So once again, it’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog. Although I’ve had the materials [pictures] ready, I was not motivated enough to actually write a post.

I find just posting my latest hauls to be real easier than doing reviews, so I’ve decided to just post my recent hauls. As a testament to my laziness, the first haul was due to be posted way back in early October!

The above image is of the goodies I bought during the London MCM Expo, which was a week ago! ^^;

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Full low-down of the 3 hauls after the break ^^

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HAUL 01. (Late SEPT – Early OCT)

List of figures:

ALTER – Chua Churam

MEGAHOUSE – Alice
MEGAHOUSE – Melona
MEGAHOUSE – Airi
MEGAHOUSE – Yumil

KOTO – Mao
KOTO – Komari
KOTO – Shouko-san

YAMATO – Motoko Kusanagi

GRIFFON – Kanu

KAIYODO – Rei Ayanami

*CRAZY LABEL – Mei Mei & Di Di*

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I had almost given up on getting Alice (Queen’s Gate) at retail or near-retail price, but luckily, I managed to source one, along with Melona (Queen’s Blade).

Queen’s Blade Airi and Yumil came back instock at PlayAsia – I did not hesitate this time to get them! My Queen’s Blade collection has grown considerably with this haul ^^

Got myself the original colour-variation version of Shouko-san (Shunya Yamashita) during a sale at a hobby store. I wouldn’t have got her otherwise as I’ve already got the ‘black’ version, reviewed here.

A while ago I frowned upon poseable figures – now I get excited about playing with them ^^ Got myself Motoko from Yamato’s VMF line (supposedly to rival the RAH series of action figures). However, this figure is not without faults (review later – possibly).

Perhaps most exciting of them all was the two small vinyl figures, Mei Mei and Di Di from House of Liu. I had been waiting for these as they are just pure awesomeness – and I don’t even use that word! Will definetly talk about them more in the future as I’ve got a few things I’d like to mention…

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House of Liu baby vinyl – Teaser!

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HAUL 02. (London MCM Expo)

List of figures:

SEGA – Kasumi
SEGA – Ayane
SEGA – Rei Ayanami
SEGA – Rio

TOYS WORKS – Rei Miyamoto
TOYS WORKS – Kanu

TOY’S PLANNING – Mina Majikina

KOTO – Asuka

PS - Zhao Yun Zilong

YAMATO – Ringo

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LOADS of impulse buys this time! Mina, Asuka and Rio were fairly cheap and, probably because of the lack of rare or sought after items this time round, I ended up buying them.

Actually, there were other figures that I wanted, but I could get them cheaper from online. Unfortunately, that was before the value of the £ sank like the titanic orz.

Still, I got both Ringo and Miyamoto Rei for decent prices – both of which I was planning on buying from Play-Asia had they not been at the show! So lucky me ^^

Completely forgot about the Kasumi and Ayane releases, both of which were designed by Shunya Yamashita, so I was lucky enough to find them at the show as well. From what I saw, they were selling like hot cakes at the expo!

Zhao Yun Zilong (no, I won’t be able to remember her name either!) is a figure I first came across on BeNippon. I thought she looked quite interesting, although I don’t think she is widely known or from a popular series (correct me if i’m wrong!) so I was suppose to find her at the expo. Another vendor had the black version of her which, if i’m to be honest, is actually the nicer version. However, the price was far from nice, so I’ve had to make do with the white version.

It’s almost as if every one of my hauls has to have a Rei Ayanami figure thrown in there! (And I’ve only seen the recent remake of the series!) This time, I saw an very stylised figure of Rei. There was a similar, ‘teen’ version of this figure, but she was sold by the time I got back round to the vendor. However, I like this version more anyway! I found out when I got home that the figure is based off one of Okama’s designs. Didn’t know of him until I did a search – found out he is a popular artist, and has loads of artbooks!

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HAUL 03. (Trip into central London a few days ago)

List of figures:

KOTO – Haruka
KOTO – Karin

KAIYODO – Rei Miyamoto

List of books:

Flamboyant

Comic Artists-Asia

Comickers Art 1 & 2

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So my latest haul is also one of my most modest so far. I got the Kotobukiya version of Haruka instead of Alters, which is probably a mistake! On the bright side however, I do save quite a bit!

