Category: Figure manufacturer origin

Wasp – Kotobukiya Bishoujo

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

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

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

Close-up of her face:

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

Close-up of the base:

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

Right:

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

Left:

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

Close-up of the gold on her shoes:

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

Back:

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

Her hair looks good from the back too. 

Close-up of the wings:

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

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

Elite Praetorian Guard – Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Here’s a bit of a random pickup – a die-cast Elite Praetorian Guard. I haven’t seen The Last Jedi (can’t claim to be much of a Star Wars fan), but I love the design of this character, who looks like this:

The majority of the figure is a solid metal, and his skirt is rubbery, allowing to flex as you move him around. Weapons are also plastic. The particular thing that drew me to this version of the Praetorian Guard was the shininess of the paint, which I think works well with the red. As much as I’m not a fan of the films, I have to give them props for designing some interesting-looking characters. 

The base:

The base has this nice etched pattern. Shame it’s only passable as a base – it only has one peg, so getting him to balance can be tricky, as he’s quite top-heavy, so realistically, you’re not going to do action poses with him. If you want him in a more action pose, you may have to invest in a sturdy claw stand. 

Left side:

Here we can see a pinhole that’s the articulation for his arm, and one of the rubber bands I’ve left on for the weapon in his left hand. With the weapons, I took the one off the right-hand side, then had issues getting the weapon to stay in his hand. They are plastic-y, but not by much, so you could possibly get a better grip out of it. However, doing some research during writing this blog, I’ve found you can make the two swords into one weapon… but he’ll be holding it one-handed. Does stay in his hand better as the one weapon. 

On removing the pictured rubber band, I think it had started to go. I wasn’t planning on leaving it on long term, as they do eventually perish and then are an awful mess to remove sometimes. 

Right side:

So let’s get to those arm seams – yeah, they’re pretty visible. Probably less so on this side. I don’t think it’s too bad placement the seams, but they do remain visible. Here you can see the notch in the weapon, which attaches to a corresponding hole on the other weapon. Having the choice to attach them together is neat… however there’s a lack of articulation, so you can’t really do a two-handed grip, like the weapon should really be held. He has a lack of “flapping” motion in his arms – the joints basically articulate on one axis. 

Back:

They covered up four screws… but not the two on his arms?! I guess it was to avoid fouling of the joint, but damn. Seems an odd choice to do nothing, and not even paint the screws red. Some nice detailing in the mould of his upper body though – some bit son the back of his head, and the lines on the back. 

Honestly I think this figure would have been better as a statically posed figure, with maybe some swappable arms to change his stance to hold the weapon. The articulation gives you some options, but you’re fighting gravity to find stances that work. I think this is the kind of guy you’re going to pose once, then leave him, lest you knock him over and scratch him. The die-cast and the paint gives him a good finish, and makes him into a weighty collectable, but I think the articulation didn’t add as much as it should to a figure, and kind of loses out on that. A claw stand may’ve been nice, or maybe some stand that holds onto his leg, or wedges up between his legs, so you could have him more “action stance” and not have to fight gravity so much. 

I don’t mind him for what he is – I didn’t pay full price, and honestly, I think I can see why other people didn’t either… Once displayed, he looks fine, but there has been compromises in this figure that don’t quite work. 

Liko – Active Raid – Figure-Rise Bust

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

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

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

Left:

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

Right side:

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

Back:

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

Top back:

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

Bottom of the back of the base:

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

Above:

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

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

Kuroyukihime & Arita Haruyuki – Banpresto

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

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

So here they are:

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

Left:

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

Right:

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

Back:

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

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

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

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

Paréo Paradiso – Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft

This figure I bought shortly after the other one, at FACTS. It is entitle “Paréo Paradiso” which would imply she’s wearing a wraparound dress. I remember seeing the pose she’s based on (was it in one of the cinematics? Or just some out-of-game artwork?) and in that, it definitely looked more like a towel. So not sure if the original model was wrong or this one is “wrong” :P. 

Here she is, in her towel/dress:

As with the other one, there’s some noticeable paint flaws going on. Mine’s got a bit of stray paint on her foot, and a bit of blobbiness in one of her hair strands. With the fabric wrapping around her, it definitely looks more like a dress fabric than a towel, due to the way the creases are moulded. 

