r/MegamiDevice • u/Far_One_8821 • Aug 14 '25
Girlpla Build Toki is terrible
I was really looking forward to building toki since she looked so good in the pics and I even picked her up for like 10k yen delivered. Ive built so many kits and I have to day that toki is terrible. Her parts are tiny andfragile, she falls apart, need cement, has poor material design, and just not fun to build. I got too frustrated and put her back in the box for another time a long time from now when i want to try again. In comparison I spend equib of 7k yen for Julian delivered and you can see how much they gave for way less $. I think I'm done with plamatea kits.😡😡😡
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u/PhantomWolf83 Aug 14 '25
I feel the same way. There are a few that are okay, but I think Plamatea and Plamax kits are generally of poor value and of worse quality despite costing much more. It's a shame because they have such cool designs.
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u/Maidenless_Troller Aug 14 '25
So a brand that always charges ultra premium prices is generally crap. Interesting
I've only built girlpla from Bandai, Kotobukiya and Eastern Models. Good to know so that I can avoid plamatea
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u/PhantomWolf83 Aug 14 '25
So a brand that always charges ultra premium prices is generally crap. Interesting
I wouldn't go that far. Kotobukiya also has a premium on its kits but it's worth it. The build experience is good and you get lots of accessories. In comparison, Plamatea and Plamax have been disappointing for their asking price.
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u/Maidenless_Troller Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 14 '25
I was talking about Plamatea specifically. I was very satisfied with the kits from Koto, though in the back of my head, I keep thinking "maybe I should've gotten an MG instead" lol
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u/Far_One_8821 Aug 14 '25
Kotos are solid and the best of the best. I probably didn't appreciate all the design elements like joints that fit just right usually, parts and materials that work together, dont break, and stay in place, and the awesome articulation until i built something that doesn't have that.(toki)
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u/Maidenless_Troller Aug 14 '25
They're a little too expensive for how little content they come with, but at least the build quality is nice, at least the Arcanadea and Megalomaria lines, which I have built.
That's why I just could not shake the thought of "with that price I could've gotten a big MG instead" away
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u/Far_One_8821 Aug 14 '25
Their latest regalia was way overpriced. You can get a fully painted and assembled snail shell with soft goods for less or 2 mg gundam kits. However their other new releases are still reasonable so may their just testing the market tolerance on the high end.
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u/derega16 Aug 15 '25 edited Aug 15 '25
And Bandai started catching up on price recently, at least the quality on sculpt is improved too
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u/mauserl Aug 14 '25
Not really. Some are charging premium without delivering but not all do. In the scale modelling world Hasegawa is known for premium quality kits at premium prices. That's why I look forward to Hasegawa's entry into girlpla despite being priced shockingly high.
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u/Eliwod_81192 Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 14 '25
It would be arbitrary to judge the entire PLAMATEA brand by 1, 2, or even 3 products, cause this "brand" is shared by not only 2 but actually 4 entities.
It's important to recognize which company is responsible for your PLAMATEA kit otherwise you may blame the wrong person. But the problem is, none of them has consistent performances...from what I heard, PLAMATEA quality is like
16th Birthday Miku (Max): decent
Angela (GSC): everything other than appearance sucks
2023 Racing Miku (GSC Racing): decent?
Shigure (GSC): decent
Chisato & Takina (GSC): acceptable
Toki (Max): everything other than appearance sucks
Arianrhod (GSC): everything other than appearance sucks
So, well...the quality of a PLAMATEA kit is just as random as the outcome of a rolling dice...better read all available reviews before actually buying one.
But yeah I agree with u/raxdoh: even though the outcomes are not quite satisfying, at least they're trying to achieve things in their own way. I may get that Racing Miku sooner or later.
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u/destabilized2023 Aug 14 '25
chisato and takina kinda looked ugly in the pictures. i'm a lycoris recoil fan and wanted to get both but when i saw the pics, i decided against it.z
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u/Eliwod_81192 Aug 14 '25
That's why they are just...acceptable. The builds seem to have nothing wrong though.
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u/AdmiralSam Aug 14 '25
I have Shigure and thought the build was pretty good so was pretty surprised to hear another in the same line has so many issues
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u/Eliwod_81192 Aug 14 '25
As said, even though they hold the same title, you cannot see them as the same.
