Category: Eastern

Moar Catgirls!

I liked the other two so much… I went and bought the other two :P. The names of this pair are Takayama Maria (one in blue) and Hasegawa Kobato. 

image

Hasegawa came with the small bunny rabbit :D. Here’s a slightly more upwards shot:

image

Here they are from the back:

image

And a more top-down view:

image

Probably going to stick with the half-round bases (One came with a furry round base, and the other came with a round chequered, not furry base), and they’re currently sitting with me at the kitchen table until I get more shelving :D. 

Catgirls!

Was browsing MFC and came across this lovely pair for sale. 

image

Had seen them previously on MFC, and wanted to get the set, and these came up at a good price, so had to buy. 

This one is called Mikazuki Yozora:

image

And the pink one is called Kashiwazaki Sena:

image

And here’s a shot from the back:

image

They both came with a furry base, but you only really need one for the pair. 

I like these two so much, that I’ve decided to order the other pair in this set from Mandarake. The seller I bought these from had previously sold the other two, so needed to source them elsewhere. 

At the time of writing, I haven’t chosen where to display them, but some stuff may move about so they get a good spot 🙂

AmiAmi Mystery Box – WTF!

And now for the dregs! The stuff that made me wtf, for one reason or another.

Let’s start out with something normal, which I didn’t know what it was at first:

Ooh, pretty card… Was scratching my head until I turned it over, and found it had copious English on it:

It’s a phone card. Don’t think I’ll have an actual use for this, but it’s the kind of phone card you’d potentially buy and not use. Obviously its previous owner didn’t. 

There was a second magnet in the box:

I guess this came with an azone doll… bit of a random thing to throw in, but hey, guess it’d be decorating the warehouse floor if it wasn’t thrown in. Seeing as I don’t buy azone dolls, this is of little interest to me. 

Who fancies something that looks like a watch strap?

But only if you want to declare you’re a tank. Or, uh, drive an M4 Sherman:

… too much Panzermadels there. It’s plastic, and feels sorta cheap (took it out of the box briefly to see what it was like), so it’s not really a quality novelty. 

Now to the most WTF-y… a CD!

So I recognised this as being from Queen’s Blade, especially as it says it across the bottom. Spiral Chaos is a PSP game, and this was an extra. I should imagine at this point, most people, like myself, was imagining this to be a soundtrack CD. Noooo, oh no. This is the oddities post! 

So my research was inconclusive, with some people calling it a “vocal CD”. I thought about trying to sell it as-is, but not being sure exactly what it was, curiosity got the better of me so I opened and played it. And what is it? Just under 7 minutes of some character quotes from the game. No idea what they’re saying, though Google Translate did get some of it! However, chunks of some of the tracks aren’t words. Not sure if the characters are in pain, fighting or um. Well. It’s hard to tell the difference with Japanese women. 

Not sure what I’m going to do with this in the long run. Play it to unsuspecting people? Slip copies of the tracks into people’s music collections? Can’t imagine it has much, if any, resale value. Not surprised it ended up in a box of random tbh! And it didn’t disappoint on the random front!

And that’s yer lot!

AmiAmi Mystery Box – non-figures

So here are the things that aren’t going to be gracing shelves. 

First item visible when I opened the box was this clear file:

It’s shiny and quite colourful, so I plan to keep it and possibly use it for filing paperwork for visiting Tokyo next year. 

Along with this were some Re:Zero game cards:

They all have the same card back, which looks like this:

Not sure what I’ll do with these. Can’t read ‘em. Third one along the top reminds me of Nui, from Kill La Kill though. 

Here’s an acrylic standee from Macross Frontier:

Had to do some research to find out she was called Matsuura Nanase. Not sure if I will keep this. 

Next up is a Sailor Moon charm:

Pretty, but I don’t have any attachment to Sailor Moon. 

Here’s a magnet from Brave Witches. The character is apparently called Karibuchi Hikari:

This particular magnet wasn’t on the MFC database, but there are others in the same set. 

Here’s a Precure Shikishi board. Had one of these before, but this is a different design:

They’re pretty, so I might put them up somewhere… when I can be bothered. Got some other pics to do first!

Here are some straps, this was a double-pack, and the characters are from Idolm@ster:

And this is Kotori from Love Live!:

Finally, for this post we have a playmat, for all your card-game-playing needs:

These characters are from KanColle. 

Mystery box finale coming tomorrow!

