Nevertheless after seeing pictures of the final figure, I decided that I need the Sonico – Clumsy Office Lady figure, too

This Sonico – Clumsy Office Lady version was manufactured by Native as part of their Character’s Selection, as 1/6 scaled figure. She was released in mid december of 2017. The illustrator for this scene with Sonico was Tsuji Santa,
who do take a lot of liberty with her proportions sometimes. This figure was the first work Yamaki Chihiro as sculptor.

The figure came in a totally oversized box, even when considering the number of parts inside, it’s a chunky box.

Let me list the parts for you, there are two file folders, a file folder container, a notebook, a pen, a wired telephone, a green teddy bear, a desk plate and of course the figure itself. This Sonico is figure is quite heavy and sturdy.

The figures head is decorated with the trademark headphones of this certain character. Sonico wears her usual hairstyle, but the sculptor added more detail to it, the well defined strands are pretty and the pastel pink is sweet.

Sonico’s cute head is nicely sculpted and the face is very pretty, her detailed eyes are not just glossy, they are shiny with a glass like texture. The cute open mouth shows her upper and lower front teeth line. Her appalled expression leaves several ways for interpretation, either she suddenly noticed how entangled she is in the telephone cord or she just doesn’t like the angry voice at the other side of the line.

The pose looks interesting and sexy, but I would not say its a natural situation, I mean, who would lie on the desk with a telephone cord wrapped around one leg while wearing a nervous expression on the face. Whatever the reason it is a nicely articulated pose and the figure is super detailed, especially when you pay attention to the hands for a second.

Before the release it wasn’t clear if this figure would be partially castoff able, but the figure includes an alternative vest part to display Sonico with exposed boobs, the skirt won’t come off and so we can’t admire her beautiful butt without a layer of cloth. This figure looks best fully dressed, the alternative option, while not really necessary is good to have.

In a normal situation Sonico’s office dress would actually look cute and appealing, the short sleeved white blouse and pink colored vest, together with the ribbon around the collar look really cute. The clothes for the lower body have a more seductive character, for example the black pencil skirt that tightly stretches around her well endowed hips.

Also these partially see through thigh highs with a darker rim are wonderfully made and super sexy. At her feet she is wearing rather neutral black high heels. Sonico would nearly pass as diligent office lady if her clothes weren’t really tight and her body sexy dynamite. She has a shapely womanly appearance, those button bursting voluptuous boobs and really wide hips, I like the narrow waist a lot and all together the proportions create a stunning hourglass shape.

Her buxom thighs are quite emphasized in this pose, the soft looking, cone shaped thighs are a real eye catcher.

In the alternative display option Sonico’s boobs have popped out of her blouse from the center with the upper and lower buttons still closed. Her boobs look nice and have pretty, pale pink nipples. The way the phone cord is wrapped around and between her legs is quite naughty befitting for a Native figure and getting the cable(s) in place was no easy task, either (⊙.☉)7.

Final Words

While I wasn’t really convinced by this Sonico figure at first, after I have taken a closer look, I would claim that she is among the best ones, first she is a big 1/6 scale figure, secondly she has a beautiful face and hair, thirdly she wears a cute office outfit wrapped around an amazingly sexy body and those thighs . Additionally to this the figure includes lots of convincing office paraphernalia. It’s an elaborately designed figure with an interesting pose and great quality.   

I’ve recently received a new Super Sonico figure, the nuresuke satsueikai version from Dragon Toy. 

nuresuke satsueikai (濡れ透け撮影会) means something like “photosession with wet clothes” Dragon Toy is popular for their generally sexy figures, that don’t hide much. It’s their first Sonico figure and the sculptor D zou decided to portray her in a more subtle sexy way. Sonico wears a school uniform like outfit and stands there in a flustered pose.

This figure of Sonico is scaled 1/6 and with 26,5 cm she is quite big, part of the figure is an exchangeable bust part and a cute pink shower head which should be attached to the base. She was released in the middle of march 2017.

Don’t ask me why Sonico is holding a showerhead in her hand, probably a failed photosession, I’ve adapted the idea, so that Sonico would make an advertising campaign for a shampoo brand. Therefore I modded an empty shampoo bottle.

Sonico had a little mishap with the shower and her clothes got partially wet. the wet look turned out convincing with a darker tone of color at the drenched areas, also her blouse turned transparent and that reveals her cute pattern bra.

I really like this Sonico adaption of sculptor D zou, he portrayed her as the attractive curvy girl we all know with beautiful big breast, the size is nicely chosen, not as gigantic, as a few other Sonico figures would show these days.

Super Sonico wears an adorable expression with eyes looking to the sides, she is apparently quite embarrassed about her mishap and the result of it. Her cute mouth is mainly hidden by her hand, but the creative and unusual pose is no bad thing at all, thanks to the hand the bashful atmosphere is conveyed in an even more convincing way.

