After the crude figure review from last time, this time it will be more vanilla, I guess.

So another figure review, I’ll try to reach the one post per week pattern again, at the moment it is a bit difficult to find the time for taking pictures and writing depends mainly on my mood.
This time Fate Testarossa, the cute, timid loli with a bad childhood is the model of choice.

No the figure  isn’t based on the illustration but I found this picture cute and quite fitting to add.

This figure of Fate Testarossa from the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st was manufactured by Gift and released in the end of June in 2013. Fate is scaled 1/4 and has a height of  27 cm. I often mentioned that I like Nanoha Takamachi quite a lot with her enchanting voice and the kind personality. But oh well, it’s always the same story, whenever I have a favorite character I am so picky that I often can’t decide to get a figure of this certain character.

Gift also made a Nanoha figure in Bikini, but I wasn’t that convinced to order her in the end. What convinced me to get the super sized Fate was my general liking for the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha anime and a good review from Tier, I found her to be gorgeous and wanted her for myself.

Hair & Face

Gift often has a little freedom when creating their figures, they often differ from the original source, sometimes this freedom is not to every bodies liking, but sometimes it’s also for the better.Well Fate is close to her anime appearance and resembles my image of Fate very well.

Fate is presenting herself in a wonderful twin ponytail hairstyle, decorated by dark blue ribbons. Her hair is very long and has a yellow tone with orange shading. The strands have a nice level of detail and are accurately sculpted, I really like the separation at the ends of her ponytails.

What qualifies Fate as a fully fledged loli character is of course her big head in comparison to her body. Even though Gift added no cute blush marks, the face of Fate is very well done, it has a nice shape and this gives Fate a cute expression that fits the characters personality. The figure shows big puppy eyes, a tiny stubs nose and a slightly opened mouth. As little gimmick you can decide to display Fate with her magical device Bardiche in her mouth or without it.

Body

It is no secret that Fate is a rather young girl in Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st, but if it weren’t for her big head, Fate could also be a slender, yet older teenager girl. A teenager girl with a flat chest of course. Anyway, Fate’s body looks really good from the front or the back  there are some nice highlights like her detailed back with the scapulars or her lower back. The transition from hips to thighs is also very well done. The legs have a well balanced length, they are not too long and not too short. The sculpting of the whole body is especially smooth.

Outfit

I can’t really remember a scene in the Movie where Fate was wearing a bikini, but that doesn’t really matter. Her outfit consists of a two piece bikini in white at the front and dark blue at back. With the two layers and the laces at the front her top has a cute, sporty design.

The slip is rather tiny and skin revealing, to create the effect of the fabric’s stretchyness there is lighter shading at the part that covers her buttocks. There are some realistic wrinkles at the front and the back, from a lower angle you can notice a detail you wouldn’t expect from a loli figure. To have more  stuff to dress her and to have an additional item, the figure comes with a Parero. It has to be placed with a little force in both hands, but its worth the effort. It goes very well with Fate and has a nice design with wrinkles and a printed on hibiscus pattern.

Smaller details are also part of the figure, there is silver necklace, different colored bands and a white ribbon wrapped around her arms. There is also a tiny footchain and blue beach sandals.

Pose

The pose of her is nothing special, but it creates a fitting mood and convincing pose of Fate in a beach like scenario, I’m actually a fan of such simpler, standing straight poses. This is also something I really like about the upcoming Sonico – Package version from Orchid Seed.

It seems like Fate wants to close or eventually open her parero, to have both hands free she put Bardiche in her mouth while walking towards the beach restaurant. I love these smaller details about the pose, like placement of her arms or the nicely tilted head. The base is a simple shiny white disk with a small diameter that connects to her feet, it will win no beauty contest but gives the figure a secure stand without grabbing away much attention from the figure.

Final Words

I never expected to buy an 1/4 scaled figure before since it seems a little too big, but Fate is actually not taller than an adult 1/6 scale figure, only the head is far bigger in comparison.

Large scale figures can actually be very charming, even from a distance you can examine every nice bit of the figure, which is especially true for the face. Fate has such a nice face, I love it. The figure offers an interestingly designed bikini and a fantastic body sculpting. Oh this actually my first figure from Gift, well their quality is very high, there are no unnecessary seam lines or flaws in the hair, also the paintjob is nice and clean. I paid 9670 Yen for Fate and chose registered SAL, worth of 3050 Yen for shipping, nevertheless I’m really happy about the purchase of this figure.

