Author: tharglet

Official vs Bootleg: Kotobukiya Freddy Krueger (Bishoujo, 2nd Edition)

This figure was voted for by NAYANMORI, and I commend them on an excellent choice.
I own the 2nd Edition, and wasn’t sure what the bootleg would purport to be – upon receiving it, the box was a copy of the 2nd Edition one so I get to compare “like” with “like”.

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): ¥7,800
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): £53.99
Price I paid for the bootleg (inc shipping): $20.65 (£15.83)

The official I bought from eBay.

Box

Front:
https://i.ibb.co/h9YbkYZ/box-front.jpg
Yep, two very similar boxes, both claiming to be the 2nd Edition. The bootleg’s box print is a bit paler and the Kotobukiya logo has been removed from the top right. Still crediting the arrangement to Shunya on the bootleg, but not sure how much he’d approve.

Continue reading “Official vs Bootleg: Kotobukiya Freddy Krueger (Bishoujo, 2nd Edition)” →

Official vs Bootleg: Jibril – Great War Ver.

For my inaugural Official Vs Bootleg, I’ve chosen to do the most-voted for option: Jibril. I own the Great War version, as I liked the darker wings and more warlike vibe.

The official version of this figure can be found on MFC here.

Images will be clickable throughout the blog, if you wish to see the full-sized images.

As this is the first blog, see if you can guess which side I have the bootleg on in this picture:

So… did you guess correctly which figure is which?

I should imagine most of you worked out which is which :). To me, the thing that stands out the most is the drunken angle which she is holding her scythe – her arm on this side has been mis-manufactured, causing this kind of odd angle. This, coupled with her expression, makes the bootleg look drunk to me, and she’s in the kind of state where she can hold onto things, but not really too concerned with what angle they’re at.

Continue reading “Official vs Bootleg: Jibril – Great War Ver.” →

Official vs Bootleg: The pre-blog

For nearly as long as I’ve been collecting, I have been curious about bootlegs. Could they pass for the real thing? How do they compare in terms of paint, materials and sculpt? Up until this point, I’ve mostly satiated my curiosity with other YouTubers and bloggers. And now I want to throw my hat into the ring, and do some blogging of my own!

Thus far, I’ve acquired some bootlegs of my own, ready to do the first set of blogs and produced a new and “improved” backdrop. If you just wish to vote for the bootleg you’d like me to cover first, feel free to skip to the end of the blog.

Creating of the backdrop
First things first, my old backdrop was just not large enough. It was already problematic for certain larger figures, but now I want to do some side-by-side figure photos, it just wouldn’t do.
My husband agreed to knock up a new wooden frame, and I cut apart an old duvet cover that we weren’t using any more to cover it.

Here it is from the back:

https://i.ibb.co/vHDJGrK/backdrop-back.jpg

This partially showcases the first attempt for the backdrop fabric – I thought the stripes might add a bit of a background. Here it is from the front:

https://i.ibb.co/2vMksHk/backdrop-take-one.jpg
Continue reading “Official vs Bootleg: The pre-blog” →

Mandarake Mystery Madness – Part 1

As a frequent browser of Mandarake, I sometimes come across items that are strange or mysterious. Occasionally I think about buying them… and recently I decided to actually do so! I set a budget of ¥1800 and a max item price of ¥200 (this post isn’t sponsored, so the money’s gotta come outta my figure budget!). What resulted is 10 items of various levels of mystery, and a blog so large I’ve decided to split it into two. Images in the blog should link to their full-sized versions.

Here is the bundle of items before I unwrapped them:

https://i.ibb.co/6nZQGtZ/bubble-burrito.jpg

So time to go on a journey and see what I’ve dragged out of the dusty corners of the Sahra warehouse! Titles for each section will be what was on the listing I bought.

