Over the past weekend I went to AnimeNEXT in Atlantic City, NJ and had a blast! I had the chance to do a couple great photoshoots with some talented cosplayers and grabbed a few random hall shots as well. So my first post from this convention will be a few pictures of a photoshoot I had with the beautiful Sephoria Hart in her Shimakaze cosplay from the anime/game KanColle. It was a fun shoot especially with this outfit being so bootylicious and she was not afraid to flaunt it =) Check it out!
Today I have a figure that I preordered quite a while ago and it is finally here, Rinna Mayfield from Shining Resonance! If you have never heard of the series it wouldn’t be surprising, this is yet another game (WHERES PSO2 SEGA??) that SEGA has decided not to bring stateside, I guess they don’t like money? Anyway I knew nothing of this character other than she is a magic caster type and cute as hell, and that’s really all I needed to know lol. This is a 1/8 scale prepainted release by Kotobukia, the character design is done by Tony Taka.
This figure has some great color to it and I really like the design. Also my figure collection has been lacking in bootylicious women and Rinna has me covered in that department now =p Her pose really shows off her assets well and she has a cute penguin on her butt!
Also her little penguin friend attaches by magnet and her hat comes off too. The magnet on the penguin is a nice touch, it would have been a shame to have a peg going right into the top of her ass lol. The hat fits nicely unlike some figures with removable hats the hair grooves keep it in place nicely. The base also has a nice concrete paver texture to it, I always like to see care put into the base rather than a clear plastic disc. It just adds a little bit more to the feel of the figure.
Overall I love this figure it is well sculpted with an excellent paint job and an awesome pose. Compared to my recent figure purchases this was a bargain on preorder for around 8000 yen and I think as of this writing it is still in stock at Hobby Link Japan. My preorders this year are mostly leaning toward female wizard type of characters I am hoping to build a whole shelf of them soon. Lots of great stuff coming out this year and my preorder list is way too long… hopefully I can survive the coming convention season!
Hi guys! Today I have some more Cu-Poche awesomeness for you, Tsukiko from The “Hentai” Prince and the Stony Cat and also some cool Cu-Poche Extra items. Lets check out the packaging.
So first lets take a look at this adorable Tsukiko figure. Now I have not seen this show but basically bought her because shes just damn cute and she came with “cat paw” hands that I could swap onto any nendo or cu-poche, need I say more? Also make sure you check out the eyes on the this figure they really look amazing.
Her skirt is really cute and doesn’t restrict her leg posing at all, oh yeah she also came with a cat! I’m not sure what this oni mask is about but I like it, it attaches with a clear elastic around the head.
As if Tsukiko weren’t cute enough, you cant prepare yourself for how awesome this neko hoodie is! The hoodie fits snugly and is perfectly sized and zipper seems well made, I didn’t have any issues with it. If the figure you were using this on had big hair you probably couldn’t put the hood up it kind of just fits over Tsukiko’s head. The white cat paws just replace the hands completely and have a nub that snaps right into the arm. The rain boots are made of a rubber material and also have magnets on the bottom, they slip right over the feet of the figure no need to take them off. The red tights look cute but don’t really go with her outfit so I didn’t put them on. Oh and the tail has wire in it and is poseable!
Halfway through the shoot I remembered I bought some card stock backgrounds and forgot to use them, I think they look a lot better than my wall! Lol.
So up next we have the Cu-Poche School Swimsuit figure. Now like I said before it doesn’t come with a head but Kotobukiya now sells extra heads separately of various characters, also you can use most Nendoroid heads as well. This figure really lets you visually see how pose-able these really are since most of the joints are exposed.
For our little showcase here I called over Leonmitchelli Galette des Rois from the anime Dog Days. She was riding her trusty chocobo nearby and came to check out the situation. Upon discovering this odd headless figure naturally she decided to pop her head off and take it for a spin in the pool. The Dark Magician Girl wanted to join in the fun too!
I think Nendoroid heads look pretty cool on the Cu-Poche body, I really love that you can head swap these as it makes it so a Nendo collector can jump right into Cu-Poche.
