Month: April 2018

Figure Spotlight: Figma Silver Crow

To complete the three “larger” Silver Crow figures that exist, here is Figma Silver Crow:

He has an extra-tall stand, which is great for displaying him. I love the lithe body on this silver crow, and Figma excel at the thinner body types imo. His wings look nice too, but I’ve always had a problem with one wing getting it to stay in good places, and it has always had a habit of dropping down. The second one has got a bit worse over time. It’s a bit of a shame, because he looks really good with his wings posed properly, but if he’s statically placed, you can use some putty to support the wings in place. Here, I managed to get them to stay in the positions shown. 

Left side:

Looks good. His knee joints are rather visible, which will likely put some people off. 

Right side:

Here it seems I went for a non-charged gauntlet… showing his other forearm accessory choice. Both look good. 

Back:

Some nice scuplting on his upper back. Here you can see the pegs which have the hinge in, for the wings. The weight of the wings has a tendency to pull them down. Might be possible to add a layer of polish on the pegs, to prevent them slipping down. There are some metal covers which partially hide the hinges. 

Close-up of a wing:

Nice and silvery :). Only downside of these is seeing the S. H. Figurarts and admiring the effect they achieved on those. 

There are some transparent “charge” effects you can put on his arms, but these kept falling off All. The. Time. so they went back into storage, and I couldn’t be bothered with the fiddling to get them back onto his arms for the photo shoot.. sorry. Definitely one of the downsides to this figure. Overall, the base figure is very nice though, and I would recommend this one for anyone who wants a Silver Crow figure. 

Silver Crow – S. H Figuarts

So… more Crow! This time we have the S. H. Figuarts version, so not much assembly here!

He’s noticeably darker than all the other Silver Crow figures I have. His wings are set into a transparent layer of plastic though, which can give them a “floating plate” look from certain angles. I really dig this effect. 

Close-up of one of those wings:

Here you can see the shininess from the plastic coat on the wing. Also you can see the joint mechanism – this articulates well, and is definitely one of the strengths of this figure. 

Left side:

Here you can see the “floating plate” look. Yeah, I didn’t do good in posing this for the photo shoot… his hand is looking a bit broken :P. The details on his arms are good, and he looks streamlined from the side. No complaints here.

Right side:

Here we can see the “charged” arm piece. Looks OK from this distance, but looks a bit “cheapy” close-up. He has a hand replacement for the “full” blast, but I wasn’t a big fan of that, so have left his “chopping”  hand on. 

Back:

Back details are OK. Nothing much to comment on here. Stand goes in firmly, and holds him well. 

Close-up of the arm blast:

A little bit messy in the middle, and the blue semintranslucent stuff looks a bit iffy. 

“Charged” arm on the other side:

Grasping hand looks good, and this forearm looks better than the other imo. But I’m a sucker for the charge effect. 

Overall, I like him, but wish he were paler like the other figures. His midriff looks a little odd-shaped, and could’ve done with better matching in the sculpt with the other bits, but suspect this may’ve been done to assist with articulation. If I could have his wings on another Silver Crow, I’d really like that. If you like his appearance, I can recommend this figure, but I don’t think his overall look is nicer than the others. 

Silver Crow – Bandai Figure Rise 6 Model Kit

I ordered this from Suruga-ya… then found I could’ve got it cheaper on Mandarake. Not sure if it was in stock when I first looked. However, I got this for around the same price as the Black Lotus kit, so I don’t feel like I overpaid. 

Here’s the completed Crow:

I do like the look of this Silver Crow. The silver stickers also worked better than I expected, which is a nice touch. The wings do have some plastic flaws in them from the moulding process though. 

Close-up of his face:

His mask is almost a bit too see-through, so you can see he doesn’t have a face. The green bits on his shoulders are stickers, along with anything silver. 

Left:

Though viewing his mask from the side is pretty cool – does look like there’s a head in there from this distance. The wings aren’t poseable sadly, so they’re stuck at this angle, if you equip them. There is the option to display him without them, though, if you prefer. I think the angle is a good choice, so not overly bothered by the lack of movement within the wings. 

Right:

Here I have the blast arm parts equipped – I think these look good. The upper arm needs to be specially constructed, but the lower part simply fits onto her hand. 

From the back:

His back looks good, but his wings… have plastic-saving holes. Would’ve been nice if this part was flat, or had a part to clip onto the back of the wings to cover it up. 

