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! There is a wall of text in the beginning! If you want to see the figure + pictures and not the background information, you can scroll down a bit. ;) !

This is a review of a figure in an outfit that can be considered NSFW as it has a swimsuit on display!

Background

The reason why and how I got her

Original art

Video

The Box

First Look

The Figure - Display option 1: Magic Eye

The Figure - Display option 2: Both weapons

Sorry for the messy picture, I didn't have another one that turned out well from this shot.

The Points

Positive

Neutral

Negative

The Scores

Sculpting 8/10

Painting 7/10

Posing 8/10

Base 8/10

Packaging 8/10

Enjoyment 8/10

Conclusion

Availability

And to finish it!

Thank you for reading this review!

Welcome to my review! Today I will be talking about a figure of Sakamoto Mio from Strike Witches ENTRY #2 , specifically modelled after her looks in Strike Witches 2 ENTRY #20629 . This figure ITEM #54772 is made by Alter ENTRY #7619 I will start off with telling some more about her background.Strike Witches is a manga, light novel and anime series with character designs from the famous artist Shimada Fumikane/Humikane ENTRY #21456 . The storyline of the franchise takes place in an alternative WWII, where girls with magical powers, called witches, represent famous pilots and the enemy to be beaten are aliens called Neuroi. Witches are the only people that can wear Striker Units, airplane-legs needed to get close to the Neuroi. The series may be a bit hard to get into as it can seem very strange for some, but it's easy to fall in love with the character designs that are a nice mix of cute and fierce.Sakamoto Mio is fromt he country Fuso in the World Witches universe, which is similar to Japan. She has the nickname Samurai, which we can see in her wielding a big Japanese sword names Reppumaru, next to the guns we are used to from other Witches. Mio has a strong personality as the leader and front-line commander of her Squadron. She has a special ability called the 'Magic Eye', which gives her great eyesight. As this ability can not be turned off and would complicate her normal vision, she usually wears an eyepatch on top of it.This figure I picked up as a 'bulk buy' from MASTRACUSTOM , just as with my recently talked about Lucchini BLOG #41191 , Yoshika BLOG #41904 , Minna BLOG #41964 , Charlotte BLOG #42015 , Gertrude BLOG #42073 , Erica BLOG #42118 and Sanya BLOG #42569 BLOG #42570 . I am currently aiming to buy all of the different Witches as their figures made by Alter (not sure about collecting double characters yet).Just like the other figures in this line, there seems to be no specific artwork this figure was modelled after, although it's clear that the figure is based on anime appearance rather than the original artwork from the designer.I do like to use this moment to show off some nice artwork from the second anime season in which she wields both her gun and sword, which comes very similar to this figure.Her Magic Eye ability is also faithfully recreated on the figure.For people that prefer the box shots, first look and first shots of the figure as a video, please take a look at the inserted video below. For the people interested in pictures: keep on scrolling!Parts of this video will also appear as gifs during this review!Slightly different than most in this line having a clear sky box (with the exception of Sanya having the night sky), Mio has a sunset. It matches great with her looks and personality.The box is at the top sealed off with square tape on three sides.There is a Kadokawa Production sticker of authenticity on the front of the box.The blisters of this figure are quite big, but Mio also comes with quite a bit of optional parts!Because of that, the instruction sheet is also quite extensive. Most of these intructions make sense and just mean that you have to be careful when assembling her. The only surprising part to me was that her whole swords fits into her sheath instead of it only being a loose handle or simplified sword to be put in there.Mio using her Magic Eye is definitely a very unique look!A very visible downside for this look right away though, is that with the exact positioning of her uplifted eye patch, you do not get a full look of her Magic Eye, next to the eyepatch casting a shadow on the Magic Eye (which is supposed to stand out) with most lightning.With this display option, Mio her front bangs also move a lot in the wind, which is a nice touch in the sculpt.Mio's ponytail and the rest of her hair have quite thin strands in sculpt, which looks very well done considering the age and price of this figure. The only small downside I can point out with her hair is that it's one solid black, some shading would have been nice.The Magic Eye itself is a nice decal, although it would have been better if the color would have been a bit brighter.Putting the hand correctly around the eyepatch was also a bit tricky as the whole arm had to be inserted while meanwhile you had to try to get the hand to fit. Luckily nothing broke, but if you are not super careful here, you could easily do so!Mio's uniform is plain white, with a little bit of shading painted and creases sculpted. The golden buttons on her uniform are nicely applied.Considering Mio has both a sheath on her back and is wielding a gun, her back looks a bit busy. I think it's very fitting for her also busy role as a leader!As I earlier shortly mentioned, I was surprised to see that the whole sword fully fit into her sheath. It makes it a bit prone to damaging the paint of the sword I assume, but I have not held her long on display like this to find out.The handle of the sword is very nicely detailed and the sculpted texture of the golden parts make it seem like fabric.Her Type 99 machine gun is safely locked under her arm and can't be positioned differently. I do feel like actually her hand should be positioned a bit upwards, so she is posed with good trigger