PVC Review: 1/8 Scale Yui (Chara-Ani)

Oh my, seems like just yesterday I received my very first figure; now I've got four sitting on my shelf. Today we're taking a look at Yui from the anime parody Indian Summer. Yui can be found at www.hlj.com and retails for just 2972 yen- that's about thirty US dollars give or take. This figure's clothes can be removed and I have photographed Yui both with her clothes and without. I have decided to provide a link to the 18+ photos of Yui just in case any underage or easily offended people are reading.
Update: Photobucket.com deleted my pictures. Plastic pornography is not allowed. If you want the pictures you'll need to email me @ zacksawesome06@yahoo.com and I will send them to you. And by the way, the pictures are not that bad, in fact you see more nudity at a public swimming pool.

To be honest I was really excited about this figure when I purchased it, but after taking it out of the box and messing with it I felt a little disappointed. Her clothes are easy to take off but very difficult to put back on. There's a lot of junk that is included with this figure. Spare arms, a second necktie, two shoulder cuffs, a spare set of bosoms, and something I'm not sure of its purpose. The shoulder cuffs are almost impossible to fit in the right place and when you do get them in the right spot it doesn't take much to make them fall right off.

Another thing that annoys me is her boobs; they're not made out of PVC but rubber. The reason this is so is fairly obvious after looking at her spare set of boobs. If you have the other figure in this set, her sister, you can take both of their standard boobs off and use this spare set which connects them at the chest. Wow, that's a sentence I never thought I'd say. Additionally, her boobs, or rather her nipples, aren't even painted! This figure's paint job is actually very well done other than that.

After having her on my shelf fully dressed for a few hours I decided to take all of her clothes off and see how that looked on the shelf. Turns out I like the figure ten times more when she's partially naked. When clothed I was afraid of even picking her up lest those pesky shoulder cuffs pop off!

As you may have noticed I tend to start my reviews off with the negative so I can end on a positive note, and this figure does have a lot of positives too. One thing that you'll notice is that the paint job is on par with some of the bigger names in the industry like Max Factory and Kotobukiya. Another obvious plus is the price tag, but you do get what you pay for of course. Now, here comes the judgment.


Paint and craftsmanship: 5
Packaging: 8
Price: 10
Likability: 5
Overall: 28/40

At the end of the day I'm very much torn. I like her as long as she's not wearing those gaudy clothes. I'd recommend this figure to anyone who doesn't mind having a naked figure displayed for all to see. That's it for this review. Thanks for reading, take care.

Kanon and Claymore

It's been awhile since I've bought new DVDs; all I can say is that PVCs are expensive and addicting. Speaking of expensive, I purchased a single DVD for $48, but more on that later. Rightstuf.com had their typical sale going on that I took advantage of. Among those on sale were the Kanon singles. At $7 a piece I thought it was more than worth it. Unfortunately for me they sold out of volume 5 before I could order it, and because it's out-of-print they would not be getting any additional stock. But my heart was set, I wanted those Kanon singles. So began the frantic search for the fifth single. I checked out all Best Buys within fifty miles of all family and friends throughout the country. I figured if one store had a copy I could request that a friend or family member buy and send it to me. Unfortunately no store near any of my freinds or family had a copy. Tried all of my online resources to no avail. It seemed eBay was my only hope. I've had family tell me horror stories about getting ripped off on eBay, but as I said earlier, my heart was set. Found a coupled sealed copies and bought it for $48+$3 for shipping costs.

Other than the Kanon singles all I was able to afford was Claymore vol. 4. And no, it's not because of any national economic 'distress' that I was unable to purchase more DVDs (PVCs!).
Enjoy the pictures. See you next post and thanks for reading.

PVC Review: 1/8 Scale Uratori (Kotobukiya)

Alright, today we're taking a look at Uratori from a lesser-known anime series Utawarerumono (try saying that three times fast). Uratori is sold-out in virtually all foreign figure websites, but I found her at a domestic figure import website, Toyslogic.com. She is close to being soldout and retails for about $38.99 which is very cheap for a full size figure. One possibility for her drop in price is the fact that she's over a year old and the website is probably trying to get rid of their stock. About a year ago she retailed for $69.99 and she is manufactured by the Kotobukiya company making this my second figure by them.

