One day back in June, I woke up and went through my normal morning routine: brush my teeth, make lunch, and shut down every emotion but rage and spite in preparation for the drive to work. Before heading out the door, I checked my e-mail, checked Statcounter, and loaded up Moeyo. Then I saw this figure. Treasure Festa was in full swing and Cobra Kai was showing off their rendition of Fate T. Harlaown. It looked so unusual that I had to think for a moment whether I liked it or not – Toshirou’s sculpts are sort of eccentric, and they’re not something that everyone is gonna love. I’ve got a couple of his figures – chained-up Kanu and gangsta lean Saber – and I like them a lot, so I decided that this version of Fate was pretty dang cool. Plus, Toshirou’s circle is called Cobra Kai. How cool is that, that they named themselves after the villains that brutalized Daniel-san? Sweep the leg … do you have a problem with that?

I get to work and load up Moeyo again to take another look at the pictures. I run the page through an auto-translator which isn’t helpful in the least, and while I still have no idea how big she is, I could tell that she’s pretty damn big. Cobra Kai likes the big size, and I figure that she’s at least 1/6 scale, maybe even 1/4 like their Ryomou Shimei kit. I’m like, “Cool,” and then I close the page. They don’t mass-manufacture their kits, so I figure my best bet is for Daiki Kougyou to do a PVC version, and I think there’s a decent chance of that. After all, they’re crazy; who would’ve thought that Toshirou’s Saber would ever see a mass-market version? Or for that matter, who would’ve imagined that they’d put out a 1/4 scale figure with realistically-sculpted genitalia back at a time when both 1/4 scale figures and plastic labia were unthinkable?

Then I foolishly type in – well, copy and paste – Cobra Kai’s name into Yahoo Japan Auctions. And I see a listing for this figure. Someone’s gotten their hands on it, painted it, and assembled it! Or that’s what the listing seems to say, anyway. So I’m sitting there thinking to myself, “Damn.” Gotta think how much I like this figure. I mean, it’s a bit odd-looking. And it’s pretty ‘spensive. And there’s a decent chance Daiki Kougyou’ll pick it up. Now I gotta make a decision: do I let this slide or do I hit up my favorite shopping service in Japan? I’m not big on making decisions, you know; I’m more of a go-with-the-flow kinda guy. (You mean you’re a pussy.) Hey, hey, ain’t no call for vulgarity now, is there?

Anyway, so I gotta think this over. I gotta check the funds. I gotta see whether Daiki Kougyou’s showing any sign of picking this up. I’m even thinking about flipping an e-mail their way, in English and all, asking them if this is in their plans. I’m sure they’d just laugh at the dumb gaijin, though. I’m looking at the pictures and I’m like, “Man, this is really cool.” I’m wondering if it’s authentic, but it says, “All our exhibits use the regular article which they purchased by events.” Sounds authentic to me! I’m wondering if it’s preassembled and prepainted, but I guess the pictures ought to confirm that. Now I just gotta decide how bad I want it. I need some help. I need some advice. I need a sign. (For chrissake, just bid on the goddamn thing already. Jesus.) Well, that ain’t no Jimmy V, but hell, you put it that way, it’d almost be apostasy not to do it, wouldn’t it?

So I type up an e-mail and send it off to my buyer asking him to bid, and I’m thinking, I gotta be crazy, man, I gotta be insane. I’m nuttier than Nutella. I’m on some next level stuff; I’m toked up, straight blazed, high as a kite. ‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy.

Then it’s Sunday, I should be relaxing, making the most of the weekend, but I can’t. The auction ends this morning and I’m up early, giving the F5 key a workout. And then my worst fear comes true; some motherfucker is contesting the bid. I’m like, “Aww hell no” and I’m like, “asdfdsklfj.” At this moment, I hate everyone in Japan. I check my bank balance again.

On the other hand, this gives me an out. Maybe it’s not meant to be, maybe I ought to cash out and save my money for another day. But that ain’t the way I operate. So I open up the e-mail and tap out a message telling my guy in Japan to up my bid. And I’m hoping to myself that he’s there, looking out for me, that he ain’t on the couch watching the Japanese equivalent of Leno. So now I’m tabbing back and forth, refreshing both the auction and my e-mail. I ain’t supposed to be this stressed on a Sunday, but then my guy hits me back saying, “Let’s win this thing,” and I’m all up like Flavor Flav going, “Yeeaaaaahhh boyeeeee!”

So now my bid’s jacked up and I’m thinking, “Ain’t no way this guy is coming back.” That’s the way to do it – strike hard, strike fast, no mercy. I see the bid increase but I know this guy ain’t got the balls to go as high as I will. I watch the minutes and then the seconds tick down and then the auction ends and I’m the winner. Get him a bodybag, yeah! What, what, punk?!? TRY GETTING A RESERVATION AT DORSIA NOW, YOU FUCKING STUPID BASTARD!

Now to play the waiting game, and I’m worried that Fate’s gonna arrive in pieces. Or that it’s gonna turn out that I actually bid on a model kit that’ll arrive in unpainted pieces. When you’ve spent a lot of time bidding on stuff whose descriptions you can’t read, though, you get used to this. Not to change the subject or anything but I bet proxy buyers got some great stories about what sorts of things their customers order. I kinda wonder what they think when you ask them to buy something like this. Or a pornographic pillowcase. Me, in their place, I’d probably just be thinking, “Cha-ching!”

So she gets here and to my amazement, she’s intact with nothing snapped off. Praise Hojo! I pull her out and man, she is huge. 38.5 centimeters tall not counting base or sword, 50 centimeters counting everything. She’s 1/4 scale for true – God’s scale. She’s got this nifty lucite base with her picture and her name – her original name, not that goofy-sounding Harlaown thing. Paint looks sharp and solid, everything seems as it should be. Well, mostly. One of her hair tails is a bit loose, but I think I can fix that with some glue. Hand’s a bit wobbly, but same deal, I can fix that, ain’t no thang but a chicken wang.

