Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (Phantom Minds Version)

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

This year has seen a profusion of Tamaki, Sonico, and Miku figures, but Fate Testarossa has quietly staked her own claim as an It-Girl of 2011. Alter has already released an astonishing three figures of her in this year’s first four months, joining the Fate T. Harlaown figure they released two years ago to great acclaim and also the 2006 figure that was one of their earliest products. I had planned to skip this figure – she was rather expensive, her head seemed overly large and her angry scowl is a bit generic. But then Hobby Search tossed her in their bargain bin and I reversed my decision. I’m very glad I did because this is a spectacular figure, no doubt.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

This particular version of Fate Testarossa comes from the film Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 1st and is named after a song performed by Nana Mizuki, Fate’s voice actress. The movie is a condensed alternate telling of the television series, chronicling how young Nanoha Takamachi’s unremarkable life takes a turn towards the extraordinary following a peculiar meeting with a rodent. She swiftly develops into the mightiest sorcerer of the lands and along the way, encounters the sullen, enigmatic Fate Testarossa. Fate is a young girl whose combat prowess is matched only by her diffidence, and much of the movie’s plot revolves around Nanoha’s attempts to befriend her putative adversary.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

This Fate figure is sculpted in 1/7 scale, but this is no ordinary 1/7 scale figure. Indeed, it is an epic figure, with Fate’s cape measuring nearly a foot in breadth. With a weapon, her length can extend to nearly two feet. The figure itself is about twenty centimeters tall from her right foot to the top of her head, but make no mistake; Fate demands several cubic feet of shelf space for proper display.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Many of Alter’s figures are straightforward, without much in the way of castoff options, alternate faces or swappable weapons. That is not so with Fate: she’s got a swappable right arm, a swappable left hand, and an entire arsenal of weapons so that you can set Bardiche in whatever configuration you desire. Alter also thoughtfully includes a weapon stand to store the Bardiche forms that Fate is not holding.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Unlike their StrikerS figures, Fate’s base is a simple black disc with the standard magical circle shapes and characters painted on it. It looks quite nice and I like it a good deal more than the white, Engrish-laced rectangles supplied with Fate T. Harlaown and Vivio. Fate attaches to her base via a pair of metal rods that suspend her in midair, giving her a powerful and dynamic look. They are quite solid and I haven’t had any fear of Fate falling down, despite moving her all over the place while taking these pictures.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

The Nanoha characters have distinctive eye shapes: they are relatively narrow, sometimes rectangular, and feature heavy use of black in the upper half of the iris. Alter has gone their own way with Fate’s eye design, and her eyes are a bit wider and not quite so boxy as her anime counterpart. They’re locked in an expression of loli rage, her small pout also conveying her steely determination. It’s not a very emotive expression, to be frank, and it doesn’t express the inner strife that rends her whenever she does battle with Nanoha. Nonetheless, it looks attractive and gives a feeling of cool detachment, which is appropriate for the way she approaches her work.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Alter also deviates from her character design by giving her twintails that are nearly as long as she is tall and a majestic cape worthy of Batman. It’s all in the name of looking good.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Fate is a martial girl and Bardiche is a protean weapon system, and Alter properly models that by allowing five weapon combinations:

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Bardiche in axe form, extended.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Bardiche in axe form, held close.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Bardiche in sealing form.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Bardiche in scythe form. The fifth way to display her weapon is in sealing form without the fins; a separate shaft part is provided to display it that way. And I suppose there’s nothing stopping you from having her hold Bardiche in sealing form over her shoulder or in scythe form with the weapon extended out. I haven’t tried having her hold it either way so I don’t know if she balances properly, though.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

I felt that her head looked far too large for her body when I saw Alter’s promo pictures, but now that I can see her in person, it’s not an issue to me. In fact, I didn’t once notice the size of her head while taking her pictures. Her cape helps to pad out her shoulders, providing some separation between her head and her body and that helps to mitigate the size disparity.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Fate’s battle outfit consists of a shiny black leotard and thighhighs, a fetching ensemble that showcases her nine-year old body to its best advantage. A couple of slender red bands wrap her budding breasts, accentuating the fetishistic nature of her costume. Her outfit is modeled perfectly in this figure, her white skirt providing a youthful and innocent contrast to the more erotic aspects of her clothing.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

A weapon stand is provided to store unused Bardiche forms.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

