Preorder Outlook VIII

It’s been a while since the last one so it’s a good time for me to collect my thoughts on some figures that I’ve either already ordered or am thinking of ordering. 2011 is looking like an excellent year for figures, and there are a few in this post that have already shot to the top of my wishlist. The pictures here are from Hobby Search, as always my favorite place to buy figures from. I don’t have any advertising on this site and I probably never will, but if I did, I’d roll with Hobby Search. Speaking of Hobby Search, they did send me my Black Rock Shooter stickers – for free, even including EMS shipping – but I haven’t gotten around to slapping one on her butt yet; when I do, I’ll get pictures up here right away.

February

Kyou Fujibayashi from Clannad
It’s kinda weird how a character can get multiple figures in a short period of time. Alter announced their test suit Asuka just a few days after Kotobukiya announced their’s; a whole slew of Tamaki Kousakas have debuted in the last few weeks; and now there are not one but two Kyou Fujibayashis dropping in the span of just a few months. I’ve got Kotobukiya’s version on preorder – though I’m sorta thinking I ought to cancel it and wait for her to get discounted – and I’m contemplating ordering Kaitendoh’s. I’m leaning against it though, since I’m not too familiar with Clannad and it looks a bit rough. She looks kinda like she has bed hair and this sleepy look on her face, which admittedly can be sexy under certain circumstances. The main reason I’m even considering her is I like her gym uniform; it’s one of the main reason I bought Wave’s figure a while back. I don’t see too many figures in gym bloomers for some reason, even though they’re pretty common in anime and manga.

March

Dark Magician from Yu-Gi-Oh
I’m a little too old to have heard of Yu-Gi-Oh and too young to have any kids who’d have played it, and if I did I’d incessantly mock them for playing something that looks so silly to me. And then I’d probably introduce them to Sengoku Rance and tell them to clear Agireda or no allowance for them. Still, I got to admit that the dark magician is really cute, though maybe a bit too pastel-looking for my taste. She’s crouched in a rather suggestive pose for a character from a children’s game, which just adds to her appeal, but I’m thinking she might be a better buy coming from the bargain bin.

Super Sonico
I’ve got a few vmf50 dolls already and I hadn’t planned on picking up Sonico, and as it turned out it wouldn’t have mattered because she sold out within something like an hour. I guess Yamato saw all the money they were leaving on the table so they did a second round of preorders and having had a month to reconsider, I plunked down the skrills for her. I’m a moron like that. I’m not really sure how I want to dress her; a bondage harness doesn’t really seem fitting for her though then again, maybe that makes it even more appropriate. I’m willing to take ideas for her.

April

Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion
Here is yet another Rei figure, and I’m not certain if I’m going to get this one. Her hair looks a bit off to me; it’s spread out very wide, looking sort of like a lion’s mane, which I’m not sure I like. I can’t deny that I love her plugsuit and the way she fills it out, though. One curious thing about all the Rei figures that get churned out is that few of them have her standing up while wearing her plugsuit; Alter’s got one where she’s sitting down and another where she’s curled up on the floor, Kotobukiya’s got this one and the 1/6 scale one where she’s sorta leaning forward with her rump all thrust out and yet another one where she’s lying down, snuggled up against Asuka. But other than a 1/10 scale figure from Wave, I can’t think of any figures that have her standing up.

Dizzy from Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
Back when I wrote my review of Kotobukiya’s Dizzy, I expressed some disappointment that Necro and Undine weren’t modeled, and I ended it by saying, “Do I think that Alter or Max Factory would’ve done a better job? You bet.” And now here we are and Alter backs up my assertion with this breathtaking figure. Dizzy is one of my favorite characters in all of anime and video games so she was an automatic preorder. Trivia note: in the Xbox 360 game Guilty Gear Overture, there is strong (but circumstantial) evidence that Dizzy is married to Ky Kiske and is the mother of Sin, which would make her the first married character in my collection and the second mother (and the first biological mother).

Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
I don’t think I’m going to buy this figure – at least not initially – but I do kinda like it. And I really don’t have enough Fate Testarossa figures in my collection, so I’m giving this one a bit of thought. Once again, the manufacturer plays coy with the backside coverage provided by her suit, and I’m thinking they aren’t including her canonical thong bottom, which would be a huge shame. What’s also a shame is that they didn’t roll with BUBBA’s sculpt, which does properly include her thong. I had hoped that Yamato might collaborate more with him since he is supremely talented and they did an excellent job with his Velvet figure, but it hasn’t happened thus far.

Sora Kasugano from Yosuga no Sora
I really like MegaHouse’s Sora – it’s a contender for one of my five favorite figures of this year – and I like Sora’s character design in general. However, I instantly disliked her after watching about thirty seconds of the first episode of her anime. There are too many damn tsundere types in anime. Fortunately, like most tsundere types, I guess she does become more likeable, and I gotta admit, there’s something very appealing about a cute young girl who fellates her brother with a smile. So I’ll call her personality a wash and that leaves just this figure, which I dunno about. For one thing, her face looks pretty weird; just stare at it for five or ten seconds. Most anime figures aren’t exactly realistic or lifelike or anything, but Sora looks more like a mannequin than almost any other figure I’ve seen. And for another thing, those seams around her shoulders are kinda ugly. I definitely wouldn’t be buying her for her to keep her clothes on, so that’s a big negative. On the plus side, she’s 1/4 scale – God’s scale – and that sort of size has a quality all of its own. So I dunno. Maybe this is another bargain bin pickup. Did y’all see that GSC’s BRS Animation Version was 2000 yen on Amiami earlier today, and is right around 3,000 yen on Amazon JP? Crazy, I tell you.

Super Sonico
I was surprised to see Super Sonico get a lot of love from the figure-collecting community, since she’s the mascot character of an eroge company, she’s got pretty big tits (yeah, there’s actually people who don’t like that. No, I don’t understand it either), and she’s not wearing much more than some skimpy black fetishwear. But then again, Dizzy’s also dressed up in strappy leather and a collar and she’s gotten a ton of love too. Could this be the beginning of a surge of love for cute anime girls in bondage gear? … Yeah, that’d be too much to hope for. I haven’t preordered Super Sonico yet but I’m thinking I probably will. My only reservation is that her legs look a bit stubby for her body. But well … I look at her and that annoying-ass voice in the back of my head keeps wondering what the hell is wrong with me. So she’ll probably be getting preordered, stumpy legs and all.

