Backstage we’re having the time
Of our lives until somebody say
Forgive me if I seem out of line
Then she whipped out her gun and tried to blow me away!

Never judge a book by its cover

We have here yet another Yoko figure, and this one is perhaps the most unique of them all. Instead of staying faithful to her anime appearance, Max Factory has opted to give her relatively realistic proportions and to sculpt her face like something close to a real human’s. Sort of.

Or who you gonna love by your lover

Now, I’m going to just come right out and say it: from certain angles, Yoko looks like a man. I’ve been calling her transvestite Yoko for a while, and while the chest is nothing but female, her face looks like a drag queen’s when viewing her right side.

Love put me wise to her love in disguise

Her peculiarly long face and nose and sloping jawline are reminiscent of the effete characters that have populated recent Final Fantasy games. She reminds me a bit of Lightning, who technically is female but also looks like a man to me.

She had the body of a Venus, Lord imagine my surprise!

Anyway, once we get past Yoko’s androgyny, this is a pretty cool figure. Sculpted in 1/6 scale and standing just over 27 centimeters tall, Yoko’s stature is impressive. She’s got a sexy pose with her hips tilted and one leg lifted up, head turned and tilted to the right. She attaches to the base with two pegs and I hope they’re strong enough to bear her weight, and I also hope her ankle is reinforced against warping.

(That, that) Dude looks like a lady

The paintwork is superb, with her boots, shorts, gloves, and top exhibiting a very glossy look. There’s a bit of subtle shading on her skin visible on the inside of her elbows and just under her ribs, which is a nice touch.

(That, that) Dude looks like a lady

Her left side is undoubtedly her best side. With one eye covered up by her hair, she actually looks pretty hot. Beautiful, even. From that side, her hair also obscures her nose, reducing its conspicuousness.

(That, that) Dude looks like a lady

Like the Black Rock Shooter, you can swap out her bangs. If you so choose, you can give her some swanky yellow shades.

(That, that) Dude looks like a lady

I kinda like her better sans glasses so I’m going to leave them off of her.

Let me take a peek dear

She’s got her usual sniper rifle here, and it’s ready to go right out of the box, no assembly required. It seems to be glued to her right hand so you don’t have to worry about wrestling it into her grip.

Baby let me follow you down

I like the pink strap on her gun.

Do me do me do me all night

I like the idea of reimagining characters but I think that Max Factory would’ve been better off going with a rounder, slightly more anime-style face rather than a Square Enix face. Yoko’s an odd figure in that if you stare at her long enough, you can convince yourself either that you’re looking at a man or a smoking-hot girl. Still, even though the implementation is a bit off, I like this figure and I have to praise Max Factory for trying something different.

Baby let me follow you down

Turn the other cheek dear

Baby let me follow you down

Do me, do me, do me, do me!

Up to the tizzop

There are numerous figures of Gurren Lagann’s redheaded sniper, and they generally take one of two approaches: most, like Gift’s and Kotobukiya’s, emphasize her cuteness, but a few, most notably Alter’s version, depict her as a gunslinging badass. This particular figure undoubtedly belongs in the second group.

This incarnation of Yoko is a prepainted kit from E2046, built in a mighty 1/4 scale. I’m not sure who the sculptor is; I believe that it’s a fairly old kit and a quick perusal of the convention writeups on Heisei Democracy didn’t shed any light on its origin. This figure is also the first preowned figure I’ve ever bought; a figure.fm member put her up for sale and being that I’d had this Yoko on my E2046 wishlist for at least half a year, I could hardly pass her up.

To my dismay UPS gave her quite a beating during delivery, and more than a few pieces had snapped off. That’s why I keep a bottle of super glue around, though. She’s not quite good as new but she looks fine to me.

I mentioned she’s 1/4 scale. That means she’s big. Really big:

She’s about 23 centimeters in depth and height, and double that if you include her gun. The rifle and her impressive sweep of hair accentuate her already imposing presence.

I’ve got a bunch of figures but Yoko has to have one of the coolest poses of any of the figures I own. She’s in full badass mode here, crouched low, legs spread wide, arm and gun extended all the way back, hair swirling in wildly improbable fashion. Her glare is intense and her lips are curved into a confident smirk. This version of Yoko certainly does not lack for cockiness.

One thing I would’ve preferred would’ve been some additional detailing to her hair. Yoko’s got flat helmet hair here, and it’s all the more noticeable due to her massive size.

The paintwork is solid, as is the case with most of E2046′s Gathering stuff. I especially like her eyes; they’ve got a shiny look that makes her gaze all the more eyecatching.

