Month: February 2018

Sheryl Nome – Banpresto SQ

This was the second of the two figures I got from the seller that contacted me on MFC:

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And wow, what a figure she is. The outfit is what attracted me to this figure, and the amount of detail. She’s especially nice for a prize figure.

Her left:

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That’s a mess of hair! A lot of different pieces plus some of her outfit.

Her right:

Her face captures that mid-singing moment. I do really like her top, but wish she’d picked some shorts that matched better with it, though both are well-presented here. No accounting for taste 😛

Her back:

Here you can really see the flowing parts of her outfit, which look really nice. The support on her left leg looks a little odd from the back, as she seems to be mid-step.

From the top:

Here you can see the bow/fascinator in her hair, and where all the strands meet up. Looks more natural than some more expensive figures. 

Now for some close-ups. Here is one of her upper half:

Slight miracle she hasn’t lost her shorts! I do love that top though. 

Face:

I do love her expression. Yeah, the end of the mic is broken – not been tempted to glue this yet. This was done prior to my owning of the figure (was mentioned by the seller). I may wait for it to be knocked off before gluing it though, as it doesn’t really show once positioned.

She even has a ring:

For a prize figure, she is very nice. My main gripe would be the skin – it could do with a bit of shading. Overall, she is a very nice figure, and glad I chose her.

Akira – Mon-sieur Bome

Whilst I was in the process of buying yesterday’s figure, I got a message from another MFC user, offering me more loots :D. I’ve bought a number of their figures previously, so they gave me first dibs on some figures they were giving away, in payment for the postage.

This was the first of two things I was interested in:

When I was unboxing her, I found out that she is also cast-off, which was a surprise. It did say on the MFC page, but I didn’t notice. 

Here is her left side, which is her main viewing angle:

I like her purple dress, and the detail of the sculpting in her hair.

Looking at the front:

She has a cute face, and the maid outfit works well. 

Her right side:

I like the bows she has spread around her outfit – here you can see one on her arm. She also has some hairclips in her hair, one of which is visible here. 

Her back:

Her ribbon looks nice on her back, and her outfit looks a bit more revealing from this angle. 

Underneath view:

Some flatness to be seen. She balanced surprisingly easily like this. 

Now for her cast-off “mode”:

Whilst you can fully cast her off, her midriff looks a little strange to me, with the ridge under her corset. 

Close-up of her chest:

Nicely sculpted, but her nipples aren’t particularly painted. Would’ve been nicer if her nipples were a bit darker, but hey, better than the bright pink some cast-offs get. 

From the back:

She looks surprisingly good from the back, considering the front. This angle works, and I don’t have any major complaints.

Here is how I am likely to display her – half dressed:

The skirt matches up with her corset, removing the odd look. Her chest looks good, without it looking like she’s oddly dressed/covered.

Close-up of her front without her top:

The ring in her collar acts as a subtle hint she’s more of an entertainer than maid, but doesn’t really attract the eye if she’s not cast-off. 

From the back:

All options seem to work just fine from the back! 

I like this figure, glad I chose to get her. I was on the fence about her for ages, but she looks better in person than I imagined. 

Alice – Queen’s Gate – Alpha x Omega

Saw someone selling their collection on MFC, and asked about buying this figure. One of the figure’s accessories was broken, so he charged the lower price for her. 

Here she is with her clothes on:

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And here’s a photo of her with the unbroken gun that attaches to her waist:

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Honestly, I think the guns look a little weird, so I’m happy to display her without them. They attach to her top, so you can’t display them with her, if she’s cast off. In this shot, the breakage that occurred during shipping also shows >< – her left cuff. Due to it being shadowed by her pose normally, the glued bit doesn’t really show. 

She has very nicely moulded hair, and I live her hair accessories. All are nicely painted and sculpted. 

Here is the gun from the side:

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The gun has a peg on the back, which is how it attaches to her clothes. Bit of an odd way to attach. I think it would’ve been nicer if they had pegs on the sides, so that it could dangle downwards/backwards. 

So what’s she like without the gun?

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The hole is visible, but not a biggie. Top looks nice. 

Top from underneath:

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There’s a lot of nice detail on the top, and is a viable display option, unlike some cast-off figures.

Side shot:

Here are some pics of her top whilst she’s not wearing it:

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Bit hard to take pics of her wearing it due to her pose, but it’s a very nice top, and clips together well. Have had issues with other pegged cast-off clothing, but this one seems to work. 


