The child-soldiers of Neon Genesis Evangelion comprise some of the most recognizable characters in anime, and figure makers show no signs of jumping off of the Rei and Asuka gravy train. Thus, here’s another figure of Rei. Plugsuit, wreckage, blank stare, blue afro, you’ve seen it all before. Actually, wait – you probably haven’t ever seen this figure. Imagine that.
This rendition of Rei is adapted from a resin kit sold by Volks all the way back in September 2006. Volks often sells some number of prepainted and preassembled versions of their figure kits, and this figure of Rei is one of them. Nominally listed as 1/6 scale, she is yet more evidence that nobody at Volks knows how to use a calculator; measuring 13.5 centimeters tall, her size is much closer to 1/8 scale. She’s attached to her base, so she’s ready for display right out of the box.
Rei has all the hallmarks of a typical Rei figure: placid demeanor, tight plugsuit, and an odd pose. Like most Rei figures, she’s on her ass, showing that the reluctance of figure manufacturers to make a figure of a standing, plugsuit-clad Rei goes back many years. Like many Evangelion figures, she’s sitting on a big slab of concrete, with her left hand stroking a twisted bit of cylindrical pipe.
And while this figure represents nothing new – or rather, while the Rei figures manufactured since this one do not deviate from its basic precepts – I rather like how she looks. A lot of figure makers remain faithful to Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s original character designs, and while I do like those designs, I also like seeing different artists put their own spins on well-known characters. The darker hair, the splayed-out ends of her bob cut, and the heavy outlining along her eyes give her a slightly haunted look, distinguishing this Rei a bit from all the other plugsuit Rei figures out there. Not a whole lot, but a bit. Her large eyes make her look slightly younger than she usually does, which is a nice change since I’ve always found it difficult to believe she’s fourteen years old.
The blank expression is rather typical for Rei, though. She’s just sort of looking off into space, one hand curiously curled above her head. It’s an interesting pose – in the sense that it stops Rei from looking absolutely boring – but one must wonder what she is doing.
Rei’s plugsuit is also nothing new. Me, though, I never get tired of seeing Rei’s plugsuit; it’s an iconic costume and I really hope that they never give her a new one. Unless, say, the chest and ass parts are cut out. Or somesuch.
The figure appears to be constructed from polystone rather than PVC or model resin, and I assume that it is hand-painted. Like a number of other Volks figures that I own, the painting is quite rough, particularly around her eyes. It’s not too noticeable unless you get up close, but it’s a reminder of how different a hand-painted figure and a mass-manufactured PVC figure can look.
People seem to love placing the Evangelion characters among rubble. It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen the television show but I don’t remember Rei or Asuka sitting on wreckage all that much. Maybe I ought to watch the movies to refresh my memory.
While this figure of Rei may not be particularly well known, it’s also not particularly original. Nonetheless, I like it, partially because it’s old and fairly rare and thus appeals to me as a collector and also because I like Rei’s character design. For a character as iconic as Rei, she has received surprisingly few iconic figures; at the time of this writing, her Shunya Yamashita-derived Yamato figure is actually the most-viewed Rei figure on Tsuki-board.
Figure makers have some inexplicable and peculiar aversion to sculpting Rei while she’s standing up in her plugsuit. Virtually all of the plugsuit Rei figures that come to mind have her sitting down or sprawled on the ground. Doubtless this is done to emphasize her aura of vulnerability, but I’d like to see a figure of her standing up. Banpresto’s doing one, but they don’t count since their Ichiban Kuji line isn’t mass-market, and Wave has done one but they don’t count because 1/10 scale is weak. There’s a few other oddball ones, but nothing really mass-market. I’d like to see Max Factory do one in 1/6 scale.
Rei is cute and she wasn’t too expensive – I got her for quite a bit less than the price listed on her box – so I’m happy with her. Volks also released an Asuka counterpart which I’m more interested in, but I’ve only seen it for sale a couple of times. She also looks different from the many Asuka figures available. You can’t ever have too many figures of the Evangelion girls. Hopefully figure makers exercise a bit more imagination in how they sculpt them. Or at least make one of Rei standing up.
Cool, I’ve actually never seen this one before. I think the pose is a little bit silly, like she’s trying to fix her hair clip or something. But she certainly looks nice next to Alter’s Asuka. I also like your photos of Rei next to, uh, herself. It’s strangely story-appropriate. And somewhat sexual, given the Alter version’s pose. Take photo #13, put a cigarette in the Volks Rei’s hands, and the tone changes considerably.
That’s a pretty sexy image; I should’ve turned Alter Rei away so her eyes are hidden. Maybe I should’ve popped open my can of condensed milk too, to add a bit of atmosphere and context to the scene.
Another wonderful shoot; I love what you did with the staging. I can’t say much for the figure though, the finish seems a little sub-par. Not keen on her face and she looks a bit rough in some parts.
Posed with the other figures looks quite nice, though. ^^
Yeah, a lot of Volks’s stuff looks quite rough. Their Sengoku Rance figures are mostly fantastic, but I’ve got a few of their prepainted A-brand and X-brand figures and they don’t stand up quite as well to PVC figures. It’s sort of curious how there is such a large disparity in quality there.
hmm Kotobukiya’s recent 1/7th scale Rei is standing up… sort of. She’s definitely in an upright position, but leaning on … more wreckage.
Rei and Asuka definitely need some more creativity in their line up. I do enjoy seeing them in their tight plugsuits looking much older than their specified ages, and I enjoy this Rei’s hair… but something with more diorama surrounding it, or perhaps more actiony or something. There are people far more imaginative than I who’ve done tons of fan art, surely some of it is amazing enough to sculpt into something unique! Maybe it’s hard because their clothes are so tight so you don’t get any flow or motion beyond hair, and Rei’s is quite short. Maybe they should rely on some of the more pornographic fanart for something different?
I completely agree with that, and there’s a great selection of art out there that they can draw inspiration from. As far as plugsuit Rei goes, I always liked this picture and I saw that someone sculpted a model kit based on it. The legs looked kinda off, though. Or maybe someone can adapt the one picture that Sadamoto did of Rei leaning on a car (a Nissan Skyline, if I remember right). It’d rival the original design for the Love Is War Miku for most ridiculously large PVC figure base.
I think I’d prefer this one over the Skyline one. Just because I prefer a Porsche, even a rusted up one, and they both look good on it.
Yeah, that one would be pretty good too. I didn’t actually like the way Rei looked at first in the picture with the Skyline, but I’ve come to like it better than I used to. I thought her pose looked odd, but now I kinda interpret it as Rei trying to strike a sexy pose but doing it very awkwardly.
