Newish stuff

Figures everywhere!

Since this blog was inactive for quite some time, I think it’s a good idea to show off some of the new figure additions! This also gives me a chance to ask you guys which figures you would like to see featured in future photo shoots as well. Some of these figures can be classified as “old”, but I did receive them within the last few months ^^;;

Before I start I’d like to take this time to thank pp of Otakurean for sending me this lovely clearfile of Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na (The bright blue light before the dawn). I know it’s been months since I actually got this prize, and it’s been a looooooooong time coming. So, thank you pp~ :3

Figure Acquisitions

Since I have some spare time, I decided to show you guys the new stuff I’ve gotten over the past few months. Surprisingly I’ve managed to keep the figure purchases steady, I had to cancel a few figures since I was running low on cash and not to mention the falling Aussie dollar =/

Mikumikumiku, I snagged the Max Factory and Volks figures of Miku, but in the end I parted with the Volks to a friend of mine. I still hope that Max Factory could make a Haku Yowane figure ;_;

Blanc Neige was kind of an impulse buy for me, but her hips are…are just so distracting! She accompanies the old Max Factory Kureha on my shelf. Seriously… look at those hips! *drools*

One of the most expensive and biggest figure in my collection, second only to my Dollfie. Asakura is part of the FREEing 1/4 scale bunny girl set of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi series. She was shipped, and subsequently paid for on the day that the Aussie dollar fell to 55 Japanese yen… ;_; paincakes were had.

Griffon figures can be hit and miss for me, so this Sasara was a pleasant surprise to me when she arrived in her school swimsuit and maid apron. Her delicious pose just makes my skin tingle with anticipation….of…something… o_O

Nekomimi Nono Nekomiya in mizugi. I just LOVE cats, and thus nekomimi has a special place in my heart, so I couldn’t resist this figure. Now, some of you may notice a school swimsuit trend, but I assure you it isn’t a huge fetish of mine XD

Shana’s first appearance in my figure collection! With this particular figure, they released a regular version, and two store exclusive versions. The regular was the black haired beauty, one was a pink haired and blue uniform with striped stockings which has a resemblance to Alice in Wonderland. This version you see is the Strawberry Version exclusive to the GEE! online store. Not sure why strawberry as it could prolly be more appropriately be called Cherry or Peach…. but oh well~

iDOLM@STER

Alter released the second half of the FA4 iM@S trading figures a while back, so now I managed to grab myself a full set of the girls! Well, at least the black version of the set ^^; These trading figures are quite the build, and I must say Alter has done an excellent job on these.

Max Factory has also released Miki Hoshii in two versions, the blonde in green, and the brunette in blue. I opted for the blonde since I’m a sucker for Miki in blonde. The friend who has been supplying me with most of these figures went for the brunette, so if we ever get bored we could always trade XD

Kaiyodo’s latest iM@S Fraulein girl to take the stage is also Miki Hoshii. I had to grab her to produce the various poses I had imagined. She comes with an additional head for those who love the brown, and since they are using the Revoltech joints I used a spare Saber Alter body XD

Nanoha StrikerS

Reinforce Zwei! I love this lil figure and it’s mini-ness. It’s like a 1/1 scale of her XD I’m not a huge fan of the StrikerS season, but Reinforce is so cute!

Hayate has recently come out as a figure as well, and in my opinion she’s aged the best >.> She also comes with a mini-mini-boss! Reinforce is even smaller now. Alter has done a nice job of sculpting and painting the really tiny figure, it’s about the same size of those Warhammer miniatures! Hayate’s box is also a force to be reckoned with. It’s even bigger than the massive Fate Testarossa box!! Now where to find space to put the box…

Alice in ???

Alter has been doing the 3D incarnations of the POP Wonderland series, and I decided to pick one up! The photo is a lil bland so it does little to bring out the wonder~

Alice from Queen’s Blade was love at first sight, I remember picking up the Hobby Japan magazine…or was it Dengeki Hobby… and seeing the first unpainted prototype. That point on I was watching the pre-order scene with the eyes of an eagle. And here she is.

