In 2009 Japanese toy and collectable company Kaiyodo released Raina as the 1st figure in their Revoltech Queen’s Blade series which has gone on to produce over a dozen different figures and variants.
The big draw of these dolls is the super articulation, above average paint details, and modular nature of the figures which allows for a vast array of part switching and customization between not only other Queen’s Blade figures but also other revoltech figures and even other brands like Figma as well.
The fact that they have breast, butt, & vagina details is just a little bonus.
To date Revoltech has made the elves Echidna (003), Alleyne (007), & Nowa (010) in their QB series.
While I’m not all that thrilled with Alleyne’s character design or personality in the show Echidna and Nowa are both pretty darn cool in my book so with some spare money in hand I went searching for them for not too ridiculous prices online.
Both Nowa and Echidna were about the same price as well as looking like they have the same amount of possibility. And while I do like Echidna’s reptile themed armor a bit more than Nowa’s get up what ultimately swung me over to getting Nowa was how expressive she is with 4 different faces while Echidna only has the 2, one of which looks kind of stupid.
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| Here she is in the box |
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| Without that paper banner thing on |
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| Let's take a look at what she comes with... |
Accessories:
- Happy face
- Angry face
- Surprised face
- Pain/Pleasure face
- Left ways bangs
- Right ways bangs
- Right staff hand (this is the only hand that can hold her staff by itself)
- Right fingering hand
- Left holding gesture hand
- Left waving hand
- Staff
- Pet Monkey Lou
- Top
- Harness
- Skirt
- Battle damaged top
- Battle damaged skirt
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| To give you an idea of how big she is |
Articulation wise as you can see from the disassembly above Nowa has a whole truckload of it!
Not only do the joints click back and forth but can also turn in the holes that they’re in and thus 1 joint gives 3 different points of movement with the benefit of being able to angle the joint from back-and-forth to side-to-side movement. If that makes any sense in how I said it.
The big orange boots and glove things do inhibit her wrists and ankles and the harness does keep her arms from going flush with her body but the hand and foot movement isn't so blocked that she can’t stand or hold stuff and you can just take the harness of if you want to.
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| How her elbows and sleeves work |
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| The sleeve cap is a separate part that allows for turning movment |
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How her hair parts work
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Changing out the extra parts is super easy with this, it never felt like the joint was too tight and won’t come out or too loose and keep falling out and I never felt like I was going to break her.
To give her a different face you first lift up her hair which is on a tiny joint and can, itself be swapped out for the 2nd hair piece provided and then just gently lift off of the pegs by her ears and then slide the new one on.
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| How her hips work |
Most of her joint holes are bored into her at an angle which gives her a better range of movement.
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| Angry face |
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| Surprised Face |
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| Battle Damaged Clothes |
To go as a companion piece to the somewhat anatomically correct features Revoltech has so generously graced these dollies with is an extra set of battle damage clothes. Nowa’s is her top split in half down the front and her skirt somewhat tattered and being blown upwards. To get these on her you have to pull her apart and pop her arms off. Personally I am not all that excited by these parts, the skirt is nice since it gives you a different sense of motion but I’ll probably just keep her fully dressed or toppless/nude.
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| Nude Front |
The paint job is really quite good with her faces having fine detailing and all her other bits and pieces with no real problems. One thing I do want to point out is the fact that on her body there’s a light pink “blush” around the areas of her joints that I guess is meant to blend the schemes or something. Also her nipples are painted a bit off center but not so much that they look odd, just a slight difference that would just as easily happen with a real live girl.
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| Nude Back |
The sculpt of the figure is a well done likeness of the game book art with the 4 faces pretty much perfect and give her a huge emotional range. I’m not all that great with photography so you can’t see the details as well as you should but I find her belly button and butt to be super cute. Strangely while all the other Queen’s Blade figures with removable panties have a Vagina Nowa, who doesn’t wear underwear is smooth like a Barbie for some reason. I don’t know if it’s because she has no underpants or the fact that her cuteness and lithe small breasted physique makes her look young but it’s not too much of a deal breaker just a little disappointing is all.
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| No womanhood |
The display base works fine as a basic stand with peg that goes in a foot hole but that arm with the joints on it is kind of crummy and will wilt fairly quickly so I suggest to either braise it or use an arm stand from a different figure.
About the only problem I have with her is that one of the knee joints is stuck in place in the leg. I’ve tried just yanking it out, twisting it loose, heating the part up with a blow dryer to make the plastic softer, hell the joint itself even came apart but won’t budge. Luckily I don’t find it too big of a problem, certainly not one which I’d send her back for a refund or replacement.
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| O-Face |
While for obvious reasons I wouldn't give a QB toy to a child Nowa for the most part is fairly sturdy and would in theory see gentle play action.
There are holes in each end of her staff, her hair strands, the back of her hood, & both pouches for her Monkey to stick in.
Overall, Nowa is a cute and well made little figure with a plethora of articulation and personality. If you have a fantasy collection of some kind you’ll probably love her even if you don’t like or care about the Queen’s Blade series itself.
But you don’t have to take my word for it!
