Category: Statues (non-articulated figures)

Mari Makinami Illustrious – Seat of Soul

And to complete the Seat of Soul set, we have Mari. As I bought the second Rei, I thought I might as well get Mari too. So I did:

She is also well-crafted, like the others in this set. 

View from the front:

I love the fact they’ve chosen a different pose from the others, where she has her leg curled up, as it helps give variety to the set. 

Mari’s back:

Not the most exciting view, but her hair is nicely done. Arm seam is a lot more visible here, but being a plugsit, it kind of gets away with it.

Back of the chair:

Yep, still nowt to see here.

Top:

Nicely sculpted and painted. One nice thing of her having a headband is you don’t get the hair seam you get on a lot of figures. She sits nicely in the chair, and doesn’t feel at threat of falling out. 

Glad I got this one to complete the set 🙂

Rei Ayanami – Seat of Soul Vol. 1

With this figure, I’ve been going back and forth about buying it. Prior to owning any of the Seat of Soul figures, I was happy to own either, and the best price I found was on the Vol 2 one, so I got that. At one point I saw it on Mandarake, but dithered too long and it sold. Then someone wanted to sell some figures, but the price they were asking was higher than what I wanted to pay, but then I checked Mandarake again… and there it was. Didn’t want to miss it again, so grabbed it. 

So here she is:

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These figures are nicely sculpted and painted for prize figures. Seeing her in person, I do like her pose more than in the pictures. 

Side of the plug chair:

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She’s not quite looking in this direction. 

Front of the chair:

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She just fits around the bottom middle part. This part comes unattached, so you can place her in there in the seat, which makes it easier to get her in ther. 

Other side of the chair:

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I love the fact they’ve posed one of her hands leaning on the side. It’s a nice attention to detail, instead of having her hand curled up or something. Her hair is more sculpted than other prize figures of Rei, which is nice. 

Back of the chair:

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Yep. Nothin’ to see here. Move along. 

Erm, OK, safer territory, her face:

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She has a Rei-expression. The face I find a bit nicer than the average face you get on prize figures, and her hair is very nicely done. The paint is also really good – little in the way of slop. 

Overall, I’m glad to get this figure, and I have now since purchased the second in this set – Mari. I will display Rei & Mari together, near to where the other Seat of Soul figures are displayed. 

Kiryuin Satsuki

And now for the promised Satsuki! 

This figure isn’t quite as impressive as the Ryuko one, but it is still a nice figure. The pose is very ‘Satsuki”. From the front, she has a lot less “shiny leg” problem, as she wears tall boots, though these are painted on which does make them look flat at the top. The sword sits nicely in her hands. Unlike Ryuko, the stand for the sword is fixed, but this is understandable, given her pose. 

Her left:

The sword is slightly bent – I may heat-fix this at some point, but it doesn’t show from the front. The shiny paint on this figure does help it stand out, and it is nicely done. Her hair is also nicely dynamic.

Right side:

Similar to the left, but less to see. The mould mark down her middle is more obvious in this photo than the left-hand photo. 

Back:

Hair blowin’ in the wind. Simple, but effective. The gold parts are painted well here. Some detailing on her shoes, which is nice. 

Overall a nice figure, but with the white, it can look a little overly plain and a bit plasticky. I don’t think I would have bought this figure separately, but with Ryuko, they do make a nice pair. 

Matoi Ryuko (SEGA)

Came across someone selling Ryuko and Satsuki on Facebook. 

Today’s blog is about Ryuko:

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Been wanting these prize figures for some time, but they rarely come up for sale, or at least at a reasonable price. These ones weren’t in perfect condition, but at least they didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. Not gonna pay scale prices for prize figures! 

From the front, she looks good, but her hand can obscure her face a bit from certain angles, and her legs can look overly plain if she’s under strong lighting. 

Here is a close-up of her face:

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Love her expression. This is also one of the few figures with Ryuko wearing Senketsu in his non powered-up form. I love the pose chosen – of her about to activate Senketsu. 

Ryuko’s left:

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Not much to say about this angle – hair’s nicely sculpted, and a nice detail on the skirt. 

Ryuko’s right:

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Pretty obvious seam in the hair on this side. Also an angle that shows off the lack of shading and shininess on the legs can make them look a bit odd. Boots are also an interesting shape. 

Back:

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Back angle looks good, barring the aforementioned legs. A bit of pantsu present… The movement in the cloth is nicely done, and her hair looks good.

