Review: figma Ultimate Madoka

This time, I’ll be reviewing figma Ultimate Madoka by Max Factory!

Due to the nature of the character, this review will contain spoilers from the final episode of Madoka Magica.

Ultimate Madoka is the final form taken by Madoka Kaname after wishing to personally erase all witches from existence. Despite having graced the screen for a mere thirty seconds, Ultimate Madoka enjoys a reasonable amount of popularity and has several figures, most notably Goodsmile Company’s enormous 1/8 scale rendition.

I find it hard to not be intrigued by Ultimate Madoka. Not only does she make her appearance at the climax of the series(I should mention that I loved the last three episodes of Madoka. I’ve re-watched the show several times just for those three episodes), this magnificent goddess possesses a character design which demonstrates both elegance and power while creating an image vastly different from the sweet innocence of her magical girl incarnation. Everything from Ultimate Madoka’s fierce golden eyes and striking white dress to the galaxy contained in her skirt exudes strength while her petite form reminds us of the fragile human she once was.

Once Madoka Magica’s popularity was realized, I knew that an Ultimate Madoka figma was inevitable, and when the figma’s preorders began, I secured one for myself immediately.
Not only does this figma fulfill the Ultimate Madoka need for figma junkies like me, she also serves as a viable substitute for those who find themselves unable to afford or acquire GSC’s behemoth of a figure. But is this figure a worthy depiction of the goddess of hope or are we left hoping for more?

Madoka’s double wide box is adorned by a cosmic pattern, and in an intriguing innovation, is entirely holographic.

Why is it that holographic things are so fascinating? It reminds me of that holographic Laparas card my cousin refused to give me. I doubt I’d have wanted it so much if it wasn’t shiny…

Clearly Madoka’s box was also built to contain the galaxy because it is noticeably thicker than the average figma box. As expected, it’s also heavier than usual.

I don’t usually include shots of the blister packaging, but since this figure requires a notable amount of assembly, I’ll go over what needs to be done before she can be displayed.

Madoka’s blister has two layers. One contains Madoka herself while the other has most of her accessories.

Most notable is the wings and three strands of hair.

The wings fit into holes near the back of Madoka’s head. I’d advise being careful to keep your hand as close to the peg as possible when inserting the wings as pulling on them too much may snap the peg.

The center strand of hair attaches to a figma joint and is capable of pivoting and rotating while the smaller two strands plug into her head and can only rotate.

I had little trouble with assembling Madoka, but have heard of others experiencing breakages during this step.

With the hair and wings attached, Ultimate Madoka is ready to display!

Ultimate Madoka has a wonderful presence. Not only is she large, she’s heavy and in spite of her small form, her dress makes her appear much larger than she actually is.

Both layers of the dress are painted with a pearly finish. The layers remind me of a cake!

The skirt is sculpted with a sense of movement and has lovely ruffles.

Rather than the candy pink hair of magical girl Madoka, Ultimate Madoka has a gentle pink–almost lilac tone to her hair.
Her recognizable pink pigtails are fastened with pearly white ribbons and can be rotated slightly.

Because Madoka has so much hair, the majority of it is actually attached to her upper back. This prevents her neck from snapping, but can make posing her head awkward since when she turns her head, only half of her hair goes with it.

The hair attached to her head is made of soft PVC to allow for better movement while the rest is hard PVC.

The wings are opaque and have a delicate pink gradient near the tips.
I love how they gently arch upward.

Madoka’s torso is adorned by five pink gems and a chest cutout. The cutout unfortunately does interfere with her chest joint, but there’s not much that could have been done. Also, the paint near the jewels was a little sloppy.

Although the star pattern under Ultimate Madoka’s skirt is most noticeable, the pattern is in fact all over the underside of her clothing. Even the inside of the gloves have it!

The joints on her skirt are huge! Also, what is that dress made of? It looks painfully tight…

Love that billowing skirt!

The skirt is separated into three jointed sections which can be posed independently.

On her legs, Ultimate Madoka wears scalloped pearly pink thigh highs and her feet are adorned by small wings.

The underside of the skirt bears a fantastic pattern which is meant to resemble the night sky. The skirt has an almost metallic sheen to it and looks great!

Because of her heaviness, the stand plugs into the underside of the skirt. Unfortunately this does little to offset the weight of Ultimate Madoka as her standard figma stand is highly susceptible to wobbling and has difficulty holding her in floating positions without tipping.

For that reason, I suggest using a Di: Stage

(This is the Di: stage that came with Live Stage Miku that I dug out of my closet just for Madoka) The Di: stage is much more stable and allows Madoka to be posed to her full potential. I’m glad to finally have a use for mine, but it would have been great for Max Factory to include a better stand for Madoka.

Having made a very brief appearance in the anime, there are not many possible accessories for Ultimate Madoka, but she still has a few

First is her two optional faces

Happy and angry

The expressions could be criticized for being bland, but there’s not much more Ultimate Madoka could have had. The only other possible face I can think of is a peaceful closed-eyed smile.

Next is five pairs of hands

Top: spread out, open, gripping,
Bottom: fists and hands for holding a bow and arrow

As for character specific accessories, Madoka has a bow

The bow is merely a larger version of what she uses as a magical girl.

Since the bow is extended, a pink rose blooms at the tip. But I’d have also liked to see the pink flame that appears when she fires the bow since both the nendoroid and scaled version have it.

Pink jewels decorate the rest of the bow. They are painted with a metallic finish.

Green leaves are at the end. Strangely there’s a paint error on mine which leaves a little brown spot on one leaf.

But since a bow is useless without arrows, four transparent pink arrows are included.

Two of the arrows have a flattened area so that Ultimate Madoka can hold them.

The arrows fit snugly into the hand provided for holding them.

The other have no flattened area, so I assume they are meant to jab into things as if Madoka has already shot them.

The included accessories are adequate, but I think that a little creative thinking could have produced a few more things. Perhaps a small rendition of the earth or the Anthony Ultimate Madoka was seen petting could have been included. I think even Madoka’s grief seed would have been an appropriate accessory. Still, the figure is large and well built, so I won’t complain.

Now that we’ve seen Ultimate Madoka and everything she comes with, let’s take her out for a photo shoot!

It’s simple, but I love this photo~

Stages of Madoka

Final Thoughts
Along with Princess of the Crystal and Kuroyukihime, Ultimate Madoka joins the figma line as an action figure not necessarily worthy of the term “action”. But even with her limited pose ability and overall difficulty to maneuver, I still find Ultimate Madoka fairly fun to play with. Perhaps this is because unlike Princess of the Crystal and Kuroyukihime, Ultimate Madoka is part of a set and can be enhanced by the other girls. Because she is so cumbersome, I would not recommend Ultimate Madoka as a first figma for someone who wants to have fun posing their figures, but at the very least, she looks nice and is a great crowning piece for any Madoka Magica figma collection.