PVC Review: 1/6 Scale Mai Tokiha (Max Factory)

1/6 scale is pretty big isn't it? Today I'm reviewing Mai Tokiha from the anime series Mai Hime. I bought Mai from my trusted eBay seller for fifty dollars + shipping. He has at least one more in stock and if you're interested in buying her email me at zacksawesome06@yahoo.com and I'll give you his eBay username. The typical 1/8th scale stands about 20cm tall. With her base included, Mai stands an impressive 27cm tall. This is about 6cm taller than my tallest figure, Gekisou Haruhi. I was a little worried about her being too tall and not able to fit on my shelf. Fortunately she is about one index finger short enough to fit on a lower shelf if she needs to.

Mai will be my third Max Factory figure and they did a pretty good job with just a few drawbacks. There are a couple of 'creases' down each of her legs. This was something that was not present in either of my other two Max Factory figures. A couple of my other figures have them but not as noticeable. Considering Max Factory is one of the best companies I'm pretty shocked at this. Who knows? Maybe it's just my figure. There's not really a whole lot going on with Mai. She's just standing giving the thumbs up- a pretty plain pose. I never understood why companies pick these types of figures to do larger scales with. I'd figure that they'd choose to do larger sizes when the figure is particularly complex and/or detailed. Another draw back is the base she stands upon. Not only is she fused with the base it's not very sturdy. Why just typing this review is making Mai rock back and forth.

I am, of course, just nitpicking the figure. In actuality she's quite well crafted. Her paint job is particularly excellent; especially her hair. I see about three different shades of orange on her hair alone. This shading gives her hair very realistic look. Her vest also has about three different shades of orange with the darkest right underneath her breasts making them look particularly good. (haha). This figure is a pretty accurate rendition of Mai Tokiha in both appearance and in feel. The hand on the hip and the thumbs up reflects Mai Tokiha's energetic, upbeat self.

It's too bad that there are so few Mai Hime figures out there considering how many main characters that would make great figures. I believe there are about five or six figures of Mai Tokiha and a couple figures of Natsuki whom I guess would be the second main female character. Although I guess I should be happy there aren't that many because I now I don't have to buy them all. Heh. I suppose it's time to move on to the judgment.

Paint and craftsmanship: 9
Packaging: 9
Price: 10
Likability: 9
Overall: 37/40

When browsing my sellers store there were two main things that attracted me to her. One would be the fact that she's 1/6th scale (which I have determined to be about the largest size I'd want) and the price tag of $49.99. For such a large scale figure produced by one of the top figure companies fifty dollars is a real bargain. Needless to say I'm pretty pleased with this figure and I highly recommend her. In fact the last four of my figures have come from a single eBay seller, and so I highly recommend him as well. Well that about does it for this review. I've uploaded a ton of pictures this time so be sure to take a look at them all. Thanks for reading!

PVC Review: 1/8 Scale Clare (Megahouse)

Yosh! (That means Alright! or Yes! in Japanese), I'm really excited about this figure. Honestly I didn't think I'd ever get my hands on this one because she's been discontinued for a while. I bought her from a trusted eBay seller for about $65.

This is my first figure from Megahouse and I think they did a pretty good job for the most part. The box she comes in is pretty interesting displaying Clare in a different position on each side. Clare comes with a second right arm as well. If you've seen Claymore you'll know what I'm talking about. It's a shame that there aren't any figures of the other characters, not even Theresa. I know that there is another Clare rendition out there by some other company but it doesn't look all that great, especially her face.

The biggest letdown of this figure has got to be how she connects to her base. There are two little bumps that plug into her right foot, but none for her left which makes her wobbly. She also doesn't connect to the little bumps that well making her even more wobbly. Another letdown was her sword wielding arm(s). Neither one of them can hold the sword to well. This is partially because her hand is a little too open to fully grasp the sword and also because her cape is in the way. If you do it just right though you can get her to hold the sword- just don't bump her! She'll drop the sword and fall down! No wonder she's number 47!

