I flick the desklamps on and wait for the lights to get to temperature. It’s 3am. Everyone else is asleep, not driving cars, not talking on cell phones, not texting. I load Medusa into the CD player and then after some whirring sounds the diva starts singing. My dog carefully watches me fiddle with the lights around a pvc figurine of a video game girl, hoping that an extra part will drop to the ground so she can chew it up. Poor girl. Blanc Neige has no extra parts.
I love doing this when it’s quiet and there’s no one around. The world just feels different somehow.
Blanc is part of the Max Factory collection of Shining Tears characters dressed only in their swimsuits. These characters were illustrated by the famous Tony. Tony has such a graceful touch with his girls in the way he draws them. Replicating that grace in figure form was probably not an easy task, but the figure holds up well when compared with the illustration by Tony that decorates the box.
I love photographing swimsuit figures. I’m a minimalist at heart and swimsuits appeal to my fondness for minimalism. The ecchi factor is an obvious reason, but I like the way light and shadow form around the subtle shapes of a finely sculpted body. It’s a great way to work out lighting, since there’s nothing to get in the way making a hard unwanted shadow, except the figure’s hair, so there’s a bit more room to sculpt with light.
Swimsuit sculpts give sculptors room to show their anatomy skills. Without much costuming, swimsuit figures really don’t have much to offer, so the sculpt better be good or else it’s just a boring waste. Neige’s belly is no boring waist. Belly shots are what I look forward to when snapping pictures of a swimsuit figure.
Review
Swimsuit figures are naturally pervy. Blanc Neige manages to feel both like a pin-up with the way she smooshes her breasts together and classical like a museum statue, though I can’t really explain that one. Probably it’s her facial expression and that her pose feels timeless.
Max Factory puts together a nice line with the Shining Tears swimsuit figures. Tony box art, attractive sculpting, and above average production values is a good package. Blanc is pretty enough on her own that she’s perfectly fine even without her series mates, though you’ll probably feel compelled to get at least one more MF Shining Tears figure to keep her company. Actually, I bought Blanc Neige to keep Ryuna company for when she arrives this spring.
I like this figure a lot more after photographing her. Neige is quite photogenic. Before getting her, the part I found least appealing was her hair, but really the gloss on it is great, especially when it catches the right light where then her hair seems to radiate.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that there is a fairly obvious seam that is visible on her left-side hair. The fortunate thing is it’s not in a location that will be visible from most viewing angles. Still, it is the main reason I did not give this beautiful figure a “Highly Recommended” tag.
Japanese Release: Mid-December 2006
USA Release: February 2007
Other Views
Blanc Neige at Otaku@melbIndo
Holy shit. This shoot is awesome. So beautiful, and hiddenly perverse.
wow this is a nice shoot, gave me a nose bleed. When I saw the stock photos elsewhere it wasn’t as sexy as yours.
This set is awesome! ^_^ Kudos!
Haha I definitly agree with all what you said about swimsuit figurines. The things about light and shadow over body shapes, the stuff about scultor anatomy skills…
I took photos of my Hakufu in black bikini, and exactly as you say (sorry for quoting but I can’t find better words) : “I like this figure a lot more after photographing her”
She has such beautiful eyes. Great pics as usual!
I’m glad people like this set. Going into it I wasn’t sure how it would turn out.
Hiddenly perverse…I like that.
They did a good job on her eyes and is one of the things that really helps it have the same feel as the illustrated version of Neige.
your shots deeply impress me! can you provide a shot of the whole setup!?
ugh… i managed to let blanc pass by, but after seeing those pics im somewhat reconsidering!
waaah, very nice photoshot, superb indeed
nothing less expected from super rats ^^b I like the idea of putting the tiny flowers
very pretty
The awesome thing about photographing swimsuit figures is the the ability to bring out the nice skin tone of the figures through the lighting, which makes it look fairly realistic. Though such a shame as I’m not really into swimsuit figures. Good pics as usual.
Awesome stuff as usual.
I want to upload my pics to Flickr too. Do you get sad folks complaining or reporting your images? I ask because I have had hate mail in the past me my photos.
