Tag: eastern figures

EVA-01 Awakened Ver. – Evangelion

Here we have the second Evangelion I’ve bought from the Legacy of Revoltech series. 

So here he is, out of the box:

Mostly I like this guy from the front. The striking colour scheme works well, though you can see a couple of paint flaws – one on his right arm, one on the upper right part of his chest in red are visible in the photo. I find the arm transition a bit sudden – maybe it could’ve done with a paint job to blend it more. The flare on this pearly part of his arm is a bit flat too – could’ve done with more texture so it didn’t look like a plastic offshoot. 

The halo looks nice though, on reflection, I think I prefer the downwards part, rather than a less-sturdy connection method. 

Left:

The flare on his lower arm is less of a distraction than the upper one. I really think they should’ve gone for a smaller elbow joint. The clear hand looks really good though, and I like that they transitioned to a transparent part. The joint shape in his knees works well though. I like the way the shoulder parts on these figures articulate, so they don’t get in the way whilst playing/adjusting with the figure. 

Right:

Mostly loks good from this angle, but there are some shaky elements to the paint if you look closely. I like the shiny black, though I think it’s supposed to be more matte. 

Back:

Again, no subtlety to that arm transition. Here we see the hidden ball joints form the back. And the plug

hatch

alternate part designed to hold the halo – if you don’t like the halo, by default there’s a

plug

hatch part that doesn’t have the peg for the halo. Think it’s good that they included this option, as halos can usually look a bit cheesy, at the best of times. 

Face close-up:

His jaw hinges on this head, which is a cool feature. Grrowwwl. 

Halo from the side:

This clear peg part works well. 

Halo from the top:

Annoyingly, there’s a tiny paint chip on mine. Nice texture on top, though maybe less transparent than it should be to feel “halo-y”. 

Alternate head:

This head has a fixed mouth, but you can “equip” the starry eyes. They seem to stay on there reasonably firmly. 

Default plug hatch:

This was an absolute ass to take out, but does eventually come out if you keep prying! 

Extra arm:

For if you don’t want glowy action. 

Gun and charging cable:

Might get the gun out, but the charging cable would be a pain, so that’s going in the accessory bag for me. 

Hands. More hands:

I guess the arm accessory is for switching sides of the glowing arm? And plenty of hands, for all your hand-posing needs. 

And that’s your lot. Overall, the figure does feel on the cheaper side, which it is. Posing may be a bit of an issue – he does come apart at the middle rather easily for me. Posing, I had a bit of an issue getting the joints where I wanted. However, he certainly is well-represented in the accessories department, which does help make up for the QC issues. Overall, I’m OK with this figure, but not wild about it. The prices are certainly more reasonable than Figmas though, not that there is ones of these dudes. 

Deadpool – Marvel

Now for some articulated action with Amazing Yamaguchi Deadpool:

Yeah, this fellah here. I won’t be doing much articulation of him in this blog post though – am trying to catch up a bit with my bloggery. He does have some decent articulation to him though. 

Love the paintwork on the figure – the shading on his chest looks really good, and his mask is sculpted well. The ammo pouches and the gun pouch are detailed well. 

Left:

Looks OK from the side. Not too much to say here. Joint on the back of his head sticks out a bit, looking at him from the side. 

Right:

Pouches look good from this side, and he’s also got a large knife/small sword strapped to his leg on this side, as part of the figure. Imo, with the knife on his leg, the straps on his lower leg look a lot better- they look kind of odd on the other side, as there’s no paint separating them from his leg. 

Back:

Love the sheathed swords accessory. Looks good on his back, and pegs well. The straps on his forearm look good. Leg joints, whilst visible, do meld in well for me, compared to other figures. 

Accessories:

He comes with a good range of accessories – no Chimichanga though. He has a good range of hands, plus his guns and swords, if you wish for him to wield them. There is also a spare head. 

And now for what the weird red bar is for:

You can pop his eyes out, and replace them with the ones in the plastic tray. pictured above. I think this is a pretty neat idea, and gives you many head options at a cheap price. 