Here’s Silver Crow’s arm in combat mode, without the blast: 

Looks pretty cool and bulky. 

Close-up of the arm with the blast:

The blast replaces the “forked” parts of the bracer. 

Overall, I’m pleased with the result of this kit. He’s decently poseable, but the clip part that allows him to stand on the stand could do with being a fraction taller – he just about stands with this, but it’s a bit of a squeeze. If you don’t want him standing, then you have a few more options I feel. 

Black Lotus – Bandai Figure-Rise 6 Model Kit

Now for the first model kit I constructed. I have done these model kits in the opposite order, as I have some more Accel World goodies coming up.

So, here she is:

In her black, kind-of-annoying-to-photograph form! She wasn’t too bad to build – main annoyance was ensuring I was building the parts for combat mode instead of “normal” mode. Near the beginning I made a mistake, but I was able to rectify it pretty easily. She’s not really swappable between forms – you have to pick one or the other when building. Seeing as I prefer combat mode, I went for that one. Gotta have moar purple and longer swords!

Left side:

The blasts hold reasonably well. They simply wedge onto her blades. Bottom ones can come loose if she gets nudged. The blocks on the back of her legs have two ways they can sit, to show and hide the purple parts. The purple protrusions from her head have black stickers on them, to make them purple and black, and that came out well. 

Right side:

I do like the way the arms came out – they’re really cool. 

Back:

Some lovely lininess going on. The purple part on her skirt was the bit I missed at the beginning – ended up putting in the “normal” mode one, then realising it wasn’t “plug n play”, and I had to pick during construction. 

She also comes with some landing “splash” effects, if you want to pose her, as if she’s coming in to land:

Imo, they look pretty cool, and love the fact they included them:

Here’s a close-up of her head:

In which you can see the three stickers adhered to the fins on her helmet, to make them appear as they do. 

Close-up of her upper half:

I like the shininess of the stickers provided – they really add to the figure, though I balls’d up the gem in the middle a bit. She also has some extra purple plastic accents on her arms and shoulders here, for the combat mode. 

Am really happy with the finished result. She’s articulated quite well too, so you can do all sorts of posing with her too. Is quite cool, building your own articulated kit. Certainly happy with this kit, and will be building more Figure Rise 6 kits in future. 

VF-31F Siegfried (Messer Ihlefeld’s) – Macross Delta – Bandai Model Kit

Now for my new “thing” – model kits! I bought two larger kits from one of my favourite series, and stuck this in on a Mandarake order on a whim. 

After a lot of bitching at stickers later, I had this:

Next time I’m totally going to be using my tweezers to help out with the stickers, and there will be a next time! The pictures were pretty easy to follow, despite me not reading a word of Japanese. You do need to look carefully to work out what’s going on though, if you can’t read what’s being said.

Here it is from the other side, similar angle:

Quite happy with the end result, but I would’ve liked to get that cockpit sticker a bit flatter. It’s amazing how the stickers transform it from being a boring, grey and white plastic model to something quite colourful. 

From the top:

Looks pretty neat from the top. Not sure if the logo is quite in the right place – I did centre the logo on the centre of the plane, but the wing does just touch that black line on the other sticker. Also you can see where the cockpit doesn’t quite align. 

Side shots:

Looks nice in profile. Some very small stickers with writing on, to tell you that it’s a VF-31 Siegfried. One cool thing about this stand is that the peg that goes into the craft is on a ball joint, so you can angle it however you’d like and turn it around. 

From the back:

Engines look OK, though lack of fire :P. The small block on the back of the stand can go into the bottom of the fighter, if you don’t wish to have it on the stand. I love the fact they provided a space for this block on the back of the stand, so you don’t lose it. What I love less is the fact that I ended up putting this block in during the building of this craft, then I had to get some hooked pliers to get it back out again :P. Wasn’t so bad as I had some on hand. I guess the instructions may’ve said something about what it was for, but oops. 

After completing it, I quite like this craft. It is very small (10cm/4″ from the engines to the tip of the cockpit), but it cost me the grand total of £4.08, so I can’t complain about the price. I enjoyed building it enough, that I’ve ordered some more. They’re quite quick to build (at least for a model kit), so if I’ve got an hour or so spare, then I can entertain myself with building one of these! 

