Baseball (or as it is known in Nihongo, Yakyū) as a sport has a long history in Japan, dating back to the late 1800s.
Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with this—but you should know that Baseball is the most popular spectator sport in Japan.
For the Americans out there (which is most of you who actually visit this site), this probably isn't news to you—but for the rest of us, I think it's pretty interesting to see "America's Pastime" so ingrained within contemporary Japan.
Nevertheless, Japan always seem to enjoy putting their own little touches when appropriating other cultural phenomenons—like these Biiru no Uriko, or "Beer Girls" which are a mainstay for the Japanese spectators. Your move USA!
Introducing Baseball Girl (or Yakyū Musume, which directly translates to "Baseball Daughter", which is a little odd, so we're sticking to girl), by the highly talented doujinshi artist, Mataro.
As you can see, Mataro definitely likes his illustrations on the thicker side. The pose and outfit design is also quite unique—Mataro drawing Baseball Girl with the archetypical baseball accourtrements whilst also in the process of "tearing" off her top.
On the whole, Mataro's illustration of a "Baseball Girl" pinup definitely epitomises this, and gets the "Thick of Approval" (I'm sorry) from me!
So if Mataro has "pulled it off" (both figuratively and literally), then the question is—did our friends over at Alphamax do the same?
The answer is a resounding yes.
Standing at a height of 27cm and a scale of 1/6, Baseball Girl (we'll call her Baseball going forward) similarly to Hurdle Shoujo was supposed to be part of the SkyTube Premium line of figures, but was phased out to the standard SkyTube. Whether this had a bearing on the final product, I can't really say for sure—but I do l know this figure is one of the best I've added to my collection in the past year.
Shall we take a closer look?
Starting from the top, we're immediately enamoured by Baseball's highly expressive eyes, which have been recreated beautifully from Mataro's OC. From here we also can see the inclusion of face paint under her left eye—which is supposed to reduce glare, but really is just done for aesthetic reasons (you can't deny that it looks kinda badass!).
Baseball is also wearing a visor, which features the same orange, black, and white colour palette we can see throughout the rest of her outfit. I really like this piece as I feel it adds a lot of visual interest to what largely appears as quite a plain area for a lot of other anime figures. This also somewhat distracts you from the slight lack of texture or gradient in her hair, which really isn't that bad when you consider that the sculpt ans tone matches Mataro's OC very closely.
As we move downwards, we're also greeted by Baseball's undoubtly stacked chest, thin waist, and wider than normal hips.
SkyTube does an excellent job at showing the "softness" present in Mataro's OC—especially the skindentation present in the gaps in her shirt and pantsu.
One criticism is that we aren't able to see Baseball's pantsu through her shorts like in the original illustration. However, the mekosuji (cameltoe) is still present which is good to see (for accuracy purposes, of course—not science).
Rotating to Baseball's posterior, we can see that she's actually got a...
baseball bat (roll credits)
attached to what appears to be a small leather bag.
Now, I'm not going to pretend I know what the red teddy bear wearing "speed dealer" sunnies attached to said bat is supposed to be. What I do recognise however is the burger—how very topical! Both are present in Mataro's OC and it's good to see them included here.
Tilting downwards, we get a glimpse of Baseball's butt covered by her boyshorts, which are perhaps one size too small. This is made evident with SkyTube adding creases to indicate the size of Baseball's oshiri.
From here, we also get a closer look at Baseball's thicc thighs and knee-high socks, featuring the same orange and white colour palette.
As we reach the very bottom part of this figure, we can see that SkyTube spared no expense on this baseball base.
The dirt texture, white base, and baseball look great alongside the figure itself, and are actually quite detailed! This carries over to Baseball's sneakers, which actually feature matte/glossy paint and stitching. Considering that the sneakers themselves were not part of Mataro's OC, SkyTube really went above and beyond for this section and I'm quite impressed.
As we switch Baseball to her cast off configuration, there's something slightly different... not including the removal of her clothes of course.
Can you see it?
If you didn't notice it, it's her facepaint. I don't know why SkyTube decided to include an alternate faceplate with such a minor difference, but I'm not going to complain about getting extra parts.
While we're here would should probably also address the her breasts. They actually have a small weld on the lower half of her cleaveage, but this isn't that noticable which is great. Other than that, tis great to see SkyTube didn't nerf Baseball's boobs in their scale, which I have unfortunately see them do in a few other figures.
Sasuga SkyTube!
As is the case with many SkyTube figures, an alternate lower part is included.
And yes, it includes sculpted genetalia.
To be honest though, the ass on this figure is actually... not great? It's a bit surprising since her hips actually appear to be quite wide. I actually think she looks better with her shorts ON—a shame no doubt.
I forgot to mention it earlier, but SkyTube also included slight skindentation from Baseball's knee-socks which now appears to be standard these days.
So what's the verdict?
It's a home run!
I apologise, but I had to do it.
I really am impressed with how this figure turned out though. You've probably noticed that the past few reviews have been from Alphamax's "SkyTube" label. This is because a lot of my figure collection are of the adult variety, and I'm definitely a fan of SkyTube's work in particular.
This figure in my opinion epitomises why SkyTube are so great—their ability to bring doujinshi artists and adult illustrations into the third dimension with such a high level of accuracy, quality, and ultimately respect to the original work. The only real competitors to SkyTube in my opinion are native—who have the backing of Good Smile Company, so they better be!
Consequently, I've pondered why it seems that adult figures have a higher standard of quality when compared to... normal anime figures? Not really sure what to call them here so I guess normal will do.
A conclusion I've come to for myself is that the market for lewd figures is ultimately a lot smaller and niche than its "less risque" compatriots. As a result, I think there's a greater demand for quality from adult anime figure collectors—and as such we're willing to pay an premium for this.
But enough rambling, I hope you've enjoyed this review and the photos I've taken of Yakyū Musume.
p.s. As of the publishing of this post, I have officially finished my backlog—meaning I'll need to take more shots of figures to begin writing more reviews. These are definitely coming, but I think I'm going to finally try writing some more technology or photography specific content to fill the gap. Please look forward to it! (or don't if you're only here for the figures).