Overall, this is a decent, chunky figure of Deadpool, and I would recommend it. Looking at pictures of the Figma one, it does seem to be more refined than this one, but this one won’t eat at the wallet so hard. Having a brief read around the internet, it does seem to come down how much you want to spend vs the look and feel you like as to which one you get. For me, the price of the Figma was not worth it, and there’s not enough in it to make me get the Figma. And I already had the Marvel Legends large Deadpool. 

Retsuryu – Gundam

And now time to say farewell to the Japan loot with this small model kit of Retsuryu. I wanted to buy a Gundam model kit, as I was in the Diver City mall, but didn’t want anything too big due to luggage space, and I’m not the most Gundam-y person. 

So enter this little fellah:

Yep, was attracted to him thanks to the shiny blue. Can’t go wrong with blue. He’s a cute and colourful-looking dude. From what I remember from the build, he was a pretty easy one to do. Also the end result is pretty cool imo. A couple of the stickers you definitely have to be careful with – especially thinking the eyes and his chin. 

Claws stretched out:

He has a reasonable amount of posing ability, given his actual arms don’t move that much. He rotates at the head and the waist, plus these outer claws can be moved and grab things. 

Left:

Mmm. Shiny. Blue. I like the ribbed effect on his arm, and he’s got some material motion going on in his skirt. 

Right:

Here we see the holder for his axe, which we will look at later. The holder doesn’t work very well though, imo.

Back:

Looks decent enough, but very plain. Might’ve been nice to have a couple of gold/red stickers to put on back here. 

One last look before we move onto the aforementioned axe:

Would’ve been nice if we had some back stickers that matched thematically with the ones on his arms. The green shiny part on his helmet adds a nice central focal point to him. 

Axe:

He has this shiny axe, which you can have a short or a long handle on. This is the long handle mode, but you can remove the blue part and the lower part if you wish. You can then put that part in his hand. 

Close-up of the head:

Yeah, didn’t do the stickers so good here… glad the green parts are painted green. Though only on one side. The box shows the axe coloured, would’ve been nice to have a couple of stickers to add to the front design. Alas, not to be.

He can also fold up the axe:

Which, apparently, lore-wise he can use to fly! Pretty neat, huh? I like the way the axe parts and the dragon head are hinged, so you can do this transformation. 

Overall, he’s a cool little dude, and these small kits are very cheap to buy. These mini-kits I think would be good for beginners – not too many pieces or stickers. If you want to try making a model kit, I think these small Gundam kits would make a good intro kit. The other small kits I’ve done (Mecha Colle ones) have been on the fiddly side, and might be a bit much, but this one was a nice balance of things. Though looking at that axe, reminds me it was kind of a pain to get the green bits to stay put XD. 

Yoko Littner – Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann

Managed to get my hands on an affordable Yoko figure whilst I was in Japan, of which is a rarity. The box was in poor condition (no acetate), but the figure itself was in good condition.

So here she is:

Not the best looker out of action figures, but a decent effort overall. Being scantily clad, she lends herself to action figure form more, as the articulation can be put at the edges of her clothing, which can be seen here. She does have a shiny belly, as she’s a bit rubbery. I really like the hair and the glasses on this figure. 

Left:

Here we can see the budget/older nature of this figure. The boots are a nice sculpt, but she has some noticeable seams on her leg. Also note the sticker dot – these are supplied with the figure so you can cover the screw holes. I chose to use them as the screws are pretty ugly. Her hair curves around nicely. 

Right:

Her bum sticks out awkwardly here, but that might be partly the fault of the stand. Again, seam city, and her back looks odd from the way it articulates. 

Back:

And here we can see how ugly the screws actually are. I didn’t sticker these ones, because I couldn’t be bothered, but there are enough stickers to go around, if you want to do the full job. I’d rather keep them as spares, if the ones I applied get knocked off and lost. The back view definitely isn’t winning any awards, and there are a lot of compromises to allow full articulation, such  as her legs, so she can crouch more. I think this is definitely a figure you want to pose o look at from the front, rather than any other angles. 

In terms of accessories, she has a hairpiece with no glasses, loads of hands, barefoot legs, a little Boota, an extra face, her gun, and some parts for it. 

But due to laziness, and the box being in a different room, I only took pics of her gun:

I think the gun looks pretty decent, but nothing special. The paint is neat, but simple. Matches the figure, really. 

