1/7 Saber Alter ~Vortigern~ by Good Smile Company

Keeping with figure reviews the next one is 1/7 Saber Alter ~Iron Hammer of the Terrible King (Vortigern)~ by Good Smile Company.

It shares the same scale and overall feeling of the other big scaled Saber's released, 1/7 Saber and the 1/7 Saber Lily also by Good Smile Company. Like the other two, there was a special care for the base, this time representing the insides of the cave where fought against Shirou and Rider.

The sculpt is by Hiroshi (circle Sakurazensen), that did the extra face for Gift's Sakura. This time I can't complain about the face, since is pretty nice, but I prefer the sculpt jobs of Tokunaga Hironuki or Kawahara Takayuki.

As usual with Saber Alter, the visor is included. I'm not really fan of it.

The pose is very dynamic, catching Saber in the middle of an attack.

Rear shot.

Another version of the dark Excalibur is included to do the dark beam of light attack.

Compared with the normal version of it is really massive and is one of the "charm points" of the figure, but for me it looks like a giant feather duster instead of a sword...

1/8 Matou Sakura -Makiri's Grail- by Gift

After a delay of several years, 1/8 Matou Sakura -Makiri's Grail- by Gift was finally released.

Dark Sakura was sculpted by Toda Satoshi (circle Yume No Kagutsuchino Koukoku), that already did Saber and Saber Alter, and the upcoming Saber Lily and Saber Extra.

There are few scaled figures of Sakura, and this is the first one in her dark form.

As usual in Toda's sculpts, the body is very detailed, with a semi-transparent effects in Sakura's clothes-tentacles and the marks all across her body.

Side view. Those white marks seem a bit out of place but are supposed to be there.

Back shot.

The other characteristic in Toda's sculpts are the realistic faces, so usually the body is gorgeous but for me the face is a let down. This is not the case with Sakura, that even with the realistic style it looks rather nice.

Like the previous Saber by Gift, includes an alternate face made by another sculptor, this time Hiroshi from circle Sakurazensen. I usually display Toda's figures with the alternate face, but this time the normal one is much better than this yandere-looking alternate.

The big point of this figure is that can be displayed with Saber Alter. Part of Sakura base is removable, and Saber Alter's base includes 3 pegs to attach Sakura base. Since both were sculpted as a pair, they look great together!

Saber Alter was released by Solid Theather, who went bankrupt, and later re-released by Movic. Sakura was at first announced by Solid Theather, and took several years until it found a new publisher in Gift.

As can be seen, Sakura's hand was sculpted specificaly to be displayed as a pair with Saber Alter.

The Wonder Festival limited edition Saber Alter have the same base, so can be displayed together as well.

1/8 Dizzy by Alter

It's been quite a bit since I received a scaled figure, but it seems that all the ones that I had ordered are either released this month or June, so I'll reviewing figures for a while...
The first one is 1/8 Dizzy by Alter.

I was waiting for a good Dizzy figure for a long time because is one of my favorite characters. Surprisingly, for a such good looking character there are very few figures of her. The only PVC figure released until now was based in her Queen's Gate appearance, that I don't like at all.

Sculpted by Yagyu Toshiyuki, this is by far the best Dizzy figure that I have seen, even counting garage kits.
It was a miracle that such a great figure was made, now that Guilty Gear franchise is almost dead (the last game released, Guilty Gear 2, was a failure and Arc System lost the rights of the series and is now focused in BlazBlue). So why release a figure of a series that had his popularity peak long ago and there are no plans for new games? I don't know, but I'm really glad for it.

The sculp and paint job are both superb and catches Dizzy's shy personality perfectly.

Both her wings are nicely detailed. Necro is pretty heavy and makes the overall stability of the figure a bit off.

Undine paint job is excelent, too.

I used to paint garage kits, and paint a character with several hues of the same color is really troublesome. God bless the person who invented the pre-painted PVC figures!

Back shot. I didn't expected Dizzy to be a no-pan character!

Fate/complete material III - World material.

The last review that I had in my "to do" list is Fate/complete material III World material., that was released in November and I received quite a while ago.

This is the 3rd book in the Fate/complete material set, focused in the settings for the world of Fate/stay night.

I tought it would be a forgettable book filled with the kind of information that the fans loves to discuss and made flame wars about it (and actually happened at Beast's Lair) but it also includes the new images made for Réalta Nua, so it kind of redeems the book for me.

I hate when the followers of a series tries to overanalize every single piece of information and rages when new information emerges contradicting a previously established fan speculation, and Fate fans seems really prone to do this... Really, for me is more important to see compiled all the new Réalta Nua CG than know if Shirou is able to replicate Excalibur or not...

Anyways, moving to the contents:

The first part is an explanation of the Holy Grail mechanics and the summon system.

A complete timeline, before and after the events of Fate.

And again each servant bio, this time more centered in their abilities and weapons.

The explanation of how magic works.

A compilation of background scenery and locations from Fuyuki. In the picture, Tohsaka's residence that I visited in real life.

A Nasu Kinoko FAQ answering several questions.

The rest of the book is thankfully all artwork, focused in the additions for Réalta Nua:

The infamous dragon scene that replaced the mana transfer between Saber and Shirou both in Réalta Nua and in the anime.

Newly drawn scene is Saber's route.

Rin's summoning scene.

The Rider induced dream in Rin's route, featuring yuri action between Rin and Ayako.

The newly drawn character cuts.

The next part is promotional artwork that not appeared in the previous two books:

Dekgeki Playstation magazine cover.

The cover for a Newtype extra booklet called Arts & Words and a Saber shikishi.

Rin and Archer illustration used in a telephone card.

Since the post lacks of Sakura presence, here is her picture for a trading cards collection.

And the last few pages includes the images from the new epilogue:

"Yes... welcome back, Shirou"

IDOLM@STER stuff

And yet more iDOLM@STER stuff.

I finished iDOLM@STER 2 with Miki. Her story is so-so; she takes Producer's words as a proposal and becomes all lovey-dovey with you. I don't really like her that much.

In her true end she follows you to Hollywood and wants to live together.

I also re-did Takane story to get her true ending. The addition to her good ending is that she is waiting for you at the airport. Is a good addition to her ending.
Now I'm missing the stories of Mami, Yayoi, Makoto and Hibiki.

At eBay I bought THE iDOLM@STER and THE iDOLM@STER Live For You!

I bought non-Platinum ones (yep, I care for those kind of things).

I only played L4U! for a day and I already obtained all the achievements. Compared with IM@S 2 the visuals are somewhat ugly because is not in HD...

And I bought some IM@S Weiß Schwarz cards: Mami, Iori, Miki, Takane, Yayoi and Haruka SP cards.

Now I'm missing 6 (not counting Kotori card, that I don't want because it have the same picture than the normal one).

And I also bought the first promo card for the upcoming IM@S 2 booster:

The blank spaces are already reserved for the upcoming cards from the IM@S 2 Trial Deck, that I have reserved.

For WS cards sales and trades, please visit this post!