New Arrival: Haruhi Composite Ver.Ka

Or more accurately, General-purpose Humanoid type Decisive Battle Exoskeleton PRODUCTION MODEL SOS-1 HARUHI ROBO.
The name is very long and completely unnecessary and totally what Haruhi would call the thing.

I'll just stick with "Composite Haruhi".

The third and final item of the stuff I got a week ago.  This one was purchased from HLJ, which seems to have survived the earthquakes, the tsunamis, the fires, and the meltdowns.  "Wanting to live in Japan" doesn't seem such a great idea whenever the planet reminds everyone that RING OF FIRE.  At least Japan is probably the best-prepared country in the world for that sort of disaster.

That's depressing.  Unfortunately, this picspam isn't going to be much happier, because while Composite Haruhi seems like a very cool idea and all, I've been rather disappointed.

I feel like I should mention I really have no idea what I'm doing with this post.  Composite Haruhi is very conflicting.

Well, let's get right to it.  Haruhi and her mech do look pretty good, at least.  But pulling them out of the box left me underwhelmed.  This is the first Composite Ver.Ka figure I've gotten my hands on, so that might play into my opinions here, as I didn't really have any idea of what I should be expecting of Composite figures.  In a way, this is essentially two seperate figures, though the main point here is to put the two figures together.  I found it pretty interesting to see a lot of people mention getting this for the Haruhi alone, presumably because it was going to be Figma-sized and maybe a bit better than the Fraulein Bunny Haruhi.  For me, I was mainly interested in the actual combo, and if this Bunny Haruhi was better than my Fraulein, that would be a nice bonus.

First, accessories.  Besides the mech, you get two faces, two front hairpieces (one normal and one with the green glasses), an extra back hairpiece, the mech's BFG, a handle for the BFG, a stand, and a total of six pairs of hands.  The extra back hair piece is odd, as it doesn't have the bunny ears, and I'm not really sure there are that many people that would want a Bunny Haruhi without the bunny ears.  Also, Haruhi's ribbons are seperate pieces, so they have to be switched between the back hair pieces, along with the neck joint.  The handle for the BFG is a seperate piece to allow you to choose where you put it; it can be stuck on either side of the gun in a few different positions.  The stand looks nice, but the arm is pretty worthless.  Luckily, the whole thing is Tamashii Stage compatible, along with the figure, so you can just use an arm from Act 4 or 5.  The hand pairs are flat, pointing, peace signs, fists, hands for the gun, and a pair that seems to be made to hold accessories.  Which this Haruhi doesn't come with, and the holes in the hands are smaller than the Figma standard.  The hands are done in the same kind of style as the Figuarts line, though thankfully they are very easy to get on and off (without falling off), unlike my LunaTrigger.

So, the Bunny Haruhi.  Basically, it wants to be a Figma.  Same general size, same joint layout, same styled joints.  Except it didn't quite make it all the way.  Haruhi feels like a cheap, lower-quality Figma.  The joints seem to lack uniformity in how sturdy they are, and the ankles don't feel designed as well as Figma ankles.  There is also one rather large problem with Haruhi, at least mine...

I haven't read but a few other impressions of the figure, so I don't know how widespread this is, but the chest joint socket is far too shallow, allowing the joint to pop out of place pretty easily.  Like "any time trying to pose the figure" easy.

And then I tried to pull the head off the body, and ended up pulling the joint apart instead.  There's really nothing holding the joint together other than friction.

And then I took a closer look at what happened to the joint when I did that.  Well shit.  Hopefully the drop of super glue I put on the crack will hold it in place.  Provided I didn't break the glue bond trying to put the neck joint back together and in the body.

But hey!  The joints are nearly the same size as Figma joints!  Now if only I had a junker Figma that I could salvage the joints out of and do a full joint swap with this Haruhi's joints...

Putting on the glasses and alternate face.  The glasses seem to be much darker than the promotional pictures.  It's still clear, but hard to see anything through.

Moving on to the mech.  This thing is made out of joints, apparently.  They're everywhere, even on the ears.  And most of them are ball joints, so it's rather flexible.  The mech is also very fiddly and it is rather difficult to pose something without having to re-pose something else.  Curiously, the mech is very light.  I suppose that's good for putting it on a stand in the air, since the stand would also need to support the weight of the figure in the mech.  But I would have liked for it to have a bit more weight, as it doesn't feel very sturdy.  Something like metal feet (like most Figuarts have) would also be nice to help keep it balanced.

For some reason, mine was covered in a ton of mold lubricant, and I had to give it a good rinsing, though there's still some crap on there.

It wouldn't be Ver.Ka without a bunch of decals and lettering!  Haruhi got Katoki'ed.

A figure is held in the mech by sticking their feet into the boots of the mech, which open up at the back to accomidate this.  There's also a small clamp thing at the waist level, but it's more for looks than holding something in place.

The BFG connects to the mech in multiple places, so you can pick and choose where it's coming from.  There are peg holes under each of the mecha-ribbons and on each of the hip-plates, under some removable plug-thingies.  The arm of the BFG is also filled with joints, so it can be moved around pretty well.

The peg holes also fit Revolver joints.  The ribbon holes aren't that deep, though.

Other figures can be stuck in the mech, but you'll be largely limited by whatever has small enough feet and doesn't have big hair.

And back to combined mode.  Ultimately, this figure wasn't as good as I was hoping, with the best-case scenario being that I wouldn't need my Fraulein anymore.  As it is, I'll be keeping the Fraulein, the Composite will mostly be sitting around as a display piece, and I won't be getting the Yuki that's been shown, despite giant fists and a mecha witch hat.  Trying to play with this thing pretty much sucks, but at least it still does look good.  And the problems aren't enough that they will prevent the figure from being used in one of my SECRET PLANS, like what happened with Big Boss' Big.

If you plan to get Composite Haruhi just for the Haruhi, I would recommend thinking it over carefully.  Or at least read a bunch of reviews to see if my problems were just a fluke.  Even then, the Fraulein still beats this Haruhi in all of the other accessories it has (even without the four busts) if you're going to be discounting the mech anyways.