Month: June 2018

Mammon – Seven Deadly Sins

This figure I got super-cheap as the owner no longer had her box, and has glued her to the base, due to the fact she had a wobbling issue. This figure is cast-off, which will be shown in this blog, hence the NSFW tag. 

She displays just fine, so the issues aren’t an issue for me:

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The rest of the photos won’t feature the basket, as it’s pretty easy to knock out of her hand (… and I forgot to bring it downstairs for the first few pics I took…). 

Here’s the veggies up close:

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Tis a mean-looking set of veggies! I don’t think I will eat these… 

Mammon with her full base:

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This base allows her to stand at the back of a shelf and remain visible :). But you can display her as per the first pic, if she has too much height. 

Close-up of the “Mammon” side of the base:

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And the other side, which tells you what sin she is:

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Bit of a scratch on the base on the “GREED” heart, but it isn’t too bad. Love the horned demon o this side of the base. 

Base from the top:

Is a large thing, the two dark dots top and bottom are pegs that go into the upper base. As these are evenly spaced, you can pick which side of this base is facing forward (Greed or Mammon). 

Close-up of the part of the base she stands on:

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Coins being the perfect companion to greed. The gold lines on her legs are really nicely done and sharp. 

Front:

She has a very nicely sculpted and painted face, nicely framed by her horns. I love the way her hair curls at the front, though the complexity of her hair does make her assembly a bit awkward when casting her off. The gold lines on her clothing offer a good amount of contrast and give a more sophisticated feel to the figure. The black print on her stockings is also crisp and stands out well. 

Left:

Left… or is it front? Because here you have a lot of front! Here you can see the black print better, and the shading in her stockings. They’ve also put a heart in her thong, which is a nice attention to detail. Her cast-off clothes look really good imo – some cast-off figures have the issue that the clothes look a little iffy. but here they are shaded and have hidden connectors. 

Right:

Love the little bat above her backside :). She has the wings every succubus should have, though these are detachable. Her cape nicely frames her shapely backside. 

Back:

Here you can see the sheer amount of hair she has. They’ve gone to a fair amount of trouble to sculpt all these strands, and I think it has paid off. We can see some of the underside colouring of her wing too, which is a reasonably vibrant red. Her horns are also shaded, which is evident here. 

Underside of the wings and cape:

Love the red and black contrast under here.

Close-up of the bat:

Some of the paint has gone a bit walkies on this part – little bit evident on the claw and I think the bat face a bit. Still love this little detail. 

Mammon without the wings:

She also comes with the strap part shown above, if you want a clearer view of her backside, or just don’t like your women winged. This strap forms a heart with the top of her dress, ad has a little heart-shaped ring to join the straps together. 

Close-up of the straps:

All the small details here were well thought out. 

Now for some less-dressed shots.

Casting her off:

Her head and right arm come off, which allows you to remove the clothing on her shoulders, and her top. The top is three pieces which fasten together – the two boob cups, and a part which clips to her neck. 

As her shoulder clothing piece comes off, you have a few choices in terms of dress level:

I personally think she looks best with her top off, but her shoulder piece on, which is the middle of these three shots. 

Cast-off, no wings:

If you want a view of all the assets. I think the colour is a little too strong on the nipples, but it works. 

My preferred level of cast-off:

Yeah, gotta have the wings! 


Really glad I bought this figure – she’s an excellent figure, and I could easily recommend her. Though these figures usually go for a fair amount of money, and upon owning this one, I can see why. Glad I had the opportunity to purchase this one. 

Gwendolyn – Alter – Odin Sphere

I bought this figure from a seller on MFC, along with tomorrow’s figure. I’ve been debating getting this one, but with shipping & import, it was adding up a little high, but this seller was in the UK, so no import, woo. 

So here she is:

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I love the pose on this figure – the thin line with the wings outstretched makes for a dramatic pose. I was also attracted to this figure thanks to the blue hues in her wings. 

Close-up of her spear:

I love the crystal on the end of this, with its gentle blue colour. The moon gives the staff a good focal point too. 

Close-up of her face:

She’s clearly looking at something, but not sure the expression goes with the pose? She has a cute face tough, and her upper body is moulded well. Love the little tiara on her head, and her hair looks good.

Close-up of her wing:

I love the translucenty look of these wings, and the subtle gradients. Gives the figure some colour without being overpowering. The downward angle means they also show well when viewed from the front. 

Left:

Bit hard to photograph well from the sides, but here we can see her holding her spear aloft, and her left leg poised to show movement. 

