Ming Yue is the latest figure in E2046’s ORI series. Probably best known for making prepainted figures of recast resin, E2046 also sculpts their own figures, which they label their ORI lineup. Many of their figures feature female fighters, and while Ming Yue doesn’t appear ready to throw down, she belongs to the same fictional universe as figures like Jian Xue. These figures belong to the “Elegance” subgroup within E2046’s ORI product section, and that’s a fitting name since Ming Yue is elegant indeed.
Ming Yue is sculpted in 1/6 scale and stands about 32 centimeters tall from the surface of her base to the farthest part of her left sleeve, making her a fairly sizeable figure. Unlike Jian Xue, she doesn’t get a special base; she just gets a painted black slab with a blue Gathering logo, Gathering being E2046’s label for prepainted figures. She’s held up by a single piece of stiff metal wire that slots into a hole drilled into her knee. The wire has a couple of horseshoe-shaped curves and a good deal of springiness so that she freely vibrates from side to side. That doesn’t impart a great deal of confidence in her stability, but although her placement appears precarious, she seems to hold up okay.
Her pose is undoubtedly one of the most striking and appealing aspects of this figure. Captured in midair, she displays a vivid sense of energy and movement. The precise positioning of her arms and legs lend an air of grace to her look. In addition, even though this is a very dynamic sculpt, there’s a strong balance to her pose, with her arms stretched opposite to her tentacle-like tendrils of hair and with her gaze focused away from the direction of her leap.
Her facial expression also presents a contrast to her pose. The look of her face is serene and composed, almost trance-like, which accentuates the elegance of her dance. Taken as a whole, she appears very poised and radiates competence, despite the undeniable sensuality effected by her revealing outfit.
Close up, or through a macro lens, her eyes look a bit crossed when viewing her face straight-on. A snarky person might also say she perhaps looked stoned – though I suppose that’s a trance-like state of its own. At any rate, I am not snarky. Not in the least.
Ming Yue’s outfit combines traditional Chinese styling with contemporary sensibilities. Sexy and intricately detailed, she shows a lot of skin but still appears dignified.
I know there’s at least one person who wants to ask, so I’ll preempt the question and answer that her panties are also colored yellow.
This figure is hand-painted, and E2046 has done a fine job with it, despite the intricacy of her clothing. She arrived intact, which was mildly surprising since I’ve had a number of polystone and resin figures that have suffered damage in transit. Most of those figures have been from Volks, though; I’ve only had one E2046 figure that was damaged during shipment, though I know several people who’ve received broken figures. Some minor assembly is required to put her together, which isn’t too difficult. Unlike some of their figures, no magnets are included in her construction. That’s a slight shame since they would’ve been helpful to hold the two tails dangling off the front of her loincloth, which are prone to falling off.
Overall, Ming Yue is a beautiful figure that is a pleasure to view. An exquisite combination of elegance and sexiness, her look is arresting and the energy she portrays is captivating. I’m very happy to own her; I just need to find a space on the shelf where she won’t get shaken.
I bought E2046’s Saber figure a while back but I haven’t reviewed her and I’m not sure if I’m going to. On one hand, I think it’s a neat figure. On the other hand, it looks fairly ridiculous. On the third hand, one might say that Saber Extra is also a bit out there, and Saber Bride borders on ludicrous, so I’m not sure that that’s an important consideration anymore.
She looks like quite a good sculpt, sans the face. But owning so many Griffon figures, I’ve learned to look past subpar faces. Overall, and if you don’t look at her face, she’s certainly rather striking. I dig her. If only she had some sort of weapon(s) then I’d be all over her. 😀
I also note your complete lack of staging, just pure blackness. I dig it. I may or may not be biased in that I only use solid colour backdrops myself because I can’t stage like you do, but it’s nice to see from time to time.
I must admit that the lack of staging was partly due to laziness. I had planned to get more stuff done during the (American) holiday but I wound up basically watching football, playing Fate/extra, and eating large amounts of unhealthy food all week. The other reason was that I often see pictures of dancers performing on darkened stages, and that’s kinda what I was thinking of when I saw Ming Yue. A more elaborate set would’ve been interesting, I think, but I don’t have a good Chinese-themed backdrop. I’m not actually sure what one would even look like.
I always end up forgetting that E2046 has their own unique line-up of figures, I don’t stop by their website that often anymore. Some are really cool looking as well – especially the Darkness ones.
I’m not so keen on the ‘non-anime’ look of the Elegance line-up, but I will agree they look fantastic as figures. Ming Yue certainly looks more human, almost like a doll or statue. Her face looks beautiful. Whoever painted her certainly took their time to make her look as accurate as possible.