Sega mascot Donna
As the label is visible in the bubble wrap burrito, let’s start off with this one.
Listing photo:

https://i.ibb.co/BrW338D/image.png

So, uh, yeah this thing. Researching it before I bought it, all I could find it was some mascot for “Lisa”. I found another version of this mascot, but it didn’t have any other info about it.
Best I can find out is that it is something to do with the singer “LiSA”. Apparently she has monster mascots!

Continue reading “Mandarake Mystery Madness – Part 1” →

Repairing Angewomon

This blog is about repairing Precious G.E.M. Angewomon, Holy Arrow version.

I bought this Angewomon on the cheap, as she was damaged. Two of her wing pieces had snapped off, and the previous owner tried to repair one of the wing pieces to little success. Here she is, laid out ready for repair:

The head needed a little heating to help pop it off – getting the angle to heat it with a hairdryer was a pain! This is the initial layout, with the glue I intended to use for both wings – it is a 2-part glue suitable for all plastics – in my experience clear plastic doesn’t take kindly to most glues, but from previous experience, this one works well.

Continue reading “Repairing Angewomon” →

Figure Spotlight: Camille Noire

This figure is part of the Clive Barker’s Tortured Souls series. And is a pain to assemble. I got this figure prior to knowing heating figures allows you to assemble them far easier… So first thing’s first… was to assemble her properly. Still a pain, but at least she’s assembled now!

Bit of a gruesome one, but she’s pretty detailed. Here’s her body closer up to the camera for a better look:

Yep, she’s not holding back on the body mods! The blood effects on this one aren’t too bad, compared to other bloodied figures. 

Side shot of the right wing:

These wings are the thing you had to assemble, and they’re a pain. One bit goes into her shoulder, and there are prongs into her back. Also the hooks on the armature can slip out of the wings, and they are NOT easy to get back in. The shoulder part is the one that’s the pain – I’m not sure if they were a little deformed on mine, but there was no way they were going to go in without some heat to bend it into shape. 

Shot of her back:

Some impressive blood effects here… and I’m not sure how she got so much stretchiness out of her back skin. I like the blood effects here – they came out well. 

Shot of the top of her head:

Not sure that’s how you’re supposed to use a saw blade!

For the Tortured Souls I have, I really like this series. I think this one has been well done, and has a good amount of detail put into her appearance. This figure certainly isn’t for everyone, but if you like horror figures, I think this is a good one, if you’re prepared for a very annoying assembly. 

Rei Ayanami – Seaside ver

This figure I bought secondhand from another user on MFC.

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She has a small chip on her leg, that was there when I bought her. She’s a very tall figure and quite heavy, as she’s cold cast. 

Left view:

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Some detail to be seen here, in her armpit and wrinkle on her swimsuit. 

Right view:

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Little bit of a mark here too, at the bottom of her swimsuit. Doesn’t really affect looking at the front of the figure, and that side of her is obscured from where I chose to place her, so I forgot it was there, until I got her out for these photos. 

Back:

image

Some detail to be seen here, but nothing that stands out to me. The dent in the sand on the base is a nice touch. Being a heavier material, it does cast some of its own shadows, but there’s no shading in the paint. This leaves her looking rather plain compared to other figures, especially as her skin tone is paler than the concept art for this figure. 

She’s rather a mediocre part of my collection. I don’t regret buying her, but she doesn’t particularly stand out, either. 

Meta: OK, I’m officially done

This blog was originally published on Tumblr, after the Camille Noire figure post was deleted. If you don’t want to read a grump about Tumblr and how this blog came to be, skip this one. 

So… I was going to do a post similar to this, but in about a week or two, however Tumblr has now forced my hand. So this will be today’s blog, instead of a figure post! There was a figure post…

So it started off like this:

OK, they’ve revised the email they now send out to be more expansive and professional-looking. Let’s go to my timeline and get this sorted:

Oh. Oh. Despite the new email still referring to the “flag for review” button, it has now completely gone!! I even tried all the buttons at the bottom – no, not hidden under the “cog” options either.