Put her up against Volks’s figure and she crushes her in size. Alter’s Fate T. Harlaown is closer, though she’s still pint-sized compared to Toshirou’s sculpt. Bardiche is about the same size, though, which just shows how ridiculous it is with Alter’s figure. Cobra Kai’s Fate can actually swap in Alter’s Bardiche without a hitch.

Man I like this sculpt. It’s different, for sure. Very nice chest, I like the way her nipples are perky, standing proud, as they should be. I’m liking her curves, they probably won’t be everyone’s favorite, but I like them just the same. (Man, just say it, she’s got the boom.) What? (She’s fat.) Dammit, dude, you ain’t got to put it that way. (No, no, seriously, that ain’t a bad thing, I mean, I bet you needed a new wide angle to fit her in the picture, right?) What the hell? (Hey, any excuse to get new gear, right?) You’re a real fucking asshole, you know that? (Always happy to oblige, man.) I think you and I are done talking. (Hey, no, wait -)

Anyways, like I said, I dig the sculpt. And I like the paint job. The guy who put this together and painted it kinda went his own route instead of trying to replicate Toshirou’s eyes; Toshirou gives his figures a heavy-lidded look, it’s sort of his signature, but it’s not too evident here. However, the guy did a real nice job giving Fate’s outfit a transparent effect, just like the original model. Overall, I got to give props to the builder, he definitely did a great job with everything.

Speaking of the dude who completed this figure, he also did this Black Rock Shooter figure. It’s in 1/6 scale, and it looks pretty nice. You don’t want to know how much it went for.

It took a bit of trouble to acquire Fate, but I’m happy to have her, particularly since it seems like Daiki Kougyou gots no intention of doing a PVC version any time soon. A guy asked on Cobra Kai’s BBS whether there was a chance of a completed version and Toshirou responded, “Fate is the sale of finished goods, so far no plan … No offers from our manufacturer (crying). Even that broad-minded Daiki Kougyou (tears)” Or something like that. So there we go, straight from the man hisself. Shame on Daiki Kougyou for making him cry.

The Fate/stay night franchise has had numerous figures made of its characters, with two upcoming notable ones being Good Smile Company’s Rin Tohsaka – who has an incredible backside – and their amazing Saber Alter, who is set to redefine badass in a way that’ll leave the world walking bow-legged for a month. However, Rider doesn’t get a lot of love from figure makers, which is really a shame, as she has a unique and interesting character design and an enigmatic personality. Fortunately for us, we have here a figure of Rider and -

Wait, this isn’t that Rider? What the blood clot? So who dis girl, then?

This Rider comes from Happoubi Jin’s Sweet Body artbook and was sold in limited quantities at the recent Wonder Festival. Like the Hustler, she apparently has no name and so is labeled by her most proximate occupation, which is sort of problematic since the Fate/stay night character is so well known. She’s sculpted by Orchid Seed in 1/7 scale and, unlike many of that company’s figures, the given scale seems to be accurate.

The production version of Rider wears a red and yellow suit, but I decided I liked the pink and purple of this limited version better; I don’t have enough pink in my collection. Furthermore, getting the figure a couple of months before everyone else was an attractive proposition. The cost, however, was daunting, given that I had to commission Tokyo Hunter, who does an excellent job in acquiring the goods but ain’t cheap in the least. Also, I’ve had some reservations regarding Orchid Seed’s quality control, but as I found the Hustler to be quite good in that respect, I felt that that risk was small.

Happoubi Jin’s Rider comes with just one accessory, her bra which hooks over her left thumb. She also comes with a circular base labeled with her title, though she obviously doesn’t have to be positioned on it for display. That’s all she’s got, so if it’s a problem that she’s flashing her tits at all your house guests, this probably isn’t a figure that you want.

As I mentioned, I feel some trepidation with Orchid Seed’s figures; many of their recent figures have had ragged paint jobs and visible seams and protruding bits of mold lines. Happily, Rider seems to be free of such defects; she’s actually very nicely sculpted, surprisingly so, even. An admirable level of detail is evident: her knee and shoulderpads feature stitch lines and her jacket and trousers include zipper teeth. I like how her breasts are falling towards her sides; it gives them a more realistic shape and the impression of weight. They’re a marked contrast to the breasts on this figure, where it looks like they’ve been pumped up with helium. That looks weird even for anime.

Her paint job is also very good, especially for an Orchid Seed figure. The application is fairly clean; I’d expected problems on areas like her zippers, the gold buckles and strap holders on her boots and bra, and on her goggles, but happily no such issues are present. Surprisingly. And Orchid Seed’s provided some nice touches, like her white fingernail polish and the bit of gloss on her lower lip that elevates the temperature of her look. Shading is more subtle than conspicuous. One change that I would’ve liked would have been to give her clothing more of a glossy look, since sexy female motorcycle riders are often squeezed into shiny clothes.

The Rider also comes with a little chain that dangles in front of her panties. It’s a real chain and it has a tiny heart talisman attached to it. Cute.

It’s gratifying that the technical aspects of the Rider have been handled well, but I like the stylistic aspects of this figure even more. She’s seductive, sensual – and okay, slutty. Not that I see anything wrong with that. With her hips thrust forward, boobs hanging out and cameltoe on full display, this figure brazenly blares sluttiness. I think that that’s an admirable thing.

Orchid Seed has done a lot of ecchi figures, but I think this is one of their nicest. She has a very pretty face that I think is more attractive than that seen in the source artwork, and the overall quality is quite high, particularly for a figure from this maker. I think that anyone who likes mature-looking, explicit figures will be very happy with the Rider.

