Review of the Super Flexible Male Seamless Body M33
Sixth Scale Action Figure

Introduction

PL2016-M33 (henceforth, M33) is the fourth male seamless body produced by Phicen Limited over the course of about a year. It follows the muscular PL2015-M30, the slender PL2016-M31, and the tightly-muscled PL2016-M32. Like its predecessors, M33 is a largely seamless action figure body (excepting the unavoidable attachable heads, hands, and feet), and conceals an articulated stainless steel skeleton beneath a sculpted medical-grade silicon “skin” or rather “flesh.” Starting with its immediate precursor, M32, Phicen’s male seamless bodies feature some minimal articles of clothing, a trend continued with M33. These bodies are already arguably the best 1/6-scale male action figure bodies on the market, and in most respects M33 improves upon that already impressive achievement. As I will be making comparisons or contrasts to the earlier products, you might find helpful my comparative review of M30 and M31 a few months ago and my more recent review of M32, both of them brought to you courtesy of Michael Crawford. 

Packaging - ***1/4
M33 comes in a rectangular glossy box with a stylized image of a muscular seamless body identical to those used for its predecessors. The only difference from the earlier releases in this series is the product’s name, PL2016-M33.

The inside of the box includes the standard Phicen seamless male body user manual sheet, and a system of transparent plastic trays, made up of a simple lid, a bottom tray, and a smaller intermediate lid covering the body itself. This part of the packaging is identical to those for M31 and M32, with the minor but somewhat annoying shortcoming that the small lid covering the body is sculpted in such a way that you cannot store the body with a head sculpt of your choice without getting rid of that little lid. Some of the accessories (the extra hands and ankle extenders) are placed in specially designated indents in the main plastic tray, while the clothing articles and male parts are placed inside a little sealable transparent bag placed under the tray lid. The basic packaging accomplishes its purpose in protecting the product and everything is completely collector friendly.

Sculpting - ****
Like its predecessors, M33 comes without a head sculpt, and here this category applies to the shaping and stature of the body. As is the case with all current Phicen bodies, M33 has a stainless steel skeleton encased within a soft and flexible silicon sculpted “skin.” This gives these bodies a nice feeling of heft and realism, and M33 is no exception. M33 has a very fine representation of muscles and veins, especially on the upper torso, arms, and legs, but extending in part even to the lower arms and legs. Like its predecessors, M33 has softly sculpted nipples.

M33 represents a sort of compromise between the earlier releases M30 and M32. It is a muscular body that is still slender rather than bulky, and is of middling height. It is intended to represent a more generic muscular physique than M32 (which was supposed to depict a tightly muscled typically Asian body), and the lower arms and lower legs are noticeably thicker than those of M32. The upper arms are also thicker, almost to the point of seeming too thick, but not so much so as to detract from the attractive appearance of the musculature. In overall sculpting, the musculature of M33 is very similar to that of M32, but sculpted in a slightly softer, less sharply defined manner. Phicen’s promotional photos displayed M33 with a James Franco head sculpt, but it works with a wide variety of choices.

If there is any shortcoming in the physical aspect of M33, that would be the body’s stature. M33 stands about 28 cm (11 in) without a head (up to the top of the metal neck joint attached to the underlying steel skeleton) and about 29.5-30 cm (11.6-11.8 in) with an added head sculpt (the latter measurement varies depending on the choice of head sculpt, its hairstyle, and the position of the inside neck connector). This is palpably taller than M30 but also noticeably shorter than M32, which was about 1 cm (0.4 in) taller. Phicen has included two ankle extenders (“connectors” or “adaptors”) that can be attached to the bottom of the legs and would add 1 cm to the height of M33. Although they are well sculpted and designed to fit as seamlessly as possible on the lower leg, they are still obvious and defeat the seamless design of the body. That means that they are truly useful only if you obscure the lower leg with long pant legs, long socks, tall boots, or the like. Moreover, the ankle extenders are made of harder plastic and are rather difficult to put on and very difficult to remove, even after heating with a hair dryer.

