Anybody who’s read this site for a while knows that I like ero figures. And anybody who’s read this site for a while knows that I like big figures. Unfortunately, few figure manufacturers have made big ero figures – at least until recently. However, FREEing has stepped up to the plate to fill this niche, which is quite gratifying, particularly when the figure is as nice as Amane is.
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Having been born in 1980, I was a little too young to get into Star Wars. I vaguely remember getting my dad kicked out of the movie theatre by crying during The Empire Strikes Back, and I think I remember liking the Ewoks (thus proving what a dumb kid I was), but I never had any Star Wars toys or a lunch box, and I never saw any of the original trilogy movies in their entirety until their re-release back in the 90s. I was much more of a Star Trek fan, those movies being released just as I was becoming old enough to appreciate movies. I never got into the whole Star Wars versus Star Trek thing either, though; I mean, you got one franchise with green-skinned slave girls in bikinis, and the other gots red-skinned Sith in bikinis, why choose between two beautiful things?
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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?
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As usual, laziness overrides my intentions and instead of Miku, we have here a figure of KOS-MOS from Bandai Namco’s Xenosaga III. I keep meaning to build a nice backdrop for Miku so that I can photograph her, but there’s about a billion reviews of Miku out there already and everyone knows what she looks like, anyway. KOS-MOS, however, is far too large to build a special background for, and besides, while Miku is nice and all, KOS-MOS is one helluva figure.
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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 figure undoubtedly belongs in the second group.
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Let’s talk a little bit about lust. If you collect anything, chances are that there is a holy grail item, something that you greatly desire but is nearly impossible to acquire. Maybe it’s an out-of-print edition of a book, or a rare and valuable trading card of some favorite athlete, or a pretty, limited-run postage stamp. These treasures add a definite zest to collecting, igniting passions, squelching common sense, and obliterating the checking accounts of collectors fortunate enough to add these things to their troves.
For me, Volks’s 1/4 scale Uesugi Kenshin statue is the prize that I’ve had my eyes on for years. I never expected to own her; for one, Volks’s wares are notoriously difficult to purchase outside of Japan, and for another, Kenshin was sold only as a resin kit. There was no way I could afford the model, and I do not have the requisite equipment or skill to assemble and paint it anyway. My only hope would be to buy a prepainted recast – and E2046 hasn’t stocked this item in a long time – or for a prepainted, preassembled kit to magically present itself. The late, sorely-missed Heisei Democracy mentions that such an item was in fact sold at the winter Wonder Festival in February 2008 – for an astronomical price.
So time passed, and I didn’t think much about this Kenshin figure, since there was little point pining away for something unobtainable, until one day, on a whim, I spent some time browsing through Yahoo Japan’s listings. And I saw this figure. There were a lot of reasons to hesitate – the price was insane, I would have to go through a middleman which means an even more insane price in addition to requiring a considerable amount of faith in someone a hemisphere away, and the possibility of losing the auction, which presents its own unique set of problems. But hesitation never really entered my mind; after all, this figure is it. This is number one, my prize, and who would deny that magic had occurred? All it would take to acquire this figure would be to meet the price. But Gott im Himmel, what a price.
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Meiya Mitsurugi is one of the characters from Muv-Luv, an ero game and anime property that I don’t know much about. This figure represents her as she appears in Muv-Luv Unlimited, which seems to be a game that locks young women in tight outfits in perilous combat with a host of aliens. Originally designed by Volks, I purchased this figure as a prepainted resin figure from Hobbyfan. I like Meiya’s character design and the fact that this figure was discounted was a nice sweetener.
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