We’re wrapping up our (slightly tardy) look at the last of the trio of Hogwarts heroes with Hermione!
With Harry taking the protagonist slot and Ron sliding effortlessly into the friend role, the only thing missing was the girl. Enter Hermione, the studious bookworm who was already leagues ahead of both Ron and Harry in wizarding and such. Initially coming across as a bit of an annoying know-it-all that irritated Ron and Harry, she soon became an invaluable part of their adventures.
Unfortunately, this is the part where I lament the missing element with this figure: she has no action robe.
If anybody has been reading my previous reviews of Harry and Ron, then you’ll know that I have elected to keep the backswept broom-flying robes on those two permanently, because they add a touch of pizzazz to everything they do. But since Hermione doesn’t come with a broom, she is unfortunately missing what has become an important part of the Figuarts Harry Potter experience. No, she is destined to spend her remaining plastic days wearing a robe that doesn’t flap heroically in the breeze. At no point will she look like she’s about to wreak untold amounts of havoc at any moment.
Hermione has to deal with the fact that her robe just…hangs there.
We’ll all have to find some way to move on.
Robe aside, Hermione is yet another well done figure that evokes that first-year aesthetic almost perfectly. The boys could utilize the same body, but everything here is, obviously, brand new, and what is workable works very well. She does suffer a little bit due to the fact that her robe is sculpted to be permanently clasped (unlike the boys, Hermione is ever prim and proper) and she’s wearing a skirt instead of slacks. Her legs are somewhat hampered in their mobility, but she can still get into a respectable amount of poses due to both the flexibility of the material and the fact that it is slit on the sides.
Her arms are unrestricted, though, and take up the majority of the posing slack. They have a full range, and her hair is sculpted in such a way that it doesn’t get in the way either. Overall, for someone not wearing an action robe, Hermione does very well.
She comes with two faces that can be swapped by first removing the hair and then swapping faceplates in that slightly nightmarish Figuarts way. One is smiling, and one is serious. Both likenesses are excellent, something that has been strong across the line so far. These are perfect choices for expressions, because she was making either one or the other face throughout the entire first movie.
She comes with four sets of hands: neutral, wand-gripping, bag-grasping or book-holding. I like the little touch of having her wand-holding hands look daintier than the boys.
She comes with a decent amount of accessories, the most important of which being the McGuffin of the first movie, the Sorcerer’s Stone itself (or if you read it in it’s original British edition, the Philosopher’s Stone. Changed because Americans are dumb or something).
It’s quite a tiny little thing, so try not to lose it within the first five seconds of opening the package.
In addition, you get the requisite wand, a textbook, a bag that doesn’t carry anything except extra nerdery, and a feather. The feather is for that important scene where she Wingardium Leviosas the crap out of the feather before stupid Harry and dopey Ron can figure out what the hell they’re supposed to do. Personally, I love that she comes with the feather. I plan on posing her levitating the feather while Harry and Ron stand there incapable of getting a rise out of anything. Haw haw impotence.
Figuarts is three for three with these figures. As I said way back in my review of Harry, I wasn’t really looking for Harry Potter figures to collect, but now that I have them all in hand I’m pretty pleased with the final products, and am looking forward to Snape, and any other character they want to poop out.
