Lacia from Beatless (2018 Version)

written on April 30, 2021 by Tier
Lacia from Beatless

I usually review figures in no particular order other than what I feel like photographing, but today we’ll take a look at a figure that was released relatively recently: Lacia from the light novel, manga, and anime series Beatless. She was released earlier this month, making this one of the few times I’ve reviewed a figure in the same month of its release. This will likely be even less common in the future, since many of my figures are being shipped by surface mail and are thus taking a long boat ride from Japan to the east coast of the United States.
Continue reading →

Posted in Figure Review | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Eileene from Seven Knights

written on April 22, 2021 by Tier
Eileene from Seven Knights

Today we’ll look at a Korean figure from a Korean gacha game: Eileene from Seven Knights. I vaguely remember downloading Seven Knights a long time ago but I didn’t spend more than a few minutes with the game. From my admittedly limited research, the game looks somewhat similar to games like Summoners War and Epic Seven, though the graphics seem very dated, somewhere on the level of the original PlayStation in quality, with the chibi styling of its characters particularly reminding me of Final Fantasy VII and Tactics. There’s apparently a sequel out, which looks far more modern and ditches the chibi artwork for a far slicker, modern, and more realistic aesthetic reminiscent of Korean MMOs such as the Lineage, TERA, and Black Desert series.

A couple of additional notes regarding Eileene: she also appeared in the mobile game The King of Fighters All Star a few months back, which is kind of an odd and nonintuitive pairing, but mobile game collaborations often are, seemingly. There’s currently a Seven Knights anime airing on television, but I do not know if Eileene shows up; my guess is that the principal cast are original characters, though I’m not sure about that. I haven’t followed any anime series in years and I’d be interested in hearing if this show is any good.
Continue reading →

Posted in Figure Review | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Kasumi Yoshizawa from Persona 5 Royal (Lucrea Version)

written on March 31, 2021 by Tier
Kasumi Yoshizawa from Persona 5 Royal

We’re looking at another telegenic girl in a leotard: this time it’s Kasumi Yoshizawa, one of the newest additions to the Persona universe. I’ve yet to play Persona 5, despite it being a game that I was very much looking forward to, despite the fact that I own two copies of it (the original game and its expanded Royal release), and despite Persona 3 being one of my favorite games of all time (I rank it third or fourth, behind Phantasy Star II, Wasteland, and alternating spots with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic depending on how I feel on any particular day). In lieu of actually playing the game, I can at least appreciate the look of its cast, starting with Kasumi here.
Continue reading →

Posted in Figure Review | Tagged , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Marie Rose from Dead or Alive 5

written on March 9, 2021 by Tier
Marie Rose from Dead or Alive 5

Today we’re looking at yet another leotard-clad girl from a fighting game – in this case, Marie Rose from Tecmo Koei’s Dead or Alive series. She’s a character I’m conflicted on; I like her design, in a general sense, but I have not been enthusiastic about what her – and Honoka’s – introduction to the series has meant for the Dead or Alive franchise. Nonetheless, in figure form, we can simply admire her for what she looks like, and that’s good enough for me.
Continue reading →

Posted in Figure Review | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Year Twelve Retrospective

written on February 23, 2021 by Tier
The president on a horse

Tentacle Armada turns twelve years old today! Obviously there’s been the expected spate of non-posting which has unfortunately become the norm here, but aside from that, the past twelve months have obviously been more notable for a global pandemic unprecedented in the lives of everyone in the United States except perhaps some centenarians who lived through the 1918 flu outbreak. As I’ve mentioned before, the last year actually has been pretty good for me; I’m doing very well in my work, nobody that I know has been infected by COVID, and I’ve mostly weaned myself off of World of Warcraft, which I’ve had a love-hate relationship with for over a decade. The extra time has given me opportunities to indulge my most recent hobby, which is collecting and shopping for wristwatches. As far as games go, lately I’ve been playing Epic Seven and also some Azur Lane, though not nearly as much as I used to. It comes to mind that I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed a shipgirl figure from either Azur Lane or Kantai Collection here, which is a little strange given how dominant both franchises have been in the figure world for the last few years.
Continue reading →