There isn’t any mangled Engrish on the stand’s base, unlike the StrikerS figures, but being unapologetically dirty-minded, I have to raise an eyebrow when Bardiche is described as “Fate’s Personal Device.” What sort of device and just how personal is it, pray tell? Inquiring and lecherous minds wish to know.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Alter’s Fate Testarossa is a gorgeous figure, one of my favorites of this year. She looks not just great, but amazing. Her shelf presence is regal and the myriad ways she can be displayed are almost intimidating. And she came at a reasonable price. Her 7670 yen price tag isn’t quite as good a deal as the $64.98 I paid for Alter’s first Fate figure, particularly since I padded that order out with a bunch of Zone of the Enders: delores,i DVDs to get free shipping, but it’s still a great price relative to its peers. Admittedly, with an international shipping bill close to 5,000 yen, her discounted price becomes less attractive. Even so, she’s well worth the expense – Alter’s expected quality is evident in every aspect of this figure and she should be a welcome addition to any figure collector’s shelf.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Here are the loose parts for Bardiche.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

New Fate Testarossa with the old Fate Testarossa, the latter covered in four years’ worth of dust.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

The old Fate Testarossa had her wearing an attractive, girlish thong, but Fate’s barrier jacket has curiously become more conservative with the passage of time.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Fate Testarossa with Fate T. Harlaown. The time paradox portrayed here also suggests that Fate’s head will shrink as she gets older. Does the Time-Space Administration Bureau keep a voodoo shaman on staff?

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

Three Fates. I’ve got two more Fate figures – one from Volks and one from Cobra Kai. I’m saddened that Daiki Kougyou hasn’t picked up Toshirou’s sculpt for mass production; I’d seriously think about double-dipping if they did, just because I like Cobra Kai’s work and I like Fate. I’ve also got Good Smile Company’s upcoming actsta Fate preordered, though if it’s anything like their Nanoha actsta I’m not expecting much from it. I never did review that actsta, did I? Hmm.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review

You knew this was coming.

Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
Alter Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Figure Review
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48 Responses to Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (Phantom Minds Version)

  1. Wolfheinrich says:

    Now that’s an impressive figure! Nice addon effect as always. The triple Fate paradox is simply breathtaking! While taking account into this being the latest figure, it has the most likeable sculpt in my opinion. Even though I ordered the StrikerS Fate, I ended up canceling her due to my shift in focus to DD, but my biggest problem with the StrikerS Fate lies with her face, I just can’t envision a “bishoujo” making that mouth shape (in a figure to boot), just not my cup of tea. I must admit I am at least moderately tempted after looking at your pics as this is definitely higher quality than some of my existing figures.

    The tentacle addition is hmmmmmmmmmmm, love it XD

    • Tier says:

      It’s interesting to see how figure quality has progressed over time; all three of those Fate figures have similar styling but Alter has clearly gotten much better since 2006. If you are looking at getting any PVC figures in the future, I think this is one of the best you can get right now. This is shaping up to be a pretty good year for figures so far.

      Something about Fate and tentacles seems right, somehow. They don’t seem quite as appropriate for Nanoha but Fate looks like the sort of girl who would encounter a set of tentacles (perhaps because she actually did, from what I can tell).

  2. Kyzel says:

    Hnnng. XD Awesome!

  3. Cantan says:

    Oh lookey here… Tier’s bought another Fate. Shock Horror!

    Not entirely unpredictable that one. Don’t you have a Fate Doll on order too? Thought you mentioned one in one of your preorder outlooks… might be wrong. There was certainly mention of a Super Sonico one anyway.

    Cute enough figure, but the big head puts me off. I like my figures with more realistic proportions (should qualify that as being for the head sizes at least!).

    After your last dakimakura with a horrific saggy arse, I thought that might be starting a new trend for you. Saggy old Grandma figures here he comes! Yay.

    Have to ask though, if you are going to buy items from a bargain bin, surely that means that they are not a priority purchase for you. Can’t you reduce your bills through SAL then?

    • Ashlotte says:

      Hobby Search has restrictions on the size of box they’ll send via SAL and considering how stupid big Fate’s is I’m guessing this one very much did not qualify.

      I wonder if Ami has the same policy…I know HLJ ships practically anything via SAL last I checked.

      • Cantan says:

        Did get Selvaria from Ami on SAL (or some alternative surface delivery system – took at least 20days anyway) and she had an insanely

        Hobby Search just strikes me as a really crap supplier. I have only used them once, but their order cancellation policy is insanely crap, shipping policy is not good and they can’t label their boxes properly. Have only used them once to buy a book.

