Tag Archives: statues

Aug 27 2016

KanColle: Kagerou Class Destroyer Shiranui (Preparation Figure) by Taito

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!

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Aug 26 2016

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Vixen by DC Collectibles

As many of you know by now, Cover Girls is a line that I love to collect, but it often has to take a backseat to other priorities. It’s a gamble, because sometimes they get discounted and other times they sell quickly and skyrocket in price. Getting backlogged on this line can be a scary prospect. Most recently, I was torn between picking up Vixen or the second version of Catwoman next, but then I figured I already have the first Catwoman release, so why not expand the family? And besides, Vixen is awesome.

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It’s been a few months since I last visited with this line. The boxes haven’t changed. They’re simple, and collector friendly, and they show a number of shots of the collectible inside. The back of the box has images for Starfire and a new version of Harley Quinn. Vixen has been getting a little love in the DCTV media lately, with both animated and live action appearances. And seeing as how DC Collectibles is already producing second versions of some of the A-Listers in this line, it’s nice to see that they aren’t completely ignoring some of the B-Listers. No offense, Mari. Anyway, getting Vixen set up is easy, you just peg her into the base and she’s good to go, so let’s do that and check her out!

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Grrr, baby… Grrrrr! If you’re a newcomer to this line, these ladies tend to be approximately 9 to 10″ in scale. Vixen stands with legs apart and her arms held out, as if she’s ready to pounce right off her base. The Cover Girls line has offered a reasonable compromise between action and museum style composition, and I think Vixen is another good example of that. In this case, what we get really captures the character nicely. This is just such a simple and elegant pose.

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Vixen sports her rather simple body suit with sculpted cut-outs to resemble animal stripes, and long sleek gloves. You also get some sculpted seams, boot lines, and whatever that strategically placed silver fixture is right above her you-know-where. The paint on the costume is almost entirely… ochre? Is that what you’d call that? Yeah, let’s go with ochre… with a hint of metallic sheen to it. There’s also a low plunging neckline for those of you who like a little sumthin-sumthin with your lady statues.

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The portrait here is among my favorites that this line has done in its current series. Mari’s got a beautiful face with a stern expression that shows she means business. The skin tone is warm and soft and the paint lines around her tribal necklace are pretty nice and sharp. In fact, all the paint on her facial features are equally sharp and precise. I especially like her yellow eyes and the sheen on her lipstick. There’s a little spray around her hairline, but I’m thinking that is intentional. Speaking of the hair, it’s sculpted beautifullly, and I dig the way it trails down around her high collar and over her right shoulder.

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This line continues to use simple and standardized oval bases, in this case personalized with an animal head cut out at the cardinal points. It features a silver top and stripe and the edges are painted to match her costume. The limitation is hand numbered on the bottom of the base. Mine is 874 of 5,200.

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As beautiful a piece as this is, I’m guessing that Vixen isn’t selling all that well, because she’s available everywhere and at pretty deep discounts. That’s a shame for two reasons. One, at this price point, you’re getting a stunning statue of a great character. Two, a lot of people complain that these lines stick to the safe A-listers, which brings me back to my earlier point. Doing lesser known characters is a gamble for these companies and if it doesn’t pay off, they won’t keep doing it. And honestly, Vixen isn’t exactly obscure. It’s something to keep in mind when we’re seeing the second versions of Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Wonder Woman, and still haven’t seen a Zatanna, Jessica Cruz, Fire, Ice, Stargirl, Star Sapphire… I could go on and on…

Aug 13 2016

KanColle: Abyssal Fleet Battleship Princess Senkan Seiki By Taito

I had honestly planned to mix things up for today’s Anime Saturday and do something different, but then I got this Battleship Princess from Taito and couldn’t wait to open her up. Still, it’s sort of different, because in the unending parade of KanColle figures that I’ve featured here, I’ve only looked at one other Abyssal figure, and that was the Airfield Princess by Furyu way back in May.

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Enclosed boxes are still the order of the day for Taito’s prize figures. Gone, however, are the cheery colors of the Fleet Girls’ boxes as here we have a more sinister black and red deco that better suits the evil Abyssal Fleet. There’s a little more English on the package than we usually get, a nice big Kantai Collection logo on the front panel, and plenty of pictures of the figure inside. This box is also notably bigger than most of the other releases in this line and it weighs a lot more than usual. I’m excited to open her up and see what we’ve got!

