Beat Blades Haruka
Haruka lay asleep on her side, head on the down pillow, face toward him. She breathed slow. Sweat covered her body, to which the thin white bed sheet draped over her clung to. It was hot for October, so the windows were open to let the wind blow in. This was different, he thought. By now he was usually alone. Haruka would be gone by now, leaving as soon as she was done to fight demons. They’d done it so many times before, but never before without reason. It was nice and he started to think of what he could do to keep this going.
A gust of wind shot through the room. It changed the course of his thoughts, pushed the soft veneer off the rainbow. What he really wanted was more. He wanted to flip Haruka face down into that pillow and plow her again. All of the other times were about her, even this last time together was really about her.
He wanted it rough. The kind where Haruka would be careful when she sat for the next three days. Nasty where Haruka would look at him and wonder who he was, but then maybe she’d like it that way and they’d become one of those couples with toys, scary custom-made toys, the kind that make most people say holy shit as they imagine the pain while they picture it in their head and think man that’s just a little too far and wish they never knew that about you. And really, how long could that last? He and Haruka would either burn out or be so screwed up that they’d be each others’ only option, stuck, rather than together. They’d become old dispassionate prunes with a fully stocked dungeon, strapped in and whipped bored, too far gone to even care how they wound up that way.
He got up and thought to himself, something that nasty is what The Internet is for — you don’t want someone that nasty to be the mother of your children. But, that was thinking too far ahead. He got dressed and decided to go to the store to get something to cook for dinner. He chose to ride out the romantic route for as long as he could. Be the shining knight. He even bought candles. He’d revisit this subject at another time, which he hoped wouldn’t be anytime soon.
Review of Alter’s Beat Blades Haruka
While the likeness of Haruka’s face really isn’t there the hotness of her body is all there in the sculpt. I love the torso twist, the arms raised, form fitting outfit with scarf fluttering from Haruka planting her foot and changing direction with blades in hand ready to strike. Her costume rocks, made to frame, accentuate, and direct the eye to all of her nice ample features, though with that black feature running through the middle of her torso, the belly button through the fabric Alter figures seem to be fond of is missing.
If anything the sculpt could have been a little more aggressive in describing the force of her motion. Her hair could be used to accent the motion a little more and her face seems a bit relaxed, but maybe that’s Haruka’s character to be calm. I don’t really know since I don’t play H games.
The pose leaves Haruka with a one-point mount. Her right foot connects with the base at an angle. The plastic pegs from the support mount that go into her foot are longer than the standard pegs. It looks like Alter is still experimenting with one-point mount options. Using ABS on the support legs makes warp less of a problem than mount breakage.
The finish on Haruka is very good, but not flawless. The paint on her lapel area isn’t crisp and there’s some mold debris there on my copy. There’s some artifacts in out of the way areas, but the rest looks very clean and sharp. Eye alignment could be a little better, but the bangs dropping in front of her right eye could be throwing that off.
All in all, I like this Haruka figure quite a bit. There’s a little bias in my view of the figure since I really like her character design. Haruka hits the sweet spot. She’s young, but not loli, filled out but not grotesque with her hips and breasts. Haruka as a physical character is built just right and the figure is well made.
Other Stuff
Alter put a character logo/graphic on the white diamond shaped base. This is fairly common, but I’m not a fan of it. I’d rather have a base that is easy to ignore than one with a logo or character name graphic. One with a decorative design is nice though, something like the one for Another Blood from Max Factory.
There’s a lot of body type shots in this set of photos. It may be a little much, but the figure holds highlights and shadows so well I just took a few more than normal. There is also this very good review from Kimagureman Studios, who also gives out the exposure data for each of the photos.
Slideshow
And here’s a link to the Beat Blades Haruka Slideshow, but you need a Flickr account to view it and have your view filter on at least moderate to see anything.
Comments
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Blowfish
on October 6th, 2008
I cant really tell if the face is off since I didnt have time to check out BBH but from my view shes a fine figure.The only thing id have to rant about is the expression on her face.She looks like shes happily jumping around with her Kunai instead of beeing engaged in a fight.
I really like figures that are mounted on only one leg or are in a jumping motion.Im curious if shell warp over time or if Alter did a good job on those legs/peg
James
on October 6th, 2008
wow you already have her , i’m still waiting ^^
i hope to have her tomorrow , she looks really nice but the paiting is bad for Alter , i’m disapointed
anyway nice shots
Ryan A
on October 6th, 2008
“Haruka hits the sweet spot. She’s young, but not loli, filled out but not grotesque with her hips and breasts.”
Well said. I like
ron~
on October 6th, 2008
nice review of haruka!
her body sculpt looks very nice.