Back to the top

Senhime

1600×1200
1920×1200

Vivio

1600×1200
1920×1200

Fate T. Harlaown

1600×1200
1920×1200

Momohime

1600×1200
1920×1200

Vivio & Fate 1

1600×1200
1920×1200

Vivio & Fate 2

1600×1200
1920×1200

Who can forget the promise? We heard it over and over, always hoping that the next time would be the time that the promise was kept. Yet we were always turned away, disappointed. Who could forget it? “Service, service!” she promised, but we never got it. Instead, we got some strange Judeo-Christian imagery, several examples of very bad parenting techniques, numerous blatant violations of UN law governing the deployment of child soldiers, and emo kids before the world knew what emo kids were. Screw all that, I want my fanservice.

This figure of Misato Katsuragi is an original sculpt by E2046. They’ve also done a version of Asuka, both figures obviously being inspired by the Rei Ayanami figure based off of a Shunya Yamashita drawing, sculpted by REFLECT, and sold by Yamato. Looking at my site stats, that review is peculiarly one of the more popular ones that I’ve done, which suggests that there’s a market for this sort of style. (Incidentally, going through my early reviews makes me want to torch this site’s archives.)

I recall that there was a bit of consternation on the E2046 forum when this figure was unveiled, and I don’t suppose that’s all that surprising. For one, she arguably doesn’t look a lot like Misato. Misato is usually depicted with black hair and wears a crucifix. For another, E2046 calls this figure the “plugsuit version” and Misato, being well out of her teens, obviously never wore a plugsuit. And while Misato was a temptress and a tease, one probably wouldn’t call her slutty. By anime standards, anyway; there are a lot of things and behaviors that are acceptable to anime fans but would make other people wonder what the hell is wrong with these weirdos.

On the other hand, hair color is one of those continuously variable things in anime. Misato’s hair is usually given a purple sheen which could plausibly be interpreted as its actual color. Furthermore, she’s not the worst offender in this respect by any stretch: Asuka’s hair has gone from brown to red to blonde to everything in between. Even Rei is no exception; a quick look at some of her figures reveals her hair’s variegated hues in all her incarnations, with more kinds of blue than Miles Davis. And her outfit here is dictated by theme, and as Misato typically wears a short dress as her work uniform, it is not completely out of place.

And yet you protest, “This still isn’t Misato, this is just some loose woman cosplaying as her!” Okay, okay, I can dig that. Some people won’t like this figure’s style or that of Yamato’s earlier Rei Ayanami. Some people aren’t going to like Misato being squeezed into a slinky, bottom-baring minidress, particularly since, other than a suggestive photograph shown in the first episode of the television series, she hasn’t been sexualized to nearly the same degree as the younger female cast (and arguably Shinji and Kaworu, too). Some people just don’t like anything that deviates from a character’s canonical appearance and personality. That’s all fair. There are obviously some tremendous liberties being taken with the character, and no doubt those will not be acceptable to everyone.

This version of Misato is listed as 1/6 scale and stands about 24.5 centimeters tall, actually putting her closer to 1/7 scale. That’s fine, though, since that nearly matches the size of Yamato’s Rei. My figure came with no problems or damage. There’s not much that needs to be done to set her up; just pop on her bust plate and head, set her onto her base, and you’re good to go. More on that first thing in a bit.

Her face has been given a relatively realistic sculpt which makes her look as young – if not younger – than Yamato’s Rei. I think her face is very pretty but seeing her as a contemporary of Rei rather than her elder is a bit off-putting. She does show quite a bit more skin than the First Children, though, with some very sexy underboob flashing out. She’s carrying a pistol of made-up manufacture; I think it would’ve been nice if it had a laser sight or something to make it look a bit more high-tech, given her futuristic clothing. Unlike REFLECT with their forthcoming Asuka, E2046′s sculpting team has given Misato a fine behind, which is saucily tilted towards observers in her best viewing angle.

The paintwork is quite good for a hand-painted figure, with her outfit given a latex-like sheen. Her skin also gets the glossy treatment, which makes Misato a bit difficult to photograph. She’s put together well but up close, some of her joints are visible, particularly around her right thigh. That’s not unusual for a hand-built figure but it is noticeable.

Misato gets to stand on this oversized base, which seems to depict the front view of one of the Evangelion mecha units. It’s got an abstract raised pattern covered in a chrome effect, which looks very nice. Presumably this base is meant to match with E2046′s Asuka figure but as I do not own that one, I can’t say for sure.

E2046 is staffed by perverts at heart and so Misato’s bust plate can be removed to free her breasts. I’ll refrain from inlining the pictures to keep this review marginally work-safe but you can click here and here to check out her goodies.

I think this is a great figure, though I wonder if my opinion may be in the minority. Me, I’m not too bothered by alternate adaptions of characters. Part of that is because I’m a fan of American comics, and almost no major comic book characters have a canonical look – not even Batman or Wolverine. I also enjoy seeing alternate takes on characters; for example, I’m not all that a big a fan of Miku Hatsune’s rather derivative default appearance, but I love the different looks that she’s been given, particularly the more realistic ones like Max Factory’s VN02 figure and her Miku Append persona. I’d like it if PVC figure makers deviated from the original source artwork more often rather than slavishly trying to reproduce the most faithful rendition possible.

And there’s also my fondness for sexy anime women, which I readily admit to. I certainly have no objections to Misato slithering about in a fetishistic sheath dress and as I like Yamato’s earlier Creator’s Labo figure, I think this figure is a very nice complement to Rei. I’m not so certain she’ll go as well with Yamato’s upcoming Asuka, but as my hesitation with respect to that figure is increasing as time passes, that may be a moot point. I wonder if E2046 will roll out a version of Mari in this theme?

Up to the tizzop

Now it’s time for a tale told by an idiot who proved his idiocy not just once but twice: first by passing over this figure, and then, having changed his mind months later, paying twice its list price for it. It ain’t no thang to me, though, as I’ve come to terms with my limited mental faculties and I’m not about to let something like common sense get in the way of me owning this figure. I’m a year late and quite a bit more than a dollar short, but all that matters now is that Fate is in my collection.