Queen’s Figures

Speaking of Queen’s Blade, Ymir has been released as a black coloured princess now. I couldn’t resist at the time, so I had to pay for her presence. As like the regular version, she can undress nearly everything, even her pantsu! o_o

Next up is the Hobby Japan magazine exclusive Queen’s Gate Ink-tan from Moetan! I had to cut a tiny lil stamp out from the Hobby Japan magazine and send it to a friend of mine in Japan….express…since the cut off date was approaching. Which means that huge envelope in the background with ALL THOSE STAMPS was used to deliver a stamp the size of my thumb…

Queen’s Gate Ink-tan is awesome! Lots of her armour is cast off and it shows, her armour was practically falling off when I try to get her to grip those button batons. It’s highly distracting trying to do something when you get constant mune flashes @_@

Mecha Musume

Aaah, how I love Mecha Musume~ I just had to buy these two figures when I saw them, not to mention they’re both based on Shimada Fumikane’s artwork of Sky Girls/Strike Witches fame.

The M4A1 Early Type Sherman “Elizabeth” has a lot of accessories, you can even de-mechanise her but…why would I do that? o_O Her nonchalant expression is big boon for me :3

The Kawasaki Ki-100 Type 5 Fighter, the main appeal was admittedly the cast off feature >.> BUT her fierce gaze was also appealing for me :3

Blackout

A few months ago my apartment had a blackout and I had nothing to do… so I decided to take a few photos for the hell of it. My room has changed a bit since then…more figures…less ceiling space for posters… I also took a few photos of Saber, and it turned out somewhat ok, so I decided to share it here too~

Photo shoot choice

With all these bland photos, I was wondering which of these figures you people would really like to see in a photo shoot, mind you, I tend to do outdoor ones XD
I’ve updated the poll which should appear shortly on the blog as well, so please have your say :3
I’ll see which figures on the poll have a higher demand so I’ll place a higher priority on them when I decide to go on a photo shoot~

Again, thanks to those who visit regularly too~ :3

Anti-wallet express

Goodies from Japan

I managed to squeeze some time to actually do a proper post. Long story short, I’m bogged down with work, uni work and sick family members >.<

So, this package was actually received on the 28th of last month and I didn’t had time to update on the day =/

So, as you can see above, the contents of the box from my friend, Hectic. The other box was from Hobby Link Japan, and it contained clothes for Evelyn, more on that in another post :P

Famitsu Xbox360

Famitsu (ファミ通) has been around for a loooooooong time, and as such, is one of the more respected series of game magazines in Japan. This is their Xbox360 line of magazines and this issue has a feature on iM@S Live For You! :3 It comes with two booklets of games I don’t have much interest in, and a poster of iM@S Live For You!!

Gemaga

Gemaga (ゲーマガ) is a general game magazine rather than focusing on one system. This issue it also features iM@S Live For You! and includes a pencilboard of iM@S and a standard issue DVD, which happens to feature the iM@S Live For You! Trailer, exclusive interview/radio show with Azusa and Chihaya’s voice actors, and the standard package of the latest trailers from across the world… most in Japanese tho XD

Dengeki Moeoh

Unlike the others, Dengeki Moeoh (電撃萌王) is really about the artists. There’s usually only two reasons why I would buy a Dengeki Moeoh, one is that Komatsu Eeji is featured, or there’s special goodies. This issue it had special goodies XD This time last year, Dengeki Moeoh gave out a year long calender featuring scantly clad girls (or completely naked) with bands of colour with the dates of the month across certain erogenous zones XD Well, this year they released another since the previous one has expired.

The calendar is just absolutely drool inducing, I salivate at the thought of seeing the next month image when it’s near the end of the month!

