Category: Eastern

Black Aries –  Makai Tenshi Djibril

This was a figure I got along with the Saber Maid in yesterday’s blog. I hadn’t come across her before, but loved the design:

I love the pose of this character, the contrasting colours and the claw hand. Her hair also has a nice gradient, going from pink to purple. I also like the gold accents as they add some nice highlights to the figure.

Face:

I like the small marks on her face, and the claw from this angle looks menacing. The shading on her… leotard(?) looks very nice too. I love the small crystal on her belt, and the large bow looks good.

Left:

Here we can see the claw more front-on, and I love the crisp lines and details on it. Her hair looks nice, and has a good gradient to it. I also like the shading on her boots and gloves, so the black isn’t completely flat.

Right:

I love the gradients under her dress and the details on the bottom of her boots, plus they’e added creases where her ankle is bending the boots.

Back:

Here we finally get to see the wings that you attach as part of the assembly. In isolation, I think they look good,but they were a pain to get pegged in place. Due to the keying on the pegs, they don’t feel like the sturdiest of things, so I’d recommend being careful with them, lest the peg snaps. Once you’ve worked out which way they go in, and have them in place, they’re fine though. Love the motion in this figure, and I think this back shot really shows that off. 

Overall, I really like this figure, and glad I got her, despite not being familiar with her as a character. She only has this figure according to MFC, and at least it’s a very nice one if you are a fan, though. Would recommend this figure. She feels sturdy enough, and being an Alter figure, she’s likely to have support against leaning, so not too worried about that. With her relative obscurity, she seems to be fairly cheap to get hold of in the aftermarket.

Saber – Maid ver. – Fate/Hollow Ataraxia

This figure I got from a Discord user. 

Front:

She’s a pretty impressive figure in her own way, with a strong stance. I love the dark metallic blue of her outfit, and the attention to detail in the sculpting. 

Face close-up:

She’s a happy maid :). The figure definitely has an older feel to me, not that I mind. Hair is nicely sculpted, and I like her collar. 

Mop:

I like the way this mop sits on the base – it’s moulded to sit on the edge of the base, which I like. A fair amount of detail has been put into the mop, which I appreciate. The tassels are also shaded well.

Left:

There is a nice sheer effect to her leggings, and her shoes have been painted neatly. I like the bands around her leg, which match nicely with her outfit. Her hair has been done well to hide any seamlines. 

Right:

This shot shows the shiny blue of her outfit quite well on her skirt. Her hair is blended quite well to her neck. She holds the mop quite well, and it doesn’t seem prone to falling over. 

Back:

I love the way her back shows through the dress – it certainly adds a focal point to her back. The painting on her back really adds to the depth. The bow is also nicely presented on her dress, and helps show she’s moving her hips a bit to the side, causing movement to her dress. 

Hair close-up:

I love the details put into her hair – the sculpt is very nice. The bow is also really nicely sculpted and painted to match her dress. 

Top-down view:

Here we can see the cuffs she’s wearing got some attention too – the cufflinks are painted nicely, and there’s some texture here. Her nails are also painted neatly. 

For what could be a very simple figure, there is a lot of attention to detail, and I think it’s a really nice looking figure. There is an updated version of her, with a nicer base, so I’d likely suggest that one, especially as it seems to be around the same price secondhand. But this one definitely isn’t a bad figure, and I’d recommend it. Would be nice if the base was less plain, though. If it wasn’t for the fact I got a really good deal on this one, I may have gone for the updated version, but I could still recommend this one. 

Asuna – Aincrad ver – Sword Art Online

As I don’t have many figures of Asuna, I decided I wanted a scale of her, and this one cropped up on MFC for a decent price. 

Front:

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I was attracted to this figure by the pose and the golden rings. For this one, I think the promo version looks a fair bit more attractive than the final product, but it’s still a decent figure. I like her outfit and the rings, but they’re not as shiny as the promo version would suggest. The base is also a flatter colour – would’ve been nice to have more shading on this. 

For me, the weakest part of the figure is the hair:

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It has been nicely sculpted, but the paint makes it feel a bit plasticky. I feel it could’ve done with some darker shades. The rest of the details on this figure though, have been painted decently well, and the lines are nice and clean.

Left:

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Here we can see her launching herself from the pillar – I do like this pose. They’ve included the braiding in here hair, so that’s nice. The clothes are sculpted well, and include creases.

Right:

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Here is her sword – this detaches at the hilt. She holds it well, and looks good. Her hilt is also a part that has to be attached. I think this picture also partly captures the plastic finish to her hair. The shading looks nice, and I love the way it’s flowing out in different directions… but that finish… 

Back:

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Her cloak looks good from the back, and the pillar has paint details from the back. The texture on the broken part of pillar looks good too. 

