Hobby Hovel
14Aug/1031

Weekly Highlights: Don’t Break my Coldcast Heart!

by

Chag: Wow. Ash and I may have taken a break last week, but the figure scene sure as hell didn’t. The preorders for the figures we saw from WonFes have been popping up like acne on a greasy teenager’s face. We won’t be able to get to all of them today, but here are a few that were at least moderately interesting to rant about!

1/8 Kousaka Tamaki (Samurai ver.)

Scale: 1/8 Origin: Dragon Chronicles/To Heart 2
Maker: Kotobukiya Sculptors: K@Z
Retail Price: ¥6,800 Release: December 2010

Ashlotte: Yea, thanks Kotobukiya – make the cute loli witch an exclusive and leave the rest of us poor international slobs with Tama-nee figure #1218. As for Tamaki herself... I say leave the half-naked warrior girl figures to Queen’s blade and MegaHouse.

Chag: Energizer should consider changing their mascot to Tama-nee, because she just keeps going and going and going...

You know, I can’t even be bothered to be annoyed at the announcement of yet another Tamaki figure. I mean, just LOOK at her – she looks like some sort of confused 3-way love child between a Samurai Girls character, a beach queen, S&M dominatrix. It’s just impossible for me to take her seriously. I don’t think she’s a very appealing figure (especially when compared to the witch Konomi), but as always, Tamaki’s signature pair of assets are looking nice. As long as there is love for big breasts amongst figure fans, Tamaki figures will continue to be made... so I guess you just gotta DEAL WITH IT, Ash. =P

By the way, I just found out that To Heart 2 was originally released as an all-ages game. Un-fucking-believable.

Ashlotte: Yes deal with it... Is it just me or are most of Koto’s exclusives flat-chested? Taiga... Mikoto... Konomi... This is not a trend I’m enjoying!

The shading on Tamaki’s body and hair looks damn nice, especially for a Kotobukiya figure, but her face just doesn’t work for me. It’s not really bad, but she just doesn’t look much like Tamaki to me, or at least the Tamaki I know from the To Heart games.

Like Key and 5PB, Leaf also releases all-aged galges. Heck, even the currently airing anime Amagami is based off an all-ages game. When you take the mostly pointless porn out of these games, it forces the makers have to actually focus on the story and presentation yea?

Chag: See, that’s the thing: when I think of To Heart 2, I don’t see “story and presentation” – only Tama-nee’s bountiful melons and Sasara’s ridiculous swimsuit maid outfit. Sure, I’m being presumptuous since I’ve never played the games or watched the anime, but surely you can’t blame me too much for assuming that To Heart 2 is a wank-off game, right?

You know, someone should conduct a research on the preference for chest sizes amongst figure fans. The DFC fans are very vocal, but I’m not sure if they are majority. If we think about it symbolically from a reproductive standpoint, smaller chests represent youth (an arguably universally desirable trait, though exactly how young is subjective) while larger chests can be interpreted as fertility symbols. However, given the choice between Tamaki and Konomi, most people in our present-day society would probably choose Tamaki as the more sexually attractive choice. But hey, figure fans are not “most people”, and I’m pretty damn confident that there would be a significant deviance from the general ratio between big and flat. I wonder just how far we deviate... hmmm.

Actually, come to think of it, it’s kind of risky to deconstruct everything down to sexual attraction, because God knows that it’s not the only thing we look for in a figure. Still, the question stands: DFC vs. HEALTHY, which do you prefer, our dear readers?

Ashlotte: Ha, To Heart 2 is not really a wank-off game. Most of the girls stories are actually really quite nice and stand fairly strong as good wholesome highschool love yarns without the need to be raunchy. Heck, even the H-content added in the PC versions are mostly sweet.Trust me: I’ve played enough fap games and this isn’t really one of them.

As for Konomi vs. Tamaki... Meh, I pick neither. It’s all about Lucy (And to a lesser extent Maaryan-senpai) for me! :p

Funny that Tamaki’s voluptuous frame came to be meme’d as “Healthy” when to me a nice slender girl (read non-loli) gives me more of a sense of “healthiness” then some fat-chested gal... Maybe I’m too much of a realist though... >_>

Chag: “Realist”? Are you sure you don’t mean pedophile? =P

Ashlotte: It’s Anime’s fault… I once was normal... I just liked Slender girls (think Ryouko from Ookami-san), but noooo the Japanese only gives loli’s flat chests! So really it’s Japans fault... Curse you Japan and your delicious art..!

