Here we go, AK-47, the very best there is! When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room … accept no substitutes.
This is Revy from Black Lagoon. It says so on the base, if anybody was unsure. I actually meant to cancel her but was too lazy to remember to do so. Oops. Now that she’s here, I figure I ought to review her. There’s a ton of cool stuff coming in really soon and being creatively bankrupt at the moment, I’ve been trying to think of ways to present it all that I haven’t done to death already. That means this’ll be a pretty quick review, so let’s knock this one out real fast.
Revy works as the main enforcer for the Lagoon Company. Tough, violent, and streetwise, she’s nicknamed “Two Hand” due to her propensity to dual-wield pistols, but she’s holding a rifle here. While I have quite a few figures of girls with gats, I don’t have too many of them holding long guns; in fact, all the ones I have are named Yoko Ritona. I guess KOS-MOS might count; a triple three-barrel gatling gun is kind of a long gun. Speaking of her gun, she’s holding an APS rifle, which she uses early in the television series. It’s an AK-derived weapon meant for underwater operation – appropriate given her beachwear.
Manufactured by New Line, she’s listed as 1/6 scale, although at about 24 centimeters tall, she’s a little bit short of that. Not a big deal, I guess; that’s still a pretty good height. She comes with a nicely-detailed base emblazoned with the show’s logo, her rifle, a knife which goes into her arm sheath, and a swappable hairpiece.
She’s got a fairly simple pose, with her seductively lifting her bikini string. I’m not sure seductive is a quality one would ascribe to Revy, but there we are. In case anyone’s forgotten about her typical tendencies, however, she’s hefting her gun in the other hand, finger off the trigger, and she’s got a cigarette in her mouth. It’s fixed in there and although I suppose you could rip it out, you’d have to be prepared to fix up the damage if you did.
Paintwork is decent – nothing that’ll make your eyes pop but it does the job. Her bikini looks quite nice, being painted a shiny, iridescent pink. The tattoo does not look as good; it’s pretty flat, not looking much like a tattoo at all. I think it would’ve looked more realistic if they’d given it more of a green tint and softened its edges, but that may have been impractical for mass manufacture.
Her backside seems a bit flattened; you can see the cleft of her buttocks above her bikini, but there’s no depth there at all, which looks strange.
She comes with her ponytail but if you like, you can replace it with unbound hair instead. The left and right sides of her bangs pop out so that swapping hair is very easy; pop them off, unplug her current hairpiece, plug in the new one, and put her bangs back on.
The gun is not extraordinarily detailed but there are some nice touches: the magazine release and the charging handle are present, for example. Even so, it looks more like a gun that might come with a 1/6 scale doll.
I can’t really say many bad things about Revy. I can’t really praise her too much either, so I’ll call her an alright figure. I haven’t watched the anime yet – I’m going through the manga right now – so I don’t know how faithful this figure is to her character design, but she looks close enough for me. In retrospect, I really ought to have gone ahead and cancelled her just because so much other stuff was recently released, but that’s the way it goes.
Speaking of other stuff … I started writing this review yesterday and all this stuff came in today. I know you guys absolutely love looking at pictures of brown cardboard boxes so I thought I would treat you to this picture. What’s inside the boxes?
Not that I really needed the addition to my review queue; I’ve still got Max Factory’s Tamaki and MegaHouse’s Saya Tokido to photograph and write up, and I’ve got to get to Daiki Kougyou’s 1/4 scale Saber one of these days. It’s sort of tough to balance a creative and interesting presentation with time considerations. Fortunately, I haven’t purchased Starcraft 2, my Warcraft accounts have lapsed, and we’re in that utterly boring period of the year between the NBA playoffs and the start of the NFL season where I watch no television at all, so hopefully I’ll have some time to get to those.
I’ve noticed that I often take a brighter view of figures that I can photograph creatively. I’ve actually ordered a few figures entirely because I had some idea for photographing them, and sometimes I come up with ideas months in advance of the figure’s actual release date. Those that I’m not sure how to photograph … sometimes I don’t feel nearly as positive about them and I’m sure it’s showing here.
One of the earliest guest characters we see in the manga is Roberta, a maid with peculiarly advanced training in warfare. Everyone likes maids with guns, so I’ll end this review with a couple of pictures of Shino, the combat maid from the h-game Zanjibaru. I’ve mentioned Zanjibaru here before, because it has a really nice maggot-birthing scene if you select the wrong choice. Have I ever shown off my foot-long Mothra larva toy here? Does anybody want to see it?
You know, I heard this claim that all the girls in Zanjibaru are killed in the end. Now, I can see that, since it’s sort of a dark and grim visual novel, but it’s hard to believe there’s no good ending. So I found a savefile and I’m pretty sure there’s a good end, but being that I’m fond of the characters in the game, I’d like to know for certain, so now I’m wondering what level of Japanese I would need to learn to gain a cursory understanding of the plot. I guess that’s a real facile reason for wanting to learn a foreign language, but then again, I exult in my shallowness.
Don’t start none, won’t be none, aight?!
Nothing gets between me and my AK!
Reading the line… creatively bankrupt? Hmm.. that sounds better than monetary bankrupt I’m sure. However, I don’t think “monetary bankrupt” is ever in Tier’s dictionary. So.. I can’t wait to see more figure reviews from ye. 😉
Revy looks cool to me (I don’t know about the sexiness though). For her case, I prefer having her bangs on. She has the “don’t mess with me or I’ll kill your mother” look. I don’t see any paint shading on the figure, is there any?
Big brown boxes are always fun! I just received one of my own today. A massive 24 pounds behemoth that cost me $71 to ship from SMJ. Three months of patience led to a most joyous opening.
>> softz
Ha, I wish! I definitely cannot keep up this rate of expenditure forever. I’m not gonna try to go out like Heisei Democracy.
There’s a bit of shading, it’s noticeable on her knees, her abdomen, between her breasts. It’s pretty subtle but it keeps her from looking totally lifeless.
>> Shashin
They are! Man, I got a payment request for Compact Hog today too, I wasn’t expecting her for a couple more weeks. I got three figures today, one more in the mail, one more scheduled to ship, and Momohime and Compact Hog ought to be getting packed up and sent out soon. I think I’m gonna need a higher-capacity battery charger, I dunno if I can get my gear ready for all of these reviews.
That sounds like one impressive parcel XD You ought to take some pics of what you scored. Speaking of SMJ, I saw they said they’re lowering their commission rates and they’ll be accepting normal orders for items on Rakuten, which is pretty nice. I was gonna use them to get some doujinshi since Comiket is coming up real soon but I guess I might wait till the new prices go into effect.
