Review: Revoltech Yotsuba and Danboard

Today we have a double review, Revoltech Yotsuba and Danboard! Both of these were originally released around late 2007 but have recently seen rereleases in October 2010. Since they’re fairly simple figures and they make such fun photos together, I’ve decided to do a double review! In case you don’t know where these 2 characters come from, they are from the utterly hilarious manga series Yotsuba&! drawn by the talented Kiyohiko Azuma that follows the adventures of the cheeky youngster Yotsuba. Danboard appears briefly in the manga when Miura, one of Yotsuba’s friends, dons a cardboard robot costume and is mistaken by Yotsuba as a futuristic visitor that is fueled by money.


We’ll start off with Danboard. She is pretty simple, and should be, since shes a cardboard robot! Danboard is a funny figure, she is probably one of the most simple designs in a figure ever and has absolutely horrible articulation (more on that later) and yet is one of the more sought after figures. Kaiyodo even made 2 other variants, an Amazon.jp version and a 7-Eleven version. Somehow Danbo is very photogenic as well, she seems to be favorite for beautiful artsy shots.

Yotsuba on the other hand, well, shes still popular but is actually very well articulated (more on that later as well). There is one other version of her available, the Summer DX version. Yotsuba also takes good photos due to her flexibility and her character. There are lots of photos of Yotsuba getting into all kinds of mischief.

The boxes for both are pretty small, smaller than any figma box. Accessories are pretty limited as well, Danboard only has Miyura’s head and a stand and Yotsuba has an ice cream, squirt gun, 4 hands, and a stand. Oh, and this funny joint that you can apparently put into her chest to make it more flexible but I’m not too keen on ripping apart my Yotsuba so I gave it a pass. They’re fairly efficient with the package size though, at least it will save on shipping.

I really like how Danboards box is more of a rough paper like a paper bag instead of the glossy type of cardboard, it really adds to the character. The one thing I really dislike about Revoltech boxes is the paper wrap-around thing at the bottom of the box, I’m pretty bad at destroying those and will probably never be able to resell any of my Revoltechs, hehe.

Hey Danboard, wait up!

One thing with Yotsuba is that she doesn’t have very many Revoltech joints, she mostly has revolving joints that are limited to one plane of motion but she has so many joints, you can usually get around it to get most any pose you want.

Yotsuba: Whee!! Danbo: O_O

Thats actually the limit of Danboard’s arm movement without moving the head

Danboard wishes she could eat ice cream

I was pretty impressed to see that Yotsuba could sit like that. It takes 3 revolving joints and a Revoltech joint in one leg alone to do it, but that’s pretty cool. The mushroom is a candy tin thing we got from a convention, eat it to grow!

Yotsuba can actually sit! To get this sitting pose though, its thanks to the rotating joints in her hips, which means that her legs will only stick out at that angle, no splits or legs straight out for her. As for Danboard, thats as far back as the head will go.

Yotsuba turns on Danboard

Love that face with the squirt gun, it instantly makes her a punk up to no good. As for Danboard, the leg going back is the limit of leg movement

Yotsuba: DIEEEEEEE! PEWPEWPEW Danbo: D-:

Yotsuba actually looks pretty pro kneeling and shooting like that.

Danbo counterattack! CARDBOARD UPPERCUT!!!!

My favorite photo, no Photoshopping except for the black (had to hide the Kleenex box somehow). Yes, Danbo has a special feature, light up eyes! Once you remove the plastic tab under the head, you can flip the tiny switch on the side of the head to activate Danboard’s rage mode! (aka. light up eyes). The cardboard uppercut was actually just some cut up cardboard that I glued together and secured on her arm with wire.

Danboard really is human! This is Miura’s head

A size comparison, Yotsuba is almost Figma sized, her scale is a little off from them though. Don’t have to worry with Danboard although you can see her head is definitely bigger than even a Nendoroid!
Yotsuba and Danboard are fun figures are are definitely recommended for fans of the series. The lack of articulation on Danboard might turn off some, but its to be expected with a design like that and hey, Kaiyodo even put in the light up eyes gimmick they had in the story! The price is quite good as well, Yotsuba is on sale at all the major stores, AmiAmi for 1480 yen, Hobby Search for 1615 yen, and HobbyLink Japan for 1900 yen. Danboard is a little harder to get, as of this moment she is sold out in the 3 stores but Hobby Search has had restocks twice already and if you’re vigilant, you might be able to catch another one. Thanks for reading!

(plasticparfait)