Of late, collectors of ero figures have much to be happy about. Alphamax has produced a number of quality hentai figures, Native’s goods are now far more accessible (at least to those who live in the countries that they ship to), and Daiki Kougyou is their usual eclectic self. It’s a little surprising, then, that it seems like Orchid Seed has lost a little luster during this interval, at least with respect to their status as a maker of ero figures. For one thing, they’ve shown a surprising reluctance to implement the sort of fully-explicit nudity that Native and Daiki Kougyou are well known for and that Alphamax has, quite surprisingly, energetically embraced. Also, they’ve never been a prolific figure maker, except perhaps in terms of producing recolored variants of existing products, and yet they consistently tease collectors at hobby conventions with numerous unpainted prototypes and artwork of planned future figures. Princess Milk was one such figure; it’s been four years since collectors learned of Orchid Seed’s plans to make her. It feels a little strange that, after she’s manifested merely as an illustration at so many Wonder Festivals, she’s finally here.
Princess Milk is a character from an eroge called Hime to Boin. The “boin” refers to the sizeable nature of the principal characters’ breasts, a hallmark of Toshihide Sano’s artwork. Figures based on his illustrations are uncommon, though Amane Shiratori has gotten a couple. His work has also received a few ero anime adaptations; in particular, Anata no Shirani Kangofu was pretty good, and was even released uncensored outside of Japan.
This figure is sculpted in 1/7 scale; Orchid Seed is notorious for fudging scale sizes but that seems like a reasonable specification for Princess Milk, particularly as she has more willowy proportions than a typical female anime character. She comes with a very large circular base, but it’s obviously not necessary to keep her upright. Her clothes can also be partially removed.
Toshihide Sano’s faces are eminently recognizable, and anyone familiar with his work will see his style in this figure, particularly in the wideset eyes and pronounced lips. Her demure smile perfectly complements her pose; or rather, it would if her pose were a little better executed. More on that in a bit. Her big green eyes are attractive and quite striking in the way they contrast with her red crown and the white and gold colors of her outfit.
Her hair is also very pretty, despite being quite messy and falling about haphazardly. Personally, I like female characters with messy hair. I’m less fond of the little crown she’s wearing; I dislike this sort of crooked, miniature headgear. It can’t be removed so I’ll just have to deal with it.
Princess Milk has a lithe body with very long, slender legs. Their length is made more prominent by her pose, with her legs spread wide, directing attention to her crotch, where her vulva is partially exposed. That’s obviously quite lewd but if anyone is curious – and I’m sure some prospective buyers are – her panties can’t be removed. That might be a big disappointment to some and I have to admit I thought that it was something of a lost opportunity as well, though I do think that her amorous expression works as well with a modicum of restraint as it would with full-frontal nudity.
Other clothing parts can be removed, however; her skirt can be taken off and so can her bra cups. An instruction sheet is provided, and it even includes an English translation, although there’s an error where it says that her left arm needs to be detached to remove her bra pieces. In fact it’s her right arm that needs to be detached; I’m pretty sure her left arm doesn’t come off.
I’ve said in the past that I don’t like fiddly, fussy castoff mechanisms. Princess Milk’s castoff system is sort of the opposite of that; her bra cups don’t actually attach to her body and so tend to fall off very easily. It did feel like there might have been a very weak magnet in her torso that helps to keep her bra cups aligned properly, but that may have simply been my imagination. At any rate, her bra cups – which are separate pieces – cover each breast and just sort of dangle there. The instruction sheet says something about using an adhesive or double-sided tape, which I certainly am not going to do, and this means that it’s fairly hard to keep her fully modest, as the slightest nudge tends to knock her bra off. Her skirt is also easily removed but I don’t think it adds very much to the figure so I didn’t pay much attention to it.
There may have been a better way to implement her castoff system but being that I didn’t buy this figure to keep her clothed, it’s not that big a deal to me. However, her removable bra introduces another, more obvious problem. Princess Milk has very large breasts, and Sano’s style is that he likes to render breasts as having realistic softness and weight. That’s modeled here by having the princess’s right hand sort of squish into the corresponding breast. However, that leaves a large divot in her flesh, which wouldn’t look bad if her hand were actually touching her chest, but it’s not; there’s a small gap, which one would presume is there to accomodate the bra cup, but her bra actually has a cutout in it so that its thickness doesn’t obstruct her hand. However, since her hand doesn’t reach far enough anyway, what you get is a curious, conspicuous hole in her clothes along with a big dent in her tit. It looks very strange. I suppose you could use a tiny dab of sticky putty (which presumably wouldn’t leave a residue) to seal up the gap, but it’s still a bit of an annoyance.
The intended effect of this figure is for the princess to smile up at her owner while holding the string waistband of her panties. It’s a lovely image but it doesn’t work as well in practice because her panty string doesn’t really hook too well on her fingers. Again, I guess a bit of removable putty could solve that problem but it would’ve been nice if they had just gotten it right in the sculpt.
