Tag: ichiban kuji

Klan Klang – Macronized ver – Banpresto

Now for a large Klan Klang! This one was an Ichiban Kuji prize figure:

And this figure certainly is large, to match her macro size! I love the shiny purple of her uniform, and the much more serious expression, to match her personality in macro mode. I love the bold colours of her uniform, which have been replicated nicely here. She does lack detailed shading though, due to her price status. 

Face:

Her face has been sculpted decently well, though I think her mouth is a little on the big side. We have the SMS logo on her uniform, but it looks a little elongated. Her chest is large like it is in the anime… but looks like they’re defying gravity a bit. Most of the black lines around here are neatly done. 

Left:

Here we can see she has her hand on her hip and is leaning forward slightly, to suit her stance. I like the way her hair curls around her body on this side. There’s a seam in her hair by her shoulders, but it is decently blended imo. 

Right:

Aand that’s some platforms to be using for piloting! Obviously doesn’t bother her, though… I like all the detailed creases in her uniform, and the hair down the side of her face is sculpted well. 

Helmet:

Here we can see some dodgy painting, but not too bad overall. She holds the helmet well, but I seem to recall there was some hairdryer action to get her to hold it in the first place. I’d recommend warming her hand to get it in there, as I think there’s a high chance of accidentally scraping some paint. I do wonder how comfortable a helmet is with all that hair though. 

Back:

Here we see they’ve done plenty of details on the back of her suit too, which really helps complete the design. The hair looks good, and is nicely out of the way so you can appreciate the detail they’ve put into this figure. 

Hair close-up:

Here we can see the sculpting is done well, but her hair ties are not translucent on this figure – not unexpected for a prize figure. I like the way they’ve done the hair underneath her headband though. 

Heels:

I like these little bows on the back of her heels – that little bit of girlishness that stays with her in macronized form. The sculpt isn’t too detailed, but they do the job. 

Overall, I do like this figure. I think it definitely has a prize figure feel irl, but it was very reasonably priced when I bought it (and I was able to kindly ask the store I bought it from to pack it so it fit into SAL small packet, which was awesome). Overall, I’d recommend this as an affordable version of Klan Klang, though shipping might be a bit high if the store doesn’t pack it tightly. Thankfully my local mail service isn’t too brutal with parcels, so her box wasn’t even dented on arrival. 

Kuroyukihime & Arita Haruyuki – Banpresto

I saw these appear on an Urban Mine auction some time ago, but I believe that they went for more than I wanted to pay for them.

Then I was just browsing Mandarake randomly – and found they were in the store! And for the grand sum of ¥100! I quickly put a Mandarake order together for these two, and they arrived some time later. 

So here they are:

image

Yay! A cute pair of prize figures. Arita’s avatar form isn’t much to look at, but it has been nicely painted. Kuroyukihime in avatar form though… is nicely detailed and well-painted. Definitely worthy of a B-Prize. Kuroyukihime’s base has her name on, and does have some of a design, but it’s mostly covered up by her dress. I like the way Arita’s base has a curly pink tail on it, and he sits in the middle, but it would’ve been nice to have his name on the base, to match Kuroyukihime’s. 

Left:

image

Here we can see Kuroyukihime’s wings, which have been well reproduced in chibi-form. She has two pegs on her feet and this head stand, so she is stable. The dress is a nice texture, but her hair is on the shiny side. We can also see Arita’s cute, curly tail. 

Right:

Nice amount of strands in her hair on this side, helping it not look flat, though the top of the hair is standard for this kind of chibi figure. 

Back:

Here we can see more of the wings, which have been very nicely done. The paint and detailing is good. The dress also looks really nice, with the purple trim and the folded fabric. Not much to see with Arita, not that anything is really expected. His ears are shaped nicely though. 

Super-pleased with this set. I don’t usually go for these small chibi figures, but I really like this pair. Her hair does suffer from prize-figure shininess, but the rest of her is really well done. Glad I picked these up, especially for the cheap price! 

And just before I finish this blog, a quick addition:

I also bought these with this Mandarake order, but they’re not really worthy of their own blog post XD. Been on the fence about ordering them for some time, but decided to go for it. They’re a nice addition to one of my keychain rails. I think they look better than I was expecting, but I don’t think they’ll be a “favourite thing”. Still happy to get Evangelion loot though :D. 

Urban Mine – Tiger & Bunny – Part 2

Now for the reason I bid on this lot! The J-Prizes! The set consists of 5 figures, plus one secret. With 9 boxes in this lot, I was semi-confident I’d get the “base” 5, but the secret was less likely, as it may’ve been someone trying to get the secret, and palmed off their duplicates. 

So let’s see what we got! 

Let’s start with the obvious character in the set, Kotetsu:

The paint is about average for this kind of figure. The bases for these figures are nice – they all include a logo and the character’s name. I like his pose in this figure. 

Back:

All the details you’d expect back here. A nice addition is they’ve got the fastener on the back of his hat. 

Now for Blue Rose, the character I wanted most in this set:

She’s nicely done, and the paint’s good considering her small size. I got two of these Blue Rose figures, but one had a broken ice vine :(. But hey, I got two, so I had one intact Blue Rose! Also the finish on the two Blue Rose headpieces is different – this one is mottled, and the other one is flat, and probably unfinished. There was a bit of a mark on the other headpiece too, so I went with this head, with the textured finish. 

Back:

A good amount of detail on her hair, for a prize figure. And a good shot of teh vines – don’t want to be missing one of those! This one could’ve easily ended up messy with the paint, but most of it is really good. Bit of slop on the back of the headpiece, but the more important paint on her body is good. 

Next up, Dragon Kid:

They’ve done a really good job on her too. Love her bright colours. She doesn’t have her logos in her discs, but I can’t say I miss those, lol. The gold & silver paint work, which is a nice thing to see. 

Back:

Her staff and headpiece are the most striking things in this figure, and have been replicated well, in chibi form. 

Now for Ivan Karelin, aka Origami Cyclone:

This one, for some strange reason, tends to prefer to rotate moreso than the others. I like his clothes on this figure. 

Here he is from the back:

Shame the stand goes right in the middle of his jacket’s logo :(. Makes me almost wish for a hair stand, but those are far more annoying than peg stands. The purple shiny paint came out well. 

Now for Keith Goodman, aka Sky High:

Looking happy and optimistic, like his anime-self! His clothes and face are painted really well. 

Back:

Oops, a bit of a mark on the back of his hair, oh well. It’s a paint chip, so I can’t fix it easily. I do have a duplicate of Keith, so I may choose not to sell the duplicate. The chip doesn’t show when I’m displaying him though, so I may not bother getting the other head out. 

So that’s the five that were advertised… plus the non-mentioned dupe which was Dragon Kid. Did I get the secret? Why, yes I did! 

And who was it?

Just who?

Have you guessed yet?

Erm, did someone say something? Speak up!

It was Doc Saito!:

I laughed when I opened this one up – a perfect figure for the secret! The super-soft spoken mad engineer himself! As a character less prone to getting figures, for not really being one of the main stars, it was nice they included him in this set. I wouldn’t have ordinarily bought a Doc Saito figure, but upon having him, I realised how much I needed one :P. Paint isn’t the bes ton this one, but I’ll let that slide because… Doc Saito. 

Here is his back:

Yep, the back of Doc Saito. Nothing to see here, lol, but no chips either. 

Glad I got this set, and was worth the money imo. They’re a cute set of figures, and a welcome addition to my collection.