Category: Eastern

Devilman Keyrings

I had some promotional credit from a proxy service that I wanted to try out, so decided to go for a cheap item. I found these Banpresto Devilman keyrings on a “Buy it now”, and decided they were a good option. 

The proxying worked fine, with no issues, so that was good. 

Firstly we have this small Devilman keyring, that was already on one of my keyring display bars:

He was the smallest of the three keyrings, and of a decent quality.

Next up, a larger version of Devilman’s movie appearance:

With the larger size, there’s a lot more detail in the sculpt and the paintwork. I prefer the expression on the other keyring though. 

Devilman in his original cartoon form:

The sculpt isn’t hugely detailed, but gets the Devilman feel across. Logo on his belt is a bit squiffy. but his face is nicely rendered. Not sure if I’ll put this one on display, but it’s nice to have it. Might as well have one figure in his original appearance :P. 

Overall I’m happy I went for these keyrings. 

EVA-13 – Revoltech

Initially I missed the re-release of this figure, but then randomly found it in stock again on AmiAmi. Wasting no time, I ordered it – stuff like this doesn’t tend to stay in stock for long with AmiAmi if it comes back into the store. 

Here he is in his “default” configuration:

Decided to equip him with both the lances, so most of the shots will feature these. Other options available, and will be shown later in this review. 

I love the shiny purple paint, and the yellow & green that complements it. He also articulates well imo, and his midriff segments bend pleasingly. I prefer a more stoic pose though. 

Left:

Here he is… having a bit of a nap apparently. The paint is nice and striking, but a wee bit uneven in spots. Not really noticeable from the distance I’m taking photos at. 

Right:

Closer look. Here you can see a bit of a paint flaw, in the black paint on his upper arm, where it spills into the green stripe near his elbow. And a bit of an uneven line going into the canary yellow. Whilst the paint job is mildly iffy in places, the articulation seems plentiful, and feels good. 

Close-up of the head:

Paint job  is OK; like all the little details in the mould. And ofc, you’ve got that wonderful impaling spike on his head :D. 

Back:

Some nice painting and moulding on his back – love the silver bits running down the middle. 

Here are the other spare parts, not shown in the rest of this review:

Plenty of hands to choose from, if you don’t want him wielding the spears of destiny. Also has the gun, if you wish to go for a less epic weapon. 

Also in accessories is the AT field:

That sits on an arm…:

…which can be attached to the stand. Then you need to balance EVA-13 up on his own, which he will do. Though I’d prefer to have a separate stand, tbh. 

And after taking this pic, I realised I was some parts short. So I went to dig up the other bag of spare parts, and assemble him in the configuration I really wanted him in:

Yeah, much better! This form consists of a new upper torso and two more arms. The uppermost purple V in his chest is rubbery, and sits above the joint that attaches into the grey part of his torso. With the extra arms, the spears are far more stable, so now I can have him hold them aloft, and not worry about them swinging out of place, like with two arms. 

Some more views:

Looking good :).

Close-up of the arms:

Love the shiny silver, and the cuff that both the lower arms have. Does make assembling on his lower hands a little on the awkward side. 

Overall, I really like this dude. He’s probably not as good as a Figma, but he comes at a lower price point, and far more accessories. Really happy to have him, and will be getting more of the Evangelion Evolution re-releases. I won’t be getting all of them – just a select few. 

Dva – Native

This figure is a futanari figure, so this is definitely a NSFW blog.

So let’s start with a SFW pic:

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She has a very cute face, that has been well-painted. Love the shading underneath her fringe, and the slight smile. 

Here’s the “company is coming around” configuration:

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The pasties covering her nipples are made out of metal, and she has magnets in her boobs. This makes them stay put, yet be easy to take off and put on. I like this! This figure benefits from strong lighting – her skin is quite plain, as far as paint jobs go, but in the light, it adds a fair amount of natural shadow, as seein in the pic. I love the shiny purple of her ribbons, and the methods used to hide the figure’s seamlines. 

Dva’s base:

This thing is big. Takes up most of a shelf of a detolf cabinet… The texture’s nice, and the butt divot does help keep her in place, but there’s no shading in the paint. Fortunately Dva mostly covers it, so it isn’t too much of an eyesore. And she certainly is a distraction, lol. 

Close-up of her with the pasties:

The paint appears to be thickly applied, and is a good, solid layer. Also shiny, which makes them nice, if you’d like to display her with them. 

Here she is without her pasties:

Yep, those look like a pair of nipples on a couple o’ melons. They’re big, but somehow don’t look ridiculous like some anime figures can do. 