Tsukiko wearing that white cat hoodie is basically just cuteness overload, I have this anime on my watch list now purely because of this character lol. The Cu-Poche extra stuff is really cool and I hope they put out a lot more. Just a simple thing like this cat hoodie set can bring new life to an old figure, and it was only 1800 yen! What kind of Cu-Poche / Nendoroid crossovers would you guys want to try?
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I have been eyeing up the Cu-Poche line of figures for some time now and finally decided to take the plunge. They are a relatively new line of figures made by Kotobukiya as a direct competitor to the ever popular Nendoroid brand. They are a chibi style figure with good poseability, cute accessories, and swappable face plates. One of their signature featues is the magnetic base, the figures have small but powerful magnets in their feet so you can pose them without needing the plastic stand stuck into their back.
Today I will be reviewing the Dark Magician Girl from Yu-Gi-Oh! a very popular character from the show and card game. I got this from Hobby Search, they are having a great sale and I picked up this figure and a bunch of other Cu-Poche stuff at a great price, lets take a look at the loot haul!
A bit of a teaser there as I did not break out that super cute looking cat hoodie outfit and the other figures yet but I will be showing them off this week. ^.^
The packaging is pretty much the same as Nendoroid, the see though panel on the front lets you see exactly what you’re getting. This figure comes with 3 faces, 6 hands, 2 “Magic Cylinders”, a wand, and a spellbook for accessories, as well as Nenroroid style plastic stands and a really cool claw stand that lets you get creative with holding up whatever else you would want. Also the book fully opens and closes and they give you a nice zip lock bag to put all your extra pieces in, nice touch!
So lets get to some high res photos! (Click the pics for gallery view)
As you can see she is very pose-able, the longer jointed legs allow for a bit more variation than Nendoroids while still keeping that super cute chibi feel. You can see at the end Yoshino decided to join us and though our Cu-Poche is larger she can still interact with Nendoroids and not feel out of scale.
So after the photoshoot we cleaned up for the day and our Dark Magician Girl left. But where did she go, should we follow her?
I see her now deep in the woods, wait what is she doing? She’s casting a spell!
She said something about a ‘Summoning Spell’ and was chanting… wait something is happening!
Sayaka Miki appeared! I dont think this was her intended result…
Sayaka: You have cast your last spell witch, ready your wand!
This is about to get R-rated we better get out of here!
Well I think the Cu-Poche line is looking pretty awesome! A lot of pose-ability, great details and paint, and cool characters and accessories. Kotobukiya is also releasing some cute accessory kits like clothing and mini display sets. The line is still pretty new but is growing fast with a lot of popular characters coming out soon. What do you think, do you prefer them over Nendoroids? This week I will be taking a look at the compatibility with Nendoroid heads, faceplates, and other parts, make sure you follow on social media so you don’t miss out!
The Winter Wonder Festival 2016 aka ‘Wonfes’ has just concluded in Japan and there were some suprising figure reveals! Some sculpts that were revealed earlier in 2015 were now shown with fully painted prototypes as well. I know my preorder list just got a bit bigger, lets take a look at some of the figures I am excited to see coming out this year. I hope your wallet is ready..
Edna has been revealed with a full paint job and wow did it turn out amazing! The colors are vibrant with some really nice pastel shades that gives the figure a bright and fun look. She is sitting on a rock formation which is fitting seeing as she is an Earth Seraph. I am always happy to see a base that isn’t just a plastic peg and as usual Alter goes the extra mile. I feel that the pose and the look of this figure really portray her character well. She is not yet available for pre-order but I will be keeping an eye on her.
A new Persona 4 figure debuting in 2016, and it’s my best girl Rise!?? Wow, I am a huge Persona fan and as you can tell I am really excited about this figure! Persona 4 is really lacking in higher quality figures with a lot of them being prize figures, I would love a new P4 scale figure to my collection. Rise is wearing her unlockable Arabian Nights Armor from P4: Dancing All Night and she looks stunning. They did a great job of making the flowing fabric have that lightweight feel and really captured the look of the artwork. Plus have you seen that hip curvature?? Damnnn Rise-chan! This is a definite pre-order for me.