Close-up of her leg:

She also has mini wings attached to her knees. These ones are more brightly coloured, and the purple was a good inclusion. The metal parts of her armour here are nice and shiny. 

Right:

More wing covering up her face :P. The pins on her skirt are painted well. Her right leg has metal pins into the base, and she stands sturdily. 

More leg close-up:

Some creases behind the knee, which is nice, and the lovely sculpting on the knee wings. 

Back:

Her dress is flared out, showing us she’s likely landing on the tree stump, which explains the more neutral expression. 

Close-up of her back:

Bit of a seam on the back of her dress, but I’m assuming this is going to be her zip. The gold choker gives a good look to her neck. The dress is separate from the body, which helps with the overall realistic look. Love the way the dress flows in the wind. 

Close-up of the base:

The base is very detailed and well-painted imo. Plenty of shading in the dirt and the plants – even some dirt on the plant to the left of this photo. It does have a more anime vibe than a realistic one, but I think this fits well. 

Overall, I really like this figure, and glad I finally picked it up. If you want a more “sophisticated” statue of Gwendolyn, I think this is a good one. And likely cheaper than Alter’s new one… which will probably come out after this blog does… 

Assassin – Fate/Zero – Banpresto DXF

This is a figure I’ve been considering buying for years. After getting Caster, and seeing her in a shop in Belgium, I decided I would. The price was a bit high at the shop I was at, but found AmiAmi was selling her nice n’ cheap… cheaper than the store I was in, even with shipping factored in. So I left the shop and ordered her 😛

A week or two after I got back she arrived:

One notable thing about her is she’s nowhere near as heavy as Caster. Also… a lot less parts. The sculpt and the paint are still good though. She isn’t as impressive as caster, but she’s still a solid figure. Her body is sculpted well, and she looks the part. 

Left:

There’s not much shading to speak of – this figure largely relies on natural light to provide that. The knives on her hip look and “feel” very basic. Feel they could’ve done something here. The bandings on her wrist and leg could’ve done with some paint accents to make them more leathery or something. 

Right:

Bit of a seam not-in-hiding here, on her middle. And her wrist. The bangles on her wrist are nice though, along with the ones around her neck. The creases on her clothes feel nice and realistic. 

Back:

I think her hair helps sell this figure. I love the shades of blue running through the hair. I feel the sides and front of her hair work better than the back of it, though… which is probably a good thing, seeing as I won’t be staring at this angle much. 

Overall, I love the pose of this figure, and for some reason, I have a soft spot for Assassin from Fate/Zero. I’m not surprised she goes for less than the other DXF servants do, as she’s not as impressive, but she’s still a solid figure imo. However, if you want an in-proportion figure of her it’s… this one or this one. So. Yeah. This one it is! 

Accel World – Toy’s Works Collection… the other one

Finally ordered the other set of figures… but as separate lots, as it was cheaper than ordering the 5 as a set at Suruga-ya. Go figure. It was just these 5 mini-figures, just to see if Suruga-ya had small boxes. And the answer was… kind of. The box fit into small packet, so I didn’t have to pay for repackaging, but man, they were overpacked:

So yeah…. probably worse than AmiAmi. Probably doesn’t make much odds domestically for the shipping cost, and the domestic shipping is free when you spend over ¥1,500, so it mostly costs me the repackaging fee. 

First of the figures we have is Black Lotus:

It’s an OK figure, but I prefer the Dengeki one, as that one a bit better and a more matte plastic. Plus the Dengeki one has the purple parts in her head “fins”. 

Side:

Back:

Overall the sculpt seems good. I haven’t straightened out the pointy bits, but the box does advise heating these in water and straightening them. They’re not too bad on this one, so haven’t tried fixing them up. 

Harayuki with food:

I love this cute Haruyuki Arita. The paint is really well done on Arita, pancakes are slightly on the sloppy side, but not really noticeably so for me. Love the stars in his eyes… he must be happy to have a whole stack of pancakes to himself!

Arita playing squash:

Another iconic activity of Arita’s. Love the little eyebrows, conveying concentration. I really like these Aritas, as he’s depicted doing two of his most iconic activities – eating and playing squash. Really fits with the character, and gives him more accessories than all the other little avatar-Aritas I have. 

Scarlet Rain, with gun:

The one thing I really like about the Scarlet Rain figures – they have a bit more articulation than the others, and you can move her arms and head pieces around. However, the finish on her head on both figures I received is a bit rough. Not sure if this is an issue peculiar to mine, or a problem with the manufacture. She’s lovely and shiny though, and the colours stand out well. Kinda sad that they didn’t put the wires into the figure, that they had on the box art – she usually has two wires coming from her back, or can do. 

