“Listen to some appropriately Epic Music for full effect”Hola one and all from the tourist trap of the Americas!
Ah in any case it appears that while Chags is searching for my souvenir (No bootlegs though…Well if its a nice bootleg…) I’ve been left behind to entertain yall…Oh what a poor decision maker you are Chags. Me being the perv that I am of course the first thing I shall review on this fine upstanding site is a lovely half-naked warrior goddess who most easily becomes a topless warrior goddess!
“Dem Abs!”Well then in any case he’s already gotten my intro out of the way earlier thankfully so hopefully you’ll enjoy reading this fluff piece as much as I enjoyed writing it eh!
I will tell you one thing I seem to pick unpopular characters…Take Claudette here for example. I could have picked any multitude of Queen’s Blade characters who have several figures (Except for you Irma…Seems Figure manufacturers like you even less…poor thing.) Ah but no I had to pick Claudette who despite being a Major plot character and the freaking main antagonist of the Rebellion spin-off series has managed to go without a figure for this long.
“Claud is Badass and she damn well knows it!”Thankfully Griffon saw fit to finally bring us this rendition of Claudette while Megahouse (My preferred QB figure maker by a long shot) is off gleefully cranking out Rebellion figures based on characters few know with questionable marketability…*sigh*
While I wouldn’t say I hate Griffon they have a tendency to make very plain figures. Not particularly bad in that Taki or Movic way, but they certainly lack a certain charm that even mid-tier companies like Megahouse and Koto can bring to the table.
“Sword lacks in detail sadly…Looks slightly like a flat plastic spoon”
BUT at the point I broke down and ordered this figure I frankly didn’t care anymore…The pose looked fine and their was nothing glaringly OOC about her appearance so order I did. Now the question becomes will this be just another mediocre Griffon figure or have they managed to make something a slavish fan like myself can be proud to own…
*que dramatic music*
Box gets you off on the right foot atleast. Fairly good sized with nice big windows and some lightning graphics. If they did a slightly better job on the interior packaging she’d probably make for a fine “display in the box” kinda figure. Ah well lets crack this sucker open…Mmm that new PVC smell…gotta love it.
“Hair is very under detailed and bloby,but the windswept look of it is conveyed decently.”
Bleh great no instructions yet again…Thank god I’m well versed at disassembling girly figures then! For anyone out there yet to get yours instructions are as follows…Pop the head off, pull bra down, lift torso off, lift bra off, lift skirt off. Put back on whatever you may or may not want. Lastly slot her sword behind her before putting the head back on…and voila! One Lightning General all ready to go (And possibly sans skirt or bra now *cough*).
Mmm first impression is basically looks the same as the promo shots…Nothing that thrills ya, but the pose is solid with a decently stoic expression. So lets delve a bit deeper and see what we see shall we!
“Lower back and skirt is quite nice though!”Sculpting is fairly well done…Especially on the metal parts of her armor. All looks fairly detailed and appropriately heavy feeling. Her body of course being mostly exposed seems to have been given the lions share of the attention though…She’s not quite as muscular as her lovely book illustrations, but she still maintains a fairly well stoned body befitting her character.
Her hair is so-so at best though…It’s waviness is well executed, but the overall look is still woefully low on detail sadly looking mostly like a red blob. The sides of her panties cut a bit too deep and unrealistically into her however…Instead of merely feeling like their tight its more like they just gouged out part of her body and slotted the black lines into her. The skirt fares far better though billowing out nicely and giving her a nice dominating appearance.
“Underboob FTW!”Paint pretty much follows suit…Some very nice shading done on her body proper and the metal armor bits. The sword however didn’t quite get as much love as her headgear and forearm metal bits, instead looking very much cheap and plastic which is more then a little sad considering how prominently you see it with this pose.
Skirt is a nice flat black and her little details like the belt and necklace is all neat and proper in its painting. They did go the extra mile to paint her nails both hand and toe variety, which is always a nice touch.
