Ok so I was going to rush this out yesterday until I remembered both how fun writing a review was and how much I missed playing with this figure. Also this was my first toy review in almost 2 years so I had to try and remember how I even do this sort of thing. I hope that it was worth the wait.
Here's Lum, the bodacious alien bride of Ataru, a perverted blockhead who somehow dislikes having a girl dressed like this engaged to him. I could discuss the anime, but all that should matter is whether or not the figure accurately reflects the character.
Similar to my original reviews I'll judge this figure based on the its:
Accessories
Faces (Expressions)
Playability
However, in the hope of showing some growth as a reviewer I'll now be adding the categories of:
Staying Power
Collection Utility
To explain each of these categories quickly:
Accessories: What (if anything) does the figure come with as props? (Objective)
Faces/Expressions: What faceplates can the character be displayed with? (Objective)
Playability: How much fun is it the figure to play with/use? (Subjective)
Staying Power (NEW): How fun is the figure awhile after you first buy it? (Subjective)
Collection Utility (NEW) : What does the figure provide to your collection? (Subjective)
Anyway now that I've somewhat explained how I'll be doing this. Let's get back to the figure!
This is a shot I took to show off her articulation (my feelings on articulation usually are that I notice when articulation is greatly hindered, but otherwise I usually don't talk about it much).
Now to delve into the categories!
Accessories:
Lum comes with:
A standard figma hand set
An open hand for her Lightning Bolt
Her Lightning Bolt ^^
Her Cousin Tet (with a stand attachment)
2 Extra Faces
A standard figma stand (not pictured, but your not missing anything)
While Lum doesn't come with that many accessories the few she has are very unique.
Lum comes with her mighty lightning bolt. Whenever her foolish husband to be Ataru would cheat on her she'd shock his ass (My girlfriend is a jealous Pikachu more or less). She's also one of the only figmas to come with an additional figure (Tet) for what it's worth.
Granted I think Tet is pretty boring, but his inclusion is nice.
Still with only 2 real accessories I'll can only give Lum an average score.
Accessories: 6 of 10
Faces (Expressions):
Lum comes with 3 faces:
Confused, Intrigued (Default Face)
Smiling, Looking to the Right
Enraged, Angry, On the War Path
Here's a close up of Lum's Default "Oooh" face
I love this face, especially how they made it her default expression. This is a perfect look for posing Lum being confused by any ridiculous situation you can think of.
Here's her smiling face
Yep she's ready to be an idol. This is a nice face, but it's the weakest of her set in my opinion. Granted it's awesome to be able to pose her feeling happy.
And lastly her angry face
Now this is my actual favorite face. It perfectly captures her character during the few times she gets really pissed. I feel like the only thing missing would be an Ataru for her to blast.
I love her faces, there's no dispute there. She has 3 available expressions to show off they very different emotions. I'm especially in love with her incredible exploitable confused face and the ferocity of her angry face.
Faces/Expressions: 10 of 10
Playability:
For sake of ease I'll use the following omake to show off Lum's playability.
Egashira has "something" to show Lum
She's kneeling down for this one (like a good wife)
What could possibly go wrong?
Egashira got too frisky, Lum doesn't seem too happy about it
Lum and Egashira are about to fight it out
Egashira realizes he's miscalculated this challenge
Egashira gives up, Lum is too strong
Lum calms down believing that Egashira might lead to her "Darling"
Egashira just couldn't resist
Lum's fired up again!
Lum used Thunderbolt! It's Super Effective!
Lum attempts to revive a stunned Egashira (how is it possible that Lum wasn't the one getting her nipples rubbed in this review?)
Ok enough silliness, I was having a lot of fun (which is why this post was delayed). Lum is a blast to play with
Playability: 10 of 10
Staying Power/Collection Utility:
So this post is dragging on so I'll review both her of last points as one. You might have noticed that Mio from K-on is being displayed with Lum's body. You might have also decided that Lum's body would look great combined with other figmas.
*I'm biased since I love Mio so much
So basically I bought Lum just to use her body for head swaps long before I watched a portion of her show and actually grew to like her character. Her Staying Power is solid since whenever you need to put a girl in a skimpy swimsuit she's there to help. Furthermore, she gives this body/outfit as utility to any figma collection. The only reason I'm not giving her 2 perfect scores is because admittedly (and this might just be from having too many figures to choose from) I barely ever use her, but again that's just me.
Staying Power: 9 of 10
Collection Utility: 9 of 10
Final Thoughts:
Lum is an amazing figma, arguably one of the best in the initial 100 releases. I fully recommend her to any fan of her ancestral series or of figures in general. She's funny, sexy and ready to fulfill whatever role you need her for. Now if you'll excuse I suddenly need to make an Ataru cut-out...
