Category: Eastern

Battle Break – Part 3

Three more figures from the Battle Break set. 

Starting with Horse Whale (ホシクジラ):

Yep. You read that right. Apparently this is a horse whale… Does look like a whale from this angle… but I’m not getting horse. There’s some foam added to the figure, but it looks more like clouds or ice formations. 

Left:

From the sides, it definitely looks more like a squid-whale than a horse-whale, with the squidlike appendages on its back. The foam has some pretty weird dark blobs on it, where it looks like the paint was incorrectly applied, which I don’t like. The creature itself has a nice design though.

Right:

I think the foam looks better on this side, but is still kind of ropy, and I’d prefer if it was waves instead of seafoam. The slots on the upper part of his head make it look like it might’ve been crossed with a submarine, and the regular spacing of the elements give it a machinelike feel to me. 

Back:

I like the patterns on the finlike protrusions on its back. Foam still looking kind of “eh” to me. I think the solidity of it is what ruins it mostly – if they used transparent plastic here, I think they could’ve achieved a better effect that wasn’t so solid. For a cheap figure it does the job, though. 

Overall, I like this one, and do like the creature’s design, but not so fond of the added parts.

Crow Teng (クロウ・テング):

Here we have a not-so-black crow. Which made me thing “eagle” prior to translating the name. Here we have an interesting battle pose, and a wandlike weapon, which makes me think this dude is a caster. Whichever, he’s a mean looking-dude. 

Right:

I like the sculpted texture on his body, but I think they’ve been a bit miserly with the light blue paint here, and it doesn’t highlight some of the key features, which makes look a little odd overall. I think the part on his leg could’ve been directly painted, instead of giving him a wash, and it would’ve improved the overall appearance. He does have a red beady eye, which is a nice focal feature.

Back:

Looks like he’s had a run-in with a tin of paint. Here the wash is VERY sloppy, and I kind of wish they didn’t bother. Makes it look like a statue in disrepair instead of acting as highlights. 

From the front, this a nice looking piece. From the other angles… not so much. 

Killer Panda (キラー・パンダ):

Vicious and cute. The colour scheme isn’t really befitting of a panda, but I do like the paint apps. The fading has been done well on his body, and most of the painted highlights are done neatly. They’ve even given him some grass to sit in. 

Left:

Paint between his parts didn’t get blended… oops. Looks a bit derpy from the side. We also have some paint chips, which aren’t great. 

Back:

His palms have been painted to match his feet, which works well. Faiding is done well on the back, so he looks good from this angle too. Just a shame about the paint chips on the left.

Overall, he’s not a very inventive character, but he is well-executed, apart from some paint issues on the sides. 

Battle Break – Part 2

More Battle Break figures! 

First one for today is One of Nine (ワン・オブ・ナイン):

A little ninja dude! I do like the purple-green colour scheme, and he also comes with a small piece of scenery. The painting looks OK from the front, but you can see some parts where they are a bit rough. 

Top-side:

Here, I think the grey parts of his helmet are likely intentional, but there seems to be a scuff on his shoulder, and uneven application on the outstretched arm. Arm blade looks decent though. His helmet has a suitably techno-looking plume on his helmet.

Left:

I do like the way they’ve got him running and leaning forward. Does make for an interesting pose. Here’s some more uneven paint though. 

Back:

His back is dominated by this ludicrously large ninja star… Not sure what he intends to do with it, but it does look cool! The sculpting and painting is nice on this part though. 

Bazooka infantry (バズーカ歩兵):

Fairly straightforward… a dude with a bazooka! Looks almost like some kind of golem, with him painted in green. 

Sides:

The sculpting job is nice, and the paint job is decent. 

Back:

The design of his suit does also give weight to him being a golem/stone warrior – the screwlike part makes me think more golem than human. 

Imo, he’s an OK figure, but not very interesting compared to the others in this set.

Aiai (アイアイ):

I love this cute dude… and certainly lives up to his name, with all the eyes… wondering if it should be translated as eye-eye. Whatever, he certainly has an eye on you! The colours work well together, and the painting is mostly decent, though there is a bit of wandering paint on its hair, in the middle.

Back:

No sneaking up on this dude! Big bit of stray paint on his lower left ear. Colour scheme feels well-balanced from the back too, and he is nicely textured in the sculpt.

Rather like this little dude. Don’t think he’s my favourite, but definitely like him more than some of the others. 

