Hi people after a break of nearly two weeks Im back with a new figure named Buddy on review.
Buddy is a 1/8 scaled figure manufactured by ALTER, she was released in November 2010.
The origin of Buddy is a visual novel and a 3D rpg game called “VOICE FROM HAR MEGIDDO” developed by Leaf and published by Aquaplus for the PC in 2008.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QK2jpFEpX8&NR=1
Surprisingly Buddy is one of the bad guys in this game, she is described as a timid and emotionless person. In the game she is teamed up with a guy named Swen whose commands she obeys unconditionally. Judging from my little research in gameplay videos and CG pictures Buddy isn’t that bad at all, she just met the wrong persons in life. Later she even helps the good party members, after they treated her in a friendly manner.
As Buddy was announced I was very interested in her, but in the end I became unsure about ordering her and didn’t do it on the release date. After looking at Tier’s review and shortly after that at Visiual Fanfare’s review of Buddy I got the feeling that I really missed a figure I should have in my collection. Nowadays preordering a figure soon enough is essential when you want a copy and don’t want to pay horrendous prices afterwards on ebay or local online shops.
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Well there are exceptions where nice figures also can be found in the bargain bin, its very unpredictable nowadays. After I searched for remaining Buddy figures on the net, the popular shops said Sold out sold out sold out. Local online shops from my region wanted up to 110€ for her, but I wanted her for a better price, in march 2011 I discovered an auction of her at ebay in new condition with unopened box for something around 84€ *Yeah*.
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Now lets start with Buddy’s review, in comparison with anime related figures Buddy shows a rather serious than cute face expression, my personal highlights are her slanted eyes and the detailed sculpted lips of her, from different angles you can interpret her face with feelings of uneasyness, sadness or coldhearthness. Her detailed sculpted long hair is painted in a pale pink colortone and two of her strands are styled in a funny looking corkscrew shape.
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Buddy wears a beautiful navy blue dress with jags in different lenghts, on the four longer outer jags there are placed transparent blue gemstones on metallic painted straps. The dress has a simple yet elegant look, the fine white ornaments and outer lines are painted very accurate and clean ALTER did an impressive job here. I like the sleeves with the big collars a lot, the lower part of her dress is two layered the layer below is black. Under her dress Buddy wears plain black panties and dark blue stockings which reach very high. At her hands she wears fingerless gloves and a big black ribbon is attached at the back of her head. The whole dress from the collar to the shoes, has a very matching style, all these wrinkles, shading and the flow give her dress have a very dynamic look and feel.
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To me the legs of this figure appear rather short, well maybe its because Buddy is still a young girl or the the stockings let appear her legs short, I don’t really know. Her stance and especially the position of her right arm shows that the scythe she’s using as her main weapon is a bit heavy and hard to handle for a small personal like Buddy, but in the discription its said that she is very skilled in using the scythe.
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On first look Buddy’s appearance is mainly menacing, her upfront dress with the visibly belly and panties as well as her bare back and shoulders add sexyness to this figure, additional to this her corksrew hairstyle and the big ribbon behind her head also shows traces of cuteness.
This figure is a nice one, the dress has a creative and well made design. Buddy shows an very expressive face expression beautiful eyes. I have to admit that the pose of Buddy isn’t the most creative one, she just stands her holding her scythe, but in terms of sculpting and proportions its very well executed. The also very well executed paintjob is done without any big flaws, so far I couldn’t find one. The base is a round and made of pink clear plastic, the cogwheel pattern on it looks really nice, maybe with a second non transparent colortone on it I would like it more.
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Not that I care much about it, but Buddy is a nonfamous character of a not so popular PC game, I would like to know how ALTER came to the idea to make a figure of her, maybe the boss came in and said “I played a game recently, lets make a figure of my favorite character!” XD
Special thanks to Sutekiii and his friend ariel_newworld for translating the few character informations about Buddy for me from the official website.
Two other reviews can be found at tentaclearmada and visualfanfare
See you next time, thx for your interest 😉
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ObsidianKing
I wished i had pre-ordered this too. I was interested in this about a month after it was released, but could not find it anywhere. You my friend, are one lucky person.
wieselhead
hi thx for stopping by ObsidianKing,I think they unfortunately produced not enough figures of her.