AmiAmi Mystery Box

This is the third mystery box I’ve got from AmiAmi, and probably the last one I’ll get for awhile, as I’ve spent rather a bit too much over the year, and this one was the weakest I’ve had. A bunch of this stuff will probably find its way to eBay/Facebook buy-sell on the run up to Christmas. 

First up, the figures. This time all the figures were trading ones. Let’s start with one from a series I know, Fate:

image

She’s not a character I particularly have any feelings for

(Irisviel) but, hey, Fate/Zero!

Next up is a Gundam SEED Destiny blind-box character. These seem to keep popping up, and this is the third I’ve ended up with, Mayu Asuka:

image

As she’s the bonus extra figure, she came with a choice of two different left arms:

image

Here she is, clearly on the phone:

image

Paint quality really is quite derp on this one, so I can see why it got traded in. 

Here’s a figure I know, but didn’t take out of the bags:

image

She’s Ranka Lee, from Macross Frontier. Looking at this figure on MFC, there’s a part missing. Not a very inspiring figure though, so she might get sold. hence me leaving it in the bag. 

Next up, is a tiny figure I quite like. She’s apparently Shelby from Duel Maid:

image

Back:

image

She came with two different arm types. Originally she had both sword-holding hands, but she also has splayed ones. Here’s the two not equipped:

image

This is apparently Aisaka Taiga from Toradora!:

image

She’s cute, she’s catty and I like her. OK, maybe not cute.

Next up, some mecha character called Chiha:

image

I have a thing for mecha-ish things, so keeping this one:

Here’s her back:

image

Cat… mecha… human… yep, it has it all :P. Well, maybe not trousers. She seems to have forgotten those. 

This is a K-ON! character called Nakano Azusa:

image

She looks OK, but I’ve never watched K-ON!, and not likely to change that, so may sell her on. 

And last for the figures, Yagami Tama from something called Sasami-san@Ganbaranai

image

Yep. She’s a thing. Don’t have anything to say about this one. 

And that’s it for the figures. Tomorrow, the non-figure items!

Oni Musume III

After the debacle that was the Oni Musume III purchase from Amazon UK, I looked around, and found that my best bet was the blue version from Amazon US. This time it was a fulfilled by Amazon item, so I was a lot more confident it’d be the right one this time!

And it was…

image

The right one this time! 

Here’s a side-view showing more of her off:

image

And the money shot:

image

Nice butt 😛 Glad to finally have her, and it’s nice having the alternate colour scheme, as a contrast to the other one. 

Bishoujo Harley Quinn

Bought this from someone in France, as it was slightly cheaper to do so… and I feel it’s one of those figures that should have been in my collection already. 

So here she is:

image

Love the way she’s even got two different two different colours of eye shadow. The hammer has a little peg, which is what keeps it in position, and seems to be working well thus far – she hasn’t dropped her hammer, and it stayed in place when I moved her for photographing. 

Here’s a shot showing off the hammer:

image

And one from the other side:

image

Love the pose she’s in, the striking colours and the detail in this figure. Kotobukiya put together some really nice figures, and am glad to have this one in my collection.

Parfom Saber

Been seeing these Parfom figures, and been attracted to ordering them, because it’s a rare instance of finding something attractive and cute. This was one of four I had pre-ordered. 

So here she is, outta the box:

image

I think they’re a little on the pricey side for what they are, but for the most part, the sculpting and painting is well done, and the articulation seems to work fine, though I’d like a little more range on her left arm for posing. 

She comes with both versions of her sword:

image

Which is nice. Though one thing I didn’t picture was the back of the scabbard and sword, as on the former there seems to be a minor bit of a scratch, and there is a bit of misplaced blue paint on the hilt. Not quite enough to bother complaining about for me, as I’m not likely to have the back visible. 

Here’s a side shot of her:

image

There is a bit of light marking above her ear, which I’m not convinced is intentional, but again, it’s not really noticeable enough to bother me. 

She also came with 2 other faces, and one other pair of hands (she has a gripping pair and a splayed pair, but I have one of each equipped), and another sword effect:

image

By default, she came with the “grim determination” face, but I think the smiling one fits this figure a lot better. 

If you’re prepared to pay a decent bit for a small but detailed articulated figure, then I’d say go for it, if not, I’d give it a pass. I much prefer the proportions on these figures to Nendoroids, so I’d rather pay the bit more for one of these than a Nendo. 

Kuroyukihime and more Kuroyukihime

… because you can never have too much Kuroyukihime or Black Lotus. 