I love, love, love, love, love getting boxes. Thank you for including the picture of yours. As always, I enjoyed your review. Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Revy is so damn cool
I considered to order her, judging from your pictures,I should =)
Her shoulder and back part is sexy, with the tatoo, the cigarette and the Ak she looks so badass.Can you take off the gun?
In the show Revy would never wear a bikini Im not sure about the painted fingernails either, but I like the look of this figure ;D
They are? That’s awesome. I’ll definitely take some pics either today or tomorrow, but there’s no way they’re going to be as detailed as the ones I took last time. Taking multiple pics of three dakimakura is one thing, doing the same for 3 doujinshi, 2 figures, and about 25 dakimakura/sheets… yeah, not going to happen.
I will snag a couple pictures of the best, though. The highlight of the the haul is an amazing Saber/Saber & Rin dakimakura. I ended up overpaying for it as I bought it when it was one of two on SMJ (with the other going for $400 that I jumped on it when it was $300.) You can get it for around $200-250 now, but after opening it up, I don’t regret it one bit; it’s really something special.
>> here-and-faraway
Boxes are fun XD When I don’t get new stuff, I start getting antsy. I proclaimed the start of my new indulgence lifestyle back when I graduated from school and that was only supposed to last a week, but it’s too much fun not to keep it going. I ought to start a religion based around this philosophy.
>> Fabienne
Yep, the gun is removable, and so is the knife. Yeah, I don’t think you’d ever catch her in a swimsuit XD It’s pretty funny how she still has a lit cigarette and a gat even when she’s dressed for sunbathing.
>> Shashin
That is quite the haul. Was that dakimakura the one depicted here? Three hundred is pretty hardcore for a pillowcase XD Not that I can say anything about that, given what I’ve got on the way.
That’s the one, but Saber is in red. Originally saw it listed a few times over 2-3 weeks by fwisy for around $400. Put a maximum bid of 300 on one when someone else posted it. There hadn’t been any other listings in that time, but sure enough, before the auction even closed there was more listed at a buyout price a good $50 cheaper. That always seems to be the way my luck turns out when buying dakimakura on YHJ, but I’m not complaining too much.
I haven’t seen Black Lagoon eithe, but my friend swears by it, so I’ll get around to it one of these days, maybe after I finish JLA Animated. This figure is nice, but you’re right–there’s nothing here that makes me go “wow.” I hope it didn’t take a chunk out of your wallet.
Just a head’s up: I’ll be posting a review of the BOME Kasumi (from Dead or Alive) tonight, and then the Kotobukiya Venus on the Beach version this weekend to achieve some kind of comparison. There are some funny pictures there, including a rather disturbing picture of all of her parts apart, lying on the table. It really does look sorta creepy.
whenpigsfly-returns.blogspot.com if you care.
Can’t wait to see what’s in those boxes!
Being the lazy guy that I am, I just took one shot of every item still in the packaging. I’m never able to fold it up as well as it’s already packaged, and I don’t really have to space to spread anything out at the moment. I also didn’t want to deal with finding an adult friendly hosting site again, so I just rar’d all the pictures up into a Megaupload file.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EVFTJ6G5
I didn’t include the Saber/Rin dakimakura yet, as you can’t really see much through the packaging and I don’t have the space to display it right now. I’ll try tossing it on my pillow and snapping a few shots of it in the next few days. The two figures are the Gigapulse Sousou and the Black Miko Kanu. Was going to snap shots of the Sousou set, but when I tried put on the head of the plebeian, her arm snapped off. It’s funny that just before that happened I was thinking how pleases I was with the figure overall.
Answering my own question above, I’m about 90% certain that Zanjibaru does have at least one good ending, but I need to be sure, which means playing through it myself. And that means I’ll need to be able to read the plot branch options, which I definitely cannot do right now.
Also, after hearing the K-On!! opening theme for the very first time today, I suddenly have the urge to hock Mio on eBay, re-release or no.
>> shashin
I really like that pillowcase, I was looking for some bigger pictures on the creator’s website but couldn’t find any. I’ve had similar luck recently; I picked up a figure and then I find out two days later that it’s getting a re-release. Oh well.
Laziness is good, my entire life is an exercise in balancing laziness with the minimum effort that I need to put in to accomplish whatever I am doing. Miko Kanu must’ve cost a pretty penny, and I see a Kanu pillowcase that I don’t recognize. I also see a lot of Illust Guerrilla’s work; I wonder what they’re up to? I had hoped they’d show off something new with Comiket coming up in just a few weeks. Speaking of doujinshi, I love Ishikei’s work. I need to do part two of my dolls and doujinshi post but I’m waiting for some stuff, and I think I’m going to ask SMJ to order a few things for me.
Ouch, hate it when that happens >.< I wound up damaging my big Uesugi Kenshin figure recently, I snapped off the handle of her short sword by accident. Damn near gave me a heart attack. I fixed it up with superglue and nobody would ever notice the damage, but I still know what happened which bothers me. >> Halbred
I need to make some time to watch it, I’ve got the feeling I’d like it. It’s definitely got a style distinct from what you see in a lot of popular anime these days.
Dinosaurs! I like dinosaurs, though I admit I have nothing more than a 6th grader’s equivalent understanding of them. There was a time I wanted to major in zoology.
I will look forward to the review! And the autopsy photos.
Yeah, it’s really nice. I tried researching it before I bought, but I couldn’t find any pictures of it at the time. I was only able to find the pictures of the other listings for the same cover, which was generally still packaged and showed Saber’s facial expression. Still, that was enough for me to know it was going to be a special cover, and I was absolutely delighted when I saw Rin on the other side. I’ll be more than happy to oblige you either today or in a copy days with bigger pictures of the whole thing.
I figured you’d pick up on the Kanu case. Honestly, when I ordered it, I wasn’t sure if it was an official release or a fake dakimakura made from fan art. I wasn’t able to find it anywhere in my prepurchase research (I actually may have found it, but I don’t remember) but it was a good price, and the picture provided made it very tempting. As I’m curious to what the other side looks like, I’ll be sure to open it up later and take some good pictures.
The figure wasn’t too expensive. Well, with fees it cost around $180 not including whatever portion of the $71 shipping to me. Added to the fact that the red version was restocked on HS the day after I bought it was a bit of a kick in the face, but I wanted the black version and I don’t think I paid too much for it. The figure is used though, and I haven’t had a chance to check it out, so I may have overpaid if there are any glaring problems.
