Alter Figures: Scale Figures, Versions and How to Pick One

What Alter makes

Alter figures are scale figures. Each one is a painted character figure made at a stated fraction of the character's size, posed once and fixed to a base. Nothing on them is built to move. If you want joints and swappable hands, Alter isn't the maker for that, and the figures section has the action-figure makers.

In our data, Alter covers two figure types: anime figures and statues. The split is ours, not the maker's. A figure goes into the statue type when the listing reads like a sculpted display piece with a big base or a full scene. The rest sit with anime figures. In practice the two groups look alike on a shelf. Both are one-pose figures from anime, games and light novels.

Alter's own company profile says it was founded in March 2005 and is based in Ginza, in Tokyo's Chuo ward. It plans, develops, makes and sells toys and figures, and it also designs printed material like packaging and magazine ads. That last part explains something you'll notice: the box is part of the product.

The profile lists three figure lines by name:

• FIGURE for female characters
• ALTAiR for male characters
• ALMECHA for mechanical characters

The Amazon listings don't say which line a figure belongs to. You can usually tell from the character. The Tales of Vesperia Flynn Scifo 1:8 and the Izaya Orihara 1:8 are male characters, so on Alter's site they'd sit under ALTAiR. The listings simply call them figures.

How to read an Alter listing

Alter titles follow a pattern. Once you see it, the grid reads fast.

1. Series name first. "Strike Witches", "Tales of Xillia", "Fate/stay night". This is the show or game.
2. Character name next. "Mio Akiyama", "Milla Maxwell", "Saber".
3. Version in parentheses, when there is one. "(Swimsuit Version)", "(Dress Code Version)", "(Maid Version)", "(True Knight Version)".
4. Scale at the end. "1:8", "1:7" or "1/7". Same thing, different punctuation.

Think of it as a mailing address: city, street, house number, apartment. An Alter title does the same job with series, character, outfit and size. Leave off the apartment and the package goes to the neighbor. Leave off the version and you may be looking at a different figure than the one you saw on the maker's page.

The version name is not decoration

Some characters show up twice in the grid. Valkyria Chronicles: Selvaria Bles 1:7 has one listing, and Selvaria Bles (Swimsuit Version) 1:7 has another. Fate/stay night: Saber (Dress Code Version) 1:7 sits near Fate/Stay Night: Master Altria 1:7. Tales of Vesperia gives you Flynn Scifo 1:8 and Yuri Lowell (True Knight Version) 1:8.

Same series, different figure. Different sculpt, different pose, different paint. If you're buying for somebody who asked for "the Saber figure", ask which outfit. That question saves a return.

"Reproduction" means a rerelease

One title says it outright: Hyperdimension Neptunia: Purple Heart (Reproduction). A reproduction is the maker producing a figure again after the first run. The word is in the listing title, so it's a fact you can use. It tells you this is a later production of an existing figure, not a new sculpt. We don't know from the listing what, if anything, changed between runs, so we don't guess.

Alter's lineup by series

The grid holds a long list of series. These are the clusters you'll see most, with what the titles tell you about each.

Strike Witches and a light-music series

Strike Witches has three 1:8 figures in our data: Yoshika Miyafuji, Sanya V. Litvyak and Charlotte E. Yeager. A light-music anime series adds three more at 1:8: Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano and Ritsu Tainaka. Six figures, one scale.

That matters for one reason. Figures from the same series at the same scale were made to stand together. If somebody collects one series, buying within that set at 1/8 keeps the row even. Mixing a 1/7 into a row of 1/8 figures from the same show makes one character a size up for no story reason.

Strike Witches figures also sit in the lowest price tier Alter has in our grid. That makes them the entry-level end of the brand, as far as the data shows.

Tales of games

The Tales series shows up four times: Tales of Vesperia (Flynn Scifo 1:8, Yuri Lowell True Knight Version 1:8), Tales of Xillia (Milla Maxwell 1:8), Tales of Xillia 2 (Ludger Will Kresnik 1:8) and Tales of Zestiria (Heaven's Arrow Raven 1:8).

Every Tales figure in our data is 1/8. That's a tidy shelf if you want it. It's also a reminder to check the game number. Xillia and Xillia 2 are different games, with different casts.

Fate and the School Idol Festival figures

Fate/stay night has two 1:7 figures, Saber (Dress Code Version) and Master Altria. Fate/Grand Order adds Caster Merlin at 1:8. So one franchise name holds two scales in the same grid.

The School Idol Festival listings hold three figures, all 1/7 by their titles: Kotori Minami, Rin Hoshizora, and Eli Ayase in a swimsuit version. If you're filling a row of 1/7 figures, those three and the Fate/stay night pair stand at the same ratio.

Older series still listed

Some listings are for series that first aired well before most of today's anime shelves were built: Haruhi Suzumiya (Yuki Nagato in a swimsuit version, and Haruhi herself), Black Lagoon: Revy 1/8, Persona 4: Yukiko Amagi, Gurren Lagann: Yoko Littner (Mysterious Bounty Hunter) 1:8, and the Evangelion 2.0 Asuka Langley Shikinami Test Type Plugsuit Version 1:8.

