Final Fantasy VIII Transcendent Artist's Collection: Zell, Irvine & Diablos

This is supposed to be the second rarest and second most expensive statue in the whole set. Many fans think that Selphie, Quistis & Leviathan statue is the best but for me, I think this Zell, Irvine & Diablos is better! Yup, that is despite the fact that Quistis is my favourite character. There are 2 reasons. The first being Zell and Irvine are beautifully sculpted (in contrast to the atrocious Selphie and Quistis). They are as pretty as their in-game CGs so that is a big wow. The second reason is Diablos' details: the teeth, the gum, the tiny horns, etc. Simply wow! In fact, that is another reason why it is rare to find the statue intact. Often, Diablos' tiny horns are damaged. Anyway, the box size is 36cm (L) x 23cm (W) x 44cm (H).

However, there is one thing which I dislike about this statue: the skin tone of Zell and Irvine is very dark as compared to Seifer, Quistis, or Selphie. Bleah.. When I saw for the first time, I was wondering whether they are discoloured or they are just sculpted that way. Diablos' pose is also a bit hard to decipher. Why is the tail at the front below the face? Haha.. My guess is that Diablos is wrapping the wings around his body as he appears from the other dimension or something. But I certainly love Juyi Oniki's style better than Kenji Ando and Takayuki Takeya.

I won this together with Selphie, Quistis & Leviathan statue. Unfortunately, it was held by customs and I had to fork out additional $70+. Emoz. And there is a reason why I am only posting about this statue now, even though I wrote about the other statue last month. But the story will be for part II of this post next time. For now, just enjoy the pictures ^o^

Front side of the packaging box

Back side of the packaging box

Top side of the packaging box

Serial card.. and small serial number!! :)

The other side of the serial card

Unboxing.. The statue consists of 4 parts: Zell, Irvine, Diablos, and its tail

The statue and the packaging box

 Close-ups for the statue itself now.

 

No idea why Diablos is spelt as "Diabolus" here.