The release of Nendoroid Sakura last years appears to have started a flood of Cardcaptor Sakura releases! The majority are still of the title character, but the Nendoroid line branched out once again with the release of Sakura’s best friend and fashion consultant, Tomoyo Daidouji!
I adore the sculpt for Tomoyo. It’s like she was created to be a Nendoroid! The line also has a lot of practice with school outfits, and the simple design carried over well to the chibi style that Nendoroids are known for. I also love the way her hair looks from the back with the gradient painting alongside the wavy curls.
The only issue I noticed with her right out of the box were the seam lines on the parts of her hair that connect to the removable bang piece. They’re not noticeable from the front at all, which makes them a bit odd. That part of her hair also seems to be made out of a different, bendier kind of plastic, which allows more freedom to move around her arms when posing, but I’m not sure if that material is the reason why the seam lines stand out so much.
Nendoroid collectors will also notice that her stand is different from the usual design. Instead of a magnet stand or extra joints in order for it to fit under her hair, Tomoyo has a piece that tapers off to a point which then attaches to the hole in her back. But while it is visually pleasing, this stand doesn’t allow for the same kind of stability as the regular one. Throughout the entire review, I had problems with Tomoyo slipping to the side or coming off her stand entirely even when I would only try to adjust her arms. Because of this, my initial excitement about the stand turned into frustration, but do I hope that this type of stand returns in the future with a steadier edition.
But that wasn’t my only unfortunate problem with Tomoyo. One of her accessories is a hat, which attaches to her head using a magnet (and is likely why she didn’t have a magnet stand). Despite the packaging, the hat had flecks of purple on the front and a few on the back. I was able to remove most of them with my finger, but there is one mark on the front that still hasn’t faded. However, this was a small problem when put together with such a cute pose and faceplate. Nendoroid faceplates that have closed eyes are my favorites, since they can be reused with so many different figures.
As a side note, the instructions and the press release have a picture showing that Sakura can wear the hat if the ribbon inside was swapped out, but I could not figure out how to take it out without breaking something. If someone knows how to do so, please tell me!
My bigger complaint is with the separate bang piece without a headband that goes with this pose. Somehow this piece does not fit completely inside Tomoyo’s head, and leaves quite the gap. At first I thought that this was only a problem with my copy, but according to the comments on MFC, I’m not the only one. The good news is that the hat covers the gap, but it’s still disappointing. While I do not know what happened to cause this, it feels like there was a quality control slip with Tomoyo’s release.
Tomoyo’s other main accessory aside from her hat and faceplates is her camera! The screen on the side can flip out, but since I was not able to make it stay in place, I kept it closed. Also, the arm stays in a fixed position and does not take well to fiddling, so any poses with the camera have to take this into account.
Yet despite all my complaining, Tomoyo is still a very adorable Nendoroid, and she looks great next to Sakura. But because of the problems mentioned above, I can only recommend her to collectors looking for nostalgia. She’s available on the secondhand market now for fair prices, although be warned that some people have reported some purple paint flecks on the faceplates. My copy did not have that problem, but it’s something to be aware of if paint transfer is a concern. In the meantime, I’m still holding out hope that there will be a Syaoran Nendoroid sometime in the future!
Until next month, happy collecting!
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Images by me. More information on Nendoroid Tomoyo Daidouji can be found here.
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