Month: July 2018

Etna – Disgaea – Toranoana

So, one Etna in the basket. So what do we need now? More Etna of course!

And this one comes in its own display box! Unfortunately she doesn’t clip to the bottom of the box, so the box suffered in transit, and now has some small marks. Fortunately the figure herself didn’t seem worse for wear (though that is the origin of the ones that are paint transfers…)

Here she is out of the box:

Aww, cute. Paint a bit sloppy on her right leg, and looks like there is some on her stomach. Overall, she’s OK for a small figure. 

Left:

Her thin body has mostly been recreated here, and her earrings look the part. The lighter areas of her outfit are very white – not sure what’s entirely most accurate, but it is pretty stark compared to the pics I’ve found. 

Right:

Her gun looks nice. Not hugely detailed, but seems OK to me. 

Back:

Her tail and wings match her hair colour, which does leave her on the gaudy side. Again, not hugely detailed, but she is a small figure. 

With this figure, if you can pick it up cheap, and you want a small Etna, this one is OK. I wouldn’t recommend paying a huge amount for her. 

Etna – Disgaea – Griffon Enterprises

Now for the figure that instigated my Suruga-ya order:

What can I say? I’m a sucker for things with red hair, wings and blue outfits. Love the cute pose, and the distinctive, spiky hair. 

Close-up of her face:

Very cute :). Not a paint job that would win any awards, but she’s neatly painted. Love the shiny blue of her outfit. Her earrings have been nicely sculpted and painted.

Left:

She has a very thin, lithe body. And her chunky boots. I like the way her tail loops too.

Right:

Here we can see there’s shading in her outfit, and her body is slightly shiny. 

Back:

Here we can see the tops of her wings, and the fact her skirt isn’t hiding much. The wings are nicely sculpted, with the spines clearly visible. Not too much in the way of blending into her back though. 

Back:

I like her body shape, and here you can see where the wings are shaded, with a tinge of red, which works well. 

Pantsu:

Yep, this figure has fanservice. I like the way her tail is lifting up her skirt slightly. The knickers have been shaded also, which is a nice touch. 

Overall, I really like this figure – the pose is what mostly sells it to me. Usually this figure is pretty expensive in the aftermarket, but I got a good deal on her via proxying her from Suruga-ya. There is a small paint transfer on the base from one of her shoes, but I can cover this up with Etna herself. Overall, I think the Max Factory Etna is my favourite, but this one comes in at a close second. And I don’t think I’ll be getting the Enterbrain one, which suffers from a poor paint job and mediocre sculpting. 

Venal Anatomica – Clive Barker’s Tortured Souls

Whilst putting together a Suruga-ya order out of timesale items, I found this dude! And again, I’m buying cheap Western figures from Japan, lol.

So here he is:

One cool-looking dude… if you like this sort of thing. Standard amount of metallic protrusions for a Tortured Soul. I like the metal chains that hang in front of him, and the claws jutting out of his hand. 

Close-up of those claws:

The paint has been done well, so they look like they’re in his flesh, instead of just being kind of stuck there. We can also see one of the chain weapons that hang by his sides. 

Close-up of the ball chain:

Two more brutal weapons on chains. Yeah, don’t get near this guy :P. Also a meathook attached to his wrist, making him dangerous in melee combat. 

The cap on his head can also be taken off so you can see his brain:

The cap is attached by a chain, so it dangles down his back if you take it off. He has a much more skull-like appearance like this. Wonder if he can scratch his head with that shoulder blade. 

Head from another angle:

Gory! Chain for his cap is the one attached to the chain on his right shoulder. 

Left:

Here we can see the bands around his head, that have been nicely done and the detailed boots. Seems to have a chatterer vibe going on. 

Right:

Some more weaponry on his right arm, plus here you can see the nail that “holds” the skull cap on. 

Back:

Here we can see the fabric effect done on the plastic – I think this is pretty effective, especially when looking at it in a photo like this. His upper back is pretty detailed, with the flesh parts poking through the back. 

