So a few weeks ago, I came across two Queen's Gate statues. Unlike the mainline releases, these statues were all 1/8 and released by Hobby Japan directly. In the spirit of cameo characters, I guess they went with cameo manufacturers as well, as the line was made by a variety of companies, and the further complicate issues is the fact that from my understanding, these statues were all mail order items in Japan itself.
All of this probably explains why it's taken me over a decade before I'm actually seeing them being released for normal prices, a trend which hopefully continues into the futures, cause I'd love to catch them all.
Today, I bring you Dizzy from Guilty Gear and Iroha from Samurai Shodown. Chances are if you were born this Millenium, you won't have a clue who these characters are, so you'll have to take my word when I say back in 2009 these two were EVERYWHERE when it came to character goods. Iroha was probably more popular between the two as there were many statues of her, but Dizzy had at least one very good piece from Alter that I wouldn't mind adding to my collection one day.
So out of the box, you'll notice some thing very obvious. Despite both characters being basically the same height, and both being 1/8 statues, you will likely notice that one is significantly taller than the other. Based on some quick math, it would seem that Volks, the company that made Iroha, were a bit too generous with the measurements. It's not like the two had any real price difference either. I think Volks just wanted to be different.
I do like the fact that both used relatively dynamic source art as their inspiration for these statues.
Dizzy here was made by Kotobukiya during the hit and miss phase of their existence. The two hair strands and wings need some assembly, but she is screwed onto the base like modern day Bishoujo releases. Like all Queen's Gate designs, this statue isn't as accurate to the video game model as other releases. From a distance, things look pretty good. Colour selection is pretty much done at the design level, so there's nothing there to critique. Detailing on the hair and wings Designers gave her a playful expression which is nice. I do wish they had kept her trademark Angel and Demon forms of her wings, but I suspect that would have broken the budget.
Iroha, as mentioned, was made by Volks Systems. Now, despite being around for quite some time, I don't think I've actually owned any Volks pieces. That's because generally speaking, I don't think I've ever seen anything from them that was what I would consider affordable. In fact, one of my bucket list items, the 1/4 Scale BJD Xenosaga 3 KOS-MOS v 4.0, is a Volks product and yeah, that one is going to hurt unless I manage to come across it one day while galivanting across Asia.
So a bit of background. While Dizzy was a science experiment, I believe Iroha was originally a Crane, then through the powers of magic took on human form to either protect or serve someone. I mention this to kind of explain why a character would be dressed in a maid outfit while wielding twin blades.
As with Dizzy, things looks pretty good from a distance. Obviously not as exotic looking with wings and long hair, you still get some nice fabric detailing and dynamic positioning, some weapons of substantial size, and an expression of focus.
So one of the benefits of having a design that takes artistic liberties is, well the artistic liberties. Being a Queen's Gate piece, artists pretty much knew we were all there for the curves, and I guess because licensed guest characters basically didn't have cast off on their statues (maybe not even in the art books) they got to go a bit crazy with the curves. Now Iroha has had a history of depictions of her that dial up the curves, but I feel the artist really went to town on Dizzy's chest. Needless to say that the hips on both are adequate and pleasant to look at.
Now that we've gotten all the good stuff out of the way, lets come back to reality. As mentioned, both statues weren't particularly expensive (6,800 yen or so) and this was 2009-2010, so once you get a bit closer you'll start to notice all those flaws that were prevalent of a product that was still in development. You can easily see that finishes on the parts can be a bit rough. It was like this one the highly regarded Megahouse lineup, so it's no surprise it happened here. Seam lines on the the curves are disappointing, but not as annoying as seeing some crude finishes on the smaller parts - fingers and toes having issues was a pretty common occurrence. On Iroha, you'll notice that not only are the fingers wonky, but the opening where she puts her hands is kind of crappy too.
Paint Applications were also kind of crude is some areas. It was actually through observation of these statues that I learned (and confirmed) that light coloured paints had the tendency to turn out really bad, as there was a good chance that multiple coats were needed to ensure the base colour didn't peek through, and this can either result in poor quality or paint that can chip. Secondary decals can also look kind of crappy, as evidenced by the lace trim on Iroha's wrist. Mind you, crappy decals can still happen these days too, but back then unless you were buying super high end, it was guaranteed to happen.
Fortunately, maybe because both of these were stored in box for the last 14 years, there was no PVC lean experienced, though it's also possible these were bleeding edge enough to adopt the ABC/PVC hybrid make up early. There were some fitment issues, as was the norm for back in the day, but ultimately everything went and stayed where it was meant to be, which includes Iroha's foot on the base (she's not screwed in). Otherwise, Build Quality was generally acceptable.
Ultimately, you'd be buying these for either love the character or the Queen's Gate franchise itself. Because it's not exactly in the public eye these days, this SHOULD be an easy task, but I suspect availability back in the day is probably keeping the cheaper ones out of my grasp at this time with only the crazy sellers on eBay front and center.
As always, this journey of enlightenment continues.
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