Tag: tiger & bunny

Karina & Pao-Lin – Tiger & Bunny – Half-age Characters

Now for the second two half-age characters I got out of the blind boxes.

First one today is Karina Lyle, aka Blue Rose:

As she’s young in the anime, she looks very young here. The figure itself is neatly painted, and looks good. 

Left:

Her hair looks decent, bit of stray paint from the skirt. Shoes are well-sculpted and painted.

Right:

The snake is printed well on her towel.Her hair sculpt feels a bit imprecise,but does the job. 

Back:

Hair looks good from the back, and she is posed well. I think it gets her shy nature over well. Her shirt is well-sculpted, though I think the skirt is a little overly flat. 

Overall, I think it’s a decent figure, but nothing special.

Lastly, Pao-Lin Huang:

I like the pose on this one – feels dynamic, and fits the kung-fu stylings of Dragon Kid. Most of her is painted well – special mention to the hair clip – though there is some stray black paint on the stripe that extends down her left leg. I like the sculpting on her suit, and gives it a good “suit” feel. 

Left:

Hair is a bit overly flat here, and some knobbly paint. Her pose works well from this side though.

Right:

Again, the hair feels overly flat, her shoe is painted well, though her pants paint did escape a bit onto her shoe. 

Back:

Hair looks OK from the back – a bit more detail here, so it doesn’t feel so flat. The suit is creased nicely back here, and the black lines are nice and sharp, so she looks good from the back.

Overall, two more nice figures that fit the theme of the sets (two were from one series, the other two from another). Out of these two, Pao-Lin is my favourite. Out of all four, I’d probably pick Kotetsu as my favourite, followed by Pao-Lin. 

Kotetsu & Keith Goodman – Tiger & Bunny – Half Age Characters

In a fit of rarity, I actually bought these in a brick n’ mortar store, for a not-too-unreasonable price. I got four of these figures total, and will be splitting them into two blogs.

This first blog will feature Kotetsu T. Kaburagi and Keith Goodman.

First up,

Kotetsu:

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Looking cute in his half-age form, I think they did a really good job on this one. The paint is mostly pretty neat, with a couple of stray bits – main one that can be seen here is the collar.

Left:

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Bit of a loose lump on his lower leg here. Paint is neat around the beads and strap he wears on his left wrist, and the buckle on his hat. 

Right:

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Bit of blobbiness on the waistcoat seam, but again, nothing too bad. Seam on his hat is fairly visible, but not really a dealbreaker. Paint on his sleeve has decided to take over his arm a bit, though. 

Back:

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Buckle on the back of his waistcoat looks good, and the wrinkles on his clothes look fairly realistic. Hair is also nicely sculpted. 

Overall, I’d say this is a decent trading figure, that succeeds in looking like a young Kotetsu. 

Now for Keith Goodman, aka Sky High:

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Here he is, definitely with an air of the “cool kid” about him, which I think works well for him. I don’t think the paint works quite as well on him as it does on Kotetsu – it feels a bit shiny in places, and I think his jeans could’ve done with a bit of shading to blend them in a bit more. 

Left:

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The logo on his jacket is rendered well, and the sculptwork here is nice. Not really sold on the slight shininess of the jacket though. 

Right:

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I’m liking the dynamicness of his pose, and the detailing on his shoes. 

Back:

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Slight paint lump on the back of his hair. Would’ve been nice to see some more strands back here in his hair, but overall it looks OK. Nothing to really complain about back here – looks like I’d expect, so that’s good. 

Overall, I think he’s also a decent figure, but I think Kotetsu has the edge in quality over Keith. Still, they’re both solid figures that I could recommend. I think they both succeed in being the half-age counterparts of the characters they represent. 

Ben Jackson & Doc Saito – Tiger & Bunny World Collectable Figures Vol. 3

And finally, the side characters! 

First is Ben Jackson, the taxi driver for Wild Tiger:

Here we see him as his positive self, with the obligatory hot dog. The painting is really nice on the front of this figure, and the sculpting is good too – his face looks really good, and the creasing in his trousers gives this figure a more realistic feel. 

Left:

His hair is definitely smooth…. could’ve probably done with some kind of knobbly texture. Rest of him looks fine though. 

