The figure year 2012 in numbers

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 VermillionMiku 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.

shinobu-gsc-05

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.

maria_takayama-max_factory-07The 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.

 

25 Responses

  1. Adam

    Nice post! I like how you took the analysis in some new directions that I hadn’t previously thought of, like showing the breakdown of costs between the actual figure, shipping, and customs. It’s disappointing when you realize that over a quarter of your cost of collecting goes to logistical overhead. 🙁

    You should include a graph comparing the number of Sonicos versus everything else. I count five in your month-by-month list, which makes 20% of your net total on one character. Such dedication! 😉

    I bought 17 figures this year and sold two for a net of 15, so my overall rate of collection is smaller. I went for a lot of exclusive releases this year, which produced a rather high average cost as a result (~$140 USD). My favorites for the year were UART’s Ryofu, Alter’s Aegis, Alter’s Naoe, Max Factory’s Samurai, and Yamato’s Iris. There were a couple purchases I wasn’t wholly satisfied with, but overall it was a pretty good year. I plan to make only very slight changes to my budget strategy for next year.

    • wieselhead

      Ah thx, yes I didn’t want to copy your idea 1:1, so I came up with some other ideas.
      International shipping is really painful in the wallet, EMS shipping appeared more expensive this year.
      You really have to consider if you want the figure badly enough to choose EMS for it’s shipment.

      Ahaha, I like your idea about that 😀 I love this character the most. Im really looking forward to Orchid Seeds upcoming Sonico’s 1 & 2.

      I see, I hope to be able to stay at a more reasonable number of orders, close to yours ^^
      I also paid more attention to exclusive figures this year, surprisingly I quickly lost interest in the Cheerful Japan Miku.
      Yes there are always these figures that lose appeal next to other purchased figures.

  2. feal87

    More than 200.000 yen of figures in one year! Awesome!

    Hopefully the EUR-JPY change will become favorable to us in this coming 2013! *hopes*

    • wieselhead

      Haha yeah you could say that I’m quite passionate or went crazy XD
      Well, I couldn’t resist these cuties, maybe I ordered too many exclusive items this year.

  3. hoshiko

    I really like that Shinobu figure too. Very, very, very cute!

    In terms of figure, I bought less compared to 2010 and 2011. I only bought Nendoroid Aisaka Taiga, Nendoroid Petite Lucky Star shrine maiden version scale figures GSC’s Kurisu and Alter’s Shizuo. Sigh. That’s 5. So little. =(

    • wieselhead

      Yeah indeed she is a little cutie and I like the nice texture of her dress a lot.
      The important thing is thatyou like them, I placed many of last years orders out of curiosity XD

  4. Aya

    wow almost 300k yen in total awesome, I spent less than half of that for my Hobby on 2012 and only 5 are scaled figures.

    Happy new Year 🙂

    • wieselhead

      Im not proud of that, but I got nice figure for the money and that makes me happy ^_^
      When I think about it I could have bought the loli Dollfie instead of some figures *damn*
      Ah ok, one of them is the lovely Naoe in bikini 🙂

      Happy New Year, Aya

  5. Miette-chan

    Your post makes me sad, you got me thinking about this and will go look up how much I spent the past year now.

    I wish I had empty months like you did throughout the year, I got a nice break in December but the rest were pretty packed because of delays and what not. I’m surprised with the variety of shops and manufacturers you buy from. If I were to do a post like this it would be all figmas and stuff from Alter nearly all of it bought from AmiAmi for the most part. Although I did try out some new manufactures this year such as PLUM, Ques Q and Gift. I had generally good experiences from them so I will be willing to buy more from them in the future.

    This year I technically I spent more on figures since I bought figures for both me, exilehero and friend #2, they did pay me of course, so that we could split the cost of the shipping. Which it really appears to be a good chunk of the figure expenses, much more than it seem at first sight at least. Makes me happy in the US we don’t have customs fees to add on top of that.

    The next year already looks cheaper up until my May scheduled orders, all I have are lots of figmas and handful of cheaper than average scaled figures.

    As for my favorite figures this year it would have to be Max Factory’s Muramasa or Alter’s Aigis, such a shame I only own one of those but that’s fine.

    • wieselhead

      Oh Im sorry about that it wasn’t my intention 🙁
      Well, I thought “oh shit!” for several times while sum up the purchases each month XD But its good to reflect on ones purchases from time to time, maybe I can have less shocking expenses in 2013, even though I doubt it. I mainly spread my orders after I canceled so much stuff at AmiAmi this year, they accepted my cancelations, but I felt so bad afterwards. Good to hear, I really like to give other companies a chance when their products look appealing to me.

      You must be getting huge boxes then. In most countries, there aren’t custom fees on such things like toys and figures, too bad not her ;p

      I fear that this year is full of attractive figures and I already have ten pending preorders haha
      Yeah Muramasa is pretty awesome, more Elf girls please.

