Here’s another girl with a gun. This used to be a staple of anime, but seems to have fallen out of favor with the zeitgeist and I can’t understand why. Maybe firearms aren’t moe? I dunno. I don’t even know what moe is, anyway. Jun Tsukasa’s art definitely ain’t moe, but I suppose if he tried to do something in the archetypical moe style, it’d look something like this girl here.
This figure comes courtesy of Yamato as part of their Creator’s Labo line and is sculpted in 1/6 scale. According to the source art, the term “Compact Hog” refers to her pistol, which is apparently a .45 caliber gat with six in the clip and one in the hole (I bet gun nuts despise that sort of phrasing). The girl herself seems to have no name, but Compact Hog sounds really cool so that’s what I will call her.
Compact Hog is derived from artwork by Jun Tsukasa. In the source art, she’s depicted with one eye closed, but here she’s got both of them open. Otherwise, though, the figure is quite faithful to the picture.
Miss Hog is wearing a very cute outfit that I’m sure will appeal to fans of steampunk-style fetishwear. It resembles latex and leather, and is studded with lots of rivets and metal parts. She’s got a cute collar and a rather unusual helmet, some neat garters, a holster and some pouches for extra magazines, and a tail that is very suggestively poised.
Yamato did an extraordinary job with sculpting the faux stitches running all over her clothing. It shows a remarkable attention to detail that isn’t very common among figure manufacturers and really gives her outfit a big boost.
At the risk of sounding perhaps a bit uncultured, her tits and ass are also magnificent. She’s got a huge ass accentuated by her thong and tail and large breasts that look great. They definitely meet my approval.
Unfortunately, they did make a mistake on her face and I didn’t notice it until I got her, and it’s pretty obvious so I’m wondering how I didn’t notice it. Her pupils aren’t centered in her eyes; I know nearly nothing about human anatomy but even I know that the pupils are always positioned in the middle of the iris, no matter where the eyes are looking. Compact Hog’s pupils are offset towards the upper-right and it looks very strange, even disturbing. Sometimes it looks like she’s peering in two directions at once. It’s interesting to note that in the source art, the catchlight is centered in her pupil rather than off to the side.
Another thing that I don’t think looks right is her neck, which looks too long. Yeah, her head is tilted back, but it still looks too long. This is the same problem that plagues Daiki Kougyou’s 1/4 scale Saber and is to the detriment of both figures.
Compact Hog comes with a base, though she certainly doesn’t need it. Her gun is also removable, though her hand would look a bit awkward without it.
Working to mitigate these flaws are her awesome outfit and that cute plug tail. Do they offset those problems? I dunno … I guess not, I regard the face as the most important aspect of any figures and any problem with the face design is pretty hard to overcome. Still, though, I like this figure; it’s not perfect, and it’s not quite as good as it could be, but there’s still a lot here that appeals to my baser tastes. She’s got a good size, a unique appearance, and she looks both cute and sexy at the same time. Or innocent and slutty. I like both so I’m glad to see both represented in one figure, and to be frank, I just can’t hate on a cute heat-packing girl wearing a thong. Miss Hog’s not one of the best figures to come out this year but she looks pretty good, and I’m looking forward to her Heat Blade counterpart, which hopefully will be coming out next month.
Cool figure. I might have to pick it up from the bargain bin during a slow month. 😛
A good plan, I don’t know that she’s worth the full price, but she’d be a good pickup at a discount.
Another Yamato figure with good QC? Looks like they’re working hard to scrub away their bad rep. Now if only they can clear some things up in their artistic department COUGHShunyaAsukaCOUGH.
You were spot-on with the innocent/slutty comment, by the way. It really is hard to resist this paradoxical combination of qualities when it manages to sample the best of both worlds. When I try to think of another figure that has both qualities, I end up drawing a blank, except for bizarre images of babies in fishnet. I think that’s a sign to stop.
