Another year has come to a close, which means it’s time for the customary year-end financial report. This will include a look at exchange rate trends, where and how I spent my figure budget over the course of the year, and commentary on any interesting trends that emerged within that data. Read on below.
Periodically, I like to take a look at new figures that are available for pre-order. This isn’t intended to be an exhaustive list, but rather a selection of new releases that I personally find interesting or notable.
After my previous preorder post, I decided a more frequent cadence might be beneficial to keep these posts from growing so monolithic in nature. This is the first of what will hopefully become a mid-quarter format. I still managed to find fourteen figures to talk about since August, which was a bit of a surprise as well as a strain on the budget given that some manufacturers, notably Alter, seem to have dramatically shortened their preorder windows here recently.
It has become evident from the past couple Wonder Festival events that Kantai Collection (aka KanColle) is the new darling of the figure industry. The moe anthromorphization of naval battleships as cute girls makes for good merchandising and the property owners behind KanColle have done well to spread the love around by letting quite a few different manufacturers take a crack at rendering the various ship-girls in plastic. Amakuni is on the forefront of that effort and they wisely decided to start with arguably the most popular girl in Shimakaze.
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In my assessment of Max Factory’s 2020 Miku as a potential preorder target, I indicated my intention to part ways with my Volks Miku if I ultimately acquired the Max Factory figure. I now have 2020 Miku in my possession thanks to some bargain bin action at Hobby Search, which means it’s time for Volks Miku to bow out. I wanted to grab some photos of her to commemorate the time she spent in my collection and I figured I might as well make a short review of it.
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Periodically, I like to take a look at new figures that are available for pre-order. This isn’t intended to be an exhaustive list, but rather a selection of new releases that I personally find interesting or notable.
Once again, I find myself scribing a preorder roundup with WonFes in the recent past. The timing isn’t deliberate, but it is a curious recurring coincidence. This time I’m tackling 16 new figures and potential purchases, which happens to be a personal record and a good indication that I should probably be doing these posts about twice as often as I do.
Just under a year ago, while evaluating MegaHouse’s Irma for preorder, I intimated that I would very much like to see a re-release of their Risty as well. I doubt representatives from MegaHouse or Hobby Japan were reading, but whatever the reason that desire has been fulfilled and I now find myself in possession of their recently reissued 1/8 scale interpretation of the honorable bandit from Queen’s Blade.
(This post contains artistic nudity. Reader discretion is advised.)
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This month, I’m looking at Max Factory’s sultry 1/7 scale rendition of Tharja (aka Sallya) from Fire Emblem Awakening.
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Next on my review pile, we have Orchid Seed’s swimsuited take on the elf warrior Alleyne from Queen’s Blade.
(This post contains artistic nudity. Reader discretion is advised.)
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It’s time to take a look at Amakuni’s 1/8 scale Dark General from Shingeki no Bahamut (aka Rage of Bahamut).
This review started as a review for the Dark General’s sister-in-origin, Dark Angel Olivia from Kotobukiya, who arrived not too long ago. Although Olivia is a gorgeous figure when viewed in person, I found her very difficult to work with from behind the camera as her wings block the angles where I want to put my light and the glossy finish on her eyes provide horrible reflections from most any position. I quickly grew frustrated, punted on the Olivia photo shoot, and switched over to the Dark General here hoping for some redemption. Fortunately, she proved to be quite photogenic.
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Figyura (フィギュラ) 