Play Arts Kai Kingdom Hearts 3 Kairi

        It was a matter of time, alright.  And her after market price kind of moves in a constant wave, which is... odd, but apparently not too unusual.  Alas, she only has the one figure, no Deluxe version to speak of, but I don't suppose she'd have another weapon to wield anyway... yet.  Future hopes, etc.  You know I do love a collection of plastic characters fucked over by fate and expectation getting to retire to the odd accessories I build and/or wind up with.
        Still another bit of luck to find her unopened and somewhat fairly priced when I did, and I suspect as usual it was a collection of people complaining about the figure that got me to her.  She's got the smallest box out of all of them, predictably, but also predictably that didn't save me anything on shipping costs.  I'm just glad she was also in the US already for extremely obvious and increasingly bitter reasons.

        No silver foil, alas.  But still a pretty sweet box.  ...I didn't mention this before, but the "FOR AGES 15 YEARS AND UP" just amuses me to no end.  Also of course I cut out the magnets for future use, as always.

         Once again slightly awkwardly wrapping her neck and chin in plastic.  At least I didn't have to cut her out like I did Sora.  There is something endlessly unsettling about the "etched" edges of the plastic window and the reaching hands, detached faces... so you know, this feels about right.

        And the back of the box, which I still cannot read.  Mouse ears, do not feed to babies.

         More of desperately trying to find an angle that doesn't blind the camera.  This was... acceptable.  I could not have known at this point that I also needed to spend some time removing soft plastic between every layer of her skirt too, but that was an easy thing.

        Kairi with all her unique Nomura stylings.  Very much showing off the new PAK joints, as well.  Somehow these knee joints don't anger me deeply, but that's probably because they work correctly on top of being smooth... ish.  Such a fan of the boots, too.  All pure light princesses need ass-kicking boots.

        Before anything else: yes, again with the not properly closed jump rings.  I have come to learn this is an eternal pattern, but I can fix this.  I can fix this.  By wholly replacing the rings.

        Also Destiny's Embrace is just a lovely Keyblade all around.  The preciseness of PAK weapon detailing has really been impressive for a long while now, and again actually being able to take the Keyblade apart to slip into a figure's closed hand is a great way to make things work... usually.
        See, the Keyblade fit into her left hand just fine.  ...But I wanted her to hold it in her right hand, and that revealed a little bit of overhanging plastic just inside her tiny thumb which was more than enough to keep the Keyblade from actually fitting.  Short story shorter: X-Acto knife and a tiny strip of sandpaper later and it was fine.  I can't really gripe too much about that since it was an easy fix.

        I will gripe the tiniest bit about this, though, as it was a concern and a complaint I've seen from plenty of other folks about this figure in particular: very thin limbs and very tiny wrist pegs.  Despite that being, y'know, accurate, I have to agree that these are not ideal when you need them to... not break, and it's more than a little terrifying to change out hands for the first time when the plastic is still very much not sliding or fitting together perfectly, but so far I haven't had any actual problems.
        The upside here is that you can see some spectacular small details.

        'Bout to punt a Heartless.  And how lucky for me that they're roughly the same scale despite... technically being different scales.  From different lines.  ...I don't know if anyone actually knows what they're doing or it was luck, but either way.

        Desperately need to pass this nightmare along.  They're all a little bit eerie at this stage of changing out faces, but Kairi especially somehow.  BEHOLD BLOCKFACE.

        Trying to get the traditional ass shot was perhaps only appropriate to do with the angry face.  Also a better look at the backs of the knees, and showing off how the skirt is a few layered piece of soft plastic (like Noctis' and Prompto's "ass flaps") for a much wider range of motion.

        ...Kind of proud of the angle on this one.
        ANYWAY.  Overall, yup, got the same range of motion and poseability as Sora and Riku do, though obviously with less accessories.  That sure doesn't take away from the figure, and the tiny details really are incredible, and being lighter since she has less plastic to her means she's just the slightest bit easier to balance in a standing position.

        Finally!  Together again in the, uh.  The tree house I built for them.