The figure for this blog, as can be seen from the title is Clive Barker’s Camille Noire. This figure, whilst skimpily dressed, does NOT have any nudity. She is quite gory though! But… fake gore isn’t against the guidelines, and neither is fake nudity for that matter.

I was planning on winding down or stopping my Tumblr blog, partially due to time constraints and partially…. because of this idiocy! My content is specifically not against the new guidelines, but gets flagged with alarming regularity. If I can now no longer ask for review, then I’m entirely disinterested in still blogging here.

I am currently contemplating on doing loot-style posts, but these will likely be on My Figure Collection instead of here. These posts will have less pictures of each figure, feature multiple figures and happen on a less frequent basis. Photographing then editing images takes a lot of time – and too much free time for something that I don’t gain much from.

If I go back to blogging on a more regular basis, it won’t be on Tumblr. I will be cross-posting my Tumblr content to a personally-hosted blog, so that it can be preserved in case of a tightening of the Tumblr adult rules (meaning more posts vanishing off the face of the planet).

Thank you to those who have chosen to follow me, and have been reading and reblogging my content! If I start up a new blog somewhere else, I’ll add a “last blog” here to point to it.

Rei Ayanami – Poolside Ver – Evangelion

This figure was part of a Suruga-ya order. Unfortunately, this one had an unpictured extra – cigarette smell :/. So this figure got a couple of baths too… 

Here she is, assembled with the pool piece:

I like the pose for this figure, which is why I chose it. Figure quality isn’t great as she’s a small gachapon figure. Main thing that bothers me is the kinda strange paint job on her hair – not sure what’s going on with the shading there. 

She also has a leg piece:

.. so you can do this if you really want to. Could look cool on a shelf ledge like this, or some kind of custom display.

However, it’s more so you can do this:

If you’d prefer to display her without the poolside, this piece allows her to look complete. Though her pose is a bit odd without the poolside. 

Some other angles without the pool:

“Don’t look at me”:

Back:

Here you can see where her parts need to be shoved together a bit more.. Her foot is nicely sculpted, and we do have some wrinkling in her bikini bottoms.

Front:

Not too much to see here. However, you can see the paint job that looks like some ink was spilled on her head… Probably needed to use a lighter blue here. 

Other side:

Not too much to see on this side. Hair is nicely sculpted, pool handle looks good.

View from below:

She has some nice sculpting on her body, giving her good body definition. 

Overall, she’s decent for a gacha figure, and would recommend as a “bonus” item to an order. Hopefully if you get one though, it won’t come with bonus smoke smell like mine :

Alien – Real Action Heroes

This was another random discovery on Mandarake. The description and picture didn’t match, but decided to go for it anyway and see which of the Real Action Heroes Alien figures this was…. and it turned out to be neither of the ones I was guessing it was. This one is #41. 

Here he is, on a Play Arts Kai stand:

image

S’cuse the derpy pose XD. Some of the threads on the joints had become loose, so I added some PTFE tape, so this is slightly visible due to his transparent nature. If it ever bothers me, I’ll replace the PTFE tape with clear nail polish, but PTFE tape is what I had to hand. 

Overall, he’s one cool-looking dude, but it is a rubbery plastic outer, so it had got very sticky with age – ended up giving him two baths to get rid of the sticky residue. 

‘Face’:

image

Scratches on his teeth were prior damage. Could get some silver paint/marker to fix this. His mouth has been sculpted well, and he has his inner mouth, as any Alien should. 

Crotch (because apparently I deemed this as a shot worth taking):

image

Here we can see some of the mechanisms, and the way his rubber suit is almost like a swimsuit. 

Feet:

image

Here we have some shiny silver toes. Paint and sculpt is nice. 

Left:

image

Love the sculpt on the side of his head, and he’s a decently poseable figure. Even with his joints tightened, he doesn’t stand too well on his own, so I’d recommend getting a stand, if you get any of these Alien figures. 

