Groot – Guardians of the Galaxy – Metacolle

This figure was gifted to me by a friend. He posted it to me, but didn’t put a note with the figure, so I was confused for awhile, wondering when I ordered a mini-Groot figure until I worked out this was the gift he sent me :).

So let’s have a look at the li’l guy.

MetaColle figures certainly live up to their name – for his small size he’s pretty weighty because of it. This figure is nicely painted, for its size. The fade on his head is nicely done, with some green detailing on his body. 

The gaps on his body are because he has articulation in these areas. So you can pose him a bit too!

To give an idea of size, here’s a promo shot:

So he’s not too far off the size of the Nano metalfigs, for things to compare him to. 

Left:

I like the sculpting on him – the wood effect works well. The blended paint on his head works well from this side too. 

Right:

From this side we can see he has got good detailing on the top of his head, as well as the sides. 

Back:

Here’s the only drawback as far as I’m concerned – he has a visible screw in his back. Would’ve been nice to have a plug or something to cover this up, but I don’t think it’s a big thing for what you get. 

Overall, I really like this little figure, and think he’s a decent quality figure. These figures have an RRP of ¥1,000, though if buying direct from Japan they’re usually around ¥800, which I think is a fair price point for these figures. 

Akiba Blue – Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger – Season 2 version

This is yet another figure I bought because I thought it looked good… It was on sale dammit. 

So, here she is:

Loving the blue shade and her outfit, and the interesting range of accessories she comes with, that I have little idea about… Reading about her, she’s from a parody series, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they produced more of these than tokusatsu parody fans. In terms of a figure, her outfit isn’t very detailed, but this does give her a stark and clean appearance. I do like the shiny breastplate and the cool-looking helmet she’s wearing. However, her paintwork is flat and without shading, which puts her out of premium figure territory. 

Left:

She looks fine form the side, and has a couple of details on hte side of her helmet. She also has a ponytail thing going on, but it’s not hinged. Don’t try to do so, lest you want to break this part – the gold dot is just for show. The paint lines seem clean throughout – especially on the ball accessory… which I like to think of as a multicoloured bomb… 

Right:

More of the same on this side. A double-jointed elbow is visible, without much to hide it, so it does look lumpy. We can also see the ribbon thing she wears on her shoulder – I like the way they’ve sculpted this so it is flowing in the breeze. 

Back:

The sculpting’s nice on the back ribbon, but there isn’t too much detail here to speak of. There’s a couple of holes in her back – you could probably attach an accessory in here, or a stand. There wasn’t one in the box, but 3mm peg stands aren’t hard to come by. Was disappointed with the lack of stand, but she does have articulated toes, so she’s not too bad to balance. You can also use the accessories to weight her, if needed.

In terms of accessories, she does have a decent range of stuff. One that I managed to not photograph is another ribbon – it’s very similar to the one shown, only it’s more like one half of the ribbon shown, if you want less ribbon for posing. 

She comes with these guns:

I love the overly large “armed” mode this gun has. I guess this is for when the battle gets super serious. Both guns are nicely sculpted and painted, and would make great accessories for any figure they fit with. 

She also comes with many, many hands:

So if you need a certain hand pose, it’s probably in this lot! Always nice to see a range of hands, as it gives more posing opportunities, and especially useful for her, and the several things she can hold. 

Overall, I think she’s a decent figure, but probably not a popular character, hence her cheap price. If you need a random blue ranger for your collection, this one could possibly fit the bill. With the number of parts she comes with, she could be good for custom fodder too, if you’re basing something around a Bandai figure(s). 

Desura II Core Ship – Battleship Yamato 2199

Now for a model kit! This is the Desura II Core Ship, with a couple of support fighters. 

Let’s first look at the core ship itself:

‘tis a long bugger. And spiky! If you hit it, don’t be surprised if you go “ow” and a part flies off. However, I do think it looks cool and worth the pain :P. 

Building it wasn’t too difficult – the instructions were reasonably easy to follow, and the build process, from what I recall, was pretty smooth. 

Left:

Here’s a side shot to admire it in all its glory. I love the profile of this ship, which is why I bought it… despite having not yet seen Battleship Yamato. It is on my “to watch” list, though. 

