Tag Archives: statues

Jun 17 2016

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Poison Ivy (Ver. 1) by DC Collectibles

I’m switching it back to the statue scene this week on DC Friday and heading all the way back to the beginning of the second series of the Cover Girls line. I wasn’t all that smitten with this first version of Poison Ivy, especially when compared with what came later, but it’s one of the few early releases that I didn’t have, it’s become a bit pricey on the secondary market, and I was made an offer on this one I couldn’t refuse. Does Ivy manage to win me over? Let’s find out!

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The packaging hasn’t changed much since the line was rebooted. You get the same fully enclosed box. It’s mostly white and it has some shots of the statue. Inside, the statue comes wrapped in plastic and between two styrofoam bricks. There’s no assembly required and there’s no statement of limitation on this one. It wasn’t until later releases that DCC began limiting the runs to 5,200 and hand numbering them.

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And this is indeed the New 52 version of Ivy and it’s a design that I never really understood or much cared for. Just what’s up with the black leotard? To me it doesn’t fit with the whole plant motif. And the leaves and vines on top of it? Are they sewn in? Does she grow them around it after she puts on the leotard? It’s just a weird design. With that having been said, I’m OK with the pose here. It’s designed to show off the curves of her body and with both arms over her head, she holds a single rose bud in her left hand.

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The costume design here is relatively simple, as it’s just a lot of matte black. There isn’t a lot of muscle definition showing through, but the shapes and curves are certainly pleasing. But with all that simple space, I would have hoped the sculptor would have paid more attention to the clusters of leaves. In some areas, they’re well defined, but in others they just look like mush. On the plus side, the green paint is applied well and there’s hardly any slop to speak of.

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And that brings us to the portrait and this is the part of the statue that could have probably won me over, but it just doesn’t. Again, part of this has to do with my lack of enthusiasm for this version of the character. The black and green eyes are a little too demonic for me, and the black patterns on the face are as weird a choice as the black leotard. There’s something a little too sinister about this portrait. I know, she’s a villain, but here she looks like some kind of Deadite. The expression looks a little too forced as well. Again, the paint here is pretty solid, though, so my issues here are more from the design than the technical merits of the piece.

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Easily my favorite thing about this statue is the base. Currently the Cover Girls line utilizes uniform oval bases, but early on in the reboot, the statues featured personalized environment style bases and DCC did some pretty cool things with them, as showcased here. I really dig the way the vines sprout up from the ground and weave their way around her body. It’s a really cool effect for a statue in this price range and I think they pulled it off wonderfully. As for the base itself, it showcases some of the best sculpting and paint on the entire statue. It feels like there was a lot of love put into this aspect of the statue and it makes me wonder if the line would have been better off sticking with these environmental bases.

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Admittedly, I’m not the target audience for this piece, as I’ve admitted to not being a big fan of this look for Ivy, so the fact that this statue leaves me a little cold, should be taken with a grain of salt. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it. The paint is sharp and clean on the figure and fairly exceptional on the base. The sculpting is solid work, although the leaves on the costume could have used better definition. I don’t dislike it, but I don’t love it either. And none of that is surprising, considering my rather odd motivations for buying it. I mainly wanted it to complete my trio of Batman femme fatales from the early days of the reboot, and at $65, she was an extremely good deal for a Cover Girls statue that has been out of circulation for a while.

Jun 11 2016

DX Girls Snap Collection (One Piece): Nami (Vol. 1 and 2) Figures by Banpresto

I’ve been covering a lot of figures from properties that I’m passionate about on Anime Saturdays, but not today. Today I’m going back to my drunken guilty pleasure, One Piece. It’s a show that I only watch when I get back from a crippling night at the pub, and when I watch it, I’m usually simultaneously hunting Nami figures online in an inebriated stupor. Multitasking! So let’s check out some Nami figures from Banpresto’s DX Girls Snap Collection…

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If I’m going to engage in drunken online anime figure shopping, I could certainly do worse than the DX Girls Snap Collection. These roughly 7-inch tall figures are simple and inexpensive, so when the package arrives a couple days later, I don’t have to panic and worry about what damage I did to the bank account. The figures come in matching window boxes and while they’re certainly serviceable, they feel flimsy and arrived to me in rather shabby condition. I much prefer the fully enclosed box that Banpresto used for the “Sea Nymph” Nami that I got a couple months back. These boxes are collector friendly, but I sincerely doubt I’ll be keeping them. Rather than go straight to the fan service, I’ll start with Nami in her Alabasta Kingdom outfit…

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As the “Snap Girls” name suggests, these figures are all about mugging for the camera and that’s exactly what Nami’s doing here. It’s a glamour shot with one hand on her hip and the other behind her head and her dress is blowing out beside her and she looks really great. In fact, I only have one negative thing to say, and that’s the ragged cut of her dress looks more to me like a fault in the mold than something intentional, but that might just be me. Otherwise, this is a surprisingly solid piece for such a low end figure.

