This past weekend was Wonder Festival and San Diego Comic Con weekend, which means a lot of cool new stuff was shown off to the world. Accordingly, it seems like a good idea to look at some cool new figures that have gone up for preorder in the last month. Sometimes I include figures in these posts that I give only a marginal chance for me to order, but this month, I’m quite fond of all of the figures listed here, and it’s going to be difficult to pare the buy list down.
A programming note: reviews have been very sparse here the last couple of months. That’s partly due to my innately lazy nature but it’s also due to some real-life issues that unexpectedly popped up early last month. That caused a great deal of stress but fortunately things seem to have stabilized. Unfortunately I have less time to do figure reviews now than I used to, which means that I’m not going to bother with elaborate backgrounds for a number of my figures. This is the way I’d prefer to do it, anyway, since complicated backgrounds introduce a number of problems in taking pictures and divert attention from the figure, which is something I’ve never liked. With this in mind, I’m hoping to get around to some reviews for some older figures; there are a bunch where I had some ideas in mind, but I don’t think they are practicable, and I might as well unbox them and get their photos done already.
September
Charlotte Dunois from Infinite Stratos
Charlotte seems to be the most popular character from Infinite Stratos, at least with respect to merchandising, and I noticed a couple of figures of her in the coverage of Wonder Festival. Predictably, neither figure had her in her pilot suit. This one doesn’t, either; it doesn’t look much like her at all, at least in regard to her anime design. That’s not to say it looks bad; it looks quite nice, which is doubly surprising since it’s a Griffon figure. I don’t recall that any of the IS girls are known for dressing up in lingerie but Charlotte’s outfit looks great, and it’s a big selling point. Unfortunately, it’s hard for me to get over my apprehension regarding Griffon’s product quality, but maybe I can squeeze this figure in as it’s the only figure on this list due out in September.
November
Ashikaga Chachamaru from Fullmetal Daemon Muramasa
This figure’s charms are apparent, and while I don’t know much about Wing, this figure is cheap enough that I’m willing to give it a shot (as opposed to their Neptune figure; I don’t actually know how that one turned out. I probably should check around and see if people liked it.). This figure has a much pricier edition which comes with some sort of armored spider tank; it looks pretty cool, actually, but it’s twice the price and I’m really only interested in the girly figure, so I’m going to go with the cheaper version.
Super Sonico
This is one of those figures that I kinda hate, because it’s a much superior version of a figure I already own. That figure is, of course, Orchid Seed’s figure from a few years back, which has these strangely stunted legs that bother the hell out of me. This figure has no such problem; Sonico looks great and even though I already own a ton of her figures (and one big-ass doll), I’m inclined to get this figure.
I should be getting Gift’s huge Sena Kashiwazaki figure soon, and that’s another figure that provokes this feeling, as it’s a far larger (and thus, in my mind, far superior) version of Alphamax’s bikini Sena. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with Orchid Seed’s Sonico and Alphamax Sena.
December
Aines from Busou Shinki
This is a figure I’ve had my eye on for a while, ever since seeing photos of the unpainted prototype, where its sculptural qualities were still apparent. Unfortunately I didn’t think it’d be as expensive as it is. I’m also not sure how large it is; it’s only listed as being 20 centimeters tall, even though Aines looks to be a couple of inches off the ground. Admittedly, her pose does shorten her height somewhat. I’m also not too familiar with Ques Q, though I do own one of their figures (Neptune, which was amusingly placed backwards in her box, so that her rear was facing outwards; of the hundreds of figures I’ve ordered, that’s the only one I’ve ever seen packed that way). Regardless, I’m pretty sure I’ll order this figure and hope for the best.
Lene from Busou Shinki
Aines and Lene are both scheduled to drop in the same month, which makes a purchasing decision more difficult, as she’s no cheaper than her partner. She also doesn’t have the eye-catching ass-centric pose that immediately grabs your attention, but she still looks nice in her own right. I’m just not sure if she’s worth nearly 20,000 yen by herself; just looking at the promo photos, I’m not too convinced that this is going to be a high-quality figure.
