I’ve been writing this post off and on for a week, and it seems like at least one new figure that I’m interested in has gone up for preorder each day that I’ve meant to post it. Enough is enough; I think I’ve forgotten to include a number of figures I’m interested in but those I’ve overlooked will get included in next month’s post. For now, here’s what I’m thinking about ordering:
November 2015
Chu-ka na Neko from Planet of the Cats
Cat and Chair makes a return, though this time it seems that the eponymous Cat is chained to her chair, and her pose is significantly more showy. I’m never been a fan of anime catgirls but I do like the themes presented by this figure, and as the first Cat and Chair figure was pretty neat, I think I’ll be picking this figure up, too.
December 2015
Choun Shiryu from Ikkitousen
I’m not much of a fan of bunny ears eithers, but I like the rest of her costume, which offers a nice spin on the typical bunnysuit look. I guess I’m also not a huge fan of the character, though that’s more because she showed up in the Western adaptation of the manga just before Tokyopop ceased publishing, so I’m not nearly as familiar with her as with the main characters (though given the liberties that Tokyopop took with the translation, I guess I’m probably not as familiar with any of the characters as I think I am). I was thinking that I’d pass on this figure but Orca Toys has done good work in the past and the sculptor created Alter’s Yagyu Gisen and Sen Tokugawa, which were both excellent figures, so I believe I will change my mind.
Saber from Fate/stay night
It’s a little odd that, to my knowledge, no major manufacturer has made a serious version of Saber in this pose (if I remember right, Griffon did a chibi-fied version a long time ago). It’s also a little odd that this figure is coming from Kotobukiya, a company that is not typically associated with the Fate/stay night property, but they’ve been doing good stuff as of late so this figure is not at all unwelcome. I do like it a lot and I’m thinking about picking it up, as I don’t actually have that many figures of Saber’s normal look, but I have some reservations about the plainness of her face. I think they were trying to make her look stern and stoic, but she looks rather bored to me.
Yukino Yukinoshita from Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru Zoku
This is sort of a plain-looking figure, but I think its ordinariness has a lot of appeal, especially when combined with her pensive look and the zettai ryouiki (I don’t like using Japanese phrases but there’s no easy English equivalent). I also particularly like her sneakers; there aren’t enough anime girls who wear sneakers.
Matabei Gotou from Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Bride
Alter’s second figure of Matabei looks rather like the first, suggesting that they understand what her most valuable asset is. It’s nice that this version isn’t exclusive, unlike many figures based on Hobby Japan properties. As I liked the first figure (and most Samurai Girl figures, generally), picking up the second Matabei is not a difficult decision.
December 2015
Heroine X from Fate/stay night
Here’s yet another candidate for my weird Saber collection. This figure puts Saber in hot pants and a baseball cap; it’s an odd ensemble for someone as dignified as her but that’s what makes it look so neat. I’m definitely getting this figure, and maybe I’ll get around to doing Weird Saber Week when she comes out.
January 2016
Rinna Mayfield from Shining Resonance
It’s been a banner year for Tony Taka figures and the love shown to him by figure makers shows no signs of abating. Rinna looks like another great adaptation of his artwork, skirting the boundary of tastefulness without quite trampling over it. It’s a good-looking figure that manages to embody cute and sexy in equal measure. The price is reasonable as well.
February 2016
Maya Kamiwazumi from Fault!!
Here’s a Tony Taka figure that does indeed step across the bounds of decency – well, perhaps not for those whose sensibilites have been re-adjusted by exposure to this sort of thing, but a visual portrayal of a naked high school girl would get you arrested almost anywhere else. It’s Alphamax’s second figure of Maya and I like this one a great deal more than the first. I’m not really sure how to explain her pose when she’s nude but I’ll think more on that when she arrives.
Rise Kujikawa from Persona 4
Rise was my favorite character from Persona 4 and when I first played it, I was highly disappointed to find out that she was just the support character rather than an active combatant. I guess quite a few people share my sentiments as even though she’s just a secondary character, she’s gotten more figures that just about any other Persona character not named Aegis. There were a couple of Rise figures that I liked, but I never bought them; I think I’ll pick this one up as it looks quite good, albeit way more colorful than I remember her being.
February 2016
Paladin from Bikini Warriors
Being a big fan of the whole bikini armor in fantasy series trope, it’s an easy decision to buy this figure. The fact that the paladin is essentially a ho in the anime series only makes it easier. God I love anime.
Mikage Kuroki from Maid-san to Boin Damashii
By my count this is the second 1/4 scale figure that FREEing has adapted from Toshihide Sano’s work, the first being Amane Shiratori. Mikage looks very nice, though her breasts are rather larger than I like. I’ll get over it, though.
