Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 1st (Gift Swimsuit Version)

Fate Testarossa figure

Back when Gift released their 1/4 scale figure of Nanoha Takamachi, it seemed inevitable that Fate Testarossa was destined to join her. And so she has; a little less than a year later, Gift’s Fate is here, and while a figure of Fate in a swimsuit is hardly novel, she does have the virtue of being relatively big – and as anyone who has visited this site knows, bigness is an exalted virtue here. Let’s take a look at the famous lightning mage, Nanoha’s best friend, and everyone’s favorite whipping girl.

Fate Testarossa figure

As everyone knows, Fate has gotten a ton of figures, from the wildly complex and dynamic to the relatively mundane. This figure falls into the latter category, though that doesn’t mean that it’s not without its charms. Most obvious – at least in person – is that it’s a fairly substantial figure, marked as 1/4 scale and standing about 28.5 centimeters in height. The listed scale size is probably a bit optimistic but she’s still quite large compared to most figures.

Fate Testarossa figure

It’s also obvious that she will appeal to fans of her character, and I suppose I’d call myself one, given how many figures and dakimakura covers I own featuring Fate. (Truth be told, I have only the most cursory familiarity with the Nanoha series. Much of my Fate fandom is spawned from doujinshi containing certain particular themes.) Gift’s figure is modeled after her appearance in the first movie, so she’s nine years old here, and her identifying traits are easily recognizable: the blonde twintails, the big red eyes, and perhaps most prominently, that unruly sprig of hair sprouting from the side of her head. (Curiously, as a teenager, that hair tuft seems to switch to her right side.)

Fate Testarossa figure

While Nanoha is typically depicted as irrepressibly upbeat, Fate often seems contemplative and melancholy, particularly as a child. Thus it seems appropriate that, in stark contrast to Nanoha’s cheerful grin, Fate’s expression is inquisitive and searching. It’s hard to ascribe a specific mood to her, and that seems to be in accord with her enigmatic nature. The size of her eyes is also notable; her eyes are huge, as is usual the case with younger characters, giving her expression a sort of puppy-dog cuteness.

Fate Testarossa figure

It’s also obvious which segment of the collecting base this particular body part will appeal to. It’s sort of funny because in the review of Gift’s Nanoha, I mentioned something about wanting to see some cameltoe, and then in the promo pictures for Fate, her cameltoe was almost embarrassingly conspicuous. In actuality, it’s not readily visible, which is a little disappointing; you have to look pretty carefully to notice it.

Fate Testarossa figure

Fate is said to have a fine ass and every new Fate figure thus requires a careful evaluation of her backside. In truth, with respect to Gift’s figures, I think Nanoha has the better ass between the two. That’s is a little surprising since Nanoha’s sex appeal is almost always muted compared to Fate’s. That said, it’s not like Fate is dressed conservatively; on the contrary, her bikini is wholly inadequate to the task of covering up her rear.

Fate Testarossa figure

Like Nanoha, Fate’s back is strongly arched, though it’s less noticeable here as Fate is facing directly forward. It does push her stomach out, emphasizing the subtle detailing there.

Fate Testarossa figure

Fate comes with a couple of accessories: a patterned blue shawl and Bardiche, which she appears to be sucking on. Bardiche has a small tab that can be slotted into her mouth; however, I’m not sure how well it will stay in place so I don’t think I am going to display her with it.

Fate Testarossa figure

The shawl is a bit annoying to get into her hands; I had to use quite a bit of force to push it into her grip. Fortunately, I didn’t cause any scratching or paint transfer. Nonetheless, I’m not going to display her with this wrap, either.

Fate Testarossa figure

All in all, this is quite a nice figure of Fate. She’s not going to take anyone’s breath away – unless, I suppose, one were completely unfamiliar with anime and are thus appalled at the amount of exposed skin – but she has an enticing expression and the sort of sex appeal that, although it ought to be absolutely repugnant, is pretty much a normative feature of anime culture. Her sculpt is well-executed and the paintwork is very clean. And of course, she’s big – not super huge as she could be (and maybe ought to be, being 1/4 scale), but reasonably big enough. This isn’t the sort of figure that anyone is going to lust over, I think, but it’s a nice addition to any Fate Testarossa fan’s collection.

Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
Fate Testarossa figure
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24 Responses to Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 1st (Gift Swimsuit Version)

  1. Asa says:

    She looks quite lovely. And unlike that other one you did a while back, she doesn’t have a mysterious bulge. I prefer the cameltoe look, even though swimwear usually prevents such occurring. It’s certainly better than what looked quite trap-esque on the other.

    Also, cloudy red background is nice. Subtle. Doesn’t really stand out, which is good for a shoot like this, but I dig it. As I do all of your sets.

