Kira Yamato G.E.M. Megahouse

Sadly, I didn't buy any figures at Supanova however, this did turn up in the post yesterday!

I have waited so many years for a proper figure of Kira Yamato! Of all the people to make a figure of from Gundam Seed/Destiny, he should have been first on the list. They made multiple figures of Lacus, Cagalli, Athrun, Stella, Lunamaria, Flay etc (NO ONE even liked Stella or Flay) Yet Kira Yamato remained lost, that is until the 21st April when finally Megahouse released a figure of him and it arrived my door step. This may not be the most stunning figure I have laid eyes on however, it is still a well crafted work of art. The tone of his skin is quite nice. I'm used to figures being quite pale unless a bootleg so having a bit of a tan in a figure is somewhat refreshing. He comes with two faces, one serious, one happier. He also has two hands. The hand in the above picture can swivel around which can give off different impressions. Birdy is also included. Twice actually, as there is a second hand with Birdy permanently attached to it and Birdy by itself. The separate Birdy and Kira's right shoulder are magnetic so it is easy to place and remove Birdy from the shoulder easily without there having to be a peg there to hold it in place. I was quite excited to find this as I have not encountered another figure which uses such a technique and in my opinion it is quite useful. The other hand with Birdy on has Kira's hand flat out with Birdy sitting in the palm of it. Overall the figure is well painted and nicely sculpted. The base to me feels a little average however there is nothing particularly bad about it, just nothing stunning either. It has the name Kira Yamato in front of his feet as well as O.M.N.I. and it's logo in the middle. I've noticed a disturbing lack of people ordering this on Myfigurecollection so I urge people to order this quickly if it's still available in stores. Send a message to Megahouse that it's okay to make male figures, especially of ones who are the main character in a popular anime series. I'm so glad to have a figure of one my favourite characters from one of my all time favourite shows. I feel as though I can rest easy now, knowing that I own such a figure.

As usual, here is a slide show of Kira Yamato. There are photos showing both faces and the different hands in different rotations etc. There are also photos of the box.

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Lacus RAH DX G.A. Neo

Here's the photos of Lacus I said I'd upload. Took my time as usual but better late than never.

"Thank you for bringing mister Pink back to me."

You can see here the 2nd arm that comes with her on the right. She also comes with a couple of hands for the right arm so she can hold the flower. There are also two Haros, one with its wings out and the other with the wings in. Here face is interchangeable, one face with the huge smile, the other with a slight smile Her head also swivels around so you can have her looking in different directions.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Athrun Zala G.E.M. Megahouse Gundam Seed Destiny HD Remaster Project

Just arrived today! Athrun Zala G.E.M. Series from Megehouse. SOOO COOL. Gundam Seed/Destiny are some of my favourite series so I'm really excited to get this. Much nicer quality than the original RAHDX figure of him. Tracking said it was going to be delivered today so I waited around for hours and the delivery man didn't arrive until 1. Turned out his van broke down and had to be repaired. Anyway, I had to start work at 2 so I didn't have enough time to take outside shots but, I'll get around to them tomorrow I think. For now I'll show you a few pictures I took when opening him up for the first time.

His head actually has a ball point joint in the neck so his head can swivel around which is pretty awesome. His hand on the arm reaching out can rotate around so if you want him to be holding the Haro you can. Two haros come with this figure, both the same colour but one has it's little 'wing's spread out and has a mustache drawn on his face (like the one Lacus draws in the show) and the other one has no mustache and it's 'wings' in. There are also two faces that you can put on Athrun. One is a more serious one but the other one has him smiling a little which is nice. The Base is somewhat basic but well done. At first in the pictures I thought he looked a little different than the show but since I've got him I think this figure was done really well. It's great to have another male figure in the collection. Too few of them I reckon.

