Rediscovering and editing my old figure photography was honestly a lot of fun, but apparently I needed a break from it after a white, since I don’t like to do the same thing every day.

Oh, I managed to write a few review posts in 2023 as well. I did receive some of the most stunning figures of all times this year, as expensive as figure collecting is nowadays, I can’t complain about the quality or lively appearance of the items that I received. I have spent 241.462,00 Yen on (10) figures in 2023. I received 10 and managed to review 11 of them, including 5 figures from 2022 haha.

The top three figures for me were

• Asuna Ichinose – Bunny Girl

• Kouka

• Kuramoto Erika – Beach Volleyball Ver.

Although I took pictures of most of my new figures, I did not manage to review them like it was supposed to be, distractions were Nikke, Genshin Impact, a broken webspace and the creation of AI generated pictures recently.

For 2024 I will try my best to review, Pola – Seaside Coincidence Ver., Suomi – Midsummer Pixie – Heavy Damage Ver., Reisalin Stout, Daiwa Scarlet, Shirogane Noel and the recently arrived Meido-Busou:Javelin.

At least there will be no shortage of new content for the new year .

I’m wishing everyone a better 2024, see you

Lacia is scaled 1/8 and measures 200 mm on her own when subtracting the base. This figure was cursed with a number of delays, in the end I have been overjoyed to finally receive her this April 2021.

There were two versions available, the Lacia 2018 Black Monolith Deployed version was sold for 18.333 Yen, the simple Lacia 2018 figure 10.926 Yen. Since I was a big fan of Beatless and Lacia I’ve bought the elaborate figure. The elaborate version because it looks damn great when the figure is combined with Black Monolith Deployed base.

Lacia is from the anime adaption from Beatless. 2018 I watched the anime. It paired Boy meets Girl with an ambitious sci-fi story about the future of artificial intelligence and super computers.

A great watch, I already watched it 3 times, I was cheering for the kind, naive boy to get a happy end with the cyborg girlfriend Lacia. Lacia was voiced by Nao Touyama, every character she lends her voice to sounds like an angel, also in this anime it was no exception.

The author of Beatless is Hase Satoshi, albeit the more popular illustrator redjuice was in charge of the character design for it.The show had a few production problems, to fill the gaps there were at least three recap episodes and the end was made after a few months of waiting. The worth of an anime should not be measured by such things, when watched as a whole Beatless was a nice anime.

When I have to assemble more than 3 parts on a figure I already start to become nervous, to assemble Lacia and the Black Monolith base, I had to put at least 16 together parts, before I could display the beautiful figure as a whole.

It’s a bit worrisome that the black pieces are springy and not as stiff as I would like them to be, but that are the limits of ABS material when being turned into thin plastic shapes. GSC gave a light appearance more priority than rock solid base stability, which is all right.

Good Smile Company was kind enough to provide a simple round base alternative in case the customer feels uneasy with the bigger and complex base. The base is a huge pillar in the middle surrounded by 6 smaller “wings”.

The part in the middle is especially well made, it features a complex design it’s painted in black and silver with some shading effects here and there and a few clear parts are also part of the design.

I will go more into detail about the figure itself now. In this figure adaptation Lacia has a nicely chiseled face with pretty lips. Her expression is stoic and serious, a smile would probably the wrong choice when she carrying around the huge weapon to kick some ass.

Unfortunately, this Lacia figure is a little less kawaii, still a bit of cuteness has been added to the figures face. Compared to her body the head is relatively big, the eyes are very nice and show a strong expression, you might have noticed that the color scheme is a bit unsaturated, but it’s just following the character design.

Her lavender purple hair is painted with a beautiful gradient to blue effect. It’s so nicely sculpted that it is hard to believe that she is actually scaled 1/8. Her futuristic battle suit features a combination of shiny black and white colors and it is also a bit skin revealing, it’s a tight suit and compliments the figures bodyline very well. The figure simply looks very well done and appealing.

I really like the fingerless gloves and shiny black thigh highs. Oh and she also wears great looking shoes.
What I always liked about 1/8 scaled figures were the separately sculpted fingers, they are so adorable.

