Month: November 2017

Figure Spotlight – Eren Yeager

I bought this fellah at a con, but amazingly wasn’t severely gouged for it. Would’ve been cheaper via Mandarake, but not by a whole lot, once shipping would be factored in. 

So here he is, in his full glory:

image

One fairly noticeable paint flaw on his leg there – but he is a prize figure, so paint flaws aren’t unknown. Most of the pics I’ve seen of him have some noticeable paint flaw somewhere. In some ways, the sculpt was a bit too ambitious for the painters, and all the straps are prone to making the smallest mistake look large. 

Front-on view:

image

The other downside to this figure: a few angles has his arm covering his face. Though the plus sides of this figure is his gear and jacket:

image

Both look really nice imo, and with the simpler paint job, it came out well. 

Here’s a view of the gear from the back: 

image

Almost looks like a different figure from the back. The wall makes a nice little addition to the figure, and gives it a lot more than a plain base would. Was one of the things that drew me to this figure. If I were to change one thing about this figure, it would be to move his arm so it wasn’t quite as in front of his face. This figure may also find itself becoming painting practice… if I can ensure that I’ll make less of a mess, instead of more. 

Figure Spotlight – Racing Miku 2012

This figure was the first one I had to pay customs for! I remember coming across pictures of this figure and absolutely having to have it, due to the the transparent skirt and the pose. I was looking at Racing Miku figures, and the ones that I found, this was my favourite. And possibly still is. 

image

Searching around, I found it at prices I couldn’t afford. Then I managed to find one preowned on AmiAmi at a price I could stretch to! So I ordered it. Waited. Got a slip from Parcelforce, paid my moneys, and waited a bit more. Then eventually, she was with me!

And I could stare at her belly:

image

Up until this point, I don’t think I’d seen pics of the actual base, so that was a bit of a surprise. The promo shots always have a clear base, so was expecting something plainer. Still not a big fan of this base – would personally prefer it to be a plain colour, but this is more “Miku”. 

The pose is fun though, along with her expression. Her skirt is removable, but imo she looks far better with it on than without. She comes apart just underneath her chest so you can take it off. 

Here’s the back of her hair:

image

Lots of movement, lots of painful areas to dust. Other similar figures tend to have more rubbery hair, so they’re not as fragile but this one is quite tough plastic. Can be a bit nerve-wracking dusting it, but it’s stayed in one piece thus far. 

Still a quality figure in my collection, two years on. 

Figure Spotlight – Headless Horseman & Sinister Squashling

Say hello to WoW’s Headless Horseman:

image

This figure I bought in 2012, and he’s still as awesome as the day I got him. He comes with a “base” featuring his horse bursting from the ground:

image

It has one peg for his right foot, so the base only semi-stabilises him, This is probably the weakest part of the figure – he can be a bit prone to falling on his backside whilst you’re posing him, but once posed, he does tend to stay. His armour is on point though.

Here is a couple of closeups of the horse:

image
image
image

The texture’s done nicely on this figure,and the plastic surface feels rougher than your average figure, which fits in with the theme of this figure nicely.

His cape has a great sense of movement, but also a pain to dust because of this:

image

His head is also detachable:

image

Which is kind of essential for a headless horseman!

If that amount of awesome wasn’t enough, he also came with a sinister squashling, which was a mob that attacked during the encounter, and you could get it as a pet:

image

Side shot showing the stem:

image

I remember wanting to get this figure in no small part thanks to the squashling – it was my fave non-combat pet at the time, and I just have to have a li’l one I could sit on my desk.

Several years on, this is definitely one of my better Western figures, and a testament to the quality of Blizzard’s figures. Would recommend it to anyone who likes its look, as long as you can get it for a non-super-scalp-y price. I got a ridiculously good deal on this figure, looking back.

Len Kagamine & Sam Flynn

Two figures that don’t really have anything to do with each other… but I opened both on the day of writing. 

First up, Sam Flynn. Decided to pick him up at last, was one of the Disney Infinity figures I was pondering getting:

image

Here’s a closeup on his disc-holding hand. The scupltwork from this angle does look good:

image

And from the other side. His leg does look like it’s got an extra joint from this angle!

image

Overall, a good figure, especially for the price I paid. I wouldn’t want to pay a lot for them, so the clearance discounts on these figures has been nice.

