#I tried ordering one off of amiami; it was only $2 and I don’t expect to receive it

[blueish-bird]

sad? Megumi Bus

[theseaver]

Adventures with GSC’s Nendoroid Face Maker, Part 2

Part 1

Ordering Costs and Shipping Times

I know if I was reading this, I’d want to know the logistics of ordering right about now.  So here we go!

The faceplates themselves cost 1480 JPY = 13.15 USD.  As far as I could tell, there wasn’t a shipping cost to ship them within Japan, or the shipping cost was built into the price.

Once the faceplates arrived at the DeJapan warehouse, I paid 2100 JPY = 18.66 USD.  I used EMS shipping, which was pretty middle of the road when it came to costs.  There were both more and less expensive options, but only a few hundred yen in either direction.  No real reason why I chose EMS, I just know I’ve had good experiences before.  I appreciated DeJapan’s transparency here, because using AmiAmi or GSC, they never estimate all the different shipping options for you.  The cost is always a surprise when they demand the payment.

What I didn’t appreciate is they tacked on a 100 yen “consolidation fee” when I submitted the form for the faceplates.  Supposedly, there was an option to opt out of this, but I didn’t know and the consolidate option is the default.  Basically, if you’re expecting multiple items, they will pack it all up in one box to save you shipping costs.  It’s very nice, but I only had the one order and still had to pay the fee anyway because I checked a box incorrectly.  Oh, well.  I’ll be more careful next time.

So you’ve ordered your faceplates and you’ve paid!  How long can you expect to sit next to the mailbox, eagerly awaiting your delivery?  I ordered my faceplates on October 11th.  The DeJapan blog had estimated 2 weeks for the NFM to make the faceplates and ship them, so imagine my surprise when the NFM emailed me on October 15th to say (I can only assume, since it was in Japanese) that my faceplates shipped!  DeJapan emailed on the 16th (LATE at night, so for this and the next few emails, it was the next day in Japan) that my items had made it to their warehouse.  This was when I had to confirm that I didn’t want to consolidate my order.  On the 17th they requested my payment to ship, and on the 18th they confirmed that my package was on its way.  (During this three day span, I took the requested actions within 15 minutes of them emailing me every time, but it still took another 24 hours for them to move to the next step. Not complaining, just giving you a clear idea of the timeline.) I received the package October 23.

So, to sum up, if you didn’t want to read that long-winded explanation:

I spent a total of 3580 JPY, or 31.81 USD, on the two faceplates. The faceplates took about 12 days to be delivered to my house.

Maybe $31.81 seems like a lot of money for two faceplates.  Heck, it’s like half the price of a whole new Nendoroid, depending which one you’re looking at.  But... I take pictures of my Nendos and update my Tumblr almost weekly.  I figured I’d get some good use out of them.  Or maybe they would look horrible and this was a waste of time.  But at least I could help educate some other people out there.  

But you’ve waited long enough.  Let’s get into...

The Faceplates’ Arrival

Alright, the moment we’ve all been waiting for!  I grabbed some scissors, opened my package, and...!

Okay!  I’m not going to lie, the first time I opened that box, it was pretty exciting.  After staring at an animated version of my product for almost two weeks, it was super cool to see it in 3D laid out in front of me.  My first impression of the faces was really positive, especially Victor’s face, which I expected to look super weird with that light blue pupil.  I was so happy the actual face didn’t turn out that way!  Alas, though, my excitement was to be short lived.  Let’s compare.

So that’s NFM Yuuri on the left and Real Yuuri on the right.  I don’t know how well it comes across on the pictures, but the eye color is way off.  Real Yuuri has these reddish-brown eyes, and NFM Yuuri’s are definitely more brown-brown.  Also, the skin color is pretty different, too.  NFM Yuuri (and Victor) have a pinker shade of skin than their genuine counterparts.  Next time, I’d scale the eyes up a little bigger, too.  And... idk, the eye shape still gets me.  It’s pretty close, but... something’s still off.  Let’s look at Victor.

NFM Victor on the left and Real Victor on the right.  Again, you’re going to have to take my word for it here... those eyes look suuuuper aqua in real life.  Like, way, way more green than this picture shows.  The eyebrows, which I could not get thick enough no matter how hard I tried, are this weird brown-grey in real life.  And, again, the skin color isn’t quite right.  The eye shape is pretty spot on, though.  I can look at this face and tell it’s supposed to be Victor.

Quality

Both faceplates came with head bases and neck joints, pretty much everything that you need besides hair.  Of course, I have enough head bases and neck joints already attached to my Nendos, but it’s always nice to have extras.  Here’s a view of that noselessness I was talking about before.

(Real Yuuri on the left, NFM Yuuri on the right)  You can see the skin difference a little better there, too.

It’s pretty clear that these eyes were printed on.  They have a grainy, almost pixel-y look to them when you get up close.  They’re definitely lesser quality than official GSC stuff.  But you have to get pretty darn close to notice.  From a normal distance, it looks fine.  You can also see the weird brown-grey of the eyebrows better in that picture.

Both faceplates fit pretty well into the existing Nendos.  Let’s take a look, maybe they’ll look better with hair.

The Finished Product

NFM Yuuri on left, Real Yuuri on right.  With the glasses on, it’s becomes clear that the eyebrows needed to be raised a bit, because right now they’re hiding behind his glasses.

NFM Victor on left, Real Victor on right.  He’s a lot closer to looking real than Yuuri is, I think.

Final Thoughts

I dunno, guys.  I think they look like bad bootlegs, personally.  I don’t really know how to salvage these.  I don’t think I’d use them on my blog.  They look too weird and they’re squicking me out.  I might have to call this one a wash.  At least I got a good blog post out of it, and it was really fun.

How I wish the NFM would just let you use the eyes of characters that are already designed!  I wish I could just take Yuuri’s face and change the expression.  I’m sure that would violate all GSC’s licensing agreements, so legally they couldn’t do it that way.  But it would have turned out so much better for me.

Now, does this mean I wouldn’t recommend the NFM to Nendo fans?  Actually, I fully intend to use it again.  I have a face saved already that I plan on ordering.  But here’s the thing: it’s useful for crazy faces only.  Weird ones.  Sleeping ones.  Blushing ones.  Face tattoos.

But if you’re like me, and you’re trying to make a serious face to replace an existing expression, you’re better off going in a different direction.  Personally, I may try to find extra official faceplates and repaint the smile.  I think I’d have better luck.  We’ll see.

Part 1

What do you think?  Are these faces passable or creepy?  Have you used the Nendoroid Face Maker yourself?  If so, please send me a picture, because I love seeing Nendoroid customization.