While I appreciate the effort Phicen put into making it possible to optionally heighten the body, the result seems a little dubious to me. I am not certain what demand for shorter 1/6 scale male action figure bodies Phicen thought it was meeting with this option, and am surprised they would come up with this somewhat disappointing solution especially after the widespread criticism of M30’s short stature. Still, M33 is not quite as short as M30, and it does stand palpably taller than Phicen’s female seamless bodies (especially if they are not in heels). Since this is technically an issue of stature, rather than sculpting, I am still giving this category all four stars.

Paint - ***
For a headless base body, there is little to note here. M33 has an even skin tone over its entire silicon body, which corresponds entirely or very closely to those for M31 and M32; it is significantly darker than that for M30. M33 thus matches most Asian and Caucasian head sculpts fairly well. There is no guarantee, of course, that each and every head sculpt would match perfectly.

Although Phicen sculpted the nipples on M33, just as in the case of its three predecessors, it did not paint them. This is remains a disappointment, as it detracts from the realism of a body that is intended to convey exactly that. Phicen’s female action figure bodies and other companies’ male action figure bodies intended to allow bared chests (like ACI Toys, Hot Toys, Kaustic Plastik, World Box) have painted nipples. There is an easy fix (mix the desired combination of acrylic paints with clear silicon glue and apply with a tiny brush; proceed at your own risk!), but one should not need to modify what is supposed to be a realistic action figure body, especially one at this price point. This is why I continue to withhold the last star from this rating. 

Articulation - ****
M33 is super-flexible, like its predecessors, with nearly perfect articulation. It is described as capable of achieving 90% accurate human movement, and indeed it seems able to attain pretty much any posture possible for a regular human. Although it has “only” 28 points of articulation, M33 (and Phicen male seamless bodies in general) compares favorably to such versatile bodies as TTM16 or TTM21 (with 38 points of articulation). There are still a few natural limitations. Because of the silicon skin, M33 cannot rotate freely around the waist, at the shoulder, at the upper arms or upper thighs, and its more realistic ankles cannot match the flexibility of the peculiar connection between the lower leg and the foot in the True Type bodies. However, since these limitations correspond to those of the actual human body, I do not consider them in any way detrimental to the figures’ articulation. Another minor limitation of M33 are the feet (see accessories below).

Accessories - ***3/4
M33 comes with removable fist hands attached, and it is accompanied by a pair of relaxed hands and a pair of gun- or sword-grip hands. It also comes with two ankle extenders (“connectors/adaptors”), one for each leg. Since these affect the stature of the body, I have discussed them under Sculpting above. A little sealed and opaque bag contains (and conceals) three attachable sets of male genitals in various attitudes (like M30 and M32 but unlike M31, which was missing these accessories). The removable feet come attached to the body.

All the accessories are either identical in shape and detail (e.g., veins, nails, knuckle lines) to those included with previous Phicen male seamless bodies. They are also proportional to the body, unlike the oversized hands that are often provided for 1/6-scale action figures. The feet are also proportional, but in that they are slightly bigger than those for other action figures of this scale (which seem to be often undersized, so as to fit more easily within 1/6-scale footwear).

The accessories that come with M33 are not particularly numerous, but they represent a sensible and fairly comprehensive choice. There remains a little room for improvement. As in the earlier releases, the solid feet look great, but present a limitation for poses in which the toes need to be bent. The best solution (in terms of aesthetics and stability) is to add an extra pair of feet sculpted with bent toes. Phicen has done this with those of its female bodies that come with detachable feet (like the recently released PLMB2016-S17B), and ACI Toys did this for some of its “Christian” medium built male bodies. This would have been a much more welcome and useful additional accessory than the ankle extenders that need to be concealed at all times.

