Good Smile Company made us wait 18 months to get our hands on this 1/7 scale rendition of TYPE-MOON’s ultimate twin-tailed tsundere. Was she worth the wait? I think so. Find out why below.

Gallery

Review

While there are a fair number of FSN figures out there, the lion’s share of those have gone to Saber–which isn’t at all surprising–but it has left the rest of the cast relatively underrepresented. I felt that Rin, in particular, suffered from a dearth of good figures. Beyond the simple fact that there just aren’t that many Rin figures out there, most of those existing up to now were lacking in some significant aspect. Either the pose was lame or the sculpt sucked or they put Rin in the wrong outfit–her red casual wear seen here is obviously the one true outfit for Rin :). Needless to say, I was delighted when Good Smile Company introduced a new Rin that appeared to address these shortcomings.

For whatever reason, GSC really took their sweet time in bringing this promising rendition of Rin to market. It started in Jan. 2010 with a preview poster, which became an unpainted sample in March, followed by a painted sample in October, and finally preorders in November with a release date all the way out in the middle of 2011.  All told, it was about 18 months from the first indications that this figure was coming to the time when final PVC actually shipped.

I’m a bit puzzled as to why it took so long for GSC to release Rin. I see Fate/stay night and its off-shoots as a high-profile property for GSC and Rin is arguably second only to Saber in popularity, so I had expected that they would have given this figure greater priority than the afore-mentioned timeline would suggest. Perhaps GSC has been too busy tending their Nendoroid cash cow? It certainly seems that way at times, but I think it would be overly pessimistic to fully attribute the glacial pace of Rin’s release process to Nendoroids alone. It’s entirely possible that this is the normal pace of work in the prepainted PVC market and I just never noticed it previously.

I suppose it’s all water under the bridge now that Rin is finally in the hands of collectors worldwide. As I mentioned in the teaser (above), I feel that GSC’s 1/7 scale Unlimited Blade Works Rin was very much worth the wait. Much as with their Saber Lily figure that I reviewed last year, it’s difficult to identify any significant flaws with this figure.

The pose is quite good. It’s dynamic and visual appealing, capturing Rin in battle mode with an expression of determination on her face. I feel this is an area where a lot of the previous Rin figures have fallen short. I imagine it’s a bit more difficult to find a good pose for Rin than Saber simply because she doesn’t have a big, signature weapon to swing about.

The sculpt and paint detail are excellent, although I do have one minor quibble with Rin’s alternate left hand–the one holding her mana gems. If you look closely at the gems, you can see a little bit of surface area that is flesh-colored where it should be red. I imagine GSC simply chose to be conservative rather than risk getting overspray on Rin’s fingers, but I do feel the paint work could have been a little tighter in this one area. It’s not a huge issue. You have to look quite closely to notice and you can always display Rin with the other, empty hand.

I was also surprised at first that GSC chose to use a glossy finish for Rin’s top. It doesn’t strike me as an obvious choice for Rin’s outfit, but after working with the figure for the review, I’m inclined to say that it’s really not an issue. Yes, under photographic lights the glossy finish brings out some glare, which will be evident in photos, but under normal indoor lighting conditions it’s not very noticeable.

As with Saber Lily and a host of other GSC figures of late, Rin features a textured, three-dimensional display base that does a good job of adding a sense of immersion and visual flair to the figure. I feel that this is an area where GSC is pioneering to good effect in the PVC market. Aside from Alter’s Momohime, I really haven’t see a lot of these type of bases from other manufacturers. It’s something that I think really adds to the figure as a whole and I would like to see this style of base become the standard in the future.

Despite the aesthetic merits of the base, I find that the way the swords fit into the display base is one of the weak points of this figure. There isn’t a lot of surface area where the swords contact the base, so it can be more difficult than it should be to get the swords fixed securely.

Hopefully, this isn’t the last of the Fate series PVCs from Good Smile Company. Rider could use some more figure love and, personally, I think a scale version of Fate/Extra Saber with that red dress of hers would be pretty awesome.

Highs

• Rin’s massive character appeal
• Rin’s casual wear outfit
• Nice, dynamic pose
• Top-notch sculpt and paint detail
• Detailed display base
• 1/7 scale

Lows

• GSC took forever to bring this figure to market
• Swords fit rather loosely into the base
• Minor paint coverage issue on Rin’s alternate left hand

Other Reviews

As usual, I’m not the first to review this figure. Although I’m pretty sure this was the fastest turn I’ve done in terms of time between receiving a figure and getting a review out, I’m still weeks behind other bloggers out there. Hmm… 😕

Check out these other reviews for an alternate take:

• BioToxic
• Exelica Meteor
• foo-bar-baz
• Tentacle Armada

Miscellany

TYPE-MOON Figures

It occurred to me while writing this review that despite the adult visual novel origins of major TYPE-MOON franchises Tsukihime and Fate/stay night, there are almost no figures from these series featuring prominent nudity or cast-off features. Contrast that with “ecchi” series like Queen’s Blade or Ikkitousen where it’s hard to find a figure without these features. I’m not quite sure what it all means, but I think it’s an interesting comparison.

Financial Data

• Purchased from: AmiAmi
• Order date: 6-Feb-2011
• Ship date: 7-Jun-2011
• Receive date: 17-Jun-2011
• Base price (JPY): ¥6,540
• Shipping cost (JPY): ¥1,890 (Registered SAL)
• Total cost (JPY): ¥8,430
• Foreign transaction fee (USD): $2.84
• Total cost (USD): $108.28

Technical Data

• Package dimensions (width): 250 mm
• Package dimensions (height): 330 mm
• Package dimensions (depth): 180 mm
• Shipping weight (figure + base + accessories): 262 g
• Shipping weight (packaging): 507 g
• Shipping weight (shipping box): 396 g
• Shipping weight (total): 1,165 g