Next up, Len Kagamine. I saw this figure on a Black Friday deal, but found it straight-up cheaper on Amazon UK. As I have a Prime trial right now, I got him the very next day after ordering. Here he is, out of the box:

image

D’awww. small and cute! He came in 3 pieces, plus the base. Not entirely sure why they didn’t package him assembled, lol. He even came with an instruction sheet, not that one is really needed! 

Here is a shot of his right-hand side:

image

And one of his left:

image

And the obligatory back shot:

image

The figure is very nicely painted, and is the quality of a miniature scale. However he is tiny. I was expecting him to be small – after all, he was advertised as 1/12, but somehow getting him out of the box, he was still smaller than I thought:

image

Doesn’t exactly tower over the Infinity figure, but at least he has the quality of a larger scale put into the wash. I’d say he’s worth the RRP, but not much more. Largely, his price seems to have gone up in the aftermarket, but for his retail price, he’s a fine-if-small figure. 

Figure Spotlight – [BOOTLEG] Amberlash

OK, pre-warning: if you don’t like bootlegs, look away now. Unfortunately at the time I got this, the “real thing” wasn’t really available, and even if you could find one it’d would’ve been waayyy beyond my budget. So I went for the bootleg, as I really had to have a succubus in my collection. 

At the time, I was fairly impressed with it, barring the painting on the left-hand-side of her panties. Having a closer look today, yeah, there’s definitely a sucky paint job going on:

The official one has gold paint, this one has… bronze paint. It’s not entirely horrible, but does lack the contrast of the original. You can also see her torso doesn’t sit right – tempted to glue that up properly, and it’ll probably help a lot with her balance… oh yeah, she likes to fall over. 

Wasn’t sure if the gap was there originally, but looking at eBay, where there’s photos of the bootleg, this seems to be a regular feature of the bootleg. 

Here’s a more front-on shot showing the escaping torso:

Let’s move to the side:

Annd stare at the diseased transition from body to wing. The painting of this part is horrible on both sides, and would definitely be one of the bits I’d look at repainting, if I do. I have one plastic model figure that I plan to repaint, and if this goes well, I may look at repainting this one to some extent. As well as sortin’ that torso. 

Finally, her back:

Hm, this pic shows the least of the paint flaws! Could almost be the real thing from this angle… 

For a bootleg, it still isn’t a bad effort. The sculpt has been preserved, and there doesn’t seem to be much noticeable degradation of the mould. The paint job is very noticeably sloppy in places, so if I decide to make a foray into garage kits, this would be definitely a figure I’d look at touching up/repainting. 

Figure Spotlight – Kabuki

And more Diamond Select! Though, again, I got this one cheap. I got interested in Kabuki, after getting a figure of Scarab, because she looked cool. I then found this figure on Amazon, put it on my wishlist, and watched the price slowly drop. Once it was at a point where I couldn’t not buy it, I bought it. So here she is:

image

Her main body looks a little overly plain in real life. Maybe could have done with something to break up the block colour, and make her appear more detailed. Her weapon and pose are nice though. 

The base also really adds to the figure. Here’s a closeup:

image

And one of the lantern:

image

It’s nice to have a base that adds to the figure – probably one of the better things with Diamond Select – they do try to make a base that goes with the character, though some of them are horrible misses. This one (and the Sin City ones) go nicely with their figures. Just a shame the figures could do with a little work. This one being a statue does work for it – no awkward joints to be seen here. 

The back of this figure also works:

image

Almost a shame the tattoo isn’t visible from the front of the figure, but that’s how the character is in the comics, so can’t fault Diamond Select for that. It’s a nice rendition though, but for some reason mine seems to have a mark on her shoulder. 

If displayed at a distance, this figure does look bold and striking. Up close, you can see the paint errors and from the front she looks kinda plain. I’d recommend getting this one at a discount. 

Figure Spotlight – Sin City figures

To keep the content goin’ on this blog, I’ve decided to make some entries about figures I’ve obtained prior to starting this blog. These blogs will start with the title “Figure Spotlight” and largely feature 1-3 figures. 

Today’s post will be about two Sin City figures I bought at MCM one year. These figures were made by Diamond Select.