Overall, I think this figure is decent, and worth what I paid for it. I think the RRP is a bit much for it, what with the hair and the other smaller downgrades from the promo version. She seems fairly available in the aftermarket, and you can probably get her for a decent price.

Gelmar – Devilman

Wandering around Yahoo! Auctions Japan for Devilman merch, I came across this Gelmar figure, and decided I’d bid on him. He didn’t come with a box, which was advantageous for me, so I could pack him with another item (which will be featured in a future blog, but not for some time). 

So here he is:

I love his blue, shiny colour and his overall design. His sculpting is also fairly detailed. 

Face close-up:

He does have a bit of a paint scratch on one tooth, but it’s not too bad. The wings on his head are detailed nicely, and I like the tentacley things sticking out from the sides. The teeth also have a couple of different coloured paints, which adds to their detail. 

Gelmar’s “slug”:

Rawrgh. He’s also painted well, in the places that were painted. Due to this part being partially rubbery, he was sticky with plasticiser, but I washed most of it off. He did smell a bit because of it too. 

And for the reason he’s rubbery:

He contains some unfortunate souls! Getting this part out isn’t too bad, but putting it back in can be a pain – it only fits in properly in one orientation, so it can take some fiddling to get it right. 

Close-ups of this part:

Looks like he’s munched up these dudes well. This part is nicely sculpted and painted. 

Top of Gelmar’s head:

Here you can see some of the shininess of the blue parts. He has a well sculpted spine, and I like the claws protruding from his shoulders.

Left:

I like the fact he has very different textures on his harms to his body – the contrast works well, and the details definitely make up for the lack of varying colours in the character design. 

Right:

I love the overall monstrous shape of his body. With his tail, he’s pretty stable, but for me, his tail does slip out easily if I move him. Loving all the small details and his clawed hands.

Back:

His back isn’t short of details in the sculpt, which is nice. Here you can see where his tail part is two segments, for the soft rubber part. The blend is handled reasonably well though. He does have some limited articulation, but other than moving his harms, none of it is really worth messing about with for me. 

Overall, I’m really happy I decided to go for this figure. I love his devilish appearance, and the blue metallic colour is attractive to me. Would recommend this figure, but he can sometimes be pricey in the aftermarket. He does have other colour variants, but I don’t think I’ll attempt to chase them down.. however I’d consider buying one if I see one come up at a reasonable price if I’m on the hunt for Devilman loot again. 

Yoko Kurama – Yu Yu Hakusho

This figure I’m not familiar with the source material, but I couldn’t turn down a wolf dude, so I preordered him. 

And thus he arrived at my house:

From the photos on MFC it wasn’t clear if the translucent parts were tinted blue or purple – I’d say they’re a bluey grey. Not entirely sure my photos are also clear in this regard – camera felt like nudging the white balance into the blueish range. 

I love the motion in his clothing, and his face is sculpted well. His skin has been given a decent amount of shading, which helps his muscles stand out. I like the effect of the translucent hair, but not sure it works as well as the promo art. 

Face close-up:

I like the ears and his expression. Here we can see the seam where the arm can be exchanged – I like the fact they’ve included an exchangeable part by default (unlike Kaneki Ken…) and the seam isn’t too visible when displaying the figure. 

Close-up of the alternate arm:

I like this arm too, but for the photoshoot, it can get in the way of his face. His tendons are sculpted well on this arm, and the hand looks good.

Front with the alt arm:

As shown by this photo, viewing angle is important if you choose to use this arm part. However, it does make for a better generic pose than him pointing at his head. 

Left:

This arm is also painted well, and has a good amount of detail sculpted on his hand. Clothes also work well, and I like the way his hair flows over his shoulder.

Right:

Here we get a first look at the tail – and it shows why I’m on the fence about translucent hair. It’s a nice effect in isolation, but doesn’t really give the impression of being hair. I’ll just admire the shading on his shoes and feet. 

Back:

The sculpt lines in the hair are well done – it does convey the different hair textures well. Also having the sculpted strands is nice, and adds detail to the figure. 

Base:

The base has a ring underneath, to make him appear as if he’s slightly floating on this wind disc. A relatively simple base for Kotobukiya, but still looks good. The silver print and the transparent blue plastic work well and complement the figure. 

Overall, I’m happy with this figure – there is more paint detail on this one than there usually is for Kotobukiya figures, and well, he’s a wolf dude :P. I’d prefer if the hair was the more purplish colour in the promo photos, but suspect that would be less canon. Looking at images of him, his hair colour does vary somewhat, but probably tends more to grey than purple. Would recommend this figure, if you like his design. There aren’t too many figures of this guy, and the other “main” one has some unfortunate arm seams. 

Kaneki Ken – Awakened Ver – Tokyo Ghoul

This figure I was considering chasing down in the aftermarket, as I liked the design, but then found Kotobukiya was doing a repainted re-release. So I PO’d that instead. 

