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.

Ika-musume Season 2 starts on Sept. 26th!

Ika-musume Season 2 starting!
I hope it follows some of the comic, my favorite chapter hasn't been done yet.
news from ANN

if you have a crunchyroll account, join the group

Obitsu multistand, get you one!

 Obitsubody Multi-stand is a great item to have. This costs about 300yen 

and is easily available for about 8$ USD including shipping.

The item comes in a bag and  needs to be assembled like a plastic model

gundam kit. There are various colors to choose from but I prefer clear.

Here we have a typical revoltech stand. It works great with the revoltechs

but it is a little wobbly and it doesnt hold the figures tight so they tend to lean forward.

On the plus side, the stand is quite invisible as it fits snugly around the revoltechs' waists.

Here is the obitsu multistand. It is a little bit more intrusive but it does

grasp the figure firmly and allows for greater pose-ability.

The stand is rebuildable and can cater to most any of your display needs.

It can hold robots and airplanes though it was mainly designed for dolls. 

I purchased this item for my Azone doll I have incoming. 

 

As you can see, the stand is visible as it grasps small figures such as this revoltech.

However, it does allow for far great flexibility and on larger figures it is not so pronounced. 

 

As I mentioned before, the stand can be adjusted to different sizes and shapes.

The typical V-stand as included with most figmas, but it can also be 

rebuilt with dual claws to hold fighter jets upright.

 

For the amazing low price, I highly recommend this as a must have if you own

various dolls and pose-able figures.