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Holy hell! Despite how elaborate this piece may look, it requires very little assembly. You get a piece of hose that plugs into the back of Seiki’s neck, next you tab the feet and the other end of the hose into the base. I found that it was impossible to get her right foot to tab in all the way. I may need to shave the tab a bit, but even as it is, she stands fine. It’s also worth noting that Seiki herself is scaled a bit smaller than most of Taito’s Fleet Girls, but that’s understandable given the amount of plastic used for the base. And speaking of the base… I’m going to break my usual formula and start by discussing base first and including some shots of it without the figure.

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Obviously, I’m used to seeing plain plastic discs for the bases on these figures, but here we have a sculpted water environment cast in a beautiful translucent blue plastic. The monstrous left hand of the Battleship Water Demon reaches up from the waves while the tip of one of its two heads breaks water surface to the back left, along with one of its triple gun mounts to the back right.

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The sculpt on the Water Demon parts is all solid. The hand looks incredible, while the battleship parts are a little more basic and convey the look of rough hammered iron. Apart from the vibrant blue water the design doesn’t offer a lot of colors to work with here, but Taito still did some nice stuff with the paint. The coloring on the head gradually becomes more toward the giant monolithic teeth and the ends of the gun barrels are red, as if running hot from being fired. The effect of these pieces mixed with the translucent water is just fantastic. Moving on to the figure itself…

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Seiki stands atop the Water Demon’s hand with her long black hair fanning out around her. In design, she’s slightly less creepy than the Airfield Princess, but only slightly. There is some nice sculpted detail on her black dress, her low plunging neckline shows off her lady battleship parts, and you get her little demon horns protruding from above her chest and her forehead. I really like the sense of scale between the Water Demon’s hand and Seiki, which may be why she appears to be a little smaller than Taito’s other Fleet Girls.

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The only coloring here is black and gray with some red accents for her eyes, horns, and some highlights in her hair. You do get a little mix of gloss and matte black, though. The paint is a little more heavy handed than I’m used to seeing on Taito’s work. In fact, this is one of the first times I think the pant quality was vastly superior on the sample used for the box shots. Still, what we got is not bad at all.

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I’m totally blown away by this piece! This is a prize figure and to get something so elaborate in this format impresses the hell out of me. Granted, she cost me more than any of my other KanColle prize figures, but at under $30, she still feels like a great deal, and despite a little variance in scale, she displays quite nicely besides my Furyu Airfield Princess.

Aug 6 2016

KanColle: Takao Class Heavy Crusier Maya (Day Off Figure) by Taito

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.

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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!”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Jul 23 2016

KanColle: Aircraft Carrier Submarine I-401 (Day Off Figure) by Taito

Hey hey, it’s Saturday. Anime Saturday. And that means more KanColle! Ok, I’m done rhyming now. I had originally planned on looking at a new Sailor Moon Figuart today, but time caught me up, so I had to fall back on another Prize Figure from Kantai Collection. This Saturday, I’m back to Taito and another “Day Off” Figure, and like the last “Day Off” Figure, this one is from the Kantai Collection video game and not the Animation Sequence. She’s Aircraft Carrier Submarine I-401… but you can call her Shioi!

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As usual, Taito presents the figure in a colorful, fully enclosed box, which gives you plenty of shots of the figure inside. There’s not a lot of English, but the figure is identified on the top panel. I have to say I think this box is especially cool. There’s something about the art style that makes it look like a vintage pin-up and reminds me a bit of the old Vargas Girls art. As a character from the game, I’m not as familiar with her as the anime characters, but I tend to go in and read some of their dialogue as an indicator. In this case with phrases like, “CAN I DIVE YET? CAN I DIVE YET?” and “Please don’t touch my hangar tubes that much!” indicate that she’s adorable.

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It doesn’t take long to get Shioi ready for display. You just peg her feet into the base, peg her submarine gear into her tushie, and peg each of the tiny planes onto the carrier deck. Toss the tiny crab (which I already lost!) onto the base and she’s ready to go! The “Day Off” figures are pretty self-explanatory, as they depict our fearless Fleet Girls enjoying some down time. In this case, Shioi is strolling along the beach in a one-piece swimsuit with a cover up that resembles the school uniforms they usually wear. She shoots a side glance as she brings a bottle of icy cold water (or perhaps Ramune?) up to her lips. The sculpt here for the costume is very simple, but the colors are excellent, particularly the soft skin tones, the deep blue, and the bright white of her cover up.