Now to deviate from my standard walk-around, and look at this thing from bow to stern. 

So let’s start with the front end:

Here we have the stabby forward parts. The sculpting is nice on this model, adding details into what’s a largely plain-coloured vessel. 

Moving further back:

We have some clear parts here, which look nice. There are some transfers that you can add to these bits, to add a bit more detail, but I haven’t done so as of yet. I do like this bit of colour – looking at pictures of the ship from the anime, these parts glow. I could see someone modding this kit, so they could put an LED in this section, though I do believe these parts do back onto blue plastic, so it’d be a relatively hefty mod. 

Cockpit area:

One thing that mildly disappointed me is this purple plastic bit doesn’t push up into a blue plastic “cutout” part, so if you want it to look like the pictures, you need to paint this part. Kind of a shame, as I don’t think it’d be too hard to render a part this could push up into. But if you’re not going for anime-accuracy, you could leave it like this. 

Part below the cockpit:

And these are the spiky bits that tend to spike you and fall apart. The vertical “M” part slots into the one that attaches to the ship, so it’s pretty easy to accidentally knock out. Have had issues with these when positioning the ship on the stand. I do like the red detail parts though. 

Engine fins:

I do rather like this detail, and it has been rendered well. 

Back:

The thrusters look cool, and and I love all the little details back here. What’s less cool is two of the four fins you see here didn’t fit snugly into their slots and kept falling out. Ended up shoving a bit of White Tack onto the part that goes inside the fin, and that fixed that issue. So I’d recommend doing something similar, or glue these parts. I think the inner ring is supposed to help hold these parts in but… it doesn’t. 

Base:

This is the logo for the “owners” (Great Garmillas Empire) of the Desura II… only apparently this isn’t the right way up for it. Ah well, I tried. Stand does a decent job of holding the vessel, but one of the prongs can foul on the base, so you can’t freely tilt it, but you do have a reasonable choice of angles for the ship. 

And that concludes the main ship – I think it’s a cool model, and glad I bought it. Could do with some spots of paint, if I ever get around to painting anything. 

Now for the support fighters:

You get two of these, both identical. There aren’t too many pieces making these up, so they should be a quick build.

Quick tour of one of the fighters, as this blog is long enough already:

The mould has a decent number of details, so looks pretty decent unpainted. There are some decals that I haven’t put on yet, with the logo fro the Great Garmillas Empire. I think these are a nice inclusion to the kit, and look nice displayed flanking the core ship. One less-good part of the model is the spikes on the fins are easily bent, and this can happen when snipping them away from the sprue. Note one of them is a bit bent in the top pic. 

Some of the bottom of the ship is in the dark green – this would be something ideally fixed with some light green paint, so it looks less odd. Depends if you display these with the bottoms showing or not.

Overall, I’m happy with this model kit, and I should really do some painting, so I can paint the odd bit on this one, as I think it kind of needs it. However, the moulding is nice on this kit, so you could get away with not painting it imo. 

Vampire – Wetworks – Alt Colour version

This figure was a random pickup at an action figure store I visited. Thought he looked cool, so decided to buy him. When I did my research on this figure, I found he was the alt colouring. 

So here he is, in his alternative colour scheme glory:

Personally, I prefer this colouring to the main version – here he has black pants and loincloth, which I think fits the theme of the figure better. He’s also a dark green instead of a greyish colour, which I don’t think helps him look vampiric, but the sculpt doesn’t say “Vampire” to me anyway, despite that being his name. 

The sculpt on him is nice and detailed for the most part, but… that waist… what’s going on there?! 

Let’s take a closer look:

Totally tubular! Now I’ve seen it, I’m not sure I can unsee it… not a big fan of this design. I do like the logo thing going on, on the loincloth. The loincloth is made out of a fairly thick plastic, which coupled with the odd waist design, does make it look comedy-sized. As a standalone piece it looks OK, but with it sitting strangely on his hips, it isn’t a good look imo. I am loving the detail on his skin though, which can be seen in the upper parts of this photo. 

Face:

He has this headgear thing that slides on his head. Kind of in two minds about this piece – he looks better with it, but in of itself, it just feels odd. If you don’t like it, then it is an optional part though, so isn’t a biggie. Jury’s out for me though. 