Battle Break – Part 1

and Another thing I added to an order on a whim – it worked out as £10.63 for 15 mini-figures

(would’ve been slightly less if the retailer didn’t screw with my order…), which is pretty cheap. These figures are supposed to be for a board game called “Battle Break” but isn’t something I’m going to play. 

Looking at the sides of the box, there were 17 possible figures, and I got 13 of them, which is a good innings for random-boxed items. 

First up, Lion King (獅子王):

This is the guy on the front of the boxes, and he does indeed look spiffy, though  he does lack lower legs and feet. I love the hair and mane parts, and I think the colour scheme works well.

Side views:

Ah, silly-sized weapons… gotta love ‘em. I think the design is pretty inventive, and I like the claw theme, which fits with he character. Here we get a good look at his hair, and I like the way it is sculpted. The eye adds a nice contrast to the rest of the figure. 

Back:

I do like the texture on his cape – has a rustic feel to it. Almost like a thatched roof type-thing. 

Overall, I think this miniature is nicely sculpted and painted. 

Leviathan (リヴァイアサン):

Here we have a green semitransparent dragon-y dude. I like the water effect included with this figure. What I like less is the super-obvious seam lines that don’t fit well. Not entirely convinced with the angles of his wings and head from this view. With him having a line of spikes on his stomach as well as his back, it makes it hard to notice we’re looking at the underside of his body here, which makes him look abnormally twisted until you look closer imo. 

Sides:

I really like the head of this figure – the shape and colours both look nice. There is a seam line on his head, but it is a lot less obnoxious than the one on his body and the wings. The translucent effect works well when viewing his right-hand side. 

Back:

Here I think his pose makes more sense. The coloration looks better on the back of his wings, but we do seem to have some of the sea colour creeping through on his right one.

Overall, and OK figure. Not my favourite. 

Lizard Magician (トカゲ呪術師):

Not a big fan of this brushed shading effect, but his sculpt is OK. The colours work, but aren’t anything special to me. The green ball came out well imo, and I like the design of his head.

Back:

Here we have a decent amount of sculptwork, though there seems to be some missing lines on his tail – we have indentations on the right, but not the left which looks odd. The back of his frills is nicely rendered though, and so is his spines. The other details are a bit “eh”. 

Overall an OK figure, but I don’t feel it’s anything special. Fine for Poundland fodder, lol. 

Groot – Guardians of the Galaxy – Metacolle

This figure was gifted to me by a friend. He posted it to me, but didn’t put a note with the figure, so I was confused for awhile, wondering when I ordered a mini-Groot figure until I worked out this was the gift he sent me :).

So let’s have a look at the li’l guy.

MetaColle figures certainly live up to their name – for his small size he’s pretty weighty because of it. This figure is nicely painted, for its size. The fade on his head is nicely done, with some green detailing on his body. 

The gaps on his body are because he has articulation in these areas. So you can pose him a bit too!

To give an idea of size, here’s a promo shot:

So he’s not too far off the size of the Nano metalfigs, for things to compare him to. 

Left:

I like the sculpting on him – the wood effect works well. The blended paint on his head works well from this side too. 

Right:

From this side we can see he has got good detailing on the top of his head, as well as the sides. 

Back:

Here’s the only drawback as far as I’m concerned – he has a visible screw in his back. Would’ve been nice to have a plug or something to cover this up, but I don’t think it’s a big thing for what you get. 

Overall, I really like this little figure, and think he’s a decent quality figure. These figures have an RRP of ¥1,000, though if buying direct from Japan they’re usually around ¥800, which I think is a fair price point for these figures. 

Akiba Blue – Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger – Season 2 version

This is yet another figure I bought because I thought it looked good… It was on sale dammit. 

So, here she is:

Loving the blue shade and her outfit, and the interesting range of accessories she comes with, that I have little idea about… Reading about her, she’s from a parody series, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they produced more of these than tokusatsu parody fans. In terms of a figure, her outfit isn’t very detailed, but this does give her a stark and clean appearance. I do like the shiny breastplate and the cool-looking helmet she’s wearing. However, her paintwork is flat and without shading, which puts her out of premium figure territory. 

