Sarashi News

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!

Concepts

• Shaman -  I created this for the shaman king project. I update it if I see new information. I am not sure if there is other franchises that have shamans in it.
  
• Ghost - I made a table for every franchise. I must be a table maniac.
  
• Rock Hard Abs - I made this because anime vice needs to stay from idolizing breasts and other womanly areas. Just kidding. I made this because I work on Fairy Tail too much and see Gray and Lyon stripping. I chose Alex Armstrong Image because it's a wonderful image for that concept. Speaking of concepts, I added a table of concepts. I picked Armstrong, Lyon with Gray, Stein, and Erza Scarlet for the table.
  Please add some characters to this concept. It needs love.
  
• Implied Sex Scene - I saw this "theme" in Shaman King, Abenobashi, and Fate Stay Night. Now, I  make sure people add their info.  Please thank Dekken for uploading a beautiful image of Takashi and Saeko's implied sex scene.
  
• Cultural Diversity - I wrote on the concept thread that I created this to break the racial barrier in Anime. That page is difficult to write for. I have not added the characters, but the locations.
  
• Guild - Thanks to DestinyHeroKnight for adding this. I added a table of Fairy Tail people stamps on it.
• Animal Cruelty - Killing pandas is no-no when I saw Ren's dad kill the panda for no reason.
  
• X-Laws - Still working on it and its table.
  
• Hao's Followers -  I got one or two more people. Got to finish anime/manga differences for it.
  
• Patch Tribe -  Still working on it. I only read the manga up to 15, so there's not much Patch Tribe officiants.
• Yin and Yang - Provide an outline: Overview, Character Table, Concept Example, and Other media. I am proud of this page.
  
• Loss of Innocence - I provide an outline and filled in the reasons. Somewhere in May, I find Juuhachi submitted her Shiki characters on that page. 
• Silver Claiming - Created this one for the Rave Master Project with Fire_Star in May. Still working on it.
  
• Promise - The concept thread inspired me to do it.
  
• Broken Promise - Also, the concept thread inspires me to do it.
• Beauty Mark - 6-2-2011
• Lip Ginity
• Team Hana Gumi
• Team Ice Men
• Team Funabari Hot Springs
  

Objects

• Oracle Pager - I made a color table!
  
• Scarf - Inspired by Natsu and Anna, Obscurefan, Piface314, Obsidian609, and the Fairy Tail Team
  
• Sarashi - I thank FoxxFireArt for helping me start on this because I did not know the Japanese word for this "bandages". I like to thank Piface314 because she told me about tvtropes, a good source of info. Though she and FoxxFireArt added more characters than me.
• Candle - For the benefit of Anime Vice. It started with a Descendants of Darkness inspiration.