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Arsene is the sort of antagonist from the anime series Milky Holmes. I don’t know much about the series if I’m truly honest. From the fragmented approach I took to watching the series I believe the main group of brightly pastel coloured protagonists are descendants of famous detectives. The whole first season of Milky Holmes appeared to be about them loosing their special powers, becoming incompetent, and trying to regain their once former glory – all while trying to apprehend the infamous leader of the Gentlemen Thieves – Arsene. Oddly enough this is all done with the aid of Arsene and her motley crew. In the series Arsene can be found as seen here in her scrumptious exhibitionist outfit, or as her undercover personality of school president – Henriette Mystere.

I wouldn’t recommend it but if you want to check out Milky Holmes you can watch it over at crunchyroll. Episode 7 has swimsuits, skip the rest. I believe a second season is also in the works – might be next anime season actually. I checked he lied.

Anyway enough of my loathing of Milky Holmes. We’re here for Arsene, the only saving grace of the series. If you’re willing to dress up in a skimpy leather outfit, don a cape and source a masquerade mask to go burgling you’re a pretty bad ass character in my book. Heck she even has grey hair. Optional trench coat and darker skin tone would be perfection, but we’re fairly close.

My immediate thought upon opening her box was ‘she’s quite small, even at 1/8 scale’. She’s about 18cm in fact from foot to the tip of her crown. Compared with the rest of my collection she’s certainly one of the smaller standing figures – smaller than Alters Buddy who previously held that position. It’s also not helped by her compact vertical profile. The flapping cape gives the illusion of volume to her build and adds an element of asymmetry, but the main attraction is her pose and outfit.

There’s many things I enjoy about Arsenes’ character design. The shiney black leathery outfit is dead sexy. GSC love their glossy paint, and so do I . The way her cape is flapping in the wind looks dynamic with realistic creases, as does the black skirt-like-bit of her suit (that’s it’s official name, honest). Her left hand looks as though she’s trying to hold it down. That or she’s posing alluringly. I can picture her atop a rooftop looking down upon her next heist, classic batman style.

The masquerade mask is something I’m really digging. I used to (and still do on and off) play Guild Wars where my character was a Mesmer. So the whole outfit and style reminds me very much of that class from the game. Since we’re veering off-topic I might as well throw it out there that I can’t wait for Guild Wars 2. It’s going to be awesome. A large chunk of my annual leave may be allocated to the beta and release weeks.

If a mask isn’t your thing GSC have given you the option to remove it. Simply remove the front of her hair as if she were a figma/nendoroid and unclip the mask. Done.

I still prefer the mask. It adds a little mystery I find. Plus the black colouring of the mask draws attention to her eyes. I find without the mask on I’m drawn more towards her outfit.

Her hair style is quite interesting. You’ve got a pony tail, hair-band, asymmetrical fringe, and a court judges wig all rolled into one. See that ahoge? it’s a little fragile. Plus it’s on the removable part of her hair so it’s more likely to be accidentally broken. The crown isn’t removable.

Those belts, wardrobe malfunction or win?

And of course, long leathery black boots.

I think Arsene looks great, however she’s not without fault. She’s certainly not one of GSC highest quality figures. The most noticeable oddity I find is the paint application of her skin, particularly around the breasts. Her skin on the whole lacks shading but there’s something not right about the breast area. The paint looks flat and dull round that area, even her leathery outfit seems to have shifted in texture to a more matte finish. It makes her look odd as if something changed midway through manufacture/painting. Maybe it’s a different plastic and the paint failed to adhere the same? It’s a shame since you’ve got this figure with gorgeous looking clothing, pose and face; but then there’s this glaringly obvious area of uncertainty around the breasts. And I mean it’s not like they’re hidden or anything. Her bum is also quite disappointing with a sharp transition from skin to clothing. Luckily that’s mostly hidden by her cape and I wasn’t able to angle her to photograph it accurately.

?

The red part of her cape could also have been a little better. Don’t get me wrong it looks bloody awesome, it’s just up close there are paint imperfections that somewhat ruin the appeal. The white lines are also uneven and look hastily finished. Of course you have to be up close to notice this so I don’t find it too distracting. It’s quite odd though. Some of the details of her outfit look perfect such as her belt buckles and strings – yet the obvious stuff seems to have been slightly botched somewhere.