As to be expected of a bigger, high quality figure in 1/6 scale, hair, head and face turned out very detailed and clean, the headphones are nicely made, too. The figures hair looks pretty, fluffy and is painted in a lovely shade of pastel pink.

The uniform outfit is cute and appealing, Sonico actually should be in college by now. Compared to most other figures of her, that show her in cute, colorful and always rather revealing outfits, the toned down colors create an unique look.

Shortly before release I worried a little, if I would really approve of her subtle colored outfit. In person though, it suits Sonico nicely, the outfit gives her a slightly adult feel. The fluffy jacket with cute black buttons, shows detailed folds and has a good, realistic appearance. Underneath she wears this cute blouse in a tone of pale pastel pink, this piece of PVC was made rather thin, the differences in thickness of the clothes create the illusion of different fabrics. The pleated olive green skirt looks good, although at first the dark color feels a bit unusual on Sonico, at least the striped necktie breaks the clouded color palette a little.

What I also like about this figure are the adorable detailed fingers, sooo cute!!! Sonico is holding a pink shower head in her petite hand, it’s very cute and detailed, the hose of the shower head is attached to the base.

This Sonico from Dragon Toy is surprisingly dressed, but a few small castoff options were implemented. Haha on her figures Sonico appears to be more daring than with her gravure idol job, in official illustrations she never shows her boobs exposed, but nearly all of her figures have a cast off option, also this one. The optional breast part shows Sonico without bra and the shirt pushed to the sides, she has beautiful and nicely sculpted boobs with small pink nipples.

It should be no surprise that the skirt can also be taken off, to reveal Sonico’s cute pink panties. At the back they are somewhat off center. Ahem, without skirt one can examine and admire her pretty backside and womanly thighs   .

Final Words

The Super Sonico ~ nuresuke satsueikai version is an interesting and visually appealing figure, she is big and creates a nice atmosphere, her pose, outfit and expression are nicely combined. There have been made many nice Super Sonico figures, I bought quite a number of them, the Dragon Toy figure of Sonico was a good purchase, she can be considered as fully dressed, but still has a sexy direction and cute expression. She is nicely made with a lot of details on her outfit and body. Overall it’s a very pretty figure of the Super Sonico character with less exaggerative proportions.

Hi, I’m back with a new figure review, after quite some time it’s my beloved Sonico again.

It’s about the Super Sonico – Paisura Bikini version from Kaitendoh

This review has pictures that are NSFW, except your boss also likes nude, shapely figures.

This figure was made by Kaitendoh, the first time that I review a figure of them. I have not heard or seen that much of this company before, so my expectations weren’t very big, although all previous press pictures showed her to be pretty. With Yokota Ken Kaitendoh hired a skilled sculptor to make this figure. The figures scale is 1/6 and measures 28 cm.

Sonico – Paisura version comes with an optional necklace and additional arm rings you can use when Sonico doesn’t wear her bikini. A nice surprise was the mirror base of the figure, probably appropriate with such an revealing figure. Instructions for the castoff process aren’t included, new figure collectors might be feel a little overstrained by the slightly complex task.

This Sonico – Paisure bikini version is also based on an illustration by Tsuji Santa

Her right arm is raised in a protecive manner, don’t ask me why she puts her arm under the bikini, it obviously making everything even more embarassing for her

Yes, the headphones are a essential part of Sonico, the ones from Kaitendoh are detailed and delicate. Sonico also has nice clean hair, even the finer strands are elaborately crafted.

Sonico is portrayed in a ashamed and nervous state, still trying her best at the shooting to look into the camera. The face of this figure looks good and cute, she has the Tsuji Santa styled trademark eyes of Sonico, thick eyebrows and prominent blushmarks. Her mouth could be a little better, but from most angles the face looks really nice overall.

Sonico is a ridiculously shy and easily flustered Gravure Idol, in this situation Sonico does try to strike a sexy pose, but is actually defeated by her shame when she has been put in a skimpy bikini that is groaning by being stretched over the buxom girls body.

The bikini follows her voluptuos bodylines, with it’s interesting sugarcane and polka dot pattern, the blue part has an color gradient applied to it, which creates the illusion of stretched bikini fabric. The design looks rather fragile, but is bendable to a certain degree.

Compared to the body, Sonico’s feet are quite petite, the plateau shoes are sexy.

I was mesmerizied by the curvy body of this Sonico, she looks just beautiful. The sculpor put some love on this project and captured the attractive plump body of this girl with attention to detail, I think her cute belly, the broad hips and the meaty butt with thighs are amazing.