As you guys probably already know from seeing my Black Heart Figure Review I am a big Neptunia fan. This is another great series with a disturbing lack of figures but lately has been seeing some new releases. Can we hope to see all the CPUs in their transformed glory by Alter eventually? The dream is getting closer!
This figure looks to keep the high quality level present in the Black Heart figure and they should look great side by side. Her pose is really nice with an arched back and a sweet looking face. It is definitely more fitting for purple heart to be a little less serious looking than Black Heart. Her armor and hair look nicely detailed and her sword looks pretty badass. My wallet is feeling the burn at this point.
Silica is easily the cutest girl in SAO and here we get to see the fully painted version of her in her bikini along with Pina! Silica is in her in-game catgirl form which is just extra awesomeness, who doesn’t need more cat girls? I just love everything about the coloring here, her skin tones look awesome, her face is adorable, and Pina is just chillin up top making sure everything is cool. Take my money please.
These figures are really just a tip of the iceberg with 2016 looking like an amazing year for figure collecting. What figures are you guys most looking forward to? Let me know in the comments!
Today I am unboxing and playing around with my Tina Nendoroid #428 from Good Smile Company.
Tina is from the visual novel ‘Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki’ , which was only released in Japan though there is a translation patch being worked on unofficially. When I purchased this figure I knew nothing about her other than I thought she looked adorable and I had to have her, lol. I find a lot of times when I am browsing figures I will end up learning about an anime or visual novel I would have never checked out otherwise and this VN does actually look pretty good so I am looking forward to that fan patch.
On to the unboxing, you can see she comes in a standard size Nendoroid box and has some really cool accessories that caught my eye. Her giant scythe being the obvious standout, it looks like it is made from a tree that is wrapping around this semi transparent blade with a ribbon tied around it. Very interesting weapon and looks really awesome. Also we have the standard 2 extra faces and multiple arm/hand variations and some wings!
By the way guys have you seen my cat?
Really I mean he was just here a minute ago….
He’s on my head isn’t he…
Also I appear to have just grown wings… what!?
Haha, Tina is a little bit ditsy…
As you can see the cat is perfectly shaped to sit easily on her head or stand on its own, really nice touch. You can never have enough cats on top of heads!
Overall I think Tina is a really fun figure and comes with some great accessories. Good Smile Co. really has come a long way since the early nendoroids and the quality improvements just keep coming. Do you guys end up buying figures just because they look awesome even if you don’t know the character? Let me know in the comments and be sure to follow on social media, thanks for reading! =)
This first season of 2016 anime really has some great looking shows and Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash is definitely my favorite. Right now we are 3 episodes into the 12 episode season so I think at this point I can do a review on where we’re at so far. This is a high fantasy setting with a very Dungeons & Dragons feel but also with a bit of a twist, the characters find themselves in this world that feels almost like a game and they have no idea how they got there. They kind of know that something weird happened and that they haven’t always lived here but either way this is their current reality and they quickly learn that living here is no picnic. Our group of heroes meet up early on and form an adventuring party that will take on tasks to earn money. They are given a small starting allowance to buy some equipment and they all go off to train for a week with their respective guilds, effectively giving them ‘classes’. Sound familiar? We have a basic opening to many JRPG style games and though there is nothing groundbreaking so far I’m really into it given that I am a big RPG fan.
One of the things that immediately struck me as a bit different than a lot of anime is that no one in the group is really overpowered. They are all starting out effectively “level 1” and are all learning the ropes of their classes and how they can help each other in battle. The opening episode shows our group of 6 heroes battling 2 goblins in a forest, now with any RPG knowledge you would know goblins are the cannon fodder of fantasy worlds and are easily dispatched by even low level adventurers. Well our group is basically getting wrecked by these 2 goblins and cant even land a solid blow, nearly hitting each other with some friendly fire in the process. They end up having to flee the fight and realize this isnt just like clicking the attack button in a game, this is real, and it is hard. The group is now running low on cash, their equipment is getting worn, and they are getting desperate.