  6. Luth

    Wow, I calculated ours right after reading this article and we’re lower but not too far off from you. And this was us trying to cut back. Scary. That being said, we did try out several exclusives, which while expensive, turned out to be good buys. So glad we don’t have to pay customs fees and EMS shipping for us is actually around the same price as SAL Large Packet. This year, we’re trying to be really selective in our purchases, to save both money and space. We don’t even have anything coming in for the next 3 months. The horror!

    • wieselhead

      Hehe cool, I actually thought you were a little higher due to the many exclusives you’ve ordered.
      In the first half of this year I also tried to cut back, I even canceled 5 orders, in the end I had nearly the same result as last year. Well, what should I do I love that hobby Ah your lucky about the lower shipping, so only your Godoka had a expensive shipping rate.

      I’ll try a little harder as well, but I have the feeling that there will many releases from figures that were introduced at last Wonfes near summer, that might get dangerous XD

  7. Jenn

    We might be in the same boat when it comes to total cost. I went a little loopy in 2012. I went on so many hunts I swear I lived on Mandarake. On the bright side, I have a buttload of beautiful figures to show for it. Even so, I’m definitely taking a step back next year.

    I’m glad to see Shinobu made it onto your list! She’s one of my favourite releases of the year too! Overall, I feel like 2012’s new releases were somewhat underwhelming. I was much more interested in snagging older figures. Many of the new releases I bought were out of sheer curiosity (Racing Miku 2011, AlphaMax’s Erio, Alter’s bikini Jubei, etc). 2013 is already looking good though.

    • wieselhead

      Yeah I think it paid off oveall, I liked most figures I’ve received this(last^^) year. Well, the joy about Exclusive Miku only lasted a few weeks.
      I would say that as well, but I think it will be a more extreme collector year for me with MORE figures.

      Ahaha yeah I love her, taking pictures was so much fun. I want a real loli vampire ^-^
      No, not really, Orchid Seed was rather lame this year, but there were good figures from less popular manufacturers.

      I actually looks too good 😀

  8. Nopy

    Interesting post. I’d like to make one of these, but it’d take too much work to gather all of my figure transactions and put them in a chart. I think for 2012 I spent about $2000, mostly on nendoroids.

    • wieselhead

      I thought so, looking back at the own expenses can be interesting for oneself and other collectors/readers.
      Well I already had written down each order in an excel sheet and just summed up the numbers for this post.
      Oh you’ve spent 2000€ on nendoroid, were so many even released in 2012 :p ?

  9. Xine

    Oh wow! Nice list of 2012 figures. I just got a few nendoroids and a couple of other figs last year. Priorities have changed so I guess there’ll be less and less figures for me in the years to come.

    • wieselhead

      Ahaha, but yeah it were a number of lovely figures that I’ve purchased in 2012.
      Yes I can imagine, that this can change at some point, but it’s nice that you still buy a few of these cute things 🙂
      thx for your comment Xine

  10. Tier

    I still kind of want the Kobato figure that goes with Maria; I don’t have a Kobato yet and though the catgirl outfit isn’t my favorite, I don’t think there will ever be a sexier figure of her. Though maybe it’s wrong to think of a girl as young-looking as her as sexy.

    I’m trying not to think about how much I spent on hobby goods (and related stuff, like cameras) in 2012, though I do think I will cut back, at least a little bit, less so because I need to save money and more so because I just don’t have enough space now. I think this may also be the year I start pawning stuff off, so the financial impact should be a little less for me this year than it has been.

    • wieselhead

      You haven’t bought her, thats too bad. I also thought about completing the 2 figure set, but I never completed a set.
      Kobato looks very good with her pretty face, but she can’t really compete with Maria’s cuteness.
      It’s ok for young anime girls to be sexy, Kobato is pretty ^^

      Oh too bad, you could have easily beaten my expenses I assume. Running out of space is a ever present problem.
      I will try to sell a few more figures to be able to get the figures I want this year ^^

  11. New Preorders part 17 | wieselhead

    […] the last year, on the bottomline AmiAmi is selling Orchid Seed figures again. In my “The figure year 2012 in numbers” post, I find faulty that I haven’t bought enough Orchid Seed figures, that should […]

  12. Nadav

    As a person who doesn’t collect a lot of figures I always wondered how much a figure-collector spends monthly or yearly. It really is one heck of an expensive hobby.

    I want to buy the Sansei Muramasa figure so much, but I currently live with my family so I won’t be able to display it! What’s a man to do >_<

    • wieselhead

      Yeah it is quite expensive, if you are as passionate as me 😀
      Hmm I don’t really see a problem with displaying her, a long as you don’t live in a one room apartment.
      Sure my family acted a bit curious as my first plastic lady arrived, but they got used to it soon.

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