Sunday, February 28, 2010
Review: [Max Factory] Figma #23 Asakura Ryoko
Figure Info:
Manufacturer:
Max Factory
Series:
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu
Scale and Height:
Non-scale and approximately around 14cm tall
Details and Accuracy:
Well if it's details we're talking about, I think the body frame of Ryoko is generic already since all haruhi characters have the same school uniform with the exception of Yuki Nagato. School uniform's details are quite nice, simple but yeah, figma captures it well IMO as well as Ryoko's hair, let alone the hair edges of course.
Ryoko's faces are really enjoyable and her default face doesn't ruin it, her default face is her typical friendly looking self with no bad intentions and what not. XD
Accessories and Extras:
Basically, like all figmas, Ryoko comes with a set of 4 hand pairs. She also comes with her trademark combat knife, an extra face, the smiling one and two really notable pieces of additions. First is Taniguchi's head, whatever you do with the head is fine but this is one way of how figmas chip in some extra sales, basically if you want Taniguchi, you need to buy the prescribed body frame to complete him, in Taniguchi's case, you need Kyon's body. But enough of that, Taniguchi's head can serve other purposes, one of them you'll later in this review. Second of the notable inclusions is another hand but there's no duplicate this time, only one right hand; this is for Yuki Nagato's use to recreate the Yuki/Ryoko battle. basically the hand can slip through Ryoko's combat knife to make it look like the hand grabbed the knife by it's blade. I used a sample of it in a really random story I made, below is an example of how the hand is used but you can view the full detail of that scene here.
Poseability:
Like the competition of companies, the major thing lies in here but since Ryoko only had the figma treatment, let's just discuss how well her poseability is. For starters, you can actually do quite a lot with her especially with her knife and that very shrouded smile. Basically one major thing to note is her hair, the hair keeps this figure very limited in terms of her head position. Her hair basically gets in the way of a lot of things, especially if you use the figma stand like me, you really will suffer indefinite hell due to it being almost unmovable upwards, which already is limited to begin with. Also her hair limits the turning of her head from left to right. Since Ryoko has this "evil" intention, you can actually use Taniguchi's head to make it look like she chopped off his head XD Well other than that limitation, Ryoko is pretty much fun to play with and at the same time good for photoshoots.
Overall:
Figmas don't eat that much cash and Ryoko, for being such a minor character as others would see it, is pretty nice. You get a knife and a special hand. Plus, her smile is a pretty fun subject. XD She's a must get if you collect the Haruhi figmas and also if you're building a Ryoko shrine like me, she's also a pretty good buy since she IS one of the better Ryokos out there.
Remarks:
Details and Accuracy - 10/10
Accessories and Extras - 10/10
Poseability - 7/10
Price - 10/10
Average: 9.25/10
Final comments...
give in to her charms
I really don't collect figmas, it's just that if they're in the shrine mode, I need to get them but certainly I've enjoyed Ryoko more compared to figma 14: Miku, the knife and Ryoko's shrouded smile just makes this a complete win since it captures who Ryoko really is. At the same time, she's really a good catch compared to other figmas that I didn't really like, in my opinion. XD
Saturday, February 27, 2010
February Hauls: Miku Madness
The best way a guy like me can end a month!!! T-T
The final, expensive but perfectly pleasing hauls for the unexpected month!
Last batch of February hauls and also my salary killer are these two really WONDERful Mikus from GSC. Well to simply put, they're both Wonder Fest exclusives which are lucky offers from a friend and a local supplier from the Otakai community. Well, I may be bankrupt again but not as much as when I got BRS and WiM but still I AM HAPPY! ^_^ I'll try to post reviews soon, been out on successive weekends so, I wasn't able to make reviews ^^;
Sunday, February 21, 2010
February Hauls: Destroyer and The Cycle
Bugmen at last!
Half of Feb's hauls XD
Finally, after a long time of waiting, my Decade has arrived and it's really awesome, played with it a bit earlier on GH during the EB. And the other one is the one I mentioned on my previous blog, the Hopper by Mirage Studios that's only for 180 pieces over the world, this baby fetches for a really insane price but I got it at a bargain luckily XD And yeah, I tried to make Decade ride it and he fits well, truly a cycle for Black or Shadow Moon. ^^
Saturday, February 20, 2010
February is Crazy!
A month of love love love they say, lol.
This is just a quick entry from the insane experience this month.
Supposedly, February is my silent month, meaning no hauls whatsoever except for a possible arrival of Decade and Kabuto. Well, I started the month without going to greenhills but after 2 weeks, I went there. That was the start of all hell, lol, well, actually, before that weekend, one of our suppliers at Otakai sent me a message saying that a Snow Miku is available, so, I bit it even if the price was obviously overpriced already but heck, Miku is Miku and I find the price justifiable anyway. So there, with that given, there already is a haul incoming soon, and she will arrive on Monday I think and will be mine on Saturday next week.
Now I went to Greenhills to hang out with friends, see the new arrivals from the local stores and to my surprise there was an S.I.C. Battle Hopper priced really low and was there, that Battle Hopper wasn't an official Bandai release but it was featured, I think, in one of the Hero Saga mini-series and as I've researched more, only 180 pieces of those were distributed to the world. Lucky for me, I guess, I reserved it and will be getting it tomorrow along with Decade (yeah, he finally arrived! about time...)
