Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo

Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review

‘Tis the season to be thankful and hopeful here in the United States, and I’ve had a lot to be thankful for in my life. Some of the things that I’m thankful for are my figures and dolls – which are the entire reason this website exists, my camera equipment that gives this site its content, gaffer’s tape – an absolutely vital aid to my photo shoots, hip hop, tentacle porn, Wikipedia, and Fate Testarossa’s thong – sadly ignored these days. The things I’m hopeful for are that Irma and Subaru get figures, that Good Smile Company doesn’t screw up Rin and Saber Alter next year, that the Lakers’s team plane explodes in mid-flight, and that this ridiculous postal embargo blows over. I was also very hopeful that Alter’s Buddy figure would turn out well, as she was one of the figures I was looking most forward to. Now that she’s here, I have another thing to be thankful for.

Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review

Buddy is a character from the eroge Kimi ga Yobu, Megiddo no Oka de, or Voices from Har Megiddo. The game is developed by Leaf, the visual novel powerhouse known for popular titles like To Heart, White Album, Comic Party, and Tears to Tiara. Unlike many of their games, Voices from Har Megiddo is a role-playing game in the vein of the Final Fantasy series, a heroic tale of valor, tragedy, and sacrifice. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an anime adaptation at some point, as many of Leaf’s titles have already received such treatment. The main character has the unfortunate name of Beigel Loco, and Buddy’s name is just as strange. Also strange is that Alter selected her for figure production; she’s not a playable character in the game and a more obvious choice might have been any of the three heroines who join Beigel’s group. It’s a fortunate choice since I think Buddy has the best character design of all the game’s girls, though Yaha looks pretty good, too.

If anyone was wondering what Har Megiddo is, Wikipedia – that 21st century library replacement – tells us that it means Mountain of Megiddo, where the last battle at the end of days is scheduled to take place.

Buddy
Buddy needs first aid
Yaha
Yaha

Sculpted in 1/8 scale, Buddy stands about 19.5 centimeters tall. She doesn’t require much assembly, which is a nice change given how much effort my last figure required to put together. All that needs to be done is to put her scythe in her hands and attach her to her base, which is a piece of pink plastic with imprints of clock gears – appropriate given the source material. Speaking of the base, I placed her on it backwards, which I didn’t notice until just now; whoops.

Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review

At first glance, Buddy isn’t one of Alter’s more impressive sculpts. She’s standing straight up, head slightly cocked – not the most exciting pose that they’ve done. She’s not very colorful, with pinkish-reddish hair and flat gray tones dominating her look. The flare of her dress looks very stiff; contrast its look to the wrinkles found on the jacket of the first Black Rock Shooter figure. There is little shading on her stockings, giving her legs a textureless appearance. Also flat is the top of her head; she’s got the helmet hair look, with a large seam line laterally bisecting her head.

Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review

Look again, however, and there is a lot to like. I loved Buddy’s character design when I first heard of the game, so I was very happy to learn that Alter was making a figure of her, and I’m even more pleased that they’ve done a fine job replicating her look. She has heavy lines above her narrow eyes, imparting a sense of mystery and gravity to her presence. Her blank stare is unreadable, and yet does a fine job of giving her a personality when taken in concert with her clothing and weapon.

Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review

And while her stance isn’t particularly energetic, it complements her impassivity beautifully. Her legs are set wide, giving the impression that she’s getting ready to switch to an action pose. Her overall look also suggests anxiety as she furtively glances sideways in worry and fear. And yet, it also implies confidence and cockiness as she nonchalantly tilts her head while hefting her scythe, distinctly unimpressed by whatever is before her. Or perhaps it intimates nothing at all. Her look is a protean one that can take on wildly different meanings depending on what the viewer sees, and that level of mutability is both admirable and rare in this medium.

Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review

Also key to her expression are her lips. Lips aren’t often drawn on anime characters, but they’re almost critical for figures. They also play a very important part in conveying emotion, along with eyebrows and hands, and while the latter two don’t play much of a factor in bringing Buddy to life, the downward turn of her small mouth is essential to establishing that impassive look. It’s a subtle thing but a crucial one, and it’s something that Alter understands very well.

Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review

There seems to be quite a few scythe-wielding girls getting figures: Celty, Airi, Laila, and of course the Dead Master figures that everyone but me are looking forward to. Buddy holds a scythe as well, which has a nice, airbrushed faux-metallic paintjob that still looks rather plastic. It fits pretty easily into her right hand without any separating parts.

Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review

Buddy isn’t meticulously detailed, but there are still a number of nice touches that show Alter’s unparalleled talent at their craft. Buddy’s fingers all have fingernails that actually resemble fingernails, not just stubs with a blob of paint; two locks of her hair are twisted into an impossible corkscrew that add a bit of levity to her otherwise somber look; and she has several small aqua-colored jewels affixed to the hilt of her scythe and to the ends of her dress.

Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review

I love Buddy’s expression and body language, but they aren’t the only things that I love about this figure. I obviously also love her costume; Buddy’s attire is striking despite its monochromatic simplicity, highlighting her small breasts and girlish build and also revealing her shoulders. And of course, Buddy’s not wearing any pants, as she is evidently comfortable with covering her lower body with nothing more than a pair of low-rise panties and stockings. Her panties aren’t particularly detailed, which is a bit of a shame and represents a missed opportunity. Regardless, she presents a sexy look that doesn’t actually show a lot of skin but still reveals more than enough to be very erotic.

Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review

I’ve been looking forward to Buddy since she was announced – and even before that, she was a character that I wished would get a figure. Alter’s rendition doesn’t disappoint, of course, but I’m even happier that not only is she everything I expected her to be, she’s even better than I hoped for. Her character design is among my favorites, and Alter has done a marvelous job of bringing her to three dimensions. I have a fairly large figure collection, but Buddy already stands exalted in my esteem.

Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review
Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review
Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review
Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review
Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review
Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review
Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review
Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review
Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review
Alter Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo Figure Review
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48 Responses to Buddy from Voices from Har Megiddo

  1. super rats says:

    I’m used to coming here and seeing reviews of figures I didn’t buy, but I got this one too. Mine is still in transit, but good to know it turned out well. In addition to the fine costume, her face in figure form is a little different from the norm…but really it’s the scythe and the cut of her her outfit. There’s also the added bonus of saying, “Heeey Buddy” each time I walk past wherever she’s on display.

    • Tier says:

      There are a lot of common tropes in her design, but she still looks very distinctive, and that’s one of the things I really liked about her the first time I saw her. I gotta admit that her name is not one of my favorite things about her, but it does lend itself to a ton of puns. And hey, it could be worse … I mean, a main character named Beigel? Really?

  2. Adam says:

    Great review! I really like the background you used. What kind of material is that?

    I’ve also been looking forward to this figure ever since she was announced. I didn’t know anything about the character or eroge beforehand, but I loved Buddy’s character design the moment I saw the first photos of this figure. Haven’t received my copy yet, but I’m glad to see she turned out well.

    • Tier says:

      Thanks! It’s actually the same background I used for Yoko and Risty … it’s basically a bunch of wadded-up newspaper and tape covered with plaster cloth. I repaint it whenever I need a different color.

      She’s a great figure, I’m glad to see that she’s getting love; hopefully she won’t be too overshadowed by the figure dropping this week.

  3. Cantan says:

    Do love the white/silver detailing on her outfit – simple but gives a very effective contrast. Low slung underwear is good too – quite unusual too as she is not in the process of removing them!

    Even the weapon looks decent (which is often a gripe I have – too many manufacturers seem to sculpt the figure and then throw any old shite in as a weapon). Kinda pleased that I went through and paid for her after all… now she just has to arrive!

    • Tier says:

      Her panties do indeed look great. She doesn’t have much of a rear, which is unfortunate, but I suppose that’s reasonable given her petite build. I was sorta tempted to dip her scythe blade in some Future wax to give it a shinier finish, but I agree, it still looks pretty good; plastic, yes, but good-looking plastic. Alter and GSC always seem to make the best plastic weapons out there.

      • Cantan says:

        All in all I do think she came out very well – I do like the dark tones from what I’ve seen of yours (mine is still enroute… somewhere).

        Slightly off topic, but how did you Klan Klang (sp?) turn out? I did like the look of her all geared up, oh and the skin-tight body suit was a great incentive too… but some of the promotional shots of her without her jump-pack (or whatever) made her look a little odd and suddenly the hair style didn’t look quite right either. Funny how much perceptions change without some of the extras!