Her outfit looks simply amazing – especially from afar. Up close you can see some uneven paint application, textured paint on her skin (is that necessarily a bad thing?) and imperfect lines – but her overall presentation and pose dwarfs the impact of these minor defects. And even though she’s not wearing much she still maintains an air of elegance. All that yellow and gold flying everywhere looks great.
That Saber figure though – really xD? Oh my.
Yes, really! XD I must admit that my reaction was very much WTF when they unveiled the concept. I’m not even sure it’s the strangest Saber I own; gangsta lean Saber might actually take that award. Man, I’ve got to build a set for that figure already.
The paintjob on E2046’s stuff tends to look a bit rough when you look at it extremely closely, but I find that almost all hand-painted stuff looks like that. I’ve seen some close-up pictures of Sideshow’s premium format statues that have the same look, and I’ll be honest, some of those pictures are kinda making me wonder what that $300 Psylocke figure I preordered is going to look like.
Have generally been pleasantly surprised by the E2046 figures I have – quality is pretty damn good and the finish is on a par with (or better than) the better pvc figures I have. I do get the impression though that the heads are sometimes painted by someone other than the person who painted the rest of the figure (the quality and attention to detail on the faces seems much higher on two of my figures)
I never did determine exactly which figures they have designed themselves – figure it is actually a relatively small number as many of the original promo-shots seem to be exhibition shots suggesting they buy original resins at the same events where they take the pictures.
Have seen a few Sabers on that site and am fairly taken with Saber Casual. My only cause for hesitation is that actually it doesn’t look that much like Saber – I probably wouldn’t have made the connection if she wasn’t called that.
Was tempted by the painted Volks Saber but the price was just too steep for me – also didn’t think much of the gathering surprise (the alternative base just looked stupid). Do notice that they seem to be a bit hungup on the Diskvision figures.
On an aside – Native’s Sonico… tempted? Can’t decide myself, but I like the wavy hair as an alternative to her usual appearance
Yeah, they don’t do much stuff themselves. Their own figures are all bundled in the ORI section and some of the time, the figures are based from illustrations or concepts from video games.
That Saber figure is based off of an illustration; I don’t remember the name of the artist offhand, but I remember seeing the picture on Danbooru and thinking that it’d be pretty cool if someone adapted it into figure form.
Yeah, I think I’m tempted by Sonico. I don’t know how many Sonico figures I really need, since I’ve got two already and one more ordered, but Native’s stuff is always quality. I wonder if the foam parts are removable; I think I’d be surprised if she were completely explicit since she’s a corporate mascot character, but it’d be nice if she is.
hm not really my cup of tea, she really looks stoned, and also she kidna looks like shes straight out of a bollywood-movie..
An expensive 30cm figure supported by a thin metal rod in her knee *scary*
She seems to be painted very well. I like the outfit of this Ming Yue, the captured motion looks very elegant, from my impression yellow is not used that often on figures, but it looks quite nice here.
I admit I’m more comfortable with anime faces, but the more realistic looking face fits well to this Ming Yue.
Yeah, I think this face looks appropriate for a character like this. I notice a lot of Korean and Chinese artists are pretty good at this style, where they combine anime styling and realistic faces. That sort of art style is why I’ve played games like Lineage II and Magna Carta II.
Glad you reviewed this one, I was really keen on preordering her when her photos went up on the site. However with me trying to cut back on figures and running out of space, I decided against it. :/
I did order Jing Xue though, how do they look displayed together? I’m kinda considering getting her now that I’ve seen your review. 😛
I didn’t take pictures of them together, mostly due to laziness on my part and also because I’d like to set up a nicer background for them, maybe to use as a wallpaper shot. I’d imagine they look amazing together, though; they are of similar size and I really like how they are jumping in opposite directions, which should make them stand out very sharply.
Hey Tier. I was just wondering if you could help find a trustworthy middleman service? Haha. Any help much appreciated.
I use Yokatta and Shopping Mall Japan. Both are great and I’d recommend either or both. Generally, I use Yokatta for web orders or big-ticket items and SMJ for medium-priced Yahoo Japan auctions. My bid limit on SMJ is set to around 20k so I can’t use them for very expensive stuff, and they’ve got some unusual fees that make them not as attractive to use for low-priced items like manga volumes or doujinshi, but their automated bid system is very nice to use, particularly if you think you might get outbid on something but don’t want to set a big bid to assure victory.
so they are also producing prepainted stuff. The figure looks as if she hypnotizes you. The pose is indeed the killer on this one.
Yeah, they’ve done prepainted stuff for a while – that’s probably what they’re best known for, since they recast a lot of garage kits. Lately they’ve also been recasting a lot of PVC figures, painting them up, and selling them, which is really weird to me but I guess people buy them.
