Figures News

So Megahouse is probably the most popular creators and distributors of One Piece collectible figures, and maybe half a year ago they started releasing the Strawhat's as they appear in the New World. Being a massive fan of the One Piece (it is my favorite anime) I decided to shell out the money and buy all the figures. Up until this point only five of the crew members have been released. I'll add the others as I get them. (Chopper will be up shortly). Hope you guys enjoy the reviews.

Monkey D. Luffy:

Roronoa Zoro:

Nami:

Sanji:

Welcome to Featured Figures; a blog feature highlighting a handful of figures, my thoughts on them, the dents they'd leave in your wallet and maybe even links to sites you can buy them from. Let me know what you want to see from these blogs and I'll see what I can do.

After getting some good feedback across all the sites I'm keeping this blog feature going, now featuring figures spanning across anime, comics, movies and video games. Something for everyone.

This post is best viewed in blog format.

Chie Satonaka, Figma (Max Factory)

Strike a pose, Chie

It's my understanding that there are possibly a few Chie fans out there, so here's one for you guys; the Chie Figma by Max Factory.

Chie comes with a variety of different faces and accessories you can swap around to your liking. She's also posable, so other than changing her outfit you can pretty much get her looking exactly how you want. She comes with a standard face, a shouting face and even a Shadow Chie face. Accessories include glasses, joke nose glasses and a swoosh effect piece to attach to her leg for some kicking action. Looks like a nice figure with a lot of options.

As a side note, if you dig some good cosplay there are a couple of different Chie sets in the cosplay thread.

Chie can be pre-ordered for $46.79 (approx £30.41) on YesAsia

Samus Aran, Figma (Max Factory)

Don't mess with this chick

Since several people mentioned in the previous blog that they prefer a fully suited-up Samus over Zero Suit Samus, here's another figma by Max Factory of just that; Power Suit Samus from Metroid: Other M.

Like the Chie figure, Samus comes with several bits and pieces to customize her with. Included is a Morph Ball, two different beam effects (single and double-shot), an opened canon tip (as if she's firing missiles) and a few different hands; open, closed and thumbs-up.

As you can tell from the images this figure is very posable, equipped with a figma stand to keep her up so you can recreate just about any of the well-known poses Samus has done over the years.

Samus can be pre-ordered for $55 (approx £35) on Hobbyfan

Iron Man Mark VII, ARTFX Statue, 1/6 scale (Kotobukiya)

Iron Man: Destroyer of Concrete

Taking the bad-ass award this week is the Avengers Iron Man Mark VII ARTFX Statue by Kotobukiya. Tony's on the seventh version of his Iron Man suit already? Dude works fast.

No articulation or custom pieces here folks, this is just one solid, shiny, high quality statue. I think it's actually kind of harder to get figures like this and Samus wrong in a lot of ways. Faces are hard to get right, especially real faces. Robot-suits like these are more mathematical - make everything the correct shape and size and you're set. Even so, this thing looks amazing. The ripped-up concrete beneath Tony's feet here really completes the package. Makes Iron Man look super-heavy and powerful.

Oh, his chest and eyes also light up, as if the damn thing wasn't cool enough already.

Here's a question: who wins in a fight between Samus and Iron Man? I like Samus as much as anyone else, but I think I'd have to give that one to Iron Man. Maybe they should put him in the next Super Smash Bros. game...

Iron Man can be pre-ordered for $130 (approx £82) on Amazon

Natsu Dragneel, HQF, 1/8 scale (Tsume)

Even in anime, few dudes can pull off pink hair

My love for Fairy Tail is no secret. I like to think of it as Bleach and Naruto's cheeky little brother that runs around causing mayhem, it's a fun show to watch with a ton of likeable characters. I was pleasantly surprised to see some good Fairy Tail figures coming out, starting with this Natsu Dragneel HQF (High Quality Figure) by Tsume.

As a Fire Dragon Slayer, the plastic fire engulfing Natsu's hand is a great touch, it could have been a solid red or orange colour, but the mixture of orange and yellow and the red tips make it look really nice. The hair and attention to detail on the scarf look particularly good too.

The detail on the eyes and teeth is something I haven't seen much of before. It looks like someone drew the face with a fine marker pen or something. I usually prefer the sort of stuck-on pre-printed eyes you see on a lot of anime figures over painted ones, but it works pretty well here I think.

