Origin: Shingeki no Kyojin
Line: Brave-Act
Manufacturer: Sentinel
Character: Armin Arlert
Height: 20cm
Scale: 1/8
Retail Price: 8000 JPY
Price paid: £60.99
Scale accuracy: While the base adds almost half a cm to the height, Armin still measured in at almost 21cm compared to the advertised 20cm - and that's without standing up straight (covered in psoting) which would add about another 1cm. As Armin's officially about 163cm talls, this puts him a bit closer to 1/7.5 scale than the advertised 1/8 but it's not a massive difference and he should fit in pretty well with any other 1/8 scale figures from the sale line, as Erwin's scale appears to be similarly off according to my calculations.
Packaging - 8/10
The box isn't massively fancy, but it looks eyecatching enough, with a nice brick pattern all over it, the name of the line on top and sides, a nice big window on the front, and several nice images of the figure in a variety of poses on the back. It also has a finish on it that, while nice, makes it a pain to get a good photo of the surface.
The blister within does its job well enough but, as is the case with many figures, it doesn't really have a place for the removable parts which originally come attached to the figure.
Posing - 8/10
Armin comes with two major poses that you're supposed to use (I'll cover that a bit more later in this section), and I will address each of them separately.
There is, however, one oddity that isn't really noticable unless you look at the figure from the side without the Survey Corps mantle on.
That... is certainly an interesting way to have sculped his pose. I believe that it is supposed to be a reference to the scene where the salute pose occurs (where it appears that the force of his salute is pushing his chest forward and his low torso forward), but as this is a static figure, it still looks a bit odd when you first spot it.
However, this doesn't really take away any points because it does not result in an appearance of a broken neck or spine, it's merely a bit confusing when you first notice it.
Pose 1
The first pose is the saluting pose that's well known to anyone who's watched the series or read the manga, and is one of Armin's signature poses, as it is the pose from what is probably still one of his most important moment in terms of development. And I have to admit that, from the passion in the expression to the power in the pose, they completely pulled this one off.
Pose 2
Now this was a bit of an unusual choice for an Armin figure. Not because it's a bad pose, but because it's not one that we typically see Armin in - it feels a bit too generic, particularly as Armin is far more likely to hold both of his blades at thigh height, or one at thigh height and one at about his waist. Yes, I know I pay too much attention to this.
This pose also gives us a little bit of a problem when it comes to displaying Armin because, while his head can be adjusted, the shape of the base makes it a bit more difficult. And you will probably need to adjust the pose for display because of this.
Yep, because of the position of the hand holding the blade, you can't see half of his face, which is a bit of a drawback. While I like that you can change the position of his head, it shouldn't be a necessity for one of the basic poses - especially not the default pose that he actually comes in.
Sculpting and Painting - 8/10 and 9/10
I know that one of the biggest complaints about this figure is that a lot of people feel that he doesn't really look like Armin. However, I think that he looks a lot like Armin - Sentinel has just managed to mix the anime and manga appearances just enough to make me do a double take.
Manga:
Figure:
Anime:
The overall paint job is fantastic, with there being a ridiculous amount of shading on everything.
Shading all over his trousers and boots, although the straps are a tad underpainted.
You can see all the shading on his shirt, trousers, belts, and the level of detail that's been sculpted into the clothes. You can also see the little silver bits which represent the replacement blades - be careful, because these are not sculpted on, they're inserted in, and you WILL lose them.
His boots are directly attached to the legs, but the paint is perfect, and the straps are sculpted and painted all the way down.
There's less detail on the gear, but it's still fantastically made.
The SC mantle has so much shading, but the massive amount of motion does make it a bit at odds with the fairly static poses.
Removing the 3DMG does leave some holes, but you get a set of little dot-type things to put in the holes for if you want to display Armin without his gear.
While the hair sculpt of the two heads is the same one, it's very well painted, and there is shading all the way around the back of the head. The join for the hair is also placed a little further back than most scales, which allows it to be hidden easily.
His hands are well sculpted overall, but his right saluting hand could do with a bit more definition between the fingers and thumb as they merge together a little.
Base - 9//10
I don't usually get too excited by bases, but I do honestly quite like this one. It isn't too big, they didn't go with a boring plain circle (*gagging noises*) and it fits together with the other SnK scales.
Enjoyment - 10/10
I love this figure, even if I did end up choosing a combination of the two poses in order to pose him facing the front, reference his salute, and have him holding a weapon, rather than picking one of the two. I definitely recommend him for any Armin fans out there, especially if he's one of your favourite, as he looks excellent in a display case.
Notes
While I'm tempted to review all of my SnK stuff, I'm going to try and review as much of my collection as I can as long as it hasn't already been reviewed by someone else Let me know if there's anything in my collection that you want me to review (and don't worry about feeling like you're asking me to review something weird or pointless; I'll even do bundle reviews of straps if people are interested in them.
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