Arsene is one of those figures I knew I’d like from the moment I saw her preview shots. And that is still the case after finally getting her. I love her outfit, her colour scheme, her pose, everything. The aforementioned paint issue is a little disappointing, but it doesn’t impact on my enjoyment of her. Compared to other manufacturers and their defects the ones here are fairly minor indeed. So yeah, Arsene has more than lived up to my expectations and will probably remain one of my favourites for a long time.

I’ve got 2 more figures in the review queue, Arsene actually skipped one of them. The next figure I plan to review is made by a procession of tuxedo wearing aves. Hopefully I can get round to that sooner rather than later.

Where’s waldo-papers?

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Hope you had a great Christmas for those who celebrate. I’ve mostly been catching up on anime from this year that I keep saying I’ll watch but never get round to and playing super cheap games from the Steam Sale. This’ll be my last post of the year so might as well wish you all a happy new year too. Today I’m going to look at my latest figure acquisition – Chouun Shiryu Black Ver. by Zigz Toys. Chouun here is more than a simple recoloured version of Zigz Toys original Chouun Shiryu released back in October of 2009. There are also slight improvements to her sculpt, base and construction. Read on to see more of Chouun and how she compares to her original white version of 2009.

Ikkitousen fans may be a tad confused – “this isn’t Chouun, what’s going on here!?”. No, this is Chouun from Koihime Musou – a Visual Novel/ anime series set in the same Romance of the Three Kingdoms universe as Ikkitousen. I’m sure many regular readers of this blog will be aware I’m a huge fan of Koihime Musou. Chouun, or Sei as she’s known in the VN/anime, also happens to be my favourite character so having the opportunity to pick up another figure of her was a no brainer for me. In both the Visual Novel and anime series Sei is portrayed as a confident witty warrior. She’ll make the most inappropriate comments at the wrong times while remaining unphased by the reactions of others around her.

If you want to see more of Koihime Musou anime you can watch all 3 seasons of the anime over at crunchyroll. Or you can buy the translated Visual Novel over at MangaGamer (Note: 18+ link, still no voices ).

The original white coloured Chouun was Zigz Toys first ever figure release. I was impressed with her back in 2009, although I will say most of my enjoyment came more from liking the character. Since 2009 Zigz Toys have only really put out 1 other figure – Sousou also from Koihime Musou. One thing I really like about Zigz is the action poses they’ve sculpted their figures in so far. They’ve also put out previews of other characters from Koihime Musou, but for whatever reason they seem to have disappeared. I hope we’ll see more from them in 2012, although chances are it’ll only be one figure and hopefully not a recolour of Sousou.

Now onto the figure itself.

The pose seen here is the same as her original – balancing on one leg with her spear in hand. I like all the ribbons and loose clothing flapping in the air. It gives a powerful sense of motion as she flurries her way seamlessly through opposing armies. The good thing about this Black version is everything feels more rigid. There’s less chance of accidentally catching these pieces on clothing and breaking them.

The black colour scheme of her clothing is also quite soothing. I’d initially tried to take pictures using a fiery red backdrop but everything felt wrong. I switched over to this darker blue which I think suits the feels of her black outfit much better. I especially like the gold gradient seen round the edges of her dress – it’s much more interesting to look at than a solid black dress.

For the most part the fine details look great. Her butterfly mask which we’ll see soon has a little stray paint but everything else looks fine. This black versions paint job looks much cleaner and smoother than her original as well. That’s immediately noticeable in her hair.

Her weapon is still the same design. The only changes I’ve spotted so far are the handle colour and black versions blade is painted with a metallic finish. The weapon breaks into 3 pieces allowing you to easily slide the handles into her open hands making it a simple process to remove and insert with minimal damage.

One thing I dislike with this Chouun figure, both original and black, is her fingers. They look too big for her scale. Although I will say they’re somewhat more exaggerated in these pictures.

Seis’ facial expression still looks a little odd especially with the open mouth. The feeling you get from her eyes does not match up with the open mouth. Maybe if she was frowning it would have given a stronger impression of shouting. With her current eyes maybe a wry smile would have looked better or just no expression. Yeah, I think it’s her eyes that are at odds with the rest of her pose, they just seem too vacant and lacking in determination. Her facial structure has been made slightly narrower compared with her original which I think makes her look a little better. I’ll also admit she doesn’t look quite like any of her character incarnations – Koihime Musou VN, Shin Koihime Musou VN, and the anime – although she’s probably closer to the VN character designs.

