Playarts: Princess Garnet / "Dagger"

Another classic Playarts review! Yes I will get to Fran, but first let me just get to another figure that has been long overdue out of the box. Yes, it's one of the characters by one of the most forgettable Final Fantasy to me: Princess Garnet or Dagger from Final Fantasy IX!

Here's Garnet's box, which is of course very Playarts classic. Zidane and Vivi are the other ones from this wave; not interested in getting either of them unless they are at a dead cheap price. 

As far as accessories, Garnet does come with a pair of fists to alternate with her open palm hand. She comes with her staff which can only be held by her right hand through the use of a peg. One thing I will say is that perhaps they should have had her 'haircut' alternate head. That would have paid real homage to her in-game appearance. And of course she is accessorized with the standard classic Playarts stand.

Speaking of details, they did get her necklace right; a piece that is sculpted separately and 'hangs' like a real necklace on Dagger. A real nice accessory to add even if it is not intended to be removed. Well, at least I would not remove it.

Now I'm going to tangent here and talk about my feelings of FFIX. To me, FFIX is a decent Final Fantasy. It has the ambiance for the most part and it truly does feel like a classic Final Fantasy, so with that said, WHY do I consider IX to be a bastard Final Fantasy like the online games FFXI and FFXIV? While the two online games are completely separate entities of how I see Final Fantasy(make something an online game only, and it's not your classic Final Fantasy. Sorry. FFXIII, as terrible and as much of a far cry that was from the FF theme still retains MUCH MORE of a the Final Fantasy essence that online gaming. My opinion, but it has some merits. Excuse my french but FUCK FFXI and FFXIV for taking two numbers of the FF series that COULD HAVE BEEN great single playing FF but had to be ruined for the sake of sating online gaming). So as for FFIX, there seems to be a feeling of 'regress' with FFIX for me. I don't know... it didn't do anything special and it gave us some boring characters. People will argue that ViVi is awesome, and yeah while he might be, but he is just as forgettable as Bartz. Again, my opinion but still. FFIX... you had potential to follow up on what FFVII and FFVI did. Then again, FFVIII tried too hard.

So spending that much time ranting about the characters and how they are forgettable, it goes back to the idea that the designs of these characters are lackluster for me. Garnet is probably one of the better ones along with Vivi and Amarant, but none of the other characters fared well aesthetically. What is up with chibi look, by the way? But for a figure, this one is pretty good. It captures Dagger's look just fine and the sculpt is spot on with the big hands and feet. The color details is nice and the shadowing on Garnet's overalls does fade in well. It is a great looking figure, that much I can say.

Now my last two reviews on 'older' Playarts characters seem to turn sour on the articulation part and Dagger does not follow that trend. While she does have the outdated 'lack of hair' movement (hinders head movement range), surprisingly, I had a ton of fun posing her around! Probably because her clothing did not obstruct certain poses, or maybe because of the smaller mold, who knows? But she was a ton of fun posing around and I enjoyed getting her in some of these poses.

It is a shame that she can only hold her staff with one hand so that brings the fun level down a bit, but again, it is an older figure so I can't complain that much.

For a comparison, here she is next to some classic Playarts female leads who all fall along the lines of 'staff-wielding-healing-magic-user-gal'. I probably won't review Yuna or Aerith, but they are decent looking figures as well and having them next to Dagger is a cool little set up. 

All in all, I am really astonished with HOW MUCH I adore this figure. I'm glad I took her out of her box finally and displayed her with the rest of the Final Fantasy ranks. She made me curious on the other FFIX playarts for a moment there. Awesome sculpt, decent paint, much better articulation than the FFVIIs were... thoroughly enjoyed! All in all, for those of you who are a fan of FFIX, this figure (and I'm assuming Vivi and Zidane as well) are a must! For a none-FFIX fan, this figure is amazing and I love it! 

Playarts: Vincent Valentine

Here we are with another throwback figure from the Final Fantasy vol. 2 line up of Playarts! This time it is none other than Vincent Valentine, everyone's favorite secret character from FFVII! Okay, not everyone's, but he definitely is one of my favorite character from Final Fantasy VII! How did he translate into a Playarts figure?

I remember seeing the advertisement for this wave and I was elated to find out we were getting a game version of Yuffie, Vincent, AND we get a Red XIII, and of course Sephiroth was from this wave as well! I have all four. Might do one of Nanaki and Yuffie too when I have time.

And of course Vincent is very conservative when we are talking about his accessories. An alternate hand and his handgun (the default gun I believe when you first recruit him in FFVII). He does come with the standard Playarts stand, which is still better than what Marvel Legends gives us (which, they give us NO stands).

Now I personally like the way Vincent looks. I have to be perfectly honest that a lot of his aesthetic inspired some of my idea of what my "OC" would look like during that era of my life. As how he translates as a Playarts figure, he looks amazing. The very 'anime' look of his hair was sculpted well, the gold gauntlets and boots have a very defined look to them, and the rest of his outfit definitely says "Vincent" all over it. The trademark cape is just flawless to how Vincent looks in the game.

