DSC_4971
Well, it took a while, but we've finally arrived at the end of the Vancouver figure deals line, and I've save the best for last. Presenting Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS - Fate T. Harlaown - Moekore Plus 11 - 1/7 - Shin Sonic Form from Volks, which I purchased for $10 CAD.
Volks is a manufacturer that is generally known for its high end anime collectibles, namely the Dolfie line of highly customizable 1/4 scale dolls with a variety of outfits that are either in house creations or licensed from various properties. They do on occasion (or maybe they DID.. I dunno) make resin kits, as well as scale PVC statues, some of which were sold directly from their retail stores and online service. In 2009, when Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha was viable property, Volks produced this particular piece which was an exclusive to their stores, retailing for a whopping 7,900 Yen.
If you've read any of my other stuff before, here's the usual blurb - I have never watched the series, movies, and have never read any manga. The only reason I know anything about Fate Testarossa is due to the fact that many years ago I purchased a Fate Testarossa Figma on a whim, and in the past year or so did some research for writing purposes, though I think this predated my Facebook page babbling. Arch rival to the franchise character Nanoha, I guess its safe to say that Fate is the Vegeta of this series. Doing a bit more digging, I now expand on my vast depths of Nanoha knowledge by adding that this Shine Sonic Form differs the Figma by losing the white cape, her military-esque tunic is now basically a mini-dress, and she has armoured gauntlets and boots. She still is rocking her trademark twin blonde pigtails though with black bows.
This statue comes with a translucent yellow base with a magic glyph printed on it, the statue itself, an extra face plate for two expressions (neutral smile, open mouth attack), and extra arms/hands to allow Fate to pose with both her Riot Blades and Riot Zamber.
So, you must be wondering - what's the catch? Why is all this exclusive greatness only $10? Well, Fate is a fixer upper, though it's hard to see due to my almost Divine level repair skills *gag* and general ability to hide things. The handles of her Riot Blades snapped off so I needed to glue those back in place, and the twosmall pegs that hold one foot in place on the base are also broken.. but clearly, nothing that a spot of glue and some patience can't fix. At least her hair was still in one piece!
Fate is sculpted in one pose, body mid pose with hair that accents this movement. As stated above, she has extra arms and hands such that she poses with either her Riot Blades on each side of her, or with her giant Riot Zamber behind her head, both excellent choices though for the purposes of space the Zamber pose is the way to go. From a sculpting perspective, I'd say Fate is generally solid, even by modern standards. Being effectively magical girls, Fate and her coherts weren't exactly designed with a lot of muscle definition to replicate. On the whole, Fate has just the right amount of curves to make her feminine, but not enough to turn her into a T & A statue - this is a battle pose statue, after all. There is some good detailing on the armoured parts, particularly on the fingers of the gauntlets, The weakest link of the statue is one that continues to plaque even modern day releases, which is the hair. Detailing on the braids is alright - not super fine, but there's something. Bangs are decent. I just feel that they could have done something with the top of her head rather than simply have it as a vast desert of yellow.
Paint work for the statue on the whole is fairly clean, witht he messiest bits being the white highlights on her outfit, especially around her chest, and one of the red bands around her ankle. I do love the extra glossy paint Volks chose for her tunic though - the shine not only makes it look like a different material, but also, it allows for the tunic to pop against her black stockings and the rest of her body on the whole. Paint work on the hair is fairly good, though I suspect a bit of a brighter yellow would have been nice.. and perhaps none of those brownish highlights. The overall finish on the statue is above average. There are no obvious signs of assembly gaps (expect for the head, but what can you do about that given it's meant to separate), but I know that the finishes could have been better as the texture of the pieces aren't as good as say that from Alter or Good Smile Company. But at least it isn't Kotobukiya levels of mediocrity.
The face sculpt appears to be bang on, with good angles on the jaw line and large expressive eyes backed up with some solid decal work. Her nose has good definition which helps it pop. The open mouth sculpt is.. alright. I mean, it doesn't offend or anything, but traditionally open mouth sculpts aren't the greatest. I think it doesn't annoy me because there are no teeth, which usually have horrible paint due and poor detailing to the small size.
The star attractions of the statue are, of course, the weapons, which is really why I noticed the character to begin with. Based on the repairs I had to make, I'm guessing perhaps the handles aren't made from the stiffest materials, which is unfortunate given the small diameter of the piece. Having said that, the larger sword handle did survive intact after all these years, so maybe it was a bad handling thing or perhaps a batch issue. Either way, the giant translucent plastic blades do look fantastic, and were expertly finished with no rough edges or scratches.
Clearly for $10 this was an excellent display piece purchase which cleaned up quite well. Despite its age, the overall statue is still a looker and is a good size for shelf presence. The ability to swap out the weapons is also great, and allows for a small bit of personalization, or even the ability to freshen up the display periodically. I suspect that even if I was into the line back in the day, the price tag would have put this piece out of my admittedly cheap grasp, so it's nice when opportunities like this come up that allow for the ability to enjoy the piece without breaking the bank, albeit with some conditions attached.
Now to find an actual spot to display her in.
