Good Smile – ALTER
Fate/Stay Night
Trading Figures

This series is by Good Smile with designs by ALTER. It features the following characters: Archer, Saber, Tohsaka Rin, Matou Sakura, Illyasviel von Einzbern and Rider. The figures are between 90mm and 110mm in height, and come with elliptical bases to support the figurines.





Archer



The design of Archer, with his unbalanced posture, leaning backward with knees thrust forward and his weight on the balls of his feet, and his rippling cape and pointed bow, paints a very comprehensive picture of Archer in combat.



Coupled with his rather well-done facial expression, with his tense eyebrows and mouth, the design of Archer is very successful in conveying the impression of Archer in combat.



My only complaint with this figure is regarding the bow. The bow, along with the hand gripping it, was one piece, to be fitted onto the arm. The arm has an extended hollow sleeve to hide the peg of the hand. However, one edge of the sleeve was made to billow too far out, making it necessary to bend the thin strip of plastic that comprises the handle of the bow away from the hand, thus creating a possibility of accidental breakage. However, once the bow is fitted on, that same sleeve serves as an additional catch to prevent the bow and hand from falling out.



Saber



Saber is also depicted in a combat posture, with her sword drawn and skirt flaring to depict motion. A lot of detail was included to make Saber's armour look realistic, including drawing joints at the ankle and feet of her boots, as well as her gauntlets being drawn as segmented, up to the finger joints.

The sword is also quite detailed, with runes inscribed on the blade of the sword.





Secret Saber



The secret figure in this set is one of Saber in night-clothes holding a toothbrush and a mug, with her hair down. It is completely out of character for Saber, with the relaxed posture and smiling face being a sharp contrast with the grim and serious normal Saber. One nice link to the original Saber is the ribbon on her blouse, which is identical, except in colour, to her normal blouse when she is not wearing her armour.



Tohsaka Rin



Rin is adequately done, wearing her usual school uniform in a pose that is quite in character for her. The facial expression is rather realistic, with the mouth fitting the overall attitude the character expresses.



Matou Sakura



Sakura is wearing her school uniform, and would have been perfect if not for her smile, which is drawn too large, causing her to look somewhat spastic.



Rider



Rider's clothes are quite detailed, with some subtle folds adding a touch of reality to the figure. Another interestingly detail is the adequately painted collar around her neck, though if seen in close enough detail, it can be seen that the buckle is not entirely level and a very small portion seems to be missing. However, when viewed from certain angles, her neck seems to be unnaturally long, but since her head is tilted downwards, this abnormality is hidden from casual view.

Rider also comes with a detachable weapon.





Rider Variant



There is also a variant of Rider, which is exactly like the original, except that the mask is removed.



Illya



Illya comes with 2 sets of arms and a detachable cloak, scarf and hat. Without the cloak, scarf and hat, she is wearing clothes suitable for spring.

Her skirt is given some properly placed folds to allow it to look natural for her running posture.



When the cloak, scarf and hat are put on, and her arms changed to set that matches the colour of added items, she now wears attire fit for winter weather, complete with gloves.

The method by which the hat is made to stay firmly on her head is quite commendable. The fringe parting that can be seen when she is not wearing the hat actually doubles up as a depression to fit a notch in the hat into, allowing the hat to be rather securely attached.

However, the catch for the cloak is extremely hard to put on, as since the cloak is molded to fit very closely to the shape of her lower body, there is no space to put the hook in the catch properly. Furthurmore, the hole is too small to put the hook in with any sort of ease. But even with this problem, the cloak is stiff and coupled with some indentations in the cloak that her lower body very snugly fits, the cloak is still quite secure. The catch is even hidden from casual sight by the scarf.


Verdict: 9/10


This series of trading figures is very well designed, with good painting and sculpting, resulting in a very good transition from 2D to 3D. Although there are some design flaws that affect the ease of fixing up a couple of figurines, and one face could have had a better design, there is also the fact that many of the accessories have ingeniously designed, invisible notches and catches for them to fit tightly, as well as the realistic representation of their attire with regards to their probable actions from which their pose is taken from. The amount of detail more than makes up for few design flaws, making this series a very well designed set.