Next on my review pile, we have Orchid Seed’s swimsuited take on the elf warrior Alleyne from Queen’s Blade.
(This post contains artistic nudity. Reader discretion is advised.)
Gallery
Review
The Queen’s Blade franchise is a poster child for anime that seem predominantly focused on delivering copious amounts of sexual fan service. While outward appearances would suggest a shallow show based on cheap thrills, I was pleasantly surprised to find a serviceable plot and character development over the course of the first season. (Sadly, I haven’t watched beyond that point).
Going into the anime, I was reasonably familiar with the cast through various artwork and had naturally formed certain likes and dislikes based purely on the aesthetics of the character designs. Nanael, for instance, was one of my favorites going in, but my opinion of her soured greatly after seeing her personality in the anime. Risty, on the other hand, rose greatly in my estimation because I found her to be an immanently likeable character. As for Alleyne here, I liked her going in and she didn’t really do anything in the anime to damage my impression of her, but she really didn’t play a large role in the plot, either.
Regardless, I buy figures primarily on aesthetics and I picked up this figure because Orchid Seed wisely decided to adapt a piece of Queen’s Blade artwork that I rather liked, featuring Alleyne in her leaf bikini at a palm-lined beach.
This figure had what felt like a very long preorder period, as it was one of the first figures I can recall seeing last year with a 2014 estimated release date, which went on to slip by a few months. I managed to create some unnecessary drama for myself by waiting to the last possible moment to preorder this figure, at a point in time when practically all shops were sold out. Fortunately, I was able to find one at Hobby Search mere hours before release thanks to a FigInStock alert.
In retrospect, it’s somewhat surprising that Orchid Seed opted to adapt this particular piece of artwork. Although playing with her hair is a common and effective means of non-verbal signalling for a girl, we practically never see such body language portrayed in bishoujo figures. I suspect this is for practical reasons, as I can imagine it would present certain technical difficulties. Still, Orchid Seed accepted the challenge with Alleyne and executed admirably, the result of which is an attractive pose that remains quite faithful to the original artwork.
Paint and sculpt finish are very good and hold up well under close inspection, although my Alleyne did suffer some paint transfer around her neck when I exercised the cast-off option. Thankfully, that paint was all neatly hidden under her hair as it did not respond to ye olde Magic Eraser, as suggested by others as a means of removing such marks.
At 1/6 scale Alleyne is pleasantly large–perfectly sized in my estimation–and her slightly hunched pose helps her easily fit on your average shelf and slip under the SAL Small Packet cutoff. She is also large in another sense of the word, as I can’t say I recall Alleyne being this well-endowed in her anime portrayal. Thankfully, she’s in no danger of crossing into Cattleya levels of excess.
And naturally, since this is both an Orchid Seed and Queen’s Blade figure, Alleyne can be stripped of her foliage and displayed in the buff. As with Lucifer, OS placed tacky material inside the bra cups to help keep the removable pieces in place and this seems to work fairly well in practice. Some of the material stuck to Alleyne during the cast-off process, but it was easily removed with a little elbow grease. Unlike Lucifer, the bikini bottom also comes off, futher revealing some pleasantly-shaped buttocks and a very faint hint of genital detail. I’m not particularly bothered that there isn’t more to see, but there seems to have been some consternation on the MFC boards over this feature, so it’s probably worth noting.
Alleyne’s display base is a clear, round disc with a frosted floral pattern and some gold lettering on top identifying Alleyne and Queen’s Blade. The base is reasonably functional, although I noted a tendency for the left leg to pop out of its peg when picking the figure up by the legs.
All in all, I’m glad I went to the trouble of picking up Alleyne as the final PVC is very well done and this figure has already risen in price by a good bit on the secondary markets. It looks like Orchid Seed may be preparing an alternate color version of this figure for those who missed the first round. If you’re still on the fence, both Neath Grim and Reflective Boundary have excellent reviews worth a gander.
