Cool Girl - Best of Cool Girl Vol.4 - Alternative Cutie Honey

Series	Cool Girl
Title	Best of Cool Girl Vol.4 - Alternative Cutie Honey
Release Date	March 2006
Manufacturer	Takara
Suggested Price (JPY)	9,500
Scale	1/6
Height (cm)	approx. 29 cm
No. of Parts	1 figure + 7 parts + 1 doll stand
My Rating	Good

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Story
Kisaragi Honey is not your typical Japanese teenager. She has a penchant for getting into trouble and being both naughty and nice. One day her carefree life is suddenly rocked when she receives an odd message from her father. Rushing to his laboratory, Honey finds her father murdered. The perpetrators are agents of the evil organization called Panther Claw. They are after Prof. Kisaragi’s invention – The Air Matter Transmutation System. Honey fights off Panther Claw and finds the consciousness of her father alive within a robot facsimile. Prof. Kisaragi shockingly reveals to Honey that she is herself a cyborg which he had created. Prof. Kisaragi had built her to be the perfect cyborg, capable of human emotion as well as independent thought. To this end he had raised her as he would a human daughter. Prof. Kisaragi had also placed the Air Matter Transmutation System into her body. Using its powers, Honey is able to “change” into an unlimited number of different personas, the most powerful of which is the spicy redhead “Cutey” [Cutie] Honey. Honey vows to avenge her father’s death and wages a personal war against Panther Claw. She is aided (hampered) in her battles by the Hayami Clan consisting of brothers Seiji and Jyunpei, and their perpetually “horny” father, Danbei.

Comment
This item from Takara Cool Girl series is a license action doll featuring Cutie Honey, a fiery red-headed alter-ego one-of-many different personalities of Kisaragi Honey. We have seen Cutie Honey from Takara CG series before. Although, this newer "Alternative" version is branded as a re-release item, it actually comes in complete overhaul making this a much improved and/or almost a completely new Cool Girl's Cutie Honey.

Packaging
The figure comes in standard Cool Girl / Cy-Girl packaging where it opens revealing the figure and some accessories on the right window and more accessories on the left plastic tray. The packaging is the usual collector un-friendly design where the left plastic tray is impossible to remove without damaging it.


Front Box Art	Rear Box Art

The following are the detail part listing.

Left Plastic Flap

1 leather belt
1 sword
1 scabbard (can hook to belt)

Main Tray

1 Cutie Honey figure
- with default right sword grip and left open hand
1 display base (also work as a doll stand)
4 extra glove hands
- 2 fist
- 2 chop

Contents

The Cutie Honey Figure
Note that the changes includes her outfit where her shoulders and her back is covered as oppose to her previous version where the ugly those joints are clearly seen on the mentioned area. I guess Takara could not help but revealing the ugly joints since they are basing the outfit design on anime. Whereas, this "Alternative" version is tweaked to expose less flesh in order to hide the hideous joints.

The accessories do come with something new. It includes a new sword, belt and a scabbard. The belt is interestingly decorated with a round clear blue sapphire. This almost like making her wearing a "Henshin" belt as in a Kamen Rider. The best of part is that the belt is made of leather.

There are 4 extra interchangeable hands provided. It is good that there are extra hands provided but then the bad news is the sculpting of her additional hands is simply pathetic. I believe Takara should learn from others who produce action figures. Company like Bandai in their SIC, Garo and Saint Cloth Myth line comes with hand sculpting that are no longer in basic. What can I do with the plain fist and chop? At least the default set of hands, sword grip and open fingers, are livelier and give a much dynamic pose to the figure. It is a slight disappointment to see Takara spent so much effort in re-designing the figure but forgot about the hands. This is as if the hands are provided just to buff up the parts count.

This figure is making use of the new Cool Girl Body 2.0 and the body articulations are superb. However, expect to pay a small price here for its aesthetic value. The tight red and black fighting suit does somehow limit the full capability of the version 2.0's superior articulations. The lower hips and her waist are a good example. The waist has problem to twist too much to the side. She can kneel on both legs but not with a leg down. This is owing to the thigh is limited by the tight suit and cannot be lifted up to 90 degrees.

Face sculpting is, well, a Takara's Cool Girl. This means it is neither anime nor the live-action movie but Takara's very own Cool Girl's signature face sculpts. I believe there are many diehard fans who simply cannot swallow this un-anime sculpt, thus reluctant to get one of this. As far as I concern, this is not a concern at all. As long as the general look and feel is balanced and looks beautiful, I have not problem with it. I do sort of like this realistic approach and she looks good on her own way. Aside from the likeliness issue, the face sculpting comes with a clean paint job, rooted red hair and a nice pair of earrings. No balding issue detected on her rooted hair.

Conclusion
This quite a good license Cool Girl action doll. The articulations are limited by her tight suit but this is expected and a worthy trade off for her killer looks. Some might complain about her not true-to-anime face sculpting and I do believe this is merely a matter of personal preferences. Simply tell to yourself, like I do, that this is some beautiful chick cosplaying Cutie Honey. That should help a lot in accepting this Takara's rendition of Cutie Honey. Value wise, it is a tad on the high side that is expected for a licensed figure. The accessories come with an awesome belt, sword and scabbard but then the extra hands are slightly disappointing.

This item is purchased online from Hobby Search Japan.