I have a few tabs bookmarked to search YHJ. One for Illust Guerilla, a couple other circles, and the Adult section. I hadn’t intended on picking so many up, and I still haven’t been able to find a 2way version of the dakimakura that piqued my interest in them, but there are just always new ones listed up at a decent price. I’d love to see a new dakimakura from them, and I’d most likely pick it up when it’s available for a reasonable price on YHJ.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before on this site, but Ishikei is definitely one of my favorite artists. OKAZ was the first doujinshi I physically purchased and I immediately fell in love with the collecting of them. OKAZ and MIKANAL are the only two single copies I have, but I also have several books that include 4-5 of his works. Unfortunately they’re no the A4 size, but at ~$30 a piece, they were a great deal. Actually, I have Campbell Juice, too.
Yeah, I could imagine that leaving a bit of a scar, especially considering how amazing that figure is. My figure is a very small two part figure that I probably won’t ever display, and even then the damage isn’t on the character I like the most, but it still bothers me greatly. If I had the Kenshin figure you had, I’d be absolutely heartbroken if anything happened to it.
And here’s a couple of shots of the Fate and Kanu dakimakura: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NGDMKTRL
Dang, that Saber/Rin pillowcase is really nice. And really detailed. Always appreciate that sort of detailing on a dakimakura. Makes you not even bother looking at the stuff on Amiami or Hobby Search. I really like that artist’s rendition of Kanu, too; if I have one complaint about Ikkitousen, it’s that all the girls wear the same white underwear. It’s nice to see one of the characters drawn with some appreciation for variety.
Ah, okay, that’s not a bad price, I think that might even be cheaper than what I bought it for; admittedly I got mine new but given its scarcity, I’d think that its typical price would be higher.
I’m trying to collect all of Cyclone’s Nanoha books, which much easier said than done since they have about a billion of them and most of them have three-digit numbers as their titles so I always get them confused. I did get a few of them off of Mandarake recently (waiting on the package now). They’ve got a really nice dakimakura up for preorder; I’m thinking I might put in an order with M-World or SMJ.
Yeah, I’m really glad the break was pretty clean so that the damage isn’t visible. I really need to move it someplace where it isn’t so vulnerable to my clumsiness.
Yeah, I like it a lot. It’s another one I’m not disappointed with even though I overpaid. I haven’t opened the C.C. dakimakura yet, but I have a feeling it’s not going to be worth the amount I paid for it, but I still wanted it. Luckily even if the lines aren’t that detailed (which seems to be one of my major complaints with mass market dakimakura… other than explicitness of course) it has to be pretty damn hard to screw up an epic ass.
I know what you mean about Amiami/Hobby Search. There’s occasionally one or two that I can’t resist and order anyway, but 90% of the time, I’m disappointed. Even if it’s more on the explicit side than not, the quality is never as good as the things the small circles put out.
http://www.amiami.jp/shop/?set=english&vgForm=ProductInfo&sku=CGD-8438&template=default/product/e_display.html
That was the last one I ordered. There was another site whose name escapes me now that had a version with a purple dildo on it. I wanted that one, but it was Japanese only, so I didn’t feel like paying extra for the deputy fee. Wonder if it would have been more explicit, because as it was, fingers were blocking the goods on the front side, and I believe (though don’t honestly remember) the back side was smooth. Overall, I still liked the cover, but it didn’t even begin to compare to the quality of some of the others I had ordered. I think the only mass market ones I’d order now is if I really liked the character, or I was able to see exactly what I was getting before hand and was comfortable with the amount of skin shown.
Yeah, it’s still a bit more than I would have paid if I had snagged the white version from Hobby Search for the 10 minutes it was available, but it’s much better than the $230-300 they were going for on eBay.
I’ve been dropping my preorders left and right while adding a few new ones. It’s partially because I need to cut back on spending (especially with an 800-1000 D-Stage order set to drop this month), but also because I really miss having the money to spend on doujinshi. I like figures well enough, but actually prefer dakimakura and with my living space crowded with an array of brown boxes, I’m definitely feeling the space constraint.
I can’t vouch for them myself as I’m still waiting for my order to drop, but D-Stage has that dakimakura available as well. http://d-stage.com/shop/detail.php?seq=15874
If anything, I’d definitely recommend them for their selection of rather explicit dakimakura; I know my order had a good 5-6 of them with 20-30 doujinshi to supplement it.
Yeah, that’s pretty much how I feel now, too, regarding mass-market dakimakura. If there is such a thing, anyway. That one on Amiami is really nice, though, and I’m pretty sure I never saw it on Hobby Search. Really does suck that HS doesn’t do adult stuff on the English site anymore, since I would like to get a copy of Zanjibaru just to say I own it. Maybe I’ll go through Erogeshop for that.
I went nuts with spending the last couple of weeks but I think my card gets a chance to cool off this month since there’s not a ton being released that I’ve ordered. OF course, that might mean that I’m going to be making a lot of impulse purchases pretty soon.
I might take a look at them, then; I usually order stuff from Toranoana since they’ve been around as long as I’ve been collecting stuff, but having options is a good thing and more importantly, there’s some recent doujinshi that I want that Toranoana doesn’t have and that may be too new for Mandarake to stock. I’ve been looking on eBay and YJA for them with no luck so I’m looking for more stores that sell doujinshi now.
I’ve never reallyt though of Revy as attractive. She was rather manly at times in the series. Yet here, she does have a certain sexy quality, even with the big gun and massive tattoo. I did like her character though in the series.
I think I need more Black Lagoon actually, it was an over the top action series that was just plain fun to watch. I don’t think I’ve watched anything like it since really. Action sure, but with adorable little girls or something instead, it doesn’t have the same appeal.
Anyway, I wouldn’t buy Revy, though I would buy her over Balalaika. She was creepy and a man. Sawyer would be interesting, but perhaps too hmm goth? for my taste.
I actually have the Japanese page bookmarked for Hobby Search, and I navigate it looking for items. As soon as I see a non adult item I want to preorder, I open up the English site. If it’s an adult item, I search for it on Amiami, and 90% of the time it’s available there, so I place my order. Obviously only for figures and dakimakura, though. And yeah, the image is fantastic; I just wish that the quality were a little higher, but I’m still glad I picked it up.
I keep telling myself that I’m not going to order anymore with SMJ for awhile, but I still check my YHJ bookmarks a few times a day. Luckily there’s only 4-5 Illust Guerrilla dakimakura that I want now, and I doubt I’ll most of the anytime soon. That and NoReal are the two keywords I hit most, so I shouldn’t be adding too much to my tab anytime soon. Until the C78 stuff starts rolling out, anyway.
