Ostensibly, one of the best things about reviewing stuff is getting free figures from manufacturers. Not that I would know for myself; in the first five years of this website I’ve never gotten a review sample. Personally, I think I prefer it that way; as nice as it is to get free stuff, they tend to come with strings attached, whether explicitly defined or merely suggested. I run this website purely as a hobby and as such I don’t like taking on unnecessary work or responsibilities.
A few months ago, a representative of E2046 asked me if I would be interested in reviewing their figure of Thalia. I was a little hesitant to accept, being that I take great pride that this site is completely independent and is, at least in my perception, detached from the larger figure-collecting community, which is how I like it. However, I find it difficult to turn down free stuff, even if strings are attached, and in this case, the only obligation I would undertake would be to photograph and review the figure, which I’ve been doing for years, anyway. Therefore, I agreed that I would review Thalia; they shipped me the figure and here she is.
Thalia is part of E2046’s ORI series of figures, which are figures that they have designed and sculpted themselves. Some of them are based off of existing characters from anime and video games while others are original creations. Thalia belongs to the latter category, or at least I’m fairly certain she does. Her product description indicates that she is based off of Greek mythology, which seems to represent a new product series for the ORI lineup, as many of their earlier original figures drew from East Asian culture instead.
This figure is sculpted in 1/6 scale and stands about 27 centimeters tall, excluding the base. Like most garage kit figures, she’s made of a resin material rather than PVC, which means that she’s rather more prone to breakage in transit. Fortunately, my figure arrived intact; indeed, I was impressed by how securely she was packed, with numerous little foam pillows placed around her to keep her from moving while being shipped.
Before going into the actual review I should mention that this review is an opinion, not an endorsement. I’m not foolish enough to think that my views are inoculated against influence due to getting free loot, but I did tell the E2046 representative that I am going to do my best to maintain as much objectivity as I can. The figure is the only free thing that I received; I don’t get any additional benefits, kickbacks, commission, or free cookies from any of the links listed above.
So with that out of the way, I’ll state up front that I wasn’t planning on buying this figure, mainly because she is completely dressed and the ORI figures that I already own tend to be scantily-clad. I’ll acknowledge that that is perhaps a poor personal principle but it is still a principle. However, seeing the figure in person, I’m really impressed by with how nicely her clothing and armor look. She has sort of a fiery dragon or demonic motif going on, with horns and scales sprouting from her arms and shoulders; one can’t help thinking of Blizzard’s Diablo series of dungeon crawler games, whose demon designs often feature a similar style. (Speaking of Diablo, I was strongly considering buying Sideshow’s Diablo statue, being that I heard that the villain is spawned from a female host, which I thought was neat. Then I heard that Diablo still has a male voice, despite a relatively effete appearance, and so I changed my mind; I don’t have many rules about figure collecting but one that I do have is that I generally don’t buy figures of dudes.)
I should mention that the figure I received was pre-painted by E2046; I have neither the ability nor the equipment to paint model figures myself. They did a really superb job with it; her armor is painted in multiple gradations of red, burgundy, orange, and yellow, which strongly catches the eye. Different finishes are used to suggest texture, with her dress showing a glossy look while her bodysuit features a metallic sheen.
One thing I probably would have preferred be colored differently is the part covering her bust, which is a creamy white; personally, I think it might look better if it were the same burgundy color as her suit, to keep it looking consistent.
While Thalia is fully covered up, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any fanservice; like most of E2046’s ORI figures, she has a really nice-looking rear.
Thalia has a rather unusual facial expression, with her eyes looking up at something with her mouth hanging open This is obviously not a standard expression and therefore one cannot help but wonder what might cause this look. Perhaps she sees Zeus dribbling towards her in a shower of gold? Or maybe she has an Amazon Prime subscription and she spies one of those delivery drones flying in with her package? At any rate, I think a more standard expression, with eyes level and mouth closed, would’ve been the better choice. (I should point out that anyone building the model kit can paint the eyes as he or she sees fit.)
Thalia has a cute hairdo with a long, girly ponytail. It’s a bit hard to see due to the flame wreath on her forehead and personally, I would’ve been okay with dispensing with that; I’ve never been a big fan of sculpting special effects out of PVC or resin. Fire, water, lightning bolts, lasers, gasses – they tend to not look that great in plastic. The wreath is painted quite nicely, though, with a similar flamey pattern as her armor.
