I got it at last! The Play Arts Kai action figure of the "vampire" Vincent Valentine is on my mitts! This is the Dirge of Cerberus version, not the FFVII:AC version that I skipped 5 years ago because I don't have cash that time. SQEX had a reason to make another figure of Vincent because Dirge of Cerberus is his own game. So is this figure good, bad or meh?
"When a person has someone they care about that much,
keeping their lives is sometimes the least they can do...
and maybe that's what makes us human."
~ Vincent Valentine ~
PACKAGING
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| Box: front |
Just like the majority of PAK figures, Vincent got a coffin-type box. It suits him well because he slept in a coffin for years. I like the design of the box, It shows a huge product shot of the figure with a reddish clouds and a huge moon for background.
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| Box: back |
The back shows more poses of the figure.
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| Front cover opened. |
Open the front cover to view the figure and it's accessories through the viewing window on the right. You can read some texts on the left with the figure's product shot that mimics the 10th anniversary pose of Vincent.
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| He busted out of his coffin to shoot some Deepground soldiers. |
Packaging includes:
- Vincent figure
- Cerberus (handgun)
- Hydra (rifle)
- 2x trigger right hands
- Gripping/trigger left hand
- Display stand.
THE FIGURE
I don't have the AC PAK of Vincent but I saw one on display. I think this newer DoC version is much better and might take up a huge space in your display.
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| Viewing Vincent on four sides. |
The figure have some weight thanks to its cape. The figure looks really awesome even on a normal standing pose.
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| Spending decades in a coffin make his skin turn pale. |
The face is much better and more accurate. The red pupils looks really cool. The red bandana is textured and partially visible at the back too.
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| For a pale guy, he got rosy pink lips! |
The cloak's collar covers the lower half of Vincent's face. You can adjust the collar to reveal Vincent's pinkish lips. Skin tone is fine and he's a pale guy.
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| How is that hairstyle possible? Looks cool though. |
Vincent's long black hair is spikier and anime-ish in this DoC version unlike the AC version and it's swaying to the left a bit. A small part of the hair at the back is articulated, just like Sephiroth's.
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| Looks like Edward Scissorhands' suit. |
Vincent is wearing a black leathery-looking overall suit underneath the cloak. It's textured and really detailed with lots of folds/wrinkles. There are lots of straps on the suit that have a glossy finish and silver painted buckles.
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| His cloak got really gnarled up after Advent Children. |
The front of the tattered red cloak have a lot of folds/wrinkles and it's textured. It also got glossy black straps with silver buckles. Its collar is a separate piece. The cloak parts are made of soft plastic so that it's easier for the arms to move.
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| Cool cape. |
The back (or cape) part of the cloak is really tattered and wrinkled for detail and got lots of shadings. They're made of soft plastic and got some weight. And uhh.. they overdid the cape.
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| The arms are covered up too. |
As part of the overall suit, both arms are black with the same detail but with few almost unnoticeable brown shadings on the gloves. The straps have glossy finish. Shoulder parts of the cloak are connected on both arms.
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| The gauntlet |
The right arm have a gold gauntlet, it kinda glossy and have nice shadings. The right hand have some gold platings and the fingers also have gold armored things that you usually see being worn by goths.
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Vincent really loves his belts and straps...
...thanks to Nomura. |
Vincent wears double belts on his waist and the lower belt have an extra strap that connects to Vincent's gun holster.
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| Vince's pants... strappy! |
Both legs, just like the torso and both arms, got folds/wrinkles and straps.
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| Gun holster |
The right leg have the gun holster and it looks leathery,
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| Cerberus holstered |
You can slide in the Cerberus but it's kinda difficult because the gun is long and cloak gets in the way.
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| The boots |
Boots have that leathery look and have some dark brown paint applied. The feet have gold armored platings just like the gauntlets on Vincent's right arm. It also got a tiny speck of black paint on it.
ACCESSORIES
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| Vincent's weaponry and hands. |
SQEX gave this figure the standard accessories like the handgun and the trigger finger right hand, but they added more. They included the Hydra rifle and two more extra hands.
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| Nice guns! |
Cool, Vincent got two guns but SQEX should've went the extra mile and added the Griffon submachine gun.
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| Cerberus |
Cerberus is first seen in the Advent Children movie. It's a three-barreled handgun that have an ornamental design. The chamber and barrel are mostly black and some parts are painted gold and silver. The grip of the gun have brown painted parts. It looks cool and have a real keychain.
