Tag: urbanmine

Aoi Sakuraba – Ai Yori Aoshi

This isn’t a series I’m familiar with, I saw the figure, and liked it, so decided to bid on it. Not sure why I didn’t check the Mandarake store, but I could’ve got it for the same price, sealed. Oops. Ah well, the manga in the box wouldn’t have been any use to me anyways… so no loss there. 

So here she is:

Sitting in a puddle, with her kimono about her. A cute, little figure. This is probably the intended display angle. 

The front of her body:

A noticeable midriff seam. Anything lewd is covered up. 

Her left:

One of the strips wasn’t fully pushed down when I was taking these photos. Her hair has some nice shading, but there is a noticeable seam on her arm. 

Her back:

The ribbon wraps nicely around her back, and the kimono sits around her backside. 

Above shot:

I find it an interesting pose, but the water is a bit like a block of ice. Probably was the easiest way of setting the resin/plastic block, but does look slightly odd.

From the back you can see down her ass-crack: 

Definite case of bulider’s bum there. Hair seam is visible, but not that bad imo. 

With one part of the kimono block sticking out, it got me thinking… can I take this apart? Here’s the bottom, where you can see where the pegs are:

And moments later:

Aha! Here you can see they’ve sculpted her feet and legs, so they’ve intended for her to be removable. With a bit of fiddling, I worked out to remove her fully from the base:

Though like this, her middle seam is more visible. She doesn’t quite stay standing up, so you’ll see a small piece of tissue in some shots, which I was using to prevent her from rolling over. 

Her front:

Other side:

Here you can see the tissue I’m using to prop her up, and a little mould mark on her hip/backside. 

Back:

Seams are pretty obvious, but her foes are moulded. 

If you just wanted her as a small figure to display on her own, you could do this. I did some experimentation of displaying her with various parts of the stand.

First, with just her upper part of the kimono:

Works for this angle, and also props her up… however:

You can see the parts that attach it to the lower half. So let’s try that:

Yeah, this kinda works, but:

You do get to see the holes where the water plugs into the kimono. 

I know, let’s just sit her on the water:

It… kind of works. Needs the lower part, to hold her in place. 

Here are the parts separated:

So you could have the ribbon around her, to partly hide the mould markings, but it does have the two pegs on it to hold it to the base. So probably best displaying her whole or singly. Or you could have just a kimono-in-water, but the inside would look odd XD. And, um, why would you want that..?

She’s OK for an extra to a manga, or as a cheap figure. Don’t think I could recommend her, unless you really want her. 

Urban Mine – Tiger & Bunny – Part 2

Now for the reason I bid on this lot! The J-Prizes! The set consists of 5 figures, plus one secret. With 9 boxes in this lot, I was semi-confident I’d get the “base” 5, but the secret was less likely, as it may’ve been someone trying to get the secret, and palmed off their duplicates. 

So let’s see what we got! 

Let’s start with the obvious character in the set, Kotetsu:

The paint is about average for this kind of figure. The bases for these figures are nice – they all include a logo and the character’s name. I like his pose in this figure. 

Back:

All the details you’d expect back here. A nice addition is they’ve got the fastener on the back of his hat. 

Now for Blue Rose, the character I wanted most in this set:

She’s nicely done, and the paint’s good considering her small size. I got two of these Blue Rose figures, but one had a broken ice vine :(. But hey, I got two, so I had one intact Blue Rose! Also the finish on the two Blue Rose headpieces is different – this one is mottled, and the other one is flat, and probably unfinished. There was a bit of a mark on the other headpiece too, so I went with this head, with the textured finish. 

Back:

A good amount of detail on her hair, for a prize figure. And a good shot of teh vines – don’t want to be missing one of those! This one could’ve easily ended up messy with the paint, but most of it is really good. Bit of slop on the back of the headpiece, but the more important paint on her body is good. 

Next up, Dragon Kid:

They’ve done a really good job on her too. Love her bright colours. She doesn’t have her logos in her discs, but I can’t say I miss those, lol. The gold & silver paint work, which is a nice thing to see. 

Back:

Her staff and headpiece are the most striking things in this figure, and have been replicated well, in chibi form. 

Now for Ivan Karelin, aka Origami Cyclone:

This one, for some strange reason, tends to prefer to rotate moreso than the others. I like his clothes on this figure. 