Close-up on the flower in her hair:

Nice, vibrant colours, that contrast well with her hair. 

Let’s look at her different downstairs options, before looking at the rest of her in detail.

First up, if you want to keep her 100% woman:

Just the string, with some well-sculpted inner female parts. Not sure if she has a labia majora? 

If you want her to be futanari but not have everything on show:

You get this option, where she has a bright blue condom. The condom has a moulded ridge at the bottom, so it doesn’t appear painted on, which I thought was a nice touch. 

And for the full futanari effect:

One member please! It does have a particularly dark tip to it, which is a bit odd, but I honestly don’t mind it. Is a bit of an odd choice, but hey. Does ensure it contrasts strongly with her body and doesn’t blend in with it, from a front-on view. 

With this part, there is a labia minora visible underneath:

S’cuse the blurry shot. Was trying to hold her and focus the camera at the same time… maybe I should’ve taken the part off first. But I think this shot gets across what’s there, though it really isn’t visible when she’s on display. 

Close-up of her left leg:

I love the purple bows – the shiny purple is a lovely colour. The bottom part of her leg detaches, so you can slip the golden ring onto her ankle. The golden rings are packed separately in the box, so no need to worry about paint transfer. 

Right leg:

One nicely sculpted leg. Not much to say about this one. Some suggestions of shading in the paint, but not a lot. 

Midsection:

Yeah, this shot for your work PC wallpaper :P. The strings are nicely moulded, and slightly dig into her flesh. Hate it when they overdo it with the tightness, but I think this is a nice balance. The gold rings are also painted well, without stray paint. 

Left:

Here we can see she is arching her back slightly. Nothing too strenuous. The ribbon on her leg hangs down nicely. 

Close-up of her side:

The black strings are neatly painted. 

Right:

Here we can see where she’s resting her hand behind her, and the subtle shading in her hair. 

Close-up of her arm:

The band is nicely placed on her arm, and here is the other bangle you can place on her, if you’d like. Her lower arm detaches, so you can slip this on easily. Some people have complained her hand doesn’t lean on the base, but for mine, it does to some extent, and looks fine from the front. 

Close-up of the bangle:

Shiny 🙂 Here you can see where her hand does touch a bit to one side, but not so much in the middle. 

Back:

Yeah, bit of a seam visible here, but I love the gradient in her hair. And a nice shot of the penis :P. 

Lastly, here’s a shot of one of the penises not attached:

This peg simply plugs into the front of her, and the pieces stay there snugly. The penises are easy to remove, but the female parts are a bit of a pain to get out. Was able to do it with a fingernail from the bottom point. Once you’ve loosened them a bit, they’re easy to pull out. With the snug fit though, it does make the thong/genitalia parts look seamless though, which is good. 


This was an expensive figure, and an even more expensive one to get in the aftermarket. Glad I decided to be decisive about my preorder (had to do it through a third party too as Native won’t ship to my country :/), so I was able to get her at a more reasonable price. I think it would’ve been nice to have a bit more shading on her skin, but in the right light, she looks amazing. If you like a chick with a dick ;). though the options to display her without are both viable. 

Blind Box Pack

The stall that sold me the Harley Quinn XXRay figure also had a blind bag on display, and I was, for whatever reason, determined to buy some kind of blind bag at FACTS. I looked around his stall, and he seemed to have a decent selection of blind box stuff, so I decided to go for it and buy the bag:

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So… let’s see what we got. The figures were brand new and sealed, but I didn’t take pics of the items whilst they were still boxed. 

First up was this “Vamou” figure:

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Decently made, lookin’ pretty dead. Would’ve preferred to get a purple one. The box was a choice of this dude in various colours. Not too interesting, but well-made. 

Side:

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Back:

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He’s decent enough, and has ended up on a shelf of other small collectables.

Next up was a Be@rbrick. Was kind of excited to get this, as I wanted to see what these are like. Inside I got one entitled “Animal”:

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An interesting texture, and the articulation was better than I thought it would be – the arms are on ball joints, so you can move them into many positions, unlike a minifig. The legs also bend outwards slightly. He can rotate at the hips, head and wrists, which is good. Not the best pattern, not the worst. He also came with a card, which I didn’t take a pic of, as it’s already in a drawer. 

Side:

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Back:

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Close-up of the text:

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Interesting addition on the back. I guess it makes the copyright text less boring! 

Lastly, Shah Mat chess pieces:

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Each set comes with 4 tiles that clip together (each tile is a separate piece) and a pawn. My bind box figure was the king, who is the rare one, uh, yay! If I could find a buyer, it would likely be worth something, but I don’t think people are clamouring for a chess set that you have to get through pricey blind boxes… They do make pretty display pieces though! 

