Alter Haruka, Dancing Autumn

Though I’ve never seen anything about Beat Blades Haruka, this figurine caught my heartbeat in a second. What catches my eyes the most in a figurine is their quality, likeness of character, and dynamic poses. I believe Alter did a great job on all these, and made her even more beautiful than the drawings. Kotobukiya made a similar version of this figurine but looks like fail next to the Alter one. Kotobukiya offered their for a retail price of 5,800 yen and Alter for 6,800. 1,000 yen is nothing compared to the quality offered in difference. … The one by Kotobukiya looks like she’s pregnant, somewhat. Fortunately, I traded it away before I could open it.

Overall Quality: 4.6/5
I’m happy this figure came out to be 1/8 scale, actually. As much as I love large figures and dynamic poses, they rarely work well together as dynamic poses usually take up a lot of space.  Haruka’s scarf is long and takes up a big radius on my shelf. It actually has to stand alone or with something else in front of her. All the details on her are spectacular though, it seems Alter really worked hard on this. I wish there was cover art on the box though so I can see which way the weapon should of been held.

Creativity: 4.5/5
The pose wasn’t their idea but the artist’s. However, I see many adjustments were made. Some things you just can’t see on a 2D plane that Alter took liberty of in the 3D version of her. The longer torso and flowing scarf was a great addition to the sweet and warm feeling of the figure.

Paint Job: 4/5
There’s a lot of details on this figure but painting them on is another thing. Some of them are out of line and fade/overflow. My least favorite part of this paint job is the chest area, it’s very uneven like they sprayed it on last second with a very bad masking job. I love the light halo on her hair. Kotobukiya has solid colors on the entire figurine.

Sculpt: 4.8/5
I haven’t found anything wrong with the sculpt and actually like the way they made the pose.  My teacher told me once that a good figurine looks good from every angle. I also have a thing for hairs with a strand sticking out. (Saber <3)

Display: 4.2/5
Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m glad it’s not too big because the pose makes it really hard to fit it in any great way with other figurines. The overall feeling of the pose makes the display very unique, many of my friends notice this figurine first. The Orange-golden colors Alter chose reminds me of autumn, my favorite season. Polygonal white bases aren’t my thing, and tagging a big ol’ logo on it doesn’t make it much better either.

Average Score: 4.42/5
Never knew about her.
But she looks like a dancing Autumn Angel.

The lighting was absolutely… horrid. Trying out a new point-and-shoot powershot. 14.7 megapx, and 3.7 opt. zoom. The light was all the flash, at least it didn’t reflect too much so it turned all white. But it screamed plastic all over. I recommend this figurine for anyone that loves unique pieces. Too bad it’s not too popular because of its origin. I received mine from Hobbylink.

Please view more pictures of her at my flickr gallery.

Figure Review: Limited Moonlit Chii

Chobits has always been one of my favorite series. It’s one of the first anime series that I’ve ever seen next to Sailor Moon. I had a big anime gap between my years because of all the moving to countries and other things my parents wanted to do. Chobits was introduced to me in my anime club in high school, that was when I started to remember what anime was after Sailor Moon.

This one is the figure that was given to the limited edition manga of Chobits. The figure reflects the picture that was used for the cover of Volume 7. This has always been one of my favorite pictures of Chii, which I think reflects both sisters. Plus, cute anime girl persocons are always sexy under moonlight.

Overall Quality: 3.2/5
The figure is pretty small, like nowadays gashapon or blind box figures. The details on the original sculpt was beautiful. However, the mass-production really threw the whole piece off. Not only that, the sofa itself cannot sit up by itself. It needs Chii’s weight on that end for it to not topple over. Not that Chii need a base for it to hold up, but a working background piece is important too.

Creativity: 3.6/5
I enjoy the idea of taking a picture and making it into a 3D sculpt form, but this figure is missing a lot of details that might not be in the 2d picture but should be in a the 3d form. This would include all the little things like un-even skin tone, hair depth, ruffle-ends, weight on sofa, etc. It could of been a much better figure with these small creative qualities.

Paint Job: 2.8/5
They tried, they really did! For all the little-older generations: Do you remember when they tried to make figures have special colored shadows or how figures looked like they has color blotches on them? This is what this one is like. It look like someone went crazy with a blue/purple airbrush. There’s all kinds of blotches of blue on her hair which I think they were trying to make shadows. Good thing people figured that natural shadows are better than painting them on now. There’s also a good bit of dotted mistakes all over- like a dot of dark purple on the dress or black scraps on her arms, things like that that makes a figure not as good as it really is. that’s not too much out-of-line paints though. Wish they worked harder on her eyes.

