Category: Eastern

Kotetsu & Keith Goodman – Tiger & Bunny – Half Age Characters

In a fit of rarity, I actually bought these in a brick n’ mortar store, for a not-too-unreasonable price. I got four of these figures total, and will be splitting them into two blogs.

This first blog will feature Kotetsu T. Kaburagi and Keith Goodman.

First up,

Kotetsu:

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Looking cute in his half-age form, I think they did a really good job on this one. The paint is mostly pretty neat, with a couple of stray bits – main one that can be seen here is the collar.

Left:

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Bit of a loose lump on his lower leg here. Paint is neat around the beads and strap he wears on his left wrist, and the buckle on his hat. 

Right:

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Bit of blobbiness on the waistcoat seam, but again, nothing too bad. Seam on his hat is fairly visible, but not really a dealbreaker. Paint on his sleeve has decided to take over his arm a bit, though. 

Back:

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Buckle on the back of his waistcoat looks good, and the wrinkles on his clothes look fairly realistic. Hair is also nicely sculpted. 

Overall, I’d say this is a decent trading figure, that succeeds in looking like a young Kotetsu. 

Now for Keith Goodman, aka Sky High:

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Here he is, definitely with an air of the “cool kid” about him, which I think works well for him. I don’t think the paint works quite as well on him as it does on Kotetsu – it feels a bit shiny in places, and I think his jeans could’ve done with a bit of shading to blend them in a bit more. 

Left:

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The logo on his jacket is rendered well, and the sculptwork here is nice. Not really sold on the slight shininess of the jacket though. 

Right:

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I’m liking the dynamicness of his pose, and the detailing on his shoes. 

Back:

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Slight paint lump on the back of his hair. Would’ve been nice to see some more strands back here in his hair, but overall it looks OK. Nothing to really complain about back here – looks like I’d expect, so that’s good. 

Overall, I think he’s also a decent figure, but I think Kotetsu has the edge in quality over Keith. Still, they’re both solid figures that I could recommend. I think they both succeed in being the half-age counterparts of the characters they represent. 

Lala Deviluke & Misc Straps

First up is this mini-figure of Lala:

This figure has her wearing Peke, in his normal dress-form. Her hat was a pain – she now has a small blob of tack under it to keep in in place. It can balance on its own, but has a tendency to roll off eventually. Bad Peke! 

Her face is nice and detailed, and I like her hair. The paint on her dress is OK, but looks a little blobby. 

Sides:

The parts on the sides of her hat look really good, though the purple band isn’t particularly neat. Hair looks fine fromthe sides. 

Back:

Her hair looks good from the back, hat looks plain, not that there’s much detail to go back here. 

Overall, this figure is OK for a trading figure. 

Now for some dangling doodads that I bought around the same time. First up, Migi with some popcorn:

Migi, the bucket and the popcorn are painted nearly, and look good. I love this little strap, and glad I bought it.

This one is Hatchiyack from Dragon Ball Super:

This isn’t a character I’m familiar with, but I loved the design and the bright colours. The painting is neat, and he has a decent amount of detail in the sculpt. 

This is helmet of 

Senkou Kishi Road/Flash Knight:

Again, not a series or character I’m not familiar with, but I loved the metallic purple colouring, plus the gold colour matches well with the purple. Painting looks neat from the front, but a bit iffy on the sides. Overall, an interesting-looking strap. 

Pose Skeletons – Re-Ment

In Japan I bought two diorama sets for these, but they didn’t come with any figures, so I ended up ordering them from AmiAmi. 

This set I haven’t got out of the box yet, but here’s some pics of the box to show what it would look like if I set it up:

Maybe I’ll carve out some space on a shelf for this sometime…

Let’s move onto the next set, with the addition of a skeleton:

Yup, I bought a toilet. I like the accessories it comes with. The mat that comes with this set, without it being an actual toilet mat as I know and love, this could potentially used as a doormat or something. 

Angled view:

…who doesn’t need a brown skeleton pooping on a toilet?

Here is another skeleton I’ve posed, on top of a flying alien queen:

These skeletons are very poseable, living up to their name of “Pose Skeleton”. If you’re a bit rough with them, the joints can pop apart though. 

Here are the other skeletons I bought:

The two in the middle glow in the dark. I thought, from the names given to them, they’d glow in different colours, but they both seem to glow the same shade of green – not sure what the difference is supposed to be between them. 

However, there’s no mixing up this skeleton with any of the others:

Demon skeleton! The wings articulate, which can be partly seen by the hinge on the tip of each wing. There’s also a hinge where the wings attach to his back, so you get a good range of movement with them. He’s also the only one to come with a stand – it works OK, but it doesn’t grip him too hard, so he’s fairly easy to knock over. 

Sides:

As can be seen from these two pics, his tail articulates, which is useful if you want to pose him sitting or leaning against something. The purple accents also make this guy stand out, and I like the way these have been done:

Back:

The detail on the back matches the front, which is nice to see. 

