Friday, April 17, 2015

Nendoroid Saber: Super Movable Edition Part 4

A Nendoroid figure who can perform a kneeling pose?!

Despite the emphasis shown in her name, the articulation design of Nendoroid Saber: Super Movable Edition only gets formally introduced in the fourth chapter of this review series. ^^;



While Saber is definitely the first release to feature the so-called "Super Movable" enhanced articulation design, she isn't the first in the series to be reviewed on my blog: that honor goes to Hatsune Miku Absolute HMO Edition. ^^

Then again, looking at the many releases in the Nendoroid series right now, this enhanced articulation design is really not a big deal anymore, and has become a rather typical feature for certain releases. ^^ I know many of the releases from "Fate/Stay Night", like Saber Nendoroid Complete File Edition, Saber Alter, Archer do feature this design. ^^

Arguably, Good Smile Company is capable of designing all of their Nendoroid releases with this articulation feature, although it's obviously clear that's not necessary at all. ^^



The usual forward/backward and side-to-side bends for the head via the Nendoroid neck joint.


The small lock of hair on top of Saber's head seems to be fixed.


A rather loose ball-type joint inside the abdomen allows the body to be bent to different directions very easily.



The shoulders can be swung forward/backward.


The hinge joints of the shoulders allow the arms to be lifted/lowered.


(Left) The peg slot of the first shoulder swivel shown just now which depicts the arms' forward/backward swing.
(Right) The hinge portion of the shoulder joint.


Biceps swivel.


Rather limited elbow bend.




All four skirt pieces (left, right, front, and back) have limited range of expansion each.


A look at the joint design of the four skirt pieces. Except for the front part, all the skirt armors are connected to Saber's waist via ball-type joints.


Ball-type hip joints.


Hinge joint design for the knees identical to the elbow joints.


Tight ball-type joints for the ankles.

With her Super Movable articulation design, especially the hinge knee joints, Saber is capable of performing a kneeling pose - definitely the first Nendoroid in my collection to be able to do that. ^^





While the knees can be adjusted to a kneeling position, it's actually her large skirt pieces that are supporting the figure in that pose. ^^;

Comparison with Hatsune Miku Absolute HMO Edition:





A couple of articulation points that are different between the two special Nendoroids:


While their articulation capabilities are the same, Hatsune Miku Absolute HMO Edition's shoulder joints are designed to look a lot closer to a typical Nendoroid joint, while Saber has very obvious-looking straight pegs for both of her shoulder joint segments.


Hatsune Miku Absolute HMO Edition features a rounder, more natural-looking design for the elbow joints.


Same can be about the knee joints. ^^ Saber's snap-fit knee joint design not only looks more crooked, the joints don't bend as smoothly as those on Hatsune Miku Absolute HMO Edition. ^^;
On the other hand, the ankle joints on Saber are missing on Miku

It's obvious that while the joints' application is pretty much the same between Saber and Miku, the latter is much more improved, mainly in terms of the joints' appearance. ^^

Some action poses from Saber to demonstrate her Super Movable articulation design: ^^














More action poses from this Nendoroid figure coming up in the next posting. ^^

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