Left:

Her face looks OK, not sure she’s entirely pleased to see us looking at her in just a thin piece of fabric… The moulding looks really good from this angle imo, and probably is a better display angle than front on, where you can’t see her face too well. 

Right:

Mostly looks OK from this angle, but the dress is too flat against her right leg, which leaves it looking painted on. Could’ve done with a line of shading or to actually mould it, like it is on the left leg. 

Back:

Admire her shapley backside :P. It would’ve been nice if they added some detail to the dress, as it does look a bit like she’s been papier-mâché’d. With this one, there is a couple of rubbing marks on the back. Not entirely surprising, as she’s probably been kicking around for awhile. The forked hair looks a little odd – may’ve been better to either not fork it, or have the bits “lean” the same way. 

I paid €5 for her, so a cheap figure. Was glad I could find another one of this “set”. 

Lara Croft – Angel of Darkness – Strahov Complex

I bought this figure in a collectables shop, along with the zombie head. This figure originates from France, but I can’t find out a lot of information about this series of figures. 

So in lieu of information, here is a pic:

It’s quite a solid figure, paint job is on the sloppier side, but good enough at a distance. Love the camo on her shorts, and her face came out well imo. The sculpt is decent, but not overly detailed. 

Left side:

The black paint appears like it didn’t want to go where it was intended to go :P. Having the hair as strands is nice. Not sure what’s going on with that back shoe – looks like they wanted to have her feet more level, and tried to use the floor colour to make her soles an even shape. Yeah… didn’t quite work, and looks like she’s wearing one platform shoe… d’oh. 

The text across the bottom is “L’Ange des Ténèbres, Strahov Complex”, which is the name of the game in French, followed by the level she’s in. 

Right side:

Copyright to Core Design, showing these are official figures. And some serious platform shoe going on. The black paint is neater on this side, but mine has a couple of marks. Fortunately this is on the back, so it doesn’t show when displayed. Hair is a little sloppily painted on this side. 

Back:

The back looks fine, some nice details in the sculpt. Most noticeable paint flaw here for me is the strap on her left thigh, followed by the shoe top. 

Overall, this is nice for a cheaper collectable. I paid £8, and that would probably be the max I’d recommend spending on her. If you want a small statue of Lara, I think these are pretty decent, but there will be paint flaws. 

Illusionless Time Dragonbound, Myr

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

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

Close-up of her face:

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

Here she is, more angled on the stand:

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

Let’s take a closer look at that staff:

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

Left side:

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

Right side:

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

Back:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daenerys Targaryen – Eaglemoss

Two collectables that don’t have much to do with each other, but are both going to be quick entries I think… 

First up, this small Daenerys Targaryen:

Unfortunately she was broken across the feet when she came – you can see the lines across her boots where I’ve reglued her. As to why I didn’t return her: I won her for 99p + postage, so it wasn’t worth the hassle of returning it. It’s not very well painted, and is probably about the level I hope to achieve with a garage kit :P. Thinking of repainting her boots as practice, and cover up the break lines. The die-cast material she’s made out of isn’t very strong, so not sure if she was already broken (image for the auction was poor), or it happened in her journey to me. 

Sometimes Eaglemoss does an OK paint job. Sometimes they… do this. I guess the GoT line is one of the ones that’s going to/has binned hard. 

Here she is from the right:

Admire the… thing she is holding and blue paint in her hair. Base is also a bit naffed. Her This is probably the best angle for the moulding on Daenerys goes. The gold part is supposed to be one item, with a tassel coming off the end, but the tassel isn’t aligned to the base of the item. The tassel moulding looks OK irl. 

Left:

Apologies for the out-of-focus shot. Her face paint is actually pretty good close up, but the quality of her hair really mars it. It looks like they overpainted blue on the hair that’s on her shoulders, and it’s way too fat to look right. And that hand paint is damn awful, as well as a total lack of definition for her fingers on this hand. Part of the hair is the same colour as her cloak – the side of the hair that’s facing us, plus a bit on her back is the same way. I don’t think cloaks come up to meet your hair… 

Back:

Paint overruns everywhere. If you look at the hair dangling down her back, you can see the blue side on the left that I mentioned in the last paragraph. The bottom tip of her coat is also missing dark blue paint. 

This could’ve been a good figure, if more care was paid to the painting. This feels like a figure that shouldn’t have passed QA – there’s some nice bits like the clasps painted in silver in her hair, and the bead on the tassel of the… thing. The face weirdly was done well, considering the rest of it. The blue detailing on her front though, comes off very much like “cheap blind bag figure”, which is a shame. 