Yuri from Angel Beats
I kinda like this figure, particularly the way she’s got her gat in a two-handed grip. It looks like she’s ready to bring it up to bear on a target, which is pretty cool; I’ve got a lot of figures of girls with guns but most of them look like they’re posing with their strap rather than getting ready to actually start blasting. One thing I’m not so positive about is that her thighs look like they’ve got an extra joint where her socks end. I’m not so sure I like a girl with triple-jointed legs. There’s also the fact that I don’t know a thing about Angel Beats, other than it seems to have gotten a mixed reception. On the other hand, I’m thinking that if I don’t know much about a character, I ought to not sweat it.

May

Dark Sakura from Fate/stay night
It seems like we’ve seen this figure over and over in convention reports, and finally Gift is releasing it to the masses. And now that they are, I’m not so sure if I’m going to get it. I love her basic character design but her face doesn’t really scream “Buy me!” I love corrupted girls, though, and those tattoos or veins or uhh, worm parasites or whatever on her skin are dead sexy. If anyone who’s played Fate/stay night can tell me whether Dark Sakura ever brutalizes or kills Emiya Shirou, please do so, because if she does, she becomes an instant preorder.

I wonder where their Saber Lily is? I kinda dig it; she’s got a slightly more mature face and the details on her armor are exquisite.

Goto Matabei from Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls
Another Alter and Hobby Japan exclusive, which is a shame. And yet there wasn’t any question that I wasn’t going to buy this figure. I’ve only watched a couple episodes of Samurai Girls but I can’t say I really like it much thus far. Matabei is pretty funny though. And she’s got great fashion sense; is there anything more awesome than a cute girl wearing a fundoshi? I’ve already paid for this figure through Tokyo Hunter and I’m very much looking forward to it.

Maxima Enfield from Shining Hearts
I love Tony Taka’s art, but I gotta admit, it all starts looking the same after a while. I was struck by his design of Maxima, though; the splayed-out ends of her dress, her black and white color scheme, and her small smile, slight tilt of her head, and sideways glance all give her a lot of appeal. This is a great looking figure and I’m looking forward to it as well. Also, Maxima is a really cool name; I remember hearing that Maximus was a popular name for baby boys a few years back (I’m guessing it was the dads who won out in the naming debates for most of those kids), but the feminine equivalent hasn’t gotten much love, other than from Nissan, I guess. And also, I ran across this funny Photoshopped image of her undergarments over on the futaba.anacel.com Figure/GK board; even though she won’t be wearing this design in her figure form, I’m kinda hoping it’s castoff-able anyway.

Rin Tohsaka from Fate/stay night
Here’s another convention queen that’s finally making its way into the homes of collectors. She’s long been one of the most anticipated figures in the hobby, but all that excitement came crashing down in one big exclamation of WTF when Good Smile Company showed off their initial painted sample. Fortunately, that collective gasp from Japan and around the world was heard and after some fixing up, she now looks like a divine, defiant sex goddess, an equal mix of glamour and badass. Now, how about a Rider figure?

Tamaki Kousaka from To Heart 2
And this preorder list wouldn’t be complete without a Tamaki. There are so many of them now; how does a girl as old and used up as her become the It-Girl of 2011 before it’s even started? Regardless, I’m seriously contemplating preordering this figure. I wasn’t going to at first; she was wearing this maid costume and I don’t have much of a thing for maids (unlike, say, nuns. Especially warrior nuns). Then I saw her sample pics over at Moeyo and I was like “Daaayum.” That backside is bangin’ … man, that’s one of the nicer butts I’ve see on a figure in a while. On the other hand … well, it’s another Tamaki, I already own two, I’ve got two on order, do I really need another? On the other other hand … does it really make a difference whether I own a bunch of figures of one specific character? I mean, the four that I own and have ordered don’t make this one any less attractive.

Let me end this by engaging in a story about my fantasy football team that I doubt many people are going to care about, but this is my site and I get to write what I want to here. I’ve been in a fantasy league for about ten years now, and this year my team was in fifth place in the last week of the regular season, with the top four teams advancing to the playoffs. If I won my final game, I’d get into the playoffs by virtue of winning a tiebreaker with one of the teams that was ahead of me, and as my opponent for that last week had a fairly weak team, I was reasonably confident that I would win. And then a strange series of events began: first, a huge snowstorm slammed into the midwestern United States. Among the damage caused by this storm was the collapse of the Metrodome roof – who the heck thinks it’s a good idea to build a multi-million dollar stadium with an inflatable roof? – forcing the postponement of the Vikings game from that afternoon to Monday night. Then that Sunday evening, I watched with great dismay as my opponent – who had DeSean Jackson on his team – racked up a ton of points, eventually getting ahead of my team by one touchdown. I still felt confident though – I had Adrian Peterson on my team, one of the two best running backs in the NFL, and as not one but two of his quarterbacks had gotten themselves injured, I’d figured he’d get a lot of carries and I would win. But he wound up doing nothing and I lost my game. Then I reflected that Peterson’s nickname is “All Day” – but he came up short for me during a night game, and he was only playing a night game because the weather gods decided to collapse an NFL stadium, and that just happened to occur on the one week that my team was fighting for its playoff life. It’s like some towering cosmic power decided to bring together this confluence of unlikely events and peculiar coincidences just to piss on me from a great height.

Why do I bring this up now? It’s because right around the same time, I was watching the fourth Queen’s Blade OVA, which reveals that Menace funds her queendom by selling figures of Queen’s Blade fighters. At the end of the show, we get to see some of her wares on display.

Here we can see MegaHouse’s Nowa figure, and we can see Echidna, one of the oldest Queen’s Blade figures, if I remember correctly. But who’s that on the left? Hey, it’s Irma. Why is that so weird? Because that figure doesn’t exist. There is no scale-size figure of Irma. MegaHouse hasn’t made one. Griffon hasn’t made one. Hobby Japan hasn’t made one. None of them have showed any inclination to make one. Irma’s been left bare-assed out in the cold all this time. And then in this OVA, they decide to include her in this end shot. It’s like Hobby Japan was saying, “Hey, let’s flip off Tier and the dozen other Irma fans on the planet by putting in this picture, it’ll drive them nuts.” I swear to jeebus that some divine power has it in for me … I obviously haven’t made the right sacrifices to any of the right gods.

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49 Responses to Preorder Outlook VIII

  1. Phi says:

    Hi Tier. Firstly, I just want to thank you for taking the time to write all these reviews and take wonderful photos on this blog. I am not a person who collects figures but I do buy them occasionally, when something really beautiful comes out.

    I’ve had a bit of a problem deciding between the Maxima and Dizzy figures (and I see that you have both on your preorder outlook). I’m afraid I can’t go ahead and get both. So I was just wondering which of the two do you think is better?

