It’s been more than a few Anime Saturdays since I last tortured you all with my Kantai Collection obsession, so let’s visit with another one of Taito’s Fleet Girls. This time, it’s the adorable Shimakaze! Yes, for a change I’m actually looking at a character from the anime series and not just the video game!

We’ve seen Taito’s packaging many times here, and there isn’t much different here. You get a fully enclosed box with some striping on the bottom half and lots of pictures of the figure inside. Despite Shimakaze kicking back in a life preserver, this release is not classified as one of Taito’s “Day Off” figures. I’m guessing that’s because Shimakaze is dressed in her uniform and not a swimsuit. Then again, some of the other “Day Offs” were in uniform. I’m so confused!!! Also, I know what you’re thinking. Hey, that looks an awful lot like the Submarine Ro-500 figure that you featured a few weeks back. Yes, there are certainly some similarities here, but it’s still an entirely new figure, preserver, and base.

So, as already mentioned, Shimakaze reclines on a red and white life preserver and decked out in her uniform, but minus her armaments. Her outfit features her cut-off top, long gloves, blue skirt, exposed g-string, candy-striped stockings, and rudder boots. It’s all beautifully sculpted here and the skirt and top are layered onto the figure, which is always a bonus. Even the collar and neckerchief pops up off of the top to give it some added dimension and credibility. The figure itself simply rests in the tube, just like we saw with Ro-500, so you can pick her up and check her out from all angles.

The life preserver sports a little less detail than R0’s, as it’s missing the rope running around the edges. And while I’m overall very happy with the sculpt here, I think the way the hair parts looks a little unnatural from the back. That having been said, it looks fine from the front and that’s the way I’ll be viewing the statue most of the time, so it isn’t a big deal.

The portrait is fantastic and depicts Shimakaze with her traditional rabbit ear headband and perturbed expression. I’m interpreting the expression as her being annoyed at being knocked out of commission, hence the life preserver and lack of armaments, although it doesn’t explain why her uniform isn’t shredded, so I might be reading too much into that. On the downside, the above closeup shot shows that the quality of paintwork on this piece is really disappointing. The white ares show a lot of dirt and smudging and even her face and hair is rather dirty. The lines on her stockings are rough in some areas and there’s scratching on the preserver too. To be fair, if I’m viewing this piece from a display shelf, it’s not that bad, but the closer I get, the more noticeable it is. This is easily the worst paint on any of my Taito prize figures, and considering who the character is, that’s doubly disappointing.

The base is very similar in design to Ro-500’s base. It’s a simple clear disc that uses three support poles to hold up the life preserver, which pegs in securely.

Of course, you can’t have a Shimakaze figure without her Rensouhous and in this case you get the largest of the gang. Rensouhou-chan comes in his own little life preserver with a propeller sculpted on the back. He seems happy enough, which further suggests that I’m off base on my theory that this is Shimakaze after she’s taken a crippling hit. Rensouhou-Chan didn’t escape the shoddy paint problem either. There’s quite a bit of dirt on the white parts of his preserver.

Shimakaze looks great displayed next to Ro. Now, I’m guessing she looks upset because she doesn’t have an ice pop, or maybe because her paint job isn’t as good. I’ve had my eye on this figure for quite a few months, waiting to finally find one shipping from inside the US. I also had to pay a little more for her, but she was still under $25 shipped, and I still consider that a great deal. It’s just too bad that the one I got has a sub-par paint job. If I had to choose, I would much rather have had rough paint on one of the Fleet Girls from the game, rather than one of my beloved characters from the anime series. Given the relatively low price of the figure and how much I love the character, I’d be tempted to roll the dice and try again for a figure with better paint at some point down the line. If I get around to doing that, I’ll likely post an Addendum here to report on how I make out.

Greetings Anime Fans and Toy Hounds and welcome to another Anime Saturday! I’m back to Kantai Collection this week and checking out another prize figure from Taito, the secret weapon of the Fleet Girls, the mighty battleship Yamato. Just don’t call her Hotel Yamato. Seriously, don’t. She doesn’t like that.

We’ve seen plenty of Taito’s prize figure packaging on these lazy Saturdays and this one is more of the same. The figure comes in an enclosed box with perforations on the side to make some handles. You get some nice artwork showing off the figure and just enough English on the package to let you know what’s inside. Everything is collector friendly and the figure comes baggied and in need of just a little simple assembly. As always these figures land right about in the 9-inch scale, give or take a bit.

Yamato is one of my favorite designs of all the Fleet Girls. She’s just so regal and lovely. The set up here is pretty simple. The figure’s feet tab into the base as does a holder for the umbrella. This is another one of Taito’s “Day Off” figures, which show the girls during their down time, which is especially appropriate for Yamato because she spent so much of her time on the series at the Truk Lagoon base waiting to be put into action.

