Moé Moé Rabu

Arriving sometime last week, I think, I had an idea recently on how I would take photos of it. So today was the day I tried it out.

When I saw the preview pictures of this figure, I thought it was rather nice and in an interesting pose. At one time I decided to cancel it, but never actually got around to doing so. But do I regret not doing so? No not really. Just something to add to my collection.

Firstly when it arrived, it arrived in a big box. Now I don’t really like storing away big boxes, but once I opened it I realised why it was so big. Packaged with Louise is a cloak and a wand. And this cloak is rather large and heavy. So heavy that once you attach it to Louise, of course after pulling her head off, it requires a support stick so it won’t cause Louise to bend. But of course the cloak isn’t the only thing to weigh her down, the volume of hair that is flowing is almost just as heavy.

Produced by: Kotobukiya
Sculpted by: Masaaki Sanada
Scale: 1/8
Material: PVC
Release Date: October 2006
Price: ¥4800
Available: HLJ (back ordered at time of posting)

So now I give you Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière (try remembering that off the top of your head).

As you can see the book and wand are detailed themselves. The book even has little dents around the edges to show that it is an old book that Louise is reading from.

Well I’m sure most of you have watched Zero no Tsukaima, but for the heck of it, here is Louise in her panties.

The black marks you see around her waist are due to the skirt being wedged on. Though I must say, it is actually quite a good figure. The pose that Louise shows that she is elegant like the noble she is, but ready to cast a spell in wizardry form. The wind effect of her cloak and hair could represent the power that she has in stall for whatever spell she is about to release (but we all know its going to fail). Though personally, I see Louise better with the cloak on rather than without as the cloak represents a sign of a magician but it also loses the effect with the wind blown hair. So the cloak and hair complement each other.

The base is a translucent yellow plug base with a pentagon shaped magic circle. Its a rather nice touch to add compared to having some plain. But as mentioned before, the base also has a spot to place the support stick (not shown in the photos above), which is kind of an eyesore. Though it can’t be helped with the massive weight of the cloak.

So with the pose, translucent base, and Louise being a magician, this gave me the idea of a lighted up magic circle. I guess the idea comes from watching Ah My Goddess with all the magic circles, but is present in other animes as well. The concept is to show Louise bathed in this magic power and with the wind effect it works quite nicely. But all I can say is that I felt blind after an hour’s worth of photo shooting.

Detail overall is good, though the face doesn’t seem right to me. She has a rather cute face but it just doesn’t seem the tsundere type Louise that we all know and love. From the promo pictures of the Alter version, that Louise looks much better as it looks closer to the anime design. But in terms of standing out, I would prefer this Kotobukiya one. Well I’m saying that now but I have to wait until I get the Alter version, and my opinion may change. Overall I rate this figure a 8 out of 10 mainly because of the heavy cloak with support stick.

Note: Earlier this week in the mail I also received a set of macro filters. These are filters that attach to the standard lens giving me a +1, +2, +4 or macro (+10) magnification. All close up shots here were taken with the +4 filter. Also to note, holding a reflector board in one hand and trying to press the shutter button whilst holding the camera in the other hand is not easy. I think I may have to get myself a remote.