In terms of quality there is not a single thing to complain about, it’s a great example of figure manufacturing. Surely they could have made this figure at 1/7 scale, but the already big base had probably consumed more space. 1/8 scale is fine for her, they put a lot of effort into her sculpt.
Fortunately I really like how this figure of Lacia turned out, she looks wonderful.

Souryuu Asuka Langley – Ver. Radio Eva, Original Color, is the full name of todays figure. It has been released in December 2020. Tis Asuka is scaled 1/7 and measures 25 cm in height, the figure was sculpted by Kiking and Tone.

The interesting thing about the Radio Eva version is that it has been made in two color variations,
one with normal colors and one with less saturated colors, which is the one you see in my review here.

It might not be obvious for you, but Hobby Max is a Chinese figure manufacturer, most anime figures are made in China, even when the company behind it being from Japan. With all the technical know how and infrastructure it’s just a logical step that Chinese companies start making their own figure lineups.

Emontoys, Myethos or APEX TOY are good companies that make good figures with more or less the same quality level as well regarded Japanese manufacturers.

I’m a very big fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion (新世紀エヴァンゲリオン) from 1995, the setting is quite epic, in general I like “humanity fights against extinction” settings,but NGE is so distinctive and larger than life, I like how everyone is somewhat broken.

That said, I never really understood the hype for the female main characters Rei and Asuka, they are difficult somehow, calling them problem children would be an understatement. But I also didn’t hate them. Misato though, was the only decent women for me in the story.

I was happy that Neon Genesis Evangelion received new movie adaptations years after the anime ended. 2007 Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, 2009 Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance.
I loved them so much and really was looking forward to the next movie. Albeit Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo from 2012 was such an oddball of a movie, it felt totally different and I wasn’t as happy about it as I was about the previous two movies.

The fourth and probably last movie, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 has been delayed a few times now, my guess is that it’s hard to find a decent ending for it, because the third one was too ambitious. Let’s hope that it will be finished until 2022 in a satisfying way.

Asuka is a very talented, proud and a bodacious Eva pilot. As the story begins she is 14 years old. She is a real tsundere and tends to be aggressive towards the people she cares about. On good days she can be surprisingly friendly. In my opinion it’s easier to relate to Asuka as character, she tries her best as pilot. Asuka is quite honest and hardly tries to hide her often negative emotions which comes off as rude and annoying.

The figure has a especially nice head, I really like the vulnerable expression Asuka is showing here with her tilted head, the pretty eyes are turned to the left and her mouth shows slightly parted lips and teeth. Her unsaturated orange hair color is beautiful, the sculpting turned out very good with the pretty hairstyle and hair decorations. The strands although probably machine made, is carefully crafted and smooth on the surface.

So what’s up with this Radio EVA? It’s an online stone for Neon Genesis Evangelion related fashion and accessory, you can get jackets, pants, shirts and whatever you can imagine. After hundreds of Asuka’s in pilot suit, the outfit of this figure is something new. Did Asuka retire her plug suit and became a model for street fashion?

The Asuka – Radio Eva version was adapted from an illustrations of Yoneyama Mai, she looks really cool, I don’t think it’s my favorite choice of clothes to see on a girl, nevertheless her jacket is awesome, as it shows really impressive attention to detail with all the three dimensional and accurate interpretation of human clothes at a much smaller scale.

She wears short socks and NGE design sneaker, you could also buy at the Radio Eva store.
And so her pose feels like inspired by something from the casual catwalk or fashion magazine, the jacket is hanging from her shoulder and one hand is hidden inside the jackte’s sleeve, which looks cute.

The figure stands on one feet, the other is lifted upwards. The figure perfectly recreates the characters facial features, Asuka’s expression doesn’t come off very happy,but with beautiful hair and pretty big eyes it is still very nice. The lack of color creates a stylish and cinematic athmosphere, I don’t regret that I decided for this version, it’s something unique on the figure market and also in my figure collection.

I think this figure, Souryuu Asuka Langley – Ver. Radio Eva, Original Color, turned out great, it’s a high quality sculpture with a wonderful paint job. Articulation and facial expression are very well done. I would choose an Hobby Max figure anytime, there is nothing to worry about in terms of quality.

