As usual, laziness overrides my intentions and instead of Miku, we have here a figure of KOS-MOS from Bandai Namco’s Xenosaga III. I keep meaning to build a nice backdrop for Miku so that I can photograph her, but there’s about a billion reviews of Miku out there already and everyone knows what she looks like, anyway. KOS-MOS, however, is far too large to build a special background for, and besides, while Miku is nice and all, KOS-MOS is one helluva figure.
KOS-MOS has had several looks throughout her career as a video game character. I like her look in the first Xenosaga the best; in fact, it’s one of my favorite character designs amongst all video games. I bought Soul Calibur III mostly because you could unlock that costume and create a KOS-MOS battler. I also have a sentimental bias towards it; KOS-MOS was Alter’s seventh figure (out of around 246 at this time) and was the third PVC figure I acquired.
This particular KOS-MOS is dressed in her v4 costume from Xenosaga III, which I haven’t played. Curiously, while the first two games aren’t hard to find cheap in the used game bins at Gamestop, the third game seems to go for about full price on eBay. While I’d like to pick it up for collecting purposes, I strongly doubt I’d ever play it, since I’d feel compelled to play the first two games and I really don’t have the fortitude to attempt the first game again.
KOS-MOS is about 38 centimeters tall from the sole of her left foot to the top of her headpiece, and her base and gun extend her total height a bit more. Sculpted in 1/4 scale, KOS-MOS truly is huge and majestic.
Here she is with the 1/8 scale Metatron for comparison.
Her stature isn’t the only thing that defines her majesty; this is one really impressive sculpt. This figure’s an E2046 recast while the original sculpt was done by Volks. She’s frozen in mid-stride, looking like she’s either ready to step into a firefight or is sashaying down a fashion runway.
Many of Chorosuke’s 1/4 scale sculpts provide relatively realistic proportions, and KOS-MOS is not an exception. She doesn’t have the huge head and tiny torso that you often see in anime-style designs; rather, she’s got a womanly build with a wasp waist and thick, powerful legs.
The detailing on her legs is remarkable. Her stockings are trimmed with lace and her thigh boots have lacing up the back.
Pardon the photo wankery.
She’s got a massive gun, a triple Gatling gun, actually. It is very impressive but on a figure that looks this good, it’s almost an afterthought.
This figure was shipped with left arm and the gun detached, and they slide into their joints without difficulty and stay in place quite well, even without glue. Also, E2046 often outfits their figures with magnets so that parts can be snapped on and off; KOS-MOS comes with an additional visor with this eyepatch-looking thingy, which I am guessing is some sort of visual display like in Aliens.
It looks quite cool. I’m not sure which I like better, myself.
This figure was painted by E2046 and they’ve done a great job with it. I didn’t look it over with a magnifying glass but I didn’t notice any problems. Her boots and blouse have a very attractive sheen to them. Her hair is tinted a faint red towards the tips, giving it an interesting multitone look.
I’ve been effusive with praise but everything isn’t quite all perfect with this figure. Her breasts can be exposed by removing the magnetically-held parts of her dress. The problem is, they’ve got some very unattractive scribe lines on them, and I really don’t know why they’re there. In the interest of staying work-safe, I’ll refrain from inlining a picture of them, but you can see them right here.
I mean, listen, we’re sitting here talking about boobies. Not her face, not her face, not her face, but we’re talking about boobies. Not her face that I love and looks awesome but we’re talking about boobies, man. How silly is this? Now I know I could just overlook this and all that but I’m not shoving that aside like it don’t mean anything. I know they can be hidden, I honestly do but we’re talking about boobies. We’re talking about boobies, man. We’re talking about boobies. When you come to this site, and you see what I buy, you’ve seen what I like, we’re talking about boobies, when it actually matters, we’re talking about boobies … how the hell can they make these boobies better by scratching lines on them?
Ahem … so besides that one aspect, this is an incredible, awesome, superb figure. I guess the only change I would’ve liked would’ve been to put her in her episode I outfit, but when the figure looks this good, I really can’t beef about something like that.