The paint work is also great. The right combination of red and black is always nice; the gold looks rustic, and the black, though minimal to no variation of color still looks nice. There is shading on his hair that comes out brown--lighting effects of course. Sculpt is nice too so I can't really complain about Vincent's aesthetics.

So for some face comparison here. Definitely accurate to his game counterpart. His cloak does cover his mouth in the original game so that stayed true.

And this is his AC look.I don't have any qualms with the look since it is accurate to the movie. I do like his video game aesthetics better though.

Now when talking about his articulation, this is where he falls off the 'cool' edge. While he has more to offer than another figure from this wave, I can say that is mostly because of Vincent's character design, and even then, his costume look is one of the biggest hinderance of his range of movement. While I'm keeping in mind that he is a bit on the 'older' model of Playarts, he does have some flaws that could have been dealt with at that time he was released. The cape is his biggest flaw. Without cape articulation, there is very little dynamic poses he can do. The hair lacks as well and since it is not as pliable, it does hinder the head. It also does not help that he doesn't have any noteworthy interchangeable hands. One of the gauntlet hand might have been nice, but they left that out completely.

You are pretty much left with this kind of pose half the time. Oh, the part of his cloak that drapes on his shoulder does have some up and down motion; which means that his arm can go up to about 90 degrees. Makes for good shooting action!

Compared to his AC counterpart, he can move his arms up; AC Vincent cannot due to the 'locked' cloak; again, true to the character, but bad for figure version. Though in-game Vincent does not have the soft cape that the movie version does. Shame. Both cool looking figures though.

All in all, he is not a bad looking figure. He is limited in certain areas, but he does well in aesthetics and collection points. It was pretty nostalgic to get him out of the box and review him; then again, reviewing Sephiroth, and Rikku was pretty neat. Definitely shows how far Playarts have come! Well, Here is my 'remastered' Final Fantasy shelf! I might do another one... a FFIX character.... we'll see. Hope you like the review though!

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Playarts: Sephiroth

Another throwback review! And with Final Fantasy XV just around the corner, it's going to be a Final Fantasy few more reviews than it has been! So, jumping into a figure I have had for a few years (in box too), Sephiroth from the vol. 2 Playarts is now here for me to review. So, how does the One Winged Angel stand the test of time?

The box was hard to get a good shot with me not having a white background set up. I'm sure none of you care about the box that much so here we go. Nothing new; standard Playarts box; a box get up that carries over even with the first few Playarts Kai (which was FFXIII's line up I believe).

And I was saying something about Rikku's accessory line up being horrible? Well, this is what you get with Sephiroth: Masamune, an alternate hand (katana wielding hand) and the standard Playarts stand. Definitely try little to no thought was put into the accessories. I would think with the Final Fantasy VII game edition Sephiroth they would include the Black Materia or something; or his one wing? That would probably rack up the price by a whole lot though.

As far as the figure itself, I used to be a big fan of Sephiroth. As time went on and I realized that my chest wasn't as shiny as his, my liking for this character (aesthetics and character all together) dwindled; maybe nothing with the chest just age I guess. But he transferred over well in the Playarts department. His mold body-wise is a bit too lanky and just weird at times, but again, that is how the character was supposed to be.



His signature long silver hair is probably one of the best thing about this figure. I'll go over the articulation in a moment (or lack of) but if I was to base it off looks, sculpt, it's amazing. Definitely Sephiroth with the black jacket, the shoulder pads and everything.

His face is done quite well and it's a much more recognizable face than the Advent Children version that we got:

This version of Sephiroth was of course a realistic version, trying to mesh more realism in his hairstyle and face compared to the more anime look. I prefer the anime look for Sephiroth.

Again the sculpt of the hair is just magnificent. There is no articulation so any kind of action pose or hair blowing in the wind kind of dynamic look is out the window. Also, because it's a pretty sturdy piece of plastic, it truly hinder's Sephiroth's head movement.

For his articulation, it was really difficult to get him into poses that would just make him stand out. The long coat hinders it and I already mentioned his hair. Playarts, even in these times does offer some range of movement but because of the character design, he was really limited. A real bummer, truly. Then with his lack of accessories, Sephiroth was pretty much just a 'stand there' and look Sephiroth-like.

There are some poses he could get into that can be pretty cool looking, but he is just an awkward figure. Again his mold is just a bit on the thin frame style and when moving his arms(about the only part of him that has full range motion), some shots just look weird.

And then the lack of alternate hands just gives him little to no fun factor in the posing department.

And here he is next to his Advent children version. They look like wrestlers or a duet for a rock band. By the way, AC Sephiroth pretty much has the same articulation; difference with that guy is his coat can be unlatched to give him a little bit more range for his legs.

Below average articulation, lack of accessories, and not exactly my favorite Final Fantasy antagonist brings this guy really low in the 'like' department. Though he is an older figure so he has a little bit more leeway. He is sculpted and painted nicely so I did put him to replace the Advent children Sephiroth for display. I'll take a picture of that shelf here.

So all in all, if you are a fan of Sephiroth, this is probably a must. I don't think there is a Kai version, so this might be it. But if you are spoiled with the Kai line ups of Playarts, get ready to have some disappointment. But all you ogling fan girls, this is a good figure and you can see his chest. He looks like a Canadian cosplayer.... LOL!