November 11, 2017February 26, 2019

Conquering Queen

This figure was my final purchase at the Horror Con. There were two I was potentially interested in – this one and one called Guilty Secrets, of a lady untying a red corset. Still think I made the right decision:

Love her clothes and the use of colour in the figure. The sword is a bit awkwardly placed for side-viewing though.

Here’s the dragon skeleton’s head. Note the way the sword obscures her face and body somewhat.

Here’s the dragon skeleton and skull on the other side:

I do like the way the dragon skeleton surrounds the throne. This figure is currently living on the lounge table, encouraging me to keep it tidy.

November 10, 2017February 26, 2019

Harley Quinn

I have a soft spot for Harley, and despite the poopness of the Suicide Squad movie, I do love the Harley design:

This was made by an artist at the con, “Arkham-Arts (Ski)”. I did a Google search for him, but all he seems to have is an inactive deviantART page :(.

Here’s a close-up of the face, showing the her choker:

and a close-up of the base:

And what she looks like from the back:

A lovely little Harley to add to my collection 🙂

November 9, 2017February 26, 2019

Jersey Devil

And here’s the third and final figure I bought from the same seller:

A li’l cute Jersey Devil. Yeah, he likes to be called cute, I’m sure of it!

Here he is from the side, showing off his horns:

And his back:

Whilst he does have articulation, it isn’t the best. I also have him stuck with some white tack under his feet, so that he’d stay up for the photos – he’s really hard to balance!

He works far more as a display piece than a poseable figure – the sculpt and paint are nice, but there isn’t much articulation, and there’s not a right lot you can do with what’s there. Could’ve also done with a peg hole, to help with the balance issues, but hey, white tack works, and his feet are big enough you can stick him down and it won’t show.

November 8, 2017February 26, 2019

Hellboy! Anung Un Rama

Here’s a character I’ve been thinking of getting a figure of, on and off through the years. And now I finally have one! Without completely breaking the bank. This is the second of three figures I bought from the same seller:

Seems like wide stances is a thing for this Mezco range of figures… I’ve put his gun in the holster for now, as I’m currently too lazy to go downstairs to warm up his hand XD. Here he is from the side, with the fire crown more in focus:

Doing some searches, I don’t actually have the fire crown in the right place in my photos… ah well XD.

Here he is from the back:

The seller had a handful of the Hellboy variants – chose to go for this one, as I prefer the look of Hellboy in his “full” form. Mmm, nice horns.. and here is a closeup of them:

Is a nicely-painted and sculpted figure… and this one doesn’t have any blue blobs of Abe :P. Just wish these Mezco figures were less forced to look like they’re riding an invisible horse!

November 7, 2017February 26, 2019

Abraham “Abe” Sapien

This was one of the three figures in my first purchase at Horror Con in Birmingham. I wasn’t planning on going, but my husband saw one of his friends was exhibiting his books there, so we went for an impromptu visit :D. So I ended up spending most of my November budget in October… oops.

Second to robotic things, I like amphibious things. I love Abe’s design and colour. Unfortunately it looks like he got a little too close to Hellboy in the factory and he has a dot of red paint on his right arm – is visible in the above picture.

He also has some nice finnage going on:

The belt is an extra – he has a belt to go on his belt XD.

And here he is saying hi with all his gear on:

The rebreather collar snaps on satisfyingly, and stays shut, though I’ll display him with his gearless head, as per the first pic. The other head has found its home on a twist-on wire connector (Americans are probably more familiar with these). that lives on top of my monitor.

He also came with a baby Sammael:

Aww, cute :P.

November 6, 2017February 26, 2019

Wonda-Chan Rei

Been looking at the Evangelion x Wonda-Chan figures over the last couple of months, but for the size of figure, they’re usually pretty expensive. But his one turned up in Mandarake for a good price:

One of the ones I almost bought off a seller had a broken peg, on receiving it, I could understand why – the pegs are long and thin, and her legs are naturally a bit too narrow to peg straight on. For anyone getting this figure, I’d strongly recommend heating her legs to make them pliable.

Here’s her back:

And her cute butt :). Lovely paintwork, lovely colours. Decided to just buy her on her own instead of paying a bit more for the pair, as she’s the one I really wanted :). If I see the Asuka Wanda-Chan for a good price, I’ll buy though :).

November 5, 2017February 26, 2019

Graceful Valkyrie

Have been thinking of getting a Valkyrie figure for a bit, but saw this colour variation on Facebook buy-sell group. One trip to Mandarake, and this one made its way over the sea to me, for at least half the price:

Compared to the other Eikoh figures I’ve got in this range, this one’s a bit on the disappointing side. Her blade was a bit scuffed up, despite her box still being sealed. Most of her is nicely painted, but she just doesn’t seem to have the same impact as the others.

