Passed on this originally, didn’t like it that much when the promo shots came up. Didn’t care much for it either when it was finally released. Then it arrived at the store…

So I saw it on Friday, and decided that if it sold off during the weekend, so be it. Came back in on Monday, and it was still there. Still decided to be stubborn and refused to get it. But everytime a customer picked it up to examine it, my heart skipped a beat and I just stared daggers at them :p So after a few hours of this painful ritual, I decided this really isn’t the way to live and brought it home ^^; Well, better to regret something you did, then something you didn’t do I guess =/

Went for a darker look, which probably doesn’t show the figure that well I suspect, for brighter pictures and a much clearer view of this figure, do head over to wcloudxkumo’s as well as James‘ for additional perspectives =)

Almost the same head, of course except for the visor and the front hair piece. Don’t really care much for the visor-less head though. The cheeks and lips become too obvious for my tastes without the visor and they’re not the most flattering of sculpts in my opinion. As for the eyes, I guess I’m more a fan of Clare by MegaHouse.

For me though, the head is probably the one single factor that caused me to drag my feet with this figure. So why did I still get it in the end when arguably the head is one of the most if not the most important part of a figure? I fell in love with the armor I guess xD

From the gauntlets to the breastplate to the belt straps on her arms to the creases on her upper arms to her back, the sculpt is something I totally enjoy, enough even to overlook the head I guess.

I absolutely love the front of her lower body, but I prefer the back of her upper body ^^; All about the detail I guess.

Boots are pretty sweet as well, though it’s hard to tell from the dark pics I guess -_-; I totally love the billowing dress that has a reddish hue under it.

Weapon is nicely finished here, which is good since it’s out in plain sight I guess ^^

Didn’t go as well as I would have liked with too much red overall and being summer, I forgive myself for being lazy and not reshooting xD Do try to enjoy it if you’ve made it this far though =)

Well aside from the armor, I guess the other reason why I went for this figure in the end would be that I never had a Saber Alter form figure since Revoltechs aren’t really my thing and the Griffon version never came across my path. Do check out valho’s shoot of the Griffon version here =)

A pretty sweet figure all in all with nice detail. The offering of the two heads allows some variation as well and while I might be ragging on about how the head is rather botched, it does look nice from the sides though to be honest. I’m of the opinion that it’s the chin armor that tends to skew perspectives somewhat, causing a puffed cheek kind of feel. A worthy grab for those into fate/stay night and/or detail on their figures, with the imposing atmosphere it gives off, it’ll certainly look nice in any collection if you don’t mind it stealing the attention from your other figures

Manufacturer: Solid Theater
Scale: 1/8 Scale
Released: May 2008
Price: 6476 Yen
Availability: Discontinued @ HLJ

Sort of filler/joke post as I prepare for the next post which hopefully will be up soon in a few hours. So here goes the amazing chronicles of dumbass buys for the month of June. Well, there’s not a lot of dumb purchases actually, hopefully this will be just the ONE post on dumb buys for a long time to come.

And it seems WordPress isn’t gonna add the image insert back at the toolbar, so here I am inserting code like a nimrod again. Maybe the next post I mentioned won’t be coming so soon after all -_-”

So Botan seemed like a good idea at the time, at 3610 yen, I thought it would be fun and to stuff into the car. So the shipping charges got revealed, and suddenly I’m the proud owner of a 55 dollar boar-thing. And while I’m driving, it’s not likely I’m gonna be hugging it either -_-; Though maybe it’ll be fun after all if a cop pulls me over and sees it sitting on my lap and I keep saying “puhi puhi”. And if I’m not posting in awhile, you’ll have a rough idea of what I’ve been up to xD

And most probably Botan decided to stand on his two hind feet while they were measuring him, since his length of 18.5cm became a height of 18.5cm instead. Or when HS says approximately, they use the term very liberally… All in all, he IS cute though, even if he did come quite costly ^^; Too bad he’s not one of those where u can squeeze a button and he makes the puhi sound.