DSC_4971
Well, it took a while, but we've finally arrived at the end of the Vancouver figure deals line, and I've save the best for last. Presenting Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS - Fate T. Harlaown - Moekore Plus 11 - 1/7 - Shin Sonic Form from Volks, which I purchased for $10 CAD.
Volks is a manufacturer that is generally known for its high end anime collectibles, namely the Dolfie line of highly customizable 1/4 scale dolls with a variety of outfits that are either in house creations or licensed from various properties. They do on occasion (or maybe they DID.. I dunno) make resin kits, as well as scale PVC statues, some of which were sold directly from their retail stores and online service. In 2009, when Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha was viable property, Volks produced this particular piece which was an exclusive to their stores, retailing for a whopping 7,900 Yen.
If you've read any of my other stuff before, here's the usual blurb - I have never watched the series, movies, and have never read any manga. The only reason I know anything about Fate Testarossa is due to the fact that many years ago I purchased a Fate Testarossa Figma on a whim, and in the past year or so did some research for writing purposes, though I think this predated my Facebook page babbling. Arch rival to the franchise character Nanoha, I guess its safe to say that Fate is the Vegeta of this series. Doing a bit more digging, I now expand on my vast depths of Nanoha knowledge by adding that this Shine Sonic Form differs the Figma by losing the white cape, her military-esque tunic is now basically a mini-dress, and she has armoured gauntlets and boots. She still is rocking her trademark twin blonde pigtails though with black bows.
This statue comes with a translucent yellow base with a magic glyph printed on it, the statue itself, an extra face plate for two expressions (neutral smile, open mouth attack), and extra arms/hands to allow Fate to pose with both her Riot Blades and Riot Zamber.
So, you must be wondering - what's the catch? Why is all this exclusive greatness only $10? Well, Fate is a fixer upper, though it's hard to see due to my almost Divine level repair skills *gag* and general ability to hide things. The handles of her Riot Blades snapped off so I needed to glue those back in place, and the twosmall pegs that hold one foot in place on the base are also broken.. but clearly, nothing that a spot of glue and some patience can't fix. At least her hair was still in one piece!
Fate is sculpted in one pose, body mid pose with hair that accents this movement. As stated above, she has extra arms and hands such that she poses with either her Riot Blades on each side of her, or with her giant Riot Zamber behind her head, both excellent choices though for the purposes of space the Zamber pose is the way to go. From a sculpting perspective, I'd say Fate is generally solid, even by modern standards. Being effectively magical girls, Fate and her coherts weren't exactly designed with a lot of muscle definition to replicate. On the whole, Fate has just the right amount of curves to make her feminine, but not enough to turn her into a T & A statue - this is a battle pose statue, after all. There is some good detailing on the armoured parts, particularly on the fingers of the gauntlets, The weakest link of the statue is one that continues to plaque even modern day releases, which is the hair. Detailing on the braids is alright - not super fine, but there's something. Bangs are decent. I just feel that they could have done something with the top of her head rather than simply have it as a vast desert of yellow.
Paint work for the statue on the whole is fairly clean, witht he messiest bits being the white highlights on her outfit, especially around her chest, and one of the red bands around her ankle. I do love the extra glossy paint Volks chose for her tunic though - the shine not only makes it look like a different material, but also, it allows for the tunic to pop against her black stockings and the rest of her body on the whole. Paint work on the hair is fairly good, though I suspect a bit of a brighter yellow would have been nice.. and perhaps none of those brownish highlights. The overall finish on the statue is above average. There are no obvious signs of assembly gaps (expect for the head, but what can you do about that given it's meant to separate), but I know that the finishes could have been better as the texture of the pieces aren't as good as say that from Alter or Good Smile Company. But at least it isn't Kotobukiya levels of mediocrity.
The face sculpt appears to be bang on, with good angles on the jaw line and large expressive eyes backed up with some solid decal work. Her nose has good definition which helps it pop. The open mouth sculpt is.. alright. I mean, it doesn't offend or anything, but traditionally open mouth sculpts aren't the greatest. I think it doesn't annoy me because there are no teeth, which usually have horrible paint due and poor detailing to the small size.
The star attractions of the statue are, of course, the weapons, which is really why I noticed the character to begin with. Based on the repairs I had to make, I'm guessing perhaps the handles aren't made from the stiffest materials, which is unfortunate given the small diameter of the piece. Having said that, the larger sword handle did survive intact after all these years, so maybe it was a bad handling thing or perhaps a batch issue. Either way, the giant translucent plastic blades do look fantastic, and were expertly finished with no rough edges or scratches.
Clearly for $10 this was an excellent display piece purchase which cleaned up quite well. Despite its age, the overall statue is still a looker and is a good size for shelf presence. The ability to swap out the weapons is also great, and allows for a small bit of personalization, or even the ability to freshen up the display periodically. I suspect that even if I was into the line back in the day, the price tag would have put this piece out of my admittedly cheap grasp, so it's nice when opportunities like this come up that allow for the ability to enjoy the piece without breaking the bank, albeit with some conditions attached.
Now to find an actual spot to display her in.