“Some more muscle would have been nice,but its a nice midsection just the same”
“And so as the naive boy was basking in the knowledge that he had purchased a fairly well made figure he thought to impudently remove the ladies garments…But what this young lad did not know was the unfathomable horror…The blood curdling truth that would confront him from committing this act…OH THE HUMANITY”
*end scene*
Wow Griff…Not sure what to say here…hmmm…F*ck you? Yea that sounds about right…
So what once was a half decent figure becomes a nightmare when you remove her top and skirt and your quickly confronted with problem upon problem. First the torso…when you take her bra off the somewhat noticeable gap where the bra strap wraps around her back becomes a MASSIVE eye sore…I mean just wow. She suddenly gains a hideously gruesome gash through her back now…great.
“………wtf is this Griff?”Moving lower we get smacked upside the head with a massive concealed paint flaw…A large white smear of paint along with a few more smaller smears here and there for good measure that were nicely concealed by her skirt become painfully obvious. I can only guess that white is from when her skin was painted because her skirts completely black so it wasn’t paint transfer from that….Just pathetic.
Oh but don’t worry there IS paint transfer from her skirt…everywhere…specks and splotches of black dotted all over. Oh yea and can’t forget some nice seam lines scarring most of her thighs around the sides and backs here, there, and everywhere…yes wouldn’t want to forget those…
“Those smudges are sadly not on your monitor or from a dirty lens…”Ugh seriously this is beyond bad. This is a QB figure which are pretty much known for being cast-off Ero figures and to have the cast-off be this horror inducingly bad is inexcusable. I may not like to display my figures casted-off, but I know plenty that do and this level of quality is just flat out offensive in a figure of this cost. Shame on you Griff…
Meh lastly her base is just a plain ol’ black plastic affair with a small metal plaque. Only thing bad I can say about it is its twice as big as it needed to be…Honestly I’m hurting for display space already Griff gimme a break…
In any case if you can put aside the mental scarring that comes from seeing her with her clothes removed she still is a somewhat decent rendition of Claud. She’s got the right pose, expression, and proportions to satisfy most fans…But honestly…I wish I’d waited for Megahouse. Maybe they won’t make one of her…Maybe they will…But sitting here looking at their recently released Ymir…Yea they’d beat the hell out of Griff up and down the street…
Pros
- Good solid pose.
- Nice stoic expression.
- Only Claud figure to be had for now
Neutral
- Serviceable paint and details on outer clothing…
Negatives
- And a flat out hideous job on her underwear
- Paint errors, transfers, and half-assed sculpting make her cast-off feature turn a passable figure into a giant piece of crap that even trading figures would laugh at.
Final thoughts
Keep her clothes on and pray Mega comes to their senses and releases a Claud that you can display half naked in all her muscle bound domineering glory…Until then consul yourself with her original book illustrations. T_T
“There have another clothed picture to try and forget the cast-off ones…”P.S. Sorry for the rather lackluster shots…You’ll probably notice from hereon that the photography quality (And the amount I write) directly ties into how much I liked the figure…Ah in this case I was so excited then the cast-off thing and…yea…Damn you Griff!!! *shakes an angry fist*
Also sorry to disappoint, but no nudie shots mostly because A. I forgot to ask Chags if I was allowed to post em and B. I genuinely screwed up the angles on most of them. Not missing much though just some outright horrible sculpting work on her upper back and some passably well done breasts to try and distract you from said back problem…
On a brighter note though I got my nifty Miku phonestrap with this Claud order so alls well in the end…Mmmm Miku…
One reply on “Review: 1/7 Claudette "Lord of Thundercloud"”
Mine also lacked on a sealing tape. Additionally it seems like the gold paint on her right arm already dissolved. (It looks like bleeding of a syrup like transparent substance. Hopefully there is a chance to carefully remove it). I also agree that the base is to huge for her size and wastes a lot of space. This is my first figure i disliked directly after unboxing.