I should mention that E2046 tossed in an extra base but as it’s quite a bit larger than the one she comes mounted on, I’m not using it. Wolfheinrich has pictures of it and more pictures of KOS-MOS on his own review.
Speaking of KOS-MOS’s original outfit, apparently a content pack for the PS3 version of Tales of Vesperia will let you dress up Judith as KOS-MOS:
How cool is that? If Tales of Vesperia’s PS3 port ever gets a US localization, I might have to double-dip because Judith is just that awesome. She’s another character who deserves her own figure. More pictures of her are up here.
Yups yups that is a big girl there. Thankfully she is a looker too.
The lines on the boobies are..kinda disturbing. Made it looked like her nipples were grafted on her.
And speaking of nipples, some more definition on them would be nice.
Is her hair semi transparent, or is that just some really nice color effect?
Yeah, I’m sorta disappointed by that, since I’d definitely have her displayed with boobs out if they didn’t have those wacky lines. And yeah, I’d like some darker paint or something on the nipples. E2046 should have their painters watch the uncensored version of Seikon no Qwaser, the greatest anime of all time.
It is translucent and there’s a pretty cool color gradient effect where her hair starts out blue, becomes almost clear towards the middle of its length, and then becomes reddish at the ends.
I understand feel your disappointment man. How could they actually left those ugly lines on her breasts. They look like more like patch-work to me from the photo.
Other than that major flaw, I guess the large figure is almost perfect, unless I’m missing something.
Yeah, I dunno what the deal is with that. I don’t think they were there originally; I know Hobbyfan’s recast doesn’t have them. If it was an artistic decision to put them there, I think it was a pretty dumb decision.
But yeah, other than that, this figure is awesome. So awesome that keeping her boobs covered up doesn’t bother me. Kind of. Well, maybe it does, a little. Actually, it feels like I’m not being truthful to myself, like I’m denying who I am.
congrats on a beautiful acquisition! though sadly i guess this confirms that wolf’s copy’s oppai wasn’t a fluke and they have those weirdly horrid looking marks on all copies…
someday i hope to get a crazy awesome 1/4… this kos-mos would definitely be a candidate. now i just have to save the funds and not blow them on new lenses ^^;;
Oh my holy god lord !!! She’s amazing.
Nice of a loot 😉
Even if i’m more the sword, axe type of girl, this one with a gattling is awesomely attracting.
And yeah, really her boobies is disturbing. Found it very ugly in fact :/
Well since i don’t like leaving parts in the box wouldn’t be a problem but still …
I’m jealous of you now 🙂
Amazing, she is really amazing ! This is a nice choice (sadly she is expensive for me).
I’m completely charmed by this gathering who’s a true wonder to my eyes. E2046 did a remarkable job. Only those marks on her breasts are very disappointing! How did they could do this????!
Whatever, i think when you have such an wonderful Kos-ms, you don’t expose her with her boobies out.
Sure that building a backdrops for such a tall figure is kinda hard. In any case thanks for shooting anyway.
Congratulation for this amazing acquisition !
Incredible. While 1/4 scale figures are always a sight to behold in person, this KOS-MOS must be absolutely breathtaking. I’ve never ordered pre-painted garage kits before, but I will definitely look into it after this.
Love your photos, by the way! I especially like how the lighting brings out the folds of her costume. Nice job.
>> meronpan
I should go read through the thread on the E2046 board and see what the deal is with those lines. Sometimes E2046 gets these strange ideas that don’t always work out so well in practice (kinda like some of my photo shoots!)
I hear you on camera expenses, I’m hoping that the tax man will be good to me so I can buy more camera goodies, but the IRS calculator says I might be owing the fed some money this year 🙁
>> Katsura-chan
Weapons are good XD Guns, swords, baseball bats … I really wouldn’t mind a figure of a cute schoolgirl with a baseball bat.
>> Leonia
Thanks, she looks awesome XD Expensive but worth the cash.