I came across this 1/4 Rei figure, also from Volks. In terms of putting a creative spin on the classic Rei look, this is probably the best that anyone has made. I think I might actually be willing to commit some pretty serious crimes to get my hands on one.
That’s a great figure too, as just about all the 1/4 scale stuff that is done by Chorosuke. Unfortunately I don’t know if they ever made a pre-painted version. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t; I was really hoping they’d do one of Mai Shiranui but they never have.
Never caught Evangelion first time round and don’t really intend to, but I have been getting the new versions “you are (not) alone” and “you shall (not) advance” or whatever they are called. Rei is cute and there is a fair amount of fan service (including Shinji groping a naked Rei).
Do quite like the character designs; and then end up wanting a totally different interpretation myself – Yamato’s Rei and Evening Call’s Asuka (is that out yet?)
Not sure I like the face on this Rei though, it’s expressionless and also quite lacking in detail. I still can’t make up my mind on Volks as a figure maker. I’m certainly with you on wanting a well painted version of their Mai Shiranui (yes you converted me), but I think some of their other offerings take a while to grow on me.
Incidentally, where did you buy this from? T-H?
The Asuka pillowcase should be out, there’s one up on YJA right now. It looks like the two IS girls are out, too.
Volks is really inconsistent. My top two favorite figures are polystone Volks figures, but I’ve also got a few that kinda suck. Their PVC stuff, at least, is consistently mid-tier at best. Pretty much all the 1/4 scale stuff I’ve seen from them is breathtaking, however. I really wish they’d sell more prepainted 1/4 scale stuff.
Nah, I got this from YJA. It’s an old-ass figure … the garage kit is like five years old, I think this prepainted version is around four years old. It dates back all the way back to when I started collecting PVC figures.
Yeah, was going to mention that; I first saw it on YJA about a week ago, or shortly after our last talk about the case. It’s the only one I’ve seen on YJA though, so I guess it’s going to be a hard case to come by or the majority haven’t gotten theirs to sell yet.
I’ve seen a few on YJA, but they’ve all been priced at about 2,500yen. That and the 150 x 50 is a pretty good give away that they they are not legit, or that they are at least not the 12,000yen Evening Call one on the website…
Have been checking YJA every 2-3 days but haven’t seen any in the right price range (though I could be looking in the wrong place!)
Anyway… my Gathering Hibachi shipped today – have something to look forward to (together with last weekend’s ill advised dip into YJA!)
Well yeah, I generally don’t factor in fakes when I look at what’s available; I generally sort by highest price first and have a cut off point of 6000-7000 yen or so. Unfortunate I fell asleep before I placed a bid on the legit cover they had. It ended up going for 16500, which is a fairly “decent” price for a cover that retailed at 12000. Then again, who knows how high the bidding would have gone.
Evening Call seems to be a weird circle in that aspect. They are almost never flooded with (legit) listings for the same cover, and depending on the cover, I don’t see it listing more than a few times. For instance, the BRS cover I saw listed a total of three times, and I picked it up on the first. I managed to win it without much bidding at all, while another Evening Call cover has gone well over the 20000 mark.
I hadn’t planned on ordering anything from E2046 again, after both my KOS-MOS and Kenshin arrived with broken off arms/other parts, but they had a limited preorder open for the Kanu I wanted, so I couldn’t resist. They say it was limited to 20, so we’ll see… hopefully it will be months down the line though so I have some time to recover.
As much like you, I’ve done some seriously ill advised spending the last week. One cover on preorder (but already paid for), three from Mandarake, and seven from YJA. The YJA one is a bit funny, as I purchased several rare/expensive covers, but balanced it out a bit by finding a circle that has a YJA account and posts their work with fairly low bids. I’ve never bought from them before, so I don’t know how high quality they are but winning a recently released 2WT cover with a retail of 12800 for 6300 makes me more than a little happy.
The only thing that has me a little wary about them is that they actually sell “budget” covers in the peachskin/smooth format, which is notoriously used by bootleggers. I guess I don’t have to be worried about them being fakes, as the YJA is listed on their website as an official retailer. It’s actually a good thing, I suppose, if you have a customer that doesn’t mind the cheaper fabric. They have them for around 2200/3000 bid/buyout; same designs as their 2WT versions, just cheaper. YJA name is Biglove1688 if you want to check them out, with the same name for the website (.com)
There are a couple I sort-of-like on there – the KON! one and the Blue haired girl (Fortuna Arterial?)
Unfortunately this is a really bad month for buying anything. I paid almost $600 on Monday to have my lounge plastered and am anticipating paying $2,000 or so in the next couple of months to get new carpets fitted. I might not even be able to afford the Asuka cover and I have a lot of figures due for release shortly… almost hoping for a few delays
Yeah, I’ll probably place a bid on the 2WT K-On! cover.
I feel you there… I know that with my spending the way it is, I’d be completely screwed if an emergency were to happen that drained my funds. Already as it is, I’m hoping that SMJ doesn’t received the 3-4 expensive items I purchased in the next few days, just so I can stretch the 14 day payment window so that I pay after my next credit card billing cycle (and can rest easy for a month… hopefully not spending shit so I can afford to pay it down.)
As a head’s up, there are currently official (assuming by the price, anyway) copies of the Asuka cover up currently; one for 25000 bid, and another at 18000. Honestly, since you missed the preorder, 18000 is probably going to be about the best rate you’ll get, if you don’t want a knock off. Know you had said it was going to be a tight month, but I figured I’d let you know if you were still interested.
The same seller that has the cheaper listing also has an Evening Call Saber for the same bid, and the Panty & Stocking cover for that much at buyout. I only have the bidding limit for one (and the money for none), so I’m seriously contemplating either the Saber or P&S cover. But I think the smarter move would be to hold out and not pick up either, as much as I’d like to add both of my collection.
I was actually thinking about Evening Call the other day, and it’s fairly crazy how many cases they’ve pumped out in the last year or so; when I was going through my collection the other day, I found their No. 4 case, which I had ordered about a year ago through D-Stage… And now they’re almost to the 70s.
I’m really excited about the sample images they released today, though… finally a Dizzy cover! Can’t wait to see what it looks like fully colored and all, but I can say with 100% certainty that I’m preordering that shit.
Oh, Tier, I think your reviews have finally convinced me it’s time to pick up a doll. I think if I can cut back on the dakimakura spending a bit, and pay off my current wave of purchases, it may be my next purchase. Just have to do some research myself, as even with your reviews and useful information you’ve shared, this will be new ground for me.
Somehow there’s no reply button for the comment I want to reply to, but thanks for the info on biglove.
Would you happen to know if peachskin(satin) is any different from normal peachskin? One listing has the peachskin(satin), another doesn’t and just says peachskin.
