Final Fantasy XIII Play Arts Kai Volume 2

Hi everyone,

I have just received two "surprise" packages yesterday after waiting for them for almost a month. Well, one had delivery issues and the other was just released. Of course, the element of surprise came from Shiva Motorcycle and it was really big and awesome.

Let us begin with a review of the latest FXIII figures first before checking out the bike in another post. As mentioned in my previous post http://confessionsofatoyaddict.blogspot.com/2010/01/release-dates-of-new-ffxiii-play-arts.html, Volume 2 of the FXIII Play Arts Kai series features 3 new figures from the FFXIII game i.e., Sazh Katzroy (no. 5), Hope Estheim (no. 6) and Oerba Yun Fang (no. 7). As usual, I will base my review on the four key features that make up the brand behind the Kai series.

Packaging
In terms of packaging, this time the boxes containing the figures are smaller in size in terms of its width because the figures do not come with the support stand. It is a bummer indeed. Besides that, the boxes are blue in colour compared to Volume 1 (green). Other than that, all the other features of the box remain the same i.e., height, logo, warning labels, description etc.

Size
Where size is concerned, Sazh and Yun Fang are comparable in terms of height. Sazh's height is about 22.5cm, Yun Fang about 1cm shorter at 21.5cm and Hope at 19.5cm. Well, Sazh seems a bit bulkier since he has his green trench coat on whereas Yun Fang and Hope are slender. Here is a quick look at their height.

Character details

This is another area that most toy collectors would love to scrutinise. Generally, in terms of looks, all three of them are unique but in terms of quality, Sazh seems to be better of compared to Yun Fang and Hope. I will tell you my reasons ... let the pictures do the talking ...

Sazh Katzroy

Hope Estheim

Oerba Yun Fang

There are no blemishes found in all three figures unlike the one I found on Snow (boils). The cufflings, coat, buttons, shoes and emblem on Sazh's right shoulder look detailed with nice colour tones. For Hope, his scarf tied around his neck looks good with his orange vest. His pants has nice details. There are two "strings" tied to the back of his pants... I did not notice that in-game. For Yun Fang, she looks sexy in her metallic blue saree. I can actually see the metallic gloss on her saree like the one in-game. At first I thought I will not be able to see that on the figure but I was mistaken. Even her hair is glossy. Good job SE. I can also see Yun Fang's Le'Cie mark on her left shoulder. However, I cannot see the mark on Sazh (covered by his shirt) and Hope (covered by his gloves).

The designs on her saree are great. I can clearly see the designs of the fringe of her saree. However, I think one part of the design on her behind is not complete. Look at the following picture and check out the left side of the white design ...looks like it has been erased.

Next, lets look at the facial details ... Out of the three, Sazh seems to have the best facial details. Here is why.

Well, you can see from the facial expression above and judge for yourself. Sazh can be said to be clean cut compared to Hope and Yun Fang. You can see Sazh's mustache, goatee and of course his signature Darlie grin clearly. Hope seems to have a "bad hair" day due to uneven colouring of his silver locks. Besides that, I noticed that the colour tone for Hope's hair is slightly different and he has pale lips. Look at the picture below. For Yun Fang, it is her lip problem like Lightning previously... No smear on the eyes for all three figures though.

The colour tone/shade of the font part of Hope's hair seems to be lighter than the back portion of his hair. Perhaps different colour pallet of silver is used to create a shading effect but from the picture above, the effect did not work well. It looks like two tones pieced together. You can actually see the joint lines between the front and back part of his hair because of the difference in colour tone. So I can conclude that despite Sazh having a "bird nest" on his head, he looks best in terms of facial details and colour. 

Points of articulation

The three figures have nice points of articulation. They can actually mimic certain stance in-game. Hope can actually sit with his legs folded. This cannot be done for previous Play Arts figures. I did not try various poses for this review. Here are some ...

 

Please access the following link for more poses: http://www.finalfantasymerchandise.com/blog/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1204 

Credits: Thanks to bro zelu1984 from FF Merchandise forum.

Additional parts

There additional parts for Volume 2 are roughly the same as Volume 1 i.e., hands and weapons. The weapons look cool. Sazh comes with dual pistols, Hope with his boomerang and Yun Fang with her 3 point staff.

Hope's boomerang and Yun Fang's three-point staff feature interesting details compared to Sazh's black pistols.

Despite having some defects in paint job, FXIII Play Arts Volume 2 is still a good buy for die hard FFXIII fans. I just hope that in future, Square Enix will be able to improve on all areas so that the package will be perfect for all Final Fantasy fans around the world. You can definately see the improvement in this Kai series compared to the previous releases.