So here he is:

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I love this figure, and the base works well with him. The paintwork is really nice, and the upgraded kagune were definitely worth waiting for – I love the transparent plastic they’ve used, and think it looks much better than the pictures of the original that I’ve seen. 

He also has some nice paint details, with the shading on the shorts and his nails being painted. 

Face:

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One mini-controversy with this figure is they didn’t re-release the bonus head – you can use it if you have it, but you’ll be relying on sourcing the old release. I’m not too bothered about it myself. The head itself is painted well, and looks good in isolation. 

Close-up of part of the kagune:

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Shiny, glossy :). We can also see some paint shading on his hand here too. 

Left:

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Lotsa kagune. I like the way his feet are posed, and standing on the rock. 

Right:

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His pose, what you can see of it, looks good from this angle too. The broken handcuffs are painted well, and have a sense of motion to them. 

Back:

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The back of his shirt is sculpted well, and you can also see the band for his mask back here. The kagune comes out nicely from his back, pushing his shirt out of the way. 

Overall, I’m really happy with this figure, and definitely think this is one of Kotobukiya’s nicer figures. Worth the price I paid imo, though he will now have gone up in the aftermarket. Would recommend it, and not surprised it’s gone up in the aftermarket. 

Aquaman – Justice League

This figure I was on the fence about buying, and decided to go for it, before I lost the opportunity to get it at a reasonable price. 

So here he is:

Whilst I’m not much of an Aquaman fan, I like the shininess and the colours of this figure. The copper-green colour scheme is very eye-catching, especially with the metallic effect paint. The belt has also been sculpted well, and complements the figure. 

One thing that’s a pain is his trident:

It looks nice, but he doesn’t hold it too well – it’ll easily slip through his hand, which makes it awkward if you’re moving him off the shelf… To remedy this, I’ve used a balled-up Glu Dot on his hand to hold the trident in place. I have him displayed slightly above eye-level, so the Glu Dot isn’t visible, but I don’t think it’s even that noticeable in the above shot. 

Face:

I like his face – not sure what it’s supposed to look like, but I think it has been done well in terms of general sculpt and paint. The hair has a nice sculpt to it too. We can also admire the edging on his collar here too. 

Base:

The base is the standard Artfx+ affair, with the Justice League logo, rendered nicely in silver. The base is magnetic, as these figures have magnets in their feet to hold them to the base. For him, the magnets aren’t strong enough to pick up the base, but it does help him stand up for sure. 

Left:

I love the curved parts on his suit, and the glossiness of the green. Almost think his gloves could’ve done with some kind of edging to make them less plain though. They feel like they end prematurely somehow. His sideburn is well done on this side though. 

Right:

The join on his leg is pretty noticeable from the side. Probably the largest flaw with the figure, outside of his slippery weapon and the fact it’s Aquaman. Still liking the fins on his outfit. 

Back:

Bit of a square arse… Not sure what’s going on with that. Especially with the creases moulded underneath on his legs, it seems to emphases the odd shape  :(. I think the rest of the back of his legs looks OK, though the shiny patterns do make it look a bit like he’s got rubber-legs. For his back, I think it’s better ignore most of him from the waist down, but the suit top texture looks good, and his hair looks decent enough. 

Overall, not a bad figure, but not worth RRP. I’ve usually seen him for sale around the £35 mark, which is a fair price. I think with the lack of extra colour and shading that other characters get, maybe he should have been given a lower price point out of the gate. 

Leafa – Sword Art Online – Noodle Stopper figure

Pre-ordered this one on AmiAmi, and finally got it just after I got back from holiday:

And yep, she came out cute :). I’m really happy with the way this one came out. The swimsuit is sculpted well – happy they’ve sculpted the top strap separately, and the hair is nicely shaded.The small green details have been painted nicely too. 

Close-up:

Looking close, one of the green lines on her bikini is actually way off… oops. Her hair decoration has a bit of stray green paint, but nothing too bad. She ha a goodly amount of detail in her body, which gives her a good look. Her eyes are pretty detailed, and the small details on her face are painted well.

Left:

The detail lines in her hair work well, with the shading that’s also present. I like the posing of her legs – it works well and she sits well, keeping my Mug Shot nicely stoppered. She also has some small details in her ear, which is a nice inclusion for a prize figure. My only minor complaint on this side is the strings on her bikini look a bit too wide. 

Right:

I like the way her hair tumbles down behind her, and the plaits look good. Her foot is well-sculpted and posed. The bow looks less “noodly” on this side. 

Back:

Her back has a nice realistic shape, and she has a bit of butt cleavage showing. The bow looks really good on the back. I like the way they’ve included some folds near the knot. 

