Fate T. Harlaown from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS (Bunny Version)

Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review

The latest bunny figure from FREEing is Fate T. Harlaown, Nanoha’s adversary-turned-best-buddy. It was a little weird seeing Nanoha in the skimpy bunny costume, since her sex appeal isn’t typically played up, at least when it comes to figures. However, Fate looks right in her bunnysuit, which is actually not much less modest than what she normally wears to a fight. They look great together, though, and while Fate and Nanoha are meant to be a matched pair (or threesome, if you count Hayate), Fate offers a number of contrasts to her partner that make this figure even more appealing.

Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review

The operative word to describe this figure is “big.” Sculpted in 1/4 scale, Fate stands 39 centimeters tall at the top of her head, and about 44 centimeters tall overall. She’s a bit taller than Nanoha and, to my eyes at least, a bit more well-endowed as well. Unlike Nanoha, Fate doesn’t come with any extra accessories or swappable parts; she’s just got the same somewhat-undersized base.

Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review

While Nanoha evinces pure exuberance and enthusiasm, Fate’s expression is more nuanced. She wears a small smile but it’s not too difficult to think that her eyes aren’t smiling. There’s a lot more mystery hiding behind Fate’s eyes than there is with Nanoha, and that seems appropriate given Fate’s enigmatic nature and difficult history. Her expression is one of my favorite aspects of this figure, and it’s particularly gratifying that her face is so appealing because a lot of Fate’s StrikerS figures have provoked mixed feelings when it comes to their faces. I know a few collectors weren’t enamored of Alter’s figure’s O-shaped mouth, and her newest Summer Holiday figure (review pending here) has sort of a blocky look to it (which, to be fair, is fairly faithful to her anime design). Volks’s figure’s face requires no further comment. I didn’t care too much for the earlier 1/4 scale swimsuit figure by Good Smile Company, which looked sorta like a real-life fashion model wearing an anime kigurumi mask. FREEing’s Fate, in contrast, is very pretty.

Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review

I think Fate’s expression would be even more attractive and appropriate if she were wearing her normal outfit, but of course, she’s wearing a bunnysuit instead, which makes a moot point of any discussion regarding the emotional resonance of her appearance. She is obviously dressed for sex appeal, and she delivers highly on that score. Like all of FREEing’s bunny girls, Fate wears a high-cut leotard with fishnets and high-heeled pumps. The outfit looks great on her, as expected. The stockings are particularly nice; they closely follow the contours of her legs without any sagging or bagging.

Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review

While Nanoha has one hand up in a welcoming gesture, Fate’s arms are wrapped around herself, which provides an interesting anc contrasting complement to her partner.

Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review

Although Fate and Nanoha are both obviously sculpted as adults, they do both have very large heads – Fate’s head is at least half as large as her torso, perhaps closer to three-quarters as large. That’s not too atypical of anime character design, and I don’t think her head looks too big, but one could justifiably think that she looks rather top-heavy.

Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review

No discussion of Fate can omit an examination of her backside. She definitely has a nice rear, though it’s not particularly transcendant (as is sometimes said about her). In this figure’s case, her breasts are probably the more noteworthy feature when considering her erotic characteristics.

Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review

Although this figure is quite large, there is not a large amount of body detail. She does have a nice back, with visible shoulderblades, but there’s not a tremendous amount of detail there. Similarly, her twintails don’t come near the complexity of the previous figure reviewed here. Like most of FREEing’s big figures, she has a noticeably matte skin tone without a lot of shading; it’s one of those stylistic things that you immediately recognize when you see one of their 1/4 scale figures.

Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review

Just to mention it again, I’m impressed at how they made her stockings an integral part of her design, given how close-fitting her outfit is supposed to be.

Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review

And overall, I’m very impressed with this figure in general. FREEing’s Fate is big, sexy, and well-made. She goes great with Nanoha – and probably Hayate, though I don’t have that figure. I’ve said before that I’m not too fond of the bunny ears, but in this case, it’s not a big deal to me, and I even like the way one of her ears is drooping. In fact, I’d say I’m even really looking forward to their upcoming figure of Kuroko Shirai, which will be the next bunny girl figure I get. I’m becoming more fond of FREEing’s products and if they keep making nice figures like this one, they could become one of my favorite makers.

Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
Fate T. Harlaown Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review
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22 Responses to Fate T. Harlaown from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS (Bunny Version)

  1. Lykaios says:

    Wow, this review must be hot off the press, so to speak….

    Tier, you must really be enamored with Fate, you couldn’t have received her long ago. Quick turn-around for this review.

    She looks great, even better with Nanoha, and since I have a thing for bunny outfits (I think the first pictures I saw of women being all sexy and pin-up were women in Playboy bunny outfits), has me INCREDIBLY jealous. I just don’t have the room or scratch for any 1/4 scale right now. I am also worried that once I move up to that scale there is no turning back.

    Is her head really that big or do most anime characters have stylized 80’s big hair to create something of an optical illusion? No matter, these FREEing bunny figures have, for the most part, been spectacular.

    One of these days….

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I figured I wanted to get her review done quickly so I could take her out of her box. Plus the review was easy to do since I didn’t need to do anything special for the backdrop; with a figure as large as this, I can’t really do anything special for a backdrop (though I do have something custom-made in mind for gangsta lean Saber, whenever I get around to doing her photos).

      I gotta admit that the bunny suit thing is becoming more and more appealing to me. It probably helps that there’s no way to confuse those bunny ears with real animal ears, like there is with the Strike Witches characters, for instance. Though I kinda wonder why FREEing settled on the bunny suit thing.

      I’ve got Fate and Nanoha standing next to another 1/4 scale figure (Uesugi Kenshin) and while their body sizes aren’t too different – they’re the same height, more or less – the difference in head sizes is very apparent. Kenshin has much more realistic proportions, though, and her hair isn’t nearly as huge as the two Nanoha girls.

  2. Wolfheinrich says:

    I think you have convinced me to get this Fate 1/4…. perhaps… I am definitely not a fan of that o-shape mouth of the Alter one, the summer holiday one was exactly like you said and didn’t feel right and while I do have the GSC one but the face and the body doesn’t match up very well. This is perhaps the best looking adult Fate figure to-date?

    • Tier says:

      I think it is, though I do like the Shin Sonic one (but I agree that the O-shaped mouth looks pretty odd). It’s sort of weird that while there are a number of good loli Fate figures, there aren’t that many good ones of grown-up Fate … I don’t think her Shin Sonic version even has a Figma.

  3. Asa says:

    I’d have bought these two if I had the space but they’re too tall to fit on any of my shelves. 🙁 I wish I could have had them both. They are really adorable (or sexy, if you prefer to look at it like that).

    • Tier says:

      They are really nice figures; better than I expected them to be, given that my first impression of FREEing wasn’t a great one. I think they are both cute and sexy; they have really cute faces, and really sexy bodies. Particularly the legs; the legs seem longer and more full-bodied than what one often sees in anime character designs.

  4. Aaron says:

    I am really liking FREEing’s 1/4 bunny girls. This is another one that looks really nice. I prefer Nanoha’s pose and the color of the bunny suit, but for some reason I like Fate a little more. I can’t put a finger on why though.

    It is hard to tell from your pictures, but does Fate have the erect nipples like Nanoha? It doesn’t look like it, but it seems weird that she wouldn’t have some of the same features of Nanoha.

    • Tier says:

      Looking at her closely, she does indeed have perky nipples, though the effect is rather more subtle. It makes me wonder if they’ll provide Kuroko with that feature.

      I’m very happy that FREEing is making so many good 1/4 scale figures; I’m really looking forward to Kuroko and the upcoming Freezing girls (which will also provide me with more opportunities to trashtalk the TV show). They aren’t the most detailed figures and they probably don’t take advantage of some of the benefits of the larger scale size, but from what I’ve seen, their quality is very consistent and the sculpts are always very attractive.

