Normally Kurumi appears in a red and black gothic lolita style dress that I always thought had a certain saloon girl flare to it, but here it seems we've caught her in a more intimate moment. It's quite the outfit, consisting of a corset, garter belt, stockings, bonnet, some ribbons and high-heels. She's striking a pretty cool pose reminiscent to that of a gymnast who has just finished a series of flips in a floor routine. As we look at some of her features, you'll see why Alphamax has quickly vaulted to the top of my list of favorite figure makers.
Staying above Kurumi's waist for now, there is a lot of eye-catching detail to examine. The decals they've used for her eyes are really cool. She has heterochromia, and in her left you can see a clock face. Her nose is a cute little bump and although her mouth is just a thin line she still manages to have a really cool and relaxed expression that's very alluring. They really nailed her face. There was an alternate face offered as an exclusive item from Amiami, but I wound up not buying that one and am maybe regretting it a little, even if this is the face I would normally display her with.
One of the most impressive details on this figure is her corset. It probably would have been easier to sculpt this thing directly onto the figure but instead it's a completely separate, albeit irremovable piece of clothing. The fabric is modeled with transparent red plastic that absorbs and reflects light differently depending on how it is illuminated, which gives the appearance of a fiery glow. This one article of clothing makes use of transparencies, a really nice satin finish, frills, and painted on embroidery patterns that look really effective. It's just an incredible garment and I love it.
Kurumi is in a state of slight undress, with just a few crisscrossed laces holding her corset closed in front. Depending on your viewing angle, you can get a good look at her cleavage and really appreciate just how well sculpted she is. On inspection, her boobs are actually pretty big, but they aren't at all the dominant feature of this figure. There's a harmonious quality to her proportions, which is something I feel often gets overlooked in a medium were bigger is usually seen as better. No single part of her body looks out of place or stands out as unnatural or bolted on, and I like that you still need to peak around the corset a bit to see some side-boob or under-boob. She's covered up just enough.
Moving down to Kurumi's lower half the incredible attention to detail continues. I like the paint job on the eyelets on her corset and the strap adjusters on her garters, as well as the delicate lace patterns and textures on her garter belt. The paint application on the eyelets isn't 100% perfect but for such a small detail I think they did a good job. Transitions between opaque and sheer fabric on her stockings and panties make them look really authentic. I'm impressed by how her outfit is layered on, with her corset layered over her garter belt which is then layered over her panties, making them all feel like distinct articles of clothing and not just like a costume. It feels like this is as far as you could go with an outfit like this without getting into doll-clothing territory or real fabrics. Alphamax is out here pushing the envelope of PVC lingerie, haha.
The little bows are a cute detail that bring in one of the main design elements of her standard outfit. They help maintain the balance between playfulness and lewd eroticism, which I think she strikes quite well. Really, my favorite kind of figure is one that is obviously sexy but just not straight-up pornographic. Not that there's anything wrong with more overtly lewd figures! If you ask me, manufacturers like Alphamax (Skytube) and Native are doing some of the best work in the hobby with what are basically hentai figures, but unless there's a clothed option it's not really something that I could or even would display on my shelf. My mind is warped by decades of being a degenerate anime pervert though, so I can see where a figure like this might still be way too lewd for some collectors.
Maybe a mirror... Anyway, moving on!
The subtle shading and transitions on her legs looks wonderful. In fact, the overall quality of the paint application on this figure is above and beyond what I could have hoped for. It always bothers me when figures have very flat/matte blocked in paint on any features, or worse, on the whole figure. Thankfully not a problem here! Even minor details like her ribbons are shaded. Her stockings, skin, hair, shoes, and firearms all have subtle gradients. On top of that, different materials have different finishes applied to them.
It's worth taking some time to admire Kurumi's feet, if not just for the sake of completeness but just to point out the really nice finish on her high-heels as well as the super classy mirrored base with the clock face pattern painted onto it. I love it when a figure has a characterful base like this which also isn't huge or cumbersome on the shelf. She fits well onto a small space on the shelf and punches way above her weight if you're just looking at a simple ratio of shelf space to visual interest.
Anyway what more can I say. What a great figure. I wound up buying her on a TOM points promotion along with a pre-order for the Plamax Deedlit model from Max Factory, and have absolutely no regrets about my purchase. Easily one of my favorite figures in my whole collection, and I don't expect to ever get tired of seeing her on the shelf. I actually passed on buying her when she was up for pre-order, so was very lucky to see her in stock during that promotion. Normally I don't advocate impulse purchasing figures, but Kurumi Tokisaki Lingerie Ver is proof that sometimes it works out for the best! Released in June of this year for ~15k JPY, she seems to be sold out now.
Closing notes - So last time I talked briefly about improving the quality of the photography on this website, and I think I got about half way there with this review. Using a tripod and a smaller aperture really helped with the close up shots, but I think I need a larger aperture still for the full body photos if I want to blur the backdrop more. The tripod was also a good mount for one of my clamp lights, which I think helped me maintain a better consistency with my exposures, although the light values still weren't perfect across photos. Seems like I'll really need to use software to fix that if I want it to be perfect, and not sure if I have time or inclination for that right now. Lastly, I still lost a lot of shots to subtle blurring with the longer exposures I needed, so I really should have used a timer delay.
WO KANN ICH DAS KAUFEN
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