READER REVIEW: FFVII Advent Children Resin Statues

Cloud and Sephiroth captured in gorgeous combat.

Anyone who has seen the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will surely remember the final battle between Cloud and Sephiroth where they fight each other in the air amongst falling debris.This moment has now been captured in two polystone statues made by Square Enix and delivered via Kotobukiya.

The packaging for each statue consists of a very thin, plain black box, surrounded by a cardboard sleeve. The sleeve has some pictures of the statues and some text on it and looks alright. The black box however is made from such a flimsy material, I wasn’t able to open either one of the boxes without ripping them. So needless to say, the boxes went straight into the bin.

I found a little instruction leaflet stuck on top of the Styrofoam casing, showing me how to assemble my statue in three easy steps. The instructions are very clear and all the pieces fit well, so I have the statues ready for display in no time.

After assembling, Sephiroth’s statue is the biggest and measures 17 inches from the highest point. Cloud is slightly smaller but still 14 inches tall. There is no indication of where the two statues should be interlocked, so I just place the two bases together and slightly turn and twist them both until I think they look right together. Placed together they form a statue of about 14 inches wide.

Looking at them both, the first thing I notice is that both Sephiroth and Cloud are attached onto what appears to be an angel-like statue cut in half. The inside of this angel is made of an amber colored, clear resin and gives you the idea the statue is glowing hot from the inside. This looks pretty amazing. Why they used this angel statue I’m not sure. Some say it’s a metaphor for Sephiroth being a fallen angel, others say it’s the angel statue that stands on top of the orphanage in the movie. Either way, it’s very nicely done and a pleasant addition.

Other nice touches are the ends of Sephiroth’s hair and coat, which both fade into clear see-through resin and give you the feeling of speed. The overall paint job looks fantastic and they did a great job on making all of the debris look very real. They used many different shades of grey and brown for all of the pipes, rocks and U-beams, and even added rust and dust. A lot of detail can also be found in both Sephiroth’s and Cloud’s clothing. There are tiny buckles on Seph’s coat and they even managed to give Cloud a tiny Cloudy Wolf emblem on his shoulder pad.

One thing that has me a little disappointed at first sight, are the faces of the main characters. When you take a very close look at them, you will notice their eyes don’t have pupils and their faces look a bit rough. They also gave Cloud’s face and arms some sort of a blueish grey wash. But when taking one step back again to get the complete picture, this all makes sense. The blueish wash can be looked at as dust from the cloven angel statue and from a distance the faces seem to work quite well. I also like the fact that these statues look good from any direction and can be posed in any way you like. There seems to be no wrong or right way of displaying these pieces.

Overall I would say the two statues together make a terrific dynamic scenery. And when you look at them long enough, I swear you can almost hear the song "One-winged Angel" play in the background.

When you’re a Final Fantasy fan, especially an Advent Children one, then you will not be disappointed with these statues. Others may feel like they’re getting to much “rubble” for their money, because these statues sure aren’t cheap. At least not as cheap as the packaging was…

You can buy them separately for $180 a piece or buy the set for just $350.

The Cloud and Sephiroth statues can be found at many fine online retailers, including CornerStoreComics.com.

Images and Review by: Simone Roubos

Advent Children Resin Statues Image Gallery