Left:

She looks fine form the side, and has a couple of details on hte side of her helmet. She also has a ponytail thing going on, but it’s not hinged. Don’t try to do so, lest you want to break this part – the gold dot is just for show. The paint lines seem clean throughout – especially on the ball accessory… which I like to think of as a multicoloured bomb… 

Right:

More of the same on this side. A double-jointed elbow is visible, without much to hide it, so it does look lumpy. We can also see the ribbon thing she wears on her shoulder – I like the way they’ve sculpted this so it is flowing in the breeze. 

Back:

The sculpting’s nice on the back ribbon, but there isn’t too much detail here to speak of. There’s a couple of holes in her back – you could probably attach an accessory in here, or a stand. There wasn’t one in the box, but 3mm peg stands aren’t hard to come by. Was disappointed with the lack of stand, but she does have articulated toes, so she’s not too bad to balance. You can also use the accessories to weight her, if needed.

In terms of accessories, she does have a decent range of stuff. One that I managed to not photograph is another ribbon – it’s very similar to the one shown, only it’s more like one half of the ribbon shown, if you want less ribbon for posing. 

She comes with these guns:

I love the overly large “armed” mode this gun has. I guess this is for when the battle gets super serious. Both guns are nicely sculpted and painted, and would make great accessories for any figure they fit with. 

She also comes with many, many hands:

So if you need a certain hand pose, it’s probably in this lot! Always nice to see a range of hands, as it gives more posing opportunities, and especially useful for her, and the several things she can hold. 

Overall, I think she’s a decent figure, but probably not a popular character, hence her cheap price. If you need a random blue ranger for your collection, this one could possibly fit the bill. With the number of parts she comes with, she could be good for custom fodder too, if you’re basing something around a Bandai figure(s). 

Desura II Core Ship – Battleship Yamato 2199

Now for a model kit! This is the Desura II Core Ship, with a couple of support fighters. 

Let’s first look at the core ship itself:

‘tis a long bugger. And spiky! If you hit it, don’t be surprised if you go “ow” and a part flies off. However, I do think it looks cool and worth the pain :P. 

Building it wasn’t too difficult – the instructions were reasonably easy to follow, and the build process, from what I recall, was pretty smooth. 

Left:

Here’s a side shot to admire it in all its glory. I love the profile of this ship, which is why I bought it… despite having not yet seen Battleship Yamato. It is on my “to watch” list, though. 

Now to deviate from my standard walk-around, and look at this thing from bow to stern. 

So let’s start with the front end:

Here we have the stabby forward parts. The sculpting is nice on this model, adding details into what’s a largely plain-coloured vessel. 

Moving further back:

We have some clear parts here, which look nice. There are some transfers that you can add to these bits, to add a bit more detail, but I haven’t done so as of yet. I do like this bit of colour – looking at pictures of the ship from the anime, these parts glow. I could see someone modding this kit, so they could put an LED in this section, though I do believe these parts do back onto blue plastic, so it’d be a relatively hefty mod. 

Cockpit area:

One thing that mildly disappointed me is this purple plastic bit doesn’t push up into a blue plastic “cutout” part, so if you want it to look like the pictures, you need to paint this part. Kind of a shame, as I don’t think it’d be too hard to render a part this could push up into. But if you’re not going for anime-accuracy, you could leave it like this. 

Part below the cockpit:

And these are the spiky bits that tend to spike you and fall apart. The vertical “M” part slots into the one that attaches to the ship, so it’s pretty easy to accidentally knock out. Have had issues with these when positioning the ship on the stand. I do like the red detail parts though. 

Engine fins:

I do rather like this detail, and it has been rendered well. 

Back:

The thrusters look cool, and and I love all the little details back here. What’s less cool is two of the four fins you see here didn’t fit snugly into their slots and kept falling out. Ended up shoving a bit of White Tack onto the part that goes inside the fin, and that fixed that issue. So I’d recommend doing something similar, or glue these parts. I think the inner ring is supposed to help hold these parts in but… it doesn’t. 

Base:

This is the logo for the “owners” (Great Garmillas Empire) of the Desura II… only apparently this isn’t the right way up for it. Ah well, I tried. Stand does a decent job of holding the vessel, but one of the prongs can foul on the base, so you can’t freely tilt it, but you do have a reasonable choice of angles for the ship. 

And that concludes the main ship – I think it’s a cool model, and glad I bought it. Could do with some spots of paint, if I ever get around to painting anything. 

Now for the support fighters:

You get two of these, both identical. There aren’t too many pieces making these up, so they should be a quick build.