And yes, gun nuts will rage every time when someone mentions “clip” on any post-WW2 era firearm, which is very, very frequent. Constant source of rage and enthusiasm for lethal weapons? A fun combination if I’ve ever seen one.
I never really understood why Yamato gets a bad rap from figure collectors. Well, actually, I do know, it’s because Choo made a comment that he didn’t think Ringo looked as good as the prototype and his fans took that opinion and sent it flying out of control like a Firebird in Ohio. I’ve always liked Yamato’s stuff and it kinda saddens me that so many people showed their inability to think for themselves during that episode.
Yeah, gun nuts crack me up with how particular they are about their terminology. I call magazines clips every opportunity I get.
Righhht, I remember that figure. Bought it for a friend, in fact. I knew Danny Choo made a little bit of a stink over that figure, but I didn’t; know the words of Choo made such a big impact. I bet I’m also indirectly effected by it, because the only Yamato figure I have is Rei, my copy of which was pretty rough around the edges. Combine this with passing mentions of Yamato’s bad rep here and there in figure reviews, and I those stories became true in my mind.
…Looks like Danny Choo has the powers to ALTER REALITY. Never underestimate the empire of Choo.
Before I got into figures, I had gotten some of Yamato’s 1/48 scale VF-1 Valkyries. They were badass and still are; back then, you had a choice of Bandai’s (I think) chunky VF-1s or you could get Yamato’s 1/60 Valkyries, which were okay but you had to remove the legs to transform them. The 1/48 ones, though, those were freaking awesome. And big as hell. And the hands retracted into the forearms so you didn’t have to pop them off or anything to transform it into fighter mode. A lot of my fondness for Yamato comes from their mecha toys, which I guess not too many girly figure collectors are interested in.
They don’t so much alter reality as much as create their own alternate time and space. These people exist in their own little world (that’s a great song by Celldweller, by the way). Like that new Star Trek movie from a year back. I meant to talk more about the Star Trek movie in my review of Darth Talon, because I mentioned Star Trek in the lead-in (I really oughta write out an outline before I begin typing the review). I really liked that movie, so much that I immediately watched it again, and then I realized that there were so many continuity gaps, so many contrivances, so many annoyances that I found myself getting bothered, and I think that everytime I watch it, I’m gonna like it less and less. Like, Kirk was a real douche, and Spock was kinda a douche too, and I can’t believe Pike handed the keys to his starship to some little kid who hadn’t even graduated college yet.
Passed on this one because of the blah pose…But despite the flaws looks like she turned out pretty good!
Wish there was more shots with the brown/black background though…Looks goddamn gorgeous in those ones! T_T
I like the pose, it shows off her best parts XD Though yeah, you’d think a girl in a leather and latex teddy with a gun would be a little more exciting …
I took a bunch of shots with the brown and black and blue background but I didn’t use them because I thought they were boring, heh. Shows what I know! Maybe I’ll convert and process a few and stick them into the post, then.
Haha well thats just my own style preferences showing…It just seems to really highlight her outfit nicely. Gives her a very high quality look to her…I’d daresay even classy.
Hmm, maybe I didn’t take as many as I thought. Oh well, I guess I’ll keep the idea in mind for later, I think there’s a couple ways I can improve the look, too.
compact hog is no nice name for a girl XD
Well the illustration looks nice.
this figure also looks quite nice especially this outfit with the matte and shiny textures.
the tail looks interesting Im curious what it normally does maybe it can shoot laser beams *pew* *pew*
your pictures are also very nice, sm-compact-hog-12.jpg is my favorite
I think she looks best when you look at her slightly from above
Yes it is! It’s a gorgeous name. And very distinctive and memorable.
It looks like her tail has a needle on the end, so maybe it’s meant to stab people, or to plug into something. I cannot imagine what that be, though.
I agree, the high-angle view is the best way to look at her, plus her neck length isn’t quite as apparent. If you’re looking up at her, it becomes so glaringly obvious that I didn’t take any low-angle shots; her neck just looks too weird.