I don’t think I’ll pick up any of these GoT figures unless I can see them in person, and can verify the paint job isn’t turd. The LotR figures were marred with the same issues, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this line is similarly affected. 

Tiger – Tiger & Bunny – Figure-Rise 6

And what would Bunny be without Tiger?

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

Left:

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

Right:

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

Back:

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

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

Let’s say goodbye Tiger:

Thanks for reading!

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

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

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

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

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

Left side:

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

Right side:

Not too much different from the left. Looks good 🙂

Back:

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

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

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

Borg Cube – Playmates

What do we have here?

Hm, looks cube-y. 

Yep, those look like some Borg cube patterns… 

Hm, this side doesn’t seem very Borg-y…

Let’s see what’s in here:

Lots of Borg out to play! The Picard and blue Borg came with the set, the others are a Borg Assimilation Team I bought many moons ago. Have been wanting this mini play set for some time, but finally decided to commit to getting one. Ended up getting this shipped over from America, along with 2 other sets which I may sell. 

Top-down view:

The inner parts pull out, and the bed folds down. You can partially extend the arm on the bio-bed, so it’s sticking up. Yeah, Playmates called the bed that. 

Glad I bought this – it’s nice having the Borg to have a home :). It’s nothing hugely fancy, but it does provide a good backdrop & stand to my assimilation team. There’s enough here to give the “feel” of a Borg cube, but I think it’s only good as a diorama, rather than a toy – there’s only so much room to pose the small figures… and it’s small. Very much more a backdrop than anything else. This playset doesn’t have the playability of a Polly Pocket, but it’s nicely executed for what it is. 

Blue Beetle – DC Icons

Here we have a bit of a random buy – Blue Beetle:

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Am a sucker for winged things and blue. Found him in a discount pile, priced at £5 for the mildly damaged box. What was even better, when I brought him to the checkout, I found out the store was doing a half-price on all damaged & discounted goods…. can’t argue with £2.50!

Here he is with his wings pointed upwards:

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The wings freely rotate, so can be positioned freely, on the axis given. However, they are not hinged so you can’t ‘flap’ the wings backward, but not sure this is entirely necessary for a beetle.

Close-up of his wings (the pegs do shove further in to mostly hide the unpainted section):

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They are attached to a beetle, who clings onto his back. I think this is a pretty neat design,as someone unfamiliar with the character. It also gives him some cool ‘spikes’ either side of his head, by virtue of its antennae.

Back shot:

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I love the shininess of the wings, and the details upon them. The dark blue areas are also metallic paint, which shines nicely. I’d say he isn’t a super-detailed figure, but what’s there is well done. The contrasting textures on his suit are nice, and the grooved lines neat. 

Side shot:

For some reason, I only took a pic of his right side in this configuration, but this will do for demoing what he’s like. The joints are nicely done and largely blend well. I love the way the beetle’s legs hang onto him, and you can see the beetle’s antennae, which make cool ‘spikes’ over his shoulders. The white areas on his legs help break up the large amount of blueness. 

One thing that annoys me slightly is that his forearm seems a little big for his upper arm, and seems to show at any angle. I suppose I could pretend it’s a gauntlet, but it doesn’t look distinct enough for that. 

However, if you don’t like his forearms, he can be ‘armed’: 

He comes with two blasters that you can equip on his forearms, hence the forearm split. These guns are pretty neat, but do look a bit like “lump of plastic” from certain angles imo. There really isn’t much paint detail on these – mostly what you can see here. 

Here he is from the left:

The gun on his left arm has a decent amount of detail and some other paint details. It’s also sculpted to fit properly around his arm, making it the clear candidate for the left arm. 

From the right:

The moulding is nice on the right gun, but it just seems too… solid? Would’ve been nice to see some kind of painting/shading on it. Same with bits of the right gun – maybe the banding on the barrels could’ve been painted a darker blue or something. But hey, I bought him for £2.50 so I’m not that fussed! I’ll likely display him with the left gun and with his right hand. 

Overall, I’m pleased with this figure, definitely think he’s worth the price I paid! Not sure I would’ve paid full price for him personally, but he seems to be a solid figure in the DC Icons range. 