I was fairly impressed with their doujinshi selection. I managed to find their main store page (seeing as they have a ton of categories and it’s a little confusing not knowing Japanese) and wen through 500 or so pages of stuff, bookmarking a good 90-130 doujinshi for eventual purchase. Biggest score for me was the Lost Eden DOA doujinshi I’ve been looking to pick up, but haven’t been able to find on Mandarake.
>> Aka
I need to get to the DVDs as well; in fact, maybe I ought to table StrikerS for a bit and watch Black Lagoon instead. I have to admire an anime that doesn’t even try to come up with cute characters and pander to moe sensibilities (unless one thinks that guns, violence, and nicotine is moe). There isn’t enough anime that goes for badass rather than cute.
Balalaika definitely is hard-boiled, but it cracked me up in the first manga volume when she held a business conversation on the phone while her thugs tortured some schmuck in the background. I knew I was going to like the book at that point.
>> Shashin
I’m telling myself the same thing about ordering stuff from proxies. I really ought to stop because there’s no way I’m going to stick to that and I’m just going to end up feeling disappointed in myself. I still want the Inyouchuu mousepad and the only way I’m getting it is through a proxy. I dunno if I want to pay 7-8k yen in total for a mousepad, though.
I think I remember Lost Eden; I vaguely remember that was one of the very few doujinshi series I’d seen that had Lisa and Rachel from Ninja Gaiden.
I ought to do the same; this is a pretty slack week for me so I would have time for that. I think I’ve gotten a lot of the Cyclone books I’m looking for, but there are still a few that I’m missing.
Which pad is that? I’m only sitting down for a minute and my normally excellent Google skills are failing me. Still, that’s a steep price to pay for a pad. It’s around what I paid for the Super Soniko pad. I’m fairly happy with it, but it’s still quite a lot to pay for a mouse pad that I probably won’t use (I’m actually using the Little Busters pad that came with the NoReal dakimakura currently – I had a normal pad that was way too beat up after years of PC gaming.)
Yeah, the first few in the series (I know there’s over 10) are my favorite because Ayane and Kasumi are the focus. Other than Hitomi and Kokoro, those are the only two DOA girls I really care for.
It took 1-2 hours, and when I finally made the order I had to wade through all my bookmarks again because with all the dakimakura, I didn’t want to have an order much over $1000.
Also saw you mention StarCraft II in your newest review. You planning on picking it up for single player or more of a multiplayer fix? I love following the BW pro scene, but I was never much of a player myself. I’ve already played through the single player a time or two though, if you’re still on the fence about that part of the game.
It’s this one here. Man it looks cool. 4725 yen but I don’t know how I can turn that down. Actually, hmm, it’s up on the Amiami English site but it’s listed as sold out. Dammit. I put in an order just now anyway since the order form is still up for some reason; I figure the worse that can happen is they’ll laugh at the stupid gaijin who can’t read the stock status note.
Lisa became my favorite DOA character when I played DOAXBV (never did complete my objective in that game, hmm), but I like Ayane, Kasumi, and Hitomi as well. Kinda like Helena and don’t really care a lot for the other girls for some reason.
I’m not sure, actually; I played mostly against some college friends but on customized maps (basically where the amount of minerals and gas was unlimited but the number of patches was very limited, so that your maximum income was very high but your rate of income was very low). I got the feeling I won’t be able to do that in Battle.net games so I’m not intending to play public matches if I do get it. I’d probably be interested in going through the single-player mode but I’ve actually not played through the solo component of any RTS since the original Command & Conquer.
That’s really nice, and I think I saw it when it was available for preorder. I
really liked it, but had just received the Super Soniko pad, and was a tad disappointed. Looking at it again, though, I rrally eish I had preordered.
I always wanted the original DOAXBV, but never picked it up. I just picked up DOAX2 a few weeks ago despite the bad reviews, and it pretty much was as bad as I had heard. Just bad controls all around and the money was a bit too hard to make without exploiting. Still, the eye candy was very nice. Ayane has been my favorite since playing DOA2 on Dreamcast.
That sounds like a cool custom map, but the opposite of the general friend game for people not really into it. Normally I hear of really casual players playing big game hunters, which is loads of minerals with loads of patches. If you haven’t played the first game’s campaign it might not be worth playing this one. They do add some cool features, though. The last few missions are pretty mindblowing, but the middle is a bit grindy.
It seems my order has gone through, though I’m sure I’ll be getting some sort of cancellation notice in the future. If it does get fulfilled, though, I’m gonna feel kinda dumb for picking EMS shipping.
Haha, yeah, DOAXBV is not really a great game. I enjoyed the first one a lot, though. It’s more fun if you set some goals for yourself while you play (I was trying to get a certain style of swimsuit on all the girls) but it’s real shallow otherwise. I don’t dig the sequel as much because the load times are pretty bad and, for some reason, you can’t install it to the hard disk.
I’ve seen that map, a guy in my dorm back in freshman year liked to play on it. I didn’t like it too much because it doesn’t force you to expand. The map I played on, there were only six or seven mineral nodes and one gas node at each base site so you had to expand quickly. Our usual way to play was to try to get three or four bases with maybe twenty to thirty starports, stargates, or hatcheries running and to build massive air forces. That strategy kinda collapsed when we played as Zerg and used defilers to plague the battlecruisers or carriers and dark swarm to protect ground forces, though.
Yeah, after you had mentioned it I found it on Amiami and tried to preorder it myself. Since it is in the preorder stage, I’d say there is a fairly good chance that it will go through, as they tend to have at least a few past the preorder sold out point, and it is a bit odd that they didn’t remove the option to add it to your cart when most other items do.
That seems like a good way to make the game a bit more enjoyable than it actually is. It didn’t work too well for me as I subconsciously set a goal of getting my favorite goal in the “best” suits and then unlocking the pole dance videos. Not exactly an easy feat as it’s borderline “endgame” and just not an enjoyable experience given how time consuming it would be. Not to mention that you can easily go to Youtube if you really want to watch them, but I had to try unlocking them myself. I thought about picking up the PSP version (bought a PSP a few days before P3P came out, because I just had to have it), but unless they added something truly worth seeing, the in-game jaggies don’t really do it for me.
It’s kind of fun to play with friends, but when I actually played the game (and was attempting to get decent at it) I preferred the more standard maps. If you have some spare time, I’d highly recommend you look up Day[9]’s Daily. He’s a StarCraft (now II) player who is fairly well known in the community for his commentary on pro games. The first 100 or so episodes of his show focus on BW games played in the Korean scene, but he recently made the switch to SCII. I haven’t watched his show since he made the switch, but he did a few special shows where you commentated 2v2v2v2 games on BGH. I never liked the map much before watching him cast these matches, but it was a lot of fun watching him go through a replay of him and his friend beating up newbies.
