Fauna wore a hat every day for the last five days. One day is a bad hair day, two days well okay, but five really lets everyone know something aint right. What she was hiding wasn’t a botched dye treatment or a dolphin blowhole, but a pair of wings sprouting from the sides of her head. Fauna showed me her wings behind the school in a tearful confession — or was it on an empty stairwell nobody uses except for this type of thing? It’s always one or the other with these anime/video game chicks.
The wings were pretty small. Realistically there’s no way they can generate enough lift to carry Fauna as they were no larger than pigeon wings, though since she’s a pretty girl I’m sure they’re pristine dove wings instead of something from a dirty bird. I wanted to touch them, but she was still kind of freaked, her blue eyes ready to burst, so I decided I wouldn’t ask. Conveniently enough, and even though she was standing still, Fauna tripped and I got to touch them anyway.
When you think about it, having a pair of white wings growing from your head is pretty extraordinary. Talk about a unique feature. Oh sure it could be nasty, but on a cute girl like Fauna, anything looks good. Problem is most people can’t handle unique and extraordinary. They strike it down whenever they see it, through ridicule, through anger, through distance. People with extraordinary features or talents often don’t have the strength to withstand this and move off and out of the way, so I kind of felt bad for Fauna, who had been hiding this all away knowing what kind of reaction she’d get for being different.
We stood there for a while, maybe a jumbo jet could be heard rumbling in the distance and a drop of water at the end of the faucet finally fell. I couldn’t really think of much to say.
Scenes like this are far more awkward in real time.
Review of Fauna from Alter
Fauna comes from a game called Megachu! Hajime Koduki carved something very cool for Alter with his rendition of Fauna, fluid, with life. The figure has a soft feeling to it while managing to keep sharp detail where it looks good. From the front, the figure is amazing everywhere I look, especially the soft indication of her knees. One of the details I like is showing how her outfit boosts up her bosom, creating a fold in between her shoulder and the top of her breast.
The finish on Fauna is top rate. Flawless hair, clean paint, and no seam lines visible to my naked eye. Normally, there’s two or three shots where I tone down the appearance of a seam because the lighting exaggerates it, but here, I didn’t have to do that for Fauna. You can probably catch the very slightest indication of a seam in the knee shot, but it’s invisible outside of a macro lens and 300 watts of light a foot away.
- Fauna
- 1/8 scale painted pvc
- Scultped by Hajime Koduki
- Manufactured by Alter
- Released Late June (Japan)
- 5,500 JPY
- US Release (eta) August 30, 2007
- Pre-Order at RightStuf
There’s a couple of oddities. The area where her buttock connects to the thigh, the shape there is a bit exaggerated. Her crotch is also slightly enlarged, but that’s pretty typical of ecchi and ero characters.
I wish the metal support post went deeper into her foot. I’d feel a little bit better about the one point support if it had. While the only leaning Alter figure I have is Swimsuit Rin, I know people have had problems with warp and recent Alter figures, particularly Swimsuit Saber and Saika — I haven’t, so I’m a little more optimistic about it. Anyway, this is one of those poses that will warp in a couple of days if the support leg isn’t reinforced. So far so good, but as far as long term slow warp, well I’m not going to worry about it. Fauna is an awesome sculpt.
One last thing, the points of Fauna’s hair are sharp. Like if I need to do a blood test and am out of lancets then, I’ll just tap my finger on the tips of her hair.
Also See: Shinohai’s Fauna Pictures
this Fauna is pretty sweet, I was planning to get her but decided to wait and see due to her pose and also Max Factory announcement of another Fauna, but I have a feeling I’ll end up with two Fauna in the end though.
I like your last shot there; makes her look a lot more radiant and it brings out the good qualities of her face.
Soooooo cute !! But I must resist ^^;
I swear myself I’ll only take MaxFact version, but its release date is faaaar.
Your marvelous pictures don’t help me hehe.
Fantastic pictures. There really isn’t any cause to complain for this figure except for maybe the visible metal support and worries about warpage though it doesn’t really worry me much. I especially like the purple on the figure and am loving your second to last pic ^^
nice pictures, sharp as always. agree with shinohai, second last picture is nice, the 3rd last also very nice ^^ but I find the last picture is too bright ^^;
Awesome photos. I guess lighting is the essential element in determining whether photos look crap or good.
Did you over-expose the last picture in this post? ^^;
Nice pantsu shot ;p. The last picture matches her pose, as if she just stepped outside in the sun and guards her eyes against the suns rays, though the background is all white so lol..it doesn’t exactly have the outdoors feeling.
Oh! Spotty pantsu!
Nice photos again, maybe lacking in props but the gradient in the background is beautiful @_@
THe last picture might look great by itself but seems out of place with the other photos ^^;
Woohoo another pic for the belly button fans out there!
She’s super cute & the metal rod doesn’t bother me since it gives her a ‘yipee’ type pose
Beautiful pics ~
I knew the last shot strike some as being odd. Basically, I lightened up the mid-tones a lot so that her eyes would stand out. Just one of those one-off things. Aya, does bring up a good point. I’m going to move more text in between the last photo and the second to last. Maybe this space will help make it less jarring.
I like her, she’s very pretty but that pose isn’t a bit dangerous for leaning? I mean shes almost “flying” ^_^ with only one “stick” holding her. The spotted panties are cute ^^ it’s pretty unusual to see those kind of panties in figures where most of them are plain white but the latest figure have more detailed panties. The legs are simply adorable very anime like (not realistic).
Oh god, I love the pantsu. Makes me want to go out and get my own spotted pantsu, man. The colors are really gorgeous, and I adore the way her hair is done (especially the indents in the back). Also, I like her shoes.~
What a cute figure. The double skirt is really kawaii. Like aya said, the gradient is so cool. How do you do that T_T…are you using a blend for the background or is it just awesome lighting?
About the last shot. Maybe a spotlight directed to the background behind Fauna’s head could be a solution to put emphasize on her head/eyes. Don’t want to sound like a smart ass^^;
I’m just too interested in your work.
Nice Pantsu there
Her hair does indeed rock.
A spotlight might, but the off-center density grading skewed toward light was what I was going for. I think I should have skewed it a little more. Only skewed this much I think confuses the intent. And I don’t mind the comments at all, because it lets me know I didn’t quite get it.
The gradient is lighting, just positioning the lights so that it doesn’t touch the background, just the floor up to just about where it starts. The light value could start a little higher in many of them so they would look more like the knees shot.
The red background really matches this figure. Amazing shots as usual. Shes my most fave figure at the moment and takes the prime spot right infront of me on my desk ^^
*Very* much looking forward to the other version of her with the POLO system.
Same here. Fauna guards the Wacom tablet and mouse. Now that I have this version, I’m actually less anxious for the Max Factory version because this one turned out better than I expected, but I’m getting the Max one too. It’s too good to pass up.
nice pics as usual. Gotta love the red to deep black background too. Just bought a pack of bristol cardboard to make soem backgrounds even though i like the idea of adding some setup in the pictures….
Great pictures as always. But yeah, that metal support rod is a bit of an eyesore, but what can you do.
Very pretty. And spotty pantsu!!! NICE! I like the MF Fauna though.
[...] more gorgeous pictures of fhe cute Fauna, make sure to (re)visit Happy Soda and Excelica [...]
[...] sculpting is top notch too. In fact, watch out for the hair tips, they are really sharp! Quoting Happy Soda, “Like if I need to do a blood test and am out of lancets then, I’ll just tap my finger on [...]