Overall, I really like this figure and would recommend her. She should be fairly cheap as she’s a prize figure, but that all depends on what her aftermarket does. Would still recommend her at more than I paid, as she’s possibly a bit nicer than other figures I have of this size (and paid more for!). 

Amon – Apocalypse of Devilman

The third and final figure of this set is Amon:

Big brute! He has a pretty large presence, with his bulky chest and muscly arms. He’s also the tallest of the three. I love the big head wings and the furry texturing on his legs. His torso also has a better blend than Devilman’s, making it a less jarring transition. 

Left:

Not too much to see on the site – the hairy arm texture looks good though, and his feet have a fair amount of sculptwork going on. Love the added veins. 

Right:

Here we see more hairy texturing – and the hair seems fairly well blended on his ankle to his foot. Those elbow claws must get in the way though!

Back:

Not a big fan of the sculpting on the red parts of his back – seems kind of.. unrefined? Not quite the same level of detail as the front of the figure for me. The rest of his back looks OK though, and he has a nice end to his tail.

Though for my figure, I knew he was coming in a sun-damaged box, but apparently the base is also prone to sun damage, and that had yellowed too – the other figures did have yellowing to their boxes but not to the bases. Hence why it is a more yellow piece in the other blogs.

And for this blog, here is all three together:

They do overlap a bit too much for my liking, but definitely look impressive as a set. Glad to finally have the set, even if one is a bit yellowed. Would recommend this set if you can get them at a reasonable price, but getting hold of Devilman and Amon might be quite the challenge. Saylos seems to be fairly readily available when I was hunting this set, but the other two… not so much. 

Super-glad I can now display them together!

Devilman – Apocalypse of Devilman

Ever since I got Saylos from this set, I’ve been wanting to get the other two. And thankfully both turned up on Mandarake! 

So here is Devilman:

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I love the blue-purple colouring of his body, and all the details in the body sculpt. The lower parts of his arms blend well to his arms, but below the torso… not so well. 

Face:

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His face looks good, and the antennae came out well. I love the little fangs poking out of his mouth. 

Left:

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Here we can see he leans forward slightly – this can be slightly annoying for balance, especially as his ankles aren’t the tightest joints. The body detailing extends to his sides, which I’m appreciating in this photo, and his hands look nice n’ spiky. 

Right:

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Here we can see more of his tail, which looks like it has a lethal end. I like the way it curls down to the side of his body. He has plenty of spiky details.

Back:

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The backs of his wings don’t really have any details to speak of, but the body has some sculpting. Here we can see how he is flicking his tail behind his back. 

Close-up of the wings:

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Here we can see the wings are hinged – I like the fact they included this articulation, so you have a bit more in terms of posing options for him. 

Overall I rather like this figure and glad I got him. Certainly a worthy addition to the set.

As a bonus picture, here are the three bases for all of the figures:

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Yes, one of them is a bit yellow, which I’ll go into in tomorrow’s blog. The skeleton effect is excellent, and does look very neat imo. Love the amount of designwork that went into these bases. Though having two foot pegs for all of the figures would’ve been nice… 

Izuruha – Ru/Li/Lu/Ra

Now for the fourth and final Izuruha:

Clothed, her body shows through the clothes, and gives a good silhouette, without showing anything off. I like the more serious expression on this one, contrasting with the smiling one on the other figure. 

Left:

With this figure I had to heat up the legs on the stand – when I first tried to assemble it, the back leg was very far off from the back stand – hence why I’m fairly sure the arm has drooped some on yesterday’s figure. 

Right:

Here you get to see a lot of her body. Sneaky side view :).

Back:

The creases are well done in the clothing, and there is a hood evident too. Hair is also nicely sculpted. Overall, I think she looks good clothed, if this is your preferred option. 

Now to cast her off:

She does look somewhat younger than the other version, so I can imagine this not appealing to some people. Again, the body is well-sculpted and painted giving it a lifelike feel. 

Left:

Again, the pose is fairly dynamic, giving a unique look to these figures. And look ma, no seams!

Right:

A bit of an interesting line from he leg to her stomach. Not quite sure that’s right, but it doesn’t look bad to me. 

Back:

Again, hair is well-sculpted and shaded. She has a more slender frame on this figure, and the backside to match. I like the fact you can see her shoulderblades. 


Overall, I like this figure as much as the other ones. I’d recommend them, if they’re your kind of figure, and they shouldn’t be too expensive to buy, if you find them for sale. 

Izuruha – Golden Diva ver – Ru/Li/Lu/Ra

After getting the blue/grey pair, I decided to eventually pick up the golden pair. 

This blog will be about the Golden Diva version:

I didn’t quite get her robe back on quite right when taking these pics… The blonde/gold versions are certainly more colourful. The outfit is pretty, and her hair flows well. 

Right:

I like the pose of this figure, which is why I ended up getting a second one of her XD. 