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this figure. Imo, this figure has its flaws, so I’d only recommend if you want everything Yoko, and/or she comes up cheap. I paid ¥2200 for her, so didn’t exactly break the bank in buying her. I don’t own it, but the Fraulein versions would likely be a better bet, and probably not too much more to buy. 

Alien Big Chap – Alien – Revoltech

I couldn’t come back from Japan without an Alien figure:

The first thing that stands out on this figure is the detail in his head and on the main part of his body. He also has some copper-coloured highlights on his body, which stand out more in-person than they do in this photo.

A closer look at that head:

The ridges are nice and pronounced, and the shading on the plastic looks really good. Not many figures have the clear plastic shaded, so a plus for this figure. 

Left:

Here we can see the highlights more, and his slender hands. I think the shading on the “back pipes” is a bit overdone, but still looks cool. I like the neutral-ish pose for his hands. 

Close-up of a hand:

The fingernails are painted well, and I like the way they’ve sculpted his tendons. The brown-to-black paint is blended well. The lines on his arms are sculpted well, and he has the pokey bit from his elbow. 

Right:

Love the shininess and the detail. The fin that pokes up above the “pipes” has a nice evenness with the parts protruding. You do rather see the ball joints in his legs quite well from this angle though. 

Closer look at the tail:

I think the texture has been replicated well for a 1/12 figure. Some colour highlight here too. Tail indeed does end with a barb. 

Back:

Everything barring the ball joints looks good back here. I think if this figure was reproduced today, they’d use smaller ball joints for the knees and ankles, so they don’t protrude so much. I could run my hand down the middle of that back though… and down his tail. 

“Pipes”:

I think the colours could have been blended better here, and made a bit darker. Looks kinda odd having the tips be such a bright colour of brown. 

And what kind of accessory would a xenomorph come with?

An egg, complete with facehugger! I really love the paint job on these two, and the amount of detail that went into the bottom of this facehugger. 

Side view:

Not too much to see here, but nice to see it isn’t totally flat, which makes it feel more natural. If you can call it natural. 

Back:

The level of detail is replicated on the back – his spine looks good, and you can see where the body goes into the “fingers” of the facehugger. The egg has a very nice green-to-black fade going on. 

Top of the egg:

The detail looks really good here too. The facehugger is a separate part, so you can display it separately if you wish, but the egg holds it sturdily despite the small connection between the two. 

Egg base:

Love the wormy, alien texture here too. The paint is also neatly done, and this is actually slightly transparent, which looks really good in person when the light goes through it. 

Overall, I’m very pleased with this figure. Would recommend to a fan of xenos, but don’t expect anything in terms of accessories – the xeno is “as-is”, plus the egg. Both are great pieces imo. 

Ben Jackson & Doc Saito – Tiger & Bunny World Collectable Figures Vol. 3

And finally, the side characters! 

First is Ben Jackson, the taxi driver for Wild Tiger:

Here we see him as his positive self, with the obligatory hot dog. The painting is really nice on the front of this figure, and the sculpting is good too – his face looks really good, and the creasing in his trousers gives this figure a more realistic feel. 

Left:

His hair is definitely smooth…. could’ve probably done with some kind of knobbly texture. Rest of him looks fine though. 

Right:

Go Tigher! Yeah, that hair is deffo lookin’ odd…

Back:

The arm seams actually look good on this figure, and match with the coat style. They’ve added creasing to the clothing at the back, so he also looks good from the back.

Most of this figure is really good imo – just the hair could’ve done with more detail so he looks less like a brown bowling ball. 

Now for Saito the Scientist:

The paint is neat, and looks good. Though with his badge not painted, that part does look odd – more like he’s got it underneath his labcoat, and it is showing through…

Left:

Paint for his glasses got a bit escapey, and not quite enough on his hair. His shoes and coat look good though. 

Right:

Glasses a bit better pained on this side, but looking odd. Hair is of an interesting geometric shape…

Back:

Back doesn’t do the hair any favours either, but the coat looks good, plust the other clothes we can see here.

Overall a decent figure with a couple of oddities.

Blue Rose & Huang Pao-Lin – Tiger & Bunny World Collectable Figures Vol. 3

Now for some of the other heroes! 