I don’t think any girl would appreciate being called compact hog lol. I’d try it out, but I’m fairly certain I would, in turn, be destroyed. I’m not a huge fan of being destroyed.
More lies! She is very happy to be called Compact Hog. It is a cool name that nobody will ever forget. And it’s better than having no name at all.
She is quite well-armed for somebody so cute, but I’m sure she would take no offense if you called her by her proper name.
In the first place, does she really have a proper name?
She does not, as far as I know. “Hey you” sounds so impersonal, but “Compact Hog” sounds just right.
I really can’t wait until the pre-order opens on Saber Alter. The anticipation is killing me lol.
Oh, and I like the idea of Ms. Hog’s tail shooting lasers (you know, just to keep the comment relevant……..and offset my Saber obsession lol).
Imagine the wait! And then the inevitable delays, because there is no such thing as a Saber figure that isn’t delayed.
That’d be pretty hot, but I like to think of Miss Hog’s tail as inflicting a more … penetrating type of trauma.
She looks like she’s getting ready to inflict that trauma on herself. I might pick her up, but im gonna wait to see if she’s discounted further.
The wait is already bad lol. I’m still waitin for Saber Excalibur, and that’s bad enough lol. I must complete the trifecta, I won’t be satisfied with the Saber obsession until then………….aw who am I kidding, I’ll never be satisfied lol.
I like everything about this figure, except for her head and face. Like you mentioned, she isn’t moe! But she does have all the curves at the right places. I wanted to comment on Fabienne’s *phew phew* laser tail. It seems to be pointing at her own ass.. Oh man.. I don’t wanna imagine anymore. 😉
But that tail positioning is meant to stimulate your imagination! Not that it takes a lot of imagining to come up with what happens next …
Yeah, her curves are bangin’. Looking at her again, I’m not sure she’s not deserving of the “Epic Ass” tag. Maybe I’ll add that in.
I was waiting for this review, thank you!
I personally skipped on that figure but I was still curious to see a review about it. It’s really a shame about the neck and the eyes… The rest sure looks very good, though!
I think I might grab Heat Blade, though…
You’re welcome! She might be worth a discount pickup but at full price, yeah, I think I’d have held off too. Well, I would’ve if I didn’t have this thing for guns and thongs. Heat Blade is looking great, though. She doesn’t seem to have the wandering pupils problem and her body is killer. I am definitely looking forward to her.
Yeah, it’s a good figure overall, but you’re right about the eyes. I DO know something of human anatomy, and the pupil is always at the center of the iris. I think Ms. Hog’s neck looks too long because her head is too small! Great detail on her costume, though. Personally, I’m not a fan of “tails,” be they plugs or cat-tails. I’ve never understood why that particular anatomical anomoly is considered “adorable” in Japan.
I don’t have any figures on the horizon until Kobobukiya’s bishoujo Catwoman in March of 2011…I really need to get back to my own figures reviews. Ah, I’m in the process of writing on but I need to take new photographs. Have you seen Clayburn Moore’s Brandy Carter (from Liberty Meadows)? Beautiful girl. She’ll be posted pretty soon…
I don’t like tails much either. I’ll make an exception here since it’s a mechanical tail, but I’m really not a big fan of animal ears and tails. Particularly catgirls; I really, really don’t like catgirls. There have been a few figures I wanted to get that were ruined by the presence of animal ears and tails.
I hadn’t seen it but I just looked it up, it looks pretty good. Though I think I like Brandy better in the t-shirt and denim shorts ensemble she often wore in the comic strip rather than the yellow sundress; it shows off the hips and legs a bit better and man, Frank Cho knows how to draw hips and legs on his girls.
I think moe isn’t so much a ‘style’ as it is a feeling. You could say that kittens are moe. You look at one and your instincts to want to care for it take over. It’s exactly how Taiga won last year’s Saimoe competition – she was a tsundere that turned incredibly moe near the end of the show.