Quick tour of one of the fighters, as this blog is long enough already:

The mould has a decent number of details, so looks pretty decent unpainted. There are some decals that I haven’t put on yet, with the logo fro the Great Garmillas Empire. I think these are a nice inclusion to the kit, and look nice displayed flanking the core ship. One less-good part of the model is the spikes on the fins are easily bent, and this can happen when snipping them away from the sprue. Note one of them is a bit bent in the top pic. 

Some of the bottom of the ship is in the dark green – this would be something ideally fixed with some light green paint, so it looks less odd. Depends if you display these with the bottoms showing or not.

Overall, I’m happy with this model kit, and I should really do some painting, so I can paint the odd bit on this one, as I think it kind of needs it. However, the moulding is nice on this kit, so you could get away with not painting it imo. 

Silica – Sword Art Online – Noodle Stopper

Pre-ordered this as it was a noodle stopper and SAO. She isn’t one of my favourite characters, but I thought this was cute and cheap enough to go for it.

So here she is, being cute:

And herein demos my main issue with this figure – she’s pretty hard to display, and get the most out of her. 

Closer look:

I love the cute, playful expression, and the hair is nicely done. There are little clumpy bits, if you look close, but these are sort of to be expected with a prize figure. The front of her swimsuit has been done nicely, and the red parts are enough within the lines to not be distracting. The posing of her upper half is really well done imo, and feels expressive. 

Left:

And here’s the everything we can’t see, if we use an opaque item to rest her upon. Her outfit is cute and neatly painted – I like the fact they’ve given her a collar, though it isn’t really visible from the front. Her tail curls playfully upwards, and the shading on it is nice. Love the detail they’ve put into her hair.

Unfortunately with this pose she’s a tad back-heavy – she will sit fine like this, but if she’s not fully resting on an object or you nudge her, she’ll fall off fairly easily. Out of the “noodle stopper” figures I have, this one wouldn’t function too well as one, even if you decided to use it for that imo. 

Right:

Paint is a tad more uneven on this side, but still looks decent enough. Love all the bits they’ve sculpted in the hair, and her tail shading fits the curve of her tail. 

Back:

The tail ends somewhere out of sight, which works for me. The frills in her skirt have been sculpted nicely, along with her butt. There’s a bit of an annoying paint flaw on mine – a little excess paint on her panties. Her legs and feet are sculpted nicely, and her toes look good. 

Close-up of the back of her hair:

I like the shading on her hair, and as mentioned previously, the amount of detail they’ve put into it. Seems a fair bit more than your average prize figure. Her top also has a fabric bit painted under her frills, which is a nice attention-to-detail.

Overall, the figure looks very nice, and has been executed nicely for the most part. The major issue that prevents me from recommending it is the display potential – I think it would’ve been better to have her head turned to the side, so she could be displayed side-on. Currently I have her sat on a clear U-shaped riser, so you can see more of her, otherwise it’s a toss-up if you display her face or her body. I suspect the pose was chosen to accommodate the tail, and it works on that front, but I think she would’ve been better coming with a small clear claw stand, so you can display her unobstructed…. as let’s face it, nobody’s going to use this as noodle stoppers. 

Raidramon – Digimon/Appmon

I bought this guy because he looked cool, was cheap, and potentially looked like he was compatible with Lego Bionicle figures. For the first part, whilst the construction pieces are similar shapes, they are a bit smaller and thus not compatible. So if you get these, don’t expect them to be compatible with Lego pieces. 

So here he is, fully built:

He wasn’t too hard to build, but one or two things changed between the instructions being written and the boxed product – mostly with pieces being pre-attached to each other. 

Overall, he looks pretty decent for what he is – decently painted, though I do wish they had a bit that clipped onto the under-wing to cover up the support structure – this will always be visible from the front, unless you have some very specific posing going on. 

Front:

Looking kind of squarish in the face there. He seems to stand up OK to me. 

Face:

His jaw can move, as demoed here – it has a couple of click points, so you can have it closed or open. Here we see a screw, which is a deviation from the Legoesque styling (this was not part of the construction process though – all parts that are left for the buyer to do is clip parts together). 

Left:

Here we see his tail, which I’m rather “eh” about. Doesn’t look particularly attractive, and doesn’t have any articulation. Would’ve loved to have been able to move it up and down or side-to-side. Head looks cool from the side though. 

Right:

Wires are kinda cool, not too much extra to say about this side.