Bought these two Figmas together from the same seller. The first one I really like, and intend to put her with my Silver Crow Figma, but I need to do some figure rearranging first. Due to her exclusivity she cost a pretty penny, but she’s still cool lol.

image

This second one was cheaper, but not sure if it was a good buy or not. 

image

She has some nice features – the silver butterflies, the wings and the fact she comes with a tiny li’l Arita avatar:

image

However, her skirt is rather odd, and doesn’t feel like it sits quite right, and the umbrella is too heavy, and has a habit of falling, and the bottom wing segments can fall off easily. Maybe I’ll find some way of sortin’ that skirt, lol…

Aki Ross & Deadpool

Went for a trip to the cash point… decided to make a detour to the one place within walking distance that sells figures. Found two things that appealed to me.

First is Aki Ross from Final Fantasy. I haven’t played the FF games, but I liked the look of this character. Also she was cheap 😀

image

Second thing I bought was a Deadpool keyring:

image

Can’t go wrong with a bit o’ Deadpool!

Death by Embracing

This figure… been wanting this one for a veerrryyy long time, but not been able to justify the cost of it on the secondhand market. At one point, it came up on Solaris Japan for a reasonable price, but then I missed out on it, due to funds.

Then it came up for a reasonable price again a few months ago. So I decided to order it just before I went on holiday, thinking I’d get it just after I got back. Only during the order process I noticed that it was sea shipping. And then thinking I could have ordered it two weeks ago ><, oh well.

So the wait was on. The long, looong wait. So how long was it? 73 days of wait… but totally happy to have it now! 

image

Side of the figure:

image

And her back:

image

What was surprising is that I ordered a secondhand one, but this one seems to have never left the box! Well, she has now :P, and gone to the safety of one of my cupboards. 

The Kuroyukihime part of the figure can be displayed separately, which is a nice touch, but probably not something I’m likely to do. 

Kinda tempted to put an LED in the base, so it glows, but not totally sold on the idea as of yet. Maybe if I move and she’s in a Detolf or something… or I have the wiring/connectivity so it can either be easily toggled on/off outside of the cabinet, or synced up with the room lighting or something. 

So would I do sea shipping again? Probably not, unless the figure price is very touch-and-go to what I want to pay. £10 more for express shipping could quite well be the better option, lol. 

Kuroyukihime Swimsuit

Saw this on eBay and sent in an offer. After a bit of back-and-forth, a price was agreed on, and now I have her :D. 

image

One pretty Kuroyu… uh how does this name go again… Kuroyukihime. Can never spell it. Already looked it up twice in the writing of this blog…

A slightly more top-down view:

image

Love this figure, she was unopened, so she came with all the bits, but decided not to sit her on her sand tiles, as there’s not really enough room in the detolf where she’s sat, and she sits just fine on the shelf (I have another sitting Beach Queen, and she’s got a plastic rest on her stand, which is very much needed). 

Going to be getting some more Accel World figures in the post soon, so watch this space for more Accel goodies 😀

Oni-Musume IV

Came across one of these in an action figure shop… but found an auction on eBay that didn’t have too long to run, so decided to risk it and bid on the auction.

A day or two later, I was the winner with the maiden bid :D. 

image

Love the bright and striking colours of this figure, and the interesting pose. Kind of a shame you can’t see her weapon from the front though. 

And here she is from the back:

image

If I had a figure turntable, she’d be a candidate for it. As it atm, she’s in one of my Gnedby units. 

I also ordered an Oni-Musume III from a seller from Amazon at the same time, but sadly this happened:

image

I have returned the second one, and have been refunded for it. Ah well. 

Now I have a Oni Musume III on order from the US, in the blue colour scheme. This one is actually being dispatched from an Amazon US warehouse, so it should be the right one this time! 

Box o’ Random Part 6

And now for the dregs! There was bound to be some broken/incomplete stuff, and here it is. 

First up, not broken, but kinda cheapy – some Japanese warrior figures.

image

They’re not terrible, but they’re more kid’s toys than something to really display imo. They’ve been sent to the Drawer of Purgatory. Feel kinda sorry for the dude in the middle with his wilting sword. 

The next item I initially thought was a decent item, but on closer inspection… not so much. 

Here is Neptune from One Piece:

image

Unfortunately, on closer inspection, the pain on his large mane of hair is badly chipped:

image

Was considering listing this on eBay, but don’t really want to with the condition it is in. 

Now for half-a-Akagi from Kan Colle:

image

No head in the box, so this is a bit pointless. I’ll keep the bits, just in case I can combo it with something at a later date. 

