Bandai Capcom Girls HG
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Bandai Azumanga Daioh
HGIF #2
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This
is the Bandai Azumanga Daioh HGIF set. I believe there's another set
around (the big "2" would duggest that too obviously) but I've yet to
see any pictures of the set as a whole. Again, the picture doesn't do
justice to the detail on these figures. Sakaki-san's jumper is
impressively real and Kagura-san's headband actually has writing on it. The foot holders are better than the sailor moon set in that they are clear plastic but some of the figures are really quite unstable. I don't really think the Tomo-chan figure looks as much like that character as it should though. Chiyo-chan fans though should note that her pigtails are removable! :-D I don't know of any online stores where you can buy this set, I purchased mine on Ebay and the price including getting it shipped to New Zealand was under NZ$30. I think I was quite lucky getting it at that price though, it seems to be a rather rare set these days. That said, it has been doing the rounds lately on Ebay. |
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Kaiyodo Love Hina
"Waterline" #2 |
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The Love Hina "Waterline" set #2 by
Kaiyodo including all the Shinobu and Mutsumi variants. There is
another
set of a similar fashion (Waterline #1) but in my opinion it just
doesn't capture the essence of the characters. Personally I think this
set is just cool. They are quite large in comparison with other sets.
Since they have these flat translucent bases they have no stability
problems at all. Detail is great too. The only slight issue is they
were
quite hard to assemble with some parts requiring quite a lot of force
and time to make the rubber interlock but this is only a minor
complaint. As a side bonus, the heads are actually interchangable with
the "Skyluv Project" Love Hina action figures (page coming someday
since
I have two of these) made by Kaiyodo and Movic which can make for some
amsuing poses (especially the swirly-eyed Shinobu ;-) . I picked these
up by emailing a guy who ran a store on ebay and I think it was the
only
one he had. Very hard to find, I've never actually seen the painted set
for sale online (only the clear variant at Asylum Anime) and the few
places I saw that used to have it didn't have all the figure variants
so
I consider myself to have been very, very lucky to find these. |
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Bandai HGIF Sailor
Moon World #4 |
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This is the fourth Bandai HGIF Sailor Moon World Set. I
skipped sets 2 and 3 partly due to concerns about quality and partly
because I didn't really like enough of the figures in the sets. This
one, on the other hand, caught my eye mainly because of the high
detail,
a decent Sailor Moon figure, a Luna in human form figure (I guess it
makes perfect sense for a grey cat to turn into a woman with
translucent
blue hair who wears a yellow dress ne?) and a very different Hotaru
figure (second from the left). Not to mention the fact that Artemis the
cat looks very cute too. ;-) In comparison with the first set I have from the same series, the level of detail is much higher in this set, Bandai has put a lot more effort into getting the colours right here in my opinion. The other great thing about this set is that the stands work really well while not being too intrusive like the white ones in the original set. Once again, I bought this set from Goblin Toys in Japan. Great service as always. |
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Yujin SR Vampire
Saviour #3
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Considering how much time I seem to
spend trying to source obscure Yujin figures, it's kind of surprising
this is the first of their gashapon sets I got. This is Yujin's SR series (Super Real) Vampire Saviour gashapon
set part 3. Yet another set based on Capcom fighting games although
this
time with only characters from the Darkstalkers/Vampire Saviour
universe. I only really saw the odd picture of sets 1 & 2 and
nothing really caught my eye but then I saw this set doing the rounds
on
ebay (I later found out Goblin toys had originally sold these but were
now sold out). There are two Morrigan variants, a posable Bishamon (The
blue and red Samurai), a strange looking Victor (bottom left) and two
new characters who are not in any of the existing Darkstalkers games
but
look suspiciously like female versions of the undead Lord Raptor and
Merman Rikuo. Thankfully their names were written in Katakana on the
promo sheet so I could manage to read it. They are Zaberi (top right)
and Oribas(u) (bottom right). I have wonder if they will ever make it
into one of the games or if they exist purely as a gashapon equivalent
of fan service. ;-) Unfortunately my photos are a little blurry but the level of detail on these figures is second to none, especially the "Morrigan in leather/PVC" figure which is covered with little rivets and buckles. Zaberi's guitar is also very well done. Another big plus is that they are very, very stable and don't fall over unless you put them on really uneven surfaces. The plastic they are made of varies from piece to piece with some being soft and flexible to fit snugly and achieve the right look and others being hard and brittle to add strength and detail or just for applying shiny paint. The only negative thing I can really say about this set is that some pieces do not seem to perfectly join together but this cannot really be seen on the built figures unless you look closely with a critical eye. On a side note, Oribas' hair does protect her modesy better than it appears in that picture, I wanted to get a good shot of her face but it seems the right spot for doing that also coincides with a somewhat pervy angle... Of course this is nothing compared to the average resin kit. ;-) |
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Digital Gals Paradise - Kao no Nai Tsuki |
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This is the Kao no Nai Tsuki (顔のない月) gashapon set by Digital Gals Paradise.