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Donning the native dress of the Alabasta Kingdom is a big change from Nami’s familiar jeans and bikini top, but I think it makes for a distinctive figure and allowed for a lot more creative license in the sculpt. Both the dress and the half-jacket that she has tied around her top are separate, permanently attached pieces, so there’s a nice feeling of depth and complexity here. The billowing of the dress adds a bit of energy to the pose and allows the figure to show off a little leg… or a lot of legs, depending on which angle your viewing her from. The detail on her arm bands and bangles is appreciated, and while the portrait is pretty simple, it’s undeniably Nami with short cropped hair.

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The paintwork is quite good. There’s some faint blue used on the dress to make it look like thin cloth even though the plastic used is actually quite thick. The blue paint on her waist fringe and ornamentation on her top is all neatly applied. I’ve certainly seen worse examples on far more expensive figures. The eyes are printed on, so no worries there, and they even bothered to paint her toenails. The skin tone is also even and natural looking with none of that awful waxy finish I’ve sometimes encountered in budget figures. All in all, a very nice figure. And now for the fan service…

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Awww, yeah! If exotic Eastern dresses aren’t your cup of tea, here’s just plain old Nami walking along in a bikini and enjoying a refreshing ice cream cone. Nothing wrong with that! There’s not a lot of wardrobe to talk about here and by extension not an abundance of paint operations or unique sculpting. Nami looks as fit as ever and, the skin tone here is again quite good and I’m happy to say there’s no ugly seams to ruin it.

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Despite the simple and skimpy outfit, the paint and sculpt still feature some nice flourishes. The tied strings for her bikini top look good as does the ornamental waist chain that rests on her hips. And uh-oh, she looks like she’s slipping out a bit in the back. I also think it’s funny that Banpresto put the copyright information across one half of her backside. I guess there was really nowhere else to put it. The paint is excellent with a very nice shade of blue for the bikini and some sharp patterns on the top. And of course her tattoo is neatly printed on her left shoulder.

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The portrait is very similar to the Alabasta figure, but this time she’s licking her lips and the hair, while still short, is a completely different sculpt. The ice cream cone in her left hand looks good enough to eat! Also, both figures feature the same plain black disk with peg holes to hold the figure in place.

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At around sixteen bucks a pop, drunk or not, how could I go wrong? These Namis are damn great and I can wholeheartedly endorse having them even now that I’ve sobered up. Sure, I wouldn’t mind having a better example of her in my collection, but my confidence is still shaken from the dreaded Bootleg Nami incident of 2014. These are nice enough that I could have easily Featured these figures separately, but the truth is I have so many anime figures to go through that it would take me a ton of Saturdays just to get to them all. I’m still thinking about looking at my Figmas and Figuarts during the week and saving Anime Saturdays just for statues and prize figures. Now, with that having been said, next Saturday I’m going back to Kantai Collection with a look at a relatively new(ish) line from Figma… FigFix!

Jun 4 2016

KanColle: Light Cruiser Yahagi (Preparation Figure) by Taito

If it’s Saturday then it must be time to open another anime figure and I’m sticking with Kantai Collection for just one more week before turning my attention elsewhere. Today I’m checking out another one of Taito’s Prize Figures, this time, however, I’m looking at a character from the game and not the anime series. It’s Yahagi!

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I love the packaging for Taito’s Prize Figures. They’re colorful, fairly compact, and fully enclosed boxes. You get pictures of the figure on front, back, and side panels and the text is even somewhat Western friendly with the name of the character appearing in English, in this case “Light Cruiser Agano Class No. 3, Yahagi.” That’s extra helpful in this case since I’m a lot less familiar with the game then I am with the anime series. The figure inside comes wrapped in plastic and requires some minor assembly. Just peg the Yahagi into her base, along with the two pieces of equipment, and you’re good to go.

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Yahagi measures about 7 1/2-inches tall, which puts her in scale with the other Taito figures I have. She features a simple but sexy pose, as she kicks her left foot back and rests it on her gun mount and has her arms up, tying a ribbon into her long hair. She’s sporting an adorable two piece outfit, which looks like it pays a little homage to the school uniform, what with the sailor-style collar, anchor tie, and short pleated skirt. The term “preparation figure” points to the fact that she’s in the process of getting ready for battle, which was one of the things that drew me to this figure. She has her rudder boots on, but the rest of her gear is lying on the ground waiting to be equipped.

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While her pose is fairly passive, there’s a lot of energy in this sculpt, particularly in the way her long hair snakes around her. It’s one of my favorite things about the composition and a complexity I don’t usually expect to see in these “lower end” Prize Figures. Plus, she pulls it off beautifully. You also get a bit of wind whipping up that skirt for a little helping of ubiquitous fan service.

