Yum ^_^

So yeah, there’s the face thing.  But damn.  After getting Gift Saber in hand, I think I’ve started to like both faces more and more.  And even if you can’t get over it, there’s plenty more to admire.

Couldn’t stop taking photos, so just a warning this is gonna be a long review ^^;

If there was ever a figure to buy for the outfit, this is it.

Love the errr.. white… mmm… skirtish… thingy.

Took most of these photos at f/2.7 and a single light source… actually turned out better than I expected ^^;;

The patterned trim is just excellent!  In case you wanted a closer look…

Or even closer…

Now if only they went to this length of detail on the face :P

The sword just kind of fits in underneath her hand, was actually surprised how well fit it was.

Gauntlet on saber’s left hand…

A weird thing about the alternate face… her hair kind of got stuck on her collar so I kinda had to bend it a little…

Luckily the material was pretty bendy so it wasn’t a big deal, but it was just weird that it didn’t seem to fit naturally.

So let’s do a little comparison.  Above we have the Gift Saber alternate/anime face…. and below, good ‘ol saber-chan.

Obviously there’s a ton of stylistic differences, andI have a feeling a direct translation of the original art might turn out kind of plain… but in the end there’s just something “saber” that’s just missing.  A quick aside… let’s take yoko for example… in the anime she looks like this…

Yet give her to Alter and you get this…

Click for Akiba Hobby source

I dunno about you but that’s the kind of artistic license I wish the gift figure had taken ^^;

Sorry.

Back to Saber.

So that’s the only pic I took of the original face ^^;;  Again, I guess what I would say is that yes, as a representation of the original saber… not so great.  But if you try to treat as an original face… it’s really not so bad ^^;;

At least the rest of the head is well detailed ^^;

Dropping down a little to take at look at legs and base…

Mentioned in a previous comment but the base came covered in a thin plastic film.  A very scratched up, dirty looking plastic film.  Before realizing it was a film… it looked like my base was scratched up to all hell and I couldn’t see myself in it at all.   Lesson for the day, make sure to take off the film before freaking out.

No pantsu today :P (well, saber pantsu that is)

The lack of pantsu makes the mirror base kinda weird… like… it’s kinda ero… but there’s no pantsu… so it’s not ero?  but you’re still looking up her skirt at her… pants?  o.O  So it’s like… halfway ero or something.

The base is very big to accomodate the flourish of her skirt, and is easily the size of  a 1/7 base or maybe even 1/6.  Makes me forget that she’s just a 1/8, but placing figma saber next to her puts things back in perspective ^^

Haruhi wanders on stage…

…into a trap!  That’s the kind of thing I usually expect from mirror bases ^^;;;

More coverage at…

• ELTWorld
• foo-bar-baz (who got 2!  I assume to display each face at the same time ^^;)
• HappySoda

If you can live with one of the faces, definitely worth it for her outfit.  Really well done, mirror base look much more elegant than the usual white plastic… if it weren’t for the face, I’d put this release on par with the Saber Lily prototype pics ^^

以上！

Forgot to put in her momiage ^^;  Mmm just a few more teaser shots (one is nsfw!) then I need to get to bed… ^^;;

More black satin today. Actually got around to ironing it.

Some hyakko in the reflection ^^;;

Did not realize there was a protective plastic covering on Saber’s base. With it on, you can barely make out vague shapes in the reflections… it hardly acts as a mirror. I freaked out accordingly before finally noticing and peeling it off ^^;;;

kawaii hiyori~ ^^

Gift Saber is very nice ^^

Though I’ve always preferred the alternate face (and have swapped it in, as you can see above), in person… the original didn’t bother me so much.

Looks like KOS-MOS and Teana are also on their way so hopefully I finish these two up before they arrive ^^;;

and now, to bed! おやすみ～

以上！

jya~n!

Hlj to the rescue! Soon as I figured out my shipment was delayed I looked around and hlj had her in stock! They also had a couple other things in stock so I kind of went overboard…

3 figmas, a miku, and a side of mikuru please~

the leaning tower of figma

^^;; Anyhow, back to the topic at hand… miku!  Been looking to get a hold of her forever.  She’s just too insanely cute to not have.

haruhi is eager to recruit new talent

Nendoroid owners are prolly familiar with all the goodies that come with her… extra faces, limbs… and a leek!

actually the disembodied parts are kinda freaky...

scene from a horror movie... ^^;

Finally free!

「じゃ～ん！」　{jya~n! (tada~!)}

haruhi gets miku to work right away.

「はい！歌ってちょうだい！」 {hai! utattechoudai! (ok, sing!)}

…haruhi never lets up.

「もう、許して下さい！」　{mou yurushite! (Please, let me go!)}

Ever.

「もう、限界です！」　{mou, genkai desu! (I can't take it anymore!)}

Saber to the rescue.

「いい加減にしろ！」　{iikagennishiro! (behave yourself!)}

Saber just wanted the leek.

「え？　セイバーさん？」 {e? seiba-san?}

One thing I found annoying when changing faces is that you have to remove miku’s two earpieces to do so. Can get a little tiring ^^;

「皆さん、歌いましょう！」 {minna-san, utaimashou! (Let's sing everyone!)}

Run faster miku!