1/8 Saten Ruiko

Scale: 1/8 Origin: A Certain Scientific Railgun
Maker: ALTER Sculptors: Mumei
Retail Price: ¥7,140 Release: December 2010

Ashlotte: I dislike her for the same reason as Alter’s Sanya. Her head looks like a misshapen fruit from certain angles. But then unlike Sanya nobody seems to mention that and all seem to praise her… maybe it’s time to get my prescription checked?

Anyway, seeing as Ms. Flower Head is coming up next, all I can hope is to see a Kuroko figure from ALTER at some point (although Wave’s upcoming rendition of her may satisfy my desires in that area depending on how it turns out...).

Chag: Ha, I wouldn’t call them “misshapen fruit” per say, but I think I get what you mean. The cheeks are more pronounced on these two figures than usual. I don’t have an issue with that, though. Her grin is also pretty unique. I don’t think I’ve ever seen toothy grin like that from any other figure, and it really adds a lot to the figure’s personality.

But Jesus, look at that fucking hair sculpt. That is the most badass hime-cut sculpt I’ve ever seen (okay, her bangs aren’t really hime-cut bangs, but close enough). If this were any other manufacturer, I’d start to spew doubts about the moulding detail of the final product, but since this is ALTER, they’ll probably pull it off. So much for hime-cuts looking like boiled seaweed – this is the beginning of a glorious chapter in figure hair history.

Ashlotte: Aye you can always rely on Alter to give ya great hair. I’m not sure if this is a by-product of all those action poses they crank out, but they seem to put a lot of attention into that aspect most of the time.

Chag: Hmmm, pretty odd of ALTER to start with Saten (assuming they actually get to all the Railgun heroines), now that I think about it. I haven’t watched Railgun yet, but judging from those threads on /a/ during the months when Railgun aired, I’d think Saten is a pretty hated character. Oh well, hated or not, this figure has aroused my interest in Railgun once more. Time to find out myself whether or not I’ve been trolled or not!

Ashlotte: Well your first mistake was using /a/ as a metric =P. Among other things, due to her skirt-flipping antics I’d say she’s a fairly well-liked character.

As for ALTER’s choice... Meh, they seem to like to dodge other companies in general and seeing as many figures exist of Mikoto already, especially the recently released GSC one, it feels like a rather typical ALTER move to sidestep any confrontation for now and focus on the other underrepresented girls first.

Chag: Another skirt-flipper, eh? I can see why you’d like her already =P.

I can’t blame ALTER for wanting to avoid a fight with GSC, but I bet they can pull off a Mikoto better than what GSC came up with (which is neither flashy or particularly cute). There are currently 11 Mikoto fixed-pose figures on MFC, but none of them seem to be particularly memorable (other than the cockmongler Kotobukiya version, which is memorable for all the wrong reasons). If anyone can make Mikoto’s drab uniform exciting, it’d be ALTER.

 

1/8 Kanbaru Suruga

Scale: 1/8 Origin: Bakemonogatari
Maker: Kotobukya Sculptors: Nakamura Hirotoshi
Retail Price: ¥6,800 Release: December 2010

Chag: Oh god, this figure is so exploitable it HURTS. I can hear the figure modders smacking their lips already. I’m surprised Kotobukiya didn’t go ahead and add a camel toe on this figure. Decency? Fuck that – nothing could be as irrelevant as the concept of decency when you have a pose like THIS.

I’m surprised Kotobukiya decided to include the monkey arm. It’s nice of them to go the extra mile, but I don’t think pretty girls and HAIRY ARMS go together all that well.

Ashlotte: Except that arm looks anything but hairy! Boy, you can just feel the limitations of Koto’s sculpting/moulding capacities looking at that thing. The tights and in-your face pose really remind me of my Sanya figure from them. Sadly, it’s not a figure you’d want to remember much.

Like you said during the Wonfes article, this pose certainly does feel more “Kanbaru-ish” than the one GSC is making no matter how awesome that one appears. But honestly, as I said in your Hitagi review, I really don’t like their school uniform. It’s boring and maybe one of the reasons I gravitate towards Mayoi and Nadeko (Ok that and the DFC...). If only ALTER announced a figure of Kanbaru in her tomboyish casual clothes from the first Nadeko Snake arc episode with exposed midriff and a ball cap, I’d be all over it.

Chag: Hmmm, speaking of Nadeko, Kotobukiyia will probably make their own version of her too, won’t they? And chances are it will actually have the baggy pants that you love so much. You’ve been hard Kotobukiya’s quality (for good reason), but would you still be excited at this point if they unveiled a Nadeko figure?

