I’m slowly wrapping things up with the S.H. Figuarts Sailor Moon line with just a few more figures to look at. In fact, today’s Feature will be the last of the Sailor Scouts! I’ll confess that I’m still considering Sailor Chibi Moon and I’ll most definitely be adding Tuxedo Mask to my Sailor Moon shelf at some point. And no, right now I have no plans to double dip by getting all the Super Sailor Scouts. Black Lady? Hmm… maybe. So, let’s press on and check out Pretty Guardian Sailor Venus… VENUS POWER… MAKE UP!!!!

I’ve showcased this packaging enough times over the last two years that we should all know what to expect by now. It’s compact, colorful, and collector friendly. In other words, it’s pretty much perfect. The character art on the side panels also make these look fantastic when they’re all lined up on a bookshelf. I’ll be honest, I was not planning on buying Minako, because I had a weird love-hate relationship with her in the anime. But once I had all the other Sailor Scouts, her absence from my collection was just too much for my OCD to handle.

Venus’ outfit is basically just a direct repaint of Sailor Moon’s, with the exception of her wearing shoes instead of boots. As a result, this is a pretty familiar figure to anyone who already owns Usagi, and even more so to those like me who saved Minako for last. The skirt and collar are painted with a very attractive metallic orange, as well as her shoes and the fringe on her gloves. The bow on her front is blue with a gold button and the rest of the outfit is the same pearlescent white that we’ve been seeing all along. Paint quality is generally not an issue with these figures and in keeping with tradition the paint here is exceptionally good and probably among the best out of all of my Scouts. I initially thought that Venus’ head sat unusually high on the neck, but it turns out I didn’t have it pushed all the way in for some of these shots. D’oh!

There’s not as much to see from behind because of her copious mane of blonde hair that fans out behind her. She still has a bow on her back, under all that hair, and the more visible one up on the back of her head. The sides are connected by ball joints, so you can fan the hair out more or less depending on the look you’re going for. It also helps when you’re trying to sneak the arm of the stand in somewhere behind her. Despite all her hair, the balance on this figure isn’t bad at all and I’m actually surprised at how well she stands on her own most of the time, even with her tiny feet. In addition to the usual gaggle of extra hands, Venus comes with four faces with different expressions, each one more adorable than the last…

You get the smile face, the stoic and serious face, the shouty face, and the delighted face. This is pretty standard stuff for an SHF release, but it gives you plenty of different display options. Each face is swapped out the usual way by removing the front of the hair. The printing for the eyes is nice and sharp and each face includes the detailed gold tiara and the tiny earrings.

Two cool additions here are the extra hair piece with her glasses attached and the hand holding them. These are very welcome bonus pieces and go along way to give this figure a lot of personality. I particularly like the way they made the glasses part of the hair so you can use them with any of the different expressions.

The articulation is pretty standard stuff for an SH Figuart and as always I was able to pull off most of the moves I was looking for. The joints can be a little finicky sometimes, but in the end these figures are so much fun to play with and really hard to put down. The clear heart-shaped figure stand features Sailor Venus’ name and symbols in orange and matches the stands from the other Sailor Scouts. It’s not always easy to make it work with the hair, and I’ll confess that more and more, I’m finding these a lot more clunky than the peg system on Figmas.

And naturally, you get Artemus the cat. This is more or less the same as Luna, the plastic kitty that came with Sailor Moon. She has articulation in the neck and tail and with a little coaxing he can usually stand on his own.

In the end, I’m sure glad I didn’t skip this one. I wound up buying Venus from the Points of Articulation Podcast‘s Ebay page, which they use to offset costs of their production. If you aren’t a regular listener, I highly recommend becoming one. Phil and Justin have roots in both toys and gaming, and POA is the perfect dose of light-hearted toy banter, especially since the shows rarely go longer than an hour. I can always fit it in and I never miss an episode. They also tend to do more LEGO talk than the other toy Podcasts I listen to and that’s always a treat.