Aquaman, Superwoman, Spider-Gwen – Nano Metals Die Cast

And here we have the only other figure-related items I bought during Toys R Us’s closing. 

First up, Aquaman:

Paint on this figure isn’t too bad, though the trident with the green bits between the tines is a bit odd, but can understand they moulded it like that so the tines wouldn’t be too brittle. Not sure if the gaps would have been better as green or black. Green does kind of blend in, with the green base & legs of Aquaman. With these figures, they don’t have painted mouths, but honestly, that’s a better option than a poorly drawn squiggly line that can stand to make the figure look even more “off”. One thing I don’t like is the trident wasn’t painted on the back, but I don’t think I’ll be looking at the back much. What’s more annoying is they didn’t paint his belt – they had gold paint for the trident, so why didn’t the belt get painted, darnit? Hunting down a prototype shot, they painted his belt orange. Sigh. 

Next figure is Superwoman:

Looks like the front of the cape had a bit of a hard live, plus some flesh paint slop on the underside of her leg. Not too bad for a small figure though – logo is passable for this nano size. Back of her looks fine. 

Lastly, Spider-Gwen:

This one has no mouth, so this was a perfect fig for them! Paint is OK, but definitely a little sloppy in places. Amazingly, her back white paint came out well. There is some scratches on the base, but these were present from the moment I bought it – these were all last-on-the-peg figures. 

These figures are honestly fine for their super-cheap price point. Though if you have a selection to look at, I’d recommend leafing through for the best painted you can find, as the paint jobs do vary. 

Bob’s Burgers – Collectable Figure Pack

This figure pack I bought in Toys R Us’s closing down “sale”. When I looked up prices online, it was mildly cheaper buying it there, than to buy online, so yay, win. This pack is optimistically labelled “Series #1″, but who knows if there will be a series 2 of these figures. 

First up, Bob himself:

The sculpt is.. OK. The paint is… OK. It’s mostly within the lines, and it does look like Bob.

Next, Linda:

She seems to have jumbo-sized glasses, but she does seem to be painted well. Sculpting fairly typical of something blind-bag quality. 

Now for Gene:

He has some stray paint issues, plus a couple of marks on his shoes/socks. He stands up OK, and looks like Gene. Yup. 

Tina:

She looks pretty decent, but there could’ve been better delineation between her top and skirt. Would’ve been better to have a joint there, just like the other figures. Also she has a bad stray paint mark on her back. 

Lastly, we have Louise:

This figure has no chance of standing up :|. Not sure what they were thinking when they designed this figure, and didn’t give these figures some kind of stand. Paint app on the front is fine, but a bit lumpy on the back of her hat. I thought Linda was hard to stand up… but then came Louise with her micro-feet. She’ll definitely have to stand in some white tack :/. 

Would’ve been nice if they learned from the Japanese and gave these figures either ball stands or clip stands to help them stay up. It’s not like the backs of these figures have anything remarkable that’d be ruined by a hole for a ball stand… 

I bought these figures for £11.89, and honestly that’s too much for these figures. One site quoted the RRP as £16.99, and that’s just rip-off. These figures are on a par with blind bags that retail at £2 a pop. If it wasn’t the fact they’re Bob’s Burgers, and there’s a lack of good Bob’s Burgers loot, I wouldn’t have bothered buying them tbh. At least they’re better quality than the Regular Show figures. I’d only recommend these if you find them going for super-cheap somewhere, or if you really have to have some Bob’s Burgers loot. 

Rider – Fate/Zero

In my Suruga-ya order, I had two Rider figures. 

First one one is a chibi-style figure by Taito:

The paintwork is nice on this one, and she’s OK for a chibi.

Side shot:

Knife-onna-spike looks nice, hair seam, kinda average.

Back:

Some sculpting to convince us that she has hair. 

Now for a trading figure by GSC:

This one is really nice, but she hasn’t had the easiest life. There is a few marks on her. Thought I ordered the masked version, but looking back at my order… I didn’t. Oops. Her colours are represented well in this figure, and there’s some nice details in the moulding – with the secions on her boot, and the wrinkles in her clothes. Her face is nicely painted too. 

Back:

Some lovely shades going on in her hair, plus detail in the way it has been represented as strands. Her dagger has been well-sculpted, and looks nice. Really pleased with this figure, despite it being her non-blindfolded version. 