Here he is from the back:

Shame the stand goes right in the middle of his jacket’s logo :(. Makes me almost wish for a hair stand, but those are far more annoying than peg stands. The purple shiny paint came out well. 

Now for Keith Goodman, aka Sky High:

Looking happy and optimistic, like his anime-self! His clothes and face are painted really well. 

Back:

Oops, a bit of a mark on the back of his hair, oh well. It’s a paint chip, so I can’t fix it easily. I do have a duplicate of Keith, so I may choose not to sell the duplicate. The chip doesn’t show when I’m displaying him though, so I may not bother getting the other head out. 

So that’s the five that were advertised… plus the non-mentioned dupe which was Dragon Kid. Did I get the secret? Why, yes I did! 

And who was it?

Just who?

Have you guessed yet?

Erm, did someone say something? Speak up!

It was Doc Saito!:

I laughed when I opened this one up – a perfect figure for the secret! The super-soft spoken mad engineer himself! As a character less prone to getting figures, for not really being one of the main stars, it was nice they included him in this set. I wouldn’t have ordinarily bought a Doc Saito figure, but upon having him, I realised how much I needed one :P. Paint isn’t the bes ton this one, but I’ll let that slide because… Doc Saito. 

Here is his back:

Yep, the back of Doc Saito. Nothing to see here, lol, but no chips either. 

Glad I got this set, and was worth the money imo. They’re a cute set of figures, and a welcome addition to my collection. 

Urban Mine – Tiger & Bunny – Part 1

I saw two Tiger & Bunny lots – one for a set of Bandai figures, and one for some prize figures. The Bandai lot went for more than I was prepared to pay, but I won the other lot with the maiden bid of ¥100. 

I took a look at the lot, just prior to paying:

Agh, it’s not just the J prizes, but a few glasses as well. I would’ve preferred to not pay to ship a bunch of glasses over too, but at least there still was enough J-prizes to hopefully get a set. So this lot ended up costing me the same as the previous one (£16.22), due to the weight. 

This will be a 2-part blog – today’s blog will focus on the items that are not the J-prizes. 

First up, the glasses. There were 4 glasses – 3 of the same design, and the 4th being different. 

I have three of these glasses:

Which look like this out of the box:

This side of the box shows the full design:

Personally, I don’t like the design of this glass at all. The writing feels too bold and hard to read, and the design isn’t exciting. I also don’t have any need for more drinking glasses XD. 

The second glass:

And out of the box:

I think this glass is a much nicer design – much more legible, and has a nice thematic design on one side. However, I don’t really need an odd glass, so I’m likely to try and sell all four glasses at some point. Erm, anyone in the UK want to buy some Tiger & Bunny glasses? 

Next up is this metro pass holder:

It has words… it has Tiger & Bunny… and erm, what the heck is this thing trying to say?! I may actually use this when I go to Tokyo if I get a pass, as this’ll prevent me from losing it in a random pocket.. But I’m not sure what’s up with the design. 

Back of the holder:

Nothing going on here. Just a place to grab & pull the pass back out of the holder. If anyone’s wondering how this works – the metro passes have RFID in Japan, so you tap them against the reader, so it doesn’t need to come out of the holder. You then attach this holder to a bag or the like, then you can just grab it and smack it against the reader as you walk through the barrier. I may take a reel with me, as I may not always have a suitable bag on me XD. 

Last up… is one of the Bandai figures! For some reason, one of them was dumped in this lot, and it was Rock Bison:

Aww, cute. This figure is OK, but cemented the fact I didn’t want to pay a lot for the Bandai figure set. And made me wonder if this one was missing in the other lot… Most of the painting is decent on it, but I’m not really attracted to the design. 

Back:

Some nice detailing back here, and the paint is where it’s supposed to be. If you like him, he’s a good figure, but he isn’t anything special imo. 

So an interesting set of extras, but nothing I would miss if it spontaneously disappeared. 

Urban Mine – Evangelion, Gundam & Misc – Part 5

Now for the final part! I think I got my money’s worth! 