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I was particularly anxious to get this statue because there aren’t any submarines in the anime and that seems like a missed opportunity. At the same time, I get excited whenever I see a reference to the Japanese I-400 Sub Aircraft Carriers, because they’re such a wonderful curiosity. As I understand it they saw virtually no action in the war and even as someone who enjoys doing a fair amount of reading about WWII, I rarely ever encounter any mention of them. The very concept of a submersible aircraft carrier still sounds like something out of science fiction. It’s just damn cool.

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The sculpt for the submarine component is solid but not exceptional. It looks a little soft, and there isn’t a whole lot of detail on it, but there’s enough here to get by, and it’s perfectly acceptable to me for a figure in this price range. On the other hand, they did a very nice job sculpting the three tiny Aichi M6A Seiran aircraft that perch on the launching gantry. Most of the Sub Aircarft Carriers were designed to launch recon planes, but these babies were meant for attack!

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The portrait here is very simple and functional, She’s cute, but nothing fancy. Shioi features large brown-printed eyes, short hair, and a wide smile. Her bottle is cast in translucent blue-green plastic.

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While the majority of the Taito Prize Figures in my collection have simple, featureless bases, Shioi’s is crafted to look like a stretch of beach, half sand and half water. The water surface has sculpted ripples and is cast in transparent blue plastic with the sand painted and textured. I haven’t lost hope in finding that tiny crab, but alas he remains MIA for this review.

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The I-401 “Day Off” figure set me back just under $20 shipped and I’ve got no complaints. In terms of sculpt, Shioi herself is probably the least impressive of my KanColle Taito figures. There’s nothing bad here, but the sculpt just isn’t quite as sharp and detailed as the others. On the other hand, the paint is quite solid and the execution of the submarine component with the planes and the beach environment on the base takes what could have been a very average figure and raises it up a couple of notches. Not too shabby!

Jul 16 2016

KanColle: Aircraft Carrier Akagi “Premium” Prize Figure by SEGA

What’s that? You can’t get enough of me droning on about Kantai Collection figures on Saturday mornings? Well, alright then, let’s check out another one! Today I’m turning my attention back to SEGA and the first Aircraft Carrier in my KanColle collection… Akagi!

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Akagi comes in a window box, with just the one window on the front panel. This makes the box fairly durable, but without the top or side windows to let the light in, it’s hard to really scrutinize the figure from inside the package. You get the Kantai Collection logo on the top panel and character art on the side panels. I really like the gradient pink to blue coloring on the box. Other than “Aircraft Carrier” there’s virtually no English copy on the box at all, not even Akagi’s name. Before opening her up, it’s worth noting that this is a Premium Figure and not a Super Premium, so she is not in scale with the Destroyers from SEGA, which I looked at a little while back. Those were full on 9-inches, where Akagi here is closer to 6-inch, putting her more in line with Taito and Furyu’s KanColle releases.

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And… here she is! Besides the usual plugging her feet into the base, Akagi involves some assembly before she’s ready to go. She comes with her Yumi (bow) in two pieces, seven arrows on a sprue, a packet of fishing line for her bow string, and a sheet of stickers for the arrow feathers. I’ve heard horror stories about setting up the bow and how fragile it is, but I didn’t have any issues. You just feed the larger piece into her left hand from the bottom and tab it into the grip. The shorter bow piece pegs into that one. You pass the string through the notch on one end, wrap it a few times and pass it through again, draw it as tight as you want it, and then do the same on the bottom. The excess that I snipped off is enough for another bow string should I ever need it. The stickers for the arrows are easy to put on. One arrow is meant to be held in her right hand and the others go into her quiver. If you aren’t familiar with Kantai Collection (I’m sorry!) the Aircraft Carriers fire their arrows into the sky, which then turn into squadrons of airplanes (bombers, fighters, or scouts) to engage the Abyssal forces.

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Akagi stands at attention with her Yumi held at rest in her left hand and her right hand clutching an arrow to her chest. I strung the bow a little snug to show its curves. Like all the Fleet Girl Carriers, Akagi’s costume is strongly influenced by Kyudo garb, which ties in with the fact that the Carriers in KanColle function as archers with long-ranged attacks. Sculpted details feature some nice touches, including the strings that hold the armor pieces in place, the ruffling of her loose top, and even little wrinkles in the knees of her stockings. The coloring here isn’t terribly vibrant, but the combination of red skirt and quiver with the slightly off-white blouse and stockings is attractive enough. You also get some very neatly applied silver fixtures on her belts and straps.

