Month: April 2018

Morrigan & Lilith – Summer Edition

These figures are part of a set of summer figures, however I was only interested in the Darkstalker figures of the set. They do come with a segmented beach base, but I didn’t take photos of this. Here is the pair posed together:

These are small, older trading figures, so they’re not super-detailed, but they are posted and painted well for the most part. 

Let’s have a closer look at Morrigan:

Hair is rough around the seam, but the face is painted nicely, along with her bracelets and wings. Yes, this is Morrigan, despite the palette swap ;). There is a bit of stray paint on the upper parts of her top, but it’s not much. 

Morrigan’s front:

Here you can see the stray paint, were they didn’t manage to get clean edges. Around her hips there’s a join, hence why those lines are clean. The bat has been done well, and the straps are OK. 

Her back:

Not much to see here, but some moulding has been done in her hair. Most things are pretty flat back here. 

Opposite side:

She looks good from this angle mostly, but she does have a seam running up her leg. I think the black and purple wings work well. Most Morrigan figures have a more pinkish colour for her wings, so not sure if this counts as palette swap or not :P.

Now for Lilith:

She’s stolen Morrigan’s hair dye for the day. Unlike Morrigan, her wings are definitely a palette swap, as she’s usually red “struts” with black wings. Bit of stray paint on her skirt, and an… interesting expression. 

Her front:

A simple outfit. The shorts are nice, but the top looks super-flat and a bit out-of-place because of that. Looks like I might have to attack her belly with an eraser and see if I can clean up some of those blobs… Hair is a bit flat. 

Back:

Hair is very flat here. Back of her top looks nice, and I like the way they’ve don her wings. If it weren’t fro the hair, I don’t think I would have any complaints about this angle. 

Opposite side:

Leg seam line is more noticeable on this side, but other than that, pretty much the same story as the rest of it. OK, with a couple of minor flaws. 

As two separate figures they’re OK prize figures, but together, they look like a very cute pair, which is how I intend to display them. So if you get one, for maximum enjoyment, I’d recommend buying the other, so you can pose them as designed :). 

Lilith – Christmas figure – Banpresto

I bought a bunch of Lilith and Morrigan figures from Mandarake recently. First up, we have Lilith, ready for Christmas:

This figure is made to fit with other figures, so there is a chance I’ll make a custom base for her. With this figure, I like the striking red and yellow colour scheme, which makes her a bit different. However, the mould line in her hair is not-so-good. She was a cheap prize figure though. 

Left side:

Some shininess, and that finish older prize figures tend to have. The cane is mostly painted well. I like the texture they managed to achieve on the white fluffy areas. Hair is simplistic, but that’s sorta to be expected with an old, small figure like this.

Right side:

I like her pose. Her pointing fingers are a bit drowned in paint though, I like the way her wing curls around her. 

Back:

No real detail on the back of the wings, but I like the finish. Is a seam running up her leg, but this angle isn’t really much of a viewing angle. The base looks nice, and would probably look really good… if I had the set. If I did a custom base/modified this base, I’d likely keep the cream splats, as they’re done well. These both peg into the base, and her scarf/stole is a separate piece. Rest of her is pre-assembled. 

I’d only recommend this figure to people who are interested in collecting older prize figures. 

Vaan – Final Fantasy XII – Play Arts

This is the second of the two Final Fantasy figures I bought. Vaan:

I was less enthralled with him, as his joins on his arms have nothing to hide them. Not a big fan of articulated figures where the joints are visible in the fleshy parts. But his outfit makes up for this – I love the white design on his pants, and his medallion. I love the amount of details in his clothes, even though he has less of them than Ashe. And my collection could do with some more bare-chested males :P. 

Vaan’s left:

His gauntlets are nicely moulded and painted. The elbow joint isn’t so bad, but the shoulder joint does make it look a bit like he’s had a shoulderpad implanted in his flesh. His hair looks more natural than Ashe’s though.

Right side:

I love the strap detailing on his trousers, and here we can see his sword, which is equally as impractical and ornate as Ashe’s. 

Back:

Love the back of his chestpiece. His butt is nothing exciting, but he has some well-moulded wrinkles in his trousers, showing their bagginss. Hair nicely finished at the back.

Close-up of his sword:

The hilt of the sword was broken away from the upper blade part, so the break location was about as good as you’re going to get. However, I couldn’t feel a “true” position for the hilt to line up with the other part correctly, so I had to glue it the best I could. Either the break’s been repaired before, or possibly some of the plastic has rubbed away. So I got it as straight as I possibly could, and it doesn’t really show too much. Depending how I pose him, the wonk won’t be terribly obvious, but I guess if the break annoys me, I’ll have to split it again, file down the surfaces until flat, and re-glue. 

