This figure of Hibari was manufactured by Phat Company and released by the end of November 2013. This version is scaled 1/8 and has a height of 180 mm.

This certain figure is based on a Garage Kit from Ringo Renmei, I nearly bought that GK, even though I could never finish it on my own, I  still think owning is better than not owning ;D. There have been many GK’s that I wanted as painted PVC figure, but that rarely happens. Fortunately Phat Company quickly got the rights from the sculptor and announced the PVC figure of Hibari.

Hibari herself comes from the game Senran Kagura, a few days ago I knew nothing about it, but Miette told me that there is also a manga about it. I’ve read all available chapters within a few hours ^^

Hibari  is a 1st year student of the National Hanzo Academy, she takes part in the Ninja classes together with her friends Asuka, Katsuragi, Yagyuu and Ikagura. Hibari is a very cheerful, feminine and cute acting person. As part of the “good* ninjas, Hanzo fights in order to prevent crimes in the area, their arch enemy are the “bad” ninjas from Snake Girls School. The Hanzo girls aren’t especially good in combat and while Hibari has the right spirit she is the weakest fighter.

Senran Kagura is a mix of action, comedy and seinen. It also has a few parody elements and makes fun of martial arts related animes, still it takes his own story serious. I liked to read this manga with it’s appealing character designs. An anime adaption is scheduled  for January 2013

Up to the Review part…

I can say in advance that Phat Campany surprised me in a positive way with their Hibari figure.

Hair & Face

The hair of this figure is very well done, the strands are clean and detailed. She has a cute little pigtails or mini twintails hairstyle decorated with three small blue ribbons. Hibari has a pink haircolor with a gradient from a lighter tone of pink on top to stronger pink at the ends.

A lot of attention has been paid to Hibari’s face, it resembles her look from the manga very well. They eyes are applied in a very clean manner, she actually has normal eyes, but since she’s made in her victory pose, she has these flower like crosses in front of her blue iris. On her cheeks are some adorable blush marks, under her cute stubs nose the figure has a wipe open smile.

The last reviewed figure had a kinda weird open mouth, but the figure in this review has been sculpted with a nicely done open mouth, that portrays the cheerful nature of Hibari’s character.

Body & Outfit

The figure is standing in a rather simple manners, which doesn’t have to be something bad.
As extra feature Hibari comes with a third exchangeable arm, to create the double victory sign pose. The position of the gap is hidden very well, since the arm attaches where the sleeve starts.

Obviously Hibari is a young teenager, but since Senran Kagura always pays attention to the attractive female curves of their characters. Cute Hibari is a short and buxom girl, she has big bouncy boobs  and a sexy waist, the bloomers accentuate her well defined legs very well, while not very long I think that her legs and meaty thighs are attractive, the back of her knee is also sculpted in an appealing way. The subtle applied shading  gives her legs a lifelike appearance.

The outfit might be kinda unique, but it’s Hibar’s battle dress, she is wearing a pastel pink, sporty jersey. The sculpting of it is very good, with nicely applied folds and wrinkles. The silver zipper is painted carefully and clean. Underneath Hibari is wearing tight, blue bloomers, well what should I say leg revealing bloomers are always sexy. I also think that her puffy crotch is kinda cute.
Hibari has a cute little butt, but personally I think that her buttocks could have been a bit bigger.

Another nice detail are the striped loose socks, matching the colors of her jersey and bloomers.
I also really like the bulky design of her sneakers with the bold, leather resembling parts of them.

Additional Notes

Aside from a few seamlines the sculpting of this figure is done very well.

Hibari can stand without base, but you have to balance her carefully, it’s no option to display her like this for long. She is safer on her clear base.

I was also impressed by the sturdiness of this figure during the no base shootings she fell over several times without taking any damage, one time the whole background fell on her, but again no damage occured. My assistant was so clumsy that day. Well Im no one to talk since I smashed the bulp of my little support lamp after tidying up the shooting ground XD

Final Words

You probably can tell by now I’m totally enchanted by this Hibari figure. I find it remarkable that a young figure manufacturer like Phat Company, that I actually didn’t trust much him the first place, delivered such a lovely product with this Hibari figure. Sculpting and painting of figure and the outfit parts are very good. Also in terms of resembling the character the figure is based on, I’m very pleased with her, I love my Hibari, she is cute, cheerful and sexy.

She’s still available here and here

Hi, today I will show you a new “oldie” figure about the Suzumiya Haruhi – Gekisou Version.

I recently bought this figure from Ami Ami’s Pre owned items branch for around 8000 Yen.
It already became a regular habit for me to check for new offers and figure prices there, except the figure is really rare the prices are more than fair, you can get items you always wanted.

To be honest I mainly ordered this Haruhi figure, because she was quite popular in the past and had a significant price drop recently, which might be a bad reason for a figure purchase.

The Haruhi Suzumiya – Gekisou Version was manufactured by Max Factory in April 2009.
This version is scaled 1/8 and has a a height of 210 mm. The origin of this figure is this certain illustration where the SOS Brigade is playing rockband. The figure was part of a figure lineup, next to Haruhi there have been  Gekisou Versions of Yuki Nagato and Mikuru Asahina.