I was just lucky to find her after some time
Leonia
I really like colors of this figure, and her expression ^^ This is a nice sculpture ! Nice shooting, I like the picture 4.
wieselhead
Oh thx for visiting again long time no see, how are you?
thank you =)
luth
Very nice pictures! Especially love picture 16, the rim lights on her legs look awesome! There are some other really cool looking characters in the game, hopefully Alter makes at least 1 or 2 more!
wieselhead
Thank you very much, the characterdesign looks really nice I think,
Sloth
I absolutely love the way light bounces off the scyth and the highlights of her dress in http://wieselhead.de/wp-content/gallery/buddy/Buddy%20b%20(15).jpg
I personally find it a little hard to consider a dress with a front opening to expose underwear elegant. The other parts of the dress are interesting and the curl at the end of her fair is adorable though.
I have to say though, I found the backgrounds and props you used in this review less fitting for the figure.
wieselhead
Hi Sloth, thx thx ;D
Thats a point the upper part looks at least elegant I would say.
Yeah I had big problems in finding the right light setting and my Idea with the lanterns in the background didn’t worked like I imagined, the with lighter background suits her better than the dark one.
Fabrice
I am still undecided, Visual fanfares review really convinced me that yes its worth it, since then well i forgot about her, stupid of me because alter did a great job on her and i do love your pictures, that purple lighting sure fits in =) anyway ill reconsider when things get a little better with japan especially in terms of currency rate ^^
wieselhead
thx for your praise Fabrice =)
Well its up to you if you really want her or not. 🙂
I would say that only the not so creative poses speaks against getting her.
my probably now more expensive preorders will hit me in April, Im not happy about the higher yen, but it can’t be helped I want these 3 figures
tabetaiii
wow, a very nice and detailed review accompanied by lovely photos
. Idk how I missed this figure, since wow. It’s just amazing.
http://wieselhead.de/wp-content/gallery/buddy/Buddy%20b%20(15).jpg is one of my favourite shots
I think you mean 2010 btw, not 2011 XD
wieselhead
thx a lot suteki 😉
Im glad you like her
oh right 2010 haha
GREW
Nice review ^^
I want that Buddy too.
But I’m waiting until she get’s cheaper here.
She is not a hard to want, but still would be nice to own her. I like her eyes and the color.
And it’s a Alter.
wieselhead
Hi GREW and thx a lot 🙂
Ah I see, well I agree she’s not a must have unless you really like the style of her.
her eyes are really nice and expressive
Zai
Ahhh.. she’s so pretty and congratulations on getting her! I want her so badly but unfortunately she came out at a time when we couldn’t really afford her so I had to miss out.
I think that her hair is my favourite thing about her.. the little curls, the big ribbon and the colour of it are all gorgeous to me.
My favourite photo of her is Buddy b (4).. mmmm.. nice hair~!
wieselhead
thank you, I was happy to get her in the end =D
can’t you find her in your region? maybe on australian ebay, or are the prices unfair?
Yeah pink hair is great, light or darker toned I like it on figures 😉
thx I took around 200 pics but only 50 were ok this time it was hard handle the lighting 🙁
Yi
Lovely review and photos!
This figure is wonderful. I really like her serious cold expression with that cute face! I also love her outfit. It’s elegant and a bit revealing, and shows just enough to be super sexy. But yea, that menacing stare… Brings out the M in me.
wieselhead
thank you 🙂 and also thx for stopping by.
haha I see Im glad you like her.
Her face looks very pretty, it was probably the main reason I bought her
BioToxic
I think Buddy is a figure most of us missed out on. Like you I was initially interested in her but decided against getting her in the end; her pose was just too plain. But now having seen different reviews I would like to try get a hold of her. Congrats on getting hold of her at a reasonable price ^^.
For me picture 17 really sells her sculpt. Her uncovered back is very sexy from that angle and her slender body really jumps out.
All her finer details look fantastic, from her shoe buckles to the curls in her hair. Her face is also really cute, even though it is a bit plain and expressionless.
wieselhead
Hi BioToxic
Ah I see thx Im glad that I was able to get her
Im glad that you like it, its also one of my favorite pictures.
