Shot Breakdown – Gotou Matabei

written on July 12, 2011 by Tier

There’s a couple of ways you can take figure photos. One uses traditional studio lighting techniques; you place the figure in front of a nice solid or patterned background, place your key light offset by maybe 30 degrees or so and your fill light on the other side, and trip the shutter. If you do it right, you can make a picture that clearly illuminates the figure, showing it off as it is.

Another way to shoot a figure is to manipulate the lighting and setting to achieve a desired effect, and this is how I prefer to photograph figures. Many times, I’m trying to convey a mood or establish an atmosphere rather than show how the figure looks. I readily concede that my pictures aren’t that useful for assessing what a figure looks like or whether it would be a worthwhile purchase, but that’s not what I’m trying to do; my goal is to make my figures and my pictures look as good as I can.

I should mention that a third way to take a figure picture is to take it outside. Definitely a valid approach, but I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically impressive or beautiful about a figure photo taken outside, and as I’m not very good at it, it’s not something I’ll be talking about here.
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Super Sonico from Nitroplus (Bondage Version) (NSFW)

written on July 8, 2011 by Tier
Orchid Seed Sonico Figure Review

Every now and then, you will see a whole bunch of figure makers schedule figures of the same character or from the same series all at about the same time. This happened with Ignis a few years back, when Alter, Orchid Seed, and Max Factory dropped their figures within a few months of each other, and with Haruka Takamori, when Alter, Volks, and Kotobukiya all released figures that looked very similar to each other, all at about the same time. And now it’s happened with Sonico, although Orchid Seed’s Sonico looks very much different than Yamato’s Sonico. Both of Yamato’s Sonicos, actually.
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Preorder Outlook XII

written on July 5, 2011 by Tier

For the past few weeks, it seems like there’s been nothing up for preorder but re-releases and recolors and figures from series that already have a ton of figures like Strike Witches, Bakemonogatari, and K-On! Some of the recolors are attractive, except I already have the originals, or I’ve got them on preorder. But there have been a few interesting figures that have gone up for order in the last few days, so now is as good a time as any to take a look at them.
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Gotou Matabei from Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

written on June 30, 2011 by Tier
Gotou Matabei from Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

And back to fighting girl figures. A number of great fighting girl figures have been released this year, which is enormously gratifying. Quite a few of them aren’t wearing pants or skirts, which is also very pleasing. One such figure is presented here, and while Matabei took a bit of additional hassle to acquire, it’s easy to see why she was worth the effort.
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Shot Breakdown – Rin Tohsaka

written on June 28, 2011 by Tier

Even after shooting something like 20,000 figure photographs these last couple of years, photography still has a way of surprising me, and I thought it would be interesting to document how I take certain shots. This is the first post in an occasional series of articles in which I’ll describe what I was aiming for in a particular photo, what I think of it after I’m done, and what I could have done differently.

I like how the image above turned out, and I’ve gotten some nice compliments about it. The funny thing is, I did not intend to use it in my Rin review. In fact, it wasn’t a serious picture at all and I initially felt that the composition was so hopeless that I didn’t bother taking any more shots in this vein. It wasn’t until after I took the shots into DPP that I saw I could do something with it. Why did I dislike this shot so much? Why, because it originally looked like this:

Oh my.
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Nymph from Sora no Otoshimono (Plum Version)

written on June 25, 2011 by Tier
Nymph from Sora no Otoshimono

While I buy lots of figures, a quick glance at my collection indicates that I tend to buy figures of older characters who are often wielding weapons. You won’t find that many loli characters on my shelves, for the simple reason that while I don’t dislike them, they’re not really my thing. I usually like characters that are a bit older. So why did I buy this figure of Nymph? A careful and deliberate examination of the image above will reveal the reason.
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Maxima Enfield from Shining Hearts

written on June 19, 2011 by Tier
Kotobukiya's Maxima Enfield

Another day, another figure from Sega’s Shining franchise. Personally, I’d like to see figures of Tao and Anri and Amon and May, but I’m quite certain they are never going to be made. It’s a shame that the figure hobby didn’t really take off before the last few years; maybe Sega could’ve saved their hardware division with their figure licensing profits.
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Rin Tohsaka from Fate/stay night (Unlimited Blade Works Version)

written on June 14, 2011 by Tier
Rin Tohsaka from Fate/stay night Figure

The internet is a pervasive force in everyday life. One of the things the internet is good for is finding reviews of stuff. In particular, I find movie and video game reviews to be helpful because people whose tastes are similar to mine generally view games and films in a similar way that I would. Not a long while ago I asked a friend what he thought of the film Sucker Punch and he said he didn’t really like it, and I knew I probably wouldn’t like it much, either. Our subjective tastes significantly overlap, and on top of that, there are objective criteria that one can use to assess a game or movie, such as plot coherence, the quality of dialogue, the quality of graphics, and so on.

Figures, however, are a funny thing because their appeal is so personal, at least to me. Take the Black Rock Shooter figures, for instance. On the surface, they seem to match many of the things I like: cute girls, fearsome weapons, and not many clothes. And yet I don’t particularly like them very much. Or take Miku Hatsune, whose character design I don’t particularly care for either. Certainly her design looks very similar to many characters that I do like and yet I don’t have much affection for her. Or take Yuri from Angel Beats. She’s cute, has a short skirt, and packs a big gun. Okay, I heard Angel Beats got a mixed reception but I haven’t even seen it and don’t plan to, so that doesn’t affect me at all. Why didn’t I buy the figure? Beats me. I’m thinking maybe I should check whether she’s in stock anywhere.

Basically what it comes down to is that every collector is going to decide for him or herself whether a figure is a worthwhile purchase, and that decision is going to be influenced by very nuanced and very personal factors. It’s a decision that really can only be made by the individual.

I’m guessing that a large majority of people reading this post have no idea where I’m coming from with this intro. That’s okay. I wish I were among you, to be honest. But enough of that, we have a figure to look at. This is my opinion of Rin Tohsaka.
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Chie from the Art of Ishikei (NSFW)

written on June 7, 2011 by Tier
Chie figure by Native

Dizzy? Great figure. Junko? Great figure. Saber Alter? Great figure. But as great as those figures are, sometimes a person wants something different. Sometimes a person wants something really special. Sometimes a person wants a porno figure. Okay, Erina was pretty nice but she’s more on the softcore side of things, as far as figures go. Fortunately, Native is always willing to oblige the more explicit side of the hobby. Except for this figure, anyway. And this one. Oh, and this one. Okay, maybe they’re going soft on us, and that’s a bit disappointing coming from a company whose motto is “Naked & Creative,” but beggars can’t be choosers. And fortunately, Ishikei’s Chie is such a nice figure that she more than makes up for any concessions those upcoming figures make.
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Saber Alter from Fate/stay night

written on May 31, 2011 by Tier
Good Smile Company's Saber Alter

I’m a big fan of corrupted girls in fiction. Kerrigan in Starcraft, Seven of Nine in Star Trek Voyager, Yomi in Ga-rei Zero – love them all. The eroge Fate/stay night has a couple of corrupted female characters who have deserved figures for a while. Dark Sakura has a cool design and Gift has recently released a fine figure showing her in all her evil glory. But as a fan of armored girls wielding big broadswords, I really wanted a good figure of Saber Alter. Good Smile Company has finally obliged, and their rendition of Saber Alter is set to redefine the meaning of badass.
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