Hand:

image

These hands are just the rubbery plastic, plus some silver painting on his fingernails. 

He does have a second pair of hands:

These are hard plastic, with a singular wrist joint. I prefer the spiky ones.

Right:

Looking symmetrical to the left side. 

Back ‘pipes’ side:

Details look nice and crisp. 

Back:

Not too much to see back here, but we can now get a good look at his tail. 

Tail joint:

This is the part I dislike most about this figure – the tail goes onto a rubberised “spike” so it can fall off easily and isn’t poseable. Wish they had a hinged joint here, so you could move his tail to the side at lest. 

Tail in all its glory:

This thing is long and does pose issues when placing him on a shelf. The rubberised nub does allow it to bend to the side a bit, but can be knocked off in the process. 

Tail tip:

Nice bit of sculpting to end his tail. 

Head dome:

The details in here are sculpted nicely, and the transparent dome works well. You do get some dots on the dome, from the spikes pressing against it. This is also probably some of the plasticiser that’s leaked out over time too. 

Overall, I really like this figure, especially for the price I paid. He hasn’t aged too well, but the faults are mostly minor and fixable. For anyone interested, for getting off the plasticiser (sticky stuff) I used either hand soap or washing-up liquid, or possibly both. And some good ol’ fashioned elbow grease. Due to his head already having some potentially liquid dots in there already, I was careful not to dunk his head in the water, just in case it leaked (which would be a pain to fix). 

Poison Ivy – Ame-Comi – DC

This was one of the Ame-Comi figures I was after, and it eventually turned up on eBay. 

Front:

image

I love the pose of this figure and the colour scheme. To me, she looks more like a relative of Poison Ivy, than Poison Ivy herself, but I like her in her own right. 

I like the amount of detailing that has gone into her vines and leafy clothing. 

Vine hands:

The texture work is nice here, and I love the grasping vine hands

Feet:

The leaves are well-sculpted here, and the shading in the paint adds a lot ot the leaves. She’s also got her toenails painted neatly.

Base:

Ignoring the marks, the base logo is nicely placed, so she isn’t covering it in any significant way. Does take up a lot of room though. 

Left:

The vines curl around her hair, which I think is a nice touch. The figure has a nice amount of depth to her. 

Vine close-up:

The detailing is really nice on these, and there aren’t too many joins. Here we can see one, to the left of the photo. 

Right:

Some thicker vines on this side, and some transitioning of the leaves on her legs. 

Arm vine:

Nice blend of colours on the vine itself, and I don’t think I want to get in its way. 

Back:

Here we can see how the vines like to play with her hair,. We’ve also got plenty of leaf detail back here, so the back isn’t plain. The hair is sculpted nicely, and has a good amount of detail throughout. 

Glad I was able to get this figure, and am happy with it. Maybe at some point I’ll try to get the mark off her base. 

Misato Katsuragi – Moto Riders ver – Evangelion

This was a figure I decided I wanted when I saw it. Came across it on Mandarake, where it quickly made its way to my basket.

Here she is:

Some of the “free” dust can still be seen on the base. This time it wasn’t my fault it was dusty! The thing that attracted me to this figure was her outfit. I like the cute look of her face, and the skintight outfit has been done nicely for a prize figure. 

Face:

Her face is fairly decent, and I like the expression. Hair is a bit “eh”, but decent enough for a prize figure. I like the choker they’ve added to her neck. Her chest is actually a soft rubber, if you like to poke your figures. An interesting additional feature for a prize figure.

So… let’s see if she has her scar:

Nope, can’t find it anywhere down there. Due to the rubbery material used for her chest, I’m not surprised it wasn’t included. On her had, the rubber has denatured slightly, but her body seems fine. 

The zip on her uniform has been painted neatly. Sculpting is OK for the zip – looks a bit thick close-up but OK with a bit of distance.