Right:

Go Tigher! Yeah, that hair is deffo lookin’ odd…

Back:

The arm seams actually look good on this figure, and match with the coat style. They’ve added creasing to the clothing at the back, so he also looks good from the back.

Most of this figure is really good imo – just the hair could’ve done with more detail so he looks less like a brown bowling ball. 

Now for Saito the Scientist:

The paint is neat, and looks good. Though with his badge not painted, that part does look odd – more like he’s got it underneath his labcoat, and it is showing through…

Left:

Paint for his glasses got a bit escapey, and not quite enough on his hair. His shoes and coat look good though. 

Right:

Glasses a bit better pained on this side, but looking odd. Hair is of an interesting geometric shape…

Back:

Back doesn’t do the hair any favours either, but the coat looks good, plust the other clothes we can see here.

Overall a decent figure with a couple of oddities.

Blue Rose & Huang Pao-Lin – Tiger & Bunny World Collectable Figures Vol. 3

Now for some of the other heroes! 

First up, Blue Rose:

This figure was one of the reasons I went for Vol 3 – as I really like Blue Rose’s design. Aaandd… with my luck, she was broken in the box! I ended up ordering this replacement from Mandarake. And I’m glad I did – the paintwork is mostly pretty solid with this figure, and the colours are really nice. Unfortunately assembling her is not fun, and it was hard to get her ice tentacles in, as well as attached to the stand ><. You will want to warm this figure to assemble it. 

Left:

Her head feels overly egg-shaped. Her hair should stick back some, but this feels… kind of unnatural. Otherwise, she looks fine from the side.

Right:

Hm, that vine isn’t quite in her side… yeah, she’s a pain to assemble. Bit of mould mess on the side of he head, and could do with a few more lines to make it more hairlike. Her earring is nicely done though, and the ice gun looks good. 

Back:

Despite the pain to assemble, the ice tentacles look good. The paint on her collar looks really good too. 

Overall, I really like this figure, and glad I ordered a replacement. With the broken one, her tiara split. I did try to repair it, but really with the wrong glue, so the glued part shows quite badly. 

Now for Huang Pao-Lin, aka Dragon Kid:

I like her in her casual outfit, so was glad to have this one in the set. The paint is very nice on this one, and there’s been some detail put into her clothing, with the creasing. Her hands aren’t very well moulded though, and look kinda blobby. 

Left:

The black linework is mostly OK, can see some flaws if you look close, but not as bad as other figures in this set. 

Right:

Bit messier on this side, plus some mess on the hair. 

Back:

Not sure what’s going on with her back up top – looks a little overly flat, and teh seams/creases by her arms look odd. I guess the sculptor was distracted by her backside…

Overall, a decent figure, but not anything special. 

Tiger & Lunatic – Tiger & Bunny World Collectable Figures Vol. 3

Today’s two figures will be Tiger in his suit and Lunatic. 

Here we have Wild Tiger:

In this figure we get to see his face and his suit, which is a rarity with his figures. I like the fact he’s wearing his eye mask under the suit… like he needs it. The paint on his is really nice, but a little less neat on the suit, The clear pieces of his suit are nice – on his should, arm and helmet. Though, like the Bunny figure, the tint is too pale on the green parts. 

Left:

Not too much to see here. 

Right:

Paint is fairly neat, and I think he’s posed well.

Back:

His pose also works well from he back. He has a few small details painted too, which makes the figure look good – his boots, bit on his back, and the green parts on the back of his helmet. 

Overall I like this figure – and he’s a welcome addition to my collection for the different pose. 

Now for the villain of the piece, Lunatic:

His head is painted well, and his hand, but the green paint feels rather rushed on his right of his cape. The white lines on his trousers have come out well, though. 

Left:

His head is painted well, but again, paint on the cape looks rushed, and there’s a bit of a transfer mark in the middle. Think he needs to give his cape a wash!

Right:

Ditto the remarks for his left-hand side.

Back:

The green and blue paint seem a fair bit neater back here than the sides, but still has some slop and misses. Black paint didn’t feel like going within the lines on his collar. 

I’m really impressed with his head, and the sculpt overall, but the paint on his cape is rather the letdown. One to display at a distance… which fits Lunatic. But it would’ve been nicer if the painter paid a bit more time to his cape. 