The scissor blade:

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This is actually a standalone piece, with a stand to keep it on. The red paint has been done really nicely, and the glossiness really works for the blade.

The back:

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Here you can see where the scissor blade fastens in place. I like the design of this stand – it takes advantage of the design of the scissor blade, so there’s no extra mould parts on the blade. This means you could choose to display it in some other manner, and it would work. She can’t hold it though. 

All in all, I like this figure. I wouldn’t pay the premium prices some people seem to for her, but she is solid for a prize figure. 

Ryuna – Shining Tears

So, with some space still left in my box… I went for the totally random. I looked at the pics of this figure on Mandarake, checked them out on MFC, and decided to go for it, despite zero familiarity with the source material. 

Here she is out of the box:

She does come with a round, wooden-style base, but it was on the large side, and I wasn’t particularly fond of it, so I left it in the box. Which was not easy to do, when the box was falling apart, due to a lack of glue! 

One downside of this figure became apparent immediately after taking it out of the box – it is prone to paint transfer. There was a white line on her skirt, and the burgundy paint had transferred to parts of her skin. So she had to spend some quality time with an eraser, but it all cleaned up well. 

Here is her left side, partially showing her face:

One thing I saw someone comment on was her eyes – which you can sort of see here. They’re much more detailed than your average anime-styled figure, which gives her an interesting look. The cloth round her arm is sculpted nicely, and flows well. 

Here’s a close-up of her face:

Her eyes are very much doll-like, and I quite like the look. I think with some more work on her skin, it’d be a neat effect, but I don’t think they quite got the finish right, so she’s ended up slightly too shiny. Maybe a bit more shading would be needed too. 

Her other side:

From this angle, her hair doesn’t look very detailed, but it is in places. Her skirt flows well over her foot. 

Her back:

I think she looks really nice from this angle, as well as the front. The “metal” disc dangling down is a separate part, but is not designed to be movable. It’s made out of plastic, so you can wiggle it a bit, but not reposition it. It lies nicely on her skirt, so there’s no real need to. 


Here she is from the bottom:

Always amuses me, looking at sitting/lying figures from underneath. She gives a very flattened appearance XD. Though to her credit, they did actually mould some wrinkles on teh bottom of the parts that would be lying flat, so she’d look the part if she was on a transparent shelf. 

Her skirt is removable, and it looked less silly than I thought it would:

If you like her like this, I think it’d be a viable display option. Not my choice though. But in doing this I can show the paint transfer problem, from a bit I didn’t clean up:

The skirt paint has a habit of getting on anything it touches, so if you get this figure, you may need to spend some time cleaning her up. This might be one of the reasons she’s really cheap to get hold of. The other is she’s not particularly epic as far as figures go, but I think she’s a fairly solid figure.


And also good at guarding Percy the Parcel Box’s brain:

This is the Raspberry Pi that controls the maglock on the parcel box, plus makes the calls from the door intercom. 

Kotetsu T Kaburagi – Bunny Party Edition

So with only one thing in the “box” for Mandarake, I couldn’t simply just order that. So I went for a wander around the Mandarake mail-order site. 

First thing I found was a Tiger figure I simply had to buy:

This is Wild Tiger heading to the surprise party he arranged for Bunny. With his bunny present. We know it’s Wild Tiger, as he’s in his mask. Nope, definitely not Kotetsu. 

Here he is from the site, showing his bunny present:

D’aww, that thing’s so cute. His other side:

His watch and bracelet look nice. Nice detailing on his shoes too. 

Back:

Some nice shading going on in his waistcoat, plus the buckle is well-painted. Trousers look a bit overly shiny in this shot. 

Close-up of the base:

Just in case you forget who you’re looking at!

He also comes with an arm which you can swap with his bunny-carrying arm. Not sure why you’d want to use that – half the fun of this figure is the bunny present he comes with! This is a nice, inexpensive figure, which is more interesting than your basic Kotetsu. 

Satan

It’s finally complete! This is the third of three figures in this set. I bought this from Suruga-ya, and had it shipped via Big In Japan. The process went smoothly, though I did have to wait for BiJ to reopen after New Year’s. As I heard that Suru has a tendency to use oversized packaging, I paid for the repacking service anyway, even prior to adding a second package to the “ticket”. Glad I did:

120 size means the box edges add up to 120cm. When BiJ repacked my order, it fit into SAL small packet, which means the box dimensions added up to less than 90cm (it was ~87cm iirc). Glad I paid for the repacking! 

