Month: October 2017

Grab Box for Boys (S) – Figures

These are the figure items that were in the box.

Asuka Langley

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Probably my favourite item in the box, initially I did have this without the stand, but she does kinda need it over time, so I clipped it to her. Got more used to it, and when posed right, it doesn’t show too much. 

Sonsaku Hakufu

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Only found the variant of this figure on MFC, and not a lot of pics elsewhere on the internet. Found out who she was via the copyright info on the base.

Ayase Eli

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Had the fun of watching this thing wobble whilst I unboxed everything else! Not watched Love Live, so have no attachment to the character. Haven’t had any sensible offers for it, so she’s currently hiding out in a box.

Cagalli Yula Athha

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Was a right arse to get on the base as the legs were bent in too much, and not the greatest paint job. She sits in one of my detolfs, and is part of a series of figures that I have now got three of, all from boxes of random. 

Dizzy

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I like the design of this character. She sits among some other petits in one of my detolfs. 

Shamal

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No familiarity with this character. Getting these things onto the base is a pain! The pegs on the base don’t really do the jobs pegs are supposed to do, and she fell apart once ><. Got there in the end though.

Sheryl Nome

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Prone to some of the issues of the above figure, but is a character I’m mildly more interested in.

And that’s it for figures. Tomorrow will be the hangable/keyring items. 

AmiAmi Grab Box for Boys (S)

The next set of posts are modified from a post I made to MFC… so if you’ve seen it before, that’s where it came from. 

When I ordered this box… I ended up having to wait near-on a month for it to arrive. Post was moving very slowly from Tokyo at that time. 
But arrive it did:

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So, without further ado, here’s what I got.

Loot layers

With AmiAmi grab boxes, they’re put together in layers, with wrapping in between. So here’s shots of the layers. 

Loot layer 0:

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The card was on top of the flaps, not seen that before.

Loot layer 1:

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Loot layer 2:

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Loot layer 3:

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Loot layer 4:

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And here’s the stuff laid out before unpacking everything:

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The next few blog posts will detail the stuff that was in it. 

Sachiel-XX & Chibi Lotus

Now first for a figure I’ve been pondering buying for…. a looong time. Saw it come and go on Mandarake.. saw the price drop on Amazon for awhile, but then it started going back up, so I pulled the trigger and went for it:

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Glad to finally have her, she mildly exceeded my expectations, which is good. She also came with two hands – the one with the blue rod through it, and one that matches her right hand. Yep, deffo going for the more exciting one.

Here’s her back:

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Mildly shiny :). One wing balances on the support, other one doesn’t quite. Also… butt. That was a surprise butt 😛

And here’s a figure I got some time ago, and forgot to stuff in a blog… li’l chibi Black Lotus. Should’ve been posted in my Kuro-Lotus-a-thon! 

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She originally came with a magazine, and frequently is super-expensive. The price I paid was prolly a bit more than she’s really worth, but not gonna be deprivin’ me of food. 

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I did heat-treat some of her parts to get ‘em straight, swords looking a little bent in these photos, so may do those some day (not sure if I did originally). She has a bit more detail than I was expecting, and she stands well on her stand. 

When you can’t be bothered to put your Lego together…

… you can get bootleg lego!

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Found this in TK Maxx. This is based on the Lego set 70780, Protector of Water. Bought it as I was mildly interested to see how it compared to a real Bionicle.

Here’s the back of the packet:

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Yep, I think everyone now knows what it is called!

And just in case you do pull it apart, they were kind enough to include some instructions, located behind the figure:

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And here is the figure itself out of the packet:

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Note that its weapon doesn’t include the “gun” that the real ones do, so hey, at least I won’t be losing the 1-dot pieces. Other than that, it’s mostly faithful to the original by the looks of it, only… cheaper. The head doesn’t fire off as well as the originals I do own, and the plastic feels quite cheap. 

Here’s his back:

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Interestingly, the blue bit is pegged towards his front, instead of his back. 

So… that’s what you get for your £3.50!

Moar Catgirls!

I liked the other two so much… I went and bought the other two :P. The names of this pair are Takayama Maria (one in blue) and Hasegawa Kobato. 