You may be wondering why some of the photos are taken from strange
angles. It's because this is a hentai set and I don't plan on putting
nudity on this site. Normally this sort of thing isn't to my tastes but
the latter two figures just looked so awesome that I couldn't resist
it. Kao no
Nai Tsuki translates
roughly as "No Surface Moon" and apparently these characters are from a
hentai computer game of the same name. Digital Gals Paradise seem to be
a company who makes gashapon sets based on characters from hentai
games. I can't read the Kanji on the promo sheet to work out their
names which I must say is somewhat frustrating. :-/ The figures themselves are really well made and are surprisingly big, they are actually the biggest gashapon I have with the stading figures being the height of a typical CD case. They all seem to be built from a rigid but still slightly pliable plastic. Stability is great, even the standing figures have these little rear clips to hold the figure in place (just visible in the left-most figure in the first picture) and they feel rock solid. All these more stable sets make me wonder how the Azumanga Daioh set went so wrong in that deparment. As I said before, I think the letter two figures are what makes this set great. The loose little red flowers and petals were just a great touch that make all the difference and the way the flowing clothing has been done is easily some of the nicest design work I've seen on figures like these. I'd even go as far as to say the only figures I've seen with comparable attention to detail are resin kits 3-4 times the size or some of Yujin's SR-DX plastic figures about twice the size. To those wondering, both figures are fully naked from the front although the clothes and hair block enough that it's not tastelessly blatant. In case you are wondering if you're seeing things, the last figure does have her leg in different positions in the two last photos. She actually comes with two leg attachments, one that lies flat under her clothing and one that can dangle over an edge. The hair on that figure is also very impressive. As can be seen from the pictures, it has a lower piece and an upper piece with her hands fitting in between. The effect of the two layers of hair is very impressive, I wish more figures, big and small did this sort of thing. I stumbled across this set on ebay. It seems somewhat rare and I haven't seen another available but I guess it's not really a mainstream set anyway. |
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.Hack Volume 2 (click to enlarge) |
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This is the second Bandai HGIF .Hack set with figures from both
the .Hack games on Playstation 2 and from the .Hack//SIGN anime series,
It's taken me a long time to put this set on here and the main problem
causing the delay was that I was planning to get some good photos.
Unfortunately though, this set has a problem that has stopped me from
displaying it. I have never actually had it on display and as such
never took any photos. Overall the quality doesn't seem to bad, the
figures look a lot like the characters they are trying to portray and
both the colours and detail are very good. The foot holders are the
usual sort of thing, not spectacular but they do the business. At this
point you are probably wondering what the problem is referred to
earlier is. Essentially the material that the
figures are made out of is far too flexible. This means that not only
some parts of the characters bend very easily but the weapons are
permantly bent. I have tried in various ways to force them to stay
straight but to no avail. The worst parts are are Subaru's axe (number
5 in the picture) and Balmung's sword (number 3 in the picture) which
just seem to have a permanent bend. Because of this flaw I cannot recommend this set but if this does not bother you, it is certainly is a very detailed and otherwise good looking set. I cannot help but feel though that it is not up to the usual standard of more recent Bandai HGIF sets. I found this set on ebay for quite a reasonable price. It does appear to be a lot harder to find now due to the popularity of .Hack merchandise but I do still occasionally see it around and there's at least one set (including the other colour variants) available on ebay as I type this. |