Overall, I do rather like this figure. I think he’s a bit plainer than other Tortured Souls figures, but the sculpting is good and the paint is really nice. I’d recommend him if you’re a fan of the series, and can find him for sale. 

Shinji Ikari – Evangelion

This is the third of these figures I have, and the final one that I currently own. Not sure if I will get any more of the set if I come across them. Maybe, maybe not.

So without further ado:

I feel his face is the weakest part of this figure – it has a very retro/old feel to it. Does almost make him more like a doll (but not of the expensive variety). Again, his suit is on the plain side, but does feature enough that it looks like Shinji. 

Left:

Not too much of a leaning issue here, and more paint details than Rei. Also the paint is more neatly done than Rei’s. Hair does look plastered to his head though, unlike Rei’s.

Right:

Shiny hair! Yeah, that’s not a good finish for his hair, and I think a big part of the old-but-not-good look. Rei’s hair looks to have been done separately, and has a matt finish. Dark blue paint is a bit messy on his arm, but the rest looks fine on his suit.

Back:

Here you can really see the shiny hair. Uh, lay off the hair gel there Shinji. His body looks a little “square” around his butt imo. Doesn’t seem quite natural. The paint is good though. 

Rei Ayanami – Evangelion

These are two older figures. I own the Asuka of this set, which I’ve previously reviewed. No idea what year these were produced, but they’re certainly on the older end! 

First up, Rei:

Definitely a “miffed Rei” look going on. For a basic figure, the sculpt hits all the important parts. The paint however, does show that this is a basic figure. There’s a little bit of escaping the lines, and no shading to speak of. 

Left:

Yeahhhh… she really does have a leaning problem. I did almost fix it, but was likely too impatient waiting for the plastic to “set”, so she ended up leaning again. Here we can see where the dark blue escapes the lines a bit, but the “bolts” on her shoulder and arm mark are good. Hair surprisingly looks decent to me. 

Right:

Pretty much the same observations as the left side. Though here you can see a seam line running down from her below and down her leg. 

Back:

The “0″ feels a little big on her backpack. Hair has been sculpted back here. She has a bit of creasing in her suit behind her knees – I think this is the only nod to the plugsuit being clothing, but to be fair it is usually skintight on most figures. 

Overall, these older Evangelion figures I more collect for nostalgia of an era I never had, and well, Evangelion. They were cheap, but I wouldn’t really recommend them. 

Akira & Miki Tribal Fusion double-pack – Devilman

Been wanting to buy this for some time, but with it being marked as SAL parcel only, I ended up waiting until I had another SAL parcel item I wanted. This turned out to be Urara, so I added this to my order.

Here they are, out of the box:

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The table isn’t part of the set – this was bought at a car boot sale, around the same time as this parcel arrived, but it made the perfect place to display the book. Miki does currently lean a bit – these sets are a bit prone to the plastic bending, so it’s not a big surprise that there’s some bending for a set made around 2000. The interesting colours attracted me to this set – Miki’s shiny outfit and Devilman’s translucent red body. 

Let’s take a closer look at Devilman:

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The translucent body is kind of nostalgic to me – reminds me of old kid’s toys of the late 90s/early 00′s where translucent plastic wasn’t uncommon. However, this I think is far better done that other items of that era – the sculpting is good, and the varying translucency gives it a better look. 

Also the flame pattern on the bottom of his trousers – that’s definitely of another era! 

Left:

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His muscles are well-sculpted and show well, especially given the translucency. His trousers also have cuffs, showing the detail put into this figure. 

Right:

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Here we can see the metal accessories have unfortunately gone a bit rusty over time. Isn’t too bad though. Tattoos on his arm and neck look good. Oh, and he’s leaning a bit too. Is a bit of a theme of these Fewture figures. 

Back:

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Here we have his pants disappearing into his backside… Not sure I’m a fan of that look, but the flames on his trousers are looking rad. Neck does look a little overlong from some angles. 