>> Lylibellule
I want to know that too XD I guess it would be a bit lowbrow to have KOS-MOS displayed with her breasts exposed for all the world to see, but I make no claims to being classy XD
I’ve got one more big 1/4 scale figure to photograph and I’m planning on trying to make a backdrop for it, but I dunno how well it will turn out.
>> Chag
Thanks! She indeed does look amazing, all the more so cuz she is really, really huge. I’m running out of space but fortunately for me she has a pretty small footprint, and she’s so tall that I can tuck 1/8 scale figures under her gun.
So you went the E2046 route eh? Man, I really need to do mine soon…
But before that… *Sighs*
I should really just post the thing about the lines somewhere and just link everytime someone does a post about the breasts and the lines…
OK, The lines are meant to be there but the nipples are not. They are something E2046 added by themselves. The original is meant to simply show a metallic “plate” on the areas, kinda like a cover for some connections or something (cables connecting to female androids by the nipples. so cliche…).
There was a big hubub on the E2036 forums about whether or not the nipples should be in the paintscheme (among other things) but it looks like they put it on in the end. Ideally, they should have sanded down the lines…
I’ll be doing her as the sculptor intended, so no nips on mine…
Oh, and the eyecover is used when KOS-MOS uses the “hilbert effect” to make Gnosis materialise.
My KOS-MOS arrived yesterday from Hobbyfan and thankfully, she doesn’t have those lines on her hooters. 🙂
I guess the only 2 things I can somewhat “complain” about is that (1) the blue on her gun and boots are a much darker shade and (2) the decal on the gold thingy hanging from her left hip is missing. Other than that, I’m totally amazed by the size of this figure, as I have her standing between my Shunya Rei and Arisa figures!
Now I’ve got my eye on the 1/4 scale Kanu from E2046, but maybe that’ll be a bad move considering what they did to the hooters on KOS-MOS – not that I display any of my figures in cast-off mode (the Chichinoe Pin-Up Lady being an exception ’cause she came with nothing to cover her up XD), but I like the idea of having that option… Those lines look like breast augmentation surgery gone wrong! I like the colors (of her weapon) on the Gathering version slightly more than the Sparkle version that Hobbyfan sells tho so maybe…
Thanks for the review! It’s good comparing yours to mine… Other than what I pointed out, there’s not much difference ’cause the quality is excellent on both!
Wonder figure, it is such a shame they decided to go with their fetish instead of going for a more popular solution. Still a stunning figure nonetheless, it’s just not as perfect as it could be.
She really is gorgeous in every way but I didn’t get her because I usually don’t buy pre-painted garage kits since they’re expensive. But if I could afford her I would totally get her. 😀
And I agree about Judith! I don’t know why figure companies don’t make figures from the Tales series. Isn’t the series popular in Japan? What are they waiting for?! T-T
>> gundamjehutykai
You sound perturbed XD Thanks for the heads-up on the funky lines. Yeah, while I’d much rather buy an official product, I wasn’t really enthusiastic about the idea of waiting a year or two for an official prepainted kit that Volks doesn’t actually care to sell to me. I’ll concede that one could make a strong argument that the most ethical course of action would be to simply go without, but I am not particularly troubled by my decision regardless.
Ah, Hilbert Effect sounds vaguely familiar … I think I remember that from Xenosaga I. Maybe. Actually, I think I only remember three things about that game: Shion is a ditzy moron, KOS-MOS is sexy and awesome, and chaos has the worst voice of any video game character I’ve ever heard. I don’t normally quit playing games on the basis of voice acting, but chaos’s voice was a major factor in me not playing the game for more than ten hours.
>> MONOLITHIC
I saw that Hobbyfan had removed the lines after I had placed my order. I wish E2046 hadn’t included them; I would’ve preferred they spent time doing that rather than designing a special base.
I think that what you see in the pictures on the E2046 product pages is generally what you get, so if you don’t see any weirdo lines there, you ought to be good (the lines were there on E2046’s product page, so anybody who had waited for them to put up their sample pictures before preordering would’ve seen them).