「逃げるな！」　{nigeruna! (Stop running away!)}

Fate to the rescue?

「助けてあげます！」　{tasuketeagemasu! (I'll save you!)}

miku inadvertently steps onto a battlefield… [as always, click pics for higher rez versions]

「何ですか、これ？！」　{nandesuka, kore?! (What is this?!)}

Someday I’ll put my figmas in less violent poses ^^;

「いやあああぁ～」　{iyaaaaaaa~ (aaaaaaaaa~)}

nagato, ever stoic.

「。。。」

miku makes a hasty retreat.

「覚悟なさいよ！」　{kakugonasaiyo! (prepare yourself!)}

…only to be caught by a low angler ^^;

「パンツを見ないで下さい！」　{pantsu wo minaide kudasai! (don't look at my pantsu!)}

I love how her hair is adjustable. Unfortunately you need to keep her on the stand if you want to move it up, since normally it keeps her balanced ^^;

「ひどいです！」 {hidoi desu! (you're horrible!)}

About as much detail as you’d expect from a figure like this. It amazes me that the vocaloid text is so crisp.

「どうしてこんな事に…」　{doushite konna koto ni... (why did it have to be like this...)}

Seems haruhi and nagato decided to retreat for now…

戦勝！　{senshou! (victory!)}

「もしよかったら、このネギを…」　{moshi yokattara, kono negi wo... (If you'd like, please take this leek...)}

Poor miku!

「欲しくな～い！」　{hoshikuna~i! (we don't want that!)}

Be sure to stop by ..:: Anime Baka ::.. for intense miku love more coverage. Fariz Asuka has no less than 39 posts tagged hatsune miku at the time of this post ^_^

aaaand more at Excelica Meteor, Gordonator (ultra kawaii shots in a mini house), How a Girl Figures (miku + Lagann = win), foo-bar-baz, wcloudx, and I’m sure more on my blog roll that I’ve forgotten to list ^^;

And thus my review extras group doubled in size. You’ll probably be seeing a lot more of everyone in reviews to come ^^;

2 Bardiches > 1 Bardiche

…spent a couple hours more than I expected unpacking and messing around with parts/poses…

Fate moves in on Saber after taking out Nanoha... ^^;

When it rains, it pours… went from 0 figmas to 3. ^^;

]

「無視すんな！」

I’ll have to post more shenanigans later… it’s way late right now! Nanoha to join up along with two other newcomers!

Unfortunately the most unimpressive part of the figure is probably her face… ^^; That said, I’m still not terribly familiar with the series, but I do know the art direction has a certain style to the characters’ faces… deviating from it didn’t help the otherwise stunning Saber by Gift… ^^;;

As always, please forgive the photo quality… I’m a little more self conscious than usual after reading posts by blowfish (flying pussyfoot) & super rats (happy soda). Someday I really want to make some progress with my shots but for now I gotta work with what I shot the other day. ^^;

Took these the same day as the tsuruya material. I tend to take a crap load of photos then slowly churn out posts throughout the week…

If you’ve seen this figure, you’re prolly well aware of the mop she comes with.

It’s a great mop I tell ya (unlike my pic… stupid focus ;_;)

Maid triple threat!

Ah, my photo nubness. In some of the tsuruya shots I noticed the window screen didn’t really show up at all. Here it’s plain as day…

An aperture setting woulda fixed that? Or one of the other handful of settings mebbe… I can never remember ^^; Well, anyhow, really love the detail in this figure.

Again, wish the focus came out better, but man, every single part of her outfit is so meticulously sculpted… 凄い！ These next shots have terrible lighting… 許して下さいね [please forgive me] m(_ _)m

Here’s… a shoe shot… ^^;

The stockings have a sheen to them, and detailed down the fine wrinkles at her knees.

I also love the low cut back!

Mop rests right under her hands…

And with everything else sculpted so fine, you’d expect nothing less from the pantsu…

Preview pic in the tsuruya post was based on this shot:

If you’ve been reading all my rambling, you may recall I got a free trading fig with my order… turned out to be another Saber!

She’s so tiny ^^;  Eating an even tinier pocky ^_^

Zamber form Bardiche wins the height contest.

Konata and Miyuki combined are slightly taller than mini Saber…

As always, there’s a ton of coverage already out there if you haven’t gotten your fill:

foobarbaz (interesting part of this review – he was able to separate and cast off the skirt using a heat gun, but as the figure wasn’t intended for this, you get a nasty seam that’s visible and the procedure is by no means recommended)
exelica meteor
happy soda

Are you ready to be served?

Decided to check it out on the off chance they had Miku Nendoroids still available… no luck, but instead…

!!! at long last!

Been looking for her for ever since I found out about her… available on ebay of course, but only at exorbitant prices -_- Of all places, didn’t expect to end up ordering from a singapore based store ^^;

Even came with a little bonus!

Saber’s another one of those characters I’ve preemptively gotten into without knowing anything about the game/anime ^^; Well, I do have the manga, but haven’t finished vol 1 yet. *sigh* more games I haven’t gotten around to…

And speaking of things in my queue, completed my shuraki set the other day…

Can’t wait to get the whole set on display! Taking pictures of boxes is getting very boring ^^;;