Final Fantasy VII - Vincent Valentine - Play Arts Vol.2

At Last!!

I've been looking for Vincent for a while and kept coming across nothing but Advent Children Versions, don't get me wrong i like Advent Children but i would much prefer to get the original game versions of each character first, plus the packaging for the Advent Children characters is pretty poor looking. Anyway other than the versions i mentioned, the few times i did come across this figure, everyone always charged rediculous prices for him. So i either couldn't afford to get him or just refused to pay that much.

Anyway, i struck Gold the other day and found an amazing seller who sold me this figure for a mere £14 and that's incuding the cost of posting!

This has to be one of my favourite looking character figures. Just like the rest of the Play Arts series this is a vinyl figure & is fantastically detailed! I don't think i could fault it at all to be honest. Everything about the figure just looks stunning. It is highly accurate and replicates the game version of Vincent. As with the other figures made by Play Arts/Kotobukiya, he comes with a different hand & a gun. It has a good weight and feel to it & doesn't feel like it'll be easily broken (i wouldn't risk it however) this definitely feels like a quality figure. To be honest I think that all of the figures I have (with the exception of the smaller Bandai ones) are exceptionally beautifully detailed and well made.

He is around the same height as the other figures i have, which is probably around 8-9" and comes with a stand to be able to keep him in the pose of your choice. As i have mentioned in previous reviews about these figures, i love the stands that comes with the figures. It has an adjustable clip which slots into a black oval base, this holds the figure very securely and allows for you to pose the figure still, the only drawback is that if you want a more outlandish pose or something a bit more extreme looking, the base won't allow for a whole lot of movement in you're figure. I tend to use blu tac on the bottom of their feet to hold them in place, but this is mainly to save space on my shelves.

The packaging is very nice, it is a matt black colour and the lettering on the front is silver coloured and is reflective. It looks great. The box itself is quite sturdy & definately not cheap feeling. I wish they had kept this packaging for the advent children characters. It's a lot more professional, clean and sturdy looking. As with the other figures, there are pictures on the back of the box. Funnily enough the pictures on the back of this box are of the only 3 figures i need to complete my Vol.1 & 2 set. So if anyone is feeling generous.... haha.

Anyway as usual, words are one thing, seeing the figure is another.
(i think my picture taking is getting a little better with my fancy new camera, let me know!)

    

 

Final Fantasy VIII - Diabolos - Master Creatures 2

After getting plenty of Characters from Final Fantasy VII, i thought it would be good to get some creatures, summons and or baddies from the Final Fantasy Series. Now from Final Fantasy VIII this has to be one of my favourite summons. I don't know why really, it's just dark and cool. Maybe partly because its a bit Dragon-like and i like Dragons.

So after having a look around for some more figures and statues, i came across the Master Creatures range of Final Fantasy statues. Now these really are statues as there are no moving parts and are purely for display purposes. It looks absolutely stunning, the detail and quality of the statue are once again phenominal, it's full of colour and looks like it cost a small fortune.

I'm not entirely sure what it's made from but it is very light and looks like it's quite fragile. It's definately made of something like a plastic or a vinyl type thing once again, but it doesn't feel like it would take much force to snap something off of it. So best put it somewhere it's not likely to get knocked or fall.

The base of the statue is 2.5" at the widest and as it comes up from the base the size of the statue gets much bigger and wider. The statue at it's widest (wing tip to wing tip) is 8" and it stands at around 6.5" at it's highest point.

I like the packaging for the Diabolos statue, it is in a Matt Black colour and looks very well put together, it doesn't look or feel flimsy and is very direct, there's no fuss or clutter on the box, the front tells you what the statue is and who it's by and on the back are some very nice pictures of the figure and some of the other figures in the series. It's a hell of a lot better than the packaging for the Advent Children Play arts and ART FX figures. It also shows my one of my other statues on the back. (Which i'll review next)

There's not anything i can think of saying about it that the pictures that follow wouldn't explain much better than i ever could. I love the detail on the statue and especially love his face and wings. It's colourful and i would definately reccomend this statue to any collector. It's a great addition to any Final Fantasy collection.

 

 

 

Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children Shadow Creeper - ART FX - Kotobukiya

I've had this for a while now but I've been waiting to photograph my newer figures and statues until i had something better to take pictures with. Now that I have a better camera I'll continue documenting my small collection of Final Fantasy figures and statues.