This version of Fate T. Harlaown comes courtesy of Alter in 1/7 scale. Released back in November, she sold out very quickly and as I wasn’t entirely thrilled with her face, I didn’t have any regrets about skipping her. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago: I received Vivio and decided she needed a partner to run with. I have Volks’s Fate but the scale definitely wasn’t going to work. I needed to get one of Alter’s figures; fortunately for me, they have a lot to choose from. Nanoha was the obvious choice, but she’s a bit overdressed to fit in my collection.

At any rate, I’d already accepted that I was going to have to pay an exorbitant amount of money for Vivio’s running mate and that made the selection pretty easy. Alter’s StrikerS figures all look pretty good, but I think Fate was the best out of all of them, aside from Vivio. A quick visit to eBay, a check on my bank balance, a very brief period of soul-searching, and she was mine.

I usually list a figure’s height but with Fate, perhaps it’d be more appropriate to start with her length. With her enormous sword and twintails streaming out behind her, she measures an incredible 60 centimeters long, depending on how far out her sword is extended. Like Vivio, she’s also on the high end of 1/7 scale, measuring about 37 centimeters tall to the highest point of her hair, including her metal standoffs.

My heart sank a bit when I unboxed her and saw all the plastic wrap Fate’s parts were packed in. I thought that it’d take all night to get her set up and as my collection grows, I find that I don’t have much desire to fuss around with assembling PVC figures. Fortunately, Fate wasn’t very difficult to put together; one of her twintails needs to be dropped into her head, her metal rods need to be inserted into her feet, and then all that’s left is her choice of weapons.

Fate is one of the most impressive figures I’ve seen, and a major contributor to her presence is her majestic hair. It’s not hard to believe that no one but Alter could pull off something this crazy, and true to form they’ve done a marvelous job sculpting her tresses. Sinuous and slender, they almost look like prehensile tentacles, ready to swarm out and wrap up a victim in a coiled embrace of love, sliding deeply into …

Ahem. Her hair does have the drawback of badly restricting her display options; basically, the only way she’s going to fit on a typical shelf is sideways, and she’s still going to demand a huge amount of room. But nobody who owns a Ferrari is going to complain about having to buy premium gas, and nobody who owns Fate is going to complain about having to give her additional space.

I initially passed her over due to reservations regarding her facial sculpt. I thought her nose looked overly long, and I thought that her O-shaped mouth looked odd. Looking at her in person, her nose looks fine when viewed from below, but looks long when viewed from above. I’m not sure why that is. I haven’t changed my mind on her mouth, though. Look at a figure like Good Smile Company’s upcoming Saber; her mouth is fixed in a ferocious snarl, letting you know that she really does want to kill whoever she’s about to crash that sword onto. I’m not so sure what emotion Fate is evincing here; the circular shape looks a bit like she’s getting ready to fellate someone.

You know, I’m starting to change my mind, and all of a sudden, her face is looking a lot more attractive to me for some reason. Imagine that.

She comes with two weapons, Bardiche in either Zanber form or the dual-blade Riot Zanber form. In Zanber form, her sword is enormous, easily one of the largest weapons of any figure I own, including 1/4 scale figures. The figure comes with a supplemental plastic stand to support it; it’d have been nice if they had added a bit more mass to its base because I found it to easily slip out under Bardiche’s weight. Her Riot Zanber blades come with an optional energy string which looks a bit cheesy, as all plastic renditions of sparkly, flashy special effects do. Both sets of weapons have metal handles which should negate the risk of paint transfer when sliding her swords into her grasp.

Suspended in an aerial fighting stance, her pose is truly amazing. The way the front flap of her dress and belts lift upwards strongly adds to the impression that she’s hovering, and also provides a very welcome element of fanservice. Fate’s arms are angled downwards with one cocked back, reminiscent of the badass gun kata poses in the film Equilibrium and unambiguously delivering the message that you do not want none of her.

Speaking of fanservice, as far as I know, Fate is the only character in the Nanoha series to take great pride in showing off her backside. While it’s not as exposed here as it was in her youth, it still looks mighty fine. Ten out of ten on this aspect of the sculpt.

Compounding the idiocy that I mentioned earlier is Fate’s impending re-release early next year, which I learned of the day I got her in the mail. That’s the way love and life go, I guess, and I might’ve bought her anyway even if I knew that Alter was planning a second production run. I still have some quibbles with her face, but the sculpt’s overall quality and energy shine so brightly that they overpower my reservations. Alter’s figures are the most ambitious in the business, and Fate is a sterling example of their craftsmanship.

This review is obviously very late to the game, and there are about a billion other reviews of Fate out there. Check out WAWAWA wasuremono, Exelica Meteor, The Inferno Project, and foo-bar-baz for more reviews and pictures.

If anyone wants a wallpaper of Fate, the next picture is in 1920×1200 resolution.

Up to the tizzop

I was very surprised when I saw the first pictures of Alter’s Momohime figure; she was one of those characters that I had hoped would get a figure but didn’t expect to. Alter had already shown some love to Vanillaware’s properties, having produced Gwendolyn over a year before and having announced Mercedes by then, but I had thought that they would unveil a figure of Velvet next. Instead, we got a figure of Momohime, and I’ve got no cause for complaint as it is a gorgeous figure indeed.

Momohime is one of the two playable characters in the Nintendo Wii game Muramasa: The Demon Blade. The other character is a male ninja named Kisuke, who is not likely to get his own figure any time soon. Muramasa is something of a spiritual successor to the games Princess Crown and Odin Sphere, being a 2D action RPG with environments modeled on a specific culture and history. Momohime is a young princess who is possessed by the spirit of a malevolent warrior and is thus forced into battle.

This figure is manufactured by Alter and is in 1/8 scale. Excluding her base, she’s about 18 centimeters tall, and while she seems smaller than Alter’s other 1/8 scale figures, presumably she’s of slighter build than many other characters. Unusually for an Alter figure, she comes with some extra parts so that her sword can be displayed either sheathed or brandished in her hand. She also comes with a very nice base, which features plastic water in a style reminiscent of the video game.