Figure Spotlight – Naked Jehuty

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Figure Spotlight: Figma Silver Crow

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

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

Left side:

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

Right side:

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

Back:

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

Close-up of a wing:

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

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

Silver Crow – S. H Figuarts

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

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

Close-up of one of those wings:

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

Left side:

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

Right side:

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

Back:

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

Close-up of the arm blast:

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

“Charged” arm on the other side:

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

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

Silver Crow – Bandai Figure Rise 6 Model Kit

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

Here’s the completed Crow:

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

Close-up of his face:

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

Left:

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

Right:

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

From the back:

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

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

Looks pretty cool and bulky. 

Close-up of the arm with the blast:

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

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

Black Lotus – Bandai Figure-Rise 6 Model Kit

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

So, here she is:

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

Left side:

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

Right side:

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

Back:

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

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

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

Here’s a close-up of her head:

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

Close-up of her upper half:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here it is from the other side, similar angle:

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

From the top:

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

Side shots:

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

From the back:

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

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

Aquaman, Superwoman, Spider-Gwen – Nano Metals Die Cast

And here we have the only other figure-related items I bought during Toys R Us’s closing. 

First up, Aquaman:

Paint on this figure isn’t too bad, though the trident with the green bits between the tines is a bit odd, but can understand they moulded it like that so the tines wouldn’t be too brittle. Not sure if the gaps would have been better as green or black. Green does kind of blend in, with the green base & legs of Aquaman. With these figures, they don’t have painted mouths, but honestly, that’s a better option than a poorly drawn squiggly line that can stand to make the figure look even more “off”. One thing I don’t like is the trident wasn’t painted on the back, but I don’t think I’ll be looking at the back much. What’s more annoying is they didn’t paint his belt – they had gold paint for the trident, so why didn’t the belt get painted, darnit? Hunting down a prototype shot, they painted his belt orange. Sigh. 

Next figure is Superwoman:

Looks like the front of the cape had a bit of a hard live, plus some flesh paint slop on the underside of her leg. Not too bad for a small figure though – logo is passable for this nano size. Back of her looks fine. 

Lastly, Spider-Gwen:

This one has no mouth, so this was a perfect fig for them! Paint is OK, but definitely a little sloppy in places. Amazingly, her back white paint came out well. There is some scratches on the base, but these were present from the moment I bought it – these were all last-on-the-peg figures. 

These figures are honestly fine for their super-cheap price point. Though if you have a selection to look at, I’d recommend leafing through for the best painted you can find, as the paint jobs do vary. 

Bob’s Burgers – Collectable Figure Pack

This figure pack I bought in Toys R Us’s closing down “sale”. When I looked up prices online, it was mildly cheaper buying it there, than to buy online, so yay, win. This pack is optimistically labelled “Series #1″, but who knows if there will be a series 2 of these figures. 

First up, Bob himself:

The sculpt is.. OK. The paint is… OK. It’s mostly within the lines, and it does look like Bob.

Next, Linda:

She seems to have jumbo-sized glasses, but she does seem to be painted well. Sculpting fairly typical of something blind-bag quality. 

Now for Gene:

He has some stray paint issues, plus a couple of marks on his shoes/socks. He stands up OK, and looks like Gene. Yup. 

Tina:

She looks pretty decent, but there could’ve been better delineation between her top and skirt. Would’ve been better to have a joint there, just like the other figures. Also she has a bad stray paint mark on her back. 

Lastly, we have Louise:

This figure has no chance of standing up :|. Not sure what they were thinking when they designed this figure, and didn’t give these figures some kind of stand. Paint app on the front is fine, but a bit lumpy on the back of her hat. I thought Linda was hard to stand up… but then came Louise with her micro-feet. She’ll definitely have to stand in some white tack :/. 

Would’ve been nice if they learned from the Japanese and gave these figures either ball stands or clip stands to help them stay up. It’s not like the backs of these figures have anything remarkable that’d be ruined by a hole for a ball stand… 

I bought these figures for £11.89, and honestly that’s too much for these figures. One site quoted the RRP as £16.99, and that’s just rip-off. These figures are on a par with blind bags that retail at £2 a pop. If it wasn’t the fact they’re Bob’s Burgers, and there’s a lack of good Bob’s Burgers loot, I wouldn’t have bothered buying them tbh. At least they’re better quality than the Regular Show figures. I’d only recommend these if you find them going for super-cheap somewhere, or if you really have to have some Bob’s Burgers loot.