        Might not mean much to people who don’t have to pay import taxes, but they labelled it as a toy. Was damn lucky didn’t have to pay charges as it sneaked through. Stupid f*cks. Books and printed publications are exempt from tax in this country, so they nearly stitched me up.

        Amiami is almost always cheaper too – bit of a no brainer who to use imo.

        • Ashlotte says:

          My problem with Ami is the lack of a user interface which leads to things like them sending me a payment request for something…and then doing it again two days later for something else. *facepalm*

          Be so much easier if they had an easy way to recombine things like HS does.

    • Tier says:

      Nah, I didn’t buy the Fate doll. I thought about it but it doesn’t look that great to me. I’ll make do with the actsta, whenever that comes out.

  4. Ashlotte says:

    Wow Tier you really went all out on the writing on this one!

    That’s not to say your usually not good at it, but you just made it a far more interesting read! Did you like her that much to put in the extra effort haha.

    It’s appreciated in any case and the photos are awesome in their creativity as always! Still not enough to make me feel like forking over the money for her though. :p

    • Tier says:

      Thanks XD I generally like most of the stuff I review here, since I pay my own money for it and I’m not inclined to blow the skrills on something I’m not going to like, but you can tell how I really feel about a figure by the effort I put into the pictures or the writing. The last few reviews I’ve done have kinda been a drag but this one was really easy to write. I much prefer to review figures that I truly like rather than convince myself that I like a figure more than I actually do. If I do a ton of pictures on plain white or black, chances are I don’t like it nearly as much as the other stuff in my collection (or I was just being really lazy).

  5. Ashram says:

    Great effects on the photos! The lighting really brought out the subtle details too.

    I also wasn’t going to be getting this figure, but now…gah! I only have 4 Fates so far, but who knows how many more there are going to be after the next movie comes out! >_<

    • Tier says:

      I’m sure there will be many, many more, especially if they do an anime adaptation of any of the recent manga series. The one I’m really hoping for is Bubba’s sculpt, which is gorgeous in terms of quality and elegant in terms of simplicity. I might also pick up Cospa’s recent figure if it ever gets tossed in the bargain bin; I have a feeling it’s a decent candidate for a discount. It’s not the most exciting figure I’ve seen but it looks good and it seems pretty big, and size has a quality all its own, in my esteem.

  6. Chag says:

    Fantastic shots, dude — your love for the figure really shined through there — pun DEFINITELY intended =P

    I didn’t know about the alternate set of arms. Fate looks badass brandishing her scythe. I wish you took more shots of her with it!

    You haven’t dusted Alter Fate 1.0 for 4 years? Duuuude! A friend told me that dust could cause permanent damage to figures if left unaddressed for too long. I didn’t know about this at all. Have you noticed any permanent blemishes on your figures from the dust?

    Out of curiosity, which Alter loli Fate do you prefer? Modern quality & extras vs. the almighty thong… hmmmmmm.

    • Tier says:

      The best part of those flashy pictures with the backlight is that the lighting effects were done entirely in camera. I’m not opposed to drawing backgrounds in Photoshop but I’m simply not good enough with Photoshop to pull it off. And at any rate, it took me two seconds to take each picture versus however long it would’ve taken me to Photoshop in the lights.

      Now that you mention it, yeah, I barely took any shots of the scythe. I really like how Bardiche’s sealing form looks with her pose so whenever I put axe form Bardiche in her hand, I was like, “Ahh, let’s get these shots over with so I can give her sealing form Bardiche again.” I didn’t even really think about the scythe form much.

      I wiped her off before this shoot and I thought I did a decent job of it, but then I saw the way the pictures turned out and I guess I wasn’t nearly as thorough as I imagined I had been. I don’t think I’ve had any issue with dust damaging a figure; a number of my figures have been caked with dust for years now and seem none the worse for the wear. Admittedly, I haven’t actually inspected them in that time, since I don’t really want to touch them. Or breathe close to them.

      Man, the thong puts up a really tough fight but I gotta roll with the new one, I think. I thought 2006 Fate held up pretty well over time but looking at her next to her 2011 counterpart, she looks like a middle school art class project in comparison. Okay, that’s a bit harsh, 2006 Fate isn’t a bad figure by any means. It’s still a great figure but 2011 Fate is that much better not just over the earlier Fate, but over most figures in general.