The first thing that strikes me about Momohime’s character design is the pattern of colors on display, black alternating with the vibrant red, sea green, pink, and violet of her clothing. The pastel tones suggest that she is a delicate, innocent young girl, but the dark silver and black of her armor and sword reveal the peril of assuming such. The next thing that I notice are all the details of her outfit. Her forearm guards include tiny rivets, and the soles of her sandals feature a woven pattern. The white, pink, and red flowers on her sleeves have four, five, and six petals, respectively, giving them both chromatic and geometric distinctiveness.

Alter loves their action poses, and Momohime is one of the nicest examples I’ve yet seen. The illusion of movement is breathtaking and makes her one of Alter’s most dramatic figures. Momohime looks equally good from any frontal or side angle, which is a quality that is very rare among figures.

Vanillaware’s character designs are grounded in the familiar anime style but they still maintain a sense of uniqueness, and Alter’s done a wonderful job in sculpting Momohime’s face. One of the nicest touches is that she has a lower lip, which imparts depth to her expression. She could be anxious, pensive, hesitant, or perhaps completely cold-blooded – looking at her, I can easily convince myself that she’s any of these.

Momohime’s sword scabbard is marvelously detailed, as is her sword. The blade of her sword features a metallic texture but it still looks like plastic and nobody is going to confuse it for actual metal. It seems oversized for her – which is appropriate, since one of the aspects of Muramasa’s gameplay is switching between small and large swords – and is one of the things that gives this figure its charm. The size disparity also accentuates Momohime’s apparent frail nature and provides an additional contrasting element to her design.

Alter generally refrains from swappable parts and gimmicks, but Momohime is an exception to that tendency. She comes with an additional left sleeve and right hand that allow her to be displayed with her sword out, gripped in her left hand.

While this is a very nice touch, it’s also the source of the most glaring problem with this figure. The seam where her left sleeve detaches is extremely conspicuous, particularly because it’s a straight arc around her arm and cuts across the folds of her clothing. I think it would’ve looked better if they had disguised it as a fold, but perhaps that wasn’t possible.

There’s not really a lot I need to say about the paintwork; Alter’s quality speaks for itself, and the pictures do a better job of describing it than I can. I’ll just say that it’s astonishing.

Momohime is one of my favorite character designs in video games, and when Muramasa was released I was very tempted to pick up a Wii solely to play it. I never did so, and so I’m glad that I now have Momohime on my desk instead. Alter’s quality is second to none, and Momohime is an outstanding figure; she is dynamic, dramatic, and beautiful, a superlative work of art that stands out even amongst Alter’s most exalted figures.

For another review of this wonderful figure, check out Exelica Meteor.

I’ve tried to keep this review classy, but I would be absolutely remiss if I didn’t include this picture:

This artwork was done by George Kamitani, the founder of Vanillaware and director and lead artist of their games. It appeared on the cover of the now-defunct Play Magazine. Hey, you know the name of this site, I had to show it here.

Up to the tizzop

Let’s get back to more interesting things. I’ve skipped all of Alter’s preceding Nanoha figures other than the original Fate Testarossa, but I couldn’t pass up Vivio. I wonder how popular Vivio is; almost all of the Nanoha girls had reviews up on the web right away, but I don’t think I’ve seen any of the odd-eyed girl. It is time to remedy that.

Vivio comes from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, the franchise’s third series. She first appears as a child, but as one might imagine she is not all that she appears to be. She takes Nanoha Takamachi’s surname but is also titled “Sankt Kaiser,” which a translator tells me means Saint King in German. I’m not sure what’s up with Japanese anime and its fetish for the German language; I wonder if it’s some latent cultural exchange tendency going back to the Axis days. In her adult form, Vivio fills out considerably and, as one can see here, she is more than capable of throwing down with the best of them.

Vivio is manufactured by Alter and is the latest – and possibly the last – of their StrikerS figure lineup. She’s ostensibly in 1/7 scale, and at 25 centimeters tall – 27.5 from the base to the top of her hair ribbon – it actually seems like they are underestimating her size. It’s very rare that a figure comes out larger than expected, and it’s another reason why Alter is the premier maker, the Kwisatz Haderach of the figure business.

She comes with a big square white base which is very boring compared to the dynamism of the figure. And while Vivio is attached to it by only one foot, it seems quite stable, as I had her mounted sideways on a wooden plank suspended over a bowl of water for a couple of hours and gravity seems to have had no adverse effect on her. Her only accessory is a little plastic energy ball which fits into a notch in the palm of her hand. Note that because her hand has that notch, there’s not really a way to display her without the ball, unless you substitute something in its place.

I love Vivio’s character design; with her tight bodysuit, armored corset, and cropped jacket, she could almost pass as one of Marvel’s X-Men. Now that I think about it, there’s not a lot of difference between the superheroes of American comic books and anime-style magical girls; one of the female X-Men – Kitty Pryde – even has a miniature dragon familiar, as does one of the characters in the Nanoha series.

Alter’s figure includes numerous details that many other manufacturers would overlook. The talons and curl of her fingers, the contrasting glossy finish of her jacket and the matte, leather-like look of her bodysuit, and the faux gems in her boots, gloves, and trailing edges of her lower jacket show an admirable obsessiveness towards craftsmanship.

One aspect of this figure that may give potential buyers pause is her face – and since the face is by far the most important part of any figure, that’s a significant issue. Specifically, I can see some people not liking the shape of her mouth, which is unusual indeed. It looks kind of like Pac-Man, and while I’ve seen hundreds of figures and tens of thousands of anime-style images, I don’t know if I’ve seen a mouth shaped like Pac-Man. The other thing is that it’s hard to discern what she’s expressing. When a figure has an open mouth like this, usually there’s some emotion being expressed – usually anger, in the case of an action pose, but here, Vivio doesn’t really look all that angry. Then again, given her background, maybe that’s an appropriate look.

