Here's one that has been sitting the pile for almost 6 months now, the Figma Saber Alter 2.0 figure. How long has it been? Well, I actually got this on my trip to Ottawa so... yeah, it's been quite a long time.
Funny story - when I bought it, the package and all the contents were present. Well, during my transit from Ottawa to Montreal, there was a bit of a mishap and my box ended up drowning. Luckily, the contents were mostly waterproof:
- 1 x Main Figure
- 3 x Face Plates (Neutral, Smiling, Shouting)
- 3 x Bangs (Visor Down, Visorless, Wind Blowing)
- 8 x Gripping/Posing Hands
- 1 x Excalibur Morgan
- 1 x Base/Stand
This set was about 8,000 Yen, which is pretty standard for a Fate release. I wouldn't call the payload particularly bad, but instead of a normal bangs, a damaged visor would have been preferable, and it's kind of weird how the hands meant to balance on top of Exaclibur's hilt now grips the thing between fingers rather than having an indent on palm to allow for balancing. on top of the part.
Out of box, things are look pretty good. Unlike other characters, Saber (in either form) basically has armour and that skirt to hide any curves, so there really isn't anything visible to complain about. Head size seems appropriate. Naturally, a fabric skirt in conjunction with solid armour pieces would have been preferred, but this figure isn't in the right price range. Sculpting on the armoured pieces are nicely done, with appropriate ribbing and angular parts. Excalibur Morgan is also nicely made, though to be fair its' expected as this isn't their first outing.
Sculpting on the hair and the other various head related parts isn't bad - it's up to their usual standards. Having said that, while the Visor headpiece give off an evil vibe, the eyes on most of the faces just don't do the job very well and give Saber Alter an more cutesy feel. The only exception would be the smiling face, which at least has a sinister gaze... or lecherous one, depending on your mood.
Articulation is limited by bulk, but that shouldn't be surprising, especially if you own Saber 2.0. The cavity under the skirt is larger than on that figure, but you're still ultimately limited by that confines of that area. I do like the additional engineering that was done to introduce some butterfly joints to the shoulders so at least the figure can cross its arms. The feet have also been slightly reworked, and the toes rotate rather than simply flex, making wide legged stances much easier to pull off. Stability remains shaky due to general balance issues of the figure. Overall, articulation is pretty much what you can get out of the Saber 2.0 figure, with perhaps a few extra notches on range of motion.
Paint Application is top notch. It's not as complicated as other figures, but on the other hand at least the trade off is that there are very few errors. Decals are sharply printed and applied to the various pieces. About the only issue I could find was that there was a bit of top coat overspray next to the hole meant for the stand.
Finally, with regards to Build Quality, no concerns to report. The usual criteria of tightness and finish quality are well executed.
Both 2.0 versions of this character are, as expected, solidly designed and made Figma releases. Ultimately, it's a preference thing, but unlike Goku these are two different characters so your typical Fate collector is gonna have both. It just took me years to get one because I didn't feel like paying MSRP on this. For those interested, it shouldn't be that hard to find one of these nor should it be horrendously expensive like with other figures from the series.
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