        • Tier says:

          I think she looks pretty good, though mine is still in her box (and that box is buried under a bunch of other boxes … Buddy’s, that one ninja girl from the manga called, uhh, Ninja Girls, Creative Labo Asuka’s …). I took a quick peek into the window to see if everything was in order. The first thing I noticed as that she seemed bigger than I was expecting; I figured she’d be something like 1/8 scale (human size 1/8 scale, anyway) but she seems bigger than that. Then the next thing I noticed was that she has some damn huge tits. That’s pretty much all I could see. I’m gonna have to try to get her review done, it should be easy to knock out since I’ll just pose her with a couple of my Yamato VF-1 toys.

          • Cantan says:

            You only noticed the size of her assets when you got her? Seriously, they are so big that they even look huge when she’s wearing all her extra gear…
            http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10119516a7/20/7
            and when she’s not:
            http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10119516a20/20/20

            Let me guess, you only ordered her because she had a… nice facial sculpt… not entirely plausible.

            Still would be interested to see what you can do with her.

          • Tier says:

            Nah, I knew they were huge, but they were bigger than I expected because the figure was bigger than I expected. I thought she’d be smaller than she is.

            Nah, I ordered her mainly because I like the Macross franchise and there aren’t too many figures of the various shows’ characters out there. Though I haven’t yet watched much of Macross Frontier; I need to make some time to watch the series. It’d also be pretty cool if someone decided to make a high-quality Miriya figure but I’m not getting my hopes up for that.

  4. Fabienne says:

    I actually like this figure a lot but in the end I didn’t ordered her for budget and space reasons ;D
    Her face is one of the best parts, I think slanted eyes are always win and also her mouth looks very beautiful, in picture buddy-19.jpg you’ve captured her elegance and beauty very well

    These blue anthracite tones of her outfit with the thin white lines are really nice.
    overall I think she is a very beautiful figure, but unfortunately I doubt that she will get the attention she deserves.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, you’re probably right; I actually thought she’d get a ton of love because she’s looks unique and doesn’t have humongous breasts or a blatantly oversexualized design, which I’ve notice a lot of people don’t particularly like. I’m surprised that Buddy’s sorta getting overlooked while Alter’s Dizzy is getting a ton of hype; Dizzy looks amazing and she’s my most anticipated figure right now, but she’s not wearing many clothes and I don’t think too many people are familiar with her background.

      If you change your mind, I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if Buddy ends up in the bargain bin in a month or so. Most of the figures I’ve reviewed end up there, which makes me wonder how much money I could be saving if I didn’t mind waiting.

      • Fabienne says:

        lately I have the feeling that everything is overflooded with figures from GSC well guess it was always like this XD

        Dizzy looks very cool and she looks like she will need a lot of shelf space, maybe thes ghosts at her right and left can be taken off.
        In comparison with Dizzy, Buddy is a more simple designed figure.
        Dizzy has more colors, eyecatching details and fluid looking clothes. Buddys big point is the beautiful face.

        I don want to wait until figures I really like go to the bargin bin sometimes its even uncertain if they ever will.
        haha but actually Im a bit pissed that the price of Vivio dropped like this after I purchased her *argh*

        • Tier says:

          I am guessing that her wings will be detachable just to fit her in the box, but I hope she can’t be displayed without them because Necro and Undine are very important to who she is. That’s probably one of my biggest disappointments with Kotobukiya’s version, that they didn’t show them. Though I guess I should just be glad that they didn’t put a mouth on the end of her tail.

          Haha, yeah, I keep seeing Vivio’s price drop like a rock everywhere. I’m almost thinking I ought to buy an extra just in case something happens to mine, since she’s so cheap now.

  5. BioToxic says:

    I was wondering if you went through with your Buddy pre-order. I decided not to get her myself; maybe if she ends up in a sale at some point though. If I knew more about the character I think that would have convinced me to buy her. Or even if her pose was just a little more exciting. Some of her CG in the game isn’t that great either; there’s certainly better scenes with the other characters from Megiddo no Oka de.

    Despite all that she looks stunning. I especially like how detailed her lips are. They’re the first thing that jumped out at me in your first photo. A quick glance over to my figure collection and I notice none of them have such detailed lips, which is a shame since it really makes Buddy stand out.