Bunny – Tiger & Bunny World Collectable Figures Vol. 3

I will be doing these trading figures in pairs, as there are 8 of them, and a week of blogs dedicated to these guys feels a bit much.

So, today’s pair is… Bunny & Bunny. 

Barnaby in his casual outfit:

The sculpting on this duded is pretty nice, and the paint is mostly neat. I especially like his hair, and the amount of details that went into his jeans – the stud, the belt and the linework. 

Left:

Here we can see some of the red of his jacket escaping int the white, and some dodgy texturing on the hair, which is a lot less apparent from the front. Jeans and shoes loog good though.  The cream part on his shoulder doesn’t match the white on the main part of his jacket, which makes it look a little odd to me.

Right:

Hair has a nicer finish on this side, seam is fairly well hidden imo. 

Back:

Hair sculpt is good, jeans look good from all the angles imo, as well as the boots, belt paint is a bit suspect back here though. 

Overall, I think this is a good trading figure and has a good likeness to Barnaby Brooks Jr. 

Bunny, darkness edition:

From a first glance, this figure looks pretty good, but does have its flaws – the one that isn’t so apparent from the photos is the side fins on his head do fall off rather easily. They do stay, so long as he isn’t nudged, though. This figure does have a fair number of fine lines, which I think does show the limits of painting on small trading figures – it does feel a bit uneven in places. 

Left:

I think the fins on the sides of his head could’ve done with a bit more dye, so that his head didn’t show so clearly through these parts. Lower arm guard colour looks about right. I do like this use of transparent parts.

Right:

Mostly more of the same. I like this pose though – “ready for action”. Paint on his collar looks a little dinged up. 

Back:

The backpack parts are nicely shaped, but appear to be a different colour to the rest of the pinkish parts. Would’ve been nice if the pinkish parts coordinated more. I think the proportions have gone a little odd due to the chibification though – I feel as if the backpack is a bit too wide, and doesn’t sit how it should. 

Overall, a decent likeness, but best not looked at form the back. 

Barnaby Brooks Jr – Tiger & Bunny – Darkness Edition

Good Luck Mode Activated:

Here we have a dark version of Barnaby Brooks Jr. with Good Luck Mode leg equipped. He starts off with a normal leg attached, but couldn’t resist trying this one out. Attaching it was a mild pain, and did require reading the instructions so that I didn’t pull the leg apart at the wrong points (… I may’ve tried). 

From the front, I’m impressed with him, especially as he was around a fiver. The black gives him a more classy look, with the “old gold” colour accents. I’m not sure if the pink the transparent parts quite goes – might’ve worked better if these were a deeper red. 

Face:

The parts joint nicely, and there’s some detailing around by his neck. Love the head sculpt, tho the chest feels it lacks depth somehow. 

Left:

The paint is mostly decent, without too much deviation from the lines.  Ilike the sides of his head, and there are some details in the Good Luck Mode leg, showing the machinery behind it, which is a really nice touch. 

Right:

Yeah, that leg is simultaneously cool and ridiculous! Just like the show :). His arms look good from the sides, and the silver hands complement the scheme nicely. 

Back:

Back of the legs aren’t hugely detailed imo, and serve just to “complete” the figure. The boosters are nice, and include the inner details, which show through the transparent parts well. He has some nice details on the underside of his arms that I like. 

Leg:

It does a good job of looking like the extended version of his default leg. The copper “spine” works well, giving the feeling of that’s where all the parts attach to. Yep, I wouldn’t want that thing heading towards me at high speed!

Accessories:

Not too much to speak about here. A couple of arms, and his default leg, plus a shut mask. So if you’re looking for customisabilty, this figure doesn’t really offer it, though I’m not sure what much else he would come with – he doesn’t do much of a line in weaponry. That’s more Wild Tiger’s thing… 

Overall, I think this is a decent figure, especially for the price you can get this one for. I think he could do with a decal on the white part of his chest – on the normal versions he has a little bunny logo – incorporating that would’ve helped break up the chest area a bit. I can see this being a bit of a Marmite figure – he’s decent for what he is, but I feel he a very niche appeal. Though if you do like him, you should be able to get him for a good price.