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve finally watched Eva. And so I felt it was time to buy something Eva to celebrate that. And I like this lighter, I really, REALLY like it. In fact, I like it so much that I can’t bear to use it now -.-” And now I have in my possession a pretty darned expensive lighter which I can’t use at all and will lamely end up as a display piece (if I ever bear to take it out from the box, which means I can’t even look at it easily -_-)

So this rounds up my dumb buys. It didn’t kill the wallet that much (not by most people’s standards anyway I guess), but it probably could have been diverted into other slightly more meaningful purchases perhaps. Till the next post and thanks for letting me take your time :p And yeah, that’s a fingerprint at the bottom left, now you see why I don’t wanna use it xD

I suppose it was a given that I would be getting Rin, heh. No surprise here really :p Decided to go with the Kotobukiya lineup for the LIttle Busters! figures since Kotobukiya seems to be churning out pretty good stuff recently (e.g., The Shining Tears/Wind series), and frankly, Toys Works bases are too bloody big for my liking xD

And so I decided to post at a time where there’s an apparent issue with WordPress where the insert image icon has disappeared, and it’s 3 in the friggin morning and I’m nursing a head/neck ache the size of Antartica. So if any mistakes pop up, do be gentle ^^;

Rin comes attached to her base right out of the box, with one screw inserted in the right foot for added support. Her skirt can be cast off by detaching her upper body and removing the skirt. For those who would like to use the optional face that comes with her, I suggest taking her apart before attempting to switch the faces since the hair piece that locks the face in is a rather stubborn bugger, and with one foot screwed in the base, it’s not a figure u wanna swing about while you struggle and swear at how tight the hair piece is (at least for me anyways :p).

So other than the front hair piece, her sideburns are separate pieces as well and have to be removed before the face can be changed. The face is fairly accurate by my standards, which is great for me since I like Rin the most out of all the heroines in the game ^^

A few rough patches on the hair, especially the ponytail but that’s common enough that I don’t quite mind.

And the first time ever I bothered to use an optional part for a shoot :p The cat ears are held in place by magnets which is a nice touch, since it means they wouldn’t fall off normally and chances of losing them would be low. The magnets also mean that the ears can be used in conjunction with the normal face as well if you so fancy.

The uniform is about as sweet as most uniforms go I guess, though paint job could have been done better at some areas. The semi glossy black also forced me to do a fair bit of heal brushing to get rid of the countless dust specks.

Overall though, the folds of her jacket is done nicely. I especially like her skirt somehow.

I like her legs ^^ But I like those shoes even more :p I think if they every produced those shoes, I’d probably buy them ^^;

Thankfully, this figure doesn’t come with the typical Kotobukiya base which normally ends up being a disc and usually of a really awful color. :p

And as I’m nearing the end of the post, I’m ecstatic since soon I’ll be able to stop copying and pasting HTML code like a nimrod. The inner lining of the box depicts Rin running and turning back in a walkway in her school. But I’m afraid I don’t have the resources to reproduce something like that ^^; Enjoy anyways!

Probably not a figure for people who aren’t normally into school uniforms, much more so if they aren’t exactly acquainted with the game as well. I like this figure pretty much because I like the character and the game itself, so I can’t say that this figure is one of those must gets, since it really doesn’t have an exceptional “wow” factor to it. Perhaps if the game ever becomes an anime, more will want the figure. For me, I’m totally happy with her =)

Manufacturer: Kotobukiya
Scale: 1/8 Scale
Released: June 2008
Price: 5500 Yen
Availability: Low Stock @ HLJ

Long story short I finally got off my butt to somehow squeeze Rize into the display case, and I can finally free Reinforce from her box ^^; But thanks to her base, gonna be another great struggle trying to fit her in somewhere, in the meanwhile, she’s probably gonna get stuck out in the open and start attracting dust Another trip to Ikea looms I suppose -_-”

A really sweet figure, wish I had opened her sooner which would have probably spurred me on to just grab another Detolf while I was at Ikea a few days ago ^^; Reinforce is definitely a figure that all Nanoha series fans shouldn’t miss unless they’re content with the mini Reinforce that comes with Alter’s Hayate this October :p Which honestly speaking, that mini Reinforce looks pretty badly done from the promo shots available.

