Dark General Review
I said before I’ll lessen the amount of pictures per review, sadly that’s not a possibility with this figure that has so much things to talk about that I’m posting around 82 pictures.
Dark General is a character from ‘Shingeki no Bahamut’ and was made by Amakuni. The figure is priced at 11k yen when it was announced. Nowadays, you’ll be hard pressed to find preowned figures of her at reasonable prices and i don’t blame the resellers. This figure is a beaut.
Nothing quite special about the box save for the corrugated texture of the box. Upon opening I noticed the material used for the container was from thick cardboxes which I guess helps in protecting the figure from bumps, in case the plastic doesn’t cut it.
At least we get to see the illustration from where the figure was based from.
Biggest reason why this review will be longer than usual is because of the illustration’s asymmetrical design. There is just too many things to talk about because each side is different and your eyes can’t help but look over every single part this figure has to offer.
Aside from being asymmetrical, it greatly helps that the figure is very detailed from horn to toe. I’m pretty sure I’ll forget some details here and there, so forgive me in advance ^^;; There’s just so much to see in this figure.
Not really a fan of thick eyebrows, but damn she looks pretty with those fierce eyes and that single tooth protrusion. Her expression looks fierce and commanding like the general that she is. Face is also well sculpted that her charm doesn’t diminish regardless of the angles or light sources.
Speaking of eyebrows, you can also see the outline found on them instead of just being painted with one color or a single stroke.
Nice to see that even the horns got some nice metallic red paintjob too.
Is there purpose to the black hair part underneath?
As I’ve said before, the entire design of Dark General is mostly asymmetrical and this is pretty evident with the armor of our figure of interest. No part of this character’s detailed armor is boring to look at mind you.
Because this figure is highly detailed, expect some human errors also in the process. You can see some paint lines not done cleanly here in this pic. However, you’d only notice these things if someone points it out or if you look at it close enough. Small mistakes.
I also love the combination of matte and metallic colors they gave here instead of just making do with solid acrylic colors.
It’s almost a miracle that the paintjob didn’t splatter on the fleshy parts given the precision needed for the silver paint.
It also helps that the body, especially the waist, has been crafted beautifully by the sculptors giving this figure more oomph than normal.
Look at those folds! The cloth there is somewhat thin, but still solid nonetheless.
The armor looks sturdy enough to *ahem* support our heroine in her time of need.
My only complaint about this figure (yes I do eventually find one lol) is that I wish the cape and wings are removable. I’d love to see more of her backside. Oh and another thing to take note of, the armor is even asymmetrical from this angle. That’s effort for you.
There’s something strange, and yet fitting, with combining point armor designs with a supple slender cute body like the Dark General.
The ‘armor bracelet’ around her left wrist is perhaps the only thing that makes this piece of armor accessory interesting ^^
In contrast, right hand looks menacing enough compared to the gentler left hand.
Her only piece of armor around her waist is a belt. Yes, a belt. I guess our General doesn’t need much defense after all. Love the belt buckle and the metallic paint job applied here.
Underneath the black belt are black pantsu for our Dark General. Nothing special here really, but it’s still sexy nonetheless. This is prolly the biggest ‘paint transfer area’ for this figure since the black paint from the belt will keep on rubbing on her waist from time to time.
Someone should really make a topcoat that allows whatever it covers to be paint resistant or something ^^
Much like her arms, the right leg is the one adorned with a more armored look compared to her smoother left leg armor.
Left leg is only adorned with this piece of armor which I have no idea what it’s for at all. Remarkable paintjob can be found on all the leg armor along with meticulous detailing on the seams and the silver portions.
Normally sculptors go lazy on the shoes, but not this one. Dark General’s boots are completely and intricately sculpted from every angle, even the bottom part of her boots are well painted and detailed even if people will hardly display her backside ^^;;;
Base is a double layered semi-clear plastic (better than oddly colored ones) which I believe you can opt to place printed material underneath it OR even LED lights.
Let’s not forget the cape. Print of design is crisp. What I love about the cape is that Amakuni decided to put some black gradient paint near the end to give it a fuller look instead of flat red paint.
If you ask me, her wings look more robotic than gothic in theme. This is probably the only weird portion i find that somehow fits the entire character design. Placing something robotic and ordered wings, to something archaic and seemingly organic armor doesn’t seem to fit in theory, but it works.
Let’s not forget the figure’s only accessory which is a double sided lance whose design is once again very very asymmetrical to one another.
Oh man, posing her with her weapon really makes the Dark General;s presence more felt. If you put her beside other figures, it would be hard not noticing her.
From here on, I’ll leave you guys with a slew of pictures to look at, hope you enjoy.
I think I went ham over the amount of pics for this review. Despite the length I hope you guys enjoyed the review!
Good ol’ Rage of Bahamut, one thing I always like was the interesting character designs that you would get in the rarer cards. Such a shame getting said cards was very time consuming unless your dropped down some cash for those card packs and even then it was all too luck.
The Dark General was one of those cards that (I think) are fairly recent or at least introduced after I stopped playing. Usually asymmetrical designs bug the hell out of me, I blame it on OCB. For some reason not only did it not bother me but I didn’t even notice it.
This is my first close look at Amakuni, seems like they did a good job, something full of so much detail they seemed to have done a fairly good job.
I know how you feel regarding Trading Card Games. I used to play Magic the Gathering and Social Card Games on the Phone and I have to say it really did a number on my wallet more than figures primarily because cards do not exactly have that “intrinsic value” where we feel a connection with the figure due to the characters. And yes theyr’e time consuming too if you played Phone Card Games without paying to get cards with good design