Tomopop Review: Alter's 1/7 Sankt Kaiser Vivio Takamachi

3:00 PM on 09.02.2010   |   Call Niero

Vivio is part of Alter's StrikerS series, which currently has 13 figures if you count both colorways of Vita. I think loli Nanoha is also excluded from the StrikerS title, but since loli Fate is in the line we're just gonna pretend that it has 13 figures. Anyway, this series (figures, not anime!) has been around since 2008, and all the boxes match which is why Vivio's is so damn plain.

And here she is! Vivio is marked as 1/7 scale, but I swear to god she is 1/6. I mean, this figure is huge. And not just height-wise (she is 11" by the way), but her proportions are that of a 1/6 figure. I'm certainly not going to complain because I really like larger figures, and it was a pleasant surprise for me since I don't have any other figures from this line yet. 

Ah, heterochromia. Sadly, multi-colored eyes are a rarity in anime, which is a shame because it adds a lot to a character design. Vivo's vivid green and red eyes stand out against the blue and black that dominates her outfit. The eyes have an awesome and interesting shape, nice and pointy in contrast to the wide-eyed look a lot of figures have. I know some people are not fans of "yelling" figures, but I for one love Vivio's angry face. She looks really pissed-off, and even without knowing her character, her face sculpt and detailing give me a sense of who she is. 

Vivio is slightly less interesting from the back, though this is true of most figures. There are very few that look just as good from the back, and only two spring to mind. Vivo's back view is detailed enough to keep me from being disappointed, so I guess in the end that's what matters!

Oh man ... I don't even know where to start talking about the job Alter did on her hair. I mean, just look at it. They sculpted where it is coming out of her head! The sculpting is phenomenal, as is the paint and shading. I think Alter needs to stop making figures that are so damn awesome because 1) they steal all my money away and 2) it's getting near impossible for other companies to keep up. Their two big competetors, GSC and Max Factory, have been having issues. Max Factory is just terrible at shading sometimes, particularly on hair (see Seena and VN02 Miku for examples of this), and GSC's quality control has taken a nose dive. Yes, they all make amazing figures, but after getting a recent batch of Alter's figures, I find that it's hard to compete with their craftsmanship. Ahem ... enough with the Alter fanboy-ism. And just in case anyone was confused, I wasn't knocking the other companies. I love all of their figures! 

Vivio's swirling ball of doom was a much different color in the test shots. I remember being dismayed when the first pictures of the final product came out, but now that I have her I think the pale amber works much better than the clear plastic originally used. It reflects the light wonderfully and has an awesome rainbow tint. If, however, you don't like it, it is easy enough to pop out but you are left with a rather odd hole in her hand.

Vivio's hands are rather claw-like. Those nails are way too long to be natural fingernails! They actually look rather cat-like and menacing. Definitely claws. Lesson learned from this: don't mess with the Holy Queen of Sorrow, because she will scratch you.

Vivio has gems on several parts of her outfit. They are made of a nice material that does not look cheap, and mimics the look of real gems nicely. I mean they don't look like sapphires, but this is a plastic toy, this is as good as you're gonna get! Their turquoise color stands out nicely against the darker blues and blacks of her outfit, making for a nice colorful pop.  

I know that Vivio used to be a little girl and then went through some transformation sequence, but damn, it made her grow up fast. Vivio is particularly well endowed, though her chest actually reacts to gravity so she does not look like she has balloons stuck to her. I think it's funny that her suit, which I assume is made of some sort of latex, is lighter over her chest, implying that her breasts are really stretching it to the limit.

I have not talked much about the details of Vivio's outfit, but they are all fantastic. The folds in the sleeves are very well done and the shading is beautiful. Sometimes shading on dark colors looks a bit funky and unnatural, but it is pulled off nicely here.

Vivio's catsuit has these odd little coattails. They are made of what seems to be pure ABS so they are very brittle, but won't bend at all over time. It seems like a fair enough trade-off, so just be sure to be careful when moving her. 

Okay, what is up with the super-detailed nether regions that so many figures seem to have? We saw it on both Minato and Tamaki, and now Vivio here is given a serious case of camel-toe. I just find it very strange that figures that are not at all cast-off are very detailed down there. I mean, does anyone buy Vivio because she is super-ero?

While I have been singing the praises of this figure so far, there is one area where Vivio really falls flat. Yeah, the base. It's just... so boring. All the StrikerS figures have similar bases, and they honestly suck. A big slab of white plastic that takes up waaay more space than necessary is just stupid. I think I am going to make her a new base, because she is just too awesome to be relegated to a mediocre base.

Base aside, Vivio is an utterly amazing figure. I highly recommend adding her to your collection! She seems to have been a pretty popular figure and sold out at a few places already, but if you are willing to pay her 7800 yen retail price (damn cheap for a figure of this size!), you can still find her at HLJ and Hobby Search.

Thanks to Stephen Donaldson for taking these pictures! You can check out the rest of them in the gallery. We had a hard time deciding where to shoot Vivio, and all the pictures of her in this form seem to be at a church. So we went to a church! We are actually in the alley of the one behind my house, since we already shot Adelicia on the steps and we are saving a very special figure for the garden. Ooh, who could it be?! Hint: she's a paladin princess who was just released!

[Thanks to HLJ for providing Tomopop with this review sample]