Persona 5 Protagonist - Sega PM Figure Review

Hi, it’s been a little bit since my last review but, in my defense, I was getting my bachelor’s degree (in archeology, fun fact) So I think my absence on the figure review side of my site can be excused. For my grand return I wanted to review one of my Persona 5 figures, and where better to start than with the very first figure in my collection!

This is (according to the wonderful figure database, Myfigurecollection.net) the “Persona 5 Protagonist Sega PM Figure.” My best guess at when I got him is around late 2018 or early 2019, but I don’t have any evidence beyond memory sadly. I do remember buying him off Amazon for probably around 25-30$ because I know I bought him with a gift-card I’d gotten for Christmas. It’s sad I didn’t document it very well, but what can I say – I was in high school and had 0 interest in reading figure reviews, let alone writing them.

Moving on to the actual review then, there’s not really too much to say to be honest. This figure’s simple enough. It has a simple paint job, only being painted in flat colors, which works because of the detailed sculpting on the clothes. It makes the skin feel flat, which is unfortunate but not uncommon in figures (at least the ones in my collection). I think his face is printed well, my only issue is it’s hard to see his mouth sometimes. Though, in my current set up, with top-down lighting, his face is perfectly readable from a distance.

I like the pose a lot too, it’s cute. It is the pose from the official art of his school uniform design, but I think the pose works better in 3D so I’ll let it slide.

Now onto the biggest issue, the most noticeable thing in every photo I’ve shown of him: His glasses are broken. Lucky for me, when they broke off I managed to keep the actual glasses (a miracle really, I lost them on my bed of all places for a few months if I’m remembering correctly), but this is a common issue. Looking at listings on Mercari and Ebay (well, mostly mercari. Ebay has too many new ones in box, lol) it seems more common for the glasses to just be completely gone, rendering Joker’s pose strange without the added context. This is because the glasses are frankly too flimsy. There’s not a strong connection across the glasses, and the point of contact between them and Joker’s hand is so small… it’s why you see a lot of figures with the glasses cleanly removed. I wonder if that was done on purpose to stop them from breaking like my figure has, but who knows?

It seems that now, there’s a new figure with the same pose on the market – from the Goodsmile Pop Up Parade line. It’ll be interesting to see if in a few years, once people start reselling their old figures, if the problem with the glasses breaking persists with this new figure. I’d hope not, but we’ll see.

Here he is in my display, woefully covered in a fine layer of dust. Ive got to be careful dusting (allergies, ugh) but spring is coming so I'll be able to crack a window and dust my figures off soon :)

Final Thoughts:

A very dear figure to me, even if it is broken. I’m lucky it was affordable when it was – or maybe unlucky – because that’s what made me want to collect figures like this. I used to keep it on my desk and I’d sometimes pick it up and turn it around to see all the details. It’s very precious to me.

Do I recommend this figure?

In 2019? Yeah. Now? Not really. Mostly because from what I know about the Pop Up Parade line, and from looking at photos of the Sega PM Figure and the PuP figure side by side, it seems like the PuP figure has cleaner details (in my opinion. I’m very charmed by the detail of the pants’ pattern folding with the pants. It’s charming). Can I justify buying the PuP figure right now? No, I have virtually the same figure already – but I would like to. I guess I’m trying to influence people to get the newer figure, lol. Still, even if you get the newer one, there is charm in the Sega PM figure. From what I can see (as in, setting Joker’s MCF figure page to “order by release date”) this is one of the earliest Persona 5 figures, so it has that going for it.

figure specs source:Myfigurecollection.net