It is kinda scary to see rare, high price figures getting cheaper, especially when considering the worth of ones own collection. It nearly seams as if figures have a certain price life span, first they are available for the retail price, then they are sold out which leads to rising prices for several years and in the end the prices get quite low, Im wondering if prices will rise again in the future.

Considering for how much money private sellers sell their figures compared to places like Mandarake is hilarious. Lets take this Haruhi as example, I got my Haruhi for 106 € with shipping and customs included and there are private sellers that are selling this figure for 170$ and more.

On the one hand Im quite happy that I can get rare figures for affordable prices, but from another point of view I dislike how these shops kill the aftermarket prices, it somehow changes the figure from a piece of art to disposable plastic merchandise, what I as collector don’t like.

What’s your opinion about falling prices of great formerly popular figures?

Let’s put this little side topic aside for now and start with the actual review part

Hair & Face

Haruhi’s hair is sculpted closely to the illustration, it has many strands and a spiky design, the long Ahoge and the rest of the hair is made of relative flexible material. The hair has a soft look and looks nice with the natural brown color and the subtle applied darker shading .

On her simple but well sculpted face, Haruhi shows an extreme cheerful and energetic face expression. Her eyes are very detailed and capture Haruhi’s radiating energy in a very good way. There are figures with open mouths that look convincing and there are figures that look silly with it, I have say it this Haruhi tends more towards the latter. Not from all angles, though.

Body & Outfit

This Suzumiya Haruhi figure  has a more cartoon look compared to her anime counterpart, everything about her has soft edges. Overall she has a slightly petite body, she seems to be of normal height and has a good balance of upper body and legs. Haruhi shows some skin in this figure adaption, her top is short and exposes her shoulders, collarbones and the belly, she also is a little busty :D. This figure also has thin arms and tiny fingers, a little too short in my opinion.

Her nice legs are covered by olive green stockings with an accurately painted fishnet pattern.
On her left leg she is wearing a shorter version of this stocking model and some more skin is revealed. The gloss and bulky brown shoes are another little yet very nice design element.

The extravagant outfit of  this figure  has many Visual Key elements, on top of her head she is wearing a broad yellow band. The dots around her neck actually are no dirt (haha I was quite shocked as I noticed these spots, that looked like dirt), it is a painted on necklace. Haruhi is wearing a second necklace around her neck which is made of wire and shows a cross  pendant.

Her short top is very cute, the black and white colors is a nice color combination, at her arms the figure has cool decorations in form of arm and wrist warmers. Around her waist is a big belt, I think this is a quite sexy design element. Further below Haruhi has a three layered skirt with a longer rear, the upper layer has a semi transparent smoky color, the two other layers are black.

Haruhi comes with a fancy and very detailed E-guitar, it looks really nice and has single chords.

Im a big fan of The Melancholy of the Suzumiya Haruhi franchise and I loved every animated piece of it so far, a goal of me would be to read all the light novels in the next year, since I doubt that  more anime adaptions from this franchise will be made in the future.

I always love the adventures of Kyon, Haruhi, Yuki, Mikuru and Koizomi, while it mainly appeared as everyone  in the SOS Brigade was dragged along Haruhi’s self centered crazy ideas, I think that all of them enjoys their youth to the fullest, thx to Haruhi’s awkwardness.

Im quite fascinated by the unique character of Suzumiy Haruhi, some see her as self centered, annoying girl with a slightly rotten personality, but I like these ruthlessness of her a lot. Her spontaneous, upbeat, and hyperactive  style is also something I like about Haruhi.

Final Words

I always had problems with figures that are adapted from characters of my favorite anime. I am a lot more picky with figures from shows Im more attached to. If the figures aren’t close to what I imagined I don’t buy them. Having a figure from a favorite anime is a nice thing, but you won’t find that in my collection. With shows that I just consider as good I m easier to convince.

This Haruhi is actually a nice figure with a very fancy outfit and an action orientated pose, but personally I’m not as satisfied with her as I would like to be, she’s unfortunately not  my Haruhi.

Of course it’s question of personal taste, but the open mouth bothers me a lot to be honest, from certain angles she appears a bit like a psycho. I had preferred a more serious, less cheerful face expression of Haruhi. That would be the only thing  that I really dislike about this figure.

Aside from that she is a nearly flawless figure with very convincing sculpting and painting., the Visual Key outfit is also a very appealing part of this Suzumiya Haruhi – Gekisou Version.

This figure of Haruhi also has really good photogenic qualities thanks to her dynamic and cool appearance, I had a lot of fun with taking pictures of her.

thats all for today, see you next time…

Today I’ll present you a review of one of my most awaited figures in this year, this Kan’u Unchou.
It’s actually my first figure from this manufacturer and also my very first Ikki Tousen figure.

The Ikki Tousen Xtreme Xecutor version of Kan’u Unchou was manufactured by Daiki Kougyou, the figure was announced nine months ago and the release occured on November 16th 2012.
The figure of Kan’u is scaled 1/6 and has a good height of 28 cm (32 cm with her spear weapon).

