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Another week, another elf. Deja vu? Perhaps. Anyways, here's Archeyle (アルシェイル)—a member of the Elf Village series based on an illustration by Tsunako Takahiro:
Looking real fine there Arusheiru. I'm going to assume her name is "Archeyle" because she's an archer. Do I get any brownie points for that one? Anyways, review time!
Because it's all the rage these days, here's a short video!
Hmm. Not exactly pleased with this video to be honest, but hey you gotta start somewhere right.
Standing at a height of 25cm and a scale of 1/6, Archeyle was actually one of the first figures in the series, releasing back in 2018. Since then she's been rereleased twice in both 2019 and 2020 (sorry 2021!). As you can see, this is for good reason.
In terms of her accuracy to Takahiro's original illustration, Vertex nailed it—really capturing the all of the minor details such as Archeyle's silver tiara to the flowy appearance of her robes and her asymmetrical leggings. Of course, we can't ignore Archeyle's one size too small pantsu, which has been carried over with great care—probably revealing a bit too much.
Regarding paintwork, I'm also quite impressed how well they executed the glossy/shiny parts. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for her hair in terms of detail. The actual quality control on the paintwork itself is pretty good though, so I'm more than willing to let this slide.
The sculpt itsself is also actually very accurate to the source—including Archeyle's hair. If I had to dock points however, it'd probably be the pose being somewhat generic. But to be fair, there's not much I think Takahiro could have thought of when Archeyle's clutching her clothes and bow. Talking about the bow…
What a fine looking bow it is! I like how it actually has a string and sits in between Archeyle's flowy clothes. The paintwork is excellent and adds a wood grain texture. We can also see the full length of her hair, which has definitely been sculpted very nicely as previously mentioned.
Turning Archeyle a bit, we can get a closer look at her quiver too. Once again, Vertex have done a fine job on the fine details of the arrows and belt. I have nothing negative to say here! On that note, it's time to cast her off.
Archeyle isn't a full cast-off, but you can remove her breastpieces and other clothes if you are so inclined (I chose not to since it's a bit of a pain to reassemble). Shall we take a closer look?
Looking at her face, I think Vertex did a decent job. The special version includes an alternate face plate, but the standard one is probably more accurate to Takahiro's OC. While somewhat plain, I like the earring and paintwork on her eyes and mouth. There doesn't really seem to be any defects here even at a macro distance, so I'm quite pleased.
Moving down a bit, I guess we should address the elephant/s in the room. Archeyle's breasts have been sculpted very well and accurately, and don't have a visible weld. Nice!
Alas, we reach the very bottom of Archeyle. Her base is pretty plain, but attributing this to the fact that this is the standard version—there's a special version of with a nice, grassy base. I opted for this one however since it takes up a smaller footprint. Talking about bottoms however…
Cute butt. Didn't think I'd leave you hanging did you? In terms of shape, this gets a thicc of approval from me. From here, we can also see her pantsu are definitely insufficient in achieving their functional purpose. Or are they?
Closing out, I'm pretty happy with this one. Getting it back in 2018, I was still relatively new to figure collecting (and buying lewd figures, might I add). So this was a bit of a comfort-zone pushing purchase. Nevertheless, glad I did as it set me down the path of Vertex's excellent Elf Village series of figures. Archeyle will always hold a special place in my heart for this very fact.
Thanks for reading, see you in the next post!