Oh, I think it is a very expressive face expression she is showing, but no happy one :I
Tier
Buddy is a great figure that I haven’t seen much of on the internet. I think she had one of the quietest releases of any figures Alter has done recently. I’m glad to see her get love since she’s one of my favorite figures.
wieselhead
Yep, In terms of advertising GSC is the only figure Company which appears to be more active.
Ashlotte
Alter occasionally makes some rather random figures…They used to do it more in the early years it felt then now, but they can still surprise us!
As far as the shots go I have to say http://wieselhead.de/wp-content/gallery/buddy/Buddy%20b%20(22).jpg is my favorite…It has a very ethereal feeling to it and the angle is great!
wieselhead
Its interesting that they chose to make a sidecharacter from a not so popular game, maybe the Game Company asked Alter to do it.
Oh thx the people at Deviantart liked this picture the most, maybe I should post it on mfc as well 😉
Aya
this art 😀
wonderful Buddy =) really love the design, my fave will be this shot really shown her detail.
wieselhead
Hi Aya, hehe yeah the CG looks really nice there =) Yep she’s so pretty, thx a lot
anonymous_object
Mmmm, Alter continues to keep the quality standard high. This is a lovely figure indeed and your photos are great as usual ^^. Although I know nothing of her character or the game, it’s a very appealing figure. Thanks for sharing 🙂
wieselhead
thx for stopping by 🙂
Yep she’s a high quality figure
oh domo domo =)
MkMiku
Wow, she’s beautiful! I really liked the weapon and expression on her face. I normally don’t like girls with red hair, but she has a really interesting design.
wieselhead
Oh a new face, thanks for visiting =)
Yep she’s a really nice and cool looking figure.
glad that you like her as well
Nopy
I don’t recall seeing the release info for this figure, but it might have been because I didn’t know the character. It sounds like her facial expression fits her perfectly, and I love how nicely her skirt and legs were sculpted.
wieselhead
She wasn’t advertised that much and I guess her character isn’t well known out there, I would still like to know how she cameinto Alters lineup.
Even though she isn’t well known, she looks great 🙂
BluRay
Great review. I think this figure well deserves the praise. Also her base is pretty awesome when looked at through the light.
Ah yeah. Her release was kind of hidden by other bigger releases. On top of that, being from a relatively obscure title, not a lot of people were that interested in her.
wieselhead
Thx for your visit Im glad you like the review =)
The base is nice but imo a bit plain.
She’s a great figure even though a bit unpopular.
samejima
wow.. after watching the opening movie, I wish this game will be animated just like h-games from the same company of Toheart, Utawarerumono, ComiPa, or Tears to Tiara. The characters are really cute.
And again, your photos got nice lighting. I should write photoreviews again soon. :O
wieselhead
Hi samejima, ywah an anime adaption of this game would be nice 😉
thx for your praise yeah you should do that if you
can find the time.
Miette-chan
So that’s where she is from, I remember seeing her when she was released but never did actually look up her source material. I like that Alter will do somewhat obscure characters every now and then.
Anyways, I like the face looks pretty cool. Pretty neat with the different backdrops on your pictures too.
wieselhead
I guess It’s nice to see figures you’ve never seen before ^_^.
thank you
duqs
despite being oh so not so famous, i still appreciate the character design =D
This scantily clad lady looks kuudere, and i think the figure was able to bring that to life. I’m pretty sure the series has a following and it’ll be animated sooner than we all think XD (its leaf and aquaplus after all)
wieselhead
Yeah looks quite pretty…dont get me wrong it doesn’t bother me that she’s not so famous ^^.
Well there are people that need to know the origin of a figure before they’ll buy her, but
I’m mainly interested in the overall look.
Oh you think so, that would be really cool if this game would get animated =)
Kyle
I am not familiar with the PC game nor the character at all, but I always loved how this figure looked. I am glad you got your hands on one.
Your pictures are amazing! I can definitely see her change of emotions with the different pictures angles. Nice work!
wieselhead
Hi Kyle
thx I’m glad as well that I got her in the end ^^
Im also glad you’ve noticed the different emotions in the different angles, thx a lot 🙂