Moé Moé Rabu

With already two ARIA The Natural figures, Akari and Aika, there is a third. So gracing us with her elegant beauty is none other than the Undine nicked-named Snow White, Alicia Florence.

On the planet known as AQUA, there is a city known as Neo-Venezia. In this city there are female gondola rowers known as Undines and the three top Undines are known as the Three Water Fairies. Alicia Florence, dubbed Snow White, is one of the Water Fairies. An ever gracing beauty, she is elegant, intelligent, and always looking at life with a smile on her face, she has come to even grace my ever growing collection of ARIA merchandise.

Now I love and adore all the characters in ARIA, however Alicia would have to be ranked 2nd, with Akari in 1st. I’m not sure why it is that i like about Alicia so much, but it would definitely be her personality. Not exactly a motherly figure, not even something like an elder sister, but it’s the way that she looks at life with an endless smile and is always on the bright side of things, something that you don’t see in many people in this day and age. So with this being the 3rd ARIA figure released by Solid Works, do they capture the essence that is Alicia?

The first thing you notice about Alicia is that she truly is a beauty. Either from a faraway or close up view, she is just spectacular. Her pose fits her very well with the flow of her golden hair. With the way she has her head turned gives her a natural look and is very pleasant on the eyes.

Although Akari and Alicia have the same uniform, you get the feeling of maturity from Alicia. The build quality is excellent but only upon closer inspection, do you notice the mold lines of the skirt. Although the skirt is the largest part of the uniform it is forgiven. With it being white as well it’s not really that much noticeable.

The most defining feature about Alicia is her hair. The sculpting details is truly amazing and it looks great from any angle. But there is an added bonus to her hair strands as they hide the mold lines rather well and the flow of her ponytail mixed with her fringe and side partings are just marvelous to look at.

An issue I had with the Akari and Aika figure was their faces. In this rendition of Alicia, Solid Works have hit the spot. Her face isn’t flat and is shaped rather small, but does give good comparison to her hair. Her eyes are painted extremely well and look close to that of the anime. The difference between Alicia’s and other two is that her eyes are not rendered large. They have that oval shape which is close to how it would look like in real life.

You may notice that Alicia is on the base that she came with. Just like the other two, she is screwed onto the base, but there is a slight difference. On the bottom of her left boot is a little plug that goes into the base. This is to ensure that she won’t spin around on the base. Plus given the way her pose is with her legs, she can’t stand on her own, but also I don’t exact want her falling off the edge and falling into the water below.

Product: Alicia Florence
Produced by: Solid Works
Sculptor: Shikanaru
Scale: 1/6
Material: PVC
Release Date: December 2006
Price: ¥6,980
Available: HLJ (out of stock)

By far this figure is better than the Akari and Aika one in terms of quality, visual appeal, and it captures the essence that is Alicia. The paintwork is actually good in this version but the only let down is the little paint debris that you see on her hair along her fringe. The amount of blue shading has been lessened in Alicia’s uniform and makes it look more vibrant.

Also of note Alicia looks great holding her oar or without. Also with the positioning being upright, the oar doesn’t bend as much compared to the Akari one, but the other reason is that they have used a stronger rubber. Simply put Alicia is an awesome figure and being an Alicia fan it’s a good purchase. For those who want an Alicia figure I would recommend to buy this if only you are a huge fan and just want to add to your growing collection. Although two reasons I would not recommend this: the first being the price and secondly another Alicia figure is to be released by what I think is Good Smile Company (picture below is from Danny Choo’s coverage of Winter WonderFest 2007).

Also to note, for another review on this Alicia Florence figure, check out super rats review at Happy Soda.

Photography Notes

Yes it has been a month since I did this photo shoot and it’s been nearly two months since this was released. I’m really falling behind so I’ll have to catch up soon. Anyway this was taken at Darling Harbour once again. This is actually 400 metres from where I did the Akari photo shoot at a place called Darling Walk.

After doing this shoot, I realised that I photographed these at the wrong hour making it look too bright. With my choice of lessening my trips to the city I decided to use these anyway. Also to note this was actually the first figure photographed with the UV filter. Mind you this location is also a prime location for kids. When I did this photo shoot I did it in front of a family and two Japanese girls. The father of the family came up to me and asked about what I was doing as he looked rather interested (although probably more interested in the results rather than Alicia herself).