Ashlotte: Haha I’m hard on Koto because they are a maddening company...They are capable of creating great works on par with Max Factory and ALTER, yet then they turn right around and throw out something you could only call garbage...

Excited for a Nadeko figure? Eh, while I do like to go on about her baggy outfit, if they were ballsy enough to do one of their signature “pillow figures” of Nadeko in her nightgown from the Tsubasa Cat arc... Yea, that would be something actually worth buying. Will it happen though? Doubtful...

Actually I wouldn’t terribly mind her in her school uniform either. Unlike the horrid looking high school uniforms, her middle school uniform has quite a bit of charm in its simple cooler scheme and slightly different from the norm design.

Chag: Man, you sure love going for those obscure costumes that barely appears in the TV series at all, don’t you? I couldn’t even remember what Nadeko’s school uniform looked like, much less Kanbaru’s casual outfit. However, despite how brief its appearance was, I think it’s pretty safe to say that everyone who has watched Bakemonogatari remembers that nightgown. Idea swiftly seconded – want to have a fighting chance against the big bad GSC, Kotobukiya? Here’s your chance!

 

1/6 Eris (Fruit Bikini ver.)

Scale: 1/6 Origin: Asobi ni Ikuyo!
Maker: Alpha Max Sculptor: 2 percent
Retail Price: ¥16,800 Release: January 2011

Ashlotte: Nice job Alpha Max, you captured her balance of cute and sexy nicely! I do wish she had a bigger smile, but there’s something very charming about that small smirk just the same... But damnit, why does it have to be resin coldcast?? Putting aside the issue increased cost, I just dislike resin as a material in general. It’s far too brittle for my tastes.

But still....... Eriiisss... muuu... have to think on this one...

Chag: I dunno dude – what that kind of money you could get a couple of those Max Factory Shining Wind swimsuit figures, and Seena is looking mighty fine from the reviews I’ve been seeing~

Have you had any lousy experiences with resin figures in the past personally in the past? I know they have to be packaged like live explosives in order to even hope to avoid breakage, but I haven’t heard any horror stories thus far. Granted, I probably don’t lurk hard enough across figure blogs, so do you have any stories to share, Ash?

Ashlotte: I could do that with that amount of money, except I don’t know a damn thing about the Shining series while I adore Eris... But I guess I’ll just wait for the slightly less ero figure CM is gonna put out. Still, the tropical feel of this one is so nice!

Horror stories, eh? Meh, I guess I do have my share of of those. The only two resins I own were both broken in at least half a dozen spots each and both required repair, as well as light drilling to open up holes that pieces wouldn’t fit into, or extensive gluing for holes that were too big. My Hydorana was done by an individual and my Ruri was mass-produced. Both were extremely well-packaged, but broke just the same. So yea, the material is just really annoying to deal with and I have no idea why companies still use it... Very heavy, very brittle, and very expensive.

Chag: Yikes! Given your previous experience with resin figures, I’m surprised you gave this Alpha Max Eris thought at at all. You must love this character immensely in order to bypass the nightmares of yesterday... here’s hoping that more makers pick up on Eris in the future!


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Comments (31) Trackbacks (0)
  1. Tier
    August 14th, 2010 - 17:22

    I like the Tamaki figure, it’s probably the closest thing I’ll ever see to a Lightning Warrior Raidy figure.

    I’ve said in the past that I like tits, but they aren’t a major factor in determining whether I like a character’s design. I always focus on the character’s face first, and outfit is probably the second most important thing to me. Two of my favorite figures this year are MegaHouse’s Sora Kasugano – who has almost no chest – and Max Factory’s Tamaki, whose bust size is beyond what I normally view as attractive. Personally, I find the DFC people to be sort of like Mac people – they look like humans, they occasionally talk like humans, but I’m quite certain that I will never understand them.

    I’m not too familiar with Railgun but I wouldn’t mind seeing a figure of Mii Konori, since she’s one of the few glasses-wearing anime girls that I find to be very cute.

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  2. Aka
    August 15th, 2010 - 07:15

    Never been a fan of anything Tamaki really, there have been some almosts, where her bust size was at a manageable level, but generally no. If Tamaki had Seena Kanon sized breasts from Max Factory’s recent swimsuit figure, she’d be piles more attractive.

    Saten-san’s quite well done, I like many things about the figure, and the hair is definitely interesting. But I think I’m one of the few people who hate her face, almost entirely for that stupid grin. It’s just too stupid…

    Kanbaru w/ cameltoe would have been too much for me to take, she’d have to go right infront of me on my desk so that whenever I looked I saw her ass and cameltoe. Thankfully Kotobukiya had some decency because I certainly don’t.