The boobs of this Sonico figure are really big, only rivaled by FREEing’s bunny version, which I haven’t bought, actually because of this reason. Anyway I like the big boobs of this Sonico, there is no doubt about that. They are nicely shaped and when you look veeeeery close her areola has some bumps and the nipples are also quite detailed.

I didn’t take long until I make use of the castoff option, it’s just too good. The top comes off in a rather artistic way, but it works good. Now her precious boobs are free ;D

I like amount of body fat this Sonico has, the little chubbines gives her a cuddly and very attractive look. I don’t know how you think about it, Pochaco with her proud big belly, who is quite popular these days. For my taste it’s a bit too much weight even though her cute smile is as bright as the sun.

Skin texture became an issue for me and in the end I doubt promotional pictures of certain figure manufacturers. I actually anticipated that the figure of todays review would greet me with the sad, cheap PVC skintexture, to my surprise Sonico had a smooth finish and nice skin.

Don’t mind the small gap between arm and right breast. I could have pushed the arm 2 mm higher, but missed it.

I never tried this before, but I thought that her curves would look great with some oil on her, I have used healthy safflower oil, I didn’t expect this amplification of sex appeal actually, damn!

[for the nervous people: The oil doesn’t damage the figures surface or paint]

Final Words

With so many Super Sonico figures on the market it’s getting more difficult for new figures to leave a lasting impression as the first few figures did, but let me tell you this Kaitendoh did an unexpected great job with this figure. The Super Sonico – Paisura Bikini version is a high quality figure of the character Sonico. A cute face, excellent body sculpting, beautiful skin texture and a convincing “too” tight bikini outfit are the major parts that are praiseworthy.

For me bikini related figures are often a worthy purchase, when they are nicely done like this Sonico, I like the kind of bikini figures that have something to show, detailed body sculpting is essential in order to be appealing for the buyer, when no fancy outfit is present.

First a Merry Christmas, everyone! We already took a look at the beach qualities of this figure in a recent review, as promised, I did another set for ALTER’s Super Sonico – Santa Swimsuit version figure the with focus on this figures christmas appearance in a fitting scenario.

I actually didn’t plan this shooting as a scene, but it looks little story in the first few pictures. Starting with her backside is but works better to start this as a little story as introduction.
Well, she also has a is tasteful backside ^^

Shortly before Christmas Eve, Sonico remodeled the room and is now waiting ardent for her chosen one to arrive. A few minutes later, as Sonico was lost in thought the door opens.

It’s Chosen one san, finding Sonico in a cute and also sexy christmas related outfit kneeling on the cozy floor, a bunch of presents and a small christmas tree placed all around the room.

This Super Sonico is scaled 1/7 with a height of 13 cm, she was made by two experienced sculptors, Hide and Makio Munetoshi who combined their excellent skills to create this figures sculpt. After a few delays the figure was finally released in early September 2014.

The figure convinces with a cute, slightly flirty expression, the kind smile suits her very well.
The majority of manufacturers so far have preferred to portray her with worried expressions, which partially suits her perfectly, but more happy Sonico’s show up, which is welcome.

I’ve already said most things in the previous review, to sum it up, I am really convinced by ALTER‘s first Super Sonico. She has everything a Sonico needs, an incredibly adorable face and an attractive feminine and curvy body with good sense of putting bodyfat in the right areas

The ALTER company, which was before known as a little demure, slowly increases their number of attractive, shapely figures. ALTER known as top tier manufacturer and always especially nicely, sculpted figures did a great job with these feminine exposed curves of Sonico and previously Asuka, I’m not talking about the one from Evangelion ^^.

The cute figure comes with exchangeable heads, the hood aside they are similar I would dare to say. It’s a nice feature that allows to have Sonico around in summer and winter, although it’s not like anyone is going to blame you for not changing her appearance according to the season.

Without the hood I like her a lot in the beach setup with bare shoulders and collarbones.
The hood gives Sonico a more romantic look, the oval shaped hood is surrounding her head and headphones, the head has a shorter part attached to it, which covers her shoulders.

The red part is imitating thick fur, looks a bit like slaughted sea lion to me XD Well, the texture is short fibered and a little rough, but that is the desired effect. The white hoodie border in comparison looks very soft and fluffy. Around her collar, a long black ribbon is hanging around Sonico’s body, what a nice present she would be. The attached thing gives Sonico a festive feeling on top her cute and shapely appearance, the bell is really pretty on her again.

On summary ALTER’s Super Sonico – Santa Swimsuit version is lovely and that counts for both of her display options, be it christmas or the beach, she will rock both for sure.

One of the few exceptions where a Sonico figure has no cast off option, I don’t really miss this feature here, the skin revealing areas are nice enough and it gives her sonething innocent.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures of the christmas mode of ALTER’s Sonico.

My best wishes for you wherever you celebrate christmas, with your beloved ones or alone.