Sculpt: 3.8/5
like I’ve said before, there could be a lot more details in between everything. But for a figure on its age, I think they worked a good bit of ruffles into her dress and little depth on her hair. I’m really happy they made her fingers actually stand out into a prayer position into of a big fleshy blob. Too bad her feet are the ones are that are blobby with lines for toes. The garter should of been more rufflier- that’s how they make it sexy.

Display: 4/5
Perfect mini display for any Chobits collector. Chii is in a memorable position that allows the viewer to reminisce about the manga series. A lot of gashapons made for Chobits before wasn’t that great, except for the first and third set I think. This one also as “limited edition” behind it that allows some people gloat about. :]
On the technical note, it’s best to display this somewhere that is on even surface because of the weak-weighted sofa. But the brighter side is that Chii will never lean over or warp because of display issues. Dusting gets a little tough though because of all the ruffles. <3

Average Score: 3.58/5
A good piece for Chobits lovers.
Average piece for figure collectors.
Interesting for limited-edition lovers.
Sexy Chii reference. :]~

It was fun taking these pictures. They were done on my laptop which suits Chii’s personality but not the theme. No flash was used and the lighting was all natural! Some looked like she was praying and others like singing, or wishing. Check them out and tell me what you think!

Sidenote: What I regret most about Chobits is at a time in Canada several years ago. I’m sure it was at least five years. On our trip, we went into a figurine store that had a pre-painted resin model that was at least 1/7 scale of Chii in the same position. It was beautiful and I was allowed to buy it until a major flaw was noticed on it. It’s the same problem as they have on the smaller one- the sofa leg was broken because of the uneven weight distribution. If I had money then, I would of bought it anyway- till this day, I can’t forget about that beauty in the display case.

Figure Review: Kaiyodo Revoltech Revy

My first review.
I understand this figure isn’t the newest thing but since this is my first blog, I’d like to present old and new things of what I have and give information on what I have to offer. :] … … I am a pretty harsh grader, I think. So let’s get this started!

After I looked at my apartment’s bookshelf which is covered with nothing but figures, I couldn’t figure out which figure I should make a review of first. My apartment doesn’t have nearly as many figures as my house and whatever I have there is too big to transport for today because of all the art materials I have to bring for school. So I looked to the side at my one unopened figure in the apartment, Revoltech Revy. The sticker was taunting me.

Revy was first released in October 2006 at the retail price of 1500 yen in Japan.
I love how they shaped her body, her guns are detailed and pretty, but her FACE. What happened to it?! I’m glad they gave us two hairstyles though. One with a ponytail and one with her hair down. I only took pictures of her with her hair up, still sexy! Love how there were so many joints that we were able to create such dynamic poses. Remember this is WAY before Figma was introduced.

No other anime girls other there are just nearly as cool or with such a hot tattoo. I still remember seeing her giant wall scroll at Anime Expo 2007 that must have been at least 15x of a rather wall scroll. I was encased and overwhelmed with her sexy design. Though, I say the figure’s face could really use some work. This is one of the few faces that revoltech’s ever dabbed with. Remember what they did to revoltech Saber? That got reduced to around $8~12 dollars at Fanime 2008 when Kaiyodo Revoltechs redeemed themselves with the new Fraulein series.

These pictures were taken at my workplace. I work in the technology department at the moment and getting laid-off any moment. In any case, there’s a keyboard, mouse, a not very Revy-friendly environment but it’ll do for our first review. Just for practice! :]
Did I mention she comes with a lovely stand? It holds her well with her ankle slanted but it can also be rotated to your angle of liking. The only problem I had with it was the weight. It’s too light to do some of the more dynamic poses that a normal person could do so I ended up taping the base down for some of the shots.

Title: Revy
Anime/Game: Black Lagoon
Produced by: Kaiyodo
Scale: Non
Material: PVC
Release Date: October 2006
Price: ¥1,500
Available: No. Maybe Ebay. Maybe Swap Meet. Good Luck.

Overall quality: 3.5/5
Creativity: 3.8/5
Paint job: 3/5
Sculpt: 3.9/5 (Face: 1.5/5)
Display: 3.6/5 (Multiple poses, light base)
Average Score: 3.5/5

At the end of the first shoot, Revy was broken. her pony tail came off.
Good thing I had Super Glue! I’m going to have plastic fingers for a whole weekend!