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Both the quality of paint and coloring on this figure are superb. You do get a fair amount of gray and black, but it’s perfectly balanced out by the bright white top and that sumptuous deep crimson paint used for her skirt and the rudders on her feet. There’s also a little bit of metallic orange on the inlays of her belt and the purple on her hair ribbon. The skin tones are absolutely perfect and they contrast nicely with the cold gray of her munitions.

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The portrait is simple but lovely. Her large hazel eyes are perfectly printed. Her mouth conveys surprise to me. Maybe she just received some troubling orders pertaining to her mission. I’ve already commented on how impressive her hair is. In addition to the long snaking strands, she has more of it spilling over her shoulders.

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The base is a simple clear disc, and I’m happy with that. Her gear includes her twin gun mount, what I assume is her backpack, and a pair of white gloves draped over it. These are simple sculpts, but look fine. They were a little difficult to get pegged in properly, due to a tight fit, but I’d rather have them fit securely than be all loose and falling out.

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I’m tempted to say that this is one impressive looking piece for a Prize Figure, but I don’t even feel I have to qualify that. She’s just plain impressive and that’s been par for the course with the majority of my Taito figures. The pose, sculpt, and coloring all come together to make for a beautiful display piece. I had originally promised myself that I would stick to figures from the anime series, but when I saw Yahagi I fell in love, and for under $25 shipped, that was a promise that was easily broken. Next week, I’m going to change things up, possibly with some One Piece, but I’ll likely be coming back to Kantai Collection before too long, because I just can’t get enough of it.

Jun 1 2016

Street Fighter: Poison Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

It’s Bishoujo time again and today I’m revisiting the Street Fighter line with a look at Poison. Poison is a character that I associate more with the Final Fight games than I do, Street Fighter, and that’s probably because of two reasons. First, all the controversy around her gender identity seemed to start with Final Fight, and two the fact that she wasn’t a playable fighter in Street Fighter until either Street Fighter X Tekken or Ultra Street Fighter IV. I honestly can’t remember, which came out first, but I think it was the former. As for the first point, it’s not really an issue here, as the Bishoujo line only includes chicks, even when the original subject matter is male (i.e. Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and the upcoming Edward Scissorhands). The second point isn’t an issue either, as I’m just happy to be getting this gorgeous statue of her.

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Poison comes in the typical Bishoujo Statue box with windows all around to let you see the statue inside, plenty of sultry art by Shunya Yamashita, and the black deco that Koto uses for the Street Fighter and Tekken themed statues. This one is particularly tall and thin, just like Poison! Everything is collector friendly. Alas, ever since I filled up an entire closet with empty statue boxes, I’m at the point where I have to pitch the plastic trays and flatten out the box for storage. Poison comes attached to her base and all ready for display, although there are a few options, which I’ll get to in a bit.

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Um, wow! Yeah, I’m tempted to end it there, because I’m struggling to find other words. Poison is posed with her left leg kicking out a bit behind her, her left hand pulled up near her face, and her right arm extending outward and holding one of her accessories. In the case of most of these pictures I went with the handcuffs because it’s easier to get close with the camera and still get in the entire statue. The skimpy outfit consists of a very abbreviated tank top, a pair of cut-off jeans, red high heels, a leather collar, and a biker hat. There isn’t a lot to say about the costume, because there isn’t a lot of it. I dig the way they sculpted one of her tank top straps off her shoulder and over her arm. You also get some real chain used on her shorts and on her hat. Since Poison is wearing very little in the way of clothes, the quality of the skin tone is crucial here, but that’s never been an issue with Koto’s Bishoujo line and it certainly isn’t here. You even get some nice shading to pick out the detail in the muscle definition in her mid riff. Damn, this is one sexy figure!

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Poison’s purple hair cascades down her back all the way down to her butt, effectively covering a lot more of her than her actual clothes do. Some other nice touches on her outfit include the gorgeous red paint on her shoes, the wrist bracer on her right arm, which serves the double purpose of concealing the swappable hand, and the bangle on her left wrist. The paint apps on the buckle and rivets in her collar are particularly well done.

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And that brings us to the portrait, which is simply amazing. No, I said the portrait… it’s the thing right above what you’re looking at now. This may be one of my favorite head sculpts of all my Bishoujos and that’s saying quite a lot. You do have to get down a little low to take it all in, because it’s partially covered by the visor on the cap and you also have some strands of hair blowing in front of it. The paintwork on the deep blue eyes and pink lips is as sharp and clean as ever.

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As mentioned earlier, you get a couple display choices for her right arm. You can go with the handcuffs or the riding crop. Either of which carry on the overt bondage theme here. The riding crop is permanently attached to an extra hand, so it’s just a matter of popping out one and pegging int he other. The handcuffs, are not attached to the other hand, so you can tuck those into the chain on her shorts, which is where she often wears them in character art. I like the idea of being able to display both accessories on the figure at once, although the riding crop takes up a lot more display space.