I actually prefer the shiny, silky satin to all materials that I’ve encountered so far, so I’d actually be interested in that if that was it. The normal peachskin would be a little less smooth and not really that shiny; obviously one I wouldn’t prefer.
Thats a quite interesting design for a figure of Rei. It looks a lot different but her eyes are pretty and the slightly different haircolor looks good. The pose and the details of her dress also look very nice. At the area around her neck and next to the shoulders the paintjob looks a bit more rough, to me it doesn’t look that bothersome albeit I don’t know if such things are normal when you are buying a painted GK.
I would like to know why there are so many figures with debris related bases, in the anime or movies such scenes were rare or they didn’t happen at all 😀 So far I have no NGE figure, I would like to see Max Factories 1/6 scaled Asuka soon, maybe she will be my first real NGE figure, since I like her style a lot.
Compliments for your setup, it looks awesome with the mixed debris ^_^
rei-ayanami-06.jpg is my favorite picture
Quality is really variable when it comes to prepainted kits, even if they come from a big manufacturer like Volks. I’ve got a few more Volks figures that I plan to take pictures of soon, if I can get their backdrops built already.
I was trying to think of all the times I’ve seen Rei and Asuka among ruins. I vaguely remember them fighting in urban areas and I remember Shinji taking the subway in a city and I remember Antarctica looked very ruined, but I can’t remember them ever sitting amongst rubble and wreckage. But that hasn’t stopped Volks here and Kotobukiya and a whole lot of artists.
Excellent review, as always. but I dislike some hand painted areas in the plugsuit, near the neck.
I wish I could do some shots like yours in the future (and reviews, why not…)
Greetings from Mallorca^^
Hi from the hot and muggy United States! Summer is usually my favorite season but I’m ready for winter already.
Yeah, she’s pretty rough-looking there, and her eyes are as well. She’d probably look better compared to some of the figures that came out around her time; some of those figures are also not very refined.
You can get shots like mine! It just takes practice to get good pictures. If you look at some of my earlier reviews, it is obvious that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I had lovely pictures like this one on my site. It’s only been a couple of years since I took that shot.
Mallorca is also a hot and very muggy place (like all islands… I guess). I’m a bit tired of this weather, I prefer spring or autumn *-*
And about your photos, you have improved a lot since you opened this blog and I’m also interested in photography (my dad’s a photographer) but I’m bad at it. Have you been to photography class or just practising?
Just practicing, I’ve never had any kind of instruction in photography, apart from reading some books and watching a lot of videos on Youtube (Youtube is great as a teaching resource). I kinda wish I’d taken a photography or an art class when I was in school though, just to learn some basic principles of composition.
Lovely shots! Must have been one hell of a cleanup afterwards though. I like when they do variations on the original character designs and Rei looks good in this incarnation. The rough painting turns me off a little but it’s definitely a hell of a lot better than anything I could do myself. How does it compare with their PVC figures?
And lol, your suggestions for an alternate costume reminded me of this picture
Yeah, things were pretty messy, particularly since I broke out one of my stock backdrops to use as the background and little shards of plaster flaked off everywhere. At least I got a shot of it to use in my forthcoming backdrops post.
The painting is definitely worse than a modern PVC figure, though maybe it could be comparable to a 2006 or 2007-era PVC figure. I have fond regards for figures that came out around that time because that’s when I really began collecting, but looking at some of those figures in my collection, they are nowhere near as good as I remember.
Haha, that picture is awesome. That sort of cutout I don’t mind too much versus Asuka’s test suit because it doesn’t make the lower part of her suit look like a pair of trousers. I mean, if you look at Asuka, it looks like she’s wearing a pair of pants but her tailor didn’t have enough material to finish the job, so now she has to go around with the top half of her ass hanging out.
Looks pretty nice. As always, great use of the backgrounds. Guess it is a bit easier if the base gives you something to work with.
I still have not watched Evangelion lol. Maybe I’ll watch those movie ones with the versions like 1.0, 2.0, whenever 4.0 releases and finishes.
In this case Rei’s base gave me something pretty easy to work with but a lot of times, I actually find it harder to come up with ideas if the base isn’t of the plain painted plastic type. Like with Rin Tohsaka, I had a really tough time thinking about what I wanted to do for her shoot, and I wound up just recycling some ideas that I had used for Dizzy and Saber Alter.
That sounds like a pretty good plan. I watched Evangelion maybe about ten years ago, so that was a good deal after the TV show was broadcast, but I don’t really have any desire to go back and watch it again. I do plan on watching the movies sometime, though, since I’ve heard they’re a bit different from the television show.
No problem, hope I don’t screw us all over, and the print quality is decent on the covers. I ended up buying two 2WT covers for just over 10000 yen, so I’m very happy. If I’m happy with what I see, I could easily see myself buying more in the future.
I honestly don’t know on material though, I’ve always tried to stay as far away from what are generally considered “fakes” since I’ve been in the hobby. Peachskin is usually what they use, I’m guessing back it’s cheap. Biglove is the first legitimate circle I’ve seen to use it; all others have gone with 2WT, Roika (which actually thinking about it now, I think may be Japanese for Lycra – never made that connection before), Smooth Knit, or Suede.
I know I have one fake for sure, but I didn’t know at the time as I was still a dakimakura newbie, and it’s the smooth silky like material; similar to Tony’s covers in feel.
Long story short, I have no idea, but I’d try sticking to the satin listings if you could, or maybe pick up one of the others on the cheap with some of the satin listings, and see if there is any difference (that way you save on shipping too, if you order a few at a time.)
Oh Tier, I spoke with a fellow enthusiast, and he said that Taiwanese circle I mentioned before does in fact ship globally, and the yen price you pay included free EMS shipping. So 13000 yen (on average) for a 4WT (very similar in feel, but apparently more durable than 2WT) dakimakura direct from a circle. They just opened up preorders for a new cover that I know I’m ordering, but they currently have a total of three available for preorder here:
http://www.bwstore.com.tw/
Forgot to hit reply to drakanity. >_>
I dropped the number of threaded comments from like six to four a month or so ago … it gets really difficult to read things when they get all squished up against the sidebar. I think I need to tinker with the comments layout page and see if maybe I can narrow down how reply comments are indented.
Ah, cool; when you said Taiwanese circle I was wondering if you were talking about the Denmoe people. That sounds like a great deal, then; given how the exchange rate is cratering, it’s getting really difficult to justify buying more dakimakura covers (and perhaps doujinshi, which is very bothersome with C80 coming up very soon) right now. 78 yen to the dollar isn’t hugely different than 83 or 84 yen but somehow it seems like a massive shift, psychologically. The Kobato one is really cute, though; I like her Pepsi eyes.