Lastly, the body of Hiiragi Tsukasa from Lucky Star and a

Sound Capsule Gaia Memory of Ryuki. Nope, Hiiragi’s head doesn’t fit on Akagi’s body. I tried 😛

image

The sound box is made to look like a USB drive, but it very much isn’t. You can press the button at the bottom (raised bit near the “plug” end), and it will cycle through a bunch of sounds. Doing some research, this set came with some kind of candies/sweets, and there were others done as blind boxes. 

Has annoy-o-tron potential, so it’ll get lost in a drawer somewhere. Or thrown at someone who professes a love for Kamen Rider. 

And that concludes the Box o’ Random! There are a couple of items I haven’t covered, as I’ve listed them on eBay. The items are a couple of pin badges and a phone strap, from series I’ve not heard of. 

Box o’ Random Part 5

And here we have the things I like, but have no idea what they are! Tried asking on MFC and Reddit, but no-one, as of writing, have identified what they are

First up, a pile of cute:

Copyright on this figure is listed as “GOE”. 

Nex is a fox-inna-bowl, with some food on his head:

No copyright or anything on this one, so I assume it’s a random mass-produced item. He’s now dangling off one of my keyring & charm bars. 

A badge of a girl:

No copyright on this one either, but being a pin-badge, it could quite well be something fan-made. Not sure I can go wearing this one in public though… 

Box o’ Random Part 4

First up, two trading figures, of the same character – Meyrin Hawke from Gundam SEED Destiny:

image
image

Nothing much to write home about… second one looks like it has had its feet glued or re-glued to the base. Cleaned up some of the mess, but some residue remains. The hole is supposed to have a pole to stop her from leaning. She has leaned a bit, more than likely because the pole isn’t there. Mediocre painting job on the pair, so they’re just sat in random places. 

Next three figures are from One Piece, which is a series I know of, but haven’t watched/read.

These guys are called Aokiji and Akainu:

image

These guys are still a little bit dirty, even after being cleaned. The dirt was really rather stubborn on these dudes. Really doesn’t help with their capes being white! Also Aokiji’s right arm has a habit of falling out, but I think I’ve got it to stay now. 

Third dude is called Kame and is a… turtle? 

image
image

This dude is nicely-made, and even has pegs on the stand to keep him upright. He’s been recently made (2016), and I think it shows in the quality of the figure. He is a prize figure, so the paint job isn’t 100%, but certainly good given that condition. 

Box o’ Random Part 3

aHere’s more of the small items from the Mandarake box o’ random. First up, a couple of items from Kamen Rider. The first is a bottle cap & stamp figure, that was included in its box, and the second is Kamen Rider v3, who came with… ¾ of his box… 

image

The rubber part on the bottom has a pattern you could potentially use for stamping on things, but I don’t think I’ll bother :P. 

image

This little dude, the cardboard bits came as part of a TCG-type card, and you can pop them out and combine them in a couple of different ways. You can either use the to decorate the figure like this, or make a cardboard dragonfly. I was originally going to throw the box out, as there’s two round-ish holes ripped into it (… mouse ate it?) but it has the instructions on (fortunately the holes weren’t in any necessary instructions), so it’ll get filed away. 

Next up, a Banpresto random-box figures of various maids. This one is a eCafe maid:

image

When I first got her out of the box, she was leaning at like a 60 degree angle… had to warm her legs up and straighten her. Also I damaged the sticker on the base, as it went in the sink with the rest of the stuff, as I didn’t realise it was a sticker. Kinda tempted to scrub the sticker off, as I think it makes the base look ugly though. 

This next dude is apparently called Moguro Fukuzou. Apparently he’s a salesman from a manga, where he “helps” people with their desires, but instead ruins their lives. Apparently he’s well-known enough, he has his own TV Tropes page:

image

Sadly the sucker he comes with doesn’t work very well. I may just take it off, and have him just pointing, with his comically oversized finger. 

And one last thing with a sucker:

image

A cat. Not much to say about this one. Has a couple of marks, probably because it really easily falls off stuff. Well-detailed and painted though, more so than thee things usually are. Bit of a pain to get stuck on anything, but it will do, with some perseverance. 

Box o’ Random Part 2

So let’s start with the stuff from series I’ve watched/know about.

First up is a Sheryl Nome gacha figure (she’s from Macross):

image

I was considering buying this gacha figure on eBay at one point, think i was looking at an auction for this and some other Macross figures. She isn’t in pristine figure, but I don’t think the marks show up quite as clearly irl. Was a mild pain to put together with no instructions, but worth it :). 