First up, Blue Rose:

This figure was one of the reasons I went for Vol 3 – as I really like Blue Rose’s design. Aaandd… with my luck, she was broken in the box! I ended up ordering this replacement from Mandarake. And I’m glad I did – the paintwork is mostly pretty solid with this figure, and the colours are really nice. Unfortunately assembling her is not fun, and it was hard to get her ice tentacles in, as well as attached to the stand ><. You will want to warm this figure to assemble it. 

Left:

Her head feels overly egg-shaped. Her hair should stick back some, but this feels… kind of unnatural. Otherwise, she looks fine from the side.

Right:

Hm, that vine isn’t quite in her side… yeah, she’s a pain to assemble. Bit of mould mess on the side of he head, and could do with a few more lines to make it more hairlike. Her earring is nicely done though, and the ice gun looks good. 

Back:

Despite the pain to assemble, the ice tentacles look good. The paint on her collar looks really good too. 

Overall, I really like this figure, and glad I ordered a replacement. With the broken one, her tiara split. I did try to repair it, but really with the wrong glue, so the glued part shows quite badly. 

Now for Huang Pao-Lin, aka Dragon Kid:

I like her in her casual outfit, so was glad to have this one in the set. The paint is very nice on this one, and there’s been some detail put into her clothing, with the creasing. Her hands aren’t very well moulded though, and look kinda blobby. 

Left:

The black linework is mostly OK, can see some flaws if you look close, but not as bad as other figures in this set. 

Right:

Bit messier on this side, plus some mess on the hair. 

Back:

Not sure what’s going on with her back up top – looks a little overly flat, and teh seams/creases by her arms look odd. I guess the sculptor was distracted by her backside…

Overall, a decent figure, but not anything special. 

Tiger & Lunatic – Tiger & Bunny World Collectable Figures Vol. 3

Today’s two figures will be Tiger in his suit and Lunatic. 

Here we have Wild Tiger:

In this figure we get to see his face and his suit, which is a rarity with his figures. I like the fact he’s wearing his eye mask under the suit… like he needs it. The paint on his is really nice, but a little less neat on the suit, The clear pieces of his suit are nice – on his should, arm and helmet. Though, like the Bunny figure, the tint is too pale on the green parts. 

Left:

Not too much to see here. 

Right:

Paint is fairly neat, and I think he’s posed well.

Back:

His pose also works well from he back. He has a few small details painted too, which makes the figure look good – his boots, bit on his back, and the green parts on the back of his helmet. 

Overall I like this figure – and he’s a welcome addition to my collection for the different pose. 

Now for the villain of the piece, Lunatic:

His head is painted well, and his hand, but the green paint feels rather rushed on his right of his cape. The white lines on his trousers have come out well, though. 

Left:

His head is painted well, but again, paint on the cape looks rushed, and there’s a bit of a transfer mark in the middle. Think he needs to give his cape a wash!

Right:

Ditto the remarks for his left-hand side.

Back:

The green and blue paint seem a fair bit neater back here than the sides, but still has some slop and misses. Black paint didn’t feel like going within the lines on his collar. 

I’m really impressed with his head, and the sculpt overall, but the paint on his cape is rather the letdown. One to display at a distance… which fits Lunatic. But it would’ve been nicer if the painter paid a bit more time to his cape. 

Bunny – Tiger & Bunny World Collectable Figures Vol. 3

I will be doing these trading figures in pairs, as there are 8 of them, and a week of blogs dedicated to these guys feels a bit much.

So, today’s pair is… Bunny & Bunny. 

Barnaby in his casual outfit:

The sculpting on this duded is pretty nice, and the paint is mostly neat. I especially like his hair, and the amount of details that went into his jeans – the stud, the belt and the linework. 

Left:

Here we can see some of the red of his jacket escaping int the white, and some dodgy texturing on the hair, which is a lot less apparent from the front. Jeans and shoes loog good though.  The cream part on his shoulder doesn’t match the white on the main part of his jacket, which makes it look a little odd to me.

Right:

Hair has a nicer finish on this side, seam is fairly well hidden imo. 

Back:

Hair sculpt is good, jeans look good from all the angles imo, as well as the boots, belt paint is a bit suspect back here though. 

Overall, I think this is a good trading figure and has a good likeness to Barnaby Brooks Jr. 

