Review: 1/7 Tharja

“What is that?”

 “Why do you collect these things?”

 “You spent how much on this?”

As a figure collector, one is bound to run into questions like these sooner or later. Of course, there are many reasons why we love the things we do. Some may marvel at the detail and workmanship which go into the making of these mass-produced wonders, while others may appreciate the faithful depiction of their favourite characters in three dimensions. I’ve even seen the word “art” thrown around in discussions here and there.

But no matter how hard we may try to rationalize ourselves, sometimes we do it for reasons beyond reasoning, because sometimes we just want some plastic booty, and it is the quest for said booty that which had led met to Max Factory’s Tharja.

For the aforementioned, this figure had been on my radar ever since I saw it. Furthermore, It somehow became a frequent point of discussion when I first started going out with my fiancé. Though I was surprised (and slightly confused) at the degree of enthusiasm she had for Tharja’s big plastic booty, it has made a firm impression on my mind. Conveniently, since the her Animal Crossing 3DS fell to a state of perpetual neglect, I was happy to commandeer it for the sake of finally scratching this itch.

I very much enjoyed my time with the game, which I view as the tactical RPG equivalent of the Persona games. Like Persona, making friends plays a key part in your success, but Fire Emblem: Awakening ups the ante by giving the option to marry your team members, whose offspring then become recruitable units.

To a casual player, the friendship and marriage system is a very charming and light-hearted way to explore the game’s colourful cast. To the min-maxer, the stat and skill inheritance systems makes the game an exercise in weaponized breeding. But all in all, the game balances its friend-making and gameplay halves really well, and going out of my way to make sure certain characters are holding hands while murdering their enemies is a fun twist to an genre I already enjoy.

Tharja joins the team about a third of the way into the game. A dark mage with a penchant to try out experimental curses to satisfy her morbid curiosity, her personality was not what I envisioned from the figure. The game seldom provides a proper full-body view of the character, as the 2D sprites only go from the waist up and the 3D sprites are crude at best, so along with a few pieces of official art, this figure provides a rare full view of the character. To that note, I must say that many creative liberties were taken.

The Tharja I saw in the game is perpetually slouching, along with bags under her eyes to match her gloomy image. The figure on my desk has a back arched like a drawn bow and is showing off her ass as if she has a booth in the butt enthusiasts convention. If you squint real hard or point a macros lens at her face, you’ll make out faint dark patches which you probably mistook for eyeliner before.

So the body language and the face might feel a bit off for the game’s purists, but I can hardly hold it against the figure when she looks so good. Tharja has a palpable seductive aura to her. The suggestive way she places her fingers near her mouth and the teasing expressing in her eyes go a long way in achieving this, but they’re also supported by the more subtle aspects of the figure.

Tharja’s superbly sculpted cape painted in its deep, rich blue colour reminds me of bed sheets, and I’m sure that’s a part of sculptor’s design. Even the stack of books and the skull help to establish an atmosphere of intimacy that sucks the viewer in.

Of course, there’s only so much I can say without mentioning the elephant in the room: Tharja’s mighty ass. It is an ass people worthy of songs to be passed onto future generations, and for good reason. When placed in a dusty room, the gravitational forces generated by the sheer mass of her ass is known to create miniature moons orbiting it. Propped up by her shapely legs, it is the unabashed focal point of the figure. I’m not sure why her thong is so blocky, but I’ve never been to question the wisdom of large objects wedged between a woman’s legs.

The reason why I harp on about Tharja’s legs is not only because they’re long and shapely (of which they are), but also because they’re so singularly prominent in this figure. Between the cape and the placement of her arms in front of her chest, the viewer’s eyes are really corralled to either her face or legs. In that respect, this figure is all about presentation; are Tharja’s legs and bum really that objectively amazing? Probably not — it’s way the figure frames those parts that makes them great.

Tharja’s cape is removable by popping off her head and replacing large cape piece with a much smaller collar piece. However, as expected of a cast-off figure, she looks slightly off without her cape. The parts of her body which were covered by the cape (her shoulders and her waist) appear unnaturally small, creating a rather alien silhouette when combined with her large posterior and long legs.

Surprisingly, the figure does not plug into the base, which is just a felt-lined disk which also serves as a major dust magnet. Tharja balances on her own feet just fine, and without her cape and books, she looks like she’s in the middle of an idol dance routine.

 

Final Say

At the end of the day, Tharja’s elegance is what sets her apart. There’s no overblown display base and no acrobatic action pose to be found; rather, Tharja keeps things simple by setting the mood with her face and body language, then goes for the kill with the butt and legs that are impossible to look away from. With a bit of creative re-interpretation, the sculptor turned an unlikely character into a bombshell pin-up girl, so who knows — maybe Nintendo was onto something when they censored Tharja’s butt in the DLC after all.

Pros

• Alluring pose
• Detailed cape sculpt
• DAT ASS
• Looks unnaturally proportioned without the cape

Cons

• Looks unnaturally proportioned without the cape