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Hasegawa came with the small bunny rabbit :D. Here’s a slightly more upwards shot:

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Here they are from the back:

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And a more top-down view:

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Probably going to stick with the half-round bases (One came with a furry round base, and the other came with a round chequered, not furry base), and they’re currently sitting with me at the kitchen table until I get more shelving :D. 

Catgirls!

Was browsing MFC and came across this lovely pair for sale. 

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Had seen them previously on MFC, and wanted to get the set, and these came up at a good price, so had to buy. 

This one is called Mikazuki Yozora:

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And the pink one is called Kashiwazaki Sena:

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And here’s a shot from the back:

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They both came with a furry base, but you only really need one for the pair. 

I like these two so much, that I’ve decided to order the other pair in this set from Mandarake. The seller I bought these from had previously sold the other two, so needed to source them elsewhere. 

At the time of writing, I haven’t chosen where to display them, but some stuff may move about so they get a good spot 🙂

AmiAmi Mystery Box – WTF!

And now for the dregs! The stuff that made me wtf, for one reason or another.

Let’s start out with something normal, which I didn’t know what it was at first:

Ooh, pretty card… Was scratching my head until I turned it over, and found it had copious English on it:

It’s a phone card. Don’t think I’ll have an actual use for this, but it’s the kind of phone card you’d potentially buy and not use. Obviously its previous owner didn’t. 

There was a second magnet in the box:

I guess this came with an azone doll… bit of a random thing to throw in, but hey, guess it’d be decorating the warehouse floor if it wasn’t thrown in. Seeing as I don’t buy azone dolls, this is of little interest to me. 

Who fancies something that looks like a watch strap?

But only if you want to declare you’re a tank. Or, uh, drive an M4 Sherman:

… too much Panzermadels there. It’s plastic, and feels sorta cheap (took it out of the box briefly to see what it was like), so it’s not really a quality novelty. 

Now to the most WTF-y… a CD!

So I recognised this as being from Queen’s Blade, especially as it says it across the bottom. Spiral Chaos is a PSP game, and this was an extra. I should imagine at this point, most people, like myself, was imagining this to be a soundtrack CD. Noooo, oh no. This is the oddities post! 

So my research was inconclusive, with some people calling it a “vocal CD”. I thought about trying to sell it as-is, but not being sure exactly what it was, curiosity got the better of me so I opened and played it. And what is it? Just under 7 minutes of some character quotes from the game. No idea what they’re saying, though Google Translate did get some of it! However, chunks of some of the tracks aren’t words. Not sure if the characters are in pain, fighting or um. Well. It’s hard to tell the difference with Japanese women. 

Not sure what I’m going to do with this in the long run. Play it to unsuspecting people? Slip copies of the tracks into people’s music collections? Can’t imagine it has much, if any, resale value. Not surprised it ended up in a box of random tbh! And it didn’t disappoint on the random front!

And that’s yer lot!

AmiAmi Mystery Box – non-figures

So here are the things that aren’t going to be gracing shelves. 

First item visible when I opened the box was this clear file:

It’s shiny and quite colourful, so I plan to keep it and possibly use it for filing paperwork for visiting Tokyo next year. 

Along with this were some Re:Zero game cards:

They all have the same card back, which looks like this:

Not sure what I’ll do with these. Can’t read ‘em. Third one along the top reminds me of Nui, from Kill La Kill though. 

Here’s an acrylic standee from Macross Frontier:

Had to do some research to find out she was called Matsuura Nanase. Not sure if I will keep this. 

Next up is a Sailor Moon charm:

Pretty, but I don’t have any attachment to Sailor Moon. 

Here’s a magnet from Brave Witches. The character is apparently called Karibuchi Hikari:

This particular magnet wasn’t on the MFC database, but there are others in the same set. 

Here’s a Precure Shikishi board. Had one of these before, but this is a different design:

They’re pretty, so I might put them up somewhere… when I can be bothered. Got some other pics to do first!

Here are some straps, this was a double-pack, and the characters are from Idolm@ster:

And this is Kotori from Love Live!:

Finally, for this post we have a playmat, for all your card-game-playing needs:

These characters are from KanColle. 

Mystery box finale coming tomorrow!