“Come on over Fate chan, Onii chan will build a huge sandcastle with you” ＾▽＾

Hi Mina san, today I will write about the cute Takamachi Nanoha – everyday wear version which arrived last week. As this figure was announced my reaction was quite intense I was like “AHH, HOW CUTE!” “KAWAII!” “DO WANT!” in summary I totally freaked out in this moment XD

Lately cute figures really became my weakness, you could say that they are my kryptonite.
After I regained my consciousness I waited well-behaved for the opening of the preorders.
Without giving it a second thought I just ordered my Nanoha figure. I haven’t bought any figures of Nanoha so far, but I found this casual cloth version of her pretty appealing.

Her Origin is Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st the latest project of the
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha franchise. The movie is an adaption of the first season
from the popular anime show called Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha which was produced
by Seven Arcs it was aired from October to December 2004.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sdq_rb6bi0

So far there weren’t many movie adaptions of animes that I liked a lot, I always felt that something important was missing, often the plot was too rushed or the movies can’t really cope with the atmosphere and flair of the anime in the end. In the Nanoha movie the plot centers on the really important parts and captured the atmosphere of the anime very good.
Also the pacing of this Nanoha movie was very well done in my opinion that was a really good movie. I hope that a subbed DVD of this movie will come out soon I would definetely buy it.

First impressions

Nonoha is a 1/8 scaled figure and her height is around 165 mm, she was manufactured by Kotobukiya and her release date was in January 2011. Nanoha is a normal 9 year old girl,
she became a Magical Girl by chance as she wanted to save the young mage named Yūno from an evil monster, I won’t spoil any farther infos about th story just watch it, it’s good.
her size fits very well to my other 1/8 scaled figures, it looks like they are her Onee-chans . In general younger characters like Hachikuji Mayoi from Kotobukiya or Sanade Yukimura from ALTER look a bit big for their age and  in comparison with other characters from their origin.

Nanoha comes in a quite small box, included are two changeable twintails, a left spare hand,
a Raging Heart amulett, the Raging Heart device and a nice base. On MFC the version is called “casual clothes version“. but in the end Kotobukiya named it “everyday wear“, to me that sounds not as cool as casual clothes version. In the anime show her casual clothes weren’t that flashy like in the movie I guess kids these days dress themselves in a more stylish way.

Hair & Face

Nanoha has a foxred haircolor with dark shading effects at the places where it is necessary, the hair has detailed strands and ribbon parts, everything looks nice and cleanly sculpted.
The interchangeable twintails are a nice feature, you can choose between the big red ribbons and the finer black ones, which Fate gave her in the movie. The shape of hear head matches with her origin the same goes for the  detailed painted eyes, together with her open mouth the face  shows a very happy expression, I would say Kotobukiya did a good job with her face.

Clothes

As mentioned earlier I really like Nanohas stylish dressup the white T-shirt with these purple elements and the red long sleeved shirt underneath are a very nice combination. The short purple skirt buckles and has a nicely sculpted flow, the dark shading let it appear somewhat lively and realistic. Well, the skirt is castoffable, but come on she’s just 9 years old, I like Nanoha, but not in that way XD. Anyway back to the clothes, at her legs she wears white stockings with crumpled light pink colored socks at the bottom, as footwear she wears shiny brown shoes, it is the model you see a lot in school animes. It is really nice how Kotobukiya sculpted her clothes, everything  especially the realistic looking wrinkles at her shirt,  the skirt and the loose socks are very pretty. The Raging Heart amulett around her neck is a nice accessory, the gold with the clear red pearl looks pretty, it is attached to a real cord and so it can be moved freely.

Pose & Base

To me the pose catches how Nanoha happily runs along a street, like in the scene 00:32 of the trailer I attached to the post above. Maybe I should provide some background information at this point, normally it isn’t possible that Nanoha can wield the raging heart device in wand form when she is in her normal appearance, because Nanoha and Raging heart always transform at the same time. I don’t want to sound like a picky high class Nanoha freak it is just a thing I noticed ;D
The figures from Kotobukiya that I own have no very nice looking bases, but the base of this Nanoha figure looks very good. The outer golden ring with the shiny metal finish and the transparent red circle in the middle are a good combination.

Final Words

Nanoha is a very cute figure, in her casual clothes she looks very good and after all the figures of her where she is always in her barrier jacket, this normal clothes are a nice change.
Her eyes have pretty highlights and appear very lively, regarding her small size the paintjob and the shading effects are really well done.
Her clothes are also very pretty and very well sculpted, on a very close look I could find one small  bump mark at the side of her left stocking, overall the quality of this figure is very good.
What do you think should I order the Fate – casual clothes version from Kotobukiya as well?
I guess Nanoha shouldn’t be lonely =D