I took a side-by-side comparison of two figures from the American Diorama Mijo Exclusives 1:64 Scale Pin-Up Girls Figure Set with two resin 3D prints from Double G Diecast. The Mijo figures are the middle two. Figures from both manufacturers are roughly the same size, but the Mijo figures have slightly more bulk to them.
Decent castings with a sloppy paint job
It’s difficult to find quality 1:64 scale figures in the United States. I’ve been buying a lot of figures from Double G Diecast on Etsy. The figures from Double G are 3D resin prints with a high degree of detail. There’s also a huge range of poses relating to every day life. Double G also has a lot of mechanic and pin-up girl poses as well. The figures are unpainted and the cost is $3.50 US per figure. However, you get free shipping on orders of $35 or more. Like most 3D prints, some clean-up is needed.
For diorama purposes, I was looking for figures in poses related to car culture, such as car meets, street racing and mechanics. America Diorama’s Mijo Exclusives 1:64 scale figures fits this bill very nicely. They have sets for car meets, lowriders, mechanics, beach scenes, police scenes, a farmers market and a lot more. Visit American Diorama’s website to view the full line of figures.
Unfortunately, finding the Mijo Exclusives can be a hit or miss when it comes to ordering. If you order directly from American Diorama, the shipping fee is exceptionally high. I’ve tried to order directly several different times and the shipping cost ranged from $5 per unit to $12.50 per unit. That’s exceptionally high for an item that retails for $10.99 per unit. If I remember correctly, PayPal is the only payment option. A lot of figure sets also are out of stock frequently.
Mijo Exclusives are distributed in the U.S. by M&J Toys Inc. In order to purchase from M&J, you have to be licensed retailer. This leads to the most reliable source of figure sets being vendors on Amazon.com or eBay.com. The markup on the figure sets varies, from $2 to as high as $5 or $6. Add shipping to that and you’re looking at $20 or so for one set of figures. The upside, is online retailers will usually ship multiple figure sets for the same price.
I’m willing to pay $3.50 for the Double G figures, so my price point on the Mijo figures is $20 total. That breaks down to $3.33 per figure, which is slightly less than the $3.50 from Double G.
I recently purchased my first set of Mijo figures, the Pin-Up Girls set, from an Amazon.com vendor. After opening the figures, I had mixed feelings about the set. I liked the poses and castings, but I wasn’t really pleased with the paint job on the figures.
As you can see from the image, the paint was just slopped onto the figures. From a distance, the errors aren’t really that noticeable. However, since I’m planning on photographing the models, I’m sure some of the painting miscues will be visible in the photographs. I only photographed three of the models, but all six had a bevy of painting errors.
I don’t want to have to adjust my figure placement in photographs to hide the errors. Also, it looks like an enamel paint was used on the figures. They are particularly shiny and reflect a lot of light. Also, there’s a lot of nice detail in the cloth folds on the models. The existing paint job doesn’t draw attention to those details. In the above photo, looking at the underside of the arms on the first and third figures, there is a noticeable seam line that needs to be cleaned up as well.
A big plus with these models is they are diecast. That makes the Mijo Exclusives a lot more durable than resin prints, which tend to be quite fragile. I’m going to drop one of the Mijo figures into some paint stripper and see how easily and cleanly the paint comes off. Hopefully, that goes pretty well.
In the end, I’ll strip the paint off all these figures. Once I’ve got them cleaned up, I’ll repaint them. For this particular set, I’ll keep the same colors, but add in shading to bring a little more life to the figures. That project will be a month or two down the road. I purchased this figure set to show off the 2022 Hot Wheels Stars and Stripes series. I’m planning a street scene photo shoot for those cars leading up to American Independence Day on July 4, 2023.
Boondock Bight 