    Thanks so much,
    Phi

    • Tier says:

      Thanks for the kind words! I’m a big fan of Dizzy. I bought Guilty Gear three times – Guilty Gear X to unlock Dizzy so I could play as her, GGX2 #Reload on the PS2 because Dizzy became a normal character, and then GGX2 #Reload on the Xbox because that was the console I built a joystick for. In contrast, I loved the old Shining Force games on the Genesis and constantly lament that they’ve gone from classic, beloved tactical games to moe-filled, run-of-the-mill RPGs and thus I haven’t played any of the newer Shining series games. Given that, I would roll with Dizzy without a second thought. Or a first thought, really. But if I didn’t have such a fondness for the Guilty Gear games and if the price tags were an issue, I think Maxima is a really good buy. Both of them look great and I don’t think you can go wrong with either of them. If price isn’t an issue, I’d go with Dizzy though … she’s going to be the sort of figure that commands attention and dominates a shelf all by herself.

  2. Shashin says:

    Quite a nice write up, and I’d probably pick up most of these myself if my finances were more solid than they are at the moment. With that said, I’m definitely picking up Tohsaka and Dizzy, as they both look absolutely amazing. I’m on the fence about the Soniko figure; I’d definitely pick her up if I knew I could cover the expense, but I’m hurting right now and I can’t afford it. The same goes with Sora, and Dark Magician Girl. I also really like Dark Sakura. GSC BRS figure for 2200 yen in the bargain bin? Star decal or not, that’s absolute madness.

    I’ll probably be wrapping up my figure buying spree after the next couple of figures. I’ll also be cutting back on dakimakura and the like until things settle down a bit; the last few weeks have been fairly crazy. As it is, I’ll probably have to bail on some AmiAmi orders, which I feel fairly terrible about; but they don’t give you the option to cancel, and I have too many SMJ orders coming in and can’t afford the high price of the Blu-rays I ordered on a whim. I’d prefer to keep on good terms with them, since they seem to stock things Hobby Search doesn’t, but if they decide to blacklist me, I can’t blame them. I did finally get Criminal Girls though, and it’s actually a fairly fun RPG with a decent battle system. Punishment takes the form of a couple decent timing based mini games in results in a decent amount of ecchi. Glad I bought it overall.

    As crazy as the last few weeks have been for me, the main reason I’ve been so quiet around here is because I did pick up Cataclysm and ended nearly two years of being WoW free. Knowing that you were a WoW player yourself, I’ll go into a bit of detail should you still be on the fence about it.

    Overall, I’m happy I went back; I’m not to the level of boredom/addiction I was previously where I just logged in and didn’t really do anything. The game is fun again for me, and while I’m certainly investing an unhealthy amount of time into it, I’m not wasting my time by doing nothing.

    Not sure where to start. Cataclysm content, as far as additions go, is fairly solid: Archaeology is a definite time sink, however, it’s akin to fishing (you’ll either love it or hate it) and the rewards are nice. The new zones are all fun; though I can’t say I’ve full explored the water zone yet. There’s quite a few amazing quest chains, and a very nice use of phasing in some cases. Nothing absolutely groundbreaking in terms of new quest types, but they break it up fairly well. I haven’t bothered with too many dungeons, but the one or two I did do were quick, somewhat challenging, and fun. There are a few bugs every now and then, but it’s all pretty stable. And flying in Azeroth has to be one of the highlights; just flying around Stormwind alone is breathtaking.

    The changes to the Old World are a mixed bag, but for the better overall. Zones have had their levels readjusted a bit to make for a smoother questing experience, I would assume. Biggest peeve here was WPL/EPL were lowered to a 40-50 zone together, as were the instances they hold. Those were always my favorite zones to end with in the 1-60 race, so it’s a little saddening. On the plus side, the hubs in both zones, WPL especially, are amazing with excellent use of phasing. The aesthetics of some zones has changed dramatically, such as Thousand Needles now being a watery zone. Some hubs were entirely wiped off the map (such as the port in Tanaris), but many more have been added; I found that generally speaking, the lower level the zone, the more flight paths there are. It’s certainly helpful since the hardest part of leveling an alt is always running around without a mount.

    I’m fairly sure you know they’ve condensed buffs a lot; I believe that was one of your biggest gripes. It’s been condensed even more now. Paladins now have Might and Kings; Kings doesn’t stack with Gift of the Wild and I’m not sure if Might doesn’t stack with something. I was never pleased with them trying to make the classes more alike. I can understand it’s needed for balancing to some extent, but it just takes a lot of the uniqueness of the classes out.

    Talent trees have been streamlined tremendously. I’ve grown to like the change, but I had mixed feelings about it at first. The best thing about it is you get a couple of key abilities to start; such as Mutilate for Assassination rogues. It’s a change that should have been done years ago, considering how many specs are built around that ability; it was usually worth leveling in a different tree and then switching specs when you finally had enough talent points for the ability. The trees are much more streamlined, and there’s no longer as many useless abilities that you just put points into to move on up. The downside is that it effectively kills hybrid specs, as you’re required to put 31 points into one tree before you can go to another; and since you only get 41 talent points now, that severely cuts back on your options. Not too fond of that change, but with the trees so streamlined now, I guess it makes sense so that someone isn’t able to pick up big abilities in all the different trees.

    Since you played a Paladin, I’ll tell you that this is the most fun I’ve ever had with my Paladin since vanilla. There have been many changes, some of them fairly confusing at first, but now I have to say that I’m fairly happy with the tree and mechanics. All of my experience has been with Ret thus far, but it’s a powerhouse. Holy Wrath and Exorcism are no longer limited to undead targets, which is fairly confusing, but they add quite a lot to our arsenal. The addition of Holy Power allows for some powerful attacks/heals to be added. I missed Seal of Command at first, but relying on the big procs was always really hit or miss. The new Ret style is certainly a lot of fun, at least for me.

    I forgot to mention the biggest change is in itemization. It’s even crazier than the jump from vanilla to BC was. Even 78 BoE greens have stats in the 100s on them. I can understand why they had to make the change, with only 5 levels in the expansion they wanted to make sure there was a difference between 80/85, but it still take some time to get used to. Even if you were in the best WotLK gear, you’d probably have replaced everything by 82-3. It’s all for balance at 85, but I’m overjoyed at its potential for old content. People have already solo’d MC/BWL/Kara/etc at the previous caps, but with a 100k health pool and high DPS, quite a lot should be possible.

    I’m bitter about a few things being removed. ZG is now a lowbie quest hub, from what I hear. Was always my favorite raid, so I’m sad it’s gone. Since the Twilight Hammer plays such a big role in Cataclysm, Silithus has had a lot of changed; there are no longer any turn ins for weapons/elemental summons. And they also removed Divine Intervention from the game. It was my absolute favorite ability and was so much fun to mess around with.