First up, Nancy. 

image

This was the one of the two I really wanted, but the deal was 2 figures for a price, so I go this one and Hartigan. You may notice that the guns are still rubber-banded in place – didn’t take the rubber bands off, as I don’t think she’ll have a particularly great grip on the guns if I do. In future, I may need to take the bands off if they begin to perish. Paint job is mostly OK, but you can see some WTF going on in the crotch area. Posing this figure isn’t a whole lotta fun, and both of these have the silly thigh swivel. Stupid cut legs… 

Here she is from the side:

image

Mostly looking OK. Hiding the gravity-defying tassels in this photo :P. 

Aaand the back:

image

Yep, Diamond Select plain give up here. These figures are definitely designed to be put up against a wall. 

Now onto Hartigan:

image

Again, left his weapons rubber banded, so I don’t have to deal with them being dropped. I also find his thigh cut more annoying to look at than Nancy’s as it is more visible with the less busy pants. Not shown: errant blob of white paint behind his tie. 

Here he is from the side:

image

And the back:

image

His back is nicely done, but you’re not gonna wanna look at it when he’s on the stand. Kind of a shame really. 

I like the way the figures have been done in black and white to match the film, and the sculpting for the most part is OK. Nancy’s tassels are a mess though. The issues are fairly par-for-the-course for Diamond Select figures, which is why I only tend to buy them on deep discount. These two were no exception, happy for the price I paid, but I wouldn’t pay regular price for them. 

Non-genre Grab-Box (S) – other items 2

And this is the last of the stuff!

Iwako erasers

Well, there they are. They look OK, but not very interesting. Have ended up at work, and I used one of them once. Took them into work to see if anyone would want them, no takers. They can be bought pretty cheaply. 

Splatoon clips

Bright n’ shiny. Not got any consoles, so not got Splatoon. I do like the squid designs, so these have ended up on my hanging rail. 

Dragon Quest tote bag

Nice, sturdy tote bag. Not a fan of the design, but hey, decent bag. 

Rockman.EXE badge

I ended up selling this, so I hope its new owner is happy with it :). Never really played any of the Megaman games, I did get roped into helping someone build a clone though. Didn’t get very far – the other person was basically relying on me to do all the coding, so I did some then gave up, lol. And that’s how I learned of Megaman’s existence. 

Tapu Tapu Panda

Apparently this is a dude who appears on greeting cards in Japan. So I guess the UK equivalent would be the Me 2 You bear. OK looking dangler, and resides on one of my hanging rails. 

Monster Hunter moshi tape

Some decorative tape. I know of the Monster Hunter series, but never played it, so not sure I’d get to use this. Did attempt to sell it, but got no takers. Its size is annoying on the posting front, as it’s juuust a bit too tall for large letter, making it expensive to post unless I open it.

Tom and Jerry rubber stamp

I vaguely tried to sell this, but unsurprisingly got no takers. Not sure what I’m going to do with this – if I find a Tom and Jerry fan, they might end up with it, or it may eventually get chucked. 

And that’s it for this box! Hope you enjoyed reading. 

Non-genre Grab-Box (S) – other items

This post will cover half of the remainder of the items in the box. There isn’t a really good way to split these and end up with sensible-sized posts, so the splitting is arbitrary. So, uh, enjoy!

Evangelion ‘towel’

image

These are called “hand towels”, but they’re flannel-sized, and not the size us in the West would call a hand towel. Could possibly use it as a flannel. It’s not the highest of quality, and a bit thin in places, I like it’s Evangelion, but it’s not a design that says “Evangelion” to me, so it’ll probably live in a drawer. 

Nerv Vs Godzilla keyring

image

This is one of my favourite items in the box, and was one of the first things to go on my hanging rail. It’s been coated and feels like it’d survive punishment, but I don’t really want to risk using it as a keyring. 

IBM Kei Nagai sticker

image

Cool-looking sticker, that does have a transparent background. Not yet stuck it to anything, but reminds me of the Ethereals in WoW. Did look up the thing he’s from, but I remember it didn’t sound worth investigating further. 

MSGV: Phantom Pain

image

Decent-looking strap, have it hung up, but it is one of the candidates to be potentially replaced one day, as I don’t have any current interest in the MSG series. 

