Well folks, it too literal years, but she's here... the Lancer Artoria Figma has finally been released, and I was ecstatic to crack this puppy open and start my photography. I even got the DX version that came with her trusty battle stallion, having seen and bene mesmerized by that beautiful 1/8 scale statue from Good Smile Company.
The Figma was delivered promptly, and after shipping and taxes, this was close to $300 CAD. But that didn't matter... she was finally home!
Of course, as everyone knows, with greater expectations often comes something to temper said excitement....
I don't know if there have been any other Figma that released with a horse, but this is my first real Deluxe set Figma and the box is gigantic. The box measure about 12 inches across, and if you've ever collected a figure, the boxes are relatively small. As this is an extra special set, the packaging is a bit fancier than normal, consisting of a slip cover over the blue inner art box, as it were, though sadly the actual photography on the box is pretty much the same.
The actual contents of the set really only differ from the solo Figma by the horse and its affiliated stands. I would have thought her golden Holy Lance would have been horse specific:
- 1 x Main Figure
- 3 x Face Plates (Neutral, Smiling, Shouting)
- 9 x Gripping/Posing Hands
- 1 x Green Lance
- 1 x Golden Lance
- 1 x Horse
- 1 x Riding Saddle
- 1 x Figma Base/Stand
- 1 x Horse Base/Stand
You know this character is extra special when Good Smile decides to give her a pretty decent wired cape. It's not exactly the greatest thing ever, but it does match what the latest offerings from Bandai are, such as on the Endgame Thor and Dr. Strange figures. Adding that fluffy collar would have been the cherry on top... which means it wasn't done.
How accurate is the figure? The overall outfit looks about right, with the right colours and cut, but ultimately, I have no clue because there were only two parts of the figure I even remotely cared about being accurate...
Yeah, I'd say they nailed it. Clearly the chest is something that wasn't recycled from any other figure, and her face is actually, for whatever reason, wider look Artoria in any other form. Her wild hairstyle has been recreated nicely along with her crown, so no complaints from me.
All-in-all, everything I had hoped for.
It was at this point, however, I started noticing some QC quirks, which have been experienced by others. If you look at her chest, you'll see that the line between the breasts does not line up with the dip in her top. Sadly, when I emailed GSC, they emailed myself and others the same thing - this is within acceptable tolerances.
We are all sad pandas.
The two other face plates came out very nicely, fully of life and an expression that befits the character.
This brings me to the second widely experienced QC issue - some figures, at least this DX version, are shipping without all of these face plates.
So the figure having rather limited articulation isn't a surprise to any of us collectors. It's pretty much par for the course for most Figma, as the emphasis is generally on form over function. The extra hinges on the tail of her skirt and the wired cape do help, but ultimately Artoria will look awkward, no matter what dynamic pose you're doing with her, same as pretty much every other Lancer type character ever released by Figma.
That is, of course, why you get the horse with this figure. Artoria doesn't need to be as limber when the horse can do all the heavy lifting (both figuratively and literally).
The actual horse itself is actually fairly well articulated. featuring articulated limbs, even down to the hoof level, neck, head, and tail. There doesn't seem to be any torso twist so basically the horse will always be headed in one direction - straight. Not the end of the world unless you were planning to make the horse do some weird S curves.
You can actually get the figure to interact with the stirrups and reins properly, but I'm not very good at that.
So you can see how even a relatively static figure can be made to look fairly dynamic here, and if you're better at manipulating the cape and putting the stand on the horse so it stands on its hind legs, it would look even better.
It is fiddling with seated mode that I noticed the final flaw of the figure, one that is also widely reported - paint transfers onto the thighs, which is, needless to say, very unsightly.
With regards to the rest of the figure, it's pretty standard Figma ownership. The paint on my figure meets what I expect of such a release. I know some others have had occurrences of shoddy paint, but the number of complaints on that sort of thing appear to be relatively low. All paint apps were found to be smooth and precisely applied, with the work done on her crown particularly nice. Paint work on the horse isn't as extensive as on the figure, but it's still more complicated than your standard Figma horse. Overall, no real complaints on that part of the figure either.
Build Quality again, is something that is pretty standard. Nothing was falling apart, nor were there any joints that failed to hold their position. I wish they had designed the holding hands a bit better, as you actually need to pry the hand open slightly to get the handle of the lance into the figures hands. What makes things more challenging is that her left hand is actually an armoured mitt as opposed to gloves, which translates into a thicker hand, which means you have to try that much harder to get it in. Fortunately, despite my brute force methods, it doesn't seem paint transfer is an issue, unlike Catgirl Sunflower.
At the end of the day, the figure set itself is still a typical Figma product. It's just that the anticipation on this one was very high, to say the least, and to have such wide spread QC issues dismissed as being within tolerance is a bit disappointing - it's pretty much the polite way of saying GTFO. Flaws aside, though, I'm still very happy to finally have the ultimate Fate Figma in my collection... or at least that I know of, because I'm discovering new and wonderous character designs every time a new figure is released.
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