Figyura (フィギュラ) 
Beauitful photos, and the figure itself is quite beautiful! =3 Love the background that matches with her colors. Interesting swimsuit design, would be nice to see a real world version of it haha! =3
Thanks! Alleyne is indeed quite photogenic. The background is the same one I used for my Arshes Nei review with an extra palm frond prop thrown in because it seemed like a good fit with Alleyne’s whole “one with nature” motif.
It’s nice to have a 1/6 scaled Queen’s Blade character from a competent manufacturer.
Queen’s Blade was better than expected, at least the first 2 Season’s and OVA’s. Rebellion was also on a good way, but the end was a real mess, left me with a puzzled look, as if they forgot to air one episode afterwards. Your pictures of Alleyne are really stunning, this interesting light setting amplifies her already appealing looks. The figure is great not only because she’s an elf ^^
I love her blue eyes and the nice sculpting of her body.
MegaHouse handled most of the Queen’s Blade figures and they kept them all at 1/8 scale from what I can tell. I picked up their Risty re-release right after Alleyne and she’s quite nice, though, so I guess I can’t complain too much about her size. That said, Orchid Seed would have been a nice fit for the Queen’s Blade material given their expertise in cast-offs and generally high quality. Seems like a bit of a missed opportunity that this is their only figure from the series.
Watching the rest of the Queen’s Blade series is on my to-do list. Unfortunately, Media Blasters had the license for the first two seasons and they seem to have gone all but belly up, leaving the Blu-ray sets for those seasons out-of-print and expensive on the secondary market. I already had the first season and I have the recent Sentai release of Rebellion, but I lack the middle season and have no (inexpensive) way to get it. 😦
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how can i get one
Well, Alleyne’s sold out at most shops at this point. Anime Island (US shop) claims to have some stock, so you could try them. Nippon Yasan (JP shop) does, too, but they’re asking quite a lot for her.
Otherwise, your best bet is stalking Mandarake, AmiAmi’s preowned section, and Jungle. Set up FigInStock alerts for Mandarake and AmiAmi to be notified when one pops up on either of those sites. For Mandarake, I suggest creating two filters: one using Alleyne’s English name and one using her Japanese name (アレイン) as Mandarake doesn’t translate a lot of their listings.
If you’re amenable to the EX color variant, then that’s readily available as a preorder item. I don’t think it looks much like Alleyne, but it’s the same sculpt and there’s something attractive about darker skin.
hello guys im new to thi type of collction and alleyne is my first pvc figure i would like to ask if anybody knows how to distinguish the authentic from the bootleg coz mine has a made in china printed on its box
Actually, the authentic Alleyne is made in China. Practically all scale figures these days are manufactured there, so that’s not something to be concerned over. If you purchased from a reputable shop then you should have nothing to worry about. In my experience, it’s places like eBay and Amazon Marketplace where you have to be on the lookout for shady sellers.
If you’re still concerned, I would try asking on the MFC board for Alleyne (link). Someone there might be able to help you determine whether or not you’ve got the genuine article.
Thanks had me worried for a while there
Drew here again, i just confirmed that mine is authentic (thanks again), btw the bootlegs seems to be kinda easily distinguish imho, by the looks of the posted pics in the net seems like the bootlegs are kinda paler in hue or is it just me, and the facial expression seems vague compared to the authentic (bootleg seems to have a blank expression due to the position of the eyes…)
I wanted to buy a castoff for $50 on ebay, but I’m not sure if its authentic since it cost so cheap. Is it best to buy one that is over $120+ from Japan from the manufacturer Orchid Seed?
I’m afraid $50 for this figure is wishful thinking. You’re all but guaranteed to get a counterfeit at that price.
AmiAmi currently has three in the 11-14K range. Mandarake currently has one for 10K and one for 14K. There are a bunch of users on MFC currently selling her, generally in the $100-150 range. The only eBay seller that I know for certain to be legit who’s currently offering Alleyne is animeking_inc for $150. That’s a lot of options and should give you an idea of how much you’d be looking at to acquire Alleyne through well-established channels.
Ah okay. Thanks for the reply.