When word first broke over a year ago at Wonder Festival 2007 Summer that Vispo’s Seyada Tara kit would be seeing a PVC incarnation from Daiki Kougyou, shock and awe was a phrase that handily described my mental state. While she doesn’t fit the normal spectrum of what I’d look for in a 2D girl, her phenomenal retro-futuristic design combined with the epic sculpt and sheer colossal presence of the figure compelled me to plunk down the large portion of paycheck required to fund her acquisition. All the pieces are in place for a truly historic figure, but does Daiki live up to the task? Read on!

Original Design: Orion
Sculptor: Katagiri Katsuhiro (Vispo)
Source: Daiakuji (eroge)
Scale: 1/4 (33 cm tall)
Materials: PVC
Release Date: August 19th, 2008
Production: Daiki Kougyou
Price: 30,450 JPY (tax included)
Current Availability: [HLJ] [HS] [TL] [KN]

Originally appearing in the 2001 Alice Soft eroge Daiakuji, Seiyada Tara also makes a small appearance in 2004’s Rance VI. She’s described on the official Rance VI site as:

“A clay robot made by Latsunomiko. She usually looks like nothing more than an exquisite life-sized doll, but she comes alive when injected with semen. She appears to like it white and energetic.”

*Note: I did not make this up.

Seyada Tara as she appears in Rance VI

Sculpt

The quality of Tara’s sculpt was a foregone conclusion. With the Vispo name attached and the previews available at Wonder Festival and on his official site there was no doubt in my mind that this was an epic figure; the opportunity to examine it up close has only reinforced this conclusion.

The scale, pose, and balance of anatomical elements and costume work extraordinarily well, creating a figure that looks amazing from just about any angle (with the possible exception of a straight top-down view). The sculptor’s skill is evident in just about all aspects of the sculpt, but really shines in the contrasting textures of the clay costume and her smooth skin. The torque of the waist that establishes the lines of the sculpt extending through the legs and torso is executed flawlessly. All in all, another Vispo masterwork.

Production

My overall impression is that Daiki has done a good job with this figure. If I were the production supervisor’s boss I would take him out for a drink, but I’d probably only pay for one beer before calling it a night – after buying Tara I wouldn’t be able to afford anything more.

The price is the 800-pound gorilla in the room when considering Tara’s production quality. When paying close to $300 USD it’s impossible to ask for too much precision in the quality control, or two many subtle layers of paint; what we see here is good, but not an outlier compared to other recent work from the maker.

All of the basic quality issues that were present in earlier production drafts (notably some seams in the hair sculpt) have been eliminated or mitigated, though one glaring omission is batteries for her LED headset; I’m not sure whether there’s a legal regulation in Japan that bars products from shipping with batteries included, but if there were any item that should properly contain them this would be it. If it’s not a legal thing, Daiki should be taken to task for leaving them out.

Conclusion

Daiki Kougyou’s Seyada Tara is an item that is a litmus test for insanity in bishoujo figure collection. The truly lost likely already have her on order; if you were hovering on the edge before reading this review I can only advise that you take a hard look at your finances and decided whether you value eating for several weeks or not. I’m slowly getting my metabolism used to cardboard and ground-up plastic left over from figure packages… This is an awesome figure, but definitely not one intended for the casual collector; the “bang for your buck” simply isn’t there. On the other hand: if you’ve got the cash to burn and an equally burning desire to support Vispo and see more epic figures on the PVC market in the future, this is an investment seriously worth considering.