Monthly Archives: June 2015

Preorder Outlook XLIII

Welcome to the >10,000 yen edition of the preorder outlook, in which almost every figure here sports a five-digit price tag, even though none of them are particularly large or overly elaborate. Indeed, quite a few of these would’ve cost perhaps 7,500 yen a few years ago – but then, the USD-JPY exchange rate was far worse, so I suppose it works out to about the same cost. It doesn’t quite feel that way, though. Regardless, if I’m disinclined to pay those prices, there’s nothing to do but to quit the hobby, and since I’m not about to do that, let’s take a look at some of the figures that have caught my eye in the last month.
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Mu-12 from BlazBlue: Alter Memory

Mu-12 from BlazBlue Alter Memory

Arc Systems Works has been pushing the BlazBlue franchise hard in recent times. Notably, the fifth and most recent console iteration of the game – BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma Extend – is due for release in the North American market in just a few days. In addition, its ofttimes incomprehensible plot has been extended by a dizzying array of multimedia: spinoff games – including, rather incongruously for a fighting game series, some visual novels – manga, light novels, and a poorly-received anime series. Concomitant with this expansion is the sort of product push that the better-known Guilty Gear series never received, comprising a variety of wall scrolls, stickers, hugging pillowcase covers, and of course, figures such as this one. This isn’t even the first Mu-12 figure to hit the market – that distinction goes to FREEing’s version from well over a year back – but being that the last time Alter made a figure of an Arc System Works character turned out quite well, the redundancy is not at all unwelcome.
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Hell Seducer from the Shungo Yazawa Original Figure Series (NSFW)

Hell Seducer from the Shungo Yazawa Original Figure Series

I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m the only reviewer to cover this figure. However, despite its obscurity, I’ve known about this figure for quite a long time. In fact, I’d go so far as to call it a holy grail figure; I’d even been thinking about looking for the garage kit and trying to assemble it myself, as I never expected it to become available in a prepainted format. Much to my surprise and delight, it has, though courtesy of a manufacturer that I have no personal familiarity with and whose back catalog does not at all inspire confidence. But then again, when you’re working with a leering skeleton feeling up a naked, chained-up girl, how can you really go wrong?
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