Boring month needs a lively nosebleed-inducing pic… my way of saying sorry for being lazy…
It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted here and I’m glad to finally be back. There’s just been too much going on recently (studying=fail) that my blogging life has been stalled to the point of irritating my seldom unnerved brain. Oh well, enough with my personal chit-chat/despair-fueled rants and I shall give my thoughts on a rather uneventful July (compared to August and the succeeding months) in the figure world.
C.C. wants to sleep this month away…
An uneventful July? That’s preposterous! Most of you would probably say that, considering that Alter’s 1/8 Yoko Bounty Hunter Ver., 1/7 Subaru Nakajima and GSC’s 1/8 Akashiya Moka (Awakened Ver.) are going to be released this month, but in reality, these figures were supposed to be released last month, instead of July. So technically, these are June figures that turned into July hot buys because of either quality control issues (likely) or figure makers got too tired and started to play Uno Stacko to waste some time (well, it is a possibility). If you took those big June delay figures out, July has a pretty bland lineup on its hands, which is the cliche’d “calm before the August storm,” where cash will burn and people will be forced to eat rations. So despite the fugly nature of July, let’s look at some of the more interesting figures this month (no, I will not include delayed figures… that’s just blind glorification of a poor month).
Volks 1/7 Fate T. Harlaown Shin Sonic Form
Yeah, I know. Volks is evil. If Alter wasn’t enough of a bad boy in extracting money from figure collectors (price-wise), Volks is probably the VIP-equivalent of figure makers aka “for rich bastards only.” But then you ask, “Volks prices are lower than Alter’s!” Yes, the lower prices are good… only if you live in Japan that is. International collectors have to go through proxies, bidding services or whatever medium there is just to get ahold of Volks’ Moekore Plus PVC figures, which means that A) It’s hard to get (duh…) and B) It’s freakin’ expensive considering you have to pay for commission fees, handling fees (wtf!?), bank transfer fees and shipping fees just to enjoy some aristocratic privelege known as Volks goods. This 1/7 Fate T. Harlaown Shin Sonic Form from Volks is mighty cheap compared to the gargantuan monster from Alter next month, but at least you won’t have to go through middlemen (middling men) to get Alter’s and pay those exhorbitant invisible charges with Volks’. Besides, Volks is overrated for me anyway. Want an example? Look at the paint job on Volks’ Nanoha compared to Alter’s Nanoha and you’ll see the crumminess of the paint job on the former, not to mention it having a seemingly non-existent nose. Volks Fate is priced at 7980 yen.
MegaHouse 1/8 Melon
MegaHouse is gearing up for a big August. Seriously, there’s something fundamentally wrong when the only noticeable figure you’re releasing is of the lead heroine of a rather crude, low quality, sexual innuendo filled anime entitled Akikan! I watched that show and though I enjoyed Fukuyama’s horny character rendition, everything else about it was lame, which is probably why it only lasted a rather invisible 13 episodes. The character featured here, Melon, is a melon soda steel can who turns into a hot chick infatuated with baseball and goes through the usual bouts of jealous anger. As expected from MegaHouse, the quality is not bad, pretty good actually, but it’s not the kind of figure that screams “GET ME! or else wallow in despair,” unlike the legendary Queen’s Blade line or even the G.E.M. Lelouch. Why so? Maybe the mediocre crappiness of the anime carved an atmosphere of negativity around the figure. Hey, it happens sometimes… Melon is priced at 6300 yen.
Atelier-Sai 1/8 Natsumi Tsujimoto and Miyuki Kobayakawa
You’re Under Arrest: Full Throttle sucks. I thoroughly enjoyed the original 1996 You’re Under Arrest series when it was subbed here by AXN Asia (now defunct, which is sad T_T), as it featured shapely gals with attitudes that kill, but somehow, the 2000’s era has not been kind to Kosuke Fujishima’s cop girls, though I have a theory that the moe-defined new millennium has played a role in denigrating the 90’s heyday of action chicks. Enough with the theories though, since Full Throttle still sucked either way. However, these beauties by Atelier-Sai (not exactly known for consistent craftsmanship, but they seemingly do well with Fujishima characters) are a different story. They’re about as accurate to the show as you can get and their poses speak volumes of their personalities, with Natsumi being the physical, fist-fighting boob girl while Miuyki is the firearms-based, cerebral beauty. Well what’s bad for these figures? Nothing really. It’s just that once you get one, you’re compelled to get the other as well. It’s not like Batman and Robin where Batman can do away with his useless sidekick. These two need each other, and each will set you about 7350 yen.