The last bit actually sounds like fun. I’d love when I was playing with friends, and we’d just try to do the most unorthodox thing we possible could to each other. Probe rushes, pure Wraith harass, hatcheries hidden in their base then spamming sunkens/spores before they saw the creep, mass nukes, and so on. Wasn’t by any means something someone else would want to watch us play, but we had a lot of fun with it.
I’m hoping they just marked it sold out since they don’t normally sell pornographic (or semi-pornographic, I guess) items on their English site. Given that they run separate websites for their Japanese and international customers, I guess one might expect inconsistencies. Still wish I’d picked SAL shipping but I’m not gonna e-mail them to change it since they might take a closer look at what I’m buying and decide they don’t want to fill the order.
I’ve still got this plan to unlock Ayane’s poledance sequence but it’s hard to find the time to play the game when I don’t play video games all that much at all now. I did let my Warcraft accounts lapse (actually, I just never corrected my card number) and I’m not finding that I miss them at all so I guess I’ll have more free time after I finish shooting some of the figures that I’ve recently acquired. You know, I don’t remember ever seeing a review of the PSP version, nor do I remember hearing anybody talking about it. I guess that doesn’t say much in its favor.
I watched a video featuring, uhh, Dane and Bean, I think, coming back from impossible odds by exploiting their opponents’ unbelievable gullibility, and that was funny as hell. Reminds me of a couple of games I had against my friends.
I had a friend who loved doing that; he loved trying to build cannons in front of my base when he was playing against me, or expanding to unorthodox areas. He actually did get me with a cannon rush once but I shifted bases and blew him away later in the game. Towards the end of our Starcraft time we were only playing as Zerg because the way we played, they had such a tremendous supply advantage with two-supply guardians and devourers. I think our standard air force was something like 36 guardians and 24 devourers, and we’d always have enough hatcheries to spawn replacement mutalisks if the force got wiped out. You know, we really liked building huge armies, and I’ve heard the Supreme Commander series is all about big armies; I ought to try that out and see how it compares to Starcraft.
It’s funny how both Amiami and Hobby Search work. From what I hear, Hobby Search actually sold all the good adult items in the past (maybe excluding eroge and the like), but they stopped before I got into the hobby, due to them switching over to PayPal. They didn’t even fully integrate PayPal for another few months. Now they’re very conservative when it comes to selling 18+ goods, but you still will occasionally find an old figure that they forgot to switch over, or a figure with cast off ability that isn’t blatantly sexual in their production shots.
Still, Hobby Search is very very conservative. Whereas Amiami has been using PayPal for international orders from the get-go, and they sell most adult items that are available on Hobby Search’s Japanese site. Yes, every now and then you’ll find a dakimakura that you can’t get, but they have some fairly graphic figures (though I’ve never seen them carry Gigapulse on the English site) and most erotic dakimakura. Makes me wonder if that was Hobby Search’s real reason for dropping adult products on the English site.
Yeah, I picked it up a few weeks before I got my PSP, but didn’t have the chance to play it. Finally hooked up my 360 to my monitor, and played it a bit. Then I bought P3P and SCII hit. So it has fallen down to the bottom of my to play list. I’m still trying to work my way through Kanon in 20 minute play segments every couple days, and just generally have a lot more I’d probably load up before going back to DOAX2, but I do want the pole dance videos. I guess it would help if I were actually good at the volleyball minigame, and the controls for the jet ski game weren’t borderline terrible.
PSM (or whatever their new official abbreviated name is now) gave the game 4.5/5 and I’ve seen favorable reviews pretty much everywhere else. It’s definitely a good game. There’s only one area that’s a bit disappointing. I was hoping they’d re-balance the game a bit now that they gave you full control over your party; I was genuinely worried that before the game came out that it would no longer be even a shred difficult. Sure enough, on Normal mode (I’ll play Expert/Maniac later, but I like to start on the default mode to gauge a game) is an absolute cakewalk when you compare it to how difficult some of the fights could be in the PS2 version. And that just pisses me off even more because it means that the PS2 version was balanced on the fact that your allies would do retarded things, making the game superficially difficult.
Yeah, it’s enjoyable. I his sense of humor when he’s casting, and even on a map like BGH he’s able to provide some strategic wisdom for those who are watching. And as you said, the impossible odds comeback makes it an enjoyable watch. I still prefer watching some of the epic pro games, but it was a nice break when I was keeping up with his dailies.
Haha, it would have been great if one of your friends played Terran, only to build a massive army of Wraiths (or even Valkyries to a lesser extent) snipe all of your slow moving Overlords, then cloak to destroy your air force. Of course I’m sure you’d catch on quick and get the speed upgrade if you hadn’t already, but it would have been a funny sight the first time.
StarCraft is the only RTS for me. I’ve heard good things about the first Supreme Commander, but never bothered to pick it up. Since I’m pretty bad at RTS games, I never enter the multiplayer arena and I don’t think there is -any- game that is played at a higher level than StarCraft. Added with the fact that there’s a ton of units to make the games tense (Reavers, Templar, Lurkers, etc), it makes for an absolutely great spectator sport.
Yeah, they did, they sold ero manga and H-games, too. I think they still do, on the Japanese side of their site. I thought their policy change was pretty lame; I never paid by Paypal until their recent discount compelled me to switch my orders over. My understanding is that Paypal doesn’t allow their service to be used for transaction of adult goods, which I’m guessing they don’t ever enforce.
I want to play through Zanjibaru already, I need an answer to my question, because my obsessive-compulsive tendencies kick in on the strangest things. I need to pick up a PSP for P3P sometime, too.
That tactic actually would not work because when we switched to playing Zerg, we also came up with this tactic of covering the map with overlords. Literally. And since we played on 256×256 maps, that was a lot of overlords; I don’t think it was unusual for each side to have a couple hundred of them, since they took no supply. That really made Protoss unusable by us because observers were useless. Also, I always brought like forty or fifty overlords with my air force to soak up damage, since I’m not sure if my buddies were manually selecting their targets or just having their units auto-attack.
A guy where I work had good things to say about Supreme Commander, which piqued my interest. I think I’ve got the demo around here somewhere; I ought to give it a spin. I’ll probably end up just getting Starcraft, though; it feels weird to not have it after looking forward to the game for so long.