I'm going to jump right into the negative because I like ending on a positive note. First I don't like the feel of her wings, they are obviously made from a different material than the rest of the figure, which is pretty much the same as my other two figures. Although it's a small nitpick the fact that I can't take her off of her base tics me a bit too. My last complaint about the figure would have to be the paint job, while it is mostly done pretty well there is a half inch green streak on her right wing. It's the same shade of green that is used on the bottom part of her dress.

Now that we've cleared the negative there are a couple things that are really going for this figure, one would be the price. As I mentioned earlier Uratori comes from a lesser-known anime and I would guess this would be the primary reason for its inexpensiveness, not the quality of the figure. Another plus is her pose, which was definitely a selling point for me, if you've seen the anime you'd know that this is a pose befitting of this character.

Although it may be a bit much for some collectors, Kotobukiya did include Uratori's large breast size, which seems to be the norm in the anime series Utawarerumono. Kotobukiya seems to be one of the better manufacturers. They have two Utawarerumono figures, one being Uratori and the other being her sister Kamyu which is also selling for under forty dollars and looks pretty well done. Now onto the judgement.

Paint and craftsmanship: 7
Packaging: 8
Price: 10
Likability: 8
Overall: 33/40

Now I'd have to say that this is probably my least favorite figure, but I don't regret purchasing it. It's definitely not going on my nightstand though, that's reserved for my favorites. But I think I will buy the other Utawarerumono from Kotobukiya just to have them both. Well that's about all I have to say about Uratori; be sure to check out all of the cool pictures below. Thanks for reading, take care.

New Pictures

It's the time you've all been waiting for. All both of you that is.
I have finally invested in a real digital camera and will be retaking ALL of the photos over time (starting with the PVC photos).
If you're interested, the camera I decided to purchase is a Canon PowerShot SX110 IS.

PVC Review: 1/8 scale Haruhi Suzumiya Gekisou Ver. (Max Factory)

Today we're taking a look at a Haruhi Suzumiya Gekisou - or in English, Extravaganza Version. This will be one of three upcoming Haruhi Suzumiya Gekisou figures sculpted by Max Factory, which I'm considering getting. Haruhi was released March 31th 2009 and retails for about $84.90.

After taking Haruhi's box out of the UPS package the first thing I notice is how cool the box looks. The box is a shiny hybrid of red and black with multiple pictures of the figure, as well as the other two figures to be released on the sides. Removing Haruhi from the box I am immediately drawn to the guitar- specifically the strings, which to my surprise are real and not simply painted on. On the guitar, the fade from orange to black has been painted especially well, and the overall detail is great.

Now onto the negative. Firstly, I noticed that there is a small spot on her upper most hair strand that hasn't been fully painted in. This does bother me because it's in such an easy-to-see area that I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't have been painted in. Secondly, her skirt seems to be overly frilled out, unlike the episode in which this figure depicts. This also takes away from the figure because it makes the back of the skirt, which is supposed to be a bit long in the back anyway, seem that much longer. Finally, the 'chain' on her necklace is too long and makes for a crowded upper-chest and neck area.

Now that the bad is out of the way, I'd point out that this figure does sport some amazing detail, and not just in the guitar. I'm glad that they included the subtle pink shading on her top that would have been easy to overlook, not to mention the fact that the top is occluded slightly by the guitar. Haruhi's leg stockings have been painted on and are consistent. Max Factory did a great job capturing the essence of Haruhi Suzumiya; the figure doesn't just look like Haruhi, it feels like her too. That about sums it up for the main review, and now onto the judgment.

Paint and craftsmanship: 9
Packaging: 10
Price: 9
Likability: 10
Overall: 38/40

I'd say that I'm glad I pre-ordered this item, the month wait was definitely worth it. Although I admit I was hesitant to buy this figure because I wasn't sure I'd like it. Let's face it, pictures can only tell you so much. Now I'm torn deciding whether or not to order the other two figures. I'm really not all that impressed with Mikuru, the second figure to be released, but Yuki, the third figure, looks promising. Lots of pictures this time, I hope you enjoy them despite their poor quality. One day I'll get a digital camera and retake some of the pictures. Thanks for reading, take care.

Update: I've retaken the pictures for the review with my new camera.