Review: Saber Extra by Gift
We’re back with a review on Gift’s Saber Extra. This is the fourth Saber figure that Gift has made in collaboration with Satoshi Toda, all of which were originally done as garage kits by Toda’s circle, the Principality of Kagutsuchino (夢のカグツチノ公国). The others were Saber, Saber Alter, and Saber Lily. So once Saber Extra’s garage kit was released back in early 2011, it was pretty much a no-brainer that Gift would follow with a PVC release. And following with the excellent quality, craftsmanship, and pure awesomeness of the others, it was a no-brainer that Gift’s Saber Extra would end up in our home.
Saber Extra is from the game Fate/Extra for the PSP and PS2. While she looks similar to the other Saber’s, she isn’t actually the same person, in fact, Fate/Extra is an alternate universe than the original Fate/Stay Night. Since her true identity is fairly important in the game’s story, I won’t ruin it here and instead refer you to the Wiki if you’re interested in spoilering it for yourself. Unlike regular Saber, Saber Extra’s personality is very haughty and she is a perfectionist although she does seem to treasure valor like her counterpart. To be honest, I was only able to play the game for a few hours and only as Caster. However, Zai chose Saber for her play through loves the character.
The first thing you’ll notice about Saber Extra’s design is she is very shiny and red. I LOVE this. I’m a big fan of metallic paint, and it makes sense here, giving her dress a silky look. For the pictures I took in the review, I actually went out and bought some silk cloth for her backdrop and I feel it’s matched her paint job well. The deep red contrasts nicely with our other Gift Saber figures, especially the blue of the original Saber. The gold trim gives her a nice regal look and Toda and Gift have done a fantastic job in giving it that extra detailed kick.
Saber Extra is Toda and Gift’s most dynamic Saber sculpt so far. Even though she’s still got the typical Toda Saber wide stance, in this case Saber’s a bit swayed to one side and we have a pretty strong wind whipping up her dress. I suppose the other Sabers have armor holding most of their outfit in place where Saber Extra barely has any. You can see the metallic paint really helps highlight all the folds in her dress if you have good light.
One of the big deviations from the original design is the opacity of Saber Extra’s dress. In the original artwork, the front part of her dress was pretty much see-through. Toda decided to make the inner dress much more opaque where light can pass through a bit but it’s pretty much just translucent at this point. To be honest, I would have preferred it more like the original as it would have made her more unique.. or I’m just a pervert. It isn’t a huge deal though as she still looks stunning with her current dress.
Another thing of interest is her armored boots. The other Sabers have boots that have been modified to be fairly elaborate while Extra’s seem fairly spartan in comparison. Although considering her true identity and the style of armor at that time period, it makes sense. In any case, even simple, I think the boots look quite good.
We can see that Saber has very slim legs here. Kind of surprising I suppose since the other Toda Sabers either have pantaloons or high stockings and Saber Extra is the first to show so much skin. I can only imagine the chafing though, ouch. Another detail to note is the color of the inside of her dress. It’s a more matte red and while it isn’t bad, it looks dull compared to the bright metallic red of the outside of her dress. It’s a good thing that her optimal viewing angle only gives a small glimpse of the underside.
Toda’s Saber Extra has a nicely sculpted back and I love those clasps in her dress that she has on the front and back. We can also catch another hallmark of Saber Extra’s design, the super low cut dress. Unfortunately, it’s a bit hidden away and you can catch a tiny glimpse of what’s underneath only at certain angles. While I’m a bit sad about that, when it comes to the choice of dynamic dress sculpt as boring static dress sculpt for a bit of fanservice, I’m not too crushed about the decision that was made.
Also, awesome craftsmanship as usual from Gift. Even the tassels in her shoulders are distinguishable as individual strands.
Saber from Fate/Stay Night normally has a pretty modest chest but you’ll notice that Saber Extra is pretty well endowed. Not complaining, of course. The sculpt was done very nicely too with the buttons and folds and the size is just right. Moving up, the face. I think this is the one part that lets me down a little. She has a very nice face but it’s not as nice as Saber Lily’s. Somehow the nose is a little… big? And I don’t like the weird brown/green gradient of her eyes. Most of the Sabers have bright piercing green eyes and this Saber’s eyes seem a bit muddy in comparison.
Saber Extra once again comes in a hefty, almost cube-ish box. This time it’s got the bright blue under-watery theme of the Fate Extra franchise and some cool square-shape thingys to decorate the box windows. Thankfully Saber Extra’s mirrored base is a much more reasonable size compared to FS/N Saber and Saber Lily’s bases. I also forgot to mention her sword: Aestus Estus which was designed by huke, it’s got a neat design and very much looks like a sword representing flame. Gift did a fantastic job with it’s sculpt and paintjob, same metallic red gradiented with black.