Left:

Here she’s leaning forward slightly, and she has a shapely upper body. I like that they’ve included some shading on her suit, instead of leaving it flat-coloured. 

Right:

The creasing on her clothing looks good, and the boots have been done well. Her hair I’m not so keen on, but it does the job. Though to me, her hair doesn’t feel quite right – her hair is overly flat in places, which looks odd next to the more sculpted parts. 

Back:

Hair looks good from the back – I do like the way it flows. 

Overall, I’m pleased with this figure, though I do wonder how the rubberised bits will age. 

Alex Mercer – Prototype

This little Mercer was a promotional item, so was a nice random find at a not-very-good con. This was the only figure I bought at the con, as there weren’t many stalls there (wasn’t much of anything tbh…) and most of them were local artists. They had an “artist’s alley”, but the entire con was pretty much artist’s alley… Nothing wrong with having a lot of artists, but it would’ve been nicer if there was more variation there. 

Anyways… enough drivel about a con of a con in the UK… 

Here he is:

Cute-sized Alex Mercer, d’aww. The detailing is nice, and the paintwork is nice and neat. I like the way the three layers of his clothing have been sculpted, and his virus arm. 

Claw arm:

I love the texture on this, and the glossier finish, which makes it have a more organic appearance. 

Left:

Here we have his normal hand, I like the way they’ve posed his fingers, so it looks like he’s about to spring into action. The seam in his jeans has also been well-sculpted, along with the stressed-jeans paintwork. 

Right:

Clothing looks good on this side too, love the creasing detail in his hood. 

Back:

The pattern on the back of his jacket is nice and crisp. The dirty shirt effect feels a little overdone here, but isn’t really a big part. Some red paint has crept onto his collar here, so the paint at the back did get a little sloppy.

Double the Alex, double the fun!:

This guy is actually a smaller version of a larger figure that NECA produced. I bought the larger one years ago, but was never able to get the small one for a decent price, due to its more limited nature. Both have the same sculpt and articulation, so this Mercer is one that’s been shrunk in the wash :P. 

Max Payne

And now for the slightly infamous Max Payne figure that came with the collector’s edition! 

So this was the figure that was promised:

And this is what we got:

A weird grey-coloured suit with no texturing, and a white shirt that doesn’t look like it’s been anywhere near coffee and cigarettes… is this Max Payne? 

And that face:

Oh, so that’s where the coffee went. Those eyebrows also amuse me. Hair sculpt is actually rather decent – I think all the sculpting efforts went into the face and then bllerrgh. 

But hey, at least we got this base:

Easily the nicest part of the figure – the wood came out well, and the scattered bullets look nice. 

Left:

Some parts of the sculpt are actually quite nice – head’s pretty detailed, fabric creasing works well. Some nice detail in his hand too. 

Close-up of the bullet wound:

It could have been good. Instead they stuffed some angry red paint on itand called it a day. We can see a figure seam here, but it has actually been sanded down better than I’d expect for a figure with this paint quality. 

Holster:

Looks the part. Brown paint has slopped onto the ring somewhat, but overall, doesn’t look bad. 

Right:

Again, sculpt is decent. His shoes look good but is suit… did he buy this from the pleather store or something? Or is that giving pleather a bad name?

Gun:

A little webbing can be seen up close, but looks fine tbh. Gun is decent enough. Not sure why there isn’t a matte finish on his hand. OK, I know why – shiny finish is cheaper. 

