Tentacle Armada - Anime Figure Reviews & Photography

Preorder Outlook XXXVII

written on August 29, 2014 by Tier

The hope was to get a figure post up before the weekend but since paint and plaster take way too long to dry, we’ll talk about some upcoming figures that I’m thinking about ordering instead. We’ve got a few figures from the big new sexy thing – Kantai Collection, of course – and a few from some storied, old-school series. The great thing is that most of these figures are pretty big; I think there’s only one 1/8 scale figure on this list, actually. Let’s take a look at them.
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Posted in Preorder Outlook | Tagged Figures, Preorder Outlook, Random Thoughts | 21 Comments

Alisa Ilinichina Amiella from God Eater 2 (GE2 Version)

written on August 21, 2014 by Tier

Alis Iilinichina Amiella from God Eater 2

Alisa is the most popular character from God Eater, at least amongst figure companies, and it’s not hard to see why. Since Plum released their first version of her, she’s had one more figure released by Alphamax with another in the pipeline, and Volks is apparently doing a big-ass doll of her, which looks nice. This is Plum’s second figure of her, and while it represents a noticeable improvement over their original product, it’s not without its own faults – though admittedly, some of those faults are self-imposed.
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Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1/7 scale, Alisa Ilinichina Amiella, epic ass, Figures, god eater 2, gun, plum, Review | 20 Comments

Hakufu Sonsaku from Ikki Tousen (NSFW)

written on August 15, 2014 by Tier

It feels like it’s been a while since a notable Ikki Tousen figure was released. That’s sort of an odd thing to think, as a common complaint from a few years back was that too many companies were making Ikki Tousen figures. However, most of those figures were of fan favorites Kanu Unchou and Ryomou Shimei; nominal lead girl Hakufu Sonsaku never got that many figures. I suppose that’s not that surprising; while she was one of the first characters to be introduced in the manga, she wasn’t really all that interesting, and she never seemed to achieve the sort of popularity that the other characters gained. That alone makes this figure peculiar; what makes it even more unusual is its styling. Ikki Tousen’s character designs don’t stray far from typical anime conventions, but this figure provides quite a different take on Hakufu, so much so that one might not have been able to identify this character at first glance, even if one were familiar with the series.
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Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1/6 scale, dragon toy, figure, hakufu sonsaku, hentai, ikki tousen, reviews | 27 Comments

Princess Milk from Hime to Boin (NSFW)

written on July 31, 2014 by Tier

Of late, collectors of ero figures have much to be happy about. Alphamax has produced a number of quality hentai figures, Native’s goods are now far more accessible (at least to those who live in the countries that they ship to), and Daiki Kougyou is their usual eclectic self. It’s a little surprising, then, that it seems like Orchid Seed has lost a little luster during this interval, at least with respect to their status as a maker of ero figures. For one thing, they’ve shown a surprising reluctance to implement the sort of fully-explicit nudity that Native and Daiki Kougyou are well known for and that Alphamax has, quite surprisingly, energetically embraced. Also, they’ve never been a prolific figure maker, except perhaps in terms of producing recolored variants of existing products, and yet they consistently tease collectors at hobby conventions with numerous unpainted prototypes and artwork of planned future figures. Princess Milk was one such figure; it’s been four years since collectors learned of Orchid Seed’s plans to make her. It feels a little strange that, after she’s manifested merely as an illustration at so many Wonder Festivals, she’s finally here.
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Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1/7 scale, Figures, hentai, hime to boin, Orchid Seed, panties, princess milk | 24 Comments

Preorder Outlook XXXVI

written on July 28, 2014 by Tier

This past weekend was Wonder Festival and San Diego Comic Con weekend, which means a lot of cool new stuff was shown off to the world. Accordingly, it seems like a good idea to look at some cool new figures that have gone up for preorder in the last month. Sometimes I include figures in these posts that I give only a marginal chance for me to order, but this month, I’m quite fond of all of the figures listed here, and it’s going to be difficult to pare the buy list down.

