Continuing on with my stack of Queen's Blade statues, we have Airi and Airi, with one from Griffon Enterprises and the other from good old Megahouse.
I'm not sure if they're still around, but Griffon Enterprises was never the most loved manufacturer of waifu goodness. I guess more accurately it wasn't their manufacturing, but rather, the artisans they hired to create their products. The most widespread problem with their releases, regardless of the IP, is that the faces of the statues just all looked terrible. Still, there's a few designs here and there that even they couldn't screw up, and Airi appears to be one of them.
Airi is sculpted in a sitting/lounging position,, hair draped around her and Scythe in her hand.. After seeing this statue, I've come to appreciate the weaponry the Megahouse version comes with is actually quite undersized. Hair is longer for that cosmetic effect of course. There's no real use of pegs or anything on this statue with the exception of the guides that keep the Scythe in place.
The overall sculpting isn't bad and is pretty typical of the quality you'd expected from something above average back in 2010-ish. Decent amount of detailing in the hair, with the seam better than typical releases. Fabric detailing isn't bad, though the work on the more delicate parts of the outfit could use a bit of TLC. Extremities like the fingers were acceptable and other smaller details such as the buckles on the shoe were well done. Isn't much in the way musculature, which is wasted given the large surface area on her back. Paint wise, everything isn't bad until you get to the whites, which, to be fair, seemed to be at best above average during this era. You can notice that the quality dips further when it comes to areas that most people wouldn't look, such as her panties, but I do look.
The cast off process involves the statue being split apart at the waist, where you can remove the skirt. With regard to the upper body, you just remove the two pieces that cover up the breasts, resulting in a cast off statue that looks more like you interrupted the character getting changed than any real sense of nudity, which I guess is a problem with some of the Megahouse releases as well. Sadly, as with most other cast off pieces, there's likely going to be some paint transfer and in my case, age related markings on the covered spots.
The Megahouse version I've had a bit of a history with, seeing how I owned it back in the day. This version, however, is the Special Edition, which apparently means she comes with a few more weapon display options - her Scythe, an Axe, and a Mop (maid and all). Fun fact - you'll probably notice that quite a few of the figure photos have a missing collar. That's because I managed to lose it the moment I opened up that box, and I'm happy to report I have already recovered it.
As Airi is a spirt of sorts, this statue has her in a floating pose, arms raised overhead ready to strike. As mentioned, the standard version would be just as you see here. Pose aside, you can probably make out there is a bit of aesthetic difference between this and the Griffon Enterprises version., most notably cup size, the face, and the length of the hair.
Here are her alternate weapons, as promised. These two use a different handle, and you just swap off the tops.
The face is different, and you'll probably have noticed that the seam on the hair isn't particularly well hidden. I believe the Megahouse lines goes for the original artwork in the books versus the portrayals in the anime, which is what the Griffon is more aligned with. This is very much a common theme with the Megahouse releases. Otherwise, you can see some lovely fabric detailing. While the hair is shorter, the detailing on the underlying body is better, just hidden by the clothing on top. Paint work I'd say is generally about the same, but with better application of White and other brighter colours. Speaking of brighter, I think it's fair to say that the overall colour scheme of the Griffon version is brighter.
Cast off wise, more typical to what I'm use to, which is effectively the clothing just splits in half and slides off the building. In this case, the entire top is gone so she has her wrist bands and that's about it upstairs, while the lower body will have her panties (pretty typical for most of the line) and leggings. As always, age spots and paint transfer are pretty much a thing.
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