After the debacle that was the Oni Musume III purchase from Amazon UK, I looked around, and found that my best bet was the blue version from Amazon US. This time it was a fulfilled by Amazon item, so I was a lot more confident it’d be the right one this time!
And it was…
The right one this time!
Here’s a side-view showing more of her off:
And the money shot:
Nice butt 😛 Glad to finally have her, and it’s nice having the alternate colour scheme, as a contrast to the other one.
Bought this from someone in France, as it was slightly cheaper to do so… and I feel it’s one of those figures that should have been in my collection already.
So here she is:
Love the way she’s even got two different two different colours of eye shadow. The hammer has a little peg, which is what keeps it in position, and seems to be working well thus far – she hasn’t dropped her hammer, and it stayed in place when I moved her for photographing.
Here’s a shot showing off the hammer:
And one from the other side:
Love the pose she’s in, the striking colours and the detail in this figure. Kotobukiya put together some really nice figures, and am glad to have this one in my collection.
Been seeing these Parfom figures, and been attracted to ordering them, because it’s a rare instance of finding something attractive and cute. This was one of four I had pre-ordered.
So here she is, outta the box:
I think they’re a little on the pricey side for what they are, but for the most part, the sculpting and painting is well done, and the articulation seems to work fine, though I’d like a little more range on her left arm for posing.
She comes with both versions of her sword:
Which is nice. Though one thing I didn’t picture was the back of the scabbard and sword, as on the former there seems to be a minor bit of a scratch, and there is a bit of misplaced blue paint on the hilt. Not quite enough to bother complaining about for me, as I’m not likely to have the back visible.
Here’s a side shot of her:
There is a bit of light marking above her ear, which I’m not convinced is intentional, but again, it’s not really noticeable enough to bother me.
She also came with 2 other faces, and one other pair of hands (she has a gripping pair and a splayed pair, but I have one of each equipped), and another sword effect:
By default, she came with the “grim determination” face, but I think the smiling one fits this figure a lot better.
If you’re prepared to pay a decent bit for a small but detailed articulated figure, then I’d say go for it, if not, I’d give it a pass. I much prefer the proportions on these figures to Nendoroids, so I’d rather pay the bit more for one of these than a Nendo.
After dinner on the same day, my husband got bored, so we went shopping. We arrived at a small shopping complex not long before Smyths shut. In my mad dash around Smyths, I picked up two items.
The first was a zombie chicken jokey:
He has a large clear plastic bit, to ensure it stands up, which is useful:
So not so aesthetically pleasing from the side, but I don’t find this to be an issue.
And the second was a Nano Metalfigs Harley Quinn:
For its size and price, it’s not a bad little figure. If I’m in the vicinity of a Smyths again, I might see if they have any of the other characters I like, but some do look rather suspect.
We also visited TK Maxx,and I picked up a Suicide Squad Joker figure, for a price I was willing to pay:
He looks OK, but does have a case of “wanking hand” and nothing to hold.
Here he is from the back:
Not too much to see here, but there is detailing on his jacket.
On the Sunday, we visited a Toys R Us, and I picked up a Domez blind bag. The figure I got was…:
Bane! My favoured ones would have been Catwoman and Joker, but Bane was a solid option. The sculpt on this is OK, but the paint job is a bit meh (see mostly his right hand…) The white mark is actually a bit of fluff on the dome, rather than a scratch.
Here’s his backside:
Bane currently lives as a dash ornament, and seems to stay still on the anti-slip matting, despite my husband’s driving…so he’ll stay there for the time being. Despite the paint job, I may pick up some more of these or the Deadpool ones if I see them at a reasonable price.
After visiting NORCON, I went for a wander around Norwich.
On my winding way to a comic book shop that I had located via the use of Google Maps, I passed through several interesting shops. My first pickup came from an antiques store, but wasn’t very antique, with a copyright date of 2012:
He didn’t have a box, but he’s in good condition, and is the Marvel Select Avengers Movie Hulk. This figure manages to have a decent amount of “presence”.
Second thing was a
Silurian Warrior
from Cash Converters:
Not much of a Dr Who fan, but I do love some of the creature designs.
When I finally got to the comic book shop, they had a couple of the DC designer figures at a good price, and I chose to buy this one:
And turn him around….
