This beautiful figure arrived on Tuesday this week. But being busy I wasn’t able to type anything about it. Plus I purchased a Nikon SB-600 so I wanted to try and figure out how to use it before shooting some pictures of the figure. I think I’ve gotten better results with this flash than before, they’re more consistent anyway. That said, there is still inconsistency with light levels and such.
Good Smile Company‘s Tohsaka Rin & Berserker is an older figure, from 2005, so she was quite hard to get a hold of, and even harder for a decent price. My copy was never opened from the box until I did, however the box was a bit damaged, due to the time and “lack” of care by the seller. I quote lack because seriously, 4 years, I’d have had a worse box for sure, with the animals I’ve had over the past 4 years and moving, surely it would have been beat up. So it’s really not an issue, but worth mentioning.
I read a complaint about Rin’s shirt on another blog (Polyvinyl Crush.com), stating that it appeared too thick to look like fabric. Now that I possess the figure I can see where this comes from, but I always pictured her shirt as actually a sweater or thicker shirt, so the thickness of it seems fine to me. Comparing Rin to my other 1/8th scale figures, she seems kind of tiny. I’m really starting to get the feeling they make up the scales entirely, I know that it must be hard to make to scale a fictional 2-dimensional character, but surely they can do better. Either this is 1/8th scale, or the other figures aren’t. I suppose if I really cared, Rin’s measurements are available, and I could measure her out and confirm, but I wont, today anyway.
Rin appears to be quite detailed despite her simple attire and the painting is well done. My biggest complaint though is her skin colour, if you refer to the official pictures, she’s much more pale. Her skin colour I think is fine, it’s just the difference between official pictures and received product does illustrate a significant difference. I’m not sure what happens to paints over 4 years on an anime figure, but perhaps that could be the issue? Additionally it could just be a difference of contrast and lighting between the official photos and those posted online. For reference, here is an official picture.
I really think this figure has the best pose out of all the figures I currently own. It certainly has the most movement, and everything seems properly balanced within the movement. She’s also the only figure I possess with zettai ryouiki, which is a common fetish amongst anime fans these days (myself included), adding to her appeal. And of course with a pose like this and zettai ryouiki, you have to expect a panty shot.
Berserker’s skin is well toned and shaded, a bit bright in these shots, but in the shots further above looks very believable. You can also see he’s looking right up her skirt, oh that Berserker. The detail in his molding is quite good, lots of visible muscles. Berserker must work out a lot, what does Ilya have him doing in their spare time to keep him so toned?
The only complaint in the construction of this figure can be seen in Berserker’s arm. You can see that two pieces were joined at his elbow, it doesn’t really detract from the figure as you don’t notice it much, but it’s the most apparent flaw in the figure. And on the right you can see the beat up box I received her in, some scratches on the plastic, some abused corners. But nothing too bad for 4 years in packaging.
Overall another very well done figure. A little additional bit of information, the sculptor of this figure, Hiroshi Inagaki, is the same as the sculptor of Alpha x Omega’s CC figure. Both very well done, perhaps I’ll keep an eye out for more figures by Hiroshi Inagaki in the future. I see he’s already got another figure I’d consider, Suzumiya Haruhi by Alter.
It looks like the skin color on your Rin came out way better for you than it did for me. I’m glad for you :D, sad for me :(. Now that I’ve seen yours I think I’ll hunt down another one – this sculpt is too good have Rin’s skin browned like mine is.
Good point on the shirt – I hadn’t considered that she might be wearing something thicker. I think I also spent too much time looking at Rin close-up because her shirt looks fine from a distance.
I just always saw it as a sweater, I’m not really sure why, I guess just one of those assumptions that stuck. You took a lot more pictures than I did as well, so you likely spent a lot more time admiring at various aspects of the sculpt and understanding it’s flaws.
I’m happier with the skin colour on mine for sure, but I still wanted the paleness of the official photos. It’s really too bad that yours is dark, I wonder what happened to cause that.