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The Street Fighter line continues to use these clear plastic disks as stands. Like the Tekken statues, you can pop off the bottoms and put in either of two included inserts. One has the Street Fighter logo and the other some character art. I tend to go with the logo on these and the character art on my Tekken pieces. My only gripe about the stand is that the wedges that support her feet are white plastic instead of clear. Not a big deal, but hey, I figured I had to nitpick something because otherwise this statue would be perfect.

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Another Bishoujo and another win for both Kotobukiya and my display shelves. I actually had Poison pre-ordered, so I spent the full retail of around $60 on her and I’m perfectly fine with that. But, Bishoujos haven’t been selling out like they used to, so chances are she’s available for a good $5 to $10 less if you hunt around for her. She’s only the fifth release in the Street Fighter line, but I’ve been all-in for this line so far and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

May 28 2016

KanColle: Fubuki, Mutsuki, and Yuudachi “Super Premium” Prize Figures by SEGA

In case you missed the memo, Saturdays at FFZ are all about the anime figures now. And that’s convenient, because I am on a serious Kantai Collection kick and have been picking up a lot of figures from this series. Today, I’m not looking at one, but rather three figures from SEGA’s “Super Premium” Prize Figure series. Yeah, I couldn’t decide which one of these gals to start with, so I just figured I’d do all three Destroyers from The Third Torpedo Squadron.

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The figures come in pretty standard window boxes and with hardly any English… nope, not even the character names! Just the full title of the series, “Fleet Girls Collection KanColle Animation Sequence!” Yeah, that’s a mouthful. The boxes are color coded to match the girls within, so Fubuki’s blue and Mutsuki’s green match their school uniforms. And Yuudachi’s is pink, um… because… Poi? There’s some nice character art on the side panels and overall, these look nice but the boxes are a little on the flimsy side and prone to shelfwear.

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It’s worth noting that SEGA isn’t kidding around when they call these “Super Premium” as the boxes measure 10-inches high and the figures, at about 9 1/2-inches from the base to their masts are a full 1/7 Scale. No, they’re not your average Prize Figures, and I was positively shocked by the size of them. The gals come all assembled. Just peg them into their bases and they’re ready to launch! Let’s start with Fubuki…

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Special Type Destroyer Fubuki is clad in her blue and white school uniform and all geared up and ready for battle. It’s a pretty passive pose (as is the case with all three girls), but I like hers the most out of all three. Sure, something a little more action orientated would have been fun, but I think this pose works especially well when displaying them together. She has a pretty neutral expression, although definitely the most serious of the three, and I like how her hair is blowing just a little bit off to the side.

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The sculpt is all around solid, albeit a little soft on the hardware pieces. Her armaments include two 61cm triple torpedo mounts on her hips and her 12.7cm twin gun mount held at her side in her right hand. Her rudder heels look great as does the tower, smokestacks, and mast assembly on her back. Next up…

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Mutsuki! Besides the coloring, Mutsuki’s uniform features some nice changes from Fubuki’s, including a different collar and a button down blouse, and full stockings. She also has a slight smile and her right hand raised to her chest. Nothing about Mutsuki’s character really stuck with me from the series, other than her being Fubuki’s sidekick for most of it.

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Her armaments include two 61cm triple torpedo mounts on her hips, although these are different configurations than Fubuki’s, with the tubes exposed and criss-crossing straps securing them to her legs. She wields her 7.7cm machine gun mount on her left hand, held down at her side. I really dig her smokestack and mast assembly, as it comes equipped with two racks of depth charges. Mutsuki’s heel rudders aren’t nearly as pronounced as Fubuki’s and only one can be partially seen. And that brings us to…

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Poi! Yuudachi is without a doubt one of my favorite characters in the series. She’s just hilarious. This is Yuudachi before her sudden remodel. Her mostly black uniform is more distinctive than those of her fellow Destroyers, but the white trim and red stripes help add a little color. I really dig the way they sculpted her long blonde hair fanning out around her. She also appears to be the most cheery of the three Torpedo girls.

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And speaking of torpedoes, Yuudachi sports two 61cm quadruple torpedo mounts, fitted out with oxygen powered payload. As for her hand weapon, I believe this is the 10cm twin high-angle gun mount. The way she holds it across her chest makes her look like she’s the most ready for action of the three. Her backpack is the simplest of the three, with just the one stack and the mast. It’s very cool that the girls each have unique masts.

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The paint on all three figures is good, although not as crisp and clean as one might expect from the pricier figures. For example, there are a few stray spots of white on Fubuki’s right sleeve. With that having been said, there’s nothing else that stands out as bad at all. In fact, there’s even some lovely little touches like the tiny anchors on Fubuki’s socks, the deco pattern on Mutsuki’s stockings, or the fine striping on Yuudachi’s collar and sleeves and on Mutsuki’s skirt. The three Fleet Girls all come with the same style base. It’s a simple pentagon shape cast in translucent blue, which is appropriately suggestive of the water. The figures peg into the base with satisfying clicks, which holds them perfectly.