  7. Fabienne says:

    Oh my she looks impressive with this huge cape, I guess she would look great together with the Nanoha -STAND BY READY- from Alter. At first the bigger head needs getting used to, but it doesn’t look bad at all. These long twintails are quite pretty.
    Fates glossy outfit looks really cool I especially like the belt, It’s very cool that you can display her with the Bardiche device in it’s different forms.
    great pictures again, picture 07,05 and 36 are my personal favorites 🙂
    Is the base of Fate shaky somehow, or is it tilt resistant ? I’d like to know.
    Oh Is this a new skin for your tentacle base, there?

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, she’d probably look great paired up with Nanoha. It’s funny how I have five Fate figures and zero Nanoha figures, not counting this actsta action figure I’ve got laying on my desk. She was likable enough in the movie though, so I wouldn’t mind picking up a figure of her if I can find a good one. Maybe I might look at Cospa’s Nanoha figure if it slides into the bargain bin after it’s released.

      Fate is actually quite sturdy for a figure that is suspended on metal poles. I always pick her up by just grabbing her midsection and I’ve had to move her all over the place while taking photos and trying to figure out where I’m going to put her, and she hasn’t come loose from her base at all.

      Nah, that is actually a McFarlane Toys Sentinel toy from the Matrix movies. I thought about using the tentacle stand but I thought the mechanical tentacles would look better with Fate rather than the pink ones.

  8. Jhollman says:

    Nice FX!!!, great pictures!!!.

  9. Tian says:

    Quite a lot of accessories on this one, I see. It’s funny… I like figures with loads of extras from a value standpoint. But on some level I’m intimidated by them because if I photograph them, I know I’d spend hours getting every possible accessory in every possible combination. And then I just don’t photograph them…

    I never did get into the Nanoha girls, but I like the dynamic pose here. It also looks like Alter’s craftsmanship has lived up to their reputation once again, so that’s cool. One last remark: gotta love when those must-have figures find their way into the bargain bin! I recently picked up Alter’s Asuka Shikinami for that exact reason.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I’m certainly intimidated by them now. I had Fate sitting in her box for a couple of weeks because I didn’t want to spend forever taking pictures of her in all her various configurations. As it turns out she was a lot of fun to photograph. But I’ve definitely had a few figures where I didn’t care to spend time messing around with them; I never even photographed MegaHouse’s Aldra because she has so many loose parts. I don’t think I can photograph her now since I’ve lost a lot of them (though she’s so cheap at HLJ I could just get a replacement, I suppose).

      I didn’t get around to watching the Nanoha movie until just the other week, and before that I’d only seen a couple episodes of the first TV series and a couple episodes of StrikerS. Most of my fondness for the Nanoha characters comes from the porn doujinshi I buy. That might be an odd reason for me to like them but Fate has some really great doujinshi out there, and that’s a big reason why I have several Fate figures.

      I was really surprised to see this figure hit the bargain bin so quickly; I thought she’d sell out for sure, since Alter’s 2006 Fate figure and their Fate T. Harlaown figure are still in very high demand and often get a big markup in the secondary market, even for a preowned figure. But then again, I’ve noticed that it seems to not have made a big ripple in the collecting community. I’ve scarcely seen any reviews for it – I can’t recall seeing any Japanese reviews aside from Akibahobby’s and I had to google for English reviews, and I only found a couple there. That’s kinda strange for such a nice figure of a popular character that is relatively inexpensive at its discount price.

      • Tian says:

        See, that’s why I come to Tentacle Armada. Either you review figures other people won’t, or you review figures that everyone has, and then you assault them with tentacles. Never a dull moment…

        • Tier says:

          That is absolutely the way I like to do things. Though I’ve forgotten to get a shot of the next figure I plan to review with tentacles. I better take one tomorrow since she looks like the sort of figure who needs at least one tentacle photo.

  10. BioToxic says:

    Despite how awesome this version of Fate looks I just cannot un-see the size of her head. I’m glad to hear though it’s not as noticeable in person. The rest of her body looks great though; I especially like her cape and how it’s flapping away from her.

    Alter giving extras and changeable parts is quite rare. They should do it more often because the ones that come with Fate are really nicely done. It’s also nice to hear her stand is able to support her.

    I think I still prefer her 2006 version over this one, purely because her face looks a lot sharper; although she does look dated compared with this recent version.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, her head is gigantic, no doubt. The size of the cape keeps it from dominating the figure but since you can’t see the entire cape in these photos (and most other photos, since it’s so big), the size of her head becomes really apparent.

