“A look back …” basically means to do a reshoot a figure with a more refined idea in mind. After A look back at Momohime and A look back at Sonico Bath Time I did a reshoot of Sansei Muramasa, a great maid themed figure from Max Factory released in March 2012.

My experience with this figure was overshadowed by bad luck, not the figure was to blame, it was rather my fault, first I named her Sandaime Muramasa in the review. Around a year later I noticed this blogging disaster and I wanted to sink into the ground out of embarrassment. This really shouldn’t happen in a review, never *facepalm*

A more dramatic thing was, that I somehow set the camera to a low resolution for the shooting, a few pictures turned out quite nice, but I had really small files, maybe I was drunk. Anyway this really bothered me, so  lets try to make Sansei Muramasa, sparkle once again.

This year the Nitro+ VN, Soukou Akki Muramasa received a lot of attention in terms of figures releases and announcements, mainly from manufacturer Wing. Aside from Muramasa, they also gave attention to Ashikaga Chachamaru.

In the 2 (nearly) 3 years I constantly had Sansei Muramasaon display, the figure showed no effects of leaning or desaturation of colors, accidentally one of her antennas fell off, but was easy to fix.

About the model

In the year 2012 Sansei Muramasa was released, she was sculpted by Shining Wizard @ Sawachika, a really talented artist, who created some really good looking figures. The character of Sansei is based on the dark visual novel Soukou Akki Muramasa made by Nitro+. At 1/7 scale the figure has a nice size and has an appealing look on my shelf, she has a red carpet base and a single table with loose dishes. Check out her “older” review for reference.

Sansei Muramasa is an especially nice maid related figure balance between looking like a fully fledged maid and making the figure look attractive, the elaborate sculpting makes her uniform appear light and detailed. The hair is long and has a pretty shape, a creamy color and a cool looking fringe. Her beautiful facial expression is unique and interesting, changing between annoyed and being flustered, her golden eyes make her expression very strong.

Overall, the figure has a beautiful appearance and covers a number of my appeal points, elf ears, maid uniform, thigh highs and an attractive looking body. The uniform has a very appealing design, colored in black and cream white, the white parts are decorated flouncy.

A sexy feature is the detachable skirt, that reveals more of Sansei’s sensual body, her dark, fancy underwear is a real eye catcher. I don’t want to sound like an European conqueror, so I won’t call her dark skin exotic, it’s very pretty, though and suits the figure very nicely. The dark skin is also interesting. More dark skinned figures have appeared since 2012, still we rarely see this on figures. Naturally, anime/game characters live in Japan and rarely have dark skin.

The idea

Having a real idea for the shooting would be an exaggeration, I had a classic cafe in mind, where Sansei serves coffee and tea. So I’ve build a fancy window frame out of cheap wood parts and ornaments of the right size, I’ve bought on ebay. Afterwards I attached curtains on left, right and a fancier lace stripe on top of the frame.

To gain more height for the backdrop I also made a background wall made of MDF and painted it in light brown. To have more detail I glued bricks at certain areas, I’ve painted the scale bricks in different, but still related colors.The floor isn’t that important, since it doesn’t appear that often when I’m using a 50 mm lens, nevertheless I also gave it some thought as well, in this shooting I used leather with interesting texture to imitate an expensive looking floor.

Obviously Sansei Muramasa is a beautiful figure, not entirely flawless, on very close inspection of the pictures at the PC screen, the figure has some seam lines, visible at the ribbon at the back, the backside of her thighs and very faint ones at the waist. Her hair also has a few unclean spots, but as I’ve already said, this can only be noticed from a very close distance.

Summary and Impressions

I had a lot of fun with Sansei Muramasa, also this second time I took pictures of her, she is very photogenic, I think the new pictures turned out a little better in terms of lighting and sharpness. Partially, a good model makes good pictures ^^ I like the figures appearance of a very pretty grown up girl with a still youthful expression. She’s a very good looking Elf lady.