Back:

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And they are cute. 

Overall, I felt I broke even on this. Buying the boxes would’ve likely cost me more, but would I have bought them….? I’d say definitely “no” for the Vamou, and a likely “no” for the Shah Mat dunnies. Though none of them are headed to the the “box of trading figures”, so I got things that I like. Maybe not the wisest use of €15, but it was a fun one. Out of blind bags, I could’ve done much worse, so glad how it turned out. 

And here concludes my loot at FACTS! Money well spent I say!

Compiler – Story Image Figure – Yamato

I’m a sucker for StoryImageFigures if I see them cheaply enough. And this was the case with this one, at €5. 

So here she is:

I love the swimsuit she is wearing, and wish I could look good wearing one like that, but alas, it’d look odd on me. Not to mention that ring is probably metal and I have a nickel allergy… As an older figure, there’s a noticeable lack of dfetail in her face and hair. Some of the StoryImageFigures haven’t aged too well due to this, but on this one it isn’t enough to put me off it. The contrasting textures of her body and her swimsuit is nice.

Left:

She’s got a good pose, with one hand on her hip. Hair has some shading, They have gone for a poofy hair look, but it didn’t quite work in the mould I think. Just something about it seems to say “low detail”. 

Right:

This angle looks OK. Hair shading a bit suspect towards the top. Is a hair seam, but I don’t find it distracting. 

Back:

You can see where they’ve aimed to shade her hair, with the darkest parts on the ridges. Which I think worked. Just maybe needed to persist to the top. 

The stand is simplistic, but OK. Helps her stand up just fine, but the texture isn’t anything to write home about. She didn’t quite want to stand up originally – I think some bending has occurred in the box, but once I got her to settle, she’s been fine. 

A good addition to my collection, and was easy to place on a shelf, with a couple of other StoryImageFigures. Nice to get the odd small thing, now that I have a sizeable collection XD. 

Lilith – Darkstalkers – Capcom Girls Collection

This figure was also an instabuy for me – and even better, this one was on sale! After leaving the shop, at first I though there was damage to the wings, but it turns out I was mixing up the lugs with her claws. Was super-pleased to find out that there’s nothing wrong with her, and she was just reduced for quick sale. 

Here she is, blowing a kiss:

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Pic towards her face:

I like the sassy pose she has – it suits her character. Her outfit isn’t overly detailed, but it does the job. The bats on her leggings are nicely done, but I would’ve liked to see a bit more contrast so they stand out more. They do blend too well into her leggings.

Close-up of her face:

A cute, if simple, face. Hair strand moulding is nice, and the creases on her sleeve. 

Opposite side:

Here we can see she is well-posed, with one leg bent in a suggesive pose. We can also see where i didn’t quite get the pegs all the way in. Didn’t want to end up breaking them, so ended up leaving them as-is for now. Back of her head is largely flat, which doesn’t make it very hairlike. Other part that doesn’t look so good imo is the white edging on her sleeves – the finish and colour leaves it looking plasticy, instead of more like fabric. 

Back:

One well-sculpted butt :). Her spine and back are detailed in the sculpt, which is nice. 

Close-up of the wing:

No shading, but I think they still look good and striking. Due to their shape, natural light adds some natural shading :). I like the way they’re posed so they frame her. The tops of her wings aren’t detailed, but I don’t see too much of them. 

Overall, I like this figure. It is a simpler figure aimed at a lower price point. If you can pick her up for a good price, I’d recommend her. 

Wasp – Kotobukiya Bishoujo

The day before I went to FACTS, I went to a handful of comic book shops and Japanese merch shops in Belgium.

First purchase was Wasp from Super Dragon Toys, as she was on sale. Had seen her clearance in the UK, but didn’t get her as I wasn’t sure if I liked her. Seeing her in person made me decide I wanted her. So here she is:

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I love the happy expression, and the shiny wings. The gold has also beeen superbly done – gold can often look poor on figures, but here, it’s a good hue and shiny. 

Close-up of her face:

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Love the shiny lipstick and moulded mouth. She’s also got some shading painted into her eyes, which is a nice touch. Her hair is sort of simple, but nicely sculpted. Here we can also see a couple of creases moulded into the neck part of her suit, giving it a lifelike appearance.

Close-up of the base:

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A nice, creative base. No solid-coloured disc here. The splash looks good, with the blue fading out towards the droplets. Also some ripples on the disc part of the base, so it isn’t just flat. The colour complements the figure imo.

