Nendoroid Figure

My first post regarding figure news. Although Good Smile Nendoroid line-up already reaching more than 40 figures, but I don't give them enough interest until now. I don't have any of them right now but have pre-ordered one (Melissa Seraphim). I really like to get Miku Hatsune, she's the cutest of them all, but HLJ already stop selling her and I don't find her on eBay (not from a reputable sellers anyway). But I promise myself that I will get her someday.

I don't know why that I didn't give enough interest for them since I always like deformed anime characters, but when I saw several pics of those figures from other collectors I just can't stop looking for more and searching the net to buy some of them.

Here's some of Nendoroid that I really like. I took the pics directly from Good Smile page. You can look the complete collection at Good Smile official website or this direct link to the page.

Mahoromatic

I've just noticed that my posting have a pattern. On my first post I showed pics from my recent acquired figure, and my second post was pics from my older figure, and somehow unintentionaly I repeat those pattern until now. Maybe that's a good combination after all.

I planned posting my Mahoromatic figure (from Kotobukiya) right now since I've prepared her pics for 2 hours. I got her around 2004 so she's considered 'old'. I displayed her on my office desk also along with my Little Snow Fairy Sugar figures when I first got her. Now she's safely displayed on my study room cabinet.

She's also the love at the first sight. How can't we don't fall in love with a long haired chicks holding a gun and riding a red sports bike?

What makes her looks so stuning is the bike, a solid hard cold metal motorbike. The bike really make the whole package looks very realistic. I'm sure that if they made it from PVC they won't look this good.

What also amazed me is they made it like a real sports bike miniature, with rolling wheels and moveable steer. I especially tore it down to pieces to show all the parts (also a very good time to do some cleaning), the details are really amazing.

Since this is the 6th time I post pictures from my collection, I feel that I need to change a bit in the way I shoot them. What I really want is to shoot my figures in some nice background, not studio style, but real environment background. Like this figure for example, I really like to have a sunset beach background for her. I don't want to get some background pics from the net since usually we can't get a hi-res pics there (not for free anyway) and the beach around my city in don't look good.

So what I can do for the time being is just tinker around a bit. I think the one below looks vintage enough. Of course it will be perfect with a hangar backdrop.

Jingai Makyo Kazeko

Here's my one and only 1/10 figure. In my search I found out that her name is Kaze no Ushiro wo Ayumumono. Her short name is Kazeko (Wind Walker). She's from H-game Jingai Makyo (Chaos Gate). I don't understand Japanese so those names are copied from some pages I found. The figure was produced by Solid Theater & Good Smile Company, release around fall 2007.

There's only 2 version of her, the other is from Alter. But the other character from the series, Ignis, is quite popular among sculptors. She's an excellent character too, maybe I will add her to my collection someday.

Back to Kazeko. She's quite expensive for 1/10 figure but I really like her pose. And when I finally received her I found out also that she has several great viewing angles (some angles are quite ecchi though T_T). The figure quality itself is top notch, as you expect from Good Smile, I don't have any complains expect probably she's looking hotter in 1/8 scale.

Here's some shot that reveal her small secret, maybe they should make them bigger ...

I realize that I did some bad lighting on her during shoot. Her jacket and hair colors looked off that I have to do lots of color correction on her, more than usually I've done.

Little Snow Fairy Sugar

These little friends of mine are always accompany me where ever I go. I fell in love with them from the moment I saw them on HLJ. I got them back in 2002 and they always near me since. Usually I put them near my PC monitor at home, I brought them also to my office a few years ago, now they're in my study room.

These figures are from Little Snow Fairy Sugar anime, produced by Yujin as trading figure collection, consist of 5 figures (color and transparent) so you need 10 to complete them as a set. But I only like those 3, the rest of them is stored in my parents house. They're name are Sugar (white costume), Pepper (green costume), and Salt (orange costume).

Everyone agree that trading figures can't be compared to 1/8 or bigger PVC figures in terms of quality. But in my opinion, these figures are top notch trading figures even until today when most of trading figures increase in quality. The design is great, their 3-in-1 design is cleverly done, one of the earliest design that combine several figures into one.

Each character (especially their costume) have impressive details, also very well sculpted. Their simple & clean character design is very perfect to be made to small trading figures like these. The paint job also good, standard figures quality. We can see several color tones on each of their costume. One of the low point is the PVC casting. They were not perfect but overall still excellent.

These figures were photographed at the same time with my Azumanga Daioh resin figure so they have similar quality problems. We can see the dim light quality and yellowish tone (because of the lamp), need to brighten them and add several tonal and color correction layers to make them look better.

Bible Black Imari Kurumi

Today I want to share my Imari Kurumi 1/7 figure from Bible Black H-game, produced by Epoch somewhere in 2007. Two reason I decided to buy her :

1. Bible Black is one of my favourite H-game off all time, I played it first around 2001 maybe, it's been a long time that I forgot. I even bought the original Japanese PC version which cost almost $100 (include shipping) and I still have it until now. I loved the art style (don't know artist name, maybe a fellow reader can inform me) since I played Angel Halo, another H-game from the same publisher (Active) with the same artist. Of course then I play Discipline: The Record of the Crusade. From I what learned from the net, Active already defunct so I'm not able to follow the artist's work anymore hiks T_T

2. Imari has a very nice cast-off that when I saw her cast-off from HLJ, I clicked the pre-order button right away ^o^

The figure itself has some quality problems.

