Super Sonico Snow White Version Review

Hello everyone and welcome back to another figure review on Tiro Finale! Today, we will be taking a look at a prize figure teased earlier in the week, it is FuRyu's Super Sonico Snow White Version. As part of their Fairy Tale Special Figure Series, FuRyu has Sonico cosplaying various characters from popular fairy tales such as the Queen of Hearts, Little Mermaid and, as we can see here, Snow White. Before we jump headlong into the review, let us first cover the bases with some basic information about this lovely figure.

• Manufacturer: FuRyu
• Series: Fairy Tale Special Figure Series, Super Sonico
• Price: NA (~1,200 - 1,500 Yen)
• Release Date: 05/2015
• Scale: Non-scale (~230 mm)
• Material: PVC

Front View

More than her outfit, the first thing which hits you when looking at Snow White Sonico is her height. At 230 mm, Snow White Sonico is a very tall figure especially by prize figure standards. Moreover her tall height has not been at the sacrifice of mold density as she is packing some significant heft too. This added weight not only instills the impression of quality but reassures collectors that she would not tip and fall over without notice. It is times like these where I am glad that FuRyu skimped out on the box but, not on the figure itself.

Rear View

Moving around to the back, the general theme of Sonico's Snow White outfit continues with her yellow and white skirt flapping outwards considerably. So much so that I had a tough time capturing an angle which did not flash her panties! Try as I may though, a glimpse of her panties still remain unless I took the shot at a much more awkward angle.

Right View

Shift over to the sides and you will then get a clearer picture of the aforementioned flapping skirt. Of course, this is by no means an accident as the way Sonico's dress is sculpted references that the design is indeed as intended. How so? More of that further down the review as we pay closer attention to Sonico's dress then.

Left View

Already sporting pink hair, Sonico's dress with its bright yellow, red and baby blue colors really pop and is indeed a visual treat. We have seen various manufacturers, especially FuRyu, pair Sonico with various bright colored outfits to great effect and the situation is no different here. 

So, we know when viewed from afar Snow White Sonico ticks all the right boxes wherever any scale (and not just prize) figure is concerned. But, what about close up scrutiny? A point where prize figures often start to fall apart as the cost-savings measures in manufacturing start to become more apparent. 

For starters, facial details and expressions for Sonico is absolutely spot on. FuRyu has been doing Sonico prize figures for a number of years now. By now, they would have gotten the art of replicating Sonico's face down to a science. The decals for her bright red eyes are of a matte finish and applied very neatly. Meanwhile, FuRyu has taken yet another step further by fully molding her open mouth complete with an upper row or teeth and lipstick! In fact, Sonico's light pink lipstick is not even apparent until you take a much closer look.

Speaking of improvements, hair has always been an area which has been rather hit and miss for FuRyu over the years. While they have always gone for more ambitious sculpting for Sonico's hair, the results are sometime rather sub-par with clumpy hair ends and rough surface finishing. 

While still far from perfect, FuRyu has certainly upped their game on delivering higher quality hair for Sonico. Hair ends are no longer clumped up and individual hair strands are now more apparent giving the illusion of actual hair. Part improvements in sculpting and part improvements in manufacturing processes, the quality of Sonico's hair now is a far cry from when it was in 2012.

The one area which still requires some work would be her fringe whereby the tips are still rather blunt and rounded. While I do understand that making finer adjustments to an area as cramped as her fringe would be the hardest, I would still like to see some improvements made here. 

Swing around back though and I have absolutely no complaints for Sonico's hair here. The coloring is great without the use of the aggressive pink-to-white tones anymore and each individual hair end is so impeccably sculpted. This dynamic arrangement gives the impression of a gentle breeze of wind carefully lifting Sonico's hair into the air. 

Moreover, the surface finishing has also improved tremendously! Smooth is the finish throughout the surface area of Sonico's hair and additional sculpting adds volume to her hair rather than appearing to be a single block of PVC. It is little touches like these that many collectors, including myself, do not notice at first but, discover later on which adds a great deal of enjoyment to owning these figures.

As far as hair goes, FuRyu has always been ahead of the pack where Sonico prize figures are concerned. My only wishes now are that they keep up the good work and continue bringing more improvements to this area.

When speaking about Sonico's hair, one must never forget about her signature headphones. The silver pair of cans with their suspension headband are ever present but this time, with a slight change.

Gone is the suspension component of her headphone's headband. In its place is apple-ribbon headband which sits lovingly atop of Sonico's head. 

The apple-ribbon headband is surprisingly well detailed with the apple itself having four colors in total. Even the stalk and leaf of the apple are painted in brown and green respectively! Then, there is red ribbon which is finished in the same bright red finish as various parts of her dress. This consistency is important as, you will see, there are various ribbons across Sonico's dress.

Practically, placing an apple atop ones head makes little to no sense even if it was a prop. From a design standpoint though, it looks absolutely adorable and fits in perfectly with the whole Snow White theme. The fact that the apple is painted in two tones (red and cream) helps to break the monotony from the apple already held in Sonico's right hand. Moreover, the ever present headband helps to eliminate any visible head seams. I call that, killing two birds with one stone. 

While I may have spend a considerable amount of time gushing about Sonico's facial and hair details, I have actually yet to reach my favorite part of the entire figure. That is, her outfit!

Sonico's Snow White dress takes clear inspiration from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with a few key changes here and there to inject a healthy dose of sex appeal. For starters, the blue top, yellow skirt and puffed out sleeves are a clear nod to Snow White's dress. Then, there are the finer details such as her white underskirt, collar ruffles and red highlights which reference Disney's character even more.

