Thursday, July 17, 2008

Figma Saber Review

Today I'm going to be offering my thoughts on the Figma Saber, by the Good Smile Company. This figure is the third release in the Figma line. I'm not sure how the Good Smile Company got their start, but it's obvious that they know what they're doing.


I saw the Fate/Stay Night series, and I fell in love with the Saber character. Kaiyodo came out with a Revoltech version of her, and then came out with a Dark Saber version, from the Heaven's Feel scenario of the original game. I bought both, then later decided to get this figure.


Saber comes with four sets of hands. Two fists, two relaxed hands, two grippping hands, and two option hands. The left option hand is a pointing finger, and the right option hand is a open hand. The left relaxed hand has a small hole in the middle of it, the right size for a sword handle. This helps for the classic pose where Saber rests her hands on the handle of her sword.


She also comes with two swords, the Caliburn and the Excalibur. Now, I know that Caliburn and Excalibur are two names for the same sword, but the mythos for this series is understandably different. For starters, King Arthur was a man. In the F/SN mythos, the Caliburn was the sword she pulled from the stone to become king of the Britons, and then later it broke or something, and she got Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake.

Both swords come with sheathes, and are very well detailed. From the gold inlay on the handle of the Caliburn, to the engraving on the blade of the Excalibur, everything is sharply painted, and intricately molded.


Saber also comes with three faces. A regular calm face, an angry face, and a yelling face. These are well molded and detailed, and convey emotion very well.


The best parts of this figure, I feel, is the joints. Before I go any further, I need to say that I really love the Revoltech Sabers, and think that they are really awesome figures, but that being said, if the Revoltech Sabers are a ten, Figma Saber is a 12, at least. I mean, she's that good. The joints aren't click joints like the trademark Revoltech joints, so they have an endless amount of positions you can keep them in. This allows for a huge amount of character and nuance in the pose of the figure.


The sculpting is incredible. From head to toe, inside and out, everything is carefully molded and detailed. The people at the Good Smile Company are obviously people who love their jobs.


All Figma releases come with a stand, molded from clear plastic, with a peg that plugs into the back of the figure. This is much easier to work with than the base that plugs into the foot of the Revoltech Saber. Though actually, the only times I've needed the base is for jumping poses.


The Figma version is smaller in height than the Revoltech one, but it is still a good 7 inches tall.


Here's a cool detail. If you pull on the waist balljoint, it comes off, and you can remove the chest armor and there is the detail of her shirt underneath.




All in all, this figure is the best Saber figure I've seen, and it was well well worth my $30. Go get one!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just ordered this yesterday, your review confirmed i made the right choice :)

Chaos Incarnate said...

Thanks! That's what it's there for!

In retrospect, I should have posted some comparison pictures with the Revoltech Saber.