Left:

Here he is, leaning back apparently. He cuts a decent profile from the side imo – looks a lot less strangely shaped from the side. His head sticks out nicely, and I love his hands, with their elongated claw-style. The tendons show up from the top too. 

Aand the obligatory fat leg parts – this is a McFarlane creation after all – these are painted well, and have enough details to not be plain. This fat leg design is useful for keeping the figures upright though! I do like the lesser need for stands. 

He holds his weapon decently well – you could probably get a more convincing grip out of it than I have, but it slots OK over his hand. 

Right:

Loving the veinwork on his arm, and the horns on his shoulders. The silver bracers around his wrists add a nice detail to the figure, and hide the joint. ABout joints – there aren’t a huge amount, but there are a few posing possibilities. McFarlane figures don’t tend to be super-articulated, especially of this age, but they make up for it in looks imo. 

Back:

The texture details are continued around to the back, and he has some blood marks on his upper right arm. His hair is quite scraggly, but does the job – I doubt a creature like this would have neat hair, after all. Loincloth looks OK back here, but has the same issues as the front (as well as seemingly making a break for it! If you don’t like it, there’s the option of removing it). We also have some mechanical details on the back of his legs, which is nice to see. 

Weapon:

Clod do with a little more red paint on some of the wire/vine parts. It has an interesting, tribal design, but does kinda look… lump of plastic-y. I think if they had sharper points and maybe some paint shading, it would look better. I think it’s mostly the very rounded points that make me think more “cosplay prop” than “dangerous weapon”. I think they could’ve gone a bit pointier, without making it “ouch” pointy. 

Overall, a decent figure. Not sure I’d particularly recommend it, but if you like what you see, and can find him for a decent price, I think a solid enough figure. 

Silica – Sword Art Online – Noodle Stopper

Pre-ordered this as it was a noodle stopper and SAO. She isn’t one of my favourite characters, but I thought this was cute and cheap enough to go for it.

So here she is, being cute:

And herein demos my main issue with this figure – she’s pretty hard to display, and get the most out of her. 

Closer look:

I love the cute, playful expression, and the hair is nicely done. There are little clumpy bits, if you look close, but these are sort of to be expected with a prize figure. The front of her swimsuit has been done nicely, and the red parts are enough within the lines to not be distracting. The posing of her upper half is really well done imo, and feels expressive. 

Left:

And here’s the everything we can’t see, if we use an opaque item to rest her upon. Her outfit is cute and neatly painted – I like the fact they’ve given her a collar, though it isn’t really visible from the front. Her tail curls playfully upwards, and the shading on it is nice. Love the detail they’ve put into her hair.

Unfortunately with this pose she’s a tad back-heavy – she will sit fine like this, but if she’s not fully resting on an object or you nudge her, she’ll fall off fairly easily. Out of the “noodle stopper” figures I have, this one wouldn’t function too well as one, even if you decided to use it for that imo. 

Right:

Paint is a tad more uneven on this side, but still looks decent enough. Love all the bits they’ve sculpted in the hair, and her tail shading fits the curve of her tail. 

Back:

The tail ends somewhere out of sight, which works for me. The frills in her skirt have been sculpted nicely, along with her butt. There’s a bit of an annoying paint flaw on mine – a little excess paint on her panties. Her legs and feet are sculpted nicely, and her toes look good. 

Close-up of the back of her hair:

I like the shading on her hair, and as mentioned previously, the amount of detail they’ve put into it. Seems a fair bit more than your average prize figure. Her top also has a fabric bit painted under her frills, which is a nice attention-to-detail.

Overall, the figure looks very nice, and has been executed nicely for the most part. The major issue that prevents me from recommending it is the display potential – I think it would’ve been better to have her head turned to the side, so she could be displayed side-on. Currently I have her sat on a clear U-shaped riser, so you can see more of her, otherwise it’s a toss-up if you display her face or her body. I suspect the pose was chosen to accommodate the tail, and it works on that front, but I think she would’ve been better coming with a small clear claw stand, so you can display her unobstructed…. as let’s face it, nobody’s going to use this as noodle stoppers. 

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:

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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:

image

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:

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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:

image

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:

image

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!

Tumblr & the policy change

This wasn’t the first full text post I was planning on writing… but here we are.