This one as you can tell from the title, is the Shadow Creeper figure from Advent Children. It's more of a statue than a figure i think but as it has a couple of moving parts I'll call it a figure. As usual the quality and detail of the figure are amazing, it is around 8" long from the tip of it's face to the tail and stands around 5" high (top of it's tail).

It's made in soft vinyl just like the rest of the figures i have by Kotobukiya/Play Arts, it feels like a high quality figure and looks the part too! As i mentioned earlier the Shadow Creeper is more like a statue, this is because barely anything moves on this figure. The two arms at the front move a limited amount and the mouth opens a bit and as far as i can tell that's all that can be changed about it. If you wanted to pose the arms in a slightly different way you'll probably not be able to use the base, as the figure has two small holes in it's feet to fix it to the base, which measures in at roughly 7.5" by 5" (the figure slightly larger than the base but it makes sense when you look at it)

The packaging is fairly standard and there's not a whole lot i can say about it to be honest. It could be better but i guess it could be a lot worse too!

Overall as you'll see from the pictures, the figure looks fantastic and it's a great addition to any Final Fantasy Collection, it's nice to have another monster to break up the characters. Great Quality and very sturdy. It goes very well with the Bahamut Sin figure I've already reviewed.

Final Fantasy VII - Bahamut Sin Advent Children - ARTFX - Kotobukiya

Finally after waiting a week for it to be delivered it's here!
The latest addition to my figures is the ARTFX Bahamut Sin figure from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. As i've mentioned before i don't usually go for the Advent Children figures, but as this is a monster i don't mind! I'll probably end up with he rest of the Advent children figures anyway to be honest, at some point.

This figure is absolutely fantastic, it feels like the Play Arts figures, soft vinyl. I guess it pretty much is a Play Arts figure as they are both produced by Kotobukiya. But this one is an ARTFX figure. The figure stands at about 8" it's a lot larger than the other figures i have in more obvious ways, the tail and the massive wings may have something to do with it haha. To give you a better idea of how big the figure is, i measured the base (which the figure takes up nearly all of) and it is around 8.5" wide and just under 7" front to back in an oval shape.

It's beautifully made, the detail on the figure is stunning! I sat there for quite a while yesterday just looking all around it and they really don't leave any areas undetailed. My favourite parts are the wings, it fuses amazingly between the solid grey colour into a clear orange colour at the tips, seamlessly in fact. This has to be my favourite figure, along with the Hardy Daytona & Cloud Strife. The only differences between this figure and the other ones i have reviewed so far are that it doesn't really have much articulation. It's arms move a bit and the hands turn, the legs move a little bit, but as far as i can tell, nothing else really moves. I was hoping that the wings would be movable so you could have them up or down, but i tried moving them a little bit and found they were pretty rigid, i'm not going to risk breaking anything by being too heavy handed with it, on that note, it doesn't actually feel fragile, once again because it's a soft vinyl figure, it feels very solid but at the same time has a nice soft texture.

The packaging is fairly standard, which is similar to the sephiroth advent children packaging, just glossy flimsy-ish cardboard with some pictures and lettering. Once again the back of the box shows the figure a couple of times and has pictures of the other figures in the collection. As you can tell i don't think it's anything outstanding, but what's inside the box more than makes up for the standard packaging. If the packaging looked more like the Play Arts Vol.1 packaging, it'd be fantastic!
The base for this figure slots into a couple of small holes under Bahamut's feet and keeps him very stable, to be fair he could stand up with or without the base, i just prefer to make sure he stays stood up, so i've kept the base underneath him. As you can see, the base is massive, but the figure is large too, so i guess it needs to be!

Overall this figure, as with all my other figures (with maybe exception of the Bandai set) is fantastic, very highly detailed and feels very well made. It's definately aimed at collectors and not children, just like the rest of the figures. They have taken a lot of time making sure these figures are highly accurate and detailed and i doub't they'd do that if children were going to smash them around. So definately a collector's item.
I would recommend this to anyone who loves the games, it's without one of the best ones i have at the moment. It also seems to be quite pricey, i managed to get it cheap and in perfect condition, so that's a bonus!! The only thing that's not 100% is the box, but i'd say it was more age and storage wear than mis-handling.
See if you can bag yourself one! I'd highly recommend this!