Right:

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Here we see the bulk of her outfit – I love the gold piece running down the middle, and the gold on her palms. The suit itself also has a few well-placed creases, to show it is indeed a bodysuit. 

Left:

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Here we can see where the wings peg into her back, and the paints nicely match up. And her shapely backside – she has a pear shape goin’ on here. 

Close-up of the gold on her shoes:

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I don’t think she has much grip on the floor, but the finish is nice and gold colour attractive. 

Back:

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This shot shows off some of the iridescence of the wings. I love that they’ve managed to make the wings iridescent – it shines quite well, and looks great in the sunlight. 

Her hair looks good from the back too. 

Close-up of the wings:

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This is definitely one of the features that attracted me to buying this figure. More figures need iridescent parts! And well-done gold parts! 

Overall, I really like this figure, and kind of wish I bought it sooner XD. Might’ve got it for a bit cheaper, but hey, I have her now!

Liko – Active Raid – Figure-Rise Bust

I saw a video of this model kit, and decided I would like it, to continue on with my interest in all things model kit. I’m not familiar with the series, but loved the colour scheme, and thought she was cute. So here she is:

Not the easiest thing to take a picture of, due to her outstretched arm. And those dot stickers on her collar were in the right place when I built it *goes to fix it*. 

With this kit, the things that attracted me to it was the face, the base and the colour scheme. I love the way they have done injection moulding for her eyes – they’re actually constructed from plastic, rather than being stickers, which gives them a fantastic finish. And no need to worry about getting them crooked! My main issue with the kit was getting the flesh-coloured parts of her body to sit well together – here you can see the bit at the front is still a bit gappy. Other problem was the stickers – some of them didn’t quite seem big enough – main pain-in-the-backside are the ones above her chest – those V-shaped stickers seemed too small for the space they fit in. 

Left:

Here you can see some of the details on her sleeves, which are nice. Here you can see one of her body seams – they’re just kind of butt-ugly. She looks fine from the front, but the seams kinda make other angles a bit “eh”. Her hair flows nicely though,and I like the frill she has on her headband. Maybe I could go for a partial disassemble and sand down those bits of the sprue, but not sure it’s entirely worth it. 

Right side:

Another weird seam here. I do like the way she “projects” out of the base. Another interesting thing about this base is you can attach it to a Bandai stand, along with the mecha that goes with her. Probably won’t get the mecha though. 

Back:

Here we can see her flowing hair, which I think looks good. 

Top back:

A closer look at those unusually-shaped hair buns, which give some personality to the figure. You can also rotate them, to get her micro-pigtails at whatever angle is preferable to you. 

Bottom of the back of the base:

Here we can see how she is hollow and attaches to the stand. Getting the disc into the correct orientation was… fun. There wasn’t much guidance of how it was supposed to go, but some trial and error later, I got it. She attaches firmly to the stand, so not concerned about her dropping off or anything. The way her hair connects to the stand means her head does not articulate though. 

Above:

I love her sleeve. All of the translucent green pieces have silver stickers underneath, which help the green bits “pop”, which adds to the figure. Her arm at the white armband is a bit easy to knock apart though. Did knock her arm off mid-assembly, oops. 

Overall, I like this model kit. It wasn’t too hard to assemble, but I don’t think I would’ve paid a lot for it. If you find this cheap, and like the end result, I could recommend it, but kind of has limited display angles, due to the way the seams are, unless you really want to get some model putty and paint out. 

Kuroyukihime & Arita Haruyuki – Banpresto

I saw these appear on an Urban Mine auction some time ago, but I believe that they went for more than I wanted to pay for them.

Then I was just browsing Mandarake randomly – and found they were in the store! And for the grand sum of ¥100! I quickly put a Mandarake order together for these two, and they arrived some time later. 

So here they are:

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Yay! A cute pair of prize figures. Arita’s avatar form isn’t much to look at, but it has been nicely painted. Kuroyukihime in avatar form though… is nicely detailed and well-painted. Definitely worthy of a B-Prize. Kuroyukihime’s base has her name on, and does have some of a design, but it’s mostly covered up by her dress. I like the way Arita’s base has a curly pink tail on it, and he sits in the middle, but it would’ve been nice to have his name on the base, to match Kuroyukihime’s. 

Left:

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Here we can see Kuroyukihime’s wings, which have been well reproduced in chibi-form. She has two pegs on her feet and this head stand, so she is stable. The dress is a nice texture, but her hair is on the shiny side. We can also see Arita’s cute, curly tail. 

Right:

Nice amount of strands in her hair on this side, helping it not look flat, though the top of the hair is standard for this kind of chibi figure. 