      These days, I’m actually kinda glad that Alter doesn’t give out extra parts. I used to love extra weapons and castoff options but with nearly two hundred figures now, I often just want to take the figure out of the box and put it on a shelf. It’s kinda like how I am with computers; fifteen years ago, I overclocked my machine (going from 75 MHz to 90 by moving a jumper on the motherboard), tweaked the autoexec.bat file, and manually set the swapfile parameters. Nowadays, I barely bother tweaking my computer’s performance.

      I noticed just today that the 2006 figure has armored shoes. I like those much better than the black elf shoes that 2011 Fate is wearing; I wonder why they changed those in her movie character design.

  11. Halbred says:

    Bravo, sir. You’ve managed to turn a figure I don’t really care too much about into a flurry of dazzling photographs that really add to the figure’s already-present ‘tude. Freaking gorgeous pictures, man.

    • Tier says:

      Thanks! I really didn’t care for this figure much when I saw the promo shots and didn’t feel any urge to buy it even when it first got a price cut, but after spending some time taking pictures I appreciate it a lot more. It’s funny how a figure’s photogenicity can really enhance my opinion of it. And I really hope “photogenicity” isn’t a real word.

  12. Saber says:

    What do you think of the Fate Testarossa casual wear figures just released by alter and kotobukiya ? I actually think she looks hotter in her black lolita dress then her normal outfit.

    • Tier says:

      They are pretty cute but me, I prefer her barrier jacket outfit. I’d give some thought to picking them up if they hit the bargain bin though; it’s kinda cool to see a little smiling blonde girl in a cute dress toting a huge axe.

      It’s kinda odd how similar both Kotobukiya’s and Alter’s figures look; they ran into this problem a while back with their Haruka Takamori figures, too.

  13. saber says:

    I ordered both of them, and received the alter one yesterday. Its a little bit disapointing but might grow on me over time, the koto one has a cast off skirt which i didn’t know about http://myfigurecollection.net/picture/183319&ref=item%3A47826

    I also have the phantom minds figure but haven’t opened it yet. I Don’t really have any where to display it.

    • Tier says:

      That’s a pretty cool feature that Kotobukiya one has, albeit just a tad unclassy, being that Fate is all of nine years old. Not that I have any room to make such a claim, being what this site is all about XD

  14. THOSE THREE FATES LOOK AMAZING TOGETHER! I only have the 2006 Alter Fate myself. I still think she’s a lovely figure, but she really does pale in comparison to her 2011 counterpart. The detail in the hair, the folds in her clothing (especially with her panty area), the flow of the cape, etc etc. Too bad 2011 Fate has such an oversized head…

    • Tier says:

      I remember being very impressed by the older Fate figure. I don’t think I had more than maybe nine or ten figures at the time, including Alter’s old Fate and Rei figures where they are just sitting around, Yamato’s SIF EX Kanu Unchou which looks very strange now, the Clayz Saber that is inexplicably getting a re-release this summer. Fate was a huge step up from those in terms of both size and presence. And new Fate is a huge step up from her predecessor, at least in terms of sculpting ambition. It’s really amazing to see how far figure quality has come in such a short time. It sometimes feels like I’ve been collecting figures my whole life, but then I realize the Xbox 360 came out before I even got my first real PVC figure.

      Haha, yeah, it’s kinda funny how I initially held off on buying this figure because I didn’t like how large her head looked, but now that I own it and don’t mind it anymore, everyone points it out XD I had thought that I was alone in holding that opinion, especially since everyone but me seemed to be preordering Fate last year, but now I see it’s much more commonplace than I had thought.

  15. Awwwwwwwww, she ended up in the bargain bin? I paid the pre-order price for her, she’s definitely expensive. =( I really debated whether to get her due to her price, but decided to get her anyway as I didn’t want to miss out on a great figure. Then again, I already had the previous release and they’re fairly similar. lol

    You certainly took a lot of pics in this review, a lot more than the other reviews I’ve noticed. Great job on the photos, must’ve took a lot of time with the longer exposures and all the different parts to take photos of. And lastly, kick ass pic of the tentacle attack. LOL

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, though I think her price actually wasn’t much different if you ordered her during Hobby Search’s 50% shipping discount promo. I was surprised to see her get discounted so quickly, and what was also odd was that Amiami didn’t drop their price to match.