Lunatic – Tiger & Bunny

Now for the Big Bad in Tiger & Bunny, Lunatic:

I’m not sure he’s the most compelling of foes, but I do love his bright blue-green colour scheme and snappy sense of dress. For this figure, I’ve “equipped” one of his flaming hands and the flaming head. He also has another head without the flaming eyes, but that just isn’t cool enough for me. 

Left:

I love the shape of his head from the side, and he’s well-articulated. He also seems to be doing a good line in trying to get flares back into fashion. The paint is nicely done, though I’m seeing one tiny bit of sprue :P. Meh, any model kit I make is way worse. 

Right:

Here we can see his sheathed crossbow – his flaming weapon of choice. I’ve chosen to use the holstered version, as I wanted to have at least one flaming hand. It clips on decently well to his side. 

Flame:

The blues and greens are blended well in the flame parts, and look really nice imo. We can also admire some of the details in the crossbow sculpt as we’re here :). 

Back:

His suit is decently detailed on the back. His shoulders are a bit gappy though. 

Crossbow and default head:

I love the flaming detail on his crossbow. His heads are both nicely painted from the front, though a little gappy on the sides. 

Rest of the small accessories:

He has a good range of pieces, which I think gives a lot of posing options, which is something really good with this figure.

Cloak parts:

Whilst these pieces look really cool, I had massive issues getting them on, and it does somewhat limit your posing options, so I’ve decided to leave them off for now. Maybe I’ll have a go with them some other day in the far future. 

Overall, I think he’s a decent figure, even if he’s probably not a popular character. I’m glad to have him, and if you’re after him, he shouldn’t be too expensive to obtain. 

Wild Tiger – Tiger & Bunny

And now for some main character action:

Whilst I don’t usually go for chibis (yet I’m doing a series of blogs featuring them…) I do rather like this one, and well, in Japan they’re cheap, lol. I liked this one for the detail on it, and I like the clear part on his head. He’s been painted well, and he has a decent amount of detail – his eyes have the black inset, the silver parts have been split into separate parts, and he has the clear shoulderpads and the guards on his arms. 

Left:

His head does have the wideness of a chibi, but doesn’t feel drastic compared to Fire Emblem. The shapes work well, and the colours feel well-chosen.

Right:

Same as the left really. I like the detailing on his legs – he has the silver edging and the green part that goes around his anke. 

Back:

He’s sculpted well back here, and you have the details of the back of his helmet, and the shapes in the white portion of the back of his suit. Some small green paint details, which help add accents to the figure.

Overall, I rather like this chibi, and am glad to have bought it. His base is better than Fire Emblem’s as you can see more of the company logo, which is also helped by his wide stance. I’d recommend this chibi, if you want a Tiger chibi. 

Fire Emblem – Tiger & Bunny

This figure I found in a bargain bin, with only half of its packaging, so he was cheap:

I love the bright colours of Fire Emblem, and this one is painted well. The decal on his head is nice, and the blue contrasts nicely with the red. They’ve made good use of transparent plastic to have him making the small flame that he does in the show. His cape is also nice and bright. 

Left:

The tip of his mask has a nice gradient to it, and the stripes are painted neatly. I find his chibi head shape a bit awkward from the sides though – looks a bit too fat. 

Right:

Some stray mustard yellow on this side, and the head seam is a lot more obvious here. Didn’t quite go fully together in assembly. His gloves looks nice though, and the cape curves a bit, which is nice.

Back:

Really liking the gradient in his cape, and the detailing on it is good. It has a sculpted shape to it, which really helps, especially with the parts at the bottom. 

The base has his company logo on, plus his name, though the logo is mostly obscured by his feet. Might’ve been better just to stick with whatever parts of the logo fit without his feet in the way, but eh. 

Again, this is a character without too many figures, so it’s nice to have him represented in my collection, even if it is in chibi form. 

Tiger – Tiger & Bunny – S. H. Figuarts Movie Edition

Saw this dude cheap in Mandarake, so added him to my pile of stuff:

He’s surprisingly weighty, as he’s part-metal, and feels a good, solid figure. Overall, his design feels clean, and he’s easy to articulate. He does come with a stand, but he stood up just fine on his own, so decided to take pics of him in a neutral stance for this blog. The colours are nice on this figure, and he looks the part. 

