and you want one, Alpha x Omega’s Sheryl is definitely the one you want, or you might want to wait for Bandai’s figure, which looks pretty good to me. This particular figure looks quite a bit better in person than it does in the photos, but I don’t think it’s nearly as attractive as the other two figures, and it’s really hard to look at this version of Sheryl without a close-up shot of her face flashing in my brain.
Happy Sheryl and scary Sheryl.
It’s unfortunate her face had to look like that when everything else about her is stunning. I already got the Alpha x Omega version so I didn’t want this Megahouse one. I’m glad I kept to my decision. Maybe you can cover her scary eyes with some kind of cloth or leather? lol that would make her look even more slutty/kinky. xD
That’s right, the other one was made by Alter too. I always get MegaHouse and Alpha x Omega mixed up for some reason.
Now that’s a really good idea … I’d thought about putting a leash and collar on the picture with happy Sheryl since happy Sheryl’s hand is in a pretty good position to hold it and scary Sheryl looks like she’s ready to go charging towards a fire hydrant, but I like your idea better. I’ll have to check if the local Michael’s has some faux leather strips in their bracelet-making section.
You know, her face looks fine to me, but her hands look really chubby in that. Did anyone else notice that?
I pre-ordered this figure, and I cancelled (too many pre-order this month). Finally I don’t regret, because, yes, this is a nice figure (great sculpture, nice paint), but finally this is not my figure style (and I don’t really like her expression). I pre-order this one because I had Ranka N.A version, and I wanted to have the set. Your picture are pretty ^^ Thank a lot for this review 🙂
Well, you’re scaring me…. still on Hobby Search photos i didn’t found that her face was ugly (neither on your review first review). I’ll know soon enough. Mine will be sent out next week.
I’ll have my own opinion then.
Otherwise, i like rest of the figure. I love her sexy outfit and it’s what made me pre-ordered it.
>> L2Phantom
Hmm, you’re right, her fingers do look a bit like little pudgy breakfast sausages, don’t they?
>> Leonia
I probably would’ve passed on this one if I’d known how many figures were going to get delayed until the end of December. I kinda want Bandai’s Ranka, the one with her in a swimsuit holding a pick axe … I don’t know if it really looks like her, but I think it looks very cute.
>> Lylibellule
Yeah, I like the outfit and the bullet … not so much the face. Honestly, I’d probably wouldn’t mind the face so much if I hadn’t seen it magnified all the way on my camera’s LCD to check for proper focus, and then magnified again on my computer monitor to look for dust specks.
She’s much more hotter seen from behind. I really don’t like her face :/ Plus the colors used doesn’t catch my eyes, the fault of golden tone.
But she’s got a very loooooovely butt and her pantie is quite exciting.
As a cute face is equally important to beautiful buttocks it’s kinda disappointing.
And don’t put a bullet between her legs, that’s naughty 😀
Mine is on the way, but seriously, THAT FACE!!!
Had the promo pics been more clear, that would have been a freaking dealbreaker for me. As it is, by the time i found out, it was already on it’s way.
It seems to work at certain angles but otherwise it just looks wrong.
Why are so many people having so much difficulty sculpting sheryls face?
Well, it could be worse. It’s not an ichiban Kuji premium sheryl face at least. That one would give little kids nightmares!
>> Katsura-chan
The rear view is surely much more attractive here than the front. She should probably pull her underpants up, though, I do not know that letting them ride that low is sanitary at all.
Whether she likes it or not, that bullet is staying right where it is XD
>> gundamjehutykai
Haha, yeah, I was looking at the promo pics and I was like, “Ehh, well, maybe it’s just the light, it’ll look better in real life.” I don’t know what an Ichiban Kuji is but it is a bit dismaying that you say that because I was keeping on eye on this figure and I see that it says Ichiban Kuji down in the info section.
I’ve got another figure with a funky face on tap for a review sometime soon. It seems like I’ve gotten a ton of figures recently that have questionable facial sculpts.
I don’t think this face is that bad, although I still haven’t seen it in person yet – my figure won’t be here till next week. 🙁 I got so many figures lately and taken a lot of pictures but so far only one review is up at the moment (as you saw on my page).
I can understand why you’d think of “ho” when you see this figure, that’s what I was thinking too when I first started watching Frontier. She had this bitchy/slutty attitude in the beginning, but as the episodes progress you see the other side of her and now I can see why she has so many fans (including me).
