My first Nendoroid of the year is Chiaki Minami, from the Minami-ke series, which to date spans over three full seasons and an OVA, all of which I enjoyed. I had pre-ordered her immediately after seeing her at Hobby Search, and I’m quite glad I did. She sold out before she was released so if you don’t have her and desire her in your collection, you’ll have to look elsewhere or wait until a re-release. Chiaki reminds me of why I love Nendoroids. She did cost around $50 with the EMS shipping, but I had ordered her back before SAL was an option. Luckily now you can order Nendoroids with SAL from Hobby Search and save money, which I will be doing when possible. Well then, read on for my first Nendoroid review of the year, bakayaro! (Chiaki made me say it).

Continue reading Nendoroid Chiaki Minami

Yo! It’s been a little over a week, and let me tell you, I’ve got plenty to post about in the coming weeks. I’ve kinda got addicted to another game, and for once it’s not an MMORPG, yay! It’s actually a Japanese MMO you’ve probably heard of before, called Busou Shinki Battle Rondo. Well, I heard about it a couple years ago and for some reason never looked into it much, and completely forgot about it. Thanks to Blowfish, I was reminded of it’s existence and decided to finally give it a try. I got sucked in, fast. So now that I’m addicted to Busou Shinki’s and the game they’re in, expect to see many more in the future. My interest in Figmas has been slowly dissipating, and I’m not too happy with GoodSmile Company for their ninja tactics with the K-On Figmas and Nendos. I’ve got Yui Hirasawa Figma on the way right now, but that’s most likely the only one I’ll be getting. I’m not so into it that I’ll sit there and click the refresh button to acquire a figure that gets announced a week before release and then sells out in five minutes. Well, if you’re interested in seeing just what I’ve acquired last month that didn’t get reviewed, keep reading.

Continue reading Last Month’s Loot

Vita comes from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS (as well as A’s). Like most of the Figmas from StrikerS she’s loaded, and a bit more expensive than the usual. Another fine Figma from Max Factory. I bought her at Hobby Search for 2,895 yen or around $32, not including shipping of course. She’s still available and also now qualifies for SAL shipping (she wasn’t when I ordered her), so if you’re interested you can pick her up here. It makes me wonder if they’ll do a non-knight version of her since they had to be so specific with giving it a version name. Anyways, read on for my review.

Continue reading Vita – Knight Ver. Figma

A few nights ago I finished watching through Queen’s Blade: Rurou no Senshi for the 3rd time. I had planned on doing this review before but after watching the second season I thought it would be best to have the first one fresh in my mind to write up a review. I’ll do another post about the second season after I re-watch it. First of all, I must start out by saying this anime is overlooked and under appreciated due to the ecchiness contained within it. In fact so much so, that it took seeing so many great figures and encouragement from fellow blogger Blowfish to push me to finally getting past the first episode. One of the main problems with the show was that the first fan subs that emerged were simply horrible, they weren’t taken seriously at all and really were not justifiable by any means. On top of that almost everywhere you go you hear nothing but negativity towards Queen’s Blade due to the fanservice content being more than usual, as well as it having aired uncensored. Most people seem to think it’s nothing but oppai and hentai. Once I picked the show back up to give it a try what I saw really impressed me.

Continue reading Queen’s Blade: Rurou no Senshi

Just doing a quick post to wish everyone a very safe and Happy New Year in 2010. Perhaps I’ll do a post looking back at 2009 later on. But rather than look behind right now I want to look forward, every step we take now leads us into our future, and we can only imagine what it holds for us. I want to thank everyone once again for visiting this blog, no matter what reason you have for coming here. I will do my best to improve upon everything that I do and wish that all of you do your best as well! May this be a great year for anime, manga and figures for all! I’m going to try to do different things around here in the coming months. Let’s see where this year takes us! If you’re wondering the girl pictured is Shou Toramaru from Touhou 12: Undefinable Fantastic Object, and the art is made by 9時 from pixiv, check it out for some really awesome art. Since it’s the year of the tiger I’ll most likely be featuring Shou again. I’ll get back to the real posts real soon.
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She arrived on the 26th, a huge brown box delivered to my door. I signed my name, took the box and opened it. It took me a few minutes to just admire the box and realize that Black★Rock Shooter, who I intended on buying for my birthday present back on the 11th of August, was here in my hands at last. Her frequent delays pushed her all the way to December. I think I learned a lot of patience while waiting for her. I had pre-ordered her the minute I knew the pre-orders were opened and I was determined to not cancel her under any circumstances. Hobby Search was my retail outlet of choice. EMS shipping, though expensive, the only option. Do I regret the price tag of 8,867 Yen (roughly $97) plus the added expense of EMS bringing the grand total to $140 and some odd cents? Hell no. She is currently sold out, though there’s a Black Blade version coming next year you could pre-order which is quite a bit cheaper. Read on for a full review, with pictures and her back story.

