Category: Figure manufacturer origin

DC Nano-Metals – Part 3

And here we have the last three in the pack. 

So let’s start with Martian Manhunter:

I think this is one of the best-looking ones in the set – the paint is fairly neat, though the blue paint is over-spilling in some areas. The red paint is within the lines though, which is the more critical colour here. We have a better choice of green here, which makes me more confused about why they went with the green they did for Killer Croc. I do wish they painted his belt red though. The disc parts should be gold, but being a simplified figure, I’m going to let them off for not painting these. The pose and sculpt are both decent, so no complaints there.

Back:

Not much to see here, other than cape. Not the most realistic ripples, but it’ll do. Also his cape paint seems to have escaped onto his head 😛

Superman:

Again, a not-too-bad figure. I think this one is let down by the paint a bit, but that isn’t helped by the relatively ambitious sculpt – with him in a flying pose, they’ve had to use the cape as support, which means the blue and red paint have bled into each other in places. Also makes it hard to paint without the over-spill showing up badly. The logo has been rendered surprisingly well, comparing the paint jobs in these figures. Again, no mouth, but this weirdly seems to only feel “apparent” when you’re looking up close. 

Back:

Cape looks good, and the paint job looks surprisingly decent and clean here.

Yep, I think this one is one of the stronger ones in this set. 

Lastly, Wonder Woman:

Interestingly, the females in these Nano Metal figures actually get mouths – and their faces look better for it. What doesn’t looks so good though, is the lasso on her hip – the lasso looks OK in of itself, but they’ve distorted her leg so the lasso has something to support it… so her leg looks rather misshapen. Personally I would’ve preferred it if they had the lasso sitting on her leg, instead of flatting out her leg to accommodate it. Paint-wise, she looks OK. 

The one thing that does bother me though is no “banner” at the top of her shirt – she needs some silver pain here, to match her headband if they were going for her more silvery look. To me, this makes it feel like she’s more “sexy Halloween costume” than Wonder Woman. 

Back:

Bit of escaping paint on her leg there, but overall, not a bad paint job. Here we can see her shoes have been turned into platforms to support her properly, which I think is a fair enough decision. 

If you ignore the lack of edging on her top, not a bad nano figure.

Overall, this set isn’t too bad, if you can pick it up cheaply. There’s definitely some misses in the set, but most of the figures are reasonably solid for their size. These figures are 1.65″ tall on average, so normally you wouldn’t look so closely at them as some macro photography. I’m not sure I’d pay the RRP for the set, but if you see these at a discount, I don’t think they’re too bad. 

DC Nano-Metals – Part 2

Now for four more Nano Metals figures. 

Here is some Killer Croc:

*GRIN*. Can’t say I’m a fan of the sculpt on this one, but it does amuse me so. The green doesn’t fit Killer Croc at all either. Shorts are roughly painted, and don’t look great either. The parts of his face that are painted are painted neatly but… well… it looks like that. Just look at it. 

There’s some nice sculpt details here in the spiny knobbles, it’s nice they’ve given him pockets, but that right pocket sticks out so far, like he’s got a large lump of something in there. Left pocket would look better, if it didn’t melt into his back. 

Overall, this one has amusement value only. 

Metamorpho:

I’d say this guy is the least-known out of the heroes included in this set. Paint is a bit sloppy in this guy, though he can partly get away with it, being a guy made out of several elements. Wish they would’ve done his shorts in black, rather than lazing out and just doing them in brown. The figure already features black on his face, so not sure why they didn’t. 

Back:

They’ve done a nice job of sculpting his mud leg, and the paints are a bit neater back here. 

Overall, I think he’s a decent mini-figure. 

Two-Face:

This is based on his orange-and-purple outfit form, which wouldn’t be my first pick. However, they’ve done a decentish job of rendering him at a first glance – colours look bold, suit is sculpted well, and his face has both its halves. Main issues for me is they didn’t paint his tie black, and whilst they gave him a mouth, it does look rather odd. And on that point… where are his eyes?!

And is it me, or does he look like he’s trying to take a shit? 

Back:

Back looks OK, but the paint doesn’t quite meet happily in the middle. 

