Review: #240
Name: Kirito
Brand: figma (Sword Art Online)
Year of Release: 2013 (#174)
Variations: none as of this date
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:
Kirito comes in a blue box with "figma" in prominent letter, his name and the series that Kirito was from: Sword Art Online. Kirito was originally released in June 2013 and re-released in December 2014, with no notable differences between the two releases.
The back of the packaging shows off some poses that Kirito is able to take as well as some of the accessories that he comes with.
As per usual, the contents comes in two clear trays.
In the cardboard packaging that holds the tray together, there is a cutout to form a cardboard stand if you wish.
First off, Kirito comes with his words, the black one is Elucidator.
While the green one is Dark Repulser. Both has an excellent amount of detailing, although they are small and thin, so be careful!
Each sword comes with their sheaths, with Dark Repulser having a larger and thicker one.
Kirito comes with two faces in addition to his standard smiling one: an angry face and an apologetic face.
He has two pieces which attach to his back in order to place his swords there, one for dual-wielding and one for his normal one-handed sword stance.
There are two big chunks of colored plastic, these are sword effect parts.
Kirito has three pairs of hands, one pair are open palms, and two pairs of fists used to hold his swords (one pair of fists are angled outward for a more dynamic hold).
There is the included standard figma stand.
As well as an additional piece which is a stand extender.
Lastly, the plastic bag used to store all unused parts. Overall, Kirito has an okay amount of accessories, while more would have been cool, it's hard to think of what else to include.
FIGURE:
Throughout the anime, Kirito's clothes changes often, as you would expect of a role-playing armor and in players' quest to get the best armor currently available. This figma has Kirito wearing the armor in his last battles.
This means his black coat with silver grey outlining, which looks pretty good.
As expect of figma's, the detailing and sculpting on the figure is impressive, being very faithful and most of all, looks straight out of the anime.
The attention of detail is evident everywhere, right down to his shoes.
Kirito initially wears the face with a smile, while still recognizable as the character, the expression and proportions is a little bit off (maybe a bit too rounded?).
The head has a big range of motion. His hair is pretty sweet although there is a noticeable cut halfway across his head, this couldn't be avoided as it's for changing his face.
His coat is made of a softer plastic that bends and warps. This means that Kirito doesn't sacrifice any part of his articulation at all, which is really cool.
In order for him to wear his sword on his back, you need to plug in the single sheath and then slide the scabbard in. You can then angle it to whatever is to your liking.
He has a second peghole lower on his back which is used to plug the stand to.
In order to hold his sword, you will need to swap out the fists, which is easy to to (pull out and plug it back in). However, placing the sword into the fists are another story. It's really hard to push it in, so I would recommend you soften the plastic with a hairdryer otherwise you run the risk of either breaking the sword or his fingers.
Once you get it on though, this is where the fun begins as you can start placing Kirito in a wide variety of poses.
To be honest, I found it really hard to put him into a pose where he is just starting to pull out his sword.
Kirito is able to hold his sword very securely, which is probably why it was so hard to put it in there in the first place. It's not as easy as just pushing it through the hole as the handle is larger at the bottom. You need to pull his fingers out to slot the handle in.
Next is dual-wielding, which is what Kirito was most famous for. You will need to use the second set of sheaths, and you can angle either sheath the way you like to achieve the perfect look.
It's harder to push the scabbard of Dark Repulser than it was for Elucidator, it takes some fiddling in order to get it to look good and natural.
Using the stand though, this forces you to push the swords into a wider angle, which doesn't look as great.
Once again, you will need to swap out the first in order to hold Dark Repulser, likewise, I recommend using a hairdryer to soften the plastic to attach the sword easier.
It is worthwhile though as Kirito looks amazing with both swords in his hand.
Kirito is approximately 14.5cm in height and scales well with other figma's.
In Transformers size (hey, I'm predominantly a Transformers fan okay?), he is roughly the height of a Deluxe.
Next, swapping faces involve pulling out the front piece of his hair in order to reach the face. It is a simple process and works well.
His sad face is typically best used when he is in apologizing.
Apart from that, the sad face has limited posing options.
His angry face, on the other hand, has limitless potential.
You can pretty much slap him in any action or attacking pose and the angry face fits perfectly as the final piece.
Onto the sword effect pieces. There is a slot in each of these piece for the sword to slide into. It's too tight to complete slide it up to the hilt and since the effect pieces are hard plastic, they are way too heavy for the thin swords.
Therefore, there is a real potential for breakage when using these things and I highly recommending to leave them off and use them as less as possible.
Other than that, the rest of the Kirito's play value come from posing him and my, what a poser he is.
He features joints for his neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles. He is sculpted such that he gets the maximum amount of range, which is really useful when Kirito is a sword wielder.
That said, his hips could use with a bit more motion, trying to force it outward further will result in the balljoint popping off, which is mildly annoying.
He feet is also just large enough for him to support himself without the use of stand. Still, with how versatile the stand is (three joints in total), this isn't too much of a problem.
Swapping out for the fists which can hold his swords at a wider angle, he can perform the start of his sword arts.
His coat tails are each attached to joints, which can lift backwards to free his legs, or give Kirito a more dynamic look.
The figure itself feels solid in your hands and not at all fragile.
His coat is the softer plastic, while his legs and arms are hard plastic.
He doesn't appear to have a significant amount of painted details, all the black coloring are the base plastic color.
His neck can seem too long from some angles, making him look awkward.
I think Kirito would have benefited from a stern face, since the angry open mouthed face can seem too aggressive while the smiling face just does not fit in any threatening pose. Given that Kirito grimaces quite a lot in the anime, it would have been better than the sad face.
The proportion of the figure is good, you can't take any of his clothes off though (just thought to note that, as sometimes you can).
This is a great interpretation of Kirito and fun to play with.
OVERALL:
While figma Kirito does have his flaws, they are all minor and doesn't cause too many issues. The most notable of which is how hard it is to make him hold his swords this is alleviated through the use of a hairdryer, still, this shouldn't have been that difficult in the first place. Other than that, Kirito is a fantastic figure who looked like he stepped right out of the screen. Putting him in poses was great fun and with the re-release, he is way more affordable if you missed him the first time around.
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A few additional shots of Kirito that didn't make it into the body of the review, enjoy!
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