DSC_9556
Welcome again, one and all. A bit of a shift in gears today, though nothing too crazy. Today, we look at one rare-ish Figma, SP-006 Cute from Queen's Blade Spiral Chaos.
So, once upon a time (2004 ish), Sony wanted to play ball in the portable console market to challenge the then leader, the Nintendo DS. What they came up with is the Playstation Portable, or PSP. Technologically, it could be described as a Playstation 1.5 - more powerful than the original PSX, but nowhere near PS2 levels. The system officially lasted until 2016, at which time the PS Vita (RIP) was in full swing.
As is the way with consoles, there are console exclusive games, and sometimes, these games come with exclusive goodies. Such is the case for several PSP titles, including the first Queen's Blade release - Spiral Chaos. Never played it, but I do know that the Collectors Edition Japanese releases came with an exclusive Figma.
The Figma is of a character named Cute, a Queen's Blade entry created specifically for this game. MSRP for this set was 9,800 Yen, which I believe was the game, a CD, the figure, and of course the sweet exterior box.
Well, I got bored enough and found a decently priced one on eBay - sadly it didn't come with the game or other goodies, but lets be honest I wouldn't exactly rush out to resurrect my PSP just for this one game.
The figure comes with a decent package for a pack in Figma - there's the figure, three total face plates (neutral, smiling, embarrassed), two blades, a variety of hands, a Shift Body, and the standard Figma stand.
Your first question right now.. what is a Shift Body? Well, in case you were not aware, Queen's Blade has a claim to fame - namely "battle damage" resulting in fighters becoming more and more naked. In most toys and statues, this is replicated by having a cast off feature, something that is even replicated in the Revoltech toys.
Well, Good Smile Company included a separate body to replicate this, which is nice in that it certainly doesn't compromise quality of the outfit on the Normal Body. The unfortunate thing is that the Shift Body is not fully articulated, and is meant to be displayed in one particular pose, outlined on the Instruction Sheet graphic.
The actual design of the character is quite impressive for a game specific appearance, and the Figma itself replicates game art and other such material I've seen. If you look carefully, you'll notice a bunch of yellow crosses - something that should be very familiar to you if you're a PSN gamer. The gauntlets and boots in particular are outlandish (in an good anime way) and they've been carried over to figure form nicely. I also really love the pouch Cute has on her waist. I also like the multilayering and pleats on the skirt.
Interestingly, from a size perspective, Cute is much bigger that the typical Figma 1.0 release, with proportions that are pretty consistent with more modern figures. Yukiko is pretty typical in terms of size of that era of release and Nat is a modern Figuarts (which I had handy) and is about the same size as your typical Figma release - again, all pretty impressive considering the exclusivity of the figure, the minor price increase compared to the standard game release, and the 2009 release date.
Articulation on the figure is average - she's got single jointed knees, hips, waist, shoulders with slight chest compress and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, and head. Missing (which really hurts) is ankle articulation, which highly limits the dynamic posing potential of Cute, further made worse by the fact the skirt highly limits the range of motion of her upper legs. Couple this with the naturally stiff nature of the Figma 1.0 body, and you get a sense of Cute is probably going to spending more time on standing related poses.
From a paint perspective, this is a high quality product. Paint applications and finishes generally look sharp all over the figure, as well as the Shift Body - the weakest application that I could find would be the white on her torn undergarments. There is some paint build up in areas where you have finer details, such as bows, but its more something I noticed as opposed to being an eyesore.
In general, there's no real complaints with regards build quality. Good use of materials, joints do their job, limb length is proper. In general, QC is good, with the exception of those wrists. I have nightmares about breaking them as the pegs are attached to the hands themselves and replacing them is logistical nightmare. The good news is that the wrists are unlikely to break due because they have a hard time staying in slot, an issue further compounded by the cuffs that restrict how tightly you can press the hand in.
Overall, while a dated figure, Cute still looks pretty good and, more importantly, is very well done for a Collectors Edition add-on... of course we here in North America have been getting shafted for years for these sort of things, and everything looks good compared to us. The only real thing I'd have liked to have seen would be an additional "attacking" face plate.
Best of all, Cute isn't that expensive, and is probably the safest thing you'll ever find to display if you're a Queen's Blade/Gate collector.