Review time lady’s and gentlemen. After many months without any Super Sonico figures, in autumm several new Sonico have been released, so it’s time to go back to my beloved 2D girl.

Some time ago ALTER surprised everyone as they announced to produce a Sonico figure.

Sonico stands for being a sexy girl and sexy wasn’t the category many of ALTER’s previous figures would fit in. Even though they started to add more fanservice like things to their line up, like Senran Kagura’s Asuka. This Sonico is based on one of Tsuji Santa’s older illustrations, that showed Sonico dressed in bikini with a bell on her bikini top and a red Santa Clause hood.

When reading it’s probably a odd sounding combination, but this figure looks really good.
A second head is included to give you the option to have Sonico more fitting for the beach.

In this review I will focus on the suited for the beach attire only. I have something bigger planned for the figures christmas option, but preparations aren’t completed yet.

Sonico is scaled 1/7 with a height of 13 cm, she was made by two experienced sculptors, Hide and Makio Munetoshi who combined their excellent skills to create this beautiful  figure.
After a few delays, some even speculated that ALTER wouldn’t manage to release the Super Sonico figure before December, but the figure was released in early September 2014.

Orchid Seed is in my opinion the best manufacturer of Sonico based figures, but I really approve of ALTER’s first adaption of the Super Sonico character, she’s a simply beautiful figure.

Sonico has been mainly portrayed as flustered or scared curvy girl dressed in skimpy and arousing clothes. Taito and FuRyu as Prize Figure manufacturers started to make figures of a more cheerful Super Sonico. Previously Sonico was only known as curvy mascot, since the Sonicomi game some years ago and the Soniani anime the girl received a personality.

ALTER presents Super Sonico in a relaxed fashion, she feels good and enjoys being around the person she likes. It’s quite impressive how cute this Sonico actually is, starting from her beautiful eyes, to the prominent blush. Sonico also fires a lovely, gentle smile that can pierce ones heart.

Her shoulder long hair is simply said perfect, it looks fluffy, smooth and is carefully crafted, also the applied color gradient give it a great look. The long chunk of pink strands over her nose is quite adorable. The tilted  head and the fingers placed on one bikini strap give her a flirty look.

Sonico never been thin as a stick and this is also part of her popularity since the beginning and there is definetely a fanbase for so called healthy, or girls with more developed curves. This figure here also has slightly accentuated muscles. Her her thighs are meaty and look strong.

The bust size of Sonico varies quite a bit, that applies to figures and also illustrations. Sure also ALTER’s Sonico has big boobs, but the presentation turns out more modest compared to other figures of her. Maybe because she is for once wearing a bikini that is compatible with her sizes.

The compact pose works very well for this kind of figure, next to the beautiful smooth body, her thighs do stand out, I really love the curve when you look from the side, as well as her wide hips. From the back Sonico has a superb big butt, it’s nice that her butt is slightly lifted up in this pose.

Sonico is wearing a nice, white triangle bikini, the red mini ribbons on top and slip are really cute details, fine wrinkles give the bikini a realistic look. From the top’s middle connector hangs a small golden bell decorated with a ribbon and leafs ready for christmas. At the outside of the bikini there are very detailed laces applied, that slightly remind oneself of holiday tablecloth.

This figure of Super Sonico has one of the prettiest cleavages in the whole figure realm to date, the shapely sculpting is top notch. There is some modest underboob fanservice. A cast off option isn’t part of this figure, but I won’t complain about that, since I’m more than happy to have a relaxed, relatively innocent looking, high quality figure of her for a change of things.

Final Words

Applause for ALTER and their wonderful adaption of the Super Sonico character. She has lovely hair, an adorable face and a shapely, nicely sculpted body. If you are looking for a high quality figure of Sonico that shows a different expression than being flustered here is your answer.

Taking pictures of her was seriously so much fun! cutting down to 34 images was quite difficult. As you can see, I focused on a tropical beach scenario an didn’t use her hood and base, the christmas version of this (review) will follow soon, so stay tuned.

I might review another new Sonico figure in between, though.

another review was written by Cerberus from Reflective Boundary

Hi there, I added 4 new items to my Preorder List and so it is time to take a look at the recent preorders, further below I will also show you other recently announced figures I’m partially interested  in. Under Preorder Roadmap you can see all of my preordered figures for 2014.

The prices are retail prices, without the discount most figure related shops have to offer.

Recent  Preorders

Kongou – Kantai Collection ~Kan Colle~

For gods sake I still wasn’t able to get in this stupid online game, even with all the “tricks”. Just how difficult can it be ｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡ !!? Even without being able to play the game, I love the visual style of Kantei Collection. Combining a cute girl with a classic battleship from WWII makes you nearly forget about the tragedy that befall this and many other ships. Back to the admirals darling, Kongou looks simply gorgeous, considering that she is only scaled 1/8 this figure is super detailed, the few damage effects on her and the clothes give her some sexy appeal .