I’ll admit that it took a little while to grow on me, but now that I can see her live and in person, I think she looks great.

Another thing that I like about Vivio’s sculpt are the contrasting widths of the tendrils of hair flowing out behind her. The way that they cross over and under each other adds a lot to the figure’s sense of movement. Also, she doesn’t have the sort of helmet hair that most figures have; lines are etched into her head to show her hair being pulled towards her sidetail, as it should be.

I’m certain it’s no surprise that Vivio’s paintwork is marvelous. I’ve mentioned the contrasting glossiness of her clothing, and they’ve also given her armored parts a metallic texture. Shading is evident on her legs along the blue segments of her bodysuit – perhaps it’s a just a bit heavy-handed, but it still looks great anyway.

Despite being generally unfamiliar with the Nanoha series, I’ve been looking forward to Vivio since her debut, and Alter has exceeded my expectations in providing a figure that not only looks every bit as good as she did in the promo photos, but is also much larger than what I was hoping for. Vivio looks so good that I also sprung for Alter’s Fate T. Harlaown figure – and of course, the day she got here is the day her re-release is announced. Of course. I’m not unhappy at all though since Vivio needs a partner and Fate works pretty well in that role – visually, at least. I’d call this figure one of the best of this year and looking at what I’ve got preordered, I wouldn’t be surprised if Vivio wound up being my favorite of 2010.

One thing that I’m no good at is photographing multiple figures. I don’t have a good sense of depth of field and I don’t have a lot of room to shoot, which limits my ability to back up. I think I wound up shooting this shot at like f/18, which then created another problem in that I didn’t have enough power for my lights to get the effect that I wanted. Being lazy, I just wound up jacking up the ISO.

Anyway, if anybody wants some wallpapers of Vivio and Fate looking cute together, the last shot and the next one are at 1920×1200 resolution. I guess I’ll make some old-resolution versions later on, when I need a filler post.

I wound up taking over three hundred shots of Vivio, of which maybe 250 were me just noodling around, trying out some things to see what would happen. I was surprised as hell when I looked at my camera’s battery charge and it was down to like a third after I’d recharged it the night before. Still got a lot to learn.

I wonder what the odds are of Alter making a figure of Ginga? I wouldn’t mind seeing that.

Up to the tizzop

Here we go, AK-47, the very best there is! When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room … accept no substitutes.

This is Revy from Black Lagoon. It says so on the base, if anybody was unsure. I actually meant to cancel her but was too lazy to remember to do so. Oops. Now that she’s here, I figure I ought to review her. There’s a ton of cool stuff coming in really soon and being creatively bankrupt at the moment, I’ve been trying to think of ways to present it all that I haven’t done to death already. That means this’ll be a pretty quick review, so let’s knock this one out real fast.

Revy works as the main enforcer for the Lagoon Company. Tough, violent, and streetwise, she’s nicknamed “Two Hand” due to her propensity to dual-wield pistols, but she’s holding a rifle here. While I have quite a few figures of girls with gats, I don’t have too many of them holding long guns; in fact, all the ones I have are named Yoko Ritona. I guess KOS-MOS might count; a triple three-barrel gatling gun is kind of a long gun. Speaking of her gun, she’s holding an APS rifle, which she uses early in the television series. It’s an AK-derived weapon meant for underwater operation – appropriate given her beachwear.

Manufactured by New Line, she’s listed as 1/6 scale, although at about 24 centimeters tall, she’s a little bit short of that. Not a big deal, I guess; that’s still a pretty good height. She comes with a nicely-detailed base emblazoned with the show’s logo, her rifle, a knife which goes into her arm sheath, and a swappable hairpiece.

She’s got a fairly simple pose, with her seductively lifting her bikini string. I’m not sure seductive is a quality one would ascribe to Revy, but there we are. In case anyone’s forgotten about her typical tendencies, however, she’s hefting her gun in the other hand, finger off the trigger, and she’s got a cigarette in her mouth. It’s fixed in there and although I suppose you could rip it out, you’d have to be prepared to fix up the damage if you did.

Paintwork is decent – nothing that’ll make your eyes pop but it does the job. Her bikini looks quite nice, being painted a shiny, iridescent pink. The tattoo does not look as good; it’s pretty flat, not looking much like a tattoo at all. I think it would’ve looked more realistic if they’d given it more of a green tint and softened its edges, but that may have been impractical for mass manufacture.

Her backside seems a bit flattened; you can see the cleft of her buttocks above her bikini, but there’s no depth there at all, which looks strange.

She comes with her ponytail but if you like, you can replace it with unbound hair instead. The left and right sides of her bangs pop out so that swapping hair is very easy; pop them off, unplug her current hairpiece, plug in the new one, and put her bangs back on.

The gun is not extraordinarily detailed but there are some nice touches: the magazine release and the charging handle are present, for example. Even so, it looks more like a gun that might come with a 1/6 scale doll.

I can’t really say many bad things about Revy. I can’t really praise her too much either, so I’ll call her an alright figure. I haven’t watched the anime yet – I’m going through the manga right now – so I don’t know how faithful this figure is to her character design, but she looks close enough for me. In retrospect, I really ought to have gone ahead and cancelled her just because so much other stuff was recently released, but that’s the way it goes.

Speaking of other stuff … I started writing this review yesterday and all this stuff came in today. I know you guys absolutely love looking at pictures of brown cardboard boxes so I thought I would treat you to this picture. What’s inside the boxes?

Not that I really needed the addition to my review queue; I’ve still got Max Factory’s Tamaki and MegaHouse’s Saya Tokido to photograph and write up, and I’ve got to get to Daiki Kougyou’s 1/4 scale Saber one of these days. It’s sort of tough to balance a creative and interesting presentation with time considerations. Fortunately, I haven’t purchased Starcraft 2, my Warcraft accounts have lapsed, and we’re in that utterly boring period of the year between the NBA playoffs and the start of the NFL season where I watch no television at all, so hopefully I’ll have some time to get to those.