      Fate was an easy figure to take pictures of, for some reason. Some figures I really struggle with the shots but Fate worked out really well, I think.

      Thanks! The Sentinel is always a popular thing around these parts XD He comes in handy for so many kinds of shots.

  16. 5ushi says:

    At the possibility of numerous individuals moaning and going thrashing their heads on the walls… Just checked out Amiami and they ‘re selling this for 6000yen now; a 47% discount. Seriously comtemplating diving in and purchasing but not too sure. Never liked the anime and the head-size issue is rather apparent in my personal opinion… Though I do like the attractive attacking pose (which is what caught my eye in the first place).

    • Tier says:

      That is quite the discount, and I’d say that this ought to be a no-brainer pickup for anyone even remotely interested in this figure, except her shipping bill is still something like 4500 or so yen. So that puts her at about the same price as a mid-level 1/8 scale figure but I’d still say that it ought to be a no-brainer. However, if you’re putting her up against Saber Alter or something, then I’d roll with the GSC figure instead.

      I kinda find that her head doesn’t look too swollen on the shelf, since I’ve got a ton of other figures with equally disproportionate heads. I also don’t think it’s as noticeable from angles other than straight-on; when I’m looking right at her face, those huge eyes and bulbous hair tend to attract my attention the most. Admittedly, noticeable or not, it’s still impossible to deny that she has one big-ass head.

      • Shashin says:

        Heh, was going to mention this myself. I really liked the figure even before your review, so I’m seriously contemplating it now. I don’t want to pay an assload in shipping for only one figure, though. So I’m thinking I’ll hold off until they have something else I want; I really like the figure, but if it’s not available when I figure some other things to add to my cart, I can do without.

        • Tier says:

          A good plan, I’m trying to put together some stuff I want at Hobby Search since there’s a book that I want and I don’t want to pay shipping for it alone. I’m kinda thinking about picking up the KOS-MOS Figma; I’m not a big action figure person but KOS-MOS sure does look nice. My guess is Fate might not sell out quickly, since I ‘d guess anyone who was on the fence but leaning towards buying her already got her when Hobby Search discounted her. Plus she doesn’t seem to have been in high demand at release, which is a bit curious.

          • Shashin says:

            The price was a definite factor, I’m sure; all the accessories and the stand do add a lot to the presentation, but I’m also guessing that’s why the figure was so expensive.

            For the magazine, I know we’re both impatient, but you could always try SAL if the magazine is fairly light. Will take a few weeks, but I’ve never had a problem with it, and it should drop the shipping a good amount.

            I got my Dizzy the other day, and it was certainly worth the added expense. Now I just need to clear a spot off my desk so I can display her.

          • Tier says:

            Erp, so much for my prognostication abilities, as she appears to have sold out already. Given how much I overpay for figures, I guess I’m really not the best person to make price predictions.

            Yeah, that’s my plan, I’m in no rush. Although KOS-MOS is now sold out at Hobby Search, too. Oh well.

            She is indeed a great figure. I’ve got to find a better place for her. My plan is to give her the star spot in the Detolf case but I have to figure out where I can relocate the figures she will displace.

  17. 5ushi says:

    Ditto with Tier. Was comtemplating and decided I’d take the bullet yesterday only to find out she was sold out. Interesting thing though; Ami might restock again as the sale has been ‘reduced’; it’s now a sale of 19% instead of the previous 46% (though it is still listed as sold out though).

    Regardless, I now won’t being buying; out of me price range…

    • Tier says:

      She’s still got a slight discount at Hobby Search, though it’s not nearly as nice as the discount that Amiami had. There’s also one priced at 7,000 yen on Mandarake right now. Either way though, I’m sure the shipping cost will be huge.

  18. zzzzzy says:

    I was among those who bought her for 6000 yen.. I’ve read the review before and i knew it was a good figure. I don’t even like the underagel type of anime character. But the price tag was insanely low so I just bought it anyways. However, it was a “-_-” moment when the shipping cost turned out to be 5800 yen, almost as much as the item cost.
    I added a kupo plush to make it feel less wasteful, since I love Final Fantasy =)

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, the shipping cost is nuts for this figure. Nanoha’s shipping cost seems to be quite a bit lower, so I’m thinking about preordering her since I think they’d look good together … but on the other hand, I dunno how many loli fighting girls I need in my collection.

      I often do the same thing when I order stuff from overseas retailers. And I am not ashamed at all to admit I have a Tonberry plush toy XD

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