Max Factory also makes three of the cute submarine girls, I -19, I – 168 and I – 58

manufacturer: Max Factory release date: September 2014 scale: 1/8 price: 13.704 Y
 

 Nitro Super Sonic – Sonico – Beach Queens

As Sonico fan, I just couldn’t ignore this new Beach Queen, Wave sculpted her nicely with all of her convincing physical attributes, just look at her thighs, she’s pure dynamite. I also like the little red crab which will be included .

manufacturer: Wave release date: September 2014 scale: 1/10 price: 6.000 Y
 

Ikaros – Sora no Otoshimono Final 

Recently I have finished the manga from Sora no Otoshimono, it ended pretty unspectacular, you should expect nothing from a harem setting in the end. The authors just don’t have the guts to let the main character pick one girl. One of Sora no Otoshimono’ good part is the appealing character design and likeability of it’s characters. Kotobukiya decided to make a figure of Ikaros under their 4 Leaves lable. She looks lovely from head to toe, I just love her puppy eyes. From the backside she also convinces with her detailed braids.

manufacturer: Kotobukiya release date: August 2014 scale: 1/6 price: 12.000 Y
 

Kashiwazaki Sena – Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT

I ordered this figure as soon as she was available, sure she is huge, but I’m sure that I will like this curvy girl, the sculpting is so well done. Also her face is convincing, Gift did a very good job at recreating the face of Sena with all of it’s details, while other companies failed at it so far.

manufacturer: Gift release date: June 2014 scale: 1/4 price: 13.000 Y

Finally a release date

Kirigaya Suguha – Sword Art Online

manufacturer: ALTER release date: 1th May 2014 scale: 1/8 price: 7.800 Y

I’ve been waiting ages for Suguha to be released, at first she was scheduled for November 2013, but now the day of her release is close. The figure has a nice natural sitting pose where she is placed on a cute veranda, I guess she will be a cute companion for outdoor shootings.

Interesting figures

I haven’t ordered these figures, but at least I find them overly interesting and like to list them.
Feel free to tell my which one you like or which not, or would like to see in a review

Cecilia Alcott – IS: Infinite Stratos 2 – Bunny ver.

manufacturer: Freeing release date: October 2014 scale: 1/4 price: 18.333 Y

As it was already announced at last Wonfes, FREEing is going to turn all IS girls except Houki into large scale figures. I always checked out FREEing’s big figures at Tentacle Armada and thought that they are pretty. Nevertheless, when looking at Cecilia I’m kinda impressed how faithful she is to her anime appearance with blush and a lively expression, she looks quite gorgeus. Let’s hope that there will be no cutbacks on the details in the final product.

Original Character – Kondo Yume

manufacturer: Native release date: September 2014 scale: 1/8 price: 10.185 Y

It is mean that Native mixed this adorable cute character design with so much lewdness, ok the illustration was already like that. Yume is really cute, she is petite, pretty and yeah she even has glasses. I like her type quite a bit, there are a number different ways to display her.

These battery powered things in her bag give me the creeps and actually are superfluous for me and I will let them stay in the box. Aside from that, she comes with a mattress and pillows. I’m probably going to order her, even when it takes all of my courage to do so. You can order her from the 25th April 2014 at your proxy of choice or directly from Native.

 
 Taimanin Asagi – Igawa Asagi

manufacturer: Milestone release date: September  2014 scale: 1/8 price: 9.000 Y

Oh I nearly forgot to add Asagi, this is the second figure that I’ve seen of this character. I like the design of her. Her origin is quite  hard stuff, I’m not talking about fights, I took a look in one part, it was not really my thing. Anyway I’m happy that she is made modest in a cool pose

Sonsaku Hakufu – Ikki Tousen

manufacturer: Dragon Toy release date: August  2014 scale: 1/6 price: 14.500 Y

I have a week spot for the latest Ikki Toussen figures from Daiki/Dragon Toy. The latter one made this super pretty Hakufu figure in damaged clothes, I think she would look good next to my Kan’u , both have a similar style and very good body sculpting. This hole in her shirt will be a bit difficult to cover, I assume, that I can worry about that later ;D

Souryuu Asuka Langley – Evangelion Shin Gekijouban: Q – Jersey ver.

manufacturer: ALTER release date: September 2014 scale: 1/7 price: 10.800 Y

Thats probably the most fashionable Asuka figure to date, the hat alone is awesome, ALTER included a different posing option to recreate two different, appealing poses. Overall she looks very good and has a cool expression, I would consider to add her to my collection.

