Do you like cross-over? I freaking love it, that's why I love Super Robot Taisen/Wars (SRW) game series. And on one of the latest SRW, SRW UX for 3DS, there's this unique mecha series that's also a product of cross-over, Fei-Yen HD! Fan of Virtual-On series will know Fei-Yen, and what's the HD stands for? It's "Heart of Diva", and which diva it refers to? The virtual diva Hatsune Miku, of course! So yeah, after Fei-Yen module for Miku on Project Diva Extended PSP game, Vocaloid and Virtual-On make another crossover with Fei-Yen HD, which based on Katoki Hajime's design for Newtype magazine and later turned into an action figure, which I'll review now :3
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| Composite Ver.Ka - Fei-Yen HD 5040 yen | November 2011 | Bandai |
Character History
I've mentioned the technical story about this character, so on this segment it will be about her story on the SRW UX. But there's no much background story of her I got so far, since she is originally from the artwork and this figure, and on the game she's all by herself from the Virtual-On Fei-Yen HD series. Basically from what I gather, Fei-Yen HD is a relic that's just been found recently on an island that covered by gravity curtain, the same island where Mazinkaiser SKL took place. Fei was always there on dark area for a long time until one day she heard a voice and she tried to reach it until she become "her" now. Throughout the game, Fei continues to remember who or what she is, making her stronger as she learns more attack. Her memories are triggered by Macross F's Sheryl's concert, Mazinkaiser SKL's Kiba's violent attack triggered her Hyper Mode, and Macross F's Vajra attack that finally "connect" her to Hatsune Miku (really, the last upgrade of her has Miku's cut-in on the animation).
Fei has quite number of attack: Handshot ver.HD which is a counterpart of original Fei-Yen's right hand attack; HD Exercise which are combination of jump kick, slaps, hip attack, numerous hit with Jade Forkey (counterpart of Miku's leeks), finished with combined version of Jade Forkey; Love14 ver HD which are beam attack with a form of heart; Believe ver HD where Fei goes to her Hyper Mode and shoot stronger version of Love14 ver HD; and finally E-Wave, where Fei sings and her song will increase all allies's stats and lower all enemies's. You can watch her attack here for Act 1 where she was just wake up from her slumber, Act 2 where she has regained some of her memory, and Act 3 where she remembers all of her memory and connect with Hatsune Miku. Story-wise, her song is affecting Macross F's Vajra, and she also tries to teach love to Sokyoku no Fafner's Festum with her songs.
Oh, and did I mention Fei-Yen HD's seiyuu is Saki Fujita, the one behind Hatsune Miku's voice? Yes, Fei even has 3 BGMs where all of it has full Saki Fujita's vocal on them where it almost never happened on SRW before where all BGMs are mostly instrumental. Those songs are the HD rendition of original Fei-Yen's BGM Love♥14 ver HD, a song from Virtual-On drama CD Believe ver HD, and last one is Temjin's BGM In the Blue Sky ver HD!
Packaging
Again, like most packaging of Japanese action figures have, the box format with window blister on the front is the format this line go with. The background are mostly white with some patterns mirroring the background of original Fei-Yen HD artwork for Newtype magazine I mentioned before. Also on the front, instead only one Fei-Yen picture, they also Hatsune Miku on it. Why you ask, because there's also interchangeable Miku face part on this figure, but I'll get to that later. On the back, there's more sample pictures with some information about Fei-Yen HD, Virtual-On, Hatsune Miku, and Composite Ver.Ka, which of course written on Japanese.
Set Content
This is what you'll get from Fei-Yen HD set:
The sculpt is very great. It able to represent Katoki Hajime's artwork excellently, maintaining either Fei-Yen and Hatsune Miku's elements on the new character.
Unfortunately, paint job isn't as good as the sculpt. They make regression after what good job they did on Temjin, while in a glance it looks great, but when you take closer look, there's nasty rough finishing on some parts, especially the back of the upper arm. And it gets worse with more bad finishing on Miku's interchangeable head. But I have to admit though that Miku's color scheme looks great on HD.
This is my second Composite Ver.Ka, which released more than year later after my first, Temjin, and Bandai make progression in the articulation. HD has more mobile articulations compared to Temjin, like now HD has swivel thigh though unfortunately it was very, very hard to rotate the first time. Heck, if I didn't see the sample images, I would think those thighs don't have swivel movement. The left shoulder joint is very stiff too, it's hard to move and when I did move it, it feels like it's going to snap any minute, I don't know if this is quality control problem my figure has or other figures have it too. The neck joint has the same concept with figma's where it's swivel-hinge joint connecting neck and inside part of its back head. The twin tail joint also has swivel-hinge joint and it can moves freely, so like I said, you can use it to balance your figure as well as giving dynamic feeling for some poses. The 'skirt' can also be moved upward a little bit so the leg joint have more mobility, and there's also two 'boosters' on back of the skirt that can be moved thanks to its ball joint.
The first gimmick HD has is on its head. You can change Fei-Yen's head to Hatsune Miku's by swapping the whole head. You can also change the hair part for another version for more dynamic feel by swapping the whole hair too, especially when you want to recreate Katoki Hajime's artwork. Though you need to change the neck joint to one without hinge that able to less burden the default joint. And for the same reason, you can also change the tie part which also has more dynamic counterpart, you can do it by removing the head and then remove the default tie. And as other Virtuaroid, on HD's back there is VR Connector that can be opened to reveal the disc inside it, or you can remove the part when you want to display it as Miku.
