Carene Hortensia tells me that Black Friday got its name because traditionally figures turn black today. She gets annoyed when I cut her explanation short, since the kind of figures she was talking about don’t really interest me — well they do, but I pretend not to care too much for money. After seeing my feigned disinterest in her discourse on Black Friday’s status as the cornerstone of American retail, she insists that I just take some pictures already and whips out The Magdala.
Carene is an odd girl what with her being a skirtless priestess with grandma-white hair (if you’re being sarcastic) or drow-white hair (if you’re a big fat D&D nerd). Just kidding, the white or light gray hair thing seems to be the thing for confidently odd girls in anime, such as Jo from Burst Angel and Ginza from Speed Grapher. As with most figures I own, she comes from a Japanese visual novel game, which means I actually have no idea what kind of character she’s really like (no Japanese skills), but with the white hair, priestess archetype, and Wikipedia I’ve probably got a good idea.
There’s a couple of things the cut of her outfit suggests beyond the religious and militant themes. Her unobstructed leggings are actually perfect for riding a horse, a motorbike, or a Vespa.
Okay, this paragraph might contain stuff people will actually care about. She is Carene Hortensia from Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. This figure from the GoodSmile Company was sculpted by Takahiro Hashimoto in 1:6 scale, at least that’s what the box says. Like GSC’s Holiday Saber, Carene is closer to 1:5 scale, if you accept 5-feet plus and inch or two as standard full size height as most 10-inch 1:6 figures assume. She stands almost 12-inches tall without her base (plain black raised disc) and it’s pretty clear they did not make a 6-foot tall girl in 1:6 scale. Her Magdala (the red cloth) is not included.
Build quality is a mixed bag. The size of the figure lends itself to nuanced body sculpting and subtle indication of muscle details on her stomach. Paint and decal applications are neat, so no complaints there. The figure has some ugly mold lines and artifacts at the top of her leggings in the back. I toned them down a little in my photos because they were ruining her southern accent, but didn’t eliminate them to indicate their presence.
For me the highlights of this figure are the costume design, the subtle stomach shape toning, and the flowing hair. The pose isn’t completely boring — her cocked hip adds a subtle curve to her standing pose. The benefit from a collection standpoint is even though she’s enormous, she won’t take up any more space than a dynamically posed 1:8 figure.
Her eyes are pretty cool too.
The middle of November was a terrible month for me where I gave up pretty much everything to my job, so that was the reason for the lack of updates. I finally get HappySoda on AnimeNano and I don’t update — not cool. On the bright side I actually have a figure backlog now, so I have enough to keep me occupied on the figure front. I have been thinking about adding a non-figure feature to HappySoda, maybe revisiting older series that I like to watch every year or so.
Awesome photography skills as always. How did you make the ribbon float around her like that?
The ribbon has wires running through it so that it keeps its shape. From there I just bent the wires until it looked like flowing cloth. I also taped the ribbon to the side of her head. If you look at the large version of the sixth picture, you can just make out the tape holding the ribbon to her hair. I had to scrap some good pictures without the ribbon because I forgot to remove the tape from her head.
Great pictures as always. I know what you mean by figure backlog. I’m in that exact position. Though I guess the difference is that you take time to do your’s correctly, I try to do it all in one day, lol.
Oh and congrats on being accepted on AnimeNano.
Great photography, really liked the tutorial on your site. You probably get asked this a lot and I have looked all over this site and not found the answer…. what type of camera do you like to use? I am looking at purchasing my first digital camera (I use to have a Minolta Maxxum 35MM with all the gadgets many years ago, but now looking at SD point and shoot Canon models).
Thanks
Firstly, let me congrats you on your entry to animenano!
And I love that ribbon effect in this shoot. Damn, you’re constantly raising the bar, I’ve got to find new to things to beat you to! Hahaha.
Adun: Thanks. As long as you have fun doing what you’re doing is all that really matters.
JB: I use a Panasonic FZ7. It’s one of those mega-zoom not quite a compact, but not an SLR either type cameras. It’s a camera with a great lens, but an awful imaging sensor. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t buy it. Canon makes damn good cameras and make really good imaging sensors as well.
Tsubaki: It’s all about prop recycling. This ribbon is one of the same pieces of ribbon I used for the Reina picture set and this is the third time the die cast Vespa makes it onto the set.
Where’s the EXIF…?
waffencmd: If you click on the pictures themselves, it will take you to where it’s hosted on Flickr. On that page, toward the bottom of the right hand column there’s a section called “Additional Information.” The link to the EXIF data is there.
Wow, I thought this PVC was kind of drab when I first saw it but your photo skills really helped put it in a new light (er, no pun intended). Black Friday was very kind to me because my Bro. gave me an early X-mas present: a new Digimax S700 from Samsung. ^_^ The thing absolutely rocks, and I”ll *finally* be able to take some good looking pics of my own figures. T_T So what do you plan for your next photoshoot?
Nice gift! Carene isn’t the most exciting figure, I’ll give you that, but I liked her character design and thought she looked better than the Kotobukiya and Alter versions. Alter gives her a more interesting pose, but her hair was too gray, rather than almost white. GoodSmile’s Carene looks like a stronger girl than the Alter Carene.
My backlog includes Simca (Airgear), Amy and Jo (Burst Angel), another Shana, the Last Exile trading figures, and three Sabers. I’ll most likely get to Saber and her snow cone maker next.
Thanks for the info super rats. I’ve checked out the Panasonic’s but I have been looking at getting either the Canon SD700 or Canon S3 (both around my price range). I like the smaller body style of the SD700, but the S3 has 12x and also it uses AA batteries (as well as rechargeable) witch might be an advantage. But I am not savvy with what all of the features are. If you have any advice between the two or another Canon model, I would appreciate it.
Missed the last part of your write-up the first time around, but I think it would be a cool idea to add a section about the shows you like to watch every year. For the past three years now I’ve watched Banner of the Stars (first series) and Vandread (seasons 1&2) every Spring, usually between the middle of Jan. and the middle of Feb. I never get tired of watching the former while the latter is just a guilty pleasure of mine.
OMFG
JB: The ability to use normal batteries is a very useful feature, especially if you travel a lot. Charges on most cameras don’t last all that long, particularly if you use the flash, so it’s nice to be able pack some double-A’s just in case. On the other hand, the compactness of the SD means you’re more likely to take it with you. The S3 will probably be easier to control and influence, since it tries to bridge the gap between SLR and point-and-shoot. Depends on what you’re looking for.
hub_00: I’m re-watching Boogiepop Phantom, which is what made me think of doing entries on older shows I go back to.
Lian YL: Hi!
super rats, thanks….yes it will be a tough decision between the two. I going to take another look at them at my local store soon…. then order one online.
[...] First up, let's point out HappySoda's review of Max Factory's sexy Caren(or with a K if you like) Ortensia. He doesn't know much about her, and if he likes her, that's probably for the best. She gets raped. A lot. But she's a nice lady. To a fault. It's likely because of her special ability to feel the pain of any person who gets possessed and is near her. Yep. Rape. [...]
Poor Caren.
This is rather nice. I like the cloth, damn you’re good.
hi super rats,
I’m personally making a wiki for figures and come by your site.(aka I won’t make money from it)
I have taken your photo as description for this figure, which can be found below. Hope you won’t mind.
Figure Wiki
Link edited for display purposes
Go for it!
I think it’s nice. Quite an amusing anime! Clear-cut lines and bright colors. Professioanl execution.
[...] last, but certainly not least, here’s a figure review from Happy Soda. I can’t ever get enough of these. I don’t know if it’s the [...]