Kotobukiya P.S.O. 1/12 RAcaseal Elenor ver. APSY Review

Click HERE for to see photos of the kit before painting.

Front view

Back view

Close-up: decal at the chest denote Elenor's Section ID:  BLUEFULL

2* (Blue photon) "Handgun" type weapon - Autogun

 1* (Green photon) "Saber" type weapon - Saber

Showing the flexibility of the figure

3* (Pink photon) "Spread" type weapon - Cannon

Elenor can weld the weapon with 2 hands

Conclusion

While I am very satisfied with owning this kit, there are a few thing that does leave me wondering.

Elenor is a RAcaseal (Ranger class Android) from the game "Phantasy Star Online", and is depicted as an advanced android with the purpose of developing human like emotion. Player will encounter her several times in various missions in the game, where she is often armed with a rifle type weapon.

Onto the kit itself. Originally sold by APSY in hobby show as a garage kit many years ago, Kotobukiya has managed to strike a deal with him to reproduce this in injection kit form, right around the time for the announcement of "Phantasy Star Online 2".

Being designed by the man who designed Figma and Busou Shinki, Elenor is very flexible using a combination of ABS and PS plastic. A fine selection of weapon and accessories are also provided, including 1 Handgun, 1 Spread-gun, 2 beam saber, and a large collection of hands, including relaxed, open, close fist, saber holding and gun holding hands. An extra back piece is also included which allows Elenor to be connected to an display stand.

Elenor is molded in colour for the most part in white, light pink and dark pink plastic. The eyes are pre-painted in a slightly lighter shade of light pink. Only the chest piece, skirt, headdress and minor details around the ankles, knees and elbows need painting. The weapons, on the other hand, require much more attentions, as both guns are molded in white only, and the beam saber handle and blade molded as 1 piece in clear green.

So, what is the flaw that got me wondering? It's the problem of durability. Being made by Kotobukiya, I have already expected that the kit overall would be fragile, but simply through the course of painting and reviewing this kit, both the elbow joints and the waist joint has snapped. It seems like that ABS plastic used here is not the that durable at all, and injection molding weld lines are not carefully monitored either. This is also not helped by the fact that the rest of the joints are also very stiff, forcing you to put more force into the joints while putting the figure into pose, further increasing the chance of breakage.

So overall, is it good? I would say it really depends on 2 factors: are you a P.S.O. / fembot fan, and do you want a action figure or a model kit. My experience tells me that she is NOT design for playing, but other than that, she is a very nicely detailed figure, with many possibility for poses, and a generous amount of accessories, and at a rather reasonable price as well.