    Ah yes, her lower half is indeed a wasted opportunity. Just a little more detail would have been nice on her pants.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I’d like to know more about her character; unfortunately, Leaf doesn’t seem to have a demo available and from what I’ve researched, I’m pretty sure the auto-translator I use would not be able to cope with the game’s text. I was able to find a reasonable amount of information on the game online though, and it does sound like it has a very dramatic and captivating story. Maybe if I ever learn enough Japanese to play these games I’ll go back and give it a try, if I can find it anywhere (it’s not available on Erogeshop, curiously).

      I waffled a lot on what picture I wanted to use as the lead-in; first I was going to use as the one I used as the closer, and then I was going to use the one with the bright orange background but finally I decided to go with the close-up photo. I don’t often do that since a lot of anime figures don’t look that interesting that close in, but for me, Buddy’s face was the most compelling element of the figure, particularly her lips, as you say. I knew I needed something close because the shape of her mouth is so eye-catching.

      Yeah, a little more shape down there would have been very much appreciated. Not a whole lot, just enough to make you notice it.

  6. Afreet says:

    It took me like 2 hours to finally find the full cg set of this game, but there arent too many pics of Buddy in it, which is sad

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, it’s unfortunate; there doesn’t seem to be a lot of ero in this game, which I guess is not too surprising; it seems to be an RPG with a dramatic (traumatic?) story with some explicit elements, rather than a full-blown porn game. Me, I’d like to see more art of Buddy in general; there are some nice pics of her on the usual image repository sites but I wonder if the artist has ever done an artbook or some other compilation.

  7. GREW says:

    She sure looks nice. Nice enough that I could even get her too! Even I don’t know the Eroge and don’t like any Eroge at all (I’m a FPS player – I need action!)
    I really like her stand, her eyes and the big sythe.

    But I spent too much money on Games lately. And I should save money for a macro for my DSLR.

    And great pictures! I like the one with the red smoke.

    • Tier says:

      I am guessing she’ll be in the bargain bin soon enough, so maybe you’ll still be able to get her. New camera stuff is always fun; I wound up taking all these pics with a macro lens after having used a wide-angle (sorta wide, anyway) for almost all my shots the last couple of months; it felt a lot different but it worked better that way.

  8. Ashlotte says:

    She’s not terribly interesting looking on the close-ups, but the full body shots are quite nice…But then I have an unhealthy garter fetish so thats probably playing a part in why I like those pictures more… >_>

    • Tier says:

      It could be; I like garters as well and they’re another aspect of her design that I like a lot. I like the close-ups better, myself; I usually never remember to get head and shoulder shots but when I was picking out pictures to upload, I skipped a lot of full-body photos because I didn’t think they were very interesting.

  9. DaSaru says:

    I like her design very much. Her lips, her color scheme(black and pink is win), garters and low panties oh my.
    The pose she is holding the scythe is cool as well..not too dramatic but definitely badass.

    • Tier says:

      I love her design as well. She doesn’t get the blood pumping like say, GSC’s Saber Alter, but I think it’s still a very elegant, understated presentation … if she can be elegant and understated while standing around in her panties, anyway.

  10. Aka says:

    Has to be said… I’d give her first aid if you know what I mean. Seriously, Alter should have used that pose, it’s by far much more interesting, she has both expression and vulnerability, something many an otaku desire. Well maybe not the expression part, they’d probably be fine with expressionless so long as she’s vulnerable, but I digress.

    “Her look is a protean one that can take on wildly different meanings depending on what the viewer sees, and that level of mutability is both admirable and rare in this medium.” I’m not sure anyone else in the figure review community writes sentences like this.

    So you’ve sold me on Buddy, though one thing I do feel she should have though… just a teensie bit of cameltoe. I want something a little bit over pervy since I’ll never see a figure of her requiring aid… MMmmm… So I guess that means I agree with you, missed opportunity for sure.

    You keep saying you expect Buddy to be in the bargain bin, but how many Alter figures have ended up there? I don’t think they over produce like Good Smile does. I expect I wont be able to get Buddy, she appears to be sold out everywhere I’ve looked and will likely cost a pretty penny on eBay, which I’m not really willing to spend. Oh well I guess, I’ll just replace her with another cute anime girl, there’s plenty of them to go around.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, that would’ve been a great pose for this figure. Maybe we can hope Native or someone else will do a Buddy figure … she deserves more figures.

