Naoe Kanetsugu – wieselhead.de

Naoe Kanetsugu – Hyakka Ryoran – ALTER

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:59:14 +0000

It’s Hammer time! The warrior of love, Naoe Kanetsugu makes her appearance.

Today I can present you my review of ALTER‘s latest figure from the Hyakka Ryouran lineup. There already have been a few reviews of her, but it would be nice if you would also read mine.

Naoe Kanetsugu is scaled 1/8 and has a height of 225 mm including the height of her hammer. She was sculpted by Makio Munetoshi who mainly works for ALTER and Kotobukiya as well.

Naoe’s release date was on the 24th February, I’ve ordered her at a german store and therefore I had to wait a little longer. I wasn’t that convinced to order her at first, after a lot of debating for and against her purchase, I decided to get her, but at that time she was already sold out in the big and also small japanese shops. Luckily the german shop still had a few copy’s in stock.

Intro

Overall the Hyakka Ryouran figure Line up was and still is a big hit for ALTER. The popularity of the figures apparently isn’t based on the anime itself. It received rather mixed opinions from the audience and I think only a few people really liked it, like me who already watched it several times. Aside from the flaws in the storytelling the comedy was always overly entertaining for me.

In the story Naoe Kanetsugu is a side character who joins the party halfway in the story. She has a goofy personality and often pretends to be good at certain things, but the outcome always showed us something different. On the other hand she’s a funny girl and caused some hilarious moments. Aside from being a cute weirdo in terms of fighting she’s not completely useless.

One appeal point of this figure Line up are the outfits, which are a mix of school uniform and traditional japanese clothes. In comparison with the other Samurai girls, Naoe’s outfit appears more like the uniform of a private school, aside from her weapon the knots and the sake bottle there aren’t that many traditional japanese traits. Anyway her outfit looks nice and stylish.

Review part

The black and white colored jacket is a nice piece of her outfit and together with the red tie a very modern look is created, her skirt is a simple grey and short one. What also draws attention are the stockings with the cherry blossom petals pattern and the white lines. The shading gives them a slightly transparent look and the dark color accentuates her bare thighs area very well. Smaller but not less eyecatching parts are the fighter like red gloves and the fancy design of her shoes.

I don’t know if Naoe is a hard drinker, but this sake bottle is a interesting detail and I really like the level of detail they added to the cork, it looks almost real.

From my impression ALTER’s figures became cuter than in the years before, be it Kaminagi Ryoko, Charlotte Dunois or the child version of Takamachi Vivio, all of them have a cute and adorable flair. Also Naoe received this cuter finishing with her big eyes which are pointed to the left, the joyful open mouth and the rosy cheeks, she’s just an enchanting pretty young girl.

A lot of effort has been put into Naoe’s hairstyle as well, the hair has a very nice look and feel to it, all the sculpted strands are giving her hair a very three dimensional and detailed appearance.
At the end of each of the twintails are some big metallic colored bells connected via a white rope.

The bendover pose appears quite cheerful like she wants to play her next prank on someone, despite her modest appearance from the front, her rear is quite exposed and with her tight fit white panties there is not much space for imagination left. The figure is showing her nice buttocks, her thighs and overall very pretty legs garnished by some pretty black stockings.

There are also come some optional parts with the figure, there are two different arts for the end of the staff. One is a simple end part while the other one has a fixed chain made of flexible PVC attached to it. To attach the hammer you have to take off the end part and push it in her hand, to make the assembly a bit easier one of the twintails can be taken off.

Me and the Hammer…

My impression of the Hammer is not entirely positive, overall it has a fancy design, the hilt is very well crafted and has a nice texture, also the golden parts of it with the flower ornaments look pretty. Unfortunately the things in between, which resemble a temple look a bit cheap with the glossy plastic texture and show only very little shading. I somehow felt reminded of Playmobil.

A bigger point for criticism is the balance of the weapon, it is a bit annoying to put it in place, cause it won’t stay in place even with the clear stand ALTER included. It is such a hassle to use it. I can’t shake off the impression that it was done in a somewhat half assed way. On their blog ALTER provided a detailed explanation how to use it, but in my case it only worked for an hour.

A hole for the shaft in the base would have probably solved the balancing problem. I came up with my own solution, you have to turn the shaft of the hammer so that the purple ribbon of it sits on Naoe’s back, so far it’s still in place and puts less stress on Naoe’s arm.

Final Words

Naoe Kanetsugu is my second figure of ALTER’s Hyakka Ryoran Line up. In 2010 I got this Hattori Hanzo. Naoe is another very nice figure from that Line up from all the girls she has the most modern looking outfit with just a few traits of samurai and traditional japanese fashion elements. The school uniform in combination with the lovely stockings is very well done.

ALTER created a pretty Naoe figure with a very cute facial expression. They delivered another figure with next to zero flaws in terms of sculpting and painting. One letdown I can’t sugarcoat was the bad balancing of the hammer weapon but with my method it stays in place at least.

Other reviews of her can be found at the blogs of my valued review colleagues.

Tentaclearmarda

Biotoxic

Plastic Parfait

some more pics …

New Preorders part 11

admin — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 08:42:14 +0000

Hi here is a new figure related post, but instead of a new figure review it’s about my latest figure preorders. 5 more figures made it to my list. This years list keeps growing faster than I would actually wish, lets see if I can keep it under 24 figures at the end of this year unlike in 2011.

First the last minute preorders/orders which were just added recently.

Naoe Kanetsugu -Hyakka Ryouran – ALTER

Naoe Kanetsugu from the Hyakka Ryouran anime is a 1/8 scaled figure which was released on 2012/02/24. With a big fat smile and a big fat hammer she has a very appealing design.

