Dengeki Hobby 1:8 Lacus Clyne (Captain Outfit)

The final item for our October One-Off Week is a semi-obscure figure from Dengeki Hobby. This little 1:8 scale Lacus mini was a companion item for the Dengeki Hobby Magazine June 2004 issue as can be seen on the cover image here.

During its run, the magazine often featured special items such as this one and some are more interesting than others (the Advance of Zeta figures and kits come to mind). While these bundled Dengeki items usually aren't too expensive on the second hand market availability can be a bit of an issue. Finding them is often the hard part. I picked mine up a couple of years ago in Japan for... hmm, I think it was about ¥500.

Alright, let's take a closer look inside the pink (of course) box...

As you can see this is not a cheap chunk of plastic with some haphazard paint on it but actually quite the complex design with several layers of individually painted pieces. There is a lot of attention to detail with nice gold trimmings on the sleeves and edges of the captain robe. As you can see, the head sits on a ball joint and the figure can also swivel at the waist. The rest of the parts remain static however for the pose to work.

Now, before we look at the figure, let's just remind ourselves what Captain Lacus Clyne is actually supposed to look like. Here we can see her on the bridge of the Eternal during the battle at Jachin Due during the climactic end phase of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED.

And then... well, then there is the figure from Dengeki...

I guess this figure is a fine example of attention to detail but missing the overall goal. While the details in the outfit are dead on for the most part, the colours seem a bit off. Then there is that soft round face almost looking like a Chibi character. And that intense purple hair... is this Lacus Clyne or the latest entry into the Bratz line?

The figure has an unusual way to make the pieces fit together. Two big lumps of plastic extend from the back of each part of the robe and they are then squeezed together inside a rectangular block locking them tightly in place and keeping the figure together. The base then connects into the very same block. This works really well except that the rod that connects to the base feels a bit flimsy and could have been a bit sturdier.

While you can pose the figure without the robe this means it has no support and the only way to make it stand up is to lean it against something or build your own support which either way will probably end up destroying the floating in space effect which is really the only thing this figure has going for it in the first place.

There is plenty - and I do mean plenty - of Lacus figures on the market and it would be hard to find one that has less likeness than this one. The similarly sized Gashapon ranges are virtually littered with great looking Lacus figures. In this figure's defense however, 90% of them are from SEED Destiny. Finding a Lacus figure with the captain robe from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED is actually not an easy task. The only other example I can think of is a 1:6 scale resin kit from Global which I would love to show off here except that I haven't built it yet...

Above you can see Lacus wearing the same outfit (sans the robe) in the great version released in 2003 in the MegaHouse Excellent Model RAH.DX Gundam Archives line-up. And for something really spectacular, how about the SEED Destiny captain outfit in 1:6 scale from Atelier Sai below? In the end, the Dengeki Hobby figure is little more than a cheap novelty, but I wouldn't hold it past a skilled modeller to kitbash another Gashapon Lacus figure from SEED that has a better likeness and do a headswap. Perhaps a project for me to consider in the future... :)

With this entry we have come to the end of the October One-Off Special. I hope our readers had as much fun as I did in going into some different directions and don't be surprised to see the blog continuing to expand into more figure lines as time goes on.