hontou ni Stripey Insists Sisters Cry Oniichan Now

GSC 1/7 Saber Lily ~ Morning Blue

Having enjoyed Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, I've always found the notion of Saber as King Arthur to be faintly ridiculous. But the richness of TYPE MOON's re-imagined mythology (including Rin x Saber), the power of the Ayako Doctrine and the unlimited fanworks (my all-time favourite being the Pregnant Servants doujin). I have no clue what's the story behind this latest Saber but GSC has certainly done a Good Job.

In terms of design elements, Saber Lily just has fantastic balance. There are hard aspects like her sword, martial stance, stern expression and armour (especially her gauntlets and greave/solaret) that just screams heaviness. And there are the soft feminine aspects such as her flowing blonde locks, the bare shoulders and tiny waist that emphasis her petiteness, the trio of black ribbons (one for her ponytail and one each, right and left, for the long silk gloves under her iron fists), the swell of her breasts moving up towards her breastplate, the white collar with smidgen of black tie and, of course, her fabulous ahoge. Both aspects are brilliantly integrated in the way how flesh flows into dress and then into armour and back.

The Good Smile Company certainly brought a smile to my face by delivering on the presentation of all those design elements. The chrome had a great finish that said, quite authoritatively, "heavy metal" which I much prefer in contrast to the shinier armour of Megahouse 1/8 Clare (see reviews by Adun and tj_han). But, again, this was wonderfully complemented and played off by the softness of her handgloves and skirts which boasted different levels of thicknesses and opacity/translucence that gave this figure a lot of depth and interest.

The painting of her attire's colours - black, white and chrome - seems a tad plain at first but they highlight the creaminess of her skin, the yellow of her hair and the green of her eyes. When I first took her out of the box, I was thinking, Hmmm... Saber in black and white (think GSC 1/8 Meido Saber) always goes from great to absolute fabulous with just a touch of blue. And lo and behold, Caliburn provided just that in just the right dose (much like aforementioned Meido Saber's hair ribbon). That sword also had an interesting burnished look, just under the glyphs of the tip, that varied in length depending on the light and angle of viewing.

Stripey, he loves ribbons and lace and other bells and whistles and knickknacks. I personally find too many of them to be visually noisy, distracting the eye from being able to focus, dwell and savour slowly. Saber's black ribbon brings me that feast for the eye, slow food style, with its understated blackness not shouting for attention but nonetheless drawing one in, inexorably, once you settle on the light dancing light off its knots and folds, lending a soft luxuriant texture to the colour that never goes out of fashion.

One of the most obvious challenges I had with this late morning shoot was the shadow over Saber Lily's face. She is looking down slightly, her chin just cocked downwards a little while her fringe overhangs enough for an overhead sun to darken her visage. I literally just flipped her 90 degrees onto her back but I didn't quite manage to adjust for glare/over-exposure and was worried about the effect on her flexible skirting if I left her in this position for too long.

Should have rigged up a reflector with a spare mirror or just cardboard with aluminum foil but by the time I managed to get everything outdoors (and with the approach of threatening clouds that moved the shoot back indoors not long after), I had just run out of hands and time.

One new piece of figure care advice I received with the purchase of GSC Saber Lily was to gently brush her down with a clean water colour paintbrush. Which is not just great for removing dust and other particles that could have settled on her in the course of her manufacturing and packing but also oily residues that can cause problems later. Thanks, Kano, for the pro tip!

Related posts:

1. GSC 1/7 Saber Lily ~ Afternoon Break
2. GSC 1/7 Saber Lily ~ Evening Star
3. Figure display triumph ~ 1/7 GSC Saber Lily and VOLKS Fate housed!