    I’m happy to be playing again, I’d say, as long as it stays fresh. Don’t know if you’re interested in going back at all, but those are my thoughts on the expansion. If you do find your way playing again, you can add me through Battle.net if you’d like with the email provided on the posting form. Sorry to go completely off topic by the way, I just figured you’d be interested in some WoW talk as a former player. 😛

    • Tier says:

      I went on an SMJ buying spree recently as well; hopefully I’ll get to showcase some of the stuff I got soon. There’s a few dakimakura covers that I really want but I’m not sure if I’m going to get due to finances, but we’ll see. My common sense tends to get squelched in those sorts of decisions.

      Thanks for the update regarding Warcraft. I did play it again earlier this year – I leveled a blood elf paladin from 1 to 70 and then stopped, so I got to see some of the changes, though I haven’t witnessed any of the 4.0 changes firsthand. From what you say and what I’ve heard and read elsewhere though, I think the game’s passed me by and the changes they’ve made don’t really appeal to me all that much. My paladin was pretty much a PVP player and crippling her burst output by dumping SoC was pretty damn annoying, and even more annoying was removing the attack proc from windfury totem and replacing it with haste, and then giving the same buff to death knights. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be going back, though I suppose with Warcraft, you never say never. I did spend a lot of time playing video games recently, though – mainly Forza 3 and Sengoku Rance, which are both a big reason why I haven’t gotten around to photographing Asuka yet. I’m still pretty bad at both games and I’m finding that 1-star difficulty is kinda kicking my ass.

      • Shashin says:

        Yeah, I just don’t have as much money coming in as I did and I also was able to go on such a splurge since I had recently come into a bit of money; now the money that came in has dwindled down and I’m not bringing in as much. So I’ve had to cut my hobby spending drastically. It’s a shame because there’s so many dakimakura I would love to buy right now.

        Ah, I was never one for PvP and always enjoyed the leveling/dungeon part of the game, so I can’t say how they are there. I will say that I leveled my rogue first, who was in gear from the first few WotLK raids. I had a much easier time in the starting zones with my paladin, who was still in WotLK quest greens, than I did my rogue.

        WoW had sucked up all my free time; I’ve even neglected the last few episodes of anime I was watching this season, but I lost interest a few weeks before I picked up WoW again. Just been a busy month or two, even before the WarCraft. Only other game I’ve played recently was about an hour or two worth of Criminal Girls spread out over a few days. I’m happy to say that at the height of my Sengoku Rance addiction, I managed to complete the game on 5 star difficulty. Or whatever the highest mode was, but I want to say it was 5. In all fairness, the biggest ramp up in difficulty is from normal to 1 star, as that’s when people start dying right and left and they really try to exploit your positioning. Been awhile since I’ve played, but I remember that once you learn how to compensate it all became a lot easier… if still frustrating at times.

        • Tier says:

          There’s a ton of Comiket stuff I want to buy but unfortunately, my favorite buyer seems to be taking postal money orders as his main payment method now and I really don’t like going to the post office. I’ve been trying not to check my favorite pillowcase-maker circles’ websites recently but man there’s a lot of good stuff coming out soon.

          I liked PVP only on my paladin, mainly since pallies had a lot of tools to stay alive. Making it so that you can’t lay hands while forbearance is active was really freaking annoying. Giving other classes abilities to cut through bubble was really freaking annoying. Of course, everyone always whined about bubbles and lay hands, but ret paladins were pretty easy targets after those abilities were blown and on cooldown.

          I just took over Uesugi’s territories in my first foray into 1-star difficulty and I guess I’ll go after Hojo next. I’m thinking I’ll go for Ran’s route since the demon army doesn’t show up, if I remember right; I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna be able to contend with the demon army this time through. I’m just hoping to get enough end points so I can start my next playthrough with some better bonuses.

          • Shashin says:

            Ouch. I’ve been doing my best to keep away from Comiket stuff, but I still have the unfortunate habit of checking the dakimakura site that lists all of those set to release in the next few months, once or twenty times a day… I also check YHJ for dakimakura covers that I want; I actually saw a bid pop up for one that I wanted the other day and I ended up bidding just shy of 20000 yen for it, and I still lost. That makes me think that unless the circle rereleases it, I’m either paying an arm and a leg for it, or not ever getting it.

            Yeah, can’t really talk on PvP survivability anymore, but we definitely don’t have as much as we did in the past. Blizzard has even said that they want Holy/Ret to be a bit more squishy. I don’t have confirmation, but I’ve yet to successfully cast Lay on Hands on myself, so I think they removed the ability for it to be cast on the paladin entirely. That’s certainly a real loss and the bubble is down to 8 seconds. We do have a few things that offset this a bit, though.

            Mainly, we finally have an interrupt with 4 second school lock and we can finally close distance a bit because Judging increases movement speed by 70% for 4-5 seconds. The addition of Holy Power also provides a semi powerful instant heal (around 20/30kcrit in my Ret gear) at the loss of damage. We’re no longer unstoppable when we had all those cooldowns, but at least we don’t have to rely on them so much anymore.

            Yeah, that seems to be the most efficient way; I finally played one game where I went the opposite way and made a beeline for Mouri house. I was able to take it eventually, but it was brutal dealing with the brothers and Uesugi at the same time with so few troops. The Uesugi house is fairly easy to take if you abuse sending Rance in alone (making sure you either scout, or get ready to reload.) And you gain two incredible fighters for the level. Yeah, I’ll admit that I ended my very first game without any points… then I started a higher difficulty, said nevermind, and just blitzed through a normal game and ended it with about 40 points. Then I moved up in difficulty.

          • Tier says:

            Wow, that was one ‘spensive-ass pillowcase. Though admittedly, the 13k yen price tag that a lot of dakimakura covers are going for now isn’t that much less. I keep checking YJA and Mandarake for some things that I’ve been wanting too; it’s really not healthy for my bank balance, but I keep telling myself that it’s not likely I’m going to get another chance to pick up what I want if I miss out. Like about a week back, I saw that Mandarake had all of Udon-ya’s Monster Hunter ero books for sale in one package. I waffled for a couple days and when I decided that I ought to buy it, it sold out, and I was all unhappy with my indecisiveness for a while. Then they re-listed it and I went ahead and bought it. Or at least, I hope they bought it, I guess they have to check their stock first.

            Bubble’s down to eight seconds? Man, it’s like they’re trying to make it easy for me to never want to play that game again.

