[Toy Review] Selphie Tilmitt FFVIII Play Arts

Booyaka! That's what I said after getting this figure of Selphie because it's already on sale and I haggled it to lower the price even more! Now I got a few extra cash to fund my next PAK. I ran out of options so I bought this figure as my Plan B. While she is not my priority, she's still worth getting if you're a fan of FFVIII or Final Fantasy series in general. To me, she's the best offensive and defensive character in FFVIII because her [Slot] Limit Break. She can kill almost all enemies (even some bosses) by using "THE END" from [Slot]. She is always included in my party in the game together with Irvine.

** Before we start, this review is to celebrate the blog's 1 year anniversary. Stay tuned for more posts!

PACKAGING

The packaging's front and back

The packaging is window type, you can see the figure in front, top and both sides. Very simple packaging design, white box with FFVIII logo and Play Arts Action Figure text. The back of the box shows the picture of the master model of Selphie plus other characters available in the set (Squall and Rinoa). The box and figure is still in pristine condition, no dust, fresh packaging, it was like a latest figure or something.

Selphie's finally out of the box

Packaging includes: Selphie figure, Necklace (already attached) Nunchaku, Pegged right gripping hand with 2 pegs, Open left hand, Display stand/Base, and no manual... weird... must have misplaced it during packaging (the figure is confirmed as authentic).

THE FIGURE

Selphie is the luckiest FFVIII character to be included in SQEX's FFVIII Play Arts line of figures, because it could have been Laguna, Zell and/or Quistis. But few people knew that Selphie is almost good at anything (or just plain lucky) and have a good side story besides Laguna (in my opinion). Also, she got that 60's-70's hairstyle going on. This is one of the earlier Play Arts Action figures released by Square-Enix. FFVIII PAs were released on 2006. This means that the details of this figure is not super great, just plain great or good.

Looking at Selphie on 4 sides

Angles of Selphie's head (with side lighting applied)

The Selphie figure is sculpted and painted nicely with some issues on both categories. Selphie's face is not that accurate to the game counterpart. It got a glossy finish on her pink rosy lips. Her feint smile is boring compared to her bubbly and carefree personality, but in some angles and lighting, her face becomes slightly accurate. Selphie's got a groovy hairstyle. It's painted well with some shadings. The bangs of the figure's hair is on the short side though (and got one extra mold plastic). It's supposed to go past over Selphie's eyebrows.

Selphie's tank/skirt/overall hybrid dress

Selphie is wearing a yellow tank/skirt/overall hybrid dress. It's a separate piece and made of soft-semi-flexible plastic and it's thick. This made the figure a little hard to pose especially on the chest and leg area. Anyways the clothes are detailed with linings and have almost perfect paint application overall.

Uhh, what's the meaning of "MX"? Medium Xtra?

The back of Selphie's dress features a tag/brand of the clothing and 2 green back pockets. In game the dress is all yellow, I don't know why they decided to paint the pockets green.

And as for those perverts out there, again, I didn't take pics under her clothes, her panties are sculpted well and detailed with linings that represents the underwear's elastic. And it is possible to remove Selphie's clothes, you just have to cut it out.

Looks like a bruise. Did she hurt herself again with her Nunchaku?

Selphie's legs and boots

The arms and legs have good sculpt but have few mold plastic, just sand it out and repaint it. Hands are surprisingly detailed (nails are present). The left arm features the blue strands that Selphie wear that needs more paint, and its skin paint have noticeable smudge that looks like a bruise. Selphie's brown boots are detailed with mini belts and wrinkles and it's painted well.

ACCESSORIES

Selphie comes with few standard accessories and a special accessory.

That's all she got...

...and this stand

She got her trusty weapon, Nunchaku, extra gripping double-pegged right hand and open left palm. She also got the Play Arts figure standard stuff, the display stand.

They don't make this special accessory to the PAKs anymore.

The special accessory that I mentioned is the chain necklace. It's already attached to her neck, the pendant is detailed with standard grayish/metallic paint.

The Nunchaku, Selphie's preferred weapon.

The red and elongated Nunchaku looks cool, It got real mini chains. but I don't know its name because I didn't see this in-game.

Selphie holding the Nunchaku

Because of the weapon's elongated nature, Selphie holds it using her 2 hands. The figure's default hands is not pegged but can hold the Nunchaku and won't fall off.

Attach both Nunchaku sticks here

Both Nunchaku sticks have peg holes on them that can fit on the double-pegged gripping right hand.

[Left] Holding both Nunchaku sticks on one hand. The pose looks similar to her victory pose

[Right] The innocent pose. Again, using the double pegged right hand

[Left] Talk to the hand

[Right] Clapping

The open left hand/palm is just for gestures and action poses only. It's up to our creativity to use this extra hand for poses.

ARTICULATIONS, POSING AND SCALING

Selphie can pose, with some limitations because of her design. Compared to Kairi, Selphie can pose better making her very playable. Umm yeah. she can stand without the aid of the display stand,

Alerted!

Selphie's head is ball jointed and can rotate 360 degrees same for her arms and its swivel joints and hands. The arms can move up and down sideways. The elbows and knees are single jointed. The legs are ball jointed and can raise up and go backwards and its swivel points can rotate 360 degrees. The feet/boots have 3 articulation points, it can swivel, pivot up and down and the toes can twist for "flat footing". She also have a chest articulation. Note that the joints can get loose very easily.

Her chest and leg articulations can move a little because they're are hindered by her clothes. She can't do ab crunches, sit down and do kicks properly. Even with this limitations her poses are passable.

[Left] Selphie: (Maid pose) This way please

[Right] Full-cure!

[Left] Selphie's fighting stance

[Right] Casting magic

Wow, this figure can balance pretty good. She pulled that pose on the right pic above without using anything.

Get ready!

Scaling is not accurate. In these two photos below, we see Selphie together with Kadaj and Reno, then Lightning and Kairi. Selphie's real height is 5'1" 1/2. The Selphie figure is slightly shorter than Kadaj figure whose real height is 5'5". The good thing is Lightning is taller and Kairi is shorter than Selphie.

Kadaj and Reno are still taller

Lightning is taller while Kairi is shorter.

Looking at Kairi and Selphie makes me wonder what if they made the Kingdom Hearts 1 or 2 version of Selphie? I think she will be the third shortest character (Vivi and King Mickey are the smallest ones)

CONCLUSION

Selphie figure sure have its design flaws (though minor) and her face is not accurate (which is my only gripe)... But hey, this figure is made during the humble starting days of Play Arts figures and surprisingly, she passed with flying colors because she's still playable, durable (she already fell down from the shelf and nothing breaks) and have that fun factor. This makes Selphie a nice addition to my collection. I personally like the character and the figure, Selphie is one of my favorite Final Fantasy female characters  because of her simple and unique character design for its time and her role in FFVIII's story.

And now for something extra!

My simple interpretation of Selphie's Limit Break, "The End".

Cheers And Happy Collecting!