Nendoroid Ranma 1/2 Male & Female review

Another Nendoroid review, this time one based on the titular gender-bender, Ranma Saotome. Funny enough, Akane Tendo and Shampoo arrived before I got either version of Ranmald McTome and it was mostly due to Amazon claiming there was no stock available from their site for either gender as well we Kirby, and I have to call bullshit on that knowing the way they failed me at times with preorders. Thankfully, I was able to get both versions in other sites, though it took a while to get them given there were other things going on at the time. Now that we have the 2 genders of Ranma Saotome together, let's see how well they turned out.

Here we have both versions of the character together. Given the nature of Good Smile's chibi aesthetic, we don't have much to distinguish the two genders beyond some wrinkles in their clothes. Both of them still have the standard attire the character was known to wear as a guy and a chick. The paint apps for both have no discrepancies or quality control issues at all, but what I also appreciate is that they don't have any differences for the shades of red and blue on their clothes. I also found it surprising that they have differently sculpted torsos, giving Female Ranma breasts while Male Ranma is flat chested. Even some wrinkles on certain areas of their clothes are tweaked somewhat, as are the vanilla hands associated with each character; fists for the boy and open hands for the girl. That said, it does leave me wondering why we couldn't just do a Ranma set that has both boy and girl-specific accessories without splitting them into two separate releases. I know this made sense for the Figuart because it was much easier to distinguish them from body type, but this could have been a Deluxe set in a way reminiscent of the second Lum Nendoroid that gave us the usual tiger stripe bikini and the school uniform. I know why they went this route for the sake of displaying both at once, but at the same time what difference would it make unless Female Ranma had a different outfit?

Articulation is consistent between the two, including the neck joints with asymmetrical disk swivel movement for the seam line. Accessories for Male Ranma include a curious face as well as a surprised one, with a set of crossed arms, hands meant for holding the tea kettle, and those hands that are not meant for thwipping web. 

As for Female Ranma, she comes with a bucket of water no doubt based on her gender changing ability, bent forearms that go with fists if you want her to be angry, and a thumbs up hand with a delighted faceplate and a swappable bent leg to go with the third pose. Swapping the parts here was much easier than with my first copy of Shampoo.

As far as I know, the female version of Ranma is the only figure in the wave that comes with a preorder bonus: a hand holding a taiyaki. It's a Japanese treat shaped like a fish and is filled with either red bean paste or custard inside the crust. Would be nice if a bo staff was included with male Ranma, but as it stands, these two are pretty good to have if you want to own either gender you see fit. I wish we got them as a set, or at least gave the female version a different outfit that could be "unisex" for when you want the male version to wear it instead, but they're pretty good versions of the dude(tte) of the titular anime. Just be aware of the slight price increase and the fact that Amazon failed so many preorders for OVER A YEAR.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (for both)