discipline. Right now the hand seems to be a bit 'floating'.The hand itself is delicately sculpted and shows a light shiny nail polish on her fingers.The gun has a nice looking scope and overall details as well. It does not have as much battle damage as releases that were made a couple of years later in this line. The copy being reviewed here is the 2011 release, so I do wonder if they maybe added some extra detail to the 2014 re-release?Now here comes a worrisome bit on the gun for me. The paint on the front here is flaking off, exposing the original white PVC color. I was the first person to unbox this figure after her being sealed for 7 years, so this could have been caused by detoriation to keeping her in the packaging. I will from now on touch the gun as little as possible, also when moving her, and hope it will stay to only this front piece flaking and the rest being clean.And now for the more fanservice-ey parts of this figure! Similar to other Witches from Fuso, a typical Japanese school swimsuit is worn by Mio. You can see sew line details sculpted on the bathing suit and a bit of shading is to be seen.Mio's Striker Units are very good looking, with nicely applied decals and quite some shading to be seen on the bigger parts.Just as with the other Alter Witches, she comes with a pair of non-spinning alternative propellors, which I doubt much people will display her with.Also like the others in this line, Mio comes with a see-through blue base with stats about her.Although I was personally really looking forward to having her displayed with the Magic Eye, I felt somewhat disappointed with that display option and am really happy with her dual-weapon wielding one!The look of her face with the eyepatch down is quite different, next to the fact that her bangs are straight here instead of blowing in the wind.The attachment of the small weft of hair along the right side of her face also looks a bit 'floating' now that we don't have an hand covering most of this detail.Her right hand has a bit of PCV leftovers, but nothing too worrisome. Also here, she has a slight bit of shiny nailpolish.The now otherwise positioned right hand, means more visbility to her behind in this display option.There is a tiny detail at the top of her sword handle.The sword itself looks a bit 'eh' in my opinion. The effect of a shine does not look that well, unless you hold this figure in some bright light.You can see some of the shine looking better in person in above gif.Mio might wear the most simple of the outfits of the girls, but it really looks well done. It's also nice that you can also take a look at the swimsuit from the side.Adding the spinning propellors makes some more sense to the design and posing of this figure. They are of the same partially see-through material as the others in this set and really give you the idea that they are spinning.- Nice overall sculpt with multiple display options.- Nice overall paint.- Eyepatch positioning covers up a lot of the look of the Magic Eye, making this posing look less powerful than it actually is.- Flaking pant on my copy of this figure (was unsealed after 7 years of being boxed), makes me worry for further paint loss and possibly other sealed copies of this figure damaging as well.Really nice sculpt for her price and age. I like how she comes with two different display options that give off really different emotions.A bit simple here and there, but it does it's job well. I do give quite some minus for the paint on her gun flaking, as that gives me worries for the future.Really nice in-characters poses. I wish the eyepatch for the Magic Eye display options was positioned a bit better, though.A big blue disc like the rest of the set. The metal rods are very sturdy and the transparant parts of the base make it easily blend away in a collection.Nicely colored box with a pretty sunset that protects the figure well, it's huge, but so is the figure, there is no wasted space.Except for my slight disappointment with the Magic Eye display option and my worries with the flaking paint, I'm very content with this figure of Mio as it is a good representation of her and I like having her with the rest of my Witches on display!Highly recommendable if you are a fan of this character or try to complete the set of (Alter) Witches. I'm not sure how much I would recommend buying her by herself if you're not a fan of the franchise, then I would think maybe getting Erica ITEM #78647 or Francesca ITEM #78645 would be more interesting as they seem to be the highest in detail of all Alter Witches.Originally released for ¥7,800 in 2011, she now goes for ¥4-5K, which in my opinion, is an incredibly low price which she is definitely worth. I always had the feeling that Mio was one of the lesser popular Witches and this adds extra proof to that theory.I am currently still unboxing most of my Strike Witches collectibles, but here is how they are displayed now:I re-arranged the top shelf with figures I find more fitting there. I am planning on later installing some more lights at the top rows of my detolfs as the black wood really makes some not stand out much anymore. The middle-front looked a bit empty to me, but it became really busy when I tried to add a fifth one in there, so maybe I will later put a Strike Witches figure from another line there.I think this is a nice combination of different poses for the ones I have unboxed now!For those who read all this way, thank you! My next review will be about Alter/Happinet's Akazukin (Little Red Riding Hood) ITEM #282 scaled figure. Such a cute girl!I hope you enjoyed this review, you could also check my other figure reviews when interested! Here are a few of my recent ones:All pictures in high resolution and some extra pictures not used in the review will be uploaded here later today: profile/Maakie/... And if you like my reviews and would like to receive e-mail updates when I have a new one, you can subscribe to my blog on MFC! --> profile/Maakie/... See you at my next review!