Now for Miki:

Here she is, bending to her left. Her outfit is very shiny and pink. She also has copper hair to complete the gaudy look. I like the fact her nails are painted, but her hand angles are kind of awkward for posing. 

But what’s that pattern showing through the see-through skirt?

A little skull. Interesting choice of underwear there, Miki! 

Left:

Here we see her backpack, which was separate in the box. It sits OK on her shoulders, but looks  a bit odd from the side. Might be possible to reduce the issue with some heat and careful bending. The book will fit neatly in her backpack. 

Right:

Her boots are nicely painted, but it would’ve been nice to have a bit more accent painting, such as the recess in the sole. Love the little skull detail on her armband. This picture shows off the glitter in her outfit quite well.

Back:

The backpack has a nice silver accent, and has a smooth and solid opening and closing action. Here we can see some creasing in her skirt, but nothing but copyright info on her stockings. 

Alternative head and mask for Devilman:

This head can be used if you wish to equip the mask onto Devilman. 

Book:

For such a small item, this book is very nicely detailed. I do like this addition to the set, and seems a shame to store it in Miki’s backpack. It looks great on the table I bought though! 

Overall I’m happy with this set. I can see this being a polarising set, with the very distinctive look. However, I enjoyed this recolour more than some others I’ve seen, due to the distinctive and nostalgic look. Overall, I’d recommend the Fewture figures to action figure collectors, though be prepared for them to lean forward a bit – they do bend with time, and the stands only have one peg, which doesn’t help with standing the figures up. Also the limited articulation that older figures have – no ankle-rockers here. 

Asuka – Deformation Maniacs – Evangelion

This one I won via auction. I had this picture to go on: 

And thought “ah yeah, that looks like some small, cute figure of Asuka”. You know one of those ~8cm trading figures you get in Ichiban Kujis. 

Nope, wrong. She rocks in at about 14cm in height:

Ended up laughing as I got her out of the box of loot, as she was twice as big as I expected. So much for sneaking her onto the corner of a shelf! Her plugsit is rendered very nicely in chibi form, but I find her face rather too plain, especially at this size. The front of her hair is done rather nicely though. 

Left:

Her nerve clips are most definitely being used as hair clips here. Always a bit unsure on this point – does she use them as actual hair clips, or just have the ponytails just below them? Her ear is well-sculpted, and she looks less plain from this angle than the front to me. Suit is also lookin’ good and detailed. 

Right:

Yep, pretty much the same as the left, but with longer hair on this side, and a different arm pose. 

Back:

Hair so big she needs a stand for it 😛 Not much to see back here, other than the copyright on her nerve clip. 

Base:

Logo for Evangelion@School, plus some lines to make the base not plain. I do rather like this base design. 

Overall… it’s large chibified Asuka. Nothing really special to say about it. It’s nicely done for what it is, so all it really hinges on if you want a large, chibified Asuka. Not entirely sure if I did… but I have one now, lol. 

Urara – Tandem Twin

Back to the Manda Mines… this was a small mine, with some other items included, as this one ensured I had to go parcel instead of small packet. 

Winning with a maiden bid, and averaging out the postage she ended up really cheap:

There is a tiny bit of missing paint on her hair I haven’t edited out, but that’s the only scratch I can see. She was quite dirty, but that cleaned up relatively easily. And there aren’t many half-sheep figures out there! I love her cute, smiling face, and the reddish-yellow blend going on in her hair. She also has some plastic lacing going on, which I really like. Nice to have these as separate parts, instead of being part of the figure moulding. 

Face:

Her green eyes compliment her pink-red hair nicely. Here we can see she has sheep ears and horns. She also has a wool choker and bracelets. Unfortunately wool doesn’t reproduce particularly well in plastic form, so they do look rather artificial, but they do the job. Her chest and collarbones have been moulded nicely and feel realistic. 

MIdriff:

Here we can really get to see the lacing, and I think it works really well. Not sure we have the best knot going on, but I’d risk breaking it to undo it – some of this kind of plastic can deteriorate, especially if under stress (the knots, not the boobs), so it’s best left alone. A little bit of the bronze edging has been missed at the bottom, but it hasn’t drawn my eye to it, barring when looking at this picture. The tops of her boots have been interestingly done, and I like this effect. 

