I got a little smarter on my trip to the West Coast, only brining back stuff that actually fit in my luggage. While limited, I'd like to think I got some good, albeit strange, pieces. I started with the most awkward of the pieces I brought back -awkward in the sense that it took up the most space, and was effectively my personal carry on item across two flights and 600 km of driving, the Queen's Gate x Tekken 6 1/8 Scale Lili Ryona.
I've looked over a few Queen's Blade items, the book based battle game. Queen's Gate is a companion line to that game, but instead of original characters, the books would use licensed characters. Popular characters such as Mai Shiranui, Kasumi, and Ivy Valentine make an appearance, though much to the disappointment of fans like myself the level of nudity for these character was effectively zero (relatively speaking). As one would expect, statues of these characters were created but collecting them was a bit more challenging as they were Japanese mail order only, which back in the early 2010s was a show stopper. I've only really just seen a few in stores, and by the time they were put on shelves here the prices were absurd.
But, as usual, I wanted long enough, and was able to get one of these statues for a very reasonable price, though it was exactly the character I was hoping for.
Lili is the crossover character chosen for the newest Tekken entry at the time, Tekken 6. She was introduced in Tekken 5, and quite honestly, I completely forgot she was even in Tekken games and would have figured Anna, Nina, or even Ling Xiao Yu would have been more likely to have been chosen.
One of the more dynamically posed Queen's Gate statues, Lili is sculpted in a high kick pose. The statue comes with an additional small stand that keeps the leg propped up to prevent leaning, though I'm sure this is actually needed per se. This is actually the Limited Edition 2P colour piece. which is kind of unfortunate as the 1P white shows up much better in pictures. So, as I mentioned, nudity is generally off the table for Queen's Gate statues, but ecchi isn't exactly shied away from, in case the pose didn't give it away.
Lumping everything all together, the general overall sculpt and the finishes provided on the final piece aren't bad, but at the same time you can clearly see the age of the statue. Further complicating matters is the fact these weren't made by Alter or Megahouse. though I've seen worse from that era. The face is alright as with the hair and other finer details, but things do look a bit fuzzy. Multi layered outfit is nice and very much a premium touch. The exposed flesh parts were certainly much better done than the outfit, but I suspect it is related to material and paint choices.
Speaking of material choices, it does seem like this statue may feature ABS, which is what prevents modern statues from leaning.
As mentioned, no nudity but there's no shying away from ecchi . Thank goodness these elements turned out better than the dress.
One final thing is that the statue comes with an energy effect that simulates motion blur associated with her kick. It's nice getting one of these statues, but I have to say I was somewhat taken aback about how the finer details didn't quite age that well. Having said that, the art work used for these pieces weren't done by the usual artists, and would provide a different look for your favourite characters, so from a variety perspective it would be worth it. Factoring in price and availability, and it pretty much comes down to personal preference.
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