Natsu can be pre-ordered for €79.90 (approx $105 or £66) on tsume-art

Yoko Littner, 1/8 scale, Bounty Hunter Ver. (Alter)

The holster is the most practical thing on her

The last featured figure this week is the Yoko Littner "Bounty Hunter" figure by Alter. I haven't watched much Gurren Lagann so I don't know if Yoko actually dons this outfit at some point in the anime, but it's a cool figure regardless.

Yoko, being as popular as she is, has been rendered in plastic many times, but this figure is definitely up there as one of the best. Judging be the huge burn-holes in her overcoat she's been having a rough time, though other than a few bandages around her right hand her body is relatively unscathed. Yoko's enemies need some target practice.

Strangely enough the thing that jumps out at me most is Yoko's gun holster. They really nailed the leather look with that, the fake stitching looks great and the strap around her leg is a nice little detail that could have been left out, but wasn't. The sizes of the guns seems a little off though. The pistol looks huge and Yoko's trusty sniper rifle looks a little smaller than usual (it usually looks considerably bigger than her). Maybe it's just too big on other figures, either way these are small complaints in the grand scheme of things.

Yoko is listed at $105 (approx £66) on Hobbyfan but is currently sold out.

What do you think of the selection this week? Would Iron Man beat Samus in a fight? Already ordered a Chie figure of your own?

— Daniel Newton is a moderator for Anime Vice and Screened. Follow him on twitter: @Daniel_Newton and @AnimeVicers

Other posts: • Dragon Ball Z Kinect Game Announced • Featured Figures #01 • Oreimo Season 2 Announced!

Welcome to Featured Figures; a blog feature highlighting a handful of figures, my thoughts on them, the dents they'd leave in your wallet and maybe even links to sites you can buy them from. Let me know what you want to see from these blogs and I'll see what I can do.

Son Goku SSJ, 1/8th scale, Clear Hair Ver. (Medicos Entertainment)

Screaming, as usual

This is easily one of the most bad-ass Dragon Ball Z figures I've seen, and boy has there been a lot of DBZ figures over the years. Not only does this Goku figure have really great looking clothes--all the folds and highlights look really great--but look at that hair. Dude has glass hair, well... I imagine it's really semi-transparent plastic, but it certainly looks the part.

This is version 2 of the figure, with the original featuring boring not-awesome hair, so clearly this is the version to get. The equally awesome Super Saiyan aura around Goku's feet is also a great touch.

What do you think? Is glass hair cool or weird?

Goku is listed at ¥9,200 on Amazon Japan (approx $112 or £71) and $117 on Hobbyfan but currently out of stock.

Samus Aran, 1/8th scale, Zero Suit ver. (Max Factory)

Sleek Samus

I have a weird relationship with Metroid games. I acknowledge that they're great, in fact I think very highly of them, but I don't think I've ever finished any of them. Particularly whenever I take a crack at Metroid Prime, I just don't get on with it, not really sure why. Maybe I'll finish one eventually, in the meantime I'll just admire gorgeous figure renditions of Samus like this Metroid: Other M figure from Max Factory. If it's too hard to tell Samus is a woman with her power suit on, there's certainly no question when she takes it off.

I love how sleek this figure looks, I don't know if Samus normally looks as tall as she does here, but I guess I haven't played Other M so maybe one of you knows better than me. There's some nice detail on the gun, and the Metroid looks great too.

Samus can be pre-ordered for $103 on Hobbyfan (approx £65) or $130 on J-List (approx £82)

Kobato Hasegawa & Maria Takayama, 1/7th scale (Max Factory)

Super cute

Okay, I haven't watched Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai yet, but these figures are adorable. These are sold as two separate figures, but as you can tell they obviously go together, which is a classic trick to get twice as much of your hard-earned money from you.

I literally can't find fault with either of these figures. They're cute, the hair looks good (while not quite as glassy-looking as Goku's hair, it's similar) and their outfits look especially great. I appreciate it when sculptors put in extra effort to make the clothes look separate from the figure, you know, like actual clothes. Like the "Zero Suit" Samus is wearing, these playboy-style catgirl outfits are super glossy.

These figures can be pre-ordered for $88 each on Hobbyfan (approx £55) or $105 each on J-List (approx £66)

Chifusa Manyuu, 1/4th scale (A+)

Skimpy Samurai

For those with more risqué tastes we have Chifusa Manyuu from Manyuu Hikenchou. The biggest figure in this selection at 1/4th scale making it more of a statue than a figurine. Chifusa comes with a katana and completely removable attire that already barely covers her expanding bust (in the show, the figure itself doesn't expand... that would be weird).