Bwah!
For those who don’t like the Two Face meets Joker head, the “default” one was a much more normal head:
Side of the head:
I was also looking at a Harley Quinn, but the paint job on it was a bit suspect, so decided against it.
Went to NORCON t’other weekend, and came out with much loots. Some at the con itself, and some in Norwich itself. This blog will cover the items I bought at the con
First up, we have Deadpool! An’ a big one at that:
He’s happy to be outta the box! And apparently famished from the journey to his new home:
He came with plenty of accessories:
And two heads. First one is with half-a-mask:
And the second is this bizarre contraption!
Which has a movable jaw, and spinning propellor. Here’s a view of the side of this head:
I also got a Walter White from the same seller:
And some bonus accessories, of one not mentioned on the box:
I have one of him in a yellow biohazard suit, but I wanted a Walter that was in his normal getup, so happy to get this one, and cheap too! These Mezco figures do lack articulation, but the sculpts are detailed and well done. There’s some small areas of sloppy paint, but from a small distance, they are some nice-looking figures.
Next we have an Xenomorph Lurker from the Hiya toys.
Close-up of the xenomorph:
Closeup of the head detail:
Close-up of the facehugger:
Most of the places I’ve seen selling these, the price was too high to bother for such a small figure. On opening and playing with this figure, I’m glad to have not paid more than £15 for it. The detail is nice, but the interchangeable hands, whilst nice, seem a bit overkill for such a figure. The joints, especially at the elbows are a bit awkward. Some of them are a bit reluctant to be joints, and some aren’t particularly stiff, which is probably largely due to the joint type and size. The tail poses nicely.
Here’s a Borg figure I picked up:
This figure looked better “in the flesh” than I expected, and the price was right, so I picked it up.
This particular borg figure doesn’t seem to come up for sale as much in the UK as some of the other Playmates ones, and this one looks more detailed and nicer than the other ones. However, the accessories gave me a laugh (they weren’t visible in the packaging):
Interesting colour scheme they have there! Base isn’t properly painted (skimped around the Borg symbol) and rather cumbersome, so I switched it out for a Reaction base. Ah, figures from the 90s.
Just as I was leaving, I spotted a Species II figure I considered buying some months ago, then forgot about:
Side shot:
She also comes with this standee, but due to its size, this one’s gonna stay in storage, at least for now:
She also come with a closed-mouth head, but didn’t photograph that. Not too much to see with it.
Like the Borg figure, this is one that’s easier to get in the US than the UK, and if it does come up for auction, it’s usually a pretty high price, so was happy to get this for a tenner.
And that concludes my NORCON loot!
… because you can never have too much Kuroyukihime or Black Lotus.
Bought these two Figmas together from the same seller. The first one I really like, and intend to put her with my Silver Crow Figma, but I need to do some figure rearranging first. Due to her exclusivity she cost a pretty penny, but she’s still cool lol.
This second one was cheaper, but not sure if it was a good buy or not.
She has some nice features – the silver butterflies, the wings and the fact she comes with a tiny li’l Arita avatar:
However, her skirt is rather odd, and doesn’t feel like it sits quite right, and the umbrella is too heavy, and has a habit of falling, and the bottom wing segments can fall off easily. Maybe I’ll find some way of sortin’ that skirt, lol…
Went for a trip to the cash point… decided to make a detour to the one place within walking distance that sells figures. Found two things that appealed to me.
First is Aki Ross from Final Fantasy. I haven’t played the FF games, but I liked the look of this character. Also she was cheap 😀
Second thing I bought was a Deadpool keyring:
Can’t go wrong with a bit o’ Deadpool!
This figure… been wanting this one for a veerrryyy long time, but not been able to justify the cost of it on the secondhand market. At one point, it came up on Solaris Japan for a reasonable price, but then I missed out on it, due to funds.
Then it came up for a reasonable price again a few months ago. So I decided to order it just before I went on holiday, thinking I’d get it just after I got back. Only during the order process I noticed that it was sea shipping. And then thinking I could have ordered it two weeks ago ><, oh well.
So the wait was on. The long, looong wait. So how long was it? 73 days of wait… but totally happy to have it now!
