Play Arts Kai Vincent Review - Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children

It may not seem obvious but, full disclosure, i am a huge Final Fantasy fan, i picked up the series during their 6th installment (Sabin's my fave btw), played through 7 (Pfft! Cloud and Tifa and Sephiroth), 8 (Squall the emo poster boy)  until 9 (believe it or not i'll pick Amaranth and Vivi over Zidane) though i only recently rekindled my interest with FF13, and while i eventually grew to hate the hype (and goddamn pathetic fanboys too!) i must agree that Final Fantasy 7 redefined the whole FF universe. And this guy right here is one of the more popular supporting cast from that awesome game aaaannnddd movie, yup, this is the movie version Vincent by the way...  

Special thanks to my cousin Josh for letting me review this figure.

I guess i don't need to introduce this gun-slinging vampire anymore. If you don't know him, get out of here, where have you been the last two decades? Living in a goddamn cave? Anyway, it's a good thing he was reincarnated as a Play Arts Kai figure though i am not a big fan of Vincent (or his crappy Dirge of Cerberus solo output) i am definitely impressed with this figure...

As expected the 1st Wave for Play Arts Kai Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children was pretty hyped even though this is one of the weakest line-up i have encountered so far from a PAK release. Vincent is the strongest of the 3 even though his arsenal is pretty lacking as seen below.

Vincent's scale is a far cry from the old Play Arts FF7: AC version which is good since the details now run rampant on the newer and bigger figures. That 2-part articulated cape upstairs is pretty wicked, i love the billowing details though i had trouble posing it - too heavy and the ball joints are messed up a bit. They actually remind me of Spawn's cape, errr...who's Spawn? Well, that's for another day...The face sculpt of Vince is also faithful to his movie counterpart though i can't help but comment on those dark shades under his eyes. Again?

The cape piece on his shoulders are actually movable (similar to Jun Kazama's shawl) enabling good arm movement though his balance isn't that good at all - no thanks to his narrow elf-booted feet. He's got a holster also and a pendant for his gun to round up his costume details

Paint job is pretty good, not too dissimilar with PAK MGS quality. Looks like SQEX is upping their game for their homegrown characters which is a very good sign.

Articulation is decent overall but i don't expect to pull-off that many poses. His arm hinges are sturdier than most PAKs (no Dissidia hinges, yay!) though his forearm movements are hindered by his bracers. My biggest problem with Vince though are his knees - simply put, Vince's pretty difficult to pose while kneeling.

I've always wanted Final Fantasy figures in the same scale as Metal Gear PAKs so for that reason alone i'm really digging this release (i.e. hope momentarily dashed by the Dissidia line but revived by this set). The only thing that's holding me back is the anticipated announcements for Cloud and Sephiroth. I hope they are not far behind.