Overall, I’m pretty happy with these figures – the amount of joints mean you can do many poses, and makes them very expressive. Sometimes they’re a bit fragile and joints can become disconnected, but as long as you’re not rough with them, they should be fine. 

Asuka Langely – Evangelion – Parfom

As I bought Rei, I had to go for Asuka too, so here she is, having a good pout:

As with the Rei figure, her hair is very nicely painted, and the face works well. The plugsuit also feels well-designed from the front, to work with the articulation. 

Left:

Here I’m actually hiding the stripes with her hand :P. Again, these can look kind of odd when you articulate her. From the sides, her suit is pretty much the same as Rei’s, only red. 

Right:

Here are the stripes…. not lining up at all. So I’m not likely to pose these figures side-on. Her hair looks nice though, and the hair seam would be more hidden if I gave her fringe a bit of a shove ¬¬. 

One issue I’ve had with this figure is with one of her legs – iirc it is the right one – when I first opened her, it was loose in the box, and feels a bit prone to popping off. Not sure if this is common with Asuka, or a bit of a defect with mine. Should be fine when she’s standing still, but during posing, it’ll probably pop off again. 

Back:

Her hair flows nicely back here, and the shading really adds to it. Paint all looks good back here, though you can’t see much of her.

Doll:

I loved the fact that she came with such an iconic accessory – and the painting is all very nicely done. Only issue is getting her to hold it – there are no pegs or anything, so you need to either balance it or tack it to her hands, if you want her to be holding it, like on the box art. Currently I ended up putting this in storage, but I may choose to tack it to her at some point, so I can have her holding it and not get pissed off when I knock it out of her hands for the nth time. 

Faces and hands:

Same as Rei, she has two other faceplaces and two spare sets of hands. I almost feel as if there should be some kind of “wacky” set of hands that should come with Asuka, but that’s not to be found here. 

Overall, she’s a solid figure. I think what’s there is well-designed and thought out, but some more hands wouldn’t have gone amiss. Again, it’ll come down to what the price tag is – looking at Mandarake, the price tag on these has gone down a bit, and I think I agree with this assessment. 

Rei Ayanami – Evangelion – Parfom

This was a figure I got some time ago, but never did do the blog for. So… no time like the present!

Front:

First thing that stands out to me is her hair – I love the way this has been sculpted and painted. I like the colour of her eyes – it complements the colour of her hair. The green parts that go over her chest are attached to the other half, so they don’t block the articulation of her upper half. The red dot is also on her lower half, which helps her not look too odd when articulating. 

Face:

Her hair clips are nearly painted, and the shading in her hair is subtle but effective. I think this expression fits Rei very well. The lines on her suit are also neat. 

Left:

The way her hips are make the lines odd on her suit -they’ve extended them onto the hinge part to include it, but this ends up looking odd if you articulate her. Her arms look good though. Due to her chibi proportions, she has very small feet, and wouldn’t balance too well (if at all) without the stand. This stand design works pretty well though.

Right:

I like this splayed hand. Her hair also looks good from the sides, and I think the seam is pretty well-hidden, even though it is right there. As her fringe needs to come off for her faceplate to be changed, there had to be some kind of visible seam. 

Back:

The shading on her hair works well back here, and the paint on backpack looks really good. Here we can see better where they’ve added lines to make her suit work with the hinge style chosen for this figure type. 

Glasses:

She can’t wear these, but you can have her holding them. I think they look pretty decent. 

Alternative hands and faces:

I think the faceplates have been well-chosen to fit Rei, but you don’t get a lot of hand choices. I don’t see this as a big problem, as I don’t think chibi figures are necessarily suited to action poses. Might’ve been nice to have another set, just to round it up to the usual 3 alternative pairs. 

Overall, I’m pleased with this Parfom figure. I think the hip joints are the most problematic part, which will likely be a bit of an issue on most figures in this line imo – I think a decent part of if you’ll like these figures is if you mind the hip ball joints. For me, I prefer this proportions these figures have to “normal” chibis. I think they are a little on the pricey side for what they are, but the paint is above average for an articulated figure imo. So I think if you like the proportions of these figures, and aren’t bothered by the joints/hip design, then I think you won’t be disappointed. If you’re on the fence, I’d probably say give this line a miss. 

Klan Klang – The rest!

OK, last Klan Klang blog for awhile… These are the last few Klan Klang items that I bought in this tranche of buying stuff. Don’t worry, I have more Klan Klang items on order (not figures though), so there will be more Klan Klang in the new year! (Yeah, you guys can’t see the massive backlog I have right now… So. Many. Photos.)

First up, Klan Klang teaches!

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Aww, isn’t that adorable?! The paint on this figure has been well done, and is neatly painted. 

Here she is without the desk obscuring her:

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D’aww. Don’t think she felt like coordinating colours this day… I feel the orange and purple clash a fair bit with the pink. 

