Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini No. 01 – Cloud Strife

Possibly the most well known Final Fantasy character in the whole world, it's no surprise that the first figure of the Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini series of figures is Cloud.

The box goes through the same design with all the figures (at least, as of this post, until No. 06 Lightning). A clear window up front shows off the figures as well as the accessories that come with it while the back of the box shows various poses that the figure can do and all the signs and speech bubbles unique to this figure.

Cloud comes with a total of 4 interchangeable faces. The default small pupil angry eyes that seem to come with all the figures, a pair of neutral anime eyes, closed calm eyes and a blank face. Cloud also comes with 1 interchangeable hand to hold the Buster Sword. A base with the standard stand arms and sign clips is also included. Cloud's second body is him riding the bike seen in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. And finally 2 speech bubbles and a sign showing directions to various areas similar to the ones you would see in Midgar.

Aside from the ball jointed head, Cloud has 2 other points of articulation. His right arm is connected to his shoulder via a ball joint and since his right hand is removable, you have some extra wrist rotation.

Replacing the hand is simple enough. Though the extra hand holds the Buster Sword very well, the index finger and thumb were connected together which I ended up tearing when I stuffed the sword handle in. This left a white mark which I'm guessing is the underlying plastic color. Easily fixable but it might be a bother to others. The arm has no problem holding the weight of the sword so you can pose it in any way you like.

The 2nd body is attached to the bike and the effect is done via a head swap. Unlike the Lightning figure, where in you unpeg her legs and attach her whole upper torso to the 2nd body to have her riding the horse, Cloud's head swap is a more straight forward uproach. There are no connection points on the bike riding body to connect to the base with so the bike balances on its own. Though not the most stable of bikes, the figure can hold its own against gravity. Cloud will just be looking down for the most part.

My Cloud figure suffers the same problem I have with my Squall figure. The body doesn't attach well to the stand arms for the base meaning that posing Cloud on the base cane be a bit tricky. Again this does not mean that all Cloud figures are like that and maybe just be the luck of the draw. For it being the first figure in this new line, it's pretty darn good. I do wish that they went for the classic Final Fantasy VII Cloud instead of his Advent Children look.

Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini No. 06 - Lightning

The night after I got the Squall figure, I looked up what other characters got the chibi treatment. While the other figures are cute and all, none of them really seemed to click for me except for this one figure. You'd think that figure would be Cloud since my first Final Fantasy game was Final Fantasy VII. But it wasn't Cloud that stood out for me. It was another Gunblade wielder. The pink haired rule 63 female counterpart of Cloud Strife, Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII .

As with the other figures, the box is pretty standard fare. The same box design with a picture of the character on both sides of the box and a clear window up front where you can see the figure as well as all the accessories that it comes with.

The back shows you the figure in some poses along with the included speech bubbles and sign. You also get a shot of 2 other figures that were released along with Lightning.

Opening the box gives you the figure and it's accessories in a nice clam shell packaging, an instruction sheet and the display base, stand arms, sign clips and the speech bubbles on a plastic sprue. It's too bad that the sprue is on stuck to the red backing via a blister pack. Meaning that you have to rip the red backing to reach the sprue.

Here's Lightning with all her accesories. She comes with her standard clothes from Final Fantasy XIII, an extra right hand holding her Gunblade, an extra paid of hands holding Odin's swords, Odin's horse, 3 extra faces, 2 speech bubbles, the ATB command menu in FF13, a base and various stand arms and clips.

The 1st face, which is on the figure by default has the classic angry Lightning eyes and scowl. The eyes have a bit of a squint on them which is very cool.

The 2nd face shows more cutesy anime eyes with a bit of a smile. Both of Lightning's arms can swivel forward and back. You can also twist the hands for a little variety since they peg into her arms.

The 3rd face is what sold me on this figure. It has these sort of "whatever", "don't care" or sarcasm eyes which I think suits Lightning's character perfectly.

The 4th face is still the blank eyeless face that comes with all the figures where you can draw your own design pretend that she's brooding over something anime style.

