I’ve been wasting a lot of time playing gacha games and watching gacha game streamers, and being that Azur Lane was the first gacha game I played, a review of an Azur Lane shipgirl is long overdue. There’s a long-anticipated Royal Navy event going on now and thus it seems like an appropriate time to take a look at Duke of York, the personification of the King George V-class battleship that served in the real Royal Navy during World War II. This particular figure is by Mimeyoi, and it’s the first figure from them that I’ve ever owned, which is another good reason to have a look at her.
The warship HMS Duke of York spent much of her service fighting the German Kriegsmarine and operating as a fleet flagship in the Atlantic. The characters in Azur Lane typically reflect some aspect of the design or histories of their namesakes but for some reason, Duke of York is depicted as a vampire. I’m not really sure what the relevance might be of this trait but it’s the way she is presented.
This figure was released in August of 2021 by Mimeyoi. Duke of York is sculpted in 1/4 scale and measures right around 31 centimeters in height, not including her base. She’s relatively simple in design and, aside from her chair, doesn’t come with anything in the way of accessories.
One of the things I notice first about Duke of York is that she has a rather exuberant look on her face, almost disturbingly so. I don’t use her in Azur Lane but I don’t recall that she’s all that crazy, unlike a number of other characters in the game. Her demeanor doesn’t necessarily look insane, but I can’t shake the feeling that you can detect something unhinged in her grin if you’re looking for it.
Aside from her expression, one of the most eye-catching aspects of her design is her outfit. She’s dressed in a race queen outfit, the main element being a leotard with a strategically-placed cutout that reveals her cleavage. It’s a very attractive outfit that shows a good deal of her figure – though it’s not even close to being one of the more revealing outfits available in Azur Lane.
Her thigh-highs are attached to her leotard via garter straps …
… though strangely, she doesn’t have any straps on the back of her legs.
Another conspicuous element of Duke of York’s design is the prodigious size of her bust. I don’t recall that Duke of York was considered one of the more massively-endowed characters in Azur Lane, but she’s apparently received a major upgrade to her chest in this figure.
Duke of York’s lone accessory is this stylized chair, which looks attractive without being too obtrusive. I may have not placed her correctly on it but I found her to not fit too well on it.
I’m not sure if there is any relationship between FREEing and Mimeyoi but being that both are producing 1/4 scale figures of Azur Lane characters, it’s impossible not to compare their products. I think the comparison is anticlimactic, though; I think they’re roughly similar in terms of overall quality. If a figure collector knew nothing about this figure and were told that it was made by FREEing, I don’t think they’d have any problem believing that.
And that’s certainly fine by me; while I think that both companies might be able to take better advantage of the finer detailing that might be possible when working with a larger product, I think Duke of York looks great, even though I think her Cheshire grin can be a little off-putting. I like her race queen ensemble and I’m happy that Mimeyoi created her at such a large size. She also makes for a very impressive display when paired with Prince of Wales, whom I plan to photograph sometime in the near future.
Vampire desu! I don’t remember if I have the character in the game or some other “Duke” or “Queen” or “King” but purple hair is nice and I like the Onee san appearance.
I love the vampire face with the the dangerous grin a lot about this figure. The smile is right up my alley. The dramatic make up is also very well done.
The proportions are nice, there is some more meat on her, which is not that rare in Azure Lane, but seeing that being adapted in an 1/4 scaled figure looks very attractive and sexy.
I like the stockings a lot, as much as the gloves, but dress itself looks a little bit slutty.
I like the outfit of the upcoming Taihou a lot more, which is also more skin revealing haha.
The armpit is probably the last thing I would compliment a female character for, but on this figure it looks damn good. I would be so bold and say that the giant Mimeyoi figures look more expressive than what Freeing produces, the faces have more details and the curves look a bit nicer. Might also have to do with that Azure Lane character designs are generally more ambitious than the regular anime bishoujo.
As nice as the Mimeyoi 1/4 scales are, I don’t think I have enough space for several figures of that size. I have a handful of bjd’s already so I don’t think I can fit in more of these big ladies 🙁
Haha, I forgot to mention anything about the armpits and I probably should have; it’s not something I usually look for but I know it’s a popular thing for some people. I really do like Duke of York’s outfit here, for all the reasons you describe 😀 I’ve got Taihou on order too, and I’m really looking forward to their race queen Enterprise figure; I hope they show a prototype soon.
Thanks for this fabulous review! I also quite like the grin. As it happens, for anyone inspired to buy this figure now, it just went up for pre-order for a re-release in December 2022…
You’re welcome! The timing of this post was auspicious and very much unintended; I didn’t think they’d re-release Duke of York, and I certainly didn’t think they’d do it a day after I wrote this up. It’s maybe the one time delaying a review this long actually worked out okay.
Enjoyed the figure and the photography. Her *chair* is quite impressive, a very interesting stand that goes well with her curvy figure, shoes and hair.
Thanks 😀 Yeah, it’s a nice touch; they could’ve gone with anything but the more abstract design works really well, I think.
Any more Azur Lane on order? They the only figures I collect now. Some of them are stunning.
Actually, yeah … I still have Prince of Wales here, plus Eldridge and Takao; this is going to sound kinda bad but I have so many unopened boxes that I’m not actually sure what shipping boxes they are in. I’ve also got the 1/4 scale North Carolina, Washington, New Jersey, and Taihou figures on order, which is a little scary to think about from a financial standpoint. I’ve also ordered Baltimore and Honolulu … or at least, I think I ordered them. I probably should double-check since I have a lot of stuff on my preorder lists.
I also have some other figures that I need to do writeups for, like Yukikaze Mizuki and Raiden Mei. I want to reshoot Emilia and St. Louis since I’m not too thrilled with how those photos came out.
Hi Tier,
The bust of this figure is actually force castoffable. The nipples are not painted though. Have you tried it?
I actually have not; I didn’t know that you could remove part of her dress but I don’t think I’m going to do it. There’s not much upside to it if the nipples aren’t actually detailed and I don’t want to damage the figure. There’s some novelty to having a big, 1/4-scale R-18 figure but I have like a bunch of BINDing figures here … I’m not actually sure how many I own but it might be like seven or eight or something already.
Wow I always knew you were rich but didn’t realize you were THAT rich lol.
I mean, all figures aren’t cheap. Skytube figures increased by more than twice the price in the last decade.
But binding figures are on a totally different level. Wow, to own 8 of them?
I was curious how many BINDing figures I have ordered, so I went through Native’s website and counted 13, which I guess might be a little excessive. I think I’ve only reviewed one of them here, though.
Also, just a note, I’ve been working on Raiden Mei’s review for like two weeks now and hopefully it’ll be up soon. This has actually been kind of a lousy month for me and I’ve been distracted by some real-life things that I’d rather not have to deal with.