Even when this wouldn’t be your first figure of the Asuka character, the different look here is great, after witnessing all the plug suit versions, it’s a refreshing appearance to see Asuka in casual fashion. Although I am not sure if she would ever choose to wear this kind of casual fashion or rather choose something girly “anta baka!”

She was manufactured by Kotobukiya and released in August 2020, the figure is scaled 1/7 and measures 26 cm.

Some months ago I started watching an anime named Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle. Where 3 episodes from the Phantasy Star Online 2 game were adapted into a longer running anime. It’s one of these 25 episode long shows, that are always fun to watch as the story unfolds, it’s nothing mind blowing but a great way to waste some time with an entertaining science fiction fairy tale.

Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle featured a character Named Matoi, a really pretty and friendly girl whose backstory slowly gets revealed, she first starts as cute side kick of main character Ash.

Before I watched the anime I saw this figure up for preorders, I liked it, but I did set up a condition. In case I would like the character in the anime I’ll preorder her. Unfortunately Matoi had the voice of an angel (Satou, Satomi) and I had to order this figure. The figure is not a 100% adaptation from the game design, Kotobukiya made a collaboration with illustrator Nidy, who gave Matoi a slightly different look and appearance.

Matoi has an adorable face with a cute and friendly expression. There are detailed eye decals and strong blush marks. Her hairstyle underlines the characters cuteness, it’s nicely colored hair, light purple with light blue color at the tips.

A thing that made Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle stand out in my opinion are the legs of the female characters with their realistic looking proportions and length like the Japanese girl next door. The legs in this anime look so cute and attractive. Additionally everyone has pointy ears which is a big bonus, Elves with nice legs Oh my gosh ♡＾▽＾♡.

Her outfit is inspired by sci-fi and traditional Japanese religious robe elements and of course it’s intended to look sexy. When you watched the first few episodes from the anime you wouldn’t expect it, but Matoi really kicks some ass in her battlesuit, albeit the anime outfit shows a lot less cleavage . I like the used colors a lot, the combination of bold red, white and light blue is really awesome.

The Nidy version really shows the illustrators style, Matoi has a great looking body with a slim waistline and wide hips, she also has wonderful legs and a beautiful figure line in general. Sculptor Sakaki Kaoru did a very good job in adapting the style of PSO 2 and Nidy together, turning it into this appealing figure.

From the backside the figure looks really great as well, first because of all the details of her outfit and second because of the figures beautiful body line based on the PSO 2 character design embellished by Nidy, the thighs are so good.

Matoi has an appealing pose, her torso a little bit leaned forward and shows a nice arched back. She has positioned her left raised index fingers before her mouth, maybe that means, that we should not ask about the thing she is hiding in her right hand behind her back. It’s a pretty, white lily though…

The figure features a very clean paintjob, the tiny and delicate signs are applied with sharp and clean screen printing technique. Additionally the figure of Matoi has good shading.

The generally quality is very good, Kotobukiya is a company I had great and not so great figures from in the past. Matoi though looks very good, the sculpting of character and outfit are very well done.

Final Words – Matoi – Nidy 2D version from Kotobukiya turned out very well, the science fictional outfit is quite stunning, the space shuttle white combined with bold red is really an eyecatcher. The figure portrays Matoi as sweet and also, without a doubt as very attractive girl, the sculptor did a great job with making everything look beautiful and appealing, the figure shows the aesthetics from both the origin Phantasy Star Online 2 and the work of the illustratpr Nidy. Did I mention that she has great looking thighs already hahaha ?

What I like a lot, is that the figure still carries the gentle personality from Matoi, while she is dressed in her battle suit.

From the very few figures, that I received 2020, she is one of the prettiest, so it was a good decision to order her.

Alter released them in January 2019, it indeed would have been a good Valentines Day post, but I wasn’t happy with the pictures I took last year. This year I created a new set you will hopefully like.

For this review I got myself some help from Otaking, I think having another ones viewpoint of a figure is interesting and Otaking was willing enough to offer is help. As co-author he was quite helpful for me.

First a short hello from him.

Hello internet, I’m Otaking. You might have seen some of my comments on Wieselhead articles in the last months. Fabian invited me to co-write for him, so here I am.

