When you don’t have a belt or a strap to hang your swords off of, you make do the best that you can.
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When you’re out swinging a big-ass sword that’s taller than you are, it’s best to dress right for the job.
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There ought to be more figures of fighting game characters, and of the fighting game characters who deserves figures, Ivy Valentine should be near the top of the list. She has one of the most easily-identifiable designs in fighting games, she is one of the mainstays of one of the best fighting game franchises in existence, and yet, only three or four figures have ever been made of her, and one of those is from Todd McFarlane’s toy company. Fortunately for Ivy fans, Hobby Japan has recently shipped a brand new figure of her as part of their Queen’s Gate figure lineup. Unfortunately, it’s not quite as good as one might have hoped for.
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Despite not being particularly religious, I always like to play as a paladin in role-playing games. I’ve always admired the ethos of the paladin: the self-sacrificing knight devoted to justice and charity. My party leader in the Bard’s Tale games was always a paladin. My Baldur’s Gate parties always had two paladins – my player character and Ajantis in the first game and Keldorn in the second. I played a paladin in EverQuest despite the hindrance of the hybrid experience penalty. I stayed away from World of Warcraft for years because I was told that paladins were only good for healing and I didn’t care to spend my game time staring at a CTRaid status window while mindlessly spamming the Decursive key (I wound up doing that after I bought the game, anyway). When Volks announced that their Sasara figure was called the “paladin” version, my curiosity was piqued, and when I saw the promo pictures, my interest was confirmed. I had some slight misgivings because Volks’s Moekore figures tend to not feature the cleanest production quality, but I figured Sasara looked good enough that I wouldn’t care. I figured correctly, because pally Sasara is a very impressive figure indeed.
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I placed my order for Heat Blade with Hobby Search on June 15, 2010. She was originally scheduled for a fall release, but that got pushed back, and back, and back, and it was not until just this month that she finally hit stores. In the period between the placement of my order and the writing of this post, the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks won NBA championships, the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, and (effectively) Libya fell to populist revolutions, the NFL went through a lockout, Japan was devastated by an earthquake, the collective manhood of Washington, D.C. was devastated by an earthquake, Charlie Sheen somehow got fifteen minutes of fame despite already being famous, the exchange rate dropped from 91 to 77 yen to the dollar, and I wrote 58 figure reviews. And one tentacle stand review. What a busy time it’s been.
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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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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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One of the nice things about Hobby Japan’s Queen’s Gate series is that it gives a spotlight to a few characters who wouldn’t otherwise get a lot of love from figure makers. Dizzy was one, at least until Alter made their figure, and I’ve also ordered Ivy Valentine’s figure, since she’s only gotten a few thus far. I gave some thought to trying to get the Queen’s Gate figure of Katja from Seikon no Qwaser, but while I like the character, I would’ve liked the figure more if she were in her dominatrix outfit. Curiously, Lily from Namco’s Tekken series stands out as the sole Queen’s Gate character not to get a figure thus far. That’s a shame; I wouldn’t mind seeing a figure of her, especially in her 3P costume. Oh well. Junko Hattori is another character that would seem an unlikely candidate for a conventional, mass-market figure; she’s not generally regarded as one of the best characters from her show, and her show is primarily known for its absurd level of incoherence. At any rate, I do like both the character and the way that she looks, so even though having to go through a proxy service is a bit of a hassle, I ordered her right away and here she is now.
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2011 may be the year of Tamaki and Miku Hatsune, but here at Tentacle Armada, we are busy celebrating the greatness of the beautiful fighting girl. Four of the seven figure reviews posted here since the start of the year have featured swordsgirls and today we have the fifth. Another Tamaki figure is probably next up but for now, we shall continue showing our love for big-eyed anime girls in tiny bikinis with big swords. It’s a classic combination that can’t be beat.
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Good Smile Company’s Nanoha actsta action figure has been sprawled out on my desk for the last week. I planned on photographing it for my next review but a couple days back, I found out that I’ve misplaced part of her base. Being anything but an exemplar of self-motivation, I put off looking for it until the other night, when I decided that I really ought to write a new post. However, a comprehensive search of my room didn’t turn it up and now I have no clue where it might be. So instead of doing a Nanoha review, I thought that I’d take Jubei out of her box and photograph her instead. I was saving her for some time when I had more interesting ideas for photographing her, but life is about adapting when things do not go as planned. Besides, I can’t say I was too enthusiastic about doing a poseable figure review since I’m no good at them, anyway.
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