Maria Saotome from Sex Life
Toshihide Sano’s illustrations have gotten a few figures, with Princess Milk having been released fairly recently. This figure is also based off of his artwork, but it’s not easy to tell as his style hasn’t carried over too well here. Normally I’d have no problem with that – I’ve said several times in the past that I wished sculptors would deviate from source artwork more often – but this time, I wish they’d stuck closer to his style, as I’m a big fan of his work. That said, Alphamax’s ero figures have all been good and though I might be a little less fond of this figure than I otherwise would be, she still looks really nice.
Shinon from Sword Art Online II
This figure looks great; the character is attractive, her outfit is distinctive and revealing, and she’s carrying a big gun. However, I’m having a difficult time getting over my dislike for Sword Art Online. This attitude is all the more irrational being that I’ve never actually seen Sword Art Online, but I’ve seen Accel World and it’s tainted my opinion. This one is a maybe; I’ve heard SAO is better than its sister series so perhaps I’ll check it out sometime.
Mio Shinonome from Seito Kaichou de Amaenbou na Onee-chan wa Suki Desu ka?
Daiki Kougyou has been doing ero figures since before almost anyone, and they’ve picked a really random title for this one. As far as I know, the visual novel that Mio comes from is a really brief game from a doujin group that hasn’t produced anything in over three years. Strange. She does look really nice, though, and it’s nice to have a straightforward figure of an ero schoolgirl who is standing up; surveying my collection, a lot of Native’s, Orchid Seed’s, and Alphamax’s figures have their subjects sitting down. The only thing that bugs me about this sculpt is how wide her shoulders are, but I guess I can just leave her with her shirt on.
January
Miku Hatsune from Vocaloid
I don’t think I need another Miku figure, but this one is really cute, and it also depicts Miku in a very skimpy costume, which is a big plus. I think that … ehh … man, you know what, it’s another Miku figure. She looks pretty nice and I’m leaning towards buying her, but I’m tired of writing about Miku. Next!
Misty from Shining Hearts
I’ve got several Max Factory figures of the girls from the various Shining games in swimwear, and I wasn’t sure that I needed any more, and then I noticed that Misty looks amazing and is wearing a thong, and now I know that I certainly need more.
Saber Extra from Fate/extra
I was curious to see what Good Smile Company’s Saber Extra would look like; their previous Fate/stay night figures have been fantastic, and given the generous body modifications that Fate/extra imparts to Saber’s basic design, I expected that such a figure would look great. What I didn’t expect is that I’d like a Kotobukiya figure more than GSC’s; having seen both, I think I’m more inclined to go with Kotobukiya’s, which I think has a nicer face and a superior pose (superior because it makes the ass cutout of her dress more conspicuous). I’ll be interested to see pictures showing them side by side, but I’ll only be getting one.
Yuno Narukami from T2 Art Girls
Yuno is a 1/8 scale figure, which is disappointing as Alphamax’s Tony figures have generally been 1/6 or 1/7 scale (and now that I think about it, most other manufacturers’ Tony figures have generally been larger than 1/8 scale as well). This figure is also staggeringly expensive for a 1/8 scale figure. All that said, she looks superb, and I’m certain I’m going to order her. I just wish that she were 1/6 scale, because she’d likely become one of my favorite figures in my collection. Maybe she still might; we’ll see.
February
Wo-class Aircraft Carrier from Kantai Collection
I haven’t been too enthusiastic about most of the Kantai Collection figures that have gone up for order, but I really like this one, and not just because she’s wearing a tentacle hat. She has a really striking design, as do most of the adversary girls, with her blue eyes standing out in the otherwise black and white color scheme. I’m a little surprised that they didn’t give her glowing eyes like they did with all their Black Rock Shooter figures. Speaking of which, does anyone remember Black Rock Shooter? Remember when the figure community was full of nothing but hype for Black Rock Shooter? Yeah, me neither.
