Category: Figures

Katsucon Loot

On By Asian EdIn Figures, OtakuLeave a comment

 

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For those who have been following my photo album uploads, you probably noticed that I’d been uploading albums of figures that I’d gotten at Katsucon. Since I finally got to doing photo shoots of the rest of the figures, I decided to put together a short summary of the things I’d picked up.

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First up are the first Figmas in my collection (from left to right: Shana, Saber, and Tsuruya). The first time I saw a write up about them on DannyChoo.com, I didn’t really understand them. Posable figures seemed a bit odd to me, and the ball joints made them look kinda odd. However, when I saw the Kagami Figma from Lucky Star, I figured I’d get one to see what it was all about. That and I wanted my own to take to random places for pictures. It didn’t take me long to find my first purchases, Saber and Tsuruya-san. Once I got them back to the hotel and cracked open the boxes, I was instantly hooked. They weren’t cheap or flimsy as I’d originally expected, but rather well put together. The bendable “cloth” bits were actually made of a soft pliable plastic and all the parts are very solid. Each one comes with different faces for various expressions, hands for different poses, a stand, accessories, and a small ziplock bag to store the extra pieces in.

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Unboxed figmas and accessories
 

I was so impressed that I went back to get the Shana Figma I saw earlier in the day. I think she and Saber will be having sword fights.

IMG_1256En garde!

In addition to the Figmas, I’d found several other gems that I decided to bring home.

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Click on each image for full album

From upper left to lower right: Sakura Matou from Alter, Belldandy from Kotobukiya, Tohsaka Rin from Kotobukiya, Ropponmatsu from Yamato, and Kasumi from Kotobukiya. I’ll probably do more in depth reviews later for each figure, so I won’t bother to do anything in depth here.

Although I managed not to get anything that was on my buy list, I still managed to spend a lot of money. I did, however, come close to buying the Gift Saber that was on my list. I saw her at one of the sellers booth but hesitated on price (she was marked at $140). Since I thought the tag was a bit high, I decided to come back later. By the time I came back, she was gone – I’d apparently missed her by a couple of minutes. Even though I knew the price was too high, I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t have the opportunity to make the decision on my own. So I did the next best thing. As soon as I got home, I put in the order to HLJ to have it shipped to me. In total, the figure cost me 8609 Yen, which is around $92. In the end, someone saved me $48 by buying her before I got the chance to! ^.^

Kokoro unboxing

On By Asian EdIn Figures1 Comment

Special thanks given to ravnel at DannyChoo.com for giving me the opportunity to own this figure.

I got out of work a little early today so I could enjoy the sunshine. When I got home, I found a nice surprise in my mailbox. The Kokoro figure that I’d bought from another user on DannyChoo had arrived! Each unboxing is a special event, and this was no different. Since she was still new and unopened, she still had that new figure smell.

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Once I’d removed her, it was time to take some photos. She comes with several options, so there was room for experimenting! At first, I had her positioned in front of a window to get the natural light effects.

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The cast off pieces are pretty easy to remove. She comes with extra ribbons to complete the swimsuit look, as well as a strap for the top. Additionally, she comes with an umbrella and a base. All of the parts are extremely detailed and very well made.

Then I realized there was a far better place in the room… the wall opposite of the window. In order to get the best light, I had to act fast, as the sun was setting.

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Pictures came out a bit yellow, but adjusting the white balance gave a much better look
 
For more photos, click through to the album. She even had a special guest join her for this occasion!
 

The girls (and cats) of ARIA

On By Asian EdIn FiguresLeave a comment

Today I decided to pull out the nicest (and hardest to find) set of figures in my collection to date. Meet Akira Ferrari, Alicia Florence, and Akari Mizunashi from ARIA. Toysworks had done a 1/6 scale series of figures coinciding with the release of ARIA -The Natural- and in total feature all 6 of the main undines. I’m very impressed with the quality on these figures and they’re the only ones that come preassembled to the base and are actually mounted with screws:

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I was lucky enough to find Alicia and Akira up on eBay while Akari came from a dealer at Animazement two years ago.

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves!

It’s a matter of scale

On By Asian EdIn Figures, Otaku1 Comment

I’ve been taking a look at some of my figures lately and noticed something interesting. It seems that different manufacturers have different measurements of scale. Take a look at these photos…

IMG_0851 Figures labeled as 1/8 scale

IMG_0855 Figures labeled as 1/6 scale

While the differences between the 1/8 figures aren’t very noticeable (they seem to fit well together), the differences in height on the 1/6 figures is pretty significant. Some of the differences don’t even make sense. From left to right, the character heights are: Akira – 168cm, Onda Aka – unknown (but is fairly petite), Belldandy – 165cm, and Tohsaka Rin – 124cm (Fate/Zero), 159cm (Fate/Stay). No matter how you look at it, Akira should be tallest figure, followed by Belldandy, then Rin. Somehow, Rin is completely oversized and Belldandy is far too small.

But it doesn’t stop there. Even among the 1/8s, there is some discrepancy.

shana Max Factory (left) and Beat (right) Shana

Here are two 1/8 scale figures of the same character (different manufacturers). If you were to pull the right figure upright, she would come out to be taller than the one on the left. All these differences make me wonder how the figures are made, and how they’re sized… Is it arbitrary?