I got another Shunya bust to add to my collection, which now brings the total to 6. Kotobukiya haven’t announced any new busts as of late – maybe they aren’t selling as well as they had hoped?

And to finish the haul off are a few books I bought – nothing major. Comickers Art is a new magazine dedicated to tutorials and tips to drawing manga, as well as other Asian-influenced art styles. Very good first issues to far. They also have a sister series called Comickers Coloring Book, which looked quite decent.

The Flamboyant I got is the western edition, which includes 5 illustrations not included in the Japanese version. Beautiful artbook – highly recommended!

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OUTRO.

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Wow, I don’t think I’ve used the word outro since the good old AsianAvenue days! Anyway, I thought I’d touch on a slightly different topic on your way out…

Although I’ve said so before, this will probably be the last time I will have ‘big’ hauls for a while. I’m sure everyone understands the financial difficulties the world is facing, and may unfortunately be affected by it.

Since the pound (£) is so much weaker than before (whilst, annoyingly, the Yen is getting stronger) figures are getting more and more expensive to import! Oh well, time to invest back into the economy and support the fellow British by buying from home…

Now for my review of Cocona. Beautiful figure with a WF exclusive version that I would really like to get my hands on! Written review after the gallery.

Name: Cocona
Scale: 1/7
Series: Shunya Yamashita
Manufacturer: Movic
Material: PVC

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Cocona Gallery…

Cocona comes with a gi-normous plate as a stand, which can probably house the whole Shunya crew on it. Due to the size, I don’t use it, but thank god she can stand perfectly fine without it!

Cocona shows off her cute butt.

Gigantic melons alert!

Cocona’s belt – complete with pink cloth attached!

Very cool armour detailing.

Great looking sword or what? (Sorry about the bad focusing!)

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REVIEW

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Let’s just get this out of the way – figure Cocona is not a faithful rendition of drawing Cocona. My friend loves the concept art of Cocona, but refuses to buy the figure due to the major differences. I can see where he’s coming from but, if I look at the figure from outside of the box, she still has her merits.

So first, the good points of the figure:

Cocona is very detailed! Her costume consists of armour parts and (minimal) fitted clothing, which are all nicely painted. Details such as the flowers in her hair and thigh ribbons really catch your eyes. She’s got a scarf/cloth piece hanging from her back, captured in a light breeze.

Now, the granddaddy of the set is without a doubt, the huge sword shes comes with! The sword is exquisitely done, and looks even better than the original drawing! If there was an award for best figure sword, this one should definitely be up for nomination!

But alas, the time for the bad points have come:

The sad fact is, this figure is still not a faithful conversion. Cocona’s face looks nothing like the cute original. Her mouth can also look weird from certain angles. Her body proportions have also been altered – she’s got a bit more meat on her, which takes away the slender look of the original. Lastly, the colours look slightly dull – not a major problem, but she might have looked better with pastel coloured clothes and hair instead.

So my final verdict is that, as a Shunya figure, she just about passes. But looking from a different angle, I find she’s an aone hell of an aquirement!

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Recommended

Here’s my Non-Non review. She’s one of Yamato’s better releases and, due to her popularity, is getting a re-release! Full review after the gallery.

Name: Non-Non
Scale: 1/6
Series: Shunya Yamashita
Manufacturer: Yamato (Creator’s Labo)
Material: PVC

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Non-Non Gallery…

Nice pose, and with no signs of leaning since purchase.

Glad her breasts weren’t enlarged x100! (unlike Cocona’s figure transition)

Legs look pale, but then again, Yamato aren’t known for their skin shading!

Cute butt . She has a clothed ‘tail’ in the resin kit version.

Pass-able hair seamline. Paint not perfect around the buns, but then again, it is a delicate area.

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REVIEW

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Yet another Shunya figure designed by REFLECT, and once again, he has been faithful to the original design – the face, curves and pose is spot on. Coming from Yamato, I wasn’t expecting it to be anywhere near the prototype version. However, I was in awe once I got her out of the box.

The sword, which is loose, looks fantastic! The base was also a pleasant surprise – the pattern looked right at home under Non-Non.