>> Wolfheinrich
I hear that, that’s pretty much how I’d assess this figure. I’m not complaining that much I guess since if anyone deserves to keep her dignity, it’s KOS-MOS.
>> Ami
Indeed they are. Although the way PVC prices are going, they’re getting close together =/ I remember buying Alter’s first KOS-MOS for something like 4,500 yen, and I think the dollar/yen exchange rate was much more favorable back then.
I don’t know, but I agree that they should make some figures. My first guess would be some sort of strict licensing policy (like I hear Square Enix holds a pretty tight grip on what they license), but there’s a bunch of Xenosaga and Idolmaster figures from multiple manufacturers. On the other hand, there are almost no Tekken or Tales figures out there (I vaguely recall that someone did a Tear Grants figure that didn’t look too great to me). Most strange.
well.. i received mine about 2 weeks ago, the major flaw of mine was that the gun does not fit well…
I ended up partially fitted the gun into the slot, leaving the handle and the scope of the gun gun not parallel.
It’s not something that people will notice instantly while they look at it, especially with the angle that I am displaying her. but never the less….. its a big flaw. (maybe I really should have request a fix or another one from E2046 before I decided to glue her together… but i ….. just… couldn’t wait to put her together after I got her. orz
Also, ,even though I highly doubt I will ever see them unless I take apart her hair (which… is… glued together) is that the painter seems to slack off on the black lining of her back armor plates.
Did you use a warmer light color for the photo? because her skin tone looks a lot better on that photo than what I have got in person… she looks a bit pale IMO
And yes, she does not fit into a Detolf rack at all =___=
I should have bought another detolf while it was 20 dollar during the holiday, but instead… now I have to goto lowes, buy three acrylic pieces, cut them, and then make a case for her.
Going to get this. Need advice on where I should get one. I want one that looks exactly like Tier’s except without the scribe lines around the chest.
Speaking of boobies, I saw a different custom one with HUGE knockers on ebay. I doubt the magnetic cast off front would even fit on it if it even comes with the sale.
Ebay Item #140369186134
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/7062/ebaykosmos.jpg
I most likely will not get that one since the underside of the oppai look rather cut around the edges of the armor. I do have to say that the stand look more realistically metallic and had the Volks logo on it. The slightly darker skin tone also looks rather splendid.
Currently, I am leaning more towards the 3rd wave production that Hobbyfan will be releasing in March. The oppai are perfect with no edges cutting into them as well as no disturbing carvings on them.
Any help on the matter would be much appreciated as I want to make sure this would be money well spent. Thanks in advance!
not!! posible!!!!! aaaa i hate you!! in good way jajajajaja i want her!! but… money is a problem.. i need a new job jajaja .. she is my figure dream!! aaaaaaaa can you gift me her? jajaja ok ok well…
what do you do??
she is ..the…. best! i love xenosaga!!
Saludos atte.
Marcucho
What hapend with her booobs?? i don uderstand…can you explain that to me??
>> innosin
Ah, that sucks to get parts that don’t fit right (part of the deal when dealing with recasts, I guess). If the bent piece isn’t too big, maybe you could try heating it with a hair dryer or something and bending it straight (although looking at the gun, I’m thinking that the mis-shaped piece isn’t small).
I adjusted the red balance on the photo a bit since the auto white balance setting on my camera gives skin a corpse-like complexion. I also only had one weak light with an ersatz grid spot attached lighting up KOS-MOS’s face and no other lights in front, so her face is pretty pale in most of the shots while the rest of her body is a bit darker.
>> Kei
If you don’t want one without the nipple pentagons, then Hobbyfan is the place you want to go with, since they’re the only ones who have such a thing (unless you buy it in unassembled kit form and fill in the lines yourself). That one on eBay is interesting; whoever modified the recast kit is definitely aiming for a specialized audience. The hair color is sorta garishly bright, though. But yeah, you should look into Hobbyfan; they do good work. Wish they could figure out how to pack a parcel, though.