So here’s Satan from the Bandai EX-F Devilman series:

This figure I found a lot less fiddly to assemble than the others – largely because there’s less parts. The clip that holds his wings to the rock was a bit fiddly to get in. It would be possible to not use the clip, but he’d probably eventually lean. Unlike the other two, I don’t think I’d display him on his own. Especially with the stone appearance, he’s a lot more bland than the others too, though the sculpt is nice. 

Facing Satan’s front:

He’s much more to look at from this angle – kind of a shame they didn’t find a way to make him face more forwards, so he’d show more from the front. The sculpting definitely shows form this angle. 

Here he is from the side:

Pointin’ at you! Looking very stern. 

His back:

The wings look nice from this angle. Does look like he’s in mid-movement. Painting of the rock is nice, but there’s a pretty visible seam there. Though you’re probably  not going to look at this angle much. So how does the set look?

Like this:

These figures go well together as a set (as they should do!). Sirene could be displayed on her own quite happily, but the front two need at least each other to look right. It’s a very nice set, and I’m looking forward to having somewhere to display them soon :). They’re nice on the dining room table, but I don’t think they want to “live” there!

Super Sonico – FREEing S-Style

This is the last 1/12 feature for a little while, as I have other figures to show! 

So… here she is:

This is the only Sonico figure I own, which is mildly unusual considering the size of my figure collection. She is a nice Sonico imo – an interesting choice of pose, and she’s nicely sculpted and painted.

Here is her right side:

I like the fact she has something to hold, but the ice-cream is a bit too easy to knock out of her hand. Would be nicer if she gripped it a bit more, or it was a bit of a higher angle so it was more gravity-assisted. The headphones are nicely detailed. 

Here she is from the back:

Her hair flows nicely, and I like the gradient in it. 

And the angle I’m sure some are here to see:

She seems pretty well featured in this regard. Out of Sonico figures, there are better candidates, but I think it works well enough for this figure. 

I like this figure – for me, she comes somewhere in the middle for the FREEing 1/12 figures I currently own. She’s not my favourite, but she’s not my least favourite either. I think she will look great with the rest though. 

Shimamura Uzuki – FREEing S-Style

This is the last of the three Idolm@aster figures that were released together in the S-Style series. I planned to get this one anyway, as her pose was rather different from the rest of the S-Style figures.

So here she is:

I love her smiling face, and the blue of her swimsuit is a very nice colour. Kinda wish the base matched her swimsuit more, or they matched the stands for the Idom@ster figures. Due to her pose, she’s very tiny though. 

Left side:

Her hair is nice and detailed, but evidence of seams, which is a bit of a shame. 

Right side:

This side looks much nicer, and showcases her hair better. Some nice shading on the swimsuit, plus some wrinkle lines on the suit. 

Back:

Her hair in detail! Probably a little on the shiny side, but her backside has been sculpted well. 

Top:

This shows the main issue of the hair: the sudden change between the hair on the top of her head, to the hair lower down. Her back looks nice though.

Underneath shot:

She doesn’t have any pegs to hold her to the base, so you can sit her wherever :). 

Chest writing:

The writing on her to translates to Uzuki (her name). 

Overall, I like this figure, though she does feel very small, due to her pose. She’s painted nicely, but imo, it would’ve been nicer if they made her slightly bigger, though she is a scale. 

Nitta Minami – FREEing S-Style

After getting Anastasia, I decided to get the rest of the “set”. This one was the one I was most on the fence about, but she was the cheapest of the bunch. So let’s see what we got:

She looks cute, I love the swimsuit, but she looks a little “flat faced”. Imo, she looks better than the promo shots, though.

Left side:

Even with a “simple” pose, they’ve managed to add some dynamicness to it. The fold in her hair is a nice touch. The hair is more shaded than the promo shots, which helps with her overall look. 

Right side:

Not too much different than the left, though her hair appears to sit more naturally this side.

Back:

Some nice shading work on this side, with her hands clasped behind. 

She is probably one of the plainer S-Style figures, but imo she matches up to the quality of the others. 

Rin Kagamine – FREEing S-Style

Another Vocaloid – Rin Kagamine. Ever since getting Len, I’ve planned on getting her. Was checking up on Mandarake recently, and saw she was available, so nabbed her quick. 

