1.15.2014

Inside the box with Ichabod Presents

Elizabeth D-Arts from Tamashii Nations/Bluefin


 I'm not sure if I'm reviewing the chair or her.....


 Turns out it's the CHAIR!! Look at this lovely little amazing thing! It's all gloriously deep blue with highlights of silver...and man I really love it. The way the shadows fall across the back, and the tiny silver rivets in front, it looks like a real, comfy chair and I just want to sit in it. Turns out it is just hard plastic, painted blue and sculpted immaculately.

 Oh, hello there Elizabeth. You're pretty fantastic too, I just had to talk about the chair...

 Elizabeth from Persona 3 and Persona 4 Arena, is captured rather well here. The sculpt is based off the art of Persona 4 Arena, which is a fighting game based of the Persona 3 and 4 titles. I'm still working my way through Persona 3, but I haven't played 4 or Arena yet (but I do plan on it). Ever since I started seeing things about the franchise, I have loved her design, and that continues onto this toy.

 The fine detailing on the gloves, dress and boots continues the tradition of excellent detail work on the -Arts line. From the little shadows painted on her glove buttons to the gold and black rings on her soft vinyl dress, everything looks fantastic. The blue has a very faint metallic flake in the paint, giving it a slight sparkle, and her hair also is a metallic silver. They really went all out on the paint work here. 

 So, her elbow and shoulder articulation is pretty good. Using the single joints also found in the Sailor Moon figure, they work well. The glove cuffs prevent them from going further than you see here, but that's ok. The shoulders, with their ball socket and the super generous wrists make up for the elbows.

 The legs are a different story. They are fully articulated, with great hips, knees and ankles, but the large dress does prevent a lot of hip movement. It is a softer material, so it will work with you on some poses, but the joints are just loose enough that the dress doesn't stay bent. It is a bit unfortunate, but with a Tamashiii stage you can get a solid Rider Kick out of her. The Waist and torso are both on a ball joint and can move well enough, but you'll only really notice the torso. Her neck and head are each on a joint, so even though she has a high collar, you can get good emotion out of her.

 Her hat is also removable, and she looks adorable with it off.

 Pop the hat and bangs off and now you have a robot Elizabeth. 

 Why would you remove her hair, you ask? Swappable faces of course! She comes wearing her normal face, and has a speaking face and a "looking to the left face".

 Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacessssss..........................

 She does have a small hand count, with only 3 pairs, but the chair and everything else make up for it. Plus, these get across most of the expressions you'd want. Fists would have been nice, but that's just me.

 Yup, that's a 1/12th scale Tarot card.

 And they even got the unique image on both sides! Number 13 in the Persona deck, the Death Card here looks fantastic. Sculpted on it's own instead of in the hand it is incredibly small. The images have been tampographed on, and look really good for being insanely small. Yes, you'll likely loose this, but with it being number 13, that is pretty accurate.

 Her with her lovely book of Personas. If I had the D-arts Thanatos, he's be ripping things up in the background. Just use your imagination.

 The book is also insanely well detailed. Both have small holes for the pegs in a few of the hands, which does peg in very securely.

 And obviously she can sit in her chair, but it isn't as easy as you think. But she looks great doing it.

 Wow. So they give you two middle body pieces: one for normal display, and one made for sitting. The torso and legs pop off very easily, and peg back on with enough friction that they won't ever accidentally fall out...that is if you can peg the legs into the sitting piece. It's at such a weird angle that I had a lot of trouble getting them in. With it being a sitting piece they will sit in there with friction, so that is a plus. Getting them back into the standing dress is much easier. Also the sitting one is sculpted for her to have her legs crossed, like a lady.

 Elizabeth winds up a bit shorter than both Sailor Moon and Rider 1, but I think she still fits in fine on a shelf.

 EVERYBODY CHAIR!!!!!!

Elizabeth is a really solid toy, only made better by a great accessory, and amazing paint applications. Seriously, the metallic sparkles in the blue are just gorgeous. My camera does not do them justice. If you like Persona, chances are you already planned on buying this, and that is a good plan. If you just think she looks cool and don't care about fiction, I really recommend her. She is so unique looking on a shelf, she will really stand out. Unless you have blue shelves. Hop on over to amazon and get here there.



3 comments:

  1. Iron man in the chair is the best one hilarious.

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  2. Cool review! Though, you did have a noticeable amount of typos and grammatical errors. It's rather funny that you're playing Persona 3, because I am too. XD

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  3. Her small size is due to the assumption they made her into scale with the current P4 and P4A figmas. Which is very nice of them. She's too small to go with the P3 figmas of Aigis and Metis but Max Factory has abandoned that scale anyway. If you have the P4A figma Aigis and Labrys (as well as the P4 Chie and Yukiko) Liz will fit right in.

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