Left:

His face has that slightly menacing look from the side. His arms are nicely detailed, and the “cover” part looks good. His leg is nicely finished, with a silver stripe. 

Right:

Very much the same as the left. He’s a symmetrical character, barring the logos, so this was to be expected. 

Back:

Here we can see the small details on the back of his head, and the angular patterns of the armour on his back. However, the whole thing feels… too flat. Especially on the lower part of his back and upper legs. The green detail around his ankles is nice though. 

Accessory time!

He comes with two of these guns, but was only arsed to equip one. They’re nicely detailed, and have a bit of paintwork on them. 

Side:

They peg into the inside of the arm “cover”, and the handle goes into his hand. It’s hinged at the handle join, so you can still pose him when he has it equipped. which I really like. I love the effort that went into this accessory, especially comparing it to the boring one-colour accessories Western figures can frequently come with. 

From the top:

Yep, definitely happy with this one. 

The other pieces:

Due to the peg, the guns have specific sides. And a decent selection of hands, for all your favourite Tiger poses.

And his base:

Will likely assemble this so I can have him in a more action-y pose.

Overall, I think as a figure he is a little on the plain side, but solid. This figure can be picked up cheaply, so would recommend it if you like what you see here. Was a bit worried about what he’d be like out of the box due to the cheap price tag, but I think he’s fine, just mostly because Tiger & Bunny isn’t too popular, and a lot of the figures are pretty samey. 

Lunatic & Origami Cyclone – Edge of Hero – Tiger & Bunny

I was perusing the small anime goods at Animate and was surprised to see a new collectable figure set for Tiger & Bunny. I thought they were relatively pricey, so I bought two, with a potential view to buy more if I liked the box contents to justify buying more. So here are the two I bought to see.

The first one to be unboxed turned out to be Lunatic:

These figures are REALLY small, so the macro lens made an outing. The plastic bridge he sits on is a stand that came with each of the figures, and can be used to display the figure and a card they came with, The stands are pretty big relative to the figure size, so I’m likely to display two on one stand.

And it’s only just now I remember that these figures came with display cards. That’s how exciting the card design is…

So, onto the figure itself. It’s definitely Lunatic’s colours, and it’s nice to see he has a fireball, even if it isn’t translucent. The paint is definitely a bit haphazard in places – noticeable on his legs and the green curves on the inner edges of his cloak. His face lacks detail though, and it makes it kinda look like he doesn’t have eyes. If they did his eyes in white it would have done, but a bit of extra detail on his head would have helped a lot.

Left:

Here we see an obvious seam, and the paint kind of giving up.

Right:

This side is far better than the other one, and the blend in his fireball is nice.

Back:

Paint on the back I think is an acceptable level of quality for such a small figure. The flaws are mostly small and not too noticeable. Some blue paint has gone walkies higher up on his back though – you can see two paint drips.

He does stay nicely on the stand, and doesn’t fall off too easily. It’s a decent sculpt for its size, but the painting of his face really lets the whole thing down imo. Not a big fan.

Now for the second, Origami Cyclone:

Here we see a lovely range of colour, which feels accurate to the show. However, where they put the colour… not so much. If the painting was done accurately, he would have been show-accurate, but there’s missing paint and slop all over the place. Most noticeable of this is on his chest – part of the blue triangle has been missed, giving him mutant chest. He also appears to have flesh-coloured armour on his right arm. The other paint miss I noticed fairly early on was the bit hanging from the middle of his belt, and the bit on his trousers. His hands and the upwards points on his mask haven’t been sculpted too well and are a fair bit blobby.

Let’s see if the back fares much better:

Erm, kinda, yeah… The oversized shuriken thing on his back looks pretty decent, but does have one mark on one blade. Gold edging paint is all over the place though, and one of this sword handles has been given a half-effort. Red edging on this “skirt” was given the other half effort. Also note the huge blobs of missed blue paint on his upper back – this looks truly awful when looking at the figure from the back. 

Overall, these figures were a neat idea, executed poorly. If they made them 1.5-2x bigger, I feel they could have done a much better paint job, and the details would be so much more visible. As it stands, they’re REALLY small and the paint’s a mess. After seeing these two, I was not inclined to buy any more. I would not recommend these figures to anyone tbh. If you want to buy small figures of Tiger & Bunny characters, just go buy some of the trading sets that are out there. 

