Fans of Fate/Stay Night’s Saber are currently being well served by whatever benevolent Shinto deity’s portfolio includes PVC figures, as another exceptional figure of Saber has just been released by maker Gift.
Surely many fans will be comparing this to the upcoming Good Smile Saber Lily, in an attempt to determine which will be the best Saber figure of the decade?
This 1/8 scale PVC from Gift, bearing the simple name of セイバー / Saber is sculpted by 戸田 聡 / Satoshi Toda. Interestingly, the distributor for the Gift Saber is Good Smile, meaning that Good Smile is involved in both of what must be the best incarnations of Saber yet made - perhaps along with the Saber Dollfie, if you have a taste for Dollfies.
Onto the Gift Saber itself…
It should be noted that one of the Gift Saber’s main selling points is the inclusion of two removable faces, a rather unconventional trick for a scaled PVC or resin figure.
One is the atypical face seen above and in most of the photos here, which has smaller eyes and a slightly more “realistic” appearance to it. The other is a more normal anime-style face, shown further below.
The nearly iridescent skirt definitely catches the eye…
The default, “realistic” face does not stray very far from the normal anime-styling, and so is not very jarring at all. In any case, it seems very well done, and does invoke Saber’s character design even while being a unique take on her.
The detailing looks superb, especially for a figure in this price range.
Her sword, Excalibur, also seems to have come off very well.
Lightning must play an important part in displaying this figure to look its best.
Lovely!
Unfortunately, no panchira.
The alternate, more typical face.
A comparison shot of the figure with its two faces. It would be interesting to know which of the two will most owners use to display her in…
The Gift Saber is available now, for around ¥7,000 - lower than might be expected for a figure of this quality.
International customers can easily pick her up at Hobby Search.
See the rest of the photos at Akiba Hobby and Foo Bar Baz.
Ideally, one could get both the Gift and Good Smile Sabers, but that might be too pricey for some fans. Which would you get?
Good Smile Saber Lily or Gift Saber?
- Good Smile Saber Lily (89%)
- Gift Saber (11%)
Dat face.
That is the crappiest made face on a figure I’ve ever seen.
FAIL bigtime.
ya it oso’ kill meh siao , obviously da Lily liao
wat
well the face is kinda scary for me (both)… It doesn’t look like saber to me
Good Smile all the way
(hmmm too MANY~!!! votes but no comment try give some enthusiastic reactions) on what you see at least the Gift Saber is Great but if your not a fan on Realistic designing so vote’s on “Good Smile Saber Lily” Hmmm… “Lovely indeed” XD~!!!
face switching figure? i thought that would only work with nendoroids? this fig doesnt come close to Good Smile Saber Lily…
what’s with the face?
Will have both, and with the dark saber from solid theater, that will give me the 3 differents saber in armor <3
It’s Lily for me i guess, since i’ve already pre-ordered it.
Have Gift Saber preordered for almost half of year .. hope it will come soon. My first one :)
I’ve got a Gift Saber preordered too. The pose and outfit were the main attractions for me.
Not much love for the Gift Saber? Love the “realistic” face. Alt. face isn’t too spectacular. If I bought figures, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
I’m a big fan of this realistic visage too; stunning figure.
The “realistic face” looks weird to me. But I’ll take Gift Saber with the animu face. The armor and Excalibur is FUCKING awesome.
The face ruins it. Everything else is nicely detailed.
My god the realistic face is ugly and the alternate is just too plain. The dress and armor is too elegant in my opinion(too flowery). It just doesn’t look anywhere as remotely nice as the GSC one.
I also think the Good Smile version is superior. The detailing seems to be better and, as others mentioned, the face is better.
I guess I’m in the minority when I think that this is definitely the Saber to own though I’ll be definitely using the alternate face. The stalwart king of knights standing solemnly on a hill (or my shelf) as a breeze washes over the battlefield catching her skirt and making it flutter in the wind…its just so..her..so Saber..so iconic and I love all the intricate details they’ve put into her skirt and armor. Saber lily’s armor just lacks all the intricacies of Gift’s Saber’s and comes off kinda bland but I do prefer the design of Saber Lily and I hope they revisit the design again and make a detailed one.