Bunny, darkness edition:

From a first glance, this figure looks pretty good, but does have its flaws – the one that isn’t so apparent from the photos is the side fins on his head do fall off rather easily. They do stay, so long as he isn’t nudged, though. This figure does have a fair number of fine lines, which I think does show the limits of painting on small trading figures – it does feel a bit uneven in places. 

Left:

I think the fins on the sides of his head could’ve done with a bit more dye, so that his head didn’t show so clearly through these parts. Lower arm guard colour looks about right. I do like this use of transparent parts.

Right:

Mostly more of the same. I like this pose though – “ready for action”. Paint on his collar looks a little dinged up. 

Back:

The backpack parts are nicely shaped, but appear to be a different colour to the rest of the pinkish parts. Would’ve been nice if the pinkish parts coordinated more. I think the proportions have gone a little odd due to the chibification though – I feel as if the backpack is a bit too wide, and doesn’t sit how it should. 

Overall, a decent likeness, but best not looked at form the back. 

Crane & Rabbit Gachapon

And now for the last of the random gacha. First item today is a crane origami gashapon:

These were in various colours, glad I got a blue one, as I like the colour blue. This crane has a soft rubbery feel, and does look like a paper crane. 

And lastly, a gashapon from a set called Cage la Usagi, which translates to Rabbit Cafe:

A cute little gacha, but probably not one I’m going to display. It’s nicely done, but doesn’t really appeal to me. I’d like to see more of the rabbit. Might have somewhere where I might sneak it into at some point, but this one is likely headed to the drawer of trading figures. 

Meiko & Sheryl Nome – Vocaloid & Macross Frontier

So theme of these two is…. gacha that aren’t usually gacha. 

First up is a Nendoroid Petit – I found a Goodsmile Company vending machine in Japan, and it vends Nendoroid Petits. There were 3 series to pick from, can’t remember what my choices were, but I went for the Vocaloid ones, as I’m familiar with some Vocaloids. So ofc, it gave me one of the ones I didn’t know, Meiko:

I remember this one costing a bit more than your average gacha, but being a Nendo Petit, this makes sense. From even a quick glance, it’s fairly obvious these are a fair bit higher quality than a gacha. 

My main issue with the figure is the mic – it is a bit of a pain to get into her hand, then it very easily falls out. The mic is attached by a peg, but the hole isn’t quite tight enough to hold it well. 

Other views:

Overall, I think she’s a decent Nendoroid Petit, but don’t have any personal attachment to her. The clothes are sculpted well, and she has some nice shading on her hair. Just wish she’d stay in one piece once assembled.

Next up, Sheryl Nome:

Originally, this was an Ichiban Kuji prize, but one of the shops in Japan had a gacha machine vending stuff from Evangelion and Macross respectively. Blog about the Evangelion items here. So this was the one I got from the Macross gacha. I like Sheryl’s outfit in this figure, plus the shading in her hair. 

Without hat:

I really like her hat, but displaying her without it is a viable option, if you prefer to see her hair. It’s fully sculpted, so she doesn’t look like she’s missing anything without it. 

Other views:

I really like the piping around her hat, and her outfit looks good from all the angles. She does have some fairly noticeable seamlines in her hair though, so she’s best viewed from the front. 

Overall, really happy I have this figure. I didn’t know it existed, and is the kind of figure I’d want the moment I knew it existed… and even better, I already owned it on knowing it existed 😀

Hresvelgr & Ram – Frame Arms Girls & Re:Zero

Another couple of gashapon today. 

First up, Hresvelgr:

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Here we have one of the Frame Arms Girls creeping out of their box. This series is ordinarily model kits by Kotobukiya, so this is what these are based on. The boxes for model kits often look like this – a plain cardboard bottom, with the artwork printed on the lid. 

Front:

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Aww, cute face. The reason I went for one of these gacha was because they looked so cute in their boxes.

Sides:

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Paint’s a bit messy, but does the job. 

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Top of the box isn’t a replica of the model kit boxes, but does a good job of replicating the feel. 

Ram from Re:Zero:

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At the time I went to Japan, there was a lot of Re:Zero merch about the place, but I haven’t seen the show. I decided the gashapon looked pretty, so decided to go for one. And I got Ram. Personally, I prefer Rem, due to the blue hair. Overall, the paint on this gashapon is OK, but a bit blobby on her hair. 