A real block of a base, which kind of deterred me from taking her out from her box. Pretty nice that it’s not just a plain white base that’s par for the course for Alter though. It’s not much, but a few words there that actually do make sense sure beats having an ordinary base. No close up of the base, but head over to ron’s review of Reinforce for a look at the base, more in-depth detail of Reinforce herself, as well as awesome pic’s of her.

Face is done really nice. I like the pose of her hands as well =)

One of the top draws for Reinforce for me would have to be her hair though, the color was done really nicely on it and the sculpt is just absolutely sweet. There’s really not much to complain about with this figure.

Well, except for that little blotch on her hair there as you can see in 12.jpg I guess ^^;

Paint job on her clothes are done cleanly, and I’d love to write more, but at 2.30 in the a.m., all my brain can produce is: Magical Floating Book!!!

Kind of mixed feelings somewhat about her legs though. Noticed while taking her apart when removing the plastic that her legs don’t really have much form, well, kind of like a little kids legs I guess, but I do wish at least there could be more of a knee defined there. But that’s probably just me ^^;

No idea what would have been best since the Nanoha universe jumps between dimensions so anything would sort of fit. So I got lazy and winged it once again ^^b Short set though, so bear with it

A really sweet figure definitely, and pretty much no regrets with this figure. For those still wondering whether to grab her, I’d say grab it if you’re able to locate it. Be sure to check out super rats review of Reinforce as well for some awesome shots.

Manufacturer: Alter
Scale: Non-scale
Released: May 2008
Price: 5800 Yen
Availability: Discontinued @ HLJ

Wasn’t too excited about this figure, the excitement probably died down right after Char was released I suppose since the fourth wasn’t exactly something I was looking forward to, and somehow it just became a case of completing the series. Didn’t help that shipping was a killer for this figure as well for me ^^;

Not to say that this is a bad figure of course, the detail on Rize is still as awesome as one might expect. In fact, my favorite of them all is Akatsuki which is probably the plainest among all of them. So for those who adore detail, Rize definitely will sit well with them, even if she didn’t excite me quite as much as the first three did.

At first glance, Rize seems to fill up a lot of space, with her halberd and billowing skirt and all. And well… she does ^^; Taking her apart to remove the protective plastic wrappings wasn’t too difficult as well compared to the first three. Her arms weren’t positioned nicely enough for me that the halberd would fit nicely into her hands, and therefore had to resort to using a lapel from her top to secure the halberd for a somewhat more correct fit :/

Maybe I’m just not too used to it, but I don’t really fancy her eyebrows, which sort of make me feel like she’s a boy with boobs (and those are some boobs, really). Guess I’m just stuck with a somewhat distorted view :p But thats probably the main reason why I don’t fancy Rize too much.

Hair is nicely done though, can’t really complain with regards to the hair design and sculpt.

Her clothes are really what stands out though. The details on the edges of her clothes, the laces on the chest to abdomen, the leather strap and the gold lining around the straps, as well as the gold buttons on her upper arm piece. Detail and finish is really something you can’t find fault with for this figure. Add to that the flowing skirt piece and that red sash flowing behind, and you’ve got a really nicely made figure for sure.

Not much I can say here except for awesome weapon. ^^; The Shuraki line really has sweet weapon designs =)

Really sweet boots for Rize. And a just as sweet base. I really like how the bases for the Shuraki figures aren’t very big at all and almost take up just enough space to keep the figure stable. Too many times square/round bases take up more than necessary and figure displaying becomes almost like a game of Tetris in trying to figure out the perfect fit for the figures within an enclosed square area (read: Detolf).