Overall, probably not one I’m going to prominently display.

Lastly, Mr Freeze:

I really like the colours and pose on this one. However, his head doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny – looks like they didn’t fully decide if they were going to do his head or his helmet, and melded the two… I think it would’ve been better if they went without the helmet, and made his head less elongated. This would make the figure look better, and give the owner the option to add a clear part, if they wished. The gun is nicely sculpted though. 

Back:

Gun looks good back here, and his backpack looks decent. Helmet-head looks less silly from this angle, as there are no details on this side. 

Overall, I think he’s one of the stronger figures in the set. But dammit… that head-thing. Wish they didn’t do that. 

DC Nano-Metals – Part 1

I bought this set cheap-ish at TK Maxx. 

First up is a silverish Batman:

The paint is mostly in the right places and doesn’t look too bad. No mouth painted though… Can’t say I’m a big fan of the colour scheme, but I think it works. 

Back:

Not too much to see at the back. The cape is nicely wrinkled though. 

The Flash:

I like the colours on this one, and the paint is neatly done on this o0ne. The logo came out decently well on his chest, and his muscle definition works. 

Back;

His belt is a bit sloppy here, and the wing(?) on his boot is more of a nub. His body is sculpted well though. Pretty pleased with this one.

Green Lantern:

This guy, the paint went a bit sloppy – think the green needed to extend a bit more down his front, and one of his gloves has a bit of white mist paint. His mask is OK, but again, half a face, though the way his faces is moulded almost gives him a mouth a bit higher up. The logo on his suitl looks nice, but his chest does sort of seem to melt at the bottom, in terms of sculpt. 

Back:

Looks OK from the back, though his hair does melt into his suit. Don’t think the green and the black paint want to play nice with each other, but I don’t think it’s too bad.

Out of these three, Flash is the one I like most. I don’t think any of these look bad, but not really keen on the Batman.

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. 

Catwoman Barbie – Batman

And now for a Barbie that I can appreciate! Never did see one as a kid that I’d ever want, but at 32 I find the purrfect Barbie for me:

Hm. I really could’ve straightened out that mask a bit more, couldn’t I?

Anyways, onto the figure – I think the fusion of Catwoman and Barbie works well here – it definitely looks like an even mix of both. I love the fact the clothes have been made to look like leather, and she has just enough touches to sell itself as being Catwoman. A large part of that is the mask, but she has cat claws on her gloves, and the quintessential whip. She has a utility belt thing going on, which apparently marks this as being based on Catwoman from the 2004 movie… which I haven’t watched. Hm. I should probably get on that. Anyway, moving on…

Left:

The seams have been sewn so the stitching is inwards, so everything looks nice and neat from this side. Her claws have been tipped with silver, which has been nicely done. Her neck does look a bit odd from the side though. 

Right:

Here we can see a small zipper, which is a nice attention to detail. I do rather like the fluffy upper to her gloves, and the high heels poking out from the bottom of her trousers. 

Back:

Here we can see some things that weren’t finished off too well – several of teh back joints are uneven, which is a bit of a shame. Also a bit of excess fabric at uppermost join. Her hair is very nice though, and the backs of her trousers look good, even if the belt doesn’t quite line up… 

Overall, I’m glad I bought this Barbie, and I think it makes an excellent first choice :P. Not sure if it’d appeal to a Barbie fan, as her outfit does somewhat limit her articulation, though all the joints are there. For me, I’m using this as a display piece, so I’m not bothered by knees being hampered by her trousers. I may have to get a doll stand for her though, as she’s not standing on her own with those small feet. 

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. 

Classic Archer – Archer

Here’s a bit of a fun figure… Archer being Classic Archer:

When I found this figure existed, I had to get it. It’s not the fanciest of figures, being on par with a trading figure, but the pose really makes it. 

For the paint, what’s there is painted neatly, but there isn’t any shading. Might’ve been nice to have some shading on his jacket, so it wasn’t so flat and grey. Unfortunately mine has a bit of a scrape on the knee, but I did buy this secondhand, so this may’ve been the previous owner. Being flat-shaded though, it’ll probably be easier to fix if I do. 