So what’s left? Some Gundams of course! However, before their photoshoot, they needed a bathe:

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These were quite grimy, and I don’t think the slightly rubbery plastic helped matters. I had no idea who these three were, but one MFC post later, I’d been linked to the who, and a Discord message later, I knew what figure series these are from. They’re pretty old, so they’re not on MFC at the time of writing, and I haven’t got around to adding them (if I will!). These three are from the “Styling S” series. These figures feature extremely limited articulation, and seem to be self-assembly. They seem to have been sold in a blind box format, which ties into the fact they would’ve required assembly, and their quality. They needed some reassembly when I got them – they had been spread around the bag during transport, and sadly one part broke. One of the stands was broken, but I suspect this happened prior to transport. I may fix this with a pin, or just glue the stand part to the stand it belongs to. 

OK, enough waffle, make with the figures!

GAT-X103 Buster Gundam:

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This is the dude with the broken park – one of those beige pieces on his shoulder is now permanently glued in. I initially thought he had missing pieces, but I found some images of him on the internet, and got him assembled properly! And that’s a gun and a half he’s pointing at us! 

From the left:

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Yeah, don’t want to be on the business end of that thing! One dirt spot remains on his arm there ¬¬. Erm, do Gundams go in the car wash…? How does one wash a Gundam normally? 

Right side:

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Here you can see one of the hip mounts for the gun – this was the main mistake I made when reassembling him – I didn’t know what these bits rested on, and didn’t manage to connect the dots. 

Back:

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As these have stands up… well, erm, there, you get to see the details on their feet, which is nice. Some detailing on the back, equal to the front. 

Top:

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Nice, sturdy grip goin’ on with that gun. And it certainly needs it! Still damn big!

Close-up of his chest:

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His head is permanently in “aiming gun” direction. No head articulation, so you can’t have him grumping at things. The poses are cool for these figures, but sometimes… I just want to tweak things a little bit… But that’s not an option with these. 

Now for ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior. This guy is the one with the broken stand, so he’s borrowing GAT-X103′s for these photos. Some of the original stand peg is in his arse peg still, so he sits a little proud on the stand:

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Here he is, ready to go hammer and tongs on something below him. 

Left side:

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Here is his spiky shield and gun. From this angle, he could almost be going for a poop. 

Right side:

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That better be an energy axe! I like the way they have him angled, ready to strike.

Back:

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Looks OK form this angle, with flaps protecting his backside. These flaps are attached on with hooks (along with the two on the front), and can be reasonably easily knocked off, but they stay happily, so long as you don’t bump them. 

Close-up of the axe:

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Yep, that looks like some kind of futuristic energy axe. Better not get too close to him! The gradient effect is nice on the “blade”. 

The shield has some details on the back:

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Guess he’s ready for some discus? 

Midriff:

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Here’s a close-up of the flaps, and some grenades he has on his belt. Those crown jewels are safe… so long as those ‘nades don’t go off prematurely. I do like the detail in this area. 

And lastly we have ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam. Yep, just rolls off the tongue! 

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This is my favourite of the three, and certainly is the most striking. I love the “wings” on the back, and the general colour scheme. He’s also dual-wielding guns, so that’s also a win. 

Right side:

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Not too much to see here, looks like he’s got holsters for those guns. 

Left side:

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More of the same. Bit of some red smudging on his arm though. Loving the colour scheme still.

Back:

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His wings look really impressive from the back. 

This one actually features a small amount of customisation:

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The upper wings have two positions they can slot into! This option looks nice, but I prefer having him with his wings out. Here’s what this configuration looks like from the front:

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Not as visible, but I can see some people preferring him looking like this, so it’s nice that they included this option. I don’t particularly like the way his head is fixed so he’s looking down and left – it fits with the flying left pose but I’d like to see his face from more front-on. 

All in all, these figures are OK. They’re nothing special, but they’re competent. The moulds don’t feel particularly complex, and the colours are mostly block coloured plastic, with some paint detailing, so they do feel somewhat plain, compared to a fully painted model. If you wanted something cheap and Gundam, these would fit the bill. They’re also far easier to assemble than a model kit – it’s all pegs, so there’d be no sprue-clipping, stickers, and swearing at small parts. I wouldn’t buy these, but as I have them, I will display them. Until I, erm, run out of space again… probably. 

And that’s the last of this Urban Mine! Hope you enjoyed this 4-part series. I certainly enjoyed this loot box, and I felt I got my money’s worth. 