When Azusa from K-On! put on that little nekomimi, that exact moment seemed excruciatingly sexual, like her cherry was being popped. That overwhelming sense of helplessness as she forcefully but hesitantly placed the nekomimi on her head could be seen as moe.
Girls with guns can be moe, if the display the inability to use the gun.
I LOVE the detail of this figure! I’ve always loved all the detail from Tsukasa Bullet figures, but the hypersexed design makes it a no-no for me. I have a wife as well as ignorant peers that wouldn’t be able to see past that to appreciate the art and detail.
Not sure if you’ve seen my article on the social dilemma faced by otaku vs society:
http://radiantdreamer.net/2008/03/01/are-you-a-hentai-otaku/
I guess for me, then, that scene in Zanjibaru when this one monster’s ovipositor went into Kyoko and laid eggs in her womb and then this gigantic maggot slid out of her was a moe moment, in that I hoped that she would be cared for so that she could helplessly breed the giant monster’s larvae, and someday get rescued so she could live to tell about it. Or somesuch.
Yeah, I guess given that definition, I’m not a fan of moe at all, then. I like girls who can stand up on their own two feet. In addition, I really, really hate anime and video games where the girl gets paired up with some generic, colorless male lead and ends up saying something like, “As long as I’m with you, I know that I can be strong.” That sort of drek makes me want to throw my fist through my monitor.
Hypersexualized :O She’s not even showing any tit! I mean, the naughty parts of the tit. Maybe not so naughty up there in Canada, but down here in Jesusland, you show nipple, you get banned. Unless it’s on the State Seal of Virginia; it’s okay then.
Nah, I hadn’t seen your post, so thank you for linking it. My hobby is generally a solitary one so I don’t worry at all about whether anyone will find my hobby to be objectionable, as anyone who’s seen my big-ass doll x foot-long Mothra larva pictures can attest. Actually, I think it’s allowed me to carve out a niche among figure blogs, in that I’m the shameless guy who reviews the porno figures. Who else in the English-language figure community reviews Giga Pulse figures and uses home-made tentacles and bondage equipment as photographic props?
You sir, have definitely found your comfortable place in the blogosphere, and I applaud you for it. You’re right, not many would blog about the stuff you do, and it does bring an interesting topic. 🙂
You’re also right that she isn’t showing anything, but one does not need to show a single thing in order to be deemed incredibly naughty, no? 😉
Yeah, in Canada, we do flaunt our bits liberally. It’s a very strange double-standard dynamic that drives me off the wall. I mean, it’s okay to be practically naked, grinding with other women, but not okay in the office? Even if it’s with the same women? C’mon. 😛
As this blog gains momentum (if a website can be said to gain such a thing), I always wonder whether I ought to take it more mainstream or if I should continue doing what I do. I have this idea for a set of photos featuring my big-ass doll, a Terminator endoskeleton doll, and a Matrix Sentinel, and it’s going to be sort of perverted, and I wonder if that’s the sort of thing I want to put on my site or not. I’m also planning on doing an h-game review, and I wonder if people will find it interesting.
Wanton hedonism in the office could be a good thing, though definitely not where I work. It’d actually be pretty gross here, since my workplace is heavily populated by old fat men; I’d definitely ask my boss for telecommuting privileges in that case.
I would loved to get pulled over by her for speeding :p Turn around while you write my ticket please.
lol speaking of speeding I hit I-495 going into your state (on a Craigslist run) and It was frozen solid. And to add insult to injury, there was a huge sign that proclaimed “RADAR DETECTORS ILLEGAL” Well duh, you will be going to slow to use them!
My fantasy team is all screwed up, I didn’t expect the cowboys to be kicked around so violently. I don’t know wtf is going on over in Dallas. Turnover Nation over there. Sigh.
She might look like the second picture down while she’s filling it out.
Haha, yeah, detectors are illegal here and I think in DC, though I’m not sure about that. Pain in the ass, since I drive about 80 miles per work day, mostly across highways, and there’s often a heavy cop presence on 66 and sometimes 28.