Now as much as I love seeing some overpowered Kirito type just straight up wreck some giant boss monster there is a refreshing realism here. I think a lot of the fun in this anime is going to be watching the team grow together and seeing these early struggles will really make things more rewarding later on. There doesn’t always need to be a giant ‘save the world’ plot if the execution and character development is there to make it enjoyable. That said I feel there is a bit of a pacing issue but I am so interested in the show already through the fun character interactions and the art style that I am still having fun watching and that is all that really matters.
The art style in this show is a bit different than your usual anime and I think it is fantastic. The characters are crisply animated and the few fight scenes so far are really action packed and fast moving. Though the thing you will likely notice immediately is how beautiful the background art is. The backgrounds have this painted look to them with bright pastel colors that really enhance the feel of this being a distant fantasy world. The contrast of the sharp character art versus the static background really looks great. I am hoping to see some large beautifully drawn monsters in this art style as all we have seen so far are goblins.
Now I’m going to rant a little as we come to an issue plaguing a lot of modern anime, the fan service. Now don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with fan service when it is worked into the show naturally, or if the show is just literally designed for it. But here you have a show trying to set a serious premise up and then they really shoehorn in some strange stuff out of nowhere. For example there is a scene where our classic hothead character Ranta is talking with the group and basically says something like “Well I’d forgive Shihoru cause she has huge boobs but tries to hide them, you’re just flat chested so I won’t forgive you” to our ranger Yume. This on it’s own is fine, ok classic anime tropes whatever, but then it launches into a 4 minute segment of everyone talking about boobs. I mean really there are shows that if this happened I wouldn’t blink an eye, but here they are after a serious battle 5 minutes earlier now ranting about boobs.
That said I still am loving the show and will continue watching every week. It’s fun, the artwork is beautiful, and I am intrigued by the setting. Will we learn more about why they were transported to this world? If you are an RPG fan or just into the high fantasy D&D style setting I think you will really enjoy this show.
Are you guys enjoying the show so far? Let me know in the comments and if you enjoy this blog please join my newsletter and follow on social media. =)
Grimgar of Fantasy & Ash can be streamed with subtitles on Funimation.com or Hulu.com.
I was really happy when Alter announced this Hyperdimension Neptunia figure of Black Heart / Noire in CPU form. She is one of my favorite characters of the series, a super cute tsundere with attitude to spare and a giant sword. This was the first figure I ever pre-ordered and of course there was a delay of about a month from her announced release date, but it was worth the wait. I will show you why…
This Black Heart figure is beautifully sculpted by Aketagawa Noboru & the color design is from Watanabe Takamasa. Takamasa was really on point this year with another amazing release this past October the 1/8 Scale Kirisaki Chitoge from Nisekoi.
She is listed as a 1/7 scale though I feel she is a bit closer to 1/6 scale compared to other manufacturers. Make sure you have plenty of space to display her as her wings stick out pretty far in the back and her giant sword doubles the length she would take up on a shelf without it. See my Fate Testarossa Nendoroid hanging out with Black Heart for scale.
I thought it was a nice touch that Alter included an alternate hand you can swap out which has her right hand in a fist in case you don’t want to display her with the sword.Though the visual impact of the sword is definitely worth the extra space she takes up.
The attachment to the base feels very sturdy with thick pegs securing the foot to the base, I don’t think this figure will have any trouble with leaning over time. The jumping battle pose really brings the figure to life and makes her stand out.
The only downside to this figure is that putting it together was a pain! The 6 wings in particular were quite annoying to get into place properly. They all have small tabs that insert into slots that are hidden within Black Heart’s hair. The hair itself has some give to it so it makes it hard to get a good push on the tabs. Also one of my tabs was just too big and literally would not fit into the designated slot so I had to use a hobby knife to shave it down a little before it would fit in.
The detail work on this figure is really top notch, her floating power armor pieces blend perfectly into the figure. Not to mention she was really fun to photograph with all the depth of field opportunities! =)
This figure is easily one of the most visually striking among my collection, the attention to details & paint job are really impressive. As usual Alter lives up to their name of making god tier figures. I give this Black Heart figure a 10/10, if you are a fan of Hyperdimension Neptunia it is a must have!
I ordered this figure from www.amiami.com for 15,000 JPY and it looks like it is still available as of this post.