AmiAmi Mystery Box

This is the third mystery box I’ve got from AmiAmi, and probably the last one I’ll get for awhile, as I’ve spent rather a bit too much over the year, and this one was the weakest I’ve had. A bunch of this stuff will probably find its way to eBay/Facebook buy-sell on the run up to Christmas. 

First up, the figures. This time all the figures were trading ones. Let’s start with one from a series I know, Fate:

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She’s not a character I particularly have any feelings for

(Irisviel) but, hey, Fate/Zero!

Next up is a Gundam SEED Destiny blind-box character. These seem to keep popping up, and this is the third I’ve ended up with, Mayu Asuka:

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As she’s the bonus extra figure, she came with a choice of two different left arms:

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Here she is, clearly on the phone:

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Paint quality really is quite derp on this one, so I can see why it got traded in. 

Here’s a figure I know, but didn’t take out of the bags:

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She’s Ranka Lee, from Macross Frontier. Looking at this figure on MFC, there’s a part missing. Not a very inspiring figure though, so she might get sold. hence me leaving it in the bag. 

Next up, is a tiny figure I quite like. She’s apparently Shelby from Duel Maid:

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Back:

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She came with two different arm types. Originally she had both sword-holding hands, but she also has splayed ones. Here’s the two not equipped:

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This is apparently Aisaka Taiga from Toradora!:

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She’s cute, she’s catty and I like her. OK, maybe not cute.

Next up, some mecha character called Chiha:

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I have a thing for mecha-ish things, so keeping this one:

Here’s her back:

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Cat… mecha… human… yep, it has it all :P. Well, maybe not trousers. She seems to have forgotten those. 

This is a K-ON! character called Nakano Azusa:

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She looks OK, but I’ve never watched K-ON!, and not likely to change that, so may sell her on. 

And last for the figures, Yagami Tama from something called Sasami-san@Ganbaranai

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Yep. She’s a thing. Don’t have anything to say about this one. 

And that’s it for the figures. Tomorrow, the non-figure items!

Oni Musume III

After the debacle that was the Oni Musume III purchase from Amazon UK, I looked around, and found that my best bet was the blue version from Amazon US. This time it was a fulfilled by Amazon item, so I was a lot more confident it’d be the right one this time!

And it was…

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The right one this time! 

Here’s a side-view showing more of her off:

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And the money shot:

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Nice butt 😛 Glad to finally have her, and it’s nice having the alternate colour scheme, as a contrast to the other one. 

Bishoujo Harley Quinn

Bought this from someone in France, as it was slightly cheaper to do so… and I feel it’s one of those figures that should have been in my collection already. 

So here she is:

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Love the way she’s even got two different two different colours of eye shadow. The hammer has a little peg, which is what keeps it in position, and seems to be working well thus far – she hasn’t dropped her hammer, and it stayed in place when I moved her for photographing. 

Here’s a shot showing off the hammer:

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And one from the other side:

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Love the pose she’s in, the striking colours and the detail in this figure. Kotobukiya put together some really nice figures, and am glad to have this one in my collection.

Parfom Saber

Been seeing these Parfom figures, and been attracted to ordering them, because it’s a rare instance of finding something attractive and cute. This was one of four I had pre-ordered. 

So here she is, outta the box:

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I think they’re a little on the pricey side for what they are, but for the most part, the sculpting and painting is well done, and the articulation seems to work fine, though I’d like a little more range on her left arm for posing. 

She comes with both versions of her sword:

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Which is nice. Though one thing I didn’t picture was the back of the scabbard and sword, as on the former there seems to be a minor bit of a scratch, and there is a bit of misplaced blue paint on the hilt. Not quite enough to bother complaining about for me, as I’m not likely to have the back visible. 

Here’s a side shot of her:

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There is a bit of light marking above her ear, which I’m not convinced is intentional, but again, it’s not really noticeable enough to bother me. 

She also came with 2 other faces, and one other pair of hands (she has a gripping pair and a splayed pair, but I have one of each equipped), and another sword effect:

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By default, she came with the “grim determination” face, but I think the smiling one fits this figure a lot better. 