This is the first pre order figure ever (That I didn't cancel) and it came from Amiami. Also the first time I've purchased from them so that was all pretty exciting as well. I've got Lacus pre ordered (She was supposed to come out with Athrun but got delayed until the end of November :( but yeah I'm pretty excited to get her and I'm REALLY excited for the Kira Yamato figure coming out next year. I can't wait to finally have a proper figurine of Kira in my collection. Up until now I've only had the I-doll one which was pretty basic. About time they made a figure of him! This lacus will be my Sixth figure of her. I have the 2 RAHDX of her, the large and small I-doll and the ball point doll of her. So yeah, overall I'm really excited to get them.
Here's a slide show of some of the other pictures I took (shipping box, figure box, figure inserts etc.)
You can see his serious face in this picture as well.

Athrun Zala I-Doll Gundam Seed

This is my latest acquisition in the figure collecting world! The figure is part of a series which is called I-Doll.
He's Athrun Zala, one of the main characters from Gundam Seed/Destiny

No Flash

Flash

This figure even has a speaker in its base which can play lines he says from the show! Unfortunately he only comes with two lines. :( Pretty lame, some of my others come with a few more. Overally, he's probably the best that I've got so far in terms of quality. The sculpting and paint job are done pretty well so there's not much to really complain about apart from the lack of lines. I'd probably give him a 9/10 overall. He's a lot more refined than the Kira I-Doll. Too bad too cause that's about the only 'decent' figure of Kira Yamato and they didn't even bother to put much effort into him. ;(

So far the others in the 'small' I-Doll line I have are Meyrin, Shinn, Lacus, Kira and I also have the large one of Lacus who has 10 lines from the show! I'm currently awaiting Yzac, Stella, Cagalli and Lunamaria in the mail which should arrive within the next week. Which just leaves the small and large Meer Campbell and the large Lunamaria to acquire!

Other figures I'm awaiting in the mail are Asuka Loppi Lawson and Asuka Pajama Baby and I've got a few others on preorder.

I'll be sure to post photos of them when they arrive!

Last week I received the Yui/Mugi half of the nendoroid stage set which I'll probably post some photos up soon enough. They're really cute! The only thing I can really complain about is how hard it is to get Yui to stand. The support that comes with her is pretty useless. Mio, Mugi, and Ritsu were much easier to set up.

That's all for now. Until next time!

First Review: Tomoyo Sakagami 1/7 DreamTech Wave

Okay, so here goes my first figure review. I don't know how much detail I'll go into as I'm usually lost for words and the photos should mostly speak for themselves. I'll aim to talk about anything the photos may fail to pick up on and I'll also try to give some brief descriptions on what's good and bad concerning the various aspects to the figures I review. Paint job, sculpt, box, base, etc. I'll probably include a score based system for each area and an overall score out of 10 for my reviews as well. Now that that is out of the way I guess I better start.

I'm going to be reviewing the Tomoyo Sakagami DreamTech 1/7 Scale figure produced by Wave. I should also say that she's from the anime Clannad. (which everyone should watch) I'll review this systematically starting from the outside of the box right down to the figure itself.

The Box

I guess to start off, I'll say that this figure is one of those that are much more impressive in real life than what the photos might show. I guess most figures would be as well but, I found this figure to be a significant example in regards to this.

At first glance, I found the box to be fairly ordinary however as I continue to write this review I find that the box is definitely starting to grow on me. The best parts I'd have to say is the front window and the soft colours in the pictures used. The window is large and makes it easy to view the figure inside unlike some other boxes I could mention. I guess you could say I'm partial to figure boxes with large windows.

 I should warn you that some of this paragraph may feel irrelevant to the figure.

Probably the most disappointing thing about information regarding anime figures circling the web is that I find there is all to often a lack of pictures of the actual box which I find can be instrumental in determining the legitimacy of the figure when the bootleg figure itself is of fairly comparable quality. One thing I like to know before buying a figure is knowing whether or not it has a sticker of authenticity. That's usually the best way of determining if it's the real deal. I haven't actually found any stickers on this box but, not all figures come with authenticity stickers (some bootlegs go so far as to even have fake stickers of authenticity) and judging by the overall quality this one seems to be pretty legit.