The back of her also looks kinda plasticky:

Won’t be looking at her back much, so it isn’t a big deal, but maybe a little bit of paint would’ve helped with the expanse of white.

She has grown on me a bit since I’ve got her, so I’m not disappointed by her, and she didn’t exactly break the bank.

November 4, 2017February 26, 2019

Kaworu Nagisa

This is a figure I’ve had on my Mandarake favourite list for some time:

His box was smaller than I thought it would be, but seems a decent size once out of the box. Here’s his box:

I do like his suit and his pose. And blue and purple. One more for the Evangelion collection 😀

November 3, 2017February 26, 2019

Drossel von Flugel

Decided to buy a chunk of stuff from Mandarake, and first thing into my basket was this Figma. Been looking at buying a Drossel figma, but the aftermarket prices on most sites were too much.

And now I finally have her :D. Not familiar with the media she’s in, but love the design. The figma seems nicely detailed:

She’s nice, white n’ shiny :D. Not exactly clamouring to watch the original content, as it’s a joint Disney thing, and I don’t tend to be into anything Disney, and it’s a bunch of skits.

Still, she’ll happily join my collection of robotic and half-robotic things 😀

November 2, 2017February 26, 2019

Grab Box for Boys (S) – Miscellany

And here’s the rest of the stuff. that didn’t fit into the previous categories.

Camille Noire clear files

Fronts:

Backs:

Don’t know anything about this franchise, but some of these clear files did make me wish I actually had paper to file. Some of sides are quite nicely designed.

Sailor Moon cake

I bet the vast majority of the people who owned this have done so through an AmiAmi grab box! Decided to put my current age on the cake. Currently is nestled among the spare room figures.

Black Rock Shooter fan

Initially chucked this item aside, due to it being a fan. Opened it up at the end, and was pleasantly surprised, though not currently sure where I put it… Looks like it may have been an AmiAmi item, as I saw an AmiAmi fan in another loot post with the same fan “spokes” design.

Idolm@aster “carddass” cards

Ooh, shiny! Not quite sure what I’ll do with these, but I do like shiny things. That name wouldn’t fly too well in an English-speaking country though.

Not entirely sure where I put these. One day I’ll dig ‘em out and put ‘em on something.

Futari Wa Precure art board

At the time, I wasn’t too impressed with it, but over time the design kinda grew on me. This was the first I got in this grab box, but since got a 2nd from another grab box. I’ve put the two together, and will probably, maybe put them on my wall of random stuff at some point.

Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de badges

Might put the character badges somewhere, I like the middle one. Not got much to say about these, lol. And I still don’t, a few months down the line.

Overall, the grab box was… OK. The ‘star’ item wasn’t something I was interested in, which brought it down somewhat, but the figures were a nice selection, and on reflection it wasn’t a bad box.

November 1, 2017February 26, 2019

AmiAmi Grab Box for Boys (S) – Hangables

These items fit into the ‘Hanged up’ category of MFC. Not quite as grim as it sounds – these are items like keyrings, phone charms and danglers.

Titus Alexius

My favourite of the hanged up items I got. No familiarity with the character, but love the design, and this thing is big! The stand also makes it easy to display.

Mikasa Ackerman

I like Attack on Titan, so this was one of the first things to be added to my rails, when I added them to the study Kallax.

Is the Order a Rabbit?

Not familiar with this anime, seen it mentioned on MFC. Initially was headed for the Drawer of Purgatory, but ended up on the hanging rail.

Vocaloid

These are… OK. Currently on the hanging rail, but may get “voted off” if I run outta room with quality stuff.

Takanya

Not familiar with this character, but I like her design. She made it to the hanging rail 🙂 Man, that’s not a great pic I took…

Touwa Erio & Chieri Ogata

Bit of a crap photo, but I like both of these. Touwa went to the hanging rail, and Chieri hangs off the wardrobe in the bedroom.

Yuzuha

From a VN called Utawarerumono. Never heard of it myself. She hangs in one corner of the hanging rails, due to her size.

And that’s it for hangables. Next will be the miscellany that came in the box

October 31, 2017February 26, 2019

Grab Box for Boys (S) – Figures

These are the figure items that were in the box.

Asuka Langley

Probably my favourite item in the box, initially I did have this without the stand, but she does kinda need it over time, so I clipped it to her. Got more used to it, and when posed right, it doesn’t show too much.

Sonsaku Hakufu

Only found the variant of this figure on MFC, and not a lot of pics elsewhere on the internet. Found out who she was via the copyright info on the base.