Scarlet Rain in grump-mode:

Yep, this is the Red King we know and love :). Again, this one has the funny finish on her head. There isn’t a huge amount to differentiate between these two Scarlet Rain figures, but with the poseable parts, it is possible to make them look sufficiently different. 

Overall, I’m happy with this set, and my favourite figures out of this set are the Aritas. If it weren’t for the oddity of the finish on the Scarlet Rain figures, I’d probably like them a lot more. I paid £4.20 each (with shipping factored in), which is around about the asking price for these kinds of small figures. If you can pick them up for a few quid each, and are an Accel World fan, I’d definitely recommend the Aritas, and possibly the Scarlet Rains… or maybe whichever’s your favourite. The Black Lotus… I prefer the Dengeki one, though this one was half the cost. So if you were to get one, I’d recommend the Dengeki one, unless you want this set, or you don’t want to spend more on the Dengeki one (if you can find it…). 

Harley Quinn – Arkham Knight – DC Collectables

Bought this from Hawkin’s Bazaar, of all places. They were doing a sale, and she was a good price, so I picked her up:

As far as Harleys go, this figure isn’t super-special, but is decent-enough looking for the tenner I paid. I like the creases in her clothing, and she’s got some blush on her face, making it stand out more. She is a mild pain to pose though – hard to get her to hold the bat like I want her to. The paint is largely crisp and clean, but paint jobs do vary between figures, so I picked from the best I was looking at. Some of them the white overpaint wasn’t quite thick enough to hide her uniform underneath. 

Face close-up:

I do rather like the face on this figure. The flashing on the hat does make it look a bit like a blow-up hat, lol. Maybe it is? The furry balls on her hat and chest are meh, but they are on most figures, and these seem decent enough. 

Close-up of the bat:

Yep, looks like the quintessential Harley bat. Ruffs have a bit of stray paint on her wrists, but are well-sculpted. 

Left:

Looks OK from this angle. 

Right:

Some creasing at her middle and on her arm. Not sure they fully committed to the outfit wrinkles from this side. Note she has none on her legs. 

Back:

Here they seem to be a little undecided if they were committing to put wrinkles in her outfit or not, too. She does have a butt though… Her neck looks odd from this angle too. The paint is good on her outfit though.

And one of the major annoyances with this figure:

No. Stand. Holes. And she’s not easy to stand up on her own – she’s pretty finnicky, so can suddenly go SPLAT. Why DC Collectables, do you have to do this? Why no peg holes…? 

I think this might be quite a divisive figure – the shininess is going to appeal to some, but not so much to others. Not surprised this one has binned, but I think it’s a fairly solid figure for half the RRP. Though you may want to consider including a claw stand into your purchase so she doesn’t fall over. Currently I have her propped up against an acrylic stair stand, so she doesn’t fall over. 

Asuna – Noodle Stopper – Sword Art Online

Upon arriving home from my travels, I had this figure to unbox:

Asuna, from Sword Art Online, in noodle-stopping form. Or more like a shelf-edge figure… not sure how many people are actually going to use these figures to keep the steam in their Cup-o-Noodles. Initially I wasn’t going to get either of the SAO noodle stoppers, but upon seeing this one, I decided to order her, and I’m glad I did. FuRyu have done a really good job with her!

Front:

Her feet seem really detailed, with her toes. She also has a good amount of shading in her hair, which not all of these figures do. Most of the red lines are pretty neat, a bit wobbly on her left hand boob, but nowhere as bad as the initial pics implied it could be. She has a good amount of definition around her stomach and neck/collar area. 

I love the expression on her face, and her face has been well-painted. No complaints here from me. 

Left:

Here we can see the cross detail on her swimsuit top, which has been crisply done. Her hairstyle has been well-recreated, with her plaits and mini-ponytail. Love the way they have her ear sticking out, and the towel over her lap looks good. 

Right:

The large bow looks really good, along with the one on the back of her swimsuit top. She also has well-defined shoulderblades. The cuff around her wrist has been painted well. 

Back:

Here’s the back of her, which does a look a bit prize-figure-y in sculpt, but the shading is really nice. She rests well on a flat surface, with her backside, hair and hand. Left arm looks a little funny on the join,but tbh, it’s a minor complaint. 

Overall, I really like this figure, especially for the price I paid. I’d recommend this figure to anyone who’d like a figure of Asuna to perch on the edge of a shelf or similar location. Mine currently sits on the edge of the vivarium :). 

Devilman Keyrings

I had some promotional credit from a proxy service that I wanted to try out, so decided to go for a cheap item. I found these Banpresto Devilman keyrings on a “Buy it now”, and decided they were a good option. 