Yeah, they still do. If you browse their English site you see that the category tabs aren’t entirely filled out, whereas they are on the Japanese site. Along with manga and games, from my crude Japanese skills I’ve gathered they also sell airguns (CO2 would be my guess as to why they don’t sell them to foreigners), paints, trains, gundam/mech models, and other stuff that I can’t recall off the top of my head. Even though I came in after the switch, it is pretty lame that the only viable options for most things are American sites (later + more expensive), J-List (way more expensive + Japanese shipping), and HLJ (more expensive.) I’m sure I’m unaware of a good number, but Hobby Search and Amiami really do seem to have the best prices.
I remember reading a few years ago that the PayPal policy started due to rampant usage in paying for porn sites. I guess they decided to take a family friendly stance and ban adult sites altogether. I find it interesting that you can still buy adult items on eBay using PayPal, but I guess as a whole eBay is family friendly… and it’s more money for them.
Heh, I know how that is. I’ve been in a semi-visual novel kick lately, but I’m incredibly lazy/indecisive so it takes me forever to install/boot up a game. Generally, when I do I play through it as if reading a good book (granted it’s a good one, of course.) I think I need to install Fate/Stay Night again. I’ve been very reluctant to do so because I played through the first two routes, but didn’t like that you had to play one to unlock the second and the second to unlock the third. I lost my save data, so I’d have to skip through the whole thing again. I know I could probably just find a save file, but something is keeping me from doing that.
I guess with tons of resources that wouldn’t be a problem; that’s what I get for thinking standard resources. Needless to say, in that situation hundreds of Overlords would do more harm than good. Though theoretically (depending on map limitations) depending on how you spread your units, I’d love to see the carnage a fleet of Valkyries would do.
I just saw it for $10 a couple days ago at Office Max, but opted not to pick it up. Despite hearing good things about it, I’m a StarCraft guy almost all the way. Occasionally pick up some C&C for the cheesy story goodness (and Red Alert was an amazing game.)
The best ordering systems, too; I’ve come across a few Japanese websites that ship overseas, but many of them have websites that are difficult to navigate or require some knowledge of Japanese to read, not to mention order from. Pretty much all the ones I’ve seen do not ship adult goods overseas, either.
Most of the VNs I play are in Japanese, so I have to use an auto-translator to read them and I’m missing a ton of the important parts. I wish JAST would translate some of the more hardcore games instead of the more cheerful stuff they tend to do. I’m looking forward to Demonbane, though. Hope they bring over more tentacle stuff in the future.
I’m sure the valkyries could tear stuff up but we always built the biggest air units because they were usually useful on offense and defense. We used to build defensive units, but then we decided that that was a waste of supply. Our best defensive strategy was to just build multiple bases so any time one get blown up, you’d have a full set of buildings somewhere else that could reconstruct your military in one build cycle.
Ten bucks isn’t a bad price, I’d pick it up for ten bucks. I ought to go look for it; then again, given the selection of PC games at Best Buy and Gamestop around here, I kinda doubt that I’d find it anywhere.
You know, I never much got into Red Alert like I did the original C&C. I guess I liked the more realistic vibe that the first game gave off, whereas Red Alert seemed to be more like a sci fi action movie. I vaguely remember being disappointed that the Allies didn’t seem to get any cool tanks, whereas the Soviets got cool heavy armor. I never liked the naval units much but I like big tanks.
I’ve grown to like Mandarake’s ordering system (though the actual website design is still fairly lacking), but when I first ordered from them I was confused as all hell. It’s also hilarious/infuriating to add items to your cart on the Japanese site, switch over to the English site, and have them appear in your cart but get an error on check out.
I never bothered with an auto-translator, despite there being a ton of games I want to play that have yet to receive a translation (and probably never will.) I’ll occasionally download a Japanese game just to get through the hot CG, but if it’s a massive one, I usually just look for a HCG rar. I’m not really into many hardcore fetishes and definitely have little fondness for guro, but I found myself curious enough to download Gore Screaming Show, despite being entirely in Japanese. And I actually spent a good deal of time with it, not skipping things while I listened to the voice acting and tried to gather as much as I could with my non even rudimentary Japanese skills. I actually found it very intriguing. I didn’t really care about the really out there HCG (that was censored to hell anyway), but the atmosphere was set perfectly otherwise. I really enjoyed the art style and the music fit amazingly well. Wish someone had picked up translating the game (as I’m sure it will never see a mainstream translation) because it really seemed like something I would have enjoyed had I understood it.
I’ll admit to being a terrible player, so my theory crafting skills are weak and I wouldn’t have the micro to pull it off anyway, but once again depending on how stacked the air army is, I’d just love to see Science Vessels Irradiating everything while Defense Matrixing the Valkyries. Only problem with that versus Zerg is that Scourge are so cheap in both supply and resources; so I could definitely see why you and your buddies quickly resorted to the swarm.
On the other hand, I’d also love to see mass Dark Archons toss a Maelstrom blanket out and then clean up with a wave of storms/Corsairs. I think it would be highly effective, but the problem with that is you’d be able to build up an army quickly with all your hatcheries while all the supply was held up in units without energy. Still, it would be fun to watch.
I guess that’s one perk of living in a large city. Unfortunately GameStop is the only real place for used video games these days, but you can still find some pretty good new deals every now and then.
The campaign missions were a lot of fun for their time, and I did like playing against the computer with the different options/maps, always on the lookout for crates.
I especially like how you can list a hundred items at a time. It drives me nuts if I want to browse an entire catalog but you can only look at like ten or so products on a page. And yeah, it also drives me nuts when I see an item on the Japanese store that isn’t listed on the English side. I got that error recently, myself. I wonder if you can e-mail them and ask them to list something on the English site?
Yeah, I usually just get the CGs as well. The auto-translator works better than I thought it would, though I still miss out on almost all of the plot, particularly for more story-intensive games like Zanjibaru. Most of my fetishes center around tentacles and monsters doing nonconsensual stuff; I’m not much into guro or snuff (which is why I’m interested in seeing Zanjibaru’s ending).
I was a pretty bad player too, but the problem with any sort of proactive counter is that we would literally blanket the map with overlords, and they’d be spaced out from each other at their maximum sight range so it would be difficult to shoot them all down. Any time your opponent did anything outside of his base, you would know right away.
I usually get my PC games from Gogamer these days; I gotta pay shipping but it’s usually reasonably cheap, not much more than sales tax, sometimes. Supreme Commander 2 is $30 there, though, which I guess is a bit more than I want to spend right now, given how much doujinshi and doll stuff I’m planning to get.
I’m sure they would, unless they were really worried about sending really adult items out of the country. That doesn’t make sense though, because I’ve definitely ordered some fairly graphic things from them and have found less graphic things unavailable on the English site.