But, that is pretty much where the similarities end with Sonico's Snow White dress sporting a much lower neckline revealing her ample cleavage. If Sonico's massive bust was not enough to begin with, her top is now a corset-like piece which serves to accentuate her bust even further! Hence, the look as if her bust is spilling out of her top.

Another element to the top half of her outfit are addition of cuff-ends on both her wrists. This is an accessory we often see added to gravure-figures because it adds a playful yet naughty aspect to the character's design. 

Then, there is her drastically shortened skirt which in no way would pass off today for a children or family-friendly movie. Sonico's skirt itself consist of two main parts. An upper yellow outer skirt whih folds and frills playfully;

And a straighter, white inner skirt. Both are not long enough to cover up her back end though, as her panties are clearly visible from all angles. 

While I am not a fan of short skirts, I really like how FuRyu designed Sonico's skirt with the outer yellow portion flowing lively while the inner white portion being straight and neat. It creates a lovely juxtaposition which helps add a great deal of fantastical flair to the entire design.

Wrapping things up for the entire outfit are a pair of white thigh-high stockings. Of which we will take a closer look at further down the review.

For now, let us shift our attention to this area instead. What I am referring to are the white ruffles lining the edge of Sonico's top. These ruffles traditionally signify an undershirt or under-dress that is worn beneath the visible outfit. These days though, the ruffles are often added specifically at the edges of the outfit as a design point. Whichever it is, we will not know because this is a figure. But what we do know, is that FuRyu has done a spectacular job with the sculpting of these ruffled edges with not a shade of inconsistency between them! That whole essay before? That was just to build up to that sentence.

A closer look at the ruffles on her chest;

And the ruffle on her sleeve.

Ruffles are even present on her cuffs with a nice red ribbon in the center.

The only accessory that Sonico has is her red apple.

It is not detachable but, is painted in a beautiful coat of bright red paint which would make you think twice about opting it out in the first place.

Even more impressive, are the creases in Sonico's outfit especially visible around her bust and abdomen. Sonico is not your traditional slim and busty anime character with her having a slightly plump body. We can see that FuRyu has tried to honor the original designs with these creases "betraying" Sonico's figure despite it being a corset meant to accentuate her curves. 

The creases may be a little difficult to notice at first.

But once you do (notice them), you never miss them again.

The creases are consistent both on the left and the right.

Earlier I mentioned that bows play a significant part of Sonico's outfit design. Rightfully so, we can spot a red bow on the upper edge of Sonico's top and;

Another much larger bow at the back of Sonico's outfit. These ribbons may not look like much but, they add much needed dimension to the her entire outfit which would otherwise come off as looking rather flat. 

When it comes to dimensions though, it is her skirt which by far adds the most volume and dimension to the outfit. The sharp shift from red and blue to bright yellow does a wonderful job of adding contrast to the entire figure.

Initially, I thought FuRyu took the lazy route by giving Sonico the standard issue prize figure white panties. While I do not normally take panty shots, this one was particularly relevant to the figure's design and overall finish.

Upon taking a closer look, it turned out they were in fact white panties with a lace/ruffle detailing on it! It was at this point, where my suspicions about Sonico's skirt being flared up so high being intentional was confirmed. Because her design necessitated her panties to be shown, FuRyu decided to match her with a set of panties a princess would wear. This impeccable attention to detail is what really sold me on this figure!

Having covered most of Sonico's top-half, we then move further down to cover her lower-half. 

Sonico is wearing a pair of thigh-high stockings and red platform heels with various design cues along the way.

These design cues include the red ribbon and ruffles as seen with her cuffs which helps to add a sense of consistency throughout the figure's design.

Meanwhile, the pattern printed on her white stocking are actually apples. With that, the apple-theme is all covered from head to toe.

For the most part, I have no complaints about Sonico's legs except for the fact that I think her calves may be too thin. Her thighs definitely look acceptable but, going from her knees down, things do look a little too oddly shaped.

Here is a closer look at the ribbon know and the ruffles. The seams for the legs are clearly visible here despite the stockings attempting to blend into it.

Sonico's bright red heels look good enough and fit the overall design very well. The red used is the same as her outfit allowing for both design consistency and visual flair.

One impressive but, invisible aspect of her heels are the mounting points to the base. Only Sonico's left heel (right shoe in the picture above) is mounted to the white base with two pegs. These two pegs do a tremendous job of holding Sonico in place despite her height, weight and pose. You can rest assured your Sonico figure is held up very well at all times.

Having covered as much ground as I possibly can for a single Sonico figure, I know arrive at the end of the longest Sonico prize figure review I have ever written. While I would like to end the review on a dramatic note, I am hard pressed to find any stinging statement that I am able to use for my conclusion of it all.

With the Snow White Sonico, FuRyu has covered every base with ease and then some. The design and coloring are absolutely excellent with the sculpt and detailing being not too far behind. These are the hallmarks we look for in scale figures yet, we find FuRyu effortlessly delivering these aspects in a prize figure no less. Even in today's market, you could easily find the Snow White Sonico in mint condition selling for just 1,200-1,500 Yen. The value is undeniably brilliant but, then again so is the figure.

Is this the one of the best Sonico prize figures out there today? Yes. Undoubtedly, yes. When all is said and done, my only regret is that I had not reviewed her sooner. FuRyu's Super Sonico Snow White Version, you owe to yourself as a Sonico fan to get her. 

On that note, comes an end to our rather lengthy review. If you have any questions or opinions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below. I would love to hear what you think. Until the next time, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!