An unexpected, but welcome pair of figures to my collection. Really happy with the detail for the price I paid. These figures seem to be reasonably cheap online, but not quite as cheap as I got them for. I would recommend these figures if you like their looks, or into the characters, and don’t mind the articulation points. 

Ashe – Final Fantasy XII – Play Arts

I found two of these Play Arts figures for sale for a good price at a local store. I debated over just buying Ashe as I liked her appearance, or if I should buy both and sell one. 

In the end I’ve decided to keep both, as I wanted to keep Ashe, and it turns out Vaan had a broken sword (probably been broken for some time, looking at the break), and he was a good looker too. They were definitely both secondhand, as there was a good amount of dust on their stands, and the figures themselves. A quick visit with the duster fixed that though. 

This blog will be about Ashe:

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I love her outfit, and the sword designs are amazing. Let’s get a little closer and look at Ashe’s outfit:

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The hair paint & sculpt isn’t anything amazing, but I can forgive that for the rest of her. The outfit is sufficiently detailed and well-painted. The colours are striking and complimentary, which is what drew me to this figure, along with the metalwork details. I guess it took her a long time to get dressed in the morning though!” That’s a lot of clothing pieces to put on! 

Left side:

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She has a ring on, which is painted well. A small detail on the cuff of her boots too. Despite the sculpted nature of the hair, it just doesn’t look quite right somehow to me. 

Right side:

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Not much to say about this side, but we can admire the massive sword for a bit. 

Once you’re done, here’s her back:

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The attention-to-detail on the front has been carried on around the back. Her outermost top also splits at the back, allowing you to see the lower layers, which is a nice touch. Can’t let those layers go to waste! I’ve managed to cover up the gold trim pattern on the outermost layers in most of the shots (doh), but they’re nicely painted, and I like the pattern. 

A close-up of her sword:

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I’m a sucker for the blue crystals embedded in her sword, and I love the ornate, if impractical, design. I’m guessing it uses some enchantments to be useful in battle, lol. Maybe I should play/watch someone play some Final Fantasy… 

Skullsplitter, Rider Bust, Pocket Toy Land Fairy

This blog will showcase three smaller figures that I won in the Urban Mine auctions as singular lots.

First up, a Spawn trading figure. The auction picture looked like this:

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So I was hoping for two, but it turned out that he was out of his box, for whatever reason. But for £4.08, it was still good value for money, as these figures usually go for twice that. 

Here he is:

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Turns out he is a rare variant, so that might be why they were showcasing him out of the box – he seems to be a copper-coloured repaint. He’s rich with detail, and nicely painted. 

Side shots:

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Some nice shoulder armour going on there, and some good texturing on his cape.

Back:

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His cape has a nice texture, and I love the bronze edging they’ve given it. A rare, good Western trading fig :P. 

Next up, a Rider bust from Fate/Stay Night:

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I’ve been wanting this since I knew it existed, but it doesn’t come up for sale often, so I jumped on the chance to bid for it… and spend more than I should’ve on it XD. Did find I could’ve probably proxy’d it for cheaper, but not by too much probably, once everything was said and done. This figure has been very well done – the sculpting and paint are all really good imo. And the chain is a chain, which is nice, but may need to ensure it doesn’t rust. Can be an issue if Rider comes with a chain!

Back:

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Here is the tip of her dagger, and the hair that flows around her, plus the metal structure behind her. Everything’s nicely finished off back here. 

Here’s the chain spread out:

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It’s nice they have let you position the chain, but it can be a bit of a pain doing so. I love this little Rider :). 

Lastly, a fairy figure from “Pocket Toy World”:

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Yeah, I didn’t pay a lot for this one… it seems like it may’ve originally been bundled with a related one-shot manga, but nothing Urban Mine ever comes with the books, and the other figures in this series have no relation to each other. The painting is OK, but it’s nothing special. Has an almost garage-kit feel. 

Sides:

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Paint is a little sloppy, but the leaves are painted nicely. 

Back:

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In some ways, this might be the best angle, owing to lack of paint slop. But then there are less opportunities for mistakes here in the paint. I do like her wings. 

For these shots, she wouldn’t stand up on her own (spot the white-tack). but I heated her, and corrected her posture, so now she stands up on her own. An interesting buy, but I don’t think my life would be significantly different without her, lol. 

Aoi Sakuraba – Ai Yori Aoshi

This isn’t a series I’m familiar with, I saw the figure, and liked it, so decided to bid on it. Not sure why I didn’t check the Mandarake store, but I could’ve got it for the same price, sealed. Oops. Ah well, the manga in the box wouldn’t have been any use to me anyways… so no loss there. 