POP Wonderland: Cinderella

Remember that old post about childrens’ books? Well, there’s been a new addition to the series, Cinderella. POP has done another great series of illustrations for Cinderella, and the book is also the same great quality. Just a reminder that this is an excellent book for easy Japanese reading as it also contains furigana, and gives you an excuse to buy some loli merchandise XD

Moeyo! Ground self-defence force school

This is a series of educational books from publisher Ikaros. The artist for Moeyo! Ground self-defence force school (萌えよ！陸自学校) is Takeshi Nogami, who happens to also draw some nice H manga XD
The book is choc-a-block full of info on the ground self-defence force, from it’s tactics to the equipment used. A must have for any otaku who happens to be a military nut as well, though knowledge of Japanese is a must if you wish to truly appreciate this book (which I lack ^^; hehe)

Random manga

Also by Takeshi Nogami, a manga about chicks and tanks, not much to say other than it’s fairly heavy on tanks and scantly clad girls driving them.

iM@S: MASTER LIVE 00 Shiny Smile

Arg, a new line of CDs by iM@S, my wallet is crying in anguish! This first one features Shiny Smile, and also includes a bonus DVD with footage of the performances. A must have for any iM@S fan.

iM@S: MASTER LIVE 01 REM@STER A

This next CD features most of the remix A type of the songs which are available in iM@S: Live For You! Some are ok, some aren’t. My particular favourite is Ohayo! Asa Gohan (おはよう！！朝ご飯) as it’s turned into some sort of mega hyper sort of thing XD Recommended to any iM@S fan :3

3500 Microsoft Points: iM@S:L4U! LE Card A

My point pot is getting low….damn iM@S planes in AC6. So I decided to rectify this by purchasing a point card, and it so happens that they have iM@S limited edition ones for sale :3

Prism Ark Tsundere Dakimakura

Now, I already have a hug pillow, Kenshin from Sengoku Rance, but this is the first one I’ve bought by itself. Prism Ark is a H game that has some gorgeous moe art. It also has an anime, which I haven’t watched @_@ As you can see, the pillow cover features two sides of Priecia, being quite delectable, especially with her facial expressions which just makes me want to do awful things to the pillow…^^; This is a HobbyStock exclusive as well.

So that’s the overview of the recent package I received, I’m quite busy lately so I won’t be able to update for the next week or so I think. I’ll try my best since I have a few things I’d like to share with you guys :3 Look forward to it!

RANK UP!

Japan Packages #2

Yesterday, I got a second set of parcels from Japan from my friend, who’s generous enough to spend some of his busy time, from tutoring the school girls and tutoring the school boys, to get me some items of utmost importance :3

Today’s post will be a quick run through of the items I got in the two parcels~

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*rubs hands together* I’ll make it short and sweet, those above, are the boxes~

Below are (from left to right) a Yayoi Takatsuki of iDOLM@STER (the game) clearfile, a copy of Vocaloid Miku, a Lievo promotional DVD set from TGS 2007 and finally on the bottom is a starter pack for Aquarian Age Alternative arcade card game. The second picture is look at what’s inside the pack :3

The Vocaloid may be familiar to some of you readers from a previous post, you can read them here, and here.

The Aquarian Age cards may also seem familiar, being based on the traditional tabletop card game of the same name, however Alternative is an arcade game, more info on it is explained at Heisei Democracy.

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Oh my god, so much advertisement material. Normally I see this as junk mail, stuff that you’d use for emergency toilet paper. BUT this stuff is made of GOLD. I can never ever get enough of the advertisements from places like Akiba. I treat it like it was gold leaf paper. There’s also a few artbooks in that pile as well, closer look later tho~

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Gah, bad photo, but who cares, it’s the CDs there that are the stars!
Those are the Master Artist series of CD singles from iDOLM@STER. I requested my friend to get some that I don’t have for me. I’m still missing three tho, Yukiho Hagiwara, Ritsuko Akizuki and KOTORI OTONASHI! (Yayoi isn’t there, I already have her). Also, for the keen eye there, Makoto saying “dododo” may be humorous to some of you who know of the Japanese Xbox360 ads :3

Onto the books, I’ve scanned the front covers for you folks to see :3

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okok, This first book wasn’t from my friend, I actually got this book last year when I was in Japan. This is the first in the series of children books by POP dubbed “POP WONDERLAND”, the artist for Moe-Tan, Fairy Musketeers and others. Presenting, Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland!

