Category Archives: Figure Review

Wind Goddess Rafale from the Amaha Collection (NSFW)


Wind Goddess Rafale from the Amaha Collection Review

The battle bikini is one of the most stereotypical tropes in fantasy art but if you ask me, it doesn’t get nearly as much appreciation these days as it should. For example, when Sega resurrected the Golden Axe franchise, they did the right thing in selecting Tyris Flare as the heroine but then they revealed an appallingly lowbrow taste by giving her pants. To be fair, her famous battle bikini is unlockable, and since the game seems to have been quite awful I doubt anybody else cares, but the mere option of pants still demonstrates the disrespect this timeless battle uniform receives. Also, when Wrath of the Lich King was released, Blizzard inexplicably made all of the armor sets as puritanical as could be, despite having gone entirely the other way when they designed The Burning Crusade. Now, one could argue that a battle bikini might provide inadequate protection in a frozen wasteland, but I have my doubts that a heavy suit of full plate is any more practical for trudging about in the arctic. Furthermore, if realism were really the name of the game, all of the characters would be wearing fur coats and mukluks, as even a full-body cast iron tuxedo ain’t going to protect nobody when a hundred foot-long dragon decides to step on you.

Fortunately, the beauty, utility, and elegance of this piece of equipment is still apparent and to that end, we have here an homage to the battle bikini in the form of Wind Goddess Rafale. I don’t see anything here that validates her divinity, but I will take the manufacturer’s claim for what it is worth.
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Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance


Kotobukiya Isoroku Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance Review

After playing through Sengoku Rance, I decided that I wanted more figures of characters from the game. I wound up getting Kenshin and Isoroku Yamamoto, and if Shikibu had a figure, I’d get that too. Sadly, she does not, and sadly, many other worthy characters from the game haven’t been so honored. Kotobukiya or Orchid Seed or someone should retool to make a figure of each female Sengoku Rance character; the world would be a better place for it.
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Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier (NA Version)


MegaHouse Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier Review

Back when I talked about Seena, I mentioned that the promo photos are sometimes misleading, that sometimes the actual figure looks better than what you expect.

The flip side of that, of course, is that sometimes the figure looks as bad as you expect. Or worse.
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KOS-MOS from Xenosaga III (1/4 Scale Version)


Volks KOS-MOS from Xenosaga Review

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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Aaliyah from Ikusa Otome Valkyrie 2 (NSFW)


Giga Pulse Aaliyah from Ikusa Otome Valkyrie 2 Review

My last figure review covered a figure that evoked mixed feelings, so I thought that for my next writeup, I’d look at a figure that everyone can agree is the very epitome of class, a figure that is, without a doubt, fun and appropriate for people of all ages.
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Yoko Ritona from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Real Image Version)


Max Factory Yoko Ritona from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Review

Backstage we’re having the time
Of our lives until somebody say
Forgive me if I seem out of line
Then she whipped out her gun and tried to blow me away!

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Collet from the Art of Tony Taka (NSFW)


Native Collet from Tony Taka Review

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 long time. It’s one that I always wished would be fulfilled but never really expected to. After waiting for so long, after holding out hope for so long, my dream has come true: I can finally say that I own a figure with a realistically-sculpted anus.
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Black Rock Shooter


Good Smile Company Black Rock Shooter Review

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 Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and several short stories. His most famous work is barely over a thousand pages in aggregate, shorter than many single volumes of contemporary fantasy series, and he labored virtually his entire adult lifetime on The Silmarillion without completing it.

That’s not to say that he wasn’t an active writer, though. Tolkien wrote prodigiously; the thing is, he constantly trashed his stories and started anew, coming up with new ideas, defining and redefining characters. One of his most famous characters, Frodo Baggins, was originally Bingo Baggins, Bilbo Baggins’s son. The character is refined over decades through numerous iterations and revisions until he becomes the Frodo that everyone knows from the movies. Despite the paucity of Tolkien’s published work, it’s safe to say that his characters are some of the most beloved in all of fiction and have, thanks to the films and the books’ enduring appeal, become pop-culture icons.

There is, however, another way to develop characters and ensconce them in the hearts and minds of the masses, one that doesn’t require a lifetime of toil. Start with a female anime character with big eyes, give her some attributes that hit on a variety of fetishes held by anime fans, get an associated video or a song up on the web, and chuck some merchandise out into the market. Then, when the inevitable anime and manga and video game tie-ins come out, you’ll be able to move more merchandise and sit back and watch panting fans drop thousands of yen on your goods. Character background? Don’t need it. Personality? Make it up as you go. Just be sure that it falls within one of the common, proven-to-sell archetypes. If it does, you’re good.
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Ivy Valentine from Soul Calibur


E2046 Ivy Valentine from Soul Calibur Review

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 recent draw?
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Seena Kanon from Shining Wind


Orchid Seed Seena Kanon from Shining Wind Review

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 pages and run them through Google Translate and do your best to interpret the results, you count down the days until its release date, and above all, you fervently, feverishly pray to all the gods above and below that the manufacturer please, please, please doesn’t screw it up. How many times have you’ve seen a figure’s prototype shots, excitement building unabated, and then, when the production sample photos come out, felt anticipation displaced by distress, lust metamorphosing into ire as you wonder, “How the hell did this happen?”

Then, when you get your shipping notice, you hope that maybe you overreacted, that your concerns were unmerited, and that your pretty little anime figure will rekindle the love for it that you first felt.
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