I'm not really sure why her hair is so blue, I'm pretty sure it was black in the anime, but I like how... soft she looks. That probably sounds weird, but it's easy for figures to look very solid since they're made of plastic, and this doesn't. If you're looking for something a little lighter on clothing and bigger in size, this may be the figure for you. With that sword it would probably make a pretty good letter-opener too I guess.

Chifusa can be pre-ordered for $210 on Hobbyfan (approx £132) with extra shipping fees.

What do you think of these figures? Ready to order one? Or are you like me, preferring to appreciate them from afar instead?

— Daniel Newton is a moderator for Anime Vice and Screened. Follow him on twitter: @Daniel_Newton and @AnimeVicers

Other posts: • Oreimo Season 2 Announced!

As someone who has slowly been acquiring anime figures over the past 2 years or so, I've had a rather uneventful task of getting any of the ones that I really want. This ease has recently changed as I have learned that not everything is as it seems. So, I decided to do a little write up on what people who are starting out or have been collecting figures for awhile to keep in mind as they look for their must have figures.

My first figure was that of Asa Shigure from Shuffle. I saw the figure on Tomopop after watching the anime and had to get it. After going through some normal searches I ended up going with some of the more normal importing sites that I saw on Tomopop: amiami and hobby search. I ended up going with amiami and have sense stuck with them as they have proven to be excellent so far with both their promptness and their quality of shipping.

I have ordered a few things from them, but as anyone that has imported anything before will tell you, importing can be rather expensive. Shipping can almost double the price of the item depending on the type of shipping you choose, so doing your research and finding the cheapest you can before buying is definitely worth the time and effort. Also, exchange rates tend to change a lot, especially if you are dealing with the Japanese Yen. It used a rather good exchange rate in the past when the Yen was weak, but the Yen has gotten a lot stronger in recent years meaning the advantage that you used to get isn't there as much (in the past it was about $1 = 100 Yen but now it's more like $1 = 80 Yen). This means that at times you'll be getting a better deal then others, but it has seemed to be consistent over the past few years so don't be expecting a miracle in exchange rates to happen, at least for anyone's economy sake I hope not. If you want to check what the current exchange rate is you can check out xe.com for current rates.

Another thing you need that is good to know is the type of figures that are out there. There are a few main types that you will commonly see: PVC figures, Figmas, and Nendoroids.

• PVC Figures are the more common static posed figures that you will find. They tend to be the most expensive and the most detailed of the figure types and have few, if any, extra parts to customize what they look like when you display them. There are a lot of companies that produce these type of figures, but the more popular companies tend to be Alter, Kotobukiya, Max Factory, and Alphamax (these are up to debate, but have been the best that I have found). A lot like name brand versus generic brands in America prices and quality will vary depending on what company's figure you go with so your mileage will vary. There are a variety of sizes that PVC figures come in, mostly in the 1/8 to 1/6 scale range (8 to 10 inches). If you're looking for high detail and are willing to spend a little more, then PVC figures are what you'll want to check out.
• Figmas are basically action figures. You can pose them in multiple different ways and they tend to come with a lot of accessories to change appearances. These accessories can include everything from objects like a music instrument or weapon, different facial expressions or hair, and even different hand poses to grasp or do a peace sign. These are the most flexible (pun intended) figures that you can get as they allow their owner a lot more choices as to how they want them to look instead of being stuck with just one pose the entire time. Figmas also tend to be cheaper than PVC figures even though they come with more stuff. Sizes tend to range around the 6 inch range for the most part although you will find some bigger and smaller.
• Nendoroids are "deformed" figures that usually have a big head and a small body. They are a lot more of a love or hate type figure as some people love them and some people hate them. They tend to be a cross between PVC figures and Figmas as some are stationary (can't change poses), but some do include different faces or accessories to change appearance. The biggest of these tend to reach the 6 inch mark with most tending to be smaller than that.

The hardest thing with figures is actually finding them. Unless you find a figure that hasn't come out yet and you can pre-order it, some of the more populare figures tend to be difficult to find, unless you don't mind them being used. If you do find a place that you can pre-order and you want it, then pre-order it. It learned that when I got the re-release of the Rise Kujikawa figure from Persona 4. I pre-ordered it early from amiami and by the time it was released it was already sold out. PVC Figures tend to be the hardest to find especially after being released for awhile so when you do find them they tend to be near the $100+ range, some going a lot higher than that. Personally, I have been have good luck recently finding stuff on trusty Amazon some even with free shipping. Depending on your figure your mileage will vary and so will the price.