Let:

I can hear him glugging down his drink, whilst he’s making Mallory wait… This figure is certainly posed well. I like the fact they’ve sculpted texture on his hair, and the seam is mostly smoothed out on his side. The bottle also has some good decals on it, which look good. 

Right:

I, uh, focused on his leg? Though there isn’t too much more to see here than the other side – seam appears blended, and the paint is neat. Here we can see the bottle is semitransparent, which is a nice touch. 

Back:

Some little nods to fabric creasing at his shoulder and elbow. His shoes have the soles sculpted, which is a nice touch. Fairly plain back here though. 

Overall, I’m pleased with this figure. The paintwork might not be overly complex, but being a cartoon character, this isn’t super-necessary. What’s there is neat, which is more important imo. This figure is really good in the posing and the sculpting, which is what sells this figure. The iconic pose works well, and I think this is a good collectable for an Archer fan. 

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:

image

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. 

Joker – DC Comics – Eaglemoss Batman Universe

This is the last of the busts I currently have to review, and it’s The Joker:

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From the front, this one has a lot more to look at than the other ones, which I think really helps with the overall look and feel. Not a big fan of the paint on his bowtie – the darker lines aren’t blended at all, which makes it looks sloppy close-up. However, the bold colours overall work well together, and this figure does work at a bit of a distance. 

Face:

image

I appreciate them including some pink paint to represent his tongue, and this surprisingly works. His lips are OK, and they can get away with some rough paint here, what with the Joker being a bit slapdash himself. The eyebrows feel a bit severe though, as there is no detailing to them. The hair is really nice in of itself – there is shading present here, which really helps it look like hair. Some bits are missed though, as you can see on the left-hand side of his face. The right is pretty much the same on mine, but with a bit of paint on his ear. 

The gun:

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The lettering came out well here, but mine has some marks on this side. Also you can see how the gun started off bent – this part is a softer rubbery material, which does mean it won’t break in the box, but you may have to straighten it out. What is more annoying than the black splotches is the super-lazy painting on his hand… really? This passed QA? As it’s black, maybe I’ll actually repaint this… 

Here is how bent the gun was when I got him out of the box:

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I heated it up with a hairdryer, held it in position, then doused it for awhile in cold water:

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Ah! Much better! I’m not too bothered about this, as it’s not the first bendy figure I’ve had and it’s pretty easy to fix, but I feel that they may have been able to go stiffer with this or use a metal wire/rod inside of it to hold it straight. Especially if someone’s new to collecting, this is going to be a really disappointing feature, and I don’t think there’s any need to have it this soft. 

Left:

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I like this pose – there is a dynamic quality to it, and his face looks good in profile. The main messy edge here is the edge of his glove. The paint line between him and the base seems neater on this side than some of the others I have. 

Right:

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This side of the BANG! banner is a neater than the other side, and looks good. The paint is a lot neater on this side too, with a lot less to complain about. There is a seam that goes down his side, but I don’t think this really disrupts the figure.

Back:

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Looks like some dints got into the mould – not sure what happened here. The paint itself is smooth though, and the back of his hair is painted well. We don’t have much in the way of fabric movement back here, but it looks passable. We have one detail in the form of a suit seam running down the back, but I’m not sure it really adds anything. Collar moulding I think could’ve gone a bit better. Sleeves look nice though. 

Overall, I think this is a decent entry, and probably works better than the others as a concept – there is more going on here, which means he doesn’t look overly plain, as they decided not to fully shade these. However, there are some pretty sloppy painting mistakes and lack of paint blending that you’d get in a more premium product. I think if you set him off at a bit of a distance, it’s quite a striking piece, so would recommend if you’d like to see him sat on your shelf. Just be prepared to straighten out the gun!

Harley Quinn – DC Comics – Eaglemoss Batman Universe

So after buying the other two busts, I decided to take advantage of Eaglemoss’s introductory offer for the first three busts in the series. I will only be reviewing two, as I plan to sell the Batman bust. 

First up, we have Harley Quinn:

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I like the colours and design on this one – it feels less plain than the other two I reviewed, but there is still a fair amount of block colour going on. I love that they’ve included the hammer, as it definitely adds something to the bust. 

