It’s not uncommon for figures to get delayed, but some delays are just inexplicable. Like Xecty’s, for instance. I ordered her last summer during Hobby Search’s EMS shipping discount sale. And then I waited. And waited. I mean, this is a swimsuit figure, it’s not like they haven’t made them before. I guess the factories must have been too busy rolling out nendoroids and Figmas.
With some things – like the novel A Dance With Dragons – my enthusiasm is undimmed by delays. And with other things – like Starcraft II – I find myself not caring at all when they finally get released. Xecty falls in the second category – when Hobby Search sent me her bill, I was like, “Aww man, I ordered this?” I left her in her box until a few days ago and needing something to review, decided to take her out. I was a bit conflicted on how I feel about her, but seeing her now, she’s a nice figure. Special? No way. But nice, yeah, I can agree with that.
Xecty is the final figure in Max Factory’s series of Shining Wind swimsuit figures. She’s sculpted in 1/7 scale and stands about 22 centimeters tall. She’s refreshingly simple to set up; you just take her out of her box and stick her on her base.
Like Seena, Kureha, and Clalaclan, Xecty is clad in a fairly skimpy bikini. However, while the other characters sport sunny dispositions, Xecty’s mouth is pursed, perhaps in an expression of annoyance, discomfiture, or incredulity. Or perhaps she just doesn’t like to smile. She is also set apart from the other girls by her elvish ears and her winged headdress, both of which add an exotic touch to an otherwise straightforward character design.
Xecty’s body language also distinguishes herself from the myriad other swimsuit figures out there. Her arms are held close, fingers knitted together, and her head is cocked sideways, eyes locked in an icy stare. Many swimsuit figures give off happy vibes, with the characters looking like they’re ready for fun in the sun, but Xecty doesn’t seem to be enjoying herself. She looks a bit like a girl who would rather be left alone, or perhaps like a girl who is surprised to be noticed.
Xecty doesn’t look like she’s completely irritated, but I can’t help but think that her ahoge is flipping me off.
The character designs for the Shining series are now provided by well-known artist Tony Taka. Tony was one of the first anime artists whose name I remembered, and I’ve been a fan of his work for a long time. However, there are so many figures and anime (mostly ero) and games and merchandise featuring his art that it’s starting to get tiresome. Add to that the fact that I was a big fan of the Shining Force games and I’m not particularly pleased by the direction Sega has taken this once-proud franchise. Also add to that all the other manufacturers doing figures from the Shining series – Max Factory and Orchid Seed and Yamato and Alter and Volks and Griffon and Kotobukiya – and one could be forgiven for thinking that things are getting ridiculous.
Also add to that the excessive delays that Xecty suffered, delays that the quality of the figure does not really justify. She’s a nice figure, sure, but she’s certainly not special. We’ve seen a billion swimsuit figures. Heck, we’ve seen a billion swimsuit figures of Shining characters. It would have been nice if Max Factory had given the figures in the series slightly more flair, maybe unusual poses or unique swimsuits or something.
On the other hand, I can hardly believe that I’m ragging on a figure of a cute girl in a swimsuit. Back in the day, I remember eagerly awaiting the Sports Illustrated swimsuit magazine each year; it doesn’t seem right for me to criticize a figure just because the character is wearing a conventional bikini. And Xecty’s bikini is pretty cute; the waistband is cut low, showing off her sexy stomach, and her nipples are poking through her top, adding some heat to melt down her frosty look.
So on the whole, Xecty is a pretty nice figure. But she’s hardly a special one, and these days, with so many figures coming out each month, she looks rather plain. Having been delayed for something like half a year, she is in the unenviable position of competing with all the figures released since. She also has the misfortune of being released in the same month as Dizzy, Junko Hattori, and Good Smile Company’s Dead Master, all superior figures with far more impressive shelf presence. Xecty is a good figure and seems a reasonable buy now that she’s in Hobby Search’s bargain bin, but I don’t think many people will remember her a year from now.
Check out Biotoxic’s site for another review and more pictures of Xecty.
It must be hard writing about Xecty. She’s wearing a bikini, yet it’s not obscenely revealing. She’s got a reserved pose, which isn’t bad, but it’s hard to make anyone leap out of their chair. I guess we are just too used to finely sculpted bodies of plastic girls. Sure, back in the day the female underwear section in the local store flier was enough to get me excited, but now it’s either 2d girls gushing out gallons of bodily fluids or bust. I’m a little ashamed to admit, but a quiet-toned girl kinda loses out in my eyes. It’s kind of like a shy hooker — there’s nothing wrong with being shy, but it sure as hell isn’t going to help her pay the bills.