I ordered her for 11920 Yen at Ami Ami, SAL shipping turned out cheaper than expected.

Her origin is the anime adaption of Ikki Tousen, the show is loosely based on the events and characters from the “Romance of the three kingdoms”, where modern Japan sees a similar struggle for power between different rival schools with the three strongest leaders. There are many healthy female Warriors who are involved into a lot of fights and battle damaged clothes.

I started to like the anime, after I’ve watched all three seasons that were available at that time at once. After the terrible first season from J.C. Staff, Arms continued the franchise in a better way, Dragon Destiny was a lot better and Great Guardians would be my favorite of these three.

Compared to the manga the anime is a bit different and it’s a pity that each season so far was only 12-13 episodes long, but overall it is a very entertaining show for me with appealing character designs. I especially like the characters from Seito and Nanyu and their interactions.

Kan’u is from Seito Academy, together with Chouhi, Koumei and Chou’un she is protecting her leader Ryuubi Gentoku, who is actually more into reading books than fighting and the school.

Kan’u is actually no lesbian, but she has strong romantic feelings torwards her leader Ryuubi.

With Special A Toushi Rank, Kan’u is one of the strongest and skilled fighters in Ikki Tousen.

Hair & Face

Kanu’u is a pretty girl with very long dark aubergine-colored hair with some lighter shading, the sculpting of it was done in a rather dynamic way even at the back it looks very nice. Her hair is showing many single strands all around, one of her eyes is hidden by a bang. At the back of her hair there is a metallic colored pipe like hairclip that holds everything together at the end.

A part I really like about the figure is the pretty face which shows an convincing expression, that is full angry determination and pride. In general I stay away from figures with in my eyes, too serious facial expression, but I like how Kan’u looks in this figure adaption. The slanted eye(s) captures the attractive style from the anime very well and lets the figure appear very lively.

Her mouth also looks very good, both lips are nicely sculpted and add a lot facial detail to the figure, the slightly rosy cheeks are another little but nice detail of her face.

Body & Outfit

Kan’u Unchou is a 19 year old girl, with the three sizes 96 – 60 – 91. Her height of 1,72 m makes her taller than your average Japanese women. I really like how sexy this figure is, the subtle muscular limbs show her well toned body, yet Kan’u looks still very feminine and curvy.

Her big round boobs are really nice in my opinion, they have an appealing shape and some underboob appeal is implemented, it might appear a bit odd that her boobs point upwards, but it can be justified with her dynamic fighting pose and some overflowing Chi, I don’t really mind.
Aside from that the body of Kan’u offers a nice belly as well as nice hips and meaty thighs.

The schools in Ikki Tousen were always lawless areas, I actually never saw a teacher or student council there and therefore nobody cares about the modified length of her shirt. Aside from this little modification Kan’u wears the Seito typical sailor uniform, a white short sleeved shirt with blue stripes, a blue skirt, loose socks and school model shoes. The sculpting of both, shirt and skirt looks very elaborate, detailed wrinkles and shading give her dress a nearly lifelike appearance.

The skirt comes off at the side and high cut panties are revealed. With her boobs so nice, round, ripe and bouncy it’s quite a shame that the shirt won’t come of on Moeyo it was shown that the figure can be forcefully castoff, but I think she was actually too expensive to make such a stunt.

As weapon Kan’u is wielding her “Blue Dragon Crescent Blade” Spear, it has a nice metallic like color with some shading. The spears has to be pushed (not pressed) it into her left hand, with the right technique it is a do-able task and once in place it’s stays firm and looks cool.

A more major letdown is actually the base, I already expected that I wouldn’t get the wooden disk from the promo shots, but a plain black disk with a cheap plastic shine is underwhelming for such a high quality figure. The figure is supported via two pegs, unfortunately the small peg broke during the shooting, from two other owners of her I heard of the same problem, maybe Daiki should have used sturdier material. Anyway the bigger peg is enough to keep the figure in place.

Final Words

Im very satisfied with this figure of Kan’u Unchou, she turned out like the promo shots implied (except the base). My image of Kan’u was recreated very well and even though she isn’t my favorite Ikki Tousen character, I’m totally happy about my decision of ordering this figure.

She has a very powerful, sexy and proud appearance and the quality is also very good, painting and sculpting are well executed, Daiki Kougyou left a very convincing impression with their
Kan’u Unchou – Xtreme Xecutor figure. It’s a nice feeling when a figure turned out as expected.

Another review can be  found at Tentacle Armada

This version and an alternative Pink version are still available at Ami Ami

For these review pictures I used two new items, the Sigma 28 mm F1,8 EX DG Macro, which works very well with bigger figures like Kan’u and a LQ-103 LumiQuest Ultrasoft bouncer.

Like I mentioned in my last Preorder Post, receiving this figure was a rather unforeseen purchase.

But Im actually about receiving my copy of ALTER’s Menma figure, destiny seemed to treat me good since the package arrived earlier than usual and I was spared from Customs fees as well.