            I wound up starting a new game in 1-star difficulty with the kill the monkey route activated. I saw a tip on the Hongfire board to get the diviner bonus character, so I did that and the playthrough was easier than I thought it’d be. I wound up beating it in a couple of days (pretty much all I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks is playing Sengoku Rance) so now I’ve got around 110 points for my next playthrough. Man the Orochi mowed me down though. I think I got it down to like 50% before it killed my last guy. I got clobbered so hard I’m not even sure what I could’ve done differently. I guess I shoulda recruited more diviners to shield my troops. Speaking of which, I managed to capture Ran right as I conquered the Hojo house, but I could never recruit her because Souun hadn’t gone wandering off on his solo quest. So I guess she stayed in my prison for the rest of her life or something. Admittedly, that’s probably better than the alternative that was waiting for her had she joined my army.

          • Shashin says:

            Think it went for so high because there was another listed with a buyout of 25000. I’ll eventually pay the price when I have a bit more money to spend, but I would have loved to get it cheaper. Don’t get me wrong though, I’ve paid quite a bit more for a cover in the last few months; 22000 for the mass market C.C. dakimakura (the most I’ll ever pay for an official product) and I believe 26000 for the Syrup dakimakura.

            Yeah, I’ve seen the Udon-ya packed listed more than a handful of times, so you’ll eventually catch it if you didn’t get it this time (but you should hopefully be good.) I’d have bought it myself, but I already have the majority of them; I’m in the process of moving now, so I’ll probably sort all of my doujinshi in the coming months and see which ones I’m missing. I’ve been trying to keep away from Mandarake first thing in the morning when they list new goods, because there’s always something I want. Instead, I check later in the day when all the good stuff is sold out; hurts my heart, but not my depleted bank balance.

            Yeah, not sure it’s even enough time to properly hearth with the GCD. Still, I find that I rarely have to use it in PvE content, which is what I prefer.

            Yeah, Elina (or whatever her name is) is seriously overpowered. Whenever I take her, my strategy is pretty much to toss whatever footsoldiers I can spare in the back row with her, then guard like crazy. Or for the first few fights, a footsoldier in front and her in back. And later on another diviner to shield her. She can easily turn the battle or outright win it for you in many cases.

  3. Fabienne says:

    oh nice nice
    I hope 2011 wont be such a figure year or I have to build an own room for all of them XD
    Dizzy looks quite promising, but I will wait with my decision whether I order her or not
    until more preview pictures are shown.

    big Sora,eh. in the last arc of Yosuga na sora she has a very different personality
    her devotedness torwards her brother may be wrong but also sooo cute ;D
    what Im missing on this figure is a better face expression.

    Ah you ordered Super Sonico too, well fully equipped she doesn’t look that slutty
    I like the different levels of castoff possibilities, with jacket, or without the black belt. etc
    haha she indeed has short dachshund legs, but I like this.

    Yuri looks good In the show I hated her character but the
    shading of her purple hair is nice as well as the whole figure.

    Dark Sakura looks quite demonic I hope Gift is a good company
    which can produce a good final product.

    Gotou Matabei was on my list before I’ve learned that she will be exclusive
    Then I was quite pissed and thought “fine, then you can keep her”
    I dont like her enough for the price 0f 11500 yen 🙁

    Maxima looks pretty elegant with her clothes, and the face.
    the pose of her arm with the card between the fingers is awesome.

    That was a funny scene with the figure merchandise
    These Queens Blade artworks are also very nice
    I think someday you will get your Irma figure for sure 😉

    • Tier says:

      You should buy Dizzy anyway. She’s going to be awesome. And probably delayed too, Alter being Alter, so you’ll have more time to save up some euro. Yeah, I’m not digging Sora’s face too much, though her puppy dog expression and all-fours posture could grow on me. We’ll see, 1/4 scale figures always get a serious think from me. Like that Tamaki that got shown off earlier today. I guess I’m gonna have to think hard about that one too.

      Ha, I ought to read a synopsis of Angel Beats since I’m pretty sure I’m not going to watch it, given that my anime queue is so long now. And it’s only going to get longer since Rightstuf’s sale is ending pretty soon and I need to pick up a few things (probably El Cazador and Samurai Champloo, and maybe Angel Blade Punish). It seemed like half the episodic blogs I follow did writeups for Angel Beats so I’m sure it won’t be hard to gather information. And then I will ignore it all and evaluate her solely on her looks, because it’ll make me happier that way.

      I’ve got my fingers crossed for Irma. Could it be a portent of the future? Or a media company’s way of kancho’ing all of her fans worldwide? I’m not sure if I’d put money on either possibility.

  4. nuo2x2 says:

    by the name of anything divine and holly, let’s CURSE the man behind that “very offensive” drawing of Menace selling those figures!!! die die DIIIIIEEEEE!!

    *ahem
    totally agreed with your last writing regarding that conspiracy which already freaks out us, Irma’s fans
    oooow… poor me…
    dude!! enough already, let us all just take the garage kit instead and forget the PVC!! X D

    • Tier says:

      Man I saw that and I was like, “You gotta be kidding me.” I mean, they coulda picked from a dozen or more other MegaHouse figures and they pick one that hasn’t even been made? And yet, I can’t help but feel a small flicker of hope, that maybe someday, this little light will blossom, vibrant, and Irma fans everywhere will rejoice as she gets her just due. Then reality spreads its buttocks and blasts a mighty fart that snuffs out this hope like a candle in a hurricane.

  5. Chag says:

    To answer your question on Sakura: I am fairly certain that she does kill Shirou at one point. Not sexually, though — I definitely would’ve remembered all the gory details if there was reverse-rape involved.

    Matabei surprised me. The anime gave me the impression that her face looked more mature than the figure’s. Not that I really mind, as long as her killer midriff is intact. It’s a shame she’s an exclusive; I’m amazed these magazines in Japan have persisted so far into the digital age. Those bulky tomes are something else, though — Japan’s paper recycling system must be downright insane to sustain these giant magazines.

    Btw, I’m loving your post header image =D

    • Tier says:

      She does? Killed, as in people die when they are killed? I would prefer it to not be sexual, actually; I’m really hoping for him to die screaming, alone, preferably with his guts torn open and his insides hanging out, but I’ll settle for any sort of death.

      Yeah, I guess that’s one way to keep an old medium thriving. I had to think about Sanada as well but I don’t like the new version nearly as much as the old version and frankly, I don’t particularly like her character much in the anime. She’s not nearly what I pictured her to be when I first saw her figure, but then again, neither is Senhime.

      I had a good bit of fun putting that together, it beats using headshots of all the figures that everyone has seen already XD

  6. Cantan says:

    Been a “while since your last one”? Seems like a week actually.

