Moé Moé Rabu

After a prolonged time of trial and error, and many cardboard boxes later, I am finally happy with the results of the photo shoot I did. So soaring high and mighty, face off with Fate Testarossa.

Many months have passed since I watched Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Nanoha A’s, and all i can say it was just a fantastic series to watch. Having finished watching I set out on a search for Nanoha figures and fortunately enough there were a few that have been released and some yet to come. Well Alter’s Fate Testarossa was the one I chose and my god was it an excellent choice.

As you may remember WAY back in December I posted about it’s arrival. Well that was just the tip of the iceberg. Upon opening it I was compelled by it’s sheer size and the amount of detail on everything.

As you can tell so far this is truly an astonishing figure. As you can see this is the Nanoha A’s version of Fate, brandishing her zamber form Bardiche, she does take up a lot of space. Flying high into the air, her pose sets off a battle ready pose but also emitting an en guard stature. Being able to bear a sword of such size demonstrates power, and Fate sure isn’t lacking any of that.

Fate being only a about the same age as Nanoha, a grade-schooler, she has a very thin body and thin arms. Her battle outfit composes of a blackish grey leather leotard, and a whitish pink skirt held by a large belt. It reflects Fate’s powerful aura but it gives a good contrast with her hair and skin colour. You can see how tight the uniform is on her as there is a slight glimpse of her belly button.

Her left glove is different to her right as it has an attached piece of armour which gives her a bit of protection when facing her enemies. The style of her battle outfit could be described as a mixture of punkish and retro at the same time and is quite unique.

Alter so far have done exceptionally well with figures especially with the faces. This is no exception. With a serious and stoic expression, Fate’s face has been sculpted well. Her eyes focused to what Bardiche is pointing at, her face slightly round but it isn’t flat, and with her hair flowing, she looks damn cute but in a serious way.

Her hair is rather unique in a way. I’m not quite sure what it would be called so I’ll call it a side fringe that’s sticking out on her left side. There aren’t many characters with this type of style, and being a twin-tail with ribbons girl, that’s a very moé aspect. Her twin-tails, no wait, her whole hair is pretty solid and it won’t be bending anytime soon.

The most defining feature of Fate is definitely her cape. What kind of magical girl would she be without a cape? Unlike the Kotobukiya Louise figure, Fate’s cape is larger. With it’s huge size, majority of the weight is from the cape, and it would be susceptible to bending. However with this one, Fate’s cape is made from ABS, reducing the chances of it bending to zero. Being made of ABS, the colouring is superb, and with the glossiness of ABS, it gives a more dynamic lighting effect. Although you can’t see it in the photos, Fate’s cape is actually screwed on underneath near her collar so this also removes the need for a support beam for the cape.

The second most defining feature of Fate is her faithful Bardiche, in zamber form. Who would have thought that a lolicious, weapon fanatic like Fate would be armed with such a weapon. Although this is a scale, Bardiche is roughly 31cm from tip to tip, which takes up even more room (as if the cape wasn’t enough!). The quality of Bardiche is excellent, just like it’s dear master, however there is one minor fault. With the handle joining to the hilt, there is a slight bent due to the weight of the zamber. Though turning the zamber around once in a while may fix this. Also as a small note, the photo just above this paragraph is a HDR as the originals were too dark and too bright.

For a girl who has the body of a grade-schooler, Fate sure has some long legs. Riding on top of a flow of magic, it adds to the pose of dynamism, action and power. Her blackish grey leggings match her leotard and her zettai ryouiki is another wonderful moé factor. Her boots are the same armour as shown on her left arm, but it sure makes me wonder what’s made of. Doesn’t look easy to walk in that’s for sure.

Product: Fate Testarossa
Produced by: Alter
Sculptor: Tsumezuka Hiroyuki
Scale: 1/8
Material: PVC
Release Date: December 2006
Price: ¥6,476
Available: HLJ (available for April restock)

To put it simply, this figure is just astonishing. Everything about it, her hair, cape, pose, her sword is absolutely amazing. I haven’t seen such a well made figure like Fate ever (well not in my collection). The build quality of Fate is top notch and the paint work is done splendidly along with the glossiness of Fate’s outfit brings her to life. Tsumezuka Hiroyuki must have put a lot of thought into the design of Fate, combined with Alter’s genius, they must have thought through everything to make this perfect.

Although this is a PVC figure, it sure doesn’t feel like it. nearly everything on Fate is solid PVC which pretty much reduces any form of leaning or deforming. Even Bardiche was given a metal piece to add to the splendor, despite the minor bending issue which could have been fixed if the metal rod did not stop at the hilt. The only things I found to be remotely soft are the ends of her twin-tails, her left arm, and her mini-skirt to an extent. This is a solid piece of art.

Really I haven’t found any noticeable flaws in Fate (other than the sheer size but the awesomeness makes up for that) except the cast line of the fringe. There is a mold line along the back of her right arm but it is hardly noticeable, but what I really noticed was how that arm is molded. Despite missing an elbow joint, there is a slight curvature to show that there is muscle and not just a straight pole (yes I look at EVERYTHING in detail).

This figure is just so awesome I could talk about it for ages, somewhat like Jeremy Clarkson could talk about the Bugatti Veyron for weeks, but I don’t think I will go that far. Fate just seems to have a mixture of being moé, cute, powerful, and sexy………………………. ok I think I’ll stop right there.

For something that costs me a week’s pay, and then another week’s pay just for shipping, it is a must buy for any Fate Testarossa fan. Others such as Stripey (calls it his crown jewel of his collection) and Zyl (who didn’t want to take upskirt shots so I did it instead) are some that I know who have this and I’m sure they don’t regret buying this either. Though I do implore you to make sure you have some where to place her as she does take up a lot of space. Currently she doesn’t sit inside my cabinet as I have yet to move stuff out and around. So if you must last off cup noodles for a week or two, or even a month, it will be well worth the effort once you meet your Fate!

Photography Notes:

Ok this photo shoot took me ages simply because I got lazy. But when it got to the actual photo shoot it was more tricky than I thought. despite having a tripod, I still got camera shake at times. So I ended up using the timer function and this helped. A bit of advice for those with a DSLR, get a remote, god it will help so much.

The concept I was going for this photo shoot was flying in the night sky. With a few sheets of black cardboard, a packet of golden star stickers, and some cotton balls this is the result. I would’ve have loved to do this in the city at night time but there was no way I was going to transport this around, in fear of breaking it. I tried doing a background with pin holes and using a light source from behind, but that just failed, hence the gold stars.

This is the first indoor photo shoot I have done in a long time and I somewhat still don’t have the hang of it. The use of a black background is tricky in which the lighting can change dramatically, as well as the colour. Also to note, this is the first photo shoot with the UV filter that I bought a few weeks ago.