Ayase Eli

Had the fun of watching this thing wobble whilst I unboxed everything else! Not watched Love Live, so have no attachment to the character. Haven’t had any sensible offers for it, so she’s currently hiding out in a box.

Cagalli Yula Athha

Was a right arse to get on the base as the legs were bent in too much, and not the greatest paint job. She sits in one of my detolfs, and is part of a series of figures that I have now got three of, all from boxes of random.

Dizzy

I like the design of this character. She sits among some other petits in one of my detolfs.

Shamal

No familiarity with this character. Getting these things onto the base is a pain! The pegs on the base don’t really do the jobs pegs are supposed to do, and she fell apart once ><. Got there in the end though.

Sheryl Nome

Prone to some of the issues of the above figure, but is a character I’m mildly more interested in.

And that’s it for figures. Tomorrow will be the hangable/keyring items.

October 30, 2017February 25, 2019

AmiAmi Grab Box for Boys (S)

The next set of posts are modified from a post I made to MFC… so if you’ve seen it before, that’s where it came from.

When I ordered this box… I ended up having to wait near-on a month for it to arrive. Post was moving very slowly from Tokyo at that time.
But arrive it did:

So, without further ado, here’s what I got.

Loot layers

With AmiAmi grab boxes, they’re put together in layers, with wrapping in between. So here’s shots of the layers.

Loot layer 0:

The card was on top of the flaps, not seen that before.

Loot layer 1:

Loot layer 2:

Loot layer 3:

Loot layer 4:

And here’s the stuff laid out before unpacking everything:

The next few blog posts will detail the stuff that was in it.

October 29, 2017February 26, 2019

Sachiel-XX & Chibi Lotus

Now first for a figure I’ve been pondering buying for…. a looong time. Saw it come and go on Mandarake.. saw the price drop on Amazon for awhile, but then it started going back up, so I pulled the trigger and went for it:

Glad to finally have her, she mildly exceeded my expectations, which is good. She also came with two hands – the one with the blue rod through it, and one that matches her right hand. Yep, deffo going for the more exciting one.

Here’s her back:

Mildly shiny :). One wing balances on the support, other one doesn’t quite. Also… butt. That was a surprise butt 😛

And here’s a figure I got some time ago, and forgot to stuff in a blog… li’l chibi Black Lotus. Should’ve been posted in my Kuro-Lotus-a-thon!

She originally came with a magazine, and frequently is super-expensive. The price I paid was prolly a bit more than she’s really worth, but not gonna be deprivin’ me of food.

I did heat-treat some of her parts to get ‘em straight, swords looking a little bent in these photos, so may do those some day (not sure if I did originally). She has a bit more detail than I was expecting, and she stands well on her stand.

October 28, 2017February 26, 2019

When you can’t be bothered to put your Lego together…

… you can get bootleg lego!

Found this in TK Maxx. This is based on the Lego set 70780, Protector of Water. Bought it as I was mildly interested to see how it compared to a real Bionicle.

Here’s the back of the packet:

Yep, I think everyone now knows what it is called!

And just in case you do pull it apart, they were kind enough to include some instructions, located behind the figure:

And here is the figure itself out of the packet:

Note that its weapon doesn’t include the “gun” that the real ones do, so hey, at least I won’t be losing the 1-dot pieces. Other than that, it’s mostly faithful to the original by the looks of it, only… cheaper. The head doesn’t fire off as well as the originals I do own, and the plastic feels quite cheap.

Here’s his back:

Interestingly, the blue bit is pegged towards his front, instead of his back.

So… that’s what you get for your £3.50!

October 27, 2017February 26, 2019

Moar Catgirls!

I liked the other two so much… I went and bought the other two :P. The names of this pair are Takayama Maria (one in blue) and Hasegawa Kobato.

Hasegawa came with the small bunny rabbit :D. Here’s a slightly more upwards shot:

Here they are from the back:

And a more top-down view:

Probably going to stick with the half-round bases (One came with a furry round base, and the other came with a round chequered, not furry base), and they’re currently sitting with me at the kitchen table until I get more shelving :D.

October 26, 2017February 26, 2019

Catgirls!

Was browsing MFC and came across this lovely pair for sale.

Had seen them previously on MFC, and wanted to get the set, and these came up at a good price, so had to buy.

This one is called Mikazuki Yozora:

And the pink one is called Kashiwazaki Sena:

And here’s a shot from the back:

They both came with a furry base, but you only really need one for the pair.

I like these two so much, that I’ve decided to order the other pair in this set from Mandarake. The seller I bought these from had previously sold the other two, so needed to source them elsewhere.