I didn’t record exactly what I did. Each shot has a slightly different setup, but basically I used two lights for every shot. If you look at the pictures, one side has a stronger highlight than the other. The lamp is about 8-10 inches away on that side. On the other side the lamp is about 15-18 inches away. About 3/4 of the shots also make use of a white poster board reflector. I’ll see if I can diagram a couple of shots and put it in another post…I hope.
So far nobody has sent me hate mail on Flickr. While I’m sure there is flaming on Flickr, I am amazed at how little of it there actually is considering the volume and the wildly different backgrounds of the people who use the site. Personally, I’ve never witnessed it. At least once every other week I get someone asking me where they can buy figures, which is awesome. I wish I had more time and the disposition to return all of the nice things people have said to me on Flickr.
Good day, I am commenting here for the first time. Hope that it is not the last time though.
I don’t know if it is a bad feeling, but I’m feeling some kind of a good envy at such talent, cause my pictures are not that perfect. 
Dear HappySoda, your pictures are awesome and it’s a real gift from a nature to have such talent.
The first picture blew me away.
Hey rats, I have an idea for you to make money. Start selling posters of your photoshoots. Don’t provide linking to hi-res versions of your pictures so that you can sell hi-res posters. The first poster set I’d purchase from you is that set of ROD photos.
But of course make it quality prints.
A second possibility would be to compile your past year photos and pick the best out of each set and print calendars to sell.
Thank you very much Gwennan. Keep taking pictures if you want to take better ones. When I take pictures I already have the picture I want in my mind and it’s a matter of making it with the camera. So while you shoot, always think of how to make the camera give you what you want.
LianYL, thanks for the ideas. A figure calendar would be fun. Photo quality printing is expensive and I’d probably have to get some kind of permission to be able to sell it. I still might just make one for laughs though.
[...] duper rats (Power UP!) has put up a review of Max's bikinied Banc Neige PVC. She looks good, and Mr. rats has definitely taken some wonderful shots of Madame Neige, and I [...]
Woah. I knew this figure was hot… swimsuit figures well done are really elegant and beautiful. Excellent pictures as usual! I still can’t get the hang of indoor shooting though, tragically.
super rats, sell t-shirts with your shoots and compete directly with tj han for t-shirt sales.
Muhahahaha.
Sounds evil. If only tripeman weren’t already the win.
Do you have any shots of the left side of her head? I love my Blanc Neige, but dislike some very visible production flaws along the sides of head in the hair.
You can kindof see them in the shots at http://otaku.melbindo.com/?p=86
(”Close up front view” and “sexy back view”). Note the distinct curved lines where parts meet.
I don’t see them in your shots, so I am wondering if it’s atypical or if your photos are just carefully selective
.
Yes, her hair has an obvious join there, which is a reason I didn’t add a ‘Highly Recommended’ tag. Even though it’s an ugly flaw, it’s not visible from a normal view angle, so I didn’t mention it. I should have though. In fact, I’ll add that to the review portion.
Just out of curiosity, are there any female anime figures out there without the revealing clothing/big breasts, don’t have pink on them, and have short black hair?
Breathtaking photos, btw. Go and make some $ out of your photography skills.
Yeah, anime is a little lacking in that department, lol, but there are a few like Maggie Mui from ROD TV or Saya from Blood+. There’s also Yomiko from ROD, but she has long hair. If you left out the short hair requirement, there are more figures, mostly gown wearing characters that don’t have pink or skimpy clothing.
[...] amazed by so many figures he still has for sale that you can barely find anywhere, like Yuukanalia, Blanc Neige swimsuit, Rindou Rina, Pachira, Saber swimsuit (leaner) and many others. I had never seen the MG Hi-Nu box [...]
[...] version of her figures was release, there’s the Max Factory version that you can see here at super rats’ blog and the President version at shino’s blogWhen I first saw the prototype of her, my first [...]
I love the pictures. They make the figurine even more pretty. ^_^ I’m using the photo of the bosom with the itty bitty flowers as my desktop background (hope you don’t mind). It’s so beautiful; I adore the softness.
I really like it when people do stuff like that. Thanks, Jen.