As the figures keep coming in the mail, as do the figure photography posts. Though this figure review is a little different to other figure reviews, and with good reason. So hit the jump to find out the reason why and check out my latest photos of Fantasy Noble Maid, Tohasaka Rin from Fate/Hollow Ataraxia.
Personally I have never been a fan of the Fate/Stay Night series, but I do occasionally like the merchandise that come out for it. So far in my collection, I have 2 Sabers, but I was missing a Rin. Too lazy to order any of the older ones that were released, Good Smile Company had released promo pictures of Rin, but in a maid outfit. At that point I thought I might as well order that. Keeps my Sabers company at least. Plus the promo pictures made the figure look like an awesome purchase.
At a glance, Rin looks to be an excellent figure, and you would expect nothing less from Good Smile Company. With that expression of joy and happiness, you can tell that she is definitely enjoying being a maid. But that enjoyment is also expressed in how she holds her apron in a swinging motion. Now I don’t know much about Rin, but I definitely have to say that this seems very fitting of her. I would even come close to saying that she is am ideal maid with the conservative type maid outfit, but also the colour palette of red, white, and Rin’s brown hair just seem to meld together.
The quality of Rin though is a little balanced should I say. The paintwork is superb in every aspect of the figure from her maid outfit and the little hints of shading throughout, Rin’s hair with the glistering sine and shading, to even her eyes that show that glimmer of enjoyment she is having. Sculpting itself is also of the highest quality with the creases in her apron and frills on her shoulder. Even the laces on her boots are sculpted well.
Proportionally she seems to be quite large, but that is mainly due to the dress and apron. Rin is in fact rather slim as shown by how tightly the apron is tied around her waist. Gotta love it when girls wear tight clothing as it emphasizes “other” aspects of their bodies. Also originally I thought her face was a little chubby when I first took her out of the box. But after seeing through the lens and having her right in front of me now, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’m probably thinking that since her face is shaped a bit rounder than some of my other figures.
So with ths being of an excellent sculpt and just as equal paintwork, and it’s Rin as a maid, it could be a very perfect figure. Well on the contrary, it’s far from that. In fact there are a few flaws in this figure, some even a little worrying on the overall well being of Rin, and it most of it revolves around one thing, her dress. Firstly, Rin doesn’t always hold her dress up in her hand. As you may notice in some photos, the dress slips out of her hand and this made it frustrating whilst taking photos. Secondly, the actual dress itself isn’t secured to Rin very well, but rather that it just hangs on her waist, allowing for a bit of freeplay. This is the another reason why Rin can’t hold her dress properly.
But with the dress not secured to her waist, with too much movement, the dress will eventually rub against her. Which as you can see in the photos above. Lastly is that Rin is secured to her base with only one pin, and a very small one at that. A little cause for concern due to the weight of the dress, but also the possibility of Rin leaning thanks to the top weight of her hair.
Product: Tohsaka Rin Fantasy Noble Maid version
Anime/Game: Fate/Hollow Ataraxia
Produced by: Good Smile Company
Sculptor: YAICHI (Wisdom Heat)
Scale: 1/8
Material: PVC
Release Date: June 2007
Price: ¥4,571
Available: HLJ (discontinued, but a re-release is coming next year)
After having a closer look at this figure, I can’t really say that it impresses me. Heck it does make me excited about actually owning it either. The flaws that I picked out from my observations would be the major points on that, but I would also say it’s partially because I was never really into Fate/Stay Night. Don’t get me wrong, having Rin in a maid outfit is definitely something totally awesome, but because I was never interested in the series as a whole, I’m finding it hard to enjoy this figure overall. It all goes back to the basics of figure collecting, get figures of characters that you know and love. Buying this was more on a whim than actually wanting it.
However there is one aspect that I enjoy about this figure of Rin as it embodies the simplicity of a maid. With the dress and it’s puffy shoulders, apron with frilly shoulder straps, and the head dress to top off the outfit, it’s the very basics of a maid. and with Rin having long brown hair, it adds to the nice grace and conservative look, though she isn’t very conservative here. Still, if you are a Fate/Stay Night fan, or more specifically, a Tohsaka Rin fan, then this is a good figure to add to your ever growing shrine of Rin.
Photography Notes:
This session was taken around the end of October, and for those AnimeSydney readers, the same day as the AnimeSydney Halloween Party. Location this time is Hyde Park, the same place where I took photos of Asakura Otome. But it was a little to the right where this small garden is. I forget the name of it but it’s King George’s something.
Anyway I mentioned that this photo shoot was a little special. Well it was because it’s the first figure photoshoot that I have done without the standard 18-55mm lens. This time around I used a Canon 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS USM that I borrowed from photographer buddy Bubby. Met up with him prior to this shoot as he wanted to see me do my work. Also since this was the chance to use a better lens, this entire photo shoot was done in Manual mode. Also all the photos above have had ABSOLUTELY NO post processing done. Except for adding the watermark.
So why post photos that have been unedited? Well I just wanted to show that with a better lens, I can take pictures like this quite easily. God I wish I had a better lens that the standard one. Look forward to another figure review soon!
It’s quite obvious from the first picture that you had a used another lens instead of the standard ^^
Was looking at the-digital-picture.com for the exact same lens a few days back…And I recognize that location!
Didn’t get this figure as it didn’t really impress me. The face sculpt didn’t fit Rin’s personality or so I though.
I don’t remember why I didn’t get this back then. Probably because of her lean potential.
Anyways, she looks great even though I’m not much of a Rin fan.
About the pictures, some of them are a bit blurry around her faces though.
I didn’t get this one because of the chubby face.
I probably shouldn’t say this as I hate doing the buzz kill thing, but I think the thrill of using a new lens may have clouded your perception. Most of these pictures aren’t sharp, even at the point of critical focus they just look blurry to me (even the ones reduced to 500×333).
I’m thinking of buying this rin re-release together with saber and rider maid, they look good together ^^
The main reason I didnt buy this one is because of her expression.. not like Rin at all.
and I have to agree with super rats, most of the pictures are a bit blurry
Oh I forgot to mention that I done this with manual focus as well. I had some trouble with the auto focus, even when setting the focus points, hence the face being a bit blurry. But yeah, a new lens has somewhat made me think differently, but the use of a different lens does require a little bit of re-learning, especially if doing it in manual mode.
hehe the hand was pretty annoying…
definitely need an alternative to glue tack…
besides that…the photos are blurry though
maybe a bit more playing around with it will help…
I was against getting this figure, it just didn’t feel like a good buy to me. Based on your review I guess I was correct lol. I didn’t know she was cast-off though which is interesting as her pantsu is a bit “risky” ;p. One thing that really got my attention is the brown dot on the top left waist bone area with the dress taken off when she faces the camera, is that a flaw or possibly a birthmark? The flower background is nice, suits her very well.
Ah, nothing like learning your way around new gear. Auto-focus is a love/hate relationship, but it giving up the ghost may have been a good indication that the camera was getting out of the range it could focus on. Maybe if you want to play with manual focus more you could try getting hold of a split-focus lens or try a smaller aperture to give yourself a bigger depth of field to hit would make life easier?
As a side note: nice location. I think I’ve been visiting the wrong parts of Sydney. My most vivid memory of the place is trying to squeeze a very wide Land Rover/off-road camper combination between two semi-trailers in the all-to-narrow centre lane of a three lane road. It’s not a fond one.
Damn, the more I visit your blog, the more I want to go and visit Sydney!
Great location as always. But I’m less enthusiatic about the figure ^^;
Really not into those maid version of Fate heroines.
Nice shots! I am facing the same problem too where the dress tend to slip from Rin’s hand..