Review: Dead Master (Original Version) by Good Smile Company

It seems like many years ago when I first laid my eyes on the prototype of this figure! It was back when my other half and I were getting into figure collecting and one of the very first figures that I really REALLY wanted. I was actually quite worried about how she’d end up like after hearing many reports of Good Smile Company’s questionable quality control lately and started to think that we’d end up with some deeply flawed monstrosity of a figure while she was shipped out to us! Since I had been looking forward to her and wanting her so much for so long, I would have been disappointed with anything less than a near perfect figure so let’s see how Dead Master holds up agaisnt my almost unreasonable expectations..

Oh, and please click on the photos if you’d like to see them at full scale!

Dead Master herself needs no introduction to fellow collectors but if you have managed to somehow avoid the hype surrounding the Black Rock Shooter franchise then you can check out Dead Master’s page on the Black Rock Shooter Wiki if you’d like to know more about her character.

The figure is manufactured by Good Smile Company and sculpted by Akeji, the same guy who did the very popular Black Rock Shooter Original version and Black Blade version figures. She’s a 1/8 scale and quite a decent sized 1/8 at that.. especially when you add her large base to her height! Price wise, Dead Master retails for around 9800 yen.

The level of detail on Dead Master is almost absurdly high. From her intricate horns atop her head down to her amazing base.. I honestly can’t fault her sculpt at all and despite her rather static pose, she’s got a decent amount of motion happening which is shown in her dress ruffles and the bottoms of her pants.

While the paintwork on my Dead Master is great, it’s been kept very simple with little to no shading but she doesn’t really need it with the folds sculpted into her clothing providing natural highlights and shadows.

In the above photo is her face and hair without the green lighting I’ve used shining over her (‘cept that part that snuck onto one of her horns, oops) and you can see that she’s kept some of the green tint in her hair although it’s a lot darker than as shown some of the promo shots. The front spiral curls in her hair are made from a soft plastic so thankfully they’re not actually as delicate as they look!

Dead Master’s dress is one of my favourite parts of this figure and I was really happy to discover that like her hair, the lower part is made from a softer type of plastic too! I wish Max Factory had made her Figma’s skirt like that! The way that the ruffles and folds have been sculpted is fantastic and the little white bow is cute although I do wish they’d used the same type of pearlescent paint for it that was used on the Figma. The only issues I have with her dress is the noticable seam line running down her side.

And here is a macro shot of her seam line which looks a lot worse in my photo that it actually is, haha. I’m assuming it’s there because they used a softer type of PVC for this part of the figure and needed to put a seam line somewhere?

Dead Master’s wings are made from solid black plastic with a touch of dark brown shading and not the translucent material (like the Figma) I was hoping for but now that I look at it closely, I think the solid plastic suits the look of this statue a little more. You can probably see how the wings clip into her back and I didn’t manage to get them all the way in though you can only notice this when you view the figure from above.

The base is almost a work of art itself although how those skinny little arms of hers can manage to wield her scythe with enough power to do damage like that is beyond me! Both the paint work on the scythe and base itself is really good and I love the grungy kinda look to them. The base is very solid and has no trouble supporting Dead Master at all, she sits on it well and was easy enough to get onto the pegs that connect her to the base. Her scythe simply slides into one of her hands and sits in a large crack in the base.

Here is a shot of her base without the scythe obscuring it, I love it! I also love her cute little shoes.. considering looking for a pair like that for myself, haha.

She comes with the option to display her with or without one of her skulls. The skull itself is attached to one of Dead Master’s claw like fingers and it’s been made so that you simply take off the whole finger with the skull attached and replace it with another finger without the skull that’s been provided. I actually didn’t know this until my boyfriend found the finger without the skull attached on our office floor and asked me about it.. oops! Accessory wise, she also comes with a loose black chain which you can just drape where ever you like over the figure. Sorry for the blurred photo of the skull, I was playing with macro tubes at the time!

I also apologize for the dark box shots but I wanted to show off the cool glow in the dark feature of the skulls! There’s one on each side of the box and I thought it was a nice, if a gimmicky, addition. Her box is on the large side so be prepared for a sizable shipping bill if you choose to get her posted.

Overall, I feel a little bit silly for worrying about this figure so much and for having such little faith in Good Smile Company! Dead Master is easily a stand out in our collection and looks every bit as gorgeous in person as she does in her promo shots. She’s currently being displayed with our Black Rock Shooter Animation ver. and looks fantastic next to her. I would recommend her to fans in a heartbeat, I wonder if GSC’s Animation Version of Dead Master to be release early 2011 will live up to this version?

We purchased her from online store Hobby Search for 7933 yen which is about 15% off her full retail price. They still have some in stock as of writing here if you’re interested in getting her! She’s also in stock at AmiAmi for a great price of 7280 yen and HobbyLink Japan have her in stock for 9333 yen. I’m not aware of there being any bootlegs of her as of yet but be sure to buy her from a trusted seller just to be safe!

I’ll finish up with a couple of extra photos that I took while messing around, thank you very much for reading!

The Black Rock Shooter Figma she’s holding fell apart as soon as I took the above shot since it’s been really hot here lately and the blu-tack holding her together decided to melt!