My sister, who also collects figures, complains about the lack of testosterone in the lineups of the better figure companies. Sure there are a ton of action figures, but action figures are ugly. A while ago, it looked like MaxFactory would answer her call with the “Spirit of Guys” line, but after several months the line consists of only one figure, a highly stylized Van from GunxSword.
When anime girls find themselves in a rush, late for school, an appointment, or a date, with a high degree of certainty it means they’re going to trip and if they’re going to trip undergarments will be flashed. So long as it’s in a raunchy comedy, that’s a nice bonus. It’s kind of annoying when a show that is trying to be more serious goes for a cheap flash, but that’s for another blog entry that I’ll probably never write. Judging from this figure, it appears that Yuukanalia, a character from the Enchanter manga, was in a rush and tripped on some phantom piece of sidewalk.
Continue reading “Yuukanalia, a Gratuitous and Enchanting Figure”
Alicia Florence from Aria the Natural is a classic beauty of the blonde hair blue eyed school of alluring. She possesses an easy-going smile, a peaceful aura, and a sense of humor, timeless qualities which fiercely need to come back into style. Alicia is the third in Toy Work’s series of 1:6 scale figures of characters from the truly wonderful Aria. This series of figures from Toy Works has so far been somewhat disappointing and it was my hope that they right their course with Alicia.
Continue reading “Alicia Florence, the Rockinest Undine of Neo-Venezia”
Iroha has become quite popular with figure makers lately, what with about ten PVCs released or slated for early 2007. The Cerberus Project sculpt differs significantly from the rest of the pack, gaving Iroha a more cartoony face, but more importantly, while everyone else chose to put her in pin-up poses, Cerberus Project decided to go for the essence of a fighting game character, motion. It is an amazing and potentially tragic figure.
Maria from the Witchblade anime is a strange girl. She has tri-tone hair, wears a corset, thigh high boots, a swimsuit bottom, and carries around her own pedestal for when she feels like sitting down. Then there’s the sly sarcastic grin, the icing to let you know that she’s no normal cupcake.
I think Range Murata’s girl from UltraJump 14 (UJ14) is a cyborg or a robot, at least I hope so, because that headgear apparatus looks too heavy for a human to wear. One of the things above the style, above the coloring, above all the aesthetics of Range Murata’s illustrations that I admire is the ability to make me wonder about the character. Why is she sitting like that? Why does she look sad? This 1:8 scale completed pvc figure produced by Beagle manages to capture everything I love about Murata’s illustrations.
To me the Noizi Ito illustrations of Shana in GU-RE-N define what Shana looks like (rather than the animation), a look and feel that the Melon-Pan Shana released by Kotobukiya doesn’t quite capture. It was actually a nice a figure, but it didn’t satisfy me as a fan of Noizi Ito. Toy Works recently released a 1:8 scale pre-painted PVC Shakugan no Shana (in red and black hair variants) that takes a pose straight out of an Ito illustration. Clearly the intent was to capture the essence of Shana from the illustrations, a definite step in the right direction. So, does this figure get it right?
Continue reading “Is Toy Works Shakugan no Shana Figure Really Her?”
