Quite a few of you probably know by now that I obtained Air (pronounced as Ai-ru in Japanese, which I prefer to call her by instead of “air” in English) last week much thanks to Ken who stays in Japan and bought it for me, and his friend here in SG, who brought it back for me from there, saving me the shipping cost. A little background information for those who have not been keeping watch on my blog is probably necessary, since this figure is different from the normal.

Air was first made known to me (see this post) by AkibaHobby. As I mentioned, Air is the second limited figure from Kotobukiya this year to have made it into my figure collection, or at least, figure preorders, though it is the first to arrive. Later on, when Ken informed me that Air had been purchased, I was in some doubts as to whether I had made the right decision, and it was largely thanks to that post that I was informed by a kind person, Polo901, as to a variety show, Plamo Tsukurou Custom, that had an entire episode dedicated to the making of Air herself. She is the first figure in my collection with such a “story”. The vid, split into 9 parts, was mentioned in a post by me, which I highly urge all figure collectors to look at once again.

In this photoshoot of Air, I must thank Wcloudxkumo (aka. Jon) for his kindness in taking out his time to come down to my place and spend 3 hours through the shoot, taking the pictures with his Nikon D40 camera, adjusting them later in Photoshop, and generally making sure everything went right. Due to the lack of his usual materials, and my lack of a white-light lamp (I only have strong yellow), the images, after being Photoshopped, may turn out somewhat weird. That is entirely my fault and not his because I have no available materials to shoot with for an actual indoor figure shoot, it is quite interesting how I managed to do it in the past with just a lamp and my wall for a background. Check out the first 5 Figures of the Month to see what I mean.
 

Unfortunately we are not actual professional photographers or anything, so this is the best Jon can do regarding the pictures. And now, it is up to me to give a faithful review of Kotobukiya’s limited Air. Note that the full album can be found here, and that I am only using the better pictures in this review. Please, if you feel like it, go ahead and look at them. The blue tints are thanks to Photoshop, the actual Air does not have blue on her. For other, better reviews, I suggest you also take a look at Foo-bar-baz’s and Tenra Blog’s. Thanks to FBB for bringing her to my attention with his review of her as well.

And here is Air by Kotobukiya.
 

General Information

Name: Air
Series: Kotobukiya’s Anime Limited
Manufacturer: Kotobukiya
Scale: 1/8
Category: Limited figures
Release Date: Approximately 13th September 2008
Approximate Height: 18 cm / 7.1″ (excluding base)
Overall Personal Rating (10): 7.5
Estimated Cost: USD 65-80 (original price of 7300 Yen)
Availability: Limited webshop/Kotobukiya figure, only domestically sold
 

Description

Air comes from no real series; she is a concept design of her own, though the booklet that comes with her says something about that. However it was all in Japanese, which I cannot read, so I must regret that I know next to nothing about her actual concept, other than what was already covered in the vids that I mentioned earlier.

Air herself in that episode of Plamo Tsukurou was only the sample figure; this is the PVC mass-production version and you can see that some parts have changed slightly. For example, the ears are now fully white, which is a pity; I really wanted to see the light effect. Mass-produced figures too have slight defects compared to the sample, this is almost inevitable. Here are a few shots of Air’s profile from some different angles.
 

Air comes with what looks like a gun, connected to a small robot. The robot is actually a symbolization of the compressor, for the “gun”, which is actually an airbrush. Only experienced people in this field can tell me if there is actually an airbrush “gun” like that, but it sure looks cool and sleek. Air brings out the knowledge of how important airbrushes are by including it in her overall figure this way, and here are some shots of Air with the gun, as well as Compressor-kun (not sure what he is called, but I like this nickname) and the airbrush gun itself.
 

Air can be displayed with or without the gun, though I am sure it enhances her overall appeal by adding it. The gun, Compressor-kun and the cable connecting them both come in separate pieces, but are easy to connect to one another to. Air herself, you may find it a bit difficult at first to put her hand into the trigger, but you just have to realize that she is slightly movable, and that there is an indentation in the base stand for you to put the gun’s end in. No pictures were really taken of the base. Some close-ups of Air below.
 

Air’s special appeal probably also lies in the way she was made, as you saw from the vid. The tails of her coat are certainly soft and movable, and there was a lot of attention spent to the details surrounding her hair, face, arms and clothing.
 

As you can see from the above pictures, much attention was indeed paid even to the final PVC figure, though IMHO, it would have been better if they had also paid the same amount of attention to the effort they were bringing out in their works. Next up are some miscellaneous pictures.
 

Air’s box when she came in, unopened. We did not take shots of the back of the box.
 

The cover of the booklet that came in the box. You know it and I know it, just how suggestive that picture is. However, look at the Next Criminal part of the series, that is the name of the next limited figure in the series Kotobukiya is planning. I am wondering how to read it since I know no Japanese, is it “Near”? What is this series’ actual name? Also, only a few pages are shown here.
 

Air’s original, or almost original since they changed in the middle of her production, concept design.
 

The back of the booklet contains a mini-comic about Compressor-kun trying to cover Air up while she was sleeping to avoid catching a cold, and ends up getting pwned…horribly.
 

The next criminal - The Lust, though most likely, not her name. Looks like a loli to me. No news yet on when she will be out, so you might have to wait quite a while before she is even shown as a sample. Maybe Wonder Festival 09 Winter?
 

Air has a large base for her small size, so finding space for her may prove a little bit difficult. She would be best right in front of the viewer, from a lower vantage point, for her look is ever so slightly upward in view. Compressor-kun was meant to be facing away from the viewer thanks to the cable connection, so no worries there.
 

Air may not be that good a buy, for a limited figure, for most people. She represents quite the story, but the slipshod finishing, the quality that could have been better, is why I gave her only 7.5, which, for a limited figure, is actually pretty low. Yet I do not regret getting her; the concept of Air, and the airbrush itself, which is so important in creating figures, and the story she brings to light in her production, of all figures, makes her a work of art in her own right. From far, Air definitely would spark enough interest in the average figure collector’s mind to want to take a closer, better look, and perhaps, bring her into his/her own collection as well.
 

Air
Camera: Nikon D40
Location: Indoors (Room)
 

Other Reviews

Foo-bar-baz
Tenra’s Blog