Simple background once again. Do enjoy either way. For Photoshop magic instead of boring backgrounds like mine, do head over to Radiant’s to enjoy Rize =)

I think in the end, the Shuraki craze just ended up to be too much and it imploded in on itself. That being said, by no means are the last two figures any worse than the first three. They each have their own strong points and really are a nice addition to any collection. And since each character is designed by different individuals, it’s almost certain that at least one of them will catch your fancy. Just so happens that the last two just flew by me ^^; For those who missed out on her and would like to get her, she’s low in stock at HLJ so time to get off the fence =)

Manufacturer: Good Smile Company
Scale: 1/8
Released: May 2008
Price: 6476 Yen
Availability: Low Stock @ HLJ

If you’ve been at the blog recently, you probably would be expecting this considering how excited I was by the game that I spammed support banners all over at the right column ^^ Well, it’s arrived for me and I’m super happy since the pre-order bonuses were what I totally wanted xD

This game was available for download just about a day before official release, which funnily enough led to a few hits for me since the people who downloaded had no serial number :p I suppose if I type “no serial patch” now I might be able to funnel a few more hits my way xP Well, enough of the random nonsense and on to the game!

Same sized box as the first tale. Pretty much same layout too. Which makes for a great display together I guess :p

A FULLY COLORED MANUAL of about TWO pages if you don’t count the cover :p

Same pretty disc as the first tale had. PC game discs are really a whole lot better I have to say when compared to PS2 ones. More color there instead of the mostly white artwork they use on PS2 games ^^;

And now, on to the extras!

A first edition bonus that was pretty much decided last minute it seems. Contains interviews with staff involved in ef so no pictures taken of the content since it’s purely text.

The pre-order bonuses that I am most extremely pleased with. Chihiro!!! Was really kind of worried that the phone card and the er.. sort of 3/4 pillow case would be Mizuki since the focus appeared to be very much on her. And yeah, I’m a Chihiro guy all the way -.-”

Once again, really sweet graphics that I would expect for the latter tale. Am really looking forward to playing through the first tale and the latter tale in one shot ^^ Hopefully I get a few days off so I can marathon this story that I really like =)

If I wasn’t midway through Koihime Musou now, I’d probably drop every other thing on hand and get to this game immediately, I’m that into Chihiro somehow =D~ For the eye candy this game provides as well as the Mizuki arc that the anime didn’t touch on, I’d say this is one game that you might want to consider to grab. And now, it’s back to gaming for me, till the next time! ^^;

Title: ef - the latter tale.
Publisher: Minori
Genre: Visual Novel (Romance)
Released: May 30, 2008
Price: 7800 Yen
Availability: In Stock @ HS

Never did finish the anime though I did like Enma as a character. Just seemed rather repetitive of sorts after a few episodes in so I just shelved it. But I guessed I liked her enough to put down a pre order for the Alter version since I passed over the first version of Enma by ChronoGate.

Her price didn’t hurt too much too, being priced at 4800 Yen. The other was rather pricey at 6980 Yen, but that was 1/6 scale, so that could justify the price difference. Didn’t get a chance to see that version firsthand though, so I can’t say for sure. Alter’s version is pretty small for sure, but that’s pretty much the case for most figures that are seated/kneeling/not standing up :p

For a smallish figure, detail isn’t too bad at all. And it’s nice to get a base that’s actually not just a round, ugly-colored dish from Alter ^^;

From what I remember of the anime, I’d say the likeness is there. It’s been quite a while since I lasted watched it ^^;

Her hair is nice, and I like it lots, but when your colleagues have the same friggin hairstyle as well, things start to get unnerving somewhat. It’s a pretty long story, but when you know the reason for why they want the hairstyle, the hair starts to stand and the skin starts to crawl. Quite possibly scarier and freakier than if Enma were to appear in front of you and say: “Ippen, shinde miru?” ^^;

Nice thing about smallish figures when taking photos that not a lot of shots are needed I guess. One shot pretty much gets everything. Sculpt of clothes are done nice here and nothing to complain about with the paint job.