  The other thing that stands out about this box is the colouring in the pictures used. Unlike other similar boxes with lighter colours they definitely went for a much more softer look which is quite relaxing actually compared to say, Alter Tsumugi 1/8 with her bright pink almost neon like colours. I found this particularly pleasing for a change.

  By going the plain and simple approach and utilising the soft colours of blue skies and white clouds the designers managed to make an aesthetically pleasing box which gives off a very calm atmosphere and relaxed feeling to the viewer.

 The bottom isn't much to look at but, just in case you were wondering, here it is.

Like I said earlier, this box definitely grew on me and by now since I've finished writing this I'd have to say that I'd give this box a pretty high 8 out of 10.

When starting this I didn't realise how long writing reviews takes so I'll be uploading the rest of the review soon!

Review Continued.....

The Packaging

Okay, now time to open it up. Here's a few photos of her in the blister pack.

The blister pack itself is about as standard as they come. There's two pieces for the front and back that clip in together keeping the figure safely in place. Then inside there's plastic sheets including a plastic cover for the arm/leg? (I can't remember, it fits on both) that cover the area in which the figure sits. I guess this is to help prevent paint transfer or any other damage that would result from the figure rubbing up against the blister pack too much. The final part to this is that the blister pack has a small 'window' part molded around the area where her face lies so you properly view it from the outside. In the end, there's nothing particularly wrong with the packaging but, at the same time there is nothing special to write home about.

Does anyone else forget where all those plastic sheets go?

The Figure

At last, I finally get to talk about the figure itself. There's way too many photos to put in this post so I've posted a slide show so that you can view them all. If you want to view them in a larger format just click on the slide show and that'll take you to my Picasa Album. I'll select a few photos to show in full here. Before the figure I'll briefly review the base.

The Base

The base for this figure is very simple, as in, it's small, round and completely white. While I have to say the base really isn't all that inspiring it does however manage to complement the figure well. The figure itself isn't one that is designed to overtly stand out, like it's box the figure takes a very much conservative stance (comparatively speaking) which I believe the base manages to match very well. It has the usual pegs for the holes in the feet of the figure and a small piece of writing on the underside of the base which reads '© Visual Art's/Key/(to complicated to type Japanese writing) MADE IN CHINA'

Overall while nothing flashy, I'd say the base more than meets the requirements laid upon it. It's hard to give this one a score because while it isn't particularly interesting which is usually grounds to lower the score it does manage to fit with the overall feel of the figure. I've decided to leave the judging purely at my words this time around and perhaps let you make your own decision.

Now The Figure

Okay, now I really will talk about the figure. Like I said before the designers certainly weren't looking to be flashy this time around and opted for a softer look which I found quite refreshing.

To start off, overall there's nothing to complain about. The figure itself is fairly well sculpted, has smooth edges and the paint job is well done leaving no unsightly marks anywhere.

The Face

The face is well done and Tomoyo's blue eyes stand out nicely. Overall the detail is very good with the typical Key Trademark marks on her cheeks (that may not show up in the photos) right down to her teeth being visible inside that tiny mouth of hers. There's nothing bad to say when it comes to the quality of the face. The only possible downside to it is that I feel as though her face on this figure doesn't quite capture the original essence found in her former 2D self. That being said though, I still find the figures face to be rather cute and really can't complain about any of the subtle differences between the figure and the way she is drawn.

Late (Posted: July 20th)

Well it seems I never really finished this review did I? Sorry about that. I'll finish it off quickly by saying that overall I really like this figure, the sculpting is refined, not so much detail as Saber Lily but, none the less pleasing to the eye. The paint job has been well done and overall there's no flaw to point out. If you're a fan of Tomoyo then I'd definitely recommend picking it up and even if you're not it is my opinion that this would make a fine addition to any figure collection.