She has a super-cute pose, and is the perfect companion for Len. Didn’t take any pics of them together during this photoshoot, but I do plan to do some group photoshoots, once I have more of the S-Style figures.

Here she is from her left:

Her headphones/headband are very nicely done. 

Right side:

One cute, waving hand, plus you can see the shading in the tips of her hair. 

Her back:

Her back is sculpted nicely, along with the bow on her back. 

Overall, she’s a very nice, cute figure, but I have had one issue with her:

Her middle is a bit curmudgeonly, and is a pain to fully get rid of the gap between her midriff and her skirt. I did imagine to improve matters for these photos, but she does seem a bit prone to not going together 100%. However, the skirt is removable, if you want to display her just in her pants.

Hatsune Miku – FREEing S-Style

I have decided to try and collect most of the FREEing S-Style figures, so long as I can get them for a reasonable price. Four of them have recently entered my collection, from various sources, with more on the way.

This one I got from Solaris Japan, using a discount code, to make it a price I was willing to pay. 

I saw a bootleg of this one online recently, and yeah, the real thing is far nicer! I wouldn’t say it is free from paint flaws, but you have to look close to notice them. Love the large, flowing hair, and the dynamic pose. 

Her left:

You can see her headphones here, which are nicely painted. Her hair flows nicely, and you can appreciate the sculpting on her body.

Right side:

She has a light bit on the outermost bit of hair – not sure how I feel about it. It does stop the hair from being one solid mass of green, but I think it is a little too light. 

Her back:

Lovely shading on her back, which helps her look real. Her backside is nicely sculpted, and no, I didn’t take a pantsu shot, so this is what you’re gonna get today. 

Still loving these small figures, and I think they’ve done an excellent job for Miku, which is probably why she’s harder to find and more expensive if you do. 

Alter Ayanami Rei

Been thinking of buying this figure on and off, but found it on local eBay for a price too good to pass up. Did say unopened, but she may’ve been out of the box before, but she shows no marks, so all good with me 🙂

Here she is with her default hairpiece:

With her pose, she’s rather awkward to photograph, but she looks really nice irl. 

Here is a top-down picture, showing her pose:

The rest of the shots in this blog will be with her hairpiece with her interface headset, I prefer her with it. 

Here is her underside:

Certain parts of her are flat on this side, but it isn’t hugely visible from this photo. The painting is still well done on this side though, despite the fact most people won’t see much of it. 

Here she is from the front:

You get a nice look at her suit, but not her face. 

Here she is from her back:

Her backpack is nicely done, and her body well-sculpted. Also her soles are correctly detailed. 

Here is a more top-down view:

She looks nice from the top, and is probably the view you’ll mostly see. 

Unless you display her feet-first:

This is quite a cute angle for her, and you can see her face 🙂

She did come with a black base, with “Evangelion 1.0″ on it, but for me, it doesn’t add much to the figure, so I left it in the box. 

However, I do have this base:

She just fits on this base, and the mirror allows you to see more of her from above. This was the base that came with Shamsiel Shahal. 

Here she is with her body reflected:

Looking at her face:

Backpack:

And finally, her backside:

Shapely!

The paint is really well done on this figure, and especially so for an older figure. She’s quite small, and will likely fit on the palm of your hand, but if you can pick this up fora  good price, and you’re a Rei fan, i would recommend her. I picked her up for £34, though I usually see her for £45ish. Both hair pieces are well-shaded, and a great option imo. 

Powerloader & Alien

So this was a figure that came with a game… OK, it was Colonial Marines: Collector’s Edition. I decided to look up how much the game itself is worth out of morbid curiosity – you can buy it for £2.49, and get it posted to your door. Yeah.. 

(For those who are not in the know, Colonial Marines is notoriously terrible). 

So here’s the figure:

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Maybe they should have produced this figure, and just shelved the whole game idea. I bought this for £19.50, though most of the auctions tend to run at £25-30 at time of writing. 

The paintwork on the powerloader is especially impressive – the alien is mostly done with a blue wash type of thing, which looks a little odd in places, but works from a distance. 

Let’s get a little closer to the action:

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That’s one desperate xeno trying to get in there! The alien has nicely wedged itself up there, without clipping or anything. 

Let’s see how the marine feels about this:

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He doesn’t look too happy about it, and also his teeth have turned to flesh! Bit sad they missed his mouth, when it looks like everything else was painted. 

