Wednesday 24 February 2016

Frame Arms Girl, Materia White version.


Here I am with a light but rather large box and it happens to contain a Frame Arms Girl figure in it.  It turns out that these guys are like little plastic model kits that you need t assemble yourself.


Good thing I’ve been sort of practicing with these model kits a bit lately. Let’s go!!

Materia (2)Materia (1)

There is the box in all its glory.  Slide the bugger open and you’re faced with this:
Materia (2)


Which will turn into this:
Materia (3)
Minus the glass of wine, toys and camera.


I actually quite enjoyed putting this together, since I’ve done it, this  won’t be a follow through post as I go, but I will drop some images that I took through the process.

Instructions have you put the head together first and it then sits there until you’ve finished the body.  Good thing Zero is still around to look after it for me.


Materia (6)

Next up is the torso.  I found building this thing rather interesting, as it certainly made me contemplate the way that even simple action figures are designed.

The shoulders in particular were a bit of a hassle due to their tiny size. 

Materia (7)Materia (8)

It’s also worth paying close attention to the instructions as I had to pull the torso apart twice, the first time I forgot to add the neck connector, the next, it was a sot piece to join the waist.  Derp….

Materia (9)Materia (10)

That was fun, now to add some armour bits.  I found the shoulders small, these bits are even worse!!!!

Materia (13)Materia (14)Materia (12)


The end result was pretty good I think.


Materia (11)

Materia (17)You then move on to the waist parts, which are pretty simple with no tricky parts, or things to leave out.  Once all joined you’ll have the head, torso and waist all separated and hopefully not being abused by Zero….







Next up is the hips.  This was slightly amusing, as when I first cracked the box open, I thought Materia came with two sets of breasts.

Materia (21)Materia (20)
One is actually her bottom.  So, boobs or bumb?

Materia (19)This bit is simple enough, EXCEPT for the hip connectors.  Which are a pain in the bumb!!  Be very careful, the instructions are pretty clear on what to do, so follow them very closely and you’ll be fine.  You’ll end up with a slidable hip connector, much like the joint type found in figuart extending hips.




What I did like was that there is a copper piece of plastic, which slides with the waist joint and covers the gap that would otherwise be exposed.  A very nice design element there!

Materia (23)

Place it all inside, clip the front and back together and  you’re away and onto the next step, the arms.

Now, I don’t seem to have taken any pictures of this section, so they must have been simple enough.  With the arms, you have choice to use two types of copper plastic.  One has a 3mm port for Armour connection going on and the other is a slimmer fitting piece.  I chose the slimmer one for now as I don’t have any armour for her yet. 


Materia (25)Oh, yeah, you’ll have to make up the wrist joints.  Wrist joint terrify me now, ever since I managed to bend one a bit on my Rio Bone Stocking figure.  With the changing of hands (which I love ) these small joints end up under a LOT of pressure.  Luckily I managed to make them without breaking them! Yay!  Just make sure you have enough light around to see as these are small!





You’ll then have to join the arms, bumb, waist and torso together.  Don’t forget the squishy plastics, which you should have used in the torso peg hole.

Materia (22)


Materia (24)Materia (26)
Looking good so far!!

Righto, let’s  giver her some legs!

Once again, like the arms, legs are simple enough.  Make her feet, don’t forget some squishy plastic, choose if you want the 3mm peg hole or not and you’re done!


Materia (27)Materia (28)Materia (29)
Wooooo! Yeah!!


You’ll end up with some pieces not used, they are highlighted in grey in the instructions.  There’s some extra thigh pieces,that appear to have some extra connection ports to them and whatnot, I am going to assume they are for joining to various armour and stuff.


Materia (35)Materia (30)

The completed figure ends up looking like this.

Materia (34)Materia (36)Materia2 (1)

And I’m gonna come right out and say it, I really like her!  Admittedly she feels very light, especially when compared to figma 2.0 Miku there but her poseability is outstanding!  Probably due to the lack of hindrance to the base body.

I just wish that the diaphragm joint gave a deeper forward bend.  It can bend back a decent amount, but due to the chest armour, she can’ lean forward too well.

Materia2 (2)Materia2 (1)


Balance can be a bit tricky due to her lightness, but you can get her on one leg.

Materia (38)Materia (37)

Materia (40)Materia (39)

Due to her rather well hidden double jointed knees, she can crouch really low.  Her elbows are only single jointed, but man they have a super deep bend to them.

Since I’ve been typing this up since I finished her, she’s been a lot of fun to mess about with.  However, drop her and pieces will fly.  I’m not sure if I did something wrong, but her waist pops off quite easily, it is a little frustrating.  Her legs dropped after aa waist pop and I lost the bottom toes of her shoes for a bit.


Still, she is a lot of fun to play with.

Materia3 (1)Materia3 (2)


She has swappable faces and hands and can interact with various object rather well!


Materia3 (4)Materia3 (3)



I really love how deep a bend you can get on her!!

Materia3 (5)Materia3 (6)

Plus you can plug stands into her back!   That jumping picture is one where I would have liked her to be able to curl up a bit better with a deeper diaphragm joint.


Final picture, is one I didn’t think she be able to do, but she can and I rather like the pose as well.  Plus I made it while mindlessly fiddling with her.  Damn. A rather nice, if fragile toy.  If she weren’t so prone to falling apart and small pieces flying off to all corners of the Earth, I’d be very impressed.  As it currently stands, I am just impressed.


Materia3 (10)


Just to show she’s sitting on the laptop, see below.  And a picture of the stand in her back.


Materia3 (8)Materia3 (7)


Okay, so now comes the number crunching.  Amazon Japan has her listed at 3,888Yen RRP.  Now essentially what you get is a nicely articulated base figure for that price.  Which you will have to make up yourself.  However if we compare that with a figma, say for Example, the Virtua Fighter Sarah Bryant, which is listed as 4500, RRP which is fully assembled and painted, it makes me wonder about the value for money on this as a stand alone figure, and I know you can order Sarah for less than the 4500.  

So while she is nice and all, I get the feeling that The old Frame Armor Girls Materia White version, might not be all that great value for money.  Oh well, I'll have to wait and see if anymore of these take my fancy.

1 comment:

  1. She reminds me of Alita. Thank you for comparing the Framearms with Figma. I was having second thoughts on which jointed figure to purchase.

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