First, she doesn't look the same as from her game look. In the game she's a high school girl but the figure look like she's older than that, more like Takashiro-sensei IMO. But still I can forgive that, she's still look good to me.

And second, the figure finishing is quite bad because of bad casting line. I don't expect this from Epoch (I'm sure Max Factory or Good Smile can make her better). You can look very clearly the casting line at her right and left stocking, her shoes, her arms, almost everywhere except her "eyes" and face. Of course every PVC figures have that but I know that they can make it smoother than this. This bad finishing makes her from supposedly 8/10 to 7/10.

As usual, I include the before and after pics. I use very minimal photoshop with this one, I don't even use gaussian blur with soft light layer which usually I put on my every pics.

As a bonus for scrolling down a long way, I also include Bible Black CG collection for you to enjoy ^_^

You can choose to view the gallery or download them all.

Problems with Resin Figures

I bought a new lamp yesterday, sooner than I expected. The lamp will serve perfectly for overhead lighting. So today I shooted several figures, I will post the pics in serial, hopefully I can update them in daily basis. Obviously the results are better than my last shoot when using only 1 light source, but still the pics are not bright enough, need photoshoped them a bit.

The shots below are resin figure from Azumanga Daioh anime series, it's been several years since I watched the show. The little one is Chiyo if I'm correct, forgot the big sister's name. I bought them back in 2001 when I was studied in US.

Aaaah, those days, back when 1/8-1/6 PVC figures were almost non-existent, the best thing we've got were those expensive painted resin figures. Trading figures were booming back then but their quality were very poor (although their quality are better over years but they're still not match to 1/8 figures until these days but some trading figures are really well made, I'll post them soon ...)

Back to Chiyo and 'big' sister, they are one of top 10 figures I'm quite proud of having. Their pose are very nice, sexy and beautiful but not too ecchi so they fit to display (almost) anywhere. The painting of course top resin quality.

But there are several problems with resin figures, there're a few that I can think of:

1. They can drain your wallet very quickly. Most of resin figures cost more than a hundred bucks compare to PVC that usually cost around $40-$70.

2. They're very fragile, do not ever drop them since they will broke haplessly. I did one with my R.O.D. resin and she's just broken, unfixable that I almost cried because of that (also because I was losing a hundred buck T_T)

3, Since they break easily, you can't just put them anywhere such as high traffic area in your house which someone might accidentally break them. The best place to put resin figures is in a safe dislay box/cabinet so you can admire their beauty endlessly.

4. One reason that I decide that I don't want to buy resin anymore is I found out in several of my collection that during course of time, the paint will crack (sorry I can't find a good english word for it) just like your house wall do. It just very sad to find out the fact that your beautiful friends are not timeless at all.

You can look what I'm talking about when you see the pic below. I just found out today when I photographed them that they also have the same problem like my other old resin. I'll check my other collection for sure, but some of them are in my parents house in Bandung.

Although they're not perfect anymore, I still love them and regard them as one of my best buy ever.

Below I post the BEFORE and AFTER pics, I think I will do this thing in every post. As you can see, the AFTER image is not that different with the BEFORE since I bought a new lamp. But still I want them to look brighter and I play around with their skintones to make them look more natural.

Kanu Uncho Cerberus Black

This is my first blog ever. So please bear in mind if it didn't run as smoothly as everyone expected.

I will try to post new stuff each week or more if I have lots of time to spare.

Just receive this Kanu Uncho Cerberus Black x White ver. yesterday, it's been quite a long time she's in the post office before I could get my hand on her. There's been lots of Kanu figures with this type of pose, but in my opinion, she's a great quality figure that add up well with the rest of my collection.

Since today I've set up my homemade still-photo studio, so she's the perfect candidate as my first model.

I knew that I need a good lighting source, I don't plan to buy professional lighting equipment of course, so I will look for other means to get it. Hopefully next month I already have it to shoot better quality pics. As you can see, the result wasn't that great, I photoshoped them to look like those pics below. I also post the 'before' and 'after' pics so you'll get it when I said that I need better lighting equipment.

One thing that surprised me is that she has removable clothes (cast off) that I didn't aware at all when I first decided to pre-order her. HLJ never show pictures of her in that 'outfit' so it's really a very nice surprise for me. Usually when I open a figure I already knew what to expect from it. But anyway, I always get to know her 'better' just once, when I first open the box and inspect her quality. I can't display all my collection in their skimpiest outfit since there are women and kid circling around my study room. So now I can have more time with her since I have to get some pics of her ^_^

But leaving her cold like that have a problem also. When I look between the pantyline and her belly, there is a small gap that's been cause by her upper body (abdomen to head) weight that is leaning backward. It's not because of bad cast, but her hair is too long that make her upper body go backward. So the skirt is better put on her always.

Lastly, just click on the slideshow to look all the pics on hi-resolution.