Accel World – Kuroyukihime

This is an “odds n’ sods” blog of two items. First up, we have a keyring of Kuroyukime:

She’s in her school avatar outfit, which has been rendered nicely in a simplified form. She was added to a Mandarake order, to fill it up to the customs threshold. Glad I added her. 

And another Kuroyukihime in figure form:

This one was in my Suruga-ya order, because she was cute and pouty :P. 

From the side:

Bit of mould markings. The arm with the shirt was a pain – it didn’t want to stay in. Finally got it in and staying though.

Back:

Her hair looks OK for a trading figure. She was pretty much order filler, but she’ll find a space among some of my other trading figures. The paintwork is OK, but she’s nothing special. 

And that’s my random bits featuring Kuroyukihime :). And I think I’ve finally learned to spell her name, with English letters at least.

Toy’s Works Collection – Accel World

This set of figures I came across on Suruga-ya, and had to buy. There are two Toy’s Works sets for Accel World, but the other one was more expensive, and this one I actually wanted more, as it has characters I don’t have in figure form. 

Let’s start with Ash Roller, stalking into battle:

The paintwork is pretty decent on these, Love the red and yellow flames.

Here’s a second Ash Roller, who is supposed to be giving a thumbs-up:

His thumb is pointing towards the camera, as I accidentally had his arm tilted down a bit. 

Side shot showing the flame pattern on his leg, and white-flame skull:

Back:

Nice pair of Ash Roller figures. Wish this guy had a scale/prize figure, especially as he’s one of the iconic characters. 

Now for Ash Roller’s nemesis/friend, without wings:

The shiny silver paint has been done really well, and all the armour details seem to be there. Lovely, cute figure.

And here he is with his wings deployed:

Love the flying sideways pose. And his visor is shiny enough to see me in it :P. Love this figure too. 

Lastly, Cyan Pile:

Looking menacing with his pile driver. Here’s the side of it:

And his other side:

And his back:

Nice fan detail on the back of his driver, plus lots of little details in his armour.

These small figures are very nicely done. Really glad I got these, the quality of these is good, which is great for a series that doesn’t really get a lot of figures for most of its characters (wouldn’t expect the cameos to get them, but nothing for Ash Roller? Pfft). They aren’t what I’d class as poseable (mostly just head movement), but I don’t think they really need to be, as the poses are pretty cool. 

Caster – Banpresto DXF figure

This is Giles de Rais, who was the caster in Fate/Zero:

And most of the reason I did a forwarded order from Suruga-ya. And man, I shouldn’t have been ignoring this guy – he’s a really nice figure, and heavy! The paintwork on this figure is really nice, and the details are good. My main gripe is that his underskirt isn’t recessed, so the colour change on his robe looks odd. At first I wasn’t sure why it was like that, but looking up pictures of him, his robe is formed of two layers, one darker than the other. 

Here is a close-up of the marks on his arm:

The lines have been nicely done, and do look like he’s carved them into his arm. The shading is really nice on his hand, the rings look good when you’re facing him, but here you can see where they chickened out of painting them between his fingers. 

Close-up of his face:

Yep, looking like his crazy self! I love his oversized robe, with the insane collar. 

Before we look at his other angles, let’s have a good look at that book of his:

Love the sculpting on this. Everything has been painted well, with minimal slop. Love the attention to detail they’ve put into this part of him. 

Left side:

Love the blue highlights on the cowl. Here you can see there is some concession to marking out his under-robe, but it sort of falls short for me. 

Right side:

Here it almost looks like the upper robe is recessed instead of the under-robe. No wonder i was confused initially. Lovely shading accents throughout his robe, on all layers. Really adds to the detail, and gives this figure a scale feel. 

Back:

The fabric on his cape hangs well, and looks good with the blue highlight. 

Overall I’m really happy with this figure. Don’t think I could ask for much better. Just for that under-robe really! I’d recommend this figure, if you can get a hold of it. Most of the Fate/Zero DXF figures are hard to get hold of now. 

Sonia Blanche – Shining Beach Heroines – FREEing S-Style

Lastly, we have Sonia Blanche:

Originally I didn’t order this one, as I wasn’t aiming to collect the set. Then I decided I wanted all the S-Style figures, so I waited until she was near release for pre-orders to re-open. She came up on Nippon Yasan, pay immediately. So I did. Then a few days later she got delayed a month. D’oh. Out of the three, I think this one is the least visually interesting. She does seem very happy to see the beach though! I think she has a nice bikini top, and the bows on her shoes are very nice. 