Back:

Here we can see more of the wings, which have been very nicely done. The paint and detailing is good. The dress also looks really nice, with the purple trim and the folded fabric. Not much to see with Arita, not that anything is really expected. His ears are shaped nicely though. 

Super-pleased with this set. I don’t usually go for these small chibi figures, but I really like this pair. Her hair does suffer from prize-figure shininess, but the rest of her is really well done. Glad I picked these up, especially for the cheap price! 

And just before I finish this blog, a quick addition:

I also bought these with this Mandarake order, but they’re not really worthy of their own blog post XD. Been on the fence about ordering them for some time, but decided to go for it. They’re a nice addition to one of my keychain rails. I think they look better than I was expecting, but I don’t think they’ll be a “favourite thing”. Still happy to get Evangelion loot though :D. 

Illusionless Time Dragonbound, Myr

After receiving the previous Myr, I decided I need more Myr. So… more Myr!

The simpleness of the dress with the small details make this a striking figre. She’s supposed to be motioning to her backdrop… but this was in her box at the time of taking pictures. I love her expression and the orange ribbons on her dress. And one feature prize figures frequently don’t have: shading in her hair! 

Close-up of her face:

Some lovely, small details in her bows and lipstick. I like her blue eyes too. Hair lacks the definition a scale would usually have, but the shading makes it look the part. The horns also have eye-catching shapes, as well as being shiny. 

Here she is, more angled on the stand:

I think she is designed to be displayed at roughly this angle. but not so good for photographs to show her details. The lower half of her dress flows well over the empty part of the stand, and definitely looks like it was designed to be seen at this angle. I like the way there are cuts in the side of the dress, so you can see some of her, and her lithe body. It is a pretty outfit. The range of finishes on this figure work really well too. 

Let’s take a closer look at that staff:

Tiny scratch on mine. Mostly looks the part, but close up, you can see how flat it is – not sure it’s really like this in the artwork, so I suspect they flattened it for the sake of quality – making it rounded would be prone to more flaws, as well as being more difficult to manufacture. From a distance, it looks fine. 

Left side:

Here we can see her revealed skin. Some amount of detail has gone into sculpting her hand. Her tail looks good, and the lines painted well on the ribbon that’s on there. Love the amount of detail that’s gone into the ribbon and cloth “boot” she’s wearing on this side.Also you can see her ear poking out from her hair, which is a nice detail.

Right side:

Here, she’s less revealed. You can see the seams in the dress,the upper one is pretty neatly done, the lower one about average. I think she’s saying “that camera? I’m gonna destroy it if you keep pointing it at me…”. Uh, please don’t, I’m nearly through with this review, I swear!

Back:

The ripples on the dress are continued around to the back. Her wings are nicely detailed on the back, and catch the light well. Here you can see where her hair is darker towards the bottom – nice that they continued the shading all the way around. 

Let’s get a closer look at those horns and wings:

Some paint shading in the horns, which is a nice touch. And those wings are looking small but amazing. 

So… what if we don’t want a great big massive stand in her back?

Erm, er well…. Not too attractive! But we can get a better look at her tail like this. I find it interesting they’ve joined the tail far higher up than most creatures have a tail. We can also admire the neat painting they’ve done  on her tail ribbon. It’s kind of a shame they went for a back stand, as she looks really good from this angle too – would’ve been nicer to have a stand that maybe went under her dress or a clear claw stand. Foot pegs may’ve worked, but even if they were clear, she probably wouldn’t look like she was floating, which is the look they were going for. Ah well, can’t have everything.

Also she doesn’t work too well without a stand from the front:

You can lean her so she stands, but she’s looking down. You could get away with doing this, if you displayed her on a high-up shelf, but really she’s designed to be displayed with the stand. 

Really pleased with this figure – Eikoh has done a really good job with it. Would recommend it if you like what you see. 

Tiger – Tiger & Bunny – Figure-Rise 6

And what would Bunny be without Tiger?

This one, the stickers were easier than Bunny’s I felt. Especially as the ridged ones sit in the ridges. Main downside of the stickers on this one is the leg stickers are prone to peeling on the pointy bits. The bits that go over his shins are two pieces, which is why they peel back from the edge, when clipped. Second annoying thing is his hips don’t like to be straight, and he seems to like to stand with a slight wonk at all times. Like Bunny, I find he looks impressive, and articulates well. 

Left:

Love the armour on his lower arms, and the angular armour on his lower leg. And a wonderfully pointy face. 

Right:

The lines add a lot of detail to his legs, but with them being several stickers, it was a bit of a laborious process sticking them all on. Worth it though! Not so worth it: Those white arm stickers. I don’t find they lie particularly well on the moulded plastic. 