Haha, yeah, that was a glorious loss by them. And the Redskins. Good weekend for football, though it would’ve been nice if VPISU lost too. Can’t have everything, I guess. And I won my fantasy game! I was down by 7 going into the MNF game with only Pierre Thomas active in the match, so I only needed 80 yards to win. Then of course Reggie Bush gets the touchdown, the 49ers defense starts stiffening up, and right when I’m on the verge of victory and Thomas only needs one more rushing yard for me to win, he gets tackled for a five yard loss on a screen pass that causes me to lose a point. I’m in despair and googling how to make a Sean Payton voodoo doll but then the 49ers miraculously drive down the field in the fourth quarter, score, convert the 2PT try, and tie it up. And then Brees throws a bunch of dumpoff passes to Thomas that gets me my win, just before they kicked the game-winning field goal. I was sad that the 49ers lost, but very, very happy to get the fantasy win. Though now I gotta figure out what I’m gonna do with Bush and Braylon Edwards.
Loving her outfit! The stitchings and leather look fantastic. Not a fan of the tail plug though, apart from that it’s a really nice outfit.
It’s a shame they couldn’t make her face a bit better. Got to agree with you on the issue with her eyes. She looks really strange at the wrong angle; the third last photo really highlights this.
It’s a shame, since this figure had a ton of potential but falls just a bit short. Looking at the art, it looks like the picture also has the skinny neck; I really wish that figure sculptors would use their own discretion when it comes to problems with the source artwork rather than slavishly remaining faithful to it. I got high hopes for Heat Blade, though!
Never have I wanted a figure more! Compact Hog is awesome! I really want to purchase it now! I never really knew anything about it before wish she came from a series of like manga or anime!… Oh well!
You should get her, then. Particularly since it seems nobody else on the planet bought her. Well, actually, I guess 20 people on Tsuki-board bought her, but I haven’t seen a lot of people give her love. And while I wish those problems of hers didn’t exist, I do like this figure a lot, so I’d like to see her get more love.
Wow, great pictures. Didnt know about this figure and its really great. I wonder if it is still available? 😉
It is! In fact, she’s in the bargain bin at Amiami right now. Well, kinda sorta, they only dropped her price by like 20% I think, which is nice, but isn’t anything close to the sort of price drop that Miku VN02 got.
Granted, she looks well done, but ew. That tail is not for me at all, except that it’s pointing somewhere, unfortunately it’s pointing to a large unattractive bottom.
I do like the concept of her clothing, and it seems nicely executed. But the pose is strange, I don’t know what she’s supposed to be doing, other than showing off her assets I suppose. Also, holy shit those eyes are messed up, she’s looking all over the place and it totally messes with me.
I may not like the figure, but I will concede that she does have an interesting outfit.
Holy crap it’s you posting in a review of a figure with big breasts. Yeah, I think that’s all she’s supposed to be doing, I’m guessing the original art is supposed to be in pinup style. Her odd pose made it kinda difficult to think of any ideas for photographing her, since I’m also not sure why she’s kneeling and looking up. Or to her side. Or both at once.
You, sir, have peculiar tastes. I am thinking you will not be liking the next three figures I’m thinking of reviewing (unless Kureha and Kurisu get here first … they will jump the queue if they do).
I even managed not to mention her large breasts and how I hate them!
I may have peculiar tastes… oh well.
There we go! Well, at least the next figure I’m gonna review doesn’t have large breasts. Actually, she doesn’t really have any noticeable breasts to speak of, so you still may not like her.
Slightly off-topic, but wanted to comment on a more recent entry. In your Doujinshi post comments, you mentioned you were thinking about getting a new camera. What are you considering? What is your current gear? It’s not listed in the about section. Your talent for capturing great photos is a credit to your eye and creativity and not so much the actual equipment, but I am still curious as I love electronic gadgets especially cameras.
