Nendoroid #3: Fate/stay night Hetare - Saber Figurine

Product Information/Specifications

Introduction

When I saw this Nendoroid Hetare - Saber figurine, it was a must have for me.  I got it as a clearance item two months after its release from YesAsia.  What attracted me to it was the face of Saber & that lion she rides on.

Some of the pictures aren't clear & good.  If I have time, I'll redo the bad ones & repost them.

The Review

Nendoroid Hetare - Saber in box

Hetare - Saber comes with a nice amount of accessories.  She comes with an extra hand to hold Excalibur (which is included), base & stand, extra face, a lion, a steering wheel for the lion, & an extra skirt used for Saber to sit on the lion.

 
Hetare - Saber out of the box

Hetare - Saber from different sides

Hetare - Saber is poseable at the main joints: neck, arms, legs, & knees.  The joints are loose to allow the movements & poses that you want with limitations.  However, the joints are too loose for its own good.  I was moving one of the arms up & it came off quite easily.  When you take apart the other joints, they become loose very fast when you put them back together.  Speaking of that, the face possessed a lot of problems for me to change.

It was hard to take Saber's face apart from the back of head as it was tight.  After managing to take the face apart, the neck needs to be removed too.  Because the figurine uses ball joints, it was hard to pull the neck out, especially when it's very small & possibly fragile. 

Posing Hetare - Saber was also a challenge at the legs.  The feet & legs are removable, but tight.  The feet are shaped differently to give it some shape & the ability to pose into different positions.  Because the feet are small, you really need that base & stand to hold her up.  You even need it too when you put her in the kneeing position since her big head carries too much weight.  But the base has problems as well due to the head weight.  She tends to slide off forward from the stand unless you adjust her feet correctly.  Although there are a lot of problems with the posing, molding job is very good on Saber.  You can see how clean the molding lines are on Saber's hair at the back even though it's simple.

Excalibur!

The molding job on Excalibur is pretty good.  The tip is very sharp as well.  The paint job does suffer some paint bleeds here & there.  Most of it is from the gold.  Putting the sword into Saber's hand requires some force  Once you get it into Saber's hand, you can rotate it very freely.  Putting it out is a bit hard though as it's stuck in there pretty well.

Ride that lion!  RAWR!

Putting Hetare - Saber on that lion is more challenging than I thought.  In order for Saber to sit on it, you need to change her skirt.  The problem with this is that you need to remove the legs from the other skirt & they aren't easy to remove since there are round & thin.  I sometimes pull the foot out by accident.  Also, you need to adjust the legs properly to get the sitting position on the lion.  But putting her on the lion is difficult as there isn't any peg system for Saber to stick on.  Since the back of the lion is smooth, she can slide off pretty easily.  You need to squeeze the legs together & put her hands on top of the steering wheel.  However, the distance of the arms on the wheel is a bit wide & her arms tends to come apart as the body isn't shaped properly for her arms to move.

The lion itself is like made from a soft PVC material.  Something like a rubber ducky but harder.  It's quite light too as it feels like it's hollow inside.  The molding job is very cute. 

Although there are two different faces for Hetare - Saber, there is no really difference between them.  The eyebrows are adjusted a bit lower than the other face & one of the face has a mouth.  The mouth is molded into shape by the way.  So changing faces isn't much of a big deal here.  The faces was hard to put apart from the head & neck as it is.  All the black scribbles are etched in & gives that dumbfound look on Saber, which I like.

Overall Conclusion

Nendoroid Hetare - Saber is not something you should go crazy for like I did.  The figurine is a bit poorly made & didn't give me much of a "good smile" when I played around with her.

On a scale of ten, Nendoroid Hetare - Saber receives a seven.  The ability to position this figurine is very poor as the joints come off too easily.  It's even worse when you pull them apart to interchange parts & find them more loose than before.  Plus, the small round parts you need to remove is very hard.  You would want to keep Saber as she is when you pull her out of the box.  The cuteness factor kept its score from dropping & molding & paint job is very good.

Although I don't recommend Saber or Fate/stay night fans to get this, Nendoroid Hetare - Saber is now hard to get; even with the re-issue.  The price on this figurine has increased a bit for the re-issue.  But, I don't see the price increasing at all again.  The suggested retail price is a bit high if you ask me, so I would suggest getting it at a lower price if you can.

Photos were taken using Sony DSC-F828 digital still camera.

Last updated on February 19, 2008