Some clothed shots that are probably NSFW:

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Her clothing does nothing to cover her backside :P. Here she is from the back cast off:

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Not much difference! A nicely-sculpted backside though. Her remaining clothes have some well-placed crease lines, and you can see where they press into her body. 

Now for the definitely NSFW:

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Her chest isn’t super-visible from the front, but you do see more of her legs.

Side shots:

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She has a nicely-sculpted, lithe body. I like the way her tail is joined to her body – a lot of demonic-type figures have the tail just kind of stuck there, but with ALice, hers has some form of attachment to her back. The guns she holds are also super-detailed. 

Chest close-up:

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She seems to like to stay mostly SFW :P. Her expression looks good from this angle too. 


With this figure, I also like the way her tail curls around her leg, and was one of the things that attracted me to it. I also love the way her hair flows. She works as a cast-off or as a non-cast-off, whichever you prefer. I find the paint quality really good on her, but not sure if I’d pay full aftermarket price for her. If you like Alice, I’d say this is a solid figure of her. Well, erm, on the point of solidity – might want to ensure her dangling parts are still attached prior to buying. 

Mari Makinami Illustrious – Figma

With Rei on order, I decided to buy Mari too, as she’s the cheapest of the three, poor Mari. 

I deceided to go with her screaming face, and left her with the red cuffs/light. There are green pieces for her wrists and chest light, if you want her in ‘berzerker’ mode. 

Front of Mari:

Looks almost if her eyes are closed on this photo, but they’re not. 

Close-up of her face:

Her chest piece sadly looks a little odd, if it isn’t straight. I half-wonder if they’d have been better off without this articulation, or had more of her on her upper half, so she doesn’t look… kind of robot-ish when her upper half is rotated. Those pointy chest pieces don’t help, lol. Rei is articulated in the same way, but with the consistency of colour and roundness, it looks a lot less odd. 

Sides:

Looks fine, pretty much the same as Rei. Only Mari. She was a bit easier in the leg department to pose properly in the char, but not sure there’s any actual reason behind that. 

Back:

Yep, still nowt to see here 😛 If it wasn’t for the arms poking out, you wouldn’t be able to tell if it was Rei’s or Mari’s chair. 

Closeup of the controls:

Quite a large joint joins the handle to the the arm. Not sure it goes within the theme, but I’m not too bothered about it. These are identical to Rei’s. 

Overall, I’m happy with Mari, but I’m pretty sure that chest joint helped dent the figure’s popularity. If you’re not after doing a whole bunch of poses with her, she works as a display piece. This coupled with Mari’s seeming lack of priority, these one is pretty cheap to pick up, so if you like what you see, I’d recommend it. 

Rei Ayanami – Figma

Decided to go for this Figma, despite the aftermarket price, as I really, really wanted it. One thing to note about this Figma blog and the next one – I’m not going to fully review the figures – they do come with more accessories than pictured, so this is NOT a full review. Just my thoughts 🙂

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After getting her out of the box and assembling I’m glad I got her :). She was a bit of a pain to put together, but once done… wow. I love having the plug chair for her to sit in.

Close-up of her face:

Shh, I’m trying to pilot a mecha here!

From the front:

She mostly sits nicely in the chair – getting her legs in the right position was a bit difficult. The sides of the chair near her legs swing out – which makes her easy to put in, but if her joints aren’t bent in the right way, she’ll push them open slightly. The body clip keeps her nicely in place. 

Sides of Rei in her chair:

I love the fact the controls are articulated, so you can pose her controlling the mech. Looking her completely side-on, the clip does have a bit of a long base, and does show a bit, but I think the main way of enjoying this figure is from a more front-on angle. You can also choose to omit the clip, and there is a piece that covers up the hole, if you wished to pin her in the seat differently. 

The double base configuration is interesting, and allows you to pose the seat in many different angles, if you want a more “In combat” pose. It also makes the chair decently sturdy. 

Back:

Not much to see here. Some sculpting here, but not a lot, however this angle isn’t one you’re gonna want 😛

Overall, I’m pleased with the figure, and she has a decent amount of poseabilty. The thing that really makes this figure is the chair though – it’s a really nice accessory to have. The most annoying thing about this figure is clip-on joint between the chair and the controls – it was a bit annoying to get on, and it can become unclipped when posing. 

If you wanted to display the chair and Rei separately, you could do this. The chair would have one stand, and Rei would have the other with the clip. Not tried balancing the chair without Rei, though, but I assume it would work… 

With new Figma coming in at the same price as Rei is in the aftermarket, she’s probably still value-for-money compared to new releases. I think she holds up well, and am glad to have her. 