Back:

Aww, lookit – they did actually attempt some shading somewhere! Either that, or the figure rolled around the warehouse… I almost suspect that, with the paint job the rest of the figure got… 

So why did I buy this dude when I knew he was shit? 1, he was cheap and it’s Max Payne. 2, Some point in the future I aim to use this figure as painting practice – I can’t exactly make that suit look any worse! The sculpt-work is there on this figure, hidden by a shoddy, cheap paint job. Me painting him isn’t going to happen in the short-term, but when I’ve learned a couple of techniques, I plan to give it a go. And probably add a claw stand to the base (or some other mod) so that he doesn’t experience “bullet time” leans. If you do an image search for this figure, you’ll likely find ones where he’s leaning far over – apparently they didn’t use a particularly strong plastic or put rods in his legs to prevent this issue -.-

Hela – Rock Candy – Thor: Ragnarok

This Rock Candy figure I bought elsewhere, but on the same day as the Harley Quinn one… I think if I saw it at a later date I wouldn’t have bought it, due to the quality of the other one. So let’s see what this one is like.

Front:

Here she is, proclaiming her unboxed glory. At a first glance I really like her outfit and her helm, but her face does feel a bit derp. Feels like her eyes and mouth don’t quite match up somehow.

Face close-up:

From this angle the effect is much less. Nose feels slightly too big though. And the paint across her nose went on the wonk. Still prefer that to Harley’s nose scrape though. Overall, I like the sculpt of her helm, and think this works well. The parts of her face work well individually, but not entirely sold on the overall look. 

Outfit:

The big thing that attracts me to Hela figures – her outfit. The paint colours are nice and striking here, and seem to match up with the colours of other figures of her. However, the paint is hilariously off in places – especially the upper right part of her suit. These paint issues weren’t restricted to this one in the shop, and this was the one I chose for being least distracting with errors. As the centre of the suit attracted my eye, I was looking for the least amount of error in this part.

Here we can see the rubberised bits used to cover her arm joints… but they tend to have a mind of their own and not sit properly on her shoulders. May need to heat treat these so they sit in the right location more naturally. 

Left:

Hm, apparently she stole one of my hairs. Gerroff that! Helm looks good from the side, and the paint is nice on her arms. They’ve painted her fingernails, but it is a bit blobby. 

Right:

Looks OK from this side, but her shoulder does look odd… and I think the paint is a bit more pallid on her shoulders. Bit of a nasty seam there too. 

Back:

I like the shininess of the cape, and the colour is lovely. The fabric wrinkles look good, so I’m pleased with this. Just wish more of this was visible from the front. The way it joins onto her back isn’t as lovely, but it does the job. 

Not particularly pictured is the fact she’s a bobblehead – in the above pic you can see some of the gap around her head that allows her to “bobble”. Not sure I’m keen on this feature, but it doesn’t really take anything away… so that’s there if you like to bobble your bobbleheads. 

Overall, I’m more pleased with this figure than the Harely one, but it still isn’t particularly high quality. I did get this one cheaper though, but not sure I could recommend it. 

Harley Quinn – Rock Candy

This was a random buy, as I came across her at a reasonable price. Was considering getting one or two of the Rock Candy figures as I like the proportions. As Harley Quinn is one of the characters I collect figures for, she was one of the natural choices.

So here she is:

image

With my copy, there is a slight mark on her nose – annoyingly I didn’t notice this until I unboxed her, otherwise I would’ve probably not bough her. I like the rest of her face though, the front of her collar is done well… and the hammer is nice, apart from the slight bend it has to it. However, the less good things are the fact the quadrants of her top aren’t aligned properly, leaving some overlap on the black and there’s a noticeable seam on the collar to her left side. Can also see a bit of paint mess on her hat pom-poms.

Left:

The colours are nice, the sculpt isn’t too bad (collar feels a bit thick though), but there are small paint errors dotted around – most noticeable is just above her hand. 

Right:

Right looks better than the left and doesn’t have much in the way of noticeable issues. Do wish they put a rod in the hammer handle so it didn’t bend so freely. It does make assembly easier (and the figure cheaper…) but at a cost. 

Hammer & leg close-up:

One thing I can say for the hammer is the sculpt job is nice, and the paint used for the bands works well… if you ignore the paint slop. The diamonds are printed well on her leg, which is nice. 

