Another day, another Tony Taka figure. Not long ago, seeing so many Tony figures would’ve prompted a collective sigh of exasperation but these days, the way Alphamax does them, I’m very happy to see them. We looked at Velvet a few weeks ago and today, we’ll be looking at Iris Hartley. Iris is grouped under the Skytube label, which means that she has some significant differences from Velvet, particularly in ero content, which I’m sure will make some collectors happy.
Continue reading
In the anime figure world, Tony Taka is clearly the man of the moment, with Kotobukiya’s Daisy having generally received positive acclaim and with Native having recently put Touko on the Can up for preorder. Recently, however, it has been Alphamax who has shown the most enthusiasm for bringing Tony’s artwork into the three-dimensional world. In the last few months they’ve released not one, not two, but three figures based on his illustrations, including Iris, Rikka Himegami, and Velvet, the figure we’re looking at today. Velvet stands out a bit from her Skytube counterparts in that she is not an ero figure – unsurprising, being that she comes from a PSP game – and that she’s nominally a bit smaller than her catalog cousins. Nonetheless, I’m a big fan of Alphamax’s recent work, and I had high expectations for Velvet; happily, her quality is well in keeping with the standards set by her forebears.
Continue reading
Making up for lost time, we will once more examine another ero figure. However, while the Freezing girls merely come from a fanservice-heavy TV anime, Maya Kamiwazumi stars in a bona fide eroge and anime. Fault!! Service: Aratanaru Rival is the sequel to Ciel’s Fault!!, the game that Ai Saeki and Reiko Date Wingfield come from. In choosing to produce Maya, Alphamax has curiously skipped over original characters Mio Sugiyama and Rika Hayama, which is a little surprising; I had expected them to make a figure of Mio, at least, given how strangely popular the incest thing is. At any rate, Maya is here, so let’s learn a little more about her.
Continue reading
When it comes to fighting game girls, Mai Shiranui is amongst the genre’s best-loved characters. And why not? Her history is impressive and her visual appeal is obvious. She’s a favorite of fighting game fans and cosplayers alike. And of course, she’s quite popular with figure makers as well, being that we have another figure of SNK’s bouncy ninja here for our consideration.
Continue reading
Not too long ago, Alphamax was a niche manufacturer in the figure hobby, a purveyor of really expensive polystone statues of characters nobody had ever heard of and that nobody ever bought. But in the last few years, anime figure collecting has really taken off and it is only sensible of Alphamax to want a bigger piece of that action – thus, they’ve repositioned themselves in the market as a mainstream manufacturer of PVC figures, particularly of popular characters wearing swimsuits. Now, they’re staking out another niche – namely, hentai figures – and so having looked at a Tony Taka dakimakura cover last week, we’ll look at Alphamax’s figure of Tony Taka’s Ai Saeki today.
Continue reading
The sexy bodysuit is a staple of science fiction anime. The most famous, of course, are the Evangelion plugsuits, but personally, the Muv-Luv Alternative pilot suits are my favorite designs. They are borderline ridiculous and very sexy, and are instantly identifiable by anyone with even a passing familiarity with the series. There aren’t many Muv-Luv figures out there, so I was happy to hear that Alphamax was going to be making figures of the Total Eclipse characters, and I was looking forward to seeing Yui in her black suit and the Scarlet Sisters in their distinctive navy and turquoise suits. But instead of featuring the distinctive Muv-Luv piloting suits, Alphamax has chosen instead to put the characters in their underwear. Oh well.
Continue reading
Girls with guns time continues with a look at Alphamax’s rendition of Cryska Barchenowa. Previously known for their lineup of exorbitantly expensive polystone statues that seemingly nobody bought, Alphamax has in recent times redirected themselves towards mainstream PVC figure production. Many of their figures come from the usual franchises – Ikkitousen, K-On!, and To Heart, among others – and so I was surprised to see that they were going to make figures from Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse. Personally, I would have much preferred to see figures of the girls in their military data suits, but as there are so few Muv-Luv figures despite its long history and expansive cast, beggars can hardly be choosers.
Continue reading
Back in my review of Kotobukiya’s Dizzy, I lamented that fighting games aren’t a more popular source for figure makers. That hasn’t changed at all in the year since I received that figure. In fact, I can think of only a few figures of fighting game characters that have been released since then – A-Label’s Vanessa, and I suppose the Noel Vermillion nendoroid, if you count that as a figure. 2011 isn’t looking any more promising, with the major ones being another Dizzy, a peculiarly pachycephalic Kasumi, and this figure right here. With a bunch of fighting games – Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the two Tekken and Street Fighter crossovers, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and the 3DS version of Dead Alive – scheduled for release, and with Super Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue still going strong, hopefully the situation will change and the girls of these games will grace us with more figures.
Continue reading