The outfit here is more sophisticated than the regular Fleet Girls’ uniforms. She has a white top with a burgundy skirt. The collar features a gold chrysanthemum crest, the seal of Imperial Japan, and she has a gold neckerchief as well. Her skirt features cut outs at her hips to frame the anchors hanging there. On her legs she has one thigh high stocking, with the other ending just below the knee, and rudder boots on her feet.

Yamato is holding aloft a plate of food in her right hand and clasping a menu in her left. These could be references to the hospitality that she extended toward the Fleet Girls when they arrived at Truk Lagoon. They could also reflect that even after the simplest of maneuvers, Yamato required huge amounts of food to sustain her energy because she was such a powerful battleship. Even a simple training exercise with Fubuki required a vast meal afterwards.

The portrait is excellent. Yamato’s face is dwarfed by the copious amount of hair that sweeps out behind her and also flows off of her shoulders. Her eyes are perfectly printed and her mouth is open with delight, because… FOOD! She features her radar apparatus on head and her ponytail is bound with a ring of pink chrysanthemums. The skin tones on the figure are warm and even. I’ve been pretty impressed with Taito’s work on these figures in the past and Yamato is no exception. The character design offers a lot of opportunities to show off with the sculpt and the paint is especially well done. I love the bright gold used for the neckerchief and collar crest, and there’s a little more on the tiny tassels that hang down from her radar array.

The base is just as large as it needs to be and features a sculpted brick floor pattern. Yamato’s trademark umbrella is set atop a structure made to look like the battleship’s mast.

And so, Taito has done it again, delivering another superb addition to my ever expanding collection of Fleet Girls. I’ve found that Amazon has been a great source for these figures and Yamato here set me back a whopping $18 shipped from within the US. There aren’t a lot of aspects of figure collecting that make me feel like I’m getting a great value these days, but I’ll buy figures like this for under twenty bucks all day long! That probably explains why my KanColle shelves are starting to get so congested.

I had planned on looking at a Figma today, but some uninvited water has my toy closet in upheaval and while nothing was damaged, there’s a lot of stuff I can’t physically get to this weekend, as I await new carpeting so I can put everything back. That, and it’s been too long a week for me to get involved in a lengthy Feature. I just want to chill out today, play some video games and marathon some episodes of One Piece, and coif some rich, life-fortifying Jameson. Fortunately, I do have a newly arrived Prize Figure from Taito handy, so let’s do this!

Today I’m having a look at another character from the video game, as opposed to the anime series. Again, my familiarity with the game exclusive characters is limited, so I always take this opportunity to read up on them. In this case, I’m not getting a lot of personality from Shiranui or even any really memorable quotes, so let’s just press on with the packaging. She comes in the usual fully enclosed box that we’ve seen many times here from Taito. You get several photos of the figure, but precious little in the way of English, but hey this is an import after all. As you can see, my box came pretty smashed up. I do keep these boxes to store the figures when they’re not being displayed, but considering how cheap I get these for, it’s probably foolish to expect good packing. Shiranui actually comes in a bubble inside the box. That’s the first time I’ve seen that!

As you probably read way up there in the title to this piece, Shiranui is a “Preparation Figure,” which means this depicts her getting ready for battle. I’ve looked at one other of these, and that was the Light Cruiser Yahagi. I was mostly drawn to this figure by the rather distinctive nature of her outfit. It’s still got some of the trappings of the traditional Fleet Girls sailor-style school uniform, at least in the form of the pleated skirt. In this case, however, she’s wearing a more traditional collared blouse, a black vest, and black leggings that go just above her knees. She isn’t sporting any rudder boots, just a pair of gray socks and some sensible brown loafers. Maybe they’re boat shoes. HA! It’s kind of an eclectic ensemble, but I like it.

Shiranui is quickly tying her necktie, with one glove stuffed in her belt and the other dangling from her mouth. She has one of her smaller twin gun mounts strapped to her right thigh, but the rest of her armaments are on the ground waiting to be equipped. The coloring on this piece is not overly sharp, but it is pretty solid. There’s no evidence of any especially bad slop or untidy lines. The white, black, and gray outfit is livened up a bit by the bright red necktie. The skin tone is warm and soft, but there are some really obvious and unsightly seams on her arms. That’s a bit of a downer for me.

I like the portrait here. The pink hair and blue bow helps spruce up the color palate quite a bit. The large eyes are neatly printed, and the expression is solemn and measured. She doesn’t look like she’s frantically hurrying, but rather preparing herself, physically and mentally, for the sortie ahead. It’s a somewhat sober emotion for what has generally been a fairly whimsical line.