Other photos:

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I think this gacha has been sculpted decently well, and would make for a nice charm. 

Devil & Butt-head gachapon

So… going to classify today’s blog items as “misbehaving”. Because why not. 

First up, Butthead from Beavis and Butt-head:

image

Had to get a gacha from this machine, seeing as I felt it was a very random thing to be producing gacha for in this day and age… The hair is nicely shaded and sculpted, and the face looks good. Rest of him… does the job. He’s on half a sofa, as Beavis comes with the other half, but I didn’t feel like buying any others of this set. 

Other angles:

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Looks decent from the other angles imo. With the side of the couch painted, it doesn’t look too distracting for being one half.

Next up, a devil:

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This one I got from a gacha shop rather than a machine. They were selling him for his RRP, so hey, that’s good with me. I like the overall design, though it would’ve been nice if his wing claws were black, Even for a gacha, this guy was cheap though, lol. His main design flaw is he’s hard to stand up – has a habit of rolling over, despite having his loincloth designed to help him stand. As he ain’t standing on his feet. 

Side:

Here we can see how he sits on his loincloth. After bending it a bit, he did stand up a bit easier. Neck looks a bit too thick from this angle.

Back:

He has some texture moulded into his wings, so isn’t entirely plain here. Overall, an OK gacha, but nothing special.

Parasyte… and parasite!

More gacha, and something a bit different. This blog will focus on the gross. 

First up is a Parasyte charm:

The outside of this charm is pretty nifty, but the print in the middle spoils it – it’s not very high-quality, and it shows. Would be nice to have more contrast in the print, and a bit of a higher resolution. I’d also settle for a Migi-themed charm, without the pic. Migi’s eye has been nicely done. 

Back of the charm:

Some details on the digits, and a big ol’ logo. I like the dangling blade part too. Just a shame the front ain’t so pretty. 

Now from Parasyte to parasite:

This li’l guy is what it says on the top – Nybelinia Surmenicola. This dude likes to parasitise certain sea creatures. Bought this at the Meguro Parasitological Museum (as the bottom of it says), was a bit of a different museum to visit – kinda small, but interesting. 

And now for something that sorta fits the theme, another gacha, and this guy is called Chad the Gross:

This is his “normal” colours – the characters came in two varieties. This guy seems to be playing the cello, in his sparkly, see-through slimy glory. I love the colour of his hair, and the eyes stand out well. Was attracted to buying one of these because they reminded me of 90s/00s toys. And I don’t feel disappointed.

Other shots:

Looking at the figure stand, I’m not sure if they intended this to be a stool or a growth. I’m gonna go with growth, because that fits the “The Gross” theme. An hey, would be kinda cool to have another limb to act as a chair, no? 

Overall, I really like the colours on this guy, and he’s a cool, little, almost-nostalgic figure, so he’s going somewhere in the collection. 

Hope today’s blog wasn’t too scary!

Mediamon & “Sorry” – Digimon & Bekkon Robotonics

So… time for some gachas! 

This first item I got from a ¥100 random item gacha – no idea what I was going to get.

And I got Mediamon:

Overall, a decent gacha item, but not one I’m particularly interested in. I think he may have gone into my Drawer of Purgatory already (every house has one of those… right?). The quality seems decent, but I have no familiarity with the source material, so can’t pass too much comment about him. 

This gacha I wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be, so I decided to grab an item out of it anyway:

Apparently this is some kind of mascot for Bekkon Robotonics, and this particular gacha item was entitled “Sorry”. Here we seem to have two cats with masks walking along… interesting mascot action!

Some more pics:

Well, now I have something for a “loljapanese” display. This one is also likely to live in the Drawer of Purgatory, unless I have room for a random display. Maybe I could squeeze these into an ita bag of some sort? 

So yeah. That was two random gachas I ended up with. Because I like shoving money into gacha machines. 

Sirene – Devilman

Bought this figure from a store that sells gachapon/trading figures loose in small bags. Post tagged NSFW, as Sirene doesn’t know what clothes are. 