Urban Mine – Evangelion, Gundam & Misc – Part 4

Now for the Gundam items. This blog will only have one figure opened, then an image dump of two sets of petit figures. I haven’t opened the petit figures, as I haven’t decided if I’m going to display them or try to sell them as sets, though neither are a full set. So feel free to skip the blog after Athrun. 

Originally I wasn’t going to open this Athrun Zala figure, but after seeing what he looked like, once unpacked, I decided I liked her:

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I love the determined pose, and the paintwork from a distance looks good, with complimentary colours. There is some paint slop, if you look closely though. Well, maybe not so closely by the collar. Assembling this figure was interesting, as the pegs are separate, and on a sprue, so I had to go dig up my model snips! Those have been getting some action lately, which will be upcoming in a future blog ;). 

Left side:

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This figure needs some side shots, to show off the aiming with the gun. The stance is good, and works from all angles. The gun and his hands are one piece, so he’s not in trouble of dropping it – sometimes small figures like these can have real troubles holding accessories. Heck, even bigger ones can have issues! His stance only works for firing a gun, so I think this was a good design choice. 

Right side:

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Looking good from this angle too. I like the way his hair flows around his ear. Also get to see some shirt, from his jacket flying up from him lifting his gun.

Back:

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Alas, there’s some marks on the back of the jacket, but at least they’re on the back. These kinds of marks are not uncommon on black finishes on cheaper figures. Kind of annoying, but not much you can do about it, I don’t happen to have any matt finishes on me, lol. 

I love his action-y stance and colour scheme. The logo on the base is also attractive, and adds a bit of class, and is far better than just a plain disc. 

Now for the image dump. This first set of bags are from Bandai’s Petit Figure Collection 1. Names of the characters are on the bases:

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The next three are from the Chara Puchi set, also by Bandai:

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They’re fairly run-of-the-mill petit figures for the most part. I’m more likely to keep the Chara Puchi ones, as I do like the little Haros the characters are given to sit on. I haven’t watched any Gundam, so I don’t feel attached to the characters, and the humanoid characters aren’t visually interesting to me, for the most part. 

Urban Mine – Evangelion, Gundam & Misc – Part 3

Now for the last of the Evangelion items. 

Let’s start off with a deformed-style Rei trading figure:

I don’t usually go in for this style of figure, but this one’s pretty cute, and well-done. The paint is really nice. The big *ahem* downside to this one is that her fat head doesn’t like to stay in the stand clip. Most of this kind of figure I’ve usually been able to find the sweet-spot where the figure will stay clipped in, but she loves to fall over if you move her. The shading in her hair is vibrant and attractive. Also she’s in her plugsuit, so that makes it more of a winner for me. 

Back:

Pretty obvious seam, but that’s pretty standard with these figures. Isn’t anything worth seeing on the back of her head, though the back of her body has been painted well, with the details you’d expect. I like this figure, and this will be going on display. 

Next, a keychain of Rei:

Here she is, very happy! It doesn’t look very “Rei” to me, but she’s still cute. 

Back:

Not too much to see here, but some shading in her hair, and her back has been painted well. 

She does pose well in front of a Nether portal:

I hung her here, soon after opening her. 

She comes with another part you’re supposed to connect her to:

She does look nice connected to this chain, but it’d dangle too much to go on the keychain bars. And she needs to guard the portal :P. 

Now here’s an interesting piece of Evangelion loot attached to my phone:

On the opposite side, it has Rei’s EVA:

The print is nice and vibrant, and a good design, given the space. Hence me attaching this to my phone. So what is it?

An extending ballpoint pen! More useful than the stylus I first wondered if it was. My finger suffices for my phone, but hey, a pen I might actually randomly need. I’ve left the nib protector on the pen, as I’m rarely likely to actually use this. It’s more of a decorative item that I can look at/fiddle with. Will keep it on my phone until it’s more annoying than soothing. Or it gets damaged badly. 

Time for a couple of different Evangelion characters. It can’t all be Rei! Just… mostly Rei :P. 

Here’s a figure of Asuka:

Cute! The card was a pain to get in place though. Love the plugsuit swimsuit! Would love to see this on a larger figure, and for the rest of the cast. Paint is good quality on her. 

Now for a Shinji. Funnily enough, I nearly bought this from someone, with some other Evangelion loot, but the asking price was too high. But he decided to pop up in my loot anyway!