Next, a Nanoha Nendoroid Petit:

image

This one even came with the instructions! No box though. Her arms are a bit odd, and she doesn’t hold the weapon terribly well, so I can see why someone would want to trade this one in… but she’s still cute and lookin’ awesome, so decided to have her balance her weapon on her arm, instead of hold it 2-handed. 

Alicia Testarossa, also from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha:

image

Never watched the series, but I do like the character designs. Have a feeling I wouldn’t be a fan of the show, but I’ll probably watch some of it at some point, as it seems pretty prevalent in the anime community. 

Tiiiny little Vocaloid figure of Kagamine Len:

image

This teensy dude is about 3cm tall, and is sat on top of one of my monitors. Looks far nicer than the Poundland fodder he replaced (a Predasaur). 

Shana from Shakugan no Shana:

image

Keep running into stuff from this series, but never consumed any of the media from it. Maybe I should put the anime on my to-watch list, lol. 

And now a character from Bakemonogatari, another series I keep running into merch for, but haven’t researched/watched:

image

Love this little figure, nice and brightly coloured, with the autumnal theme. Her name is Sengoku Nadeko. Nearly thought she was just a “box remnant”, what with having no feet, until I found the base. 

And here’s two things from an anime I’ve never heard of, that’s called “My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute”.

This is a character called Gokou Ruri, sat on a character called Comet-Kun:

image

… probably should have dusted it a bit before taking that pic.

And this is a character called Makishima Saori:

image

The first one I like, the second one is… OK. And that concludes this part of the box o’ random. Some nice selections of smaller stuff here, enough to be deffo not disappointed by this box. 

Bag o’ Random Part 1

This post will cover the expected bits, plus an unexpected item, which pretty much made the box worth it on its own.

So what is this unexpected mystery item? A stand!

image
image

These Play Arts Kai stands can be quite useful, and tend to be pretty expensive to get a hold of on their own, so this one was a welcome addition, It also came with a few different sized “arms”, one of which I’ve used so I can set a figure further back on the shelf it is sat on. I don’t currently have any large figures in need of it, but I won’t be surprised if I eventually use it. It did come with one claw with the screws in, but I suspect it originally would have come with more screws & nuts. Not an issue for me, as I have a ton already, lol. 

Next up, the Rei I saw in the packet… plus the Asuka that goes with her!

image

The Rei especially needed a good scrub. Looking closely at the Mandarake pic of the package, you can actually see Asuka’s feet sticking up. Super-happy this pair was in here, as they’re designed to go together and it’s Evangelion. 

Photo showing Asuka more clearly:

image

Next up, the EVA-01 that I saw sticking out:

image

He’s got a bit of an interesting smooth and almost-soft plasticy texture to him. He has a limited amount of articulation, but is decently sculpted and painted. He seems to be too nice to be a bootleg (even the bottoms of his soles have been detailed and painted!), but no idea what he is, and couldn’t find him on MFC. On his leg he has the following: “© k.G”, and underneath that “B China 19131″. 

And finally… what did that beach base belong to?

image

C.C. from Code Geass! She sells for around the same price as I bought the box for, so yeah, was worth it :). Though I did have to give her a good ol’ scrub down first, and there are some minor marks. With the ball, I have it white-tacked to her hand – I thought you were supposed to be able to wedge it in her hands, but it was, uh, not playing ball, so I just white-tacked it. After looking up pictures, I found out that there’s a stand for the beach ball, and it was actually included in the box. Not sure I’m going to bother with it though, as it looks a little naff. 

Figure from another angle:

image

So that concludes the larger items in the box. Tomorrow, some of the smaller items in the box. 

Double the Metatron

Been considering buying these since getting the other Eikoh prize figures. These ones tend to go for a bit more on most sites, but on Mandarake they’re around the same price as the others. Initially I was considering one of the other… in the end it was both 😛

So, first up, Dark Archangel Metatron:

image

Top-down-ish view:

image

Love the colours, and the double-wings looks really good. Assembly was smooth, the wings were clearly keyed (not that it’s hard to work out which went where), the book I had to take a bit of care to ensure I didn’t snap the pole it goes on. 

And now for Archangel Metatron:

image
image

This one was a pain in the backside to assemble, with having to balance her on three poles at once. There’s also a paint flaw on top of her lower left wing (not shown in the pics) where there’s a small dot of missing yellow paint. Bit of a shame, but displayed in the right place, it isn’t visible. 

Out of the two, I prefer the Dark version of her, but both are welcome additions to my collection.