At the time of writing, I haven’t chosen where to display them, but some stuff may move about so they get a good spot 🙂

October 25, 2017February 26, 2019

AmiAmi Mystery Box – WTF!

And now for the dregs! The stuff that made me wtf, for one reason or another.

Let’s start out with something normal, which I didn’t know what it was at first:

Ooh, pretty card… Was scratching my head until I turned it over, and found it had copious English on it:

It’s a phone card. Don’t think I’ll have an actual use for this, but it’s the kind of phone card you’d potentially buy and not use. Obviously its previous owner didn’t.

There was a second magnet in the box:

I guess this came with an azone doll… bit of a random thing to throw in, but hey, guess it’d be decorating the warehouse floor if it wasn’t thrown in. Seeing as I don’t buy azone dolls, this is of little interest to me.

Who fancies something that looks like a watch strap?

But only if you want to declare you’re a tank. Or, uh, drive an M4 Sherman:

… too much Panzermadels there. It’s plastic, and feels sorta cheap (took it out of the box briefly to see what it was like), so it’s not really a quality novelty.

Now to the most WTF-y… a CD!

So I recognised this as being from Queen’s Blade, especially as it says it across the bottom. Spiral Chaos is a PSP game, and this was an extra. I should imagine at this point, most people, like myself, was imagining this to be a soundtrack CD. Noooo, oh no. This is the oddities post!

So my research was inconclusive, with some people calling it a “vocal CD”. I thought about trying to sell it as-is, but not being sure exactly what it was, curiosity got the better of me so I opened and played it. And what is it? Just under 7 minutes of some character quotes from the game. No idea what they’re saying, though Google Translate did get some of it! However, chunks of some of the tracks aren’t words. Not sure if the characters are in pain, fighting or um. Well. It’s hard to tell the difference with Japanese women.

Not sure what I’m going to do with this in the long run. Play it to unsuspecting people? Slip copies of the tracks into people’s music collections? Can’t imagine it has much, if any, resale value. Not surprised it ended up in a box of random tbh! And it didn’t disappoint on the random front!

And that’s yer lot!

October 24, 2017February 26, 2019

AmiAmi Mystery Box – non-figures

So here are the things that aren’t going to be gracing shelves.

First item visible when I opened the box was this clear file:

It’s shiny and quite colourful, so I plan to keep it and possibly use it for filing paperwork for visiting Tokyo next year.

Along with this were some Re:Zero game cards:

They all have the same card back, which looks like this:

Not sure what I’ll do with these. Can’t read ‘em. Third one along the top reminds me of Nui, from Kill La Kill though.

Here’s an acrylic standee from Macross Frontier:

Had to do some research to find out she was called Matsuura Nanase. Not sure if I will keep this.

Next up is a Sailor Moon charm:

Pretty, but I don’t have any attachment to Sailor Moon.

Here’s a magnet from Brave Witches. The character is apparently called Karibuchi Hikari:

This particular magnet wasn’t on the MFC database, but there are others in the same set.

Here’s a Precure Shikishi board. Had one of these before, but this is a different design:

They’re pretty, so I might put them up somewhere… when I can be bothered. Got some other pics to do first!

Here are some straps, this was a double-pack, and the characters are from Idolm@ster:

And this is Kotori from Love Live!:

Finally, for this post we have a playmat, for all your card-game-playing needs:

These characters are from KanColle.

Mystery box finale coming tomorrow!

October 23, 2017February 26, 2019

AmiAmi Mystery Box

This is the third mystery box I’ve got from AmiAmi, and probably the last one I’ll get for awhile, as I’ve spent rather a bit too much over the year, and this one was the weakest I’ve had. A bunch of this stuff will probably find its way to eBay/Facebook buy-sell on the run up to Christmas.

First up, the figures. This time all the figures were trading ones. Let’s start with one from a series I know, Fate:

She’s not a character I particularly have any feelings for

(Irisviel) but, hey, Fate/Zero!

Next up is a Gundam SEED Destiny blind-box character. These seem to keep popping up, and this is the third I’ve ended up with, Mayu Asuka:

As she’s the bonus extra figure, she came with a choice of two different left arms:

Here she is, clearly on the phone:

Paint quality really is quite derp on this one, so I can see why it got traded in.

Here’s a figure I know, but didn’t take out of the bags:

She’s Ranka Lee, from Macross Frontier. Looking at this figure on MFC, there’s a part missing. Not a very inspiring figure though, so she might get sold. hence me leaving it in the bag.

Next up, is a tiny figure I quite like. She’s apparently Shelby from Duel Maid: