I placed my order for Heat Blade with Hobby Search on June 15, 2010. She was originally scheduled for a fall release, but that got pushed back, and back, and back, and it was not until just this month that she finally hit stores. In the period between the placement of my order and the writing of this post, the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks won NBA championships, the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, and (effectively) Libya fell to populist revolutions, the NFL went through a lockout, Japan was devastated by an earthquake, the collective manhood of Washington, D.C. was devastated by an earthquake, Charlie Sheen somehow got fifteen minutes of fame despite already being famous, the exchange rate dropped from 91 to 77 yen to the dollar, and I wrote 58 figure reviews. And one tentacle stand review. What a busy time it’s been.
Heat Blade is manufactured by Yamato and is based off of an illustration by Jun Tsukasa. It’s the third figure they’ve collaborated on, the first being Sound Pretty and the second being Compact Hog. She’s sculpted in 1/6 scale and stands about 25 centimeters tall, counting the faux-electric signboard above her headpiece.
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Jun Tsukasa is known for drawing curvy, often very muscular female warriors in abbreviated clothing. Heat Blade lacks the pronounced musculature that characterized the Risty figure based off of his artwork but features a futuristic costume similar to what Compact Hog wears. She also has impressive armament and an impressive chest.
Heat Blade requires significant assembly before she’s ready for display. Yamato thoughtfully includes an instruction sheet – hidden inside the box – to provide guidance in putting her together. However, it’s written only in Japanese and so the function of some of her components is not completely obvious. For example, she comes with a couple of risers to place under her feet, but it’s not immediately apparent how they’re supposed to be placed. Most manufacturers will have the riser plug into the base, and then have the figure’s foot plug into the riser, but you just slide Heat Blade’s risers under her feet so that friction alone holds them in place. Her sword and shield are also a bit unusual in that her entire hands plug into sockets built into each. It takes a bit of time to get her assembled but once she’s put together, she feels fairly stable and I’m not too worried about parts randomly falling off of her.
Despite being equipped for combat, Heat Blade isn’t wearing much in the way of armor. Her outfit comprises some thigh-high boots, a pair of sleeves, a thong bikini, and a rather elaborate helmet. It’s an excellent outfit, one of the best I’ve seen on a figure. Her bikini is cut high on her hips, and her top shows off lots of underboob – actually, pretty much the entirety of her exposed bust is underboob. It’s a magnificent bust indeed. Straps, rivets, metallic-look parts and a leather-like finish give her costume a fetishistic appearance. I like her high collar, and it’s also cool how her wing-shaped backpack has wires that plug into both her weapon and her thong.
Heat Blade goes into combat sword-and-board style. Her sword resembles a broad-bladed scimitar, with the edge made of translucent orange and red plastic. Her shield is striking in appearance, its angular, faceted shape complemented by subtle shading. Like her sword, the bottom tip of her shield is made of translucent plastic, which doesn’t look too cheesy.
Her body sculpt is excellent as a whole, and her backside is particularly fine. The curve of her buttocks is accentuated by her thong, and everything about her ass is pretty much perfect. Her stomach is also particularly nicely sculpted, and so are her long legs and her waist and hips. And her breasts. It’s a great job all around.
Her face is more equivocal; she’s got a wide-eyed, rather vacant look that I don’t think everybody is going to love. I don’t know if I’d say I love it myself; I don’t hate it, but having kept her on my desk for the last few days, I’ll admit her blank stare is rather unnerving, particularly when viewed straight-on. She’s also got pointy ears that look almost like animal ears; I don’t really dislike them, since my beef with animal ears concerns those that sprout from the head, supplemental to normally-positioned ears. They do make me wonder why they were drawn that way, though, since Compact Hog has normal human ears.
The most vital parts of Heat Blade’s armor can be removed, revealing her nipples and crotch. The parts covering her breasts simply slide out to detach, while the front part of her thong plugs into a couple of small pegs. While her nipples are nicely-rendered, her genitalia is completely absent, making the removal of her bottom pointless. That’s somewhat surprising since Yamato’s vmf50 dolls feature vaginas.