April 2016
Sasara Kusugawa from To Heart 2 Dungeon Travelers
Here’s another bikini armor figure and man does Sasara look good. I’ve been waiting for an attractive figure of her in her Golden Axe outfit and this one definitely fits the bill. The price is a bit spendy but hopefully the exchange rate will continue to improve by the time she hits stores.
June 2016
Mammon from the 7 Deadly Sins
I missed out on the ice cream Asmodeus preorder, so I guess I’ll have to find her in the aftermarket when she gets released. Meanwhile, I think I’m going to order Mammon; she’s also more stoutly built than I typically like but even though she has a very robust physique, I think she’s way more attractive than, say, that sack of suet named Pochaco. Does Nitroplus have compromising photos of the executives of every figure manufacturer in the industry or something?
That Saber looks like a delinquent, but the outfit looks actually cool.
I actually wished for crying Saber with puppy eyes, based on the first season of UBW,
I really liked the strong expression from the certain scene.
I just finished the 1st Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru Zoku season,
a rather different school anime, I really liked it, you praobably would like it, too.
Months ago, I already ordered Yui in latex suit, as I watched the anime, I also loved her personality. Yukino is a great girl, too. The figure is quite appealing with her pose and overall look.
I wanted that Matabei figure since her announcement, but did not place my order I don’t know why, once in a while or actually more often XD I love a figure with a good meaty butt.
In comparison to the strong thighs it actually could stand out more, but the size is good.
Anyway I really like the figure, her look over her shoulder is too cute. I should just order her.
Unfortunately I like the anime character design of Bikini Warriors more, the figures look only a little different to me. So I’m not so excited about them. I really like the perverted Paladin, she’s a sweet girl and good looking.
Ah the maid looks hot and even glasses (≧∇≦*)
She looks so attractive, but this size… it’s … I like big boobs, but I can’t understand these super size hype in japan. Well, anime related media manages to make huge boobs look appealing, but it quickly can escalate XD
They did a great job with this Mammon, I didn’t expect that the paintjob would boost her appeal like this. At very first impression I thought a bikini cowboy milf would be silly, but it turned out great. Still purchasing her gave me a hard time, the boobs are so big! and even pushed up, oh no （´＿｀）.
Anyway I’m convinced by everything else, her face, glasses and the whole appearance.
I like her “milf” look, even though she’s sturdier, she still is sexy and has a good waist hip ratio. With 25 cm she will look so big haha.
Haha buxom is something I like, but Pochaco is really fat, even a super bright smile won’t sell her on me.
Yeah, that’s kinda what I thought about Heroine X, too; I think she’d look better holding a crowbar or a baseball bat rather than her sword, but I guess that would make it less obvious who she is.
I did not watch Love Come, probably because I thought it was another abysmally generic adaptation of a high school romance light novel. Glancing over at the Wikipedia entry, it sounds a little more interesting than I thought it was, and maybe I’ll take a look at it. (And even if it is generic, that might not be a bad thing for me, as I tried watching Charlotte, which goes in a different direction than similar shows, and I really did not like it.)
You should definitely get Matabei. It’s a little unfortunate she didn’t get a lot of screen time in the anime compared to Jubei, Sen, or Yukimura.
Yeah, I kinda think the anime designs are a little better, perhaps because they look a little more consistent compared to the figures, which preserve the style of the source artwork.
I like Mammon a lot, too. I probably would have ordered the first figure had it been available through the usual stores, and I still sometimes check Mandarake to see how much she’s going for. She’s still a little chunkier than I prefer but I can overlook it; she has this weird combination of big-bodied sexiness and sweetness that I think is attractive. (It might be why I tend to like nurse, teacher, and office lady characters in anime.)
That Heroine X made me sad, delinquents carry no swords ;D
I also dislike school anime where they throw many girls at the main character , though Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru Zoku surprised me with it’s elaborate analyse of the school life of teenage life. It’s actually very funny, also a bit sad in some sense. Charlotte is like Angel Beats in that regard, mixing straight slapstick humor with drama and violence is not good, its quite unbalanced that way.
Matabei is hot (´∀｀) though they never revealed her age.
Yeah I think this combination works for me, too. A sexy curvy character with a friendly expression, the glasses are a great extra ;D I guess at some point you get more interested in the older looking characters in anime and less often find the younger ones physically appealing. Good that animes have “auntie san” characters haha.