Shion Toudou – FREEing S-Style

This is the second of the PriPara figures, and also has a distinct pose:

I like her purple hair and swimsuit top. The stripes really add to it, imo. 

Opposite side:

Her hair is painted well, and the towel wrinkles are nice. 

Her back:

She has a nicely-sculpted back, and I like the way she’s supporting herself with her left hand. 

From the top:

Here you can see more of her top – it’s nice to have one with a less plain costume. You can also see where the towel joins – and this is the part that annoys me about this figure. It’s quite hard to get it to clip around her, and you sort of need to, as the peg hole is in the towel! She doesn’t have a hole in her backside, so you could possibly display her without stand, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you had to support her somehow (the towel has a flat bottom). Would’ve been nice if she was stand-compatible without the towel.

Again, a nice, interesting pose, which helps keep this series varied. But again the stand is kind of the weakest part – needing the towel to place her on it, and the fact they don’t give you a second stand piece, so if you want her touching the ground, you need to pair her up with another figure. She’s designed to sit with Mirei, which she does well, but without another S-Style figure next to her, she looks a little odd and floaty due to her legs. 

Mirei Minami – FREEing S-Style

This character is from a show called PriPara, which I’ve come across before, but never watched. So let’s get on with lookin’ at the figure:

She’s in an interesting pose of sitting on a stone. Not sure what a grey block like this is doing at the beach.. ah, well, let’s imagine a stone wall here. The base is a violent orange – eye-catching, but probably a bit too so! I like her outfit and her hair – she feels a bit different from all the others.

Her front:

She looks a bit odd from this angle, due to her bending her head so far around, though her hair looks good from this angle (woo, no seam!) and her clothes look nice. Whilst we’re looking at her shoes… she doesn’t fit in the lugs too well, and will fall out pretty easily if the stone isn’t there, which makes her a little awkward to set up, or if you move her, she can fall out. 

Her left side:

Hairball! Whilst it is oval-ish, the sculpt with the strands is nice. 

Her back:

Bit of an odd seam on the top edge of her top, and her short pockets look a little.. flat. Rest works just fine.

Overall, I like this figure, and it’s nice to have one of a different height, that can sit in front of the others. My main gripe would be the neon orange base – the pegs aren’t large enough to hold her properly, and the colour is just too neon. I think if they made it a darker orange, it’d complement the figure better. 

Maho Nishizumi – FREEing S-Style

Following on from yesterday, here is Maho:

She has a more interesting costume to Maho, and I prefer the colour… so she’s already winning :). 

Here she is from the side:

I think her hair works better than Maho’s though her pose is less dynamic.

Right side:

And this side of her hair is on a par with Maho’s. Looks OK from this side, but nothing particularly exciting.

Back:

The back of her swimsuit is even plainer than Maho’s, but that does make her look less “noodly”. Her pants are sculpted well, which seems a trend for these figures. 

I mildly prefer her to Maho, but these really are a pair, in design and ranking. I think they’re pretty solid entries, but won’t be among my favourites. 

Miho Nishizumi – FREEing S-Style

This is Miho Nishizumi from Girls Und Panzer. Haven’t watched Girls Und Panzer, but with the decision to collect all the S-Style figures, I bought this one and Maho together from Mandarake. I didn’t check the box status, so was surprised to find they were both factory-sealed, and hadn’t left their packaging. 

So, let’s get onto Miho:

I like the shading in the hair, and the “dancing at the beach” pose. 

Miho’s left side:

Hair seam ins’t in hiding, but she’s got nicely sculpted fabric on her swimsuit. Her pose makes her had to work out what her side is – so I went with the left side of her head. 

Right side:

She has the flatish hair some of these figures have, which makes it look flat. There is some shading back there though, which partially makes up for it. Very curvy spine going on from this angle.

Back:

Her hair looks nicer from the back, probably because there isn’t detailed bit meeting less detailed part. Not so keen one the swimsuit top at the back here – looks a bit like pink noodles stuck to her back. Photo doesn’t show the skin shading well, but it is there, like the others. She doesn’t seem to have shoulder blades like most of the others do either. 

A solidly OK entry. She was one of the cheaper ones to obtain, so I’m OK with her. 

Ram – FREEing S-Style

Yesterday was Rem, today is Ram:

Who is also enjoying her ice lolly :D. She, however, tends to hold hers a bit easier. For the most part, she looks really nice from the front, but I’m personally not so keen on the skirt shading – looks like she’s using an old skirt. I’d prefer if the colour was more uniform, like Ram’s. 

