It is quite a while since the last time I featured one from my collection. And since the POP Sailing Again - Perhona is about to be released this coming January, I better feature my lovely POP Neo-DX - Ghost Princess Perona (or Perhona as written in the box) first before the newer version arrives.
This is the fifth addition to my POP collection and my second Neo-DX. As all the characters under the Neo-DX class, Perhona's design in this figure is based on her pre time-skip appearance, and as I have mentioned a newer Perhona under the Sailing Again class will be released which is then based on her post time-skip appearance. But that newer version doesn't mean its better than this Neo-DX. Both versions are really pretty awesome and their designs are totally different from each other.
Perona is a character from the Thriller Bark arc. She was a initially one of the protagonist from that story arc but later became an ally to Zoro. She ate the devil fruit "Horo Horo no Mi" which gave her the ability to produce horo horo ghosts and some other abilities (more on Perona here). Her looks was inspired by the "Gothic Lolita" style with colors white black and red which are very eye catching. This "Gothic Lolita" style is more defined in her post time-skip redesign. Perona doesn't have a very huge role in One Piece but her pretty character designs made her famous (aside from becoming an ally to Zoro).
I saw a very good deal for this figure early February 2012 at Hobby Frontier, where also I got my SA Nami and some other Figuarts ZEROs. They were offering the second release preorders for this DX Perhona at that time. I'm still not sure at that moment if I can keep up in collecting POPs, but since it is just for reservation and with a very good price, why not. I love the figure design anyway. It was released last May 2012 and delivered to me by first week of June 2012. This is actually the first POP that I preordered.
The first release of this figure was on May 2011 for 6,800 yen. It was then re-released for the same price a year after, last May 2012 as I have mentioned. The reason for the re-release is to coincide with the release of POP Neo-DX - Gecko Moria. I didn't get Gecko Moria since I'm not much of a fan of that character.
This figure is scaled 1/8 and it stands about 220 mm (not including the crown and the umbrella), same height as SA Nami. That makes her actual height is 176 cm. No official height information about her so we can't tell if the scale is accurate.
Below is her height comparison with POP Sailing Again - Nami and POP Sailing Again - Sanji.
Box Art and Contents
Perhona is just a small figure but the box is quite huge. Good thing I ordered it locally so I didn't have to worry about shipping costs. It measures about 330mm x 350mm x 180mm. The reason why the box is this huge is because of the horo horo ghosts, the umbrella and some other optional parts.
The box design is pretty with eye catching colors. It follows Perhona's color motif which is pink with some black gradients and patterns. As most POP boxes, it is windowed on the front, top and both sides. Photos of Perhona in different angles can be seen on either side of the box and more photos with different display options at the back. This is the best looking POP box that I own so far.
You may notice that it has a silver Toei foil sticker of authenticity with a number, that's because it is an international release.
The box contains the figure of course, two horo horo ghosts, an alternate head, one alternate right arm, one alternate right hand, an umbrella, a crown and two clear rod to support the horo horo ghosts. As you can see, it comes with quite a number of parts and accessories so it has very good value for 6,800 yen (and I got it at around 5,750 yen).
Personal Impressions
Perhona is not your usual anime girl. Her face, particularly the eyes are drawn in perfect circles without reflection. I think that is to make her look spooky to match her horo horo ghosts. She looks really cute though even with these eyes and her appearance looks like a teenager. This cuteness translates very well in 3D form and onto this figure.
The eyes and face were captured as they were drawn in the manga/anime. This is the head that comes as a default. The difference between this and the other head are the eyebrows and the lips (more on that later). You cannot see the eyebrows in this angle as it is covered by the hair. The neck is a little too long in my opinion.
As with some POPs, the hair is made of semi-translucent plastic and painted with pink. I believe this is the first POP that applies this technique in hairs. All the other POPs that comes after this used the same material for the hair. The problem with these material is that the paint does not adhere very well, making it easy to scratch.
Lips are painted in red and as you can see here, the face is perfectly done. No painting application issues.