So here she is:

Sitting in a puddle, with her kimono about her. A cute, little figure. This is probably the intended display angle. 

The front of her body:

A noticeable midriff seam. Anything lewd is covered up. 

Her left:

One of the strips wasn’t fully pushed down when I was taking these photos. Her hair has some nice shading, but there is a noticeable seam on her arm. 

Her back:

The ribbon wraps nicely around her back, and the kimono sits around her backside. 

Above shot:

I find it an interesting pose, but the water is a bit like a block of ice. Probably was the easiest way of setting the resin/plastic block, but does look slightly odd.

From the back you can see down her ass-crack: 

Definite case of bulider’s bum there. Hair seam is visible, but not that bad imo. 

With one part of the kimono block sticking out, it got me thinking… can I take this apart? Here’s the bottom, where you can see where the pegs are:

And moments later:

Aha! Here you can see they’ve sculpted her feet and legs, so they’ve intended for her to be removable. With a bit of fiddling, I worked out to remove her fully from the base:

Though like this, her middle seam is more visible. She doesn’t quite stay standing up, so you’ll see a small piece of tissue in some shots, which I was using to prevent her from rolling over. 

Her front:

Other side:

Here you can see the tissue I’m using to prop her up, and a little mould mark on her hip/backside. 

Back:

Seams are pretty obvious, but her foes are moulded. 

If you just wanted her as a small figure to display on her own, you could do this. I did some experimentation of displaying her with various parts of the stand.

First, with just her upper part of the kimono:

Works for this angle, and also props her up… however:

You can see the parts that attach it to the lower half. So let’s try that:

Yeah, this kinda works, but:

You do get to see the holes where the water plugs into the kimono. 

I know, let’s just sit her on the water:

It… kind of works. Needs the lower part, to hold her in place. 

Here are the parts separated:

So you could have the ribbon around her, to partly hide the mould markings, but it does have the two pegs on it to hold it to the base. So probably best displaying her whole or singly. Or you could have just a kimono-in-water, but the inside would look odd XD. And, um, why would you want that..?

She’s OK for an extra to a manga, or as a cheap figure. Don’t think I could recommend her, unless you really want her. 

Asuka Langely – Sega HG Christmas Figure

This one was a random bid on the Urban Mine auction, and shows what older prize figures are like. This one is Asuka, crossed with Christmas:

Yeah, that’s the last shot of the cake you’re going to get. It’s a big lump of white, and not particularly attractive. Unfortunately, as an urban mine item, not much care was taken when packing her, and she wasn’t tied to the box any more. This meant she rattled around, and one of her antlers broke off :(. Fortunately there was enough of the peg on the antler, I was able to jam it back in there, and it stayed. I may glue it one day, or leave it as-is. 

Without the stand:

I love the glossiness of her red outfit, the lesser glossiness of her skin? Not so much. I’m not sure who chose to give her purple leggings, but I don’t think it was a person with good aesthetics. The seamline on her leggings isn’t pretty either. But there’s something cute and different about this figure, which makes me not hate it. If it wasn’t for the purple leggings, I could probably forgive all the other flaws. She does look very plasticky though, which is the reputation for prize figures, though things are moving on these days. 

Right:

Quite an obvious seam in her hair, and some shoes to match her top. The cuffs are OK, but simplistic. 

Left:

Pretty much the same as the other side, though you can see the cotton balls on her shoes, which is +1 to detail. Some stray plastic lumps in her hair. She has some creases in her top, but not in her pants.

Back:

Her hair is one block colour, but there is some hair lines moulded in, stopping it from looking completely plain. Her shoes are nicely sculpted. 

Close-up of the holly on her neck:

This detail is nicely done and thematic. 

Not really sure I could recommend this figure to anyone, but for £4.76, it sated my curiosity to see exactly what this figure looked like irl, and can be a part of “weird stuff corner”. The stand is likely to be relegated to a drawer, but it could gain a new lease of life if I choose to decorate it and use it as a riser somewhere. 

I-19 – Kan Colle – Taito

I saw this figure on the Urban Mines, but it got bidded too high for me to bother with. But because I loved her blue-and-pink hair too much, I went shopping around for her, and found her cheap on Amazon. I had seen the figure previously, but didn’t go for it that time, but the Urban Mine auction reminded me she still existed. 

So here she is:

I love her hair and her outfit is revealing, without revealing too much. She was an arse to put together though – the pieces don’t fit quite right, and her hand won’t ever go into the top torpedo, even with heat/bending, but she will sit still in this position, unless you try to move her. Then she’ll fall off, and the two

torpedoes attached together will fall apart ><. 

