I think the problem I have is, as you said, it's just difficult to do it well. At scale, fabric doesn't drape the way it should, move the way it should, wrinkle the way it should. Even if you get the weave down pat, so it doesn't look like the guy is wearing burlap and corduroy. Fabric capes are fantastic. Anything else is always going to be a struggle. Especially if it's not your specialty and just something you're doing because you want to spruce up a figure or because there's limited options otherwise (as you said with robes and posing).Softgoods are always tough to do well at the 1:12 scale (works better when it isn't trying to look like tailored clothes), but in hand I generally liked the robes - robes having no hope of being done well sculpted in plastic and allowing for posing.
Pretty sure that thing on the left is a Kappa. Was recently in Japan looking for a figure of one of these. Pretty cool that they’re making Yokai.Apologies for the twitter link but I couldn’t find another source. I’m not sure if the prototype maker (@mesonosuke) referred to here is the sculptor or printer.
It’s neat to see that some of the development is happening in Japan and there’s some buzz about the line