    • Tier says:

      I actually still need to review that one … you know, I never took it out of its box, so even though I’ve owned it for something like a year (or longer, I don’t actually remember when it came out), I’ve never inspected it to see if my fear was accurate. That’s one of the figures that I have a specific background in mind for, so I’ve never gotten around to photographing it.

      I’ve done this sort of background before, but the odd thing is that I actually tried a couple of new things that I don’t usually do; I bounced a couple lights off the ceiling to fill in the shadows a bit more, and then I used a fill card in front of the figure for most of these photos. I was looking through my pictures of the FREEing bunnygirl Fate and I didn’t really like how dark the shadows were, so I was going for a more evenly-lit picture and less of the high-contrast, scary-shadow look that I usually go for.

      • Asa says:

        I was referring to this one; https://www.tentaclearmada.com/images/figures/fate-testarossa-swimsuit/fate-testarossa-17.jpg which you did review. That bulge is not very pleasant. And while I don’t like cameltoe, I’d prefer it to mysterious bulges!

        Whatever method/setup you went with here worked well, anyway. She’s very pleasantly lit, but not a complete blinding fill, or the “scary shadows” you mention. Not that I mind shadows, but I prefer more full lighting, yet not just bleaching nuked with light kind of shots (which is about all I can manage if I use lamps).

        • Tian says:

          haha wow that bulge…

        • Tier says:

          Ahh, right right, I’d forgotten that that figure was packing such a large, uhh, package. I wonder if that figure was sculpted by the same guy who did her grown-up swimsuit figure; if it is, I’d wonder about that guy’s interests. I absolutely agree that cameltoe is much preferable to such, hrmm, suggestiveness.

          Yeah, lighting for fill is something I’ve always had a big problem with. Part of that is just my preference for scary shadows and high drama, but it’s also due to me not really liking the flatter look you sometimes get with a fill card placed opposite of the key light.

          This all reminds me that I promised some sort of lighting tutorial by the end of last month. Hah, deadlines are for chumps and schoolchildren, anyway.

          <.<

  2. Tian says:

    doujinshi containing certain particular themes

    I think I know what this means heheheh

    It looks like the cameltoe is only visible if her crotch is at eye level or higher, so it will probably be inoffensive in most viewing conditions. Also her head looks gigantic. Maybe it’s because of her hair. I would estimate roughly 1/3 of her body weight is in her head.

    I do like her facial expression. Something about Nanoha’s cheerful expression pisses me off, like she’s trying too hard to be cute.

    • Tier says:

      I think I even have a specific post dedicated to this sort of thing. I don’t do enough of those sorts of loot posts.

      It looks like her head is wider than her waist. Though not her hips; I don’t know if nine year olds have hips like this (and frankly, I don’t really want to know), but Fate is growing into her curves already.

      … Crap, I just realized I didn’t use the tentacle stand here, even though it would complement her expression very well. Oh well.

  3. Wieselhead says:

    Oh she’s fantastic, I will never be a big fan of GIFT designs (I hate their hoodie Sonico), but this Fate is spot on. The face is so nice with the cute puppy eyes and the shape of it. I prefer her more calm expression over Nanoha’s *happy, happy* It’s great how her hair is framing her petite body. The waist of her gives her a number attractiveness points,I would never say that 9 year old is sexy, but alltogether with bikini, body and pose this Fate is a pleasing sight.

    A great pop culture that makes it possible to buy 1/4 scaled figures of 9 year old girls well I think it’s nothing wrong to like the cute heroines from fictional stories. It’s probably not to deny that this slightly sexualised, but when watching anime over years you see it as normal.
    Fortunately when I see loli characters I mainly see their cuteness and no lewd thoughts.

    Funny that you mainly know her from ecchi comics XD Also in the anime she is a good character, I liked her personality a lot in the latest Movie.

    I didn’t know about the towel like accessory or like you said a “shawl” you US citizens have interesting words for sure, in germany we call it “Schaal” so similar that it makes me laugh ^o^). It’s very fitting for her appearance.

    I like this Fate figure a lot, rarely saw others that I liked more (o⌒.⌒o) Next to bunnysuit Nanoha this is my favorite 1/4 scale figure, still I’m not sure about purchasing this one.
    These are great and convincing pictures, the setting puts Fate even more into focus.

    • Tier says:

      Gift seems to be one of the odder companies under the Good Smile Company label; GSC and Max Factory seem to generally try to stick close to the regular designs of the characters, but Gift’s sculptors seem to put a more personal touch on their work, particularly the figures sculpted by the Principality of Kagutsuchino.

