Saber Alter Maid ver.

It's been a while since I took any photos of my figures, and after spending way too long trying to find the camera, the battery charger, the USB cable etc (all of which were hidden in completely different locations) I'm starting to remember why. Still, I took a few quick photos. My photography skill is as poor as ever, but I'm sure Saber's greatness will shine through anyway. Or something like that.

I actually forgot she was even coming, since she was a prepaid purchase right back at the start of the year. It was a nice surprise when I got the shipping notice. This is the second release of this figure, with the first being in 2010 if I recall. Apparently this rerelease has been given a once-over and has a few improvements in the figure itself, though I'm unsure of the details.

Mini Saber has her own tiny base and mop, and is quite cute.

Frills and ribbons everywhere. As expected of Alter, the quality's very high. The maid uniform itself is very detailed, and the accessories are too. The rusty bucket in particular is quite nice, though a bit fiddly to attach. It swings loosely, with the handle being two separate parts that attach to small holes in Saber's hand, and at the other end looping through a larger hole in the bucket itself. The mop is just loosely held in place, it won't fall out of her hand but her hand will slide up and down the shaft pretty easily. No, that's not meant to be a euphemism.

Her stockings are just great. It's not so visible in my photos but there are folds and creases around the knees and ankles, and the top of her stockings has all the frills and ribbons you could hope for. Her hair is nicely done too, and has no visible join line.

There are a couple of paint errors, on one of her cuffs and on the ribbon on her back, but nothing particularly noticeable.

The obligatory lewder shots. Just when you didn't think there could be any more ribbons...

And mini Saber diligently mopping her own tiny base. The mop is just resting on her hands, but she's doing her best anyway.

Overall it's bit hard to display just because of how big she is - Saber's 1/6 scale, which is larger than most of my other figures, and the base itself is really large so she takes up even more room. I'll probably have to give her an entire shelf. Damn, I really need more than one Detolf for all my figures to be rotated through.

My photos really don't do her justice, she looks brilliant. She's actually my first 'maid' figure, which is surprising. Maybe they're all this frilly and I'm here getting excited about nothing! Either way, she looks very nice sitting on display with my other Sabers. At least it's not another Miku.

Figure details:

Name: Saber Alter Maid ver.

Series: Fate/Hollow Ataraxia

Scale: 1/6

Company: Alter

Released: August 2012 (rerelease)

I don't even know

It looks like I still don't have much to write about. I haven't made any posts about figures in ages and was planning on taking some photos of my Saber Alter Maid but to my crushing disappointment I figured out that she's being shipped by SAL rather than EMS as I had mistakenly thought. Well, maybe she'll be here by Christmas.

Speaking of figures stuck in the mail...

I tried out Dark Souls recently, with great expectations. I don't have a 360 controller for the PC as was recommended, but I had an old Xbox 1 controller that I'd grafted a USB connection onto (with the judicious application of both solder and luck), and thought that it'd be just as good. I was sorely mistaken. It turns out that the bumpers, which aren't present on the original Xbox controllers, are pretty damn essential, and that it's really not playable if I have to reach for the little black and white buttons to do my basic attack. I did block the shit out of some arrows though, so there was that.

Giving up that idea, I tried to substitute in the keyboard, but the damn mouse cursor wouldn't disappear. It was one of those little things that just frustrated the hell out of me so I decided to close the game for the night. I do have a 360 controller somewhere so I'll have to try and dig that out.

The game did seem pretty fun though, especially after I found the target lock button and stopped flailing at the air beside the enemies with each swing.

Totally age appropriate

I'm still adjudicating school debates, and it's moved onto the primary school competition. Last night I saw this in one of the classrooms as part of a series of poster things on public speaking. I found it rather amusing, and was curious as to whether the teacher who made it knew who the character was. Probably not. Probably for the best.