So that leaves me with 3 hauls already, now, yesterday, surprisingly, my phone was on and I suddenly got a call from my friend, lelouch. I answered and couldn't hear so, I texted him instead, he says there was a CM Miku in wasabi toys and asked me if I want to reserve it, but it turns out it can't be reserved as it's a first come first serve buy. Luckily, lelouch offered to buy it and then I'll pay him later, so, I agreed, and as for my budget for it... well... I decided to drop my pocket money for my HK trip soon, it's easier to drop that I guess rather than dropping my pre-order of MegaHouse's Kasugano Sora. Oh well, anyway, that's about it til today, wasn't expecting Feb to be exclusive Miku month ^^;
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Wonder Festival 2010 Winter Showcase
Another war? Looks like it... XD
And another day of wallet burning has arrived!
Today is another day where figure collectors like me gets surprised and prepare our wallets burn yet again as today is Wonder Festival Winter 2010! And as usual, we get a show case of new and upcoming products from the different figure manufacturers at Japan, but I will only focus on GSC, Max Factory and Alter but will also mention other companies along the way, photos mostly from HobbyStock Blog.
Okay, unlike the past Wonder Fest blog I did, I'd take this time by series. So first we drive into Fate series where we recently got an announcement of a figma Rider and also, this time WF showcases Mordred (Red Saber/Saber Extra) with her weapon. But to the surprising extent, we now get to see a fully colored Saber Alter figma, last hinted 2 years ago when Saber Lily's figma was released. And finally, to many people I know, we get to see a a prototype of Archer's figma, yes! Archer! Rejoice Archer fans! Below are previews of Saber Alter and Archer:
If that's not enough, we now go to the Nendoroid line as GSC presents us a colored Nendoroid of Saber, yes, the real Saber this time and not some weird facial expression. XD
Moving onto the next. Recently, we get a sneak preview from Alter via text that they'll be continuing their Nanoha line and leaves us with an announcement of StrikerS Vivio in her Kaiser mode and of course, if there's a Nanoha, there's also got to be a the Movie 1st version of Fate, and here we see them.
If that's not enough, GSC also shows prototypes of a Nendoroid Puchi for the Nanoha Movie which includes Nanoha, Fate, Yuno, Chrono and Arf.
Since the Haruhi film is around the corner, guess what's GSC and Max have done?
Of course, the answer is additional figmas and nendos. Figma showcases had the loli version of Haruhi from when Kyon got back in time, a future Mikuru and a Haruhi version straight from the film, where it takes place in an alternate world.
To continue with the Haruhi movie, GSC gives us a peek at new nendoroids from it in the forms of Haruhi and Yuki.
Related to Kyo-Ani, we now go to K-On! and boy manufacturers sure are milking it pretty much, we now get a new Mio and the colored Azusa from Alter.
If that's not enough, Max Factory shows their own as 1/7 scales of Mio and Yui are shown along with the remaining unannounced figmas. Really now, I dunno if K-On! fans would be happy or not with all the insane rate of releasing K-On! collectibles.
More from Factory, and this time they're stepping into the realm of Evangelion by making a 1/6 Mari as well as the figmas of the 3 female pilots. And this is just around half of the new figmas.
Ridiculously as it may sound, but with some twist of fate, Max Factory got the license to do figmas for a particular Kamen Rider series, which is Dragon Knight, the ever so known western adaptation of the 3rd heisei series, Kamen Rider Ryuki, and though, the license is for Dragon Knight, the suits really have no whatever difference from Ryuki, so you can count them as Ryuki products, starting with figmas of Dragon Knight (Ryuki) and Wing Knight (Knight)
Also a worthy note would be the milking of Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari from different companies, the images below would be GSC's 1/8 scale fig and of course a teaser of the figma.
Senjougahara figures from Kotobukiya and Movic are also revealed in this event.
And finally for my series sums, we go to Black Rock Shooter's universe. I've been wishing for a Dead Master figure ever since BRS's first fig was announced and look what Max and GSC do? Bombard me with 4 new DM figs, really nice huh? Anyway, we get to see a colored nendo of BRS as well as a peek of DM's Nendo, figma also showcases colored products for the two characters.
If those weren't enough BRS milking, we now see the completed BRS anime version as well as two, YES TWO, Dead Master figures: one is to pair up with the anime version and the other to pair up with the first BRS release, hoo boy, I really like DM and I'll be shrining her since her reign is beginning. :p
Finally done with the series sums and now for the figure lines remaining for the 3 companies stated above.
Alter is now starting their Altair line, a figure line for large scaled male figures similar to MegaHouse's G.E.M. line. I dunno who the other one is but we also get a preview of Tales of Vesperia characters for this line. ^^ Good news to Tales fans and those who like male figs.
So for the last bunch of figmas, a little surpising but definitely nice. A figma of KOS-MOS in her version 4 appearance and dun dun dunnnn, Michael Jackson! YES, MJ! IN HIS THRILLER LOOK TOO!
For the Nendos, I really don't know most of them since I only know Feena and the other one which would be a character from Strike Witches. Also, it is revealed that the 100th Nendoroid is classic company character Mickey Mouse! XD Also, previews for Touho's Nendo Puchi set.
Finally going to large figures. Here are Alter's remaining line ups, notable for me would be Koromo from Saki and Clalaclan's completed painted protype:
Finally remaining figures from GSC which I really have no idea of who they are (I really should start watching more anime) XD
And of course, last but not the least... GSC's hinted figure a few days ago, turns out to be another Miku (YAY!), this time in her Koi ga Sensou look and man that base is freakin' huge! O_O
Well, I'm done here. You can look at more reports from kumo's blog, 2chan, Hobby Stock Blog, Figure/GK, Amiblog and many more... ^^
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