Back:

Square overlap doesn’t seem as bad on the back and the paint looks mostly neat. Cuffs have a bit of slop, but this is pretty common. 

The big paint slop though…

Who the heck QC’d this… or more to the point, didn’t? Pretty nasty paint flaw here, and this is why I don’t buy Funko stuff often. Wouldn’t recommend buying their figures online, unless you’re not fussed over paint mess… as this is not too uncommon. 

Overall, I like the design, but the execution leaves something to be desired. A handful of paint errors and an ugly amount of flashing on her collar doesn’t make for a very premium figure. Honestly wouldn’t recommend these at full price. 

Figure Spotlight: McFarlane Viper King

This is one of the figures I bough early on in my collecting. Being McFarlane, it’s still a quality figure in my collection:

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This figure looks cool… but has a habit of falling over. He doesn’t come with any stand holes either, so I’ve developed various ways of standing the bugger up over the years. Though after this photo session, I did manage to get him to stand up on his own!

Close-up of his face: 

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Very much an angry fellah :P. The arms move up and down, and his neck moves, which gives some poseability. 

Viper King from the back:

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The Blu-Tack mark is from the original owner – obviously the technique they used to keep him upright. I favoured stands and string, rather than tack. 

Here’s a close-up of his back:

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Some interesting details back here, I like the tail part on his head. 

The black, red and silver colour scheme works well, and there’s a decent amount of detail in the sculpt. Just a shame they didn’t provide him with a stand so you could pose his snaketacles fully, thus making him prone to faceplanting. This issue can be resolved by sticking him down, or coming up with your own form of stand, but it’d be nice if he was provided with one. 

Freddy Krueger – A Nightmare on Elm Street – Bishoujo v2

Now for another horror-themed figure – Fredd Krueger, but perhaps not as you’ve seen him before!

This figure is part of Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo line, which has a few gender-swapped characters, this being one of them.

So here he, uh, she is:

A very sultry-looking Freddy. I love the face and the pose from the front. With the second edition, they slimmed down the base and reshaped it a bit, to make it fit with the figure more. The base does the job, but I don’t have many feelings towards it.

Face:

I love the way the lip gloss has been done, and the hair is an interesting effect, but feels a tad green which I find a little off-putting. The glove has been sculpted and painted well. Her top is fairly decent, but doesn’t have a proper ripped effect going on with the edging, which is a minor downside to the figure.

This close-up also shows the issue I have with her body shape – her back looks rather broken at certain angles… especially this one! She’s fine from the front, but some of the side angles aren’t very flattering.

Chest:

Her cleavage has been done well, and I like the cute bra under the top.


Left:

With her arm covering her back, she doesn’t look so broken. Love the dimple in the hat, and the strands in her hair. Her boots are also nicely sculpted, and I think they pulled the ring detail off well.

Stocking close-up:

Her stocking looks especially good on this figure, and they’ve even included the stocking seam at the back, which I thought was a nice touch.

Right:

The blood effect isn’t terribly realistic, and could’ve done with a bit more shading to it. The flat red makes it look kinda bad imo. The shape of the paint works, but there’s no depth to the wound. I think a little bit of an edge would have helped.

Back:

Again, lookin’ kinda bent. However, her back is otherwise sculpted well, and the shorts are really well done. Here the “off” hair shade shows up the most I think, and could’ve done with being a tad more yellow in my opinion. He doesn’t have any hair, so it would’ve been nice to give it a more complimentary shade now he has some.

Shorts close-up:

Love the logo on the back of the shorts! The detailing on these is nice, and the frayed jeans effect I think works here. The stitching has been detailed, which really adds to the realistic look.

Overall, I’m happy with this figure, and glad to have finally got around to getting it. I think the hair could’ve been done in a better colour, which is my main gripe. Seeing as I don’t move my figures around too much, I can display her at a favourable angle, so not too bothered about the oddly shaped back. I think it’d bother me more if it wasn’t for the hair though.

