Super Sonico Summer Beach Version Review

Hello, everyone! Welcome again for yet another Super Sonico figure review. This time, we will be taking a look at Taito's Super Sonico Summer Beach version. In this review, we will be assessing the pros and cons of Taito's attempt at a Sonico prize figure and, ultimately, whether or not you should buy it. But before that, let us first gloss over some basic information about the figure before we get into the meat of the review.

• Manufacturer: Taito
• Series: Super Sonico Summer Beach Swimsuit Version
• Price: NA (prize figure)
• Release Date: 07/2013
• Scale: Non-scale
• Material: PVC

Front View

From the front, you have your pretty standard issue swimsuit Sonico wearing a bikini several sizes too small. Together with that, she can also be seen with a pair of color matching heels, sunglasses and wristband together with an ice cream held in her right hand. The image of summer is clearly trying to be portrayed here by Taito especially with the ice cream and sunglasses.

Rear View

From the rear, there is not much going on here either. Sonico's long light pink flows past her shoulders to he middle of her back. As I have mentioned earlier, Sonico's swimsuit which appears to be several sizes too small is equally apparently from the rear too. Whether you like it or not is entirely up to the individual. In this case, I cannot say I am a fan of it as everything just looks to "flattened" for some reason of another.

Right View

The side views do a good job of emphasizing Sonico's ample bust and long legs. Coupled with the fact that she is only wearing a swimsuit, you end up not leaving much to the imagination. Well, not unlike the Easter Bunny Sonico that I reviewed a short while back then. 

Left View

In terms of proportions, Taito has clearly went with the curvier look that Sonico is accustomed too with notably thicker thighs and arms. Nevertheless, I feel the need to point out that Sonico's waist and shoulders do look too slim creating an odd contrast with her huge bust. Especially when she is standing 200 mm tall, these discrepancies in proportions do become rather noticeable. 

Moving on to Sonico's facial details, everything appears to be in order with Sonico sporting a smiling expression with her tongue sticking out slightly towards the left edge of her mouth. Sonico's big eyes are applied via a matte decal and do not look to out of place. Individually, I have no objections against Sonico's expression. But, the one thing that I cannot shake off is her tongue. It looks like such a tacked on feature and the fact that it is printed on just serves to dispel the illusion all the more. Even from afar, you can tell it does not look convincingly like a tongue. While up close, the flat detailing does not stand up towards scrutiny. In this regards, I really think Taito could have done a much better job namely by removing the tongue altogether.

Towards the back, things are not all the more better with several jarring details (or lack thereof) which become immediately apparent. For starters, the string constituting the back of Sonico's bikini top has no knot either for the top or bottom string. This omission severely detracts from the realism and illusion the entire figure has going for it. And speaking of breaking the illusion, the extremely noticeable seams in her arms are another key culprit. Because they come disassembled, buyers will have to slot the arms in themselves. Unfortunately, the fit and finish of this joint leaves much to be desired with a large obvious seam forming. Not even the silver arm band present helps much in alleviating the sight of the seam. Perhaps the only saving grace is that the seam is not very noticeable from the front.

Sonico's hair flows straight down with many individual sharp ends. Out of all the features of this Sonico figure, her hair is most probably my favorite and the one aspect that Taito got just right. Each tip is well defined and sharp while still being surprisingly soft and flexible. It may not have any wind effects to dramatize Sonico's hair but, it works.

With her huge bust and tiny swimsuit, Sonico's assets are most certainly going to be a matter of scrutiny and not in the way that you think. Where there is a combination of these two, is where the dreaded boob-seams and glue marks start to become the horror story. With cheaper manufacturing techniques, figure manufacturers often tend to skimp on getting this right in an effort to save cost.

Unfortunately for Sonico, this seems to be the case as not only are glue marks notably apparent on the outer edges of her swimsuit but, the entire bikini top just looks to glued over her chest. The result is a bikini top that looks to be made out of plastic/steel rather than fabric. Worse still, it looks as if Sonico's bikini is actively caving into her bust which makes it all look rather unsightly. 