Side of the figure:
And her back:
What was surprising is that I ordered a secondhand one, but this one seems to have never left the box! Well, she has now :P, and gone to the safety of one of my cupboards.
The Kuroyukihime part of the figure can be displayed separately, which is a nice touch, but probably not something I’m likely to do.
Kinda tempted to put an LED in the base, so it glows, but not totally sold on the idea as of yet. Maybe if I move and she’s in a Detolf or something… or I have the wiring/connectivity so it can either be easily toggled on/off outside of the cabinet, or synced up with the room lighting or something.
So would I do sea shipping again? Probably not, unless the figure price is very touch-and-go to what I want to pay. £10 more for express shipping could quite well be the better option, lol.
Was donating some stuff in a charity shop, and saw this keyring for 50p:
Thought it looked cute, so had to get it for my hangables rails. So now I have a happy cup o’ coffee looking down on me :).
The keyring is by Kidrobot, and is part of the Yummy Breakfast range.
Saw this on eBay and sent in an offer. After a bit of back-and-forth, a price was agreed on, and now I have her :D.
One pretty Kuroyu… uh how does this name go again… Kuroyukihime. Can never spell it. Already looked it up twice in the writing of this blog…
A slightly more top-down view:
Love this figure, she was unopened, so she came with all the bits, but decided not to sit her on her sand tiles, as there’s not really enough room in the detolf where she’s sat, and she sits just fine on the shelf (I have another sitting Beach Queen, and she’s got a plastic rest on her stand, which is very much needed).
Going to be getting some more Accel World figures in the post soon, so watch this space for more Accel goodies 😀
Came across one of these in an action figure shop… but found an auction on eBay that didn’t have too long to run, so decided to risk it and bid on the auction.
A day or two later, I was the winner with the maiden bid :D.
Love the bright and striking colours of this figure, and the interesting pose. Kind of a shame you can’t see her weapon from the front though.
And here she is from the back:
If I had a figure turntable, she’d be a candidate for it. As it atm, she’s in one of my Gnedby units.
I also ordered an Oni-Musume III from a seller from Amazon at the same time, but sadly this happened:
I have returned the second one, and have been refunded for it. Ah well.
Now I have a Oni Musume III on order from the US, in the blue colour scheme. This one is actually being dispatched from an Amazon US warehouse, so it should be the right one this time!
And now for the dregs! There was bound to be some broken/incomplete stuff, and here it is.
First up, not broken, but kinda cheapy – some Japanese warrior figures.
They’re not terrible, but they’re more kid’s toys than something to really display imo. They’ve been sent to the Drawer of Purgatory. Feel kinda sorry for the dude in the middle with his wilting sword.
The next item I initially thought was a decent item, but on closer inspection… not so much.
Here is Neptune from One Piece:
Unfortunately, on closer inspection, the pain on his large mane of hair is badly chipped:
Was considering listing this on eBay, but don’t really want to with the condition it is in.
Now for half-a-Akagi from Kan Colle:
No head in the box, so this is a bit pointless. I’ll keep the bits, just in case I can combo it with something at a later date.
Lastly, the body of Hiiragi Tsukasa from Lucky Star and a
Sound Capsule Gaia Memory of Ryuki. Nope, Hiiragi’s head doesn’t fit on Akagi’s body. I tried 😛
The sound box is made to look like a USB drive, but it very much isn’t. You can press the button at the bottom (raised bit near the “plug” end), and it will cycle through a bunch of sounds. Doing some research, this set came with some kind of candies/sweets, and there were others done as blind boxes.
Has annoy-o-tron potential, so it’ll get lost in a drawer somewhere. Or thrown at someone who professes a love for Kamen Rider.
And that concludes the Box o’ Random! There are a couple of items I haven’t covered, as I’ve listed them on eBay. The items are a couple of pin badges and a phone strap, from series I’ve not heard of.
And here we have the things I like, but have no idea what they are! Tried asking on MFC and Reddit, but no-one, as of writing, have identified what they are
First up, a pile of cute:
Copyright on this figure is listed as “GOE”.
Nex is a fox-inna-bowl, with some food on his head:
No copyright or anything on this one, so I assume it’s a random mass-produced item. He’s now dangling off one of my keyring & charm bars.
