Throughout the year, I had to cancel some items in order to cut down my expenses. Here is the list of items that didn’t make into my precious collection.

1. Saber Lily 1/7 by Alter
2. Inaba Yui 1/7 by Good Smile Company
3. Nendoroid Petit: Angel Beats by Good Smile Company
4. Asuka Langley Plug Suit  Test Type Version 1/8 by Alter
5. Black Rock Shooter -Animation Version- 1/8 by Good Smile Company
6. Mina Tepes 1/6 by Kotobukiya

Image via Safebooru

Saber's side armor has a metalic finish and those bolts on the side add a steel-like material to the her armor even though it's made from PVC. Painting is well-done such that it produces this kind of result.

Very nice sculpture on Saber's boots which is something that it would have been done if it's not from Good Smile Company (GSC). They do put a lot of effort on every part of this Saber -Triumphant Excalibur-

An amazing scaled figure should always come with an amazing base. I think having a good base, it adds some extra points on a particular figure's attractiveness. It seems to be the case with this Saber -Triumphant Excalibur-. Most figure manufacturers underestimate the importance of having a good base. It's not just only for support but it also adds values to the figure itself.

Saber's Invisible Air (インビジブル・エア, one of her Noble Phantasam) is also included within this figure package and wind effects are added and circles the invisible sword. Characters are also engraved on the sword itself. It trully amazes me on how much time the sculpture spent to achieve this kind of attention to detail.

Another shot on her back.

Oopsies, no pantsu everyone ^^ and kneepits shot for a fellow blogger, LightningSabre

Another marvelous attention to detail on painting to give look and feel of steel-armor surface for her gloves.

Golden colour decoration on Saber's dress beneath her armour.

Detailed engraving on Excalibur similar to the one on her invisible sword.

Now, this is little bit different than the original one. Based on my quick search on google, the crescents are supposed to attached/touched to the bottom border (golden yellow colour). Does anyone think so too ? Additionally, was the splotchiness intentional ? I just don't the reason why it's necessary.

I did a quick check on Saber in the anime series (Episode 24) and took this screenshot. As you may already notice that, the two crescents touch the bottom part. Hmmm, not cool >.<

Neck armour is well-painted with blue but it's not the case with her armour as seen below.

Question for fellow owner of Saber -Triumphant Excalibur-, does the paint on her armor look like mine ? Her armor (blue part) was not painted properly. It could be that it's just a matter of a manufacturer defect in my case.

Not a big fan of how the figure is attached to the base. I doubt that it will last for a while and I guess I will give it a year before it bends ^^;;

Close-up shot on Excalibur. Nice sculpture and paint on the sword.

Thoughts

Very very happy with how this figure turned out based pictures on my preorder post back on February 2010. It has everything that I am looking for in a figure: paint, sculpture, base, dynamic pose and how close it is to the original. I would have given 10/10 if it’s not for minor paint issue on her front armour, a minor difference  between the figure and the original on the crescents, metal support between figure and base and splotchyness . I guess watching Fate/Stay Night series more than 50 times definitely helps when I do a figure photo shoot review ^^;;. While writing this review, I had a hard time rating this figure. I was back and forth between 9 and 9.5 but decided to go with 9.5 since it fulfills all the requirements in what I look in a scaled figure.

Rating: 9.5/10

Additional Tidbits

The lucky figure to be the first photo shoot of 2010 is Asakaru Nemu from Da Capo anime/eroge by Circus and it’s distributed by Good Smile Company (GSC).

I had never owned a figure by Circus before so I have no idea about its quality but I was willing to take the risk since I just love Da Capo series especially the first season and Nemu is my favourite character in the series. Yes, it’s not Kotori Shirakawa who I bet has gazillion fans out there.

From my previous about this figure preorder, the base was going to be a clear plastic but couldn’t really count on those preview photos since more often than not they are unreliable. Lets take a look at her base. It has pink/sakura colour which is perfect with the whole theme/story plot of Da Capo ie the magic Sakura tree. “D.C. ～ダ・カーポ～” print with couple sakura leaves is a nice touch on her base. In case you are not aware off, a great base is really important for me since I believe it just adds more awesomeness that can turn a mediocre figure to a great one which looks good for displaying purpose. So far, the base gets +1 in my book.

Now ,lets divert our attention to the top view. You can see some very minor imperfection in term of sculpture on her head (not sure if you can see it from the picture above but if not, click on the picture to bring you to my flickr page), .

I am not a huge fan of open mouth figure but I think she is much more appealing when she just lightly smiles instead of opening her mouth. DC characters design is generally nice and two thumbs up for the sculptor on here.

I am impressed by details on her shoes and not just paint but the sculpture itself. Look at those curves on her socks.

Her name would not be Asakura Nemu with her trademark cat bell on her neck.

Another minor imperfect paint around her school uniform buttons at front. Note that there is lightly blue shade on it which  adds a nice touch instead of plain white.

Obviously, we cannot forget Nemu’s bows on her head. They just look lovely on her ^^.

I flipped her skirt just to see what colour of pantsu she is wearing ^_~.

Another great details on her cute bag with a drawing of her cat, Utamaru, which always appears randomly in the series.

In addition to Utamaru, there is also Mysterious-san, the black cat. Not a great paint job on its eyes.

Another +1 on her skirt which was nicely sculptured and it’s cast-off able.

Now, her side is probably the most annoying this about this figure due to being castoff able. I am not against castoff-able but in this case, I am not a fan how it looks like. Not to mention, it’s hard to take off her uniform. I think she is a much better off without the castoff-able.

Another bow on her back around waist area which mimics like one in anime/eroge.

Nice little decoration on her bra.

Her body is detachable just around her waist since you need it to cast off her uniform and skirt.

As I mentioned previously in my preorder post, her body looks little bit too thin for me.

Overall impression, I am really satisfied with the quality of this figure and I believe that she is so under rated out there. I haven’t seen many figure collectors owning her. Despite minor imperfect paint and sculpture here and there, she is totally worth it. I would recommend her not only to Da Capo fans but also non D.C. fans out there. She is worthy enough to be part of your figure collection ^^.

Additional tidbits

Rating: 8/10

Sorry for the lack update on my blog for the past month. I have a lot of things to write but can’t get my self to actually write it. Lack of motivation I guess and it also does not help when work and school consume my time. My fellow friends managed to convince to play World of Warcraft again since bunch of us already plays so there goes my spare time. Currently, lvl 35 priest at Crushridge Realm so if you play on the same server, let me know ^^. Do you ever want to have more than 24 hours per day ? I personally want to have 48 hours / day. 8-9 for work and the rest is for something else ^^;;.

Anyways, enough with my rambling and here comes my latest loot.

Saber Lily 1/7 by GSC finally arrived after  some delays in the past months, although, the delay was actually good for me since I had a lot expenses when I moved to a new place.

The box has interesting corners and I don’t see the point of making them flattened.

Front View

Right View

Back View

Left View

Top angle view

Checked my hobby search preorder and of course Fate got delayed…..again. I was expecting Nanoha would be delayed but I guess there are too many Fate fans out there so Alter can’t keep up with the pre-order.

The shipping cost for this Saber Lily is a friggin 5,400 yen. I realized it’s 1/7 but the shipping charge is unreasonable and I don’t see why Hobby Search felt the need put int a big box -_-;;. Gosh $50 just for the shipping alone and it’s more than half the price of Saber Lily. If you guys ordered from Hobby Search, please let me know what the shipping cost was >.> especially if you live in Canada.

Just want to let you guys know that Hobby Search is having a figure sale and some of them are quite nice this time (it usually sucks). I am sure that some of them might interest you and any sale is good especially during this recession ^^. Read more below the cut.

Sakura Nanako 1/8 PVC by Megahouse

Regular Price: 7,300 yen

Sale Price: 5,110 yen

Nagato Yuki Lolita Ver. 1/7 by Griffon Enterprise

Regular Price: 9,500 yen

Sale Price: 6,650 yen

Kanzaki Kaori 1/8 by Kotobukiya

Regular Price: 6,800 yen

Sale Price: 5,100 yen

Karen 1/8 by Alpha Omega

Regular Price: 5,800 yen

Sale Price: 4,059 yen

KOS-MOS Swimsuit Ver. 1/6 by Alter

Regular Price: 8,800 yen

Sale Price: 6,160 yen

Hiyori Pixie 1/8 by Good Smile Company

Regular Price: 6,858 yen

Sale Price: 4,800 yen

You can browse for more discounted figure here.