Aura the Guillotine Taito Coreful Prize Figure

There are a handful of anime where a single episode villain can capture the imagination of the fanbase, and safe to say that Aura the Guillotine, despite only a single spotlight episode, has become a favourite among many in the Frieren fandom. A 500 year-old demon that wins her battles by measuring the mana power of her soul against an adversary using her golden scales of obedience and her Auserlese magic, victory allows her total control of her opponent.

Famous for surrounding herself with an army of headless fallen opponents, she has a great character design that includes twin horns, two sets of 3 braids that hang over her shoulders, she wears long-sleeved gloves, thigh-high boots, a bodice, skirt and a pinkish/red bustle. It's really quite striking as the pictures should hopefully demonstrate. 

There are currently two prize figures for Aura, which is really what prompted the review - a SEGA Desktop Decorate figure and this Taito Coreful model that we're looking at today. You can pick up either for under £30 and they're easy to find, which begs the question - why Taito over SEGA?

SEGA (left) vs Taito (right)

Let's start with the pose, which to my mind is certainly more interesting here - the raised hand to the face to almost hide a smirk is pure Aura, driven to arrogance on her own power and success, she has no empathy but does seem to enjoy taking life and mocking her victims. The SEGA statue by contrast has Aura leaning slightly forward offering the scales, but it's a far less intriguing stance and the face is pretty flat and featureless. 

In terms of accessories, the scales themselves are more intricately sculpted with the Taito figure, and instead of a plain base, the Coreful model has a semi-transparent black base with a beautiful pink tampo featuring a magical circle with the name of the series and character, with a huge set of scales in the centre. It's actually a nicer base than a lot of figures that cost three times the price, so I'm very impressed with the effort involved here. 

The striking base really adds a lot to the display, it's semi transparent too so in the right light, it glows!

Looking closely at the figure's sculpt, there's a lot to like here. Paint is pretty sharp all over, the only thing detracting from this aspect are two sprue marks on the back of her boots, but since you'd have to be looking at that under the bustle and up her skirt, that's hardly a problem for display and probably a smart choice by the designers.

The folds in the cloth feel full and rich

The white skirt is layered, and is moulded from two separate pieces which looks great. There's lots of folds on the free flowing fabric and the plastic is thick enough that you don't get a lot of light leaking through the back. There's even moulded folds in the gloves where it wrinkles, such as the back of her wrists and at the elbows - even the fine threads on the tops of her gloves are sharp against her bare skin.

The head-sculpt is far better than I had expected, especially the hair - both sides have separated strands at the front and back, with a semi-translucent finish at the braids which give her an ethereal look. The horns have a lovely painted bone-finish and a wicked curve to them, while the whole thing is finished with sharp tampos for the eyes and that signature smirk. Beautiful. 

With natural light you can see how the hair lights up. and the strands sticking out. One of the best prize figure sculpts I've seen hands down.

As regular readers will know, I collect a lot of toys and figures, so I've a pretty fair expectation by now of what a company can produce to a budget. In every aspect I think the Coreful Aura exceeds

It's an easy win for Taito in my opinion, but they're certainly cheap enough you could just buy both.