Sideshow Collectables 12” Faith Review
By Neil Beedie

"In every generation, there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer." But then there came Faith.

Badass Faith smashed onto the small screen in season three of Buffy. In the finale of the first season, Buffy is drowned by “The Master” but brought back to life, thanks to her good friend Xander. This caused another slayer to be chosen, Kendra. But towards the end of season two, she was hypnotised and killed by Spike’s girl, Drusilla. This again caused another to be chosen, Faith. Faith was the outcast rebel, Buffy’s other half. She finds herself in Sunnydale, Home of the Hellmouth.

The two slayers confront and join forces to fight against the forces of darkness. Then the Mayor rolled into town. And after accidentally killing a human, she was set on her path to evil. The Mayor used his fatherly charm to persuade Faith to join him and turned slayer against slayer. They both fought, Faith only narrowly survived the encounter…

In the last season of Buffy, Faith again found her way back to Sunnydale and along with Buffy lead the potential slayers against the army of Uber-vamps and “The First” evil. The scooby-gang destroyed The First and put evil in its place, for good. Sideshow also released an exclusive version, which comes with an extra accessory, the Scythe. I’ll be reviewing that now.

Packaging 5/5
As you might know by now, I’m a big fan of Sideshow’s 1/6 th scale packaging. The front features a great graphic of Eliza Dushku (from the last season). The inside flap features some in-depth information on Faith’s history along with some pics and to the right is badass Faith ready to kick ass! The back has info on Eliza along with some extra pics. She has all the twisties you’d expect. The stand is in a tray, making it very collector friendly, only with this figure; it’s tied all the way back which doesn’t make too much a difference, but it’s rather an inconvenience.

Sculpting 2.5/5
Now, the sculpting on this isn’t perfect by any means, but it isn’t necessarily awful. The likeness obviously isn’t 100%, but you do know it’s her. I still do like the sculpt, but I feel it doesn’t show her anger and rebelliousness against everyone. I do like the hair sculpt though; Sideshow did a good in choosing to sculpt it. The hair is quite long at the back, but only restricts movement slightly.

 

Body Sculpt 5/5
Faith comes with three hands, her left one slightly opened with her ring, one closed and another sculpted to hold her crossbow. They all hold the accessories perfectly. Her boots looks great and I even slotted her knife in there (being a slayer and all, you can never be too careful).

 

Paint 4/5
The paint overall is above average, but only a few minor things brought the score down. The face and skin tone is about right, slightly glossy but has no affect on the overall appearance. The eyes are accurate, but don’t have that Faith look to them. The eyes are glossy along with her lips and improve her appearance. The only problem here is that her skin tone carries into her hair-line, it isn’t major but it’s enough to affect the score, after all this is a Sideshow product and I expect the best.

The paint ops on her hair look great and have highlights. The shoes also look great; the buckles have been painted meticulously, and look separate to the shoe. Sideshows also included Faith’s right arm tattoo, which you can see by pulling up her sleeve. They did the same with Angel and it’s a nice touch to the figure.

 

 

Articulation 5/5
Faith features over 30 points of articulation, with the standard female body at Sideshow. The long hair does restrict the head a little, but it looks great. There have also been slight improvements to the older version body, and this one looks and moves better.

Accessories 5+/5
This is the section in which Faith really kicks a$$. She comes with 4 accessories, her stake, crossbow, dagger and exclusive scythe. There is also an extra hand for holding her crossbow and stand with the Buffy logo.

The crossbow is a big improvement over the older versions and fits into the sculpted crossbow hand. The stake has been scaled accurately and fits snug into her closed hand.

She also comes with the dagger given to her by the Mayor. It’s sculpted perfectly and is Faith’s trait weapon. This is also the dagger that Buffy stabs Faith with in “Graduation Day”. It’s pretty dam cool, for a badass slayer.

The next accessory was only in the exclusive version, and is the ultimate slayer accessory. The Scythe. This was featured in the last half of the final season of Buffy in which Faith returns to Sunnydale to defeat The First, Caleb and the army of Uber-vamps (along with the Potentials). It looks excellent and from what I tell, is perfectly replicated.

Of course, the exclusive version sold out ages ago, but I’m sure one will pop up on Ebay in the near future.

Outfit 4/5
Faith’s outfit comes straight from the episode “Bad Girls” with her long sleeved white shirt, black vest and leather pants. I could have sworn it was from another episode, but it’s probably just me. It’s all tailored to Sideshow’s best fits her figure perfectly; although the pants seem to sit a little high. It wasn’t my favourite of her outfits in the show, but it’s been executed exceptionally. Overall, good outfit.

 

 

 

 

Overall 7/10
Overall, Faith is a great figure. She’s a kickass character from Buffy and comes with a very extensive number of Uber-cool accessories. The sculpt’s fairly good, with only a few problems. This is for any Buffy fan and goes perfectly with the rest of the Buffy family. (And yes I no, I like the word kickass!)

“Isn’t it crazy? Slayin’ always makes you hungry and horny”-Faith