Figure Information
Character: Tina Sprout
Origin: Black Bullet
Maker: Plum
Scale: 1/7
MyFigureCollection: Direct Link
Amazon: Direct Link
Who’s that waifu?!
Tina Sprout graces us from the Black Bullet series. It’s like Claymore, except instead of aesthetically pleasing half monster half human women, you get half monster half loli hybrids as mankind’s main defense against the Gastrea. There are a lot of crime fighting, monster killing lolis, each with a distinct appearance and fighting style ranging from melee fighters to firearms.In terms of combat abilities, Tina was ranked 98 out of however many combat lolis in the Black Bullet universe. It wasn’t a terrible show. Some parts were done pretty well and other areas not so much. I say watch it once at least for Tina’s arc as those episodes are cute and enjoyable. Tina is the ultimate nocturnal sniper loli! she’s soft spoken and extremely innocent, unknowingly saying phrases that can be interpreted sexually. Ravioli ravioli, please don’t lewd the sniper loli. In order to stay awake during the day, Tina takes caffeine pills liberally with her food.
I do like to introduce the figure’s source material in the beginning if I’m able to find that kind of information. Normally, Tina sports her iconic frilly green dress, but not in this particular scene. Enju (on the left) and Tina love a particular magical girl show (they are still kids after all) on television called Tenchuu Girls and, in this particular episode, they cosplayed as some of the characters. Of course, it’s not a 100% match, I don’t remember Tina posing like her figure in the anime, but for sure this is where the figure’s sculpt inspiration comes from. Apparently, bundled with the Black Bullet fourth volume, you get a short one minute clip of the actual Tenchuu Girls shows.
The Box
Alright, onto the box, definitely as cute as Tina. Off the bat, the front window is decorated in her figure’s bow, heart and star from the base, and draws your attention. Which makes sense as this windows gives you the best view of the figure. The other three provides odd angle glimpses, but doesn’t really tell you much. That’s where the side and back picture comes in. Left side shows a close up of Tina, right side is how the figure looks like set up with the base and the back picture is a combination. I love the decoration on the top, matches the belt/ring on her hip, very cute detail there. All the warnings and bar code information is conveniently placed on the bottom side of the box, doesn’t ruin the box aesthetics nor draw your attention away from the figure.
The Base
This base is from the future of plain white bases. First, this base is not a boring white square/rectangle shape. It’s a half circle that just so happens combines with another half to form Exodia. Not only that, but you can put ornaments and letters within the tracing gap of the base. So, I looked it up, and the two letters spell Tenchuu, like our Tenchuu Girls, in cutesy font. The letters look and feel like glossy plastic. The heart and star has a sandy feel to the touch. I don’t really care for the pink crisscross separating the letters from the base peg, but it does feel like something should be there, just not sold on what Plum decided to go with. The center base peg is interesting, you are able to rotate that peg a full circle, welcome to the future. It does allow you to display Tina as an individual figure as you have place her facing forward where the letters are. If you do have the Enju that goes with this though, you can turn the peg the other way and display both figures together, completing the full circle base.
Fine print
The spear is pretty nifty as well. I think the design is really cutesy, the power of love or something. The paintwork is definitely eye-catching, diamond pattern on the two ends is done nicely as well as the barely noticeable blueish dots.Yellow disk below the heart is not attached like the bottom disk, the whole inner circle is clear plastic. Overall, I like Tenchuu Tina’s spear, a good amount of thought went into making it awesome as well as complimentary to the figure.
Honestly, Plum nailed it on Tina’s face and expression. It matches her kind of enthusiasm and mouthing perfectly. Her pose, along with this expression, you take one look and you know this is such a Tina thing to do. I love it.
Bow in the back is lacking on closer inspection, the color is kind of off compared to the other shades of pink on the figure. Structurally, the bow lacks emphasis, creases near the center looks lazy and unconvincing. Paintwork on the bead belt and heart clips also visibly bleed out like a bad prize figure. This is definitely the worst section as I was taking a closer look at the figure.
I didn’t mention it earlier when we looked at Tina’s face, but her hair is also spot on. Plum managed to get the messy cute look perfectly. The sculpt is pretty good, minor blemishes here and there, but overall the back angle looks really good.
Hand pose close up
Front bow is nice, matches the sash ends and has good detail.
Close up on the dress. I just want to say I love the dotted line pattern on her dress, It’s disgustingly adorable.
Side view. Better look at the hair detail, hair now, sash, and dress.
Cute matching stockings to go with cute dress.
Full view
Verdict?!
Overall, I will say I am a fan of this Tina figure. There are small areas where either the sculpt or the paint doesn’t quite match up to the rest of the figure, but I am definitely happy with my purchase. Partially, due to this being the only Tina scale figure ever made, still a little salty that we do not have a Tina scale in her regular attire, but I’ll take it. The head is perfect; hair is nice and messy, facial features and expression is on point. The hair band area is a step down in quality. I like the body sculpt and pose. Paintwork is inconsistent, great in some areas, kind of bad in some upon closer inspection. The base is definitely a selling point since it’s pretty unique and you get customization options. If you’re a Tina fan, this is as good as it gets and it’s honestly not that bad. I didn’t like the costume version at first, but it’s grown on me.
Price watch
I do not remember my original purchase price, cannot seem to find the invoice, I know it’s a preorder though. Alright, as of 09/19/2017, general Google search yielded no results from reputable sellers, a lot of out of stock pages though. Zero results from Mandarake as well. Four sellers on MyFigureCollection show figure is available with the cheapest around $146.00 with shipping included. Amazon has a listing for about $128.50 total, a little extra at $135.15 you can buy directly from Amazon qualifying for two day Prime shipping. Right now, buying on Amazon would win out barely, more so if you have something like the Amazon credit card netting 5% cash back and an additional 3% in jetBlue points if you’ve signed up for TrueBlue program (which is free, can be done on the jetBlue website). But again, if you’re in no rush, doesn’t hurt to just keep an eye out for price drops.