Bleh, the exchange rate is absolutely killing me. Dakimakura covers are already absurdly expensive to begin with, but I didn’t really mind paying it, as it’s a fairly cool thing to collect. But when a 25000 yen auction costs me $400, that’s pretty harsh. Especially considering a large majority of the covers I’m interested in are over the 20000 yen mark if I don’t manage to pick them up during their initial run. And the 5-6 yen difference might not seem that different at a glance, but I agree with you that it’s a massive blow psychologically, and it certainly does add up to be a big money dump over the long run.
Yeah, I was kinda thinking about putting in an order with SMJ for a book I kinda wanted, but then I thought that the -5 exchange rate thing really sucks when it’s already down to like 78 yen to the dollar, I’m finding myself not impulse-buying things nearly as much as I used to. Japanese things, that is; I might just redirect that money towards buying camera stuff instead. And paying for some car repairs, since I’ve got like $800 worth of car maintenance and repairs that I have to get done sometime soon.
The yen to dollar ratio is a huge difference when you go for the more expensive items that you normally go for. Then on top of that, the shipping increases it more as well. Then any conversion fees. It sucks since I can no longer look at the yen, and knock off two 0’s at the end to determine the price like I normally did back then. Such a sad fate for the US dollar. Even the Canadian dollar is pulling away. 🙁
Yep, it sucks. I mentioned it in another post, but when I’m buying through a proxy, I’ll generally just drop the two zeroes and multiply by 1.6. Gives you a fairly accurate idea of the final cost you’ll be charge, give or take a few bucks. That’s a lot more painful than just dropping the zeroes, I tell you. D:
Also, while stumbling across a circle’s site the other day, I found a description of all the different cloth types they have available. No peachskin, but it’s still a fairly handy guide that you may find useful. Have to warn you though, the work of the circle is on the very loli end.
http://st-momo.hanya-n.net/doujin/tuhan/cloth.html
Lol thanks. The translation is a bit rough, so I can’t figure out exactly what it may look like and feel.
I wish someone would do one like this, so you can kind of gauge how stretchy, smooth, etc it is. http://www.xfancy.com/images/xfancy_pillow/fabric.jpg
Yeah 🙁 It’s a crappy situation since most of the hobby stuff I get comes from Japan. I’ll admit that I feel some level of nationalistic disappointment in seeing the US dollar get thrashed compared to the Canadian and Australian dollars, too, and it makes for a disturbing trend, when taken as a whole.
Thanks again for the info.
Also since you mentioned it, I actually just pre-ordered something two weeks ago from bwstore. On the site, it had a foreign transaction, so I emailed them in english and they got back to me with step by step instructions on how to order which was very nice.
While you and Tier probably won’t need it, for any other readers that might need help
“If you want to order our products.
Please select the item has “Foreign” notification on item title like this.
http://www.bwstore.com.tw/index.php?action=product&do=prd_detail&id=63
And click the order button right of order date.
After create your account please choose Paypal for payment method.
And input the quantity you want.
And click ＂確èªï¼‚to place order.
The system will ask you confirm again.
If all information are correct than click ＂確èªï¼‚again to finish the order.
After receiver your order I will give you a Paypal payment request.
After you finish the payment.
The system will give you a order complete notification mail.
And please be note.
All items are pre order then production.
And need one month to production.
For example.
The Sonico pillow cover order close date is 2011/07/31
The ship out date will be 2011/8/31
We use EMS international services so we can ship out all over the world.
And the price of foreign items are include international shipping cost.
Maybe you can place order together with your friends.
If you have any problem please let me know.
Thank you very much.
Black and white studio.”
Thanks for the info, it’s very helpful. I’m kinda wondering how risky it is to buy the Kobato pillowcase (the odd-eyed girl from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, or something like that) … I don’t think I’ve ever had my mail opened up but that’s sorta on the borderline of what even I would risk. But damn it looks cool.
Yeah, I’m buying it for sure. Damn the risk; though who knows if packages from certain countries are checked more often. I don’t think Taiwan would be a big deal, but short of the bomb scare that shut off Japanese packages for awhile, my uninformed opinion would that it would be more likely than a package from Japan being checked. That’s the only benefit to a service like SMJ; you have some buffer, but aren’t necessarily protected (if they decided to open up a SMJ package, I’d imagine the blame would eventually trickle down but who knows.) Still, it wouldn’t be worth the extra fees you’d incur.
It’s a really cool case that meets quite of a few of the fetishes I have when it comes to dakimakura covers (twintails, unique coloring, small boobs, the Pocky prop, fluids, etc) so I really can’t not order it.
Yeah, I’m not enormously worried about it. Figuring out if I want to spend the money on it is the larger concern, since I also need to pay up front for a couple of figures I want to buy but require immediate payment and I also want to buy some camera stuff. I do like Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, or the manga at least – I kinda got the feeling the anime is gonna be one of those Big Series That Everyone Talks About sort of shows, and that might annoy me. I’m already kinda suffering from Madoka burnout and I haven’t even seen the show.
I know I’m in a tough financial position right now; I went all out and maxed out (well, 600 yen to spare) my SMJ limit. Every single payment should come after my credit card statement is due, and Capital One has a fairly cool policy that if you pay off your entire balance for the previous month, anything that comes in after the new statement won’t be charged interest until the next month’s statement. So essentially I wouldn’t risk interest until the bill is due in October. Thinking about it, that doesn’t sound right, but I’m fairly sure it’s accurate.
Anyhow, I just need to make sure I pay the current month entirely down… would suck to be charged interest on the mass amount of pending charges if I had only a couple bucks I didn’t pay off. >_>
I’m definitely ordering it, but I’ll be waiting until August 10th or so to put in m order, just to be sure the new statement is in.
Eh, I don’t really browse many anime sites or anything so I haven’t the slightest idea what’s popular. Whenever I get in the mood to watch some anime, I usually just pull up the list from the last couple of seasons and see if there’s something I’d want to watch based on the paragraph description.
I really like this version of Rei. I would be hunting for her now if I didn’t already have the Aizu project one I picked up a while back. Of course being handpainted chances of getting one similar to this are slim.
Looking at her by todays standards she’s rough looking. But I can easily overlook that since I think her overall presentation and feel is wonderful. It’s hard to describe exactly what makes me like her over other Rei figures. I think her eyes have quite a lot to do with it, the dark lines frame them beautifully and the red iris immediately draws your attention. Her skin tone also looks a bit darker than other Rei figures which I like, and the muted blue hair colour is less distracting than if it were brighter. The plugsuit looks great too, the white and black combo is great for highlighting her beautiful form. Much more flattering than orange and red.