The highlight of this figure is how accurate a rendition this is. Fans of the series will likely agree with me on this. She's got the pale skin common to all Claymore's just right. Megahouse has also done a good job getting her outfit done just right. I just wish they didn't have her looking down like she is, makes it hard to see her face.

I think I prefer Clare with her sword holstered as opposed to her holding it. Actually her sword is a full eight inches long and I don't have that much desk space even if I wanted to have her hold it. I suppose I could put her on my figure shelf, but that too is getting crowded. I'm also thinking I prefer Clare with her 'substitute' arm to her 'regular' arm. Not only does it give the figure a bit more character it also means she's advanced to a certain stage (Go watch the show! :p). With all the good things that this figure has going for it it's easy for me to forget that that the base ticks me off so bad. I've already knocked her over once, but that was likely more my fault than anything.

I'm still hoping for a Theresa figure or even a Priscilla figure one of these days. That would be a good compliment to Clare. Time to break the figure down into categories.


Paint and craftsmanship: 8
Packaging: 9
Price: 8
Likability: 8
Overall: 33/40

Not a bad figure to be honest. Still, I feel like I've gotten better figures for $30 less than this one, but at the end of the day I'm happy with her. I'm planning on getting a really cool glass case that has a light at the top for my figures in a month or two. Once I do I'll take some pictures of it and put it on the blog. Lots of pictures this time and that's about all for this review, thanks for reading.

More DVDs and Manga!

Hi, how are you? I'm doing well, thanks for asking. Got some stuff in the mail today and thought I'd better take some pics while I have a free minute! I'm really excited about this post because I've finally gotten around to purchasing Shakugan no Shana. Unfortunately I won't let myself watch it until I've finished another DVD I got a while back, but I'm almost done with it! If anyone knows why some of my pictures end up being flipped like the one you'll see below please tell me.

I purchase my anime almost exclusively from Right Stuf because they usually have the best deals around, high-quality customer service, and they treat their products well. I say this because I was able to buy Shana and the fifth season of Inuyasha for only $39.99 each. Both of these retail for about $69.99 so it's quite a deal.

Also picked up the Funimation release of Ikki-tousen from RS for under thirty bucks. Nice cover huh? ;) Picked up a couple more Viz Big Rurouni Kenshin manga for myself and a few more Shugo Chara manga for my wife. All in all a pretty good haul. Hey a rhyme!

Because of all the figures I had been buying I was starting to slack on the actual anime haha. I don't have endless cash! Although I do have a figure on the way actually, but it's been a while since I bought one, right? Right?
That outta do it. Thanks for reading, take care

Some DVDs and manga

Howdy.
Got Clannad collection 2 in the mail today and when I was putting it on my shelf I realized that there were a few other things I've purchased along the way and that I haven't posted about. Some of these things may have been on back-order and arrived after I had already posted for that month and were forgotten. I'm not sure why the picture below is flipped that way, because that's not how the picture is was taken. You'll just have to bear with it.
Purchased Claymore 5 about 2 weeks ago I'd say. It's a pretty good series I'd say. Dragon Ball GT set 2 I've had for a bit longer, say a couple of months. GT is a pretty bad spin-off series. I swear it's like pulling teeth. Haha that was a joke. Get it? No? Sorry.
Lucky Star 6 I've had about a month and I've already seen it of course. Sad to see such a great series come to an end. Oh well! At the very least there's still an OVA to look forward to.

A little bit lower you'll see some manga. "Shugo Chara" is a shoujo series that my wife is reading right now so I don't have much to say about it. Naruto is Naruto of course. Now the Haruhi mangas are a bit strange in that some of the characters don't look like their anime counterparts. Especially Kyon. Finally, I bought the one of those "VizBig" manga of Rurouni Kenshin the other day. If you don't know the VizBig are three manga in one book. They retail for about $17.99 which is a pretty good deal but you can find them even cheaper online. Well that's all for now. Thanks for reading!