With a little self critism at the end, I could have planned her background to be a little higher, in the lower angle shots it’s a little obvious where the background ends. I also learned again that dust can be quite persistent.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures of Max Factories Sansei Muramasa, the next post is scheduled for December 24th.
I guess the next “A look back …” related Post might be about Sayaka Miki, one of my alltime favorite figures. I already have the idea for the setup, but will have to invest some more time in building the props.

Do you have any suggestions which of my figures I should choose to do another photoshoot?

The end of the year 2014 comes close, well actually it’s a little early for that and I still have 3 possible incoming figures this year, but I want to finish this post to have time for other things.

So it’s time for a summary of the financial numbers of 2014. Like last year  I monitored my expenses on the figure hobby and created some charts to explore some interesting data.

In 2014 I ordered 26 figures from these 26 figures I’ve already sold 7, since I wasn’t that satisfied with them in the end, in 2 cases I didn’t bother to open the box.

Cutting back didn’t work as I imagined and I actually wasn’t trying too hard. Compared to 2013 where I ordered 28 figures 2014 was a little improvement, nevertheless.

As you can see I’ve spent most money on new, regular run figures, I only ordered 2 Exclusive figures and one older one, Aozaki Touko by ALTER. I nearly have all old ( figures made before 2010) figures I ever wanted and spending too much on old plastic is not the best idea, there are so many higher quality figures these days. I bought a 1/3 scaled fashion doll this year without the stuff I additionally bought for Mirai, it was still a big number in the spent budget.

Mirai also turned September into the most expensive month, together with a scale figure we broke through the 60.000 Yen wall.  In an average month I’ve spend around 20.000 yen on figure stuff. Several figures delays lead to ordering other stuff, it’s a really bad habit of mine.

The yen turned a little crazy this year for several months it was pretty strong, well not as strong as in early 2013, but with increased figure prices combined it wasn’t that funny, at the moment it’s very weak, which is good for oversea buyers.

Compared to 2013 with ¥218.873,92 the mere figure costs in 2014 were ¥294.419,00.

It’s not all Mirai’s fault, figure prices have also increased and I happen to always like the pricier ones ^^As you can see below the chart says that 54% of my figure purchases consists of items wîth a above 9000 price tag. 14 to give you a real number.

The figure manufacturers I bought the most figures from were Max Factory and GSC, also got some more ALTER and Orchid Seed stuff. I liked Cerberus, Sonico Santa version, Maeda Keiji, Queen’s Blade Alleyne. Araragi Tsukihi, Sonico – Cheerleader version, Sena Kashiwazaki and Asuna a lot and also the Idolmaster Cinderella Girls from GSC were really appealing.

       
You can always read and find the dedicated reviews under Figure Review archive

Most figures I’ve bought were again 1/8 scale 12 to be precisely, also around 5 1/7 scaled beauties. Sena Kashiwazaki which was 1/4 and with Mirai we got even bigger scaled stuff.

Figures still got 71% of the overall costs, what puzzled me was that shipping and custom fees were rather similar in 2014, I calculated again and again, but nothing changed. In 2013 the fees only made 8% not 14%, shipping 21%

The overall shipping costs dropped in 2014, with EMS less often used, I could save some money with choosing Airmail or SAL Sometimes EMS just hurts in the wallet.

That is the end of my little chart show, hopefully it wasn’t too boring?

I want to spend less money on figures in 2015, less Dolls, no Beach Queens, more boobs XD

Do you also measure your figure expenses? If you have any questions, don’t hesitate ^^

2012 we already took a look at the shocking truth of the figure collecting hobby costs that accumulate in one year, please join me again and face the ugly truth of 2013 in this post.

The exchange rate was very nice for figure collectors outside Japan, I actually thought that some figures were too cheap in the middle of 2013, at the moment 10.000 Yen are barely worth 70€.

Let’s take a look at the things I’ve bought this year, overall it were 33 figures that I’ve ordered,
4 of these figures were delayed to 2014. I received 28 figures + one christmas present in 2013.

 List of received figures in 2013

Nagisa the beautiful figure with a rather cold face expression. The lady version of Takamachi Nanoha from Alphamax was a really nice purchase, I also took her along during my vacation in France, where she looked even more beautiful. Yoshii Hotori the shy P.E. teacher who looks like a middle school girl and is dressed in a lovely sport outfit. Ignis Endless Winter a spectacular figure in a white wedding dress, also her youthful face expression is rather charming, under her dress she also know how to convince. Leviathan from The 7 Deadly Sins was a very appealing punk rock demon girl and her facial expression shows a nice sense of  cute disagreement.