Menma was released in October 2012 and manufactured by ALTER. It seems that the illustration of 厨二屋@下之世どらごん was used for this figure, the artist also draw the illustration for ALTER’s Hitagi. Menma is a 1/8 scaled figure and including the base, the figure measures 21 cm in height.

Her origin is “Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai“, a quite nice and heartwarming anime from 2011. In next years summer there will be a Movie adaption as well.

Menma is a cheerful, happy girl who likes to be around her friends, Well actually Menma is a ghost.
[spoiler name=”Info – Spoiler – Warning”]She died as she drowned in a river, yeah thats quite hard, since then her former group of friends grow apart. Menma hadn’t passed away yet and she stays in her ghost shape, the only person who can see and interact with her ischer old friend Jinta. Menma is living at his house.[/spoiler]

Hair & Face

Her haircolor is a washed out tone of brown with a shade of grey, with the number individually sculpted strands the hair has a very light appearance,  I think her fringe looks pretty cute here.

Menma has a pretty and 3 dimensional face with cute ears between the hair. The most prominent detail of her face are the huge blue eyes, they are beautifully painted and the eyelashes add a nice contrast around them. The eyes give the figure a very lively feel. I also like the subtle applied blushmarks and the small eyebrows. Menma has a faint smile on he lips, from some angles it appears whimsical and there are other angles where it seems to be a not entirely happy smile.

Base

The base of this figure is actually a masterpiece, I would say. ALTER recreated this part of Menma’s and her friends hideout in a very nice manner, the recreation of different materials like wood and corrugated metal looks very convincing with the nice shading and weathering effects.

Menma is connected to the base without the use of any. The figure has a rectangular cutout at her butt who fits on the bulk she is sitting, to deviler more stabibility Menma has a magnet under her butt and so she manages to stay on the top of the base in her lively pose. You can easily take her off the top and let Menma sit on the lower part of the base, or even somewhere else.

Outfit & Body

Menma is wearing her standard outfit from the anime, it is a simple, very girly white summer dress. You could think that her parents were living in a Hippie community “Flower Power!”
At the back is a white ribbon, the blue ribbon at her front is the only color highlight of her dress.
I like the big frills at the end of the dress, frills can also be found at her armless sleeves and neck.

You can’t peek under her skirt because the figure actually has no lower body under her dress

Menma is a very skinny and petite girl, to put it bluntly she’s flat and without any curves. It seems like she is in need for food, but don’t worry she is a energetic and cheerful growing up ghost girl. The limbs are very well sculpted and it’s fun to touch her bare feet with the tiny toes.

Final Words

ALTER’s Menma is a cute little figure that embodies the picture of a pure innocent girl in a very convincing way. She is really enchanting in her angelic simple dress and the playful pose. On her own this petite figure might appear a bit inconspicuous, but together with the very nice diorama base, this Menma figure unfolds her true beauty. All the carefully crafted details of this figure and her base create a very cute and charming look. It’s a well done figure I would recommend to buy.

Without Leonia I would have probably passed on this adorable figure, Im really glad I took her in.

Another nice and very elaborate review of this adorable Menma can be found at pokethemerch

In case you prefer a more skin revealing Menma figure, Max Factory made a “jailbait” bikini version of her, she was reviewed by vanichufigures and nyaafigurines

This review will be about my first Saber scale figure, funny enough that I didn’t start with Saber figure that showed her in her battle dress, could it be that I don’t really care about her character.

I found this one in AmiAmi’s preowned item corner for around 4800 Yen and thought it actually was good price considering that it was a figure that was around 10000 Yen a few years ago . The deal had one little flaw though, I thought I was ordering the Ataraxia – Saber Maid R version, the version which was a re-release, but I accidently ordered the old one instead *facepalm*.

This Saber was manufactured by ALTER in 2007 and re released in 2008. The Saber Maid version is scaled 1/6 with a height of 280 mm. The origin of this figure is Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, a visual novel from 2005 which  was produced by TYPE-MOON  as the sequel of Fate/stay night. Since I haven’t played it, please expect no qualified informations about the role of Saber in this review.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2979Mrx0kqs&start=227

Hair & Face

The figure has quite detailed hair in the shape of a beautiful tied up hairstyle with the typical ahoge. Her bun is decorated with a pretty dark metallic blue ribbon. The color of her hair is a little muddy yellow. Her face has an undeniable European look, Saber has pretty green eyes and a little gloss on her lips. Somehow I have the feeling that something is odd about her face it seems too narrow, which is very noticeable for me when Im looking at her pointy chin. From some angles she looks better than from others, but overall Im not that satisfied with the face to be honest.

Outfit & Body

Saber in maid attire looks very appealing, for some reason I always had a liking for these kinds of outfit since I came in contact with the anime culture. I like the contrast of dark and white colors and the frilly details. I also think that it looks quite cute on a girl. Next to Saber I already ordered two maid related figures in this year, Sansei Muramasa and Kurumu Kurono.

The white parts of her outfit have a slightly pearl effect and create a nice contrast to the dark blue main colors of her outfit. The detailed sculpting and the lighter shading recreate a nice and also realistic look. Under her short shirt she is wearing pretty yet revealing white panties, I have to say that she’s pretty detailed underneath, remember this a ALTER figure. The part that reminds of her heroic background is the white saw toothed underskirt she also wears under her armor.

