[2019-03-02] Robot Neoanthropinae Polynian: Polynian Mel (Gray Flesh)

Mel, Mer, whatever you wanna call her, she's still cute. I like when multiple reviews in a particular series allow me to talk about different aspects of it - let's talk about recolors.

If you've taken a look at the things Polynian has to offer, you may have noticed some color variants. It seems like a good way to get mileage out of such elaborate molds before moving onto something new, and in a way keeps a figure on the market for people who don't mind a different flavor.

The main types of recolors they like to do are the "Gray Flesh" variants, which is self explanatory. According to the photo galleries on their site, this is a tropical skin tone, so I guess you could say it's a Polynian equivalent to a suntan. That said, they change other colors too, like the hair.

Up front, a summary of Mel's original release: White skin, blonde hair, dark blue swimsuit. I decided to show what expressions she comes with because they differ. Interesting start!

The Gray Flesh variant of Mel is dressed for the beach in her white one piece, which is oddly just as "teched out" as the clothing they normally wear, with little lines and blocky detailing here and there. It also features the standard peghole port on the back for display stands.

The hair on Mel is an excellent shade of Miku Hatsune teal, which feels like it goes well with the grey skin. The pigtails are attached via pegs, and she's sporting the same trio of pegholes as any other figure, so you can just sport one or none, as is your want. The official photos favor a single one on the side.

As for articulation… I mean, no parts to get in the way, so she's fully poseable! I've talked before about Daibadi's work, and it still shines here.

The sandals were something I was curious about, especially since they seem a little chunky, and it turns out they're pretty clever. She has bare feet that make use of the display stand peghole to slide in and securely attach to a peg on the sandals, and the front of said sandals also have a peghole for the display stand, so you can securely display here with or without them! Kudos, Daibadi. On the bottom, the back end sports a short peg for an accessory I'll talk about shortly.

Accessories are simple, but fun. The standard selection of hands is available, that being closed hands, open hands, and item-holding hands. As has become tradition, you'll see them being used in the photos here.

Mel comes with a water gun! Which probably isn't that harmless, because it's a powerful looking gun, with some translucent green for flavor.

She also has a small boogie board, appropriately. It's an orange piece with a peg to place it onto her back, and happens to also have a peghole for display stand use, or for pegging in the gun for storage.

Also included is a pair of… what I can only describe as armor for the sandals, as they peg into the bottom and add some bulk to the sides that makes it look like she's perhaps skating.

The board has handles on the side that rotate out, and you can slide in these cannons which can either be pointed forward like weapons, or pointed down to act like a sort of jetpack.

Finally, by pegging the cannons onto the sides of the gun, and removing a small hinge piece and replacing it with the sandle armor, you get a nice beefy gun with triple the firepower! I love when weapons come with alternate modes like this. It's clever stuff.

Okay, let's talk faces. You may have noticed I've only been using one in these photos - I bought this from a seller who also got it second-hand, so he did not realize it was missing the actual expressions she's supposed to come with. Basically, two of them were the faces from Clover and Shamrock. Not a big deal, I've worked out a way to customize these faces since then.

But since Daibadi takes lots of nice pictures of their figures, you can see them here. Mel is a fun girl, with a happy expression that has an open mouth, a serene expression with closed eyes, and a sort of pouty face with angry eyebrows concealed by the bangs of her hair.

Then we end on my improvised attempt at actual clothes! Since a lot of people like to dress up the otherwise "nude" figures in this line, and Mel is wearing a swimsuit, I felt inspired to find a new look for her.

But yes, that was Mel. The Gray Flesh variety, specifically. It's a fun package if you're into the idea of beach robot with epic water guns, and I'd say a good excuse to get into the 1/12 scale clothing crazy that occurs with these figures. It can't be summer all the time. Sometimes, pants happen.