Side:

She looks OK from this angle, but I’m not so sure about the white wash on her hair. Think it needs to be a hint more pink so it doesn’t look white. Maybe a dark pink would’ve worked?

Other side:

Like Ram, Rem’s bow looks very nice. She is also sporting a very similar pose, albeit mirrored, which makes them a good pair. 

Back:

Again, this one forms a bit of a gap – visible on the left-hand side of this picture. Tried my darnest with trying to get it to fully marry up all the way around, but I don’t think it’s going to without filing the lug slightly, which I’m not keen on doing. As the small gap falls at the back, I’m going to leave it. 

Overall, I’m pleased with these figures as a pair. One nice feature in these new S-Style figures is their heads actually turn, to a decent extent. Previously, they were a shaped lug, which didn’t allow for movement. Also you can apparently swap the heads, but I don’t think these ones warrant head-swapping. Maybe I’ll play with this feature with some later figures. Just a shame that the middle lug doesn’t allow the midriffs to match up fully and correctly. 

Rem – FREEing S-Style

Pre-order Rem and Ram as a pair, and they look pretty together:

This blog will focus on Rem:

She has an expression that looks like she’s about to eat that ice lolly :D. She looks really nice from the front, though it’s a pain to get her to hold the lolly :/. 

Side:

Her pose looks really good from this angle, and the details in her hair are really nicely done. 

Other side:

She looks fine from this side, bit of wandering white paint on her skirt. Getting her arms in fully was a bit of a pain, which is slightly visible here. 

Back:

Aaand this angle shows the downside of the new middle joint design. Both of these new figures were hard to get their middles to connect correctly, and not leave a gap at the back. Admittedly I won’t be looking at this angle much, but it is annoying. Also if you’re hoping you can display her without her skirt, this is not an option – it is attached to her legs. 

Barring her middle joint, she is nicely sculpted and painted, and looks good. The two downsides are the middle joint not quite going in fully, and the fact her hand isn’t moulded to hold her ice lolly well. I could probably heat and mould her hand to hold it better, which I may do if she drops it. However, it does seem to stay in place, if you get it balanced. 

Mari Makinami Illustrious – Seat of Soul

And to complete the Seat of Soul set, we have Mari. As I bought the second Rei, I thought I might as well get Mari too. So I did:

She is also well-crafted, like the others in this set. 

View from the front:

I love the fact they’ve chosen a different pose from the others, where she has her leg curled up, as it helps give variety to the set. 

Mari’s back:

Not the most exciting view, but her hair is nicely done. Arm seam is a lot more visible here, but being a plugsit, it kind of gets away with it.

Back of the chair:

Yep, still nowt to see here.

Top:

Nicely sculpted and painted. One nice thing of her having a headband is you don’t get the hair seam you get on a lot of figures. She sits nicely in the chair, and doesn’t feel at threat of falling out. 

Glad I got this one to complete the set 🙂

Meta Blog: New backdrop

From this point forward, I will be experimenting with my backdrop, after deciding I’m no longer happy with my scratched-up bit of wood. Surely I can do better! 

Here was my first attempt, with some wrapping paper:

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This is a cropped photo only – usually I’d do more processing, but this shot shows most of the issues – a couple of the test figures ended up taking on a blue hue, odd things would happen with the lighting, and the shadow of me, thanks to using the window as light. 

So I switched to a blue fabric backdrop that came with an el cheapo “portable photo studio” I bought ages ago: 

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Yeah, I ended up with ironing board marks on it… oops. It was very creased though, as it was stored folded in its original packet, so not ironing it wasn’t an option. Pattern is kind of pretty though… 

The “blue” issue affected a couple of figures, but far less when it did. So I’ll probably try to get hold of a more neutral coloured piece of fabric at some point. Even though this one does match with my table mats :P. Don’t really want to go with black fabric, as this won’t look so good if I’m doing a dark-coloured figure. May prepare the black backdrop as an option, though. Could go with the white one, but I’d like something that isn’t overly plain. 

So starting today, be prepared to see new backdrops now and then :). And the occasional reappearance of the plain wood backdrop, as pre-prepared posts pop out 🙂

Rei Ayanami – Seat of Soul Vol. 1

With this figure, I’ve been going back and forth about buying it. Prior to owning any of the Seat of Soul figures, I was happy to own either, and the best price I found was on the Vol 2 one, so I got that. At one point I saw it on Mandarake, but dithered too long and it sold. Then someone wanted to sell some figures, but the price they were asking was higher than what I wanted to pay, but then I checked Mandarake again… and there it was. Didn’t want to miss it again, so grabbed it. 