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I can’t say enough good things about these figures, particularly when you bring the pricing into the mix. When they arrived, and I first saw the size of these figures in the boxes and equated that with the average price of $20 each, I was afraid the quality wouldn’t be there to back up full-sized figures. Remarkably, these gals pull it off quite nicely making these possibly the best values I’ve ever picked up in my somewhat modest years of Japanese figure collecting. SEGA also did two of the Carriers in this line, Kaga and Akagi and I’ll certainly be getting to those in the near future.

May 21 2016

KanColle: Abyssal Fleet Airfield Princess By Furyu

Anime Saturday has become a trend around FFZ as of late and I think I’m going to keep that going because I have a ton of these gals to look at. Today I’m taking a little break from Sword Art Online and turning my attention to KanColle, short for Kantai Collection, or if you prefer… Fleet Girls Collection KanColle Animated Sequence! That’s a mouthful! Originally a Japanese web-based browser game, KanColle has also produced a rather entertaining little anime series that I has quickly become an object of my obsession. It ran for 12 episodes and chronicles the adventures of the Fleet Girls, girls with the souls of warships, who skate over the ocean surface into battle with bits of ships attached to them and fight against a horrific race of ocean going demons called Abyssals. The animation is great, the characters are endearing, the battles are really cool, and the series takes time out between them to chronicle dorm life and curry cooking contests. And yes, they even find time to for the ubiquitous fan service swimsuit episode. I’m kicking things off with the Abyssal Fleet Airfield Princess from Furyu. I don’t usually start out with the villains, but I just love the crazy designs of the Abyssals. These things are like a cross between Hellraiser and The Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine.

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The figure comes in a squat window box, which is most definitely not Western friendly at all, as there’s hardly any English on the package. That’s not a criticism, just an observation. What is a criticism is how boring the box is. The red grid and circuitry pattern doesn’t really makes sense and aside from a small KanColle logo and a small piece of character art on the back, there’s nothing at all reminiscent of the series. And to make matters worse, my box arrived in pretty poor shape, like it was kicking around a shop in Japan for a long while. But it’s what’s inside that counts. And seeing as this is my very first figure from Furyu, I’m pretty anxious to find out what we’ve got.

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Oh yeah, this is some fine nightmare fuel here and I love it. The Airfield Princess measures about 4-inches tall, but she’s reclining, so I’d say she’s roughly a 6-inch scale figure. She also comes out of the box all ready to go with the figure permanently attached to her base. You do get a little transparent cube to put under the jaws of the gun to prop it up, but it really isn’t at all necessary as it balances just fine on its own. The Princess reclines on her “throne” encircled by an airstrip and with twin cannons jutting out from the armrests. Beside her is the behemoth gun… with teeth…. three sets of them. I really dig the way the figure rests her head on her arm as if the calamity of war and killing bores her. Also, those piercing red eyes are superbly printed and are really freaking me out.

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She has two devices on her head, which I’m going to assume are some kind of radar, because the Fleet Girls where similar headgear to receive signals and detect enemy fleets. The Airfield Princess’ copious white hair spills out behind the base and check out those spikes on the bottoms of her boots.

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The gun to her right practically overshadows the figure itself. It’s mounted on what looks to be the prow of a warship with open jaws and several rows of human-like teeth. The whole jaws and teeth motif is pretty big among the Abyssals, as both their aircraft and surface warships all look like demonic sharks with guns coming out of their mouths. The designs in this series are just awesome.

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In terms of quality, this piece is very solid but not exceptional. This would still be considered a Prize Figure, so it’s far from a high end piece, but the sheer size and heft along with the complexity of the base makes it feel like something more. And as such, it’s possible I had higher expectations. The sculpting is perfectly serviceable, particularly for the gun and its giant teeth, but the sculpt breaks down in relation to some of the finer details, like her right arm, which looks fine from a distance, but pretty rough as you get in close. The same could be said for the paint. The gradient red on the gun’s teeth looks amazing and I really dig the way the gun itself looks like its hot from being fired. The airstrip markings are sharp as well. But the figure itself could have used some sharper lines and the white could have been cleaner. Of course, this is all just nitpicking for a piece that cost me less than $25. It’s also possible that I’m a little spoiled by how great the Asuna Taito Prize Figure was that I looked at last Saturday. Truth be told, I’m extremely happy with this one for the money and I’d certainly consider picking up some more of Furyu’s figures in the future.

Next Saturday, I’m sticking with KanColle, but it’s back to Taito!