I’ve said this many times before, and will probably say it even more in the future: The most important feature in a Shunya girl is her eyes, and REFLECT did not disappoint! And unlike the recently released Air Gear Ringo, Yamato did not mess the eyes up during the transition, thankfully.

So, sculpt-wise, she’s perfect. However, she is not perfect, but fortunately, her faults are pretty minor. The main gripe I have is the lack of skin shading. Apart from a little shading between the breasts, elsewhere, it’s pretty much non-existent. It’s a shame her cute behind did not get the benefit of any shading.

From the pictures upbove, you can just about see purple/grey patches on her stockings. I think this is Yamato’s attempt at creating see-through stockings, but, unfortunately, just looks patchy. I applaud their valiant attempt though!

So apart from the paintwork (minor), I’ve nothing to fault about Non-Non. She’s an exeptional figure, and is highly sought after! But there’s good news: for those of you guys who missed out on her the first time round, she is set for a re-release sometime in October, as mentioned above.

Hobbyfan (who are in the recast resin kit trade) are doing a Non-Non resin kit of their own, based on another image of her, and it actually looks quite good! Shame I can’t paint kits -_-

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Recommended

In my last post (which was a while ago! Sorry!), I mentioned that I had nothing on order so I wasn’t expecting anything. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep clean long enough and have been splashing out on goods left, right and center! Oops!

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Full list after the break ^^

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Well, you can’t blame a guy when there are so many hot figures recently released, along with many more on the horizon *gulp*. Add to the fact that many places have been having sales, it really was hard to not spend!

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List of figures:

ALTER – Chouun Shiryu
ALTER – Kanu Unchou
ALTER – Lily Salvatana

KOTO – Kureha
KOTO – Shii Arisugawa (bust)
KOTO – Angela (bust)
KOTO – Niniane (bust)
KOTO – Hitomi DOA
KOTO – Tina DOA
KOTO – Uesugi Kenshin
KOTO – Louise
KOTO – Silfa
KOTO – Rin Natsume

TOYSWORKS – Yuiko Kurugaya

GSC – Yuki Nendoroid
GSC – Corticarte

KAIYODO – Lazengann

Chouun Shiryu and Lily Salvatana are my favourite from the bunch. Although I also love the Shunya busts, you never do quite feel you get your money’s worth…

There are a few impulse buys that made it in there somehow. I’m not a To Heart fan, and Silfa is not particularly special but I got her during Forbidden Planet’s birthday weekend (30% Off all full priced goods!). For those of you in the UK, did any of you get any goodie bags? I didn’t -_-
I also bought Louise whilst I was there (just wanted to make the most of the coupon – not very wise)

Lazengann – my first Revoltech figure, but definitely not the last! I didn’t know how amazingly articulate these figures were, so I’ve been having a lot of fun posing it about (ahh, I’m such a kid at heart).

Pure ALTER-goodness!

The Yuki nendoroid is for my girlfriend. I did attempt to give nendoroids a go, having bought Light and Ryuk nendoroids before, but they’re a bit too cute for my liking. My girlfriend doesn’t collect figures and is not particularly interested in them, but she did find Yuki cute. Still looking to get Bincho-chan and Miku ‘roids, as well as Shana when she’s available!

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My room will have this wall o figure for a while, as the guest room (where I usually keep these stacked) is currently occupied by relatives staying over for my brother’s wedding. Mmm, can’t wait to eat all the lovely food on the day

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Anyway, that’s all folks! Unboxing and review soon… (yeah, who’s gonna believe me when I have such a track record ;P)

All these boxes o’ stuff, ordered from different places, was delivered to me this week. Actually, it probably looks like a lot more than it really is, as the two boxes on the left contain only one item each.

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So, whats inside???

Click the link to find out!

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Ta-da!

This haul contains:

9 x PVC Figures
2 x Artbooks
2 x Statues

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FIGURES

Well, I’ve finally completed the Shuraki set – I didn’t know Nida-chan’s head is so small in comparison to the other girls! ^^

And after several months of searching, I’ve also finally got myself Kureha! Unfortunately, her condition can’t exactly be described as ‘mint’, and the box she came in was barely holding together (ok, a little over-exaggeration, but you get the picture) – Gutted! -_-

I got Noel whilst she was Play-Asia’s “Deal of the Week”, unluckily before the 25% off promotion period. No idea who the Gundam girl is, but she was cheap. However, she looks better in the promo pictures and I wish I’d saved my pennies towards another figure instead =/

I’m usually not into the cuter looking figures, but I fell for Ruka from Ar Tonelico – she is a very lively figure!