>> Marcucho
It is good to be hated! XD She is also mine forever and ever.
I forgot to do a character summary in this review, but KOS-MOS is a robot and so the lines are there to make her look more mechanicall. Or something. I’ve yet to hear from anyone who thought that this was a good idea (although to be fair, I don’t think the original kit was meant to be built with her breasts uncovered, unless the builder happened to really like Barbie doll anatomy or something).
Another good review (and great pics)! The pic with Metaton makes her look like a giant. I ordered mine from Hobbyfan (2nd Wave) so I’ll most likely be getting it in March/April – the waiting sucks! Did you have to use any glue to keep her together or did the parts stay in fairly well?
Thanks! I didn’t use any glue, the parts fit quite well. It’s always pretty cool to attach one of the magnetic pieces and watch it snap perfectly into place.
I agree, the waiting does suck, but the joy is great XD
awesome dude, I like you photos way better than E2046’s so maybe they should update their gallery with your pics huh?
think those oppai lines is the result of them simply painting the plates breast color..maybe you can fix that with epoxy glue lol
PS3 Tales of Vesperia better make it here dammit!!
I definitely am not man enough to try that … the last time I tried to fix a prepainted figure, I barely got its arm reattached. My loss is KOS-MOS’s dignity’s gain.
I’m wondering what’s taking them so long, or if they’re really not going to release it here at all. If they don’t, I’m going to hope that the 360 version will get the costume pack, but I’m guessing there’s even less chance of that than a PS3 release.
I recieved this figure during the 1st delivery shortly after the New Year but I was dismayed to find her broken when I got her. The hand holding the gun snapped off, the upper should armor was scratched up and one of the bottm hip armors broke off taking pieces of the skin. Needless to say, I was horrified by this mess. I contacted E2046 and they offered a repair or replacement but I had to cough up another $60 USD for shipping back to them. A new one is finally on its way. Hopefully, it’ll be in great shape.
Wow, that blows. I have a bunch of E2046-assembled figures but only one had significant damage during shipping (its head snapped off, but the break was pretty clean so I just glued it back on). I hope your replacement (or fixed-up old one) turns out better.
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Ah, she’s so beautiful! I do agree that her first costume was the best though (not that I’ve played the other two games yet), I wonder why they’ve never made a figure of that one. I wish there were more Xenosaga figures in general!
Indeed she is! There actually are a couple of figures with her in her original costume, most notably from Alter, and there’s one in the Monsieur Bome lineup which isn’t nearly as nice. A matching 1/4 scale T-elos would be very cool.
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Im still flabbergasted about the fact that they scribed those lines into her boobs.When I saw her the first time at Wolfheinrichs Blog I was like Dear God why?
I really wonder what went wrong in E2045`s heads when they were doing this cast off.I mean I like boobies,You like boobies thats a fact.I assume everyone that bought this figure likes them.I highly doubt anyone likes them like this though.
Id prefer to not have the option to look at her mammaries instead of looking at butchered ones.
Shes an awesome figure but leaves a sour taste
Those lines were actually on the original kit and E2046 decided not to modify them, so I guess it wasn’t technically possible for them to remove them or they didn’t think it was a big deal. I think they should’ve put in the extra effort to keep her boobs clean but it is what it is, I suppose.
Yeah, I’d much prefer that option, android boobs in 1/4 scale are epic.
My Kos Mos form hobbyfan is arriving any time soon. I hope it as good as the one you show here.
They do pretty good work, so I think that it will … plus it won’t have the lines on the breasts, which is a big plus in my view.
Hi! Love your galleries and use of excellent lighting ^_^
I’ve been kinda wondering, where do you get your Volks figures from?
Especially the ∀-Brand ones, like Sylvia and Charlotte. I noticed a few awesome Walkure Romanze figures by Volks are coming soon, so I wanna be ready to order them ^_^
Thanks for the kind words! I get them from a few sources … for authentic Volks figures, I almost always use Yahoo JP Auctions. I’ve got a bookmark with a search string for “ボークス brand” and I use a couple of proxies (either M-World Service or SMJ). For recasts, I usually go with E2046; they often do prepainted, preassembled versions of Volks kits. There’s also Hobbyfan, and they do pretty much the same thing as E2046.