Here’s the tl;dr version:

  • Tumblr’s policy change is not good
  • Tumblr’s bot is *rubbish*
  • I will see how this thing shakes out, but might be moving my blog in the new year

So, for those who are currently under a rock, Tumblr is banning pornographic content. This shouldn’t technically have anything to do with my blog, but it has and probably will continue to do so.

The policy in of itself shouldn’t affect my content, as I’m writing about things that should be classifiable as art in their definition – I’ve done some reading, and it looks like they’re targeting IRL nudity and things bumping uglies. However, the bot they’ve had on the loose has flagged a good portion of my posts.

The bot

Out of 488 blogs, I had 30 flagged – this is about 6%. 20 of those I’d consider safe for work (SFW) and 10 of those I’d consider not safe for work (NSFW). My definition may vary from yours – I’m going largely by more European standards, so bikini figures are fine unless they’re posed sexually. Most ‘lolwat?’ blog that got flagged was this one about gachapon. Yes, that naked rabbit is really harmful to the community! Or was it the origami?

Out of all the flagged blogs, all but one passed review. I have no idea why the last one didn’t pass review – the figure that failed to pass was Melona by MegaHouse. If you’re reading this prior to the 17th, and OK with NSFW, the blog is available here. Was it the absurd genitalia? The slime? No idea. Certainly wasn’t the nudity, as all the other cast-off figures passed review just fine. I have a support ticket filed with Tumblr so I can get to the bottom of why this post was not OK – if I don’t get a reply to it then I’m definitely out – I don’t want to risk randomly losing the odd blog due to poor policy enforcement. I don’t think people will confuse Melona with a real life human, as per their policy… This policy being: “Don’t upload images, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples —this includes content that is so photorealistic that it could be mistaken for featuring real-life humans (nice try, though).“

So in future, I can expect roughly 1-2 blogs a month to get erroneously flagged, with my chance being upped for a NSFW blog.

All of this is very irritating, as I’ll need to pretty much do daily checks to ensure nothing new gets flagged – before I could write a week or two’s content in advance and just leave the queue system to do its thing – I tend to write blogs in blocks, so it isn’t constantly consuming my time.

The community

Big thanks to you guys reading this! And those who have chosen to follow me. I don’t know how much the community will shrink, but if the effect is significant, I may as well move to self-hosting, whereby the content can’t be taken away from me by the platform itself. One of the reasons I stayed here was because I discovered how the tag system works, and it really does help drive traffic to my blog – but if a large amount of the community drifts off, then I may end up blogging to no-one again (I’m kind of a niche within a niche…), and I’ll be concerned for the longevity of the platform. If there are future troubles, I’d like to move before Tumblr’s owners question the longevity or start doing less-desirable things to try and sustain it.

Tumblr itself

In researching why Tumblr may have come to this decision to change their policy, I did discover some things I didn’t like. Certain issues were more prevalent than I thought, and this way of dealing with it feels very heavy-handed. They’ve kinda gone 0-100 in dealing with a very real problem. Part of me wants to distance myself from Tumblr for this reason too.

The future

As well as a potential reduction in the audience, there is no assurance that plastic titties may come under fire eventually – they’ve banned a significant section of the adult content, they may go even further in future to make this a family-friendly site. I don’t really want to split into two blogs – I don’t do NSFW blogs that often, so it really isn’t worth setting up a separate blog for those. I’m more than happy to tag/mark them as NSFW, but Tumblr is taking this away from us too – sensitive mode is going, because everything is family-friendly now. Wat? They’re allowing incidental chest shots and non-IRL nudity, but no way of marking these things so that people who don’t want to see it can’t hide it? I… wat. All of my wat. So now you REALLY can’t look at Tumblr in a work/public situation as there’s no hope for hiding the 18+ content that is still allowed.

Currently I’m writing blogs daily or in small batches (less than 5/time), due to my uncertainty. If I do decide to move the blog, I will blog about it though, and update links on my profiles elsewhere. If anyone knows of a site where my blog would fit in, and is OK with cast-off figures, I’d appreciate the suggestions. Many of the suggestions I’ve seen are for adult-orientated sites (so the bulk of my content wouldn’t fit in) or one that isn’t launched yet (but does look promising).

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:

image

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.