Let’s see how the alien is getting along:

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Bit hard to get a shot of his face, but it is nicely sculpted. Still looking hungry, I see. 

Back of the diorama:

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Amazingly, they’ve even textured the back of the diorama stand! Also a lot of attention to detail in the paintwork on this side of the powerloader. Love the dirty weathering effects.

Back of the powerloader:

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All the wiring and gubbins you’d expect. Plus the cute little light on the top, and the aerials. 

Now for the alien’s backside… is it as pretty?

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I would say… not quite. From this angle, the blue wash looks a little blobby in places. You can see him prepairing to grab onto the powerloader’s arm for more stability, though. 

From the top:

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Bit of a random shot, but came out better than expected. The detail on the alien’s head looks good, and it emphasises the alien’s pose. 

All in all, I really like this figure, and can see why it has held its value, more so than some of the other game collectables I’ve picked up over the years. The game also came with some iron-on patches and a map of the ship on tracing paper. The other touchy-feely bits were crap. I do feel I got a good figure for my money, and hey, I also have a joke present for anyone with a PS3… 

Nagisa Kaworu – G.E.M

Had my eye on this figure, then it unexpectedly came up for sale on MFC for a good price, so I had to nab him. Can’t have too much Kaworu:

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Tall, lanky bugger – hopefully he’ll fit on your screen 😛

Love the shininess they’ve given him, and his hair has a good amount of shading. The red of the smaller parts of his figure has been used as an accent colour, which works well.

Left side:

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A good use of different finishes in evidence here, plus the unique shape of the stand to get him into the chosen pose. Is a very minimal stand, but does make a statement. 

Right side:

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Still shiny!

Back:

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A nice bum, but not quite as nice as the one on the FREEing figure. Nothing to complain about here.

He’s a very striking figure, and a good one to have in an Evangelion collection. He has a simple appearance, but there is a decent amount of detail in there, if you’re looking at it. I think I slightly prefer the FREEing one over this one, but I still like him a lot. 

Morrigan Noodle Stoppers

Ordered these, was excitedly anticipating them until I got the Yoko one, pondered cancelling order, then remembered the order with a retailer than doesn’t officially support cancellations, so decided definitely not. Fortunately I think these ones turned out better than the Yoko one. 

I ordered both variants, here they both are:

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Should’ve swapped them in this shot – 1P/default coloring on the right, 2P on the left. These figures could grace your noodles whilst they’re cooking but their pose is perfect for a shelf edge. 

First up, 1P:

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I love the pose chosen, and the shading in her hair is nice. The print on the leggings has been done well, and is crisp. She has a mix of shiny and non-shiny finish – was ‘promised’ for Yoko, but this shows FuRyu can do it. 

Left side:

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Her hand is nicely posed, the left wing helping to keep your noodles shut. The white edging on her top doesn’t have the best finish though. For the most part, the wings were painted well – but there are a couple of lines where the purple paint wasn’t applied thick enough. 

Right side:

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Yeah, she’s regardin’ you. And finding you wanting. Bit of a seam here on her leggings, but is one of the nicer ones for prize figures. 

Her back:

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The shading on her hair is nice, but there is a bit of much on her hair, which I’m not sure if I can clean up. 

Close-up of her face:

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It has been nicely done imo, you can just about see the dodgy painting of the orange bit though. The hair mould is crisp, but the way the paint went on, it does make it look a bit clumpy. On the 1P one, it’s not so noticeable, but it does feel a bit overly square. 

Back of the wing:

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Shiny!

Front:

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The black line I didn’t notice until I processed this photo – fortunately it usually falls into the shadows. The purple and black do provide a nice, crisp contrast.

Now onto 2P:

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This one has a less shiny finish, but it’s nice to have some variety. She’s exactly the same mould as the 1P one. 

Her left:

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Clothing edging does look neater on this one, and the leggings are just as spiffy. 

Right:

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Same look of disapproval. But here you cna really notice the squareness of her hair. It just looks… so very square. And the yellow paint seems to emphasise this. Also she seems to have slopped some orange paint on her hand here. Oh well. 

Back:

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The shading is less distinctive on this one. To the naked eye. it can look very flat, in terms of colouring, which makes the hair look more unnatural. In this shot, it doesn’t look as bad as I had in my head. 