Face close-up:

The eye shadow colours fee a bit overdone and severe close up, though the pain seems to be neatly done on the face. Here we can also see the apint isn’t overly neat in certain places – especially her right breast, where there is red showing from underneath the black. 

Left:

Here we get to see mostly hammer. Not sure what the back blobby bits are about, under the lower thin ring. I appreciate the weathering effect though. What I appreciate less is the escaping black paint on the side of her jacket. 

Right:

Here we can see they can do some blending with the paint – her hair doesn’t look too bad. Though the orange doesn’t match the pink that the hair and eyeshadow should be, if you’re choosy about this kind of thing. Her hairband here is also hair-coloured. Again, there’s some marks and missing bits in the paint – red dots on her sleeve, her belt is a bit skin-coloured, and a couple of dots on her hip. 

Not sure if the munch in her hair was a divot that was supposed to line up with the mallet at some point or an air bubble in the mould. Whichever, it is a bit odd. 

Back:

The design on her back in of itself is printed nicely, but not quite straight. I think this would’ve come out better if the design was a bit smaller – it feels like it takes up just a bit too much of the jacket. Again, the painting is a bit hit-and-miss, but I do like the sculpted wrinkles in the jacket. 

Overall, an OK bust, but with Eaglemoss’ varied paint job qualities, you may not want to risk ordering this one from Eaglemoss directly, as I think the paint errors do show up fairly well unless you have her at a distance. 

Poison Ivy – DC Comics – Eaglemoss Batman Universe

This is the second bust I bought in Forbidden Planet, featuring Poison Ivy:

Initially, the design kind of appealed, but… this didn’t grown on me (pun partially intended). The paint is neat on her face, but her hair painting definitely seems to leave something to be desired, and the paint jobs varied on her leafy clothing. This one was OK, but still a bit messy in places. 

Overall, from the front of this figure, she suffers from plainness – her top is nice, but the large amount of flat-coloured skin just makes it feel like there should be.. more. Her hair could have done with some shadows and highlights, and some of the edges tidying so it doesn’t look like her hair is fusing into her skin in places. 

Left:

Here we can see where a bit of the green paint blobbed onto her hair, and some unfinished edges around the hair. Here, you can see a particularly sloppy job of the top painting – all of the edges here feature inaccurate paint. 

Right:

The edges of her top are better painted on this side – passable for a cheaper bust figure. However, there are little dots in her hair that don’t look very good. 

Back:

Definitely not a fan of this angle. There’s some attempts at shading, but the overall look is Cousin Itt waterfall of hair. The overall shape isn’t very pleasing to me, and the moulding is… enthusiastic, but just doesn’t feel like it fits to me. 

Overall, I not too happy with this bust, and question my wisdom in buying it. I bought it was it was Poison Ivy… and kind of because I was buying the other one already. I did try to go for a better painted one – some of the paint jobs were really questionable. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this one. Save your money and go and buy a Kotobukiya figure or something. 

Catwoman – DC Comics – Eaglemoss Batman Universe

I saw this in Forbidden Planet, and decided to pick it up with another bust, which will be tomorrow’s blog. 

So here she is:

I like the shininess of her outfit, and the face is painted neatly. I also like the interesting pose, with her getting ready for shenanigans,. 

Left:

Her fingers are posed a bit oddly – I don’t think that finger spacing is particularly natural. Her chest looks a good size though, and the buckle for her hood loks good. The finish on her hip doesn’t seem to be too well applied though, which doesn’t help distinguish it form her belt. 

Right:

Buckle also looks good from this side, but again, the shininess of her outfit seems to decrease on the way down. Looks like some black paint went a bit stray on the strap of her goggles. Also we have the strange finger posing on this side. Not entirely sure what’s up with that, but does look OK if you don’t focus on it. 

Back:

Some suit seamlines sculpted in the back here, which look good. I like the way they shiny paint goes around her belt, to help the strands of it stand out. Paint looks a little janky around her google strap, but not too bad. 

Overall, I think a decent amount of detail has been put into this bust. I think for the price point, this is a decent bust, and glad I bought it. I got it a bit cheaper than the RRP, which I think was a fair price for it. 

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!