Japan Post

image
image

Apparently Japan Post have a gatcha series! And this is what I got in mine. Sadly, the way it’s been designed means that it’s very hard to get to sit on a figure’s head. Not exactly an item one can expect! 

Yo Kai Watch

image
image

This was some data sheets and some plastic pockets to store your Yo Kai watch faces, plus a shiny watch face. I’ve since seen a video of the Yo Kai Watch (thanks Nerd^3!), and decided I definitely don’t want one. The watch face is currently kicking around on my desk, and the pouches turned out to be useful for storing badges! 

Kirby & Waddle Do

image

Yep, Kirby badges. Not a lot to say about these. Never played Kirby, was kinda before my time, am one generation out, lol. Nicely made, but not really of interest to me.

Chibi ship

Yep, you read that title right:

image

This was in a gatcha capsule, and is a ‘chibified’ version of a real ship. The ‘instructions’ for it gave you facts about the real thing. Didn’t know you could chibify ships, shows what I know! 

Non-genre Grab Box (S)

This was a box I got some time ago, which I started preparing a blog for, but never completed. So now I have my own blog, it’s time to post it 😀

Here is an overview of what the box contained:

image

This blog will be about the figures and Re-Ment sets. 

Mickey Mouse

image

This was the “star item” of the box. Alas, this was not something I was particularly interested in, and has been sold. 

Pikachu

image

A plushie pikachu. Something else I wasn’t interested in. Looks nice for what it is, but I’m not a Pokemon fan. Did try to sell it, but hasn’t sold thus far.

Hecatonchier

image

This is one of my favourite items from the box. Not truly familiar with the FF series, but this dude looks cool. And So. Many. Arms. It could sure give you a hand!

Baby Tiragon

image

As it was a preowned box, most of the random item boxes were already open, and this was one of the open ones. Out of the things on the box, this was the least ‘cool’, so wasn’t surprised to get it. It’s a decent enough figure, but probably not worth trying to sell, so it sits atop one of my detolfs. 

Mothra Larva

Here’s the large packaging it came in:

image

And the thing itself:

image

Looked better when it was obscured by the packaging. I feel kinda sorry for anyone who won this in the Ichiban Kuji! You pays your money, you gets… your poop. It’s not very detailed, and has zero paintwork, which contributes significantly to it looking like an oddly shaped poop than a larva. It now lives amongst Poundland tat, and hasn’t eaten any of it, so I don’t see it mutating into Mothra any time soon. 

Petit Sushi-Go-Round

image

These Re-Ment sets I didn’t initially open, but they sat around… so I opened them. All three were sealed. This one is a sushi set, and you can cut up the info sheet to put things on the screen. Not yet put anything on the screen, lol. 

Toy Story Toy Carnival

image

This is probably my favourite of the three, as it’s toy story. Not much to say about it, but I do like the way the milkshake is Jessie-themed.

Rilakkuma Leisure Snack

image

Weirdly, this one wasn’t on MFC when I looked, and I’m not big into Re-Ments, so didn’t bother adding it. Is cute, but the bits just sorta hang around on the wardrobe shelf. 

Wonda-Chan Asuka

Set up a bunch of watches on the Mandarake pages for this figure, and it didn’t take too long to strike gold! So despite last month’s overspend, this was one thing that was allowed to “jump the fence”. 

And here’s her back:

The pair looking great together, chilling with Etna:

Pleased I was finally able to obtain the pair at a reasonable price. On most other sites, they’re more money than I wanted to pay, but Mandarake delivered in the end :D. 

Lucidique 12″

OK, so I haven’t totally banned myself from buying stuff… Found this in a store for a good price, though it is damaged. Think I paid a fair price, given the damage – she still looks cool though:

The weapon in her right hand has had the end snapped off, there’s supposed to be one more hook she holds in that hand instead, and a couple of her horns have the ends missing, though this isn’t particularly visible from the front. 

Here’s a close-up of her face:

Yeah, she’s lookin’ at you :).

Here she is next to the smaller Lucidique I already owned:

About twice as tall – note the hook in the right hand of the smaller figure – that’s the one missing from the larger one. I do have the weapons for the smaller one, but they’re currently in storage. 