Misty………….nice @ss! But I’ve already sworn off figs that don’t do full cast off lol! That bride fig by Tony……truly kawaii, but only half cast off and the pedestal just adds to the cost.
Btw take a look at this http://www.moeyo.com/article/55964
For 2015 Tier, check Alter’s Hyakka Ryouran line up………….Master Samurai matabei Goto and Inshun and Skytube has Tony all locked up.
http://www.moeyo.com/article/55971
Btw, that Tony Bride would have been tops if it’s full cast off and that pedestal of hers adds to the cost……bummer!
Matabei was kinda surprising to see; I like their older figure but she kinda has stumpy legs which bug me. She has a showy pose but this new one’s pose is even better, I think. I’m also glad I didn’t order Mikan since the swimsuit one looks cuter to me, even though I don’t have a huge thing for school swimsuits. A random thought: if Alter wants to make figures from a trashy fanservice series like Samurai Bride, they should make figures of the Seikon no Qwaser characters, too.
I’m not too bothered that Yuno’s panties aren’t removable – I kinda prefer it this way, actually – but I’m bummed out that she’s only 1/8 scale. Even 1/7 scale would’ve been better.
Hope things get way better for you now Tier. No worries, we are still here for your reviews ^^b
Thanks very much! Yeah, things are better now. Not as good as they were but at least I’m not disliking life as much as I was a few weeks back.
I believe that the term “tentacle hat” needs to be added to the wealth of information that is Wikipedia and or perhaps The Encyclopedia Britannica. God, she looks nice!
Charlotte looks really great as well. I was a bit surprised to see her name below the picture, as you pointed out she really doesn’t look too much like her usual self. That isn’t such a problem as she still has a lot of appeal in her design and maid attire (if a hat arm stockings and technically an apron can be considered such).
Also, while Griffon is responsible for some really crumby figures they do seem to rise to the occasion from time to time. This picture makes me hope that this is one of those occasions.
Wo-class does really look nice; I’m still not thrilled about 1/8 scale figures being >10k yen, but at least she’s complicated enough to sort of justify the price (and she’s still cheaper than Alter’s Exelica from a while back, which was somewhat similar in complexity). I do wonder if she’ll get a price cut, though; there have been a ton of expensive, highly-hyped GSC and Max Factory figures that got big price cuts shortly after release.
Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of Griffon’s stuff, though that’s not really an entirely fair sentiment, as I don’t own many of their figures. Their Sasara Kusugawa maid swimsuit figure from a while back is one that I like a lot, though. That’s particularly odd since I don’t have a big thing for maid outfits or school swimsuits by themselves, but somehow they look really nice when paired up. Plus figures of girls in lingerie are a little rare, which makes Charlotte more appealing as well.
This season has been full of unexpected (pleasant) surprises and my order queue has swelled 25% instead of slowing decreasing…. oh dear… time to break the emergency glass and sell off one kidney.
A good plan! I still have a bunch of crap I need to sell, like older figures and camera stuff … I should get around to that sometime, it’s easier and less painful than selling off body organs or blood plasma.
One reason to get the Sepang Racing Miku: Skimpy outfit
Second reason to get the skimpy outfit Sepang Racing Miku: Tan
Third reason to get the skimpy outfit tan Sepang Racing Miku: Buns, not twin-tails
Fourth reason to get the skimpy outfit tan Sepang Racing Miku without twin-tails: Something different for Miku for a change
Plus I have 2010 1/8 racing Miku, 2012 figma racing Miku, and 2013 figma racing Miku.
All good reasons, though I think I kinda prefer the twintails over the hair buns (I am much more a Cammy fan than Chun-Li fan). And, well, Miku in a skimpy, arguably slutty (not a word I like but I find it amusing to apply it to an overly popular character like Miku) sells itself.
That Racing Miku is a nice refresh since it deviates from the normal Miku image. I really love her styling. I’d be getting her as well.
Yuno will be on my list too. I can’t get enough of her. She’s simply gorgeous with that stand. Sonico is in my list as well.