Continue reading Black★Rock Shooter 1/8 PVC by GSC

Happy holiday season to everyone. It’s been a chaotic month. First off, I’d like to write just a little bit for the few people that have been coming to my blog over the last year or so. Thank you for taking the time to comment or even just browse through the site, whether it be to read the reviews, snag some pictures, or just troll the hell out of me on some random forum. I appreciate everyone for their time and effort, and I’ve learned a lot since this blog began. I wouldn’t have kept blogging this long if I hadn’t met some wonderful people with similar interests from all over the world that I never go out and see myself. I’ve always tried to keep from writing negative posts and just done things that were positive because I figure if you don’t have something nice to say you should keep your mouth shut. In most cases that’s really the best thing to do, at the very least it keeps you from drama that can become a real waste of energy and time. Not that I intend to change that. It’s been a rough end of the year so I’m looking forward to 2010. I’m not going to make any new years resolutions this time around. I’m just going to keep moving forward. Anyways, I have more to ramble about, and I’m not going to mention something that most people would expect me to at all. Read on for more random babble and maybe see something everyone else has that I cherish regardless.

Continue reading Before December Dies

Having recently watched through the entirety of Shangri-La for a second time, I decided it would be a better time than any to write up my own little review on it. Shangri-La is an science fiction anime based on a light novel written by Eiichi Ikegami with illustration done by Ken’ichi Yoshida. The character designs of the anime itself is by Range Murata, direction done by Makoto Bessho and it is produced by Gonzo. The anime started airing during this Spring, and I watched it weekly when it legally streamed on Crunchyroll. If you’re interested in watching it you can still watch it there. I’m going to try doing this review different than my previous ones. As usual this anime review will be as spoiler free as possible.

Continue reading Shangri-La

Recently my first Nendoroid Petit set arrived, the Vocaloid Series #01 by GoodSmile Company. I had pre-ordered from Hobby Search for 5,700 yen or around $65.86. I didn’t think the price was so bad until the shipment notice came. EMS shipping is starting to get too expensive, but this was something I wanted badly so I can deal with it. Final price for arriving in a timely manner at my door: $100 and a few odd cents. Of course the first shipment of the set is sold out, but you can sign up for the waiting list of the second shipment(which is already sold out) if you want to try and get it. Despite the price and the risk of not getting all the figures in one box, I am satisfied with my purchase. Out of 12 boxes and 11 possible figures I managed to get all 11 of them including the special figure, and one extra. Read on for the unboxing and review.

Continue reading Vocaloid Nendoroid Petit Set #01 by GSC

I got Raspberyl, made by Phat Company, last month from Hobby Search for 3,167 Yen or about $36.60 (not including shipping). Raspberyl is a delinquent demon from the Playstation 3 game Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice. Unfortunately since I don’t own a PS3 I haven’t played the game. She is also an unlockable character in the PSP game Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days. I have the PS2 version but she’s not in it. I’ve watched enough videos and seen her in action enough to like her character though. I’m most likely going to get a PSP in the near future as well. I really hope this is just the beginning of Disgaea Nendoroids, as I would especially love to see Flonne, Laharl and Etna be made. Hobby Search has her in stock at the time I’m writing this post, so if you’re interested in purchasing her from there here’s the link. Now, on to the review!

Continue reading Nendoroid Raspberyl