I have this figure myself, but I haven’t taken it out of the box yet. Since the box is made of transparent plastic, I thought I don’t need to open it until I display what’s inside.

Unlike Fabi, I haven’t seen anything from Love Live!. So the first thing I thought upon seeing this product was ”either these girls are lesbians and like each other, or they are going to meet their respective crushes. And the pink-haired one is leading the charge, since the other is shy”. Then I found out how Nico is and I thought ”Tsundere!”.

I’m a big fan of the first Love Live! anime, I didn’t consume the content from other media of this franchise, but I was already happy with what the anime covered, I liked everyone a bit, some more and some less.

One of my instant favorites was Nico, the often grumpy idol expert, that could perform the cutest idol pose. Compared to the other mainly good girls, she was like a little demon, but actually really cared for µ’s and liked their school idol adventure with the others. Her relationship with Maki always has been a little tense.

It appears like Maki and Nico don’t really like eachother, so this figure combination is a little odd to me at least. Maybe in other media or in fanfiction they might find their way to eachother. Anyway that pairing is super popular. To see them as item with yuri goggles and the power of love everything is possible.

In the first place I only bought this figure pair because of Nico, but that doesn’t mean that Maki is unwanted for me. I think this combination of two characters is just so adorable, they are even holding hands oh my gosh.

Both figures were sculpted by the experienced Makio Munetoshi who designed quite a number of beautiful figures. Maki and Nico are scaled 1/7 and measure 21 cm in height.

The cute outfits are based on an UR card from the smartphone game, which I actually never played.

Both wear cute valentines day themed school uniforms, if you look closely enough you’ll notice all the small variations of Maki’s and Nico’s outfit. Nico wears a neckerchief, her blouse reveals her belly, she is wearing thigh highs while Maki has a tie, knee socks and her blazer has different pockets.

The main reason I bought this figure-combo was the oufits. They are not as elaborate as a japanese idol stage-suit, but not as simple as the regular school uniform. They are like a fancy version of the latter. You could almost imagine someone wearing this in reality, and it would still be very flashy – but could still be pulled off.  Here’s a history lesson for you readers – go look for “Mod clothing” and you will find clothing similar to what high-schoolers wear in the typical anime. It might be from where the character designers got the inspiration, other then from the actual japanese uniform.

As Fabi said, the uniforms are different to each other, which is all the better. Nico has a fuku-type shirt/blazer, while Maki has a more traditional european blazer, both with appropriate neck-ties for each. I love the gold loop-trimmings on the edges of the collars sleeves and skirts, they just give the clothes an extra edge of elegance. Since I haven’t opened mine yet, I’m looking at the prototype, and I see that the 2 stripes on the left arms are of different colours, to match each of the girl’s ties. One set is burgundy, the other pink. SO much attention to detail ! Also notice the loafers. They not only have gold soles (to match some of the details on the clothes), but also one heart on the right shoe.

One thing their outfit has in common is the length of their skirts, in this pose they are somewhat risky lol.

One last thing … I don’t know what kind of underwear they have on ! I still have that surprise waiting for me when I open the box !

They are innocently white lol

Anyway the burgundy red skirts have a pleated design and the golden lining is especially nicely done, Nico’s skirt says Happy Valentines and has a heart at the top, the level of craftsmanship is quite impressive.

It’s amusing how Nico looks all shy and flustered, while Maki appears chilled and relaxed. I like how it look like they want to hand over choco to their owner, in this case me.

As you probably noticed both girls have different kinds Valentine’s gifts, Nico has probably self made cookies and sweets in a transparent bag and Maki bought some fancy chocolate.

I really like the candy bag Nico is carrying. It looks really well made and detailed. I wonder if the material is rubber or plastic? It’s great how they inserted all those different sweets inside!

Nico turned out especially her short petite body is adorable, her thighs appear slightly plump and squeezed, combined with the thigh highs Nico’s legs look indeed very attractive.

Both stand on one big heart as base, the golden letters and glossy finish give it a high quality appearance. Of course you could only place one of the girls on the base, but when you would have so much dislike for either Maki or Nico, you should better buy a different figure.

Overall, I simply have one complain and that is about Maki, to me her winking eye is on the wrong side, especially for the light setting it is very difficult when the open eye is in the dark corner, they followed the illustration, but it would be much better when they hadn’t.