Rosanna is another Shunya figure – not a fav but glad to add her to the collection.

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ARTBOOKS

I never considered buying artbooks before as I thought the money was better off being spent towards figures instead. However, I’ve now got a few and they’ve become almost as important as my figures!

I bought both the Okami and Korean Illustration artbooks on eBay, and they are incredible! Okami is especially good because it is CRAMMED with quality images and sketches, and translated faithfully from the Japanese version. Korean Illustration, as the name suggests, features artwork by famous Korean Artists. I haven’t played the games before but the artwork for Granado Espada and ZerA are amazing. I’ve got more artbooks ordered and I can’t wait to receive them!

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STATUES

Well, I am very happy to have aquired these two Final Fantasy VII polystone statues (featuring Cloud and Sephiroth) even though they were bought on a whim! If anyone in the UK and is interested in these statues, you can get them from www.play.com for only £39.99 ($80) each, Delivered! – Absolute Bargain! Unfortunately, the problem now is finding space to display them!

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Well, that’s it for now – and I do mean it! Apart from a couple more artbooks, I’ve not got anything ordered or pre-ordered, so this will be it for a while *sniff sniff*

Quite depressing when you’ve got nothing to look forward to, but i’m sure this is only temporary =p

I wanted to take a break from figure posting, so decided to jump on the bandwagon and do a “my room” post. If it looks neat, then it’s because I’ve just tidied the room. If it looks cluttered, that’s because i’m naturally an untidy person! ^^

The main shot pretty much shows everything of interest in my room, but i’m gonna show some areas in more detail with the following images.

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Starting off with my bed (oooh ahhhh)

BED CORNER

My bed (actually a sofa bed, but I forgot how to convert it ^^;)

Those are guitar heroe 3 guitars (I can’t play real ones, unfortunately -_-), but since I played the prequels to death, I got bored of 3 quickly, and have retired the guitars.

Under the two figure boxes in the corner are about 15 other boxes. When I bought new figures, I kept the boxes in the corner, but once they built up it quickly became very unsightly. My solution was to cover the area with a bin liner, and the result was better than expected! ^^

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DESK

My desk/work area. The DIY desk sits quite low, so it was difficult finding a chair to suit it. In the end, I bought the white one from ikea and intentionally left the wheels off when putting it together. The footrest was my seat of choice before the purchase the chair ^^

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DISPLAY AREA

This is my display corner, which has already been through several changes. Due to a lack of space (and my resistance to let the area spread), I’ve still got 18 figures boxed away, with more on it’s way. However, I do have plans to change this corner so that problem may not persist. Moving on:

The otaku’s choice of cabinet (the detolf) on right displays around 5 of my figures per shelf. I’ve just recently re-organised it to fit as much per shelf as possible, so i’ve had to compromise and mix a match a few figures (for example, placing Simca with the Shunya schoolgirls bunch).

The top shelf holds Mei Mei and Di Di from the House of Liu vinyl toys range. A new range is coming out soon, featuring cool looking monks and baby versions of the two main characters

I’ve got Final Fantasy XII action figures on the middle shelf. I’ve played less than an hours worth of the game, so don’t really know much about the story. I thought the Judge Master Grabanth figure was really cool, but decided to get the rest just to finish the set off.

Cow-girls Aya, Donne Anonime and Franco, as well as Simca on the bottom shelf. I’ve got Cloud on Fenrir (bike) and Sephiroth on the drawer unit. Also on the drawer unit at the back is a big vinyl figure I bought from Vans London store. It was an impulse buy but I don’t regret it ^^

And finally, on the left is my Danny Choo-inspired hanging Gundam 00 models. I’ve only bought Gundam SEED kits prior to these ones and they all came with stands, so I was disappointed to find you don’t actually get any with the 00 kits. Anyway, I was looking for a space-saving alternative, and remembered Danny’s hanging Strike. So Danny, thanks! Hope you don’t mind the blatant plagiarism

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TV/ GAMING

Here’s my entertainment section (though I spend most of my time on the Mac). I’m usually on the XBOX 360 and still playing Gears of War. My Wii is away at Nintendo’s for a clean – I can’t wait to play Smash Bros. Brawl when it comes back!