So enjoy this SFW shot to start with:

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Her face looks OK from the side, but we can see my bugbear with this figure in the first shot… the head wings keep falling off :(. She’s a bit of a fall-to-bits figure, which is not really shown in the photos. At some point I may use some tack or glue to stick her together, if it gets too annoying. 


Front:

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She comes with a little plastic stand to help her stay upright, but it does a mediocre job. The sculpting, however, is really nice – the wings are feathery, we can see her collarbones, and her forearms and shins are detailed. The paintwork is mostly neat, but leaves a bit to be desired in the shading department. Overall, this isn’t too bad as it is a small trading figure. 

Face:

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Here we can see the wings are well-textured, and her nipples well-defined. Her right arm can move around a bit, but it’s not meaningful movement – more of an artefact of assembly. 

Left:

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Her boobs are decently shaped, but maybe needed a bit more of an attachment to her body. The side crease seems to go a little high. Here we can see also where her arm has come slightly off from the peg. 

Right:

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Some copyright notices here… and a seamline up her body. Her body feels a bit oddly shaped from this angle to me. Her feet are nicely sculpted though. Talons could’ve done with being painted black though. 


Back:

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Her hair looks nice from the back, between the wings. Her tail looks odd, but that’s more to do with character design… Her shoulder blades look too flat, on the upper parts, but it’s nice to see some shape to her back.

Overall, it’s a fairly solid trading figure, if you can get it to not fall apart. Its flaws mostly seem to reside in making a small figure to a budget, so I’m happy with it. Might have to heat her legs to sort out her stance, though. And add something to her to stop parts falling off…

Silver Crow – Accel World – Be@rbrick

Here is a Be@rbrick of Silver Crow:

Hi me! When I went to buy this, I had to ask at the counter for it – turns out they had just about every other Be@rbrick on display, but not this one, despite having three or more in the drawer… He was one of the specific items I was after, so was glad to get him. 

Love the shiny visor they’ve given him, and the Silver Crow design has translated reasonably well to Be@rbrick form. The lines are nice and crisp, and the design has many key features to make it recognisably Silver Crow. No wings though. 

Left:

Here we see his “power” gauntlets, and the twiddly design bits on his arm. And he’s not quite as slender as Silver Crow himself! Some nice linework gives his helmet a techno feel.

Right:

Same design here, as the left. Still definitely bear-shaped instead of Crow-shaped, but that is to be expected.

Back:

Here we have a bit of a spine decoration, and the plates where his wings would protrude from, should he deploy them. Be@rbrick isn’t in the habit of giving accessories to their bears, so this design choice makes sense. He has some detailing on the back of his legs and head, to finish off his design.

Overall, I’m happy with this Be@rbrick, especially as he was decently cheap. I feel the design was translated well, especially given the very different body types – it’s still very much recognisable as Silver Crow imo, whilst fitting to the Be@rbrick shape. A nice bit of small merch to add to the Accel World collection. 

Smile Slimes! – Dragon Quest

Here are a couple of Smile Slime items. I’ve not played Dragon Quest, but I have a soft spot for these squishy fellows.

First up, a magnet set:

Their cute faces have been done well, and I love the translucent effect.

Back:

These flat backs stick to surfaces well. Have had them stuck to various radiators in the house, plus they just about fit on the Detolf handles. My favourite one is a tie between the purple one (on account of being purple) or the blue one, as the colours fit well together… and it’s the traditional colours. 

I also had a go at a Dragon Quest gacha and got this fellow:

He’s made of a soft, smooth rubber, and is air-filled. Was quite strange picking him up for the first time! Not quite what I expected. 

Back:

Nothin’ much to see here. Not sure what you’d expect, really. 

Overall, an OK gacha. Still undecided if I like the fact he’s air-filled or not – at least if he does burst, he won’t make a mess. 

So keep smilin’ and slimin’ out there!

Hatsune Miku – Vocaloid – VN02

This figure I wanted for a long time, but because she won’t fit into a SAL small packet so held off ordering her, as the postage would be more than the figure secondhand. Plus customs fees on top of that… So this was one of the few figures on my “hit list” when I went to Japan, as putting her in a suitcase would be MUCH cheaper.
So I did:

Upon unboxing her, she turned out to be really dusty, so had to give her a good wash. I love the pose of this figure, and the shades of green, even though they aren’t very “Miku”. The figure took some effort to assemble – main issue is getting the leg protrusion lined up with the notch in the base so she stands solidly. I love the detail in this figure – her costume has a lot of details in it, and I like her face. I can see this figure not being too appealing to people who are distinctively fans of Miku, as it’s kinda fairly far off her normal design. For me, I love the future tech aesthetic. 