      I was thinking about this while watching the new season of High School DxD (which isn’t very good so far, in my view); I was wondering what some of my friends (none of whom are anime fans) would say if they saw a show like that. I mean, the intro sequence looks like a pretty typical cute girls/action anime and then bam, there’s this part where Zenovia’s and Irina’s clothes blow off and their boobs pop out. I didn’t think anything of it, apart from its humor value, but I have the sense that anyone who hasn’t seen any recent anime shows would be horrified.

      Apparently that shawl is also called a “pareo” or somesuch. (Speaking of German, I am told that my internet nickname means “animal” in German. There have been a couple of people who thought I picked this name because of that, though I actually did not.)

      I think that if you did want to pick this figure up, you might be able to find it in the bargain bin in the near future; it kinda seems like any time a GSC company makes a figure and it doesn’t sell out right away, it ends up getting discounted.

      • wieselhead says:

        Lol, you really made me order a 1/4 scale figure! I don’t care about bargin or not, don’t care if I prefer Nanoha, don’t care that she won’t fit in my 1/8 – 1/6 scale collection. Well but I did care about shipping and chose SAL XD

        I don’t like that High School DxD is so focused on the swords recently, actually it’s “nearly” over. I want growing character relationships. Oh and the ending theme is not good, the previous was awesome and creative.

        Im thankful for animes without ecchi surprises like this, I like such shows but I can’t let it run when someone enters the room.

        • Tier says:

          Hooray! You won’t regret your purchase. Unless she gets a huge discount. Or unless you don’t like the figure, I guess.

          Now that I think about it, I’ve seen a few recent shows that have fizzled out in the second season, and they’ve all been harem comedies – Sora no Otoshimono, High School DxD, and Samurai Girls/Bride did not or are not holding my interest much. I haven’t finished watching the second season of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai but I’m finding that it’s not nearly as interesting or fun as the first. And I definitely agree that more pole dancing is needed. In fact, I’d say it’s needed in more anime. Guilty Crown might have been saved had it focused more on pole dancing instead of whatever it was about.

          • wieselhead says:

            Of course I will like her, hopefully ^^

            some animes loose a lot of appeal in second season, Without the nice intro parts from the previous season shows can really feel dragged on and on without achieving anything new. This might have something to do with the manga business itself, since most anime is based on manga. To meet the deadlines with new content, the storytelling suffers sometimes, especially after the first bunch of stories has been told. If a manga/anime sells like hot cake, authors also have no real interest in finishing their works early or fail to do it properly after more and more subplots have started.

            anime based on light novels (Horizon) or even visual novels (Clannad) is better sometimes. I enjoyed Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT quite a bit, it gets better near the end. Third Season please ;D

          • Tier says:

            Ah, well, that’s promising; I guess I should watch through the rest of Haganai, then. So far the first few episodes seem kinda mean-spirited (Sena can’t possibly be that stupid) or recycled (I thought it was silly they brought back the telephone gag with Kate). At least thus far it hasn’t tried to do the dramatic, emo episodes that were sprinkled through the first season.

  4. loveanime says:

    Until your review this lovely figure never appeared on my radar screen. The face and the color scheme are 100% my taste and you made a great choice of background color. Her great rear makes for an excellent side view too! In absolute terms calling this a 1/4 figure is indeed a stretch as she is only about 10mm taller than Reiko which is (a rather tall) 1/6. However, relative to her age, her 1/4 size is about right compare to other 1/4 adult figures. Definitely prefer her over Nanoha Takamachi. Not a huge issue, but I agree with Tian that the head is big, even if we take into account her younger age. The only downside I see is that it is probably a bit too generic if you already have a lot of swimsuit figures in your collection. Also, it’s a rather expensive figure for a “junior 1/4”.

    • Tier says:

      If she really were 1/4 scale, that would mean that she’s less than four feet tall; I don’t know how tall nine-year olds usually are but that seems a little bit short to me. Then again, she’s bigger than 1/5 scale too, I guess. I probably should’ve taken a picture of her next to bunnygirl Fate, just so the size comparison were a little more clear.

      I think that’s one of the things about swimsuit figures; if you collect figures for a long enough period of time, they can get kinda boring. This version of Fate doesn’t look too exciting but then again, she is so big that it is really hard for me not to look at her; even though she’s a very young character, she is still far larger than any 1/8 scale figure.

      • loveanime says:

        Haha, not sure about how tall 9 year old girls are either 😉 But this picture gives an idea about the proportions with an adult 1/4 and a ferret (?): http://myfigurecollection.net/picture/767853&ref=item%3A117636

        Even though right now well over 70 of my figures are swimsuit figures (out of a total of 120), I don’t think I will get ever bored of them. If I had unlimited space and budget I think I would never stop buying them and would snap up this one without thinking twice. But space having become the biggest limitation I aim to fill up whatever space I can create with figures that add an unique element to my collection that is not already offered by the other figures in my collection.