Thanks for sharing this rare treasure with us. If I do stumble upon her resisting the urge to buy might be difficult.
This one took a little while to track down – I randomly saw it on Yahoo Japan, after having checked for quite a while. There’s one up there right now, though for way, way too much money (like 30k yen, which is a helluva lot more than what I paid).
I really like her eyes as well; I think the outlining and the sideways glance give her a more aloof look than what I often see in a Rei figure. The Alter figure (the movie one) kinda emphasizes her vulnerability more, but she has kind of a blank, casual look. This one seems to have just a bit more attitude to her.
>> Shashin
That’s probably the best course of action. I have this odd thing where the more involved I am in a community, the more I feel like I want to get the hell out. Sometimes I don’t even really like talking much about figures or anime these days since people can get really tribal about the things they like and the things that they don’t like.
@Shashin Not sure if you’ll read this, but when you said you got two 2WT covers for just over 10000 yen, was that before or after the fees? If before, what would the fee come out to be?
I decided to get one from biglove too, but I think I got a bit screwed since the proxy used the 1200 yen domestic shipping instead of the 600 and they wouldn’t give me an option to choose >_>. Also not sure how they calculated the fees, since it didn’t seem to add up as well.
I may need to switch to SMJ that you and Tier use, but it seemed more complicated to get set up. And, at least before (not sure about now), it took a couple days to get your deposits in?
Before fees. I won one auction for 5600 and the other for 4800. For fees, I don’t have all the details yet, since they’ve yet to receive the items in Japan; I’ve already been billed for one, though.
With SMJ, when you order multiple items for the same seller, they bill you for one (minus shipping) and then add all the extra fees to the other invoice when they receive the items. They’ve already billed me for the 5800 auction at $87.45. That’s with the shitty 73 (SMJ uses current rate -5) yen rate and $8 commission, but nothing else. When I get billed for the 4800 purchase, it will have another $8 commission, a $3 wire fee, shipping probably between 1500-2500 yen (that’s to get it to the US, but I’m not sure how much it will be.) And depending on when they lock in the rate (either after they pay or when they invoice me) it will either be at 73 or 72. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the total came to be on the closer end of $200 after fees, but hopefully not over.
It’s fairly easy to calculate all the fees involved with SMJ, short of maybe shipping, but it’s a pain in the ass. I don’t know if they lock in the rate when they invoice you, or after they paid; the fair way would be to lock it in when they pay, since they already use an absolutely fucking ridiculous -5 rate (which is supposed to protect them from the fluctuation), but I don’t know. Still, complaints with them aside, you can generally get things to add up fairly close to what they bill you.
They actually did just drop their rates on more expensive items quite a bit; I would have saved $10 in commission on my 42500 yen purchase, but for smaller items I don’t know. I’m starting to think that Yokatta Web might be something to consider, since Tier has had nothing but good to say about them.
It’s not that complicated to set up, but it could take a day or two to get your deposit all fixed up. I think it took me about 24 hours when I first did it, and I can only hope that they’ve improved since. I’ve been pretty jaded with their rates as of late, though they’re still a lot cheaper than some other services, but one thing you have to hand to them is convenience. Once you set things up, you’re pretty much free to do whatever you want and bid on almost anything instantly without having to contact someone first; thus you never have to worry about missing an auction because you couldn’t get a hold of someone in time. The exception being adult auctions which require a manual bid; the process is relatively the same for placing a bid, but it generally takes 6-14 hours for them to actually bid on something.
Here’s an idea to give you a better feel for what you’d be paying with SMJ; all the prices are to get the item to the US. You’ll have to pay a bit more on top of it to get the items sent to you from there (for a batch of dakimakura covers like that, it would probably be in the $30-50 range, insured.)
Another premature post. D:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/217/invoices.jpg/
Hehe thanks. I guess it depends on how and what you order. Its a little difficult to determine since I don’t think any other places have the ship to USA storage option. I totally forgot about that without looking at your image.
I’m currently using Noppin (Crescent) since their system seems similar to what I’ve read for SMJ with real time bidding, and their replies so far were good and quick. You can deposit money straight with paypal and the balance shows up right away.
They were fine until they didn’t allow me to choose which domestic shipping I wanted. So it was 7089 yen for a 4800 auction. Then on top of that, I’ll still need to pay the international shipping.
I’ve used Yokatta for non-auctions since Tier said they were pretty pricey for auctions (they add a 700 fee on top of the 10% or whatever final value, and then the other ship and bank fees). They’ve been really responsive though for my other orders; but since they don’t have an account system and no real time bidding, it may not be the best to use.
So I’ve just been reading around and seeing what others have liked. I also avoided SMJ because a lot of people haven’t really said the best things about them.
Not too sure how they compare, but From Japan has a calculator function haha. http://www.fromjapan.co.jp/estimate
But for the auction I just won, it pretty much came out to be the same price as I paid from noppin.
And what’s with the lower exchange rate for SMJ? You aren’t allowed to deposit and pay in yen? If you can do that, the yen will always be there and no fluctuation will occur. And paypal was 76 when I paid a couple days ago vs the 73 that you said. And I just looked, the dollar is down another yen. ; ;
Yeah, the best thing about SMJ is definitely the US shipment system; it certainly saves a bit of money if you’re willing to receive things in batches (versus having it shipped to you right away – probably not very cost effective to request a shipment for every item that reaches the US facility separately.)
Yeah, that’s pretty harsh, but “cheap” items are often the ones that rack up the highest amount of fees, at least comparatively. Since shipping is a generally flat rate, and most sites seem to do a scaling commission where the percentage they take lowers as the item gets more expensive. The 5800 yen auction I won cost me $87, which is ~$75 actual cost + commission… though it’s important to keep in mind that it’s without any shipping fees at all. So it’s fairly comparable to your situation with the 4800 yen item.
That’s actually a good point; Yokatta’s store rate is pretty amazing for more expensive non-auction items, but with SMJ’s recent rate change, I don’t think it’s really a good deal for expensive auction items anyway. Had I gone with Yokatta for a 42500 yen purchase I made a few weeks back, I would have saved some money in commission; that’s not the case anymore, and the shipping likely would have been more expensive.
Nah, unfortunately all purchases are in USD, so SMJ customers are absolutely screwed if the dollar continues to tank. I’m going to be invoiced at a 72 rate for the next few invoices that come in. T_T
Screwing around and entering a few items into that calculator are pretty consistent with my SMJ invoices, if I went EMS shipping from Japan. Seems to be +/- $10 difference from the final cost. Which when you factor in domestic shipping from SMJ, it’s probably pretty close.