Back:

The robe does a good job of covering up the parts you may not want to see, if you prefer clothed figures, but leaves it so you can see her back, which has been sculpted well.

Now for the NSFW pictures.

Front:

The painting on her body is really good and looks natural. The other nice thing about these figures is the bodies are one piece of PVC, so there are no seams. The head is a separate part, so there is a connection there, but not visible normally, with it being under her chin/hair. 

Face/chest close-up:

Her face has been painted well, but her nose is a bit pointy. Her chest is painted well, and looks realistic. I like the fact her chest isn’t comical sized. 

Left:

Her body is sculpted well, and the curves look good. The hair also has some nice highlights to it. 

Right:

Her chest is probably most visible from this angle. I like the way the light works on this figure. I’m thinking her outstretched arm may have sagged a bit over time, and I may fix this at some point. I know from the next Izuruha figure I’ll be blogging about that these figures do bend a bit over time. 

Back:

The hair looks nice from the back, and so does her backside. We can see that her ankles have been sculpted well too. 

Overall, I really like these Izuruha figures, and this one isn’t an exception. If you like the figure (and not too bothered about source material – doesn’t seem like it’s something that’s particularly accessible outside of Japanese language things),I would recommend it. 

Geara Ghirarga – Gundam Build Divers

This figure I saw on AmiAmi, and was like… yes, I have to preorder that. I really want to build that. 

And build it I did:

Overall, it was a decent build – not too many stickers, I don’t remember any bits being overly complex on the main body. but the tail was fun. Also I probably need to tidy up the plastic nubs a bit here and there… My fault, not the kit’s fault. I do have some better cutters now… 

Left:

Here we have the articulated back parts, which look really good imo, and give the figure some decent depth. Also I like the design detail in the boots – and the yellow accents in general. 

Right:

Here he is, tail half-posed. His head looks menacing, with all the angular parts. I love these little details. 

The blue translucent parts come out of his back like so:

And, even cooler, you can shut them like so:

So need to tidy the plastic nubs…But I thought this was a pretty cool feature to have on a model kit. 

Both of the pods closed:

Some of the kits I’ve built, this would be a choice you’d have to make during building, but I love the fact that he transforms, so you can quickly and easily transform him between “stances”. Credit to the kit designers here!

Back:

Looks very angular from the back, and you can see the leg joints here, but they’re not disruptive to the design of the figure, which I like. The yellow accents contrast nicely.

Close-up of his upper back:

I like this cooling fin detail on this back. 

Tail:

Ahh, the tail. You have to be careful building this – the end segment only pushes on, so you have to be careful not to shove the next fin parts down onto it too hard. And the holes in the fins are only just big enough for them to fit on the wire, so some of them were buggers to get on. And then resulted in me knocking the end off, and then having to start over. You then have to wind the other end of the wire around some parts in the end part, to secure it in place. Adjusting this bit was a pain, and I’m not sure I got it quite right. Also the fins can turn over and go a bit all over the place – see the top of the tail. But the end result does look pretty nifty overall. 

You can also pull his tail off, and he can wield it, but I think I’ll leave it as a tail. If you like his design, I’d recommend giving this kit a go. Just… be patient with the tail. 

EVA-02 Beast Mode – Evangelion

Now onto EVA-02… in beast mode. Decided to go for this one over the normal EVA-02 as it is a much more interesting look to it. 

So here she is outta the box:

Grragrarrrgghh. I love the cores popping out of its back, and the hunched pose. Though working out what to do with the feet was a bit problematic. It doesn’t pose very easily imo, and feels a bit of a strain to get it looking good. I love the paint on the legs, and the overall beastly look. 

Close-up of the face:

You can leave the blood off the top of its head, and there is a picture on the box, including the issue of doing so – you’re left with an odd, flat bit and a hole in the head that doesn’t look good if the top of its head is showing. 

Here we can see some of the sloppy paint – a white dribble on its chin, and some orange creeping out from underneath. Overall, there’s a few lines that aren’t neat here, giving the overall painting a bit of a scruffy look. The jaw does move though, so it has that going for it. 

Another effect for the head:

This one is a little awkward to get into place,  but looks cool once done. Fire! 

From the top:

Gives a good feeling of motion, and the paint jobs are done nicely on these effect parts imo. 

Left:

I think the hunched-over part of its back has been done very well, and I love the blending of colours here, plus the shape. You do get a sense of the inorganic giving into the organic. Looking at that arm in the foreground, I am definitely seeing some wandering grey paint. Also a paint chip on its back – recessed part, near the reflection. There are a couple of paint chips, and the paint feels like it could be easily chipped. It’s part of why I’m not so happy with these Evangelion figures – they’re not finished to a high standard, which doesn’t make them look as good as they should close up. It leaves me kind of frustrated, as there aren’t many options for articulated EVAs, and they’re figures I feel work well with articulation. I like the size of these too – you can fit a few in a display, unlike my model kit EVA-01. 

