FFXIII Play Arts Kai Volume 1

This is my review on the latest Play Arts series by Square Enix. A little bit of background on the new "Kai" series.The Kai series is a brand built upon the set of play arts produced by Square Enix. The Kai brand focuses on 4 key attributes in the play arts: greater attention to detail, more points of articulation, additional extra parts and larger size figures. The goal with these new attributes is to increase the element of realism in the play arts. I will use these 4 key features to write my review.

Let us begin by looking at the packaging.

Packaging

The boxes are slightly bigger than previous releases. This is because the figures are meant to be bigger this time around. I like the choice of colours used for the boxes. It is pearl white with shades of emerald green. It is kind of similar to the box used for Kingdom Hearts Play Arts Sora Final Form. Here is comparison in terms of size of the box. The Kai logo and FFXIII are printed at the bottom of each box in metallic silver. You can also see that the height of the figure is also taller than the previous Play Arts figure.

Size

The size of the figures is bigger, bulkier and heavier (last 2 attributes applies to Snow only). Lightning and Vanille stand at roughly 23cm whereas Snow is slightly taller, about 26cm. Since men are meant to be tougher, so Snow is built to be bulkier and heavier. That is also why he is the best "defender" in the game.

Here is another comparison that I have made with regards to height. I compared Lightning with Cloud from FFVII Play Arts Volume 1.

Character details

Next, let us look at character details. This is usual the key area that all toy collectors look for in the play arts.

Lightning

Snow

Vanille

This time, the details are great but I have picked up several defects. First, facial expression and details. The facial expression for all three characters are generally good but I like Snow's facial expression best. Here is why....

 

 

Based on the pics above, you can actually see abit of Snow's mustache and even though his hair is covered by a bandana, he looks good. The outlines of his eyes are fine but I still prefer the eyes for FFXII Play Arts best.

If you compare with Lightning and Vanille, Lightning's facial expression seems to be the worst of the lot. It is due the "defect" that I have spotted on her lips i.e., the red line that separates the upper and lower lip. I think she would look better without the red line. You will not be able to spot defect without close inspection. Lightning's lips is the so called defect here. For my Lightning, the thin red line seems to be fine if viewed from far and also close up. I went to several toy shops to check on this and found out that the red line appears to be a rough line that causes slight smearing on Lightning's mouth upon close inspection. Well, if the red line is like the one on the Joker, then obviously, it would be rejected straight away.

Here are some pics that shows Lightning with nice lips.

Image courtesy of soulsync and zelu1984 from XL-Shop Toys Forum

In case of Vanille, the lower lip (lobe) appears to be too thin. It looks some sort like Japanese geisha when they use small brush to colour their lower lip. This lowers her cuteness factor.  Luckily, mine was not affected.

For Snow, there seems to be some defect on his back. I noticed some spots on his back. Looks like boils.

I only noticed the I'Cie Mark on Snow's left hand but not for Lightning and Vanille. Lightning is supposed to have one near her chest area and Vanille's on her upper thigh but it was not there.

Let us look at colour details now. Generally, the colours used are realistic. With good colour details, the Play Arts can actually show battle damage details. However, I found some colouring defects in this area as well. It appears on Lightning. Check my close up on Lightning's face. Did you spot any colour defects? Look at her Adam's apple area. There is a smear on it and the collar of her jacket seems to be dirty. Perhaps the dirty part of her collar is meant to reflect battle damage details but certainly not the smear. Colour details on Snow and Vanille seem to be fine though.

Points of articulation

Next we move on to another favourite topic of Play Arts review. Points of articulation. This topic is laudable. The Play Arts can pose in various positions due to their intricate points of articulation. I'm not sure how many points of articulation are there but you can pose is various complicated poses with the new points of articulation. Even the base stand can be articulated now. Here are some of my poses of Snow and Vanille.

The lower part of Snow's trench coat can be removed or open up.

I tried to do the pose right after Vanille summoned Hecatonheir and ordered it to attack where she twists her waist 180 degrees but cannot. The above is just a similar pose for the lulz.

Important Note

The joints are fragile. Take care of the joints when you do different poses. The joints are easily detachable but you can fix it back. I do not know if this is good or bad but please exert care when you want to pose your figures. I have this problem with Snow and Vanille when I did some of their poses to take pictures. The kneeling one for Snow and the "turn back" pose for Vanille where Snow's leg and Vanille's upper body was detached. 

Additional parts

The additional parts to all figures are great. Lightning can pose with her gun or blade mode and Vanille can decide to keep her staff if she needs to do so. However, Snow does not come with weapons but just additional hands.

There are two similar weapons for both Lightning and Vanille.

Additional parts from the box

Above all, I feel that FFXIII Play Arts is a good buy despite some defects in colour details and molding. The new attributes added to the Play Arts will gain the attention of many FF collectors out there. I look forward to FFXIII Play Arts Kai Volume 2 which features Hope Esthiem, Sazch Katzroy and Oerba Yun Fang.