Preorder Outlook LII

It’s been a few months since the last one. This list is already way too long and I’ve spent a lot more time writing it than I thought it would take, so let’s get to it.

October 2017

Escalayer from Beat Angel Escalayer
Here’s what was a highly unexpected figure, at least by me. Escalayer is an old, old eroge from Alicesoft, and while she got several figures from companies like Alter and Volks, her heyday is way in the past. But here she is again, riding a most fetching tentacle, and she’s 1/4 scale. The downside? It’s by Griffon, a company that hasn’t particularly impressed me (though I still do have a soft spot for their really, really old Sasara Kusugawa figure). It also costs over $300, which is a pretty hefty price, but not extraordinarily exorbitant for a 1/4 scale figure (adding the shipping cost will probably cause the total bill to approach that status, though). Regardless, I can’t really turn this down. There are apparently two versions, one with a normal chest and one with a “soft” chest, which I presume has some spongy elastic plastic for her upper torso. As I don’t get off on molesting my figures, I’ll be going with the standard version.

November 2017

Mitsumi Gijou from Tokyo Necro
We’ve seen a number of figures based on Nitroplus properties, and that’s only proper as those games often have very attractive character designs. Mitsumi is no exception; her design reminds me a bit of some of the character designs from the 1990s and early 2000s that I liked a lot (and did much to get me back to watching anime after I had lost interest for a number of years). I’m looking forward to this figure very much.

December 2017

Mao Niang from the Queented Illustrator Collection
I’m not much of a fan of catgirls – or any anime character with anime ears, for that matter – but it’s easier for me to overlook them if they are clearly artificial, as they are here. This is a good looking figure, and I think I’ll get it, though I’ll be getting the version sold through usual retail channels (there is some exclusive version which I think comes with a detachable penis; I’m not too interested in that so I don’t feel all that badly about missing out on the rarer edition).

Matoi from Phantasy Star Online 2
I have a soft spot for Phantasy Star Online figures, being that Phantasy Star II is my favorite game. I also have an affection for Kotobukiya’s Tony-inspired 4-Leaves figures. A figure that appeals to both of these predilections makes for an easy decision to buy.

Nemu Manaka from euphoria
I enjoyed euphoria, particularly the first and final episodes, which both featured Nemu. I would’ve liked to have seen a figure of her wearing the leather bondage harness she wore in that initial episode, but this bridal shibari outfit is pretty nice, too. I also prefer the white veil and the more anxious face, but that combination doesn’t seem to be possible, so if I buy this figure, the black veil version will be the one I roll with.

January 2018

Ai Saeki from Fault!!!
SkyTube is making another Ai Saeki figure, which I think is their third of Ai. Clearly they hold her in high esteem while scorning her castmates Mio or Rika, who haven’t gotten any figures at all as far as I remember. She’s wearing sort of a combination of a princess outfit and a wedding dress, which looks great (and continues the theme of girls wearing scanty bridal gowns, of which we’ve seen quite a few figures of late). As SkyTube is quite probably my favorite manufacturer now, it’s not a hard decision to put this one on the definite list.

February 2018

Alice from Comic Aun
This figure’s not a hard decision, either. Assuming she comes out as good as she looks in the promo photos, this one is probably a favorite figure of the year candidate for me already.

Kay from Girls Und Panzer
I’m a little less certain about this figure than I usually am with FREEing’s bunny girls. I think a large fraction of my hesitation comes from the promo photos FREEing chose; Kay’s face looks a little strange, as if her eyes were staring blankly into space. Then again, that might be a good reason to favor her ass-centric pose and not have her face visible at all. I kind of wish they’d chosen a more colorful leotard for her, maybe something red, white and blue, given her pseudo-American background, but maybe they’re going for an all-black theme with their tanker girl lineup.

Sora Kasugano from Yosuga no Sora
It’s another figure of Sora, crafted in a big 1/6 scale (a bit unusual for Alphamax). I wish that SkyTube had taken a shot at making a Sora figure; I’d like to see what sort of lewdness they could come up with. This figure is pretty good in its own way, though, and the size certainly appeals to me.

Komachi Yakuoji from Pretty x Cation
The Lovely x Cation and Pretty x Cation series has gotten a good run, with a bunch of nice hentai anime adaptations to go with a passel of games, so it’s nice to see a figure from the franchise as well. Komachi isn’t the most obvious character to adapt, as she’s amongst the oldest of all the girls and women in the series, but she still looks great. She’s also not extraordinarily expensive for a 1/6 scale figure. The clothing that she comes with doesn’t look all that great but being that I don’t intend to use any of it, that doesn’t bother me that much.

April 2018

Altina from Shining Beach Heroines
There was a time when I was pretty bored of seeing Tony-designed Shining girls in swimsuits. That time has passed, however. These days, we are blessed with so many superior figures based on his work, and Altina is a good example of such. She looks very attractive here, with her shy frown and apparent underboob. I don’t actually know which Shining game she comes from – and I’m not too interested in looking it up – but that doesn’t matter much, anyway; despite having been a huge Shining Force fan as a kid, I’m not that interested in the contemporary games.

Plachta from Atelier Sophie
It’s an Alter figure! It feels like I don’t buy as many of them as I used to. That’s probably because I don’t have that much interest in Idolm@ster and Love Live figures but they still make great stuff, like the figure depicted here. I’m not too familiar with the Atelier series, having not played any of them (in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever played a Gust game), but they do have nice character designs. I’ll definitely be picking this one up, and I might try the game that she comes from as well, as I now see that it’s available on Windows.

Scathach from Fate/grand order
And for good measure, here’s a second Alter figure. I like Scathach’s character design very much, so ordering this figure doesn’t require much contemplation. I still wonder why Alter seldom ever makes figures of Fate-series characters in their combat outfits, though.

Utaha Kasumigaoka from Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata
A while back, Good Smile Company made a figure of Utaha bending over; it’s a good-looking figure and I do own it, though I can’t remember where I put it. Alphamax has gone one up on GSC, however, dispensing with the shirt and putting her ass right in the viewer’s face. It is too bad the anime didn’t have more of this sort of thing; as it is, the character designs from Saekano are about the only thing I liked from the otherwise dreadful series.

July 2018

Iowa from Kantai Collection
As a somewhat patriotic American, ordering Iowa seems like a civic duty. It’s a pity that Max Factory has gone with her blown-up version (I suppose I’ll have to get Amakuni’s figure as well). Good Smile Company has a “heavy armament” version available for sell on their website, which includes Iowa’s mangled gun turrets and costs a confounding $50 or so more than the figure itself. I’m kind of inclined to go with the figure-only version, but I have a couple of weeks to think it over still.

Miku Hatsune from Vocaloid
The last figure here is a Miku figure, and while I think I have too many Miku figures and wouldn’t mind downsizing, this Miku might be too cute to pass up. The figure industry surely has been good to Tony’s career.

This entry was posted in Preorder Outlook and tagged , , .

8 Responses to Preorder Outlook LII

  1. Carter 05 says:

    Two questions: Do you, by any means, know about a series call velvet kiss? I think it’s only a 4 volume series, don’t know If it has an adaptation or not. If so, are you familiarice with it’s protagonist Kanoko and the figure that she received? I don’t remember the company, only that she has 2 versions.
    And second: which company had the balls to make an Euphoria character into a figure?

    • TomTheCat says:

      As far as I know, Velvet Kiss indeed only is a four-volume manga. Kanoko Kikuchiya did get a prepainted figure by Q-six (Plus one color variation). Back then, I declined to buy it because of the price, and her face doesn’t represent her properly imo. Owners of the figure seem to like it very much however.

      Apart from this pre-painted figure, MFC lists a 1/8 garage kit by a company named Tsukanoma which was released in 2014, like Q-six’ figures.

      By sheer coincidence (it seems), the Euphoria figure is also produced by Q-six…

      • Carter 05 says:

        Maybe they like it because of the her character rather than her body, and she seems to have a good body sculpture; plus, is the only figure of that character and that series.

        Well, it was almost obvious: for example, i don’t recall Orchidseed doing bondage figures, and skytube almost goes with more well-known properties; maybe lechery would have been a better candidate.

    • Tier says:

      I do! Well, insofar as I own the first volume of the manga, which was published by FAKKU I think. It never got an anime adaptation, which is sort of a shame since I think the story (at least from what I can glean from the first volume) would lend itself well to an OVA series. Though then again, I don’t think it has much NTR in it and that has somehow become all the rage amongst hentai anime studios …

      Yeah, I do remember that figure. I didn’t order it and I kinda regret not doing so as Kano never got another prepainted figure as far as I know. I do agree with Tom that the resemblance wasn’t quite perfect and that was a major reason why I didn’t buy it (she was also quite expensive and that was another big factor against her).

      Indeed Nemu is being produced by Q-Six. They’ve done some offbeat figures of characters that aren’t all that obvious as candidates for figures, like Rie Kawai, which I reviewed last year, I think. That reminds me that I need to update the list of manufacturers on the sidebar, and I should probably remove all the dead links in the blogroll, too.

  2. Probably Not My Real Name says:

    Love seeing posts on your blog. So many of my favorite figure blogs have died down, and seeing an update from you is always a good thing.

    Out of curiosity, how many semi-recent (past 2 years) figure purchases have you made that haven’t gotten a review? I get the impression there’s a lot more figures in your collection than your reviews.

    • Tier says:

      Thanks very much XD Uhh, yeah … umm, lessee. I’d guess at least 100 figures are in the backlog right now. I don’t actually open my figures until I review them unless I am positive I will not be photographing them, so virtually all of them are in their boxes, and some of them are still actually in their Hobby Search or Amiami shipping boxes. (There’s only been one exception to that general rule, which was one of Kotobukiya’s Asuka Langley Soryuu figures. I don’t remember why I took that one out of its box.)

      I do really want to do more posts but the will is weak. I’m gonna photograph a figure this weekend though, probably either Sasara, Jubei, or the Slingshot Babe.

  3. TomTheCat says:

    Sorry for wisecracking, but the proper proverb, or rather, biblical reference, would be “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”.

    If I may utter an unholy wish however, I’d like to see Slingshot Babe. Mine is out for delivery, and I expect her at my door any second. But although I’ll be able to ogle her with my very own eyes very soon, I can’t get enough pictures of her. From what I’ve seen until now, she’s a quite nice figure, and I can’t wait to see what you make of her.

    • Tier says:

      Uhh, this reply is very late, but indeed Ms. Slingshot Babe is the most recent review.
      She was actually sort of hard to review since her design kinda doesn’t really lend itself to an obvious environment, so I defaulted to my standard dark and gloomy sort of presentation. I probably would have gone with a standard bedroom look if I had such a set.

Leave a Reply to TomTheCat Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *