[Toy Review] AERITH GAINSBOROUGH - Crisis Core: FFVII Play Arts Kai

I don't know what happened why got this Play Arts Kai action figure that I pre-ordered arrived very late after its release? But hey, the last survivor of the ancient race, the Cetra, Aerith Gainsborough is finally here! This is a Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII PAK figure. I don't know why this toy is part of the CC:VII series. I kinda don't care though because she's Aerith, just in her classic FFVII look, not in her "spring season dress".

"I was thinking it would be a normal day, but then suddenly...

Some guy fell out of the sky."

~ Aerith Gainsborough ~

PACKAGING

Front and back of the box

This is a coffin-type box and have the same graphical design as Zack's. The front cover shows a large photo of Aerith surrounded with yellow petals in a grey cloudy background. The back shows more product shots of the toy.

Front cover opened

Open the front cover to view the figure and its accessories on the right side. And to the left you can read some info about the game and Aerith.

She's out and ready to sell flowers... or not.

Packaging includes:
- Aerith Gainsborough figure
- Interchangeable head (closed eyes)
- Guard Stick weapon (unassembled 2 parts)
- Pair of styled open hands
- Pair of gripping hands
- Praying hands
- Display stand

THE FIGURE

They released this Aerith figure for their Crisis Core set but she's wearing her combat-ready FFVII clothes. Well she wore them in CC but only in the ending cutscene. She's wearing a white flowery spring dress in the majority of the game. But the good thing is that she passes as a remake and Advent Children figure.

Looking at Aerith on 4 sides

Aerith looks really good and cute because of the colors of her clothes. It makes her stand out when she's with the rest of the FFVII characters. She looks short for a PAK figure but that's okay.

You're cute but why so serious?

The head looks good and the face is pretty and accurate but it's in neutral (almost soul-less) expression. The eyes that doesn't have enough shine unlike in the master model of this figure. Still the paint application is great. I wish the default face have a nice and simple smiling expression.

Look, her long ponytail have a pink ribbon at the end.

She got these soft twirled hair on the sides of her head that completes her sweet and kind feminine look. Her long hair is tied in a ponytail and it got a ball-hinge for articulation.

Cute pink ribbon

A pink ribbon/bow is tied on her hair and it looks good.

Aerith's clothes

Aerith wears a red jacket. It got lots of detail like stitches, pockets and a brown strap with gold buckle on both sleves. The jacket is textured for that leathery feel. She's wearing a sleeve-less pink one-piece dress underneath the jacket. It's made of soft flexible plastic. The dress have a dark pink trim and lots of buttons that goes down to her knee area. The dress have some wrinkles for detail. The dress is slim-fit, you can see her nice curves.

Nice back and curves

Aerith's back doesn't have anything interesting to mention.

Aerith's neck have a black ribbon or lace tied around it.

Aerith's arm

Both arms have a nice skin tone. The shadings almost doesn't exist.

Metal bangle and her hand.

And both wrists have metal bangles. The hands looks good too, but no nails for extra detail.

Her pink dress is really long.

Aerith's dress goes all the way down to her calves so we can't see Aerith's legs...

Legs!

...unless we peek underneath. The dress have cuts at the sides so that the legs can move a little.

Even her brown boots looks that they're made for girls to wear.

Aerith is wearing a pair of brown boots because she's always in a rough or sandy terrain while picking flowers. They look very simple because they got few design to make it unique.

The boots are treaded for detail.

ACCESSORIES

Aerith have few accessories which is common in PAK figures. For swappable accessories, she have an interchangeable head and five extra hands. She got her Guard Stick weapon that came in two parts.

Pretty standard stuff.

You don't see Aerith using or holding any other stuff (except weapons) that much in the games so the accessory count kinda makes sense. However, if I want to add something, that would be her small basket of flowers and another extra hand that's holding a flower. I also wish SQEX also included a flower cart but that's asking too much.

She looks sad here.

The alternate head looks nice and painted pretty well and it got a sad close-eyed expression. The hairsculpt and the ribbon looks the same as the default head does. Even the ponytail is articulated too. This is only usable if you want to replicate a scene in the FFVII game. This makes me wonder why SQEX went with another extra headsculpt? They can go just fine by making interchangeable faces and it's cost effective.

Guard Stick (unassembled)

The Guard Stick is Aerith's initial weapon in FFVII. The weapon comes in two parts so you need to assemble it.

Guard Stick

The Guard Stick looks good with metallic silver paint app on the weapon's both end and its grip is black. There are some green gems on it too.

Extra hands

Aerith got a pair of gripping hands for holding her weapon. She also got a pair of styled open hands for more posing options.

A special praying hand accessory

The fifth extra hand is one of those special hand accessories. It got two hands holding each other to form praying hands. I can't think of any pose while using this except for the praying pose and the earth-smashing pose.

Display stand

This is the display stand. Not gonna use it.

ARTICULATIONS

Still waiting for a certain SOLDIER 1st Class to come back.

Now, let's check out the articulations of this figure. This is the second PAK figure in my collection that's wearing a long dress. So I expect the leg movement of this figure is limited.

