ARCANADEA Blog: Velretta is here! And so is our out-of-the-box product review!
Originally published in Japanese on November 28, 2022
Hello everyone! It’s been a while! This is Baron of Potatoes of the Kotobukiya Plastic Model Team.
At long last, the second release of the ARCANADEA series, Velretta, will go on sale tomorrow!
※For overseas users, check out this page for a list of our international distributors!
In today’s out-of-the-box build, I’m going to show you:
◆ The model’s amazing features
◆ Points to watch out for during assembly
Also, key points in the review will be accompanied by Yuruletta-chan (drawn by ARCANADEA’s promotion staff!) so keep on the lookout for her!
Just like last year’s Lumitea assembly blog post (available in Japanese only), this entry is pretty lengthy! I hope you’ll stay with us through the end!
Content Menu
◆ Impressions and Further Information
Normal Mode!
■ Opening the box!
The box itself, featuring foil printing, is a beautiful work of art all on its own! Once again, necömi’s illustrations are almost too good to be true! I could say so much more about the box alone, but let’s move on to the contents! If you’re curious about the box, check out this tweet!
Like Lumitea, Velretta’s kit allows you to assemble her in both regular appearance “Normal Mode” and combat form “Wilize Mode.”
Although Vel-sama is a bit smaller than Lumitea, she has a tail, four wings and a large skirt, making for lots of runners and plenty of volume!
Amazingly, there are 10 pre-painted parts!
They are just gorgeous, painted in navy blue, light purple, and gold.
■ Head Parts
The hair parts use 3mm connections for the side bangs and the chignon at the back of her head, so it would seem that there are many hair-styling options available!
The ear parts use the same system as Lumitea, so they can be interchanged! And the side bang hair parts are moveable thanks to the ball joints, giving plenty of freedom to adjust her expressions! That will be a big help when posing!
And let’s not forget those big horns! Despite being small parts, they are gorgeously painted in two colors…!
The engagement ring is designed to look like a crown! And its grooves can be secured with the horns, preventing it from falling or slipping out of place! That’s convenient!
The design also plays a role in the function… amazing!
Is that design on the back of the ring a snake? I’d like to learn more about that…!
And now for the face parts! Four facial expressions are included, just like Lumitea!
Her lively expression makes it seem as if she’s about to start talking; it’s hard to decide which face to choose…!
Which one is your favorite?
Of course, the face parts are interchangeable with Lumitea’s! Be sure to see the customization examples in the second half of the article!
■ Torso Parts
Next, let’s take a look at the torso parts!
The number of pre-painted parts is unbelievable!
The necktie parts are painted in three colors: navy blue, light purple, and gold!
The ribbon at the base of the tail and the gold parts for the lower chest are quite small and easy to lose, so be careful when removing them from the runner!
I recommend putting masking tape on the parts before cutting to prevent them from flying off!
The painted parts work very well, and the coloring is as good as that of a fully-assembled figure product, even though this is just out-of-the-box!
The back has a hexagonal joint, so it will be fun to customize with parts from the HEXA GEAR series as well as Lumitea!
Her tail is connected by a 3mm joint, and the ribbon at the base is also pre-painted, despite being such a small part! Vel-sama is so adorable!!
Also, the shoulder joints can be swiveled, so they can be turned quite a bit forward!
The skirt has a 3mm joint connection and two 3mm connection points for “Wilize Mode” providing plenty of opportunities for customization!
The tail part features joint articulation at the base and has two rotation points, allowing you to customize the pose without compromising the appearance! The demonic sculpt is so cool!
■ Arms Parts
The arm parts are disassembled into several fine parts! The hand parts are newly sculpted and designed to look devilishly sharp, which is really cool!
The gold rings on the arms and white sleeves are separately colored; this is a very colorful kit, molded in four colors!
New angled wrist joints are included to avoid interference with the sleeves!
This is an innovative new design that will really help when posing her!
■ Leg Parts
The thighs have the same pop out design as Lumitea’s!
When I saw the dark blue pattern on her thighs in the illustration, I wondered how it would be sculpted, but it has been beautifully reproduced thanks to very clever parts separation!
Observing how the model has been assembled from individual parts is one of the most interesting aspects of building plastic models!
The legs have the same structure as Lumitea’s, so while they maintain their beauty when extended, the range of motion can be expanded by pulling out the joints, allowing the legs to bend sharply. Of course, the ankles and toes are also movable! The feather decoration on the ankle ring is also connected by a 3mm connection!
As with Lumitea, Bachi-P’s special base is included!
This time it’s molded in clear purple, a perfect match for Velretta’s image!
Makes me wonder what color bases we’ll be getting in the future!
One of the features of her normal mode is the large umbrella!
It’s heavy, but as you can see in the picture, there are support parts that can be connected by 3mm connections, so it can be easily held up!
You can assemble it as it is without any problems, but the drill-like part at the tip of the umbrella is pretty sharp, so it will be easier to assemble it if you protect your hand with a tissue or something!
Devilishly cute!
You can easily see the benefits of the movable side bangs and newly-designed wrists! What’s more, the large umbrella and other features unique to Normal Mode are really fun to play with!
Let’s take a look at her side by side with Lumitea!
Angel and devil… white and black… the contrast between their respective designs is interesting! Lumitea is about a head taller.
It’s more fun when you have more characters, isn’t it? Lumitea looks so happy!
Customizations with Lumitea
Lumitea and Velretta have interchangeable face and ear parts. Let’s try it out!
Here is a shot of Velretta with Lumitea’s smiling face and ears attached.
She’s so cute… I’m blown away…! She’s transformed from the mischievous Vel into a fluffy beauty!
For Lumitea, I swapped out Velretta’s open-mouthed smile and ears! She looks more like an elf or a vampire than a devil!
Velretta has several distinctive features, such as her slightly visible fangs, and her pointed ears, so there’s a big change in the appearance when these parts are swapped!
I’m sure I’ll want to play around with swapping parts every time a new Dears comes out…!
Of course, the other three faces can also be swapped, so users can try them out for themselves! Her snickering face is fabulous…!
Wilize Mode!
Now let’s take a look at what everybody’s been waiting for: Her Wilize Mode!
Let’s get right to it…
■ Transform!
Ta-daaaah!! Velretta! Wilize Mode!!!
In Normal Mode, she had cute little devilish wings, but in Wilize Mode, she has four large wings, pointing up and down!
Her skirt changes dramatically as well, expanding her silhouette!
And her right leg and left shoulder are now armor-clad, so her defense seems to be pretty high!
Impressions and Further Information
My impression of Velretta is that there are so many colorful pre-painted parts that even straight out-of-the-box she looks great, and the kit will give fans more than enough to enjoy!
Also, as mentioned in my comments for each section, most of the connections use 3mm joints, so you can easily rearrange the parts even of just this kit alone! Of course, it will be fun to customize the kit with M.S.G series parts or other Kotobukiya products too.
I’ll put up examples of my work in a blog post like I did with Lumitea (available in Japanese only) when I have something good!
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s original Velrettas!
By the way…the images in today’s blog were taken with a Toruhako, Kotobukiya’s photo booth product! The underwater background that was included was perfect for capturing Velretta’s atmosphere!
It’s easy to carry around and prepare for the shoot, so I recommend it to anyone who wants to experiment with scale model photography but doesn’t have a lot of space…!
Unfortunately, the lottery-based order window has closed, but we are considering offering it to the public, so please keep an eye out for further announcements.
Thanks for reading all the way through to the end!
See you next time!