On a dakimakura note, I’m working on my display room. Ran out of hangars/clothespins/space, so I’m still working on it, but here’s what I have so far (just of the dakimakura cover portion of the room):
http://sadpanda.us/images/588192-NRGRIHR.jpg
Wow, that’s a pretty crazy amount of dakimakuras you got there. Do you do anything with those? Or do you collect just to have it? Lol at the url sadpanda.
Kind of like my games. While I do like to play and finish them, I can never seem to lower my backlog. And there’s also this meme that says something like “not sure if like to play games, or just collect them.” I’m currently 57+ games behind on my backlog. Although a lot are steam games, that’s still too much considering I beat a ton and also watch a lot of shows as well.
It’s a pretty strange hobby, I’ll give you that. At the moment, they basically just sit there, and even if I did want to display them, I could probably only reasonably display a fraction of them. So I guess it’s more on the collection just to have end, but I would eventually like to do more with them. As it stands, I’ve only had three displayed on a pillow that I slept with; the 2WT material feels nice and smooth. Don’t have any on a pillow now, because it’s summer and they get ridiculously hot. So they’re fairly decent in the winter to keep warm with, but not so much in the summer months.
Heh, I feel you there, especially with the amazing Steam sales. Basically whenever GameCrazy or whatever had a good sale on older PS2 games and such, I’d buy up as many good RPGs/other titles as I could; half of which I probably never even popped into the disc tray.
>> Shashin
I’ve kinda been wanting a new dakimakura cover recently. I’ve seen a couple that recently went up for preorder that I wanted, but unfortunately I missed them so I guess I’ll have to wait and see if they show up on YJA after C80. And that is awesome news regarding Evening Call, I didn’t notice that but a Dizzy dakimakura cover is definitely something I have been hoping to see. I’m leaning very much towards ordering the Kobato pillowcase from that Taiwanese circle, too, although I really wonder if there might be repercussions if I do a review of it here.
Haha, really, a doll? What sort of doll, a Dollfie Dream or vmf50 doll or some other doll? I should do another vmf50 post, I’ve got a few new things, and I guess I should get around to building that 1/3 scale St. Andrew’s cross one of these days.
Missing preorders sucks. 🙁 There are some many covers I’ve paid the premium for because I either wasn’t into the hobby when they came out (which really couldn’t be helped) or I just wasn’t paying as much attention to when dates came and went. I’m definitely pumped for Dizzy; I know we share a similar attitude when it comes to her, and she’s probably my favorite fighting game heroine.
I know I’m ordering it, but as I mentioned previously, I’m just waiting a bit closer to the deadline so it would appear on my next credit card statement. Not sure what would happen if you reviewed it on this site, though. I’d want to say nothing, since you don’t have any advertisers that may be offended by the content, but I couldn’t say for sure.
I’m not sure. I just recently started browsing figure.fm after Googling for the best way to unload a few figures. I saw tons of classified ads and a whole lot of posts that had some less erotic doll photography. The erotic side of things is definitely my preference, but it was also cool to see all this other stuff too. Your reviews had already inched me towards buying one eventually, but I think these posts just kinda drew me over the edge.
Since my exposure and knowledge is so limited, I’d probably stick with either a vmf50 or a Dollfie Dream. Mandarake has the vmf50 Ami at a fairly reasonable price, or I’d consider the Miu since she comes with some accessories that make her price a little more reasonable (and I wouldn’t have to worry about the yen being even lower when I finally buy.) From what I’ve seen, Figure.fm also has a fairly high occurrence of Dollfie Dreams for sale.
Yeah, I should’ve paid more attention to the dakimakura cover blog, especially with C80 rolling around. I think I’ll be able to pick it up off YJA, though, and I guess I’ve got a ton of stuff due to ship from Yokatta late this month anyway. Hopefully the exchange rate gets healthier so I don’t lose so much money.
Yeah, I wonder if anything would happen. I generally stay away from the sexualized loli thing; partially because it’s not my thing and also because anything that is obviously underage generates more recrimination than just about anything else. Maybe I’ll just refrain from reviewing it. Or maybe I will. I dunno yet. I guess if my host tosses me off, that’d just give me an excuse to look elsewhere; I’ve kinda been wanting to find a faster web host, since this site sometimes loads really slowly.
Ahahaha, figure.fm … man, I gotta throw that site off my bookmarks list. It used to be one of my favorite sites but I suppose nothing stays the same forever.
Same here, though my finances are looking rockier by the minute. I really hope the USD stops sucking so much, but I don’t expect that to be the case for some time, if ever again, but still it would be nice not to pay out the ass for every little thing.
I predict (though I hope I’m wrong) I’ll have some trouble with SMJ when the Illust Guerrilla Nymph finally hits. I preordered back in December when the yen rate was about 80 and they went with -3. They’ve said that any purchases made before the change will be honored at the -3 rate, but I might have to email them about that. What I’m really worried about is what rate they’ll charge me. They should charge me at the 80 – 3 rate, as that’s when they paid the seller, but I have a feeling they’ll charge me whatever the current rate is -3 (if I have to email them to get that changed.) I don’t know if I’d really have any ground to stand on, as their policies now say that the rate is locked in when invoiced, which I’m assuming means when they invoice the buyer, but it should be when they’ve paid. We’ll see though, I’d like to be wrong, but I’m not hopeful.
Once again, I’d like to be optimistic and say that nothing would come of the situation, but it’s definitely a strange area, and not really tested. Hentai sites do have a fair amount of loli on occasion, and even Fakku which had to pull loli content because of their advertisers still has a fair amount in the User Uploads section that is just ignored. And as you said, there could be a positive to it if your host boots you, but I really would like to think that’s the worst that could come from it.
Heh, care to inform the grossly uninformed what’s wrong with figure.fm? >_> Don’t get me wrong, it’s not one of my favorite sites, and I basically signed up for an account in attempt to sell a few figures. I don’t have any prior exposure to it, however, so I don’t know what I’m missing that made the site actually worthwhile.
That is a curious situation indeed. I haven’t actually used SMJ to buy anything for a few months now because the fees are so high for the stuff I usually use them for (which is typically stuff that costs under 10k yen, often less than 3k yen). The exchange rate -5 fee isn’t helping out, either.
On a related note, I recently had a curious problem with Amiami where I could only pay by Paypal with a credit card. I suppose that means that not only do I have to pay according to Paypal’s very conservative exchange rate, I also get slapped by a 2% foreign exchange fee by my card provider (admittedly, I get 1% cashback on everything so it’s just a 1% fee). I’m thinking I might just stick with Hobby Search for figure stuff.
It’s more that I’m just not particularly interested in most of the stuff that is posted there. I don’t have much interest in Dollfies, which is what everyone seems to post there. It used to be mostly about figures, which was great, but now, everyone’s just jumping on the Dollfie bandwagon, and that’s not a community I’m all that interested in.