When I was buying this figure, I asked the store-owner “can I have a closer look at Lucidique?” (as she was high on a shelf). He didn’t know who she was XD. Should’ve have asked if I could take a closer look at the figure that looks like it jumped out of Clive Barkers’ imagination :P. Instead, I asked if I could have a look at the figure next to the Torchwood one… 

She currently stands next to the 12″ Pinhead figure, and they look great together 😀

Matoi Figma

Finally, she’s here! Feel like I’ve been waiting a lifetime for this to be re-released, especially as her release was delayed. The re-release had good timing – had not long watched Kill La Kill, when the re-releases were announced. T’was an instant pre-order!

And she doesn’t disappoint – the joints feel good, and I love her ‘angry face’. 

Full body shot:

And a shot of her back:

Love the details on this figure, and I don’t have any large complaints about her. Scissor sword in the slightly open holding hand doesn’t always like to stay put, but the other holding hands are a bit tight. Think I did heat it up a bit to get her to grip a little harder. She does come with the other half of the scissors, but decided to not put that on display.

Ryuko also looks great next to Satsuki:

Pleased to have the pair, without having to break the bank :). 

Variable Action Heroes Devilman

After last month’s overspend, I have decided to dial back somewhat this month and this was ‘the purchase’. Was thinking of buying a bunch of Devilman stuff off Mandarake, but found this for a good price on Amazon, and shipped within the EU, so no import duty either :D. 

He’s an awesome-looking dude, and his body has much poseablity, which makes him a fun figure. Here’s his wings and tail, which come detached in the box:

He also has another pair of hands as fists, but haven’t used these – much prefer the claws. Here’s his back showing the attachment of the wings:

They’re on a ball joint at the bottom, giving some poseability, but sadly, not a lot. There’s also a hinge at the “elbow” of his wings so you can do silly things like this:

Largely, this joint isn’t particularly useful for posing imo, but… it’s there. Sadly on one side, it doesn’t allow you put the wing “together” properly, which I’ve seen on other people’s pics of him. Here’s a pic showing that:

Here’s him from the side, after I managed to get him “flying” on my spare PAK stand:

And standing is by far the hardest thing he does! Even with the PAK stand, he’s a bitch to get standing and stay standing, due to the wing weight. If you wished to display him wingless, you’d probably have a much easier time of it… but man… those wings. The above shot also shows an annoying flaw with mine – one wing has a bit of purple paint smear :(. Seeing as I bought it from a reseller, it’s not really worth the faff of seeing if they’ll do anything about it tbh. 

Other than that, he’s really well painted, and has a very striking appearance. He has a lot of flexibility in his joints, though I’d wish for a bit of redesign in the wings to allow them to flex more. His middle might have one too many joints – wouldn’t mind getting rid of the bottom one so he doesn’t keep trying to hip-thrust! 

All in all, I think he was a good purchase, and I’m pleased to have him :). 

Asuka Emotion Style

Been looking at this listing for some time on eBay, and decided this’d come up in the November budget, if it was still around. At one point it got delisted for some days, so thought the shop must’ve got rid of it elsewhere, but it turned up again :D. Didn’t come with box, but the price was appropriately cheap. 

So here she is, in her smiley glory! Came a lot quicker than expected, as she was sent EMS. Wasn’t expecting that!

Here’s a side shot:

She’s in a bent-over pose, hence not everything being in focus in the first shot. Does give something to the figure, rather than being a “bog standard” Asuka. 

Due to her position, she’s also showing off one of her assets:

The blackish bits are a bit odd on her back though. I’ll be mostly looking at her from the front though. She’s nicely painted and sculpted, and I rather like this figure. 

Oshino Shinobu

Decided to go though the Nippon Yasan sale, and see if there was anything unmissable. Turns out there was… and it featured… doughnuts!

I mean, a figure bathing in doughnuts, how could I not get this? I haven’t watched any of the Monogatari stuff, and I might have to now :P. Here’s a shot from the side:

Here’s a shot of her sans hat and the bathtub separated from the larger stand:

She does come out of the bathtub, but no photos shown of that here.The piece above her foot was REALLY hard to get out, and once I did, I found out why – it had been assembled prior to the paint drying ><. A couple of paint flakes adhered to the part that’s glued into the bathtub, so that part doesn’t show. For the curious, her body is just plain skin (if you want pics, there are some on MyFigureCollection). 

Now to see if my husband also tries to bathe in doughnuts… 

Ashens!

