The Busou Shinki line revolves around the 15cm-tall MMS female figure designed by Asai Masaki (a.k.a. Apsy Masaki). It’s slim, elegant and unlike a lot of female action figures, actually looks feminine.
Make no mistake, though, this sylph is an action figure. MMS stands for “Multi Movable System” which is Konami marketing-speak for “it has joints” and the figure is indeed well-articulated. The head swivels, the bottom of the neck is ball-jointed, the shoulders are hinge-swivel combos, the biceps swivel, the elbows are hinged, the wrists swivel, the chest is ball-jointed, the thighs swivel and the knees and feet are hinged. In addition, some of the extra hands include a hinge joint. Most of these joints have been designed to allow a good range of motion so posability is quite good.
The posability is further improved by the cleverly designed hip joints. There’s a conventional ball joint for each hip but it’s supplemented by an additional U-shaped piece that swings out to allow extreme poses. The reason for this approach can only be to avoid ugly hips but it must be pointed out the figure does look awkward in some poses when the hip joints are swung out.
The overall design seems mostly sturdy but I would recommend exercising caution with the hip joints when placing the figure in extreme poses. The instruction sheet also advises caution when handling the knee and elbow joints although I don’t think it’s strictly necessary to point out knees and elbows don’t actually bend in those directions.
The MMS figure is meant to be easily disassembled to facilitate the swapping in and out of accessories, costume parts and weapons. For instance, to change Xiphos from plain MMS figure to knight, you have to first remove the head, the bust, the arms at the bicep, the hands and the lower legs.
Take note the biceps, wrists and thighs have plastic washers which may have to be removed when equipping certain parts to ensure a better fit. The washers for the wrists are especially tiny and will no doubt be the first pieces to be lost in this set. Some fans prefer to store these washers in the compartment at the bottom of the figure stand when not in use but I suggest using a separate plastic bag.
Right now, the only way to get the basic MMS figure is to purchase one of the 3500 yen sets but Konami will begin selling the core figures as MMS Naked on January 25 for 1800 yen each.