May 14 2016

Sword Art Online: Asuna (Aincrad Fencer) Prize Figure by Taito

If you were with me last Saturday, than you already know I recently discovered the wonderful world of Taito’s Prize Figures. My first look at these featured Sinon, as a Cait Sith Master of the Bow, from Sword Art Online II. Today I’m checking out Asuna, and this is a particularly cool piece. There’s been countless figures based on different versions of Asuna throughout the series, but this is the first one I’ve come across of her in her original Aincrad outfit before she joined the Knights of the Blood Oath and donned their spiffy uniform.

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Like last time, this figure comes in a fully enclosed box with perforations on the sides to punch out if you want handles. The box gives you some colorful pictures of the statue on all sides, but if you want to see exactly what you’re getting, you’ve got to open this baby up. Inside, the figure and base come wrapped in plastic. Just peg the figure into the base and you’re all set to go!

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Asuna measures just about 7-inches tall if you include the base and looks fantastic. Again, this is the costume she wore at the beginning of the series, so it didn’t get a lot of exposure. Indeed, a lot of the time we see her in it, the brown cloak is wrapped around her and the hood is up. Her outfit inside consists of reddish-brown boots with buckles at the ankles, which are nicely painted with silver fixtures. Her white stockings have a little range of color in them to expose a little of the flesh tone that underneath, She has a little red skirt with sculpted pleats, and finally a white tunic with painted brown borders and a sculpted belt at that waist. One little touch that’s really nice is where her sleeves are open and you can see her exposed arms inside. For a figure in this price range, that’s a rather unexpected detail.

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Asuna is posed leaning forward with one leg drawn back the other and her arms drawn up to her mouth and holding one of those cakes that was a common focus of one of her first meaningful exchanges with Kirito. Her fencing sword is mostly obscured by her cloak, but the hilt is visible peaking out beside her left elbow. I really enjoy how much work went into sculpting a weapon that isn’t obviously on display.

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The brown cloak is sculpted to billow out a bit behind her and a good deal of it is obscured by her voluminous reddish-orange hair. From the neck down, the paintwork on this piece is really tight, far more so than the Sinon figure I looked at last time. There’s virtually no slop or bleeding and even though a lot of the colors are rather muted, the coloring is still exciting to me.

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The portrait is excellent, with Asuna’s big eyes printed perfectly and you can see her ears peaking out from her hair. Her mouth is partly open as if she’s about to take a bite of her meal. The hair, however, is what really shines here. It falls over her forehead, frames her face and than cascades down her back. You also get a pair of strands down the fronts of her shoulders reaching all the way down to her skirt. Really nice work!

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The base is a simple white disk with a wedge to support her raised left heel. I have no issues with the plain bases in this series, but I’m wondering if I would have preferred a black disk here so that they would all match. Then again, this one accentuates the white in her stockings and tunic, so maybe Taito knew what they were doing here.

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For a Prize Figure, the sculpting and paint on this piece are both top notch and the $30 I paid for her feels like a fantastic deal. Sometimes collecting these cheaper figures can feel like slumming it when compared to the really good expensive stuff, but this was a case where I really don’t see all that much of a difference. This was also a case where I have literally not seen this version of the character produced anywhere else in a premium release, so if this is indeed the only way to get her, collectors should be happy to know they did a fine job with her. Next Saturday, I’m going to give Sword Art Online a little rest and move on to some figures from one of my more recent anime obsessions… KanColle!

May 7 2016

Sword Art Online II: Sinon (ALfheim Version) Prize Figure by Taito

To me Taito has always been a company I associate with classic twitchy arcade goodness. I seriously love me some Darius. But, I’ve only recently discovered their line of licensed anime prize figures and I’ve become pretty addicted to scarfing these things up when I can find them. And one of those licenses just happens to be Sword Art Online, a personal favorite of mine. Today, I’m checking out Sinon from Sword Art Online II. This is Sinon as she appeared in ALfheim Online, where she adopted the avatar of the Cait Sith race and traded her Hecate II rifle for one of Lisbeth’s bows. Once a sniper, always a sniper!

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The box is fully enclosed with full color shots of the figure on three of the four panels. The language is mostly Japanese, so the package isn’t at all western friendly, but that’s OK. It all adds to the charm of the import. The side panels have perforated areas that can be punched out if you want to create carrying handles. Inside, the figure comes in a plastic bag with some additional scraps of plastic to protect the paint from rubbing. The only assembly required is to peg in her left arm at the elbow and peg the feet into the base.

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All set up, Sinon measures about 7-inches from the bottom of the base to the tips of her adorable little cat ears. Her outfit is nicely recreated, complete with her green duster, chest and shoulder armor, shorts, and chunky boots. She even has her blue cat tail. Every detail is part of the sculpt and looks great.

