Saber Lily Golden Caliburn Rerelease

Saber arrived the other day and I've finally been able to get around to writing this. After waiting since August and a number of delays since December she's finally here.

Well there's not much to say about it's quality except that overall it's very good. The quality control on her is very good, the paint job is great, the sculpting is great. You get the usual tiny rugged bits which are only noticeable on over inspection. I must admit there is a slight black mark just to the right of her left eye on her nose. However, again this is only noticeable when looking very close at her, it's not visible normally and only when zoomed in on the picture above.

I find I like her sheath more than the Distant Avalon version and her sword as well. The detail in the markings on them are very nice. While I would describe Distant Avalon with the armoured dress with words such as epic and amazing, I find that the difference in the clothes makes this figure more beautiful. I also find the red and white colours in the base to be very nice as well.

I don't know if it's just because it's a new figure but, I'm inclined to say that I find this figure more appealing than Distant Avalon. One thing that should be noted is that the hand which holds the sheath has a hole in the palm of it where a lug on the sheath pushes in to keep it there. This hand does not have an interchangeable normal hand like Distant Avalon. While the hole is small it may annoy some more particular people when wanting to display her without the sheath. 

Oh, and I should probably let you know that the end of the hilt on the sword can be temporarily removed so that the hilt can be slid through the grip of her hand easily. That's something that took me a few years to learn with Distant Avalon after forcing it in.

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Saber Outside Photoshoot

Here are the outside photos of Saber!

Saber Triumphant 1/7 GoodSmile Company

The pattern in the armour looks lovely in person.

The hilt itself is quite impressive up close.

As you can see the peg in the foot is metal so there shouldn't be any worry of it breaking. So far it seems others have had no problems with the figure leaning either. Goodsmile has a reputation for quality as well so I'm fairly confident I won't have any leaning problems.

Here's the paint on the front of her dress I was talking about in the first post. Turns out that this is the way it was meant to be. A little strange seeing as how the rest of the dress doesn't feature this.

There's a great deal of detail in the hair which is nice. Most figures just have a flat surface for the hair being directed to the back but the Sabers hair is sculpted to show the individual bunches.

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Saber Triumphant Excalibur 1/7 GoodSmile Company

Saber arrived yesterday! This is the rerelease of the 2010 figure Saber Triumphant Excalibur from Goodsmile Company preordered from www.amiami.com. Better photos coming soon. Still got to get around to taking more photos of Athrun too!

Overall it's arguably my best figure so far. It's only truly comparable in detail, pose etc to other Goodsmile Company figures such as Rin Tohsaka Unlimited Bladeworks and Saber Lily Distant Avalon. She comes with two swords. One which is transparent and has the blue glowing thing around it indicating that she may possibly be using her noble phantasm and the other sword is the same except it looks normal without thing power up stuff around it. The blue stuff looks like it can be removed from that sword but I haven't bothered to try yet. It feels a little strange looking at her. The face is easily visible on all my other figures but her arms cover up half of it and I keep trying to get a better view of it lol.

The base has some pretty awesome detail and design put into it and the Fate/Stay Night logo looks pretty awesome.

The paint job on this figure is very nice in general although there are some patches on the front blue section of her dress which i'm guessing isn't supposed to be there seeing as the rest of the dress hasn't anything like it. I'll have to look into that more. However, overall there's something about this figure, the colours and the paint in it which is very nice to look at. Perhaps I could describe it as soft/smooth? Anyway enjoy the photos, I'll get some nicer ones up soon! There's also all angles of the box if anyone wants to see.

UPDATE:

It seems from pictures of other peoples Saber that the paint on the front of her dress is intended to be that way.

First Review: Tomoyo Sakagami 1/7 DreamTech Wave

Okay, so here goes my first figure review. I don't know how much detail I'll go into as I'm usually lost for words and the photos should mostly speak for themselves. I'll aim to talk about anything the photos may fail to pick up on and I'll also try to give some brief descriptions on what's good and bad concerning the various aspects to the figures I review. Paint job, sculpt, box, base, etc. I'll probably include a score based system for each area and an overall score out of 10 for my reviews as well. Now that that is out of the way I guess I better start.

I'm going to be reviewing the Tomoyo Sakagami DreamTech 1/7 Scale figure produced by Wave. I should also say that she's from the anime Clannad. (which everyone should watch) I'll review this systematically starting from the outside of the box right down to the figure itself.

The Box

I guess to start off, I'll say that this figure is one of those that are much more impressive in real life than what the photos might show. I guess most figures would be as well but, I found this figure to be a significant example in regards to this.