Back:

The cape-wings look cool, and the shapes are nice. The wings have some articulation to them, as evidenced by the less-than-subtle hinges. 

Wire close-up:

Here’s what the wires look like up close – decent sculpting on them, for a toy of this type. 

Here’s me doing some posing with him:

So I wouldn’t class him as super-flexible, but you can probably get something decentish out of his arms and legs. The wing hinges are good for use as a toy, but I don’t think as useful for posing. 

So I’d recommend this one as a toy to play with, rather than a display piece. It is meant as more of a toy, but I don’t think it has the displayabilty of Bionicles, which make cool toys and display pieces. Overall, I think he was worth what I paid, but I think he’s going to be more of a toy that I put somewhere to fiddle with rather than integrate into my displays. 

Rin Kagamine – Nuclear Fusion – Vocaloid

Here’s a Vocaloid figure with a difference… one that isn’t overly cutesy. When I found out this figure existed, I had to go and order it.

Not too long later, she arrived:

Rin Kagamine, as a rocker. As a fan of heavy music, this one strongly appealed to me, and I love the hairdo Rin is sporting. I think this figure was styled well, and the base is very much a part of the whole ensemble – no boring black disc here! 

I love the design of her guitar – I think it works well as a focal point for the centre of the figure. 

Face:

Here she is, not looking very impressed with you. I do love that hairstyle, and the white-black hair ties match up well with the rest of her outfit. From the parts of the outfit that can be seen in this photo, you can see the clean lines that the figure has, and the detailing that went into the sculpt.

What you can also see is the end of the darned headphone wire. This thing Does. Not. Stay. In. I wish there was more depth to the hole or it had some way of gripping the wire so it stays in when nudged. This is my main gripe with the figure. However, this wire is a separate part, so you can bend it however you wish, or choose not to have it. I like the curved lines you can create with it, so I prefer to have it, so long as I can get the damn thing to stay. It will probably meet up with some white tack at some point in its future. 

Left:

Here we can see they’ve put a good amount of detail into her clothing, and have her boot creasing at the ankle. The coloured rings look… OK, but I’m not 100% sold on them. I did think about displaying her without them, but decided the figure kind of needed them. I like the fact they’ve included some wires going into the speaker, and the four “legs” on the base, which make it super-stable as well as look cool. 

Speaker:

Here is a closer look at the speaker and its wires. I like the fin included in front of the speaker (not very practical, but looks cool) and the little logo thing on the top of it. The paint is also nice and shiny here. Here you can also see where the base has been given some weathered effects, and I think these work well. Also Rin’s boot has a nice neat yellow line going round the sole. 

Right:

Here the rings look cool, with the way they flow. Also got an opposite colour scheme going on with her clothing, which I really like. The light and shading on this figure work really well, which I feel is decently showcased in the white part of her dress.

Back:

I like this golden “fence” part. I like the colour, and I think it fits well with the figure… even though it’s kind of random. As a nod to Rin’s normal clothing, we have yellow lines on her arms, which are painted well.

Back of her head:

Here we can see they put detail into the back of her hair as well as the front. Also I plugged the headphones in properly for this shot (yay!), and it does look good when it is behaving. We’ve also got a small detail in the form of a stud on her shoulder. 

Ring attachment:

This is how the back ring attaches, so it appears to float. This one can be a little easy to knock out if you’re not careful, but will stay fine if you don’t nudge it. However, because of the holes in this back piece, it does show a reasonable amount that something’s missing if it isn’t in place. Also just having two of the rings really doesn’t look right imo. 

Overall, if you like some heavy metal in your figures, whilst they remain plastic, I’d recommend this one. I’m not sure how appealing this would be to a general Rin Kagamine fan, but I personally love the concept and think it is well-executed. Kinda wish the rings were more of an optional part, as they can look a little “eh” close-up, but think they work just fine at a viewing distance. 

Nagisa Kaworu – Chibi Plugsuit – Evangelion

Just a small figure for today, a li’l chibi Kaworu:

Got him in a shop in the UK, who sells a few small anime collectables. I like the light shading in his hair, and the facts he’s in his plugsuit. Not sure if the face entirely fits him, but I’ll mildly let it off for being a chibi. 

Left:

Here we see he has a painted ring shine, which I’m not a massive fan of. I like the sculpt of the hair though, and the plugsuit looks decent from the side.