It took a helluva long time for Heat Blade to make it into the marketplace, but she was definitely worth the wait. She’s big, she’s sexy, and she looks great. I had some doubts about her since Compact Hog wasn’t everything she should have been, but Yamato has not only assuaged them, they’ve made a fantastic figure, one that I am extremely happy to have.
Yamato continues to confound me that’s for sure…They make some genuine pieces of shit, but then they can also make stuff like this line or Velvet. Makes it damn hard to nail down their quality level like most makers. >_<
Bah but anyway her tits may be far too big for my taste, but I do quite appreciate her midsection and bum! :p
I think they’re rivaling Daiki for most enigmatic manufacturer out there. Daiki’s done great stuff, and then they’ve done some absolutely bizarre stuff. Yamato’s done some of the best Macross toys out there, some really cool dolls, some awesome figures, and some mind-boggling bad figures, too. Like the Fate Testarossa figure they recently released; I mean, I grade every Fate figure on a curve but even I don’t want that one.
That is one creepy looking face. Compared to the original illustration, I think they did rather poorly with the face, stomache and chest. Her rear and gear however look rather good and it’s certainly unique enough to stand out in the general crowd of action figures.
I’m glad you kept yourself busy with reviews while waiting for her, it sure was one hell of a long wait. I even find one month worth of delay to be bad enough.
I do like what you did in the white/blue/purple hazed shots, really bringing her character to life. Great shots as always.
Thanks! I think her stomach looks fantastic; it might look better in real life than in my pictures, looking at the photos again maybe the musculature isn’t as apparent there as it is when I look at her on my desk. I also have a similarly-sized, similarly-undressed figure on my desk (whose review has been pending for over a year) that doesn’t have nearly the same level of abdominal detail, and that probably also affects the way I look at Heat Blade. Her face is … yeah, I’d agree with creepy. I don’t mind it since Jun Tsukasa is by no means known for drawing moe faces, but that intense, wide-eyed stare is kinda intimidating.
Hm, can’t say I’m a fan; not because it’s an ero/ecchi figure, I just don’t really dig the design. Her face looks a bit too weird to me, and I never like mutant breasts. I do like weapon girls though, warriors are usually nice, but I’m just not feeling it from this.
I do like the shots drowned in white, though. That’s quite an interesting effect. White bg and a lot of light? How do you do that sort of thing?
WTF mutant breasts :O Hmm, which shots, the all-white ones or the ones that are sorta blue-tinted? I shot them each in different ways … the white ones are just a couple of lights on white foamboard to blow out the background; I figure the 360 full-body shots are pretty boring so I didn’t want to do anything too fancy for them. The shots where you see a lot of blue light overlaid on the figure are shot on tungsten white balance to get the light looking blue. The background is a window fan; you can see it on shot 29, where I probably shoulda opened up the aperture so it isn’t quite so obvious. The rest of the blue shots (like shot 4) are shot with just a couple of flashes fitted with blue gels firing on the background, which is just some styrofoam.
Yes mutant breasts; ones that are much too large to occur in nature under any normal circumstances. Almost as big as her head. I dislike super large breasts (woe is me watching ecchi anime, eh?) and it’s not just because I’m asian and I’m jealous or something which some have accused me of in the past, I just don’t like the look of them. Nor do I like the other end with complete washboard flat, I just like… normal sized breasts. Personal preference of course.
And yeah I meant the 360 shots in pure white, and mentioning styrofoam just reminded me I have some huge sheets of it that my large display case came packed in, so I could surely use it as reflectors for my wee shooting station. Glad I didn’t throw it away — I knew it would be useful for something some day. ^^;
OMG :O Being male, I of course do not have the privilege of hating on tits. I mean, except for colossally large ones, the kind I sometimes see in doujinshi.
