NAME: Nia Teppelin
SERIES: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
SCALE/CREATOR: 1/8, by Konami
RELEASE DATE: October 2007
What is it that gets your flames of passion blazing with the fury of the sun? What makes your heart burst with fuzzy warmth? What, my friends, is moe to you? To me, Nia is moe. And pink haired girls. But mainly Nia.
MOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRGHHH!!!
Oh god I love Nia! The day they announced that Nia Portraits artbook I nearly died of glee. Sadly, our little naive princess is sorely under-represented in the figure world. Right now this figure is the only PVC released of her.
The blue and creamy yellow cloud-like hair is one of Nia’s most appealing features.
Now those of you that actually own this figure may notice something peculiar about mine. Did you notice? My Nia is not using the base that she originally came with! This is where Nia’s critical flaw comes into play: she’s a leaner, and a bad one at that. She originally came with a nice black base with the Gurren Brigade logo on it. There was one peg for left leg, and then a plastic support piece for her raised right leg. This SHOULD’VE taken care of Nia’s design flaw…but Konami overlooked one thing.
Nia’s legs are made of pretty soft PVC. So even with the support beam her legs were unable to properly support the weight. After leaning long enough the support beam eventually broke. I was devastated! But luckily my Dragon Quest VIII Play Arts Yangus figure came to the rescue. I was already using Yangus himself to stop my Ignis figure from leaning. So I took his unused base and gave it to Nia. Oh Yangus, where would I be without you? I love you Yangus! <3
The turquoise eyes with red flower-shaped irises are another defining feature.
As for Nia herself…Konami isn’t known for its PVC offerings. While her quality isn’t BAD, it certainly isn’t impressive. Average at best, honestly. Most of the details on her clothes are painted neatly, and there are some nice uses of different paint types (metallic for belt, super shiny for hair piece). However her dress and cloak seem to be white with pink shading instead of entirely pink like in official artwork.
She also has a few seam lines, most of which are in her hair. It should also be noted that even though she’s listed as 1/8, she’s a bit smaller than usual. Her playful pose and striking character design help make up for the lackluster quality.
OVERALL: 5/10
It’s a shame this is the only Nia PVC on the market (at the moment). The figure is decent overall but certainly won’t impress collectors used to GoodSmile or Alter figures. Nia gets a point knocked off for a BAD design flaw that results in leaning.
- G.K. Sil Kamina