Will you be getting Yosuga no Sora’s Kasugano Sora Cheongsam Ver.?
I’m not entirely sure yet; I like how she looks but I’m not sure whether I like that one or the older one that’s being re-released. I suppose I could just get both. I’m also a little mystified at the new one’s price tag; I think I could get a real-life, fully functional version of that chair for that price. The idea of a figure of this cute little loli girl spreading her legs and showing off her goods is very appealing, though. (Once more I have to reflect on what a peculiar hobby this is; I don’t know if there’s another form of popular culture where this sort of thing is embraced, or even permitted.)
I love Shinkis, but goddamn QuesQ for being so untrustworthy. Not touching those two until release.
I’m not too familiar with Ques Q but I have some big misgivings, too. I think what I might do is just order Aines and see how she turns out; if she’s okay maybe I can find the other one on the aftermarket (or the bargain bin, hopefully) later on.
Yeah, I was all ready to pre-order Sonico but she’s not cast-off, and I hate that top–I had planned to display her sans top. But now that’s not an option, so fuck it. I’ve got Cheerleader Sonico coming instead. That’s a fair trade, right? 🙂
Fair indeed! The cheerleader one looks great, too; I didn’t order it but maybe I should have. I kinda think I have enough Sonicos already, though in the case of the GSC/Wing one, I dig the fetish outfit so I’m happy to make an exception.
Sorry to hear about circumstances that prevent you from such free time activities, I thought you were on vacation to be honest.
Oh that was supposed to be Charlotte, ahhhhhhhh and I wondered who she is.
No, I’ll never order Griffon again, ths is not my kind of quality and if my next Kotobukiya figure, will dissapoint me, I will group them together with Griffon, kinda funny that I still can’t forgive them for the Kobato figure.
Chachamaru looks so good and mishievous, I like figures that resemble the nitro+ style like this.
Well, sell old Sonico when there is a better one, you’ll get good money for her.
I like the pose of her and that she will have an amp with cable.
Busou Shinki was so cute as anime, I wanted these 2 before, but not anymore something is off and I already know that I won’t like her skintexture, the companies I can’t buy from increases more and more.
I guess Orchid Seeds Maria Saotome has more potential, wait 3 more years XD
Sword Art Online can be really annoying, the author makes a few clumsy things, still it’s not completely bad, it has very good moments.
Mio Shinonome has a great body, but when taking a close look I don’t like the style of her eyes. The tanned sexy Miku is stunning, it is good that she looks not much like the good old Vocaloid.Max Factory also got more ecchy recently, this Misty is a really hot girl with her thong ;D
I find the Wo class quite appealing with her organic “unclean” alien look, she is more pretty than scary. Everything about her looks very elaborately done and I like her face.
I preordered nothing new recently, it is like I catched a disease that stopped my fast order instinct. Maybe the things weren’t comnvincing enough or I just can’t decide. The last figure I bought was something I grabbed from the bargain bin, Harada Makoto the Yamato nurse and she is lovely I’m totally convinced by this figure and her beautiful face, I would say she’s my favorite 1/8 figure for the first half of the year ^-^
Actually it was the opposite; my job is causing me stress. I very much wish that I was on vacation! Fortunately a lot of the problems have cleared up. I think I’m going to be doing some job hunting through the rest of the year, though.
Haha, that is harsh. Kotobukiya’s done some nice stuff recently, though I can understand how one figure can poison one’s impressions.
Chachamaru is really cute. I knew that Muramasa is an eroge but I still had to laugh a bit when I looked up some screenshots to see what she is like and the first ones I saw were of her getting horribly raped or something.
I might do that with Sonico, though I have to figure out where I put her box and base. I wonder how much she goes for now?
Yeah, I’m expecting the two Busou Shinki girls to look a good deal worse when they actually come out. Or I’m expecting them to be way smaller than I expect. I think I’m going to order Aines but somehow I know I’m going to be disappointed and that it’s not going to be nearly worth 20k yen.