Left side:

Plenty of side-boob going on there. And she has some nicely sculpted bows on the side of her bikini bottoms. Her hairs have strands to them, making it a lot less plain than just one moulded section. The ponytail towards the front of her hair is a nice touch. 

Right side:

She isn’t hiding too much ;). Her hair looks good from this angle imo. 

Back:

I think the hair works well on this figure. The back of this figure is sculpted well, and painted well. Not too much to say really!

Overall, I’ve warmed up to this figure since owning her, but I still think she’s the visually least interesting of the three, so I’d only recommend her to anyone who wants a Sonia Blanche figure, or people who are nutters like me who are collecting the set. She’s definitely not the worst of the set – there isn’t anything wrong with her imo, unlike some of the others, she’s just a happy beach figure. 

Rinna Mayfield – Shining Beach Heroines – FREEing S-Style

Next up, Rinna Mayfield:

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Uh, wait, something seems to be wrong with this… Hair is not supposed to defy gravity… 

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Ah, that’s better! That looks like the prototype shots! I totally didn’t have to redo these shots at a later date, owing to not noticing her head was on backwards… Nope. Nosiree. What attracted me to this one was her interesting pose and nice combination of colours. In the promo shots the swimsuit looked blue, but I think this more turquoise colour works better. I like the way her hair hangs – with one ponytail flicking upwards, and one dangling down. 

Other side:

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Bit of a gap where her leg connects to her body. I love the hairbands – they look like flowers to me, and here is a close-up of them:

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The hair is also nice – enough detail to make it look like hair to me, and the shading is nicely done. 

Front of her body:

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Ended up focusing on her hair braid, but that’s probably the most exciting part of this angle. Little bit of globby paint visible, but not noticeable unless you’re looking for it. Here you can see where she’s scratching her ear/head. 

Back:

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Her backside looks good, not much to report on this angle. She does look to lean a bit with her legs though.She doesn’t seem to be standing in the stablest of angles, with her toes pointed inwards, but she is in a turning position. 

Top:

Here you can see the way her hair flows over hr back – I like the way they did this. The top of her hair seam isn’t the best though. It’s sort of hidden near her ear, but less so on the very top of her head. There aren’t any seam issues on her back. 

Close-up of her bikini:

Love the bow dangling down from it, and there’s some wrinkle lines. It also sits on her, instead of being a part of her, which is nice. 

Overall, I really like this figure now that I’ve figured her head was on backwards.The paintwork is really nice, with a good choice of colours, and her pose is dynamic and interesting. 

Excela Noa Aura – Shining Beach Heroines – FREEing S-Style

Finally the Shining Resonance S-Style figures were released, after a month’s delay. 

First up, we have Excela Noa Aura:

The thing that attracted to me was her colour scheme – love the black-purple-pink, with her grey hair complementing them. Her pose isn’t overly exciting, but it does convey personality. She has an anklet, which is a nice added detail, and I love the bow on her swimsuit top. 

Left:

Not too much to see here, but a good body shape. I love the ruffled skirt. 

Right:

Not sure how well these high-heels will work on the beach… The bows in her hair are nice though, and match the bands around her arms. She also has a small black bow on her skirt. 

Back:

Some concession to sculpting in her hair, but it has emphasised a mould line, sadly. Her back is nice though – I think the join lines are nicely concealed, and the shading is good. Her hair strands flow nicely around her, as if she’s just turned her head. 

I love this figure, mostly for the colours. Would’ve been nice if her hair bows were more visible from the front – in her promo pics I did wonder what kind of hair accessory they were, as they looked flatter/straighter. Now I have her, they’re clearly bows on her hair ties. She seems quite a reserved character, so I see her as being on the edge of the beach. 

Swamp Thing – DC Deluxe Action Figure

This one I picked up on a recent trip to Swindon – I missed getting him when he was originally released, so I gave up and forgot about him. Found him for sale for what I think was his original RRP, so decided to buy him this time around :D. And glad I did:

This guy is huge. Or at least his wings are – was fun getting him to fit in shot :P. The sculptwork and painting gives him a very wooden and organic appearance. 