I could acquire Kanbaru Suruga, as she was released I had the wishful idea that she would hit the bargin bin, how idiotic of me. In 2013 I got her unopened and she is better than expected.

In the first half I experimented a bit with other things, I ordered a male bishounen figure, Yukio Okumura looks very cool, but next to my cute girls he looks somewhat odd. The Cu Poche of Haruka is super sweet and fun to play around, she’s actually one of the few things I received and liked from Kotobukiya this year. I also got the recast of the Sena Airi Garagekit, it arrived a little damaged, what sucked. I also bought this 1/6 scaled Azone doll of Azusa Nakano I already spoiled her with a load of clothes , it’s totally fun to dress her up and she is really adorable.

When looking back I made some unnecessary purchases in the second half, Miyuki Mana is rather boring even though she’s a bespeckled beauty, Kobato made me ultra furious I should have never ordered her, the Jougasaki Mika figma turned out so small, that I put it right back in the box. Some of the more satisfying additions to my collection influenced by the reviews of fellow bloggers, thx to Tier I got the 1/4 figure of loli Fate, she’s enchanting. Without Bakayaro I had probably missed Kotobukiya’s Takatsuki Ichika, a really nice bikini girl with happy boobs.

Chouhi Ekitoku aside from being far off the 1/7 scale, turned out nice with her cute butt, Cat Lap Milk was also a good and rewarding purchase. The little test of the affordable prize figures was fun, the Sonico – Space Police is a lot of fun, the The Sonico – Sweets Time also turned out surprisingly good as well. The most ecchi figure was Yuki, but she looked just too good to pass, a cute face with a hot body. Inaba Rinne was another satisfying purchase, this darling comes with many parts and makes me smile. The best thing was reserved for December, the 1/5 scaled Sonico PKG version, she’s awesome and one of the best Sonico figures ever.

Delayed Figures

These delays were so unpleasant, especially Tharja is something I really wanted in December.

Detailed expenses in each month

No month without figure in 2013,  January and April were rather sick with over 30.000 Yen each

Comparison of detailed expenses in each month between 2012 and 2013

In 2013 it were less extreme cycle skips

thx to the delays I spent a minimum less than 2012, 218.873,92 Yen instead of 219.575,14

Figure Company Choices

With four figures Orchid Seed was in the lead in 2013, followed by Kotobukiya, Megahouse, Native, Phat Company and Max Factory, the rest was divided by single purchases. Last time in 2012  I did most purchases with ALTER, but since they do more delaying than releasing I only received Yuri Yuri – Akari in 2013.

Shop Choices

No diagram necessary with little exception I ordered everything at AmiAmi, they offer Airmal and very reliable service. Oh and I want to boost my points, as well.

Chosen shipping methods

With the super cheap Yen, I didn’t bother to order much from Germany, I only bought Yoshii Hotori. EMS was chosen very often in 2013, which takes around 7 days average. After my positive experience with Airmail 1 – 3 weeks on average, I used it more regulary, it’s cheaper than EMS and faster than SAL. I use SAL for not so urgents orders 4 weeks average waiting time.

Pricing Range

I have a liking for expensive figures it seems, haha, 42% is kinda surprising to me, the most expensive purchase was Yoshii Hotori with 16.956,72 Yen, the second expensive purchase was theAzusa Nakano doll with 14.550,00 Yen. Getting this Kanbaru Suruga from the aftermarket wasn’t cheap either.

Additional Costs

Only a few changes compared to last year, the good thing is that I was less often charged with custom fees, but I paid more for shipping a difference of around 16000 Yen.

Impressions 

Well, that was another year full of figures, in 2012 I received 27, 2013  I received 28 + 1 present. You could say the 4 delays saved my ass in 2013, I feel a bit bad for such little restraint and that I filled a lot of shelfspace like that. The mistake I made was that I ordered many figures because I found them interesting and not always because they were something I really needed in the first place. I also feel that there were more really beautiful figures in 2012. Anyway, receiving 3 or 4 figures in one month is something I’ll try to prevent in this year.