I think I agree on Maria; Orchid Seed’s looks really nice whereas I’m having a tough time getting over the Alphamax version’s face, which doesn’t look very much like Toshihide Sano’s work at all. I guess I’ll having something to look forward to in the future.
Yeah, I haven’t actually preordered much recently, though that’s mainly due to me being busy with work (and depressed by it) as well as blowing too much money on other things. I kinda think that I have too many figures, too; I’m thinking that if I’m not completely convinced that I ought to buy a figure, that means I should skip it, or at least wait and see if it gets a price cut.
For an opened Orchid Seed Bondage Sonico you should get around 90 – 100 bucks. There’s one currently on Amiami pre-owned B+/B for 9880 Yen to give you an idea.
Ah, that sounds good. Though this is one case where the weakening yen is hurting me, I suppose …
That Misty is looking gorgeous, makes me wanna break my rule of not buying figures of series I know nothing about. Beautiful rear and dat underboob, mm-hmm.
From all the screenshots that I’ve seen of Saber/extra I would have to agree that Kotobukiya’s version is the superior. At least I hope so since that’s the one I got pre-ordered. The expression on Kotobukiya’s version definitely makes the grade.
Wo-class Aircraft Carrier shoulda been a buy from me, but that pose… That pose looks so uninteresting. The design is reminiscent of BRS, but BRS had amazing poses with their figures.
The Shining series was originally a Sega franchise which pitted an intrepid band of heroes against the evil Darksol and the cleverly-named Dark Dragon, who are all intent on inflicting great evil and mischief on the world. There, now you know something of the series! The newer games, I am told, focus on peculiarities like baking bread and feature facepalm-inducing features like the MOE system (which I think stands for Mind Over Emotion or something, but we all know what it really means), but they can be safely ignored.
I think Max Factory is also planning to make a Wo-class figure, though if I recall correctly its pose is not all that energetic, either. She does look kinda bored; I kinda like it myself because it directs more attention to her tentacles. It’s sad how few figures there are that feature tentacles.
My reaction to Charlotte was much the same as yours. The figure looks little like the original character design, but it is appealing in its own right, but I’ll avoid it just because it’s Griffon. It’s rather sad. Nobody trusts them anymore. Even when they unveil something at WonFes, the first wave of comments are complaints that it’s Griffon.
Chachamaru’s attractive and the fact that she’s wearing little more than her underwear is certainly appealing, but I’m thinking I’ll pick up Muramasa (not the mecha-spider, but the standalone figure that went up for preorder some months back) first when it comes to sampling Wing’s offerings.
I’m still searching for my first Sonico and this could be the one. The outfit is good, the pose is… decent, and I love that they went 1/6 scale. I’m not entirely sold, though, so I’m thinking I’ll wait a few months and see how I feel about her then.
Shinon is interesting. I like her hair and the rifle. The pose is a bit at odds with her expression, as she looks too serene while falling backward. I think I’d be a lot more interested if she were larger. Outside of their Olivia, which was quite large, I feel like Koto tends to come in on the small side when they do 1/8 scale figures.
The new Racing Miku is the first in the series that I’ve been seriously tempted to get. Nice pose, nice outfit, and I don’t have so many Mikus that I’m actively avoiding them. Probably the figure I’m most likely to get in this list.
I’m not enthused with the design for either of the new Saber Extras, which have oddly similar poses. GSC was pretty much my last hope for a decent figure with the red dress and they flubbed it on a bizarre pose.
Wo-class definitely reminds me a bit of Black Rock Shooter. I wouldn’t be surprised if Huke was responsible for her original character design.
Haha, yeah; a number of companies have improved their reputations in recent times and I’m surprised that Griffon’s figures still look as mediocre as they’ve always looked. I guess I’m also surprised that they seem to sell out with some regularity, too.
I completely overlooked that Muramasa figure. I might have ordered it if I had noticed it, since I see her clothes are removable. Oh well.
This is one of the nicer-looking Sonicos in my opinion but then, they all kinda look the same since her face design is so important to the character. You will certainly have lots to choose from if you decide this isn’t the one for you.