But aside from those issues – and it’s up to the owner to determine how significant they are – she looks pretty nice. The major points of appeal are all there – the massive breasts, the inviting smile, and the tightly-stretched panties. I didn’t really notice many technical problems, either; some Orchid Seed figures haven’t been that impressive in terms of paint quality but I don’t see anything to fault here.
Overall, I’d say I’m happy with this figure. It’s been a long wait, and she’s not perfect by any means, but she still looks really nice, and as a fan of Sano’s style, I’m happy to see one of his characters get a figure adaptation. Aside from the problems mentioned above, the princess does lose out a bit compared to many other ero figures out there, particularly Alphamax’s, which offer high quality and fully explicit nudity, and it’s going to be interesting to see whether Orchid Seed decides to respond. That said, both Alphamax and Orchid Seed are making a figure of Maria Saotome from the eroge Sex Life, and at least it’s apparent that Orchid Seed can effect Sano’s style, and in my consideration, that’s a big plus in their favor.
I’d have to agree. That gap from her breasts and hand is kind of awkward. But overall, she’s something you’ll be happy looking at. She’s very pretty. I love the hair strands flowing in front.
Shame that the string from her undergarment is difficult to work with. It’ll be much.. much erotic if it did. 🙂 I’d be dropping condensed milk into her breasts if I ever got a hold of her for a photoshoot. 🙂
I feel the same way; it’s sort of annoying just knowing that that gap is there, but it’s not really that visible under normal viewing conditions and as long as you’re not thinking about it, it’s not too bad. It would’ve been nice if her panty string had been a little longer or more flexible or if one of her fingers were posed as a hook so it’d be easier to secure it in place. It’s a little disappointing that they left those little things out.
I’m following Orchid Seeds Blog quite often and the last 1 1/2 years it appears that they became even slower with releasing their stuff or showing any progress there.Recently they only posted about the figure they are going to sell soon, like the pretty maid at the moment I could easily say ” go and f***…” but I really like their figures, they are in general nice and pretty, I just can’t ignore them as Company.
That is a nice woman ^^, I think the figure looks best from full frontal I was quite enchanted after the starting picture. Her face is pretty, the eyes and the lipstick. I like her pose and the look of her boobs. The collarbones are unfortunately hidden by her collar.
seems like they fixed the panties gap in the final product. Too bad that the hand doesn’t push tightly against her boob nor grabs the string properly, I guess putting strings between fingers is difficult in mass production I can remember 2 other OS figures with a similar issue.
My next Orchid Seed figure will be the Succubus probably, or in case it will take too long the popular maid, her face is just lovely. I badly need a new, nice ero figure, not too lewd actually, but well something hot.
They and Alter seem to have slowed down quite a bit in the last couple of years. That’s a shame, since both of those companies got started right around the same time I started collecting figures (one of the first figures I bought was Orchid Seed’s Chichinoe Cover Girl, which is unfortunately in very bad condition now). At least Alphamax, Kotobukiya, and Max Factory are rolling releases out with regularity.
I had some misgivings about how this figure was going to turn out, particularly with respect to her panties not being removable and having that big gap in the prototype photos. It turns out that they fixed those problems (well, not with the removable panties but they still look okay) but some other problems turned up. I think that’s not too unusual with Orchid Seed; I know I’ve had some other figures where I expected something a little different than what I got (particularly in terms of scale size).
I’m not sure what my next Orchid Seed figure will be; I haven’t ordered Satan yet and I’m not sure if I will. She looks nice but I see there are a lot of 7 Deadly Sins figures in alternate costumes and I wonder if there will be a better figure of her down the line.
Shame there are those obvious issues in an otherwise well-crafted figure. I also didn’t notice how weird her painted lips look. Guess I’ll downgrade her to “not sure if want.”
That seems fair. I guess I’m not too surprised that there are issues – a lot of Orchid Seed figures don’t come out perfectly – but I am surprised about these particular issues, which I hadn’t noticed prior to ordering.
Yea, her left breast does look kinda weird, since her hand didn’t even make contact with it, lol. Still a very good figure though.
Yeah, that’s kind of how I feel; it’s a good figure, albeit one with some issues.
As promising as Orchid Seed’s Maria Saotome might be, Alphamax’ one has one massive advantage: It’s already in the making and is scheduled for a December release. Orchid Seed’s one has been announced for more than two years, and no progress since we were shown the illustration. Even if we saw a prototype within a year, I daresay more than two years would pass from now until she’d be ready for preorder. If OS ever comes around to making her in the first place…
True indeed; I suppose if one were torn between the two, the reasonable thing to do is to get both since who knows when the Orchid Seed one will even show up. Heck, we could have some more weirdness like that episode where Amiami pulled their products for a while.
Great shots. Unfortunately, for a figure this sexualized, they seem to have dropped the ball on both the permanently attached panties and the odd gap between her hand and breast. It looks like a prototype of what could have been an amazing figure with a few tweaks. Ah well.