I’ve noticed that I often take a brighter view of figures that I can photograph creatively. I’ve actually ordered a few figures entirely because I had some idea for photographing them, and sometimes I come up with ideas months in advance of the figure’s actual release date. Those that I’m not sure how to photograph … sometimes I don’t feel nearly as positive about them and I’m sure it’s showing here.

One of the earliest guest characters we see in the manga is Roberta, a maid with peculiarly advanced training in warfare. Everyone likes maids with guns, so I’ll end this review with a couple of pictures of Shino, the combat maid from the h-game Zanjibaru. I’ve mentioned Zanjibaru here before, because it has a really nice maggot-birthing scene if you select the wrong choice. Have I ever shown off my foot-long Mothra larva toy here? Does anybody want to see it?

You know, I heard this claim that all the girls in Zanjibaru are killed in the end. Now, I can see that, since it’s sort of a dark and grim visual novel, but it’s hard to believe there’s no good ending. So I found a savefile and I’m pretty sure there’s a good end, but being that I’m fond of the characters in the game, I’d like to know for certain, so now I’m wondering what level of Japanese I would need to learn to gain a cursory understanding of the plot. I guess that’s a real facile reason for wanting to learn a foreign language, but then again, I exult in my shallowness.

Don’t start none, won’t be none, aight?!

Nothing gets between me and my AK!

Up to the tizzop

Twain once said that there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. If he’d lived long enough to collect pervy girly figures, he’d have explicitly included scale sizes in that list, too.

Despite knowing almost nothing about the Muv-Luv universe, I’m a big fan of the character designs – particularly the piloting suits, which I regard as being the coolest in all of anime culture. Yes, cooler than the Evangelion plugsuits, which rank second in my esteem. Meiya seems to be the poster girl for the Alternative franchise, and she’s been given love from several manufacturers. Perhaps the most amatory has been Volks, who’ve done a whole series of mecha, model kits, and prepainted figures of Meiya and the other Muv-Luv characters. This particular figure falls into that last category.

Meiya was crafted by Chorosuke, who is probably Volks’s best-known sculptor. This figure is quite old; the box says 2003 on it. It’s part of Volks’s X-brand series of figures, which I think is the classification they used for explicit model kits. It doesn’t seem like they are collaborating much with age-soft now, as I haven’t seen any Volks kits of the Total Eclipse characters.

The box says this is a 1/6 scale figure, which is a blatant lie. A check with a tape measure indicates that she’d be around 19 centimeters tall standing straight up, which puts her closer to 1/8 scale, except she has relatively realistic proportions for an anime-type character, making her appear even smaller than that. So in the end, she’s closer to 1/9 scale. I have no idea how they screwed up the math that badly; multiplication really is not that difficult. They even make devices that will do it for you if it’s too complicated to do by hand.

Compounding my annoyance with the misstated scale is her paint job, which is very, very rough. Furthermore, her skin has a noticeable yellowish cast which makes her look ill – fortunately for my pictures, my camera’s auto white balance setting does a real nice job of correcting for it. Admittedly, that comes at the expense of authenticity, but I doubt many people will be crazy enough to procure this figure, being that you’ll have to go through Yahoo Japan or some other such Japan-based supplier to do so. I paid a bunch of money for Meiya on YJA, so to receive a double whammy of small size and sloppy paint is very disappointing.

Oh, and there was one other problem, which I guess is also a paint problem – or rather, a lack of paint. For some reason, Volks didn’t bother painting her nipples.

Now this sort of thing is untenable. There’s no reasonable explanation for this decision, being that her nipples are still sculpted and aren’t likely to be mistaken for anything else. Being unwilling to accept this failure, I took out my paint and painted them in. Now, I’m completely clueless about model painting and so getting the right color was more difficult than I expected. I rolled with a light brown color at first, being that that’s what real human nipples look like, except it looks kinda funny on an anime character. So I wiped the paint off and mixed together some sort of pink color, which looks a little better. It doesn’t look natural in the least, but I guess it looks more anime-esque. I guess I learned how difficult it is to paint nipples on a little anime figure today.

After all that, though, I will say that I like this figure’s pose a lot. She’s supported only by the toes of one foot, giving her a very striking presence. Chorosuke has done a nice job giving her a very pretty face that’s somewhere between anime-style and realistic.

And of course, there are the more perverted charms of this figure, such as the torn bodysuit and the chained-up wrists. Her sword and scabbard come in a single piece along with a chain to tie them up to her wrists. Peculiarly, there’s some scribbling on her backside, and I’m not sure what it’s supposed to represent.

Meiya’s been on my shelf for a few months since I had planned to rip her when I wrote her review, and I don’t derive much joy in bashing a figure. However, looking at her now, I find myself liking her a lot more today than I did yesterday. Okay, I’ll admit, her having painted nipples does a lot to raise my opinion of her; maybe it’s a silly reason to like her more, but that’s the way it is. Her size is still disappointing, and the expense incurred to procure her still stings a bit, but that money is long gone, and at this point I suppose it’s better to take her for what she is rather than what she should be. So for what she is – a cute mecha pilot in a tight, torn suit with her wrists chained up – she’s pretty cool.

Up to the tizzop

I usually like to space out my preorder posts every few months, but I spent several hours last night shooting pictures, all of which I am going to throw out. That means I have no figure review ready and you know what that means: that’s right, it’s filler time! On the positive side, there have been a number of nice new figures that have been announced in the last couple of months. As usual, pictures are taken from Hobby Search, my favorite place to buy figures.

October

Ibuki Ikaruga from Asu no Yoichi!
This figure is really cute and the combination of skimpy swimsuit and giant bow tie is very appealing, but the price tag really dampens my enthusiasm for Ibuki. I’m not certain why there’s such a disparity in pricing in Alphamax’s product line, but it’s tough to justify the cost when I’m unfamiliar with the company’s quality and reputation. Still, though, I really like how this figure looks. Maybe she’ll be a possibility if I find some skrills under the couch cushions or something.