See you again when we talk about the numbers of the figure year 2014 with hopefully more appealing figures, less delays and less regretable purchases.

We keep the “favorite figure of 2013” for one of the next posts

Asuka Langley 1/6 by Max Factory

Lets start with the 1/6 scaled Souryuu Asuka Langley from Max Factory, she will be my first real scaled figure of Asuka, I don’t see 1/10 scaled ones as real scaled figures, they are just too small. This figure was first presented on the last Winter Wonderfestival and I was sold on her.

Asuka comes in her Test Plug Suit which was shown in Evangelion 2  you can not advance.
Im a big NGE fan, but never bought a figure of Rei nor Asuka before, even though there were hundreds of figure adaptions from both so far. I just bought the Asuka Apron Version from Wave which I sold a few month later. This time I’ve picked a real big scaled figure of Asuka, this figure measures around 275 mm in height. What I like about her is the pretty standing pose and her overall very cool facial expression. Also the glossy finish and details of her newly designed plug suit are very nice, in my eyes this Asuka figure is a nice adaption of her character, just beautiful.
I ordered her at AmiAmi for 5,780 Yen and this figure will be released in November 2011.

Hinako 1/7 by AmiAmi zero

Next one is *giggle* the voluptous main character from the Bathtime with Hinako & Hiyoko Ova. Hinako is scaled 1/7 and is manufactured by AmiAmi zero. Even though their preview pictures doesn’t look as good as the final product, they’ve gained my trust after I have unpacked their pretty Menace figure. This Hinako combines innocent cuteness with a very soapy sexy body.
She is more or less completely naked, but her crucial parts are slightly covered by the things which resemble soapsuds, you can take them off as well as the towel behind her back.

I ordered her because of her detailed, chubby yet alluring bodysculpt in combination with a very cute pose and face expression. Also the bath theme caught my interest, its funny how japanese people do their daily bathing routine while sitting on a stool. I already have an idea for a photo shooting with Hinako (nothing indecent of course). Her boobs are a bit too big for my my taste, but overall I like her voluptous shape and I couldn’t resist her cute and “innocent” charm.
Hinako will be released in December 2011 and I ordered her at AmiAmi for 6,360 Yen.

Takamachi Vivio 1/7 by ALTER

The last one for this part ist Takamachi Vivio from the Lyrical Nanoha ViVid manga, where she is the main heroine. I guess this version is more suited for me than the angry Vivio which was made by Alter in late July 2010. This new little Vivio was also manufactured by ALTER and is scaled 1/7 with a height of 195mm. They aren’t that well known for making figures with such a high level of cuteness, but this version of Vivio looks incredible cute. She has an adorable face with bicolored eyes and an open mouth with an upper front teeth line (I love figures with upper front teeth lines) and also her nice school uniform with this dynamic pose looks very pretty.
Im looking forward to see this very cute figure with ALTER’s quality standards in person.

The small white bunny on her hand has two different bodies and can be placed seperately from Vivio. I guess most of you won’t know the Lyrical Nanoha ViVid manga, just to let you know the bunny is Vivio’s intelligent device called “Chris”. Guess where I’ve ordered this figure ;D
Anyway I ordered her for 6,180 Yen, like Hinako her release date is also in December 2011.

At the end of this post I want to show you my updated Figure Preorder Roadmap for 2011.
After the big amount of figures which arrived in june and july, Im slowly running out of space and so I restricted my self a little bit more with ordering figures than in previous new preorder posts.
I will order GSC’s Princes Millhiore from Dog Days, the release of her is sheduled for december and Im eagerly waiting to preorder her. I also will finally send my Nagi Garagekit to somebody who will paint and assemble her for me. This should be, without engagement all the stuff I’ll get this year. Other figures I am interested in are sheduled to be released in the next year.

related post
New Preorders part 7
New Preorders part 6
New Preorders part 5
New Preorders part 4
New Preorders part 3
New Preorders part 2
New Preorders part 1