      I definitely agree with that, I think the cameltoe is sorely missed here and would’ve added another eye-grabbing highlight to this figure. It’s not even something that’s really unprecedented in figures anymore, which probably goes to show how quickly these things have become acceptable as far as social norms go.

      Off the top of my head, I can think of a number of Alter figures that’ve been discounted, starting with poor Vivio who’s had her price slashed at all three big Japanese retailers. Too bad for her, she’s a great figure. There’s that one blonde girl from Saki … uhh, Kuromo or something? Amiami had her really cheap for a while but I don’t think she’s discounted anymore. There were all those To Heart robot maid figures … Silfa and MILFa or Ilfa or something like that. Clalaclan was in the bargain bin for a while too, which surprised me a bit since there seemed to be a good amount of hype for her before her release. And there were those two Tower of Druaga figures … does anybody remember those? I wonder if those are the most overlooked figures that Alter has recently made; I never see anybody talk about or take pictures of them. Man, I just looked at HLJ’s sale section and even Momohime is in the bargain bin. Okay, 5460 yen isn’t really a “bargain” per se, but it’s still surprising that they have her in stock at all. They’ve also got Buddy in stock with their Fedex discount promotion going, I think.

      • Aka says:

        Native would be a good one, but I don’t think Buddy’s really a character that’s going to get a lot of figures…

        Also, you mentioned HLJ, I forgot to look there, and looking there now they have an Alter sale, just to prove me wrong I think. Ordered Buddy from them, hopefully I get my 50% off FedEx I never checked, and also ended up getting Beagles Chris figure, forgot it was in my cart. Unfortunately it’s the standard version, I’d love to have the limited version.

        • Hope you don’t get dinged with the brokerage fees via FedEx. Not as horrible as UPS, but they still charge pretty high some times. =(

        • Tier says:

          Yeah, she probably will not; Alter seems to be the only company that likes to pick out obscure characters from random H-games for figure production. GSC used to do it last year, too; I wish they’d go back to doing stuff like Pixy Hiyori and the Unity Marriage characters rather than all the nendoroid stuff they spew out.

          • Aka says:

            The only good thing about Nendos is it gives us something to constantly complain about. What will we complain about when they’re gone?

          • Tier says:

            True indeed! I suppose I’ve got a few bones to pick with Alter (their lack of Subaru [from Beat Blades Haruka] and Crueltear [from Triggerheart Exelica] figures, in particular), and I guess I can always whine about there being too many BRS figures, even though I keep buying them.

    • Cantan says:

      Not strictly true. Alter’s Vivio is already in Amiami’s recycle bin and Momohime still has plenty of items in stock and might be joing her shortly ( I call it “the curse of Tier!” – think Klan Klang (MegaHouse) might join them soon, then I might consider getting her).

      Yeah HLJ is always a good bet if you want to see if an item has fully sold out as they never seem to discount much (until the goods are quite old or 5% for an early bird – whoopie-doo) so are the last one to sell out often. Mind you Otacute has her as well, but she’s a bit overpriced there (I know ’cause I was stupid and preordered her there – she still hasn’t arrived – stupid snow!)

      Still I’m kinda with Tier on this as, whilst she is cute, she does seem a bit random as a choice of character, so I didn’t expect her to sell well. That said she was given a fair amount of prominence on some of the websites back when she was first announced.

  11. Shashin says:

    I was avoiding this review as long as possible, because I knew your pictures would make me regret canceling it even further. And I was right. 🙁
    Love the figure, and love your photography, as always. And the CG shot has more than interested me in the source material.

    There have been a ton of new dakimakura covers going up for preorder lately, some of which I want. AmiAmi/HS have a rather erotic one, that hasn’t been listed on their English sites. And all the circles I like are either re-releasing old covers or introducing new ones: including a Nymph from Illust Guerrilla, which I might just have to pick up.

    And I got the payment request for Tomoe today. Rather funny as I applied 8000 points to it, but shipping ran 5000 yen, so it’s not quite the savings I would have liked. Though it has been a tight few months, I’m a bit glad I got the order now. If it had been pushed back to past January, I may have done the jerkish thing and not paid for it.

    • Tier says:

      I aim to serve! She seems to be selling faster than I thought she would; neither HS nor Amiami have her in stock anymore.