E2046 doesn’t often do additional production runs of their less popular prepainted figure so I’m glad I was able to acquire this figure. Big size is always a plus and Yoko’s cool brashness looks awesome. A lot of figures don’t have an obvious personality but this is not one of them.

Up to the tizzop

My long national nightmare is over! I had preordered Yoko back in spring from a retailer that listed June as her release date. June came and went, as did July and the rest of summer and half of autumn. Finally I said the hell with this and ordered her from OtakuFuel. That reminds me, I probably ought to cancel my original preorder.

Yoko, of course, hails from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the well-received anime series from Gainax. I’ve only seen a few episodes of the show so I’m not at all qualified to describe the character. I am told that the particular outfit that Yoko sports here is seen in a dream sequence towards the end of the series.

Manufactured by Alter, Yoko is listed as 1/8 scale. However, she stands about 23 centimeters tall from the ground to the top of her ponytail and she seems even larger than that. This is partly because of her base, which is around a centimeter tall itself, as well as her dimensions in the other axes. Her billowing, tattered coat and her rifle both emphasize her substantial size, giving her additional depth and width. The figure also features surprising heft. All around, I’d say that she’s pretty solidly built.

The paint work and sculpt are typical of Alter’s products, which is to say, they are second to none. All of her clothes are separate pieces that are bonded to her body, which is a nice touch; I like how the waistband of her unzipped shorts are a little loose, how the tops of her boots are falling down a bit, and how the front of her bra top is straining to hold her in.

One thing I would have added is a bit of color to her lips. Her lower lip protrudes in a bit of a smirk, but it’s the same color as her skin. Jubei has slightly darker lips and I think that sort of thing would’ve worked better for Yoko.

Yoko’s main gat appears to be a facsimile of a Barrett M82. It’s bonded right to her so there’s no need to wrestle it into position. In fact, after you unbox her, all you have to do is stick her pistol into its holster and set her up on her base. It’s a refreshing change from some of my recent figures, which needed an annoying amount of disassembly and re-assembly before they were ready for display.

Speaking of the base, Yoko’s got an atypical one. Rather than the typical boring black or white plastic disc, Alter gives us a very spiffy faux-desert rock base. It looks very nice, the paintwork is as solid as it is on Yoko. It’s also not particularly oversized, which is another plus.

I don’t think I did a very good job trying to match the color of the backdrop I built with the base’s color.

Alter makes some of the best figures around, and Yoko is no exception. It’s definitely nice to get a figure that’s actually larger than expected. Add in the figure’s apparent quality, and you’ve got an outstanding figure.

Just about everybody on the planet who wanted Yoko already has Yoko, and there’s about a million reviews of her out on the internets. foo-bar-baz has a review up, of course, as do meronpan, whose pictures aren’t afflicted with the dimness that I like to incorporate into my photos, and Tommy, who if I remember correctly had one of the first English-language reviews of her up on the web. Doubtless there are a bunch more that I have overlooked.

The box gives her name as “Yoko Littner” but every romanization I’ve seen gives her surname as Ritona. I usually go with the official name, but since Ritona seems to be much more commonplace in usage, I’ll go with the people’s choice.

Up to the tizzop

Much to my dismay, most of my preorders for May have become preorders for June, so instead of photographing the figures in my backlog (which would require me to clean off my desk and set up my lights), I think I will do a review of my Yoko dakimakura. Made by Cospa, there’s already a good review of it on Ota Desho so I’ll keep this short.

I’ve written a review of my Taka Tony dakimakura (NSFW) but Yoko was actually the first pillowcase I bought, sometime back in January. I promised myself last year that when I started working, I’d get myself a dakimakura and I keep my promises. The ones I make to myself, that is.

The material is similar to the Taka Tony pillowcase but it isn’t quite as lustrous. The printing is bright, sharp, and undoubtedly pleasing to the eye.

Five-foot tall pillowcases don’t really stand up well by themselves, as one can see by the evident sagging. Unlike my other pillowcase, this one isn’t noticeably creased, even though it’s spent several months folded up in a drawer.

Some dakimakura show a frontal view of a character on one side and a more scantily-clad front view of the subject on the reverse side. I prefer this style instead, where you get front and rear views of a character.

I wonder why her scarf has a zipper?

I wonder if her belt helps hold her pants up?

Cospa’s printed off like three production runs of this dakimakura, and they seem to be gearing up to release another one next month. It’s not hard to guess why, as this pillowcase looks outstanding.

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