I remember the Queeny drop on Bambaland, and I remember it well. It was at the end of the month of January 2012, and I exercised my right as a 3AA for the very first time. There were no secret drops, no surprise, no emo. It was pure, straightforward fun, and so, so memorable cause of its simplicity. I was excited over the new character, the new product, the new design. There was no stress, there was no gimmicky marketting of being it being a limited exclusive. Then, quarter of a year later, I received the product. No fuss about it.
If the product is well designed, that is all it takes for the sale to get going, and not some secret drops to build up the hype. End of the day, fans want to be able to buy what they want, and when they want to. Surprise drops done all in good fun? Yeaaaah, riiiight, suuuure. I'm sure people who've spent two whole days been F5-ing at their computers on 6 and 7 June 2012 for Red Sham and GID Audrey would agree. Another story, for another time (when Sham arrives).
Queeny arrived in Singapore a couple of weeks ago, but I just couldn't find the time to do a review on her, until this weekend. I think for a change, I'll get on with the QC issues first, and with them outta the way, perhaps we could then appreciate the figure better. Stright out of the box, both ankle ball joints were loose, and really couldn't support the weight of the figure. Perhaps one of the stations along the line of the Quality Control (if there is one) at ThreeA should be to try letting the figure stand straight. If they aren't able to stand straight with the feet firmly on the ground, it is probably because the ball joints are loose and should never be shipped to the customer. Luckily, spare ball joints were included, so I was able to swap both out. Then again, I always thought that the spare ball joints were for one of those rainy days when Queeny takes a shelf dive and breaks her ankle pegs. Now, straight out of the box, I already needed to put the spare parts to use.
Another QC issue that was observed by other collectors (but not present on this particular piece of mine) is the peeling rubber body. On the abs and hips of the figure, there is a layer of soft rubber finish around the hard plastic moulding, and sometimes these rubber parts tend to peel away or crack, so be sure to check underneath her clothes when you get her (right... like you needed an excuse to do that!)...
Queeny sports a V3 female body that ThreeA has developed, and used previously for the RVHK Yesterday Princesses. Things they changed: the shoes and hands. While she has been labelled as the "First Tomorrow Queen", she is really hardly the first to be manufactured. Honestly, I've lost count of the number of TQs that has been made, but in the storyline, I guess Queeny's the first, meaning that all the rest of 'em Queens had been cloned from her. If, in reality, Queeny's first for anything, it is the fact that she is the first Tomorrow Queen to be
She also sports a new headsculpt. You might notice straight away that the eye patch does not line up properly when the band goes under her fringe near her left eye. It was something that was picked up by the fans when initial promo pics were released. I'd say I wasn't too surprised by the fact that the design hasn't been changed, cause it probably isn't the first time when comments made by fans had fallen on deaf ears when it comes to 3A. Maybe it's just the designer's ego getting in the way... Still, small design (not QC) issue. Two pig tails at the back of her head adds a tinge of cuteness to Queeny's overall bad-ass image.
The eye patch lends the otherwise polished and refined TQ some character. I really like the overall character design for Queeny, from the snug fitting tank top revealing her abs to the khaki pants, which I prefer rolled up into halves, revealing the 7 bones decal on her left calf. She has alot of pouches hanging from her belt (but I'm not complaining), with an unknown artifact dangling from it. I don't know what it is, but like many things with 3A, it really is up to your interpretation. I can offer you some of suggestions: (a) For the uninspired - it is a water bottle; (b) For the romantic - it is an urn containing the ashes of her first lover; (c) For the ever sceptical - 3A produced too many of these scopes that were initially meant to be mounted on the gun belonging to Caesar, but later the design got rejected by the man above, and these parts HAD to go somewhere...
Queeny's weapon of choice: a wooden staff. It is an interesting change from the usual katanas that were standard issues to all previous TQs so far. And quite appropriate, might I add, cause I did picture her here holding Wasabi's sword and it just didn't look quite right.
The shoes look cheapo... another design issue that was raised, and which I kinda agree. I think it is due to the fact that the sculpting on the shoes were too 2-dimensional, without any raised / depressed surfaces, like the shoes that belonged to the OG TKs. It really is a great opportunity missed by 3A, to create nice shoes that were the female version of what the TKs had. I hope they do something about it, if they're thinking of reusing these moulds.
Standing next to Wasabi, the 1st of the 7 Bones crew that was issued, the pair really looks like a match made in heaven. Can't begin to imagine how 7 of them would look together. Of course, that would probably be a couple of years down the road, looking at the pace at which these characters are being developed. Queeny was supposed to be the 3rd, but she overtook Kyoku along the way. Standing next to the other TQs though, Queeny might look a tad too short, owing to the fact that she isn't wearing heels.
All in all, a great looking figure. Again, QC issues aside, I'm glad I bought a couple of her. She is unique amongst the TQs that has been issued so far, partly because all of the others look so polished and manicured. Queeny is a figure that I find myself picking up more often than the rest to change her pose / fighting stance, etc. Can't wait for the rest of the 7B crew, but I keep telling myself not to be impatient about something that I speculate to happen only by the end of 2014 if we are lucky... I hope I am wrong though.
The last pic was inspired by the painting by A. Wood called "There". It has been cropped. The full sized one is on my Flickr.
2 comments:
Nice! Thumbs up! =)
Thanks...!
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