I’m pleased with the pair, and glad I ordered both. I think the less ambitious design to the Yoko noodle stopper helped improve the quality of these figures. If I were to change something about these figures, it would be the hair, but displayed on a shelf it looks fine. My favourite parts of the figure is the paintwork on the legs and the face. Her legs are shaded very well, which makes them stand out. Would recommend these figures, if you like what you see. 

Shamsiel Shahal

Found this figure some time ago, and had it in my “to order” list. I did plan to order her in November/December, but then I spent too much and left it. Finally went for her in January. 

Here she is on her mirror base:

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I rather like the mirror base – I’ll probably use it for her, but if she ends up somewhere where the mirror base doesn’t work for her, I’ll use it for some other figure. 

Here is what she looks like from the top with the mirror base:

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Giving you all the angles, if she’s cast off. 

Here she is not sitting on the base:

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The side joint in her outfit has a habit of being a bit loose. In regards to the paint job, the shading on her right knee is a bit odd. 

Close-up of her face:

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Certainly a smiley, happy demoness! I like the way she has a tiny li’l ponytail tucked away there. 

Her left & right sides:

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She looks nice from the sides, but she does have a floating hand. I may fix this at some point, but there is a chance it may fix itself. The joint for her clothing is visible in the second pic – at least it’s positioned where it doesn’t really show if you’re not casting her off. 

Her back:

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I really love these transparent wings. And her tail is cute. From the back, she looks the same, cast off or not. The red nicely complements the purple and green of her outfit. 


Now to cast her off:

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It took a little bit to work out how to disassemble her, and I think I made a bit of a split in her clothing :(. Fortunately it didn’t go all the way through, so I could strengthen it, if I clothe her again. She did have a couple of paint transfers on her legs, but I managed to pretty much get rid of them with an eraser. 

For casting her off, you take the legs off first, then the top will come off the neck. As far as parts removal goes, it’s only the legs and the head. 

Close-ups of her clothes:

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It was the upper silver ring I damaged (assuming it wasn’t damaged before – this was a secondhand figure). Kind of amusing to see a green blob of paint – this does suggest the green paint transfer I saw was actually stray paint, rather than rubbed off. The ball and chain feel like metal, and is a nice detail. 

Here she is, reassembled and cast off:

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There are some dents in her legs, where the garters “latch” onto. If you view her from certain angles, you can see these dents, but when she’s displayed, they’re not really visible. 

Here’s a close-up shot showing one of them:

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Kinda wish they didn’t make dents for the garters, and just left enough room in the right spots. Probably an effort to prevent paint transfer, and keep the garters from popping out. 

Close-up of her chest:

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A pair of pretty assets to finish on (the blog that is!), with some very pink nipples, lol. Her stomach is well-defined, which I like. 


Imo, both the clothed and cast off options are solid ones, so you could do either, and not feel cheated. I was a bit iffy about her when I first got her, but I’ve since warmed up to her, and think that she’s a good addition to my collection. 

Ranka Lee – N.A. version

In my large Mandarake order, this was the only thing that wasn’t Devilman-related. Have had this in my Mandarake wishlist for a few months, for when I was ready to do an oversized order. Note this is a cast-off figure, though she does have her nipples covered, even when cast off. 

Here she is, looking at her stand:

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The top can be cast off, and the wings weren’t initially attached to the stand – the stand itself has two clear pegs to push them onto. 

Here’s a close-up of the heart on the stand:

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I guess the stand is OP :P. 

And here she is on the stand:

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She fits quite nicely on it, and I plan to display her on the stand. The first thing that hit me was her hair – it’s very green and to me, looks like a failed dye job. Looking back on the MFC pics, maybe some aren’t quite as distinct as mine, but one or two of the pics I looked at, there was probably some heavy post-processing. Other oddity for me is the hip crease – didn’t notice at first, but looking at it, I find it a bit strange, even if it would be accurate. 

Here is her back, with her top on:

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I expected her to be holding her top, but she’s not. There’s not much flexibility in the top, so this is how the figure is meant to be. Her pose from behind has “life” to it, but she works better from the front imo. 


Now to cast her off:

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Her head was quite tightly on, so I heated it some to ease it off. On mine, there’s a bit of a mark on one of the stars, and seems to be an error in manufacturing, as she was sealed. It probably is slightly more noticeable in the photo than irl. 

Right, now to put her head back on!