A programming note: reviews have been very sparse here the last couple of months. That’s partly due to my innately lazy nature but it’s also due to some real-life issues that unexpectedly popped up early last month. That caused a great deal of stress but fortunately things seem to have stabilized. Unfortunately I have less time to do figure reviews now than I used to, which means that I’m not going to bother with elaborate backgrounds for a number of my figures. This is the way I’d prefer to do it, anyway, since complicated backgrounds introduce a number of problems in taking pictures and divert attention from the figure, which is something I’ve never liked. With this in mind, I’m hoping to get around to some reviews for some older figures; there are a bunch where I had some ideas in mind, but I don’t think they are practicable, and I might as well unbox them and get their photos done already.
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Posted in Preorder Outlook | Tagged Figures, Preorder Outlook, Random Thoughts | 33 Comments

Kamael from Lineage II

written on July 16, 2014 by Tier

Despite its age, Lineage II has been a popular source of inspiration for figure manufacturers. Thus far, Good Smile Company, Orchid Seed, and Max Factory have made figures of its characters. That’s gratifying to see, as Lineage II has some very attractive character designs. It’s not atypical in that respect; this may be over-generalizing, but I’ve long thought that Korean MMOs – a group that also includes TERA, Aion, Blade & Soul, and Scarlet Blade Online – have some of the best character designs in video games. The Kamael is the latest such figure to be released, and it’s the third Lineage figure to be produced by Max Factory; we’ll be looking at them in reverse order.
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Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1/7 scale, armor, Figures, kamael, lineage ii, Max Factory, Review, thong, wings | 16 Comments

Preorder Outlook XXXV

written on June 30, 2014 by Tier

It is time for that monthly examination of figures that have recently been put up for preorder. It’s a mix of figures this time, with a few of the usual companies – Kotobukiya and Max Factory in particular – unrepresented. Hopefully they have some neat stuff to show at Wonder Festival, which is just a few weeks away already. Where does the time go? (Spent slacking off, in my case.) Anyway, let’s take a look at the upcoming cool things.
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Posted in Preorder Outlook | Tagged Figures, Preorder Outlook, Random Thoughts | 43 Comments

Tomo Asama from Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere (Zudon Miko Version)

written on June 23, 2014 by Tier

As we’ve noted before, there aren’t that many figures of characters from Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, and those that do exist are mostly from relatively minor manufacturers. Fortunately, a couple of exceptions have been recently released: Alter’s Kazuno and Tomo Asama by Kotobukiya. This happiness is tempered by the realization that those two figures may be amongst the last figures from the series to be released (Wave has a Beach Queens Kimi Aoi scheduled to drop next month, and Volks is supposedly doing figures of Kimi and Kazuno, but who knows whether those will ever materialize). A sad state of affairs, that, and it appears that figure companies are moving on to the next big thing, such as Kantai Collection, which somehow feels a bit like it’s worn out its welcome before even having arrived. The only consolation is that if Tomo is the last Horizon figure to be made by a major figure company, she is at least a very fine one indeed.
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Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1/8 scale, bodysuit, bow, Figures, horizon on the middle of nowhere, Kotobukiya, Review, thong, tomo asama | 21 Comments

Tamaki Kousaka from To Heart 2: Dungeon Travelers (Kaitendoh Version)

written on June 17, 2014 by Tier

Amongst anime hobby companies, Tamaki Kousaka’s popularity as a muse is everlasting. This isn’t always a good thing; the esteem in which she’s held by figure makers occasionally seems excessive, and a large segment of the collecting population greets each release of a new Tamaki figure with a collective rolling of the eyes. However, I pay no attention to that; I like Tamaki, and I own a bunch of her figures. It’s actually been over a year since I reviewed one; in other words, it’s been too long since we’ve looked at her. To remedy this insufficiency, we’ll look at one of her newest figures, which squeezes her into her Dungeon Travelers fighting outfit. We’ve seen this before; Kotobukiya made a figure of her in this outfit, but while that figure exemplified why, for a long time, people generally regarded Kotobukiya as a maker of mediocre figures, this one, by Kaitendoh, is quite a bit nicer.
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Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1/6 scale, Figures, Kaitendoh, panties, Review, sword, tamaki kousaka, to heart 2: dungeon travelers | 17 Comments

Dakimakura Review – Suzuka Takasaki from Kokuhaku Lovers (NSFW)

written on June 10, 2014 by Tier

There is an absolutely gigantic box in my living room. We will examine its contents in great detail in the days to come but first, we’ll take a quick look at a dakimakura cover. This pillowcase is a companion piece to this one of Kanane Kurashiki, which was sold at the same time from the same place. Both pillowcases feature art by Yoshiaki Katsurai, one of the better-known artists in the ero doujinshi industry.
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