The proxying worked fine, with no issues, so that was good. 

Firstly we have this small Devilman keyring, that was already on one of my keyring display bars:

He was the smallest of the three keyrings, and of a decent quality.

Next up, a larger version of Devilman’s movie appearance:

With the larger size, there’s a lot more detail in the sculpt and the paintwork. I prefer the expression on the other keyring though. 

Devilman in his original cartoon form:

The sculpt isn’t hugely detailed, but gets the Devilman feel across. Logo on his belt is a bit squiffy. but his face is nicely rendered. Not sure if I’ll put this one on display, but it’s nice to have it. Might as well have one figure in his original appearance :P. 

Overall I’m happy I went for these keyrings. 

Crysis 2 – Grunt

This is the last of the three Crysis 2 action figures I bought:

This guy has the same articulation as the stalker. The hips are ball joints, so you can get them to stand up fairly easily. 

Close-up of the face:

Can see a paint chip there (d’oh), but the red eyes have been painted well. I feel more attention was paid to painting these guys than the suit, even though the paint is still a bit shonky.

Close-up of his gun hand:

Here we actually have a detail painted on the weapon! Mould is a bit muddy, and doing a quick image search for these dudes, it looks like that some of the flat area shouldn’t exist. Not entirely surprised they’ve simplified it in this way.

Left:

Looks like this dude’s been on a diet. Cuts a good profile though. Here you can see where the tentacles were hard to get into the body again, and leave a small gap. 

Right:

Much the same as the left. Silver bits look good. I like the purple fade, even if this doesn’t seem to be too accurate, according to my image search. 

Back:

Again with the silly screw hole! Kinda wish that wasn’t there. The areas where the tentacles plug in aren’t well hidden on this one either. At least he’s painted and moulded back here. 

Overall, I’m happy with these figures. I wouldn’t recommend paying a lot for them, and I wouldn’t say they’re particularly collector’s items, but if you want a small, cool action figure (or to pose them in compromising ways *ahem*), then they’re good for that. 

Crysis 2 – Alcatraz 2.0 Nanosuit

Next up, a dude inna nanosuit:

Paint job is OK, a bit rough, but does the job. Though the most intriguing thing to me is the hand posing. I mean, you can do this with him:

And he seems to be as miffed as I am about the situation. Not quite sure why they decided to mould a static pointing finger, when these figures don’t have replaceable parts. 

He does come with a variety of guns, however:

… but with the single-colour paint job and the lack in depth in some places (especially the pistol) they look like painted wooden replicas.

Let’s see if the dude in the suit thinks so:

Yes, I guess he does, if he’s going to spin one on his finger like that… I guess that’s why he’s pointing :P. 

Hey, look at this stash of wooden weapons I’ve found!:

Well, at least they fit in his other hand, mostly. 

Left:

Looks OK on this side. Some escaping silver paint on his leg. 

Right:

Some silver paint escapage here too. Shoulder seam is less visible on this side – wish all the seams were like that. 

Back:

Probably the best bit of the silver painting on his back, with the spine reinforcement. 

Overall, I think this one is more in the vein of a kid’s toy than a collectable. Some detail is there, but the production quality doesn’t seem to 100% be there, and the odd choice of the pointing hand. The guns with no paint accents also give it a more “toy” feel than collectable. 

Crysis 2 – Stalker

One of the stores that I occasionally frequent has decided to start selling these off, so I have bought three of these Crysis 2 mini action figures. Maybe one day I’ll actually play Crysis…

First one was this Stalker:

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Let’s say hello to this mean fellah:

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The arm articulation was better than I expected, even if it isn’t much – he rotates at the shoulders, but also at the “hands”. The arms are slightly bendable, but not poseable. The paint from the front is OK, but nothing special. 

Left:

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One mean lookin’ maw, there. Love the “hand”/arm attachment. The fade effect on the back tentacles is pretty good. One pretty visible seam across the top of his back there, though. 

Right:

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Similar story here as tot eh left, but the back portions line up a bit better, however are still gappy. 

Back:

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Here you can see where the back tentacles plug into his back. Kinda gappy. Also the screw head, hm. 

A closer look at that dark lump on his left:

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Unfortunately some of the paint flaked off not long after getting him. His back isn’t the greatest angle, so not too miffed about it. Also had to trim one of the alignment lugs on one of the tentacles, as it simply wouldn’t go in with it on. 

These figures cost me £4 apiece, not sure I would’ve wanted to pay the full price of £8, but happy with what I got for the price. Shame about the paint flake :(.