A badge of a girl:
No copyright on this one either, but being a pin-badge, it could quite well be something fan-made. Not sure I can go wearing this one in public though…
First up, two trading figures, of the same character – Meyrin Hawke from Gundam SEED Destiny:
Nothing much to write home about… second one looks like it has had its feet glued or re-glued to the base. Cleaned up some of the mess, but some residue remains. The hole is supposed to have a pole to stop her from leaning. She has leaned a bit, more than likely because the pole isn’t there. Mediocre painting job on the pair, so they’re just sat in random places.
Next three figures are from One Piece, which is a series I know of, but haven’t watched/read.
These guys are called Aokiji and Akainu:
These guys are still a little bit dirty, even after being cleaned. The dirt was really rather stubborn on these dudes. Really doesn’t help with their capes being white! Also Aokiji’s right arm has a habit of falling out, but I think I’ve got it to stay now.
Third dude is called Kame and is a… turtle?
This dude is nicely-made, and even has pegs on the stand to keep him upright. He’s been recently made (2016), and I think it shows in the quality of the figure. He is a prize figure, so the paint job isn’t 100%, but certainly good given that condition.
aHere’s more of the small items from the Mandarake box o’ random. First up, a couple of items from Kamen Rider. The first is a bottle cap & stamp figure, that was included in its box, and the second is Kamen Rider v3, who came with… ¾ of his box…
The rubber part on the bottom has a pattern you could potentially use for stamping on things, but I don’t think I’ll bother :P.
This little dude, the cardboard bits came as part of a TCG-type card, and you can pop them out and combine them in a couple of different ways. You can either use the to decorate the figure like this, or make a cardboard dragonfly. I was originally going to throw the box out, as there’s two round-ish holes ripped into it (… mouse ate it?) but it has the instructions on (fortunately the holes weren’t in any necessary instructions), so it’ll get filed away.
Next up, a Banpresto random-box figures of various maids. This one is a eCafe maid:
When I first got her out of the box, she was leaning at like a 60 degree angle… had to warm her legs up and straighten her. Also I damaged the sticker on the base, as it went in the sink with the rest of the stuff, as I didn’t realise it was a sticker. Kinda tempted to scrub the sticker off, as I think it makes the base look ugly though.
This next dude is apparently called Moguro Fukuzou. Apparently he’s a salesman from a manga, where he “helps” people with their desires, but instead ruins their lives. Apparently he’s well-known enough, he has his own TV Tropes page:
Sadly the sucker he comes with doesn’t work very well. I may just take it off, and have him just pointing, with his comically oversized finger.
And one last thing with a sucker:
A cat. Not much to say about this one. Has a couple of marks, probably because it really easily falls off stuff. Well-detailed and painted though, more so than thee things usually are. Bit of a pain to get stuck on anything, but it will do, with some perseverance.
So let’s start with the stuff from series I’ve watched/know about.
First up is a Sheryl Nome gacha figure (she’s from Macross):
I was considering buying this gacha figure on eBay at one point, think i was looking at an auction for this and some other Macross figures. She isn’t in pristine figure, but I don’t think the marks show up quite as clearly irl. Was a mild pain to put together with no instructions, but worth it :).
Next, a Nanoha Nendoroid Petit:
This one even came with the instructions! No box though. Her arms are a bit odd, and she doesn’t hold the weapon terribly well, so I can see why someone would want to trade this one in… but she’s still cute and lookin’ awesome, so decided to have her balance her weapon on her arm, instead of hold it 2-handed.
Alicia Testarossa, also from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha:
Never watched the series, but I do like the character designs. Have a feeling I wouldn’t be a fan of the show, but I’ll probably watch some of it at some point, as it seems pretty prevalent in the anime community.
Tiiiny little Vocaloid figure of Kagamine Len:
This teensy dude is about 3cm tall, and is sat on top of one of my monitors. Looks far nicer than the Poundland fodder he replaced (a Predasaur).
Shana from Shakugan no Shana:
Keep running into stuff from this series, but never consumed any of the media from it. Maybe I should put the anime on my to-watch list, lol.
And now a character from Bakemonogatari, another series I keep running into merch for, but haven’t researched/watched:
Love this little figure, nice and brightly coloured, with the autumnal theme. Her name is Sengoku Nadeko. Nearly thought she was just a “box remnant”, what with having no feet, until I found the base.
