Author Archives: Tier

My Five Favorite Figures of 2009

Retrospective lists at the end of the year are de rigeur for magazines and newspapers and blogs, so I figured I’d provide a list of my five favoritest figures of 2009. This list includes only mass-marketed PVC figures released last … Continue reading

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Collet from the Art of Tony Taka (NSFW)

We all have our dreams, things that we hope to do, things that we hope to become, things that we hope will come to be. For me, this figure represents the culmination of a dream that I’ve dreamt for a … Continue reading

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Black Rock Shooter

A couple of months ago, I was reading The Lord of the Rings, and one of the things that’s always struck me about J.R.R. Tolkien is how few books he ever had published. His bibliography basically comprises The Hobbit, The … Continue reading

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Ivy Valentine from Soul Calibur

Now here’s a figure that I’m still a bit surprised to own, mainly because I didn’t buy it. E2046 does a monthly drawing where they give away free stuff to people who post product feedback. Guess who won the most … Continue reading

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Seena Kanon from Shining Wind

Sometimes when you first see a figure, you know right away that you’re going to get it regardless of price or difficulty of acquisition. You religiously scan all the figure news sites for the latest scoop, you load up Japanese … Continue reading

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Risty from Queen’s Blade (NSFW)

With snow armageddon spreading across the entire east coast, I had some time to shoot some photos, so here’s a look at a figure that was released a few weeks ago. Risty is one of the original Queen’s Blade characters … Continue reading

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Kanu Uncho Dakimakura from Ikki Tousen (NSFW)

I’ve got a backlog of figures to photograph, but I ran out of plaster cloth, so figure reviews are going to have to wait for a bit. In the meantime, let’s look at this pillowcase. Featured here is Ikkitousen’s it-girl … Continue reading

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Yoko Ritona from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

There are numerous figures of Gurren Lagann’s redheaded sniper, and they generally take one of two approaches: most, like Gift’s and Kotobukiya’s, emphasize her cuteness, but a few, most notably Alter’s version, depict her as a gunslinging badass. This particular … Continue reading

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Spider Girl from Naked Star (NSFW)

Think of all the weird things that one instantly associates with Japanese culture. Wacky television game shows. Green tea-flavored Coke. Tentacle rape. What culture on this planet could spawn these things but the one that made eating raw fish not … Continue reading

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Yomi Isayama from Ga-rei Zero

While Ga-rei Zero’s storyline follows Kagura’s maturation, Yomi is the most important character in the show. She is the only character to appear in each of the anime’s episodes and she is the epicenter or instigator of every major event … Continue reading

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