Barnaby Brooks Jr – Chess Piece

Just a small loot item today, Barnaby as a chess piece:

I like the pose in this figure, and the backdrop. And the fact it doesn’t even look like a chess piece. The paint is pretty decent for a figure of this size, and he has the translucent pieces he should do. 

Left:

Here we see he’s very close up to the backdrop. His chest is done well, and nicely detailed. Here we can also see his eyes are painted, and he has paint details on his inner arm. And the “TV” part of the “Hero TV” logo.

Right:

Here we have a goodly amount of detail too – he has his thrusters, and all his back plates. 

Back:

Not much to see here, though apparently I have the base rotated, so the only clue that he’s a chess piece is back here. You’d need a pretty big board if this is the size of a chess piece… the base isn’t too big, but he’s the size of a trading figure, so you’d need a good-sized board if you had a set of pieces… However, researching it, it’s more of a ‘concept’ set, where you’d just collect one of each, rather than a chess set’s worth. 

Here’s an angled shot:

I really like this piece. I’d collect the others, if I came across them for a decent price. A good amount of detail has been put into the sculpting and the painting for this figure. I’d recommend these figures, but maybe not for actually playing chess. 

Nathan Seymour – Tiger & Bunny – Banpresto

This figure I was considering buying prior to Japan, and came across whilst I was there, so decided to buy him. For Nathan, there are only two prepainted non-trading figures, and the other one was an exclusive, so if you’re a fan of this dude (not in costume) it’s slim pickings.

So let’s take a look what we got:

All in all, a pretty decent figure. Phew. Some paint flaws on the orange parts of his top, but the rest of it seems decent. His makeup has been replicated well, and he has shading throughout his outfit, which is definitely a bonus for a prize figure.

Face:

He has nice sculpt detail in his face, along with the makeup that matches with the show. I also like the ribbon around his neck, which is painted well, and I especially like the purple of the gem attached to it.

Left:

His hair and ruff look really good imo, and look pretty much like they’re supposed to. His earring is crisp and defined, which is good for such a small part. The clothes flow nicely, along with the shading present. We can see one seam down his coat, but it has been fairly well hidden.

Right:

Here we can see he has painted fingernails, which is good, and the different finishes. His coat is shiny, whilst the rest of him isn’t.

Back:

Here we can see his right hand has a ring on, and also has painted nails. The edge of his cuff could’ve done with a tad more orange paint though. His ruff is nicely shared though, and I like the hole in the back of his top – it adds a good amount of detail. His leggings and boots are nicely shaded, to complete the figure.

For a prize figure, this one is really good, so I am really happy with him. I’m glad they did a decent job on him as there is rather a lack of figures for the side characters of Tiger & Bunny, especially out of costume. He is one of my favourite side characters, despite being a bit too stereotypical in places. If you like this dude, I’d recommend this figure. It should also be pretty cheap to obtain, as these Tiger & Bunny figures don’t seem overly popular.

Barnaby Brooks Jr – Tiger & Bunny

This figure is the G.E.M figure of Barnaby Brooks Jr, by Megahouse. Got this cheap from a retailer in the UK. One that garnered a poor reputation, but seems to be now just concentrating on liquidating their stock, so I grabbed a few good deals, including this one. 

So let’s have a look at him:

Certainly plenty of shading on him, and the sculpting is really nice on him imo. You can imagine him settling into this pose, and he has an appropriately serious expression, which fits Barnaby. Plenty of detail has been put into the clothing, which I like, as there was the large potential to leave it bland. 

Close-up of his face:

His eyes are painted nicely, and his lips have been well done, without too much colouring. 

You can also exchange the front of his hair:

And have him wearing his glasses. Both options are equally viable, and I think come down to personal preference. On initially purchasing the figure, I thought I’d only want to go for this look, but on experimenting, it left me indecisive. 

Both of the hairpieces have been shaded well, so no issues there. 

Necklace:

Tucked into his jacket, you will see his signature necklace. Was particularly pleased this was included. Here we can also see his jacket has a “lived in” feel, which is rare in a figure. 

Hairline:

This is what the hairline looks like with his glasses hairpiece. A bit more visible than other figures, but this is not surprising given you can exchange his hair. 

Boots & stand:

Love the red leather of his boots, and they’re painted neatly. The base has his logo and name. In isolation, the stand is nice, but I’m not entirely sure it fits the style of the figure. I don’t find it really detracts from it, though. 

Left:

Here we can see how much work they’ve put into the creases in his outfit. Gives all of his clothes a lifelike feel. Some of the trouser shading feels a bit randomly placed, but it doesn’t detract for me. Here we also see his hand with his ring on. 

If you prefer him ringless, he also comes with this hand:

Which is identical to the other hand, barring the ring. Switching the hand in and out is easy enough, but probably want to go careful, to avoid scratching the hand or his trousers. With the connection under his jacket cuff, it doesn’t look like a replaceable part when on display. 

Right:

He is thrusting forward, which feels more evident on this side, as his arm & hand doesn’t obscure it. He has a slender build, which feels true to the anime. Paint application looks good here too. 

Back:

His backside looks rather small from this angle! Ok, maybe they overdid the slenderness? Definitely doesn’t feel like there was any slacking off here when it came to the sculpting and the painting. All looks good, if you’re happy with his build. 

Close-up of his head & shoulders:

Join on the left doesn’t look quite aligned, but I think I can let it off for that. Hair is nicely shaded, and the off-white of the top of the jacket looks good. I think they nailed the colour for this. 

Overall, I’m really happy with this figure, and can recommend it, if you’re a Barnaby fan. Some day I might get the Kotetsu that goes with him, but I do have other Kotetsu figures, so not rushing out to buy it, unless I come across a good deal. 

Tiger – Tiger & Bunny – Figure-Rise 6

And what would Bunny be without Tiger?

This one, the stickers were easier than Bunny’s I felt. Especially as the ridged ones sit in the ridges. Main downside of the stickers on this one is the leg stickers are prone to peeling on the pointy bits. The bits that go over his shins are two pieces, which is why they peel back from the edge, when clipped. Second annoying thing is his hips don’t like to be straight, and he seems to like to stand with a slight wonk at all times. Like Bunny, I find he looks impressive, and articulates well. 

Left:

Love the armour on his lower arms, and the angular armour on his lower leg. And a wonderfully pointy face. 

Right:

The lines add a lot of detail to his legs, but with them being several stickers, it was a bit of a laborious process sticking them all on. Worth it though! Not so worth it: Those white arm stickers. I don’t find they lie particularly well on the moulded plastic. 

Back:

Love the lines on the backs of his legs. The back shoe stickers were a pain though, as they’re a rounded blob that you have to sort of try and smooth them onto. There are some cuts in the sticker to aid with this, but not sure how much they helped. He also has a hidden peg hole, underneath a piece on his spine. I like the way this part blends well into his back, but it does have a protrusion, so it’s easy to remove with just a fingernail. 

Overall, these figures were mostly fun to build. Did make some mistakes along the way, but these weren’t too hard to rectify. Am pleased with the end result, and was worth it. If you want to kill an evening and end up with a nice-looking action figure, these kits may be for you. 

Let’s say goodbye Tiger:

Thanks for reading!

Barnaby Brooks Jr – Tiger & Bunny – Figure-Rise 6

After making the Black Lotus and Silver Crow model kits, I decided I needed more. After hunting around for something from an anime I was familiar with, I came across Tiger & Bunny. There were two versions – I chose the “Style 2″, as these ones looked nicer than the original counterparts. Doing the research for this blog, I think I made the right choice, but these ones were the far more involved to build, owing to the number of stickers they have. 

So, let’s see what the end result looks like:

I think he was worth the effort, and came out really well. The articulation is good too, and you can do a range of poses:

Here he is, running into battle. Or stopping Tiger from doing something stupid. The stickers, once on, work really well and give the figure a decent amount of detail. I love the blue shiny stickers. The downside of doing Barnaby’s stickers was that most of them sit on top of the ridges, meaning they’re hard to get in place. This is due to most of these areas having a coloured border. 

Left side:

Love the clear areas on the armour. His head has a good shape, and his head “fins” look neat. Also love the way the side of the legs turned out, where the colours work well together. 