      Gee, that Nymph one looks really nice; I might have to think about it too. I’m warming up to Nymph’s character, partly since she quickly drops the bitchy part of her tsundere personality and goes into … well, not the loving part but more of an emo, low self-esteem phase which is pretty cute. Mainly though, I like how she gets thrashed in the first season. It’s not even because of schadenfreude or reprisal over her initial personality, it’s mainly just because I think she’s really adorable when she’s crawling on the ground and begging for her life. I dunno if that sounds messed up or not. I guess it probably does. Have you ordered anything through IG’s website? I usually preorder pillowcases through the big retail shops rather than straight from the circles themselves, but I see that her deadline is coming up really quickly.

      • Shashin says:

        I don’t know the figure business as well as you reviewers, so I just figured she’d sell out almost instantly because the production shots looked amazing, it was something newish (versus a character that receives 10 million figures), and it was by Alter. While my reasoning may have not have used the most scientific means for coming to that conclusion, the end result was the same… and I’m sad for missing it. Oh well, I’m sure I can always pick up one later if I really want it.

        Yeah, I like it a lot. The front view is fantastic, and I really do like her character design; I’ve only watched the first seven episodes, but I like her already. Though probably not the intended effect, watching her pout is adorable to me. I can’t wait to see her crawling around, then. >_>

        Anyhow, while the front side is great, it’s the back side that really makes it a must buy for me. The pose is wonderful, and despite not caring for most fluids when it comes to hentai, I’ve always found something enjoyable about females enjoying their own fluids. And the look on her face; truly, it’s a great piece.

        No I haven’t ordered anything from IG directly, but I don’t expect any problems, honestly. I submitted the order shortly after my last post, and SMJ placed it about two hours after that. I’m happy that was the case; this really isn’t one I want to miss out on.

        Since I made this post, there were two more covers added to the website I use to keep up with dakimakura preorders that I like. There was one uploaded a couple days ago by the circle Ask, with a fine looking purple-haired chick… with an absolutely fantastic ass. The rest of it was only okay, but damn did that ass make me debate ordering it right then and there; I don’t believe I have an Ask cover, but if you look them up on D-Stage or another site, that’s one thing they seem to do consistently well, epic asses. I had definitely considered the Rin Tohsaka cover, but ultimately decided I was broke.

        Speaking of Rin, that’s the other cover that was uploaded on the site today. Looks like a great cover, and I’ll admit to liking Rin a good deal, so I’m considering picking it up.

        • Tier says:

          You’ll enjoy it, it’s fun stuff. I think so, anyway.

          Yeah, the reverse side looks fantastic, especially since the censoring is transparent so you can see the details right through it. Man though, there’s a lot of stuff I want to buy this month. On the other hand, if I wait and then decide to get this pillowcase off YJA, I’m just gonna pay more.

          I went looking for pillowcases just now and you’re right, there’s a lot of nice ones out there, probably since C79 is coming up. The Panty & Stocking one that Evening Call has up looks awesome; I’m seriously going to have to give that one some thought. I also like this Happoubi Jin one (the third one), though I wish they had a bigger picture. I probably ought to sign up for a Pixiv account already so I can see if he uploads any art there. I also like this Record of Agarest War 2 one with Eva, though it’s sorta bizarre that they only have a sketch drawing up even though it’s supposed to ship next month. They can’t be shipping a dakimakura cover with a pencil sketch, can they?

          • Cantan says:

            Would be one way to delay the counterfeiters. I Imagine all they need is a high quality Jpeg of the latest design and they could be printing them and shipping them out before the legitimate websites.

          • Shashin says:

            Yeah, it’s hard balancing paying for all the covers now, when money is tight, and picking them up on YHJ later. I’m feeling the pain especially now; I was doing my usual search of YHJ, when I saw someone had listed the PSP2 cover from 強熱残分 for 27000 yen buyout. Since it’s the first time I had seen it listed, I jokingly said to myself “I bet they bought it off Mandarake for 10000 yen.” Sure enough, go over there, and it’s sold out, despite being available for a month or two.

            There’s certainly quite a few I’d like at the moment; I’ve wanted that Panty & Stocking cover since they released the first production shot a few weeks ago. Sadly, I think I’m going to hold off on it, for now. I’ll probably pick it up for more later, but since it sells through more channels, I figure it should be a bit easier to get than the Illust Guerrilla cover.

