EmencyBlazer Works

NAME: Gwendolyn
SERIES: Odin Sphere
SCALE/CREATOR: 1/8, by Alter
RELEASE DATE: December 2008

Gwendolyn marks the first time I’ve broken my “one figure per character” rule. I already own E2046’s pre-painted Gwendolyn resin figure, but I just couldn’t resist this PVC version.

Hard to believe she’s a powerful warrior when she’s dressed like a ballerina.

Gwendolyn is one of several playable characters in Vanillaware’s beautiful pile of melodrama: Odin Sphere. Despite the happy, colorful graphics and pretty anime character designs, the game was shockingly depressing. I humbly recommend a helping of Puyo Pop Fever or LocoRoco after getting through Odin Sphere’s mountain of angst.

DAT ASS

This incarnation of Gwendolyn is brought to us by the good folk of Alter. I’ve had issues with Alter in the past…their quality has always been top notch, but there’s always been one small defect that hurts the overall product. Two of my Alter figures arrived broken, for crying out loud. That doesn’t stop their stuff from looking amazing, however. Looking at Gwendolyn, it seems Alter may have surpassed GoodSmile Company in terms of sheer awesomeness.

As with the resin, Gwendolyn’s selling points are her gorgeous transparent wings.

The attention to detail in Gwen is stellar for a PVC. I mean, just look at those wings. I can’t imagine how long it took the sculptor to work out all the details of each feather. Then there are all the ruffles on her top, the lace under her skirt (don’t ask), and the strands of hair. A lot of time and effort went into her sculpt, and it looks fabulous.

The paint is also flawless, and once again we see a nice use of different paint types: Matte for the skin and clothes, metallic for the armor and weapon, and glossy for the wings.

Size comparison between the two Gwens. The 1/5 resin is monstrously huge, but bigger doesn’t always mean better…

As great as the 1/5 resin is, there are some problems that bother me to this day. There are a couple of paint errors on her clothes: parts that should be black are white, her hands are gloved but should be bare, and the top of her outfit is dull yellow instead of gold. Another problem is that the wings are backwards, making me wonder if the original sculptor even bothered to learn how wings work. The face also doesn’t really look like Gwendolyn’s. If anything, it just looks like an anime character cosplaying her.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s still a fantastic figure (better be for the $150 price tag) but it just doesn’t capture the magic of George Kamitani’s art like the PVC does. The resin still wins in terms of flaws: it doesn’t have any seamlines or injection scars. However, the PVC only has one obvious seam. You can only see the others if you look really hard for them.

This is way better than the plastic slabs I normally get!

I’ve got bad luck when it comes to figures and pegs. Gwendolyn gets the honor of my fastest broken peg ever: she wasn’t even out of the box five minutes when it snapped. I was hoping her foot would glide onto the pegs smoothly, but no. It required a little bit of effort…and I gave just a bit too much. The larger of the two pegs snapped almost immediately. A little superglue fixed the problem, though.

Peg woes aside, the base is a nice change of pace from all the round plastic slabs I’ve normally gotten. Gwendolyn’s landing elegantly on a tree stump and preparing to beat the crap out of some baddies. Yay.

OVERALL: 9/10

+ George Kamitani’s artwork brought to life!
+ Amazing detail
+ Unique base and pose

- World record for peg snapping
- Space hog

Had the PVC come out earlier, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the resin version as well. The PVC manages to surpass the resin version in almost every way…and costs significantly less. Alter proves once again that it’s one of the top companies with this great release. I just wish my Alter figures would stop breaking so easily.

- G.K. Sil Kamina