I’ve always been really impressed with Mandarake’s service, except for the one time I emailed them requesting two items that were listed as sold out on their site. I couldn’t really blame them, but on their main page it says feel free to contact them with a list of items you want and they’ll search their stocks. I received a canned response basically saying that they don’t know when things come in. So I’d assume that means I misinterpreted what they were saying on the site and maybe if you contact them with a list of items you want from the Japanese site, they may be more than willing to invoice them for you.
I wonder if it has something to do with the stores. I’d imagine someone is in charge of everything, but I’d guess the managers of each store could decide if they wanted to list certain items for the foreign population. I’ve ordered things from 5-6 of their stores, but 95% of my orders were either with the Nakano or Fukuoka stores.
I’ll download the HCG for games I really don’t have an interest in playing, translated or not. But there is occasionally a game I’m really hyped up for, be it because it caters to one of my fetishes (okay, not so much for this one), is said to have an amazing story, or is from a series I have played before, I’ll try to hold off until the game is translated so I’m able to enjoy it. Sometimes I can’t wait and download the HCG anyway (especially in the fetish case), but I do my best. It’s not so bad if a game isn’t picked up by a circle to be translated, though it does suck, but it’s really bad when it has been picked up and there’s no indication of progress for months/years on end.
Yeah, Zerg has always been the race for scouting information, even in standard games. In your case, you’d be able to adapt to any counter before the units even made it to the front line. If the army were Valkyrie/Vessel heavy, you’d just have to make some ground units for the Valkyries to be useless. The Science Vessels would still be good in general, but they wouldn’t have any support.
I’ve heard pretty good things about Supreme Commander, even with the StarCraft community (who rightly feel that the game is superior to any other RTS), but from all I’ve heard, Supreme Commander 2 didn’t fare nearly as well. As I haven’t played either game, I couldn’t say, but it might be something to look out for should you decide to spend the money anyway.
That’s a strange response; on some of their item pages, they ask you to e-mail them if you want something that they don’t have. I’m plannining on putting together a big list of stuff that I can’t find and sending it to them; I hope they’ll be a bit more helpful with that.
Yeah, it could be a managerial thing, or maybe a logistical one; I gotta imagine it’s difficult to coordinate tens of thousands of products in multiple stores on one website that needs to be in five different languages. I can’t even keep track of where I keep all my photography stuff around here; I had this diffusion dome that I got just last week and now I have no clue where it is. Never even got to use it.
I’m using a program called Translator Aggregator now, which, as you can guess from the name, queries multiple translation services and returns the results in one window. It’s actually really good, you can get a very good understanding of what’s going on if you’re willing to take the time to read two or three of the results. I have a savefile for Zanjibaru and I’m pretty sure that one of the cutscenes in the gallery is a good ending, but I think I’ll play it through and see what the game is about. I might even be able to understand enough of the plot to write a review. Still would like to learn enough Japanese to gain a moderate comprehension of what’s going on without having to use a translator, though.
Yeah, that’s the entire reason I emailed them in the first place. I guess I expected something along those lines, as they do sell second hand goods, but I suppose I expected them to word it like “Okay, we’ll keep an eye out on that item for you.” It would be pretty hard to do, but given their excellent service up to that point and their open invitation for emailing them, it just caught me off guard.
I too had started a big list of doujinshi I wanted and saved it as a draft in my email. If I were to go through it now, I’d probably remember a lot of stuff I wanted to pick up, but I know I’d be able to cross some things off my list; I finally have my copy of Shoujo Material and will have all the Lost Eden doujinshi I had wanted on the way. I should really look through it again and try to find some of the stuff on Mandarake/YHJ.
Yeah, who knows what the deal is. They probably forget to list some stuff, or maybe some of it is already in their system (but listed as sold out) and they just never update it for their foreign sites. I still think they’re doing a fantastic job and I always love finding items to order from them. Once I slow down on the figures (don’t plan on ordering as many once my massive batch of preorders ends around December) I’ll start purchasing doujinshi again.
Sounds pretty cool; I’ll have to look it up when I feel like playing a game without a translation. Despite how good it may be, it will still probably be rough at best, but unless you’re playing a game that’s chock full of mind fucks and Japanese word play, it should be more than enough to grasp the story. I’d love to see you review an eroge, though. Would be a fun read, great to see some screenshots, and maybe break things up a bit since you’ve been feeling your figure reviews have hit a bit of a wall.
I’ve taken a few semesters of Japanese, and already I think the information has left my head. It really has to be something you use consistently, or you just don’t retain it. That’s how it is in my case, anyway. Even watching anime (though I haven’t been caught up for two seasons now) isn’t really enough to do it. Sure, I catch onto some phrases/words, but I feel as if I wasted money on something since I didn’t continue with it.
Yeah, I think you’re right, an eroge review would be interesting to write and a good change of pace. I’ve been feeling pretty good about my last few figure reviews after having struggled pretty badly with ideas, but I’d like to mix it up some. I never meant to pigeonhole this site as being solely a figure review blog, but that’s how things turned out. I guess I’ll take notes while I play through Zanjibaru. However, if the game really does have just a bad ending, I’m calling off the whole deal.
For some reason, I can’t ever retain any foreign language. I took five years of Spanish in high school and I remember absolutely nothing of it. History, still remember most of it … trig, still remember SOHCAHTOA and that’s all you need to know … calc, still know a lot of it, though I can’t do partial fraction expansion to save my life. Spanish though, I don’t remember a thing. I’m hoping that if I do pick up a rudimentary understanding of written Japanese, reading doujinshi and playing h-games will be enough to maintain a modicum of proficiency.
Yeah, I’ve enjoyed all of your reviews, but I could imagine that it’s fairly draining with all the work you put into it. And with as many as you do, I’m sure that it could become a bit stale at times. That’s why I don’t think I’ll ever get around to that dakimakura site I had previously brought up, unless I went about it in a completely different manner. I think I could do detailed pictures once I have the space to, but there’s only so many ways you can write about pillowcases. I couldn’t imagine changing the reviews up enough past the first five or six, much less the 50 (that’s scary thinking about it) or so I probably have. An eroge review would definitely be a lot easier to prep as far as pictures go, and I’d imagine it would be fairly fun to write about.
If the game doesn’t work for review purposes, I’d love to see you review another game at some point. But I hope it does, as I really want to see you talk in detail about the maggot birthing scene you love so much.
I’m not quite as lucky as you when it comes to memory; I tend to purge most of the information once I’ve finished with a class. I know my math has suffered terribly as it has been several years since I’ve been in a math class and I’ll probably need a refresher course on everything at the very least. I was helping my niece with multiplication a few days ago, and I swear it too me a minute to remember the exact way to multiply double digits. It was very scary, I tell you. I feel so old already.