At first look, her pose seems a little stiff, but now that I look at her some more, I like how it looks; it gives her a stoic, imperturbable air, which seems fitting for someone with the power to control flames. It also helps that she has a strong, sexy arch to her back.
Overall, I think Thalia looks quite nice, though what is more impressive is the workmanship, particularly in regard to her paint job. Her sculpt is also very striking, especially the horns curling off of her shoulders. Obviously there are a few things I would have preferred to have been done differently, and I would have also liked it better if she were wearing fewer clothes, but her design is still attractive, and I’m happy to own this figure.
WOW! Just WOW! What a nice color, her dress is really blazing :D! I rarely see something looks like this. though there are something that i think can be better like her face. Her face is rather weird especially with that stiff looking pose. And i think her breastplate’s color should be red like her dress color, or if they want a different color i think other option is silver like a knight armor. That pose, although it’s rather stiff but it still looks good in some angles. I agree with you Tier that it’s better if it’s sexier. It still can be sexier without showing more skin, but making it looks like muv-luv suit for example.
Yeah, I think a red breastplate would’ve been better; that would’ve made it look more like armor. As it is, it kinda reminds me of the school uniforms from Love, Election & Chocolate (which are good uniform designs, but I have the feeling Thalia isn’t supposed to resemble an anime schoolgirl). One can definitely be sexy without showing skin though if it were up to me, I’d be all for showing more skin (which is kinda an unpopular opinion these days; I notice that there are a lot of overly vocal people who dislike that sort of thing).
This sort of figure isn’t my cup of tea either, but in her own right, she looks fantastic. Kudos to E2046’s workshops for delivering such a complex paint job. Your photos make her shine even more. I like that “Mount Doom” theme 😀
It’s kinda funny, I figured she was from some sort of classical period so I set up my usual “temple” backdrop with a crumbling brick wall and big-ass Greek columns; then I unboxed her and the first thing I saw was that her base is supposed to look like molten lava or something. I figured that would look silly with that kind of indoors backdrop so I recycled this background from the Velvet shoot; it’s actually the same exact parts.
Reminds me heavily of the Infernal Dobok from blade and soul. unless i just missed that part. lol
I haven’t played Blade & Soul but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they drew inspiration from it; a lot of their figures have been patterned off designs from Korean MMOs, especially Lineage II. I love the character designs from those games (when Blizzard announced they were revamping the character models in World of Warcraft, I was kinda hoping they’d hire some people from NCsoft to do it). Hopefully the anime adaptation is good.
For reference;
http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/bladeandsoul.gamepedia.com/d/df/Infernal_f_dobok.jpg?version=f6952b1c4b1dc297253c294f0b8376b7
BnS was a lot of fun, but i was playing it untranslated on the Chinese beta :/ So it was really hard. I’ve been waiting for years for an English version but I don’t think it’s going to come ;_;.
I guess the main artist from BnS left NCSoft though, maybe Blizzard will pick him up.
Ah, yes, they borrowed it completely from the game, then XD It’d be nice if they made some figures based on some of the other Blade & Soul designs, which are very nice. Perhaps if the anime does well NCsoft or someone will take another look at setting up an English version of the game. (I really never though that Scarlet Blade Online would get a US adaptation, but I suppose it shows that anything is possible.)
Not a fan of the facial expression but that’s a kickass outfit. I like your backdrop too.
I’m surprised you were actually get a review figure from E2046. They reached out to me some time ago, but went silent when I brought up the idea -_-
Haha, yeah, it was their idea; I’m not too comfortable asking for stuff, actually. The subtitle to this site is “Things that make me happy” and if I’m willing to drop my own money on stuff, it’s very likely that it’s going to make me happy. (Actually, I asked if they could provide an Asuka figure instead, which I would’ve liked better and would have been more positive about, which would probably have been better for their marketing purposes, but oh well.)
Sponsored figure, must be nice. Normally it demands lots of attention whoring, facebook likes and whatever, but you managed such a deal without any of that 😀
E2046 does a good job on painting these gk’s, they always look nice. I bought one figure from there, while it arrived a little damaged, the painting looked great.
