Tag: square enix

Vaan – Final Fantasy XII – Play Arts

This is the second of the two Final Fantasy figures I bought. Vaan:

I was less enthralled with him, as his joins on his arms have nothing to hide them. Not a big fan of articulated figures where the joints are visible in the fleshy parts. But his outfit makes up for this – I love the white design on his pants, and his medallion. I love the amount of details in his clothes, even though he has less of them than Ashe. And my collection could do with some more bare-chested males :P. 

Vaan’s left:

His gauntlets are nicely moulded and painted. The elbow joint isn’t so bad, but the shoulder joint does make it look a bit like he’s had a shoulderpad implanted in his flesh. His hair looks more natural than Ashe’s though.

Right side:

I love the strap detailing on his trousers, and here we can see his sword, which is equally as impractical and ornate as Ashe’s. 

Back:

Love the back of his chestpiece. His butt is nothing exciting, but he has some well-moulded wrinkles in his trousers, showing their bagginss. Hair nicely finished at the back.

Close-up of his sword:

The hilt of the sword was broken away from the upper blade part, so the break location was about as good as you’re going to get. However, I couldn’t feel a “true” position for the hilt to line up with the other part correctly, so I had to glue it the best I could. Either the break’s been repaired before, or possibly some of the plastic has rubbed away. So I got it as straight as I possibly could, and it doesn’t really show too much. Depending how I pose him, the wonk won’t be terribly obvious, but I guess if the break annoys me, I’ll have to split it again, file down the surfaces until flat, and re-glue. 

An unexpected, but welcome pair of figures to my collection. Really happy with the detail for the price I paid. These figures seem to be reasonably cheap online, but not quite as cheap as I got them for. I would recommend these figures if you like their looks, or into the characters, and don’t mind the articulation points. 

Ashe – Final Fantasy XII – Play Arts

I found two of these Play Arts figures for sale for a good price at a local store. I debated over just buying Ashe as I liked her appearance, or if I should buy both and sell one. 

In the end I’ve decided to keep both, as I wanted to keep Ashe, and it turns out Vaan had a broken sword (probably been broken for some time, looking at the break), and he was a good looker too. They were definitely both secondhand, as there was a good amount of dust on their stands, and the figures themselves. A quick visit with the duster fixed that though. 

This blog will be about Ashe:

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I love her outfit, and the sword designs are amazing. Let’s get a little closer and look at Ashe’s outfit:

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The hair paint & sculpt isn’t anything amazing, but I can forgive that for the rest of her. The outfit is sufficiently detailed and well-painted. The colours are striking and complimentary, which is what drew me to this figure, along with the metalwork details. I guess it took her a long time to get dressed in the morning though!” That’s a lot of clothing pieces to put on! 

Left side:

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She has a ring on, which is painted well. A small detail on the cuff of her boots too. Despite the sculpted nature of the hair, it just doesn’t look quite right somehow to me. 

Right side:

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Not much to say about this side, but we can admire the massive sword for a bit. 

Once you’re done, here’s her back:

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The attention-to-detail on the front has been carried on around the back. Her outermost top also splits at the back, allowing you to see the lower layers, which is a nice touch. Can’t let those layers go to waste! I’ve managed to cover up the gold trim pattern on the outermost layers in most of the shots (doh), but they’re nicely painted, and I like the pattern. 

A close-up of her sword:

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I’m a sucker for the blue crystals embedded in her sword, and I love the ornate, if impractical, design. I’m guessing it uses some enchantments to be useful in battle, lol. Maybe I should play/watch someone play some Final Fantasy…