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Her quiver has the mast aerial attached to it and it’s sculpted with a strap that “holds” it in place around her shoulder, although in reality it is permanently attached to her. Unlike the Destroyers and Battleships, Akagi doesn’t have a lot of bulky ship parts on her. Besides the quiver aerial she just has a component on her right hip that she wears almost like a handbag. The quiver itself is a simple tube and all the arrows can easily fit inside. On her feet, she wears a pair of Zori (sandals), which have what look like miniature super-deformed carrier hulls under them, allowing her to skate across the surface of the ocean.

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On her right arm she wears her Carrier deck in place of a shield. These are also used to recover her planes, assuming they survive their sortie to make a return trip. The printing on the deck looks particularly nice.

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I do have one little quibble about this figure and that’s the look of the plastic in a few areas. The feel of the quality in hand is fine, but it does give her face and blouse a waxy complexion in certain light. Granted, this is a pet peeve of mine that I point out whenever I see it, even though it’s hardly noticeable when she’s standing on my display shelf under normal room lighting. There’s also some rather obvious seam lines throughout, but then I have to keep reminding myself that this is a relatively “low end” piece.

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The base here is a simple black plastic disc, which is rather compact, so it doesn’t hog up a lot of real estate on the shelf. Of course, the Yumi extends out pretty far, so this is a figure that’s still going to need some space to display.

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While the quality of the plastic here feels like a notch below Taito’s work in this scale, it’s really a minor quibble over a figure that goes above and beyond to impress. The figure itself is fine, but it’s the gear and extras that makes Akagi such a noteworthy piece. Besides the great sculpt and nearly flawless paint, the extra bits like the strung bow and the arrows for the quiver are just fantastic. Keep in mind, this is an import that usually sells in the $20-25 range and I got mine for $22 shipped. Besides being a great showpiece, Akagi was an important and memorable character in the anime series, not to mention Fubuki’s girl-crush, so adding her to my KanColle shelf was a huge win! And maybe someday I’ll pony up for her Figma too!

Jul 9 2016

KanColle: Repair Ship Akashi (Day Off Figure) by Taito

Yup, Anime Saturday may stray now and then, but it’s going to keep coming back to Kantai Collection quite a bit for the foreseeable future. I’ve gone on before about how enamored I am with Taito’s line of Prize Figures and today I’m looking at another one of their KanColle releases, this time with Repair Ship Akashi, a character from the video game rather than the anime series.

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Boy, do I love these packages. Simple, attractive, enclosed boxes. There’s no windows to scratch or dent and the boxes are made of pretty heavy stock so they will actually protect the figure if you need to pack them up. There’s hardly any English on the package, but I know who I’m buying, so I actually prefer it that way. It adds to the charm of the import. Inside, the figure comes wrapped in plastic and this one requires just a little bit of assembly as well as the placement of some accessories.

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It’s Akashi’s Day Off, so she’s taking some time out from repairing and upgrading her fellow ship sisters and just chilling out a bit. She’s seated on a bit of repair gantry, which pegs into the base. Her feet also peg into the base and between the two she’s quite stable. While she only measures about 5-inches and change, she is reclining and that puts her in scale with Taito’s other KanColle Prize Figures. She’s winking at you while enjoying a tray of dumplings, with her equipment strewn on the floor beside her.

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Akashi is wearing the typical sailor-inspired school uniform, which includes a white blouse with blue collar and cuffs, along with a pleated blue skirt with red trim. She also has white and black thigh-high stockings with pink bows at the top. The sculpting here is very well done, particularly the ruffles in her blouse and the pleating on the skirt. The paint is also a solid effort. If I get in close enough, I can see a little bit of spray or inconsistencies, but for a piece in this price range, I’m very happy with the quality.

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The portrait is very charming, thanks in part to her wink and beaming smile. Her one open eye is beautifully printed with a fetching shade of green. Her pink hair is tied into two bunches in the front with red ribbon and cascades out the back and fans out around her. There’s some really nice work on the bangs. The general wildness of the hair adds just the right amount of energy and excitement to a statue that is otherwise very relaxed in its composition. I will say that the skin tones on this piece are a little bit on the waxy side, but considering that she isn’t showing a lot of skin, it doesn’t really detract from the figure too much.