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The paint is where the statue betrays it’s cheaper price point. There’s some white paint transfer on her green coat and the yellow piping could be sharper and more evenly applied in some areas. With that having been said, there’s also some great paintwork here as well, like the beautiful silver used for the armor. The plastic used for her skin tones is also excellent. Overall, I’d say this is the kind of paintwork I would expect out of a Western 6-inch action figure in the $20 price range. It’s not particularly bad, but it a reminder that this is a value piece.

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The portrait here is solid. Her large eyes are flawlessly printed onto the figure and she sports a determined expression. I love the way her sculpted hair hangs over and frames her face. The hair in general sports great detail from her ears down to the hanging ponytails and the soft blue they used is quite nice.

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The bow is soft and flexible, but not so much that it seems in danger of warping. It’s permanently attached to her left hand and the arm pegs in to the socket very securely. Finally, the figure comes on a simple, round black base with pegs to support her feet.

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At $25, Sinon is a bit higher than many of the Banpresto Prize figures, but still a far cry from the $80-100 that most of my anime figures average. And that makes me seriously happy to have discovered this line because with my diverse and eclectic collecting habits, I can’t always spare $100+ a pop for statues of all my favorite characters. If this piece is indicative of the rest of Taito’s line, it seems to offer a nice compromise. The figure may be a bit smaller than the usual 1/8 scale anime figures. And sure, the paint may not be as sharp as those expensive premium pieces, but for the value this line can’t be beat and I’m looking forward to featuring many more of these here on FFZ.

Apr 30 2016

League of Legends: Jinx 1/10 Scale Figure by Xin Hao

I buy figures from games I don’t play. Wow, it feels good to get that off my chest! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not an intentional collecting trend, but there are just times when I’m having a couple of drinks, feeling fine, browsing some e-tailers late at night, and I see stuff that I dig despite never having spent any time with the game its based on. League of Legends… I know what it is, I’ve seen people play it, I don’t have any interest in it, but the character designs sure seem fun and my Twitter feed is usually graced a couple times a day with pictures of chicks cosplaying as Jinx. So when I saw this statue, I pulled the trigger.

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So first off, who the f’ck makes this thing? Seriously, I had to flip the thing over and see it printed on the bottom as Xin Hao, a company that I never heard of. The website listed is Xinhaowanju and trying to visit there lit up all sorts of warnings on my browser. And why the hell is there a God Eater 2 logo on the back of the box? That’s an entirely different god damn game from Ban Dai. This is also the cheapest feeling box I’ve ever encountered… and check this shit out…

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All of this, plus the fact that this figure was dirt cheap spells horrible piece of crap Chinese bootleg to me. The funny thing is I couldn’t find anyone selling the same statue from a familiar company that this would be a bootleg of. It’s an enigma wrapped in a riddle and stuffed inside a mystery. So let’s get her opened up and find out what horrible piece of shit I just bought.

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OK, so despite the shady box and unknown manufacturer, this is actually a damn nice figure. I’ve been stuck with bootleg figures before and the one thing I’ve noticed is they’re never subtle in the shitty-ness of their quality. Jinx, who strikes me as the video game equivalent of Harley Quinn… unless you count the Arkham games and then Harley Quinn is the video game equivalent of Harley Quinn… strikes a pose that I’ve seen before on art work proliferated around the Interwebs. She has a wide stance with her right hand sliding back through her hair and her left hand resting on her sidearm. She’s loaded with her signature weapons and her long braids snake down her back to the base. She stands about 9 1/2-inches from the bottom of the base to the top of Fishbones.

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This young lady is beautifully sculpted, suitably hefty (at least for a PVC piece) and the paint is quite good, with only a few minor stray marks. The flesh tone has a very slight waxy sheen to it, which is something that you don’t usually see in the legit imports, but it’s not bad at all. The last bootleg I got stuck with looked like it was sculpted from human earwax. The skin here is smooth and even. There is, however, a seam running down the middle of her hair, which would probably have been avoided by one of the better figure producers out there. The coloring on this figure is wonderfully vibrant and beautiful. From the bright blue of her hair to the metallic pink of her stocking and BFG, both balanced out by some black.

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I really dig the blue printed tattoos running down her right side and arm. They’re a little more subtle than they look under the studio lights. You can see some of the nice sculpted quilting on her leg strap and the pink short-shorts peaking out from under all that gear. Each of the tiny bullets and fixtures on her belts are painted and I love the little loving touches like the band aids on her left knee.

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The portrait is pretty simple. She’s winking and her hair is partially covering up her right hand. The paint on the eyes, eyebrows and lips are all nice and sharp. All in all, it’s a pretty subdued look for a bat-shit crazy chick, but I still like it. And speaking of crazy… this chick sure loves her weapons and this figure doesn’t disappoint.

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First off you have Fishbones, her shark-themed rocket launcher. This mammoth piece of killing hardware tabs into her left shoulder and holds in place very well despite it’s size and weight. Fishbones has a nice metallic silver and gray finish with some additional paint and details and a translucent red plug inside his mouth.