Close-up of his face:

I love the texture on his face, those red eyes and his antlers/horns. A decent amount of sculptwork went into is face, and the paint has been well done to emphasise the correct areas. 

Left side:

He doesn’t have too much depth, if you don’t flap his wings back, but they do flap backwards and up/down if you wish to. However, they only go so far down, before they foul on each other, if they’re spread out like I have them. 

Right:

This shot has better focus.. here you can see the wooden texture is present throughout, and his head has a good shape to it, with the wooden antlers. The stand I’m using is a Play Arts Kai stand I got as part of a lot of miscellaneous items. Sadly Play Arts Kai do not sell these separately, so your only real chance of getting these is by buying them secondhand. I have NOT bought any of the China fakes, so don’t know what flavour of Chinesium they’re made out of. If they’re made of the brittle plastic that the Bandai fake ones are, I’d be worried the stand would break with this dude. Failing a PAK stand, a doll-style stand of a sufficient size may work well. 

Back:

And here he is… exceeding the size of my backdrop! Love the fact the textures run throughout the figure – there’s no “plain” sides. The mossy effect on his wings is nice, along with the other wooded textures. He also has a flower on his right calf, but this has gotten covered up by the stand in this shot ><. 

But why the stand? His wings make him back-heavy and are not removable. This means, despite his articulated feet, he is prone to overbalancing and falling over – a stand will help prevent this, and from him trying to tear a hole in your collection with his massive size. 

Though he does have some removable accessories:

Initially, he has two bits of twig in these holes (see the first photo in the blog), but you can also equip him with a “sword” and shield:

I think this choice of accessories was a neat addition to the figure, and allows you to customise him to your preference. The holes are different sizes on the two sides, so he can only equip his weapons this way around. 

Close-up of the shield, as the sword was in earlier shots:

Looks a bit like an oversized walnut shell to me, but could easily also be hewn from wood, which is what I think was intended. 

Close-up of a twig:

You can see where these plug into when you look carefully at the figure, but they’re not immediately apparent. Looks like I didn’t have it pushed in all the way in for this shot. 

Overall, I really like this figure, and glad I got him in the end :). If you like what you see, and don’t mind you can’t remove his wings, I’d recommend getting him, if you can find him for a good price. Bear in mind he is a deluxe figure, so his price is higher than that of “regular” Western action figures. Watched a review from around the time of his release, and they quoted $50 for him (I paid £40). You may also want to factor in the price of a stand, unless you’re willing to put the work into making him balance, which may limit posing. 

Klan Klang – Pearl ver.

Today, we have the pearl version of Klan:

As you can probably see, her hair and dress are shiny on this version, and she sports the same expression and pose. Her eyes are also green instead of blue on this one, but anime couldn’t seem to make its mind up what colour her eyes are. 

Left side:

Here you can see the shiny finish on her hair and dress. Looks nicer on the dress than the hair. The pink of her headband is more of a hot pink, and personally I prefer the colour used on the normal version. 

Right side:

This side really shows off the shine in her hair. 

Back:

Glossy! Not sure the gloss really works for her hair, but the dress is nice as being pearly. 

So after reviewing them both, which do I prefer? My vote would have to go to the normal version. I like the headband more on the original, which looks kinda faded on the special edition (I checked pics – it looks like it’s meant to be like it is), and the gloss on the hair looks kind of odd. However, as my figure collection was Klanless, I have space for both of these Klan figures :D. 

Klan Klang – Normal ver.

I was looking at this Klan figure, and saw there was two versions. Couldn’t make my mind up which I wanted, so I did the obvious thing and ordered both. Yep. 

So today we have the normal version:

I love her smiling expression, and the shade of her hair. She has a nice matte finish, which is a rarity for prize figures. Her dress also features some shading. The logo is rendered well on her hairband. 

Left:

I love the way they have her leaning forward slightly – it really adds to the pose. Her sideboob and armpit are sculpted well, and her fingers are nicely rendered. With the way they’ve done the hair on her head, it goes some way to hide the seam line.

Right:

Looks good on this side too. Love the splay of hair that’s on top of the ribbon. 

Back:

Some nice flows of hair, sculpted in a way so they don’t look plain. Her hair looks really nice from this angle, and her dress looks good. I like the bow on the back, and the fact she has some of her back revealed. 

