Sculpting - **3/4
This is the first release from ZC with what they call ERT (Eye Rotation Technique) meaning that like the Enterbay Bruce’s and the soon to be released Triad, Samurai Champloo figures, and indeed the old eagle eyed GI Joes (let’s face it, it’s hardly a ‘new’ thing’) the eyes are positionable. 

I think this feature may have been instrumental in the ‘look’ of this sculpt, it’s been kept simple and generic, and the passive expression brings to mind a Geisha with porcelain flesh, blood red lips and crescent moon eyes. It’s not the strongest sculpt you’ll see this year, but it still has charm and the inclusion of movable eyes from such a young company is pretty ambitious, and I have a feeling this feature will get better with each release. The paint and construction quality of these eyes is ‘understandably’ not quite up there with the Enterbay figures yet, and it has to be said, as much as I love the idea of the positionable eyes they’re not as realistic as top quality painted eyes yet! Even Enterbays best work so far, though hugely impressive, lacks the colour detail and gloss of real wet eyeballs. 

Now I’m sure this will change as these companies progress the technique, but for now it is still in its early stages. But… if in the near future we can get a JC Hong quality paint app on a positionable eye that sits snug well up-to the eyelid, then these companies doing the hi-end ground work deserve our respect.
(EDIT.., it seems we will!)

So to sum up, this is a simple, generic, stylised sculpt, but for many femme figure collectors that seems to be what is wanted, however it may benefit from a good repaint and I’m excited to see how the Rosanna figure mentioned above turns out, as that looks much more natural and realistic.  

Paint - **3/4
ZC Girls, like the Cy Girls before them have a distinctive aesthetic, so like the sculpt this is simple and stylised, the lips are ruby red, the eyebrows are a slick brown line and the eyelashes and irises are all crisp, none of these areas has any slop or over-painting at all. So all competent but lacking the realism we are increasingly coming to expect from the big hi-end companies, I don’t actually think that realism was the main objective here, rather a cool Anime/Manga'esque babe.

The accessories have a few flashes of paint here and there, but most are on the latex clown mask, it’s a nice job, airbrushed pink with some facial details picked out in bright blue and red, topped off with a long green ponytail.

Articulation - ***1/2
This is again the same body as with the Julia and Janice
figures I have already reviewed, so yet again for a full rundown on the articulation you should reread ‘Janice’.
But back on topic, Carol’s hip, groin and knee articulation are hampered slightly by her tight pleather trousers and pleather over leggings, but the use of soft pleather boots means her ankle articulation is still great. So all in all a great body that is supremely poseable, the only limitations come from her tight outfit.

Accessories - ***1/2
Carol comes with a good haul of goodies, we get-

Gloved Hands x 5
Bangles x 6
Brown Iris (small) eyeballs x 1 pair
Blue Iris (big) eyeballs x 1 pair
Sports holdall bag
Necklace ( with Gothic cross)
Cell Phone (i-phone stylee)
Pepper Defence Spray (catering size, seriously, it’s a lot of spray)
A large amount of $100 bills… and I mean A LOT!
Clown mask (full head latex stylee)
Brown Leather double shoulder holster
Glock 18C Pistol x 2
Folding Stock (attaches to pistol)
Tactical light x1 ( I think I’ve lost mine???)
Fore grip (short) x 2
Long magazine x 4
Mag carrier x 2 (clips to webbing on side of legs)
Grenade x 2 (different designs)

I’m very impressed with all the accessories, there’s a high degree of detail, the guns have cocking mechanisms, removable long magazines, slide on fore-grips, a slide on tactical torch and a clip on sliding stock. The grenades and pepper spray have metal pins and the holdall has tiny scaled zips. But it’s the contents of the holdall I love, there are stacks and bundles of $100’s each note is printed front and back and each bundle has about 20 notes, you get 12 bundles per stack with 5 stacks in total, making a cool $120000.00 in total… nice.

The smiley face on the fragmentation grenade was a cool touch as well!

Fitting the latex mask needs some consideration, I did pull the mask right over the full head, and it fitted just fine… but why bother? It’s easier to fit it with the back of the head removed (which you have to do to position the eyes); I would recommend for general posing, that this is the easier way to go.

Outfit - ***3/4
This is another area I am very impressed, almost perfection for this price-point, the standard here is much more akin to the Takara Cy-Girls than either Janice or Julia. The quality of tailoring, stitching, material and the finish on the boots with their soft uppers and solid heels is much more hi-end. The long tailed coat even fits over the shoulder holsters with a little futzing.

The outfit consists of-

- Brown pleather sleeveless jumpsuit with low-cut lace front (zip backed)
- Brown slip on leg sleeves
- Red boots (mixed media)
- Red long tailed overcoat 

So, all well put together, the only downside, as I mentioned above is that the outfits skin-tight nature means a few of the joints, most noticeably the groin and knees struggle to hold any deep stances, but it’s a very good looking set.

Action Feature - **1/2
Well, we get two sets of swappable eyes, I found the ones already in the head were stuck pretty fast when fresh out of the box but with a little manipulation you’ll soon have them swivelling and looking in all directions. To swap them out you have to remove the whole head, then pull off the back of the head, you can then either swap them or reposition by moving the small storks on the back of each eyeball. When replacing the back of the head take care not to trap the hair at the edges as this is easily done, apart from that it’s all pretty straight forward and works well on the whole, it’s a feature I have high long-term hopes for.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
The thing I most like about ZC Girls is they are built as grown up toys, not grown up collectibles (though I’m sure they will become collectible in their own right) but primarily they are ‘fun’ figures, much like the early Cy-Girls before they became so expensive and damn hard to get hold of. She makes a great addition to any shelf as a background character, but mine will remain masked, flanking my BR Joker.

Value - ***
I’ve seen her on eBay going for between $65 to $89, and for that price you’re getting a decent base body, a very well put together outfit and some seriously cool accessories.

The only slight let down is the simplicity of the sculpt, but as I said it has an Anime/Manga feel to it, and plenty of people love this ‘cutesy’ kind of look. However I kind of perceive a ‘bank robber’ as having a more aggressive, or at least determined expression, though it does also have to be said that when wearing the mask you can’t tell what her expression is anyway. But if you can get her for near the $70 mark, then she’s definitely at least a 3 star item… maybe a smidgen more!

Overall - ***
The ERT feature is a nice gimmick, and I’m sure as they perfect the technique the faces will get better and better, but for now her face is the weakest part… well, for me anyway. The rest of the figure is very strong, the base body is good, I love the outfit and accessories, in fact the huge amount of accurate $100 bills, though simple, are one of my favourite accessories in a long time, and it’s cool that they give you so very many.
So to sum up, with the mask on, or after a simple head swap she looks fantastic, hell to be honest even without the swap she looks pretty damn good… especially if you’re into Anime!

SCORE RECAP:
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - **3/4
Paint - **3/4
Articulation - ***1/2
Accessories - ***1/2
Outfit - ***3/4
Action Feature - **1/2
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - ***
Overall - ***

Where to buy -
So far I’ve only seen these on eBay and they go for between $65 to $89. Alternatively you can contact ZC Girl direct.