So here she is:

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These figures are nicely sculpted and painted for prize figures. Seeing her in person, I do like her pose more than in the pictures. 

Side of the plug chair:

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She’s not quite looking in this direction. 

Front of the chair:

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She just fits around the bottom middle part. This part comes unattached, so you can place her in there in the seat, which makes it easier to get her in ther. 

Other side of the chair:

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I love the fact they’ve posed one of her hands leaning on the side. It’s a nice attention to detail, instead of having her hand curled up or something. Her hair is more sculpted than other prize figures of Rei, which is nice. 

Back of the chair:

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Yep. Nothin’ to see here. Move along. 

Erm, OK, safer territory, her face:

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She has a Rei-expression. The face I find a bit nicer than the average face you get on prize figures, and her hair is very nicely done. The paint is also really good – little in the way of slop. 

Overall, I’m glad to get this figure, and I have now since purchased the second in this set – Mari. I will display Rei & Mari together, near to where the other Seat of Soul figures are displayed. 

Kiryuin Satsuki

And now for the promised Satsuki! 

This figure isn’t quite as impressive as the Ryuko one, but it is still a nice figure. The pose is very ‘Satsuki”. From the front, she has a lot less “shiny leg” problem, as she wears tall boots, though these are painted on which does make them look flat at the top. The sword sits nicely in her hands. Unlike Ryuko, the stand for the sword is fixed, but this is understandable, given her pose. 

Her left:

The sword is slightly bent – I may heat-fix this at some point, but it doesn’t show from the front. The shiny paint on this figure does help it stand out, and it is nicely done. Her hair is also nicely dynamic.

Right side:

Similar to the left, but less to see. The mould mark down her middle is more obvious in this photo than the left-hand photo. 

Back:

Hair blowin’ in the wind. Simple, but effective. The gold parts are painted well here. Some detailing on her shoes, which is nice. 

Overall a nice figure, but with the white, it can look a little overly plain and a bit plasticky. I don’t think I would have bought this figure separately, but with Ryuko, they do make a nice pair. 

Matoi Ryuko (SEGA)

Came across someone selling Ryuko and Satsuki on Facebook. 

Today’s blog is about Ryuko:

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Been wanting these prize figures for some time, but they rarely come up for sale, or at least at a reasonable price. These ones weren’t in perfect condition, but at least they didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. Not gonna pay scale prices for prize figures! 

From the front, she looks good, but her hand can obscure her face a bit from certain angles, and her legs can look overly plain if she’s under strong lighting. 

Here is a close-up of her face:

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Love her expression. This is also one of the few figures with Ryuko wearing Senketsu in his non powered-up form. I love the pose chosen – of her about to activate Senketsu. 

Ryuko’s left:

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Not much to say about this angle – hair’s nicely sculpted, and a nice detail on the skirt. 

Ryuko’s right:

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Pretty obvious seam in the hair on this side. Also an angle that shows off the lack of shading and shininess on the legs can make them look a bit odd. Boots are also an interesting shape. 

Back:

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Back angle looks good, barring the aforementioned legs. A bit of pantsu present… The movement in the cloth is nicely done, and her hair looks good.

The scissor blade:

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This is actually a standalone piece, with a stand to keep it on. The red paint has been done really nicely, and the glossiness really works for the blade.

The back:

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Here you can see where the scissor blade fastens in place. I like the design of this stand – it takes advantage of the design of the scissor blade, so there’s no extra mould parts on the blade. This means you could choose to display it in some other manner, and it would work. She can’t hold it though. 

All in all, I like this figure. I wouldn’t pay the premium prices some people seem to for her, but she is solid for a prize figure. 

Ryuna – Shining Tears

So, with some space still left in my box… I went for the totally random. I looked at the pics of this figure on Mandarake, checked them out on MFC, and decided to go for it, despite zero familiarity with the source material. 

Here she is out of the box:

She does come with a round, wooden-style base, but it was on the large side, and I wasn’t particularly fond of it, so I left it in the box. Which was not easy to do, when the box was falling apart, due to a lack of glue! 

One downside of this figure became apparent immediately after taking it out of the box – it is prone to paint transfer. There was a white line on her skirt, and the burgundy paint had transferred to parts of her skin. So she had to spend some quality time with an eraser, but it all cleaned up well. 