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Akashi holds a small bowl of dipping sauce in her left hand and is holding a dumpling in chopsticks in her right hand. Damn, now I want to go drive around the block and get an order of steamed dumplings.

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The figure comes with three loose accessories, and by loose I mean they don’t attach anywhere, so you can place them wherever you want. The first is the tray of dumplings, which in the box art is just sitting on the gantry beside her. A peg or something to secure it would have been helpful, but I’ve found as long as I don’t bump the shelf, it will stay put.

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You also get a wrench and welding mask, which can just be placed anywhere on the base. The base is a simple, black base, although it is rather large to accommodate Akashi’s outstretched legs. She takes up a fair amount of real estate on the shelf, but that’s usually the case when the figure is orientated in this fashion.

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Akashi set me back a whopping $16 shipped, which I think is a fantastic value for an import of this quality. She displays very nicely beside Taito’s Light Cruiser Yahagi. And while I’m not nearly as familiar with the characters that didn’t appear in the anime series, I really like the idea of having a Repair Ship in my KanColle display to offer a little variety among all the Destroyers, Carriers, and Battleships. In fact, I’m kind of bummed now that she wasn’t included in the anime. I think she would have been a good addition to the cast of characters.

Jun 25 2016

Strike Witches: Charlotte Yeager 1/8 Scale Figure by Furyu

It’s been a bitch of a work week for me, but now it’s Saturday and that means I get to open another anime figure! Today I’m trying to mix up the nearly unending flood of Kantai Collection with some Strike Witches. Because what’s better than a bunch of chicks with warship parts stuck to them? A bunch of magical chicks with animal and fighter plane parts stuck to them! OK, not really better, but still plenty cool! There’s a fair number of companies that have done Strike Witches merch, but today I’m checking out Charlotte Yeager from Furyu.

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The packaging is pretty typical for this kind of thing. You get a window on the front and top panels and shots of the figure on the side panels. I particularly enjoy the 501st Joint Fighter Wing / Strike Witches insignia on the bottom. Alas, my box is really beat to hell. Apparently good packing is a trade off for bottom feeding on the price. But, so long as it’s authentic and not a bootleg, I don’t care. Charlotte comes between two plastic trays and there is a little bit of assembly required on the base as well as putting her Browning Auto Rifle in her hand. I’ll confess, I was pretty surprised at the size of the box and figure when I got her. At $23, I wasn’t expecting a full 1/8 Scale figure of this quality.

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And what a beauty she is! Shirley dons her brown jacket, green tie, and very little else besides her Striker Unit, which is based on the P51D Mustang. She poses proudly with her left hand on her hip, her Browning Auto Rifle resting on her right shoulder and her chest puffed out. Little details like her belt buckle, the wings pinned on her chest, are nice touches. The girls of the 501st don’t believe in pants, which helps facilitate the copious amounts of fanservice shots that pepper every episode. I’d suggest a drinking game based around that, but it would probably kill me, and I ain’t no lightweight when it comes to booze! The M1918 BAR is a separate piece that fits in her hand. It’s not easy to get in there, so I doubt I’ll be taking it out again. It is a nicely sculpted and painted piece, but the barrel is made of pretty soft plastic that is prone to warping.

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Her portrait is solid, although the skin tone on her face and elsewhere is a little pale and flat. It just doesn’t have that soft and realistic skin coloring that I see on a lot of better statues. She does have perfectly printed eyes and a cute little smile. I think they did a very nice job on her hair, which blows off to her side, and is, of course, topped off by her rabbit ears. I never did quite understand why she doesn’t sport a little cotton tail instead of the rather long bushy one she has, but to be honest, I’m willing to suspend a lot of my questions while watching an anime like this one.

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The paint on the upper body isn’t terrible, but there are a few flubs here and there. There’s an obvious spot on a couple of her blowing strands of hair, the necktie could be a little sharper, and there’s a little bit of spray here and there on her jacket. These things would be unacceptable on a higher end piece, and to be fair companies like Taito and SEGA can pull off better paint at this price point, but I’m still really picking at things.