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Next up, Jinx has Pow-Pow, her hot pink Mini-Gun slung over her shoulders and worn across her back. This piece is actually supported by her shoulder strap, but it’s also attached to the back of the figure to keep it in place.

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Finally, her left hand wrests on the grip of Zapper, her shock pistol. It’s a combination of gold paint and translucent turquoise plastic.

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Not to be outdone by Jinx’s wild outfit and colors, the base is a large oval with white crackling energy patterns across a black backdrop. Her name is graffiti-ed in hot pink paint between her feet along with “The Shooter.” The figure actually comes off the base when you open her, but she pegs in very securely.

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Jinx was one of those, “Click Buy-It-Now And Hope For The Best” scenarios.  At $30 shipped, I was all but certain that I was going to get ripped off by some piece of garbage. I even searched around to try to find a “legit” version of this piece and I probably would have paid twice as much for. As it turns out, this seems to be the Real McCoy and I’m absolutely delighted with what I got. Yes, she has a few minor paint flubs that wouldn’t have been acceptable on a Kotobukiya piece, but there’s nothing even remotely bad here and at this price it’s hard to argue. Jinx is a great figure of a very colorful character design (from a game I’ll never bother to play) and she’s going to look fantastic on one of my import figure shelves.

Apr 22 2016

Eiyuu Senhime Gold: Hero Princess Tutankhamun PVC Figure by QuesQ

Today I’m checking out my first PVC figure from QuesQ, a company that has done work with some anime properties that interest me, like Attack on Titan (but who hasn’t?) and Arpeggio of Blue Steel (not much out there from that series), as well as some game franchises that are rather obscure here in the States like Eiyuu Senhime Gold. I’m always a bit apprehensive about going in with a new manufacturer without ever having seen their figures in person, but here’s one where I was willing to roll the dice.

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The figure comes in a rather compact box with a nice Egyptian themed deco and windows on the front and top to allow for a peek at the goods inside. Alas, my box is a little crunched up on top, but I got such a good deal on this one that I’m not concerned about it. The figure comes sandwiched between two clear plastic sleeves and while she can come apart at the waist and neck, the figure come assembled. You just have to peg her into the base and put her staff in her hand and she’s ready to go. At approximately 1/8 scale she stands exactly 8-inches, including the base.

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All set up, this young lady looks gorgeous. If you’re not familiar with the game, Eiyuu Senhime Gold, you’re in good company. I only learned about the first time I saw this figure and I rather fell in love with the game’s character art. It’s billed as a strategy game, but it sounds like it’s equal parts visual novel. You’re out to conquer the world and up against some of the most famous rulers in history… and all of them happen to be adorable chicks, because… reasons… and Japan… and reasons. Obviously, this little lady is Tutankhamun. Just go with it.

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I think it was a combination of the bishoujo style, the Egyptian theme, and the rather wonderful composition that made me take notice of this figure. The lingering pose reminds me a lot of my Lineage II Elf, another figure I own based off a Japanese game that I knew nothing about. Lady Tut is clad in a very simple white dress that’s blowing up just enough to give you a hint of a little sumthin-sumthin going on underneath. It’s tied at the waist with a red sash from which dangles a metallic blue ankh on her left hip. I dig the way they did the myriad of bangles on her wrists and ankles, each with three of them sculpted in series and one left loose to dangle. Her left hand is raised to her cheek and her right hand drags behind her holding her blue and gold staff. The skin tone is orange, which adds to her exotic look and suggests that she possibly eats a lot of carrots.

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The portrait is fantastic. I love the way her sculpted bangs hang way over her face, but it’s her eyes that really get me. The striking tones of blue and purple paint are quite mesmerizing.

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You also get this fabulous headdress that resembles a giant blue eye set in a golden frame with chains of gold medallions draping around her head.

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The base is an extremely simple raised disk, cast in a rose colored plastic with the name inscribed across the front. The figure pegs into it quite easily. Oh yeah, and because the figure does come apart, if you’re really keen on seeing what’s going on under that skirt, it happens to come off…

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Yup. She’s got a dainty little modesty cloth in the front and a cute little gold bird around back.

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Everything about this piece makes me happy I bought it, but that brings us to price. Granted, the sculpt and paintwork on this figure are practically flawless, but the original retail on this little lady was a whopping $150 and as impressed as I am with her, I just can’t see the justification there. And I’m not someone who isn’t adverse to spending some money on a well-crafted anime honey, as evidenced by some of the money I’ve thrown at MegaHouse and Orchid Seed. I’ll leave Kotobukiya out of it, because quite frankly I think a lot of their figures are worth more than the initial asking price. Nonetheless, price was the reason I admired Ms Tut here from afar until I was ultimately able to get a nice deal on her at about $55. I’d like to sit here and say that I feel she’s worth three times that, but the truth I wouldn’t have been as satisfied with her had I gone much higher.