I’d really love to see Native or Dragon Toy make a figure based on Toshihide Sano’s art; I think either company would do a fine job adapting his style. And of course, both companies have few reservations about making fully explicit figures.
I have to say… I’m so disappointed with this figure. When Orchid seed showed their first unpainted preliminary version I was really enthusiastic. This however is one of the only times where I feel like I was lucky to not preorder.
I honestly hope that I don’t sound too harsh right now and that you enjoy her.
Haha, that does sound pretty harsh XD Well, I like looking at her, though I have to admit that a large part of that is due to my liking for Sano’s art. Is there anything specific that you didn’t care for regarding Orchid Seed’s adaptation?
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Have this “Princess” too. Lovely and all but I kind of feel short changed because she ain’t full cast off like Skytube’s Maria Saotome. her panties should have been removable lol!
And, I kind of not so much like her very red lipstick. Her pics on the box , maybe due to printing issues has a less rouge render which I prefer.
That would’ve been nice though I can live with it. The gaps involving her hands bother me more. She definitely could have used a little more care in production, for sure.
What? the panties aren’t castoffable? UNACCEPTABLE~~~
Orchid Seed is now releasing like two figures at most each year and just keep repainting those for two or three more times until they finally start to think well it’s probably time to do the next figure. There are even plans that they keep showing illustrations on each Wonder Fes but you never see a grey model come out. I don’t know how they keep their business working if they have such low productivity but I feel I would probably not be in the figure collection community anymore when they finally get all the plans they have right now released. There are a few of them I’m still interested in now. Native is now more productive and even Daiki has more figures open for pre-order recently.
It’s a little odd how much they and Alter have slowed down in terms of releases. It’s nice that other manufacturers have stepped up in both qualiity and quantity, but I used to buy lots of figures from those two companies and it’s a little sad to see them produce so few products that I want to buy.
I don’t know what’s the story about OS, but Alter, it’s a strategy they took against piracy. They have their contractor factories in China and you know piracy has always been a problem there. It used to be not as serious for figures and toy stuff. The pirate version has much worse quality and pirates can only make them after the authentic product gets released – they buy a real one and make copies using that. The story has changed in the recent few years. Workers in the contractor factory are not getting paid well – not enough to sustain life, a general economy problem – so they start to steal unfinished(almost finished painting just not packed yet) figures or even molding parts from the factory and sell them to the pirate maker. Now pirate makers can make much better product using the original molding, and these imitation hit the market so much earlier than the authentic ones. For example, somebody has enjoyed this Christmas version Super Sonico for a few months already, before Alter even releases the real one.
There is a huge market for piracy in China because of low income, no laws to protect intellectual property rights or any respect to it. And it’s not just Alter – victims include almost all figure makers – GSC, Maxfactory/Native, Kotobukiya, everyone. Pirate makers basically can just copy any figure if there is a demand.
Alter’s strategy against this is to delay the release of the authentic product by such a long time, so people who want to buy the real product could at least realize that anything coming out earlier is fake. This isn’t gonna change the mind of those who decided to buy the fake from the beginning though. Plus Alter have to find and fire a bunch of rats inside and hire new employees, get them trained again so it takes even more time and this vicious cycle just repeats.
Alter’s boss Mr.Mikami has recently announced on some social media in China that they are gonna change this, starting from the Chinese dress version Kasugano Sora just recently open for pre-order. He showed a few pictures of piles of almost completed figures in their factory and guaranteed it will release on time this October as planed. They are gonna change from delay the releasing date to delay the pre-order open date – get the work almost done and then announce the releasing date. This is why some of the new product they showed last year has not been officially announced yet. I’m not too optimistic about this new strategy though.
Ah, wow, that’s pretty awful; that sounds worse than the recast stuff that is so pervasive, since it’s generally not hard to tell something was hand-painted. I recall now that GSC was moving some of their production capacity back to Japan, and I would guess that this would be a big reason. I had also noticed that Griffon often releases figures very shortly after initial preorders start, with usually just a time difference of a couple of months rather than the 10+ months that is so commonplace; I wonder if that is also a reaction to this sort of thing. Thanks very much for the explanation, that does clarify the situation.
On an only slightly related note, I kinda wonder how well their figures of male characters sell versus their figures of female characters.
The only thing I want from Orchid Seed is the rest of their Lineage II figures. I’ve been waiting for those forever…
It is nice to see an increase is good quality ero figures, as you mentioned. I mean you had crap like A+ floating around all the while but it’s cool that Alphamax jumped into the fray. Some of the GSC conglomerates have been making decent stuff too. It’s a good time for boob fans.
I guess the figure industry is kinda following the themes in anime, which have been getting more and more sexualized as time goes on, it seems. I kinda wonder if figures that show penetration will move into the mainstream. I think it’d be hilarious if they do.