  5. Huzzah!!! More Fate-Mama!! Can’t say no to that!! But everytime I see one of these bunny girls, I wonder who decided on the colour scheme… To me, Fate would be black, Nanoha would be white and Hayate… could be any colour left.

    But FREEing are still on Shaky ground for me, after their abominations that are their Blazblue figures. They’re going to have to work very hard on Nu-12 to change my mind.

    • Tier says:

      It kinda seems that they picked red to match up with Nanoha … I wonder why they went with the secondary colors instead of Nanoha’s white and Fate’s black colors. I guess the brighter colors are a little more eye-catching but while red seems to suit Fate okay, I don’t really think of blue when I think of Nanoha; I tend to think of white or pink.

      I went looking through FREEing’s product list to look up when Hayate came out and man, they’ve got some good figures coming out but they’ve also got some not-so-good figures coming out (I’m trying to be nice). I have a hard time believing that the Diskvision guy sculpted the High School DxD figures. Hopefully Nu-12 turns out pretty good (from the convention shots I saw, something about her hips looked a little weird, though admittedly I didn’t see a lot of pictures).

  6. Wieselhead says:

    An older girl with twintails is something really pretty.
    “her eyes aren’t smiling” Ahh don’t write such things or I feel bad for Fate all the time XD

    Well, in picture 18 it really gives this certain mood, but changing her direction to picture 24, she looks rather playful and curious, this said her mouth looks very well done. Some blush wouldn’t have hurt to make Fate’s face a little more expressive.

    The difference in height is nice, you can see that Fate has a longer upper body and also that she has much bigger boobs is something I like, but I would have preferred if her head was as big as Nanoha’s, the difference is slightly too big for my taste. Even more since they are from the same line up.

    Hehe seeing Nanoha again here pleases my eyes, it’s such a pretty figure, I like everything about her 😀 But unfortunately 1/4 still appears too huge for my rooms.

    • Tier says:

      Fate always seems like she’s in a sad mood. Of course, maybe this is because I’m most familiar with her character from hentai doujinshi, where she is typically not treated well.

      One of the odd things about FREEing’s 1/4 scale figures is that you don’t typically get a lot of shading on the skin or the hair. That includes blush, which has the effect of making the characters look more confident than they otherwise might be. It’s too bad that they don’t include it but at least they’re consistent about it, so you know what you’re going to get.

      Nanoha and Fate really are very pretty. Maybe you could make some room someplace, they are very much worth making room for.

  7. nagisa says:

    This one is too hot to handle. Sadly, most figure companies have a hard time making Fate’s face right, and this one nails it. I’m not much impressed with their summer holiday as well due to her blocky face or maybe I’m not much interested in happy feitos. The rear is almost the same as Nanoha but still acceptable. The rack is the main attraction for them it seems and like Nanoha, they’re well made for a freeing figure. (Usually, they always have a hard time getting the face right, like their fortress version).

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I’ve had the Summer Holiday figure sitting in its box for a while now, mainly because I’ve been too lazy to make the backdrop that I want for it (even though it’s not too complicated a backdrop, being a swimsuit figure and all), but also because I’m not too enchanted by the face (or the curious crotch bulge). FREEing is a curiously inconsistent company – I’m not a big fan of their 1/5 scale Senhime figure, which I think is the first figure of theirs that I got – but strangely enough, their 1/4 scale bunnygirl and Freezing figures all seem to be very consistent. I wonder if the same person sculpts all of them, because a lot of their smaller figures, like fortress Nanoha and such, don’t look too impressive.

  8. Now that you mentioned Good Smile’s 1/4 scale swimsuit Fate, that reminds me of something that drives me kind of bonkers in regards to some figures…and even some anime artwork. They’ll go above and beyond to make the body sexy and even a little realistic (anime proportions aside), and then just slap a generic anime head on.