At first glance, I found the box to be fairly ordinary however as I continue to write this review I find that the box is definitely starting to grow on me. The best parts I'd have to say is the front window and the soft colours in the pictures used. The window is large and makes it easy to view the figure inside unlike some other boxes I could mention. I guess you could say I'm partial to figure boxes with large windows.

 I should warn you that some of this paragraph may feel irrelevant to the figure.

Probably the most disappointing thing about information regarding anime figures circling the web is that I find there is all to often a lack of pictures of the actual box which I find can be instrumental in determining the legitimacy of the figure when the bootleg figure itself is of fairly comparable quality. One thing I like to know before buying a figure is knowing whether or not it has a sticker of authenticity. That's usually the best way of determining if it's the real deal. I haven't actually found any stickers on this box but, not all figures come with authenticity stickers (some bootlegs go so far as to even have fake stickers of authenticity) and judging by the overall quality this one seems to be pretty legit.

  The other thing that stands out about this box is the colouring in the pictures used. Unlike other similar boxes with lighter colours they definitely went for a much more softer look which is quite relaxing actually compared to say, Alter Tsumugi 1/8 with her bright pink almost neon like colours. I found this particularly pleasing for a change.

  By going the plain and simple approach and utilising the soft colours of blue skies and white clouds the designers managed to make an aesthetically pleasing box which gives off a very calm atmosphere and relaxed feeling to the viewer.

 The bottom isn't much to look at but, just in case you were wondering, here it is.

Like I said earlier, this box definitely grew on me and by now since I've finished writing this I'd have to say that I'd give this box a pretty high 8 out of 10.

When starting this I didn't realise how long writing reviews takes so I'll be uploading the rest of the review soon!

Review Continued.....

The Packaging

Okay, now time to open it up. Here's a few photos of her in the blister pack.

The blister pack itself is about as standard as they come. There's two pieces for the front and back that clip in together keeping the figure safely in place. Then inside there's plastic sheets including a plastic cover for the arm/leg? (I can't remember, it fits on both) that cover the area in which the figure sits. I guess this is to help prevent paint transfer or any other damage that would result from the figure rubbing up against the blister pack too much. The final part to this is that the blister pack has a small 'window' part molded around the area where her face lies so you properly view it from the outside. In the end, there's nothing particularly wrong with the packaging but, at the same time there is nothing special to write home about.

Does anyone else forget where all those plastic sheets go?

The Figure

At last, I finally get to talk about the figure itself. There's way too many photos to put in this post so I've posted a slide show so that you can view them all. If you want to view them in a larger format just click on the slide show and that'll take you to my Picasa Album. I'll select a few photos to show in full here. Before the figure I'll briefly review the base.

The Base

The base for this figure is very simple, as in, it's small, round and completely white. While I have to say the base really isn't all that inspiring it does however manage to complement the figure well. The figure itself isn't one that is designed to overtly stand out, like it's box the figure takes a very much conservative stance (comparatively speaking) which I believe the base manages to match very well. It has the usual pegs for the holes in the feet of the figure and a small piece of writing on the underside of the base which reads '© Visual Art's/Key/(to complicated to type Japanese writing) MADE IN CHINA'

Overall while nothing flashy, I'd say the base more than meets the requirements laid upon it. It's hard to give this one a score because while it isn't particularly interesting which is usually grounds to lower the score it does manage to fit with the overall feel of the figure. I've decided to leave the judging purely at my words this time around and perhaps let you make your own decision.

Now The Figure

Okay, now I really will talk about the figure. Like I said before the designers certainly weren't looking to be flashy this time around and opted for a softer look which I found quite refreshing.

To start off, overall there's nothing to complain about. The figure itself is fairly well sculpted, has smooth edges and the paint job is well done leaving no unsightly marks anywhere.

The Face

The face is well done and Tomoyo's blue eyes stand out nicely. Overall the detail is very good with the typical Key Trademark marks on her cheeks (that may not show up in the photos) right down to her teeth being visible inside that tiny mouth of hers. There's nothing bad to say when it comes to the quality of the face. The only possible downside to it is that I feel as though her face on this figure doesn't quite capture the original essence found in her former 2D self. That being said though, I still find the figures face to be rather cute and really can't complain about any of the subtle differences between the figure and the way she is drawn.

Late (Posted: July 20th)

Well it seems I never really finished this review did I? Sorry about that. I'll finish it off quickly by saying that overall I really like this figure, the sculpting is refined, not so much detail as Saber Lily but, none the less pleasing to the eye. The paint job has been well done and overall there's no flaw to point out. If you're a fan of Tomoyo then I'd definitely recommend picking it up and even if you're not it is my opinion that this would make a fine addition to any figure collection.