Sonico's ample bust has always been one of her main selling points with many figures taking advantage of that. But when that aspect too has been a let down, you are not left with many charm points left for Sonico. As such, I have always been rather apprehensive about getting prize figures where Sonico is in a swimsuit.

It is at this point where it is worth mentioning that Taito has produced 5 other color variants of this exact Summer Beach Sonico. The only difference being the change in colors of her swimsuit. What exactly would convince them to do such a things is completely beyond me. But, this clearly means the figure was selling well enough. Although from a quality standpoint, I beg to differ.

Moving aside, let us instead take a look at Sonico's various "accessories" starting with her ice cream. The ice cream held in Sonico's right hand is firmly glued on so, there is no need to worry about it falling off. Otherwise, it looks to be fairly simple vanilla stick with bits of it starting to melt of already likely due to summer heat. While this is not the only Sonico beach figure to feature an ice cream - Wave's Beach Queens Sonico has it too - it certainly does very little to add to the uniqueness of the figure.

Then there is Sonico's sunglasses which actually look alright. Despite all the negativity I have had for the figure thus far, the sunglasses are a surprisingly good choice of accessory. For starters, it looks like something Sonico would wear and the baby blue frames are a nice change of tone from the usual blue. The accompanying light-blue "pearl" bracelet is also a nice touch!

Remember those seams I mentioned earlier? Well, feast your eyes upon them once more.

Another of Sonico's accessory is her guitar charm necklace that we often see her wearing with her casual outfits. It makes an appearance here too. But upon closer inspection, the green paint filling the insides of the guitar are not very well done and it does look rather messy. Nevertheless, I will let this pass as the guitar itself is really small and expecting such accurate levels of detailing from a prize figure would be rather irrational. 

Here is another angle for a better view of the guitar charm.

Another gripe I have with Sonico's swimsuit is the painting of the white stripes and stars. They are far too light that they almost appear translucent. I do not know if this was intentional but, I would have much preferred if it was fully painted through.

Sonico sporting an aggressive hourglass figure.

Yipes! Those seams!

On towards Sonico's lower half, her bikini bottoms too suffer the problem as her top where it looks all too solid. As such, it fails to emulate the look and feel of cloth completely. Not to mention, the glue marks towards the edges of her bottoms are very apparent too. 

That most certainly does not look comfortable.

Sonico's long legs are her saving grace here as Taito has, fortunately, gotten it right. There are subtle color tones all throughout the length of her legs with emphasis on her joints.

This extends towards the back as well. While it may bother on nitpicking at this point, I do feel as if Sonico's calves are a little too thin.

Her platform heels are color matched to her swimsuit with the same blue and white used. Unfortunately, as you can see, the painting is far from the best with paint spillage over their borders being rather apparent. 

The same can be seen on both sides of her heels. Fortunately, this is not too notable from afar.

So nearing the end of the review, what are the things I liked and disliked about Taito's attempt at a swimsuit Sonico? For starters, I absolutely despise the poor finish such as the obvious glue marks;

And painfully obvious seams by her bust, hips and arms. 

But, I really do like her hair. In terms of finish alone, this may be one of my favorite hairs for a Sonico prize figure.

On top of that, I also really like her varied accessories which do help add some uniqueness to the figure. Just omit the tongue and ice cream please.

At the end of the day, when you take several steps back and take a look at Taito's Super Sonico Summer Beach figure it is not too bad. From afar it completes its promise of providing an inexpensive swimsuit Sonico figure with plenty of her assets on display. Let us not forget, this figure was manufactured back in 2013. Manufacturing quality and finishing for prize figures have only gone up since then and comparing then and now on equal grounds would be both foolish and unfair. 

Still, after all that is said and done, I still find it hard to recommend buying this Sonico figure even if she is cheap. There is no doubt you would enjoy ownership for the first few hours but, upon closer inspection, her flaws truly start to become apparent. The biggest problem is, there are many more competent swimsuit Sonico figures out there today which would better serve that purpose. 

With that unfortunate conclusion, comes an end to the review. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to drop them in the comments section below. I would love to hear what you think regardless of whether you agree or disagree with me. Next up, we have the 360 degree view of Sonico coming in a few days time. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!