You HAVE to get this scale if you are a Sakura Matou fan!
Unboxing / Assembly / Review
Figure Review
Sakura Matou, Makiri no Hai info
Matou Sakura’s figure comes with an extra part for Saber Alter
Otakusinh’s collection
I bought at Lunar Toy Store: $344.99+$5 (Shipping) = $349.99
Lunar Toy Store
Check out my first experience with Lunar Toy Store here with the Aniplex Saber Alter figure.
Lunar Toy Store is an anime figure store based out of Flushing, New York. If you are a US customer, they are a decent option because of their $5 flat rate shipping for US customers. If you are buying from them, you are most likely going to get your figures pretty late compared to other stores. Right Stuf Anime, the Crunchyroll Store and Good Smile US, tend to be the stores that get in the figures first compared to Lunar Toy Store. If you pre-order early, there’s usually discounts given on some of the figures. However, I would not recommend buying Aniplex scale figures from them, as they do not get the same prices as Aniplex+ partner stores like Right Stuf Anime, Tokyo Otaku Mode and the Crunchyroll store.
They’re customer service is actually pretty decent. I contacted them through email asking to cancel my orders for the Saber Alter figure and got a response within the next day. The downside is their policy doesn’t allow them to cancel orders on or after release month. Their cancel policy isn’t that lenient, even if your figure is delayed for months. EE, Right Stuf Anime and BBTS have the easiest and most lenient cancel policy for US customers.
Price
Unfortunately, this Aniplex Sakura Matou figure has a hefty price tag of a of $344.99, when compared to other Aniplex+ partner stores providing a lower $256.98. If I buy Aniplex figures from Japan, I would typically get it from Hobby-Genki.com.
Shipping
While Lunar Toy Store has an enticing $5 flat rate shipping for US customers, I’ve had the worst experiences of their packaging out of any other store. In the Saber Alter package, the box came damaged in the corner. For this Sakura Matou figure box, it came kind of inverted. It’s hard to tell in the pictures, but you’ll notice it in-person. They pack their figures boxes in WAY too light and not in the HLJ good way. There figure box is prone to being damaged during shipment. If the shipping box gets dented, kicked or damaged in any way, expect the figure box to come that way as there is not much preventing it from doing so.
Box
Assembly
The figure comes sealed within 2 plastic cases. It includes the figure with a base, attachments for the base, the visor face-plate for the Saber Alter figure and the manual.
For the assembly you just need to attach the base, which is easily aligned with the holes underneath. It was not as loose as the Saber Alter base, which fit a lot looser and annoys me by falling every time I have to lift up the figure. Also, the figure’s head is removable. It comes with a plastic that you’ll need to remove the head first to get to.
For the visor face-plate for Saber Alter, I opted to not use it. I prefer the visor with the left eye peaking behind that I currently have on the figure. See the pictures below!
Aesthetics
The sculpting looked really on point. The head and hair looks really smooth. The shape of her body and legs might be what’s impressed me the most. Her shape and design really does make it look like she’s floating in the air.
I loved the design of the blotches of red on her body. The subtleness of showing her bellybutton, her side chest area and I even noticed a “nsfw” part of her body that I wasn’t expecting. At this point, “intricacies” is a word I’ve overused, but it sure is a great word to explain how awesome the design of the figure is.
Her face is perfect for the character. It’s the kind of look that symbolizes all the pent up darkness that Sakura had to endure since she was a child. Every part of the figure seems congruent with the character and accurate to the anime design.
Errors? What Could Have Been Better?
I just wished they made the “Dark Grail” strings of her body into more of a soft mold that just a “plastic-y” feel; that goes for the base as well. It is a cool concept to have the shape of the base look like one side of a butterfly with the Saber Alter fitting the other half of the butterfly. It’s just the feel of the pieces of the base and black strands of the “Dark Grail” reminds me too much of cheap little kid toys.
The other issues I had with was the red paint lines. Some spots looked like little red square dots, where the painting just stopped. Some of the paint lines looked darker or lighter and didn’t look like it was fully shaded in. From afar, it doesn’t look like a big deal, but if you’re a stickler for perfect painting, it might bother you in some areas. However, I don’t think it takes away how incredibly “fitting” this figure is. The details of the design, the pose, the choice of the face—these all go incredibly well together. So, the quality of the paint is something that you can easily overlook.
Other Sakura Matou Figures
Since I got late into this figure collecting game in the Summer of 2021, I missed out on all the prior releases of this Makiri’s Grail figure of Sakura Matou. I did grab the 15th Year Anniversary Edition from GSC. She does have a Nendoroids and some other scale releases of Makiri’s Grail, but all of the figures really do pale in comparison to this Aniplex one. Honestly, I should have bought another one to collect. That’s how highly I think of this figure and how there is a lack of high quality options.
Pictures
Last Thoughts
From the sinister, yet sassy-like face expression to the sculpting down to her legs, this figure is definitely a one of a kind figure that I’m happy to have and want to keep for a very long time. This character has a lot of deep elements that I admire for the Fate/stay night series and it’s perfectly represented in this figure. If you have read anything I’ve written about Sakura Matou, it’s not really a positive opinion. Taking how I feel about Sakura aside, this Makiri’s Grail version of Sakura and the figure itself, is an incredible match. Out of all the Sakura Matou figures you can get, GET THIS ONE!
OTAKU SINH 