The ‘realistic’ face looks weird. I’ve got Lily on order, but I might get the Gift one.
The clothes are stunning on the Gift one though.
fucked up face but awesome detailed clothes
The hair on the Lily is far superior.
I would get both if I have the money, but I personally don’t like the clothes that much for some reason. I’m getting Lily.
How many FSN figures are there now? It’s starting to rival Ikkitousen.
I don’t like that face but the armor looked good. I chose good smile anyway.
I do have both placed on order, but I would have to say the Saber Lily is far above the better one. It’s not really the face as much as the overall package and that pose. It’s so dynamic and seems to be capturing a single moment of motion in time. It’ll be interesting when I put them side by side in display.
The problem with the realistic face on the Gift Seiba should be readily apparent.
Why the fuck is she smiling? Here we see her in badass, exquisitely done armor, holding the damn Sword of Promised Victory, and she’s smiling like this is some model audition. I like the other details about the realistic face, but the smile just diminishes everything.
Going to have to go with Saber Lily on this one, they did the face exactly how it should be.
Her superb smile is what makes the figure. Much better than the usual generic expression…
As much as I love stoic women, the first picture is incredible. Man, you guys suck.
Wow the GSC is destroying the Gift Saber in the polls, and rightfully so.
I never vote in a poll I’ve made (because somehow I think it would be cheating), but in all honesty if I did, I’d go for the GSC Saber…
I do think the Gift version is superb, as should be fairly clear from the post. Shame that I can’t get both…
Her face could be a lot better. The anime face aside(which looks totally out of place with the realistic look) her “realistic” face looks totally goofy. It’s not bad for the price, but it’s too bad since I would’ve gotten it in a heart beat if it wasn’t for the face. It kind of creeps me out, actually. Still digging everything else, amazing details.
Saber Lily, on the other hand, looks almost perfect. The price is the only downside and I would be all over it if I didn’t already have two Saber Lily figmas.
Saber lily because it has a sexy look and feel :P
For some reason this comes to mind:
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/01/02/the-moefication-of-a-certain-magical-index/
GSC Saber Lily. Armpits.
COOL ARMOR
[Check]
COOL STYLE
[Check]
DETAILED SWORD
[Check]
UGLY FACE
[Ruining Everything]
Way to go Lily
her smile seems abit off to me..
i would get the saber lily
saber lily is better, seriosly
I think the realistic face is awesome yo. its phat!
Lily ftw.
The armor of the Gift Saber looks a bit exaggerated. I don’t really like those shoulder plates, gauntlets and how the armor on sides of her skirt are too short. I still like the design of the original, old skool Saber best.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/mistergua/3Saber.jpg
The anime face of the Gift Saber is good though.
I have ordered both :D i cant wait to receive this one next week….now when another great Gift figure but of Rider?
I wouldn’t buy a figure just because of the details. I buy a figure because I like a character and the figure is Anime-accurate.
Saber Lily is indeed a figure which I will put money down for. So many figures to buy…
oh my! Both of them are simply stunning. Saber’s dress is far superior in the Gift version. It’s more practical than having detached sleeves and the semi transparent dress is simply gorgeous. The printing on it will be hard to beat too. The main area that brings it down though, and has already been mentioned numerous times is the face.. neither of the two provided come close to GSCs. Thats where I think Gifts biggest problem lies. Instead of making two faces they should have just concentrated on making one great one.
Who will be the first to buy a sacrificial GSC to create the perfect Gift Saber? :p
~Lenneth
pretty obvious who’s the winner here in terms of facial sculpt. ;)
i’d rather get the GSC Saber Lily ^^
Can’t ignore the face on Gift Saber. I’ll go GSSL.
Most of the Saber figures in the pass their faces were a bit off for me, which is the main reason I didn’t buy them. I did however buy the Maid version of Saber and Rin (for the sake of them in maid outfit lol) which was also by GSC. I later also buy the figma Saber as well.
Now the GSC Saber Lily…it definitely have the best face out of all the Saber figure. Even thought it’s said to be going to be 8,800yen, but I still think I am going to buy it simply because it is THAT good (and of course the figure itself is just perfect).
GSC wins.
That’s good and all, but, more Rin Tohsaka figures please!