So, it's not very often I get one of these TBLeague 1/12 figures, mostly due to lack of attachment to any of the licenses. But they do look neat, and the technology behind them are things I hope become more of a mainstream thing, though hopefully they'll fix that dust issue one day.
Arhian, as far as I can tell, is a character from ARH Studios, a relatively small studio that has a handful of unique IPs. Based on what I saw, it seems most of their heavy hitter female leads have been given the TBLeague treatment. This particular iteration of the character is dressed in the outfit from her second story, City of Horrors,. There are 1/6 versions of her in at least two other costumes, so I'm going to guess she's a fairly popular character.
There have also been figures of other better known female leads, like Red Sonja and Vampirella, characters that even a complete casual such as myself know.
Unlike the 1/6 scale figures, the 1/12 come in a fairly non-descript translucent black plastic boxes, with all the labeling located inside the box on printed slips of paper that you can see through the box walls. This particular exhibit is second hand, and is missing the plastic cellophane that is used to seal the contents in.
So far, I've only gotten two of these figures, and both feature two layers contained within the box - the top layer is the main body as well as any outfit pieces and parts used there, whereas the second layer contains weapons and the stand.
As mentioned, this particular figure is second hand, so some of the pieces were already on the body. While slipping pieces on the arms and legs is a bit annoying due to the tackiness of the body itself, this figure is still overall easier to get up and running than Red Sonja, who required some actual looping of fabric through metal buckles.
Content wise, the 1/12 Arhian I believe comes with what the 1/6 does:
- Main Figure with all the various armour and leather parts
- 4 x Additional Hands
- 1 x Shield
- 1 x Sword and Scabbard
- 1 x Dagger and Sheath
- 1 x Battle Axe
- 1 x Hooded Cape
and...
- 1 x Base and Display Arm
For those of you who are old enough, do you remember Arcades? Because if you do, then you'll know that the Home Version is basically developers doing the best the can with what they've got, while giving you a reasonable experience of the real thing.
That pretty much summarizes these 1/12 version of the figures.
The smaller size naturally results in the loss of some detail on the equipment, which honestly didn't make the transition that poorly. The base body is a TBLeague T01, which appears to be a scaled down S22, which is good as there's still musculature. When it comes to biggest losers, though, it's always the faces. The 1/6 heads aren't exactly works of art, but they did the job and looked quite different from one another. The 1/12 heads look, to me, kind of generic, but I guess at the end of the day they'll do the job. It's just that with companies like Figma and Figuarts capable to delivering pretty good offerings at this size, I was hoping that these ones would at least try harder to resemble their 1/6 counterparts, Here hair, however, appears to be easier to handle than any 1/6 Rooted Hair sculpt I've ever touched.
The Hooded Cape also loses a bit in translation, especially with the furry parts. I'm not sure this issue exists on the 1/6, but the 1/12 cape is definitely a bit rigid, like someone had forgotten to put in fabric softener. It, again, gets the job done, but I find can get in the way of shoulder movement. Also, its quite easy to rip the cape apart where it tabs into the shoulder armour.
Ditching the cape, you get access to the prime selling points of Ahiran - the body itself. Yes, it's certainly a looker, with the lack of seams the Silicone making for better photos, but there's also the articulation aspect... the point that generally isn't on "the list".
For the unfamiliar, the secret to a seamless body's articulation is that within that squishy Silicone body is a steel skeleton. Due to to the ability of the Silicone to contort, the long story short is that this type of body can generally assume poses that a rigid material body cannot.
The 1/12 body, I find, is about the same as the 1/6 body - meaning you get ankles, knees. hips, waist, mid torso, shoulders, elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Because all the joints are effectively ball joints, everything can rotate long its axis, which is why seamless bodies can pull off more nuanced poses. However, in the case of the 1/12 body, it doesn't have that double jointed wrist, which as a result limits the range of motion for the hands. Also design of the boots, like with so many other figures, doesn't allow for optimal use of the ankle joint.
Overall. presuming the outfit was designed correctly, you're gonna have more posing option with one of these as compared to most of the 1/12 ish competition, with the exception of Amazing Yamagucchi Revoltech stuff, which sacrifices form for articulation.
Now, while I wasn't thrilled about the loss of detail in the conversion, at least the paint work is nice. Most of the heavy lifting has been done by the seamless body, which has wisely been colour matched with the face. Otherwise, weapons and armour have a very nice metallic paint finish, with weapons featuring some additional blood effects. Paint work is smooth and consistent, and matches Mezco's offerings (the one aspect of their product I can actually stand).
Build quality wise, sure there's the usual stuff, like parts fitting together and no issues with finishes,, and it all came through on this figure, as parts easily attach and detach, and material choices for the hands make them soft enough to pry the fingers open and fit in handles without fear of breakage. Just.. be gentle with that cape.
But equally, if not more, important is the actual body itself. After all, if there are any tears in the Silicone suit, or a loose joint, well, it's not like you can just replace a part - the entire body needs to be replaced, or you have to live with whatever defects are inherent to that unit. Fortunately, there was nothing I could find being problematic and overall, I'd have to say my experience with Seamless Bodies has not made me regret paying the extra money needed.
Overall, another solid action figure with a myriad of posing options. Like with all things, your personal sense of style or ethics may prevent you from buying these due to subject matter, but if you, like me, love to see how toys evolve in terms of materials and display options, these figures are quite neat. Besides, you can do what all the other cool kids are doing, namely making 1/12 Kitbashes so you can maintain a modesty level that you're comfortable with while at the same time having an awesome figure that can pose with the best of them.
I've got another one from this line coming in a few weeks time, one that I've actually had my eye on for a while and an opportunity finally came up for me to actually get one. Until then though, there's still quite a bit of backlog for me to get through around here.
For Full Gallery, please visit:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22877494@N02/albums/72157719281729389
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