            I think Cantan is probably right. I’d imagine that’s why most put the massive sample markers across the cover, but even that’s probably fairly easy to bypass, especially if it’s on the more transparent side. A sketch, on the other hand, would allow bootleggers to color it themselves before the official production shots, but it wouldn’t look as crisp, and I imagine if they went that route, it would be easier to spot a fake due to different colors used.

  12. Just working on my Buddy review – I really like this figure for some odd reason – even without any prior knowledge of her background. Saw the figure up for pre-order and didn’t even hesitate.

    I like sm-buddy04.jpg with the yellow background, it’s a nice contrast with the pink and purple she has going on.

    One thing I found a bit odd with this figure is her belly button is so obscure, at first I thought the sculptor forgot to sculpt a belly button. ^_^

    • Tier says:

      I was pretty much the same way, though I’d seen her back when the eroge was released. I didn’t know anything about her, though; I was amazed she got a figure at all.

      I didn’t even think to look at her navel, though it looks like it’s in the right place to me … I remember thinking that Max Factory’s Shining Wind swimsuit figures all look sorta strange because their belly buttons are so low, particularly Clalaclan’s.

  13. Tier says:

    >> Shashin
    That’s true, though I wonder how concerned they are about counterfeiters, since most of the doujin dakimakura covers I’ve seen aren’t offered past the deadline. A lot of circles do actually offer reasonably large images on Pixiv or elsewhere; White Canvas’s pillowcase images are sometimes in excess of 1500 pixels high.

  14. Cantan says:

    My Buddy finally arrived today and I have to say that I am somewhat disappointed. She’s a lot smaller and less substantial than I had anticipated and seeing her in the pvc, she does lack a lot of the detail I would expect from an Alter figure. As you alluded to, her entire lower half lacks any real detailing (this isn’t as readily apparent in some of your pictures due to light reflection), save for the shoes which I am not a great fan of.

    Have to say that her dress and arm coverings are my favourite parts of this figure.

    I think her facial expression works best from below. This is unfortunate as I display figures on a flat computer desk generally so am viewing her from above – this gives a slightly strange effect, not least as her mouth seems level rather than curved downwards as it actually is. Mind you I do much prefer her to the other figure I received at the same time – I knew I should have cancelled that Kaitendo Kanu, but some websites just won’t let you do it. Miss Photogenic my Arse! (made the mistake of ordering her in July when she was first announced – didn’t know any better – Only Pre-order I have at the moment is the Orchid Seed Super Sonico in fishnets! – have learned my lesson)

    Bearing in mind that my last two figures were Alter’s Selvaria (which is simply stunning with amazing detail) and UART’s Ryofu (which is also very hot and looks great in her current position), I am a bit miffed – here’s hoping that Yamato’s Emaretta (Black – 40% off in HLJ’s sale) makes up for it – haven’t looked for any reviews so may be disappointed again!

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I gotta admit I don’t dig her boots much. I sorta thought they looked like Santa’s elf’s footwear or something. There’s a reason why I focused mainly on her upper body rather than her legs. I do like her legs, but her stockings kinda like painted on to me, which I guess they technically are, but you know what I mean.

      Ha, man, Kaitendoh has some stuff I like but some other stuff is just kinda WTF. It’d be nice if they branched out some, but I heard that the Ikkitousen franchise is pretty easy to get a merchandise license for, and I’m guessing To Heart is the same way.

      I’m not actually a big fan of the Selvaria figure, though that’s more due to her general character design. I’m giving a lot of thought to picking up that version of Emaretta-chan; I missed out on it a while back when Otakufuel took it off their site, though I guess that works out for me since she’s a lot cheaper now. HLJ has a lot of other stuff I want to buy now, which is surprising and somewhat distressing cuz I really need to cut down spending for this month.

  15. Pingback: Alter: Buddy

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  17. jwan1996 says:

    Hey Tier, I’m just wondering how much did you get Buddy for. I’m getting mine soon so ya, just being curious :3

    • Tier says:

      I paid 6250 yen from Amiami for Buddy. She seems to be cheaper now than she was then, though I don’t remember what the exchange rate was back in 2010.

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