While her small chest is not very prominent, Saber has other aspects that know to convince.
The cleavage  at her back is a very attractive eye catcher, the ruffles next to her skin create a very appealing look. Her legs are very attractive parts as well and show a sexy Zettai Ryouiki, the area between thigh high stockings and miniskirt. I really like her dark stockings with the frilly band around the top, the smaller metallic blue ribbon at each band add some playfulness to our sexy Saber Maid. The shading on them give her thigh high stockings a feel of transparency.

The paintjob and the sculpting of her clothes and body are on par with quality figures of today.

What I like the most about this figure is the proud pose, I really like the combination of a sexy and super confident Saber, not the pityful image she made during Fate/Zero. With her stretched arms leaning on her cool looking mop Saber also radiates a feeling of dilligence and a hard worker.

The paintjob and the sculpting of her clothes and body are on par with quality figures of today.

Final Words

So is this old Saber Maid a figure I would recommend to get?

No, actually not, would it be for the cool pose and the lovely maid outfit alone, I would keep this Saber figure with pleasure, but the narrowly sculpted face and the very yellowish tone of her hair actually bother me that much, that I don’t want to keep her after writing this review. Im going to sell this one and order the Saber Maid R version that I planned to get in the first place.

There are rarely figures from 2007 or from earlier years, that can compete with the craftsmanship and quality that the big figure manufacturing companies are offering today. I will keep this in mind when I feel like getting a figure that was popular in the early days of this figure collecting hobby.

Hey people time for a new figure review this week – it’s about the beautiful Stocking.

Anarchy Stocking was manufactured by Alter and released in October 2012, the figure is scaled 1/8 and has a height of 20 cm. The origin of Alter’s Anarchy Stocking is the unique but quite plotless anime Panty & Stockingwith Garterbelt popular for it’s raunchy kind of humor.

With a more elaborate animation style I probably would have enjoyed it a bit more. The style looks crappy; it might have been kinda awesome with the nice look of the anime style I’m used to. What I liked the most in Panty & Stocking was the heavy cursing and the nice Stocking.

O wicked spirit born of a lost soul in limbo;

receive judgement from garb of the holy virgin;

cleansed from wordly impurities;

return to heaven and earth;

Repent!

She is the younger sister of the slutty Panty, in the show I got used to her attitude a little better, but well at the of the the day I prefer more cute and modest girls. Stocking is not that interested in sex, her only weak spot is unhealthy food and sweets, which she eats all day. She has a nice body nevertheless, Stocking always claims that the fat only goes into her boobs XD

In her everyday life Stocking is at home at the gothik and emo scene and wears a gothic lolita dress. This figure is based on the sequence in the show where she and her sister transform into ghost hunting angels who try to collect Heaven Coins to get their halos back.

Hair & Face

The hair of this figure is made from one piece in a quite impressive delta shape. The lack of seam lines is pretty nice and the purple color is pretty and the pink inside has a vibrant effect.

The hair is made of soft PVC and overall the sculpting looks good, even though there are a few bumbs and light scratches in two or three areas. What obviously went a bit wrong with this figures hair is the color transition from pink to purple at her fringe. In the outer strands they managed to paint them with more attention, but in the middle it’s not painted very clean. Other buyers of this figure had the same flaws. Well, since the gaps between the strands are only 1 mm width it’s a problem that only is noticeable from a close distance. Im not bothered.

Underneath her fringe she has nicely green slanted eyes, these are very attractive and give Stocking a more adult appearance. I think that Stocking is a really pretty girl, which is mainly noticeable in the anime transformation scene. She has a foul mouth, but she still has this kindness represented in her face, the kind smile is really something I like about this figure.

Outfit & body

This figure is presented in her “battle” dress which looks similar to a magical girl outfit. It is a very fancy and fashionable outfit with many details and nice colors. Her boobs seem to be a bit too big for her top. The sculptor overdid it a bit since it looks kinda uncomfortable how the strap digs into her meat, but nevertheless Stocking presents her female attributes with pride.

Stocking has a full rack and shows it with her pose and the hair, the cleavage is mainly covered and doesn’t shout for attention. Alter is known for often choosing the save way.

Slightly below she is wearing a detailed corsage and the grey painted area around her belly has a slightly transparent look. It’s cute how her belly button sticks out ^^. I really like the skirt, the voluminous, short design with the transparent underskirt is simply beautiful.

As the name implies Stocking is wearing striped stockings, which are also her main weapons and can be transformed into a katana. Her stockings are a striped model with open ends at her feet. The blue parts have beautiful light and dark shading, further below the ends show some nice and detailed wrinkles. Her feet and toes are exposed and she is wearing stylish sandals in a platinum metallic like color, it’s the same kind of sandals as her sister Panty has

Her outfit is very appealing, also the smaller details, like the ribbon and the wings on her back. Other nice details are her finger less gloves and the pretty armlets around her wrists.