Right:

Still liking that blood splatter from the head – at least I think it looks good on the figure. The colour blends look good on this side too. Also we have the equipped “claw” – I did have both equipped at one point, but needed to remove the other as it was getting in the way of photos. 

Close-up of the “claw” swipe-lines:

These are supposed to be giving the hands motion, to show The Beast clawing at things. I think they kind of work. However, putting them on the hands is a bit of a tricky challenge, but once all four fingers are in, they stay on OK. I think it’d be cool to have two EVAs fighting, and use this effect. 

Back:

Here we get to see the cores closer… and that damn scratch. I’ll just keep looking at the cores/rods… yeah.. I like them. 

EVA in the box:

Now for some first impressions time… I love the way the figure was presented in the box – the pose looks really good and certainly looked good when it was boxed. If I saw it in a shop, I’d definitely pick it up and look at it, even if I didn’t know Evangelion. And now for the other thing… a bunch of large accessories, and no small ones. No spare hands, no extra arm parts or anything like that… but you do get a blood splatter for if you tear its arm off! Or a part of your choice! I do like this idea, and is worthy of losing some accessories for this one. However, the swipe claws I would’ve liked to see something else tbh. Some more hand poses could’ve been interesting – maybe something with the fingers outstretched and the thumbs flat/backwards, for posing in a crawling pose. The dirt smash accessory I could take or leave – I think it’s a decent idea, but I just don’t like the look of this splat. 

Overall, a bit of a mediocre figure. I still love the design of it, just the execution could’ve done with some more work, as it feels kind of half-baked. I can’t really see this one going up much in the aftermarket, but I think it’s decent enough. 

EVA-01 Awakened Ver. – Evangelion

Here we have the second Evangelion I’ve bought from the Legacy of Revoltech series. 

So here he is, out of the box:

Mostly I like this guy from the front. The striking colour scheme works well, though you can see a couple of paint flaws – one on his right arm, one on the upper right part of his chest in red are visible in the photo. I find the arm transition a bit sudden – maybe it could’ve done with a paint job to blend it more. The flare on this pearly part of his arm is a bit flat too – could’ve done with more texture so it didn’t look like a plastic offshoot. 

The halo looks nice though, on reflection, I think I prefer the downwards part, rather than a less-sturdy connection method. 

Left:

The flare on his lower arm is less of a distraction than the upper one. I really think they should’ve gone for a smaller elbow joint. The clear hand looks really good though, and I like that they transitioned to a transparent part. The joint shape in his knees works well though. I like the way the shoulder parts on these figures articulate, so they don’t get in the way whilst playing/adjusting with the figure. 

Right:

Mostly loks good from this angle, but there are some shaky elements to the paint if you look closely. I like the shiny black, though I think it’s supposed to be more matte. 

Back:

Again, no subtlety to that arm transition. Here we see the hidden ball joints form the back. And the plug

hatch

alternate part designed to hold the halo – if you don’t like the halo, by default there’s a

plug

hatch part that doesn’t have the peg for the halo. Think it’s good that they included this option, as halos can usually look a bit cheesy, at the best of times. 

Face close-up:

His jaw hinges on this head, which is a cool feature. Grrowwwl. 

Halo from the side:

This clear peg part works well. 

Halo from the top:

Annoyingly, there’s a tiny paint chip on mine. Nice texture on top, though maybe less transparent than it should be to feel “halo-y”. 

Alternate head:

This head has a fixed mouth, but you can “equip” the starry eyes. They seem to stay on there reasonably firmly. 

Default plug hatch:

This was an absolute ass to take out, but does eventually come out if you keep prying! 

Extra arm:

For if you don’t want glowy action. 

Gun and charging cable:

Might get the gun out, but the charging cable would be a pain, so that’s going in the accessory bag for me. 

Hands. More hands:

I guess the arm accessory is for switching sides of the glowing arm? And plenty of hands, for all your hand-posing needs. 

And that’s your lot. Overall, the figure does feel on the cheaper side, which it is. Posing may be a bit of an issue – he does come apart at the middle rather easily for me. Posing, I had a bit of an issue getting the joints where I wanted. However, he certainly is well-represented in the accessories department, which does help make up for the QC issues. Overall, I’m OK with this figure, but not wild about it. The prices are certainly more reasonable than Figmas though, not that there is ones of these dudes. 

Retsuryu – Gundam

And now time to say farewell to the Japan loot with this small model kit of Retsuryu. I wanted to buy a Gundam model kit, as I was in the Diver City mall, but didn’t want anything too big due to luggage space, and I’m not the most Gundam-y person. 