Base:

Loving the contrast between the white and the pink. The bases are pretty simple, with the name & logo for Tandem Twin (Tandem Twin is just the name of this figure series by Yamato). The pegs on the base are decent, however both of the Tandem Twin figures I’ve got have both required the legs to be warmed so I could actually peg them on the base – they’re a bit too widely spaced – either that, or the figure are prone to closing their legs over time… On my other one, this has resulted in one of the pegs snapping from the tension, but this one was OK. I’ll likely heat her legs before removing her from the base, if I come to pack her, just to avoid snapping a peg on this base too. 

Left:

Here we can see she has painted fingernails, which is a nice touch. Her boots are also connected to her top, with a nice little detail – I guess this outfit came as a set ;). There is a nice amount of shading in her hair and horns, which I really like. She does come with two hair pieces, but I (for whatever reason) didn’t actually get the second one out for photographs. I won’t be using the other hairpiece, as it sticks out quite far backwards, which makes her a bit awkward to display. 

Right:

Here we have other other side, which also looks good. We can see her waving hand, and the creases in her outfit where the boots attach to the leotard. We also get a good look at the lacing on her boots, which matches with the lacing on her leotard. I like the way the outfit has been kept consistent throughout. 

Close-up of the side of her head:

Here we can see the painting of her horn in more detail here – I do really like the shading on it, and the colour complements her hair. We can also see her expressive hand, but it is a bit on the shiny side, in terms of finish. Looking close, we can see they’ve tried with the furry cuffs, but unfortunately they still kind of look like expanding foam. 

Feet:

Unfortunately, on her right foot, there is some white paint slop.The left one is fine, but the pink paint doesn’t quite go up to the straps on her boot. Fortunately, this is her back foot, so it doesn’t show too much. I like the way they’ve done the soles of the boots in a coppery colour so they’re distinct from the rest of her boot. 

Back:

Here we have a cute backside, and more lacing. Plus a reminder she’s part sheep. I like the way her nail polish matches the pinks in her outfit and hair. 

Close-up of the tail:

I like the little pegs that hold the lacing :). She also has this cute tail, where her outfit goes around nicely. This outfit must’ve been made for her :). The seamline on her outfit is pretty much where you’d expect a seam for a top, so that’s nice to see. 

Overall, I really like this figure – it’s something a bit different, and her outfit is really nice. She’s also a good size – these Tandem Twin figures are quite tall. Good if you like larger figures, possibly a pain if you don’t have a shelf tall enough. I feel as if it is lacking a bit on the “micro details” to make it a premium figure, but what’s there is really good for the most part, so I’d recommend this figure if you like the look of her. I wouldn’t pay huge amounts for these figures, as they are showing their age, but usually they’re pretty inexpensive if they come up on the secondhand market. Just be careful when putting them on the base! 

Starfire

When this figure originally came out, I ended up passing on it. But then I recently had the opportunity to buy it at a store, so I decided to go for it:

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I love Starfire’s hair and purple outfit. With the colour and the shapes, it’s an eye-catching ensemble that compliments her fiery hair. She has a well-sculpted face, though I think the eye shadow is a bit dark. 

Left:

I like the way her hair blends from opaque to transparent. I think they nailed this effect for an action figure. Here you can see she has the typical joints for an action figure, though she doesn’t have ankle-rocking ability. With her shoulder pads being high up, these don’t restrict arm movement. 

Right:

Here we can see where mine is sun damaged…. If you look at her thigh, you will see where it transitions from light to dark… but personally I prefer the lighter colour! She is supposed to be on the orangey side, but personally I’m not a fan of that – it can feel rather overdone to me. If you look closely in the front shot at the top of this blog, you will see where the twisty tie went across her stomach. Hair transition looks smooth on this side. One thing that irks me slightly is her hand positions – she’s not a character that holds any weapons/items, but her right hand is posed almost like she should be holding something. Not quite sure what pose they were planning for you to put her in, but I think a more neutral hand position would make more sense. 