A nice little figure. Not one I’d ordinarily choose, but will happily display now I have it. Love the angel details in the background. 

Some nice odds and ends! No real duds either, so I’m happy!

Urban Mine – Evangelion, Gundam & Misc – Part 2

Next up, let’s get onto some Evangelion loot! I opened one of the sealed inner bags and found… a full set of Portraits figures! Well, minus the secret one, but hey, 5 figures of a full set! I didn’t have any of series 2, so this was an amazing find for me! Well worth the £16 on its own! You wouldn’t normally get a full set for this price. So this loot was definitely a winner!

First up, Asuka Langley:

Looking very happy. A small scratch on her swimsuit top, d’oh. Other than that, she’s in good condition. The red swimsuit suits her – the secret figure in this set is her in a blue striped swimsuit, so I’m not overly fussed about it. Asuka’s colour is red. 

Back:

Lovely flow and shading in her hair. Her neuro clips are well-painted too. 

Now, ofc for a Rei:

Here she is in her plugsuit form, with the bandages from a…. not-so-good encounter. The bandage painting looks a little odd above her right breast. She has a pearlescent plugsuit, which is a nice touch – usually this form is a “secret colour” version in other sets, but is the standard colouring in this set. Her bandages appear to be done true to the anime. 

Back:

Some paint slop visible on the bandage around her hair. Her backpack has been nicely done. Not too much to say about the back, but she looks good.

Rei in her school uniform:

A nice amount of detail in her, but the stand was a pig to get in place and work out what should be clipped XD. The paint has been done nicely, and her pose is good. 

Back:

Here you can see some nice shading on her dress, and her hand in motion. Her hair also has detail at the back, which is nice. 

Misato Katsuragi:

Looking very summery and ready for the beach! This is a bit of an odd set, as you have her and Asuka ready for the beach, and the others in their work clothes XD. I like Misato’s pose, but her expression looks a little shifty… what’s she plotting now? Love the little flowers on her sandals, and the beach outfit is a good style. 

Back:

Her hair has shading, but does look like a bit of a sudden colour change in this photo. Her backside has been sculpted well, and she has pockets that look good. I really like her shorts, lol. 

Lastly, Maya Ibuki:

Unfortunately, time has hit her badly. She has a small scratch at the bottom of her coat, but worst of all, it looks like the paint has deteriorated, and she has an overly dark spot across her chest. Other than that, she looks good from the front, which makes the ageing a shame. I like her studious, laptop-holding pose.

Back:

Some ageing visible here too – one dark spot on the back of her jacket, and her leggings have yellowed. Not too much to see on the back, but looks OK. 

All of these figures have a base with the NERV logo, which is a nice touch. Kinda wish all the Portraits figures had this base. It’s nice to own this set, even though there’s signs of ageing. A welcome addition to my collection!

Urban Mine – Evangelion, Gundam & Misc – Part 1

So… this month I hit the Mandarake mines pretty hard. The next five blogs will cover this auction:

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I bid on this auction, as I saw two of Rei Ayanami’s head, and Asuka’s in between. The rest I didn’t really pay much attention to, but I saw the bag labelled ¥315, so hey, if I didn’t bid much, I was probably onto a winner! I won the lot for ¥400, and with shipping it cost me £16.22. 

So… let’s see what I got. This blog will concentrate on the miscellaneous items, that aren’t Gundam or Evangelion-related. 

The first oddity that caught my eye, after emptying the bag of items was this dude:

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But who could he be? So I turned him round and had a look:

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Oh! Docomo! One of the mobile (cell) phone providers in Japan! I did some research, and indeed they have a mushroom for a mascot, and his name is Docomodake. Well, their branding went a lot more successful than whatever it was Orange tried to do many years ago in the UK… He’s a cute, well-made little guy. He definitely gets a spot on the keychain bar. 

Here’s a photo of his head:

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Lots of brightly-coloured spots! The other keychain part that he’s propped upon will be featured in a later blog. An interesting and different item! 

Next up, three figures of Rio Rollins Tachibana from Super Black Jack. Never come across this series before, so can’t comment too much from that perspective.

