Anyone who has been in this hobby for a while can’t be too surprised by the concepts embodied by certain figures. I mean, there’s a figure out there based on an anime-fied Adolf Hitler, every now and then a company shows off a tentacle rape figure, and there’s even a very nice necrophilia-oriented figure up for preorder at the usual stores right now. Still, it was a little strange to see three figures involving toilets going up for preorder at approximately the same time (this one, obviously, and the other two were Ringo Hanamaru and a Kaitendoh figure). To be a fan of anime culture often implies being a fan of certain themes and fetishes, but I freely admit that toilet usage is not amongst mine. Still, if anyone could make this look good, it would be Native, no? Perhaps – but only if they didn’t botch it for other reasons. Which they did, unfortunately.
This figure is, of course, named Touko. As far as I can tell, she’s an original character created by well-known illustrator Tony Taka and adapted into figure form by Native. Unlike many of Native’s earlier products, she is rather small; she’s listed as 1/7 scale, but she has a slim body build that makes her look smaller than that. She measures about 17 centimeters in height when seated on her throne. She comes with a variety of clothing options, though she doesn’t come with any additional accessories aside from her commode.
Incidentally, the address label on the shipping box listed its contents as “Touko in the Lavatory,” so everyone from the customs inspector to the deliveryman knows what was in the box. Thanks, Native.
Tony’s style is highly recognizable, and it’s easy to tell whose work this figure is based off of. His artwork is sometimes criticized for being generic, with a common remark being that he re-uses face designs too often. There’s some truth to that, but I think this figure looks a little more distinctive than many other Tony-derived figures in that Touko looks more or less like a realistic teenaged girl, aside from the anime-style face. She has a slim body, small breasts, and reasonably believable body proportions to go with her normal, unexceptional hair color and style; it makes for a marked contrast compared to many other Tony-adapted figures, which often feature stylized bodies and waist-length hair.
Presumably this focus on realism was why Touko comes with fabric clothing, and that’s where the problems start. Dressing her up isn’t too big a deal, particularly for anyone with some experience playing with dolls; an easy-to-follow instruction sheet is provided to show how Touko can be disassembled to remove or replace her clothing. In her most dressed-up form, she can be depicted wearing a blazer, a blouse (actually just the front and back panel of a blouse, sort of like the fake dress shirts boys might have worn for their high school senior yearbook portraits), socks, and a skirt. I didn’t bother dressing her up with the skirt since I think she’d look weird sitting on the toilet fully clothed.
One problem with having her wear her jacket is that it closes via a velcro strip. This makes it easy to close and allows it to fit closely to her body, but if her jacket is opened up, the loop side of the velcro is highly visible.
You can try to fold it back but it doesn’t stay in place. This makes it problematic to display her with her jacket open; one can obviously just keep her jacket closed but that’s not what Native’s about (as conveyed by their company name) and again, why would anyone be sitting on a toilet while wearing a fully-closed coat?
But of course, there’s always the option of displaying her nude, which only seems appropriate as Native’s name is a portmanteau of “naked” and “creative.” But if you do that, you get something like this.
There aren’t any armbands or anything to hide the detachment points; I guess that’s in keeping with the theme of realism, as nobody wears armbands on their biceps in normal life, but the seams are so ugly that I find it impossible to display her this way. That’s not even the worst of it, though.
There’s another detachment point where her right leg comes off. Presumably this is to facilitate getting her right arm in place, being that the placement of her hand would make for a tight fit if you had to reattach the arm with both legs in the way.
Still, there’s no denying that the large seam arcing over her hip is really ugly to see.
It’s unfortunate that Native chose that direction for this figure, and it’s puzzling that they did so. Providing removable clothing or accessories ought to provide the collector with alternative display choices, but in this case, there’s really no choice at all; the seams are so conspicuous that one feels compelled to keep her mostly dressed, and being that’s the case, why provide for removable clothing at all? Further, the fabric doll clothing doesn’t really add much to the figure, and it presents the threat of staining the surface of the figure.
Touko’s deficiencies are a shame since in other respects, she looks very nice. She has a lovely, enigmatic expression fixed on her face, and one wonders what sort of emotion she’s conveying. Her eyes have a lustrous coating that imparts a life-like sheen to them. And of course, her pose is quite tantalizing; I can’t think of another figure that looks quite like this.
But in the end, it’s difficult to get over the design issues of this figure. What makes it worse is that all those faults were willfully self-inflicted, and that with a little introspection this figure could have been remarkable. Ultimately, this figure disappoints, and the only consolation is that for anyone who wants an ero-themed Tony figure, Dragon Toy and Alphamax have a variety of appealing products for collectors to choose from instead.