We personally have only bought two figurines from E2046. But I didn’t realize that they have their own line of figures as well! She is very beautiful I love her movement, the flow of the figure. It looks like she is ready to dance away. Such great detail in her. Though the thought of her only being held up by one pole would worry me.
Their product categories are sort of confusing and they’ve got their original figures mixed in with the other products, which makes it easy to miss them. They’ve got some really nice figures, though, and they do a lot of figures of fighter girls, which definitely appeals to my interests. I’m looking forward to seeing what their next ORI figure is.
Yeah, I’m still not entirely confident in this one rod so I might try to devise some addition support; she seems to be okay but I really don’t want to see her crashing to the floor, and being that I’ve been through one earthquake this year (admittedly rather minor, but it did send a few figures off of my shelf and to the ground), I think it’s better to be safe than sorry.
I just discovered e2046 today, and then i visited your blog. LOL coincidence.
This figure is more of a sculpture than a figure with that level of detail and refinement! Every portion is well crafted and i have to say that creating a mold for this figure is going to be a nightmare. That’s not all, the posing that this figure has (including the folds on her garments) deliver this gracefulness not seen in many dancer figures.
Pretty awesome buy you got there!
Thanks! Yeah, they did a great job sculpting her. I always look forward to seeing what they plan for their ORI line, they do some really ambitious figures, and they often use a style that I don’t see often in either Japanese or Western figures.
I’ve always wanted to order some of those resin figures from 2046, but, always worried they are going to arrive broken. I do like them.
Btw, that Saber figure looks awesome! 🙂
That’s always a risk. I once ordered a figure that arrived decapitated; that was a bit of a downer (fortunately, the break was easily hidden by the figure’s collar and all I needed to do was glue the head back on). I know people who’ve gotten figures that’ve suffered more serious damage, though. I recently got a couple of Volks polystone figures and the day they were due to arrive, I felt like I was going to have a nervous breakdown because I was certain they were going to arrive damaged (and as it turned out, one of the figures did have some minor damage, but it was very easy to glue the broken part back on).
Maybe I should review that umbrella Saber and gangsta lean Saber back-to-back. Maybe I’ll call it Bizarre Saber Figure Week.
Well, I took a chance, and ordered a Bayonetta Pre-Painted figure from E2046. Here’s hoping it arrives safely. It’ll be my first resin figure..
Well, I have some figures of Samurai from the Sengoku period which I think are resin as well. Though, they are color bronzed. Very cool figures though. 🙂
Cool, hope she gets there safely XD
Your review and wonderful photos made me take the plunge to order from E2046…unfortunately the figure is back-ordered and I have no idea when the stock will come in…oh well. Looks like she photographs very well indeed. With such a dynamic pose, she should look great from all angles!
It will be great to have more figures with Chinese related themes. Makes a nice change from all the Japanese / anime figures.
Congrats on your purchase! Yeah, that’s one of the things about E2046, they don’t really update release dates very frequently so sometimes it can be surprising when you get a payment request for a figure you completely forgot about.
I really like the aesthetic of this series, as well as the Lineage II-inspired figures that they make. I hope they keep making more; their dark magician figure is one of my favorites in my collection.
Ah, my other comment seems to have gotten eaten.
Anyway, I’ve got e2046’s other Elegance ‘dancer’, Dip Mou. (The girl in pink) She’s still one of my favorites though it’s annoying having to move her as her dress loves to fall apart at the slightest touch. For Dip Mou her support took the form of a gigantic thick peg growing out of the bottom of her foot. Works like a charm, though. She feels very stable despite her very unstable looking pose.
Ming Yue, on the other hand…I get nervous just looking at that flimsy support beam. But e2046 has never done me wrong before. I own several Gathering statues and they are all wonderfully painted and detailed. If I had the cash I’d get Ming Yue to go with Dip Mou.
The only thing that bothers me is Ming Yue’s…almost expressionless face. Maybe she’s just in a trance or something? I’ve noticed that several other ORI figures have the same issue: Action pose!…emotionless face. I mean…the faces are PRETTY, but dull.
It might’ve gotten caught by the spam filter; I used to go through the spam queue and pull out comments that were incorrectly flagged, but I now get so much spam that that’s no longer possible.
Ming Yue has a similar problem, the two tails dangling off the front of her bottom fall off quite easily. I guess I could just glue them down to keep them in place. On the plus side, the metal pole seems to be holding her up just fine still, though I still cringe when I think about how easily she wobbles.
Yeah, that’s something I’ve noticed as well – Zabrina and Salma have the same problem, and it stands out quite a bit since Zabrina is chopping something and Salma looks like she’s about to whack someone with her stick. It’d be nice to see more emotion there.