Ah, yeah, those sorts of shots are not too difficult to do but shooting on white was one of the things that confounded me for months when I started. It wasn’t until I got a tip from a very helpful commenter (whose name eludes me at the moment) that I started to figure it out; prior to that help, I tried shooting with a lightbox and on white cloth and the results were atrocious.
If they are larger than half the size of her head, they’re too damn big, simple. >.>
I like the light flood. I’d like to try something similar myself, but I clearly have far too little light to work with in normal circumstances. It’s been troubling me for a while now… I need to find some articulated lamps so I can flood my stage with light that is readily moveable.
BLASPHEMIES :O Half the size of the head is about where I like to start with respect to female anime characters.
More lights are good. As long as you have room for them, anyway. I used to use a bunch of desk lamps and I liked the flexibility that having more lights gave me, but they sure did take up a helluva lot of desk space.
I should never have come here today, Heat Blade has now been ordered. I hope my wallet doesn’t regret it. Love me some Tsukasa Bullet!
Hoorays! I’m not the only person who loves this figure after all. I am glad to have been of help!
Help me? This is a bad thing, I’m moving friday and have too many figures to move as it is. Will have to pay rent in the future and pray figures don’t overwhelm me. But I’ll eventually be glad to have her 🙂
take a gander at what I have to deal with
http://myfigurecollection.net/profile/negativezero
That is a very impressive collection! And I’d imagine that it’s going to be a nightmare getting that stuff moved XD Back when I finished up with school, I had to pack up maybe 25 or 30 figures and that was a real pain; I can’t imagine what 400+ is like.
Thank you, it’s taken me many years to get it this nice. It took some time but I got it done, everything was moved. I will have to sort through and sell some off though. Definitely need to size the collection down.
Sorry about the late replies but I don’t get notices when you reply.
Yeah, I need to do the same; I may be moving in the next half year or so and I’ve got maybe a dozen figures I could part with and wouldn’t feel too badly about it. Unfortunately most of those figures either aren’t too popular, have suffered some damage or deformation, or have received re-issues and so aren’t nearly as valuable as I would hope.
Holy shit, at long last! I’d say she was worth the wait too. I love the way you lit her, especially in blue.
The figure looks quite a lot better than the illustration IMO (I’m not really into the muscles). But it’s also a really nice piece of craftsmanship, especially with all the complexity of the back and armor. The base looks really cool too, beats all the plain discs I’ve been getting.
Thanks! I was kinda thinking they’d just quietly cancel her, the way she got delayed. Amazon JP had her listed as a late August release and I figured she’d just get kicked back again, so I was very surprised to see her come out in early August instead.
Wow, I’m not sure if it’s mainly the figure itself or your photography, but the skin tone on this figure is absolutely delicious. I’ve always liked anime/manga characters with a slightly darker/tanned complexion because their appearances tend to have more depth, and Heat Blade is a good example of that.Having giant tits also help in that regard — nothing says depth like a canyon between two giant breasts. I really need to get a figure with tits large enough to cast a shadow.
Very cool setups for the photos, by the way. That blue pixelated effect is ingenious. I read your reply to Asa’s comment, but I’m still not quite sure how you managed the shapes overlaying the figure. Oh Tier, your wizardry with the camera never fails to amaze me.
You do! And you need at least one figure that will absolutely freak out anybody who sees it. Or a toy that’ll freak people out. Like a bondage doll.
I’m not actually sure why those shapes have a pixelated effect, either. I’ve done this sort of thing before (long shutter time with a flash on second curtain sync) but I’ve never actually seen overlaid light spill take on a particular shape. I’m going to have to think about why it turned out that way.
Some year ago I bought this figures in GK ,and I was fascinated for its perfect details which make her more and better than human.I am glad that she is coming to me now in pvc.I cannot wait……..
Hope you get your figure soon! Especially since if you preordered her, you’ve probably been waiting a really, really long time.