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Down below, the Striker Unit mostly impresses with sculpted and painted panel lines and rotating propellers. In fact, there’s only one area where the paint lets me down and that’s the black and white stripes on her left knee area. They’re notably fuzzier than the ones on the right. Other than that I love what they did here. The silver paint looks particularly nice and shiny and the registry numbers and star emblems are sharp, as is the yellow and orange deco near the props. I like the fact that they went with actual propellers, rather than the clear discs to make it look like they’re spinning fast. I just prefer it this way. The base is clear plastic and designed to hold the figure and be noticed as little as possible. The simple disc cradles the left tip of her Striker Unit in a little cup while an arm holds the inner leg. It works well and allows the figure to be removed and held fairly easily.

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While there are a few areas for improvement here and there, it’s hard to complain when you’re talking about a fully scaled 9-inch figure for under twenty-five bucks. And as far as the few areas of problem paint, well that could admittedly just be on my piece. It’s not like I can go into a store and scrutinize three or four different ones and choose the one with the best paint. The truth is this is a great looking piece and she has definitely encouraged me to continue collecting this line. I don’t have the budget right now to be hunting down the Bandai or Figmas of these characters, but Furyu’s line will do quite nicely.

Jun 24 2016

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Katana by DC Collectibles

It’s Friday! Let’s check out some DC Comics stuff! This week I’m staying on with the Cover Girls statues line and opening up one of the more recent releases, Katana! She’s a cool character, who I believe is going to be getting a lot more merch in the days ahead, so long as the Suicide Squad movie performs well. This version is from the recently defunct New 52 continuity, which is appropriate, as that was where she got her first solo book. I also rather enjoyed her time in Birds of Prey.

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There’s not much new to say about the box. With nearly a dozen of these statues on my shelf, I’ve showcased the packaging quite a bit and not much has changed. Katana comes in an enclosed red and white box with various shots of the statue and some teasers of what’s coming up or also available on the back panel. The statue is wrapped in plastic and encased between two pieces of styrofoam. The only assembly required is to peg Katana’s feet into the base and they fit in quite easily.

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The Cover Girls line has been a hearty mix of museum-style poses along with some hints of action and on that scale of things Katana comes close to going for all out action. She stands with feet apart and her sword, Soultaker, drawn up to her shoulder and ready to strike. And yet, it still passes for something like a staged shot and I don’t think it goes too far off point. She still looks perfectly at home when displayed with her fellow Cover Girls. Besides, this is a pose that really conveys so much of Katana’s character, and so in terms of composition, I’d say she’s damn near perfect.

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The costume features her New 52 armored body suit that looks great without the need for a whole lot of sculpted detail and does it’s best to show off her lovely curves. You do get panel lines running throughout and a cool and consistent metallic charcoal paint that meshes beautifully with the rich matte crimson on her lower leg armor and the quilted sleeve on her right arm. The body suit also features some exposed ribbed black areas in the joints and down the spine, presumably to give her more flexibility. Her scabbard hangs off her back and you also get some sculpted pouches on the small of her back. While the paint scheme and overall sculpt are fairly simple here, everything looks exceptionally clean and this is arguable the best paint I’ve seen in the line to date.

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All that praise applies to the head sculpt as well. The beautifully sculpted portrait is two-tone with the lower face painted in matte gray, just a tad slighter than the suit, and the top half in white with the Rising Sun on her forehead. Her blue eyes are sharp and straight and her short hair ruffles ever so slightly in an imagined breeze. I love how her expression offers just a hint of joyful anticipation at the fight that’s about to come.

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Katana’s sword looks good, although the sculpt for the hilt is a little on the soft side. Hey, I’m really looking for things to complain about and that’s the best that I can come up with. The blade is straight and while I’m going to be sure and be careful with it, it doesn’t feel overly fragile.

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The base consists of the now standard oval with a charcoal and crimson deco to match Katana’s costume. The emblem on the sides consists of a simple red disc suggestive of the Rising Sun. The limitation is hand numbered on the bottom of the base, with mine being 561 of 5,200 statues produced. I think this may be the lowest number Cover Girl I own.

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Katana is a wonderful addition to my Cover Girls shelf and definitely a triumph for this line. What’s even better is at the time I publish this Feature, she’s readily available at a few online retailers at close to half the original MSRP. I picked up mine for $55, and damn was that a steal! Considering that DCC has already started doing second versions of some of the gals in this line (Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman) it’s nice to see that they’re also hitting on some of the less high-profile characters like Katana here. She’s a great release for the line and a worthy pick up for folks who just love the character.