Back:

Love the lines on the backs of his legs. The back shoe stickers were a pain though, as they’re a rounded blob that you have to sort of try and smooth them onto. There are some cuts in the sticker to aid with this, but not sure how much they helped. He also has a hidden peg hole, underneath a piece on his spine. I like the way this part blends well into his back, but it does have a protrusion, so it’s easy to remove with just a fingernail. 

Overall, these figures were mostly fun to build. Did make some mistakes along the way, but these weren’t too hard to rectify. Am pleased with the end result, and was worth it. If you want to kill an evening and end up with a nice-looking action figure, these kits may be for you. 

Let’s say goodbye Tiger:

Thanks for reading!

Barnaby Brooks Jr – Tiger & Bunny – Figure-Rise 6

After making the Black Lotus and Silver Crow model kits, I decided I needed more. After hunting around for something from an anime I was familiar with, I came across Tiger & Bunny. There were two versions – I chose the “Style 2″, as these ones looked nicer than the original counterparts. Doing the research for this blog, I think I made the right choice, but these ones were the far more involved to build, owing to the number of stickers they have. 

So, let’s see what the end result looks like:

I think he was worth the effort, and came out really well. The articulation is good too, and you can do a range of poses:

Here he is, running into battle. Or stopping Tiger from doing something stupid. The stickers, once on, work really well and give the figure a decent amount of detail. I love the blue shiny stickers. The downside of doing Barnaby’s stickers was that most of them sit on top of the ridges, meaning they’re hard to get in place. This is due to most of these areas having a coloured border. 

Left side:

Love the clear areas on the armour. His head has a good shape, and his head “fins” look neat. Also love the way the side of the legs turned out, where the colours work well together. 

Right side:

Not too much different from the left. Looks good 🙂

Back:

Love the wings/jets on his back. The detail of the red plastic behind the clear plastic works really well imo. Here you can see where some of the sticker son the back of his thighs didn’t quite sit right on the ridges. Annoying. And one of his butt stickers has since walked off :/. Not sure where that one went, sadly. 

The base of his spine comes out, to reveal a peg hole. I have some bases on order, so I can put Tiger & Bunny in action poses, when I display them. 

Overall, I’m definitely pleased with this figure, despite having to be careful not to nudge the stickers, and the amount of rude words that went into putting them on XD. If you’d like a more involved model kit, I would recommend this. 

Figure Spotlight – Naked Jehuty

This figure was a birthday present from my husband, though it took the form of pointing him at the direction of the auction and having him buy it. Iirc it was on eBay as Buy-It-Now. When my birthday rolled around, this fella came out:

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Originally I didn’t think he came with a stand, but I had a spare Play Arts Kai one, from a figure that could stand up fine on its own (a rarity with PAK!). Later, I got a second Revoltech figure, and found the stand taped to the back of the plastic. I then went up into the loft to retrieve the box, and indeed Jehuty did have a stand! Though I never switched to it, as the Revoltech stands aren’t very good, and this figure especially would pull it over. 

Here’s his back, with the shiny gold plating:

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Here’s his side, showing his arm and face:

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And a shot of his other side, showing the cable coming from him, and some of the detail on the back of his leg:

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I love the colour scheme on this figure, and I have a thing for this kind of mecha. I did watch ZOE, Dolores, I but this dude doesn’t feature in it. I did enjoy it somewhat, but it isn’t a firm favourite. 

Still love this figure, maybe one day I’ll go hunt a playthrough of the game, so I can watch and learn more about the characters. 

Figure Spotlight: Figma Silver Crow

To complete the three “larger” Silver Crow figures that exist, here is Figma Silver Crow:

He has an extra-tall stand, which is great for displaying him. I love the lithe body on this silver crow, and Figma excel at the thinner body types imo. His wings look nice too, but I’ve always had a problem with one wing getting it to stay in good places, and it has always had a habit of dropping down. The second one has got a bit worse over time. It’s a bit of a shame, because he looks really good with his wings posed properly, but if he’s statically placed, you can use some putty to support the wings in place. Here, I managed to get them to stay in the positions shown. 

Left side:

Looks good. His knee joints are rather visible, which will likely put some people off. 

Right side:

Here it seems I went for a non-charged gauntlet… showing his other forearm accessory choice. Both look good. 

Back:

Some nice scuplting on his upper back. Here you can see the pegs which have the hinge in, for the wings. The weight of the wings has a tendency to pull them down. Might be possible to add a layer of polish on the pegs, to prevent them slipping down. There are some metal covers which partially hide the hinges. 

