Kasane Minazumi from Hanikami, Kanojo wa Koi o Suru

written on June 23, 2024 by Tier
Kasane Minazumi from Hanikami, Kanojo wa Koi o Suru

It is officially summer and summer means heat, fun – and swimsuits. Accordingly, we’ll take a look at this figure of Kasane Minazumi, the first cover girl of Piromizu’s doujinshi series Hanikami, Kanojo wa Koi o Suru, or Shy Girls in Love. Piromizu has illustrated a number of doujinshi and hentai series in the past, with the Amakano series probably being his best-known series. Now his work is getting a number of figures, and I’m very glad to see his art being recognized this way since I’ve been a fan for quite some time.
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Year Fifteen Retrospective

written on February 23, 2024 by Tier

This site is fifteen years old today! It’s still kicking, and though the updates are still infrequent, my figure purchases continue unabated, as the photo above attests – most of the figures contained in the boxes haven’t appeared on this website yet.
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Colidis from the Art of Citemer Liu

written on February 1, 2024 by Tier
Colidis from the Art of Citemer Liu

The year 2024 has not given me an auspicious start, as I managed to come down with my first case of COVID a few weeks ago. Happily, the symptoms weren’t too serious aside from a crushing sense of fatigue and intermittent but persistent coughing spasms, both of which I still experience to some degree. But the more germane aspect of 2024 is that it is the Year of the Dragon, and as such the first review of the year is of a dragon girl. This particular girl is named Colidis and comes from an illustration drawn by the Chinese artist Citemer Liu, who is perhaps best known for his Overwatch, League of Legends, and Genshin Impact fan art. Colidis, however, is an original design of his and she apparently has two sisters, or compatriots at least, and I believe they’ll both be getting figures at some point. I’m looking forward to them since Colidis is a really spectacular and distinctive figure.
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Chizuru Mizuhara from Rent-a-Girlfriend (Santa Bikini de Fuwamoko Version)

written on December 26, 2023 by Tier
Chizuru Mizuhara from Rent-a-Girlfriend

Happy Christmas, everyone. There’s no more appropriate time of the year than now to look at this figure of Chizuru Mizuhara, the female lead of Kanojo, Okarishimasu or Rent-a-Girlfriend. The original manga has been spectacularly successful, with over thirty volumes published and derivative anime and live action television series having been broadcast. I am told by friends I trust that the series is actually pretty bad, in that nothing of consequence actually happens in it. This isn’t an uncommon problem with anime and manga stories, but even when it is so, we can still enjoy the character designs for what they are, and that’s another reason we’ll look at Chizuru.
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Honolulu from Azur Lane (Light Armed Version)

written on December 12, 2023 by Tier
Honolulu from Azur Lane

So after a protracted delay, we’ll take a look at another figure from Azur Lane. Today’s figure is USS Honolulu, the sister – both in terms of ship class and in-game portrayal – of USS St. Louis. Honolulu is, unfortunately, one of the less powerful shipgirls in Azur Lane, being of blue rarity, or the second-most common type of unit. However, in spite of her gameplay irrelevance, she’s one of the more popular characters in terms of artwork – and figures, with at least three existing. This one depicts her in her standard outfit, which is my favorite look for her.
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Baltimore from Azur Lane (Light Armed Version)

written on July 28, 2023 by Tier
Baltimore from Azur Lane

Eighty-one years ago on this date, USS Baltimore was launched from her building yard in Massachusetts, and thus it’s an appopriate day to take a look at this figure of Baltimore from Azur Lane. Since her introduction she’s become one of the more popular Eagle Union characters, with five additional skins beyond her base design and at least four more figures in the pipeline. She’s one of my favorite characters, certainly amongst my top five – St. Louis, Enterprise, New Jersey, and Reno being the others, though the newly-introduced USS Kearsarge might make an argument to displace someone. That someone won’t be Baltimore, though; I’ve loved this character since she came out, and I’m ecstatic she’s getting so many figures.
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St. Louis from Azur Lane (Light Armed Version)

written on June 30, 2023 by Tier
St. Louis from Azur Lane

Azur Lane has grown from relatively modest beginnings as a thematic competitor to Kantai Collection to a multimedia powerhouse in its own right. Its array of conspicuously – and shamelessly – sexy characters no doubt plays an outsized role in its success and apparently, no character’s fan art has a higher proportion of lewds than USS St. Louis. Few Azur Lane characters also have as many skins as St. Louis, and it appears that most of them are going to be receiving figures in the future. However, being that this is the first figure of St. Louis, it’s only apropos that it features her in her default outfit.
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Lucia from Punishing: Gray Raven (Crimson Abyss Version)

written on May 31, 2023 by Tier
Lucia from Punishing: Gray Raven

I’ve spent a lot of time in the last couple of years playing gacha games, and the plethora of Azur Lane, Fate/Grand Order, and Arknights figures I’ve purchased is testament to this enthusiasm. Today we’ll look at a figure from Punishing: Gray Raven – a popular game to be sure, but perhaps somewhat less known compared to some of the biggest names in the genre. Nonetheless, it has a lot going for it, including attractive character designs, a fast-paced combat system, and a pumping soundtrack. I haven’t played it that much myself since I play most gacha games on a tablet and the form factor doesn’t work as well for games like this, but it just received a PC client so I’m thinking I should give it another look.
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Asuka Langley Shikinami from Neon Genesis Evangelion (Kotobukiya White Plugsuit Version)

written on April 30, 2023 by Tier
Asuka Langley Shikinami figure

Looking at my pile of unreviewed Asuka figures – and it’s a sizeable pile – I wondered how long it’s been since the last time I’ve written a review of one of her figures. I couldn’t imagine it’s been that long; I have so many of them. Perusing the archives, I find that the last Asuka review I’ve done was written … thirteen years ago. I’m more than a little amazed and aghast that it’s been that long but I suppose there’s no time like now to rectify that. Accordingly, we’ll take a look at this figure of Asuka, which shows her as she appeared in the final Evangelion film. After so many figures depicting her in her iconic red plugsuit, the white suit is still a little jarring to me, but it can’t be denied that she fills it out just as well.
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Princess Katia from Honey Cage (NSFW)

written on April 9, 2023 by Tier
Princess Katia from Honey Cage

We looked at a scantily-clad and marvelously-endowed blonde elf figure last time, and we’ll be doing the same thing today. This figure comes from a brand called Pleiades, which I believe is an imprint run by Amiami, everyone’s favorite retailer. They’ve released several figures, all of the R-18 variety, which is pleasing to see – the world can only be improved by more ero-figure manufacturers.
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