Good Smile Company 1/8 Shishidou Akiha
This is for Panther who I know covered the Sorakake anime, and which I’m disappointed to say, haven’t gotten past episode 1. Lost amidst the overrated (I’m not a Saber fan, isn’t that obvious?) hype for GSC’s 1/7 Saber Lily is the pink-haired heroine of Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, Shishidou Akiha. For a figure that hasn’t gotten a lot of publicity, I really, really like the sculpt of this one. Maybe I just have a fetish for pink-haired girls or an oppai mesmerized brain, but comparing the character art for Akiha and this figure, it’s remarkably accurate. Of course being GSC, it’s to be expected, otherwise they wouldn’t be as big a figure company as they are now. Unlike Melon however, this screams instant get to me, even though I won’t have the capacity to get one (more on that later), which will lead me to wearing a shirt with “stupid” written on it (ok, fine I won’t wear one, but I’ll probably feel like it). It’s not a very flashy figure, but sometimes all it really takes is a nice sculpt, a good paintjob and a defining pose, and people become happy. It also helps that at 6800 yen, she’s not as wallet busting as some other figures out there (ahem… Saber Lily).
FREEing 1/4 Izumi Konata (Gym Uniform Ver.)
Loli ban!? What loli ban? I’m assuming most of you already know that Japan is already undergoing delolification (blasphemy…) due to senseless, idiotic pressures from “concerned” social welfare nutjobs who have nothing else to do but eat shit all day. What better way to slap them against the face but by making a ginormous figure of the preeminent otaku-loli, Kona-chan wearing real cloth gym wear to boot? FREEing has been getting lots of praise for their 1/4 scaled figures, especially with the Haruhi line, so I’m pretty sure they know their stuff with regards to mammoth scale projects such as this (their Nagi sucks like hell though). Why the use of real cloth? Hmmm… let’s just say it’s for body exploration purposes which I’m sure many lolitards out there would gladly animalize on. Japan’s government might be anti-loli now, but figure makers still (thankfully) love their lolicons, and this Konata is representative of that. All hail the loli! Perverted benefits do not come cheap though. FREEing charges you 11800 yen for Konata and her flat plank.
Personal Figure Adventure Update…
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Persistent grappling by Ryomou’s shapely legs has pleasantly forced me to submission…
I was sitting one day in front of my computer, waiting for updates on Alter’s Ikkitousen line, which as many of you know, they’ve apparently decided to revive after more than a year. Well why so? Remember my addiction for Sonsaku Hakufu? Well since I’ve been calculating my allocated figure funds for the rest of the year, I found out that depending on Alter’s strategy, I may or may not get another figure to end the year. So when a fellow OtaKai forum member posted the news of Alter re-releasing Kanu Unchou and Chouun Shiryu (go get ‘em, boys!) in November, I was immediately in happy “WTF!” jump like a lunatic mode. Why so? Well since Hakufu almost certainly won’t be released in November as well, then December at it’s earliest, then I could afford to purchase another figure before 2009 closes its curtain on my poor self. What better way to celebrate than to further stab my wallet to death by pre-ordering Alter’s 1/8 Ryomou Shimei. Yes, I’ve already got Nanoha pre-ordered, but I recently sold off a huge Godzilla figure I’ve been stashing away beside my bed (owned it since 1997… God, I’m old), which gave me some leeway to buy Ryomou. Add to the fact that my brother agreed to shoulder a bit of the expense when it arrives (of course it’s borrowed money…) and I should be having two nice Christmas presents courtesy of Alter, and hopefully a subsequent grand birthday gift of Sonsaku Hakufu if Alter decides to unleash her for my consumption in December or January.
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