Monthly Archives: December 2012

My Five Favorite Figures of 2012 & Year-End Thoughts

written on December 31, 2012 by Tier

As is traditional during this time of the year, this post will list my favorite figures of 2012. Unlike previous years, it wasn’t easy for me to come up with this list; in fact, I changed my mind once while taking photographs of these figures. Usually, there’s at least one figure per year that I really love, the sort of figure that, if it were to be damaged, I would move the heavens and earth to find a replacement for it. That figure is usually an Alter figure; in fact, Alter has made my favorite figure of each of the last three years. What about this year?
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Dakimakura Review – Mizuho Makihara from Loli & Bondage (NSFW)

written on December 30, 2012 by Tier
Mizuho Makihara Dakimakura Review

Happy holidays to everyone who celebrates holidays during this time of the year. It’s a busy time, with travel, shopping, and relaxation on everybody’s schedule, so I’m going to sneak in a review of this dakimakura cover while nobody is paying attention. It features an original character named Mizuho Makihara, a young girl who clearly knows how to have a good time.
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Izumi Shizuno from se.Kirara

written on December 24, 2012 by Tier
Izumi Shizuno from se.Kirara

Cognizant of the fact that well-known titles move more merchandise, most figure companies make figures of characters from licensed properties. However, Max Factory took a rather unusual approach with their figures of the se.Kirara characters; rather than seek out an existing franchise, they developed the title themselves, making them (to my knowledge) the only figure maker to also be an eroge producer. Another unusual thing about their strategy is that Max Factory released the game for free; unfortunately, while it was originally downloadable from the Nico Nico website, it seems to no longer be available. However, even if we can’t enjoy the game, we can at least admire the figures. The first to be released was Aya Kagura, who I actually have – somewhere around here – but we’ll be taking a look at the blue-headed Izumi Shizuno first.
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Nanoha Takamachi from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS (Bunny Version)

written on December 17, 2012 by Tier
Nanoha Takamachi Figure Review

FREEing’s bunnygirl series are multiplying like – well, rabbits – and the newest one is none other than the Ace of Aces herself, noted combat instructor and porn game extra Nanoha Takamachi. They could have picked any version of Nanoha that they wanted and so they chose to use her nineteen-year old form, as she appears in the third anime series Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. It’s a good decision, at least in my view, since though I have no problem with younger-looking characters – that I own FREEing’s Nymph figure is a reflection of that – this version of the captain has a number of charms that Nymph does not.
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Preorder Outlook XXIII

written on December 12, 2012 by Tier

This should be the last preorder post of this year, and it’s an odd one as there’s nary an Alter or Good Smile Company figure to be found in it. I’ve seen some speculation that Good Smile Company’s quality is falling off, and I suppose there’s some justification to that, given that some of their products have had some egregious errors (like Black Rock Shooter – that reminds me that I still have to paste that star on her ass) and others just fail to impress (like Inori, whom nobody seems to really love, which I guess is only appropriate for a character from a show like Guilty Crown). I don’t really know if I fully subscribe to that idea, but then, I only buy their scaled figures, and not a lot of them at that. Alter, though – they’re just not making a lot of stuff I’m interested in buying. That makes this post a peculiarly FREEing-dominated outlook, and given my poor initial opinion of them, that’s a trend I’m having some difficulty adjusting to.
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Reiko Date Wingfield from Fault!! (NSFW)

written on December 6, 2012 by Tier
Reiko Date Wingfield from Fault!! figure

We looked at Ai Saeki a few weeks ago; now it is time to look at Reiko Date Wingfield, the half-British, half-Japanese director of the tennis club.
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