Demon girls are really popular these days, I like the skin revealing ones a lot ^^
Thalia’s backside looks pretty good, its a cool outfit, the face reminds me of a frog, but ok.
I have no idea how one goes about getting free stuff but if that’s what it takes, I guess I won’t be getting any more free loot. I’m fine with that, though; I don’t even feel comfortable running banner ads here and looking around for handouts would make me feel pretty low.
Haha, yeah, they probably should’ve painted the eyes not looking off into the sky, it makes the imagination wander.
Haha well you probably need more things than just that.
Call it luck or getting in contact with the right person at the right time. It’s probably easier when using nasty social media like facebook , I can’t stand the navigation of its interface, I already fail to use this Google+, it’s so chaotic *argh*
As I started blogging I thought that it might be pretty convenient to be sponsored with figures, but it never happened anyway. Now, with a too large collection of figures, I rather buy the figures I had chosen by myself 😀
Im always quite positive about the figures in my reviews, but I mention what bothers me. That’s probably not what companies want to hear, I guess.
I would not mind placing an Ami Ami banner somewhere, though XD
Haha, indeed; I’ve kinda abandoned most social media things. Even Twitter is pretty dull. Admittedly, that’s partly because nobody really responds to my trolling anymore.
Twitter is designed to be social media, but it can be surprisingly lonely XD Many I know also have to deal with ignored tweets most of the time. Yet it is nice to have a little chat from time to time.
Indeed! At least from what I can tell, most people aren’t really interested in having conversations on Twitter, and I guess it’s not really well-suited for that, anyway. It’s kinda funny, I was talking to a friend a few days back and I was telling him I was thinking about getting a smartphone, except I’d hate to be one of those guys who goes out to lunch with work colleagues and then whips out a phone at the first pause in the conversation (this has happened at every work lunch I’ve gone to). My friend laughed and told me that the smartphone is the best thing ever made to avoid conversation; it’s hilarious how all these social media things and communication tools can make it harder for people to actually talk to each other.
Nice. For once a woman equipped with decent armour instead of a bikini.
Beauty isn’t always about skin; i wish modern civilisation had better understanding of that.
Mad carving details; well done. But i agree with you it is extremely difficult to express dynamic elemental effects with hard static plastic. Somebody needs to invent a fluid ethereal substance that can animate.
http://myfigurecollection.net/picture/475620
http://myfigurecollection.net/picture/475620
Haha, if she were wearing war panties or something, I would’ve probably been far more effusive in praise. Yeah, special effects tend to not look that great in plastic, in my opinion (I’m not a fan of the weirdo transparent hair that so many manufacturers – particularly Alter – seem to like, for some reason or another). Talking about special fluid substances reminds me how much I wish I picked up a jar of Daiki Gel back when I had the chance.
Daiki Gel… please elaborate.
Daiki Gel! It’s been a few years since it was released. Apparently it was some sort of viscous slime that could be applied to figures. I think it was supposed to be formulated so that it could be re-used, which I assume means that it was easy to clean up. They made a green version and a version that was sort of a pale aqua blue, but they never did make a creamy white version, for some reason. Here’s an example of how it might be used in practice.
It seems that her right eye is smaller than the left eye, or maybe that’s just because of the helmet yeah? I agree with the expression, it looks rather weird. Maybe a stern expression would be more fitting given how menacing her armor looks and her stoic pose as you’ve said.
Outside of her face, dayum that amount of detailining on her armor is comparable to the amount o’ve seen with Kotobukiya’s Dark Angel Olivia. I love the bulges on the side armor skirt as well as it makes it look like magma flowing down
I’m still waiting on Olivia, being that I ordered it from a US retailer. I guess I’ll be getting mine in a month or so, assuming the retailer is able to fulfill it. Yeah, I think a more direct expression with Thalia looking level at the viewer would’ve worked better; the eyes are really important and people will always notice if they look unusual.
oh yeah, I got contacted by them as well, but I declined. Nothing to do with being all high and mighty about being independent but they simply don’t sit so well with me, given their history and business.
then again, free stuff is free.. Can’t remember the last time I bought something from them though.
I can’t reply in the initial comment, but let me say some more
Yeah using smartphones like this is completely rude and somehow sad when people always touch their screen in a conversation, faking to pay attention.
