Tag Archives: Alter

Miyamoto Musashi from Fate/Grand Order (Alter Berserker Version)

Miyamoto Musashi figure

Alright, time to get back on track with figure reviews. Today we’ll take a look at Miyamoto Musashi, Type Moon’s genderbent interpretation of the famous Japanese swordsman and philosopher. This particular version presents her as a Berserker, and evidently depicts her Stage 2 appearance. Doubtless this means something to Fate Grand Order players but being that I’m not inclined to ever touch the game, I’m content to stay willfully ignorant as to the context of these descriptors.
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Scathach from Fate/Grand Order (Roomwear Mode Version)

Scathach from Fate/Grand Order

Fads come and go. Over ten years of collecting girly anime figures, I’ve seen series like K-On!, Black Rock Shooter, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and Ikkitousen have their day before fading off into memory. However, there is one series that has never seen its star dim and that, of course, is Fate/stay night, and all its myriad slash-random word spinoffs. The coterie of sexualized heroines have always found an appreciative audience, regardless of the ludicrous interpretations of their historical backgrounds. A Saber figure was one of the earliest figures that I owned, there is a veritable (and assuredly metaphorical) boatload of Fate-series figures in my review queue right now, and their ranks will only grow in the years to come. I have little doubt that should the universe someday collapse back into an infinitesimal singularity, the last atom to go will be the injection molded tip of Saber’s ahoge.
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Black Heart from Hyperdimension Neptunia

Black Heart from Hyperdimension Game Neptunia

We’ll take a short respite from reviewing hentai figures and instead look at this figure of Black Heart – not the demonic villain from the Marvel Comics universe, but the Sony-themed goddess from the Hyperdimension Neptune video game franchise. Compile Heart and parent company Idea Factory have made a number of anime-themed RPGs, most of which have languished in obscurity, but they hit it big with the Neptune series, which has since spawned numerous games, a mediocre television anime, but surprisingly few figures, meaning that any time we get to look at a figure from this series is a special moment.
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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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Mikan Yuuki from To Love-Ru Darkness (School Swimsuit Version)

Mikan Yuuki from To Love-Ru Darkness

The plan was to do a porno figure review but the gods of lighting and set design are fickle. Instead, with the To Love-Ru series getting quite a bit of love from figure makers this year, we’ll take a look at Alter’s Mikan Yuuki. This is the second figure of Mikan that they’ve released; I didn’t get the first, as I generally prefer figures that are standing upright, or at least kneeling. Considering its origins, it is perhaps not as lewd as one might expect, but there’s something to be said for a relatively innocuous figure of a cute anime girl.
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Yagyu Gisen from Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

Yagyu Gisen figure by Alter

Many, many companies make figures of the characters from Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls, but nobody does it better than Alter. It has been a while since we’ve gotten a new figure of a core character, though; in fact, it’s been over a year since they released Naoe Kanetsugu. Charles d’Artagnan is still MIA, with not even a hint of a prototype sculpt, but presumably she’ll be along at some point in the future. In the meantime, today we will take a look at Gisen, the erotic seductress whose fiery passion and icy resolve conceal a variety of secrets.
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Naoe Kanetsugu from Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls (Swimsuit Version)

Naoe Kanetsugu, the Warrior of Love from Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

Back to the bikini figures, and today we’ll be looking at the self-described Warrior of Love, Naoe Kanetsugu.
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Nanoha Takamachi from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS (Summer Holiday Version)

Nanoha Takamachi from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Figure Review

As reliable as death and taxes is Alter’s proclivity for making figures of characters from the Nanoha series. This one was a bit surprising though, as it appeared that they had wrapped up the StrikerS series with Vivio a couple of years ago. It seemed likely that they would begin adapting the new designs from the upcoming movie but contrary to that expectation, they’re going back to StrikerS. Not that I have a problem with that since I feel kinda dirty every time I look at my loli Fate figures.
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Yagyu Jubei from Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls (White Swimsuit Version)

Yagyu Jubei from Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls Figure Review

When you don’t have a belt or a strap to hang your swords off of, you make do the best that you can.
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Aegis from Persona 3 (Art Works Version)

Aegis from Persona 3 Figure Review

I was surprised when I learned that Alter was making another Aegis figure. They’d already done a figure of Aegis and their current catalog is mostly focused on popular, recent anime – Strike Witches, Bakemonogatari, K-On! and Railgun in their time, and so on. And though Persona 3 is a great game, it feels like it’s been overshadowed and overwhelmed by its sequel. While Persona 3 spawned a derivative and mostly-forgotten anime series, Persona 4 received a direct anime adaptation, on top of getting a fighting game developed by Arc System Works (to be fair, a few Persona 3 characters will be appearing in that game). And while several Persona 4 characters – such as Teddie, Nanako, and every female member of the player’s party – seem to be fan favorites, you don’t really hear anybody wax rhapsodically about Yukari or Ken. Me, personally, I like Persona 3 much more than Persona 4, so I’m glad that Alter chose Aegis once more.
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