Our first figure is of her in her normal outfit, looking like a dealer:

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These figures are surprisingly well-made – the paint is very nicely done, and the poses are good. They all have a bit of a gappy midriff problem, but this is not too noticeable if you’re not up close to the figure. This one you can’t pick up by her upper half usually though – she likes to drop her legs! The detail in the moulds is also a bit higher than your average trading figure imo – the creases in her clothes have been done well, and the paint/decal on the cards is very crisp. 

Back:

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She looks good from this angle, though less detail in her hair. You can see her cufflinks here – nice to see details like that. The support stand is on a ball joint, which makes it easier to manoeuvre into position. 

Now for Rio in a maid outfit:

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She was a bit more of a pain to get on the stand, but she’s also very nicely done. Some white paint slop visible on her legs though, but it’s not a biggie. Her apron pins onto her skirt – this is OK when she’s displayed, but the pins aren’t that long, so if you pick her up, you can accidentally knock this off. 

Back:

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Looks good from this angle. She has a standard rod stand though. 

Now for the third and final Rio:

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Santa Rio! This was the first one of the three I assembled, and probably the worst one for midriff gap XD. Once I had this one open, I was decided I was going to keep all three of the Rio figures. I love her face and pose, and the quality of the paint job. The bent-over trinket in her hand is odd though, but pictures suggest it should be like that! There’s a nice use of pearly finish on her stockings. 

From the back:

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The sack has been done well, along with her Santa hat. Love the high-heeled boots too. Very pleased with these three figures.

Also in the Super Black Jack theme, there was these playing cards:

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I haven’t opened them, not sure if I will, as I don’t tend to get to play card games. I’d guess this would be a nice collectable for those who like this series though – very thematic. 

One last thing for this post, Yuo Hirasawa from K-on!:

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In tiny charm form. I left this in the bag, but just prior to writing this blog, I took her out. She has a 2D guitar attached to her strap, as well as her head. May sneak this onto one of the keychain bars, or she may be relegated to the Trading Figures drawer. She was a freebie with an Ashai drink, so coupled with her size, she’s not really worth anything. 

So thus far, we’ve had 3 nice trading figures and a DoCoMo mascot… Probably not worth £16 to me, but at least a chunk of that. Let’s see what the next blog brings!

Urban Mine: Evangelion Extra Book

So.. this was a wildcard bid based on this picture:

I bid low on it, ¥200, and won it for ¥100. No other takers. I bidded it on because a) Evangelion b) T-shirt c) Possibly a figure thing. 

So, let’s see what was in there. 

First of all, the book and the box:

The outers… so far, so Japanese. 

So what was the “figure”? If you look closely at the 3rd picture (or read Japanese), you may have figured it out:

A cute little awakened EVA-01 strap. 

Here’s the back of it:

Was quite annoying to get the plastic copyright tag out of the way to photo this XD. He really is quite tiny, but he’s well painted. 

Now for the t-shirt:

Translating the text on the front of the “book” (we’d call it a magazine), it does say EVA wireframe T-shirt, and yep, it certainly is. 

Here’s a closeup of the EVA:

One dude being carried by another dude. A little difficult to look at, but I find it a cool design. 

Logos on the bottom corner of the T-shirt:

The T-shirt is slightly too big for me, but I think I can get away with it :P.It’s not particularly thick T-shirt material, but feels good to wear, so I’ll see how long it lasts. 

From what I can ascertain, the book details what you can “get” in terms of scenes from the Evangelion Pachinko machine, and some ads for other Evangelion merch. There’s some cool pics in it, but not much to write home about. 

Can’t complain for less than a fiver, including shipping. The T-shirt makes it worth it, and I have the awakened EVA hanging up in the bedroom currently. If you’re a size S T-shirt or UK12-14, this T-shirt should fit. I’m around UK10-12, for comparison. 

Urban Mine – Aliens Edition

So there was one reason, and one reason only, I bid on this auction:

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I’m a sucker for Alien stuff, and I have most of the collection. My thought process was that I would probably win the auction at a price, that even if the one in the box was one I had, I’d be able to get my money back at the very least. 

But then this happened:

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And then this happened…

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There were two ships shoved in the box, both of which I didn’t have, and one is the rare! Looking at them, they were more impressive than I thought they’d be, so I’m definitely keeping them, especially for the bargain price I paid. 

