I have been meaning to get this figure of Cloud and hardy-DAYTONA ever since I saw the pre-order quite sometime back but the price kept me from pre-odering it. I have actually totally forgot about this figure until it was release recently and I have been contemplating whether to order it from Hobby Search. The shipping gonna be costly though due to the box huge size and add to the figure high price, it’ll probably cost me around 13k yen at least and that kept me from ordering it on a whim.
A recent trip to my local proof to be most rewarding, I was only planing to go there to collect my Nendoroid Tsuraya but I left the shop with Cloud + hardy-DAYTONA and Nendoroid Tsuraya instead. The price was much lower than what I would have paid for at HS and with a bit of extra discount to boot ^^.
The huge box is due to the size of the bike, which I think is slightly shorter than the FFVII: AC Cloud + Fenrir set. Cloud comes with his Buster Sword, 3 additional hand and a base, which he doesn’t need unless it’s for some sort of jumping or flying pose ^^.
Cloud sculpt is decent at best, the plastic looks too shiny and the skin color looks too unnatural. The sculpt and paint job his clothing and sword looks ok though. The joints on the arm are very visible and a bit lose on some part, wish Square Enix would have done a better job on the joints. Seems like all their Play Arts action figures have very visible joints. The figure itself is quite cheap actually, so the high price for this set is because of the bike.
Posing the figure is not too hard fortunately, and he’s capable of doing quite a number of action pose ^^. I just hope the joints won’t get lose overtime.
The bike is the star of this set in my opinion, the detail and paint job on it is superb. I think it’s fully made of pvc though with no die-cast parts, I guess if it have die-cast parts it’ll definitely cost more. The built is quite solid, but I wouldn’t want to drop it though, some of the smaller parts probably will break if it’s drop.
With the purchase of Cloud + hardy-DAYTONA, I am thinking of getting Tifa and Aerith to go together with Cloud. They are not too expensive at USD46.2 each at my local store. Probably will grab both of them the next time I go there.
The shoot
Well usually I don’t write anything on how the shoot was done, since most of the time it’s pretty standard. For this shoot is different though, it’s the first time I use a flash in my figure shoot. I put one of my usual lamp on the right and above the figure. A flash is mounted on the camera to act as the main light, most of the time it’s bounce from the wall behind me, at times I’ll bounce it using a white cardboard.
Flash output is lowered to between -2 1/3 to -3, otherwise the light will be too bright, which is not what I wanted as I want to keep the background dark. The result were pretty good, just that I get a bit dizzy after all the flashing XD. This is also the first time I connect my camera to my new laptop for the shoot, much more convenient than connecting to my desktop.
Cloud Strife and hardy-DAYTONA
Game: Final Fantasy VII
Scale and Material: Non-scale pre-painted PVC
Company: Square Enix/Kotobukiya
Price: 9800 Yen
Released: April 2008
Added to collection: April 2008
Availability: Hobby Search
Photo taken using: Canon EOS 400D with EF 50mm f/1.4 with Speedlite 580exII mounted.
More like ABS plastics rather than PVC for the Hardy-Daytona
Looking on the bright side of things , at least this Cloud doesn´t have an androgynous face like the A.C version. Was the bg inspired on the promo pics of the box?
Wow.. you into FF series also eh? your bike shots.. maybe it’s your intended effects.. but I can’t really see anything XP
@Dis-infection~hmmm you’re right should be ABS
@LazyShinigami~AC version face really that bad, I haven’t seen one up-close so not sure. haha yeah and I thought black background would fit him well
@Prim3~opps i forgot to check the photos on my desktop, editing was done on my laptop and laptop screen usually brighter. Fixed it ^^. haha yeah I have always like FF series
cloud was ok, i think…the bike looks awesome…
looks like they changed some things on the bike in comparison to the polystone resin version. I gotta take photos of mine and post that up sometime.
hoo.. the bike quality is a lot better than the figurine.
I guess 90% of that 9800 yen price is actually for the bike :p
Definitely prefer the bike over Cloud. I’m not a huge fan on the FF series of figures since most don’t look all that great to me. I know what you mean by getting all dizzy from the flash, but I got used to it from both conventions and doing wedding photos.
WOW!!! Really nicely done!!! I’m a good fan of the Final Fantasy 7 series!!! This Cloud figure is really cool. It comes with his bike too!!! I’ll try to also get my hands on one too!!!
It is very beautiful, but very expensive!
So it gaves afraid of playing with it and break …
Lol, it’s pretty bad when the bike is better than the person xD. I personally liked the bike more as well, the amount of detail that they put into it is superb. I don’t like seeing joints, its just weird to me.
@makie~yeah cloud is just ok loh
@Radiant~hmm really, I have never seen the resin version up close though
@ron~that’s my guess too haha
@Adun~FF in needs of some better made figures ^^. usually shooting event/convention I won’t see my own flash, its probably other ppl that get dizzy from it 😛
@Rin~should still be available now since my local shop just restock again
@Persefone~as long as you don’t drop it, I think it should be ok to play a bit with it
AS~haha yeah, they need to make better figures xD. I don’t really like joints either hence I have limited articulate figures
It have been more than 10 year since FFVII (PS). And Cloud still look awesome with that Bike. Very nice collection.
Love the Hardy Daytona. It always reminds awesome memories hehe. A fantastic bike 😉
It has some nice additional details compared to the polystone resin one I have, like for example the gas tank aperture, the needle work on the saddle…
However, not very into all the FF Play Arts figures ^^;
@bryant~thanks, yeah Cloud have always been awesome
@lu-k~that’s cool more detail than the polystone version. I am not very into FF Play Arts figures either, but Cloud with bike, I just have to have it ^^
your toy is so cool men!!!!!!!!!! i do hope i can get one here in the Philippines you what i’m a big fan of final fantasy!!!!!!!! not much more to say but its awesome
omg! i lurve the 8th picture the most(cloud hanging in mid air)!! i’m posing my cloud like that after seeing it here!! awesomeness! but i wonder how did u manage to lift the metal handle so high up? i’m struggling 2 lift it up even by 1 level, sweat all out ><! guidance!!
@paul~thanks ^_^
@kirbi~I forgot how i manage to do that, probably slot something between the metal to prevent it from moving down too much