Tag Archives: wings

Pet Fairy Renge from T2 Art Works

written on December 31, 2018 by Tier
Pet Fairy Renge from T2 Art Works

Between some unexpectedly time-consuming work obligations and a two-week encounter with bronchitis, this month has been a total bust as far as personal productivity is concerned. That said, I try to do at least one post per month, and luckily I’ve had these photos of Alphamax’s Renge stashed away for a few months, waiting for a length of time where I couldn’t do a normal post. Normally I’d have my five favorite figures post ready to go on this day but that’ll have to wait a couple more days, particularly since I am not sure which figures out to take the fourth and fifth spots (the top three have been locked up since summer). In the meantime, we’ll take a quick look at an older figure that I still quite like.
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Innocent Fairy Freesia from Tony’s Heroine Collection

written on June 13, 2016 by Tier
Freesia from Tony's Heroine Collection

The third panty fairy in Kotobukiya’s lineup is Freesia. She is evidently the youngest of the trio and thus it is appropriate that she was the last to be released – just a couple of months ago, in fact, so this review isn’t too late. Certainly not as late as Annabel’s, anyway.
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Fairy Garden Annabel from Tony’s Heroine Collection

written on May 31, 2016 by Tier
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A few years back, Kotobukiya released Daisy, which became one of my favorite figures. Since then, they’ve released two more panty-clad fairy girl figures, also derived from Tony Taka artwork. They are generally referred to as sisters, though they don’t actually look much alike; Freesia, the shorter, younger-looking sister was released just over a month ago, while Annabel, the tallest of the trio, was released last year. We’ll look at Freesia shortly but today, it’s Annabel’s turn.
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Kamael from Lineage II

written on July 16, 2014 by Tier
Kamael figure from Lineage II

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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Peace Keeper Daisy from Tony’s Heroine Collection

written on January 5, 2014 by Tier
Daisy from Tony's Heroine Collection

Many figure companies have made figures of Tony’s artwork. In recent times, many of those figures were based off of characters designed for existing properties; Sega’s Shining series, the Vocaloid image character lineup, and eroge like Fault!!, for instance. This figure is a bit unusual in that, although she comes from a very big toy company known for making figures of well-known characters from popular game and anime franchises, Daisy is, as far as I can tell, an original character whose sole earlier appearance was on the cover of the artbook Girls! Girls Girls! 9 ~Decoration Girls~. That title might suggest that the book is full of naughty pictures but it’s actually quite tame, with illustrations contributed by artists like Kantoku, Hiro Suzuhira, Oyari Ashito, and of course, Tony Taka. I’m not sure what “peace keeper” denotes – Daisy looks neither aggressive enough nor adequately dressed to conduct peacekeeping operations – but I’ll assume there’s some meaning to the title. In the meantime, let’s take a look at our heroine.
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Nymph from Sora no Otoshimono (Swimsuit Version)

written on June 21, 2013 by Tier
Nymph swimsuit figure by Plum

In anime, certain physical attributes are frequently associated with particular character archetypes. Female American characters are often blonde, blue-eyed and buxom; quiet or smart characters often wear eyeglasses (or in Rei Ayanami’s case, have an attachment to spectacles). Another common juxtaposition involves the loli tsundere personality type. Being a loli implies certain physical qualities, of course: it necessitates short stature and an undeveloped chest, for a certainty, but many such characters also wear twintails, to the point that if I see any loli-looking character with twintails, I usually assume that she is a tsundere type. (Though I would have been better served had I made that presumption while watching Date-A-Live’s first episode, whose cheerful, frisky little sister character swiftly turned into a repugnant, poisonous little bitch.)

Sora no Otoshimono’s Nymph checks all those marks, but this particular figure breaks from orthodoxy in an unusual manner: loli characters are generally not known for the magnitude of their backsides but this figure gives Nymph a sizeable ass. It’s an unusual decision, one that doesn’t really respect the usual forms, but regardless, it looks great.
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Sister Misa from Mahou Shoujo (NSFW)

written on January 7, 2013 by Tier
Sister Misa from Mahou Shoujo Figure Review

Native figures are always a treat to receive, and here is the newest one yet. This character is Misae Suzuhara, also called Misa-nee, and she comes from a doujinshi series simply titled “Mahou Shoujo” – no “Mahou Shoujo Misae” or anything like that, just Magical Girl. Most of Native’s figures are labelled as part of the Creator’s Collection, for which they take the work of particular artists and turn their 2D art into 3D sculpts. While most of the figures in this set are of fairly conventional design regardless of the artist, Misae definitely is not.
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Nymph from Sora no Otoshimono (Plum Version)

written on June 25, 2011 by Tier
Nymph from Sora no Otoshimono

While I buy lots of figures, a quick glance at my collection indicates that I tend to buy figures of older characters who are often wielding weapons. You won’t find that many loli characters on my shelves, for the simple reason that while I don’t dislike them, they’re not really my thing. I usually like characters that are a bit older. So why did I buy this figure of Nymph? A careful and deliberate examination of the image above will reveal the reason.
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Dizzy from Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (Alter Version)

written on April 30, 2011 by Tier
Dizzy from Guilty Gear X2

Back when I wrote about Kotobukiya’s Dizzy, I mentioned that I wished a better manufacturer like Alter or Max Factory had done the figure instead. Dizzy was the main reason I first played the Guilty Gear series and while I enjoy the games on their own merits now, Dizzy is still one of my favorite characters across all fictional media. While I did not dislike Kotobukiya’s figure, I still hoped that someone would do a better job of it. I didn’t expect to ever see that happen; after all, I’ve been pining away for an Irma figure – since MegaHouse has done almost all of the other Queen’s Blade figures – and an Itsuki Kannagi figure – since Good Smile Company sponsored Sora Kake Girl – to no avail. But fate works in strange ways and Dizzy now has two figures. I’d still like to see Irma and Itsuki get figures but when it comes to wishes made on a wing and a prayer, one out of three ain’t bad at all.
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Dizzy from Guilty Gear XX Accent Core

written on February 13, 2010 by Tier

Kotobukiya Dizzy from Guilty Gear X Review

Curiously, figure manufacturers don’t often look to fighting games. I’m not sure why; fighting games are rife with awesome and awesome-looking characters. Okay, Iroha briefly achieved it-girl status and Mai Shiranui, Cammy, and Mina Majikina get figures every now and then, but there’s nothing from Tekken, nothing from The Last Blade, nothing from Virtua Fighter. Even the Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur, and The King of Fighters series – which feature some of the most iconic fighters in video games – are barely represented in the figure hobby. There are no scale figures of Helena or Lisa, Sophitia or Seung Mina, Kula Diamond or Mars People.

Above all of those, I’ve wanted a figure of Dizzy. She’s my favorite character in all of fighting games, but apart from Max Factory-produced figures of a Shunya Yamashita-inspired I-No and the transvestite Bridget, there seemed to be no inclination on the part of figure manufacturers to look at Guilty Gear X. But fortune works in strange ways, and thanks to the popularity of the Queen’s Blade series, there is now a figure of Dizzy, the Guilty Gear X character who was adapted into a Queen’s Gate book, which is itself an adaptation of the Queen’s Blade series, which is itself an adaptation of Scottsdale, Arizona-based (of all places) Flying Buffalo’s Lost Worlds game books. Strange ways indeed.
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