Yeah, once you’ve seen all-the-way-through tentacle skewering, a picture of a cute anime girl who is wearing clothes loses some of its impact. That’s kinda how I feel about swimsuit figures. Though that does not explain why I am ordering Blanc Neige, Daiki’s Tamaki, or Alphamax’s Senhime. Okay, Blanc Neige is wearing a thong, Tamaki has a really cute, and Senhime …. hmm, well, if I could cancel an order, I’d probably cancel that one.
I like the quiet anime girls, the shy girls or the girls who don’t try to stand out much. I’m not a big fan of loudmouthed anime girls, which is one trait that tsundere types seem to have and is one reason why I dislike that trope so much. It’s no surprise that some of the figures I like the most – Uesugi Kenshin, Buddy, and Dizzy – are of shy or soft-spoken or outcast girls. I actually think the concept of a shy hooker in anime would be really cute. What was that thing you and Ashlotte mentioned, that moe thing where a character shows a completely unexpected side? It’d kinda be like that.
Gap moe is the term that you’re looking for. A shy hooker may be attractive, sure, but not putting herself out there like the rest of the pack won’t exactly help her get the customers, I’d think!
Ah, yes, that’s the term! A shy hooker would be totally moe; somebody should make an anime or manga around this concept.
Bargain bin already? Ouch, that’s harsh. But yeah, there’s absolutely nothing special about the figure, even with the unusual pose (which I find myself liking.) I had originally thought about ordering one of the Shining Wind swimsuit figures, at the height of my ordering spree, but even then I had a hard time convincing myself to do so.
I don’t really see anything wrong with it, and I actually like the character… but it’s a swimsuit figure, which is one of the more bland and uninteresting things you can do with a figure. Still always a pleasure to see your photography though, even if the subject matter is adorable but ultimately boring. I really liked the way Kureha was playing with her swimsuit in that figure, but I think if I were to have ordered one of these swimsuit models, Xecty would have been my choice. While it’s a 2000 yen discount, I don’t think Hobby Search has discounted her enough for me to jump on it.
On an unrelated matter, I like the changing header.
Yeah, I suppose the discount was inevitable, the only figure in the lineup that is in high demand is Seena. I suppose that I can’t be too unhappy since I got half off on the shipping bill.
That’s pretty much how I feel; even though I like the figure, I can’t help but think that she’s more filler for my shelf than anything else. I think I agree with you; right now I think Xecty is my favorite figure of the four. I like Kureha’s character design but I liked the facial expression in her old Max Factory figure better.
Thanks, I was getting kinda tired of Vivio and I couldn’t decide who ought to be the new header girl, so I figured I’d just make a bunch and set them randomly. I’m planning on making more once I get around to taking more pictures; it’s incredible that out of the 2,000-odd pictures I’ve posted on this site, I couldn’t find more than five or six suitable to use as a header image.
I planned to order Xecty last year to place her next to my Seena figure from this Beach line, but later I thought one bikini figure of that line is enough. I even wanted to stop buying bikini figures, but cute Misaka and Haruka ruined my plans. Ok Haruka wears a full swimsuit and looks quite hot in it, what made her a bit more interesting for me than a random bikini figure.
Xecty is no bad figure and looks nice in her bikini, but somehow her pose is a bit uninteresting, she emits the atmostphere like she got lost in the jungle and don’t know what to do now. Maybe you know the illustration of Xecty in her bikini, she looked a bit sexier and more alluring there. Anyway I still like her, the head with the hair and elf ears looks nice.
A little bit more sexyiness is added at he bikini top, with her nipples poking through.
The soft lighting in your pictures looks very pretty also the couple shot of Kureha and Xecty is very well done, it is my favorite picture as well as xecty-13.jpg and xecty-01.jpg.
Haha, yeah, that was the same feel I got from her, that she’s confused and doesn’t know what to do next.
I hadn’t noticed the illustration (even though it’s right on the box) but looking at it, it does actually have a very different feel than the figure. She looks like she has a sexy and shy smile. To be honest though, I think I like the figure’s face a bit more, just because Tony Taka draws the same smile on so many of his pictures.
I figured this would be a good time to try a normal photoshoot. I usually go nuts with the rim lights and side lights and it often gets me in trouble, so I wanted to do something like a typical, semi-low-key portrait setup with a main light, hair light, and background light. I completely phoned in this set of pictures but I kinda like how it turned out.
Heh, I got Seena today. Think they’re both cute and would be happy to pair them up given the opportunity.
The shadow actually does wonders for Xecty though. Just reviewed Amiami’s pictures again and she looks really bland – shame really.
Now, she is still in stock at Amiami… come on Tier work your old magic… If she drops to at least 40% off I’ll definitely get her.
Ho boy, I went over to Amiami to see the promo shots and I see they took their own pictures. Man, that bright blue background is not doing her any favors. I’ve never had any luck shooting with bright blue before and this isn’t making me want to try it again, even though I’ve got an idea for an upcoming review that requires such a backdrop.