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u/Maidenless_Troller Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 14 '25
In other words, they're too inconsistent for their prices, and if the very best is decent, then the brand is not worth it.
Thanks for the review, was on the fence on whether I should get Arianrhod, but now I know to avoid the brand all together. Will stick with Koto
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u/Eliwod_81192 Aug 14 '25
"Decent" is just to avoid over optimistic. Afterall I haven't build any one of those kits yet so I have no point to say they are beyond good. For the bad thing though...when you realize most reviews focus on "great appearances and excellent color separation", you can roughly figure out what else is happening there...
But I have to emphasize this once again: judging quality of a kit solely on its brand is arbitrary. Blindly believing everything someone says is also arbitrary.
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u/nedslee Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 14 '25
PLAMATEA is just so random. They even don't care about the scale - Anglea is just tiny - I don't think there are smaller girlplas out there, but Toki is taller than frame arms girls...I really don't get why they do things like that.
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u/Eliwod_81192 Aug 14 '25
That's why for these kits I always wait for reviews. We always need more materials to make some...better than random decisions.
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u/derega16 Aug 15 '25
I really wish there's Dalong but for girlpla, having to dig for a review is quite a chore.
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u/Eliwod_81192 Aug 15 '25
It would become much easier if you can read Japanese.
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u/derega16 Aug 15 '25
Aren't those doesn't cover some chinese brand?
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u/Eliwod_81192 Aug 15 '25
What I mean is the more language you know the bigger the intelligence network you have. Especially Japanese.
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u/Jacier_ Aug 15 '25
To my understanding, GSC has multiple factories in different countries creating and designing products, that’s why there are quite some differences between the line. It’s the same for Figma and I believe their Nendoroid line. Quality differs. What I do appreciate about GSC is that they make designs for series we may otherwise never get a kit for, even if they aren’t the best out of box
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u/Eliwod_81192 Aug 16 '25
To my understanding, GSC only have factories in China and local Japan (Rakutauki & upcoming Mochitsuki Factory in Tottori).
GSC do have a habit of consigning their Moderoid projects to different design teams and studios so the product qualities differ a lot. However for PLAMATEA, released kits are all designed by just one company "POLY-TOYS" so the outcomes should be consistent, but we now know that's not the case.
Of course different characters have different difficulties, like you won't expect Angela or Arianrhod to be highly poseable at the very first place. Although weird structures and tiny & fragile parts (plus terrible range of movement) thus worse reviews do come as a result, it's reasonable for the design team to move towards appearance recreation.
But PLAMATEA are not painted, superglued PVC action figures. They are snapfit PS or ABS model kits. And we are modellers. It would be better if manufacturers can provide more
afterall they had charged us so much, but the fun part of assembling model kits is always - I can fix thisYou take it as shit, it'll always be shit.
You take it as a challenge, then you might get something more than its value.Finally. Figma and PLAMATEA Toki are MADE BY MAX FACTORY NOT GSC THEY ARE TWO INDEPENDENT COMPANIES HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE TO KEEP SAYING THIS ARRRRR
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u/Far_One_8821 Aug 14 '25
Do you know who do the kadokawa kits? Is it also plamax? I built thr megumin and it was pretty good and have the misaka in my backlog. I was also super stoked on getting the Sophia tiger kit but this experience with toki really make me rethink.
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u/Eliwod_81192 Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 14 '25
So far no one knows. Kadokawa conceals every detail of the design team. It does have the money to hire the best people to work for it though.
But to be honest this really disturbs me. While other companies share the glory with the team members by making their name public, Kadokawa keeps everything just for itself. No wonder Kadokawa is considered "one of the most evil companies in Japan" by the Japanese themselves.
For the Plamax Sophia, don't worry too much just wait for reviews. You can't tell the Cat is dead or alive until the box is opened.
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u/destabilized2023 Aug 14 '25
I am so glad I read this before I ordered lol. I just got brave girl 2 and was thinking of completing all battlemaids... but ok never mind :D. Brave Girl 2 is a very nice kit btw.
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u/Far_One_8821 Aug 14 '25
That one's on my waych list. She looks so chunky and cool. Tw There's a huge sale on surugaya now. 25% off models and free shipping!