I nearly passed on Naoe since I wasn’t sure about purchasing her and as I considered it, she was already sold out on the japanese market. Luckily the german shop Figuya still had a few copies of her. I don’t have to say much more about her just check out Tier’s review, she’s awesome.

Astraea – Sora no Otoshimono – PLUM

Another figure that triggered my interest since announcement was this Astraea, she is scaled 1/6 and was released on 2011/12/27. Astraea is the 2nd Sora no Otoshimono figure by Plum.

The face of the first one, looked a bit off, luckily Astraea resembled her origin close enough.
Sora no Otoshimono is a nice anime with likeable characters, the girls are especially likeable, unfortunately so far there is not much to find from them in the figure market. I like Astraea, the strong and gluttonous Angeloid with the low processing capabilities. The figure is based on an official illustration. Because of her face the whole figure appears a bit *kyahhh!* ecchi.

I would have prefered this figure with a happy face, but Im quite satisfied with the look of her body and outfit. I assumed that she would end in the bargain bin, but nonsense this figure was sold out faster than expected. A few days ago I was able to find her for a reasonable price at Playmoya. But with the figure in the shipping now I slightly start to regret this purchase, but lets see how this one will turn out in the end. My upcoming review of her might be interesting :p

Now to the regular preorders……………………………………………………………………………….

Sayaka Miki – Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica – GSC

Sayaka is from the popular Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica anime, she is scaled 1/8 and will be released in June 2012. From the bigger figure manufacturers GSC seems to have leased the Madoka license and at first I was a bit dissapointed as I saw their prototypes, because I expected something more dynamic. Madoka is very cute, but from the 1st run Madoka★Magica figures, Sayaka was the more appealing one to me. She is by far not my favorite girl from the anime. [spoiler name=”spoiler”]I still don’t understand why she chose to die in such a pityful way[/spoiler] but in terms of overall appearance she looks so nice. I really like her blue and white colored knight like outfit with the skirt and the cape. Some parts of her outfit give her a slightly tomboyish still ladylike appearance. The cute face expression is also quite appealing to me, as well as her pose. The hands are exchangeable and she is able to hold two cool looking cutlass sabers.

Hatsune Miku – Cheerful Japan! – Support version – GSC

This figure was just recently announced on winter Wonfes 2012 and is now available exclusively at GSC’s online shop with shipping included I had to pay 12000 Yen upfront. This Hatsune Miku figure adaption is based on a submission by bun150 the winner of the Cheerful JAPAN! Cheerful Illustration Contest. The figure is scaled 1/8 and will be shipped in August this year. I fell for this figure as I saw pictures of her on Wonfes. She has such an adorable design, she is wearing a cute cheerleader dress and is equipped with an adorable face and super nice twintails. I also fell in love with the dynamic pose and the speaker box base, orange is my favorite color by the way.

Yagyu Jubei – Hyakka Ryouran – AmiAmi zero

A new swimsuit figure from AmiAmi zero’s Hyakka Ryouran swimsuit figure line up, next to Hattori and an announced Senhime figure, Jubei was chosen as a new figure. She is scaled 1/8 and will be released in September 2012. I actually like her design more than her character, but that shouldn’t be a problem, she has a very cute face and looks good from tip to toe. The blue eyes add a lovely contrast to the red hair and the skimpy red swimsuit. She has a very sexy body, with an well defined belly and a damn hot backside, this Jubei is also partly castoffable.

Maybe Baby Figure List

There were some more nice figures announced recently, that I would like to get, but since budget and space are limited, I have to give it some more thought to decide about ordering them or not.

Rororina Fryxell by Megahouse

Thats a lovely recreation of leather clothes we see on her outfit. The figure has a very nice design overall, if the cape will turn out as castoffable I might pick her up.

Naoe Kanetsugu Swimsuit version by Hobby Link/ALTER

If this Naoe was a normal run figure I would have already ordered her, but I already have three exclusive figures on order, so in terms of money I should pass, but when just looking at her bishoujo face and hair, I would really like to have her in my collection.

Soniko Nurse Version by Orchid Seed

A more cartoon like figure adaption from Soniko, here she is a friendly nurse with her curves pressed into an old geezers daydream nurse uniform, oh these stockings. Of course she is castoffable, but you even have a second dress option in form of a light top. As Soniko fan this should be a no brainer, but I should have a better resistance.

Megurine Luka by Max Factory

What draw me to this figures at first was the unique brown color of her outfit with the golden accents, and the more sexy adaption of a vocaloid. Now Im not so sure about her face anymore, its not ugly at all, but something seems to be missing for me.

Sandaime Muramasa by Max Factory

I might regret it later, but I can’t bring myself to order her until I see pictures of the final product. A brown skintone is something you could mess up with ease in my opinion. Well, I guess Max Factory can do a good job and I might order her after release if possible.

Laura Bodewig swimsuit version by WAVE

A cute twintail girl with an eyepatch and an overall priceless face expression. Why am I hesitating? The only little underwhelming thing is that she’s just 1/10 , which is a bit small to be honest.

Inia Sestina and Cryska Barchenowa by Kotobukiya

This adorable Inia is wearing a nice and tight Mizugi + stocking outfit and has a very cute appearance overall. Both figures would look very good together, I guess

Inia’s friend Cryska appears in a more aggressive fashion and shows a cleavage to die for XD She also has a great backside and comes with a Santa Clause hat. I didn’t remember that Kotobukiya had such sexy figures.

Figure preorder rodamap 02 of 2012

Aside from the 5 new additions most orders stayed like on the last preorder roadmap, only the bathing Hinako was delayed again to April TT , but Nagisa is finally set to be released in August.