    Like you said, it makes it seem like these girls are wearing those terrifying masks. Seems even worse nowadays since more and more artists are favoring “no-noses” styles…

    Fate and Nanoha look really good together. But man, something just feels so off with the proportions to me. The massive heads? The stunted torsos? Eh, who knows. Loving the glossy paint on the bunny suits, and FREEEing did a good job with the faces.

    Sure wish someone would make a nice scaled Arf figure. D:

    • Tier says:

      That problem particularly stood out to me with respect to GSC’s Fate and Nanoha figures (less so with Hayate, who I thought looked pretty good, and I guess it’s not too surprising she looks different since she came out a while after the other two). I think it kinda pops up with Alphamax’s figure of Reiko too, where her body seems too slender and tall for her head.

      It might be the huge heads, it’s hard not to fixate on the huge heads if you’re looking at their full body pictures. I figure that huge heads are pretty much part and parcel of anime design, though, so it bothers me a lot less than undersized heads, like on that Celia figure by Daiki Kougyou.

      Arf always seems to be the odd girl out. Much of my initial familiarity regarding the Nanoha franchise comes from various pornographic doujinshi, so I was very surprised to watch the movie and find that Arf is a major character in the story because she hardly ever factors into doujinshi. And figures as well, it seems; it’s like she doesn’t even exist now or something.

      • nagisa says:

        And yet Nanoha’s bunny ferret is always included along with her. To sum it up, Yuuno has actually more figs than some of the strikers cast. A human form arf figure will be a great idea even on her default clothes, although those are minimal on her, but sadly there are no existing decent arf figure as of now (Even zafira has one, included with alter shamal, haha)

  9. Lykaios says:

    You know I forgot to mention Orca’s Tamaki bunny girl. Weren’t you going to get her?? If you did, there can be no doubt about you at least developing a fetish for bunny girls. 🙂

    The FREEing girls feel different to me, so Tamaki isn’t a replacement or stand-in. I broke down and ordered the white version. I think size and expense-wise 1/5 is the biggest I can go for now. I was nervous how she was going to turn out, but I saw some pictures of the red one on Moeyo and she looked great.

    Is it time for a bunny girl shelf or shelves??

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I actually have her here. I was planning on holding off on her review for a bit though since I have no ideas for her backdrop so I’ll probably just re-use this one or the one I used for Shizuru Nakatsu. She looks pretty good. That said, I’m not sure if that’s more indicative of me having a fetish for bunnygirls or me having a fetish for Tamaki; I’ve got another Tamaki on order and I was just thinking the Tamaki figures that Lechery showed off are looking pretty good as well.

      I think I actually like the white version of Tamaki better than the red version, and if I had held off I would’ve gotten that one instead. The white seems to stand out more, I think; it kinda reminds me of FREEing’s older bunnygirl figure of Yuki Nagato, which also wore white.

      For me, it definitely is, though not so much because of the theme, but more so because they are huge as hell and thus need a special shelf to accommodate their size, even moreso than my other 1/4 scale figures since their bunny ears boost up their height even more. I’m going to need to do some re-arranging to make sure I can display them and Kuroko when she gets here.

  10. Halbred says:

    A lovely girl! Disappointingly few photos of her impressive-looking bust, though. I encourage an addendum! But she’s seriously fantastic-looking, and if I ever see her being sold on MFC for a reasonable sum, I’ll probably have to jump on it.

    • Tier says:

      I probably should’ve taken a high-angle shot, since I’ve got her on my desk and I noticed she looked pretty good looking down at her while I was standing on a chair rearranging the shelves. Probably no addendum though, since I usually don’t go back and re-do old figures, but maybe I’ll do a group shot when I get Kuroko. They don’t have much relation to each other but it’d be funny to compare their bust sizes, at least.

  11. Pingback: Dollfie Dream Fate T. Harlaown フェイト・テスタロッサ・ハラオウン Easter Bunny Version | Wolfheinrich's World/Dollfigure.com

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