All of my figure preorders scheduled to ship in August have been delayed, except for the big-ass, half-meter tall statue of Taki from Soul Calibur; a strange turn of luck, that, being that was the one preorder that I was sure would get pushed way back, as often happens with big-ass statues. I’m not sure whether I will review it, anyway; therefore, we’ll spend the next month going through the backlog and looking at some older figures. First up is Cecilia Alcott, the British girl and love interest from Infinite Stratos. We looked at her castmate Houki quite a while back, and with FREEing rolling out bunnygirl after bunnygirl, I think it’s worthwhile to talk about their products in general, in case anyone who doesn’t own one was interested in picking one up, such as their upcoming Kurisu Makise.
First, a bit of background: Cecilia is one of the principal characters from Infinite Stratos. She’s one of the first girls we see in the anime adaptation, where she’s initially dismissive of lead boy Ichika Orimura. However, as is often the case in this sort of show, she succumbs to his masculine wiles after they tumble together in some sort of head-to-head competition (my memory is hazy on the details).
She kind of fades from the main storyline after that, as Charlotte Dunois and Laura Bodewig overshadow the remainder of the cast, but we did get this pose early on in the show, which was perhaps the highlight of the entire series (another part I liked was Laura declaring that she’d make Ichika her wife).
This figure is manufactured by FREEing and is sculpted in 1/4 scale, standing about 39 centimeters tall at the top of her head and 46 centimeters in overall height. As with most of FREEing’s bunnygirls, no accessories are provided and assembly requires nothing more than fitting some standoffs to the bottom of her feet to ensure that she’ll stay affixed to the base.
As mentioned, FREEing’s bunnygirls are almost unvaryingly of uniform concept and design, and Cecilia is no exception to this dictum. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – I happen to like this product line a lot, and so Cecilia’s appearance is essentially what I expected it to be.
Well, except for the appearance of her lower left leg, which seems to have a dark stain below the knee. I’m not sure if the pantyhose caused that or not; I’ve never seen that on any of my other figures, but that would be the logical explanation. It’s fairly disconcerting but the tights obscures the blotch to a certain degree.
Perhaps the most obvious facet of the bunnygirls are their outfits, which always comprise a high-cut leotard, fishnet pantyhose (their quasi re-release of Eleonora Viltaria sans tights is a peculiar exception), high-heeled pumps, wrist cuffs and collar, and bunny ears. The color of the leotard typically matches the character’s usual outfit, and so Cecilia wears a blue suit. The outfit is, of course, meant to emphasize the character’s sex appeal, and it does precisely that.
Not so obvious in photographs but quite impressive in person are the size of these figures. Not a lot of companies make 1/4 scale anime figures, and so FREEing’s bunnygirls appear colossal in stature. Their size makes their physiques more apparent; the exaggerated length of their legs is prominent, as is the broadness of their hips and, on those characters with fuller endowments, the size of their breasts. None of these things are bad but it can give one an odd impression of these figures; for example, I sometimes feel like the bodies of these figures are designed separately and when FREEing decides to put a character in their bunnygirl lineup, they just sculpt a head and find a body to slap it on. I’m sure they don’t do that but there is sometimes a disconnect because they’ve made figures of so many characters with a singularly consistent body build, with the occasional smaller chest for younger or less buxom characters.
That said, I don’t recall that Cecilia got many figures at all; I can remember this one, an earlier bunnygirl figure that had her on her knees, and I think there was one more of dubious quality that had her dressed in her underwear. Further, Cecilia’s appearance in the anime has generally portrayed her as tall and willowy, so her adaptation here by FREEing isn’t much of a departure from her actual look. She’s got a lovely body, gigantic hair with several locks corkscrewing downwards, and a big, somewhat goofy-looking grin. As is usual with the bunny figures, the face tends to be less detailed than what one might hope for in a figure this large; Cecilia’s face is rather flat and featureless, as is common with these figures. Hash marks under her eyes are supposed to represent a blush but otherwise, her skin tone is fairly even.
But really, the outfit is the main draw of these figures, unless you’re like me and prefer giant figures to smaller ones. The outfit looks great; glossy and tight-fitting, yet loose enough at the top to tantalize the imagination. The tights are made of real fishnet material, and she’s got this appealing thigh gap.
Here are those mile-long legs.
They’re also quite heavy due to their size, which can lead to leaning concerns. I haven’t had one fall over yet, however; my figure of Nanoha appears to be leaning but she was doing so from when I first put her on her base, so I’m not too concerned that she or any of my other bunnygirls will fall over, despite their heft.
FREEing’s bunnygirls generally also have more curvature to their backsides than many figures, which is certainly a nice touch.
FREEing’s bunnygirls are of generally uniform design, and so Cecilia is by definition a good example of what they look like, aside from that odd stain on her leg. She’s tall, sexy, and looks great in her leotard. The lack of detailing is unfortunate, particularly at this size, since everything becomes more apparent when the figure is scaled up, but I think the attractive outfit compensates for that deficiency. I’m definitely happy to have Cecilia and I look forward to getting more of their bunnygirls; indeed, I still have four more (Yui and Mikan from To Love-Ru and another Yui and Ilfriede, the Muv-Luv girls) that still need reviews.