So enter this little fellah:

Yep, was attracted to him thanks to the shiny blue. Can’t go wrong with blue. He’s a cute and colourful-looking dude. From what I remember from the build, he was a pretty easy one to do. Also the end result is pretty cool imo. A couple of the stickers you definitely have to be careful with – especially thinking the eyes and his chin. 

Claws stretched out:

He has a reasonable amount of posing ability, given his actual arms don’t move that much. He rotates at the head and the waist, plus these outer claws can be moved and grab things. 

Left:

Mmm. Shiny. Blue. I like the ribbed effect on his arm, and he’s got some material motion going on in his skirt. 

Right:

Here we see the holder for his axe, which we will look at later. The holder doesn’t work very well though, imo.

Back:

Looks decent enough, but very plain. Might’ve been nice to have a couple of gold/red stickers to put on back here. 

One last look before we move onto the aforementioned axe:

Would’ve been nice if we had some back stickers that matched thematically with the ones on his arms. The green shiny part on his helmet adds a nice central focal point to him. 

Axe:

He has this shiny axe, which you can have a short or a long handle on. This is the long handle mode, but you can remove the blue part and the lower part if you wish. You can then put that part in his hand. 

Close-up of the head:

Yeah, didn’t do the stickers so good here… glad the green parts are painted green. Though only on one side. The box shows the axe coloured, would’ve been nice to have a couple of stickers to add to the front design. Alas, not to be.

He can also fold up the axe:

Which, apparently, lore-wise he can use to fly! Pretty neat, huh? I like the way the axe parts and the dragon head are hinged, so you can do this transformation. 

Overall, he’s a cool little dude, and these small kits are very cheap to buy. These mini-kits I think would be good for beginners – not too many pieces or stickers. If you want to try making a model kit, I think these small Gundam kits would make a good intro kit. The other small kits I’ve done (Mecha Colle ones) have been on the fiddly side, and might be a bit much, but this one was a nice balance of things. Though looking at that axe, reminds me it was kind of a pain to get the green bits to stay put XD. 

Yoko Littner – Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann

Managed to get my hands on an affordable Yoko figure whilst I was in Japan, of which is a rarity. The box was in poor condition (no acetate), but the figure itself was in good condition.

So here she is:

Not the best looker out of action figures, but a decent effort overall. Being scantily clad, she lends herself to action figure form more, as the articulation can be put at the edges of her clothing, which can be seen here. She does have a shiny belly, as she’s a bit rubbery. I really like the hair and the glasses on this figure. 

Left:

Here we can see the budget/older nature of this figure. The boots are a nice sculpt, but she has some noticeable seams on her leg. Also note the sticker dot – these are supplied with the figure so you can cover the screw holes. I chose to use them as the screws are pretty ugly. Her hair curves around nicely. 

Right:

Her bum sticks out awkwardly here, but that might be partly the fault of the stand. Again, seam city, and her back looks odd from the way it articulates. 

Back:

And here we can see how ugly the screws actually are. I didn’t sticker these ones, because I couldn’t be bothered, but there are enough stickers to go around, if you want to do the full job. I’d rather keep them as spares, if the ones I applied get knocked off and lost. The back view definitely isn’t winning any awards, and there are a lot of compromises to allow full articulation, such  as her legs, so she can crouch more. I think this is definitely a figure you want to pose o look at from the front, rather than any other angles. 

In terms of accessories, she has a hairpiece with no glasses, loads of hands, barefoot legs, a little Boota, an extra face, her gun, and some parts for it. 

But due to laziness, and the box being in a different room, I only took pics of her gun:

I think the gun looks pretty decent, but nothing special. The paint is neat, but simple. Matches the figure, really. 

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this figure. Imo, this figure has its flaws, so I’d only recommend if you want everything Yoko, and/or she comes up cheap. I paid ¥2200 for her, so didn’t exactly break the bank in buying her. I don’t own it, but the Fraulein versions would likely be a better bet, and probably not too much more to buy. 

Alien Big Chap – Alien – Revoltech

I couldn’t come back from Japan without an Alien figure:

The first thing that stands out on this figure is the detail in his head and on the main part of his body. He also has some copper-coloured highlights on his body, which stand out more in-person than they do in this photo.

A closer look at that head:

The ridges are nice and pronounced, and the shading on the plastic looks really good. Not many figures have the clear plastic shaded, so a plus for this figure. 

Left:

Here we can see the highlights more, and his slender hands. I think the shading on the “back pipes” is a bit overdone, but still looks cool. I like the neutral-ish pose for his hands. 

Close-up of a hand:

The fingernails are painted well, and I like the way they’ve sculpted his tendons. The brown-to-black paint is blended well. The lines on his arms are sculpted well, and he has the pokey bit from his elbow. 