Right:

Again, more shine, and a li’l tuft of hair at the top for added cuteness. Hair mould lines are mostly blended in, giving the hair a “finished” feel. Plugsuit is also neatly painted on this side, and I like the fact his ears have been sculpted and are poking out of his hair. 

Back:

Looks OK from the back, but the stand does rather hide him. With the stand going most of the way up his hair, it’s pretty distracting, if you want to look at him from the back. Also he has a nasty habit of pinging out of the stand when you move him, which I don’t like. Kinda wish it was lower down somehow, or he had a body stand. With a poke-in-the-back stand you do lose some design, but they do tend to hold figures better than these claw stands. 

Overall, he’s an OK chibi, but I’m not sure how much it really captures Kaworu, though this is based on his Evangelion@School appearance rather than the show. Wish the stand would hold him better than it does, but it is functional if you leave him be. 

Momo Deviluke – To LoveRu Darkness – Bottle Holder

This figure I came across randomly, and decided I’d like to order it, because of its kinda different nature. 

So here she is, Momo holding an invisible bottle:

This figure is very nice for a prize figure – she has shading in her hair, and a few other places. The paint is largely neat, without a bunch of messy lines. I love the cute expression on her face, and her shirt has been rendered well. The tail is also posed well, and I do rather like the way it curls. 

Front:

They’ve painted her chest darker, to show she’s wearing a sheer shirt, and she’s wearing a bra to match her knickers. Or swimsuit bottoms? The green bow helps to break up the pinkness of the figure, which I like. There is a tiny bit of overage on the knickers, but nothing too drastic. 

Left:

The flowers in her hair have been painted well, and the twist of her tail looks good from this angle too. Her feet look nicely detailed, and the pose has some dynamicness to it. 

Right:

Not too much extra to see here, but there’s shading on her leg, which is a rarity for a prize figure. Her toe has also been posed here – I appreciate the asymmetry here. The sleeve goes well around the arm, and looks realistic. 

Back:

Here, the back of her bra is a bit too heavily painted, and looks a bit odd. Fortunately this isn’t an angle I’ll be looking at, so not too much of a major issue for me. Here we can see the twists of the tail, which give it motion. Her knickers are also shaded too here. 

So that she can hold the bottle, her arms are rubbery and can be flexed about, so there’s no worrying about breaking her, if you want her to hug something. She can sort of hug a Nendoroid’s head. and I did have her hugging the Queen of Pain for a time. She’s a fun figure to play with, thanks to her pose, and would make for an interestingly posed piece. She’s made to hold a smaller size of bottle, so your average 500ml bottle doesn’t fit so well imo. 

So I could easily recommend this figure, if it appeals to you. If you want to find her, you may have more luck searching for just “hold figure” on figure websites. 

Karina & Pao-Lin – Tiger & Bunny – Half-age Characters

Now for the second two half-age characters I got out of the blind boxes.

First one today is Karina Lyle, aka Blue Rose:

As she’s young in the anime, she looks very young here. The figure itself is neatly painted, and looks good. 

Left:

Her hair looks decent, bit of stray paint from the skirt. Shoes are well-sculpted and painted.

Right:

The snake is printed well on her towel.Her hair sculpt feels a bit imprecise,but does the job. 

Back:

Hair looks good from the back, and she is posed well. I think it gets her shy nature over well. Her shirt is well-sculpted, though I think the skirt is a little overly flat. 

Overall, I think it’s a decent figure, but nothing special.

Lastly, Pao-Lin Huang:

I like the pose on this one – feels dynamic, and fits the kung-fu stylings of Dragon Kid. Most of her is painted well – special mention to the hair clip – though there is some stray black paint on the stripe that extends down her left leg. I like the sculpting on her suit, and gives it a good “suit” feel. 

Left:

Hair is a bit overly flat here, and some knobbly paint. Her pose works well from this side though.

Right:

Again, the hair feels overly flat, her shoe is painted well, though her pants paint did escape a bit onto her shoe. 

Back:

Hair looks OK from the back – a bit more detail here, so it doesn’t feel so flat. The suit is creased nicely back here, and the black lines are nice and sharp, so she looks good from the back.

Overall, two more nice figures that fit the theme of the sets (two were from one series, the other two from another). Out of these two, Pao-Lin is my favourite. Out of all four, I’d probably pick Kotetsu as my favourite, followed by Pao-Lin. 

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.