This is the fourth release in the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon S.H. Figuarts line, although it's only the second Figuarts that I've picked up. (I still need Mercury and Mars, but I have a feeling those will be saved for another day further down the line...) She is the Guardian of Love and Beauty, Sailor Venus! She's my personal favorite, so I'm very much looking forward to this.
I picked her up from Amazon for $41.99, and used the free shipping offer on my order. Venus was released on May 21st, and I got her literally the next day. I was very impressed. The box came in good condition, with no damage to anything. Now before, this starts sounding like an Amazon review, let's look at this awesome little figure!
The box design is almost identical to Sailor Moon's, with the obvious exception of her name and the pictures. This box has an orange, yellow, and pink color theme that matches Sailor Venus' hair and outfit, although I think the little bit of pink should have been red to match her bow! The box opens just as easily, and the clamshell case does, too. I see that all of the hand and face accessories are now in a small plastic case within the case, which is brilliant. No more tiny pieces flying everywhere!
I'm a bit disappointed in the paint job on this figure. Moon was so well done, but my Venus has some paint imperfections. She has a pretty noticeable smudge on her face, a dot of bright orange paint on her neck, and some sort of bizarre rough patch on her upper thigh. It's like the finish on her leg was sanded off or something. The rest of the paint job is fairly uneven in a few places. I'm disappointed to note that the paint job on the goggles is pretty bad, since it doesn't match up with the lines. It's honestly a shame. I'm hoping that this is only limited to my figure and not to the rest of the line at large. The skirt and collar of Venus' uniform are similar to Moon's in that it's a metallic like paint. The details are only noticeable very close up, but once there, you can't really un-see them.
I'm fascinated by Venus' hair, which is very pretty. It has some nice paint gradations and is faintly light orange in some places to replicate natural highlights. There are two portions of hair that swivel around to allow you better access to clip Venus into her stand.
Her articulation is identical to Moon, save for the hair pieces I mentioned. She doesn't seem to have nearly the same amount of wobble as Moon does, which is a good point. I'm wondering if this means that each figure has some type of defect? I'll try and wash off the smudges with some soap and water and see if that improves anything.
She comes with the same type of instructions as Moon, with all of her accessories listed and coded. No separate instructions for the stand, so they probably assume that you know how to do it by now. Venus' stand is a lot stiffer, joint-wise, and is not so quick to fall apart as Moon's, which I like. That does mean, though, that it can be a bear to position the stand just right to clip Venus into it. Grrr.
The accessory count is slightly smaller than Moon's. She has 3 extra faces besides her "default" serious face (smiling, very happy, and shouting/angry), 5 interchangeable right hand pieces and 4 left, as well as a separate hair piece that contains her Sailor V goggles. Her cat guardian Artemis also comes with her, too. I would have liked to see her transformation stick as an accessory, maybe as a piece that slides into a hand part, much like Sailor Moon and her Moon Stick.
One thing that they greatly improved over Sailor Moon is that her hand pieces are not as prone to falling off at the slightest touch. Venus' wrists terminate in what look like ball joints, so while you need just a little bit of force to push the hands on, again, they don't fall off willy-nilly. This means, though, that you can't switch hands with Sailor Moon. Also, you cannot switch face plates between figures. I did my best to try, in the name of scientific experimentation, but it doesn't work. Popping off the bangs and faces to switch them out is still easy and works just like Moon's.
Artemis is pretty much the same as Luna. Same articulation and everything, although he doesn't come wrapped in protective tissue paper. He is a teeny bit sturdier than Luna, but still falls over easily. Maybe it's the body mold, and the position of the tiny paws just isn't conducive to supporting body weight? A different sculpt might have distributed the weight better.
I do like that they made improvements on some of the things that bugged me about Moon; I hope this means that they got feedback from consumers and actually listened to them! I do think they that dropped the ball in regards to the accessories, since Moon is about the same price but comes with more stuff. I'm overall mixed in my feelings, which is personally uncomfortable for me since I love Sailor Venus so much. But there are so many small flaws on my particular figure that I can't get super excited about it. I might contact Amazon to see about an exchange, although I dislike doing so due to the additional time and hassle.
It will be interesting to see how the next figure, Sailor Jupiter, is handled. I have her on pre-order, but she won't be showing up until August. I'll be checking toy and figure blogs throughout the summer to see if any news about the rest of the toys in the line crops up. I'm very eager to see the rest of the Outer Sailor Senshi, especially Pluto.
Miss Scarlett Suggests: The same as with Sailor Moon, Moonie fans who like toys and figures should check this out.