Close-up of a wing:

Nice and silvery :). Only downside of these is seeing the S. H. Figurarts and admiring the effect they achieved on those. 

There are some transparent “charge” effects you can put on his arms, but these kept falling off All. The. Time. so they went back into storage, and I couldn’t be bothered with the fiddling to get them back onto his arms for the photo shoot.. sorry. Definitely one of the downsides to this figure. Overall, the base figure is very nice though, and I would recommend this one for anyone who wants a Silver Crow figure. 

Silver Crow – S. H Figuarts

So… more Crow! This time we have the S. H. Figuarts version, so not much assembly here!

He’s noticeably darker than all the other Silver Crow figures I have. His wings are set into a transparent layer of plastic though, which can give them a “floating plate” look from certain angles. I really dig this effect. 

Close-up of one of those wings:

Here you can see the shininess from the plastic coat on the wing. Also you can see the joint mechanism – this articulates well, and is definitely one of the strengths of this figure. 

Left side:

Here you can see the “floating plate” look. Yeah, I didn’t do good in posing this for the photo shoot… his hand is looking a bit broken :P. The details on his arms are good, and he looks streamlined from the side. No complaints here.

Right side:

Here we can see the “charged” arm piece. Looks OK from this distance, but looks a bit “cheapy” close-up. He has a hand replacement for the “full” blast, but I wasn’t a big fan of that, so have left his “chopping”  hand on. 

Back:

Back details are OK. Nothing much to comment on here. Stand goes in firmly, and holds him well. 

Close-up of the arm blast:

A little bit messy in the middle, and the blue semintranslucent stuff looks a bit iffy. 

“Charged” arm on the other side:

Grasping hand looks good, and this forearm looks better than the other imo. But I’m a sucker for the charge effect. 

Overall, I like him, but wish he were paler like the other figures. His midriff looks a little odd-shaped, and could’ve done with better matching in the sculpt with the other bits, but suspect this may’ve been done to assist with articulation. If I could have his wings on another Silver Crow, I’d really like that. If you like his appearance, I can recommend this figure, but I don’t think his overall look is nicer than the others. 

Silver Crow – Bandai Figure Rise 6 Model Kit

I ordered this from Suruga-ya… then found I could’ve got it cheaper on Mandarake. Not sure if it was in stock when I first looked. However, I got this for around the same price as the Black Lotus kit, so I don’t feel like I overpaid. 

Here’s the completed Crow:

I do like the look of this Silver Crow. The silver stickers also worked better than I expected, which is a nice touch. The wings do have some plastic flaws in them from the moulding process though. 

Close-up of his face:

His mask is almost a bit too see-through, so you can see he doesn’t have a face. The green bits on his shoulders are stickers, along with anything silver. 

Left:

Though viewing his mask from the side is pretty cool – does look like there’s a head in there from this distance. The wings aren’t poseable sadly, so they’re stuck at this angle, if you equip them. There is the option to display him without them, though, if you prefer. I think the angle is a good choice, so not overly bothered by the lack of movement within the wings. 

Right:

Here I have the blast arm parts equipped – I think these look good. The upper arm needs to be specially constructed, but the lower part simply fits onto her hand. 

From the back:

His back looks good, but his wings… have plastic-saving holes. Would’ve been nice if this part was flat, or had a part to clip onto the back of the wings to cover it up. 

Here’s Silver Crow’s arm in combat mode, without the blast: 

Looks pretty cool and bulky. 

Close-up of the arm with the blast:

The blast replaces the “forked” parts of the bracer. 

Overall, I’m pleased with the result of this kit. He’s decently poseable, but the clip part that allows him to stand on the stand could do with being a fraction taller – he just about stands with this, but it’s a bit of a squeeze. If you don’t want him standing, then you have a few more options I feel. 

Black Lotus – Bandai Figure-Rise 6 Model Kit

Now for the first model kit I constructed. I have done these model kits in the opposite order, as I have some more Accel World goodies coming up.

So, here she is:

In her black, kind-of-annoying-to-photograph form! She wasn’t too bad to build – main annoyance was ensuring I was building the parts for combat mode instead of “normal” mode. Near the beginning I made a mistake, but I was able to rectify it pretty easily. She’s not really swappable between forms – you have to pick one or the other when building. Seeing as I prefer combat mode, I went for that one. Gotta have moar purple and longer swords!

Left side:

The blasts hold reasonably well. They simply wedge onto her blades. Bottom ones can come loose if she gets nudged. The blocks on the back of her legs have two ways they can sit, to show and hide the purple parts. The purple protrusions from her head have black stickers on them, to make them purple and black, and that came out well. 