I’m kinda thinking Shinon is going to get squeezed out of my order list, unless I watch SAO and decide I like her or something. As you say, the pose and the expression are a little discordant and personally, I’d like her design better if she were wearing fewer clothes.
I don’t believe Huke did the design for Wo, though I wouldn’t doubt that she and her other bad guy comrades were in part inspired by Black Rock Shooter and her ilk. I kinda wonder how long the Kancolle bandwagon will keep moving before petering out.
I have been waiting for those shinki figures for a long time and jumped in regardless of the cost. Having said that, the prices are rather ridiculous. Believe it or not, they are actually more expensive than the original garage kits from which they are based!
I have a really bad feeling that I’ll be burned badly by these figures and we’ll see them in the bargain bin a few months after release due to their prohibitive cost (same thing happened with the AlMecha KOS-MOS from Alter) but do I really want to risk them getting an ultra small production run and missing out all together? QuesQ are also a very big unknown in terms of quality…
Really wish that I got the kits before QuesQ picked them up now… But at least I have the Ver 2 kits!
Yeah, I have no idea what to expect either, other than that I am reasonably sure the figures are not going to be worth 20k yen based on manufacturing quality. However, I’m also not sure how long both of them will stay in stock; I was somewhat interested in the Velvet Kiss figure (which I think was a Ques Q figure? I’m at work so I can’t check but I think it was) and didn’t think it would sell out, but so it did, even though it came in a variety of colors. (Edit: Kano was actually a Q-six figure, not a Ques Q figure, so I guess one can’t draw conclusions from it, but even so, I can’t imagine a company like Ques Q is producing large production runs of their figures.)
I am going to visit Tokyo for couple of weeks in October. Can you or any of the visitors recommend shops that sell anime and hentai figurines?
Unfortunately I have not the slightest clue, as I’ve never been to Tokyo. I would guess any of Mandarake’s various stores would be a decent bet, particularly for older figures, and I’ve heard of stores called Gamers and Animate. (Franklly, if I lived in Japan, I’d probably just order figures from Amazon.)
I thought I might pick up some cold cast figurines when I’m there. Some have caught my eye but the thought of having them sent by mail and then arrive damaged makes me wary. Plus it would me real neat to see the figurines with my own eyes before buying even when in packages. Photographs just don’t tell everything.
Also, I now sadly know that Japanese packages of this value always end up in customs and I have to pay smashing 24% V.A.T. Packages from China always come through and get delivered to my home door. A visit to Tokyo would be perfect opportunity to buy some really expensive figurines and deny the custom office the satisfaction of digging deep into my vallet.
Yeah, it would definitely be nice to see a figure in person before buying. Among other things, pictures have a really tough time doing justice to a figure’s size; for example, I’m a big fan of 1/4 scale figures but it’s hard to explain why without seeing just how huge they are.
Ouch; yeah, having to pay a markup at customs definitely sucks. It’s a hassle that I am very thankful that I have never experienced; for as much criticism the United States receives (and a lot of it is deserved), I am extremely happy that I will never have issues with either having to pay VAT or with having my purchases impounded on pornographic grounds. You can probably google around to see which shops are good; the Akihabara pilgrimage is a common rite of passage for anime fans and I know a lot of them have described their experiences online.
Preordered Misty. Just couldn’t say no to dat ass.
Yeah, pretty much. I’m a little surprised that they went with a thong, it’s not a common thing in anime, unfortunately.
Just picked up Maria Saotome. Nope didn’t get the bathtub accessory. I initially had misgivings on her looks (shades of Griffon Kasumi). Proto pics appears to have her eyes too close to each other and it’s somewhat slight deviation from Toshihide Sano’s style. Well Skytube pulled this off flawlessly. The promo pics of the face doesn’t do justice to the actual finished product. She is so ummmmmmmmmmm yum!
Btw, she comes packaged similar to Skytube’s X-eros Udonya figure, a see through pvc box.