Back:

Here we can see her hair and original skin colour. He hair somewhat limits head poseability. Also she’s not the easiest to get balanced, which isn’t much of a surprise. These days they’d likely give her some ankle-rocking action to make her easier to pose, but she’ll always be back-heavy, thanks to her hair. 

Overall, I think this is a reasonable figure. It’s nothing special, but I feel it has been competently produced. Though… probably best not buying her from a comic shop that likely had her on display for years like I did, lol. However, she seems to be rather hard to get hold of, unless you really want to pay far over the odds for her. 

Kaworu Nagisa – Evangelion

And whaddaya know… more Kaworu! Got this a bit ago, but forgot to blog about ‘im. 

But I certainly didn’t forget about him:

He also has semitransparent hair, but I think I prefer this head o’ hair, though it does look like he has a layer of gel on it or smth. Could do with being a tad lighter.

For his face, it seems very close to the other one, with the darkly shaded mouth. He’s even looking in the same direction, lol. 

Now onto the main part of this figure – his chest:

He has good definition on his chest and arm muscles. As he’s a prize figure, he is mildly shiny and lacks shading, but on this figure, the lack of shading isn’t too bad, as the sculpting makes up for it somewhat. And didn’t cost eleventy billion bucks. 

His trousers are nicely done, though the finish doesn’t complement them – I think this is where the finish works the least. The creases in his trousers look more like dents in some places, like the one by his pocket in the above picture. 

Base:

I like these bases, for not being totally plain. Not much to write home about, but works. Could quite well be a tile inside of NERV… 

Left:

His pose has some depth to it. which makes him look good from the side. Whilst his build is wiry, it’s the kind of wiry that suggests he might actually be strong, which fits with Kaworu. 

Right:

Looks fine from this angle. The lighting worked well in this pic, and has given him a decent amount of definition. 

Back:

Less of a backside on this Kaworu, but I think that’s mostly due to the style of the trousers. Whilst they aren’t baggy, nothing’s tighter than a plugsuit, lol. Here you can see his shoulderblades and, erm, the dents in his trousers. I like the fact they’ve added some paint detail to the boots, with the red stripes around the back. 

Overall, I think this is a very nice prize figure, and would recommend it if you’re a Kaworu fan, and would like him dressed in something that isn’t his plugsuit. 

Kaworu Nagisa – Evangelion

Because you can’t have too much Kaworu…

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I ordered more Kaworu Nagisa. I have another version of this figure – this one has the green parts on his plugsuit, a red rock and… most importantly, semitransparent hair. These figures are on the lanky side, but this does make displaying them towards the back of display easier, without missing out on too much. 

Close-up of his face:

His mouth feels a bit overemphasised, but the rest of his face has been nicely done. The semitransparent hair is an interesting effect – not sure if I prefer it or not. Some red paint has escaped the lines on his plugsuit, with the pip-shaped parts on his collar. The paint job is OK for a prize figure. 

Left:

Here we can see him leaning forward, and how thin he is. I like the grey parts of his plugsuit. 

Right:

We can see he has some shape to his backside, and bits of hair where you can see his fate through. His ear has been sculpted well. 

Back:

Yep, deffo an arse on this dude. Back of the rock hasn’t had any detail put on, but the back of Kaworu himself is properly detailed. All the paint looks good. 

Stand:

Here is the rock, which does transition from grey to red. I think the lower part of the rock works, but I think the pice on the right of this pic would’ve been better just to be solid red, as it looks like someone halfarsed spraypainting a rock, instead of some kind of shading, which I think was intended. Overall, the base is what it needs to be, but isn’t anything special. 

I think the liking of this figure hinges on his transparent hair and if you like this interpretation of Kaworu. I don’t think there’s any real need to own all the repaints of this figure, unless you’re like me and want it in more than one room – I’d suggest picking your favourite/what’s available and order that.