She’s on the shorter side of things, as far as prize figures go, but she is a very nice figure. Certainly happy with her for the price I paid. 

Al Azif – Max Factory

This is a figure I’ve gone back and forth on owning. As it’s Al Azif, I decided to add it to a recent large Mandarake order, as she’s over the customs limit, and it was a parcel that was going to go over anyway. 

Here she is:

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Dat frakkin’ wall. OK, let’s start with some of the nice stuff: The figure is very nice. I love the flowing of the hair and ribbons, and the colours are very nice. Her dress is well-sculpted and nicely painted. The figure part of this figure is really nice – it’s everything else I have to complain about! She comes pre-screwed to the bottom part of the stand, which isn’t the prettiest piece of plastic ever. Not a fan of the nondescript greyish colour, and it’s shiny. 

Left shot:

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Now to go more into this wall. Seeing it not sit strait, due to Al Azif resting on it, though I wouldn’t have been surprised if it wasn’t that, and I bent it from the sheer force you need for it to go in ><. Eagle-eyed viewers may also spot the white tack – the pin on the “cookie” on this side snapped off soon as I touched it up against the wall – it must’ve been stressed already, and snapped before I started applying force to push it through the wall. Argh. If you have this figure, and you do get both “cookies” pegged to the wall don’t take them out. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d break during the process. At least with it white tacked, I can actually now move this one to any position I like… 

Right side:

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This one did peg OK, but I daren’t try and push it any further. This one luckily fouls less on the figure, so it doesn’t need to go in all the way. Here we can see her ribbons and hair in the wind, which looks very nice. 

Back:

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Here she is from the back. Her hair looks nice, and I like the way she’s propping herself up on the wall. Here you can see the remnant of the left cookie peg. I you look carefully on the upper right, you can also see a scratch on the wall. She was unopened, so I guess the wall rubbed up against part of the figure/box during shipping. 

Close-up of her face:

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I like the look on her face, but I’d prefer it if she had a head up a tad more, so you could see it from more angles. 

Close-up of her shoes:

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These have been nicely sculpted and painted. The tiny bows on her shoes are nice, and the big, flowing ribbons on her socks are well done. The socks are slightly raised in the sculpt, so that it doesn’t look like she’s got white legs. One of the differences that tend to separate scales from prizes – details like socks are actually moulded instead of just painted. 

Overall, I can recommend the figure, but not the stand. If I were to recommend an Al Azif figure, it would be the BEAT normal version. Both parts of the stand kinda look cheap imo, and if I get into replacing bases, this one would quite honestly be a candidate. I think if it weren’t for the issues I had with the stand during assembly, I would’ve felt more positive about this figure – she’s in a nice pose, well-painted and well-sculpted, but the stand detracts from this. 

Expelled From Paradise “Figgy” Figure Set

This is a set of 6 small figures based on characters from Expelled from Paradise, though it’s mostly Angela Balzac. I’ve not seen Expelled from Paradise (I should fix that really…) but I really like Angela’s look. This set of figures was made by Aniplex, and saw a limited release, though at the time of writing, Mandarake do have a few sets, which is where I bought them. 

For small figures, they were pricey, but the quality I feel justifies the price. 

First up:

This was the one that attracted me to the set – I found her pose funny. She’s designed to flop over a glass edge, or similar. Currently I have her propped on this piece of paper, though I may find her something transparent to “flop” over. 

Her backside:

Painting on this side is a little out-of-place on this side, but these things are tiny so it’s not a surprise they’re not perfect. She’s roughly 5cm/1.8in big, for scale. 

Here she is from the side:

I find her well-painted for the most part, and the colours are nice and vivid.

Kneeling Angela:

She really should have something for her hands to perch on, otherwise she sits sideways like this. I’ve seen a picture of her resting on a cup handle, and that worked well. Hm, maybe I need to get one of those glass espresso/tea cups. 

From the back:

Bit of missing paint there on the right leg… didn’t notice that until doing this blog XD. Her backside looks good though. On closer inspection, I’m not sure what’s gone on with the paint on the left disc. Oops. 

From the top:

Her back and hair look nice. Some of the green isn’t quite where it’s supposed to be on the clips, if you inspect her closely. Her back is nicely done though, and her hair. 