Mikasa Ackerman – Shingeki no Kyojin

manufacturer: GSC release date: October 2014 scale: 1/8 price: 12778 Y

Ackermann looks really good as figure, she has cool clothes is super detailed and a without a doubt pretty face. Well, even though I like this story Mikasa comes from a lot, strangely I don’t feel much for anyone of the characters.

Kinomoto Sakura – Card Captor Sakura – Nendoroid

manufacturer: GSC release date: September 2014 scale: Nendoroid price: 4.444 Y

Better late than never a Nendoroid of Sakura appears, I just watched the whole Cardcaptor anime like two years ago, it’s the perfect example of a very nicely concluded anime. You could order her from the 25th April 2014 , I probably will.

Mankanshoku Mako – Kill la Kill – Nendoroid

manufacturer: GSC release date: August 2014 scale: Nendoroid price: 3.889 Y

This is a real comedy Nendoroid, I like her funny expressions a lot, she will also have special bendable arms. The special edition comes with a beaten up face, which is just creepy X<.
 

Urusei Yatsura – Lum Invader – ARTFX J

manufacturer: Kotobukiya release date: September 2014 scale: 1/7 price: 9.000 Y

Upcoming figures I’m interested in

Kousaka Honoka – Love Live! School Idol Project

manufacturer: GSC scale: 1/8

Love Live is such an entertaining show, there are my animes related to the Idol culture, but Love Live is special. Sparkling animations and character designs, mixed with a number of different, but likeable personalities. GSC chose Honoka as figure to be made, she looks great so far. Actually I like the “big”girl, but the one that steals my heart is the little devil, Nico.

Koshimizu Sachiko – iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls

manufacturer: Phat Company scale: 1/8

This is so good, an enchanting yandere type of Idol, I love her cute demonic expression, it’s a rarely used theme, her pose is also unique, I hope the final figure looks as shiny as this.

Tachibana Makoto – Free!  ALTAiR

manufacturer: ALTER scale: 1/8

Well, here we have a sexy boy, oh my I’m watching too many sport anime lately. I never watched Free! for it’s lack of female characters, well I have heard that the female swim coach was pretty. Makoto is not really the bishounen type, but I think he looks pretty cool in this pose and outfit. Preorders haven’t opened so far.

The next prize figure review,the subject of review is another Sonico figure, but it’s from FuRyu.

Super Sonico – The Animation is still fun, her random adventures are fun to watch and she’s so damn cute. The friendly environment Sonico lives in, the slice of life characteristics and all of her acquaintances and friends are quite charming. She appears a bit too fragile sometimes and becomes flustered easily, I hope she can overcome this at one point.

Sonico Sweets Time version was released in November 2013, no scale was mentioned, but with a length of 180 mm she’s around 1/8 scale. I ordered her because it was refreshing to see a figure like that, chilling on a couch, a really creative creation for a cheap figure.

For just 1.590 Yen you get a cute Sonico figure. a plate with donuts, and a nice pink sofa.

FuRyu already made and planned a number of appealing Sonico prize figures like a Teeth-Brushing version, a After Taking Bath version or a  Clothes Changing Time version. All of them in a similar style, that portrays Sonico in rather natural situations. I actually  don’t intend to get more of these cute prize figures, but the After Taking Bath version looks really interesting.

This figure here shows Sonico chilling on her sofa while zapping with the TV remote  and eating a donut. She is dressed in comfortable clothes, cuddly socks and shorts and a simple tank top…

Hair & Face

Sonico’s hair is long and flows over the couch, the hair looks a bit more chunky and not as fine as Taito’s Space Police Sonico, she has a strong color gradient. The bangs have nice strands, it seems like I was  lucky again and received a relative clean copy, I’ve seen pics where her bangs were really rough. There is still a little roughness at certain points when looking more closely.

Her headphones have a nice shape, but the thick paint on the silver parts and really rough edges at the black belt, shows the difference compared to a full price figure .

How is such a cheap figure possible, I ask myself,  the figure and the accesories consists of 15 parts,  pressed and probably even  painted  by a machine, what’s left is connecting the parts and maybe cutting off excess material, which causes low labour expenses. After I’ve once read what Pakistan workers earn for sewing an complete official Fifa football, I was just shocked. I hope the diligent Chinese who assemble our top tier figures are paid well enough to make a living.

The figure has a cute, nicely sculpted face with an interesting expression, that shows the girl immersed in watching TV. Sonico has detailed and cleanly printed eyes, there are also eyebrows and blush marks. The open mouth is sweet and shows an upper front teeth line.

Outfit & Body

Sonico is wearing a sweet outfit, it’s not as revealing as her usual outfits, it’s something much more innocent. The white shirt has a number of wrinkles, she is wearing it in a shoulderfree fashion, that shows her proud cleavage, Sonico can’t be Sonico without being a little tease.