    As for Koto’s Sanya, am I the only one who likes the in your face crotch aspect of that figure? It’s too bad she’s got square crotch though.

    I only have 2 experiences with resin figures, or at least brittle figures. Both Global Horo’s I’ve received from AmiAmi, and both arrived without cracks or damage. But a fell Horo-maniac’s arrived with some broken hair that he had to glue on. Nothing as bad as Ash’s experience, jeez I’d have stayed away after that. Then again, I bought Taki Corp’s Horo and stuck with the game as well….

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    • Chag
      August 15th, 2010 - 09:09

      Speaking of Kotobukiya’s sense of decency, I wonder why Kotobukiya never does anything ero in their figures. Hell, they somehow made a Queen’s Gate figure without full cast-off. Standing on the moral high ground in the figure would seems like a strange thing to do, kind of like standing on top of a hill during a thunderstorm.

      Maybe Canadian mailmen are more gentle with their packages than their American counterparts. The stereotype of angry Americans and chill Canadians probably has SOME truth behind it.

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      • Anonymous
        August 15th, 2010 - 09:12

        Meh Koto is old-school (Really old-school technically if your talking about literal age…). They do alot of skirt cast-offs and thats about it…

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        • Aka
          August 15th, 2010 - 09:56

          They hinted at a cast-off with Sill Plain. But in the end they glued her together making her a useless figure as she’s riddled with seams because of it.

          Akibahobby however decided to break her apart anyway.

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  3. Anonymous
    August 15th, 2010 - 08:12

    You mixed up Ruri and Hydor you clod…Ah well we can’t all be perfect like me… *cough* >_>Still counting down the days till I see something i’d actually order…

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  4. Sloth
    August 15th, 2010 - 09:37

    I don’t like any of the figures listed besides Eris. Too bad she’s resin. When I first saw her I thought of Horo. The more I looked, the less she looked like Horo though.

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  5. MogWhistle
    August 15th, 2010 - 23:34

    Poor Saten. Top quality anime statue maker, Alter, decides to produce a figure of her and…the result is the above.
    D:

    Still, I find Saten’s skirt interesting. Both the Kotobukiya Hitagi and the Alter Saten designs attempt to suggest skirt motion affected by air. Because the length of the skirts are different, I found the difference in the design strategies interesting.

    I think, of the four, Kanbaru looks the most pleasing. Good Smile’s Kanbaru is also beautiful.

    I had never seen Kanbaru’s basketball design before.

    http://www.basketballasylum.co.uk/acatalog/molten-gb-official-game-basketball-bgl6.html

    Tamaki looks goofy.

    Overall, I just find it hard to believe that these four figures will sell well. Remind us why you guys chose these four for a preview roundup?

    :p

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    • Chag
      August 16th, 2010 - 06:38

      Haha, in the beginning we had a bunch of names on the list, but then I narrowed it down based on the conversation potential of each one. I thought Tamaki’s ridiculous outfit, Saten’s unique hair and Kanbaru’s in-your-face crotch were too good to pass up, and I chose Eris because Ash was really worked up about this figure. I would’ve liked to talk about Kyoani’s Yuki as well, but there’s only so much that two guys with too much time on their hands can do~

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  6. Anonymous
    August 16th, 2010 - 05:32

    The front side of Saten’s hair is definitely amazing, love the detail and I really want to touch and feel them. But yea the back side is like a mess! I convince myself that Alter just have some crazy thought: let’s make her hair look more like her…armpit’s hair. I would say seaweed looks better than this =,= at least they feel lighter than those hair, if you know what I mean. And her pose, it’s like Saten wants us to look at her sexy armpit, except she shows none! I think this pose would look great if she’s in a swimsuit or bikini. At least that a-bit-short shirt let us see her belly, very nice touch. But anyway, the pose isn’t really bothered me that much, I’m fine with it. Another thing that I dislike about her is the way the skirt bend up, seems unnatural and doesn’t look good to me. Was Alter (or her sculpter) afraid she’s too plain and decided to add the wind-blowing effect on the skirt? Well I admit she is plain, but just flat skirt and some shadings will make her look better to me. Beside those things, I really like her facial expression, although I have to agree her cheeks are too prominent, but those eyes of her always caught my attention. Anyway, I don’t think I will get her though.As for Eris, personally I prefer CM’s corp version, it is more true to her image (or at least to the anime). The Alpha Max’s Eris looks more like Horo to me, and her expression is typical, doesn’t really show her characteristic much. But still, Eris is my least favorite female character from the Asobi ni Iku yo, I hope Aoi figure will appear soon xD

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    • Chag
      August 16th, 2010 - 06:55

      My my, Saten has proven to be a pretty divisive figure! So far in the comments and in the rant we’ve seen both hate and love for her face, teeth, and hair. I can see what you mean by saying her hair looks like armpit hair, though. While the sculpt is very detailed, there doesn’t seem to be much hair physics going on (especially when you contrast it with the skirt, which kind of goes wild), which undermines the illusion of realism and makes the hair look a little stiff. I’m still pumped up about her hair, though — it’s not perfect, but I think it’s a big step in the right direction.