I’ve also got a PS3, but tather than let it waste space and gather dust, i’ve put it in the downstairs living room so my parents can watch chinese chapters on it. Finally, some use for the machine.

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WARDROBE(?)

Here is how I keep my close. I use to have a conventional wardrobe (you know, the standard one with doors) but from time to time, I was too lazy to even open the door to put my clean clothes in and left them on the side of my bed (yup, I should be ashamed -_-), and it usually built up a giant pile.

Anyway, this setup was inspired by clothes shops, which makes it quick and easy for me to pick my clothes out/ stack them on.

On the bottom left is Hobby Japan magazine. My first issue – very good read (or look, rather, as I can’t read Japanese)

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CLOTHES RAIL

These rails were also shop-inspired. I’ve got my bags and hats hung on the side. I probably spend just as much on clothes as my figures, if not more.

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Well, that concludes the room tour – I hope you had fun! Actually, I’ve got a final picture I want to share with you of my car, taken from my room. =)

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“ASHLEIGH”

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Mirei-san, the ultimate Shunya design(?!) Yes, quite possible. Mirei-san is a 1/7 Scale PVC figure, brought to you by the Kotobukiyan folks. My non-collector friends can’t help taking sideward glances at her when they’re around – all it takes is one look.

Anyway, I’ve dragged the release of this post because I actually felt it wasn’t worth posting. Don’t get the wrong idea, i’m not suggesting Mirei-san isn’t worth the webspace! It’s because, due to her popularity, there are plenty of better photoshoot/galleries of Mirei-san on the web (For example, Danny’s).

But alas, I’ve decided to finish the job – hopefully there’s something new in here for some people!

Mirei-san gallery follows…

Mirei-san Gallery

Above: Original Shunya drawing. Amazingly, I think the figure surpasses Shunya’s original design (blasphemy!)

So, that concludes the gallery – hope you enjoyed the (brief) show! Since I’ve aquired a new camera since taking these pictures, hopefully my next batch of pictures will be less noisy/dusty/dirty (Or maybe dirtier?)

Well, there’s really nothing to fault about this figure – absolutely none! She comes with two sets of hair: one up and one down (shown), as well as another right arm for either the post shown, or resting on her lap. Oh, and not forgetting the cast-off option. The shoe, I mean.

Have hours of fun seating her in random places – on top of your monitor, of the table etc. Any excuse to play with her

I actually bought the HK ‘red’ version before I aquired the original version – I may do another photoshoot of that one in the future.

Now, look her in the deep into her eyes and tell me you can resist her – you’re not human if you can!

Sera-chan is a 1/7th scale PVC figure sculpted by Mitumasa Yoshizawa (Reflect), and produced by Kotobukiya. Sera-chan is another figure based off a design by Shunya Yamashita, featured in his artbook, Sweet Dreams.

Apart from the clothing and hair colour, this figure doesn’t really resemble the original drawing. However, that’s no bad thing because this is an equally beautiful character. The original Sera-chan is portrayed as a cute schoolgirl and probably wouldn’t strike such a provocative pose. This is a sexed up Sera-chan with a “come and get me look”. Me likes =)

More photos of Sera-chan can be viewed by clicking the link.

Sera-chan Gallery

Above: Original Shunya drawing. Gives off a completely different vibe than the figure – both are still cute/hot nonetheless.

This is one of the earliest ‘Shunya-design-to-figure’ released (can’t quite remember the order). I bought used Sera-chan on eBay, expecting her to be in “collector’s condition” as stated in the auction description, but found long scratch marks across the base when I got her out of the box.

I wasn’t too happy, but went on to attaching the figure to the base. Unfortunately, one of the peg didn’t fit into the slot properly so I applied a bit of force to it, which resulted in Sera-chan’s feet slipping across the base and – yep, you’ve guessed it – scratched it. Learn from my mistake and be careful when handling her!