Sides:

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Hair seam is average, the spiky parts of her hair look good, and the paint neat. 

Back:

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Hair looks good, but a bit plain in the middle. Also the pink of her hair ties could’ve done with going a bit further up into her hair. Decent enough though. 

Top of the desk:

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Here we have some writing, but I can’t read Japanese. Talked to a friend on Discord, who helped me translate this to “Oi! You are not watching!”… poor Klan Klang, not getting the attention of the class!

Here’s the front of the desk:

I like the fact they’ve included a storage slot here – a fair amount of attention-to-detail has been put into this desk, which is nice. 

I was on the fence about adding this mini-figure to my order, as I didn’t feel it was very “Klan Klang”, but overall I’m glad I did – it’s a very cute figure, and a welcome addition to my collection. 

Next up, we have an acylic standee:

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I love the detailed outfit, and the colours work well. The shading details in her hair are really good too. These acrylic stands are of a decent size, so they don’t get lost in amongst the rest of the rubbish on my desk. 

Here’s the back, even though there isn’t a lot to see:

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And, lastly, a mini-shikishi board:

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Not sure if the colouring is supposed to be like this, or it has gotten faded over time – the colours seem a bit overly red. I like the design, but wish she looked a little happier tbh. I like the more casual nature of depiction, which sets it apart from the other stuff I own. May end up tacking another one onto an order, if I see another at a convenient time, just to see if this one is indeed sun-faded. If this comes up for sale, it’s usually cheap, so would be perfect to be tacked onto an order. 

Hope all the Klan Klang didn’t get too tedious! 

Klan Klang – Keyrings!

So in a few of my orders I snuck in a few Klan Klang keyrings, so let’s see what ones I got…

First up, one of her in a casual outfit:

A cute keyring, decently painted, though I find her outfit a bit indistinct from the front, with all the bits it has. Do love all the tiny details on the back though. 

This keyring also came with a second part:

Queedlun Rea! Or however you want to spell it… Klan Klang’s conveyance. I like the chibi design, which fits with the chibi keyring. No design on the back, so you want to ensure this part always faces forward when on display. 

Second we have micronized Klan Klang:

The painting is a bit rougher on this one, but the design holds up. The back pattern hasn’t got any gold highlights though. Would be nicer if her headband was a bit of a darker shade – looks a bit sat-in-the-sun coloured, but I guess they matched it with her outfit to reduce the amount of paints required. 

Micronized Klan Klang with a strap:

This one was rather cheat-y by Banpresto – it’s the same mould and paint scheme as the previous, only this one has a lobster clasp attached, instead of a chain and a ring. This makes it better for an ita bag, as you then don’t have a long, dangly chain to deal with. The paint seems a bit neater on this one, but it’s probably luck of the draw a bit with these minor prize items. I do really like the design of the strap though – lovely shade of purple, and features a Queedlun Rea silhouette. I think the font choice also works well. 

Now for a macronized Klan Klang:

Again, the lighter shade is used here for her headband and ties. No particular reason to do so either… but hey. It’s probably been all sorts of shades in the show. I like the little smile, but I think the eyes aren’t as good as the other keyrings. The suit is painted well for such a small item, though it doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny. Nicely detailed though, and I really wanted Klan Klang in her suit, so definitely happy with this keyring.

What’s better than Klan Klang in her suit?

Klan Klang with some armaments! The eyes seem to work better for this one, despite being pretty much the same as the previous keyring. Paint seems a bit neater, but they’ve seemingly sacrificed line width detail for the closer paint, but I still think it looks good. I like all the little details on the armaments, and thnk they did a good job with these. 

I think the last one is my favourite of these, but none of the others are bad. I’d prefer if the strap one wasn’t a straight-up dupe of another keyring, but having a different attachment does help differentiate it. So now to Klan-Klang up all my stuff!

Klan Klang – Chibi figures – Macross Frontier

Now for two chibi-styled prize figures of Klan Klang. 

First one is Klan Klang in her “Lovely Bomber” outfit:

Here she sports something other than her pink headband, and a prettied-up guitar. I love the vibrant blue of her hair, and her outfit works well, for its small size. 

Sides:

Hair seam isn’t doing any hiding, but the sides of her uniform are neatly painted, and I like the shoulderpads she’s wearing. She also has blue hairbands to match her blue “Lovely Bomber” headband. 

Back:

Plenty of hair back here, and a nod to her usual hairstyle. 

Base:

Ah, Japanese translation, how we love thee. The logo is decently visible too, and her feet don’t obscure it too much, which is a nice touch. Her shoes look nice too. 

Now for a micronized Klan Klang:

Here she is in her micronized outfit. I think the cute face fits, but not totally sold on the skin tone. Her outfit is nice and vibrant, and features all the major features. Paint is a bit over the lines in places, but not excessively bad. Worst bit for me is the pink that doesn’t quite go to her right-hand-side of the headband. 

