(what? There was one before?)
Since this IS a review and I'm very nitpicky to boot, this post will be picture heavy.
For a while I wanted to do another review, but stuff happened (work, private matters and general laziness) and I put it off again and again. So much that I didn't feel motivated to do the reviews I planned, which is why I asked friends which figure to review next.
And this was the one they could all agree on:
Today I'll proudly (or maybe not that proudly as I'm not too confident in my writing abilities) present to you Amakuni's 1/7 Astolfo/Rider from the popular smartphone-game
Fate/Grand Order (he was also featured in the Fate/Apocrypha anime).
Tbh I got this figure by pure luck. I didn't know the character when preorders went up and was originally too late to pick one up (as were many others judging from the comments) when I 'decided' to buy him. I did a bit of stalking after his release on various sites and couldn't believe my luck when I found him on Mandarake for 21k (which is still pretty steep, but I didn't care at that point). Ofc he then arrived in my country right before Christmas and then went straight to the customs office (that's my luck). Anyway enough with the chitchat and
let's go down to some actual reviewing.
Starting off with the box the first thing to notice is that it's windowless one, which was a nice change for me. Looking at it without knowing the contents you could get the idea that it's an expensive box of chocolates and not a PVC-figure (well the 'expensive' part is certainly true), though the text ofc suggests otherwise. The pink, black and white color-scheme as well as the printed ribbons are quite nice (not too shrill and not too subdued) and fits the character quite well. Pictures of the figure itself can only be found on the box's back,
which is a good thing I think, because it doesn't disturb the overall impression.
The blister seems pretty normal to me. Not to small and not too big and
it does it's job of protecting the figure.
Astolfo's figure is made up of 3 parts: The figure, the base and his sword,
which makes assembling him pretty self-explanatory.
Also noteworthy is that the head is detachable,
which made taking close-ups of certain parts easier.
The base looks fairly simple since it's just a pink disc with a summoning circle and his name and class painted/written on it. Something more elaborate would've been nice imo, but at least
it fits color-wise. I'm glad the base isn't unnecessarily large, since I don't like it when the base takes up too much space especially if it's this simple.
Well, I can't rate this too highly regardless.
Next is the classic view from all sides.
The overview makes a pretty good first impression, so let's start wiht a closer look at some details going from the top. Starting with his face and hair.
His face is really cute with the sidewards glance and the ever so slight blush on his cheeks.
The visible tooth is not only painted in his mouth, but actually sculpted,
which is a nice little detail.
Spinning him a bit to the side it's clear that the face doesn't look that perfect (at least imo) from every angle, but I don't exactly expect that from a scale figure.
Though it's a bit of a shame with his V-sign hand.
Mostly positive is the subtle shading on his hair in addition to the sculpting. The different shades of pink make for a nice not too prominent color gradient. His lighter strand of hair isn't attached perfectly though, since the seam line is quite visible when you take a closer look. That's true for all the parts his hair and face consists of too,
looking closer you can clearly see how the parts were assembled.
A nice touch is the sculpting of his ribbons...
...and also his ear.
Next are his gauntlets and again they're finely sculpted, though there are some small paint flaws here and there where the golden applications are concerned. They're only noticable when you take a closer look though and overall the gauntlets as well as the sleeves,
with their folds and creases look really good.
There is also a very noticable paint scratch on his right sleeve,
but maybe that's just true for my figure (I certainly hope so).
The cape gives off an impression as if it's billowing in the wind and with it come again finely sculpted folds. Those aren't too sharp, which suggests a heavier fabric. The print on the back is cleanly painted and gives off a metallic vibe.
Something I couldn't quite catch on the pictures is that with the right light
the cape has a slight pink sheen to it (which looks really nice imo).
The metallic impression gets further complemented by the inside of the cape,
which is painted in a gleaming red.
The 'fur' trim on his cape is really pointy, which doesn't make it lifelike, but it fits the character well, so that's no complaint. But you can also see some seam lines too. No complaints about the gold applications this time though the cord, brooches (is that the right word?) as well as the buckle are very cleanly painted and sculpted.
Going down to his torso you could actually get the impression that Astolfo has little boobs. That's due to the shading though (which is a tad bit excessive imo).
When you take a look at the sides it's obvious that no such thing was sculpted and that he's completely flat.
The sword and scabbard look good too (from both sides), very clean without any flaws.
There are no real complaints about his 'skirt' and equipment either, everything looks nice with the right amount of details back and front (though I'd wish his horn had a little more depth).
His garters are sculpted too, though looking closer
there's a white seam in the paintwork on the left leg.
Under the skirt of my favorite trap everything is as it should be
(though ofc those pictures are NSFW and under a spoiler). x3
View spoiler
The stockings, with the very realistic folds and creases look really nice and the shading solidifies that realistic impression further.
Looking at the boots the details (like the shiny paint, the buckles and gold applications) are really accurate...
...right down to the toecap and something that looks like spurs (wouldn't be unlikely I suppose).
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Conclusion
Overall I'm very happy with him and enjoy the figure immensely, even if there are some paint flaws and seam lines. The amount of care and detail that went into the sculpting and paintjob is still pretty impressive imo and I'm very satisfied with my first Amakuni figure. That and that it captures Astolfo's bright and easy-going nature with the pose won't keep me from getting Aniplex's version whenever they are done with it though. Granted the pose has to differ enough. Well, you can't really have enough Astolfo (item/604756 was an insta-PO too).
That's it for this review.
I hope you liked it and if you have some constructive criticism I'd really appreciate that.
Any thoughts on the figure itself would be very welcome too
just like suggestions for my next review.^^
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