Dominia – Unreal Tournament

This figure is part of a short-lived series of Unreal Tournament figures. I found out randomly that they existed a few years back on eBay, when someone was selling them in the UK. Unfortunately I missed out, when the auctions ended and I forgot…

Several years later I remembered they existed, and decided to buy Domina:

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Here she is, in all her gory glory. The “blood” paint on her leg isn’t the best, but the rest of her looks really good imo. Her articulation does leave something to be desired, and I did have to fix a bend in her leg/foot that had occurred due to time, which meant she couldn’t stand upright initially/

Her grasping hand does have a gun to hold:

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But with the bother of sorting out her foot, I didn’t get around to warming her hand to get this into it. Gun itself looks nice – a decent amount of detail here, and they’ve done a brushed metal effect, so it avoids the issue of looking plain. 

Face:

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They’ve done her mask nicely… and included the eye in her mouth. The skin also raises up around her head spikes, which is a nice touch in the sculpt-work. The brushed metal effect on her shoulderpads works well too. 

Left:

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Love all the little details that have gone into her hand/glove. Spiky shoes looking very ‘metal’ too. 

Hand close-up:

Love the claws, and the paint is neat. Sculpt does look a bit dodgy close-up but fine at a viewing distance. The texture in the paint on the cuff looks good. 

Leg close-up:

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The scar part looks suitably gory and disgusting, but the bruising/blood-marks don’t look quite the right colour. Little too purplish. 

Right:

Instead of a scarred leg, we have a bandaged one on this side. The asymmetry has been done well, and both sides look suitably detailed. 

Hip:

Here she has a syringe made of a flexible plastic, so that it doesn’t snap. Slight downside to that is it likes to be a little bit bent. Doesn’t look particularly realistic, but enough for a figure of this type. 

Back:

Can’t help but think how cold her backside must be in matches… Does look like she forgot to put her pants on, prior heading to the tournament! Paint shading is nice, but a little off-coloured imo. The back of her clothes are nicely detailed, and they didn’t skimp on the sculpt back here.

Top of her head:

And to finish her off, we have some more cutaway flesh. I like the way they’ve detailed the cuts, and the red wash works well. 

Overall, I think this figure does a very good job of being Domina, the main issue is probably that her skin colour is less pallid than her in-game appearance, but this doesn’t bother me too much. Her articulation doesn’t bring too much to the table – her arms are good for posing, but with the stands she has, posing her legs is mostly done to get her to balance, so you’d need an action stand to get poses out of her. Overall, I think she’s a good figure, though does look a bit dated in some respects… which is fair, as she is an older figure. Wish they did more of the UT crew, but alas, they only ever did four. Would’ve loved to own a Lilith figure, if it was an option. 

Sam Flynn – Tron

Found this dude at the same fair as Clu, but in a different fodder box.

Front:

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This one has a fairly equal level of paint and sculpt. Which is to say… not amazing. 

Lit up:

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Face effect looks cool on this one too, and the LEDs work. Overall works well to distract from the figure 😛

Face close-up:

The faces look surprisingly realistic. Kind of wish some other figures went with this effect, but don’t think it’d be massively popular. 

Left:

Sam’s helmet profile is less cool to me than Clu’s but does look good in general. Skin tone on his hands feels off though. 

Right:

Not too much different from the left. No paint detail on his lower calf on this side though. 

Back:

Again, a half-assed paint job when it came to the battery cover and a hole in his arse. Disc on this one was also lost to time, so I don’t have that to show. So he’ll have to forever grasp at air, instead of his disc. 

Overall, I can’t recommend these Tron figures, unless you have some sort of nostalgia or soft spot for them. I kind’ve always wanted them, but ended up missing out when they clearanced, so kinda happy to get them since for not a lot of money. For me, I think the figure’s gimmick actually works (though I probably won’t trigger it often), but the rest of the figure leaves a lot to be desired.