Stocking has the body of a young grown up woman in her twenties. I really like her body proportions and the nice sculpting. Stocking has a proud and charming pose, her arched back and the slightly turned position of her upper body gives her something very attractive, with her voluminous hair and the proud self confident pose Stocking looks like a powerful woman.

She has such a strong presence, she looks like the gang leader on my 1/8 scale figure shelf.

Final Words

Alter’s Anarchy Stocking is a really nice figure, she actually is in my personal Top List of the figures which I’ve received this year, she has a fancy outfit, a sweet face and looks beautiful. While I’m not a big fan of the show, I admit that I love the design of Stocking and her outfit.

This figure reminds me why I started collecting figures, a fancy outfit with many details and a beautiful and proud appearance is where Stocking excels. Aside from the slightly unclean painted fringe this figure has a pretty paintjob and great sculpting quality.

more pictures below

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A new figure review…

What do we have here a Cornflakes, of course not it’s the Miku Hatsune – Cheerful Japan! -support version. This figure was announced on the last Winter Wonderfestival sold exclusively through the Goodsmile Online Shop. The figure is scaled 1/8 and has a height of 22 cm.

This Miku Hatsune – Cheerful Japan! figure adaption was the outcome of a Cheerful JAPAN! Illustration Contest. It is based on the winning submission by bun150. As part of the Cheerful JAPAN! charity project with every purchase of this figure 2000 Yen were donated to several aid organisations in Japan I think is a nice touch. After this Fukushima incident I already donated a higher sum, but in this case the more the better.

Miku was officially shipped on the 14th September this year, but just in Japan. The worldwide buyers received their figures from Singapore and had to wait 2 weeks more, but weren’t informed about it. Another disappointing thing was the way they packed the box, it was put in a box which was several sizes too big and the empty space was just filled with one tiny piece of foam WTF!

Ok enough bashing, I was lucky enough that my figure arrived undamaged and in top condition and so Im just angry about the additional waiting time the shipping from Singapore caused.

Hair & Face

Miku has huge twintails in a circular shape, both sides are slightly asymmetric in size, they are shaped like a 8 or with a bit more imagination it also looks like a heart shape. Next to the two main twintail strands also a number of finer strands have been incorporated, it looks really nice and dynamic like this. the connection to the head is hidden with two cute and pretty ribbons.

The main hair also looks good it has a number of details even at the back. On her twintails are 3 – 4 uneven spots, but overall her hair is nicely sculpted and has interesting shading, well the bright shading could have been applied a little less dramatic.

Miku Hatsune has a wide and youthful face with a happy cheerful expression, she is quite adorable with her radiant eyes and the radiant open mouth. The sculpting of her face appears soft and rounded. The figure is showing very subtle nearly invisible blushmarks, as a blushmarks fan I could be dissapointed with that, but on this figure her facial expression is still very convincing.

Outfit & Body

The figures outfit has a wide mix of different colors and has a quite unique style, around her neck she is wearing a hoodie collar and a pink flying tie. Her arms are covered with cream white sleeves and in her hand she is holding her cheerleader pom poms, well you actually can’t see her hands because of the pom poms. She is wearing a short cream white top with transparent window on her chest which reveals her small cleavage. The orange lines have been applied clean and carefully.

Her chocolate brown skirt has pink and yellow stripes. It is a short skirt with detailed wrinkles all around. In the middle of her legs she is wearing shiny gaiters which remind me of trackie pants.

She has orange half boots with a heart symbol in the middle, it looks like the silhouette of her hair doesn’t it? The transparent sole is a interesting detail. Around the back of her hair, the back of her hip and at the back of her feet Miku has these transparent things that have no real purpose.

With her petite body this Hatsune Miku looks like a young girl, there can’t be found many female curves on her. The body sculpting is nice and soft, but this smoothness eats away a lot of details, I have to say that the clothes are far more detailed than the body sculpting of her.
Well, since Miku is a mainly dressed figure the rather simple body sculpting is no real problem.

Pose & Base

As you can see Miku Hatsune – Cheerful Japan! is a very dynamic figure with her pulled up legs, it looks like she is jumping around on her base which has the shape of a giant speaker.
The speaker looks very appealing with it’s orange shiny color and the matte grey in the middle.

Base and figure are connected via a angled metal rod, you put one side into the base and one side into the knee, a rather painful image *ouch*. It’s a stable connection, but since the center of gravity is Miku’s head with the twintails, she’s wobbling a little bit when being moved around.

Final Words

Miku Hatsune – Cheerful Japan! – support version is a cool and cute figure, she has a adorable face, her radiant aura is just infectious. she also has a petite body and a lovely monster twintail hairstyle, the figure captivates with her dynamic pose, the cheerful happy character and the outfit with it’s nice color combination. It’s a very good adaption of a creative i and pretty llustration.

I would say she was worth the 12000 Yen, the pose turned out great and the overall sculpting looks very smooth and clean. The paintjob is also very well done and leaves a good impression.

My excitement over this nice Miku Hatsune figure was a bit clouded by the shipping delay and the messed up packaging, I was lucky that she arrived without damage, others had less luck than me.

