Sader

Just look at those eyes ♡

Sader is often described as a poorly done bootleg, but she is actually a shanzhai figure. She was never meant to be passed off as the actual Clayz figure she was modeled after, except in the minds of those who only know of her from stories filtered through the lens of anti-bootleg propaganda.

The original figure was a bonus included with a Fate/Stay Night special issue of the magazine Donghua Jidi (動画基地). For a mere 30元 (~US$4), you could get the magazine and a small scale replica of a figure that sells for ¥6,400 (~US$60).

Here's my theory on what happened during the production process for the figure:

The publisher commissions a figure to include as a giveaway for their magazine.

The sculptor is familiar with anime and really likes the 1/6 Clayz Saber figure, so he makes a scaled down version of it for the publisher.

The publisher okays the prototype, and sends it to the manufacturer who has a shallow understanding of anime figures. "Got it. Those big-eyed Japanese cartoon characters for kids, right?"

The production instructions are drawn up, and get handed down to the workers on the manufacturing line. These folks don't know Saber from the Lizard Queen, and have been painting Simpson's figures day in, day out for the past 10 years.

The end result is Sader.

Despite all the scorn that is heaped on Sader, I have a soft spot for her. I kinda wanted the figure, but since I'm only interested in petits, I knew I would have to make my own version.

I started out with a bootleg petit of Fate Testarossa, and removed her twin tails and cut off the back of her hair.

Then I used rubbing compound to remove the eyes from the figure.

I prefer using rubbing compound to acetone or lacquer thinner (the method popularized by Kahotan's Blog) because it does not dissolve the PVC and leave behind a slick melted surface.

Underneath the painted eyes there were red and purple imprints that had leeched into the PVC. Not a big deal since I could paint over the color, but it would cause some issues with how I was going to achieve the half lidded look of Sader's eyes.

I painted in the whites of the eyes, but the eye proportions of a petit are rather different from scale figures so I couldn't really get the proper shape that I wanted. I had to draw in some lines with a Sharpie in order to pull off something approaching a half lidded appearance.

Next I painted in the pupil and iris of each eye, and her mouth. I cut the pointy ends off of her bangs, and added an ahoge made of Kneadatite. I didn't  really get the cock-eyed look of the real Sader, but it's close enough for me.

I think I have a small plastic knife from a Warhammer miniature that I can use as a weapon for my Sader petit (if I can ever find it among my many bitz boxes).