Final Words

Without a doubt ALTER’s Love Live! School Idol Festival – Valentine Hen figure pairing of Nishikino Maki and Yazawa Nico is a beautiful figure combination. They look like the anime characters or perhaps even nicer. Their outfits look great and everything is especially detailed. The cream white and dark red colors are a perfect color harmony that nicely match with the Valentines theme. It was a somewhat expensive purchase, but for the ~ 20.800 Yen you receive 2 beautiful figures from the Love Live! franchise in an enchanting holding hands pose.

Overall one of my favorite figures from my collection that have street-smart clothes.

When I looked at the latest figure listings at the shops recently I noticed one thing, they became so damn expensive! 13,000 Yen figures became the affordable category and the top category is close to 22,000 Yen. If this trend continues I don’t know what to do, completely turning my back to the figure hobby is not an option for me. Maybe a good time to take a closer look at my figure wishlist. There I noticed a few figures like Mefmera , Kouwan Seiki or Tomoe.

I also noticed VaistarStudio on Twitter some time ago, a super talented figure photographer, who also makes excellent stages for the figures, here I saw these figures and thought that Eila & Sanya looked quite great as pair.

The figure pair was manufactured by Alter. From base to shower head the whole combination measures 23 cm and the scale is 1/8. An less often used scale after 2017, since 1/7 is already the standard. What is odd about the figures is the release date, Strike Witches aired around summer 2010, but this figure combination is from spring 2016.

The figure couple is quite cute, I like the chilled pose of the girls under the shower installation.
First of all I like that figures are made as a pair, at the backside you see how their tails are entwined with eachother. The two girls holding their long drinks with ice cream and tiny straws. Alltogether a summerly atmosphere is created.

Eila has a beautiful face and a great smile, Sanya seems a bit nervous here, but also has a gentle smile on her face.

The bikini design is very skimpy with the low cut panties, Sanya wears a black bikini with soviet star and Eila’s is wearing a blue white bikini with striped top. Even with the skimpy bikini’s both figures aren’t what is considered sexy, the anatomy is like the whole franchise on the skinny side, although they have long legs and a nice looking midsection with cute bellybuttons.

I have watched Strike Witches season 1, season 2 and Victory Arrow, but I skipped Brave Witches, since I didn’t want to get used to new characters. Fortunately, a continuation of the old storyline is scheduled to be aired this year, named Strike Witches: Road to Berlin.

Eila and Sanya share a deep friendship watching them interact in the anime was always heartwarming and sweet. Eila is my favorite of these two, Sanya has a low profile, but that is also cute. Eila has the ears of a wolf and Sanya those of a black cat.

Final Words

Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen & Sanya V Litvyak – summer version is an interesting and charming figure combination.

I’m a big fan of such figure combinations and this one is done especially nice, both are cute figures with nice pose and articulation. In 1/8 scale everything is quite small, not to say tiny, but the general quality of the figures and the accessories is very high and is solid, although one should pay attention to not lose one those tiny straws. Obviously they aren’t very curvy figures what I would prefer nowadays, nevertheless they are very cute and have a nice holiday feeling.

It’s obvious that the Love Live!! Sunshine figures get less attention from big figure manufacturers, of course the franchise has a lot of merchandise and many surprisingly nice prize figures are available, but prize figures as nice as they can be, are different from those full price figures. ALTER also made a few figures of the Sunshine crew, but only With Fans! a GSC sub label make figures of everyone based on the covers of the Blu Ray volumes.

How should I excuse that late review, depressions? …maybe.

The figure of Kurosawa Dia measures 21,5 cm in height and is scaled 1/7. This figure from With Fans! was sculpted by Kawagoe Hiromitsu and Saitou Nobuhiro, both also worked on the figure of Kurosawa Ruby Dia’s little sister.

The figure has a pretty head with cute ears and a cute nose. Dia has beautiful green eyes, I’m a big fan of the detailed Love Live! design with all of those sparkling effects and surrounding linings, she is captured with a happy open mouth.