    Orchid’s Super Sonico looks fantastic (or super!) and was the first pre-order i had registered for a while – spotted her on Amiami’s show report within a couple of hours of it being posted and decided to log a reservation as soon as pre-orders opened.

    Have to say that the only other pre-order I have logged is Daiki’s variant of the normal face Kanu. Yes I have a lot of Kanu’s including Kaitendoh’s (*shudder* – mostly occupying cupboard space) but I really regret not ordering the original one when I saw it. Otacute was logging it at about $140 too which would have saved about $20 on any of the other companies but I missed the boat and missed out – she seems to have flown off the metaphorical shelves too. So will be making up for lost time I suppose.

    I like the look of Goto Matabei and Dizzy – nice to see some good Alter models making your line-up – still think you missed out on Selvaria though.

    Also like the look of that Shining Wind character too, but don’t intend to commit. Perhaps you’ll review her, her price will drop and I’ll get her from a bargain bin – cheers Tier 🙂 (that curse of yours could be very helpful)

    Bet you have to buy a Fate figure soon – that addiction of yours just wont be sated otherwise

    • Tier says:

      It’s been over two months since the last one so yes, it’s been a while. I have no doubt that Maxima will hit the discount bin, though I’m kinda surprised that test suit Asuka hasn’t done so yet, nor Klan Klang. I really did not expect BRS to drop as low as she has, though; I wonder if that was due to the star, or just massive overproduction? I haven’t heard a lot of people who actually cared much about the star, so I’m thinking it’s more likely to be the latter.

      I had kinda thought that Daiki’s Kanus wouldn’t sell that well since well, they’re Kanu and she’s got like a billion figures to pick from already, but it looks like they have, as you say.

      Yeah, I need a new Fate figure, it’s been too long since my last one. And there are a bunch of doujinshi that Fate stars in that I need to get. That’s going to be more of a problem though since my favorite doujinshi buyer doesn’t take Paypal anymore so I’m going to have to come up with an alternative plan.

      • Cantan says:

        BRS has hit the bargain bin? That’s news to me, though I haven’t been looking closely recently. Where did you see her?

        Was quite interested to see Amiami rereleasing a limited run of Kotobukiya’s back catalogue… ironically the only figure I was interested in, Nanjo Ran, seems to be JP only. A shame in my opinion.

        Have to ask though, I haven’t been collecting long but already have about 30 or so figures, of which only 8 are currently sitting out on display (amongst them the original Daiki Kanu, Selvaria, Leina and Ryofu) but I don’t tend to revolve the display too much (there are some that will NEVER see the light of day – Megahouse Clare!). What the hell do you do with your back catalogue? Do you ever consider ebaying them? (have seen a fair few second-handers sell alright) or would you consider that sacriledge?

        Can’t help wondering how you even have room to keep photographing because I imagine you must have at least 10x the back catalogue I have.

        • Tier says:

          Yeah, BRS is down to 3062 at Amazon JP, though unfortunately they do not ship figures outside of Japan. She was 2000 yen on Amiami for a while though it appears she’s sold out now. Unfortunately Hobby Search and most other retailers that will ship overseas are still charging full price for her.

          That was kinda weird to see, I was looking through Amiami’s discount pile and I saw their old Senhime figure pop up there and I was like, “Huh?” Speaking of Kotobukiya, maybe I should’ve listed their Misato re-release here … I’m thinking about picking her up too. She’s the best Misato out there – by default, since there aren’t that many figures of her to start with, but she still looks really nice.

          They’re all on shelves, on my desk, in a display cabinet, all over the place. Virtually all of the surface space I have is taken up by figures. I’m definitely thinking about eBaying some. There are a few that I could part with with no regrets – Griffon’s Ryofu and Sasara (the school uniform and swimsuit one), Alter’s old Asuka and Rei and Mio Akiyama, New Line bikini Revy, MF’s alien Miku and transvestite Yoko … and then there’s a few that I’d sell but I might feel bad about it, like the original BRS figure and Gwendolyn. I really need to clear some space and I wouldn’t mind the extra money. I got some camera stuff I wouldn’t mind hocking, too … maybe I ought to have a big eBay selling spree one of these days.

  7. super rats says:

    From this batch, just Dizzy, Yuri, and Rin for me. I’m not a fan of fundoshi, so passed on Matabei even though she’s a spear wielder and have all of the other Samurai Girls figures so far.

    Megahouse’s Sora is such THE figure of Sora that pretty much any of the other ones so far look very bad or add nothing.

    Thought about ordering Maxima, since the outfit looks sweet, but it’s Koto and not worth the shipping from Japan premium. Koto figures are usually easy to get anyway, domestic stores or cons, so never a rush.

    • Tier says:

      Matabei’s sort of the odd one out with respect to cuteness. All the other girls (other than maybe Charles) could probably be described as cute rather than sexy, but Matabei goes straight the other way and blows past sexy right into the category of slutty. Which I think is awesome, personally, though not quite awesome to save the show thus far.

      Man I want a figure of D’artagnan now, just so I can call her the Chuckster.

      MegaHouse’s version is definitely the definitive version of Sora. If it were 1/4 scale like FREEing’s upcoming and inferior figure, it’d be in the upper pantheon of my favorite figures of all time. At 1/6 scale, it’d probably be hmm … maybe third in my list of favorite figures of this year. At 1/8 scale, it might be fifth … I’ll have to think about that, Hyper Nurse Yuno gives her some stiff and busty competition.

      Yeah, Kotobukiya figures show up at my local comic book store all the time. I like to get my figures faster since I’m an idiot, but I’ve also noticed that their prices seem to have crept up quite a bit as of late. I’m guessing the way the exchange rate cratered over the last couple of years is responsible for that. I miss the days when I could get 1/6 scale Rachel for $30 and 1/6 scale Witchblade for $50.

  8. Nina Williams says:

    RIn and Dizzy are the ones most people will get from the looks of it. Alter always make some of the best figures, and the most expensive later on >_<. Anyways, I bought the BRS (animation ver) a few days before the discount, and I was shocked at how cheap it was later on. I lost about $60 on that!! lol. It was on AmiAmi jap site though, but you can still buy from it if you know the trick. (it sold out really fast too)

    PS: If you're selling figures on ebay, please let me know. More bidders = more money for you ^_^

    • Tier says:

      They do indeed; I think they are unquestionably the best now, with GSC and Max Factory doing more non-scale stuff than scale-size figures these days. And yeah, preorder roulette is no fun when you lose out. I preorder almost every figure that I intend to buy so I’m a big, big loser in that respect (and doubly a loser since I always roll with EMS shipping, because I get real antsy when I don’t get my stuff in three days and when I don’t have a tracking number to check every eight hours).

