Happy New Year’s Day, or at least it will be New Year’s Day throughout the world by the time anybody reads this. Personally, New Year’s Day is far and away my least favorite holiday; it’s the formal end of the holiday season, the last holiday that I get off from work for nearly half a year, and of course, it’s a stark reminder of all the things that I failed to complete in the previous year, most of which revolve around this website. Oh well. The usual, annual five most favorite figures post will be coming along shortly, and I wonder if anyone can guess which figures will be on the list (hint: the post is delayed because I haven’t actually photographed most of those figures). Meanwhile, this seems like a good time to do a preorder post, being that the last one I wrote was four months ago. Whoops. I usually try to do these monthly, as they tend to get very lengthy if I write them less frequently, and that’s definitely the case here; therefore, I’m going to blast through these quickly and with a little less commentary than I usually provide. I know I’ve missed a bunch of figures as well, particularly ones sold directly by the manufacturer or those that are Japan-exclusive.
February 2016
Ignis from Jingai Makyo
I remember when Ignis was the It-Girl of the figure industry, with Orchid Seed, Max Factory, and Alter all making very nice figures of her in a relatively brief period of time (I went with the Orchid Seed version purely because you could expose her tits but in retrospect, I think I like the Max Factory version the best, aside from its leaning problem). It’s a little odd to see her again, so long after her time in the limelight, but she still looks as good as ever, perhaps even better.
Tearju Lunatique
This is a nice looking figure from a manufacturer whose work I still haven’t seen firsthand (I’ve got their Mitsuru Kirijou figure somewhere around here, still boxed up). She ticks all the boxes though, and I always have a thing for busty, smart, and friendly teachers, scientists, and nurses in anime.
Leviathan from the Seven Deadly Sins
I’m really conflicted about this one, and I kinda doubt that I’ll buy it in the end, but I’m thinking about it; Azone’s 1/3 scale dolls tend to be less impressive than I’d like for the price but Leviathan’s design kinda sells itself.
April 2016
Freesia from Tony’s Heroine Collection
Daisy is one of my most favorite figures in my collection (and that’s saying something given that I have several hundred figures), and it shouldn’t be any surprise that I’m very much looking forward to Freesia as well; she looks fantastic.
Mea Kurosaki from To Love-Ru Darkness
Mea looks lovely in her fighting outfit, coming very close to showing off a bit of labia. With the ladies of To-Love Ru being so lovely, I have no objection at all to the profusion of figures being released of its characters.
Velvet from Odin Sphere
It feels like Alter hasn’t been quite on top of their game for a couple of years now, but with Mea and Velvet, it looks like they’re trying to reassert themselves as the paramount makers of Japanese anime and video game figures. It will be very interesting to compare their Velvet to Yamato’s, which is a very fine representation of her, regardless of how one feels about the manufacturer.
Yuri Akasaka from Comic Aun
Most figure manufacturers play annoyingly coy with their product photos: they’ll hint at but not show a castoff option, they’ll take careful measures to avoid displaying a flash of panties, they’ll tastefully hide any glimpse of nipples or genitalia if the figure happens to be exposed. And then you have SkyTube, who really don’t mind showing everything, aside from some weak censoring (doubtlessly mandated by law). Further, they don’t pretend that their products are any less smutty than they appear; there’s no question that the white liquid-like material on poor Yuri is supposed to be semen (another figure maker would likely provide a milk bottle accessory or something, to mock up at least a veneer of innocence). My only question is, how does it stay affixed to the figure?
May 2016
Marudea from … no series
I’m not sure how to romanize the name – Marudea? Maldea? I do know that I am going to be buying this figure for blindingly obvious reasons.
Eleonora Viltaria from Madan no Ou to Vanadis
I have to admit I don’t know anything about the source other than that the anime comes from a light novel, and that gives me immediate reason to think that it’s not very good, but I’m prepared to be wrong about that (its apparent lack of popularity versus similar light novel-based anime is a point in its favor). The lead girl looks very nice though, particularly in this sort of bunnysuit, which I don’t ordinarily like but they apparently have lavished a great deal of time on her ass, and that’s something I appreciate. It’s amusing how seven of the ten promo photos (including all the close-ups) are of her backside.
Signum from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Gift make more 1/4 scale figures, but Signum looks very nice. You tend to know what you’re getting when you get one of these figures: substantial size, long and lean bodies, and exposed ass cleavage. All good things, of course.
June 2016
Sonia Blanche from Shining Resonance
It’s yet another Tony figure from a Shining game, and yet this one looks very nice, partly because of her interesting outfit and also because she’s posed in the middle of an action, rather than simply standing around.
Saber Bride from Fate/Extra CCC
The best Saber of all, and there are apparently a ton of them now. It’ll definitely be great to have her to go along with Saber Alter and the rest of the crew.
Kuro & Ilya from Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA
Man … I feel really dirty just looking at these. I mean, even more so than I do with most of my figures, and I’ve got some pretty lewd figures in my collection. I have to say, I really respect how Type-moon maintains the dignity of their main properties while exploiting the hell out of their spinoff series. I can’t wait to get these figures. (Where’s the Miyu, though? I didn’t watch the series but I decided Miyu is my favorite when Kurow used her as a health pot.)
July 2016
Satellizer el Bridget from Freezing
I tend to think of Satellizer as more of a masochist, given her presentation in Freezing Vibration (and that sequence was a really awkward segue away from the main storyline). Regardless, I can’t really pass up a figure wearing these sorts of boots.
Sean Ari from Bastard!
I definitely can’t pass up a figure wearing this sort of outfit, either.