If you like the more younger version of vocaloid Miku Hatsune this would be the figure to buy.

another review can be found at Tentaclearmada

some more pics …

Time for a new review and today we take a look at the Yagyu Jubei – swimsuit version figure.

The figure was recently released by AmiAmi zero, a company known for pretty and sexy figures like Menace from Queens Blade or Hinako from the silly but cute Issho ni Training Ofuro OVA.

Jubei the sexy godess of the beach which I review here is scaled 1/8 and has a height of 15 cm. The release occured in early October this year. Yagyu Jubei arrived after 3 1/2 weeks with SAL shipment, if I had known about the many delays of my other figure orders I had chosen a faster shipping method. Anyway I’m very happy to be able to write a new figure review again.

There have been a number of Yagyu Jubei figures, but I fell in love with this one after I’ve seen some unofficial pictures from a certain fair. She is part of AmiAmi zero’s Hyakka Ryouran swimsuit line Hattori Hanzo was the first one Jubei the second one and Tokugawa Sen will be the next.

This Yagyu Jubei wore this outfit in the beach episode of the Hyakka Ryouran anime where she was wearing this exotic bikini. The outer appearance of Jubei is that of a fine women, but she’s rather an airhead and has the mind of a child in the story, I can’t say that she’s one of my favorite characters, but I like happy girls, be they silly or airheaded, it doesn’t really matter to me.

Hair & Face

Yagyu Jubei has a wild and rather complex hairstyle with dynamic strands, a twin ponytail with a knot in between and antenna strands at the front. The hair is painted in a straight red, I think the colortone is very well chosen, it’s not too gaudy and not to dark either. There is no color shading, but since the detailed sculpting already creates nice shadows it’s fair enough. The sculpting of the hair is detailed and clean overall. As optional item Ami Ami zero included the black samurai themed hairclip Jubei is wearing all the time, you have to put in place by yourself, it’s equipped with thin doublefaced adhesive tape since it’s very sticky there is no real danger of loosing it.

A alluring face expression with slanted eyes and a lustful mouth, would also have been a fitting choice considering the overall apppearance of this Jubei figure, but with the recreated expression of childish, cheerful innocence this figure is true to her origin in the light novel and anime show.

The round face is showing dark eyebrows and striking blue eyes with subtle blushmarks below.
Jubei has a tiny nose and is presented with a deeply engraved open mouth the lower lip is slightly sculpted and is painted with a nice faint glossy finish, she’s actually very cute like that.

Body & Outfit

The figure is without a doubt very sexy and has a very well defined body with broad hips and a sexy waistline and other nice curves, the details on her belly look really appealing, one would like to poke an tickle her :D. The very good sculpting can also be found at the back, the round butt looks especially great, further above she also has  nicely defined scapulas. The accurately applied shading effects on her body accentuate her sensual features even more. The figure has a kneeling pose with a attractive arched back, with one hand she is playfully stretching her bikini slip (๑¯ω¯๑)

What I always like about figures are single sculpted fingers and the sculptor Ozawa Shingo put a lot of attention to these little fingers they look quite lifelike. The toes also appear very detailed and like the nails on the fingers they are painted. The posing of her left hand is no homage to the German Metal festival “Wacken“. In Japan this sign means something like “I love you”.

Yagyu Jubei has quite the revealing bikini which is nice, the level of detail is really good, I really like the seamlines and wrinkles. The thin bikini material is very well recreated overall. The slip has a tight fit and so not much is left for imagination at her private parts. A castoff feature is also integrated in this figure, the bikini top comes off easily, but you have take off the head and arms before. The white rope bracelets do a good job with hiding the area where the arms seperate.

Her breast actually aren’t as big as expected, sure the arched back lifts them up quite a bit, but underneath the bikini top they appear “normal” sized compared to some legendary cleavage figures in my collection. I really like the shape of Jubei’s breasts, her nipples are in a neutral state and are painted in a pastel pink color. With such a bright red bikini you would think about some nasty paint transfer all over her body, but fortunately that’s not the case with this figure.

To dress this redheaded darling up again there are little spikes made of wire at the ends of the straps of her bikini who slide in into the holes of her bikini pants, in most pictures I was too lazy to put them back into the holes, but it’s possible to display her in more proper way like I did here.

Final Words

I’ve ordered this figure mainly out of curiosity and actually had subdued expectations, so now I can say that she turned out a lot better than expected. Jubei has a cute face and her well defined body is just hot and sexy. This figure really has a superior body sculpting and the overall quality of her is also very good. This was my second figure of Ami Ami zero and Im quite satisfied again.

Since this figure is so detailed Ami Ami zero could have easily sculpted her at a bigger scale, like the with first Hyakka Ryouran figures they’ve made, but since the actual lineup is done at 1/8 it can’t be helped. Despite all the praise for this Jubei there are a few not so good points; the base for example is very, very simple. I expected a bit more than clear blue disk with no engraved text.

Another not so nice part is the stability of her pose a little more rough vibrations when she’s placed on a desk or an while taking pictures on uneven floor makes her flip over easily.  Well, she’s not completely instable, when left alone on a shelf, the figure won’t cause such problems.