Right side:

Not too much different from the left. Looks good 🙂

Back:

Love the wings/jets on his back. The detail of the red plastic behind the clear plastic works really well imo. Here you can see where some of the sticker son the back of his thighs didn’t quite sit right on the ridges. Annoying. And one of his butt stickers has since walked off :/. Not sure where that one went, sadly. 

The base of his spine comes out, to reveal a peg hole. I have some bases on order, so I can put Tiger & Bunny in action poses, when I display them. 

Overall, I’m definitely pleased with this figure, despite having to be careful not to nudge the stickers, and the amount of rude words that went into putting them on XD. If you’d like a more involved model kit, I would recommend this. 

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. 

Urban Mine – Tiger & Bunny – Part 1

I saw two Tiger & Bunny lots – one for a set of Bandai figures, and one for some prize figures. The Bandai lot went for more than I was prepared to pay, but I won the other lot with the maiden bid of ¥100. 

I took a look at the lot, just prior to paying:

Agh, it’s not just the J prizes, but a few glasses as well. I would’ve preferred to not pay to ship a bunch of glasses over too, but at least there still was enough J-prizes to hopefully get a set. So this lot ended up costing me the same as the previous one (£16.22), due to the weight. 

This will be a 2-part blog – today’s blog will focus on the items that are not the J-prizes. 

First up, the glasses. There were 4 glasses – 3 of the same design, and the 4th being different. 

I have three of these glasses:

Which look like this out of the box:

This side of the box shows the full design:

Personally, I don’t like the design of this glass at all. The writing feels too bold and hard to read, and the design isn’t exciting. I also don’t have any need for more drinking glasses XD. 

The second glass:

And out of the box:

I think this glass is a much nicer design – much more legible, and has a nice thematic design on one side. However, I don’t really need an odd glass, so I’m likely to try and sell all four glasses at some point. Erm, anyone in the UK want to buy some Tiger & Bunny glasses? 

Next up is this metro pass holder:

It has words… it has Tiger & Bunny… and erm, what the heck is this thing trying to say?! I may actually use this when I go to Tokyo if I get a pass, as this’ll prevent me from losing it in a random pocket.. But I’m not sure what’s up with the design. 

Back of the holder:

Nothing going on here. Just a place to grab & pull the pass back out of the holder. If anyone’s wondering how this works – the metro passes have RFID in Japan, so you tap them against the reader, so it doesn’t need to come out of the holder. You then attach this holder to a bag or the like, then you can just grab it and smack it against the reader as you walk through the barrier. I may take a reel with me, as I may not always have a suitable bag on me XD. 

Last up… is one of the Bandai figures! For some reason, one of them was dumped in this lot, and it was Rock Bison:

Aww, cute. This figure is OK, but cemented the fact I didn’t want to pay a lot for the Bandai figure set. And made me wonder if this one was missing in the other lot… Most of the painting is decent on it, but I’m not really attracted to the design. 

Back:

Some nice detailing back here, and the paint is where it’s supposed to be. If you like him, he’s a good figure, but he isn’t anything special imo. 

So an interesting set of extras, but nothing I would miss if it spontaneously disappeared. 

Kotetsu T Kaburagi – Bunny Party Edition

So with only one thing in the “box” for Mandarake, I couldn’t simply just order that. So I went for a wander around the Mandarake mail-order site. 

First thing I found was a Tiger figure I simply had to buy:

This is Wild Tiger heading to the surprise party he arranged for Bunny. With his bunny present. We know it’s Wild Tiger, as he’s in his mask. Nope, definitely not Kotetsu. 

Here he is from the site, showing his bunny present:

D’aww, that thing’s so cute. His other side:

His watch and bracelet look nice. Nice detailing on his shoes too. 

Back:

Some nice shading going on in his waistcoat, plus the buckle is well-painted. Trousers look a bit overly shiny in this shot. 

Close-up of the base:

Just in case you forget who you’re looking at!

He also comes with an arm which you can swap with his bunny-carrying arm. Not sure why you’d want to use that – half the fun of this figure is the bunny present he comes with! This is a nice, inexpensive figure, which is more interesting than your basic Kotetsu.