Today I will review a recently released figure. On January 15th 2012 I ordered this exclusive Nagisa from the Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity Game for 9800 Yen, it took nearly a year until Volks announced a fixed release date and then the figure was released close afterwards.
The figure was manufactured by Volks as part of their exclusive Moekore Plus line. This figure of Nagisa is scaled 1/8 with a height of 24 cm. She is that tall that you could think that she is actually a 1/7 scaled figure, but considering the age of her character in the game it actually appears reasonable that Nagisa is taller than a figures which are based on younger characters.
The origin of the character is the game Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity, which I’ve actually never played before, but it looks interesting and I like the nice intro song quite a bit.
httpvh://youtu.be/PjXX9nj5Y80
Nagisa the new heroine of this game, she is 18 years old. Her kind is called Duman, a slightly altered human. As Duman Nagisa has abnormal physical strength that allows her to carry the huge weapon of hers. She is descriped as a polite person, who lacks a bit common sense.
Hair & Face
Nagisa has nice black hair, with detailed long strands. I like the flow of it, it seems like her hair is grazed by the wind. The bangs have shorter strands, on the right sight of the bangs Nagisa is wearing some decoration, three leaves and transparent dark blue flowers that look like roses, further below she is wearing a broader strand in a cross tied fashion. If there is one thing I don’t like about her hair, it’s the stub texturw of the hair, a silky shine would have been a lot nicer.
The face of her looks a bit more grown up than on other figures, the facial details of her are very well done overall. The skintone is pale and the cheeks have a cute rosy tone. One of her green eyes is hidden by an eyepatch, it’s no injury btw. Nagisa’s mouth has a nice gloss effect on the lips. The face expression gives Nagisa a serious, nearly fierce look, but she is still very pretty.
Outfit & Body
The figure has a buttoned-up design, in contrast to other figures of mine, but I fell in love with her navy commander like uniform on first sight. I always watched this show J.A.G (Judge Advocate General), as it was airing and I liked the white uniforms a lot. I feel a bit reminded of it as I saw Nagisa. Well, her outfit is a bit different though, it consist of a long sleeved jacket, a white miniskirt and long boots. The jacket has a pearl white coat and the dark long boots have a nice shine. What I really like are the inplemented green gems at each side of her arms and hips.
All the shiny golden applications on her outfit give her a lot of elegance. The strict appearance of her is areated by some folds and wrinkles at her arms, bust, butt and skirt. In contrast to the chastely outfit a little sexy detail was added where the skirt reveals the garter at her thighs.
On first look Nagisa has a kind of simple pose, but nevertheless it is a quite expressive pose this figure has. There is more room for specualation, but to me it seems like she is walking past her beaten enemies, I really like posing of her limbs and body, the way she is hugging her big sword or the pose of her legs, on close view the pose is more complex than it seems.
A little size comparison – Stocking is already one of the bigger 1/8 scaled figures out there, but Nagis still is a few centimeters taller than her, even though the proportions of both figures match closely.
The mighty blue sword of her is called Steal Hearts, it has a really cool design with many golden ornaments and as litle feature it has a rotateable chamber. In the game that works like the cartridge system like in the Nanoha anime and increases the power to the executed attack.
httpvh://youtu.be/mehbMVQaDPQ
Final Words
Now to the question if Nagisa was worth the long waiting time and the exclusive price tag in the end? Actually yes, it is very well done figure with a high qualiy in terms of sculpting and painting, all the golden and other details were applied very clean. Overall Nagisa has a beautiful and proud appearance, the elegant design of her outfit and the face make this figure shine. The hexagonal black base looks a bit underwhelming in contrast to the figure, but the uninspired bases can often be found at exclusive figures,only GSC seems to put more effort into these minor parts. Aside from that, Nagisa is a very nice figure that shows, that Volks has the skills to compete with the better known figure manufacturers like ALTER, Max Factory or the previously mentioned GSC.
Bakayaro
Von dieser Figur habe ich bisher weder etwas gesehen noch gehört. Ich finde sie vom Gesamtbild her sehr schön und auch an Details wurde anscheinend nicht gespart. Das einzige was mich wohl stört und mich auch daran hindern würde sie zu kaufen, ist ihr Gesicht.