Posted in Random Thoughts | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Cammy from Street Fighter Alpha (Bishoujo Alpha Costume Version)

written on February 21, 2021 by Tier
Cammy from Street Fighter Alpha

Today we’ll take a look at another leotard-wearing girl with an appearance in a fighting game – Cammy, quite possibly the reigning queen of them all. This figure is not new, having been released in March of 2018, but it’s a relatively recent pickup for me; I bought it during Kotobukiyua’s Memorial Day sale last year, partly due to a a moment of lockdown-induced ennui, but also because I’m a big fan of Cammy. I own a bunch of her figures, including her previous Bishoujo figure. I also have PCS’s Shadaloo Cammy and I’m expecting to receive PCS’s super-sized 1/3 scale Cammy soon. I don’t expect to review either statue, since they’re way too big for me to comfortably photograph and I don’t think there’s much interest here for statues meant for Western audiences; therefore, we’ll have to be content with looking at this figure.
Continue reading →

Posted in Figure Review | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

YoRHa No.2 Type B from Nier: Automata (Flare DX Version)

written on February 14, 2021 by Tier
2B figure

I’ve had this figure of Nier: Automata’s YoRHa No. 2 Type B – hereafter called 2B – for some time; since I’m not getting many figures in the mail these days due to the current moratorium on EMS shipments from Japan to the United States, and since this figure recently went up for preorder again, I figure it’s a good time to take a look at her. It’s something of a wonderment that this figure was released at all; I don’t recall that Square allows many of their properties to be adapted into figures, at least not by third-party manufacturers. That they allowed Yoshizawa Mitsumasa to do the design is even more odd, but we’ll get into that in a bit.
Continue reading →

Posted in Figure Review | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Preorder Outlook LXI

written on January 31, 2021 by Tier

It’s been a while since we’ve taken a look at the figures I’m contemplating ordering so let’s do that now. First though, a few notes: first, I’ve historically done a Five Favorite Figures of the Year at the end of the year (or early on in the following year) but I won’t be doing one for 2020 because something like half the figures I bought are either trapped in Japan or are in the mail or on cargo ships and are hopefully not lost. If anyone’s curious, I think the figures that would have made that list include Native’s Fairy Queen Elaine and Chloe (though I’ve actually not heard great things about Chloe, which is unfortunate and disconcerting). FREEing’s Rindo Kobayashi might have also made the list, though I feel a little reluctant to laud any of their bunnygirl figures too highly since many of them kinda look the same after a while.

Also, I hope 2020 wasn’t too terrible a year for anyone reading this though I expect that for many, it was a tough year to get through. For me, I’m a little sorry to say that 2020 was actually a really good year; I’m now in a good position to achieve a lot of the goals I dreamed of completing five or six years ago (and no, I didn’t get in on any of the recent GameStop madness). It feels heartless for me to say that since so many people lost so much but I’m hoping that better times are close at hand for all of us.
Continue reading →

Posted in Preorder Outlook | Tagged , | 16 Comments

Fairy Elf from Mu Origin 2

written on December 25, 2020 by Tier
Fairy Elf from Mu

Happy Christmas everybody. We’ve seen a few figures from massively-multiplayer online RPGs, primarily from the Lineage series, but today we’ll be looking at a figure from the Mu series. Mu Online was originally released in 2001, making it one of the first MMOs to be released after EverQuest, the defining game of the genre. Some years later, Webzen released the mobile games Mu Origin and Mu Origin 2. I’m not actually certain which game this character comes from; Japanese stores say Mu Online, American stores say Mu Origin, and the box simply says Mu. I’m inclined to think that she comes from Mu Origin 2 as her design matches some of the concept art, but being that I know virtually nothing of this series apart from having bought a few Mu comic books about fifteen years ago, it’s hard to tell for certain.

Speaking of MMOs, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft as my primary game for the last eight years but I think I’m close to throwing in the towel; Shadowlands isn’t really appealing to me and I’m not enthused by Blizzard’s current game design philosophies. These days, I’m mostly playing Epic Seven and I’m enjoying it quite a bit more than Warcraft.
Continue reading →

Posted in Figure Review | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Jibril from No Game No Life (Bunny Version)

written on November 27, 2020 by Tier
Jibril from No Game No Life

Happy Black Friday to everybody. After far too long of a break, we’ll take a look at yet another bunnygirl. Truth be told, I don’t particularly like taking photographs of FREEing’s bunnygirls because they’re too large for me to easily photograph them, and yet I keep buying bunches of them, and this discontinuity is in some part responsible for the lack of reviews in recent months – though admittedly, the larger part of this dearth is due to me grinding in Epic Seven and spending far too much time watching the news. The former activity is still ongoing with no end in sight but I don’t need to obsess over the latter nearly as much now. Anyway, with those excuses out of the way, we’ll take a quick look at Jibril here.
Continue reading →

Posted in Figures | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments