Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Upper body and front skirt

Head

Back section and rear skirt

Legs

Same face construction as before

9 hand parts in total

Calibur parts painted more elaborately than Saber-san

Leftover parts from Saber-san.

Articulation is the same as Saber-san, but...

Fate Saber Lily - Drawing the sword! (1/3)

Drawing the sword!

Action pose 1

Action pose 2

Fate Saber Lily - Together with Saber-san. Apart from the face and arm/leg inner frame, it's like she's gotten a complete war

Together with Saber-san.
Apart from the face and arm/leg inner frame, it's like she's gotten a complete wardrobe change.

Saber Lily has been released as the next entry in the Saber-san series — part of Kotobukiya's signature girlpla lineup. As you can see in the photos, the face and inner frame are similar, but the armor and outfit covering the whole body are all new, making this a variation where the majority of runners have been replaced with new parts.

The newly redesigned armor and parts have a noticeably different feel from the previous kit — it's less like armor and more like actual clothing. The skirt in particular, which is assembled in multiple layers, has some impressive sculpting, with the front apron, back skirt, side skirts, and underskirt all moving independently. That said, the side skirt parts are a bit too large and bulky, which interferes with how the front and back skirts stay in place — specifically, the back skirt tends to keep popping off whenever you move the side skirts.

The biggest issue with this kit is that the joint strength tuning just didn't work out. Loose joints are one thing, but this kit goes the other way — the hip and shoulder joints are way too stiff, which honestly causes even more frustration. They're so tight that you need to apply a lot of force to move them, and as a result the various skirt pieces and surrounding parts constantly come apart or fall off from the pressure. On top of that, the excessive stiffness means there's a real risk of breaking other parts during posing. It made it really hard to pull off any dynamic action poses, so I ended up sticking to basic standing poses. T_T

Overall, the design and style make this a solid girlpla, and the color combination and feel after completion are definitely above average... but the absurdly stiff joints make it hard to recommend. T_T If you're planning to just display it alongside Saber-san without much posing, it's worth considering — but those painfully stiff joints are probably going to draw a lot of complaints. ^^;;

Fate Saber Lily | 2012. 5 | ¥3,200

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.