I actually got a new camera earlier this year (a 7D), but I’d been meaning to get some other stuff, like a tripod, additional lights, and maybe a new lens. I actually wound up getting all of those very recently; I got a new tripod the other day (a Manfrotto 190XPROB with a Vanguard SBH-250 ballhead) to replace my flimsy Best Buy model; I bought a new flash (a Yongnuo YN-560) which is somewhere in the mail, hopefully not lost; and I got a new lens the other week (a 35mm f/1.4). I’d rented the Zeiss 35mm f/2 a couple weeks back since I don’t mind manual focus too much and I was curious to see how it handled, but it didn’t work too well for the sort of stuff I do; the manual focus confirmation light worked very sporadically (only the center point would consistently report focus correctly; the outer points would either not work at all or would badly front or back-focus) and the depth of field was so thin that even though the focus light would come up, my photos would still come out a bit blurry. I was really hoping that it’d work out well, since it’s considerably cheaper than Canon’s 35L and there’s a certain attractive idealism in using a German-designed MF lens, but the loss of reliable autofocus was too big a problem for me to ignore.
Other stuff I use is a 100mm f/2.8 macro lens (super sharp, maybe my favorite lens overall) and a 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 lens (I like it, I’ve used it for the majority of my photos taken after February of this year, but I really wish I’d gone for the 17-55 f/2.8 instead, since I need the wider aperture much more than the greater focal range). I also have a 50mm f/1.8 (really liked it, I used it for most of my photos before February), a 24mm f/2,8 (I barely used this and need to put it on eBay), the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my Rebel XS (nice lens but I was completely clueless when I used it and never really got great results from it), and a Lensbaby 2.0 (I should’ve gotten the Composer but I don’t use it much anyway). For lighting, I have three desk lamps (I don’t use them often anymore, but they come in handy from time to time), a 270EX flash (I really, really wish I’d sprung for a 430 or 580EXII, particularly since the 7D has flash commander ability), two Lumopro LP160s, and a Yongnuo 460 II. I’m kinda tempted to do a figure photo set with just my old Rebel XS and the cheap 50mm lens; I think I could get pretty good results from it, and I wonder if anybody would be able to tell that I wasn’t using a 7D with a 35L screwed to it.
Thanks for the kind words XD I don’t talk a lot about my equipment here, since I like to keep the focus on my pictures and I notice a lot of people love to talk about their gear (whole message boards full of people), but not as many people talk about techniques, for some reason. And also because I know that my gear is way, way overkill for my current skill level and the sorts of things I photograph. I like buying stuff, though; it makes me happy.
Very cool. You might want to look into the 17-50mm f2.8 os hsm Sigma that came out recently. It was rated as crazy sharp by lenstip. I used it while I had a Nkon D300, but both had to go because I also realized this level of camera was too much for me. Did I really need weather seals? Not really. I think I might go for the new Sony a33 or a55. Those are quite sexy. If so I might get the sigma in the Sony mount since it was such a sweet lens.
Yeah, if I had known about Tamron’s 17-50 f/2.8 lens back then, I might’ve gotten that instead of the 15-85. If I decide I want a faster zoom, I might look at the Sigma you mention, though I’ve kinda heard that Sigma lenses on Canon cameras have some quality control issues. A lot of those complaints come from the FM board, though, and it seems like they turn their nose up on anybody who isn’t using a 70-200 2.8 II.
Those Sony cameras are the ones with the new translucent mirror? Uhh, I forget the term, pellicle or something like that. I seem to recall that DPReview was pretty complimentary of those cameras. Yeah, I sometimes feel the same way about the 7D, it seems sorta silly to use a camera meant for fast action to shoot pervy pictures of figures that aren’t going anywhere, but I gotta admit, it sure does feel good when I use it.
It surprises me that they messes up on the eyes, but did such a great job with everything else. Great pictures, great writing. Thanks for the post!
Thanks! I was surprised too, it seems like such a basic mistake. Even most beginner artists I see on Deviantart or wherever know where to put the pupils, and I can’t really think of any good reason to position them off-center.