Alter Akiyama Mio figure review

Although she arrived on my doorstep a while ago, hadn’t made time yet to snap some photos of Alter’s gorgeous 1/8 scale PVC figure of Akiyama Mio from “K-ON!”.

The first release of Alter’s “K-ON!” figure series, she turned out to be a truly excellent figure so can’t wait for Yui, Azusa and the other girls to be out and complete the ‘Houkago Tea Time’ music band set.

When the prototype was originally shown, many commented they weren’t fond of the facial expression as not typical enough for Mio, but personally I feel the facial sculpt of Alter’s Mio is exactly how it should be for the “K-ON!” bass player.

Mio looks full of life, joyous as if she’s having a great time rocking with her friends and that’s what the けいおん girls are all about.

Experimented with the lighting this time round, had one color changing rgb led bulb which when set to purple had a nice overall atmosphere to capture Mio in, so added a few of those shots.

Alas the ones taken with red and blue didn’t come out as good.

Alter has improved in terms of quality of their figure releases this past year. While they were always among the best manufacturers out there, they have stepped it up a few notches, this not only for more expensive and large figures like their Fate and Nanoha releases, but this more ‘regular’ figure as well.

Great sculpt, exquisite detailing, perfect paint job and finish, overall I’m quite impressed with this Mio figure.

Am concerned about the solidity of that single leg support, even though it sports two pegs going into the figure’s foot.

It does give Mio a dynamic pose, but there’s bound to be a lot of stress and weight on that single leg, so am worried it will lean with time or perhaps worse, break off near the foot pegs.

Maybe I can insert a transparent plastic or acrylic block under her left foot for additional support?

Noticed that when placed on a surface with tremors -like a desk- the figure tends to precariously shake when any vibrations are transferred through to it from the base up.

That just can’t be good for the solidity of that supporting leg on the long run. Fear I’ll soon have to secure her in my Detolf display case.

Had noticed the Dioder leds from my Detolf display case emit nice white light so went and bought a few other led lights at a hardware store.

Next to energy saving light bulbs which have been heavily promoted here for environmental reasons, recently two brands came out with assorted led lights and spots, conveniently the also come in E27 fitting size and often in both cool white and warmer white.

Got a few of the cool white bulbs that have 36 or 48 leds each and used them for this photoshoot.

Although next to advantages such as low energy consumption and nearly no excess heat emission their disadvantage is that they are very directional, casting harsher shadows and at usually only 90 to 100 lumen per set, think will have to get more if want to depend only on the led lights.

Of course, had to include some detailed shots of Mio’s bass guitar which is absolutely impeccable and boasts terrific detailing. If the instruments of the other girls will be equally well detailed and finished as this one, will be an amazing “K-ON!” figure series!

Alas couldn’t think of much more interesting angles or shots to make, so stuck to these more standard shots. Mio’s pose doesn’t yield itself to many different angles.

With such an amazing Mio figure I can hardly wait for Yui and Azusa to be out!