There is the most obvious outer trademark of Dia Kurosawa, her beauty mark at the mouth. The tiny blushing marks are plain adorable. The flying hair looks very good with cleanly manufactured fringe and strands, the dark brown color is elegant. It’s decorated with a white triangle bangle on the left and flower ornament on the right.

Love Live!! Sunshine!! as anime had it rough, an idol group from some backwater village trying to “imitate” the iconic Muse from Tokio and fail with waving flags. The very first Love Live!! means a lot to me. I liked everyone so much and it was great to be part of the group for 2 seasons and the sweet movie. I was sad about the too early parting of Muse and that it ended already.

I also liked Love Live!! Sunshine, it had great moments, but they are generally seen as lesser school idols. A few things were similar to the previous Love Live!! plot, but the characters were unique and I loved how crazy Sunshine could be.

The character of Kurosawa Dia slowly grow on me in season two. As she first appeared in her role as student council president, she acted rather mean and bossy towards the juniors who want to assemble a school idol club. It often was quite amusing what Dia did with her antics or “Desu Wa” or her imitation of a buzzer when someone made a mistake.

After she joined Aquors Dia became less mean and actually liked and cared about her new friends, not as much as about her sister, which she totally adores, in the end Dia became a reliable member and important asset of Aquors.

Dia wore that outfit during the “Mijuku Dreamer” performance, it’s very pretty and the asymmetric design of her sleeves looks quite cool. The two tones of red and strong blue colors give her outfit a strong appearance.

The outfit has a very complex design with lots of layers and there ere are many small details to discover on it,
like the two small rippons at the shoulders or the bigger one at her back. The frilly white under skirt is a good addition. Her interesting footwear is a combination of boots and traditional sandals.

The figure was nicely captured in a dynamic idol dance pose that shows Dia in the middle of a concert with a smiling open mouth.

Final Words

I noticed that the figure received some nasty comments on mfc, even by myfigurecollection standards, mainly about the position of her eyebrows. Even though the figure isn’t perfect and the color is a bit rough at some edges, she is very pretty overall. I like her pose, outfit and hair a lot. Dia’s face turned out especially nice, so I feel quite happy about this purchase.

Today I will show you the figure of Kaname Madoka – Mahou Shoujo Madoka ☆ Magica Gaiden made by Stronger and distributed by Aniplex, you could have bought this figure bundled with Tamaki Iroha, but I just wanted Madoka.

Ah Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, the surprise hit and little disturbing anime about magical girl Madoka and her friends with mental issues from 2011. The latest figure I received was Miki Sayaka from GSC in 2012.

Obviously, her face is damn cute. Without the hatching the eye design from the game is different than from the anime. The difference is not really obvious, anyway the big sparkly eyes make the figure appear quite adorable and lively.

This figure is based on the side story Mahou Shoujo Madoka ☆ Magica Gaiden, a smartphone RPG, an anime adaptation of that will follow in January, 2020.

I admit that the Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Movie 3: Hangyaku no Monogatari left me in despair and confusion. But when I saw this cute adaptation of the Kaname Madoka character I didn’t have to think twice, about ordering.

Kaname Madoka was released in August 2019, she has been sculpted by Miyajima Katsuyoshi. She is scaled 1/8 and measures adorable 20 cm. Somehow I expected to be a little bigger, but that is ok.

I think that figure is beautiful and sweet no matter from where you look, inside the box you will find the figure, a base, a bow and an exchangeable left hand for displaying the figure without bow.

There we have Madoka with her usual hairstyle, the pigtails decorated with big dark pink colored ribbons, the different shade of pink at the tips creates more depth and makes the magical girl look quite fashionable.

Her outfit is as girly as a magical girl outfit can be , without sounding sarcastic it feels like a mix of wedding cake with lots of frills and pink. She wears a red collar around her neck. I really like the corsage with short puffy sleeves, the yellow and pink colors are quite charming as well as the frilly seam lines and the tiny pink buttons.

Bare skin is shown at her arms, the upper chest and at her back. At the backside is a heart shaped cutout. Gosh everything is just so cute. The small figure actually has beautiful knees highlighted by the frilly socks. the shoes are very red and very glossy. The contrast to the matte colors is quite nice.