Saw some pics of the alternate color version, looks like it’s going for a silver, blue, pink color scheme which looks pretty cool too!
@Tier: haha, No it’s not that one. In fact, I’m keeping my eyes out on the one you linked to as I’m kinda getting into a Sheryl buying spree.
The one I’m talking about is this one.
I *might* get one for completions sake if my Sheryl collection goes a little out of control but I’d really rather not…
I think I’ve gotta agree that I don’t like the face though I don’t think it’s scary. It’s just the look that doesn’t attract me. Also, like mentioned by L2Phantom, her fingers and her lower arms are a bit fleshy too.
However, the fishnet and the boots don’t look wrong to me from here. I think they should be good.
Also, I don’t like this pose. But, I do like the post of Collet (in your previous post). Conclusion, I still prefer the happy Sheryl. 🙂
>> Visual Fanfare
Looking at her on my desk right now, her face doesn’t look too bad … it’s really when you’ve got her face magnified that it starts to look scary.
I’ve still got to watch Macross Frontier sometime, and I don’t know much about Sheryl other than I’m guessing she is the more “mature” romantic interest, but just looking at her character design and the way she dresses, I’m a fan of hers already.
I also saw that MegaHouse is chucking out a Klan Klang figure, I’ll have to keep an eye on that … female pilots driving huge robots in tight suits is one of the greatest staples of anime.
>> gundamjehutykai
Ah, okay, yeah, that figure doesn’t seem quite as nice as the black rabbit one (is that what that new outfit is called?) But on the plus side, you can see an awesome picture of that figure on Tsuki-board. I mean, you got Sheryl with her mouth wide open holding the mic in a very suggestive manner, and then you got that One Piece character back there staring all bug-eyed and the 4chan mascot behind him going /facepalm. Man, is that a great picture or what?
>> softz
You can do what I did, which was accidentally set a picture of scary Sheryl as my desktop wallpaper. Now that was scary. Her outfit definitely gets two thumbs up from me though.
I like her pose only when there’s a bullet between her legs, which sadly isn’t the case right now since I need to figure out where I’m going to put her. I agree, happy Sheryl is a better figure. I saw that she’s getting a recolored version, too, but I think I prefer the blue fascist entertainer uniform instead.
For sure, that Klan Klang with the Valk-gear is definitely a must get! The Black Bunny Sheryl is another must get too. Going to be so broke!
Received the N.A. Sheryl figure today, the face does look a bit weird up close if you stare at it long enough, but still an excellent figure.
I started watching the anime recently, Sheryl seems like a cool character. I approve of any girl who’s fine with a hot dog and a Coke on a first date.
What I really want now, though, is a VF-25 toy. I wonder if the Bandai toys are any good; I guess I’ll have to start reading Macross World again.
Yeah, the VF-25’s are alright, I think the 1/100 scale is getting better reviews than the others. I don’t think Bandai’s details are as good as the Yamato Valks though (even though Yamato have some known quality issues).
Bandai’s releasing some new versions of the VF-25 with the movie version fastpack, which I think looks better than the TV version.
Yeah, those are the ones I’m looking at; I like the 1/60 scale Ozma one (I’ve only gotten to like episode 5 so Alto hasn’t claimed his ride yet). I wonder if it would look funny next to my 1/48 scale VF-1s; then again, I guess Yamato makes all their stuff in 1/60 scale now too so I might as well switch over to the smaller scale.
The scaling is a bit misleading, my Macross Plus (and Macross Zero) 1/60 is about the same size as the 1/48 VF-1’s. LOL Can’t go wrong with either though!
Indeed! I need a YF-19 too. The price tag is a bit steep for my budget though >.<
Okay,Okay I admit it I was tempted to buy this figure just for the phallic items between her legs fact.
In the end I didnt buy her because I havent seen the series and shouldnt spent so much cash on figures I cant appreciate besides their sexual analogy
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I was thinking XD I liked the castoff option too. I still need to watch through the rest of Macross Frontier, it’s a good show from what I’ve seen so far.
Hey does anyone know where the idea came from for the “rise up” crome figure? I can’t find any information, except some guy had it painted on his mini-van. I don’t think this is true. I don’t remember seeing that outfit in the show.
I’m not certain, myself … the NA means “nose art” as I understand it, so I thought that it might’ve been painted on one of the valkyries in the show. There is a 2D image associated with this figure since I recall that the product announcement included it, but I haven’t seen it anywhere else.