Shortly after your post the Sorceress went up for preorder, I love how she turned out, sadly its a GSC Shop exclusive, conidering the flat rate shipping she appears somewhat less expensive, stll 18000 Yen 🙁
Yeah, she should be carrying a lead pipe or something instead. Like something out of Streets of Rage.
That’s sounds better than what I was expecting (which was, well, a love comedy). Then again, the bar for those sorts of shows is pretty low. I recently looked at a chart of upcoming anime and I groaned at how many light novel adaptations there are.
I have to admit I’m not a fan of glasses on anime characters XD I’m glad to see that they are removable, since I wouldn’t order her if they weren’t. Curious that the Sorceress is a GSC shop exclusive – and then again, I guess it’s not, I have to imagine that they might make more money selling directly than selling to retailers.
Mikage Kuroki’s breasts may be large, but anime girls make them look good
It also helps that her pose hides them somewhat, and her pose is also attractive enough to draw attention away from them.
Hi Tier. I need your opinion on something.
Are these Sakuya pictures Makaizo?
https://d2xngy2dw7hums.cloudfront.net/media/photos/products/2015/09/14/shining_blade_sakuya_15_figure_adult_only_1442222020_740b6989.jpg
https://d2xngy2dw7hums.cloudfront.net/media/photos/products/2015/09/14/shining_blade_sakuya_15_figure_adult_only_1442222020_8d66247b.jpg
I tried searching on Google and on Ebay. I couldn’t find anything on it. And I’m damn sure castoff figures of her don’t exist.
Do they make makaizos in Hong Kong?
Yeah, those are modified figures. If I remember right, the original figure is a Kotobukiya figure and they do not make nude figures.
I’m sure they do; Hong Kong is quite possibly the capital city of counterfeit figures, and probably lots of other things.
That Rise figure looks pretty nice. 😮 I might have to pick it up even though I haven’t really bought any figures lately.
It is! I remember being very interested in the MegaHouse figure (at least, I think MegaHouse made it) but never buying it since it was an exclusive or somesuch. It’s nice to see that this one has much wider availability.
I’m tempted by Rise and the cat & chair figure but I have to be super careful about my expenditure for the next few months as my DD bomb is about to go off. Really wanted that Celia Kumani Aintree figure from vertex too but had to pass…
When you see me actually passing on figures due to budgetary constraints, you know something is up!
I feel you… I passed on that celia too and it’s totally eating me up… Rent is just getting expensive lol
Yeah, I didn’t buy the Celia figure either; I’m still not too familiar with Vertex’s quality (though I have their Mitsuru figure somewhere here … ) and it was very expensive. I’m trying to save some money as well – for that steering wheel for Forza and maybe a new computer monitor, and for less fun and more serious things, like a house.
Out of all of these I’ve only ordered Rise. Is it me or does her hair get more out of control for every iteration? Her twin tails looked pretty mundane in Persona 4, but now they’re like… hair elementals.
It does seem like that’s one of her big selling points. I guess it must be a popular thing because that hapa girl they’re putting into Persona 5 seems to have poofy twintails too. There’s a character named Hilda from the anime Cross Ange who has similar hair and I’m very disappointed that it doesn’t seem like that anime is going to get any figures.
The only reason i passed on this maya though I’m a big fan of her is her pose without her shirt… Unless you plan to work something out during the photoshoot that shows her holding something else in place of her shirt i think that pose looks weird in nude… She’s gorgeous nonetheless I would have gotten her but I’m trying to limit my preorders these days. I was impressed by sasara at first then I couldn’t quite put together how the cast off part works and i think she’ll some kinda of unsightly gap on her breasts also i think her panty looks a bit bulky… I think she could have been better, I’m really into the bikini warrior type figures but i think i will pass on sasara for the reasons mentioned. The freeing 1/4 maid is so gorgeous she has such a pretty face it was a no brainer i just had to grab her! Wonderful collection as always and I can’t wait for their photo sessions.
I’m guessing that Sasara may come with alternate body parts, though I’m not sure whether her clothing actually comes off or not. I’d be a little disappointed if it didn’t and yet I don’t recall any To Heart figures that have full nudity, so I suppose I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t. And thanks very much for the kind words XD
There are pictures which show her with the bikini on, others with her “bursting out of it”, both top and bottom. To me, it seems like there will be extra parts for the bust at least. The panties appear to be pretty loose in all those pictures, so they might be entirely cast-off. But I can’t be sure about this of course.
Yeah, that’s what I saw as well; I’m a little confused by that and also a little perturbed, since if her underwear is loose but not actually removable, that’s worse than just sculpting it as part of her body, in my opinion. Hopefully we see a product sample at Moeyo or something soon that will offer some clarity.
