Review: #231
Name: Sinon
Brand: figma (Sword Art Online II)
Year of Release: 2015 (#241)
Variations: none as of this date
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:
Sinon comes in a neon green and black box with her product number (241) in prominent view. Above it is "figma" and the anime it was based off: Sword Art Online II. Through the window, you can see the figure as well as some accessories.
In the back, there are many stock photos which show the potential dynamic poses you can get from her. The sides are also put into good use with enlarged photos. I don't many figma's and this was the first time I've encountered this change in packaging, and I like the design of the older figma's more.
Once you've unpacked Sinon, she comes in two trays. The second bottom tray holds a bit more accessories but only about a third of the space is used.
As part of the packaging, there's also a piece of cardboard which you can rip out to form a cardboard stand.
Sinon comes with a decent amount of accessories, first off are her two additional faces, a smiling one and an angry shouting one in additional to her default stern face.
She comes with an additional four pairs of hands, which is pretty cool. There are two open palms, one pointing right hand, two trigger hands, a relaxed hand and two curled hands. This is in additional to a pair of fists already attached to the figure.
This was really odd at first, she comes with a second head and I was actually scratching my head on what was different about this one. I compared it side on side and still couldn't figure out the different. Turns out that this one has shorter hair so that she can tilt her head way back for a sniping pose.
She comes with her small pistol seen in the anime, with an additional effect part.
Of course, Sinon has her PGM Ultima Ratio Hecate II (otherwise known as Hecate), an anti-materiel rifle, which also functions as a sniper.
There are two additional sniper parts, both of which are used to prop up the rifle when posing Sinon in a sniping position.
Then there are your standard figma accessories, including the stand.
The plastic bag to hold all your accessories when not in use.
There is a stand extender and also this additional jointed piece which I actually have no clue what it is for since it isn't in the instructions.
Finally there are the instructions. One side is in Japanese and the other is in English, which is really handy for those who can't read Japanese.
FIGURE:
Okay, now let's get onto Sinon herself. This is the Gun Gale Online avatar in which she spent most of her screen-time in.
Her scarf wraps around her neck and the ends fall down onto her back. Her feet are large enough for Sinon to be able to easily stand by herself without support.
Max Factory got her headsculpting perfect, from the coloring to the proportions, she is instantly recognizable as Sinon. She comes packaged with her stern face.
The hair is well detailed and looks good from most angles. There is a seam across the middle of her head which is required since it is detached to change her face.
The aim of figma's are to recreate the characters as they were portrayed and Sinon is no exception. The detailing is amazing, it looks sharp and pops out.
Not only does the front look good, the detailing continues onto the back of the figure.
There is a peghole in the back of her waist which allows you to plug in the figma stand. This stabilizes her a lot more.
According to the Good Smile product page, she is approximately 13.5cm tall. In practical terms, she's about the same height as other figma's.
In Transformers terms, she's approximately the height of a Deluxe, but obviously lacking in the bulk.
In order to change faces, you have to remove the front half of her hair and then pull the face out, it's an easy process.
The smiling face is cute but her eyes are looking to the right, so you have to take that into account when posing her using this face.
The third face is an angry open mouthed one. I am not sure if all Sinon's are like this but the outline of her mouth is incomplete, it's the same with the other two faces but it's more prominent here. A bit disappointing if this is a quality control issue.
This angry face is what you'll be mostly using for the dynamic shots as it gives that extra oomph and aggressiveness required.
Switching hands is an easy process. Just pull out and slot in the one you want. Unlike earlier figma's, the wrist joint is fixed into the forearm, you are literally only removing the hand.
Let's go onto Sinon's pistol. It's got an extender. You have to use the trigger finger hand in order to clasp the weapon.
Thankfully, getting her hand to wrap around the hand is not hard at all. You are not going to feel like you're going to break the fingers.
When not in use, you can place it into a spot at the back of her waist, ready to be pulled out at a moment's notice.
There is an effects part to attach to the front of the pistol. This makes it seem as if it has just been fired. The instructions emphasized a correct orientation to attach it too, as a FYI.
Lastly, we have Hecate II, the sniper rifle. It comes with a strap made of a vinyl-ish material which is soft and stretches, but still maintains its shape relatively well. This allows Sinon to hang it from her shoulders.
There is a curled fist which is designed to hold the rifle upright. I highly recommend softening the hand with a hairdryer otherwise you're going to have a tough time slotting in the rifle muzzle into her hand. There is also a high risk of breakage or at the very least, stress-marking the hand if you don't heat it up first.
Obviously, Sinon can carry the rifle with both hands, this takes a bit of fiddling around but her arms are very poseable which makes this an easy task.
The strap can also act as a third support to make it more secure in some poses.
To put Sinon into a full sniping pose, you need to swap out some parts for Hecate II first. You swap the stock into one with a stand, and swap out the front piece to form a tripod.
Laying Sinon down is easy. Aligning her head such that she is viewing down the scope is another matter entirely. It takes a decent amount of fiddling and most of the time, you will use the viewing angle to your advantage to give the illusion that she is viewing down down the scope. You will need to use the alternate head piece to be able to tilt her head this far back.
The scope is in a fixed open position. Care should be taken when detaching the tripod piece because it pegs on tightly. The actual piece of plastic is thin and can be snapped if you're using too much pressure in the wrong area.
The rifle strap attaches on via two spots. The instructions just show it coming off. This means the actual strap and not the peg it's wrapped around, that piece is not supposed to come off. Once again, I recommend a hairdryer to soften the strap which makes pulling out and pushing it back in much easier and makes it less likely to stretch the hole.
Sinon is able to hold a weapon in either hand, although it's somewhat impractical since she would not be able to figure both at the same time (the recoil from Hecate II would be too much to handle).
Of course, Sinon is extremely poseable. She has an upper torso joint, shoulders, elbows, wrists, head, hips, knees and ankles. She also ports a secondary hip swivel.
Furthermore, the ends of her scarf are jointed as well, which allows you to move them in a huge range of motion, this allows you to give the illusion of movement (or wind) in various poses.
What's really cool is that the green pieces on the outside of her thighs are made of a softer material, which bends and crumples. It allows a wider range of movement for her hips without sacrificing screen accuracy.
On the whole, Sinon is made of a sturdy but flexible plastic, she feels durable and not at all fragile in your hands.
More likely than not, you will make use of the stand to help support her in poses.
The range of her articulation is impressive. The only flaw would be that the hips cannot move outward too much.
It can be hard to rotate her wrists to make use of the swivel joint. You can still rotate the wrist, but it takes a bit of effort to make it bend inwards the way you want it.
The different faces really gives each pose a distinctive feel.
It is recommended to pull the folded up stand in the stock off for Sinon to hold the rifle properly. It seems like a design flaw that when you leave that small rod in, Sinon cannot place her finger in the trigger.
Her scarf is a separate piece. It'll probably fall out when you swap her heads. It's worth a mention as I found it quite interesting.
A fantastic super-poseable figure that perfectly represents Sinon from Sword Art Online II.
OVERALL:
figma Sinon is amazing. There are effectively no flaws here, she has a huge range of articulation, looks like she just stepped out of the anime and has enough accessories to make her very versatile. Sinon doesn't feel fragile at all and swapping out the parts are easy. The amount of detailing is impressive. If you're a fan of the character or the anime, give figma Sinon a shot, you will not be disappointed!
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For other figma reviews, have a look at this page.
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The remaining photos of Sinon that I took but didn't use in the review:
Thanks for looking!