Each of these books in the series is beautifully created, a nice thick hardcover with a soft-matte print dust jacket, textured paper with gorgeous artwork. The text is minimal since it is supposed to be a children’s book, even the kanji has large furigana (hiragana above the kanji) to help readers learn.

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Little Red Riding Hood, second in the series~

The books themselves are about 1cm thick, and are 265mm by 220mm in landscape format (that means it’s a long book rather than a tall book for those who don’t know). If you’re a lover of artbooks, this is a series you need to have a look at getting. While it doesn’t have a hundred pages, it does have about 50 pages of artwork that just shouts cute. They really have done a great job of portraying that children’s book feel that I have in my mind, but in reality, it’s a little too nice to be a normal children’s book XD

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Thumbelina, third of the series. I actually havn’t been properly read this story when I was a kid, so I really have no idea about it other than the fact that there’s a small girl… hmm, I think I might like this one. ^^;

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Now if you like POP’s work, you’d prolly be interested, if not already, in his 2nd major artbook, Super Lollipop (I keep typing Lolipop…).

It has over 150 pages of DFC for you to see, but no explicit nudity (meaning there’s nudity… just tasteful ones). Works include the Moe-Tan series, Fairy Musketeer, original works for Comic Toranoana, the Akiba Blog illustrations, along with others.

A definite GET for POP fans, or just plain lolicons.

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Aaah~ THE iDOLM@STER Precious Album, it’s more of a game guide than an actual artbook. It details on how to play the Xbox360 game, walkthroughs for each of the character events, a listings of clothes and accessories, interviews with the producers and also a section at the back FULL OF STICKAZ~! I dunno if I’ll use most of them, but there’s quite a few of them that are specifically for Xbox360 faceplates, which I’m tempted to try :3

Anyway, below is a list of some details of the books, enjoy~

Details – POP WONDERLAND

Name
Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood, Thumbelina
Series
POP WONDERLAND
Publisher
Poplar Publishing
Artist
POP
Writer
Michiyo Hayano
Release date
Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland – April 2006
Little Red Riding Hood – November 2006
Thumbelina – June 2007
Place of purchase
Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland – Comic Toranoana
The others also from Japan
Retail price
1,365 yen each
Bought it for
1,365 yen each (approx $13.00 AU)

Details – Super Lollipop

Name
Super Lollipop – 2nd drawing works of POP
Series
Super Lollipop
Publisher
Sansai Books
Artist
POP
Release date
14th September 2007
Place of purchase
Japan
Retail price
2,800 yen each
Bought it for
2,940 yen each (approx $29.00 AU)

Details – THE iDOLM@STER

Name
THE iDOLM@STER Precious Album
Series
THE iDOLM@STER
Publisher
enterbrain
Release date
April 2007
Place of purchase
Japan
Retail price
2,300 yen each
Bought it for
2,300 yen each (approx $23.00 AU)

P.S. I also added a plugin that links a commenter’s first blog post I found on otadesho.com, I thought it was incredibly nifty, thanks to ron~ for doing some slight editing on the plugin as well :3

P.P.S..or is it P.S.S? I’ll be doing the weathering tutes for the Mecha Musume for sure it seems. However I don’t have the time for documenting the process in the near future, so it may be a while (possible in late November…after all my study stuff is done). Sorry that it’s so late >.< I’ll try to get at least one done soon to see if it tickles your fancy~