So, back to the drop ship. I was just adding it to my collection on MFC, when I noticed in the promo shots I could do this:

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Man, that’s nifty. The others don’t articulate, so this was unexpected.

Here’s a more top-down shot:

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Here’s a shot of the top of the Sulaco. It’s very thin, so it doesn’t photograph well from anywhere other than the side (I did try):

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So super-happy I decided to bid on that lot! Now for the other stuff in the box. 

First, up, a blind box figure, which was already opened:

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Her name is Sakurakouji Hotaru, and I can’t tell you anything about her. She’s, um, wearing a blue skirt? The tiny stick at the bottom you can attach another rod to, and have a clip stand around her. Not planning on bothering, also she was quite weighty, so she might be made out of sterner stuff, which would help her not lean over time. Very nicely painted though, if simple. I do kinda like her, so thinking of keeping her for now. 

Next item was some random box item:

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Hm, some cool-looking stuff on the front. This box was opened already. And what did I get?

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Mmm, ok. Paint job’s nice, but I don’t think I have much call for a tiny dude and his bike. 

Here’s the other items in the set:

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A few things I could’ve gone for – certainly wouldn’t have minded the Utraman, but alas, this was the Urban Mine, so the blind boxes are often the crap you don’t want :P. 

Now for some Super Sentai sweets:

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These are going to a friend who loves Super Sentai, so not opened them. The chocolate is wayyyy out of date – the expiry is September 2007, so uh, only 10 years out of date. I have recommended the friend NOT eat the chocolate, though I don’t think he’ll be inclined to anyway. If I’m around when he opens these, I’ll photograph the toys.

And finally, a Pez strap made to look like a Pez dispenser:

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Hm, yep. Might see if someone wants to buy this. This is apparently “Boy” of the Pez family. Never even knew there was a Pez family, lol. 

And that’s the end of the Urban Mine loot. Super-happy with getting two items I really wanted, and the expected amount of trash, and I’ll be able to give a friend a Chrismas present… so a good loot it was.

Box o’ Random Part 6

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.

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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:

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Unfortunately, on closer inspection, the pain on his large mane of hair is badly chipped:

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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:

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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 😛

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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. 

Box o’ Random Part 5

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… 

Box o’ Random Part 4

First up, two trading figures, of the same character – Meyrin Hawke from Gundam SEED Destiny:

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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:

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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? 

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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. 

Box o’ Random Part 3

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… 

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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. 

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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. 

Box o’ Random Part 2

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):

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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… probably should have dusted it a bit before taking that pic.

And this is a character called Makishima Saori:

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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. 

Bag o’ Random Part 1

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!

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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!

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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:

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Next up, the EVA-01 that I saw sticking out:

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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?

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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:

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So that concludes the larger items in the box. Tomorrow, some of the smaller items in the box. 

Urban Mine Bag o’ Random

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. 

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure prize figure

Another one from the Urban Mines… a JoJo “diorama” figure. 

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This one looked nicer in person than I thought it might, and is detailed for a prize figure. Happy I bid on this, even though it was a pain to put together. Was also surprised that it was completely unopened & sealed – Urban Mine items rarely are, and the box seemed to be in good enough nick to be sold as a store item, so not sure why it went to auction. 

Here’s a view from the top, showing more of the figures:

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A worthy “A” prize, imo. 

Rei Ayanami

Just a small post… this was an Urban Mine auction item, 100JPY bid. On receiving it, I’m glad I didn’t pay a lot for it.

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A bit more detailed than I was expecting, but she doesn’t stand on her base very well, and she’s quite small. In the end, I chose to forgo the base and use some white tack to sit her in. She’s on top of a detolf, so the white tack isn’t visible, and it looks like she’s kneeling on the detolf top.

Leadworks Skull DJ

And here is an Urban Mine item! Random as they come! When I saw this, I had to bid on it. Tried to search the internet for this, but came up blank. The box was stamped with a date in 2003 (2003/10/14), so it’s not overly surprising, but still weird that the EAN didn’t come up or anything. On the back, there’s a web address for a Japanese company called Entrex. 

Here’s the box as it arrived, with the Skull DJ goin’ for a bit of a surf:

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And here he is out of the box:

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Quite a cool little thing, but don’t know anything about it! Ah well, he can sit somewhere and be awesome :D. If anyone sees this and knows something about it, feel free to comment.