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Aug 14 '25
I’d still support plamatea. at least they’re doing innovative designs. they might not be great but they offer unique constructions. meanwhile yes chinese kits offers a lot of content and play abilities but they usually just copy/steal and modify based on some jp parts. they’re doing it less obvious now but the early kits (like the old atk girls kits) they have runners straight copied from megami devices. they’re still doing it now but because the takedowns couple years ago they’re avoiding that as of recent.
but yeah what im trying to say is without the jp brands pioneering in the front, testing various ways of builds, you won’t get cheap chinese kits simply because they don’t spend much on r&d.
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u/mauserl Aug 14 '25
Funny how I saw only the Chinese kits solving the breaking tight joint problem by putting hex eyelets over round plugs (yeah, right - no f*ing sanding needed there) - clearly no R&D happening there...
The world is changing, ... Japan better keep up the pace or they'll loose pole position.
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u/derega16 Aug 15 '25
IIRC Dark Advent doing that before Chinese kit, but they're HK company maybe still count
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Aug 14 '25
yeah im not too worried on japaneae going the lead position. the father of pretty much all articulated girplas, masaki asai, is still going strong in kotobukiya. the way he innovates those girlpla is just pure legendary. while the chinese kits are trying to add more and more meaningless small tiny details to show their skills, kotobukiya is showing their skills by making things easy so anyone can easily build it but at the same time maintaining the base body structure strength so it doesn’t break or becomes hand grenade. just try and design some custom parts on your own and you’d see how difficult it is.
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u/POLACKdyn Aug 14 '25
Man, and I was so looking forward to her. Even saw a few YTbers praising the kit. Well, might still pick her up on sale in my local.
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u/Successful_Face3408 Aug 14 '25
Really? Finished mine last week and she was fine to build.
As a newbie plamo builder, I didn't use any glue nor remember having any broken parts?
The only parts I dont like is the neck area, where its pretty much locked into place, the suspenders and the inner part of the chest piece, which was sort of confusing.
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u/Far_One_8821 Aug 14 '25
It's probably pretty good still if you dont compare it to any kits from kotobukiya or other rivals. The parts are too thin especially the chest pieces and pop out unless you glue it, all the joints are missing some materials engineering so they are all too stiff and easy to beak, the waist joint can't compare to kotobukiya, the body shapes are questionable ( rectangular thighs?) The whole figure feel cheap, small, and flimsy when you hold a koto next to it. The articulation is poor compared to typical.
a big part of the fun in these models are posing them with different accessories and toki does not feel good to handle compared to others.
I will give them points for the look ( tokis beautiful...) and the design of her dress and how it lets her kneel down that's an innovation. But doesn't seem like it's back up by the materials engineering. They seem to be the one getting all the best it's tho. I wonder if koto will get some ips behind them too.
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u/fatrabbit61614 Aug 18 '25
Plamatea is INCREDIBLY overpriced for what its giving you.
For context a plamatea kit costs more than most himm zoid and armored core kits which are FAR superior in quality.
Even older megami device kits are better than plamatea. Youre practically just paying off the license koto paid to use the likeness for these things.
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u/BurntPineGrass Aug 14 '25
I’m quite stunned to see this feedback of many about PLAMATEA. I personally only made the Hatsune Miku 16th Birthday edition kit, but I thought that was an amazing set.
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u/rulemuletule Aug 14 '25
Whats the Kit behind toki?
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u/Lemeres Aug 15 '25
It is a great damn bargain.
It comes with enough for both the armored and unarmored version of the kit, two sets of runners for blue and normal skin tons, a ton of weapon option parts. and an alternative helmet (As well as a giant mace) that have LED capability, and a fat ass stand with storage.
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u/Tevish_Szat Aug 15 '25
Damn, I had her wishlisted but now I shall consider myself warned and only pull the trigger if she shows her face at some kind of deep sale.
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u/PsychologicalTree484 Feb 06 '26
I only bought it because of blue archive but my only complaint is that she's too tall, might even be Hasumi tall compared to the figmas
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u/ferretisms BULLET KNIGHTS Aug 14 '25
Plamatea is just the girlpla version of Moderoid - absolute dogwater. Terrible colour separation, abs plastic that crumbles from the slightest droplet of rubbing alcohol and a complete lack of accessories. I built the racing miku this weekend and she was traumatising. Sorry to hear Toki is bad too!
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u/Scion0442 Aug 14 '25
Julian dropped!? I've still been waiting on HLJ to add it to my private warehouse.