Her short, light blue shorts resembles something like Nicki terry cloth. the warm, thick socks closely follow the silhouette of her feet which looks quite convincing together with the folds and texture. The shirt is a little rough at the outer edges, socks and shorts only have some smaller seamlines when you take a close look.

Also as prize figure Sonico has a nice body, the skinparts looks very well sculpted. Also the articulation appears really convincing from her legs to the joints of her fingers, I was impressed. Her butt isn’t flattened which is nice. The pose is supercute, she is lying sideways on her sofa with her legs in air, eating donut. The skin looks soft and has good opaque tone.

Accessories

The additional items this figure come with are really cool, since they aren’t glued to the figure, so they can be used without the figure. The pink sofa is made of ABS and has a deep seat for Sonico’s butt. The shadows are shaded with airbrush. A plate of donuts is also included, these parts are glued together, the detailed sugarcoat give them a tasty, realistic appearance.

Final Words

In summary FuRyu made a nice Sonico prize figure with cool accesories, the pose is creative and has good articulation, done with attention to detail. With her cute face and the comfortable clothes she makes an adorable figure, nevertheless the Sonico is not free of flaws, seamlines, thick paint and a light roughness are the things you have to expect when getting a prize figure .

Compared to the Sonico Space Police from Taito this Sonico appears closer to a normal run figure. While Taito’s Sonico had a really nice and cheerful expression and finer hair, the overall quality of the Super Sonico – Sweets Time version is better and slightly more elaborate.

Today I’ll let down my pants, only in the figurative sense, of course

Inspired by Adam’s Figure Financials posts I decided that I wanted to create something similar by the end of this year. I’m fully aware that a detailed look at the figure expenses of this year might be a shocking experience, but join me  and face the ugly truth in this post.

Let’s take a look at the things I’ve bought this year, overall it were 27 figures that I’ve purchased and received this year, 1 less compared to 2011. Since I already sold 2 figures I end up with a number of overall 25 collected figures in 2012, it was one of my goals to stay under 28 figures.

monthly figure expenses

In the diagram below every bar shows what I’ve spent each month, surprisingly I ordered nothing in February and May. With 4 figures, I kind of overdid it in June and October, it were expensive months, but this also partially happened because of unforeseen events. In November I also ordered 4 figures, but these figure were from the aftermarket and comparatively cheap.

I won’t write down the entire sum I’ve spent this year, it would be a too big shock for me XD

manufacturer appointments

It looks like I chose ALTER for most of my purchases, their figures really caught my interest even some older figures from them. Surprisingly GSC, which I really can’t stand or better said it’s the constant hype about their products. Anyway I went out of my way and ordered four of their figures, I really like Sayaka and Shinobu. I also got really nice figures from Max Factory.
For some reason I only ordered 3 (4) Orchid Seed figures, maybe that will change in 2013.

I also tried different companies, that I’ve never bought from before, like Alpha Max, Native, Daiki Kougyou, PLUM, Phat Company and Volks who will relase their Nagisa figure soon. Unlike my bad experience with Griffon, these companies provided solid quality and very good figures.

Shop appointments

new exclusive and old figures comparison

Aside from 15 new figures, I bought 5 Exclusive figures (Sonico – Bath Time version,
Noel Vermillion, Miku Hatsune – Cheerful Japan, the Sonico Nendoroid and Nagisa).
The 7 old figures were Max Factories Tamaki Kousaka and Haruhi Suzumiya Gekisou version, Echidna from Megahouse. From ALTER I ordered the Louise Francoise – school uniform version, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia – Saber Maid R and non R version and Fauna at last.

I spent a lot for the Tamaki figure, but in other cases there were a number of significant price drops at Mandarake and AmiAmi preowned in this year, these prices were so low that I couldn’t resist these figures I always was slightly interested in. Asida from Echidna, who had a stained butt (it wasn’t me XD) I made no bad experiences with these aftermarket figures.

additional costs

When looking a these numbers I’m quite surprised that the custom fees only take ten percent of the spent budget, hehe four times my packages weren’t charged. 17 percent for shipping also appears lower than expected, this year I used more SAL shipping and domestic shipping, when more figures arrive in one month it makes no sense to use EMS for all orders. I used EMS 11 times, SAL 12 times and domestic shipping for local shops was used 4 times.

favorite figures of the year

Ok, enough of these dry statistics lets end this post with my personal favorites of the figures I’ve purchased this year this year.

Bakemonogatari – Oshino Shinobu (Good Smile Company)

This was my first GSC figure that I actually like a lot. The donut eating loli vampire Shinobu from Bakemonogatari was very well recreated in this figure, be it the adorable and cute face, the petite appearance of her body. Also the outfit with the cool motorcycle helmet and the light looking summer dress are also a convincing part of her. While not being sculpted perfectly sharp, the donut bed like base with it’s overload of details is a nice addition to the figure.