To have her riding on Odin's horse, detach her legs which connect via a peg up to her torso. The horse already has a pair of legs attached with a similar peg to connect Lightning's upper half. Essentially you replace her legs, with a pair of legs on a horse. You might this this is cheap because you'd expect them to just have a separate body with the horse and just do a head swap. I say that leg swapping is better alternative because you keep the arm articulation on both legs and the leg swap gives you an added wait twist.

I still can't read Japanese so I have no clue what the speech bubbles say but it's cool that each figure comes with two. The command menu has a more solid print on it compared to Squall's.

The Lightning figure is from the 2nd wave of the Trading Arts Kai Mini line and doesn't have the issues I had with the Squall figure. Lightning clips on her base easier and nothing was paint stuck. Now the problems I had with Squall may all just be a QA thing and I just got the short end of the stick. Luck of the draw I guess.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the bases can tab into each other.

Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini No. 02 - Squall Leonhart

As seen in the latest Recent Buys post, I got me a mini figure of Squall Leonhart in all his emo glory. From the Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini series of figures, this is the second figure in the line.

Squall comes in his standard Final Fantasy VIII leather jacket with the white fluff and leather pants that have too many belts. Both arms on this body are supposed to swing forward and back but are a little paint stuck on mine and I'm afraid to force it since the whole figure is made of soft PVC. The right hand is removable and can be swapped out with a hand holding Squall's default Gunblade. The other body is of Squall wearing his SeeDs uniform which has always been a favorite alternate of mine, especially in Dissidia Final Fantasy. There are no moving parts on the SeeDs body but the right hand can be removed and be replaced with the hand holding the Lionheart Blade.

Both bodies can use either the Gunblade holding hand of the Lionheart Blade hand but the Gunblade hand has the black glove on it while the Lionheart Blade has the exposed hand meaning that each sword hand is meant to work with their own costumes.

The figure comes with four faces, each having Squall's signature scar in between his eyes and an earring on the left ear. The default face attached to the figure shows a pair of fierce look since the pupils are small and he's sorta got the "angry eyes" eyebrows. The second face is more calm with big anime pupils. The third face has swirls replacing the eyes, showing a sort of dizzy of confused expression. The forth face is blank, possibly leaving the design up to the user.

These are the three signs that come with the figure. I can't read Japanese so I don't know what they say but I hear it's two of Squall's signature phrases. The third sign shows the combat menu of FF8's ATB sytem with "G.F." (Guardian Force) replacing the more common "Summon" command. You can position these signs however way you want with the included clips that plug into the base.

This figure set also includes two of the smaller Guardian Force creatures that you can summon in the game. The elusive Cactuar and the elixir loving Pupu. They each have a hole on their back which you can use to plug on the base via the ball tipped plastic arms. Both of Squall's bodies have said hole too.

The figure looks great and all the little paint details add so much to the overall look. My only gripe with this figure is that the SeeDs body has a hard time plugging into the base which can make it a total bitch to position just right. I only wish there was a Rinoa figure that can go with Squall so that I can recreate the ballroom dance scene in chibi form.

For the most part, I'll be displaying Squall wearing his SeeDs uniform as it was the main reason that drove me to getting this figure.

Oh and by the way, Rinoa is coming in the next wave of the Trading Arts Kai Mini line. Hohoho!

Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini

Datablitz has been selling videogame figures for a while now. Namely the World of Warcraft figures. Now, they've recently been selling action figures, mainly from the Play Arts and Play Arts Kai line. While all those are well and good, I did see a few figures that I wasn't familiar with. The Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini series of figures.

Chibi Final Fantasy character is the most straight forward way of describing these figures. Unlike other Final Fantasy Trading Arts figures, these chibis have a bit of articulation to them. All have the same sized faces, neck ball joints and for the most part, the same hair connection. Each figure comes with 3 extra faces, a body wearing the default outfit, a second body (usually an alternate costume from their game or the character riding something like Cloud's bike from Advent Children), a hand/hands holding their signature weapon/weapons and sometimes something extra like a summon creature. Each figure also comes with one spiky speech bubble, a regular speech bubble, and a sign usually displaying the ATB command list from their respective games.

They're priced at 795php each, 750php if you pay in cash. I've recently procured 2 figures from the Trading Art Kai Mini line and though not the easiet figure to work with, they are a good value for their price. If you guys like the Final Fantasies, check these figures out. They're hella cute.