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Her pose works really well for her cast-off option. She has a very nicely sculpted body. 

Here she is from the opposite side:

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Lookin’ nice from this side. 

Her back:

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She has a much cleaner appearance without the top form the back, and her pose looks a lot more like stretching. 

Chest shot:

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That hair… Ah well, she’s got a nice belly goin’ on. 

I think this figure is a good demonstration that small boobs can and do work, and there’s not the need for all characters to have water balloons for a chest. Would be nice to have some more variety in anime, but hey, don’t think I’ll be particularly winning on that front. 


When I initially picked the box up for this figure, she was a lot smaller than I imagined, but opening her up and inspecting her, she’s a nice, quality figure worth the price. Haven’t fully decided if I’m going to display her with her top or not. Maybe I’ll switch her now and then. 

Yoko Litner Noodle Stopper – Part 2

So this post will be dedicated to showcasing the replacement Yoko, and comparing it to the original one. Fortunately this one came in one piece, and is less flawed than the first.

So here she is, on the Pasta n’ Sauce:

Looking much better than the first one – no snapped noodle, and the paint has reached the “corner” of her pants. Sadly the grey smudge just above her stocking is a mark like the other one had, but on her backside. 

Here she is from the back:

Nothing here to complain about. The tiny dot on her hair is fluff. 

From the top:

She looks better from this angle too – none of her back is shiny like the previous, studs are better painted on this one too (but not perfect – would be a difficult bit to paint tbh). 

And finally the rear shot:

No random grey dots here. I think most people will find this shot agreeable :P. 

Now to compare the two:

Seeing double! Feel free to play spot the difference :). 

Here’s the undersides:

Note how the one on the right is slightly less attached together properly, but the new one has a bit of stray white paint on her pants. 

Above:

Not sure if it’ll really show in the above shot without zooming in, but the back of the new one is attached better. Also the belt is painted better on the second (left). 

Lastly, here are two backsides to contrast and compare:

Yep, comparing… If you get to this paragraph, well done! Also I’m pleased with the replacement, and is more in line with what I hoped for. It’s not flaw-free, but for the price, you can’t really expect that. Still would strongly recommend using these as display pieces only, but it is a second lottery if you’re going to get one that looks like it should have passed QC or not. 

Yoko Litner Noodle Stopper – Part 1

Saw this up for preorder, decided to go for it, as I wanted a Yoko figure, and this was inexpensive, and a small form factor, so it wouldn’t take up too much space. Unfortunately, my first one came partially broken, and a number of flaws.

I didn’t have a small noodle pot to hand, so here she is stopping some Pasta n’ Sauce:

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From this shot, you can see where the top hair chopstick has been snapped off – it doesn’t show too much from this angle, but it is shorter than it should be. 

Here’s a close-up of her face, which is probably her best angle:

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And a more side-on view:

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In this shot, you can see where the black paint didn’t quite get to the corner of her pants. Her face is nice though. 

Here she is from the back:

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You can see the chopstick breakage from here, plus a mark on her backside. Her stockings are nicely done though. 

Opposite side:

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This angle’s actually pretty good for lack-of-flaws. The details ion her boots is nice, and the way her hair flows is nice. 

So what is her underside like?

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Super-flat so she can act as a noodle stopper! The bra on this one is decently painted, especially compared to some others I saw, however the pants-body joint is a mess. 

Here’s a close-up of the waist:

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Yuck. Looks almost like someone tried to take her apart :/. Some of the silver blocks are bootleg-level of quality, sigh. 

The next few shots will be closeups of the flaws I’ve found.

First up, the back of her hair: 

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There is some clumpy paint, and a black scuff. Note the broken hair decoration – I had a quick feel of the other one – this figure would make for a bad noodle stopper, as it’d be awfully easy to break these, especially if you had to clean her. 

Some weird black mark under the sealant: 

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Also some thigh gap going on, on the left. 

Sealant, what sealant?:

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On her left hand side, you an see some mottled, shininess. This is present all across her back, and I’m pretty sure this is related to the sealant layer being done improperly. I’m not an expert though. Also the lower half of her body isn’t well contected into the strap, leaving a bit of a mess. A the very top of the pic, you can see where the purple paint has escaped its designated area. 

I was disappointed with this figure, and especially considering it arrived broken, I contacted the retailer to investigate my options. They very kindly sent me another one free of charge, part 2 will show pics of the replacement.