More pictures below…  Ah well I took a lot =D

Hello Nyan – san, today I will show you a figure of an under aged girl in a leotard suit *cough*.

What!? Who said lolicon, I’ll sue you right away! ^o^

Back to topic here is Maria Takayama from the very nice anime Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai.

The decision of ordering her wasn’t based on my liking for the character. Maria is a ten year old nun and actually one of the lesser important side characters. She is portrayed as a very gullible kid with a liking for snacks. She got in contact with the other characters when she was tricked by Yozora to be the supervising teacher of the Neighbours Club which is the meeting ground for it’s members. Maria is most attached to Kobato’s brother Kodaka in a sibling like way.

I’ve heard about a second season, so maybe Maria will get some development or even a slightly bigger role. Anyway my liking for the character aside I was enchanted by the cute look of this figure and the style of the artist Buriki, who draw the illustration this figure is based on and also the illustrations for the Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Light Novel. He is a very talented illustrator and I love the way he draws the faces of his characters in a very appealing fashion.

Maria Takayama was manufactured by Max Factory and released in the end of August 2012. The figure is scaled 1/7 scaled and has a kneeling height of 130 mm. actually she seems more like a 1/6 figure, but such loli characters always have bigger heads, so maybe it’s just my imagination.

Maria is actually supposed to be displayed with a figure of Kobato, her rival in getting the attention of Kodaka. I didn’t order this one for certain reasons I will mention later in the review.

Hi there my figure friends, today I will talk about my recently received figure of Noel Vermillion.

This figure was sold as exclusive item, it was a collaboration between Hobby Japan Magazine and AMAKUNI. Noel Vermillions origin are the Beat Em Up BlazBlue and Queen’s Gate Spiral Chaos.

Noel Vermillion is scaled 1/8 figure and has a overall height of 190 mm, Noel was released in April 2012. On first sight I was interested in this figure, even without knowing her origin or character. What counts for me is the overall look not the knowledge of the character in the first place.
As I was finally convinced to buy her, the preorder period was already over, but thanks to Figuya.de I was able to get her a few weeks after the order deadline.

On a funny note I know nothing about her origin Blaz Blue, a game I’ve never played, Im such a lame Gamer. The story behind it is quite complex and I would just embarrass myself while trying to explain more about it. So for now just a little bit of backstory about the character herself.

Noel is an artificially created human, who was born on December 25, 2194. Later she was adopted by the Vermillion Family. She was accepted at the Military Academy and before her graduation she had the rank of an lieutenant in the 4th division of the Praetorian Guard. Noel is the shy and clumsy kind of girl, who likes everything cute, writing poems and online shopping.

This figure of Noel is nicely crafted adaption, I will talk about her head first.The hair of Noel has a pale yellow color with a somewhat metallic gloss. The single strand appear quite detailed. Short hair can be very nice, but don’t be fooled, Noel actually has long hair, but hidden by her blue cap.

A very nice part of this figure is her face, I like the beautiful and big green eyes which are pointed to the right. She also has a pretty and soft looking face, especially the area of her mouth looks very appealing and the slightly opened mouth gives the figure a very convincing expression.
In general I actually would complain about a lack of blushmarks, but not in case of this figure.

Noel has an attractive and petite body, with slender arms and legs. The legs are very sexy and the slightly meaty thighs add some feminine charm. As you might have noticed Noel has small but perky boobs which look very well in combination with her petite body, her back also looks very nice thanks to the nicely sculpted scapulas. A lot of attention to detail was also put to her armpits, they look quite soft and nice, even though that is not really one of my fetishes ;D

This figure is presented in Noel’s battle outfit, a jolting sapphire NOL uniform, that actually looks more like a short summer dress. but with the white collar and a short red tie, a uniform look was created. The color scheme is a combination of black, white and deep blue with silver and red details. She has seperated sleeves with big silver rings at her forearms. At her legs she is wearing matte black stockings, further below she has nice and elaborately sculpted boots.

As a character based on a fighting game Noel naturally carries weapons, she has two long pistols with a long barrel called Arcus Diabolus: Bolverk. They can be used for shooting and hitting.

The figure doesn’t need many assembly steps, there is the figure, the base and two long red straps. These straps are somewhat flexible, but you shouldn’t try to bend them too much while pushing them into the slits at the rings of her sleeves. They give the outfit an extra cool look.

The outfit captivates with it’s details sculpting, there are detailed folds and wrinkles where they belong. Next to her lovely armpits, Noel also offers a bit of mainstream fanservice in shape of a very short and flowing dress that barely covers her butt. I like how her butt flashes from some angles. Before the release there was a little discussion if the figure would have no underwear. Because in the Game her undergarmentswhere never shown directly in Calamity Trigger.

Final Words

It’s time for a conclusion Noel Vermillion is a nicely sculpted figure with an appealing face and interesting outfit. She has an attractive petite body and shows a good amount of skin without revealing too much.  Im quite happy about her purchase and despite the high price I’ve paid, it’s actually the first exclusive figure (Native’s Bath Time Sonico aside) where I don’t feel a bit like being robbed by the company. This figure is very nice in terms of appearance and quality.

another review was written by Tier from Tentaclearmada