Uesugi Kenshin: Queen of Figma!

Uesugi Kenshin

"Why is she wearing that funny hat?" is the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this character. 

I did not see the appeal of dressing up characters from history in removable armor and inserting them into a video game. There are currently 11 games in the Rance series. the tenth game, sengoku rance, is probably the most famous. The latest game, Rance quest, just came out last year. Not only is this series eroge, but it is also an RPG strategy sim which makes it unique and more attractive. Not that I've played it, I just happen to know about older turn-based sim games.

The packaging is well done. The figure was literally wrapped in plastic to prevent scuffing. 

History Trivia: Uesugi Kenshin was a real person in history who forced Nobunaga to retreat. Because Uesugi never married it is romanticized that he was a woman pretending to be a man, hence we get this character in sengoku rance who is female. 

By far, one of my most favorite figures.

A few small issues are there is no angry face and the sheath falls out of her one hand designed to hold it. That aside, the figure is beautiful and magnificently detailed. 

On a scale of one to ten, this figure ranks- Amazing! Uesugi puts the madoka figma to shame. There are so many figmas I cant remember them all but this one should definitely be in my top three. At the moment I cannot think of anyone that is better, therefore:

Hence forth, I dub thee, "Uesugi Kenshin, Queen of Figma!" 

Here are a few other figma I got in over the holidays, I did not buy them all at once.

Some of the online retailers were having a nendoroid clearance so I picked up quite a bit of those too.

kotobukiya kuroneko summer memories is so small

For quite a while I had been waiting for this figure release. When I saw the production model I thought it was a definite buy. I did not order kirino, though I almost did.

here is what the box looks like.

This figure is 1/8th scale and is very small. I usually don't pay attention to figure scale but I was not expecting such a little box. I prefer the sizes to be uniform, but I guess different sculptors have different goals. This figure is literally the same height as a nendoroid. Here is my kuroneko family:

close up of the faces some

EDIT: other pictures

Sniper Karin is such a nice figure

Such a beautiful figure; the face is perfect. Karin is my favorite To Heart 2 character, after Tamaki, of course. Such a shame, she is always given the role of the fool. The OVA did not bring out most of her charm. Well, I guess the OVAs are generally bad except Sasara's and Kusakabe's.

This is what the top of the box looks like. I'll need to take some more pictures with all of them together. I have a large shipment of figmas and nendoroids coming in. At the end of June some big name items are coming and that really excites me. This is actually the first figure that I bought that was sold and shipped by amazon. That is a wonderful thing. Kotobukiya can get very expensive. If they can by bulk and pass on the savings, I'm all for that. Normally when I buy figures off amazon it is from a 3rd party seller.

Also, got a Lynette Bishop. I'm not really a strike witches fan. I saw one episode and it just didn't interest me. Girls flying around in their underwear with puppy dog tails, been there, done that.The toys are fun though.

Anime is better with a friend!

That's why I keep a spare watermelon around while watching Heaven's Lost Property because you  never know when it will come in handy. The first season of Soro no Otoshimono is not that great. The problem is it wants to be a little bit of everything. The seriousness of the show tends to clash with the humor instead of mesh with it.

The packaging is quite nice and the funimation release is decent. I just purchased the regular version since the price was unbelievably generous at just under 30$ for a blu-ray.

This is what the box looks like inside.

I honestly was waiting to purchase the second season since I prefer that one much more. Yet, the blu-ray version was canceled and now it is only available on DVD. The big issue in the current anime market is how to stop reverse importation into Japan. You can buy a whole season of anime here for under 50$ where as in Japan it would cost over 300$. Another thing that they do is not offer any exclusive content on the North American releases. Basically the blu-ray has not extras that customarily come with the Japanese versions.

I ordered the Sentai Films version of ichiban ushiro no daimaoh called Demon King Daimao and found out all the blu-ray extras were missing. I was furious, lol. I am a calm and passive person, I had not been angered in many years and I found it humorous I was so upset by this. The anime industry has been omitting DVD extras for years, I don't know why I assumed that they cared enough to preserve the original blu-ray content in whole on this obscure and niche title. I don't have an all encompassing solution to the problem but I just wished that people who work in the anime industry cared as much as we do. Anime is a business, but that doesn't mean it cannot be a friendly business.

If we look at hatsune miku, which has become a worldwide success, we can see the results of what happens when a rights owner is more open to freedom with their copyrighted works. Similarly touhou is also a huge success. Of course, pirating needs to be dealt with but I think there are more positive options such as providing new ways for users to obtain content.

Why is Silfa so big?

Normally, I don't pay much attention to figure scale unless they are quite small but why is Silfa so big?

Hobby Search half-price shipping, Sept. 21-30th!

Hobby Search is having a half-off shipping sale when paying with paypal. This might not sound like alot, but now would be a great time to order inexpensive items that come in large packages - for instance, sega prize figures.  Sadly, Hobby Search doesn't stock many prize figures like HLJ or Mandarake, but you may find a few items you like. You might also think about ordering something large, as well.

Kuroneko pureneemo XS

 

Here she is, Ruri Gokou Azone Doll.

Let me say first, this is a nice doll. When I originally received the packaged and viewed the production model I was not pleased. It was not the same as the pre-order photos. Sure, many figures do not have the same attention to detail and variety of paint colors as their prototype, but what I enjoyed most about this figure was how her face was so accurate and faithful to the original. Not so, with the production model I received. Her face is chubby. Oh well, it's grown on me now and not so bad. 

 

The quality of her clothing is exceptional. There is no velcro, fabric hooks have been sewn in to the pieces. Her stockings are sewn together and have a wonderful texture feeling that stretches. 

The Azone packaging itself is so bland. They seem to have generic boxes that they place stickers on and send them off from the factory. I think collectors would not mind paying a little more for something more intricate. 

I did have two problems with the figure. The first, I don't believe this was caused by settling during shipping... Why do I always get the broken figures? Thankfully her foot just came out of the joint. Let's not be careless during packaging!

The second is, her arm would not bend. Someone on flickr recommended I tried the blow dryer trick and it worked. Just use a blow dryer to warm up the plastic and gently bend the arm and the joint at the same time. 

What's really great about dolls is their clothing is fluid. That means she can be posed in anyway a real human would be able to. It makes posing figures in a sitting position easy as pie.

Overall, I am very pleased. Sadly I now have to collect all sorts of doll clothes for dress up time. I had a few nekomimi maid outfits selected but I think I may need to revise more items before I make the final order. 

btw, today is Hatsune Miku's birthday! The 100th figma production has been delayed and did not make release today but it should be out soon. 

for some reason, Touhou ibuki figma did make final production and I have her coming to me in the mail as we speak.