Sides:

Hair looks good, has some shading and joins up well. She has some stubby ribbon bits, which I think are fair for the smallness of the figure and the chibi style. Her ears are nicely pointed, and look good pointing out of her hair. 

Back:

Her hair flows to the side on this figure, so we can see the back of her uniform… or at least some of it, thanks to the support. The support on this figure actually works well. The hair coming out from behind her headband is overemphasised on here, compared to some of her counterparts. Looks a bit odd like this, but not too offputting. She does seem to have pink glasses-cleaners in her hair though, than the sheer fabric she actually has. 

Base:

Base looks OK, and does the job. Fits Klan Klang, by being a representation of her headband though. 

Overall, I’m happy with both of these figures. Overall, I think the quality of the Lovely Bomber figure is higher, but I prefer the micronized version for her outfit. 

Klan Klang – midi figures – Macross Frontier

Today there shall be not just one figure, but two! You lucky blog reader, you. 

Both these figures are by Bandai – one blind box, one just boxed. 

First up, Klan Klang in a casual uniform:

Quite a cute figure, and I like the translucent blue base. The colours work well with this figure. There’s a small amount of shading, but nothing to write home about – the dark bit on the skirt looks a bit like a grease stain imo, but the hair is nice. 

Face close-up:

Not too much to the face, but looks OK. Here we can see some of the smaller flaws with the paint, but overall, pretty decent. 

Sides:

Her hair is positioned so that it doesn’t foul with the stand, which was nice for assembly. The shaded ends of her hair show up well here, which is one of the things I like about this figure. I also like the little logo on her socks. Her shoes are also nicely detailed and painted neatly. 

Back:

Hair shading looks overly severe here – would’ve been nice to see more blending. Back of her clothes looks good though.

Top of her hair:

Some mould-blobbyness, but not too bad. The hair ties are translucent, which is nice to see. 

Overall, a nice-looking figure, competently painted, but could do with a bit more blending of colours in places.

Next up, half-age Klan Klang:

I accidentally ended up with two of these, so here’s just the one of them. She’s wearing her suit that she wears when she’s macronized in this figure, which is a mildly interesting choice. I like her in her suit though, so fine by me. On both of these figures, the paint is noticeably dodgy in places – here you can definitely see some paint errors on her legs. Again, she’s posed so you can see some of her long hair form the front. They have included some small details, like the SMS logo, but it’d be nicer if the paint job wasn’t quite so sloppy. 

Sides:

Again, some derpy paint, but the sculpting and pose hold up. 

Back:

Her back is fairly obscured, so not much to see here like this. The main details are there though, but we’ll just have to admire the bows on her shoes. She was a tad fiddly to pose initially, but she’s fine once done. The clear stand holds her well, without being too distracting from the figure. Her hair ties are not translucent though :P. 

I think the first one is the clear winner, in terms of overall quality. I like the idea of the half-age figures, but their execution leaves something to be desired. I do like seeing Klan Klang in her suit, but the paint issues let the figure down as a whole. 

Klan Klang – Macronized ver – Banpresto

Now for a large Klan Klang! This one was an Ichiban Kuji prize figure:

And this figure certainly is large, to match her macro size! I love the shiny purple of her uniform, and the much more serious expression, to match her personality in macro mode. I love the bold colours of her uniform, which have been replicated nicely here. She does lack detailed shading though, due to her price status. 

Face:

Her face has been sculpted decently well, though I think her mouth is a little on the big side. We have the SMS logo on her uniform, but it looks a little elongated. Her chest is large like it is in the anime… but looks like they’re defying gravity a bit. Most of the black lines around here are neatly done. 

Left:

Here we can see she has her hand on her hip and is leaning forward slightly, to suit her stance. I like the way her hair curls around her body on this side. There’s a seam in her hair by her shoulders, but it is decently blended imo. 

Right:

Aand that’s some platforms to be using for piloting! Obviously doesn’t bother her, though… I like all the detailed creases in her uniform, and the hair down the side of her face is sculpted well. 

Helmet:

Here we can see some dodgy painting, but not too bad overall. She holds the helmet well, but I seem to recall there was some hairdryer action to get her to hold it in the first place. I’d recommend warming her hand to get it in there, as I think there’s a high chance of accidentally scraping some paint. I do wonder how comfortable a helmet is with all that hair though. 

Back:

Here we see they’ve done plenty of details on the back of her suit too, which really helps complete the design. The hair looks good, and is nicely out of the way so you can appreciate the detail they’ve put into this figure. 

Hair close-up:

Here we can see the sculpting is done well, but her hair ties are not translucent on this figure – not unexpected for a prize figure. I like the way they’ve done the hair underneath her headband though. 

Heels:

I like these little bows on the back of her heels – that little bit of girlishness that stays with her in macronized form. The sculpt isn’t too detailed, but they do the job. 