But you can use them for other things and in another way. I have no twitter installed on my smartphone and have no facebook account anyway, I use my thing mainly for phone calls and sms. What I like about these gadgets is that they have an appealing design, have a bigger high resolution screen in comparison to old mobiles, for anime illustration backgrounds lol. Its also nice to do pc related things without the “big machine” like checking for emails. The easily available hd video feature is great and you can use a number of handy tools/apps for every day life.
In fact I got my first smartphone just two weeks ago. I’m still learning 😉 I’m most amazed at the display quality because that’s what springs right into your eyes. It’s also amazing that one single smartphone has more computing power than a Saturn V rocket. On a lot of users it appears to be wasted though lol
One can do so many things with it, it’s fascinating. And yes, it’s a great conversation killer. What’s more, it’s a most effective time killer. In addition to learning all the possibilities it offers you, it’s even more important to learn how to use it efficiently.
I’ll probably be getting one soon, as soon as I stop being lazy and mail in my state tax return and get my refund (the tax software I use costs like $25 to send in my state return, and I found that they’re the ones who lobbied the Virginia state government to discontinue their online software [which was both free and very easy to use] so that they could sell more software, so I’m not at all inclined to give them more money). I still need to decide which phone I want to get, I guess. (On a related note, I recently bought a new laptop, in part because the tablet I’ve had for a couple years doesn’t quite do everything I want it to do. I’m pretty amused by all those claims a while back that tablets were going to take over the laptop market.)
Haha, indeed, it’s pretty funny; my friend was telling me that whenever he gets into the elevator at his office and he sees someone who looks interested in starting a conversation, he’ll just take out his phone and stare at it. That said, I’m certain they are very useful devices for other things and I’m kinda surprised I don’t have one yet (not really because I don’t want one, but more because until T-Mobile started up their no-contract plans, I really hated the idea of paying $100/mo for a phone plan, being that I rarely make phone calls and I’ve never sent a text message in my life).
I have a few figures from E2046 and have always found them to be a mixed bag. They always seems to put a great deal of effort into the heads – the faces are always painted quite well and there is a great depth of detail to the hair, usually with detailed shading etc. The rest of the figures are often quite bland with paint often applied evenly over a section of similar colours. I have a Jingai Makyo figure from them which is particularly bland.
The fact that they actually added the extra detail and shading on this figure of yours is very nice – I imagine it must depend on the individual/team who are working on particular figures.
To be honest I have greatly reduced my figure buying over the last 18months – I used to be on 1-3 figures a month, now It is mainly just figures I ordered a while ago (although I did recently order the new 7 sins figure as she looked too good to pass up). Amusingly, out of the blue I just received the Volks Justina Marseille figure which I must have ordered (and paid for) 2 years ago. That was a little unexpected.
My figure buying has dropped as well, partly because of prices and partly because I have no space. That’s also one reason why I’m getting lazier about photographing stuff, since every figure I take out of its box to photograph means having to find display space for (I guess I could just put it back in its box too, but that seems pretty silly). I probably need to re-organize my shelves, as I haven’t altered their setups in years.
As always, I love the backdrop and lighting you used in this set. I always love to see your work. The face expression is a bit off for me but they did a good job on the sculpt and paint.
Getting sponsored figures is pretty cool. I’ve been getting one from figure companies as well, I try to enjoy the free stuff and do what I usually do -take photos and say what I really feel. They found you as who you are, so just be yourself. 😉
I recently bought my first ever smartphone and it’s really a great tool to kill time, I don’t like the idea to use it to avoid conversation though. Well at some point, it might be a life-saver to some (in avoiding people). But sometimes, you never know what you can get in actual conversation. 🙂
Thanks! Yeah, it’s pretty cool, though I’m still a little uncomfortable with the idea, unless I get a figure I would have otherwise bought. I am not at all interested in promoting myself or this website, though, so I don’t expect this situation to recur.
I’m guessing people buy smartphones for different reasons; my main reason is actually because I have a terror of my car being disabled and leaving me stranded without a way to get help, and a smartphone would make it a lot easier for me to call a taxi or tow truck. (It’s sort of a strange reason but it’s happened to me before and it wasn’t a lot of fun.) Other than that I can think of situations where it would be handy to have, though I’d feel a little silly about getting one since I also own a tablet and just bought a new laptop, devices that smartphones are ostensibly supposed to replace at one level or another.