DSC_9556
Welcome again, one and all. A bit of a shift in gears today, though nothing too crazy. Today, we look at one rare-ish Figma, SP-006 Cute from Queen's Blade Spiral Chaos.
So, once upon a time (2004 ish), Sony wanted to play ball in the portable console market to challenge the then leader, the Nintendo DS. What they came up with is the Playstation Portable, or PSP. Technologically, it could be described as a Playstation 1.5 - more powerful than the original PSX, but nowhere near PS2 levels. The system officially lasted until 2016, at which time the PS Vita (RIP) was in full swing.
As is the way with consoles, there are console exclusive games, and sometimes, these games come with exclusive goodies. Such is the case for several PSP titles, including the first Queen's Blade release - Spiral Chaos. Never played it, but I do know that the Collectors Edition Japanese releases came with an exclusive Figma.
The Figma is of a character named Cute, a Queen's Blade entry created specifically for this game. MSRP for this set was 9,800 Yen, which I believe was the game, a CD, the figure, and of course the sweet exterior box.
Well, I got bored enough and found a decently priced one on eBay - sadly it didn't come with the game or other goodies, but lets be honest I wouldn't exactly rush out to resurrect my PSP just for this one game.
The figure comes with a decent package for a pack in Figma - there's the figure, three total face plates (neutral, smiling, embarrassed), two blades, a variety of hands, a Shift Body, and the standard Figma stand.
Your first question right now.. what is a Shift Body? Well, in case you were not aware, Queen's Blade has a claim to fame - namely "battle damage" resulting in fighters becoming more and more naked. In most toys and statues, this is replicated by having a cast off feature, something that is even replicated in the Revoltech toys.
Well, Good Smile Company included a separate body to replicate this, which is nice in that it certainly doesn't compromise quality of the outfit on the Normal Body. The unfortunate thing is that the Shift Body is not fully articulated, and is meant to be displayed in one particular pose, outlined on the Instruction Sheet graphic.
The actual design of the character is quite impressive for a game specific appearance, and the Figma itself replicates game art and other such material I've seen. If you look carefully, you'll notice a bunch of yellow crosses - something that should be very familiar to you if you're a PSN gamer. The gauntlets and boots in particular are outlandish (in an good anime way) and they've been carried over to figure form nicely. I also really love the pouch Cute has on her waist. I also like the multilayering and pleats on the skirt.
Interestingly, from a size perspective, Cute is much bigger that the typical Figma 1.0 release, with proportions that are pretty consistent with more modern figures. Yukiko is pretty typical in terms of size of that era of release and Nat is a modern Figuarts (which I had handy) and is about the same size as your typical Figma release - again, all pretty impressive considering the exclusivity of the figure, the minor price increase compared to the standard game release, and the 2009 release date.
Articulation on the figure is average - she's got single jointed knees, hips, waist, shoulders with slight chest compress and bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, and head. Missing (which really hurts) is ankle articulation, which highly limits the dynamic posing potential of Cute, further made worse by the fact the skirt highly limits the range of motion of her upper legs. Couple this with the naturally stiff nature of the Figma 1.0 body, and you get a sense of Cute is probably going to spending more time on standing related poses.
From a paint perspective, this is a high quality product. Paint applications and finishes generally look sharp all over the figure, as well as the Shift Body - the weakest application that I could find would be the white on her torn undergarments. There is some paint build up in areas where you have finer details, such as bows, but its more something I noticed as opposed to being an eyesore.
In general, there's no real complaints with regards build quality. Good use of materials, joints do their job, limb length is proper. In general, QC is good, with the exception of those wrists. I have nightmares about breaking them as the pegs are attached to the hands themselves and replacing them is logistical nightmare. The good news is that the wrists are unlikely to break due because they have a hard time staying in slot, an issue further compounded by the cuffs that restrict how tightly you can press the hand in.
Overall, while a dated figure, Cute still looks pretty good and, more importantly, is very well done for a Collectors Edition add-on... of course we here in North America have been getting shafted for years for these sort of things, and everything looks good compared to us. The only real thing I'd have liked to have seen would be an additional "attacking" face plate.
Best of all, Cute isn't that expensive, and is probably the safest thing you'll ever find to display if you're a Queen's Blade/Gate collector.