Wie du schon geschrieben hast wirkt sie wirklich Erwachsener als im Original. Leider habe ich mit so etwas wirklich Probleme. =D Realistische und Erwachsene Gesichter sagen mir einfach absolut nicht zu. Die ganze Moeness geht verloren und ein wichtiger Teil des Charakters wird dadurch einfach zerstört. Das ist meine Meinung und deswegen finde ich das mit dem Gesicht wirklich schade.
Ansonsten aber ein tolles Review und die Fotos sind echt schön und sauber. Umgebung bzw. Hintergrund hast du auch prima hinbekommen. Bild 025 gefällt mir am besten da das Schwert und der Hintergrund einfach umwerfend aussehen. =O
wieselhead
Danke für deine Ehrlichkeit, ich kann das gut nachvollziehen. Generell mag ich auch Moe am liebsten, ich mag niedliche Gesiter ^^
Aber ab und zu mache ich halt ne Ausnahme, Nagisa schaut etwas finster, aber es ist halt dem Spiel nachempfunden.
Ich fand Nagisa überaus gut gelungen und habe sie auch deshalb gekauft.
Dankeschön, das hört man gern ^^
G.K. Sil Kamina
Man, when did Phantasy Star get a better character designer? I played the first PS Portable on the PSP, and while it was a fun game, I was constantly distracted by the horrible costume design. Nagisa’s gorgeous. Not sure why Volks felt the need to put her price at 9800 yen considering the scale, though. The sword and outfit are somewhat ornate, but not to the point where she should’ve cost THAT much.
Really love the bits of blue that offset all the black, white and gold. The flowers in particular are really pretty!
wieselhead
Hehe I see, I actually know nothing about the game, but yeah Nagisa looks very pretty in her dress.
Well, thats the price for getting exclusives, you have to pay it or pass on that figgure.
But I find the rising prices of normal figures more bothersome.
Look at GSC’s Karen for example, she already costs 9400 Yen at the relatively cheap AMIAMI, it’s outrageous :/
Yed so many beautiful details ^^
Ashlotte
Always loved her character design! Just so many great elements all together.
Hmmm as for the figure she looks better then most of volk’s efforts thats for sure. The matte black leggings especially are nice. Shame she’s an exclusive though…I wonder what Volk’s hang-up is on selling their PVC overseas like they do their dolls.
wieselhead
Yeah, she looks so beautiful all around.
I couldn’t resist as I saw her at first and it’s good that the final product didn’t dissapoint.
The mix of different textures works very well in this figure.
I also can’t tell why Volks doesn’t take part in the normal figure market.
Aya
Finally they released this, a year is along wait, she looks so awesome ^^ wish I pre-ordered this too but
wieselhead
I waited so long, so I was really happy to receive Nagisa.
Thats quite a shame 🙁
hoshiko
I didn’t know Volks make figures. I thought they only make dolls. Haha. Are we talking about the same Volks? >///<
One look at the figure, I like the little details like those on the sword and button-up outfit. I spent quite a while staring the picture in which you showed the figure from behind together with the focus on the sword. Love that sword!
wieselhead
Yes it’s the same and they do make figures sometimes.
Unfortunately always exclusive ones, maybe thats why you haven’t noticed it 😉
Yes these fine detail about her are lovely ^^
feal87
Quite an awesome figure with fine details and a nice character. It’s a shame they are exclusives as usual as they would get pretty famous around the world if they weren’t…:P
wieselhead
Yes indeed she is a lovely figure, she looks kind of tsundere 😀
I also don’t get these exclusives all the time, you would think that they would make more money with larger numbers, but maybe exclusives are more profitable.
Or the japanese people just love exclusive and rare stuff in general.
Nopy
I didn’t think that Volks created figures of such high quality, I don’t have a single figure made by them. I love Nagisa’s uniform too, it looks simple and clean, but also somehow delicate and beautiful.
Nice work on the backgrounds, as usual 🙂
wieselhead
Sometimes it’s good to try different figure manufacturers, Volks is not that well known for making figures, cause they rarely do it compared to other manufacturers. She is a very beautiful figure overall.