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    • Anonymous
      August 16th, 2010 - 07:02

      AOI FTW!!! I want a swimsuit figure, armor suit ver. , and regular dress one… >_>

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    • Anonymous
      August 16th, 2010 - 11:04

      @Chag: I think I didn’t emphasize it strong enough about how amazingly detail on her hair is, and I only mean the front side, that and her face is what all I care about this figure. Although I probably won’t get her, but I hope the final production will live up with this :D

      @Ash: she’s totally flat in the bikini from episode 5! so I’m not very keen about that :P
      The armor suit is cool, but I think the suit itself is too plain with 1 dark color from top to bottom :-w
      But I think I will go with any of her regular clothes though xD

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    • MogWhistle
      August 16th, 2010 - 15:27

      Hello, LNToo.

      Wow. We have had mostly opposite reactions to Alter’s Saten. XD

      And I think the skirt lift on the Saten model is supposed to suggest her innate supernatural ability, which is to control wind. Unfortunately, seeing as how she is a Level zero, we only noticed her power when she resorted to Level Upper “drugs.”

      I’m not interested in the figure. I’m pretty disappointed in it. I really don’t like the face. But I found the skirt to be the most interesting part of the model because I just happen to enjoy seeing how people solve various problems. And I think the most interesting problem in this case the sculptor tried to address was to figure out how to show that Saten is affiliated with the “wind.” In the anime, we knew she could control wind because Saten was able to “spin” some tree leaves “levatating” over her hand.

      Although Saten is not so much an exhibitionist as she is the barer of her best friend’s underwear, I think the sculptor did a nice job suggesting a voluminous pocket of wind pushing up her skirt. What’s really interesting is that we can imagine the direction of air flow under her skirt based on the shape of her skirt and the angles of the pleats.

      I think that’s marvelous. I wonder if they had some girl model a long pleated skirt while standing with a fan between her legs blowing her skirt up.

      But I think we can agree that hardly anyone would find the figure highly desirable.
      :D

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    • Anonymous
      August 17th, 2010 - 01:20

      Hi MogWhistle,

      Although there are some aspects that I like and don’t like about her, but I can also see why other people have different opinions on it, all and all we still have our own perception and taste.

      About the skirt, I don’t think the way the sculptor tried to point out that out is convincing enough, it’s doesn’t seem to suggest that the skirt is bend up because Saten has the “wind” ability from my point of view (and some of my friends). More like there some invisible pervert is about to flip her skirt up xD
      And like you suggest about the fan, I think it’s a great idea xD we can remove her PVC skirt and replace it with the clothes one, and that will be possible =))

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  7. HamsterCorp
    August 16th, 2010 - 21:19

    I have to say, I’ll gladly take either DFC or Titty Monsters. And in some cases, you can have both, like with Morrigan and Lilith from Darkstalkers!

    I’ll admit, I thought To Heart 2 was a porn game first and sanitized later, as well. I can’t quite understand how figure companies are able to keep pumping out figures of characters from To Heart 2 or Ikkitousen and still have a market. Perhaps all those pictures of massive collections of figures of just a single character points to the answer…

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    • Chag
      August 16th, 2010 - 21:38

      I wouldn’t be surprised if that is indeed the answer, because I certainly can’t imagine how Taki Corporation remains in business without a legion of figure-buying drones. Maybe it’s some sort of mild mind-control agent in the paint of these figures that beckons the victims to buy their umpteenth figure of the same character in an unspeakable corner of their subconscious.

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  8. Visual Fanfare
    August 17th, 2010 - 09:19

    Tamaki looks a little odd to me, everything about this figure just doesn’t seem to fit together correctly.

    Eris looks pretty good though, and I don’t think there are any doubts about AlphaMax’s quality – I just hate the fact that cold cast isn’t as resillient as PVC. I always have a fear that I’d knock one over and destroy the figure in the process. =(

    Thanks for the link back on the Seena review. =)

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