Here is her left side, partially showing her face:

One thing I saw someone comment on was her eyes – which you can sort of see here. They’re much more detailed than your average anime-styled figure, which gives her an interesting look. The cloth round her arm is sculpted nicely, and flows well. 

Here’s a close-up of her face:

Her eyes are very much doll-like, and I quite like the look. I think with some more work on her skin, it’d be a neat effect, but I don’t think they quite got the finish right, so she’s ended up slightly too shiny. Maybe a bit more shading would be needed too. 

Her other side:

From this angle, her hair doesn’t look very detailed, but it is in places. Her skirt flows well over her foot. 

Her back:

I think she looks really nice from this angle, as well as the front. The “metal” disc dangling down is a separate part, but is not designed to be movable. It’s made out of plastic, so you can wiggle it a bit, but not reposition it. It lies nicely on her skirt, so there’s no real need to. 


Here she is from the bottom:

Always amuses me, looking at sitting/lying figures from underneath. She gives a very flattened appearance XD. Though to her credit, they did actually mould some wrinkles on teh bottom of the parts that would be lying flat, so she’d look the part if she was on a transparent shelf. 

Her skirt is removable, and it looked less silly than I thought it would:

If you like her like this, I think it’d be a viable display option. Not my choice though. But in doing this I can show the paint transfer problem, from a bit I didn’t clean up:

The skirt paint has a habit of getting on anything it touches, so if you get this figure, you may need to spend some time cleaning her up. This might be one of the reasons she’s really cheap to get hold of. The other is she’s not particularly epic as far as figures go, but I think she’s a fairly solid figure.


And also good at guarding Percy the Parcel Box’s brain:

This is the Raspberry Pi that controls the maglock on the parcel box, plus makes the calls from the door intercom. 

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. 

McFarlane Assassin One – Red version

Can’t stay away from the Mandarake Urban Mines. This was one of two figures I was bidding on, but the other went for more than I wanted to pay, so stuck with this one:

He is called Assassin One, and is part of the Wetworks series of figures by McFarlane. The “default” colour of this figure is blue, then this is the red variant. From looking at the pictures, I actually prefer the red variant. 

The sculpt on this dude is nice, and here’s transparent sculpting working :). The silver spray on his weapons is a nice touch. 

Here he is holding his crossbow aloft:

And me trying to make him hold his scythe thing:

Not sure why they chose to make a hole in the scythe, instead of a peg, like the crossbow. He has holes in both hands, so he can hold the crossbow. 

Here he is from the side, with his crossbow loaded:

You can pull back on the end of the projectile, and it will fire across the room. 

Here’s some of his left side, focused on his arm armour:

The black parts are nicely detailed in the moulding too. 

And his back:

Looks OK from this angle, does look like he’s got a fire in his belly! Not much to speak about in the trunk department. 

He’s a striking figure, well-moulded, and his colours (what he has of them!) work well. He’s also decently poseable, which is good for an action figure ;). Certainly think I got my money’s worth from him, seeing as I paid about as much for him as a trading figure :). 

Evangelion Trading Figures Part 2

These are the last two figures from my box o’ stuff I had shipped by Big In Japan. 

First up is an Asuka figure that I remember looking at on eBay when I learned gachapon were a thing:

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This is Asuka Langley in her plug. Having a bit of a nightmare! I love the expression on this figure. She was a mild pain to assemble, and she had warped in the packet over time, so I had to heat her legs up so I could bend them to fit correctly in the plug. For such a small figure, it’s amazingly detailed. 

Other views:

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Heh. Not much to see on the one above. Not a recommended viewing angle. Not too much to see here either:

Here is a photo showing the screen in a bit more detail: 

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I love this mini-vingette, and wish there was a similar version for Rei. But more… Rei. 

There isn’t, so I went for this gachapon of Rei in her plug:

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There’s more detail on the plug, but I’m not so keen on her hair colour. There’s also a bit of a mark on the plug, on this side. Ah well, that can be dirt *nod*. 

More views:

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And a view showing not much at all:

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Yeah, gotta give that top bit a bit of a shove… Meh, it doesn’t really show. 

Rei has a nice pose for this figure, but it was a bit hard to work out exactly how she was supposed to go, as there were no instructions, and I had to account for the fact she’s probably warped a bit over time, so had to work out if her legs fit under/over the front part. Her legs probably want a bit more bending, but I think she looks fine as is. It’s nice to have some gachapon figure that aren’t just a figure standing around.