The most obvious part of her outfit is the voluminous skirt, the pink top layer looks very appealing with the red rim and the tiny pattern at the tips. She wears white gloves, their design again seems to be based on flower petals.

As already mentioned she has a hand for holding her bow and a different hand for the option to display her without it. With the leafs and rose on top, the bow looks quite a lot like a natural stick, except for the gems attached to it, a nice looking detail is the string at the bow. Madoka’s right hands index finger indicates that she could stretch the bow string, but I don’t want to break something.

Final Words

Kaname Madoka – Mahou Shoujo Madoka ☆ Magica Gaiden from Stronger is a wonderful figure where the cuteness doesn’t stop. Her cute face is extremely adorable and the outfit is stunning with all details and overall design. the arched back is a bit extreme, but aside from that the figure is flawless in regards of colors and sculpting quality, looking at this enchanting figure makes me happy.

I was happy that an appealing figure of Neko Musume had been announced, but I didn’t realize that her dynamic crouching pose would make it difficult to take pictures of her. I tried my best … Also her place to display has to be quite high when you want to see her face.

By coincidence I came to watch a few episodes of Gegege no Kitaro and instantly liked it.

Gegege no Kitaro has it’s roots in the first manga adaptation from 1959, created by Shigeru Mizuki.
The first anime aired in 1968, in every decade a new anime aired so far, currently the 4th anime is airing.

Kitaro and his youkai friends solve problems with ill spirited youkai’s and humans, as their goal is friendly coexistence. What is looking like a very well animated show for kids is more than meets the eye as it often touches more grown up topics. The show combines modern society and traditional youkai stories, which works surprisingly good.

One of Kitaro’s companions is Neko Musume, in the current anime she became much prettier compared to previous anime adaptations. She is an elegant but also tough young woman who has a big crush on Kitaro. As always the protagonist is too dense to notice. Neko Musume is portrayed as very kind girl, but in “mean cat” mode she looks super scary, alternative parts are included with the figure to recreate that appearance as well. As modern youkai she has a smartphone and knows about the modern world. She also has a friend in the human world, named Mana.

The simple red dress outfit is really fashionable and looks good on the older teenager girl.

Final Words

The figure is quite nice, small but nicely detailed, especially the “scary mode” option for face and hand are really well.

The chosen pose looks cool, but it isn’t ideal for display option with her face looking downwards. The figures quality is very good, but the figure really could be bigger. Overall I think that if the figure had been designed in standing pose, Neko Musume would have a stronger presence that her lovely character would actually deserve.

This figure of Riko has been manufactured by With Fans! a new company mainly making figures of
Love Live! Sunshine!! characters, it’s quite nice that they make appealing figures of everyone.
I wasn’t very convinced by the first release Chica and You but the Riko I’ll show you today is really gorgeous in appearance. She was released in March 2019 somehow I didn’t manage to write the review on time *sigh*.

She was sculpted by the famous YOSHI who was in charge of a number of iconic figures. This Riko is scaled 1/7 and measures 21,5 cm in height. Aside from the base Riko no further parts and is easy to assemble.

o is portrayed as gentle schoolgirl in her pretty summer version uniform from Uranohoshi Girl’s High School, while being a cute figure the sculptor also made her look slightly reserved or shy. She looks great standing there during music class while gently holding her notes and having a piece of chalk between the fingers of her other hand.

The face really captures the cute and pretty character design from Love Live! Sunshine!! Riko’s face is simply enchanting with her eyes pointing to the right, the facial features and the brown lining of her mouth. Another great part of this figure is the beautiful hair, the vibrant wine red color is accentuated by strong shading. It’s a great contrast to the monochrome colors of her uniform. The hair itself is especially nicely sculpted, the flowing strands look dynamic

The uniform is not very flamboyant, but underlines the innocent schoolgirl look, shirt and skirt are made very smooth looking without hard edges anywhere to find, the clothes are very well made.

The pose is pretty, I really like the articulation of her legs with slightly the lifted foot.

Whether you are a fan of Love Live! Sunshine!! Riko or cute schoolgirls in general, this figure from With Fans! is perfect in many aspects. Riko looks enchanting with her beautiful eyes and the stunning hair. The sculpting of everything is very convincing and I’m more than happy with her.