Black Rock Shooter (Animation Version)
In an ideal world, I’d hock my existing Black Rock Shooter figure on eBay, make back near what I paid for it, buy this one and come out ahead in the bargain. Or alternatively, Good Smile Company would have done this figure in a different scale, or given it something to distinguish it stylistically from their other BRS figures. Unfortunately they did not, and even more unfortunately they’ve decided to reissue their first BRS figure, removing the option of selling the original figure for an inflated price. I don’t really like buying multiple figures of the same character unless I’m very fond of that character or unless there’s something to set them apart – different scale, different sculptor, different theme, something different. I’m not sure that this figure is sufficiently distinct from the one I’ve got for me to want it, but it’s a nice-looking figure, I can’t deny that.

Buddy from Kimi ga Yobu, Megiddo no Oka de
Out of all the scythe girls that have been announced recently, I like how Buddy looks the most. It’s great how Alter plucks characters from random h-games for PVC adaptation, since some of my favorite anime-style character designs come from eroge. Now, how about a figure of Subaru from Beat Blades Haruka? Okay, I’ve come to terms that that’s never going to happen. How about figures of the two girls from Majutai 2? Even the small-boobed girl would be fine. Okay, that’s never going to happen, either.

Klan Klang from Macross Frontier
Klan Klang is looking great and I have this figure preordered. I like mecha girls and mecha girls don’t come much more badass than this. It’s funny how Amiami lists her as being 1/72 scale; hopefully she doesn’t look too far out of scale with my 1/48 Yamato VF-1s.

Kagari from Ninja Girls
I have no clue who this is, but this figure caught my eye nonetheless and I put in a preorder without thinking too hard about it. Here’s a funny thing I noticed about the manga: the image at RightStuf uses the original cover art without significant modification. However, there’s a version of the cover that censors Kagari’s backside by giving her a more conservative pair of shorts, and if you go to the publisher’s website, you get the cover for volume 3 rather than either of those images. I went to the local comic store to pick up the first volume but they didn’t have it, so I’m not certain what the US cover actually looks like. I did pick up volume 2 and flipping through it really quickly, there isn’t quite as much fanservice as I was hoping for. It still looks like a fun read, however.

November

Nodoka Haramura from Saki
I thought about ordering this figure, but I don’t think I like her stiff pose. I can think of one thing I do very much like about this figure, and I’m crass enough to admit that it’s a very persuasive argument in favor of this figure’s merits, but ultimately, I think I’m going to pass. Those wings look real bad, too; perhaps the promo pictures aren’t as flattering as they could be, we shall see.

Asuka Langley Soryu
There was an opportunity to make a really great adaptation of Asuka here, but Yamato and REFLECT blew it by giving Asuka no backside at all. I mean, look at this, she’s flirtatiously thrusting her butt out except she has no butt to thrust. This is perhaps the biggest disappointment on this list, but regardless I’ve preordered this figure because I’m a shallow moron. I’ll just have to keep her turned towards the front.

Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
I have to admire Alter’s ambition and willingness to manufacture figures that many manufacturers couldn’t even prototype, but I think their second version of Fate looks a little off. It’s the size of her head; her head looks wider than her shoulders and hips and longer than her thighs. Maybe it’s just me, I dunno. I’m not really one for lolis, though I admit that I do very much like Alter’s first Fate figure.

Xecty from Shining Wind
After waffling for a while between Max Factory’s and Kotobukiya’s version, I decided to roll with this one. I much prefer 1/6 scale to 1/7 but Kotobukiya’s looks too similar to their Elwing figure. And besides, this one looks very nice in its own right, with Xecty sporting an enigmatic expression that should be a lot of fun to photograph. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to Xecty when she was announced but now I’m quite looking forward to her.

Dead Master from Black Rock Shooter
I think I am the only figure collector in the universe who is not in the least excited by this figure.

January

Fate Testarossa from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha
Alter’s version of Fate is kinetic, dynamic, and alive; you can almost hear her screaming strangely-named battle moves in mangled English with magic circles and pyrotechnics detonating all around her. Cospa’s version is, hmm, way more chill in comparison. Staid, even. Not that staid is bad – boring would be bad but Cospa’s figure is interesting enough, with her shy smile and confident pose. Oh, and those killer abs; you could bounce a silver dollar off of those. It’s a good-looking, laid-back figure.

But that price! Man, that price is crazy. I went back through my e-mail archive and found my invoice for Alter’s first Fate figure from early 2007. She cost $64.98, and that’s from a store that is one of the more expensive mail order retailers on the web. Furthermore, I padded out the order with a bunch of Zone of the Enders DVDs to get free shipping. Considering the way the exchange rate has cratered in the last few years, both of these recently-announced Fate figures are around twice as expensive as Alter’s original, and that figure is barely more than three years old. Insane, I tell you.

I think I’m skipping both of these Fate figures, though I reserve the right to change my mind. That said, I’m keeping an eye on a couple of Fate figures, both of which exist only in kit form for now.

This figure is from Cobra Kai and is not in a chump’s 1/8 scale, not a nice 1/6 scale, but a godly 1/4 scale. 1/4 scale! That sword’s gotta be nearly two feet long. Moeyo‘s got more pictures. Both Yamato and Daiki Kougyou have adapted Cobra Kai’s work into PVC form, but a post on the sculpting circle’s message board indicates that they haven’t gotten much interest, which is a real tragedy.

This version of fate is from BUBBA, a well-known sculptor in the figure hobby. I really hope one of the big manufacturers picks this one up, because I prefer it over Alter’s and Cospa’s and would preorder it in a heartbeat. Yamato perhaps? Or maybe Max Factory? I can only hope.

Up to the tizzop