Thank you, I always appreciate some praise and feedback about that 😉
Jenn
Wow, Nagisa is insanely attractive. She has all the features I love in a character. Beautiful long hair + snazzy uniform + huge elaborate weapon + eyepatch + serious demeanour = Awesome. Her pose is simple but elegant. I don’t know anything about the game either, but I might have to play it just to learn more about her! As usual, I love your lighting and set up. Is that a gold pocketwatch I see in the background? XD
wieselhead
I fully agree with you, she’s so nice ^_^
Thank you very much.
No, it’s not gold, it’s a cheaper metal, but the watch is very pretty.
pocketwatches are nearly as nice as figures ;D
Miette-chan
Nagisa looks like a nice elegant and cold person from looking at this figure and her neutral expression. Too bad Sega never released the updated version of Phantasy Star Portable 2 in the west so I will never find out. Even though I always supported their franchises but alas.
I really like Nagisa’s design, the intricate patterns in her clothes and sword are cool. The sword actually reminds me of this one Gunlance from Monster Hunter Tri with the revolver barrel and the golden motifs. I like the lips have nice definition thanks to the gloss, nice to see when sometime in figures are severely lacking in that area.
I agree with you, this is a very nice figure, definitely worth the wait.
wieselhead
I really like her elegance, but since she’s one of the heroines I don’t think she’s a really cold person.
There really should be mor adapted japanese Games, it’s especially mean if the parts before were sold here.
Nagisa has a lovely design, I didn’t really mind the lack of revealed skin in her case ^^
The lips give her a more lively appearance, the pink gloss works very well with her porcellain like skin.
Kai
I haven’t play Infinity yet, though I saw a few Nagisa artworks. I think this figure is beautiful^^ It captured the designs and details of the artworks quite well. And also loving the sword.
wieselhead
Nagisa is exceptional beautiful, her design is just lovely.
Fabrice
Hi wieselhead, its been a while since my last visit, apologies!
anyway first nice new layout, looks much more organised and love the orange and the slider.
secondly Nice figure! I remember you putting in your wish list after seeing the prototype which she looked lovely, Im glad to see the end result with the painting looking good too, I just love her outfit and sword. she reminds me of a mix of valkyria chronicles and strike witches ^^
The only nag though is the base but thats just me being a hard like usual. I always said that I would prefer it if it were to be simple to be transparent like the prototype showned by GSC.
Anyway its good to be back 🙂
wieselhead
Hi Fabrice, it’s ok don’t mention it ^^
Yes it’s definetely better than the photocrati theme before, I should haven given ore attention in the theme choice as I started blogging.
Well, now I finally found a theme that suits my taste a lot more and it looks more up to date now.
I remember that you were slightly interested in her back then.
Nagisa is beautiful, but youre right about the base, it’s really plain.
Xine
I remember Nagisa from your preorders before and I’m glad you finally have her in your collection. She looks great! I especially like the details on her sword and her outfit looks really well made. Though the pose is not dynamic, Nagisa seems to have the attitude to make up for it. Oh, and the photos are lovely!
wieselhead
Ah cool, Im quite happy that I ordered her back then and nothing else instead.
I like the oveall design, not many figures offer this amount of details.
The pose works quite well with this elegant character.
Thank you very much for the comment, Xine
Tier
I still have Nagisa here, in her box, actually. Not her figure box – the brown shipping box that she came packed in. You know you have too many figures when you don’t even bother taking them out of their shipping parcels.
She looks pretty great; I was kinda concerned when I ordered her because in my experience, Volks’s PVC stuff tends to be of more-or-less average quality (and their prepainted, preassembled garage kit figures are wildly inconsistent in quality). She’s got a really elegant and mysterious air about her. Usually when you see an anime-type design, you can pretty much figure out what the character is like and what he or she is about, but it’s not too easy to figure out what Nagisa is like, other than that she probably chops stuff up as part of her day job. I’m pretty glad that Volks made a figure of her, not just because she looks nice, but also because the Phantasy Star series was my favorite game series, growing up. (Not that Phantasy Star Online or Portable really have much to do with that series, I guess.)
wieselhead
Ohh Tier, that is really cruel of you. Maybe she should sell a few so that you can unbox figures like you should.
I had no experience with Volks and jumped in the cold water more or less, partially because of your Sasara review, I was quite sad that I didn’t got her back then.
I really like her doll like cold look, as you’ve said it is kind of mysterious. But her rosy cheeks and the gloss on her lips adds some lifelyness to her.
I never played it, even though I could, I always bought the wrong games when I was young X(