Her right:

Here you can see the destroyed torpedo that sits in the middle. Nice to have some difference between the torpedoes, and does make an interesting base, which was the other thing that attracted me to this figure. Here you can see some stray blue paint on her back though. Outside of her head, the painting is decidedly average. 

Left:

Here you can see the shininess of the prize figure plastic on her leg, though her right leg is less shiny. There is some shading in the skin paint, so that’s a nice feature. Also there’s a scratch on the bottom torpedo for me. Swimsuit edge also didn’t get blue paint, so that looks a little odd to me, but I think is only really visible on close inspection. Her feet are moulded nicely. 

Back:

Here you can see where her hand doesn’t quite reach properly to the lug on the top torpedo. It just won’t go on mine, and I’d have to do some serious bending of the entire figure before that peg would have a hope of going into place. Her arm simply doesn’t reach down far enough for it to plug in on mine, but I did see an assembly video where they did get her to fit in properly. The stray blue marks on her back aren’t visible in this shot, but they are a bit annoying. 

Close-up of her hair:

I love the colours and accessories in her hair, even though it’s a bit cheapy prize-figure-y. The eye decals are really nice, along with the blush marks. Her chewing on a pin(?) makes her look really cute. 

A couple of close-ups of the stand:

I love the idea of this stand, but it sort of failed in execution, due to the imprecise nature of the manufacture. at first the destroyed torpedo wouldn’t stay in place properly, but with a bit of shoving of the top torpedo, it now sits in place better, but will still pop out on occasion. If I could get both of I-19′s pegs in, it would likely hold together a bit better. I’d love to see something like this on a more expensive figure. 

Overall, I like this figure. Once displayed, she looks nice, but she does have a notable amount of flaws. I’d probably only recommend this to anyone who really likes the look of this figure, and if you find her relatively cheap (she cost me £13.58 inc postage). Still loving the hair and the eyes, lol. 

Puzzle & Dragons – Abiding Sniper Dragonbound, Myr

I ended up staring at the Eikoh prize on Mandarke again, and couldn’t resist buying this one:

Unfortunately there are a couple of scrapes on her hair, but the rest of her is OK. The plastic backdrop slots into the stand, but because it was rolled up in the box, it curls inwards. Not a big fan of it, so I’ll display her without it, but it is nicely printed if you like it – just be prepared to store it under some books for awhile to get it flattened! 

Here she is without the sheet:

I love the use of colour in this character, and she’s got lots of shiny bits! The pearly coat is a lovely colour and sheen. She has a few bows on her outfit, which helps her look fancier. 

Left side:

Here we can see her tail, done in copper and bronze, and her clawed feet. The balloon she wields in her left hand is also well done. 

Right:

Here she is, leaning forward, wielding her supersoaker. I love the way it’s a water gun, rather than gun-gun. You can also see the lovely blend of copper and could on the underside of her wing. I do rather like her outfit too. 

Back:

The lovely pearlescent finish on her coat is very much visible here, along with the detail in the coat, where she’s got ribbon parts in the gaps. I love these little additions. The wings are also striking, have a good amount of detail on the back. 

Her back:

Here you can fully admire her wings :). The paint blend is really nice, along with the shininess. Also she has her tail flicking out – I really like the tail too. 

Now for some detail shots. Let’s get a close-up of her gun:

Cute, threatening, and watery. The pump bit seems a bit bent, but that’s likely fixable. Here we notice she’s also got gold hands. 

The balloon:

Nicely painted and moulded, plus she has some quite detailed cuffs, to offset the plain fabric of her coat. She has some copper claws on these fingers. Here you can also see where the ribbons weren’t painted quite right – both sets of ribbons are painted a bit sloppily. 

Here’s a close-up of the ribbons on the right side:

I love this as a detail, shame the orange paint didn’t quite go right. 

Close-up of her foot:

Nice set of dragon feet :). Not sure if she needed a size bigger sandals, but it does mean her claws aren’t confined by the shoe. 

Back of horns:

Lovely colouring here. 

Wings:

Love the way these shine, along with the coat. Also here you can see her coat has a hood, should she wish to use it. 

Warning: pantsu. 

Here’s how the tail attaches to her backside:

That’s some precision tailoring :P. Though pretty much what I expected for a prize figure. Here you can see the nice moulding and painting that went into the tail. 

I really like this figure, and it’s a shame that there are a couple of marks on her hair. One isn’t so bad, but the other is minorly distracting. I’ll just pretend they’re both hair highlights. Well worth buying for me, even though I’m unlikely to ever play Puzzle & Dragons. 

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.