Details from the bead bracelet to the straw doll to her skirt folds are sweet. Her legs look great as well ^^;

Was tempted to just do a scene which would be an exact copy of what I did for C.C since the poses are somewhat similar and she had a base that would fit that scene really well. But decided to just try something else. Some photos were taken without a tripod since furniture was in the way and thus I ended up with a “Fatal Frame” kind of feel for some shots. And shaky hands really do not help ^^ Do enjoy them anyway =)

Probably might be too simple a figure for some so even the low (compared to current average prices) price might not be tempting. A great grab though if you like the series or even just the character. With Mamiko Noto voicing her, I guess my fate was sealed when I first laid eyes (ears? :p) on the anime. As per Alter’s usual standards, Enma is something you really can’t complain about, so no worries about getting Enma there if you’re on the fence =)

Manufacturer: Alter
Scale: 1/8 Scale
Released: May 2008
Price: 4800 Yen
Availability: In Stock @ HLJ

In lieu of all the haul posts, room posts, and what have you (seems like it’s been a happening time for everyone!), I’ve decided to put in my own as well to join in the action (or to be more honest and precise, it’s been bleeding hot here and I’m too frickin lazy to mess with lights for a shoot). So a cop out is what I’ll pull right now since amazingly these type of posts seem to wow more often than not xP Once again, I bring you another junk post thanks to laziness and summer =)

No peek into my bedroom, though you can see my bed :p And my very mismatched pillowcases flung unceremoniously to make room ^^ To be honest though, the room is probably the place where u get the least clues of the hobby. In my room, there’s just the normal “gentleman’s” mess -_- which loosely translated, means: “nobody else can find a damned thing in there but me” ^^;

One of the more impulse buys, never would have got these two if not for Hobby Search’s Character Goods Sale, though it was more the case of the sale letting me in on that these two are in stock more so than the sale itself, the sale definitely did help in the clicking of the buy button tho ^^; Most of the nice ones (for me at least) are sold out now, but maybe there’s still something there for someone, ends May 31st! No idea if I’ll be doing a review on them, I’m getting a really bad habit of buying things and not opening them, but for a dakimakura review, head over to ron~’s now for a look at the wonderful world of pillows! Hopefully Rin will provide a review soon enough too after looking at his recent grabs ^^

Very pretty box, which is why I probably wouldn’t open it to check out the contents -_-; But I’m expecting a second copy since I ordered this at a local bookstore and I was expecting HLJ to not deliver again. orz

In any case, the box presumably contains a 2metre * 1.4 metre bedsheet, a memo pad, and a mouse pad.

G’s Comic Festival! Vol. 2, as seen on the box, products are based on August characters. Contains a Feena screen cleaner, Shiro pass case, and a bath towel featuring Sendoh Erika. For a more in-depth look, check out Rin’s post on this sweet grab here.

Bought the T-shirts on a whim, and before you know it, I’m buying them like they’re going out of style. For more on how fun it is to buy T-shirts, drop by at Lu-k’s and check out the amazing world of T-shirts. There’s other related anime goods as well in his blog so do check them out! Then lets all blame him for inducing us to buy these goods! :p

Something I started on impulse since I was so into the Fate/Tiger PSP game. Saber Lion is really darned cute. Too bad tote bags don’t get released too often (as compared with T-shirts), one day hopefully I’ll have one for everyday of the month xD

Recently, as many of you might have noticed, I have deviated more into the world of games. Am expecting Koihime-Musou to arrive soon as well, courtesy of the games sale by Hobby Search as well. On a side note, Alicematic has just been released on the PS2 and is available at Play-Asia.

More games, I think I’m somehow more interested in games these days as they come with pretty sweet extras which is something most figures lack. Should have gotten Code Geass a long time ago, but thanks to a screwup, never did get the PS2 and PSP versions until fairly recently -_-

Something I’ve always been lurking for, and it came into stock recently so I jumped on it without much thought. Too bad Naru Nanao’s official illustrations Artbook is sold out though For those looking for this sweet book, it’s still in stock @ HLJ.

Another book I’ve been lurking for forever as well. Really awesome book with a lot of artwork, designs, and even a score section for the songs in the game! Now I can sing little busters (badly) for all my figures to hear!