What a nice body she has, with her armor she appears a bit too sturdy for my taste, but I admit that she has nicely shaped boobs and her bigger butt is really nice to look at. too bad that Yamato disclaimed from adding her trimmed bush from the illustration, not that I would be brave enough to display her like that anyway XD
Her strip club armor has an creative interesting design and cool details, I like backpack the most. It would actually be interesting to see the Tsukasa Bullet characters in an anime or manga, Im curious what they would do in their world.
One point that bothers me a bit are her eyes, they gives me a feeling like Heat Blade is being remote controlled, in the illustration her iris appears a bit bigger, slanted eyes might have suit her better in the end, especially in combination with “elf” ears.
Strip club armor is a good phrase! Much more descriptive than bikini armor. I would like to see Tsukasa to some designs for anime too; I became interested in his art because some of his themes were similar to Range Murata, and I was getting into Last Exile at the time. It’d be nice to see him do something like that, with characters with bigger boobs.
Yeah, her eyes are pretty robotic, particularly in how they are wide open and looking straight ahead. I think you’re right, a different eye shape and maybe a sideways glance would have given her a more human look.
Well Fabienne,concerning her eyes ,she IS a kind of robot,and it was more or less clear since her first pictures.Notice the holografic image projected at the top of her head telling her what to do …..Again ,if you check the hand painted gk model provide by my dear friends Henry and Jeoffrey from HOBBYFAN is a bit different,her eyes do not look glazed as in the PVC model and she is looking sideways, plus allowing to show her without the head piece as a choice ..You should see mine ,she is GORGEOUS!! About her bush…..with some ability ( little… ) one can “create something really nice “there “.Use fine pointed pencils,RED and BLACK.I t can become very much similar to the original artbook and,why not,to the original “Thing “ as well. Nice talking to you Fabienne. A good taste girl is always welcome among us. Get in touch., I have a vast collection.
Heat Blade certainly leaves an impact. Looks like she was worth the wait but over a year is a bit excessive. Her body sculpt and paint job looks first class.The only thing that urks me is her eyes, they remind me of Owl eyes staring deep into your soul. It makes her look robotic and rather lifeless, which isn’t helped by the odd kissing expression she’s making with her lips.
If I ignore her face I’d say she looks awesome. There’s so much going on from all angles. The mix between leathers and metals create a very futuristic look. The energy sword and shield make her look like some sort of futuristic valkyrie. There’s so much to look at you completely forget about the cast-off, it almost feels redundant in a way. All the pipes, connectors and wires look like an engineering nightmare, but you have to admit they look damn cool here. Her headgear, as weird as it is, looks like some sort of halo.
Yeah, I love her visual design, especially how it looks like her armor and equipment is grafted together from bits and pieces but still looks great. I even like her helmet, which I normally don’t like (back when I played Warcraft, I always turned helmet graphics off), though I think I’m going to remove the little yellow sign that’s floating above her head.
She definitely looks great. The “armor” looks really cool, and very detailed. Her sword and shield look pretty cool, and as far as the cheeky stuff goes, she has a great ass. Her tits are also sculpted well, and don’t suffer from “disgusting round sphere” syndrome that occurs in castoffables sometimes. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, she’s very hard to find due to availability, and she’s become quite expensive. I’d pay up to $170 or $180, since she’s pretty detailed, but the only place I could find her was on Amazon for $268. I’ll just have to move on.
Ouch, that is quite the markup, and a bit unusual too since I think Yamato handles their own distribution in the United States. BBTS has her up for preorder at $140; sometimes they are kinda flaky about preorders but I’m guessing they’d be okay on this one.
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I wish I had bought it then. simply fantastic. if I remembe correctly, the company went bankrupt.
Yeah, Yamato is unfortunately long out of the figure business. I think Flare might be a successor to Yamato, formally or informally; at least, some of the sculptors who used to do work for Yamato seem to work with Flare with some frequency.