In short, we love this figure and it definitely lived up to the high standards we expected from Gift’s Saber lineup. So far, they have tended to be on the pricey side of 1/8 figures (although they’re even on the smaller side of 1/8), but in my eyes the craftsmanship justifies the price. Flawless paint applications, tons of detail, lots of variation in paint textures and materials. Our Gift Saber shelf in our display cases is one of my favorites because it stands out so much. Out of the Sabers so far though, I think Saber Lily still edges out as my favorite, although Saber Extra comes in a close second. The issues I have with Saber Extra’s face compared to the flawless one on Saber Lily is pretty much the sole deciding factor, it’s that close and faces on figures are a big deal to me. We managed to snag Saber Extra from AmiAmi for 7180 yen and she can still be bought there or at Hobby Search.
12 comments on “Review: Saber Extra by Gift”
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This Saber is the best Saber ever, at first I thought I would miss out since I did not choose the Caster that everyone seems to love. Boy was I wrong, this Saber has personality and I love it!
Sadly I have to say this figure is not for me, mostly because it reminds of the other Saber figures by Satoshi Toda which in turn reminds me of the regular Saber rather the Saber from Fate/Extra. Regal Saber is nice and all but I find it to be missing the wonderful character traits that set this Saber apart from the others.
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Wow, that’s surprising, I thought most people would go for Saber. I only went for Caster because Zai had Saber. Kinda sad about missing out though.
I suppose it’s kind of hard to catch her haughty personality in figure form. I suppose the only one that might do it is the Beach Queens one. But the Gift one attracted me because it just looks so damn good.
Oh my lord she is shiny! So nice to see, im really amazed that this is from Gift, they must have really up their game. Although im not particularly keen on the face since i always picture the other face from the artwork and such it is well done.
Kuddos to Gift, im really really surprise at the quality, I guess its also due to your pictures and such haha, nice review
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Love the shininess! To be honest, I haven’t really been paying attention to any of Gift’s other releases except for that Sonico but all their Sabers have been top notch. I’ll admit the face is a bit of a polarizing thing, there seem to be a decent amount of collectors that aren’t fans of Toda’s faces, good thing that we’re of the ones that like it a lot, haha.
Thanks!
That metallic red paint combined with the gold trim really does look good on her. I also like how her dress is blowing in the wind. It looks a bit strange from the back, but from the front it looks great. The whole time I was scrolling through your review, I was wondering what you were going to say about the face. Personally, I think it looks really off too, nothing like the Saber I’m accustomed to seeing.
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I love metallic paint and was jealous seeing it on all of Megahouse’s figures and finally the GSC umbrella is starting to use it, yessss!
The face is in line with most of Toda’s Sabers but it’s not quite as perfect as Lily’s and the eye color, blegh. It definitely is different from the normal Saber look and the same criticisms of the look of the original Toda Saber apply here, there are lots of collectors who don’t like the totally different style and some like me that really dig it.
Thats quite a attention grabbing Saber, the red jacket/top looks great on her.
It’s so shiny and detailed, together with the white skirt an elegant outfit is created.
The cutted out areas at her back are damn attractive, sexy Saber
In terms of personality I like Saber Extra a lot more than regular Saber since she seems to be a lot of fun.
Overall she looks like a very pretty, but somehow I can’t get used to this more realistic adaption of her face.
I only know Saber from the anime so its very unusual for me to see her like that ^^
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I love how detailed all of Gift’s Sabers are, I think that’s the main reason I keep buying them. And yes, the back areas are quite nice, I wish they were shown off a little more somehow.
Haha, Saber Extra certainly seems more spunky then straight-as-an-arrow normal Saber although in Fate Zero, I’m liking Saber more than before.
The silk background really enhanced the impact of your photos–nice job! I ordered her after reading your review.
I also enjoyed your perspective on Saber Extra’s face, even though my opinion is a bit more favorable. Her more-pronounced nose and darker eyes look regal and imposing, but also somehow vulnerable at the same time. This dichotomy reflects Extra’s…controversial…past as opposed to Saber Arturia’s lawful-good virtue. No, Satoshi Toda did not stay entirely faithful to Takeuchi’s design for Extra’s face, but I think Toda’s changes were for the better.
Thanks! It’s the best compliment when someone goes out and gets a figure based on a review.
I suppose I could see the nose thing but the eyes, I definitely liked the original take. His style had much bigger eyes and thus, the deep green of Extras eyes had more emotion. Or I could be saying all this because I have green eye envy, having brown eyes myself.
That last pic, the one that looked like “The Burning of Rome”. I love that metallic finish they gave to saber. Looks like expensive silk
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Thanks! That pic is my favourite as well, it took a whole night to shoot it and I’m pleased with the result. They definitely need to use the metallic finish on more characters with silky elements in their costumes, it definitely makes it stand out.