Other gimmick is the Emotional Heart set that consist of the heart part and lines part, although it's already assembled in the first place. You can put that Emotional Heart on the display stand set, and along with a little posing, you can put HD on the stand to recreate Katoki Hajime's artwork. And finally, you can put the Jade Forkey and the microphone on the part of the display stand.
HD Exercise, yaaay~!!
Jade Forkey!!
Kyun kyun kyun kyun kyun kyun~!!
Please hear me...
With Hatsune Miku's head sculpt...
Now let's reenacting Katoki Hajime's artwork <3
How about we borrow some part of other figures for our lovely diva? :3
My original HD's weapon, Leek Funnel! XD
You may know other than parody/silly shoots, I also like to do couple/love shoots with my figures. So here it is, Fei and Temjin <3
Temjin wants to sing too!
Jealousy ver. HD...
But in the end, their love triumphs >3<
End Verdict
Overall a good figure. The painting is inferior to Temjin but the articulation is more mobile with more joints and it also packed with more accessories for many more posing variety. I was lucky to get it a bit cheaper than it's initial price, so as an unique cross-over, I think this is a figure you shouldn't miss, especially if you're fan of one of, or both, characters! =3
- Fei-Yen HD figure
- Interchangeable Hatsune Miku head
- Interchangeable tie
- Interchangeable hair
- 4 pairs of interchangeable hand part
- 2 Jade Forkey
- Microphone
- Interchangeable neck joint
- Emotional Heart set
- Display stand set
Yeah that's so many accessories to increase play value and adding many possibilities how you want to pose Fei.
Sculpt
The sculpt is very great. It able to represent Katoki Hajime's artwork excellently, maintaining either Fei-Yen and Hatsune Miku's elements on the new character.
Same with other figures from this line, it doesn't have any die-cast on it.The twin tail is made from hard plastic but HD can still stand on its own without display stand, if any with properly position the twin tail, it can serves to balance HD despite the thin, fragile-look body HD has. The joints are also well-hidden, except the shoulder joints and sometimes elbow joints, but overall HD looks cute and great.
Paint
Unfortunately, paint job isn't as good as the sculpt. They make regression after what good job they did on Temjin, while in a glance it looks great, but when you take closer look, there's nasty rough finishing on some parts, especially the back of the upper arm. And it gets worse with more bad finishing on Miku's interchangeable head. But I have to admit though that Miku's color scheme looks great on HD.
Articulation
This is my second Composite Ver.Ka, which released more than year later after my first, Temjin, and Bandai make progression in the articulation. HD has more mobile articulations compared to Temjin, like now HD has swivel thigh though unfortunately it was very, very hard to rotate the first time. Heck, if I didn't see the sample images, I would think those thighs don't have swivel movement. The left shoulder joint is very stiff too, it's hard to move and when I did move it, it feels like it's going to snap any minute, I don't know if this is quality control problem my figure has or other figures have it too. The neck joint has the same concept with figma's where it's swivel-hinge joint connecting neck and inside part of its back head. The twin tail joint also has swivel-hinge joint and it can moves freely, so like I said, you can use it to balance your figure as well as giving dynamic feeling for some poses. The 'skirt' can also be moved upward a little bit so the leg joint have more mobility, and there's also two 'boosters' on back of the skirt that can be moved thanks to its ball joint.
Gimmick
The first gimmick HD has is on its head. You can change Fei-Yen's head to Hatsune Miku's by swapping the whole head. You can also change the hair part for another version for more dynamic feel by swapping the whole hair too, especially when you want to recreate Katoki Hajime's artwork. Though you need to change the neck joint to one without hinge that able to less burden the default joint. And for the same reason, you can also change the tie part which also has more dynamic counterpart, you can do it by removing the head and then remove the default tie. And as other Virtuaroid, on HD's back there is VR Connector that can be opened to reveal the disc inside it, or you can remove the part when you want to display it as Miku.
Other gimmick is the Emotional Heart set that consist of the heart part and lines part, although it's already assembled in the first place. You can put that Emotional Heart on the display stand set, and along with a little posing, you can put HD on the stand to recreate Katoki Hajime's artwork. And finally, you can put the Jade Forkey and the microphone on the part of the display stand.
Action
And here it is, Fei-Yen HD with all its glory and cuteness. HD, ikimaaasu~!!
HD Exercise, yaaay~!!
Jade Forkey!!
Kyun kyun kyun kyun kyun kyun~!!
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| HEART BEAAAAAAAM!! |
Please hear me...
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| Reach it, my feeling... Emotional!! |
Now let's reenacting Katoki Hajime's artwork <3
How about we borrow some part of other figures for our lovely diva? :3
My original HD's weapon, Leek Funnel! XD
You may know other than parody/silly shoots, I also like to do couple/love shoots with my figures. So here it is, Fei and Temjin <3
Temjin wants to sing too!
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| Temjin loves you yeah!♥ |
But in the end, their love triumphs >3<
End Verdict
Overall a good figure. The painting is inferior to Temjin but the articulation is more mobile with more joints and it also packed with more accessories for many more posing variety. I was lucky to get it a bit cheaper than it's initial price, so as an unique cross-over, I think this is a figure you shouldn't miss, especially if you're fan of one of, or both, characters! =3
hello, can i ask? what do you use for the background? that orange thing.. thx
ReplyDeleteIt's just a normal carton paper. Ideally, the best color for background should be more neutral one like black or white, I wanted to try this one and it turns out quite nice, as long as the object color is not red or orange too ^^
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