Sunday, June 12, 2011

Review: Dr. Slump Arale-chan Arale Norimaki

This is a review for the Arale Norimaki figure by CM's Corporation I recently got from Amiami. First let's take a brief look at who this character is from her Wiki page.

Arale Norimaki (則巻アラレ, Norimaki Arare) is an android built by Senbei Norimaki, known for her naïvety, energetic personality, lack of common sense and unbelievable superhuman strength but ironically she is nearsighted and needs to wear glasses. Senbei's mission is to convince the other citizens of Penguin Village that she is no more than a typical girl, which they appear to believe in spite of them taking notice to numerous displays of her superhuman capabilities.

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I vaguely remember watching this show as IQ博士 when I was a young kid. I don't remember much from the show except for the incredibly hilarious main character known as Arale and her friend Gatchan (the flying-metal-eating fairy). She also lives in a village with animal neighbours lol. I actually recently picked up a Dr. Slump movie from the local chinese mall and it was quite hilarious and entertaining, it was certainly nostalgic. The best part was the opening song, I mean who wouldn't just love this tune?!



Anyways, let's get on with the toy!

Initial impressions with the packaging leaves me thinking this is a cheaply made toy. I don't know if it's the pink and white stripes or what, but it almost screams knock-off to me LOL

As you can see, this figure of Arale-chan is of her in her pilot helmet outfit, not the regular classic one with winged-cap.
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Upon opening the package, I was introduce to the smell of...stinky plastic. I don't know what type of plastic has this smell, but I don't like it. Turns out it is just the flame attack part that was smelly. It's one of those soft-rubbery type plastic.

The accessories include 3 faces, 3 pair of hands, her NCHA flame cannon attack and the saying in Japanese, a stick, a pink caca, and some clear stands for the figure and accessories.
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First look at the figure shows it has some decent paint apps. She is very top heavy because of her head so she does not stand very well by herself. One little detail that I was somewhat disappointed with was that her glasses sits lower on her face than what was on the box art.

She looks soooo cute!
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There was a little bit of rough paint area on the back of her helmet, no biggie though.

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Articulation-wise, her knees and elbows are single jointed, shoulders and hips are ball-jointed although their movement are severally hindered by the little straps on the side of her helmet and her shorts. Wrists are ball-jointed, but the balls are not very round so it's quite hard to rotate her hands without ripping out her whole arm. The head is mounted to the torso with a ball joint and to the face with a rachet type joint (more on that below).

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When I tried to rotate her hands, the whole shoulder joint detached from the torso. I couldn't get it to go back in properly because of the way the joint goes into the torso. I've never seen it done this way, it is sort of an awkward design. It was very hard to apply force on the joint to get it into place because the hole is inside the shoulder.

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To change her face, you first have to remove the earmuff pieces, then the back half of her helmet. The face piece slides into the front part of the helmet. Here you can see how the head is connected to the "neck" shown above. The outer ball piece that attaches to the neck piece needs to be moved remove and attached to the exchanged face as well. This piece feels really flimsy and I was scared to handle it a lot when changing her expressions.

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Here are all the pieces required to change her expressions.

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Another example of why I keep thinking this figure is poorly made. They couldn't even get the holes drilled correctly for the earmuffs!

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Even with all the drawbacks in quality of this figure, it is still a good representation of Arale-chan. Did you know her favourite hobby is poking poo? LOL

This is with one of the extra hands she comes with which was basically same as the stock fists but with a tiny hole drilled in the center to hold the stick.

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One of Arale-chan's special abilities is her NCHA mouth cannon attack (see video below).



And recreated here with the figure and supplied accessories.

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Overall, I give this figure a 7/10. It is a good representation of the Arale-chan character in the Dr. Slump cartoon. Quality-wise, it is just not up-to-par with figures from lines such as Revoltech and Figma. The joints are a pain to configure with, specifically the shoulder and the wrists. Although it does come with quite some accessories to recreate some funny moments in the show. Do I recommend it? Yes if you are a fan of the show and wants a figure of Arale-chan since I think this one if the only action figure available for the character. No if you are not familiar with the character as you might be slightly disappointed by the quality. I admit I am a bit stumped by the quality of this figure, but I am just as happy to finally have an action figure of this lovable character.

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7 comments:

  1. I like this figure! Its is small but detailed with lots of color which i think is great!

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  2. woow aralechan... realy love the face of this figure,, how much this figure cost ?

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  3. Thanks for the detail review. Somehow I get the feeling you didn't have faith to try out the articulation in full. Can Arale bend her knee to squat?

    Now the question will there be a part two of her in normal hat. I am not still consider if I should get her...

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  4. @jboypacman: Yup, she's definitely a cute and colorful figure!

    @RiP666: I believe this figure was 2880 yen.

    @LEon: In the NCHA attack pose, that's basically how far her thighs can go as far as articulation. Her knees are able to bend around 70~ deg as well. But I just couldn't get her to hold that pose because of her heavy head. And the stand that it comes with is too tall so it makes her look like she's floating in that pose haha. But ya, I was sorta hesitant on trying out the articulation in full because I was scared I would break it. The joints feel really flimsy and feels like they would deform if I apply too much force.

    I am considering if I should get the Ex Gokin version by Artstorm coming in Sept. It is close to triple the price, but it looks like the quality will be much better. She looks more screen accurate and she comes with Gatchan as well!

    http://www.amiami.jp/shop/?set=english&vgForm=ProductInfo&sku=TOY-RBT-1453&template=default/product/e_display.html

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  5. wooow I think I want to grab this too,, but still can't find one in my country.. maybe amiami is the last choice, can't you give me the link from amiami ??

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  6. @RiP666: Here's the link to Amiami, but she is currently sold out. I am not sure if they will restock her, you have to watch Amiami like an eagle because their stock runs out incredibly quick. I had this on preorder from months ago so I was able to secure her.

    http://www.amiami.jp/shop/?set=english&vgForm=ProductInfo&sku=TOY-RBT-1449&template=default/product/e_display.html

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  7. This is soooo...... cute! New toy that bring back old memories of classic anime. I think it's called cartoon in that era! Lol...

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