Horo figure review

Although it arrived a few weeks ago, hadn’t shared any photos yet of the recently released Horo figure by Good Smile Company that I acquired.

Originally from the light novel series “Spice & Wolf” (狼と香辛料, wolf and spice) which will soon have the second season of its anime series adaptation air, Horo is a wolf deity that can take on human form.

Sculpted by Yusuke Masaki, the 1/8 scale PVC figure is made by Good Smile Company and brings us Horo in a lively pose with a joyous expression that perfectly captures her playful character.

The figure comes in a very large box and includes alternate parts to pose her in different ways, such as with or without skirt and with or without hat, giving the opportunity to equip Horo with her wolf ears, which are included in the accessories.

Other parts like her sleeveless vest and little necklace pouch are removable as well.

This Horo figure by Good Smile Company isn’t the first Horo figure though, Cospa, Taki Corporation and Kotobukiya had already released figures of Horo but to my personal taste none of those captured the cuteness of Horo’s anime version incarnation accurately enough.

Was quite pleased when I saw Good Smile Company’s initial announcements for this Horo figure and how well it resembled Horo.

Immediately pre-ordered it and couldn’t wait for it to arrive after it was released.

Otaku comrade meronpan did observe in his review of Horo that he finds the face still not entirely accurate for Horo’s anime version, namely that the figure’s facial sculpt is too round.

Admittedly, it could have indeed been sharper but I’m not sure how well that would have looked on the figure itself. As it is, I’m pleased with the sculpt of the figure.

True to Good Smile Company’s reputation of excellence, Horo is well sculpted and the paint job is flawless, she even comes with an explanation sheet on how to disassemble the figure to mount and unmount the different parts.

Although the prospect of being able to display Horo in different configurations is nice, I was quite disappointed to witness one rather annoying blemish on my figure, one that a few others have encountered as well.

As you can see from the following photos, when trying to display Horo with her wolf ears, they do not fit very well and don’t sit flush with her head, even when applying the necessary force to insert them.

Furthermore, the assembly crease between the front and back piece of her hair is painfully apparent and not really what we usually see and can expect from Good Smile Company’s excellent build quality.
Not convinced this really should have gone past their quality control.

Even though I wanted to display Horo with her wolf ears, the fact they don’t mount well and the crease sticks out so much, I opted to display her with her hat. She still looks very cute that way.

While some Horo owners seem to have this issue, others seems to be just fine, like Anony’s Horo figure, judging from his photos.

Oddly some parts of the figure are hard to insert, like her ears, yet others seem to sit loose already, like her sash’s butterfly knot and even the upper body seems to sway a bit too easy on the leg part.

Hence, not too keen on changing her appearance and accessories a lot, wouldn’t want to cause too much wear or break any of them.
Read many have problems with her red rope accessory but luckily it seems I’m spared from that so far.

Like always, made all the photos with my Canon Eos 450D and used the EF-S 18-55mm IS kit lens, Sherpa 750R tripod and remote trigger.

Actually shot these the same day as my Yomako photos so they were made using natural lighting.

In all, even with the slight flaw of her wolf ears not mounting well and a visible crease, the rest of the figure is perfect and I’m quite thrilled to have been able to add such a nice Horo figure in my collection.

Can’t wait for the second season of “Spice & Wolf” that will start in July!