Another nice detail is that she can be taken off her base and be placed nearly everywhere.

Ikki Tousen Xtreme Xecutor – Kan’u Unchou (Daiki Kougyou)

I saw, drooled in excitement and ordered ^^. This figure appeared convincing for me from the day she was announced. I like Ikki Toussen quite a bit, but I never bought a figure of it before.

With this figure Daiki came especially close to my image of Kanu. Her powerful fighting pose and the well trained, attractive body were quite appealing. The figure of Kanu has a kinda angry determined face expression, while I prefer cute expressions in general, I was fascinated by the look of this figure. As my first experience with Daiki Kougyou, Im quite satisfied with their work. The sculpting and the painting on clothes and figure turned out very well

Soukou Akki Muramasa – Sansei Muramasa – Maid (Max Factory)

This was quite maid year in terms of figures for me, but Sansei Muramasa throned above all of them. I was interested in her since a certain Wonfes a few years ago. I am totally happy that I was convinced to get her in the end. Her appearance of a grown up and very attractive dark skinned elf is really enchanting. Muramasa has a beautiful face, the eyes are very expressive and also the unique combination of a slightly embarrassed and pouting  face expression are nice.

Her dress is lovely with the detailed ruffles and also the color combination of cream white and silky shine black a quite classy, elaborate look is created. The figure also offers a cool looking base with red floor and a pretty table where parts of the included coffee dishes can be placed.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai – Takayama Maria (Max Factory)

Im still not a fan the Maria character, but she’s cute loli anyway. As image for the sculpting and painting Max Factory relied on the illustrator of the Novels, Buriki who has a quite unique style.
I really love how the face of this figure was adapted, she has super detailed eyes, blush marks and a cute open mouth with a sharp little fang. This Maria Takayama is a high quality figure with great looking body sculpting and an overall lively and playful appearance.

The dress is a little odd for a figure of a young girl, but is is very well done with pretty gloss and detailed shading effects. With a happy Maria inside the dress actually looks more cute than lewd.

To Heart 2 – Kousaka Tamaki – (Max Factory AquaPlus)

I saw this figure in the past, but in this year I noticed how appealing this figure actually is and was searching on the aftermarket. friend on MFC helped me and so I got my Tamaki Kousaka.

Not a cheap deal, but it was worth every cent. She looks a little different compared to her visual novel and anime origin, but in this case that is nothing bad.  On her fluffy, round base Tamaki radiates a romantic, cozy atmosphere what is quite charming in my eyes. The long red hair is pretty, the round face with the big eyes, rosy cheeks and the gentle smile on her mouth is really enchanting. The combination of a quite innocent appearance and an attractive curvy body works very well with this figure. Overall, the sculpting and paintjob of her are really top notch.

I still think that her boobs are too big, but with a cute face like this I accept this “minor” detail ;D

Nitro Super Sonic – Sonico –  Bath Time version (Native)

This was my first figure from Native actually, more importantly is that she’s a huge 1/6 scaled Sonico. I liked the creativity of pose and base a lot, these three little bathing friends are really cute accessories. The figure also has a very detailed and convincing face expression. I also like that they added more meat to this sculpt of Sonico like the Tsuji Santa artstyle always implies.

The figure can be displayed naked, not to the extent of most Native figures, but in my opinion  she looks best with one of her towels applied.Minor flaws are too faint blush marks and a  not that sexy looking butt, but nevertheless she is without question one of the best Sonico figures so far with the  Sonico – Bondage version from Orchid Seed following close afterwards.

Senran Kagura – Hibari (Phat Company)

I was quite happy as the cute GK of Hibari was quickly adapted to be turned into a PVC figure.
I didn’t had that much trust into Phat Company to begin with. But after unpacking her I was very much delighted, she looked very well done and came without major flaws. I love the cheerful face of Hibari with her flower eyes and the happy open mouth. I also liked her busty schoolgirl appearance dressed up in cute sportswear, like the jersey and the short bloomers that accentuates her meaty thighs. Her loose socks and the shoes are also a very cool detail.

Since I awaited this figure from Phat Company with lowered expectations my joy about her very good quality and looks were kinda amplified and Im still very happy about her purchase.

Do you have favorite figures from the ones you’ve bought?

Final Words

So far I always planned my purchases on a monthly basis, so that I won’t overstep my budget, in this post it was  interesting to take a look at the overall purchases of my figure hobby in this year. It appears like a lot of money and it probably is, but the truth is that there were more nice and pretty figures that I wanted to get n 2012, but I wanted to show at least a little retention.

Next year will be full of nice figures as well and I already preordered a few things, but lets see what and how many figures I will add to my next orders.

And you, Do you take a look back at your purchases and expenses of this year?

I there anyone who spent more? please let me know.