Amiami says they’ve got 28 available so you might get your wish; given she’s been out for a month and is cheaper at Hobby Search, I kinda doubt they’ll clear out their stock at their current price.
I think you’re right about Xecty – she’s nice to look at, she’s just not very exciting. It’s kind of hard to say much about her. She’s wearing a bikini, and well, that’s about it.
I personally really like Xecty. She’s got a calming feel about her and her character design is beautiful. She also seems a lot “colder” than the other girls. Seena and Kureha are blazing hot in their bright bikinis, whereas Xecty opts for the more subtle black.
She took far too long to finally be released, so I imagine a lot of people forgot about her or just straight up canceled their order; assuming they weren’t already bored by the Shining Wind line-up by the time Xecty was announced. I’m now looking forward to Blanc Neige, she looks promising plus I’m a sucker for white/grey hair characters.
Yeah, I like her as well, more than I thought I would when I got her. I didn’t take her out of her box until I was setting up my photo stuff and I was kinda dreading looking at her because the Akibahobby shots looked kinda bad, but I do quite like how she looks. Her problems are more because of circumstances than any fault of her figure.
I’m looking forward to Blanc Neige as well, mainly cuz she’s wearing a thong. Any time I say something like, “I wish this swimsuit figure were a bit more exciting,” I really mean, “I wish she were wearing a thong.”
Nice pictures! Her pose and muted colors are a bit bland for me but I can appreciate the nice sculpt Max Factory did on her. Even for swimsuit figures, they manage to throw in nice details like the way the bottom hugs her behind. But not enough details to justify such a massive delay, wow.
Love the portrait look in the photos, that slight spotlight thingy behind her head (all the ones w the blue background have it) is a cool effect. Is that the main light lighting up a bit of the background?
Thanks! It’s a flash unit with a gridspot firing on the background, which is just a cheap dinner mat. I used blue and red gels to get the different colors. I’ve spent a lot of time building backdrops and trying to do crazy lighting, and I haven’t actually gotten much practice using a more conventional setup like this. I think I might do more of this in the future; it’s easy to do and I think it looks a bit better than the straight black backdrops I’ve used a lot in the past.
Still waititng for my local shop’s shipment of her to arrive :(( . Just need her to complete the max swimsuit sereis 😀 already went of of the way to Get Blance Neige and Mao :p
Ah 🙁 Hopefully you get yours soon, she’s been out for a while now so that’s a bit odd. Though I always use EMS shipping so I usually expect to get my orders a few days after they ship. I’ve got this paranoid fright of my packages getting lost in the mail.
Still haven’t unboxed my Xecty and have little intention of doing so, or at least I don’t feel like bothering with her. She’s a cute figure though I suppose, nice curves and what not, I need more figures with elf ears they seem to be cute/sexy. Though I don’t like her nipples protruding through her swimsuit, I think it kind of detracts from the figure.
I wouldn’t blame you if you pawned her off, since she’ll retain more value unopened and there’s not a lot to her that is all that compelling. I think I’m going to keep mine though, since although she’s not super special, she’s not that bad either, unlike, say, Vocaloid Lily, whom I really ought to hock already.
They must make mad bank off those Shining bikini figures to keep releasing them. I wonder if it’s a hiring requirement for figure manufacturers. “Before you can work here, you have to prove that you can at least make a bikini figure.”
I think that may actually be close to reality; I mean, Wave started churning out scads of 1/10 scale bikini figures not too long ago. I’ve got this image that they got a bunch of interns on sculpting duty.
Did you got the full collection?
Nah, I actually only got two, Kureha and Xecty. I skipped Seena and Clalaclan, and I don’t have any of the figures from the older line … uhh, I remember there was Elwing, Mao, Blanc Neige, the black-haired girl … man, there are so many of them they kinda meld together in my mind.
I’ve never been a fan of swimsuit figures. I’ve only got three so far, and of the three the only interesting one to look at is OS Idol Win-chan Version 2.0. And I got her mainly for her crrraaaaazy hair. The leggings and sleeves are also a nice touch that add some visual oomph. The pose is also nice. In fact, Win-chan’s a great swimsuit figure because she’s so different from the norm. A lot of Wave’s Beach Queen stuff really puts me to sleep.
For the other two swimsuit figures: I got one because I had a coupon that dropped her price down to $12 (what a steal!), and the other one is Gurren Lagann’s Nia. I just can’t say no to Nia stuff.
As for Xecty, she caught my interest because of her cold stare and the way her fingers intertwine. Didn’t love her enough to pay full price for her, of course. I’m sad to hear she’s already been dropped in the bargain bin. Maybe I’ll give Xecty a home someday.
Xecty has an attractive look, and I guess she does stand out a bit by not looking particularly happy, which is sort of uncommon with swimsuit figures. Her price is dropping more and more – she’s down under 4,000 yen at Hobby Search now – so she seems to be a reasonable buy now.