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| Yep, you can tell that's a Cerberus pendant. |
The pendant on the keychain is highly detailed.
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| Hydra |
One of Vincent's guns in DoC is the Hydra, a rifle. The aesthetics of this gun is consistent to the Cerberus gun. If you look closely, some parts of both guns are poorly painted.
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| The gun parts are removeable. |
Both guns have three removable parts. I'm not a gun pro but I'll call these parts: grip, chamber and barrel.
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| Gun customization: Long-barreled Cerberus and Short-barreled Hydra |
What's cool is that you can mix and match their parts, just like in the game.
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| The extra hands. |
The Cerberus and Hydra have their own trigger right hands. Surprisingly, the left hand can hold any of the two guns making it possible for Vincent dual wield both guns.
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| Holding the Cerberus using the left hand. |
To hold the gun of your choosing, you need to disassemble the gun by removing the grip and the chamber then slide the grip on the trigger hand then connect it to the chamber.
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| Display stand |
I won't use this display stand, but I recommend it if you want to pose Vincent like he's doing some shooting while he's on midair.
ARTICULATIONS
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| You don't want to get scratched by that left hand. |
Time to see if how this new Vincent PAK figure's articulation works. At first glance, I can see some parts that might be limited because of the toy's/character's design.
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| Looking up. |
Head movement is surprisingly good. It can look around really well even though it got a collar and long hair. The neck articulation helps the head to move and the collar hides this articulation. The small part of the hair at the back is articulated too.
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| Reaching for his gun. |
Torso movement is good and doesn't reveal any huge gap when posing the chest and waist. The waist have small movement range though, unlike the chest that moves really well.
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| Looking cool posing with that gun. |
Arms can move fine on the biceps (swivel joints) and the elbow and wrist ball-hinges.
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| Holding the Hydra's trigger with the left hand. |
The shoulder joint is the same as Cid's but they're connected in an angle to mimic the butterfly-hinge movement and they don't do much. Still, both arms can raise up forward and sideways just fine but reveals a huge gap at the side.
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| Raising the cape a bit. |
The back (cape part) of cloak have 4 parts and got ball-hinges for articulation. It doesn't look bad because the cloak is torn. They can help Vincent keep his balance while standing or vice versa in some poses.
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| He's gonna snipe some bad guys. |
Leg articulations are stiff. It's difficult to make them go up forward, sideways and even twist. The right leg is limited by the extra strap connected to the waist. The left leg have a swivel joint. I tried to move the swivel joint on the right lap but no luck... it's either stuck or doesn't exist.
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| Dodge and shoot! |
The double-hinged knees looks really ugly when fully bent but they work fine.
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| My attempt to imitate the pose from the box. |
The boots's movement is limited when pointing up, no problem pointing down and you can adjust them make them pivot. They also have toe articulation that looks really good because the joint is hidden by the boots' gold plating.
SCALING
I don't have the FFVII:AC PAK version to compare both scales of the two Vincents but thanks to the internet, I know that this DoC version is taller.
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| FFVII's main protagonists. |
I now have 7 FFVII figures and they're getting crowded in a single photo so I divided them in to two groups, here we have the protagonists of their games. Vincent is taller than
Cloud (FFVII:AC) and about the same height as
Zack (CC:FFVII).
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| More FFVII characters! |
Bootleg Diablos Armor (MH4) is shorter than Vincent.
QUALITY ISSUES
I don't see any toy breaking issues on my Vincent figure but there are some loose joints like the right wrist and right ankle ball-hinges. They're not super loose that they will make the figure fall down though.
CONCLUSION
This might piss off some people who already have the FFVII:AC version of Vincent because this Dirge of Cerberus version is a nice improvement and might force them to sell the old one. It passed on the looks/presentation and accessory variety for having two guns and very useful extra hands. The articulations are good on the upper part but leg articulations are stiff. I recommend it if you're a Vincent fan like me or just a dude looking for a cool-looking action figure. I'm glad that I finally got my very own Vincent Valentine PAK figure. Now that SQEX made and released their first Dirge of Cerberus figure, are they planning to make another character from that game? Yuffie, please!
Here's a photo edit of Vincent based on the opening cutscene in the game.
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| He's about to shoot Hojo |
Cheers and Happy Collecting!
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