Panty & Stocking is one of the more wonderfully bizarre animes to air recently: for the most part, the main characters are in cutesy chibified form, and then for the transformation sequences (and a few other parts) they turn into, well, what this figure portrays! It’s no surprise that most manufacturers have chosen the sexy angel side to make into figures, and Sentinel’s “Metamorphose Version” Panty is the first non-prize figure version of her to hit shelves.
Originally we were actually supposed to get quite a few versions of the main girls, but since Good Smile Company seemingly dropped the license it’s pretty much between this and Alter’s Panty if you want a scaled version of the brash angel. So, does this version have merits that make it worth buying or should you hold out for Alter’s take? Hit the jump to find out!
A review of this figure was actually requested in our December Loot Post, and here it is! She was actually pretty close to the top of our list anyway, as I have a pretty different opinion of this figure from what seems to be out there. Anyway, let’s start with the box: it’s awesome! This is actually the back, which is a bit ridiculous: they really paid a lot of attention to the overall theme and it really matches the show perfectly.
Panty is in a pretty unique pose, and of course requires a bit of assembly. It’s not that hard, and she actually balances very well and is one of our most stable figures! They provide you with an extra stand for her hair but it’s totally unnecessary, plus it detracts from the overall look of the figure so I don’t have it displayed with her. In terms of scale, she’s listed as 1/7 and this seems pretty accurate, which I am pleased with since often figures are listed as 1/7 but are really closer to 1/8.
I think Panty is the only figure out there posed like this, which is actually quite a feat considering the thousands on the market! She is hugging a stripper pole quite suggestively, and it captures the atmosphere of the show perfectly. It also makes her borderline-NSFW though she’s fully clothed and not really showing as much skin as many figures which are definitely SFW.
Panty looks good from a lot of different angles, but also particularly lewd if you turn her a bit. I mean, her thighs are gripping that pole like a vice–this is actually what keeps her stable moreso than the peg in her foot and her hand gripping the pole. I love how blatantly sexual she looks here. While for other characters it would definitely border on tacky (or cross the line entirely) it’s so utterly fitting for her character. Panty is brash, brawdy, and loves sexy, and I think this figure conveys all of these things. While she definitely has some issues, which we’ll get to in a bit, this is one area where the Sentinel version clearly dominates Alter’s take which shows off absolutely none of her awesome personality.
They absolutely nailed her face–she looks like she was torn straight from the show, and her slanted eyes and open mouth really push the suggestiveness factor. One look at this girl and you know exactly what’s on her mind! Considering how many figures look cute but rather expressionless, I really appreciate when it’s easy to see the personality of the character a figure is trying to portray.
Sentinel kept the hair sculpt rather simple, but it retails the cartoonish look of the show very well. It’s also a wonderfully vibrant yellow that really stands out amongst the more subtle blonde that other manufacturers go for. Her wings are also rather adorably rounded and they went a smart route with them. The wings are made up of two parts, the bottom half attached to her back and the top half popping out of her hair. I think having the wings go straight through the hair would have caused a lot of paint transfer issues and possible breakage, so it’s nice that they decided to do it this way as it still gives the illusion of the wings going through.
However, since Sentinel is a new manufacturer Panty has a few issues. She comes apart at the waist to make it easier to display her with Stocking, but this gives a rather visible seamline. It is a bit obnoxious up-close, but it’s not a figure-ruining flaw for me.
They did a nice job sculpting the many details of her outfit, from the layers of ruffles to the big, cartoonish hearts. She’s also quite slim here and not very busty, which of course she should be, but given her outspoken love of sex I think it would be easy to try to exaggerate her figure. But she’s thankfully kept her girlish figure, and it makes her look quite athletic. Given her…. activity level I suppose this isn’t surprising!
The seamline isn’t the only issue unfortunately: one of the straps on her right sandal isn’t actually connected to the shoe itself. However it’s really hard to see, just a minor annoyance. It shows a lack of quality control more than anything, as whoever was packaging her up either missed it or didn’t think it was a big issue. As you can see from the shots it’s nearly impossible to actually detect though, and since Sentinel is just starting out with scaled figures I am willing to overlook it.
Panty has looooong legs that seem to go on for miles, accentuated by the straps of her knee-high sandals. The paint on the straps is surprisingly clean, with absolutely no overlap which really surprised me. This can be a problematic area for many companies, so it’s nice to see such neat work here. The paint on her toenails is equally well done!
Panty wouldn’t be Panty without her, well, panties! Thankfully she’s shown before they turn into a gun, which would mean she’d be bottomless. She’s given a nice pearly pink pair unlike the usual boring white we get, but of course Panty isn’t the type to wear dull underwear! It’s also being removed, which gives us a sneaky peek at her bottom which despite her slim physique is quite well-formed. Her skirt is actually removable (we took no shots of that because it is very hard to get her off the pole), but the panties aren’t–however she looks a lot more obscene sans half her outfit and I prefer her looking at least a teeny bit decent.
Panty’s base is actually quite nice, and it represents the stage she is on during the transformation sequence. It’s done as a decal, which looks fine, and I can’t really see any other way to do it–perhaps they could have cast the base in translucent material and used a clear sticker, but then the colors would have been less vivid. I saw some complaints about the base but really, it fits perfectly with the figure and it’s a lot better than the boring disks we usually get as bases.
This figure definitely has some flaws–there’s a rather obvious seamline on her midriff, one of her shoe straps came broken, and you could argue that there’s not a lot of shading except on her skin which is pretty wonderfully done. But she makes up for it with droves of personality and a unique pose. The mood of the show is perfectly captured, and while I am sure the Alter version of her will beat this one out in terms of quality I think the Sentinel version is superior in a number of ways. The face really is perfect for her and you look at her and remember exactly the feeling I had while watching the show, which is quite rare for a figure and I really applaud Sentinel for going all-out on the poses and attitude here.
Thanks as always to Stephen for the shots! Panty was just so much fun to shoot, as I am sure you realized already from all the swooshy-light pictures. Doing a stripclub theme was really fun, and I think one of the reasons we both love her so much is because of how much fun we had shooting her, and also how wonderfully photogenic she is. I definitely recommend her if you are okay with a few quality issues–honestly, as perfectly sculpted as Alter’s version of her is it’ll have a hard time topping this as my favorite Panty.
Purchase At: AmiAmi | Hobby Search
Great words. I’m on my phone so I can’t look at the entire gallery but the main shots are great looking and I’m agreeing with a lot of what you said. I love the sculpt and yeah there are some qc issues but its really a fantastic toy. Especially when you combine her with panty on the larger combined base. They display quite well together and its really a reason to own both of these figures
Those are such great shots. This Panty isn’t the best figurine out there, but I just love how the photographer made her look like a million bucks with that photo work.