[review] POP Wonderland Alice: Down the Rabbit Hole

Bonus LxLight wallpapers (2 sizes) at the end of the post!

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversation?”

So she was considering, in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.

“My name is Alice,” she says.

Looking at Alter’s POP Wonderland Alice, it’s not hard to imagine her greeting Caterpillar-san with a petulant “My name is Alice“. Her almost-curtsy looks adorable and also easily passes off as Alice moving from gracefully.

POP’s Alice caters to a more pure kind of moe. There’s nothing sexy about Alice, it’s only layers and layers of elegant sweetness. If you were to classify her using Japan’s current pop/subculture trends, she’d very nicely fall into either sweet lolita or otome lolita I think? (Lolita-kus, please correct me if I’m wrong!)

The sculpt of her hair is fluid enough, and the linguine-like style doesn’t feel odd at all. Instead, it adds to the surreal Wonderland atmosphere that POP-sensei wants you to see when you look at Alice. Her ribbon is unobtrusive, and isn’t too big that it distracts you - neither is it too small that it become redundant.

Of course, one of Alice’s moe points to note is her humongous eyes. (The ones on her face, you ecchi men!) Compared to other scaled figures in the market, Alice’s eyes are remarkably simple. A base of pastel blue with minimal highlights emphasizes the simple pure feeling you get when you look at her. You can tell that she’s a child (now don’t believe any lies that she’s 18, like how Pastel Ink is a teenage!) and that she’s really, enjoying herself.

Her dress too, is wonderfully done up. I think I have some luck in purchasing figures that look exactly or almost like their prototypes and Alice doesn’t disappoint. Her dress is wonderfully realistic with folds in the right places. The layered dress (petticoat, dress and pinafore) give a sense of volume but doesn’t feel too heavy or cluttered up. it’s probably Alter’s choice of following POP-sensei’s colors. The pastel baby blue and the luminous shading makes the dress feel light and airy even though it’s 3 layers thick of PVC.

Probably the only problem I have with this figure is it’s tendency to lean. I don’t know if it’s just me, but Alice seems like a leaner. The leg she balances on seems abnormally pliable as compared to my other figures who have only one leg for support (namely Megahouse’s Orihime and to a certain extent, Bridget). As a result, I’ve temporarily leaned her against a wall to correct any slight bends that I might not or might have noticed.

It’s a pity though. I really would like to display this figure prominently! But it’s too pretty and expensive to allow it to lean. O:

Alter definitely has a winner here with Alice - and even though it is pricey, I don’t regret getting it at all. The quality and moe-ness is so compelling that I’m severely tempted to get Red Riding Hood to accompany her on walks through grassy fields and green woods. XD We’ll see. I’m going to deliberate over the wtf nearly 8000 yen price tag of Red. (They’d look so cute together though, red and blue!)

POP Wonderland Alice
Maker: ALTER and Happinet
Scale: 1/8
Price: 6,980 yen
Released: March 2008
Currently sold out (if you find it being sold online somewhere, let me know!)

Bonus:
As requested from my previous Death Note review, here’s a 1024×768 sized wallpaper for my readers! (I’m hoping that it’s the most common desktop size people have?) If anyone needs a larger or smaller one, just give a buzz and I’ll whip one up!

Click the thumbnail for the original size! 1024×768:

I hope no one minds my advertising on the wallpaper XDD. It is my photo after all XDD.

Bonus 2:

1920×1200 -

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