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…
Luth
We had her at one point, she’s really nice for such an old figure. I’ll have to agree with you on the open mouth thing, its really hard to not look dumb on a figure. She’s got lots of nice little details like the necklaces and the guitar and along with that wide, confident pose, she was easily the centrepiece of the Gekisou set. In my opinion, she’s the best Haruhi figure so far.
As for the falling prices, I think that it kind of depends on a figure’s popularity and how well it stands up to the sands of time. Like I’m pretty sure if KyoAni released another season of Haruhi, this figure’s price would skyrocket. But the sculpt and quality are starting to pale compared to some of the newer figures being released today. On the other hand, you have figures like Chua Churam, who’s price in the aftermarket doesn’t seem to be going down. Her sculpt is still top notch even by today’s standards and lots of people still want her and are willing to pay top dollar.
wieselhead
Yeah I remember, you had the whole group. There are figures that look good with open mouth, but there are also figures that look nuts with their big mouth XD
ALTER’s Naoe Kanegutsu looks quite good with her cheerful face while Haruhi looks a bit weird ^^
You sold Haruhi early enough too get some money for her. Well I got ger for a fair price recently.
Ah that is an explanation, newer figure are often better made as in the past, but there must be more behind it.
Well, maybe the prices will raise again in a few years, when the aftermarket is emptier, I will keep an eye on that.
hoshiko
I see Haruhi the same you do. She’s this upbeat, unexpected and fun girl. I do occasionally pity the other brigade members, but c’mon, without Haruhi, the series wouldn’t be as popular (I think?).
This is indeed a popular figure. Saw them everywhere and still see them around as part of the owner’s collection up till today. I get what you’re saying about how businesses are treating old figures and such. They are looking after the business, after all. Unlike serious collectors such as you, they don’t appreciate the non-monetary value of figures. Sigh.
wieselhead
Ahh that’s good to hear =)
Haruhi is pretty awesome I think.
Without Haruhi they would have never met and experienced these weird adventures and fun moments.
Well, it’s not that bad too get cheaper figures, that were out of financial reach, but the prices shouldn’t drop too much.
Another problem is that I can hardly pass on figures that are appealing to me when they are sold for cheap ;p
Jenn
This is the best Haruhi figure in my opinion. Her energy is hard to resist, and I love her outfit to death. You’re right about her mouth though. It’s too wide. She was released before I began collecting seriously so I don’t have her yet, but with her price plummeting in recent months, I’ll probably snag her sometime soon. I’m in the same boat as you when it comes to rereleasing old figures. On one hand, it’s nice that I’m able to get them without busting my wallet. On the other hand, it depreciates their value (like you say, going too cheap makes them feel like run-of-the-mill, plastic toys). I don’t buy with the intent of reselling for profit later, so I’m usually not in arms over dropping prices though, especially if it means new collectors get the chance to enjoy older figures.
wieselhead
At least I have no better Haruhi figure in my mind, I wonder why there weren’t more figures of her, I mean it’s Suzumiya Haruhi!
There are mainly a number of bunny suit figures of her X<. Maybe you'll find one soon, or I could sell you mine. It's good that younger collectors can get their hands on old figure gems, but flooding the market with re-releases or dropping the prices to ridiculous cheap prices is not too nice. I can't resist good and cheap figures, these deals are too good XD
feal87
Nice figure there (even if I agree with you that open mouth on a figure is generally a no-no), but hell how much I hated her character in the story of that anime.
Her self-centered personality was hard to bear through…*cries*
wieselhead
Yup, sometimes open mouts just look dense, but thee are exceptions, fortunately 🙂
Ah I know, you told me once that you can’t stand self centered girls.
Haruhi must be quite a nightmare for you XD It was also partially fault of the others,
they let her do whatever she liked. I liked Haruhi and her strong will nevertheless.
Aya
very nice 😀 still my favorite Haruhi figure around never have chance get it thought ^^
about falling price well that sounds sad especially if we spend a lot of money for them but some people with hobbies told me to never expect return from hobby except you do plan business with it, so what I should react ^^
wieselhead
Yes she’s a nice figure, surprisingly there aren’t that many figures of her considering her popularity.
Well that’s somehow true, I’m not planning to sell all of my figures one day, but the falling price leave a bad feeling somehow.
Maybe these prices will rise again ^^
Miette-chan
Sigh… sigh… sigh… I should have bought this figure when it first released instead of the readily available mass produced DSi. I think the figure second hand market is off, on any other market when you open and item it instantly decreases the value but not here. Nope it just increases and increases as long as you have all the packaging regardless of it is sealed or not. I also think there is a mistaken view of demand, no figure is too rare or hard to find. No matter which figure I wanted I have been able to find it easily, no exceptions. The only thing stopping me is the ridiculously high prices on some. With that said it’s such shame the one you showed me on AmiAmi got sold before I got payed, not too far off from release price.
I still really like this figure a lot, I used the illustration it is based on as a wallpaper for a while. I like this figure a nice set of details all around with her asymmetrical clothes and accessories. Haruhi’s expression and pose is so full of energy so full of Haruhiism. I would like someday to own this figure and the iconic Max Factory version.
wieselhead
Ah I see , well figure always have highest priority in my budget, Im no real Gamer, so I don’t have to save for games or related things.
Rare is a relative term in collcetor hobbyies, most figure are available at this point, only the prices of rare figures get high especially at greedy ebay shops.
Im not completely against decreasing prices, I already made 4 good deals on AmiAmi preowned this year, but there should be a limit.
Ah too bad I couldn’t be of help with this purchase, I’ll keep an eye open.
I wouldn’t mind to sell my Haruhi figure, either.
Tier
I really like this figure and it’s one of the ones I wish I’d picked up when I had the chance. I think I mentioned this, but one of my friends – who doesn’t watch any anime at all and has no idea who this character is – liked this figure so much that he bought it for himself, even though it was pretty expensive as the figure was fairly rare by that time.
I do agree that her mouth seems to be open a little too wide, as if she’s exceptionally hungry and sees a big steak However, it also seems to do a good job conveying her insanity, which seems appropriate since I think a lot of people would agree that Haruhi doesn’t have all her marbles together.
wieselhead
She has a very cool design like that and I can imagine that people even outside the animesphere would find it appealing. Does your friend plays guitar coincidentally?
I actually like Yuki and Mikuru from the set as well, even though I don’t think that I’ll ever get them, I never completed figure sets:D
Well, Im always free to part with my Haruhi. Haha how mean, I always liked Haruhi for being odd and over the top.