Also is it just me or this paladin character is another reincarnation of celia? Lol I don’t know the anime i only got her because she looks so much like celia… I preorderd her from nippon yasan, it’s my first time doing business with this website is it good?
I didn’t make the connection at first but now that you mention it, they do look quite a bit alike – bikini armor, of course, and the drill hair and big boobs. I didn’t think about it since Celia was designed by Komori Kei and the paladin was designed by Onigiri-kun, who has illustrated a ton of games for Alicesoft and I was comparing her to his other work. But they do seem quite similar.
I hope they are, because I ordered the paladin from the same place. I used to order all these things from Tokyo Hunter but they are not in business anymore, which is much the shame.
I never had any issues with Nippon-Yasan. (Apart from a “new” Native Nana Chigusa which had the keys to the padlock missing, but never mind.) From what I gather on forums, they are fine when there are no problems. Should anything go wrong with an order, they tend to be evasive and defensive. Customers who voiced their concerns too loudly have been known to having been banned from their site.
When packing items, they use what’s on hand. Sometimes there will be boxes with generous padding, other times, when an item fits a box more or, rather, less tightly, there may be ONE newspaper page slipped into the gap. I’ve had both types of packaging already, but thankfully, none of my items have been damaged in transit yet *knocks on wood*
Personally, for preorders, I prefer Big In Japan. But for recently-released items, I still do use NY on occasion. They do indeed have good deals from time to time. And, like I said, apart from those missing keys I never had a problem with them.
Well, that’s good to know, I suppose; I ordered the Bikini Warriors pally and also those two really lewd Ilya and Kuro (or Chloe, I guess) figures from them. I seldom have had problems ordering from any Japanese retailer so hopefully I won’t have to learn whether their customer service is crappy or not. I might look to Big in Japan for other things, though, then; I’d forgotten about them but they seem to offer all the same exclusive stuff.
I’ve read that this version of Saber was actually taken from FSN-UBW series.That may be the reason why Saber looks serious since she has a more matured character in the series. Oh and have you seen Alter’s 1/6 Lala Deviluke Swimsuit Ver.? You might like it. It’s an exclusive release in Amiami 😀
Ah, okay. I think I saw something when I googled “Heroine X” but I forget what it was; there have been so many FSN parodies and spin-offs that I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised at seeing Saber looking like a high school delinquent.
Yeah, I ordered it, though I’m surprised that it’s an Amiami exclusive; I usually order stuff from Hobby Search (mostly out of habit and customer loyalty, I guess). It does look very nice indeed – though it’s curious that it’s 1/6 scale (at least, I think it is), seeing as how some of their other To Love-Ru stuff like Mikan has been in a smaller scale.
By the way, Tier, will you be doing a review for Native’s Nakahara Tomoe?
Found one here
http://www.en3rds.com/?p=8894
Nah; I didn’t buy her, actually. I’m not a big fan of the hime-style haircut. Looking at her, though, I kinda wish I did, since she turned out very nicely, as expected of a Native figure. On the other hand, I have absolutely no shortage of Tony figures to review – Annabel, Arianrhod, that one girl in her panties and the bridal veil … there are a ton in the queue.
The greatest shame about Native figures is that once they are out on the market, it’s already too late to get them. While their sale price is pretty reasonable, by the time they are out, you can only obtain them on the resale market like ebay, and usually for twice that amount.
So usually only rich people or dedicated Native collectors own the figures.
For Annabel, I think the makaizo is better.
http://www.nekomagic.com/?p=53044
The bride girl from Skytube, Yuno, she’s not worth it in my honest opinion.
She has a much higher price tag than the other in the series. You’re actually paying for the pedestal.
Secondly, the scale is 1/8. The figure is only large because of her seat.
Thirdly, this is the most important one. I don’t think she’s bottom castoffable. 😛
Nah, I think I like the clothed version of Annabel better. I already own the wedding dress figure so whether or not she’s worth it is a moot point already. I’m not that obsessed with removing the clothes off of my figures.
Rinna is based from this image.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/45/d3/9a/45d39a2093774db499914f688e68eb9a.jpg
The posture seems a little weird in my opinion. I don’t know how she can bend in such a way to allow a penguin to stand on top of her butt? 0_o
Doesn’t seem physically possible to stand this way, but I could be wrong.
Kind of reminds me of that Kim Kardashan pic, where she places a wine glass on her butt. 😛
Also, I saw the Visual Materials for Shining Resonance. She is supposedly wearing a high-leg leotard. That is why you can’t see her underwear sides despite the large seams in her dress.