Thanks! I’ll check those out 🙂
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Beautiful figure; I’m glad I decided to preorder it from E2046, despite November looking like a killer month with Tomoe finally dropping. Even though there were some minor hiccups with my Kenshin, I’m really impressed overall with the quality of her, and loved the 1/4 scale. Decided I wanted more 1/4 scale figures, and more from E2046. KOS-MOS was an easy choice, and though I had forgotten about your review, I’m really glad that I found it now. You’re right on the boobies, though. Didn’t really notice it due to an awkward angle on the sample pictures, but your direct picture makes them look terrible. The lines would be fine if they were more intricately detailed over more area (or no lines at all), but the odd, almost crudely added, triangle isn’t really doing it for me.
Yeah, she really looks great. The only thing I would’ve liked would have been for them to put her in her Episode 1 outfit instead, which I like much better than all of the other outfits she’s worn.
Delicious! You must be one of the luckiest men alive!
… All I can say is the following… It’s so beautiful!!! The fact that the lines on her oppai (was it?) can be a bit of a turn-off, this figure clearly wasn’t meant to be shown in that way. If I had the funds for her, I would definitely take that chance & purchase this figure. (KOS-MOS would actually be my 1st figure purchased if this happens!)
That’d be a helluva first figure, too XD
Looking at your post im deciding on rather getting this on hobbyfan or e2046 :\ im leaning toward E2046 cuz of the boobies lolol, but are there any differences between hobbyfan and e2046 besides that boob part?
Oh sorry and one question, when you got it did you have to clue it together? If so what did you use?
Hi, I’m not entirely certain what other differences exist between the E2046 or Hobbyfan versions. There’s a comprehensive four-part review of the Hobbyfan version at Dreaming Artemis and I’d recommend looking there to note any changes. Personally though, I think I’d roll with the Hobbyfan version if you want to display her with her breasts exposed, since the E2046 version is sort of unsightly.
Ah okay i checked it out, it looks like hobbyfan requires more assembly compared to e2046, especially the part where it scratches part of the paint job if ur not careful enough with the gatling gun
Yeah, I’ll note that at least with the E2046 version, the position of the gun is a bit precarious, since it hangs off of her arm and if you don’t glue it down, it can fall out very easily. In fact, I don’t actually have her gun attached to her right now since it fell off and nearly clobbered a couple of my figures. I’m sure the Hobbyfan version is assembled in a similar fashion.
When i first saw this statue all i could say was WOW. I have NEVER bought a anime statue before in my life but ever since i saw this i have been meaning to get it. I looked on Ebay and saw that i could get one for around $140.00 but i don’t know if its a cheap ripoff. I also looked on Hobbyfan and saw that i could pre-order one for $320.00 and its the 7th wave which im not sure what it means but if you could possibly please tell me whats that means that would be awesome. So should i buy the one off of Ebay, E2046, or Hobbyfan?
The one on eBay is probably a cheap ripoff. The Hobbyfan one is also a ripoff, in the sense that it’s not a legitimate product, but the quality will be very high. If you want to buy one I’d probably roll with either Hobbyfan or E2046, and in this case I’d probably go with Hobbyfan because of her removable top. I’m not sure what “7th wave” denotes; I’d guess it means this is the seventh time they’ve offered the figure for sale.
Hey man, you going to get the 1/4 T-elos to accompany Kosmos? lol
I’m not sure; I was looking it up just the other day and it looks really nice, but I’m wondering if Volks will make a completed, prepainted version of it. I might try to get that if they do, though I wonder what it means that the kit version is made of “color resin”.
oh question for you, about the gun did u ever manage to attach the gun to the right leg?
Nope; I didn’t actually know her gun could attach to her right leg. In fact, I removed her gun because it kept falling off.