“Standing” Angela:

She’s designed to rest on the edge of a glass,but currently I have her propped up on some white tack so she stands up. I like the way these figures smile. 

Back:

Her hair is nice, again, the green isn’t quite sure where it wants to be on her clips. Legs are painted well, along with her back. 

Now for Angela in a different outfit:

At first, I wasn’t sure this was her, from the change in hair tone, but My Figure Collection tells me that, yes this is Angela. Nice to have a different outfit & pose, and this one is well-sculpted – the sculpting in this set is really good. 

Back:

Her shapely backside, and hair. All looking nice. 

More front-on shot to show off her swimsuit:

I like the holes design, and they have rendered it well.

From the top:

Hair seam, but that’s to be expected. He hairband is painted well, and the sculpting of her body shape is nice. 

Now for the two figures that aren’t Balzac! First we have Dingo:

The quality of the paint on this guy impressed me when I got him out of the box. There’s a lot of small details painted on him. Here we can see the details on the guitar, and the details of the sculpt in his trousers and shirt. 

On the end of the guitar, we have a small part painted, and we have his holstered gun, which also helps him stay sat upright. Here we can also see the ripples moulded in his waistcoat. 

From the back:

Here we can admire the sculpt of his hair, and the waistcoat buttons that have been painted well. They’ve also snuck the copyright notice onto the back of his guitar, which stops it from detracting from the figure. I really like this figure of the set. 

And lastly, Frontier Setter:

He’s a bit “drunk”. Need to sort that out. His paint is more straightforward than the others, but nicely done. He has an “action” pose, which is nice. Not much action, but more interesting than just standing there. 

Back:

Bit of paint slop on the left leg there, but otherwise OK I think.

Side:

Looks good from this angle, got some small dots painted on the wheels for the axles. Looks like a good sculpt. 

Overall, I like these figures – not sure if they stand up to close scrutiny, but they’re a nice set of fun figures, if you want something small to prop on a glass or sneak into a display somewhere. The paint flaws imo are much more visible in these close-ups than they are in real life, due to their size. In price, they’re about as much as a Titan Vinyl, or similar blind-box figure. I’d much rather have these! 

Morrigan Aensland – Large Prize Figure!

Now for a jumbo prize figure of Morrigan:

This is one large lady and I still haven’t fully sorted her legs out ><. They have bent over time, so she wouldn’t stand up properly out of the box. Did try to set them into the correct positions, but failed thus far. Also the box… was in a REALLY bad condition – looks like mould had grown on the inner part of the box, and the glue had failed on the window for the box. Chucked out the inner of the box as I don’t really want to “collect” some mould! 

I really like this figure, though she is a bit on the simplistic side, in terms of finish. She has some paint detail on her skin, but not so much anywhere else. The bats on her leggings are nicely done though, if she’ll stand up kkthx. 

Left side:

Her wings are a good size, and look good from the front and sizes. Here you can see there is some crease detailing in her top, but it’s not really visible from the front. The white tassels are a nice addition. 

Right side:

Not too much different from the left, so I’ll mention the obvious side boob – yep, plenty of that. Her hair does look like a “lump” of green, not sure what they could’ve done to alleviate that, maybe have more shape on the bottom? It’s also thick as this is where her wings attach, as we’ll see in this next shot:

Getting these wings in was a bit of a pain. They could’ve possibly done with using more “regular” pegs, but I guess they didn’t due to weight and getting them to stay. Once they’re in there, they’ll stay though. I had to heat up her hair to get it to relent enough to get the lugs in. We can also admire her backside from this angle, and the ends of her gloves, which have been done nicely. 

So let’s get some close-ups in. Here’s her face:

Here I noticed the slight abrasions on her hair grumble. They don’t particularly show from a distance though. She has some lighter paint on her collarbone – for a figure of this size, it really helps that they actually did some shading on her – it’d end up looking pretty flat if they didn’t. Some stray white paint, but not too much. Her lips have been done nicely. 

Arms:

An obvious seam here, but not visible from the front. The purple-pink of her gloves is nice. In the previous shot, you can see they’ve also moulded the edges on her gloves, which is a nice detail. 

My main gripe with this figure is she’s overly shiny from the front, but that’s not uncommon in prize figures, especially older ones. If there were more readily-available Morrigan figures, I may not have got this one, but for an affordable Morrigan figure, I’m happy with her. Just need to fix them legs properly…