Just standing around, looking cute.

The head can look around really well so no problems there. I think there's a hidden neck joint in the figure because I can move the neck but it just goes back into place because of the soft rubbery neck.

She's suggesting something

The ponytail is articulated thanks to the small ball-hinge. You can rotate it and raise it up and down and side to side.

Praying

The upper body moves really well. It can go forward and back, rotate side to side and twist just fine and it won't show any gaps.

Now she's getting ready for combat.

The shoulders got a long ball joint so that it's easier for them to rotate and move forward to the chest. But they show some gaps while posing them. The arms can raise up and down really well and it got a hidden bicep swivel located at the jacket's sleeves.

Surprisingly, she can defend herself.

The elbows and wrists have the standard ball-hinges. They move well without any problems. The metal bangles doesn't hinder the wrist movement that much.

Casting magic.

The waist articulation is hidden inside the dress and movement is limited because of the dress.

Can't think of another action pose. The options are limited.

Aerith's legs can move but hindered by her dress. The legs have a thigh swivel which is kinda useless because you can just twist the whole leg. The dress widens up at the bottom so that the lower leg parts can move.

Both knees have ball-hinges for articulation. And the feet have hidden ball-hinges that's located inside the boots making feet movement a little limited and difficult to pivot. The feet also have toe hinges. By the way it's difficult for this Aerith figure to kneel on both knees. So no stabby moment for Sephiroth.

SCALING

Aerith is a short young woman in her 20's. So let see if her action figure counterpart's height compare with the rest of my Play Arts Kai collection.

An Ancient with two SOLDIER 1st classes and a former Turk turned lab experiment

The comparison between Aerith Sephiroth (FFVII:AC), Zack (CC:FFVII) and Vincent (DoC) is really good. Aerith is the shortest. This is a nice start.

Aerith re-united with some of her party members

It's good that the boys: Barret (FFVII:AC), Cloud (FFVII:AC) and Cid (FFVII:AC) are all taller than Aerith. But the height comparison between the girls is a bit off in my opinion. Tifa (FFVII:AC) is too tall for Aerith.

Aerith and Lunafreya will have a long nice chat in the afterlife.

Aranea (FFXV), Cindy (FFXV) and Noctis (FFXV) are taller. Lunafreya (FFXV) is taller than Aerith too but just a bit.

Aerith heavily guarded

Both Gabranth (FFXII) and Fran (FFXII) are taller.

The colorful crew

Sora (KH3D), Riku (KH2) and Serah (FFXIII) are all shorter than Aerith. Lightning (LR:FFXIII) is a tiny bit shorter than Aerith too.

Aerith teaming up with the Dissidia Team

Aerith and Lightning (Dissidia) almost have the same height, Terra (Dissidia) is shorter and Squall (Dissidia) is the tallest in this picture.

With the Variants

Both Batman (Variant) and Catwoman (Variant) are taller than Aerith. Hatsune Miku (Variant) looks about the same height with Aerith in this picture unless I straighten Miku's legs.

Aerith with a mad nurse jester.

Harley Quinn (Variant) is taller than Aerith.

Aerith with random people

Raiden (MGR) and Lara (RotTR) are both taller. Harley Quinn (B:AK) is a tiny bit taller. LOL, Leon  (RE6) is shorter than Aerith.

QUALITY ISSUES

I encountered some issues on my Aerith figure. The head doesn't snap/lock on the ball joint so the it tends to get removed while posing it. The left arm got removed from its socket while I'm trying to rotate it. I snapped it back into place so no worries but that means the joint is kinda loose. The left wrist ball-hinge is not completely pegged in and I can't get it in all the way into the peg hole. The left leg is shorter because the ball-hinge on the right knee just not pegged properly. Good thing is that I discovered that I can make Aerith taller by pulling her leg just a bit off the pegs of the ball-hinges. There are few minor paint problems too.

CONCLUSION

I like this Aerith figure, but to be honest this is a "meh" Play Arts Kai action figure. The articulations is much better than on the Lunafreya figure. I also like the colors of the figure. The figure is very presentable but the neutral face expression is a bummer for me. The accessory count is pretty standard and I wish they made more for Aerith. The figure have some loose parts. Also, there are weird toy design decisions made by SQEX while making this figure, they chose the FFVII look (which I personally prefer) instead of the Crisis Core look and why the extra headsculpt while they can just make some alternate interchangeable facesculpts. I would not recommend this one unless you're a fan of FFVII and collecting all its figures.

Look I replicated two scenes from Advent Children!

"You'came... even though you're about to break.
That's a good sign."

Cloud suddenly had a brief conversation with Aerith.

"See? Everything is alright."

Aerith and Zack appearing in front of Cloud. This is where an alternate smiling face is needed.

Cheers and Happy Collecting!

Well this is my last pre-ordered Play Arts Kai action figure. I won't pre-ordering any toys (any brands) from now on. I will still review toys and I will also try to get the remaining figures on my checklist, that means that I will be in toy hunting mode.