        That is of course yet another theoretical rule, which as you know, seldom works out in practice, especially when it comes to not buying anime figures. So unique or not, more swimsuit (and other) figures are likely to follow. Even this one is not completely ruled out yet 😉

        • Tier says:

          Yeah, space is a big, big problem; I’m not really displaying my figures so much as storing them on every available scrap of surface space I have, aside from the floor. (Actually, I kept gangsta lean Saber on the floor for a while, since she’s so huge.)

          • loveanime says:

            Yup, both display and storage space are a restriction, especially if you live in places like Japan, Hong Kong or Singapore where space comes at a premium. So now the purchase decision is no longer just about price but about space as well. So even if the figure comes cheap you wonder… hmm… is this figure worth the storage and shelf space? For instance, based on your review I got the lovely Queen’s Gate Alice (https://www.tentaclearmada.com/2012/02/alice-from-queens-gate-designers-color-version-nsfw/). Initially I got her “instead of” Queen’s Gate Alice Boost. But you know how the “instead of” thing often goes”: getting Alice “boosted” my appetite for Alice Boost and they make a great set. So I finally ordered her but the main thing holding me back so long was the huge amount of shelf space and storage space she takes up. It seems they did not just give a boost to Alice’s cup size because the box is 3.4 times (!) as large, boosting the shipping bill as well! But no regrets getting her (in the original green version). The dynamic action captured in the figure makes this very unique among other things. Just like your reviews usually do, this excellent review is the one that won me over: http://www.foobarbaz.jp/figure/review2008/f_hj_qg_alice_boost/ won me over.

          • Tier says:

            Yeah, this is one of the reasons why I prefer figures that are standing up rather than lying down. FREEing’s Freezing girls are an exception but I’m having a really, really tough time trying to figure out where I can put them. I was thinking of getting FREEing’s Bastard! girls, and I guess I still am, but the amount of space that they would take up is working against them when it comes to my purchasing decision.

            Yeah, that is a really nice figure; I had thought about picking it up at the same time that I got the younger Alice. I’m a little surprised that foo-bar-baz “only” gave it three stars; he seldom gave a figure less than four stars, as I remember (not to say that he was lenient on his scoring, though, since most of the figures he reviewed were indeed very pretty figures).

          • loveanime says:

            Agree about lying down figures, my Freezing 1/4 Bridget takes up a massive amount of space. Of course the advantage is that the shelf height can be lower so they can be in the same shelf with the 1/8 verticals. My Kanu Unchou Birth of Venus is much higher than any other figure I have so I needed to make one shelf higher just for her, wasting a lot of vertical space in process. But in your case you probably have a lot of 1/4 verticals.

            Agree that 3 starts for Alice Boost was low but I got her because of his excellent photography, the only other reviewer who comes close to yours. I saw Alice Boost figure a long time ago, even before I bought Alice. It took me a while to start appreciating her. Initially I was not interested because I only had seen the pink version which is too confusing as there is not enough contrast between the red hair and all to other stuff which is all in pink. While I prefer Alice in blue/red, this color combination is less suitable for Alice Boost as her panties are black, and if you look at foo-bar-baz you will know why I prefer them white ;-). Also the black wings on her arms get lost in the blue hair. So that is why I prefer the green hair version for Alice Boost. The only issue is the lack of contrast between the black base and the black boots, a transparent or silver base may have worked better.

  5. Wolfheinrich says:

    Got this Fate figure myself and while I was initially rejecting the idea of getting the loli Fate but somehow I had myself convinced that she is probably one of the better Fate sculpt out there. For some unknown reason, I think there hasn’t been able to completely nailed down the real sex appeal of the adult Fate, the Gfit Bunny Girl came close but it is still lacking quite a bit. This movie version of Fate swimsuit got most points for getting down most of the features why i think Fate is attractive.

    • Tier says:

      I would agree with that; as far as loli Fates go, I think this is one of the best. I like Alter’s Phantom Minds one as well, but that one’s head seems to be even huger than this one’s, in terms of body proportions. And I’d also agree that nobody’s gotten grown-up Fate right, either. I would’ve thought that Alter would’ve done it, since they’ve taken two shots at it, but the Shin Sonic Form had that oddly-shaped mouth and I’m not so sure about the swimsuit one, which I’ve got somewhere around here. I do like the bunny suit one a lot, since it’s really cute and it’s huge, but it is hard for me to think of a bunny suit figure as the definitive Fate figure.

  6. cipher says:

    she look soo innocent..let onii-chan protect you fate-chan ufufufu

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