 

Jun 21 2016

Marvel Gallery: Captain Marvel Statue by Diamond Select

I know, Marvel Monday was yesterday, but Mondays are going to be tied up with Legends figures for a long while now, so the Marvel goodness will be spilling out into other days now and then. Today I’m looking at Diamond’s first Marvel Gallery statue, which is, for all intents and purposes, a Femme Fatales statue by another name as she fits in at the exact same 9-inch scale and sits at the same price point. It’s my understanding that DST changed the name of the Marvel series because they will be incorporating dudes into this line. Fair enough!

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Despite the name change, the box is right in line with what we’ve been seeing out of DST’s Femme Fatales statues. You get the same four panels of windows to show off the statue inside and a deco that is personalized for the character. If anything this box feels just ever so slightly more premium with some nicer coloring and a spiffy satin finish to the art. The statue comes between two clear plastic trays and there’s no assembly required. She’s ready to go right out of the box.

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This statue looked amazing in the promo pics and I’m happy to say all that goodness transferred to the final product. In hand, the statue looks quite striking for such a relatively low end piece. I’m especially fond of the pose they went with here that has Carol levitating, one knee bent and her arms gently out to her sides. It’s a very graceful look and while far from an action pose, it still manages to convey a little bit of energy and majesty to a gal who has become one of my favorite modern Marvel characters.

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There’s a fair amount of sculpting involved in the costume. In fact, none of the detail is conveyed by paint alone. Instead, you get some great details like the brass buttons running up the sides of her boots and gloves, the sash tied around her waist and secured with a medallion, and especially the starburst symbol on her chest. Even her gloves have subtle stitching lines running throughout. Add all those little flourishes to her beautiful curves, and you’ve got quite an eye catching display piece. Carol proves that you don’t have to show a lot of skin to be a drop-dead sexy superhero. She’s class!

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The paint quality in the Femme Fatales line has been overall solid, but I’ve seen it falter every now and then, mostly on a couple of the DC Animated pieces. I’m happy to say, the paint is quite good on Carol’s costume. The shades of red and blue are vivid and smooth and contrast beautifully with the bright gold paint. There’s really no slop to speak of and the lines are clean thanks in part to the way they are integrated into the sculpt.

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Did I mention she has a nice bum? She has a very nice bum. The figure does feature some seaming from where it was assembled. You can see these in the shoulders and again around the right leg where it meets the aforementioned very nice bum. We don’t tend to see these in a lot of higher end pieces, so they may prove to be distracting for some. Considering the low price point here, I don’t mind them much here, especially since it mainly looks like the sort of cuts you would get in action figure articulation.

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The portrait sculpt is excellent. I’m particularly pleased with the way the hair came out. It’s wonderfully detailed and has a little bit of glitter in the paint that makes for a rather interesting effect. That having been said, the eye makeup is a bit much for me. The look to the eyes leans a little more toward the Dexter Soy art than it does the David Lopez run, but it doesn’t quite match either exactly. That having been said, I think what I’m seeing is more an artistic choice than a comment about the quality of the paint. I think she looks absolutely fantastic when viewed from straight on, but there’s something a little off when she’s in profile.

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The base is a jagged burst of energy with a gradient orange and red paint that gives it a rather brilliant and almost luminescent effect. In the right lighting it almost looks like it’s glowing. It does a nice job supporting the figure and I like that her lower foot is still suspended just slightly above it to give her that levitating effect.

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I’ve been a champion and collector of DST’s Femme Fatales line long before it started dipping into the mainstream comics, and I’ll happily categorize Captain Marvel as another win for this line. Or, if you want to get technical, a very nice debut for the Marvel Gallery line. I was looking forward to getting this one ever since she was first solicited and so I had her pre-ordered at the MSRP of $40, which is actually just a wee bit less expensive than what the DC Animated statues are being released at. On the other hand, if Marvel Gallery is anything like Femme Fatales, e-tailers seem to be rather competitive when pricing these statues, so shopping around for a deal may be worthwhile. Captain Marvel has already been follwed by Jane Foster Thor, which I’m still on the fence over because I’m not enamored with the sculpt. On the other hand, Spider-Gwen should be out next month, and I’ve already got both the regular and SDCC versions of her on pre-order!