Yeah, everything I buy is usually 15000+, so the fees are actually in line when compared to other services; I guess I should actually research more than the ones I’m aware of, but with their recent rate reduction on more expensive purchases, I think they’re probably the best option.
Have you already been charged those two fees, or are you just speculating? Amiami doesn’t have a set payment system like Mandarake’s Paypal system, and it’s basically just you sending then money from your Paypal account. So since you’re going through the US Paypal site to send the money, and Paypal does the currency conversion, you’d avoid the foreign transaction fee since it’s charged in USD on your credit card. Paypal’s rate is pretty lame though (better than -5 I guess.) So you should have been able to avoid the foreign exchange fee… but I guess I can’t say for certain as Capital One doesn’t charge one.
Why did you have to pay by credit card, though? Did you just not feel comfortable connecting a bank account to your Paypal account?
Ah, I guess I can see that. From what I’ve seen, I like vmf50 models more than I like Dollfie Dreams, but they’re still relatively similar to me, as someone who isn’t in the hobby yet. But I could certainly see disliking the specific community.
Haha, I guess this has been going off topic.
But speaking of eveningcall, are their dakimakuras supposed to be kind of faded? I just received one of mine today and it doesn’t really seem as crisp and clear. Kind of like a blur filter or something was put on it. While its still nice, I guess I would have expected more for the really expensive price. I’m comparing it with a *ahem* custom 2WT one I have and my custom looks much more crisp in image quality.
As far as figure.fm, I also mainly use it to sell stuff. I basically look at their classifieds lol.
Not really keeping up with the news or understand it all too well, but I guess we avoided default? I don’t think it means anything, but I can hope things will get better…
Also, first the NFL, then the NBA lockout. Depressing times for your average person. 🙁
Honestly, I couldn’t say. As fond as I am of the circle, I actually only own two of their covers; the BRS cover and what I think is supposed to be a catgirl Miku or something (I actually haven’t opened it.) I don’t remember there being any problems with the BRS cover, but I think the Miku cover used lighter colors, which I guess could be considered faded. It has been awhile since I’ve handled either, but I remember being pleased.
I want to list some stuff there, but I just don’t want to suddenly sign up and have my very first post be a classified ad with a bunch of figures for sale. So I’ve been trying to post a bit in topics that I’m at least slightly interested in, and I might do a room post when I get around to straightening everything out.
Eh, I’m so jaded by the politicians we have in this country it’s not even funny. Democrats, Republicans, it doesn’t matter, they’re nothing but a bunch of corrupt and whiny children.
The yen rate dropping below 77 makes me cry.
Oh, did they change their rules? Originally, you needed to be a member for a month and have 50 posts in order to even create a post. but that was for Danny Choo’s site. It was before figure.fm “revived” or whatnot. Then they revamped the site and transferred the figure stuff away, so everything got transferred there.
It is a great way to get exposure though. One of my posts…excuse me for this, had over 9000 views (it was 9000 something) which is actually pretty crazy and that’s without linking it anywhere else. And some people apparently view some of the really old posts not on the first page, so I was able to sell a couple more over a month later.
Yea, I have no idea what the government is doing right now. We spend unnecessary money and wonder why we are in such debt. Also very disturbing is we go and support a bunch of other countries that do not appreciate and hate our country. I read something like 800 million aid just to Pakistan? Some aid is fine, but that seems way too much. I don’t know why we don’t help our country first.
Wow. Surprisingly, as of this post, the yen rate is at 78.9. It was 76 earlier today and definitely makes me want to cry too. I should have transferred a bunch of yen back in the days when it kept dropping lol. I always thought it was going to recover. I have to pay for a preorder by the mid of this month. I’m wondering if now is the time to do it.
I’m gonna say this one more time: no more political discussion in the comments here. I don’t care which side you are on, or if you aren’t on any side, it is not something I want to see on my site.
Sorry, I was replying to the post before your post was even submitted below, so how was I supposed to know? After I submitted (sometimes I take a while to write since I get sidetracked and re-read and add certain things), I saw your post.
And I’m sorry, but I also don’t read every comment of yours either, nor do I read every word on your site. And since you go off topic all the time, I thought it was ok, especially with the type of content on your site.
Just like Shashin, I never saw any mention about not being able to discuss this political stuff aside from the last message which I was already writing when you wrote yours. So if you’re going to try to censor certain subjects, then at least have some FAQ or some posting rules that is clearly visible and clarify this.
So I’ll stop posting now to avoid any other potential banned discussions. This is the only site I actually post on frequently because it was a place that I felt comfortable at, and thought I can speak freely. I guess I was wrong.
Well, good luck with your site.
Fair enough. Thanks for the well-wishes.
Shame the misunderstanding lead you to this decision, drakanity. Was a pleasure talking with you; I take the same id on several different sites, so in the off chance you see me posting, don’t be afraid to say hi.
I don’t know, their FAQ section or general rules section is pretty weak as far as posting policies and such go. I haven’t tried posting any content yet, but I’ve been able to bring up the page to do so; I’d imagine a block would occur after hitting post, if the 50 count thing is still in place. Guess I should try posting some more to reach that number.
Wow, that’s actually fairly awesome; I usually check it 4-5 times a day. This morning it was sitting just at 76.9/77.1, and then dropped pretty far into 76. I had just checked it a few hours ago, around the time of that post, and it was still at 76… to have gone up so far so fast, I hope the trend keeps up. >_>
If you’re interested.
http://news.yahoo.com/japan-stocks-jump-move-weaken-yen-041130634.html
Don’t know how long it lasts, but hopefully it does by tomorrow or whenever paypal updates their exchange rates.
Yeah, saw something along those lines. Makes me happy, and it makes a ton of sense. Strong yen hurts their exports and our pocketbooks. D:
>> Shashin
You’re right about that; I assumed that there’d be a foreign exchange fee, but checking again, there actually wasn’t one. So I guess that’s not a bad option at all since I get 1% back. Maybe I ought to use that option more often.
I usually just draw the money from my bank account but for some reason, it wouldn’t let me this time. I’m not certain why, since I’ve bought quite a few things from Amiami and never encountered that before. I don’t know if it was because I was buying a video game, since this is the first time I bought a game from them (incidentally, SAL shipping is really, really slow, but given that I don’t actually have a console to play this game on, I guess I have nothing to complain about).
I’m going to put a cease to political discussion in the comments section of this site. I do have my political beliefs but in this climate, political discussion is almost never constructive and will almost certainly lead to me using my admin privileges in ways that I don’t want to have to do, so it’s not something that I want to have on my site.
