Nendoroid Kaito Cheerful JAPAN! Support Ver. Review

After the events of the the Kanto-Tohoku Earthquake in March of last year and its aftermath, many charity efforts were created to collect money to aid the victims of the disaster. One of these was Good Smile Company's Cheerful JAPAN! line, with pre-orders for figures running over the last year and part of the proceeds going to the areas where help is need. I love a good charity, so I couldn't resist getting at least one of them! So without further ado, here's Nendoroid Kaito, Cheerful JAPAN! Support Version!

 

Like a lot of the releases in this series, Kaito is technically a variant of the original Nendoroid version with some "cheerful" accessories thrown in. But even with that in mind, Kaito comes with a lot. When I was looking at the pictures online after pre-ordering him I was expecting a slightly bigger Nendoroid box that usual. However, I didn't take into account that the accessories were small, so the box is the usual size and the layout of the inside blister is pretty nice. I also have to say that Kaito is yet another one of those figures that pictures don't really do justice. Even before I got him out of the box, I found him completely adorable.

 
Kaito is packaged in his cheering uniform, one of the specific Cheerful JAPAN! accessories. He also has the standard arm stand. I'd love to say that he was perfect right out of the box, but that's only true aesthetically. There were a few things that gave me some concern. For starters, the neck joint that holds his head in place was very lose, and instead of staying in a fixed position it tended to flop forwards or backwards. Also, it looks like one of his leg joints was attached backwards, so it doesn't move at all. Again, very minor issues, but it made me start to wonder about the QC on this figure.

 

Thankfully those were the only problems that I had, so I had a lot of fun posing him with his accessories. First up were the fans: Japanese flag on one side, Good Smile logo on the other. After all, we can't forget who we've sold our souls to gave us this adorable figure! The fans are attached to their own hand pieces, as opposed to having to figure out how to balance/snap them into specially molded hands, which seems to happen a lot with Nendoroids. He also has blue pom-poms, which completely replace his hands and can be moved around to some extent. The default color for the Cheerful JAPAN! series seems to be yellow, so I really like the variation in color here (yellow wouldn't have suited Kaito anyway). Also, Kaito has his scarf in these pictures, which is removable. I think that it's a really cute accessory (can't have Kaito without his scarf!) but it fits a bit awkwardly on the cheering uniform body because of the way the collar was sculpted. Because of this, the neck joint doesn't go in all the way, kind of exasperating the problems with the head lolling around. Oh well. At least it looks nice!

 
Kaito also comes with two additional faceplates, an ice cream bar, and some paper strips to wrap around his head as a headband. I couldn't figure out the Japanese instructions for that part (there were pictures, but I still couldn't get it) so I had to tape it in place. Finally, Kaito also has his original body with two extra arms and a leg to go with it. I especially like those last accessories, since with the extra body I feel like I got two Nendoroids for one! It's also clear that the scarf was meant to used with this body; I guess that they just didn't change the sculpt. But probably my favorite thing of all is that smiling face. Just. Too. Cute. And since it's a closed-eyes expression, it's easy to use on other Nendoroids too. It's one of those expressions that you can't help smiling yourself when you see it.


I'm obviously pretty biased here, but I'm glad that my sole Cheerful JAPAN! purchase was this one. He came with a lot of fun extras and another body while others that were released seemed to get one or the other. The people in charge of this variant definitely put some thought into how to make this re-release special even within the Cheerful JAPAN! line. Overall, he has some flaws but that cute face is definitely worth it! Plus, it's for charity! However, if you missed out on pre-ordering him from Good Smile, I don't know where you could find one for your own. I wouldn't be surprised if scalpers are already reselling him for crazy prices (they should be ashamed! It's a charity product!) but unfortunately that's the way it goes with limited releases. If you're interested in him and can find him for a decent price, go for it!

Images by me.