Another route would be going on auction sites such as eBay. You will run into high prices as well, but also have a chance at getting a good deal on something hard to find. I will caution everyone going this route though, there are counterfeit/bootleg figures out there that look almost exactly like the real thing. This is something that I learned yesterday. While looking for a Black Rock Shooter figure, I found the one I liked for a real good price and free shipping. Turns out it was too good to be true. It can be hard to tell the difference as sometimes it's only small details that could be different, but if you're a stickler for quality then you'll want to be careful. Small details like eyes, mouth shape, hands, and hair color can be off and the overall quality can be rather poor leaving you a sad buyer when you finally get it. Thankfully, on sites like eBay you can dispute stuff and can get your money back if such things occur (as I did with very little hassle), but the hassle and disappointment can be a strain. My best advice is to check out myfigurecollection.net and find the figure you are looking at and check to make sure if there are counterfeits of it out there before you buy.

There is a lot more that I can go into, but hopefully for those looking to start a collection or already have a small collection going you have learned a little bit to save you some money, some headaches, and some time. For those that have any horror stories or advice you are more than welcome to share what you know.

My second online buy is an Ebay item. It was fairly cheap at a price of €19.89 with no shipping costs. Which is good because I don't have money for the official version which is from €90 to €127, And I'd rather spend that on more manga instead of 1 figure that isn't posable or diecast. (nor a Sentai mech).

The box is fairly nice for a KO its only it the lighter parts on the top of the box that you can see its printed out differently then you would expect from an official Japanese company like Good Smile. Also I got the Rosario but I keep it in the box because I fear I would lose it.

And the figure itself is also great for a copy. The dress is totally different colour compared to what's presented on the box. And that's something that bothered my mom who liked the colour on the official figure. But in truth I don't mind it that much since its not really a bad substitute red and the paint job is really good for a HK knock-off.

The mirror is good though I don't see the point of it. Even If I was someone who bought this for ''ecchi'' reasons its not much use to me because It so high up in my cabinet it might as well not exist. :P

The cross is also annoying. on the official I noticed its in a totally different place and in this version it likes to go up a little so the cross doesn't lean back. This makes a gap that you can clearly see above.

The hair...... Where to begin.... Okay, lets start with that hair line you see above. I noticed allot of faults in this knock-off and yet I still bought it. But that hairline didn't stand out that much. And now it annoys me a bit. It just looks to much like what it truly is, like two parts someone glues together. It actually looks fine on the official version. It pretty much invisible on that one. Also I <3 Inner Moka's long white/silver hair...... Can I have some more white paint please!?! TO MUCH DAMN PURPLE!!! it looks like Barney's wizz!! :P. I did use some paint on the figure, which you can sadly see in the photo above. The nails where pink and I didn't think it fitted with the colour scheme of the figure. So I painted it white like on the box. Sure it looks messy and my mom or aunt could have done it. But I did it anyway. I can always fix it with acetone when my mom decides its not that great.

Another problem is that the figure is also out of place due to the cross. So Moka's foot is actually over the mirror platform. Its really annoying because now I can't really place it right.

Edit:

Fixed

I now have it kinda crooked next to my manga collection. But of course its not really set right because I had just put it back after taking photo's. The manga really rest well against the cross. And despite all its cheap faults its what I bought it for the manga and I like it for that! (Btw at first I liked the anime, but every time I re-watch it and a new tonkabon is released I keep liking it less and less. The manga always trumps the anime.).

I now got enough money to buy stuff. I was planning on a Gokaiger haul but right now I only got enough for the Jetman set which is already on its way here. I'll blog about it when I have it :)

(This blog consists of two parts, with Part I being the story of how I got it, and Part II being the review of the figure, complete with pros, cons, and my final score)

Part One: Getting the Figure for My Collection

Welcome, my fellow AnimeVice users, to this my blog regarding the arrival of my newest anime figure that I purchased for my collection. So far, I own the following figures:

Figure Collection (Selvaria Bles, Alicia Melchoitt, and Hatsune Miku)

• 1/7th Scale PVC VOCALOID Hatsune Miku figure (GoodSmile Company)
• 1/7th Scale PVC Valkyria Chronicles Selvaria Bles figure (ALTER Corporation)
• 1/8th Scale PVC Valkyria Chronicles Alicia Melchiott figure (Craftsmanship by KOTOBUKIYA)

On Wednesday afternoon of last week, the UPS truck arrived out front of our house, and the driver handed me the Play-Asia box that he was carrying in his hands. After signing for the package, I went back to my bedroom and excitedly opened the box, for I had been waiting roughly a month for the day when the newest addition to my anime figure collection would arrive from Japan. I removed the bubble wrap, and came face to face with the blue and white case for the Strike Witches 1/8th Scale PVC Charlotte E. Yeager figure from the ALTER Corporation. Carefully, I removed the case from the cardboard box and put it down on my bed to take a photo of before heading off to spend the weekend at my cousin's house for his birthday. Other than some slight damage to the bottom left corner of the case, it had arrived mainly unaffected by it's cross-Pacific delivery.

