Pop up Parade Frieren by Good Smile Company

It's been a while since I've done another review. Honestly, finding the time to sit down and edit the pictures when you have so much else going on can be tough, but I decided that I would finally chip away at all the work I've meant to do, and put a few out. So, as a treat, this April you will be getting quite a few reviews. And this one is the first of many. I'm aiming to have at the very least, a total of 5 more within this month. Due to the results of the poll that I stuck in my updates section a while back, I decided what I'll be focusing on will be stuff that's related to Yugioh & Prize figures. Anyways, what better way to start off the prize figures stuff with a Pop Up Parade figure.

Before someone comments that a Pop Up Parade isn't exactly a "prize" figure as it's not won via lottery or through crane machines, the entire reason people aim for prize figures is because of how affordable they tend to be. And the entire point of Pop Up Parade as a line is for it to be more affordable. So, for the sake of simplicity, we're going to be considering Pop Up Parade figures to be the same as an average prize. I mean, the quality is around the same as prizes, they're off scale, and they have traditional ugly bases that prizes tend to have. So, "Prize" it is. Sorry if that upsets anyone. This isn't me bashing on the line, it's just that most people consider figures like this to be at a certain price point, and thus, just using the term "prize" for simplicity works in cases like these.

Before I forget, she was 31 USD + Tax with free shipping off of Amazon, which was the last place that had her available when I went to preorder. I'm not too keen on the idea of using Amazon for figures, but considering I got her from GSC's storefront, I knew she'd at the very least be legit. Do I think she's worth the 31 dollars? Ehhhh. But it's whatever, I suppose.

With that out of the way, let's talk about Frieren instead.

Here she is! I really like taking pictures like these, surrounded by trinkets. Makes it feel a bit more lively, even if it's just blatantly staged. I don't really know what to do in terms of pictures most times. I don't feel like I have a really aesthetic place to take them, so I always tend to toss a cloth backdrop behind them and put whatever.

Either way, my feelings about this figure is... mixed, to say at the very least. The more I look at her face, the more I kind of wish I had cancelled. She isn't a bad figure, but I feel like they should have went with a more aloof expression. She looks really shocked or maybe just alert. So it just feels... a bit unnatural? Is that the best way to put it? Either way, there are better Frieren figures, but I ended up just wanting a cheap one and bought her instead of another noodle stopper. It's okay though, unless I decide to sell her, she gets to stick around.

Normally around here, I would put shots of her box and blister. I honestly forgot to take them. But I'm sure if you've seen a Pop Up Parade box, then you know what Frierens box looks like. Yeah, it's an ugly hunk of clear plastic. In her case, she has a light backdrop with a kind of celestial looking pattern behind her, so it's not the worst, but honestly, I wish GSC would just use cardboard for the figures instead and reduce the amount of plastic used for these. The clear doesn't look good.

Anyways, whenever I clean out my closet's boxes, which might be later this week, I'll aim to take pictures of her box and add it in here, as well as her blister. Also, since I brought up the blister, it was secure. Just extra bits of plastic so there wouldn't be paint transfer. The usual.

Here's the 360 view of Frieren. From this, I'm sure you can tell that she's best viewed at an angle, rather than head on. Makes her look a lot less awkward. Other than that, she stands a little more than 6 inches tall, and has a pretty small base. Won't take up a lot of space on your shelf. And despite the face, the rest of the details look pretty good. I wish the pose was a bit more dynamic instead of Woman Standing Emoji, but considering a lot of promotional Frieren pictures are her just standing around, as well as a decent amount of her other figures being kind of the same, I guess that's just how it had to be.

So, I feel like there isn't a lot to talk about in terms of details here. I appreciate the use of metallic paint rather than a plain yellowy one that you tend to see on lower budget figures. And the details on the book look nice as well. Other than that, there's not a whole lot here. Her design is rather simple as is, so it ends up with a pretty simple looking figure. At least the paint job is pretty clean and there's no noticeable errors.

Well, it was inevitable that I'd end up complaining about this, but as usual, cheap figures mean cheap bases. Frieren has a really plain small white base. It's not the worst base, and it's definitely sturdy, but I hate the general look. I'm considering putting something on it just to make it look less... like that. Sorry, I really hate plain white circular bases, as much as I hate plain black circular bases. Like, give me something. Add a bevel. Add a logo. Make it a color. Make it a different shape. Just don't do that. The only positive here is the size. The smaller, the better.

So, my overall closing statements for this figure is that it's just okay. It's not bad, but it's not particularly great either. If you want an affordable Frieren figure, yeah, it's an option. But I think that you have plenty of other options on the market as well that are just as good (if not better) for maybe a cheaper pricepoint, depending on how you get them. But I'd guess that after importing fees and what not that 25-30 is an average price. Either way, if you like her, then she shouldn't be too hard to get. But if you're on the fence, I'd advise skipping her, maybe.

The Positives

• Fairly clean paintjob with no errors
• Very small base, making her easy to fit in bigger collections & smaller spaces.
• Metallic paint and attention to small details pretty nice.

The Negatives

• Expression is very awkward. Makes her weird to view from certain angles.
• Comes with a plain white base.
• Disgustingly large box that is annoying to store if you're into keeping your boxes.
• Pose is on the plain side, but for some, this could be a positive thing.
• I forgot to bring it up but she kind of lacks shading. It isn't super noticeable though, due to the fact that white shading can be a bit of a toss up at times, and the natural shadows on her are fine. So it's not super glaring or anything.

Anyways, at some point like I said, I'll get around to adding the box and blister pictures. But it will have to be at a later date because getting into my closet with my dog sitting in front tends to be a bit anoying and I have raid tonight. That aside, this is another figure that lacks a review on MFC. Mine definitely isn't special and probably just seems really sloppy, but if it helps anyone decide what they think of this Frieren, then I suppose that's a good thing.