Although the people at Kotobukiya did a good job of painting her face, they clearly left the painting of the hair to the janitors. The seams in the hair is also pretty apparent, with some dodgy patch-job on the right side of her hair/head. Apart from that, this is still a very nice figure, with perfectly recreated ‘Shunya Eyes’ and at an affordable price.

There is a blonde version of Sera-chan out there, which I have been trying to get. At the time of typing, there is someone selling one on eBay, but won’t ship outside of the US. Bastard.

15/07/08 – This post was actually written when I started this blog, but decided to save it for the school feature ^^

Arisa 1/7 Scale PVC figure by Yamato’s Creators’ Labo. This is the original version, Yamato have since released Arisa in another colour variant.

Yamato bring’s another one of Shunya’s designs to PVC form, whilst doubling her breast-size in process. The original concept depicts a cute girl in sultry school top and knickers, choosing a guitar as the weapon of choice, as opposed to the usual sword.

The pose is spot on, but I can’t get over the gi-normous eyes the sculpter (“Sunny Day”), er, sculpted.

I’ve kept her skirt on, as this is how I have her on display – sorry! I’ve also noticed that her skirt is on the wrong way, so you get a ‘light-wind-breeze-revealing-bum-cheek’ sort of pose ^^

Anyway, more pics of Arisa follows.

Arisa Gallery

Above: Original Shunya drawing. Purple or white stockings?

Arisa has her fans, and who can blame them? Girls with guitars = friggin’ cool! The mirrored base is a real good feature that highlights her peachy bum (great for the perves amongst the masses). However, in my opinion, Arisa only looks good from certain angles due to the not-quite-right face, and I don’t think the round glasses help either (not pictured, sorry!)

But actually, the worst part is the production quality of the figure. Yamato have done a real rubbish job (surprise, surprise) with Arisa, with worst than beginner hair colouring job, cast-off clothes that doesn’t seem to fit back properly, and overall shoddy paintwork. I’ve got Ringo (from Air Gear) pre-ordered, but i’m worried Yamato will just cock it up now.

Another worrisome thing for potential buyers to know is that she is a real leaner, and probably worst than Shii. Unfortunately, rolled-up-paper-under-foot technique doesn’t quite work so well on Arisa…

Shii Arisugawa, released by Kotobukiya, is a damn fine recreation of Shunya Yamashita’s designs. She (or Shii – hahaha..ha…. sorry) is a 1/7 scale PVC figure, and comes packaged with her sword, a pink mobile phone and glasses.

Shii is one of my favourite Shunya figure – scrap that – one of my fav out of my whole figure collection. I still remember seeing her in a hobby shop, months before I started collecting myself, and I couldn’t get her out of my mind. Returning to the store months later, I was disappointed to find out it was sold out (can’t blame them!) – this lead me onto a searching hunt, which also introduced me to several other figures, thus triggering the domino affect.

I ended up buying Shii from a seller on eBay, second hand. It was in very good condition, but I still wished I’d bought her new now (“no other guy can touch her! NO ONE!!!”). Lame jokes aside, enjoy the pictures of Shii!

space – doh! you caught me!

Shii Arisugawa gallery follows.

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Shii Arisugawa Gallery

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Above: Original drawing by Shunya Yamashita – much cuter than the figure form.

Above: I’ve never actually noticed the seamline until now (time of editing post)

Above: Cheeky Shot ^^

Last 3 below: I really love how the ‘on the wall’ pictures look – I will probably do more of these kind of shots in the future.

Shii gets everything so right – right down to the striped underwear! As with alot of Shunya girls, Shii wields an cool-looking sword, although if that isn’t your thing, you can replace it with a cute pink mobile phone.

Although I really like this figure, she doesn’t come problem-free: she is a real leaner. I bought her in January, and I’ve had to set her upright at least 3 times now! My solution to this is to stick a rolled up piece of paper under her left foot – doesn’t look too fancy, but it gets the job done!

There’s another version of Shii available, sculpted by REFLECT – too bad she is resin model kit only.

So, all in all, this is a very hot figure, and I’d definitely recommend you add her to your collection! – even my non-collector friends appreciate her!