I had planned to do a full figma Vs Fraulein post for a while now, but it wasn’t until I was reminded that Fate/unlimited codes will be coming in a few weeks (along with Saber Lily) that I realised that I should really get on with it, but before I progress with the comparison, it only felt fair to give the figmas I already own a time to shine.

It also gives me a change to bring the blog back, kicking and screaming, back to what it was originally set up for, Figures!!!!

I bought figma saber and Kanu around the same time a few months ago but never got around to posting them. My last Shuraki figure (Rize) and asuka on bike are also in limbo, waiting for their chance to come out and pose. but for now, I’ll take the 2 on one at a time. First up Saber.

From the looks of things, Figmas are far more popular that frauleins outside of japan (I’m not sure what the situation is like inside the land of the rising figure collections) so I thought I should get at least one to see what the fuss is about.

My first impressions were that there was a lot to like about the figures. They came with a lot of accessories (many of which I found unneccessary, but hey) and appeared solidly built. The stands also connect easily to allow you to pose the figma without worrying about weight distribution and trying to make it remain standing.

The separate hair pieces and facial expressions also let to a lot of fun, although the eyes in each face are shifted to the left or right, so it’s not as flexible as I first thought.

The joints were a cause for concern for myself as I have never liked the disc design seen in the elbows and knees. And I still don’t like them, But they do allow for quite a wide arc of movement. I don’t feel any clicks when moving the elbow joints which leads me to believe that they are perfectly smooth, unlike the revoltech joints which are purposely not smooth to make sure they hold positions.

The difference in the joint design made me worry that the figmas may be susceptible to sagging joints later on, but it feels solid enough, and none of the accessories are heavy enough to really cause a problem, but it still makes me wonder if the joints on figmas will eventually become loose given enough time and usage…
But the sheathes for the caliburn and Excalibur were nice touches and allowed me to do poses like the one above!

The Figmas also come with a lot of different hands which can be replaced for a variety of poses.

The “pointy finger” seems to be a standard choice throughout the figma range…

Not entirely sure what kind of poses this hand could be used for. A “sally forth” pose? It did give me some Jojo vibes tho.

Or perhaps a quickdraw pose?

Wanna fight?

Overall, Saber was a good introduction to the range, although she didn’t manage to convince me about the disc joints. The skirt armour also got in the way quite a lot but that was also a problem with the revoltech saber. There were also a couple of other issues but I think I will save those for the Vs round.

Next we have the second best Lesbian in Ikkitousen, Kanu Unchu (the best was blatanty Ryofu Hosen, although she was actually Bi).

Strangely, Kanu is a lone entry for the Ikkitousen line, perhaps due to the fact that she’s the only one with an accessory. All the other characters have only their fists, save for Chou’un Shiryuu (the sword wielder who always has her eyes closed).
Saber was accompanied by Rin, but they could probably do archer, lancer and maybe gilgamesh since they all have weapons. Rider is probably beyond their abilities, which I will go into on a later post.

Kanu is a bit of a wierd one. As well as having the usual figma accessories, she also has torn versions of her clothing. Thus she is designed to be able to switch between them. As a result her range of movements, esp on the hips/pelvis are quite low as it’s far too easy to go that little bit too far and pop the legs out. A requirement for changing the skirt.

There was also the small issue with the crescent blade and the hands which hold it. The holes to feed the staff through is a little too small and ends up rubbing off the paint from the staff!

The hair was also very adept at getting in the way, as it’s very inflexible and rather long, as you can see in the pic above. It’s connected to the main head by a balljoint, which is hidden above but you can probably see where the 2 hair sections are. The joint allows you to rotate the hair to give a little more leeway in poses.


A pose I thought up after being inspired by too many soul calibur games (I think)

Ideally, I wanted to push Kanu down further into a proper squatting position, but that was as far as the legs would go without popping out.

And here’s Kanu in battle damage form.

She looks pissed, you touched her boobs, right?

The pointy finger returns!!


And a combat pose to finish.

Kanu actually has the same problems as saber, but with different causes, instead of skirt armour limiting the poses, it’s the swappable clothing, Disc joints are still noticable, etc.

Overall, the figmas are robust figures with a design which feels like you can pose it constantly without any issues.
A lot of people rate figmas higher than frauleins but I think that;s mostly down to the selections given to them. Non japanese fans will prefer lucky star and ikkitousen characters compared to Detroit metal city and Idolm@ster characters given their relative obscurity outside of japan.

From a design perspective, I think I prefer frauleins, but that’s another story for another time…