Name of Series:

Kingdom Hearts Formation Arts Vol. 1

 Manufacturer:

Date of release (estimated):

April 2005

Price (singly in ¥):

850 ¥

Sculptor:

No. of Pieces in the series:

Secret (SP)/Chase:

Variants:

Size:

Around 8 - 16 cm

Other Remarks:

A RPG-adventure hybrid game produced by Square in 2002 which mix the myriad of characters from Disney animated features as well as popular characters from Square's best-selling "Final Fantasy" genre. It follows the perilous journey of the lead character, Sora with his faithful companions, Donald Duck & Goofy to defeat the Heartless and rescue their friends/king from his evil clutches. I had not played this game before and got mix reviews from people who played it, and it seems seasoned FF players cannot appreciate this what they known as a "kiddies" game. However my love for Square's RPG games as well as the high quality this series promised, I went on to get a complete color set despite the record-setting high price for trading figurines at 850¥ (before tax) each. Each vignette comes with a chess base which I believe on completion of a few volumes you can form a complete chess set (with a specially designed chess board which would cost the price of anti-matter!). Volume 2 is scheduled for April 2006 release as I began sweating in excitement.

Sora

Hail King Sora! This vignette focuses a lot on Sora, the lead character and rightfully so that the details on his facial sculpt, attire and weapon should not be taken lightly and despite a rather stiff pose, the vibrant colors characteristic to the game is well represented here. He is standing upon a clock tower which perhaps is one of the most mundane in this set but the Tinkerbell silhouette wind vane sure spice things up a little bit.

Donald Duck

Donald the powerful mage is seen here sitting atop of a chimney (too has a signboard of "Town" wth twisted directional arrows and a clock), guarding 3 magical eggs in a nest. And yes Donald still has no pants here! I really fancy the face and color tone of Donald, as pure white would not really suit this set. Donald seems to have problem balancing himself nicely on the chimney and he looks like he is falling off it. The magical staff resembles a black mage in the FF series with that pointed hat. The nest with the eggs is the nicest feature in this vignette for me.

Jack Skellington

My favorite piece in this set is this tall and slender piece which stands at an impressive 16 cm. It is also mind-boggling to piece up all the vertical piece like Jack, the Gargoyle statute and the various ghouls on the small base much like flower arrangement. However every pieces are securely bind to one another through a web of nicely positioned pegs and holes. I really like Zero, the ghost pet dog sneaking behind his master playfully. The gargoyle spitting a fountain of greenish water is a nice addition as well so are the large number of Jack O' Lanterns found in this piece which gives the morbid surroundings of "Halloween Town" in the game.

Maleficient

Your typical Disney-evil witch character which Sora and his party would face & defeat at Hollow Bastion; here seen with a darkness-seeped dragon in which Maleficient would transform after been defeated. First of all, you will have to take caution with the headpiece which tends to fall out, otherwise this piece is relatively to fix and stable in sculpt. I like the dark sorceress' gown and the magical wand. The dragon is nice but still rather animated. The roots at the base adds on the evil aura.

Hades

A name that would send shivers down to many people's spines is nothing more than a plump blue-haired Billy Idol, lacking glow after sitting way too long on his throne. I have yet to seen "Hercules", but I believe Hades has the making of a villain that would make both parents and kids laugh. Nonetheless this is another nice vignette, especially the wonderfully sculpted throne with a back carved in shape of scary heads of hounds from hell. The arms of the throne definitely have a strong ancient Greek architecture style and the emblem on the rear is very unique. What I like about Hades is more of his robe with that skull-shaped stash clip.

Shadow

I supposed the Shadows is the army of minions serving the Heartless which Sora and gang had to handle throughout their journey. In this vignette, we are presented with a few types of Shadows including the normal ant-like type, the Dragon Shadow and the Bottle version which had a pretty scary face. Despite bearing basically the same round expressionless, round face with beady eyes, I believe the Shadows are a rather mischievous bunch. playing around the Bottle Shadow, leading to his irk. There is also a Shadow disguising as a black mage like Vivi in "FF IX" which is my favorite of all the Shadows in this piece