If you’re prepared to pay a decent bit for a small but detailed articulated figure, then I’d say go for it, if not, I’d give it a pass. I much prefer the proportions on these figures to Nendoroids, so I’d rather pay the bit more for one of these than a Nendo. 

Post-Post-NORCON

After dinner on the same day, my husband got bored, so we went shopping. We arrived at a small shopping complex not long before Smyths shut. In my mad dash around Smyths, I picked up two items.

The first was a zombie chicken jokey:

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He has a large clear plastic bit, to ensure it stands up, which is useful:

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So not so aesthetically pleasing from the side, but I don’t find this to be an issue.

And the second was a Nano Metalfigs Harley Quinn:

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For its size and price, it’s not a bad little figure. If I’m in the vicinity of a Smyths again, I might see if they have any of the other characters I like, but some do look rather suspect. 

We also visited TK Maxx,and I picked up a Suicide Squad Joker figure, for a price I was willing to pay:

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He looks OK, but does have a case of “wanking hand” and nothing to hold. 

Here he is from the back:

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Not too much to see here, but there is detailing on his jacket. 

On the Sunday, we visited a Toys R Us, and I picked up a Domez blind bag. The figure I got was…:

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Bane! My favoured ones would have been Catwoman and Joker, but Bane was a solid option. The sculpt on this is OK, but the paint job is a bit meh (see mostly his right hand…) The white mark is actually a bit of fluff on the dome, rather than a scratch. 

Here’s his backside:

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Bane currently lives as a dash ornament, and seems to stay still on the anti-slip matting, despite my husband’s driving…so he’ll stay there for the time being. Despite the paint job, I may pick up some more of these or the Deadpool ones if I see them at a reasonable price. 

Post-NORCON goodies

After visiting NORCON, I went for a wander around Norwich. 

On my winding way to a comic book shop that I had located via the use of Google Maps, I passed through several interesting shops. My first pickup came from an antiques store, but wasn’t very antique, with a copyright date of 2012:

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He didn’t have a box, but he’s in good condition, and is the Marvel Select Avengers Movie Hulk. This figure manages to have a decent amount of “presence”. 

Second thing was a

Silurian Warrior

from Cash Converters:

Not much of a Dr Who fan, but I do love some of the creature designs. 

When I finally got to the comic book shop, they had a couple of the DC designer figures at a good price, and I chose to buy this one:

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And turn him around….

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Bwah! 

For those who don’t like the Two Face meets Joker head, the “default” one was a much more normal head:

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Side of the head:

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I was also looking at a Harley Quinn, but the paint job on it was a bit suspect, so decided against it. 

NORCON!

Went to NORCON t’other weekend, and came out with much loots. Some at the con itself, and some in Norwich itself. This blog will cover the items I bought at the con

First up, we have Deadpool! An’ a big one at that:

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He’s happy to be outta the box! And apparently famished from the journey to his new home:

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He came with plenty of accessories:

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And two heads. First one is with half-a-mask:

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And the second is this bizarre contraption!

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Which has a movable jaw, and spinning propellor. Here’s a view of the side of this head:

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I also got a Walter White from the same seller:

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And some bonus accessories, of one not mentioned on the box:

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I have one of him in a yellow biohazard suit, but I wanted a Walter that was in his normal getup, so happy to get this one, and cheap too! These Mezco figures do lack articulation, but the sculpts are detailed and well done. There’s some small areas of sloppy paint, but from a small distance, they are some nice-looking figures.

Next we have an Xenomorph Lurker from the Hiya toys.

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Close-up of the xenomorph:

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Closeup of the head detail:

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Close-up of the facehugger:

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Most of the places I’ve seen selling these, the price was too high to bother for such a small figure. On opening and playing with this figure, I’m glad to have not paid more than £15 for it. The detail is nice, but the interchangeable hands, whilst nice, seem a bit overkill for such a figure. The joints, especially at the elbows are a bit awkward. Some of them are a bit reluctant to be joints, and some aren’t particularly stiff, which is probably largely due to the joint type and size. The tail poses nicely.  

Here’s a Borg figure I picked up:

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This figure looked better “in the flesh” than I expected, and the price was right, so I picked it up.