That’s good, and now that you mention it, I’ve actually had the same situation where Paypal where I was forced to pay by credit card. Which actually doesn’t bother me, as I don’t like using my bank account anyway, and it’s annoying to have to switch it to credit card every time I want to buy something. I’ve usually had SAL packages arrive within 2-3 weeks, which I’m fine with since I really don’t need to have most things that fast.
Ah sorry, hadn’t seen any previous mentions to political discussion.
On a more upbeat note, I just started Daiteikoku since it’s about 10% translated. I’ve been wanting another game like Rance or Big Bang Age, and I couldn’t think of a better choice, short of playing one of those titles again. Only about ten minutes in, but it’s voice and the music is catchy enough, so I just hope I don’t blow through the translated portion before more updates.
Yeah, I have some misgivings about using Paypal without a credit card, since I’ve heard some unpleasant stories about Paypal and I’d rather have the layer of protection a credit card gives before they touch my actual cash money. I’ve never had any issues with them before but it only takes one time, especially when we’re talking about cash money.
I haven’t mentioned politics here because it hasn’t come up until recently. But this site is about stuff that makes me happy, and politics do not make me happy in the slightest. American politics, anyway. I guess it’s okay to discuss other countries’ politics. Though, being a typical American, I have next to no familiarity with any other country’s politics. Though, being a typical American, that lack of understanding will hardly stop me from jumping to a half-formed opinion.
That’s pretty cool; hopefully steady progress is made on that, though I kinda wonder if everyone’s gonna jump onto Rance VIII when that comes out this month. Me, I’m just wondering if Senhime will show up in that game or not.
I don’t like using Paypal if I can avoid it, but I swear Capital One was charging me twice for Mandarake invoices last year; since I’ve been paying them by credit card recently (no adult items through Paypal and all…) I haven’t encountered it again, but I’m still convinced. Maybe i was just buying so much that it seemed like I was being charged twice. Anyhow, I guess Paypal is the safer alternative, even when it’s a credit card over a bank account, with the Hobby Search fiasco and all. Speaking of Mandarake really quickly, I finally picked up the Blue Saber/Rin cover about a week back. They had it in their update and it was only 12000 yen (which is cheaper than the SK retail price by 1000), and since the material wasn’t listed, I was all but positive it was going to be SK. I couldn’t pass it up though, was such a good deal, and I was pleasantly surprised to receive a roika case.
And I can’t blame you, I certainly get fairly upset thinking about American politics these days.
A bit further in, and I’ve already run into some Japanese scenes, but it has been for minor character H-scenes, so that’s not too bad. All the important story bits have been translated so far. The game system has a bit of a minor learning curve to it so far; everybody does so much damage that I was terrified of letting my units be destroyed, but apparently they automatically repair even if their ships are destroyed. Not sure if it’s possible to lose units through death, though I imagine a loyalty system will be introduced in the second act, much like Rance/Big Bang Age.
The translation wiki popped up just over a month ago, and they’re already at 10%; don’t know when translation actually started, but it’s looking good if they keep things at even the current pace. Can’t wait for Rance VIII myself, and I’d love to see Senhime make an appearance with some others from VII.
Yeah, I had this situation the other year where a few fraudulent charges got made against my check card. I think we talked about this before; it was the main reason I got a credit card. Most of the issues with Paypal that I’ve heard of seem to be with Paypal itself, rather than with someone jacking their account. I think there’s even a big website dedicated to people who are angry at Paypal. I haven’t run into any issues myself, though.
I remember seeing that pillowcase on Mandarake a few times but always at a price considerably higher than 12k yen. That sounds like a pretty good deal. I’m still looking for a good Fate Testarossa pillowcase and strangely, I can’t seem to find one that I must have.
That is good stuff; with Yandere’s translation of Sengoku Rance being so popular, I guess we can be optimistic that Rance VIII and Daiteikoku will get full translations. I’m still kinda hoping someone translates Beat Blades Haruka, though; I can understand a good bit of it through machine translation, but it’d be nice to be able to play it in English.
We have spoken about it, and I’m nearly 100% positive that my leak came from Hobby Search; I had only used it for a few things around the time, and then shortly after the whole mess was taken care of, Hobby Search came out and said shit was compromised.
I’ve only had one big issue with Paypal, but it was mostly my fault. I was being an idiot and tried selling my WoW account, and I was even more of an idiot when I broke a few of my rules (such as only dealing locally), but the money was just too damn tempting. So I got the money ($1000), spent a bit of it (actually bought Persona 4), and then 20 minutes later the charges were contested. Paypal’s policy was they don’t protect digital goods transactions, so there wasn’t anything I could do, and I had to jump through hoops to verify my account because I was the one that looked suspicious.
I’m still not sure if it was a hacked account or someone who found a way to take advantage of their policies; probably the former, but I can’t help but think the latter. I had lost desire to play the game, even before the fiasco but strangely enough, I actually ended up (virtually) profiting from it; the account still had all the gold from the sold auctions, and they sent me every item that was missing from my account.
Yeah, it’s a great deal. The cheapest version on YJA is about 15000, and that comes with all the deputy fees and such.
There definitely needs to be more translations going on. Shame so few are official, I’d love to see some of Alicesoft’s work officially translated, and I’d definitely buy an English copy of all their games given the chance.
actually I like the color of her hair.@double: yeah but I’m getting tired of seenig her in plugsuits only. How about rei in meido, swimsuit, seifuku,etc?
I do quite like the figure. I’m currently watching the anime series, it’s awesome! I’m thinking of getting a figure of Rei and Asuka, although it’s hard to choose a Rei figure since there are so many. I think this would be the best one I’ve seen so far. what do you think? =)
I’m not sure which is my favorite Rei figure, which is odd since she’s such a well-known character and Evangelion is such a heavily-merchandised franchise. I guess my favorite figure of her would be this one if you count garage kits. I remember seeing it some years back and thinking it looked awesome, particularly the one with the transparent suit.
That’s a good looking figure indeed! Whoa!! I just tried searching rei ayanami on myfigure collection page and it showed up 582 results (limited to 90) ?! It’ll take some time to look throug all of them -_-*
What about if you’d not count with the garage kits? =)
Oh! the entry plug version caught my eyes!
Gee, I’m not really sure. It’s kinda odd that there isn’t a PVC Rei figure that really makes me go OMG. I think my favorite one might be the Shunya Yamashita-designed one that Yamato recently re-released, though that one definitely doesn’t stay faithful to Rei’s design. I also really like this one, though I’m not sure how well it holds up to today’s standards. An anime store near where I live had one in their window display and I remember thinking that it looked amazing. Of course, back when I saw it, there weren’t more than a few companies making PVC figures.