These are listed on Amazon US now, which is all we claim. Most are sold by importers. Read the condition line. A listing that says "new" and one that says "used, box opened" are different purchases even when the title matches.

Male characters and the rest

Beyond the Tales figures, the male characters in the grid include Izaya Orihara 1:8, Accelerator 1:8, Uta No Prince-Sama: Otoya Ittoki 1:8 and Fate/Grand Order: Caster Merlin 1:8. On Alter's site, figures like these belong to the ALTAiR line.

Then there's the odd one out: Chaos Gate Ignis Jingai Makyo, with no scale in the title. When a title drops the fraction, treat height as unknown until the maker's page says otherwise.

Which scale fits your shelf: 1/7 vs 1/8

The difference between 1/7 and 1/8 is smaller than it sounds and bigger than it looks on a shelf.

Theo did the math on the back of a parts receipt when I showed him the grid. "Eight over seven is about 1.14. Same character, the 1/7 stands about fourteen percent taller. Tell people to stop rounding it to 'about the same.'" He's a math teacher. He does not let things round.

Here's what that means in practice:

• A row of one scale looks planned. Heads line up, bases line up, nobody looks like they're standing on a step.
• A 1/7 next to a 1/8 of a similar character reads as bigger, even when the difference is under an inch.
• Scale doesn't tell you height. A 1/8 figure of a tall character can stand taller than a 1/7 figure of a short one.

That last point is the one people miss. The fraction compares a figure to its own character, not to the figure beside it. Height in inches is what decides the shelf, and the Alter listings in our data don't state it. Alter's own product pages are where you'll find the measurements.

My take, and I'll stand by it: with scale figures, read the version name before you read the character name. The version decides the pose, the outfit, the base and often the size of the box. Two listings with the same character can be two very different figures, and the parentheses are the only place the listing tells you which one you're getting.

How to pick an Alter figure

Most people come to Alter with a character already in mind. That's the right way in. Use these steps to make sure the listing matches the figure you meant.

1. Find the character, then the version. Search the grid for the series name, then check every listing for that character. Pick by the text in parentheses.
2. Check the scale against your shelf row. If the figure joins others, match the fraction. If it stands alone, scale matters less than height.
3. Look up the height on Alter's site. The Amazon listings in our data don't state it. Measure your shelf gap first, then compare.
4. Read the seller and condition lines. Many Alter listings are from importers. New, used and "box damaged" all show up under the same title.
5. Plan for the base. Scale figures stand on bases, and some statue-type listings have a full scene base. A wide base takes shelf depth, not just height.
6. Keep the box if you might move. Alter designs its own packaging, per its profile, and the box is the safest way to transport a one-pose figure with thin parts.

By budget tier, the data gives a rough map. The Strike Witches 1:8 figures, Sankt Kaiser Vivio 1:7 and Hyakka Ryouran Gisen Yagyuu 1:8 sit in Alter's lowest tier in our grid. A few listings, like the Gurren Lagann Yoko and Black Lagoon Revy, sit far higher. We don't print prices, so use the Check price button and compare.

Who should skip Alter

Skip Alter if you want a figure you can pose. Nothing in this grid moves. Skip it, too, if you need to know the exact height before you buy and don't want to look it up, because the listings here don't give it.

And if the figure is for a young kid, look elsewhere. These are display figures with no age label in our data. A sofubi figure with a stated age is the better fit for small hands.

Display and care basics

A one-pose figure has one job: stand there and look right. A few habits help it keep doing that.

• Shelf depth before shelf height. The base footprint decides whether it fits, then the height decides whether it clears the shelf above.
• Out of direct sun. Painted plastic and bright windows don't get along over the years. The casita's sunny wall holds a calendar and nothing else.
• Thin parts get handled last. Hair tips, hands and weapons are the parts that bend. Lift by the base.
• Keep the stand pegs and spare parts together. A small zip bag taped inside the box lid works. I keep mine in a coffee can labeled in Marisol's handwriting. I didn't ask her to label it. It just happened one Saturday.

Display figures have small parts: stand pegs, thin hands, little props. Check the age label on the listing. Toys with small parts are a choking hazard for children under 3, so keep loose pieces in a closed box and out of reach.

Alter next to other scale-figure makers

If Alter is new to you, it helps to see who else makes figures the same way. Good Smile Company, Max Factory and Kotobukiya also make one-pose scale figures, and many of their titles carry 1/7 and 1/8 scales the same way. If a character you want isn't in Alter's grid, check those makers before you settle for a different version.

For lower-cost prize figures that state heights more often, Banpresto and FuRyu are the makers to compare. For statue-style pieces, the statues type page has the full list across makers.

What sets the Alter grid apart, based on the listings alone, is how consistent the titles are. Nearly every one gives you series, character, version and scale. That's four facts before you open the listing. Most figure titles give you two.

Read the fraction, then the version, then the name. Then go measure.