DSC_6327
Well, the second work week of 2020 is officially finished, and the year has already been off to an excellent start with regards to new collectibles.. or so I hope anyway. As always, never count your chickens before they hatch, so I don't want to officially announce things only to have them bail on me never to materialize. If things do occur, however, I can assure you that as always I'll keep the amusement levels high.
We now carry on with part two of the Revoltech Queen's Blade figures, Airi.
Airi is the resident Queen's Blade character that fills the "girl in French Maid outfit" fetish. Given the moniker "Infernal Temptress", Airi is in fact Wraith that is summoned by the Swamp Witch (official big bad of the Queen's Blade series) to vanquish her enemies in the tournament. Airi starts off as a villain in the anime, and thanks to time spent with a little girl, ends up changing her ways and becomes aligned with heroes such a Leina. Her weapon of choice is her giant scythe, as well as summoning lesser spirits to do her bidding.
As I mentioned in the Leina entry, the vast majority of the remaining Queen's Blade roster really don't look like they belong on the battlefield, even by anime standards. Of course, this is what happens when you make a series out of art books, I suppose. Airi.. kind of looks like she fits in? She wouldn't be the first killer maid I've seen in anime or video games, and I suppose the Wraith angle is a nice touch. From a design perspective, the red hair is a nice touch, and Airi is described as relatively calm and emotionless, something that I do remember from the show, which is also reflected on her face sculpts.
The Airi box comes with generally the same stuff as Leina (and pretty much all the other figures too). You get the figure all decked out in S mode (normal mode), her weapon (including two scythe blades - one normal, one infused with hellfire) , two weapon gripping hands, parts to convert her to M mode (battle damaged) which are an embarrassed face plate along with damaged outfit replacement parts, two small fireballs/spirits, a stand, an orange box for holding loose face and hands, as well as that Revoltech token thing. Now, maybe because I'm the freaking Hulk, but I did manage to snap the connector on the handle of the scythe while trying to swap it out, so, be careful when removing it. Another thing to note is that unless I'm mistaken, Airi can't really go topless.. at least not to the degree of all the other figures I've played with. Her outfit is hard to remove, and I'm presuming that it's glue on. The part your replace is just the front of her top, which reveals a decent amount of her chest, but generally quite limiting as compared to the others, which are fully uncovered. You could strip off her skirt, but the Revolver joint is exposed and as such looks really bad if you try to display her with no bottom. Overall, this is not one of those figures that going to get much birthday suit time. She's also in line with Leina and Nanael in terms of sizing so.. she's tiny.
Detailing in her outfit, hair, and accessories is wonderful given the size of the figure, so no complaints from me on this matter.
The story on articulation will effectively be a rehash of Leina - lots of options, but a pain to execute due to the Revolver joint system. Airi posses ankles, single jointed knees, thigh swivel, hips, waist, mid torso, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and head. As always, the positioning of the joints and the cuts of the limbs makes my posing life difficult. Airi also possess one point of articulation on each of her braids to allow for some dynamic posing. Unlike Leina, Airi does not have a million straps to get in the way of her limbs moving.. on the other hand, you now have fewer things getting in the way of the joints, so they are quite visible. Overall, from a play perspective the visible joints are worth as I found getting Airi posed in exciting ways was generally easier than Leina, despite the restrictions of the Revolver joint system as her skirt. Having said that, again, this is a decade old figure, so the actual range of motion itself, even unhindered, leaves much to be desired, particularly for the upper body.
Paint work is generally not bad, but nowhere near as clean as on Leina. Flesh tones are painted well, as is the hair adn the black of her outfit, but it's really the whites that takes things down a notch or two. In any of the closer up photos, you can easily see a multitude of masking issues, overspray, and other such visible errors that are primarily issues on the white paint, along with the other typical messy paint applications on smaller details, though thankfully there are no teeth paint apps to ruin the face sculpts with. Paint work on the scythe is well done, being smooth to the look and touch, especially on the blades themselves. Eye decal work is very good.
Build quality is again pretty typical for a Revoltech figure. Materials are of an adequate rigidity, though it's worth mentioning that Kaiyodo made the bow on her back of a softer, more pliable material, which not only reduces the potential for breakage, but also allows me to actually have Air sit on a surface, only limited by the bend of her hips. Joints do a good job at holding poses, with the exception of more extreme positions that you may end up putting the scythe in - the weight tends to cause some drifting in the joints of her arms. No rough edges could be observed on this figure, and surfaces are generally sanded well, with seams further masked by paint applications. The seam along the top of her head for changing faces is much better done than Leina, which was just bordering "did you even care".
In conclusion, no surprises. Solid action figure, solid addition to the Queen's Blade lineup as it were, especially for 2009 or so. A bit sloppy on some paint applications, but no worse for wear when compared to other contemporary figures and quite honestly, pretty much what I was used to seeing from the typical manufacturer at the time. I think it's time to kick it up a notch and look at the two more exotic characters in my little stash.