August 2016
Isuzu Sento from Amagi Brilliant Park
I have to admit, every time I see Isuzu, I’m reminded of how we were robbed of seeing her getting pushed into the tentacle pit while dressed in a bikini and an eyepatch. There truly is no justice in this world. Incidentally, this figure appears to not be available from the usual retail outlets, but it can be ordered directly from GSC’s web store for an absurd sum of yen.
I don’t like this holiday either for the exact reason you mentioned, but still Happy New Year Tier and thanks for all those amazing reviews.
Thanks a bunch! Hopefully they’ll come out a faster clip this year XD (They kinda have to since the boxes are really piling up.)
Damn! Dat Illya&Kuro looks delicious.
Hobby Japan exclusive? And seems to be pass ordering period already. Time to futilely ask around local figure shops again.
Yeah, I think so; I ordered it from Nippon-Yasan, I think, and I hope they fulfill my order. Trying to keep track of all the shop exclusives has been a hopeless thing for me; it was a lot easier when I could just order stuff from Tokyo Hunter but those days are gone.
Eleonora Viltaria from Madan no Ou to Vanadis ,- definitely my first 1/4 scale bunny girl. ^_^ LN better than the anime as the anime skipped alot of content. 😛 You’d be better off reading the manga adaptation of it 😀
Character design wise though anime is better than the light novel illustrations though (LN Artist has the tendency to draw their faces abit on the angular side)
Well, I watched the first episode of the anime; I wasn’t expecting much and I guess I didn’t get much, either, though I wouldn’t say that the anime is bad or that I disliked watching it. It’d be better if Eleonora or her lesbian (seemingly, anyway) bodyguard wore more revealing armor, though. I only watched a couple of episodes of Medaka Box but the two shows felt and looked very similar.
Happy New Year to you ^^
I’d rather have skipped all the end holidays this year, it was just a nuinsance for me XD
The biggest surprise about this Mea Kurosaki is the manufacturer, ALTER became so ecchi ;D
I hope Freeing also has plans for Limalisha (｡’▽’｡)♡ from that anime.
*lol* Kuro & Ilya, I hate those loli bellies, this sight makes me feel rather uncomfortable.
That Sattelizer figure looks very attractive with her buxom mature body, wahooo, these thighs! Her outfit is very cool, the nice black boots and gloves, the glasses make it a bit more interesting for me.
I have no interest in the other Bastard character figures, but this newly announced figure looks great, starting from the pretty bright blonde hair.
Also the face is quite pretty, the shorter front hair really accentuates the nice shape.
ALTER’s adaption of poster girl Isuzu is much more appealing in my eyes, the exclusive tag on the Max Factory is just another letdown there. Even though her well endowed assets are squeezed together in a sexy fashion I rather pick ALTER’s version.
Man, I love Christmas XD And American Thanksgiving. I love Christmas trees and lights and all the food and shopping bargains and the time off from work. The first week of the new year always feels to me like waking up after a party only to discover that the heater in your house has gone out.
It’s nice to see Alter putting out some compelling figures this year; hopefully they’ll keep it up. Figure collecting is a little less fun for me when Alter isn’t making anything that I want to buy.
I don’t normally have a thing for lolis (I don’t think I actually have that many in my collection) but Ilya and Kuro really look great to me XD Those hips look so wrong on characters that young-looking, and yet the figures look perfect anyway.
I would be more interested in Alter’s Isuzu if she were standing up rather than sitting down. I’ll admit that part of the reason why I’m going to get the MF version is so I can do a proper tentacle-oriented scene, as there should have been in the anime.
Azone Leviathan is cute. Seems like the joints are capable of large range of motion and achieving lots of poses. The thing that I don’t understand about Azone is why they would like to stick with painted eyes instead of real eyeballs like Volks. I would say for sure they will be able to attract more customers if they do so.
I can’t tell from the promo shots if Leviathan had panties or not….such a big puzzle. If she’s not having panties then what exactly have they put in there….This is driving me nuts
I have to admit I don’t understand why whenever a doll with painted eyes shows up, people always say that it would look better with artificial eyes. Personally, I like painted eyes and I often find dolls with artificial eyes to look kinda freaky or scary. My biggest beef with Azone is that their wigs tend to be pretty bad, or at least not nearly as good-looking as they look in their promo photos. Not knowing whether the item I’ve bought is going to look like the product on the preorder page is a big obstacle.
I’m going to guess that she’s not wearing panties, but I have a few Azone dolls and they’re not anatomically explicit (though it’s not too difficult to acquire aftermarket parts to rectify that).
Recent samples from Orca Toys look really promising. Satellizer looks good, Sasara, and of course upcoming schoolgirl Misa. All they need to do is to deliver actual products in good quality though.
I think they will, or at least I hope they will. I’m still a little curious as to what their relationship is with Okayama Figure Engineering, since their products seem to look very good and OFE’s … not quite so much.
Tier, just a headsup. Concerning Leviathan of the 7 Deadly Sins (not the Azone figure). Hobby Japan via Amiami seems to havemade her a region specific fig. Unlike Lucifer and Satan made by OS, I managed to procure them at the former. The latest version, Leviathan in the uber none existent jeans shorts was initially solicited (where I got lucky to order) and the main site. But by the time of her release, she was relegated exclusively to the Japan site of Amiami. They did still deliver on my order but it seems we’ll be seeing the 7 Deadly Sins via exclusive releases.
Uhh, which one, the one with the tiny shorts and the alternate pose where she can spread her legs? I think I actually have that one; I say “I think” because I’ve got this big-ass Hobby Search box here that I haven’t actually opened because I am so very far behind with reviewing things. That reminds me I need to see if I can still order Mammon anywhere, though (I’m kinda thinking not but hope springs eternal).