Charlotte E. Yeager Figure (1/8th Scale PVC)

When I returned from kicking it with my cousin during his epic weekend bash yesterday, I awaited until my folks had gone off to sleep just after 10:00 PM before carefully moving around the main coffee table in the living room and cleaning it off so that I could take images of my newest figure to upload onto AnimeVice. With great care, I took my figure out into the living room and opened the case to remove Charlotte along with her BAR rifle, swappable Striker Unit propellers, and her translucent blue base from it's plastic container. I put the base together, removed her detachable hand to attach it to the BAR rifle, reattaching it in place to her body before joining the figure and it's base together. Now completed, I set off and took the following photos with my Canon Rebel XSi D-SLR camera.

Charlotte E. Yeager Figure (1/8th PVC ALTER Corp) (25 images)

Part II: The Review (2011 ALTER CORPORATION 1/8th Scale PVC Strike Witches Charlotte E. Yeager)

First off, I must give ALTER Corporation a lot of credit with creating another amazing figure that exceeds my expectations in both the quality and details on this figure. I was impressed as to just how much detail that they had given this figure, from the shiny Striker Units on her legs to the BAR rifle she wields down to the overall outfit that she has for this figure. The base that the figure perches on is a translucent blue, containing statistics regarding Charlotte's overall stats along with information on her weapon and Striker Units. The figure has several swappable parts, for it can be posed with or without the BAR rifle, and the propellers can be swapped on her Striker Units with either spinning blades or stopped blades depending on what the collector wishes for the figure to have when out on display.

This is my second figure from the ALTER Corporation (the other being my 1/7th Scale Valkyria Chronicles Selvaria Bles figure), and once again they have truly outdone themselves in terms of overall quality, appearance, and the amount of details that they have put into this wonderful figure. I highly recommend this figure to any figure collector that is seeking a high-quality addition to their collections and to any Strike Witches or Charlotte E. Yeager fans that would love to add another wonderful figure to their collection.

Pros: Amazing Details, High Quality, Very Attractive to Look At and will make a great addition to anyone's collection.

Cons: Somewhat hard to get the BAR rifle into her removable hand, but it was much easier to remove it compared to placing it in her hands.

Final Score: 4.75 out of 5 Stars

Charlotte E. Yeager Figure (1/8th Scale ALTER Corp)

ShadowKnight508 is a regular member of AnimeVice, having been appointed to the rank of Forum Moderator by the AV Staff two weeks ago. He is active in the forums and can be usually found doing one of his several planned Wiki Projects for AV's massive Wiki database when he is not keeping the forums or site safe from spam/ad-bots and trolling. You can follow ShadowKnight508 on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ShadowKnight508 and can also be found on on Giant Bomb as well.

(No Anime Weekly this week due to delays for Madoka and Star Driver broadcasts)

Got him for $38 when Hobby Search finally restocked. This is the regular revoltech edition. There are about 101 different versions of Danboard out there with various corporate logos, the most sought after being the Amazon.jp version (same as the one in the Yotsuba! manga). The prices for that version is skyrocketing due to its small run and is unlikely to be re-released.

The box is cleverly designed, keeping with the whole cardboard theme. The top part of the box even had holes cut out and covered with plastic for the eyes and mouth. Anyway, without further ado! Photos:

The glowing LED eyes are a nice touch, but I worry about the battery leaking and ruining the figure (^.^;) Overall a nice figure to play with. Weirdly enough, its limited facial emotions give it a lot of personality. I tried to bring that out in these photos, but I don't think it was that good (^.^;). Go look here and here for some cool danbo photos (and really cool video in the 2nd link). Next batch of figurine photos will be something more recent (released late January 2011), and then some older ones which I haven't taken photos of (Konata, Layton, Nagato witch ver.). Hope to do more of this soon! (^.^)/

All photos taken by me (vic), with a Panasonic LX5