Laziness definitely factors into my Japanese proficiency. I want to reap all the benefits of being able to understand my eroge, doujinshi, and anime, but I just haven’t been willing to put in the time required to study.
Man, you better believe it … a friend of mine asked me today how long I spend on a review and I had to stop and think about it to add up the time. Counting setup, photography time, postprocessing, review writeup, and proofreading, my Momohime review took me about 16 hours total. My next review’s probably going to take maybe ten hours in total, because I have no clue whether the ideas I’m trying to use are going to work out or not. I enjoy it all – I wouldn’t be nuts enough to spend that much time if I didn’t – but it basically leaves me with no time to do anything else.
I ran into that problem with dakimakura reviews … you can’t really talk about the way the pillowcase feels since that’s a difficult thing to convey, and there’s not much reason to describe the print quality since anybody ought to be able to see it from the pictures. That pretty much just leaves a description of the character and the images, and there’s not a lot that needs to be said there.
Yeah, I’d love to write about this game. I’ve got some vacation time coming up so maybe I’ll get to spend some quality time with the game, assuming I don’t break down and buy Starcraft 2 or something.
It’s funny, I usually can’t retain much during a semester and I definitely don’t want to retain it afterwards, but I’ve found that things are a lot clearer to me a year or two after I’ve taken the course. That certainly didn’t help me much when I was in school, since I was a terrible student, but looking back, I think it’s sorta funny now that I can still remember a lot of what I didn’t learn very well when I was a student.
I remember helping my brother out with a beginning programming course. It was in Java (which I don’t know), and I did terribly in my CS courses in school (which is funny because I work as a programmer), and if I were a sophomore doing his lab assignments, they would’ve taken me at least an all-nighter. However, I could do them now in maybe a half hour, and the funny thing is, I never took any computer science courses after second year.
Yeah, that’s the way I am. There are a lot of things that I want to do – learn Japanese, learn to draw, learn to play bass – that I’ve never done just out of pure laziness. That’s one of the reasons I’m amazed I’ve kept this blog going, because I’ve never managed to keep at any creative hobby since I was around eleven years old.
Hmmm… sorry to hear that you forgot to cancel her. I had passed on this one as well. Probably because I have two other Revy figures – the Alter version and the Newline polystone version. (of course, I photoshopped those two as well)
I’m quite happy with the polystone one. My review of her here if you’re interested:
http://radiantdreamer.net/2008/05/07/black-lagoon-revy-16-polystone/
Still, my favorite Revy definitely has to be the Alter one. The pose is so dynamic. It’s also one of my favorite photoshop images. Here if you’re interested:
http://radiantdreamer.net/2008/10/01/metal-gear-revy-4/
So now that you’ve got this Revy, what are you gonna do with it? Just keep it around?
I’ve always liked your reviews and photography. Even though you may think it’s getting stale, I’d hardly believe that.
Yeah, I’ll probably keep it; I’ve never gotten rid of any of my figures (though I probably should, since I am desperately short on space) and a half-naked girl toting a rifle in 1/6 scale is still pretty cool. I remember seeing the polystone one and liking it a lot; the expression of her face is great, like she’s daydreaming about shooting people while having a smoke and prepping her guns.
And thanks for the compliment, I was sort of in a funk a few weeks back (right before I got Vivio, whom I had no ideas for until literally the moment I started snapping pics). I’m feeling good about my recent pictures, though, and I’ve got some ideas for my next few reviews, so I won’t have to be coming up with backdrops on the fly.
Have to say that without the tattoos that figure could almost be a generic anime gun wielder. Think its the eyes that seem particularly wrong; pretty sure Revy is not meant to be that doe-eyed, whilst the outfit seems out of character.
It’s ironic as the other New Line model of her seems pretty good (though I haven’t looked at the detail up close) – http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10058138. (looks to be the one Radiant mentioned above – can’t say I’m much taken with the Alter one though)
Would seriously consider getting a model of Revy – it is worth watching the anime for her (English language) dialogue alone in my opinion. It even compensates for the annoyingly stereotypical dialogue of the Russians and Neo-nazis in it. Seriously, some people rave about Balalaika, but the number of references to “comrade” and that accent… just put me in mind of the Russian voices from the old Bond films – Rosa Klebb was never hot or interesting!
Personally I’d move this one off the display and replace her with the Daiki Kanu (got my red version today and, once I worked out how the shawl thing attached, have got to say she is my new favourite – though the import duty and additional handling charges levied by the post service were not cool – seriously $81 on top of the decidedly expensive price I had already paid… sorry – it’s a sore point)
Yeah, I hadn’t thought about it, but now that you mention it, that’s probably one of the things I’m most unhappy about – if you weren’t familiar with Revy, you’d have no clue who this character is. I really like the other New Line one as I mentioned a couple comments up, since Revy’s personality shows up very brightly in that one (though at a price tag that’s 150% of the swimsuit one, it ought to be a really good figure).
I’ve got the DVDs sitting here in the pile; I really need to catch up on anime, though it’s tough to find time. I tried watching Nanoha StrikerS and I really don’t know if I’m gonna get very far into it; I don’t have much shame, but it’s the first show that I can think of that’s made me think that I’m too old to be watching anime. Not even Strike Witches does that to me. I’m thinking Black Lagoon would have the opposite effect. I usually watch in Japanese language only, but now that you say that the dialogue is hilariously stereotyped, I think I might watch the English dub, then, because I love that stuff.
I’ve got her up on the shelf, though I really need to re-arrange my display environment and I’ll probably move her to the back row once I do. Miko Kanu is one of my favorite figures so she’s always going to get a prominent spot.
Man, that is ‘spensive. I’ve been fortunate enough never to have had any customs fees or anything assessed against all the stuff I order (and it’s a good thing, since I buy a ton of stuff from overseas).
You mentioned a couple of times that you perhaps wanted to sell this figure. You may be interested that there is currently one for sale at Mandarake http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/item_s-1789929.html I’m not quite sure if they mistook this one for the limited edition colour version because they’re asking 15k Yen! While either version is not very often in the market, a more appropriate price would be 8 or 9k for the standard pink swimsuit version.
I’m aware that prices being asked and prices being actually paid are often worlds apart. However, perhaps they succeed in raising the bars for this figure, which might help you getting her sold for a more attractive price (For you, the seller, that is…).
Hmm, interesting; thanks for the heads up. Yeah, if Mandarake is charging that much, hopefully it’ll make it easier for me to sell mine. I’m possibly planning a new computer purchase soon so having a little extra spending money would be nice.