      I wish that workaround worked on Mandarake’s site, since they’ve got some stuff on their Japanese pages that I want but aren’t listed on their international pages.

      I’ll put a note up here or something if I do, just to give them a bit more attention XD

  9. BioToxic says:

    Kyou Fujibayashi gets too much attention I think. I’d be game for a decent Tomoyo Sakagami that isn’t Waves unfortunate attempt.

    I’m going to be skipping on Yuri myself. She looks nice but I’m not a huge fan of her weird ankle joint. Tenshi on the other hand – must get. I wouldn’t waste my time with Angel Beats anime if you’re only curious. There are much better things you could be watching.

    I’m glad that’s Matabei out the way for the Samurai Girls. Now the remaining three are my favourites – Gisen, Charles(…) & Kanetsugu. Looking at the current trend though they’ll probably all be exclusives – if they’re even released. Samurai Girls anime has taken a long time to get the ball rolling. Episode 9 is where I’m at and it’s starting to get a bit more interesting.

    Ah yes, GSC Rin. I, like everyone else and their dog, have this on pre-order. She looks absolutely stunning. I hope QC doesn’t dive bomb.

    When I first saw that picture of Menace and the Irma figures I was kind of hoping there would be something at the MegaHobby expo. No interesting Queen’s Blade news at all, god damn trolls. Did you notice that the figure dealer in OVA 4 actually showed renders of Griffon Enterprise Echidna and Nowa – but the figures Menace has are MegaHouse.

    • Tier says:

      I’d like a nice Tomoyo figure too; I’m not too familiar with Clannad but I did like watching her show off her innate baseball skills. Particularly while she was wearing her gym uniform. Kyou flexing on first base was pretty funny too.

      Yeah, that’s what I figure with Angel Beats, I haven’t heard too many people say that they love it; most of what I’ve heard ranges from it’s not that great to it should’ve been better than it was. With the entertainment queue that I want to get through – and the demands of this site – I don’t think I have enough time to give it a watch. Speaking of anime that I wouldn’t ordinarily watch, I do kinda want to watch that incestuous Oreimo show, or at least a few episodes of it, because I think I can get a post out of it.

      Lessee, I’m gonna guess Charles could get a regular release, just because she’s the least moe of the remaining characters. I’m guessing Kanetsugu is most likely to be an exclusive. Or, as you say, they could all be exclusives since I’m sure Hobby Japan likes selling magazines.

      I didn’t notice that, mainly since I was too busy raging inside when Setra was talking about Irma’s clothes. I was all like, “How about you just make the freaking figure???”

  10. Aka says:

    Dark Magician is surprisingly cute, I too was never into this Yugioh thing, but my roommate in college and his friends were and tried to get me to play the card game with them. Nah… Anyway, suggestive poses ftw. Definitely too pastel, and her hair way too yellow.

    Rei… Lovin’ this figure. I love how as you say she fills the plugsuit out, I love the pose, I love that she’s not sitting, lying, squeezing an Evangelion between her thighs or whathaveyou, a simple standing/leaning pose. I know that everyone loves Rei for being vulnerable looking, but sometimes it’s nice to not rely on the vulnerable pose to get it done. In this figure it’s all in her eyes.

    Alter’s Dizzy has managed to tempt me into buying a big breasted woman, how dare they! Who’s the first mother in your collection? (Answered in a comment already? Didn’t look.)

    Sora wasn’t really ever much of a likeable character until she started having sex with her brother. Then she actually was likeable for a bit. But this figure looks like crap, it’s 1/4th but they never put more detail in…

    Part of me wants to buy that Yuri figure, but I’m pretty indifferent, she’s cute, she’s got a nice big gun, and her counterpart Tenshi seems to have the angel wings she needed. But perhaps a bargin bin item if I ever manage to do so. I’m really tired of these sales though, I spend $100, someone else gets the same thing for $22… Why even pre-order…

    Dark Sakura is interesting, but ultimately a non-purchase from me. I would love for more Fate/Stay Night figures that aren’t Saber though.

    It all starts looking the same… I think you’re right, recently I was able to tell a Tony Taka picture from a thumbnail of a characters breasts. That’s it, just a, perhaps, 75x75px thumbnail of breasts I’ve never seen before, but I could tell it was Tony’s. Despite that, I seem to continually buy figures with designs related to him…

    Rin… nothing more needs be said really. Save for perhaps an Archer to go with her.

    No more Tamaki, they keep producing figures of her because of people like you.

    • Tier says:

      Rei seems to be most commonly associated with vulnerability and maybe impassivity, but me, when I think of Rei, I’m thinking about that 14-year old body in that tight-ass suit. I wish more figure makers would devote more attention to showing off that aspect of her character. Koto’s figure comes pretty close, so I’m thinking I could talk myself into getting her, especially if Akibahobby or someone gets their hands on a sample.

      Big-breasted indeed! And mostly unclothed to show them off. The first mother is Masane Amaha from Witchblade, which was actually one of the very few anime shows I’ve seen that focused on a parent-child relationship. It’s one of very few anime I’ve seen that featured an adult main character at all.

      Yeah, I’m thinking Sora’s not looking too great. Maybe if she hits the bargain bin bigtime. FREEing’s Senhime wasn’t that great either so I don’t think I’d give them the benefit of the doubt.

      Why preorder indeed … I have this obsessive disorder which compels me to do these things. I need to get things fast. I get annoyed if I don’t get things fast. Heck, I bought Mass Effect 2 right when it was released and I haven’t taken it out of the shrink wrap yet. But man I could save a lot of skrills if I just waited a few weeks for a figure’s price to crater.

      Haha, yeah, Tony’s designs are really easy to spot. I think he’s better when he does porn, he actually tries drawing different facial expressions when his characters are having sex.

      Yes, more Tamaki! Well, yeah, I agree there’s too many of them and I don’t think she merits all the figures she’s gotten recently, but I do like her basic character design. Maybe figure makers should look at Sasara or something instead.

  11. The Endless General says:

    The only figures in this list that I’m contemplating are Dizzy (for reasons so obvious it’s comical), and Maxima (I love the color scheme). Maybe Rin too………not quite sure yet. I’d get Sonico, but the stubby leg thing you pointed out kinda throws me.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I wish they’d make her legs a bit longer. I’m no fashion guru but I think fishnets and stiletto boots work better with longer legs. Maybe I’ll just turn her towards the front or something. April is looking like it’s gonna be one expensive-ass month, but I think I can count on most of those figures getting delayed.