The bases on the figures are all over the board. Here we get a simple clear disc with places to peg her unequipped armaments. In front of her is the smaller twin gun mount for her left thigh, and behind her rests the larger 12.7cm high angle gun mount, which I believe she wears over her shoulder. Like the other Destroyers, Shiranui is supposed to have an oxygen torpedo mount, but it isn’t present. I like that the base here is extremely respectful of my diminishing shelf space. It’s only as large as it needs to be.

I like this figure a lot, but it’s not one of my favorites. It might be because I haven’t been able to glean much about the character from my readings. The quality is solid for a figure in this price range (mine was $16 shipped!), but it also feels like a little bit of a drop from some this line’s overall standard. I know, I shouldn’t expect top quality from a mere prize figure, but Taito has set a high bar with some of their releases. Still, I’m very happy to add her to my Fleet Girls shelf. And apologies for no group shot for comparison this time, but as I said earlier, I can’t even get into the area of the room where the others are displayed. Hopefully, I’ll be able to take some snaps in a few days and add them in.

It’s Saturday morning and around these parts that means it’s time to pour a big cup of coffee and open up another anime figure. And surprise, surprise… it’s another Fleet Girl from Kantai Collection. Not only that, but another “Day Off” figure from Taito! Let’s check out the adorable Maya, she’s a Takao Class Heavy Cruiser and we’re catching her in between skirmishes with the Abyssal Fleet and enjoying her downtime.

As we’ve already seen many times, Taito’s prize figures come in these colorful, fully enclosed boxes. You get virtually no English at all on the package, but you do get some nice pictures of the figure inside and the KanColle logo. The figure comes in plastic bags and requires just a little assembly to set up. Actually, in this case, it’s not even really assembly, you just rest the girl on the base and put her extra gun mount wherever you want it. Maya hails from the Kantai Collection video game, as opposed to the anime series. I’m not nearly as familiar with the girls from the game, so let’s just let Maya introduce herself in her own words… “I’m the awesome air defense cruiser, Maya! Anti-aircraft warfare? You can count on me! Just hide behind me!” She sounds spunky. I like spunky. And since is a “Day Off” figure, perhaps this quote is more appropriate: “All right! It’s summer, summer! Feels good huh? Hey, Admiral, take off your clothes and stuff and let’s go swimming!”

Out of the box and all set up, Maya rests cross-legged on the floor, cradling one of her twin gun mounts in her lap and adjusting the adorable little cap that’s angled on her head. Despite being a “Day Off” figure, Maya is still wearing her usual outfit for the game, which retains some of the school uniform appearance, but is also one of the more revealing outfits, as it consists of an abbreviated top and a short skirt.

Maya is also still all kitted out in her gear, which includes her rudder boots, her arm bands, which I believe are her AA guns, and her Type 21 Air Radar antenna protrudes from the sides of her head. You also get a spare twin gun mount, which you can place anywhere on the base. The detail in the armaments is all pretty good, but my one quibble here is that the guns are very soft and bendy and tough to keep straight. It makes her equipment look more like it belongs in one of the “Half Damage” figures, rather than a “Day Off” figure. Then again, maybe she’s taking some downtime after taking some damage in a tough battle.

The portrait here is among my favorites that Taito has done for this line. Maya is adorable with her large, perfectly printed blue eyes, and her cute little smile. The hair is pretty short and tame, maybe a little chunky, but it looks fine.

The paint quality on this figure is excellent. You get some nice sharp lines on the red borders of her collar, and the white piping on her gloves and top. The whites are nice and clean, and there’s a little gradient to her skirt as it becomes light blue toward the hemline. The plastic used for the skin can look a little waxy under bright lights and there are some faint seams showing on her legs, but neither is something that I’m going to get worked up about considering the price point here.

The base takes up a fair amount of real estate, but it doesn’t feel as if it’s a lot bigger than it needs to be. It’s cast in brown plastic and sculpted to simulate either a wood floor or the deck of a ship. It’s not quite the exotic environment that I-401 had, but it’s certainly more distinctive than the plain black disc we saw with Akashi.

Maya set me back a whopping $16 shipped from Amazon and she may be my favorite of the three KanColle “Day Off” figures I’ve opened, and that’s saying something because I really do enjoy them all. They did a beautiful job on her and she makes for a very distinct presence on my ever expanding KanColle shelves. I had originally planned to keep my collection focused on characters from the anime series, but some of the video game designs are so much more interesting that I just can’t resist them and while the language barrier will probably forever prevent me from playing the game, it’s been fun digging in and learning about some of these characters.