In this shot, you can take a good look at the crook handle of the umbrella. It is painted in red with gold trim on the upper part. The right hand holding the umbrella is nicely detailed. The fingernails are painted in peach. The end of her sleeves has some red ruffles, though is isn't very detailed, it is only noticeable on close shots like this.
She wears a tight mid rib shirt so you can see the shape of her upper body. As you may have noticed, most of the female characters on One Piece doesn't have a rib cage, at least during their pre time-skip appearance. The white shirt has a black demon like symbol printed which I'm not sure what it is, but not definitely her personal Jolly Roger. You will also notice the grey/black paint shading on the white shirt which gives it some pseudo shadowing.
Perona's skirt is nicely detailed as you can see in this shot. They put a lot of effort in giving these fine details. These gold trim paint and the gold studs on the belt is very hard to apply, specially in a mass production. There isn't an annoying and noticeable paint spill. Not sure how they did these white stars and white ruffles, but it is uniformly applied. There is also some subtle paint shading around the skirt.
The left side if the arm can also be seen clearly in this shot. As you noticed, the fist are open and with the same ruffles as the other sleeve. What I love here is the cloth crumple on the elbow joints, it gives an illusion that the arms actually bends.
The belly button is also nicely given emphasis.
Here we can get better look at her crown. It is mounted to the head by a peg and you can twist it 360 degrees though the best position is the cross facing forward. Again, amazing paint application.
A good look at the shawl and the ribbon as well the the shirt here. I really love that red shade that they used on her. That huge ribbon is painted only in pink but with gradients so it enhances the shape of it. I'm not sure it they did good on the cotton/fur edges of the shawl cause it kinda lacking in detail. It looked more like a snow. Not a huge issue though, just saying.
A nice angle to have a good look at the face. You can see the eyebrows this time. In this expression, she look relaxed and amused with a subtle smile on her lips.
A look at the back of the head. Her two high pigtails can be removed on the part of the flower-shaped black and white hairpins. I like that pink hair color. Notice the cloth folds and black shading on the shawl.
This is what I don't like about the pig tails part. It has some noticeable flashes from top to bottom. Not too noticeable at a certain distance and angle though, but they should at least gave a few more effort in sanding it out.
A close up shot at the her back. Here we can have a better look at the two pig tails and the back of the shawl. Notice the fading effect on the hair.
Her tights starts from the edge of the skirt and almost cover her entire legs, only a few leg skin are exposed between the skirt and the tights. It has an alternating black-white color pattern.
The red-buckled boots has a cartoony style. Not a very matching shoes for a girl. Though it does not look awkward, it makes her look funny. Notice the angles of her feet? Yeah, that add up to the weirdness as Perhona is usually seen with her toes pointing inwards in a 'pigeon-toed' manner. The boots are nicely painted though, also with black shading as most red colored parts.
This is how the head looks like without the crown. Notice the hole where the peg of the crown goes, so it is really not very nice to display her without the crown. But for the recent POP Sailing Again - Brook, they used some kind of magnet to attach his crown so it won't fall off. That way, it doesn't leave an annoying hole on the head if you decided to display him without the crown. I hope they'd do the same on some other future POP releases with hat or crown like the upcoming Sailing Again Perhona.
The back head without the crown and pigtails.
Front view without the crown and pigtails.
And here's her more spooky look. By removing the head you can also remove the shawl.
You can also separate the upper body from the lower body like this. This way you will be able to literally pull up the skirt so you can see her....
... pantsu :)
Well this is MegaHouse, they sure have some pervs down there to be able to pull up stuff like these. A lot of POP and some other MegaHouse figures has this option. Though I don't plan to display any of these POPs wearing only under garments, it is still nice to think that there is a nice hidden detail under that skirt.
A close up shot of the panties. There are some paint scratches on the hips, probably because of the skirt. Well it can't be helped unless you really want for display her with her skirts off. The panties itself has some gradient shading. Nice to know that she also wears matching pink undergarments.
Well since we already took out the skirt, let's have a look at her butt. Small but nicely sculpted.
The butt crack and shape are more pronounced in this angle.
Enough with the panties, lets go back to the upper part of the figure. This is how her shirt looks like without the shawl. It also has those ruffles on the neckline. Not much cleavage is exposed here.
Without the shawl, we can have a better look on the size and shape of her chest. I really love the sculpt that they gave her. Just funny how the horns of the devil-like print are spiraling her breasts. We can also take a good looks at the shading of the shirt in this shot. The seam on the shoulder joints are very obvious but it just actually looked like a seam on the shirt. Her long neck is much more noticeable without the shawl.
Let's take the head off again as well as the right arm and replace those with the alternate parts.
And here are the alternate head, right arm and right fist.
So here is the attached right arm with open fist. You may also notice the extra paints on the tip of the pig tailed hair. I was thinking of scraping it out but I'm worried that I might mess it up.
A shot with the alternate head and arms. Notice the both arms are now stretched downwards.
Another shot of the right hands with open fist.
Now this time, I replaced the right open fist with the alternate slightly closed fist.
The purpose of that slightly closed right fist is to make her hold the umbrella this way. So here she is with alternate arms, hands, head and with an alternate pose. Again, you won't be able to see the eyebrow in this angle because it is covered by the hair.
Oh and I forgot to mention, she can stand by herself without the base only in this alternate pose. If you try to make her stand using her default pose (with the umbrella upwards) she will fall backwards.
This is a good shot to see her alternate face. Her eyebrows are frowny and her lips are slightly opened. Same as the other head/face, not paint issues whatsoever.
The umbrella is shaped like a face of a funny devil because of the eyes on horns. Though you can actually twist it around, there is only one way to put it. Notice the edges of the umbrella, those things are supposed to be pointing downwards to assume gravity. So it means that the eyes should be looking upwards like this.
This shot shows more about that edges bending downwards
To take off or place the umbrella on her hands. You can detach the central shaft from the canopy. You can then slide the shaft through her hands and re-attach the canopy.
A better shot on the top of the umbrella.
Here is her base stand. Pink as her box is. The embossed titles says Thriller Bark, which is the name of the ship where she was formerly residing, her name Perhona and the Jolly Roger of the Thriller Bark. It is larger than that of SA Sanji's and SA Nami's stands, that's because of the extra hole where you can put the clear rod for one on the horo horo ghost.
These are the two horo horo ghosts. Not scary but funny as drawn by Eiichiro Oda. They are both made of semi-translucent plastic that gives them the ghostly effect appearance. Just like the semi-translucent hair, the paint can be easily scratched so make sure to handle them properly.
The difference between these two are the tails. One is longer than the other.
A close of shot of the ghost. You can see the translucency of the plastic.
Here are the two also translucent plastic rod for the stands of the two ghosts. One rod is shorter than the other.
Here is the shot with Perona and one of the ghost attached to the pole and the base. The problem now is this. The figure comes with two ghosts and two clear rods. But notice that the base has only one one hole for a rod. That means we cannot put both ghosts and rods which made me asking "Really, Megahouse?".
Why in the world gave us two ghost and two clear rods but can only use one set at the same time? The base is large enough for them to put another hole for the other ghost. Is it really designed like in such a way that we can only put one ghost at a time, or this is a mistake?
Well anyway, while looking for a reason why MegaHouse did this, I noticed that the shorter rod is for us to be able to put the ghost like this. The photo above is using the shorter clear rod, using the longer pole will make the ghost reach the umbrella's crook handle and get in the way. Still, no reason not to put another hole on the base.
So the only way to display her with two ghosts is like below.
Generally, I really love this figure. Perona is so cute as well as those ghosts. Overall sculpt and paint application are really outstanding. Those minor issues doesn't really make the figure look bad. I'm glad that I decided to purchase this figure. Luckily, she was re-released/re-issued because if not, I might not be able to get her at a good price. The accessories, alternate parts and more display options adds up to the total value of a very awesome figure itself.
Her price value is higher now than she does before but it is still recommended for any anime figure collectors, specially to those hardcore POP collectors even if a newer Sailing Again version is coming. The designs for the two Perhona versions are totally different from each other anyway, but both are really lovely.
If you're interested on getting her then I suggest that you start looking for her now while her price is still affordable, or you'll regret it later when she already becomes a rare classic item.
Photo Gallery
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