Face:

The face looks really nice to me – her skin is reasonably plain, but the parts of her face work together as a whole for me. I love the detail in the hair – the strands are really well-sculpted here. She also has a bit of a videogame character vibe going on, what with the green part jutting out, which if Dead Space is to be believed, is where you keep your HUD. 

Left:

Here you can see the large amount of movement in the figure – I love the way her hair curls up and backwards over her, and the clear tips. The fading-to-clear theme is also repeated on her sleeves. Here you can see where her knee support goes into the stand – the way the stand is part of the figure is another reason this figure stood out to me. It’s also surprisingly stable, which was something I was worried about, given her pose. Here we also see the speakers(?) attached to her back – these weren’t too hard to attach to the figure (and come separate in the box). I also love the shiny boots. 

Right:

Here is mostly more of what we saw in the left side. Here we can see her boots are held up by suspenders, and some of the speaker inside the stand. The white crest that juts up from it holds her quite sturdily. Her gloves and boots have been given similar designs, which helps tie the figure together thematically. 

Closeup of the speakers:

These parts have lots of small details, mostly painted ones too. The lines running around them help sell the technology feel of the figure, plus there’s some pink accents in there. I also love the holes, and their green edging.

Inside view:

They certainly didn’t slack on the details here either. Lots of small gold accents here, with some smaller dots. If you’re not busy being distracted by her backside in this shot… which is well-curved, and her legs are well-sculpted at the top, and give a lifelike loot. 

The rest of the back:

I love the gold bands around the bottom of her head, and the green parts running down her spine. This is a figure that can look good at any angle, should you have somewhere to display it where it can be viewed from different directions. 

OK, back to the backside!

I took this more for the spine detail, and upper back detail. But it features her backside a fair bit too. I like the fact they’ve sculpted creases back here too, as well as on her front. I’m a sucker for armoured spines, so I do like her back design. Here you can see where the speakers connect too – the gold parts have the pegs attached. All of the paint is neat, which is very nice. I feel maybe the back of her hair could do with a few more lines to make it feel less plastic, but that’s definitely not a biggie. 

Back of the base:

Looks good from all the angles imo. I do like the way these parts curl and crest over – only downside is the speaker isn’t very visible from many angles, though this isn’t a bother for me. Though it seems a partly odd choice to mostly hide it this way. 

Overall, I’d highly recommend this figure, if you like the look of it. I think with the colour scheme and theme, it probably is a bit of a Marmite figure, hence its lower price in the aftermarket. Though the postage cost is probably going to bite, unless you’re used to EMS/SAL parcel, or shipping other stuff with it. Or if you’re super-patient there is surface shipping… So I’d say this one probably isn’t for the Miku fan, but rather for people who love the themes in this figure. Or if you want a figure you can display on a higher shelf and it still look good – her leaning pose is really good for this. 

Mandarake Be@rbrick

As one of my favourite stores… I decided to buy a piece of store merch…yup. And it was the most expensive thing I bought at that Mandarake, lol. 

Presenting the Mandarake Be@rbrick:

It has the standard articulation of a Be@rbrick – ball joints for the arms and legs,and the head swivels. They had a lot of these for sale, so no shortage in supply, but at ¥1,800 they’re not cheap. However, this is the average price for the special releases, and this one does the added advantage of glowing in the dark. So you can profess your love of Mandarake at all hours of the day… Hm. 

Print on the front is well done, and is crisp. 

Left:

Yep, standard Be@rbrick thing going on here. 

Right:

Back:

Overall, it’s a very niche thing to own. So erm, you could buy one if you want one? I bought it for its randomness and the fact I like Mandarake. They’ve been helpful when I’ve needed to contact them, and I’ve been happy with the stuff I’ve purchased, so was happy to buy this too. 

Just sad that the Urban Mines no longer exist, ah well, one less place to nickel and dime my bank account to death! But seeing all the random shite was fun… as well as getting good deals now and then.