An artbook that I HAD to get since I found out about it’s existence. This is pretty much purely artwork and not like the visual/fan guide books out there. I particularly liked the section of pic 17 as those are themed at each episode, in this case, the left pic depicts Stage 23, and the right picture depicts Stages 24 & 25. Every stage has it’s own art. This book contains the ED artwork as well. It’s all art, and a highly recommended grab for Code Geass fans. Beware of bootleg versions though, was released in May, but bootleg versions already exist on ebay. Luckily, it’s in stock @ HLJ, so u might wanna grab it there if you choose to =)

And with the two ARIA figures, I finally completed the Solid Works series. Probably wouldn’t do a shoot on them since Adun has already done a really awesome job on these figures. Be sure to check them out! Happy Soda has also done an awesome shoot on Reinforce, and in case you missed it (which universe do you come from?!!?), you can check out his review here. And it took awhile to get here, but Silfa has finally arrived and I had the chance to get her. Check out Samejima’s review and thoughts of her here!

And thats about it I guess. Reviews might not be coming too soon since figures are not common in my packages these days ^^; Probably the next post would be about ef - the latter tale to be released tomorrow in Japan. But maybe something will turn up in the mail that I might be able to shake my laziness off for. I apologize as well for the lack of responding to the comments since I’ve been somewhat out of it these past weeks. Kind of in a daze just buying stuff and chucking them in one corner when I get home. Heh, perhaps the end might be near ^^; Till the next time =)

• Because as much as it’s shocking, I never liked Shunya’s stuff and never will
• I paid 90 bucks give and take for her box just so boxes 1 - 5 won’t have a gap in-between
• BFG’s are a nice touch
• Shunya aside, decent figure as far as I can tell, it’s a GSC figure you see
• This post is really just a junk post, you may choose to disregard it :p

In stock @ HLJ and HS HLJ prob has cheaper shipping I think.

Probably wouldn’t have noticed this game if not for Dengeki Hime, which was bought for the purpose of collecting those Fortune Arterial Petit figures ^^; Seemed to have an interesting story behind it, with what seems to be a fair amount of blood spilled :p Quite a deviation from the other games I have so far I guess.

And as usual, after watching the opening, I just couldn’t resist ^^;

Really sweet OP, I’m just a sucker for these things xD

Same sized box as Little Busters! was, with no first print edition available. The extras come only if you preorder. According to the Lass website, standard pre-orders come with a telephone card, a data book of the game, and a OST CD. I didn’t get the CD, though I did get a cushion cover, which probably works out just as well considering I seldom touch the CDs ^^;

No frills manual with contents totally b/w.

A look at the characters that appear in the game.

As always, lovely discs :p I think I’m getting addicted to pretty discs ^^;

The Data book, which is actually taller than the game box itself. Sweet cover and unfortunately, most of the art inside are NSFW including even the sketch art -_-” So no samples here.

The cushion cover which I’m happy to have, but am friggin wondering how the hell I’m going to use it. To find out why (though from the expression, I’d say it’s pretty obvious), click here to see the telephone card, which is the same illustration.

And the story begins in September… :p

I must have been spoilt by ef - the first tale, since I’m not so wowed by the backgrounds for this game ^^; But I guess ef was done with a more cinematic and dramatic approach in mind and can’t really be used as a yardstick. The character designs are sweet and what really caught my eye though, especially Misuzu Kusakabe (probably because her design resembles Mitsuru Kirijo of Persona3 and she shares the same birthday :p). For the other characters, check them out here.

As you can probably guess, I really have my hands full with games currently. In a way I’m thankful I have no new figures and nothing that I’ve ordered seem to be releasing soon so hopefully I can clear the backlog which unfortunately takes up more time than clearing a season of anime does -_-” I’ll probably squeeze in some posts of new “old” figures when I can manage just so anyone won’t forget my visual torture anytime soon. Until then, game on people ^^b

Title: 11eyes -Tsumi to Batsu to Aganai no Shoujo-
Publisher: Lass
Genre: Mystery Adventure
Released: April 25, 2008
Price: 9,240 Yen