DSC_6327
Well, the second work week of 2020 is officially finished, and the year has already been off to an excellent start with regards to new collectibles.. or so I hope anyway. As always, never count your chickens before they hatch, so I don't want to officially announce things only to have them bail on me never to materialize. If things do occur, however, I can assure you that as always I'll keep the amusement levels high.
We now carry on with part two of the Revoltech Queen's Blade figures, Airi.
Airi is the resident Queen's Blade character that fills the "girl in French Maid outfit" fetish. Given the moniker "Infernal Temptress", Airi is in fact Wraith that is summoned by the Swamp Witch (official big bad of the Queen's Blade series) to vanquish her enemies in the tournament. Airi starts off as a villain in the anime, and thanks to time spent with a little girl, ends up changing her ways and becomes aligned with heroes such a Leina. Her weapon of choice is her giant scythe, as well as summoning lesser spirits to do her bidding.
As I mentioned in the Leina entry, the vast majority of the remaining Queen's Blade roster really don't look like they belong on the battlefield, even by anime standards. Of course, this is what happens when you make a series out of art books, I suppose. Airi.. kind of looks like she fits in? She wouldn't be the first killer maid I've seen in anime or video games, and I suppose the Wraith angle is a nice touch. From a design perspective, the red hair is a nice touch, and Airi is described as relatively calm and emotionless, something that I do remember from the show, which is also reflected on her face sculpts.
The Airi box comes with generally the same stuff as Leina (and pretty much all the other figures too). You get the figure all decked out in S mode (normal mode), her weapon (including two scythe blades - one normal, one infused with hellfire) , two weapon gripping hands, parts to convert her to M mode (battle damaged) which are an embarrassed face plate along with damaged outfit replacement parts, two small fireballs/spirits, a stand, an orange box for holding loose face and hands, as well as that Revoltech token thing. Now, maybe because I'm the freaking Hulk, but I did manage to snap the connector on the handle of the scythe while trying to swap it out, so, be careful when removing it. Another thing to note is that unless I'm mistaken, Airi can't really go topless.. at least not to the degree of all the other figures I've played with. Her outfit is hard to remove, and I'm presuming that it's glue on. The part your replace is just the front of her top, which reveals a decent amount of her chest, but generally quite limiting as compared to the others, which are fully uncovered. You could strip off her skirt, but the Revolver joint is exposed and as such looks really bad if you try to display her with no bottom. Overall, this is not one of those figures that going to get much birthday suit time. She's also in line with Leina and Nanael in terms of sizing so.. she's tiny.
Detailing in her outfit, hair, and accessories is wonderful given the size of the figure, so no complaints from me on this matter.
The story on articulation will effectively be a rehash of Leina - lots of options, but a pain to execute due to the Revolver joint system. Airi posses ankles, single jointed knees, thigh swivel, hips, waist, mid torso, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and head. As always, the positioning of the joints and the cuts of the limbs makes my posing life difficult. Airi also possess one point of articulation on each of her braids to allow for some dynamic posing. Unlike Leina, Airi does not have a million straps to get in the way of her limbs moving.. on the other hand, you now have fewer things getting in the way of the joints, so they are quite visible. Overall, from a play perspective the visible joints are worth as I found getting Airi posed in exciting ways was generally easier than Leina, despite the restrictions of the Revolver joint system as her skirt. Having said that, again, this is a decade old figure, so the actual range of motion itself, even unhindered, leaves much to be desired, particularly for the upper body.
Paint work is generally not bad, but nowhere near as clean as on Leina. Flesh tones are painted well, as is the hair adn the black of her outfit, but it's really the whites that takes things down a notch or two. In any of the closer up photos, you can easily see a multitude of masking issues, overspray, and other such visible errors that are primarily issues on the white paint, along with the other typical messy paint applications on smaller details, though thankfully there are no teeth paint apps to ruin the face sculpts with. Paint work on the scythe is well done, being smooth to the look and touch, especially on the blades themselves. Eye decal work is very good.
Build quality is again pretty typical for a Revoltech figure. Materials are of an adequate rigidity, though it's worth mentioning that Kaiyodo made the bow on her back of a softer, more pliable material, which not only reduces the potential for breakage, but also allows me to actually have Air sit on a surface, only limited by the bend of her hips. Joints do a good job at holding poses, with the exception of more extreme positions that you may end up putting the scythe in - the weight tends to cause some drifting in the joints of her arms. No rough edges could be observed on this figure, and surfaces are generally sanded well, with seams further masked by paint applications. The seam along the top of her head for changing faces is much better done than Leina, which was just bordering "did you even care".
In conclusion, no surprises. Solid action figure, solid addition to the Queen's Blade lineup as it were, especially for 2009 or so. A bit sloppy on some paint applications, but no worse for wear when compared to other contemporary figures and quite honestly, pretty much what I was used to seeing from the typical manufacturer at the time. I think it's time to kick it up a notch and look at the two more exotic characters in my little stash.