And here’s two things from an anime I’ve never heard of, that’s called “My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute”.
This is a character called Gokou Ruri, sat on a character called Comet-Kun:
… probably should have dusted it a bit before taking that pic.
And this is a character called Makishima Saori:
The first one I like, the second one is… OK. And that concludes this part of the box o’ random. Some nice selections of smaller stuff here, enough to be deffo not disappointed by this box.
This post will cover the expected bits, plus an unexpected item, which pretty much made the box worth it on its own.
So what is this unexpected mystery item? A stand!
These Play Arts Kai stands can be quite useful, and tend to be pretty expensive to get a hold of on their own, so this one was a welcome addition, It also came with a few different sized “arms”, one of which I’ve used so I can set a figure further back on the shelf it is sat on. I don’t currently have any large figures in need of it, but I won’t be surprised if I eventually use it. It did come with one claw with the screws in, but I suspect it originally would have come with more screws & nuts. Not an issue for me, as I have a ton already, lol.
Next up, the Rei I saw in the packet… plus the Asuka that goes with her!
The Rei especially needed a good scrub. Looking closely at the Mandarake pic of the package, you can actually see Asuka’s feet sticking up. Super-happy this pair was in here, as they’re designed to go together and it’s Evangelion.
Photo showing Asuka more clearly:
Next up, the EVA-01 that I saw sticking out:
He’s got a bit of an interesting smooth and almost-soft plasticy texture to him. He has a limited amount of articulation, but is decently sculpted and painted. He seems to be too nice to be a bootleg (even the bottoms of his soles have been detailed and painted!), but no idea what he is, and couldn’t find him on MFC. On his leg he has the following: “© k.G”, and underneath that “B China 19131″.
And finally… what did that beach base belong to?
C.C. from Code Geass! She sells for around the same price as I bought the box for, so yeah, was worth it :). Though I did have to give her a good ol’ scrub down first, and there are some minor marks. With the ball, I have it white-tacked to her hand – I thought you were supposed to be able to wedge it in her hands, but it was, uh, not playing ball, so I just white-tacked it. After looking up pictures, I found out that there’s a stand for the beach ball, and it was actually included in the box. Not sure I’m going to bother with it though, as it looks a little naff.
Figure from another angle:
So that concludes the larger items in the box. Tomorrow, some of the smaller items in the box.
Was browsing the Urban Mine auctions (again!), but only to find there’s less of them and mostly bags o’ stuff. So I combed through all the pics, looking for ones that were potentially worth the postage price.
Finally I settled bidding on this one:
I chose this one due to the EVA-01 arm sticking out and the Rei to the left. There was also the beach stand that could potentially be something exciting… or just a stand. One never knows with these bags of stuff, and there’s no guarantee anything is complete.
So a couple of weeks later, I got two boxes from Mandarake. A heavy box containing this stuff, and the Metatron figures I posted about yesterday.
Upon opening the bag above, and having a leaf through, the vast majority of the stuff was really dirty, so off to the sink it went:
Not the usual contents of my draining rack! Surprisingly, most stuff cleaned up a lot better than I thought it would.
Yep, not the usual contents at all:
As there’s quite the pile of stuff, the next few posts will be detailing and showcasing what I got in my bag o’ stuff.
Been considering buying these since getting the other Eikoh prize figures. These ones tend to go for a bit more on most sites, but on Mandarake they’re around the same price as the others. Initially I was considering one of the other… in the end it was both 😛
So, first up, Dark Archangel Metatron:
Top-down-ish view:
Love the colours, and the double-wings looks really good. Assembly was smooth, the wings were clearly keyed (not that it’s hard to work out which went where), the book I had to take a bit of care to ensure I didn’t snap the pole it goes on.
And now for Archangel Metatron:
This one was a pain in the backside to assemble, with having to balance her on three poles at once. There’s also a paint flaw on top of her lower left wing (not shown in the pics) where there’s a small dot of missing yellow paint. Bit of a shame, but displayed in the right place, it isn’t visible.
Out of the two, I prefer the Dark version of her, but both are welcome additions to my collection.