Overall, I do like this figure. I think it definitely has a prize figure feel irl, but it was very reasonably priced when I bought it (and I was able to kindly ask the store I bought it from to pack it so it fit into SAL small packet, which was awesome). Overall, I’d recommend this as an affordable version of Klan Klang, though shipping might be a bit high if the store doesn’t pack it tightly. Thankfully my local mail service isn’t too brutal with parcels, so her box wasn’t even dented on arrival. 

Klan Klang – Micronized Ver – Alpha x Omega – Macross Frontier

And now for some Klan Klang… as I went out and bought a whole bunch o’ Klan Klang figures & merch…

First up, we have the micronized version of her by Alpha x Omega:

And she’s very cute! Only Alpha x Omega produced any kind of premium scale figure of her, and thankfully this one is a nice one! They also did a macro version of her, but Santa’s told me I’m not seeing that one until Christmas… 

I think the pose works well – it gives off the playful vibe that micronized Klan Klang has. I can imagine she’s running up to one of the other characters and gesturing towards them. 

I like the way they’ve done her outfit – her jacket is overlaid on her dress(?), which gives her outfit some depth. Her boots are also sculpted at the top – they’re not a separate part, but there’s some depth there so it doesn’t look like she’s got painted-on boots. 

The shading in the paint is all very nice, and helps add detail to the figure. The details are also painted cleanly, which is especially important for the gold edging. 

Face:

She has a very cute face, and her mouth is painted well. Here we can see the jacket – the gold paint mostly holds up close-up – if I had to nitpick, the ends of the gold piping on the jacket edge are a bit dodgy. The creases work well, and she also has a small pocket here. Her hairband is done as a separate piece, which helps it feel like a band. They’ve even included some sculpt details in her ear, which is nice to see. 

Outfit:

The pink-blue border holds up well, and I love the contrast between the gold and the blue on the erm… tie bits? I like the way the ribbon she’s wearing curls nicely down and helps emphasise her movement. We can see a bit of a seam close-up here, but it has been blended well, and could potentially be regarded as a seam in her clothing, as would exist in a real dress. 

Left:

I live her playful, stretched out pose. She’s also got an interesting heel design going on there… I love the little pink ribbons on her cuffs. The base holds her well but personally I would’ve preferred for her front foot to actually be on the base, instead of her being “midair”. 

Right:

Here we can see she’s got the “SMS” on her ribbon, as well as the base. Nice attention to detail there. Her hair flows well around her body, and is well-shaded. Contrast is probably a bit too high in the photo… the figure is fine. 

Back:

Here we see she’s got a small gold detail on her back, so they haven’t neglected the back of her outfit. There’s also an intentional seam on the jacket, plus a paint detail on the back of her boots. 

Hair close-up:

Here we can see they’ve done her hair ribbons in translucent plastic. I think they could’ve done with a tad more paint/dye, but they do the job. 

Overall, I’m really pleased with this figure and glad I got it. I think this is a solid figure for Klan Klang in her micro form, which is good… as there aren’t a lot of figures of her. It was nice to be able to get a figure that wasn’t a prize figure for her. 

Alien Warrior – Alien Vs Predator

This xenomorph is based upon one in AvP, according to the box. This one I randomly came across on Suruga-ya and thus I decided to order it:

And he’s a big mofo… bigger than my backboard. In terms of painting… he’s black. And a bit more black. So,um, nothing to talk about here as regards paint… but the moulding makes up for this. 

‘Face’:

He has a translucent dome, but you can’t really see through it – just the vague shape underneath. The detail in the moulding is visible here – I love the texture on the webbing bits of its mouth. 

Chest:

The bones look good on the chest, and plenty of details further down. 

Left:

I like the preparing-to-leap pose. It’s also done so it’s fairy well balanced, and will happily stand on a flat surface. 

Arm close-up:

Again, good sculptwork that captures the textures and details of a xenomorph well. 

Right:

From this site, its tail tries to stab the camera :P. The back pipes stick out well, and we have the other wibbly protrusion here too. 

Side of head:

Liking the details on the neck, but the shoulder ridges look a little odd – there’s not a huge amount of texture on them, and I’m not convinced over the way the arms join into it. 

Back:

A lovely amount of sculpting back here – I like the spine and the lines that join up to it. Its hips stick out nicely too.

Tail:

One vicious-looking tail! Love the end of the tail. 

Overall, I like this figure. It’s a big, solid figure that’s well-sculpted, and balances well. If you want a cheapish statically-posed Alien figure, I would recommend this FuRyu series of figures. 

VF-1 – Macross

This one was added to a small order. 

And it is small:

This is a gachapon toy of the VF-1 from Macross. Or Robotech if you prefer. It’s decently detailed for a gachapon figure, but does have a habit of falling apart. 

Right:

Logo on the gun is rendered well, and I like the little details in the sculpt. The paintwork is neat, but doesn’t have much detail to it. 

Front:

Vrrooom. 

Back:

Engines are sculpted here, and you can see the VF-1′s feet. for when it is gerwalk mode. 

Top:

Here you can see the way it is twisting from not wanting to stay assembled. I like the little logo on the wing.

Bottom:

Here you can see a hole for the stand. There are two holes here, for an extra accessory you get with one of the other gachapon figures. I like the fact they’ve done the plating on the wings… even if it is obscured by copyright info… 

Overall, an OK little figure, but does have the disadvantage of liking to fall apart. Kinda wish Kinder Eggs had things like this, but this wouldn’t fit in a Kinder Egg. Hm. 

Rider – Fate/Stay Night – Blindfolded ver

After getting the incorrect version last time, I managed to order the right one this time!

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Aha! The Rider trading figure I wanted! And this one is in better condition too – bonus. She’s in a very similar pose, only she has her blindfold on, which for me, makes Rider feel more complete. The sculptwork is good, and the paint is neatly done – not overly fancy, but it feels like the correct colours.

Left:

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Standing with her back arched, she feels ready to pounce with her blade. I like this slightly unusual pose. 

Right:

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The hair has been made to flow nicely around her arms, which I like. 

Back:

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Her hair has some shading, which helps to give it depth. It’s sculpted well, and works for Rider. She can hold her blade either way up, but I felt this worked best. 

This trading figure is a nice one, and definitely a higher quality than a lot of small figures, though it’ll likely a bit pricier due to this fact. Does feel in keeping with GSC’s quality, and am glad to have finally found and got around to buying it. 

Tablis – Evangelion

This was a figure I was considering for a long time, then finally had the opportunity to add it to a Suruga-ya order for a reasonable price:

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“No pants” Tablis – an angel from Evangelion. She comes with an alternate arm if you don’t want her holding the weapon, but where’s the fun in that? This figure of Tablis has a few hints to its human counterpart in the grey hair, orange undershirt and white overshirt. Not sure where he lost his pants to though. There is some underwear under that shirt though. I like the body sculpt, but the face feels overly simplistic compared.

Left:

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The wings have a nice amount of depth to them, and the stand holds them well, to prevent any kind of sagging over time. You could choose to leave this part off, if you wish to risk it. The shoes are nicely painted, but this side does look overly flat.

Right:

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Not too much extra to see here. Hair has a pretty decent sculpt.

Back:

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The wings are definitely the star feature of this figure – I love the shiny finish, and the sculptwork is really nice. Love all the different wing segments, which really adds to this figure. 

Weapon:

Here we have the words “TEST TYPE” and “A-17 TABRIS”. I like this little detail, but kind of wish it was on the other side or both sides, so it’d be showing in its natural position. The arm isn’t super-poseable, so it’s not easy to show the writing when displayed.

Really glad I decided to get this figure. For me, this concludes the ones of the set I was really after. There is another Rei-based one I’d like, but it’s rather hard to get hold of, so I’m not anticipating getting it. Overall, I’m pleased with this figure, and especially so with the wings. Would recommend these figures at a reasonable price, but they’re not super-detailed so wouldn’t recommend them much over their retail price. 

Skull Kid – Majora’s Mask

This was a promo item from Nintendo, but I bought it at a collectable figures retailer. 

Here he is, all bright and shiny:

I love the colours on this figure, which is what attracted me to buying it. And the fact I’ll totally get around to playing some of the Zelda games I haven’t yet, which includes Majora’s Mask. This figure also came with a free layer of dust, which I’ve now mostly removed… Still some visible in the logo on the base cough. 

Mask close-up:

I love the bright colours, and they’ve been rendered well on this figure. THe entire figure is neatly painted, which stands out mostly on the mask. The symbol on his hand is also nice and crisp. 

Left:

Love those shoes, thought I can’t imagine they’re too practical! All the pieces are neatly painted.

Right:

I’m in two minds about the weathering effects on the orange parts, but it does add needed detail to the figure, otherwise it’d look overly plasticky. I also like the Aztec-y design on the sides of the base.

Back:

Love all the splayed out spikey bits. Back doesn’t have too much to see, but what’s there is good.

Overall, I’m happy with this figure, and glad I was able to get it. 

VF-31J Siegfried – 35th Anniversary Cosplay

As someone with an eye for the slightly unusual, this figure appealed. However, let’s start with the less unusual part:

She wasn’t too bad of a built but yeah… those stickers on her chest… They really don’t stick well, and the middle blob is actually her belly button. Yes, they sculpted it, then gave you stickers to cover it… Still considering peeling these stickers off and painting her, as it looks so bad. 

Her face was prepainted, but they give you a blank one, should you wish to paint your own, which I thought was a nice inclusion. 

Side:

I like the fact the hair is articulated, and the pink pieces in her hair. The headset looks good… but the bits on her hips are annoying. Not entirely sure what they’re supposed to represent, but for mine, on one side, it was hard to get it to sit right on the pegs that are there to ensure it articulates correctly. Also the stickers… they like to unstick themselves on this bit. If you look underneath the hip parts, you can see a sticker freeing itself – the parts that fold over on the stickers like to unstick. 

Back:

I like the look of the design back here, barring the escaping stickers. 

For balancing her, it’s a bit tricky with her small feet, but possible. Wouldn’t recommend – was a pain for these photos, so I’d recommend either displaying her with the VF-1 or fabricating some kind of stand/using putty to get her to stay.

And now for the pièce de résistance:

Here she is, riding the VF-1 in Gerwalk form! You initially make the plane in flight mode, but where’s the fun in that? She can be assembled into a walking mode, but it was such a pain to do the transformation, I couldn’t be arsed to change it to see what it looks like – and this is the main downfall of the kit. It pretty easily falls apart, which is so very annoying. The handlebars she’s holding can pop off, and then some of the associated parts can fall off. Some of the wing parts are also easy to knock off. 

The plane form is a bit flopsy from the ability to take it apart and “transform” it. 

And the stickers have the same issues as the ones on her body – they’ll peel and unfurl in places, especially for the ones that fold over a part. If you do want to paint it though, it comes with water decals, so you can use those for the writing after painting it. 

Left:

She does pose reasonably well on it, though getting her legs onto the stands is a bit of a challenge. Here you can see where one of her feet isn’t actually in place. D’oh. 

Right:

And here she is, standing almost properly. The nub on the foot stands does help to keep her in place whilst you pose her. I do like the way the legs are folded out for her to stand on. 

Back:

Booty shot :P. Looks OK from the back, not too much to see here. Getting the entire thing to balance can be a bit of a pain – at certain times, the plane did try to nosedive onto the mat. If you get the feet in the right positions, it should stand up OK though. 

Overall, I really like the unusualness of this kit, and it does look decent when built… if you ignore the stickers peeling off :/. I’d probably recommend this more as a kit that should be painted, rather than stickers due to this. And the not very helpful guide of how to stick them on – some are done during the build process, but the vast majority there’s some large pictures numbering all the stickers at the end – and one of them did require disassembling her to get it on properly. Some parts of the build were a massive pain in the butt, so I’d be prepared for the damn thing to fall apart at least once on you. 

I’d only recommend this kit, if you really want the end result. I wouldn’t class it as a particularly fun kit to build. 

Rem – Wedding ver – Re:Zero

I don’t usually go for wedding figures, but this one I felt was rather pretty and reasonably priced, being a prize figure, so I decided to buy her:

And, yeah, she’s really nice for a prize figure. I love the design, and the paint is neat. She has some decent translucent hair and the flowers contrast well with it. She hasn’t donned her dress yet, so she’s in her wedding lingerie… but with her veil and train. Rather the odd outfit if you think about it too much… She doesn’t have any shading to her, but the sculpting does leave her with some shadows to help out. I like the way this figure is constructed, as it has largely negated paint mess. 

Face:

Some white paint escaping on the top of her bra – that’s probably the largest paint flaw on mine. The flowers are sculpted well and look good. I like her shy/unsure facial expression and pose. 

Knickers:

These flowers are also done nicely, and you can see how the different coloured parts are separate pieces, for the most part. The other noticeable paint flaw for me is the yellow smudge on her glove, from the flower paint.

Feet:

These flowers have been painted neatly for the most part, but looks like some leaves got missed out, but not a surprise with their small size. Guess it avoids extra mess. I like the pale blue of these shoes. Not sure what’s going on with the strap/fold/thing on her left shoe though… 

Left:

I think she’s posed well, and I like the fact her straps are sculpted as a separate part – no weird foldy strap here. The veil and train look OK from this angle.

Right:

Her sides are sculpted well. Her socks feel more plastic than fabric, due to the finish and lack of shading paint. Her hair seam doesn’t show much, mostly due to the flowers.

Back:

In some of the photos I looked at of her prior to buying, I think the back looked better than it does irl – I think I’ve captured the plastic-y nature of the veil parts a bit more here. These parts are embossed on one side, and flat on the other. It’s not terrible, but I don’t think it’d fly on a scale figure. The lower part you need to push into her back, and for mine that was NOT an easy endeavour, and definitely required heating to get it into place… but once done, the connector is hidden, which I do like. From the front, I think these pieces look decent, but from the back it can make her look cheapy… but she is a prize figure. 

Overall, I think this is a strong prize figure, and worth picking up, if you want a decent budget figure that’s wedding-themed, if you can find her for a reasonable price. I bought her near her release, so she cost ¥2000 & postage. 

Hatsune Miku – Heart Hunter Ver – Vocaloid

This figure I thought about preordering, but ended up skipping on it. After release, I was on the fence about ordering her, then she ended up on sale at Nippon Yasan, so I ended up grabbing her:

And wow, she’s a nice figure. I was initially attracted to this figure, as she has a wings and a tail. The other parts that appealed were her pose, the bright colours and the varying finishes of her outfit. 

Face:

I love her face, and her mic is there, but doesn’t disrupt from the figure. I love the ribbon on her chest, and the ones in her hair contrast well with her hair. The hair looks OK from the front, but not sure on the finish – more about that later. 

Outfit:

I love the way the material has been stretched out over her chest, and the colours emphasise her body shape. The yellowy colour blended in with the salmon-y colour works really well, and is used to add depth and detail in many places. The belt has been well-painted, and the gold parts are all painted neatly. The purple edging used throughout also compliments the colours, and works well to finish the edges of our outfit. 

Heart:

I love the heart, and the creasing is done well, to show she’s standing on it. Love the little wings it has. Can see a tiny bit of paint smear when looking close to the bottom of her leggings. Not entirely sold on the moulded seam on the top of her shoe. The shiny purple of her leggings is nice though.

Side of her foot:

There’s a metal peg that goes up through her foot, protruding from the heart. She seems to be stable on it, and I’m not worried about her falling off/over. She will wobble when moved, due to the pose though. Love all the little details here, but there are some small bits of stray paint if you look closely. 

Left:

Her body is shaped well, and her clothes sit well on her body. I like the way the garters have been done separately and there’s a bit of a gap under her bum. 

Close-up of her outstretched arm:

Love the shading. And the heart cutouts, like the one here. Everything’s edged nicely. She also has some cute pink nail polish. 

Right:

Her pose looks good from this side too. Love the metallic shade of her stockings. The tail has a spot of shading on too, which I appreciate. Looks kinda sassy from this side.

Back:

Her wings are nicely shaded, and the ribs look good. I like the way they’ve added ribbed details to the back of her top, and the fact there are also window-hearts back here too.

Back of her hair:

This, for me, is the weakest part of the figure. Really not a fan of the finish that they’ve used on her hair – I guess it’s supposed to be pearlescent, but it comes off as “cheapy plastic”, without having extra shading in her braids. Some shading was done lower down, but I think it needs more shading to pull this finish off. Either that, or have the hair less super-shiny. 

Tail:

I love the way the tail curls round, and the sharp shape of the end, which contrasts nicely. I love the detail put into posing her fingers, and the detailing on her belt around her tail. 

Overall, I really like this figure and glad I decided to get it. It’s a very nice figure, and would make a statement on most shelves. Even if you’re not a Miku fan, I think this figure has an appeal of its own. Would happily recommend this figure, despite the hair, as the hair isn’t too bad from the front. 

Rei Ayanami – Swimsuit v1.5 – Evangelion

For awhile, I was toying with the idea of ordering the original version of this figure, but I didn’t quite like it enough to do so. Then I found out there was this v1.5 version, and went for it:

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The main differences between this one and the v1 is the hair and the matte finish to her swimsuit. The mould is the same for both versions.

Face:

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I love the soft faded effect to her hair, and am a sucker for translucent hair, despite its weirdness. I think her face has been rendered decently well for a prize figure. The matte texture certainly looks nicer than the shiny one imo, but it is more prone to showing up scuffs on the figure – of which there is a minor amount. She does have a seam line that is pretty noticeable on her left arm in this photo. 

Swimsuit:

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Here we can see they’ve added in wrinkle details, and seams to the swimsuit, but they haven’t added any markings to the labels. Usually the character’s name would be written in the space. Guess she’s borrowing a swimsuit for the day?

Left:

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Here we can get a good look at the shower – the finish is nicely rendered, but due to the way the peg is, it does lean a little. Overall, I like this piece, and seems to have all the details it needs. Unless you want some limescale 😛

Due to the way Rei is facing, this actually makes for a good viewing angle. I like her overall pose, and I think this side shows it off well.

Right:

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Here we can admire the details in her hair – she has a good number of strands moulded, which is a lot nicer than some prize figures where they just have the top of her hair smooth. 

Back:

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Erm, er, let’s try that again:

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Here we can see they’ve sculpted her spine and shoulder blades. The swimsuit hugs her backside, and is creased near her middle, which are all nice detail.s 

Base:

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I like the fact they’ve coloured the grout – this is also a feature new to the v1.5, and I think it really adds to the base. The shower drain has also been nicely done, and looks like a drain. Her foot does look a bit overly rectangular from this angle… but is nicely sculpted otherwise. 

Overall, I really like this figure and glad I got it. The shower could do with being a bit more stable, but I don’t think it’s critical, as it looks fine from the front, and not prone to falling out – just leaning a little. Glad I went for this one, and would recommend it. I don’t think there’s any reason to own both versions of this figure, and would recommend picking your preferred one. Looking at pictures of the other version, this is definitely my preferred version.