      • The Endless General says:

        They probably will. Saber’s practically a guarantee, and Dizzy’s a good candidate. That will probably help me out too lol. Speaking of getting helped out; my Rouage was pushed back from december to mid january……..that definitely eased the blow for the holiday shopping season, although I kinda wanted her sooner. I, like you, suffer from that same affliction that makes you want things right away. I always go EMS; hell I’ll even overnight things from amazon just because I can’t wait lol.

        • Tier says:

          I’m wondering if Alphamax will release Mai Shiranui on time. She’s crazy expensive so I really would not mind at all if she gets kicked back a month or two.

          • The Endless General says:

            Yeah she is really expensive………….
            What’s the deal with cold cast anyway? Why is it so much more than pvc?

          • Shashin says:

            I couldn’t say, but I know my Tomoe came in a massive box. Haven’t opened yet, because I’m unfortunately so short on cash that I’ve been trying to sell it, but the box is seriously about a yard long for a 1/5 scale figure.

          • Tier says:

            I have not a clue, it feels like a denser material I guess, but I don’t see anything there that would merit a high cost. My guess is that PVC tends to be used for stuff with larger production runs while coldcast seems to be used mostly for stuff with smaller runs.

  12. Tier says:

    >> Shashin
    I think those doujinshi actually cost more as a bundle than they would have buying them individually, but I really don’t want to track them all down separately. I guess they did have them since I got charged for those. I also got charged by Hobby Search for samurai Tamaki and K-On! Kyou, so it’s been a pretty expensive Christmas Eve for me.

    • Shashin says:

      Yeah, it’s a possibility. It’s very unfortunate the prices vary from store to store. Such as the BRS Cannon figure; long before the re-release, it was 13000 for an opened version at one store, and 10000 for a sealed version at the other. Once I caught onto the price differential, I started searching every item I added to my cart to make sure I couldn’t get it cheaper overall (meaning I wasn’t going to start an order with a store for one doujinshi and be charged handling/separate shipping. In that case I’d suck it up and pay the few hundred yen more.)

      Other than the 3 SMJ orders looming over me (two of which were set to drop this month) I’m fairly clear. I’m unfortunately going to bail on some AmiAmi orders, but my Hobby Search account is looking fairly sparse; handful of magazines for December, two figures in January (one of which I’m still waffling on), one in February I may cancel, and two in March I may cancel. All depending on finances of course. I haven’t preordered an item in quite some time, and I’m holding out as long as I can,even for figures I must have, such as Dizzy.

      In other news, I’ll soon have an area dedicated solely to my figures/dakimakura/doujinshi. Probably 95% of it all is currently there, but most of it’s still packed up in boxes. I’ve started to unpack some of it; have the figures on some nice shelfing, as well as a small portion of my dakimakura and the majority of my doujinshi. For the dakimakura, I”m thinking I’ll eventually find a way to hang them all up, so I can browse through them at any time. Of course, that’s if I’m satisfied that they won’t get all dirty hanging up after I’ve removed them from their packaging.

      • Tier says:

        Yeah, I’ve noticed that too; back when I was shopping for Alter’s Fate Harlaown figure, they had it at a couple of their stores for very different prices. I usually search for specific stuff rather than browse (cuz they have so much stuff to look through that I’d be browsing for hours if I weren’t looking for something in particular).

        I ordered yet another figure through SMJ, mostly for collecting purposes rather than because I’m enthused by the figure itself. I got some SMJ stuff on Christmas eve so I’m happy; I got a couple of figures that I was really looking forward to, and now I need to get their backdrops built this week so I can take their pictures. I’m waffling on all the dakimakura covers I want; I want the Panty & Stocking one that Evening Call is doing, I’m sure there will be a bunch at Comiket that I want. It’s a tough call picking amongst them. At least M-World will be sending the ones I ordered back in August pretty soon.

        That’s pretty cool, I’ve got stuff pretty much strewn about. Most of my dakimakura are folded up and stashed in drawers; I’ve still got Nagomi & Sono on my one pillow body since it was the last pillowcase I got. Man it’s been a while since I’ve gotten a new one. I think you’ll be okay unless you live in an area with some weird atmospheric contaminants or something.

  13. Shashin says:

    Yeah, I generally look for specific items, and then browse the daily additions; if there’s a daily addition I want, I’ll see if they have it cheaper at any other of their stores. Then I’ll build up a list of stuff I want at the various stores, and go from there. I have browse through a couple hundred pages of doujinshi at one point, and I bookmarked a massive list of stuff I wanted (I did the same for D-Stage.) Unfortunately, with Mandarake, links are permanent so I lost track of a lot of stuff I wanted.

    I’d love the Panty & Stocking dakimakura, but I’ve cut myself off entirely unless I see some absurdly low prices, or either of the two covers I’m actively seeking pop up. Yeah, I had run out of living space almost with the tons of boxes I had stored where ever they would fit. Has it really been that long since you’ve gotten a dakimakura? I guess you haven’t done a review in some time, but that seems like it was done so long ago; happy M-World will finally be able to get things to you. I should be fine, I live in a fairly dry area and as it’s a dedicated room I shouldn’t have any other worries.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, it’s been a really long time. I’m looking forward to taking their pictures, since I’ve noticed a lot of overseas people don’t go for the really raunchy pillowcases. I see a lot of people get dakimakura covers as magazine pack-ins or whatever, but I seldom see non-Japanese sites cover the more explicit stuff.

      • Shashin says:

        Yeah, other than you, I’ve only spoken with a handful of foreigners who own a dakimakura, and it’s generally one from Dengeki G or other similar magazine. They’re really missing out, because even if they opt for something less explicit, the quality is a world of difference. The pack ins are nice, but they’re rarely ever full size, double sided, or made of the smoother material.

  14. Cantan says:

    Ok, what the hell is it with Super Sonico at the moment?

    Alphamax have just announced a really cute figure too – seems to be an abundance of those figures hitting the market now or in the ner future. AM’s is cute… but 14,600 is a bit expensive – hoping for a bigger discount (Tier – can you review her please? Cheers!)

    • Tier says:

      I’m not sure, she sure does seem to be getting a lot of merchandise recently. I’m guessing it has something to do with her upcoming Nitroplus video game. The denim shorts she gots on are really cute but I think I’m going to be right there with you and everyone else waiting for her price to drop. I’m also waiting to see what Alphamax’s quality is like; I’ve got a ton of figures but I’ve never actually owned an Alphamax figure or seen one in person. I’m curious as to how Mai Shiranui will turn out.

  15. The Endless General says:

    I didn’t realize Sonico was a cast-off………….now I know.

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