This particular borg figure doesn’t seem to come up for sale as much in the UK as some of the other Playmates ones, and this one looks more detailed and nicer than the other ones. However, the accessories gave me a laugh (they weren’t visible in the packaging):

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Interesting colour scheme they have there! Base isn’t properly painted (skimped around the Borg symbol) and rather cumbersome, so I switched it out for a Reaction base. Ah, figures from the 90s. 

Just as I was leaving, I spotted a Species II figure I considered buying some months ago, then forgot about:

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Side shot:

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She also comes with this standee, but due to its size, this one’s gonna stay in storage, at least for now:

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She also come with a closed-mouth head, but didn’t photograph that. Not too much to see with it. 

Like the Borg figure, this is one that’s easier to get in the US than the UK, and if it does come up for auction, it’s usually a pretty high price, so was happy to get this for a tenner.

And that concludes my NORCON loot!

Kuroyukihime and more Kuroyukihime

… because you can never have too much Kuroyukihime or Black Lotus. 

Bought these two Figmas together from the same seller. The first one I really like, and intend to put her with my Silver Crow Figma, but I need to do some figure rearranging first. Due to her exclusivity she cost a pretty penny, but she’s still cool lol.

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This second one was cheaper, but not sure if it was a good buy or not. 

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She has some nice features – the silver butterflies, the wings and the fact she comes with a tiny li’l Arita avatar:

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However, her skirt is rather odd, and doesn’t feel like it sits quite right, and the umbrella is too heavy, and has a habit of falling, and the bottom wing segments can fall off easily. Maybe I’ll find some way of sortin’ that skirt, lol…

Aki Ross & Deadpool

Went for a trip to the cash point… decided to make a detour to the one place within walking distance that sells figures. Found two things that appealed to me.

First is Aki Ross from Final Fantasy. I haven’t played the FF games, but I liked the look of this character. Also she was cheap 😀

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Second thing I bought was a Deadpool keyring:

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Can’t go wrong with a bit o’ Deadpool!

Death by Embracing

This figure… been wanting this one for a veerrryyy long time, but not been able to justify the cost of it on the secondhand market. At one point, it came up on Solaris Japan for a reasonable price, but then I missed out on it, due to funds.

Then it came up for a reasonable price again a few months ago. So I decided to order it just before I went on holiday, thinking I’d get it just after I got back. Only during the order process I noticed that it was sea shipping. And then thinking I could have ordered it two weeks ago ><, oh well.

So the wait was on. The long, looong wait. So how long was it? 73 days of wait… but totally happy to have it now! 

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Side of the figure:

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And her back:

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What was surprising is that I ordered a secondhand one, but this one seems to have never left the box! Well, she has now :P, and gone to the safety of one of my cupboards. 

The Kuroyukihime part of the figure can be displayed separately, which is a nice touch, but probably not something I’m likely to do. 

Kinda tempted to put an LED in the base, so it glows, but not totally sold on the idea as of yet. Maybe if I move and she’s in a Detolf or something… or I have the wiring/connectivity so it can either be easily toggled on/off outside of the cabinet, or synced up with the room lighting or something. 

So would I do sea shipping again? Probably not, unless the figure price is very touch-and-go to what I want to pay. £10 more for express shipping could quite well be the better option, lol. 

Yummy Keychain

Was donating some stuff in a charity shop, and saw this keyring for 50p:

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Thought it looked cute, so had to get it for my hangables rails. So now I have a happy cup o’ coffee looking down on me :). 

The keyring is by Kidrobot, and is part of the Yummy Breakfast range. 

Kuroyukihime Swimsuit

Saw this on eBay and sent in an offer. After a bit of back-and-forth, a price was agreed on, and now I have her :D. 

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One pretty Kuroyu… uh how does this name go again… Kuroyukihime. Can never spell it. Already looked it up twice in the writing of this blog…

A slightly more top-down view:

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Love this figure, she was unopened, so she came with all the bits, but decided not to sit her on her sand tiles, as there’s not really enough room in the detolf where she’s sat, and she sits just fine on the shelf (I have another sitting Beach Queen, and she’s got a plastic rest on her stand, which is very much needed). 

Going to be getting some more Accel World figures in the post soon, so watch this space for more Accel goodies 😀