Outfit - ****
M33 comes with a pair of black shorts with white trim along the waistline and with a pair of black wrist bands and ankle bands (“ankle supports”). The shorts are made of a fairly soft and stretchy material and fit the figure well. Perhaps to avoid staining, the shorts and other articles of clothing are not on the body in the box but are packed away in a little transparent sealable bag. I am happy to report that I have not found any staining on the silicon skin since I have put on the shorts and other articles of clothing on the body. It is quite basic and I, for one, do not have much use for wrist bands and ankle bands as such, although at least the latter can also be employed as socks if combined with footwear. Nevertheless, the articles of clothing are well done and a very welcome addition to what is otherwise a headless base body. For this reason, these extra items give this category a full rating.

As always, the rubbery silicon can be a little difficult to stuff into clothing, especially tight and long sleeves or trouser legs. Silicon finishing powder could help with that, but it tends to show on the body when taking photos with a flash.  

As mentioned above, M33’s feet (like those of its predecessors) are slightly larger than those for other 1/6-scale action figures, to provide the right appearance and improve stability. As a result, it seems impossible to stuff them into the tight footwear designed at this scale. The solution I would recommend is to borrow compatible feet (from, e.g., World Box bodies), and use them for this type of footwear. Footwear that is designed to accommodate a peg rather than an actual foot (e.g., Hot Toys or Toys City combat boots), presents no difficulties with M33.

Fun Factor - ****
Provided that you are ready to outfit your Phicen seamless bodies and equip them with a head sculpt and other items, there is little or nothing you cannot do with these super flexible figures. And although these are not children’s toys, they are in fact surprisingly sturdy and resilient.

Value - ***
To the best of my knowledge, no other companies have produced male seamless figures of this scale or quality, making this difficult to gauge. The prices vary widely between sellers (roughly speaking, $75 without shipping to $105 with shipping included). The price point for the new product is not much higher than those for the earlier releases when they first appeared on the market. In fact, some sellers have M33 at a slightly lower price than its predecessor M32. It also seems that at least with some sellers the prices of Phicen male seamless bodies do lower after the appearance of the next release.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a whole lot. Be careful swapping hands, although they do not seem to present much of a problem in this release (they did with M31). Still, I would recommend heating the hands (but not the silicon skin) with a hair dryer before removing or placing. As a basic precaution, you should probably not leave your figures posed in a very extreme position for too long, although the usual issues with cracking rubbery “skin” might not apply here. Also avoid clothing Phicen seamless bodies in dark colors without having first tested whether they would stain in an inconspicuous spot. (Unless of course you intend to leave them covered up in that particular way permanently.) The silicon body might absorb the stain over time, and there are recommended fixes you could look up online, but proceed at your own risk.

Overall - ***2/3
M33 is an excellent product, and a worthy addition to Phicen’s series of male seamless bodies. If you are looking for a more generic, muscular-yet-slender body than M32, M33 provides exactly that. The shorts and the other articles of clothing, however basic, are a welcome addition whether one uses them or not. Although the slightly shorter stature of this body still gives me some pause, in my opinion M33 is the best Phicen male seamless body yet. I realize that I have rated this product exactly the same as its immediate predecessor, M32. The more generic musculature of M33 is even more attractive than the already near-perfect M32, but the shorter stature of the body seems disappointing and unnecessary to me (despite the attempt to make up for this by supplying the ankle extenders). And I am not the only one who has noted the desirability of painting the nipples or providing an extra set of feet with bent toes; such additions would make these products absolutely perfect. Although I doubt we would see this anytime soon, I look forward to Phicen’s future releases.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***1/4
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***
Articulation - ****
Accessories - ***3/4
Outfit - ****
Fun Factor - ****
Value - ***
Overall - ***2/3

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
A few months ago, I did a comparative review of Phicen’s seamless male bodies M30 and M31.
More recently I reviewed Phicen’s seamless male body M33. A number of years ago, Michael did a comparative review of the Hot Toys True Type 20, 21, and 22 bodies.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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