NAME: Elwyn
SERIES: Shining Tears
SCALE/CREATOR: 1/8, by EyeScream/President Japan
RELEASE DATE: March 2007
Reviews are, for the time being, back in session. Today’s review has me growing balls of steel and actually going to a public place to take photos. I can’t say it’s something I’ll do again, as the Florida summer heat raped poor Elwyn. Anyway, on to the review.
SCULPT: 9/10
I had my worries with Elwyn as she was being done by President Japan, a company I had no experience with. The prototype was pretty hard to resist, and so I took a gamble and pre-ordered away. I’m happy to say she’s a phenomenal figure. Her quality almost matches that of GoodSmile and Max Factory…and that’s saying something.
Ah, Earth…so beautiful and green. Even the water’s green…
Elwyn doesn’t have any of the big flaws (seams, injection scars, etc), and most of the prototype’s sharp details are reproduced precisely. Elwyn’s fringe looks a little blunt, and her hand kind of melts into her bow…but those are just nitpicky observations. Something that should be noted about Elwyn are her eyes: Unlike most PVC eyes (which are decals) Elwyn has clear plastic eyes with decal pupils. It looked really nice in the prototype, but Elwyn looks a little bugged out at some angles in the PVC version.
PAINT: 9/10
What’s the deal with that headband?
A simple yet lovely paint job. Her skin, clothes and accessories are all properly painted and shaded as they should be. Kudos to the expertly done shading on her leather shoes. They almost look real! Elwyn does lose a point for having no shading whatsoever in her hair, which I found to be a bit odd. I wasn’t expecting much from President Japan, so I’m really surprised to see how well Elwyn came out.
POSE: 8/10
An elf in a forest. Pretty creative, eh?
I only played Shining Tears for about an hour…so I’m not very familiar with Elwyn. I do remember her as being pretty spunky, so this “delicate flower” pose seems a little out of character. At least it looks nice. (Her pose is pretty similar to GoodSmile’s 1/6 Holiday Saber’s…)
Awesome shoes.
The prototype showed Elwyn standing on a light blue base…I guess they decided that stood out too much, and stuck Elwyn on an “earthy” faux-wooden base instead.
OVERALL: 9/10
President Japan and Eye Scream did an amazing job with the first offering of their Shining Tears line. Too bad they jacked up the prices after Elwyn, though. She’s been discontinued for quite some time, so I doubt you’ll be able to find her outside of auction sites. If you’re a Shining Tears, Tony Taka, or elf fan, you really need to add Elwyn to your collection.
Really small, but really nice park. If it wasn’t so damn hot I would’ve taken some more images with Elwyn.
-G.K. Sil Kamina