Right side:

I do like the way the arms came out – they’re really cool. 

Back:

Some lovely lininess going on. The purple part on her skirt was the bit I missed at the beginning – ended up putting in the “normal” mode one, then realising it wasn’t “plug n play”, and I had to pick during construction. 

She also comes with some landing “splash” effects, if you want to pose her, as if she’s coming in to land:

Imo, they look pretty cool, and love the fact they included them:

Here’s a close-up of her head:

In which you can see the three stickers adhered to the fins on her helmet, to make them appear as they do. 

Close-up of her upper half:

I like the shininess of the stickers provided – they really add to the figure, though I balls’d up the gem in the middle a bit. She also has some extra purple plastic accents on her arms and shoulders here, for the combat mode. 

Am really happy with the finished result. She’s articulated quite well too, so you can do all sorts of posing with her too. Is quite cool, building your own articulated kit. Certainly happy with this kit, and will be building more Figure Rise 6 kits in future. 

VF-31F Siegfried (Messer Ihlefeld’s) – Macross Delta – Bandai Model Kit

Now for my new “thing” – model kits! I bought two larger kits from one of my favourite series, and stuck this in on a Mandarake order on a whim. 

After a lot of bitching at stickers later, I had this:

Next time I’m totally going to be using my tweezers to help out with the stickers, and there will be a next time! The pictures were pretty easy to follow, despite me not reading a word of Japanese. You do need to look carefully to work out what’s going on though, if you can’t read what’s being said.

Here it is from the other side, similar angle:

Quite happy with the end result, but I would’ve liked to get that cockpit sticker a bit flatter. It’s amazing how the stickers transform it from being a boring, grey and white plastic model to something quite colourful. 

From the top:

Looks pretty neat from the top. Not sure if the logo is quite in the right place – I did centre the logo on the centre of the plane, but the wing does just touch that black line on the other sticker. Also you can see where the cockpit doesn’t quite align. 

Side shots:

Looks nice in profile. Some very small stickers with writing on, to tell you that it’s a VF-31 Siegfried. One cool thing about this stand is that the peg that goes into the craft is on a ball joint, so you can angle it however you’d like and turn it around. 

From the back:

Engines look OK, though lack of fire :P. The small block on the back of the stand can go into the bottom of the fighter, if you don’t wish to have it on the stand. I love the fact they provided a space for this block on the back of the stand, so you don’t lose it. What I love less is the fact that I ended up putting this block in during the building of this craft, then I had to get some hooked pliers to get it back out again :P. Wasn’t so bad as I had some on hand. I guess the instructions may’ve said something about what it was for, but oops. 

After completing it, I quite like this craft. It is very small (10cm/4″ from the engines to the tip of the cockpit), but it cost me the grand total of £4.08, so I can’t complain about the price. I enjoyed building it enough, that I’ve ordered some more. They’re quite quick to build (at least for a model kit), so if I’ve got an hour or so spare, then I can entertain myself with building one of these! 

Rider – Fate/Zero

In my Suruga-ya order, I had two Rider figures. 

First one one is a chibi-style figure by Taito:

The paintwork is nice on this one, and she’s OK for a chibi.

Side shot:

Knife-onna-spike looks nice, hair seam, kinda average.

Back:

Some sculpting to convince us that she has hair. 

Now for a trading figure by GSC:

This one is really nice, but she hasn’t had the easiest life. There is a few marks on her. Thought I ordered the masked version, but looking back at my order… I didn’t. Oops. Her colours are represented well in this figure, and there’s some nice details in the moulding – with the secions on her boot, and the wrinkles in her clothes. Her face is nicely painted too. 

Back:

Some lovely shades going on in her hair, plus detail in the way it has been represented as strands. Her dagger has been well-sculpted, and looks nice. Really pleased with this figure, despite it being her non-blindfolded version. 

Accel World – Kuroyukihime

This is an “odds n’ sods” blog of two items. First up, we have a keyring of Kuroyukime:

She’s in her school avatar outfit, which has been rendered nicely in a simplified form. She was added to a Mandarake order, to fill it up to the customs threshold. Glad I added her. 

And another Kuroyukihime in figure form:

This one was in my Suruga-ya order, because she was cute and pouty :P. 

From the side:

Bit of mould markings. The arm with the shirt was a pain – it didn’t want to stay in. Finally got it in and staying though.

Back:

Her hair looks OK for a trading figure. She was pretty much order filler, but she’ll find a space among some of my other trading figures. The paintwork is OK, but she’s nothing special. 

And that’s my random bits featuring Kuroyukihime :). And I think I’ve finally learned to spell her name, with English letters at least.