Right:

Love the shininess and the detail. The fin that pokes up above the “pipes” has a nice evenness with the parts protruding. You do rather see the ball joints in his legs quite well from this angle though. 

Closer look at the tail:

I think the texture has been replicated well for a 1/12 figure. Some colour highlight here too. Tail indeed does end with a barb. 

Back:

Everything barring the ball joints looks good back here. I think if this figure was reproduced today, they’d use smaller ball joints for the knees and ankles, so they don’t protrude so much. I could run my hand down the middle of that back though… and down his tail. 

“Pipes”:

I think the colours could have been blended better here, and made a bit darker. Looks kinda odd having the tips be such a bright colour of brown. 

And what kind of accessory would a xenomorph come with?

An egg, complete with facehugger! I really love the paint job on these two, and the amount of detail that went into the bottom of this facehugger. 

Side view:

Not too much to see here, but nice to see it isn’t totally flat, which makes it feel more natural. If you can call it natural. 

Back:

The level of detail is replicated on the back – his spine looks good, and you can see where the body goes into the “fingers” of the facehugger. The egg has a very nice green-to-black fade going on. 

Top of the egg:

The detail looks really good here too. The facehugger is a separate part, so you can display it separately if you wish, but the egg holds it sturdily despite the small connection between the two. 

Egg base:

Love the wormy, alien texture here too. The paint is also neatly done, and this is actually slightly transparent, which looks really good in person when the light goes through it. 

Overall, I’m very pleased with this figure. Would recommend to a fan of xenos, but don’t expect anything in terms of accessories – the xeno is “as-is”, plus the egg. Both are great pieces imo. 

Ben Jackson & Doc Saito – Tiger & Bunny World Collectable Figures Vol. 3

And finally, the side characters! 

First is Ben Jackson, the taxi driver for Wild Tiger:

Here we see him as his positive self, with the obligatory hot dog. The painting is really nice on the front of this figure, and the sculpting is good too – his face looks really good, and the creasing in his trousers gives this figure a more realistic feel. 

Left:

His hair is definitely smooth…. could’ve probably done with some kind of knobbly texture. Rest of him looks fine though. 

Right:

Go Tigher! Yeah, that hair is deffo lookin’ odd…

Back:

The arm seams actually look good on this figure, and match with the coat style. They’ve added creasing to the clothing at the back, so he also looks good from the back.

Most of this figure is really good imo – just the hair could’ve done with more detail so he looks less like a brown bowling ball. 

Now for Saito the Scientist:

The paint is neat, and looks good. Though with his badge not painted, that part does look odd – more like he’s got it underneath his labcoat, and it is showing through…

Left:

Paint for his glasses got a bit escapey, and not quite enough on his hair. His shoes and coat look good though. 

Right:

Glasses a bit better pained on this side, but looking odd. Hair is of an interesting geometric shape…

Back:

Back doesn’t do the hair any favours either, but the coat looks good, plust the other clothes we can see here.

Overall a decent figure with a couple of oddities.

Blue Rose & Huang Pao-Lin – Tiger & Bunny World Collectable Figures Vol. 3

Now for some of the other heroes! 

First up, Blue Rose:

This figure was one of the reasons I went for Vol 3 – as I really like Blue Rose’s design. Aaandd… with my luck, she was broken in the box! I ended up ordering this replacement from Mandarake. And I’m glad I did – the paintwork is mostly pretty solid with this figure, and the colours are really nice. Unfortunately assembling her is not fun, and it was hard to get her ice tentacles in, as well as attached to the stand ><. You will want to warm this figure to assemble it. 

Left:

Her head feels overly egg-shaped. Her hair should stick back some, but this feels… kind of unnatural. Otherwise, she looks fine from the side.

Right:

Hm, that vine isn’t quite in her side… yeah, she’s a pain to assemble. Bit of mould mess on the side of he head, and could do with a few more lines to make it more hairlike. Her earring is nicely done though, and the ice gun looks good. 

Back:

Despite the pain to assemble, the ice tentacles look good. The paint on her collar looks really good too. 

Overall, I really like this figure, and glad I ordered a replacement. With the broken one, her tiara split. I did try to repair it, but really with the wrong glue, so the glued part shows quite badly. 

Now for Huang Pao-Lin, aka Dragon Kid:

I like her in her casual outfit, so was glad to have this one in the set. The paint is very nice on this one, and there’s been some detail put into her clothing, with the creasing. Her hands aren’t very well moulded though, and look kinda blobby. 

Left:

The black linework is mostly OK, can see some flaws if you look close, but not as bad as other figures in this set. 

Right:

Bit messier on this side, plus some mess on the hair. 

Back:

Not sure what’s going on with her back up top – looks a little overly flat, and teh seams/creases by her arms look odd. I guess the sculptor was distracted by her backside…

Overall, a decent figure, but not anything special.