Kinda regreted a bit from cancelling the pre-order.. waiting for aussie dollar to increase again
Belela-san
on October 6th, 2008
She is amazing but those poses always scare the hell out of me. Anyway the “angles” you can get are amazing which means I must train more with the three shoots I still have to do
otaku dan
on October 6th, 2008
i have seen this figure a while back but it has never in my radar. she looks very good and the paint job looks great. nice photo shoot you have there
Yamcha
on October 6th, 2008
Haruka is smoking hot. Kind of regret canceling the pre-order, but I could pick her up anytime. Gorgeous pics as always.
super rats
on October 6th, 2008
That her face is a bit different from the CG images really doesn’t bug me a lot. If I played the game it might though. But as you say Blowfish, she could be a little less happy and a little more I’m fighting because I don’t want a bad end!
James, that paint around the lapels is murder. The yellow parts, skin and stockings is clean though.
Thanks, Ryan A.
~ron, yeah I’m wondering what this financial down spiral is going to do for figure collecting, and well, a whole lot more than just that.
Belela-san, I’m less worried about warp than I am about the support posts breaking. If it’s like Kaze, where her leg is fine, but the support post breaks, the worst thing is permanently mounting the foot onto the base. As far as the pics, just let the camera follow your eye and highlight what it likes to see.
otaku dan, Haruka was one of the ones I really wanted to get and ordered immediately. But, that’s why it’s nice that they make many different figures to cater to different tastes, well mostly.
Yamcha, it does bear repeating. Haruka is smoking hot.
meronpan
on October 7th, 2008
was her expression in the prototype pics more… serene? or… hmmm… not sure how to describe it. at any rate, yeah, her personality goes pretty well with the subdued expression. subaru (who i pray alter releases a figure of), on the other hand, would probably be better suited with a more active expression.
still hoping my order comes in… for me it it’s been a crapshoot with my preorders from kid nemo -_-
Rio
on October 7th, 2008
Thank you for comments. I love your photograph.^^
LianYL
on October 7th, 2008
I fear the imminent warping.
super rats
on October 7th, 2008
-I think the expression matches the prototype fairly well, the more noticeable difference on her head is how far her bangs hang over her right eye. When I got her I looked at the pictures on Alter’s site and thought they were pretty close otherwise. It’s never exact, though.
-Hi, Rio!
-I fear peg breakage before I fear warping.
chun
on October 7th, 2008
nice review and pictures! the write up is woah at the start lol!
Kairu Ishimaru
on October 7th, 2008
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3153/2913598417_174e56815e.jpg
Lol pantsu!
lu-k
on October 8th, 2008
Love her killing gaze. I can’t help being worry about her pose/stand/leaning potential, but well, she looks awesome enough for me to purchase her ^^
I thought I would be able to make my mind about not ordering this figure… but this is another fail. Great photo sets like yours didn’t help me hehe ^^
super rats
on October 8th, 2008
I sometimes wonder if intros like that scare people off, but I guess I’m not that worried about it, since they just sort of write themselves once I get the picture in my head about what it will be.
Kairu, that butt shot is my favorite of the set. ^^;
lu-k, ^^
Hirvine
on October 9th, 2008
Wow, what a totally lovely expression she has. She totally seduces me, I want her too! Nice introduction, I love it.
Optic
on October 12th, 2008
Love her twin blades. I think I have a fetish for blades. ^^
I’m surprised her finishing isn’t that great. It has already been delayed so any touch up should be noticable. -_-
Might get her in the future.
Takamori Haruka 1/8 Scale (Alter) « Wcloudx (kumo)’s Blog - Ramblings about Figures, Gunpla, & More!!
on October 13th, 2008
[...] You can also view other great reviews of her at HappySoda. [...]
Toy Evolution » Blog Archive » Takamori Haruka 1/8 Scale (Alter)
on October 13th, 2008
[...] You can also view other great reviews of her at HappySoda. [...]
infested_ysy
on October 19th, 2008
hey super rats, did you have any problems with sticking the leg onto the peg? I just tried assembling mine, but the upper peg just doesn’t seem to match the upper hole of the foot, so I get this:
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/8854/img6991ud0.jpg
I tried real hard to push it down, but the foot just refuses to fit nicely on the peg =(
super rats
on October 19th, 2008
Hey, infested_ysy, didn’t have any problems. The pegs slide in pretty smoothly.
~鷹森ハルカ 「超昂閃忍ハルカ」 Takamori Haruka~ « lololol
on October 20th, 2008
[...] as super rats says in his awesome review, Haruka does present lots and lots of nice curves, and the sculpt of the figure truly does justice [...]
suki
on October 22nd, 2008
She’s beautiful but, sadly… her face isn’t sculpted to my likings…
I might grow used to it, though.
Kel
on October 26th, 2008
Wow she’s so beautifully sculpted ^^.
鷹守ハルカ Takamori Haruka « いつも いつでも いつまでも
on November 10th, 2008
[...] so there’s bound to be a ton of coverage already out there… lessee… wcloudx, happy soda, and exelica meteor to name a [...]