When Stuart Ashen came to Bristol… I finally had something for him to sign! 

And being me, it had to be figure-related. I actually thought about this prior to another time of meeting him, but forgot to bring it with me – d’oh!

This time I did not forget:

image

Figure to the left is the “legit” version, and the signed one is a bootleg, which I originally bought as an experiment to whether I liked swimwear figures or not. Was on the fence about buying one, so decided to go the “cheap” route to see if it’d end up in the bin within a couple of weeks, with little money lost, or I’d buy the legit version if it was still displayed. 

“Blimey” was Ashen’s reaction to seeing it:

image

It may have been one of the odder things he’s been given to sign. So now this bootleg won’t be hitting the bin, lol. Had a short chat with Stuart, and had Barry sign a note for my husband – wasn’t expecting Barry to be there, but knowing my husband is a fan, I brought him a li’l love note home ;). 

Here’s Ashens being confused by swimsuit Saber:

image

I’ll let the reader decide what Mentski’s (guy on the left) is doing. Barry is wisely staying out of it. 

Heroes of Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes

After I went to the Horror Con in Birmingham, we went for a quick jaunt through Gloucester to kill some time, whereupon I picked up this figure:

And her back:

A post to Reddit later, plus some research, I found out this figure was from a series of blind bags. 

On returning home, I found I could buy a box of ‘em for a tenner. So the logical thing? Buy an entire box!

The box also shows what you can get:

Upon opening the first, I found out why these were being flogged off cheap – these are in the UK, and the cards that come with them are in Spanish and Portuguese. I can sorta read Spanish, so I can get the gist of what each character is supposed to be, and Google Translate the rest :P. 

The instruction manual comes with two games you can play with these figures – the first is a simple vs game, where you basically battle cards. The second involves knocking characters over with the provided marbles (you get one marble with each figure). Especially because of the marble game, some of these figures are surprisingly hard to stand up, 

So what did I get from the bags? Some dupes for sure! Let’s run through the teams, in the order on the above box.

First up is the Academy, who live in the City of Wisdom:

Got 4/6 of these.

The Necropolis, who live in the City of the Undead:

5/6.. one of two near-complete teams. The axe-wielding dudes you have to warm their hands up to get the axes in there. 

Haven, from the City of Griffins and Men:

4/6. Interesting name they have for their city, lol.

Inferno, from the City of Demons:

2/6. Was reallllyy hoping for more of these guys! Though you know what I was saying about getting stuff to stand up? These are, by far, the worst offenders – they’re all leaning against the board in this shot ‘cos the buggers just wouldn’t stay put. 

Finally, Silvan, from the City of the Elves:

5/6. Got a lot of these dudes too, but less dupes than the Necropolis set. 

Do wish there were less dupes per box, but they’re obviously randomly packed. On the fence about getting more – some part of me would like a more complete set, especially because some of them that I’m missing do look cool, but on the other hand, I’m likely just to be drowning in more dupes!

Uh, anyone wanna trade some dupes?

Morty

So this post was supposed to be two figures… but on arrival there was only one. Further inspection revealed I was only billed (thus far) for one figure, and the other one is “awaiting stock”. D’oh. 

So here he is:

Hm. Well. I don’t have much positive to say about this figure. Kinda wish I didn’t buy it now :(. He bends at the elbows and knees, but not at the hips or shoulders… Those joints merely wiggle in and out a bit. One of his feet also has a habit of falling off, if moved. So yeah. Here’s the back:

Nothing much to see here! Move along! 

I’ll probably keep these as they’re Rick and Morty, but if some decent quality figs come along I’ll be sorely tempted to sell these and trade up. Half-expecting these to bargain bin at some point. 

Conquering Queen

This figure was my final purchase at the Horror Con. There were two I was potentially interested in – this one and one called Guilty Secrets, of a lady untying a red corset. Still think I made the right decision:

image

Love her clothes and the use of colour in the figure. The sword is a bit awkwardly placed for side-viewing though. 

image

Here’s the dragon skeleton’s head. Note the way the sword obscures her face and body somewhat. 

Here’s the dragon skeleton and skull on the other side:

image

I do like the way the dragon skeleton surrounds the throne. This figure is currently living on the lounge table, encouraging me to keep it tidy.