So Animester has been on a roll lately with their 1/9 action figure offerings, So I decided to give one of their previous works, the Animester x Gray Raven: Lucia - Crimson Abyss figure a try. Wasn't too hard to find, being relatively new and that scalpers still think Seamless Silicone waifu have cooties.
I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but Punishing: Gray Raven is a Chinese mobile game that has expanded beyond those borders. I'm not a very good judge of how well received the game was, but I can say it's not like I'm seeing Gray Raven cosplay at Anime North. My understanding is that each of the characters is some sort of robot or cyborg, and depending on the form they take a different skill set is made available. This Crimson Abyss is one of those different forms of the character Lucia.
Priced a bit higher than the typical release (probably license related) Contents are pretty typical of a set, though without familiarity I can't say for sure if the set is complete:
1 x Main Figure
3 x Faceplates (Neutral, Speaking, Focused)
6 x Posing/Gripping Hands
1 x Alternate Bangs
1 x Red Sword
1 x Gray Sword
1 x Scabbard
1 x Scabbard Mount
1 x Base/Stand
Out of the box, Lucia is looking pretty sharp. As mentioned, she's Seamless Silicone wherever she can be though it may not be apparent that she's Seamless Silicone from the Chest to the Biceps. Other parts are jointed, as you would probably expect.
It might be apparent from the photographs, but the shirt she's wearing is actually a soft good, and is nicely tailored. I remember reading some comments that mentioned the shirt interfered with posing, but I didn't find that to be the case, but then I kept the sleeves rolled up and I don't know if that's canon. The shirt can actually come off but I was too lazy to figure it out.
So I think that like with Snail Shell, scale might actually mean something as the 1/9 figures I have are of varying heights.
One other thing I learned was about the character designs in Gray Raven itself. Out of sheer curiosity, I bought a base form Lucia released by Aniplex, another figure company. I remember opening it and being completely annoyed at how waifish she was. I considered that maybe Aniplex just wasn't very good at making figures. Turns out that is a character design thing, and I don't think it ends with Lucia as I have something else sitting here that says otherwise. Rosetta isn't particularly thicc either, but she's pure robot through and through.
Faceplates are decently done, tracking reasonably accurately with source materials. Unlike other Animester releases, however, these faces don't have articulating eyeballs so you're stuck with the one way they look. Alternate bangs are nice to have if you need a less dynamic look. However, neither set gets the hair arrangement quite right, as all reference art I've seen shows there is a gap that allows the right eye to be clearly seen regardless of the situation.
The Scabbard mount works pretty well. Bit of a pain getting it in but once connected the multiple joint keeps the thing stable in a multitude of posotions.
Articulation is.. kind of average, despite the use of Seamless body components. Some of it is understandable, as it's the usual reality of physics.
So the main outfit Lucia wears is best described as a Leotard, which unfortunately isn't fabric and so you get these harder plastic bits around the hips, kind of getting in the way of hip articulation. THEN you have to take into account these are probably the worst placed pouches on said harder plastic outfit, which severely interferes with the forward rotation of the legs.
The aforementioned Leotard, as mentioned, hard plastic. Other than blocking the movement of the hips, this also eliminates back arch and ab crunch functions, so any sleek looking poses are out.
The bulky hair doesn't help matters of head articulation, though to their credit Animester did ad several joints to the mass to allow for movement of hair, which ultimately assists with head articulation. It's not a perfect system, but it is better than nothing.
I also forgot to take a picture, but the scarf, specifically the swath around the neck, is the actual culprit causing interference of shoulder articulation, getting in the way when you're trying to raise the arms.
What I DON'T understand is why the articulation of the Seamless leg is restricted. It feels almost like they did something so that it only does what the jointed leg would do, which while double jointed is still limited by bulk and decisions on how the limb was cut. In fact, if you push the knee any further than this, the joint ends up bulging out of the Silicone, which isn't idea for the long term health of the figure. The other weird thing is this is probably the only Seamless legs that can't seem to hit a full leg spread - in fact it can't even come close to that before the Silicone makes the legs come back together. It's certainly not
Paint Applications are on par with the Thunderbolt Squad stuff. The matte paint apps are sharp and coverage is the typical "as needed" basis, but it's the Metallic Red make this a beautiful product,. You get this gorgeous colour on her left forearm, Scabbard, and one of the Swords, with the other weapon predominately painted in a Flat Gray with a Silver edge. Colour matching of flesh tone with the Silicone is slightly off, but there's only the slit that runs down the front of her Leotard, as the flesh coloured plastic used for the face is pretty good. Decal work on the faces is nice and sharp.
Build Quality is generally good. Seems there's always a joint issue with the Seamless, in this case the right hip but in my case it results in the inability to hold a spread legged pose, which isn't exactly good for the figure either and the Silicone seems to restrict articulation in that direction anyway. The weirdest thing is that for some reason the bangs like to pop off, but I think I'm probably tilting the head too much and causing it to just pry off.
Slightly flawed with a few frustrating design elements, but ultimately a very stylish figure. Sleek, with a hint of skin but not overtly skanky for those of you that are a bit more sensitive about these things, with some beautiful paint and a nicely tailored top.
I just wish the proportions made more sense.
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