You also get a silver butterfly mask option to display her with. Simply remove the front of her hair and replace with the butterfly mask variant. I found this a little trickier than with the original, I guess that’s the downside of making everything more rigid . The detail looks great, the only real paint spill is at her nose ridge where the mask and hair fringe meet. The mask also lines up better with her eyes on this black version of Chouun.

One gripe, or concern, I had with the original figure was her base. It felt too light and flimsy to hold her in place. Well this black version has a slightly wider and heavier base. She’s also easier to insert into said base since she’s at less of an awkward angle. The base also looks better with more shading and sharper structure.

The cast-off is also very simple. Unclip her dress at the right hand side and slide off. Actually mine won’t keep her clothes on, so no unclipping required. There is a piece of paper included that states to use a hair drier if you want to fix her dress and make it fit.

Probably the most immediate difference seen between this black version and her original is the skin tone. The original looked very red. I didn’t have an issue with that since paler skin in a white outfit would have looked odd. The reverse is true for a black outfit – paler skin looks better. The cast-off looks a bit odd I’ll admit. Not as odd as her original white one – her breasts actually have shape this time. I think the huge distance between her breasts and hips is what’s making her look so odd.

And that’s everything for Chouun. She’s probably one of those figures that gets passed on because of the unknown manufacturer and unknown character. If you’re a Koihime Musou fan and are looking for a Chouun for your collection I can strongly recommend this black version by Zigz as an alternative to their original white. Anyone else, if you’re not captured by her immediately I doubt this review will convince you otherwise. For me I think this black version is superior to the original white – all the small changes make receiving another Chouun figure still enjoyable. The cast-off is still iffy at best, but I’ll be displaying her fully clothed anyway. Her pose and sculpt still look great even 2 years on. Also interesting is my original doesn’t appear to have leaned so that’s good.

Just 1 wallpaper this time:

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A little off-topic here:
Doing this review has reminded me, I did intend to review the Koihime Musou VN, but when it came down to writing it all I could say is “there’s lots of sex and the characters are fun”. So there you go – bonus review xD.

Figure source illustration.

For those unaware of the characters origins Kuroko first appeared in Toaru Majutsu no Index first season as a side character during the Sisters arc. Since then she’s made frequent appearances in the series as well as becoming a main character in the spin-off title Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. She first comes across as your stereotypical oujo-sama, but as the series progresses you begin to see more of her marvelous character. Character development is something Index does quite well, minus Touma. One of her more interesting quirks is her intense love for Misaka which usually lands her in trouble as she attempts to manhandle the poor girl. She has the special ability to teleport any object she touches, including herself, provided it is within a certain range and weight limit. If you’ve not watched Index or Railgun before I’d recommend them, even if it’s just for Kuroko. But I suppose none of this character background really matters since this figure has her in a maid outfit – something we don’t see in the anime series itself.

Kuroko here is one of those figures that falls into “she’s nice, but I’m not mad about her” category. However the price I got her for she was definitely not worth missing. £26 inc shipping – that’s a bargain! I picked her up at the very end of September during the Hobby Search 1/2 price SAL shipping, from the bargain bin at 50% off and using most of my HS points. Most of that £26 was actually the shipping as well.

She stands 25cm including her base at 1/6 scale, about the same height as Kotobukiyas Blanc Neige who was at 1/7 scale. Due to the vertical nature of her stance she doesn’t take up a huge amount of shelf space either, everything is contained within the size of her base.

Kuroko is my second maid figure, the first being Benisu from They are my Noble Masters. Call me crazy but I don’t really find the whole maid concept that appealing. Maybe I just don’t ‘get it’. I also find the outfit rather dull now. Sure it was interesting the first few times I saw it. But once you start seeing more and more characters dressed as maids it becomes repetitive. That or maybe I’ve just become sour from the typical maid character seen in many anime that I’ve been put off the outfit.

So if I didn’t pick up Kuroko for her maid outfit why did I decide to pick her up? The most enjoyable aspect of Kuroko for me has to be her facial expression. Looking at my collection most of them have serious or vacant expressions. Kuroko is just bursting with happiness. The winking eye adds an a-symmetry to her face which I think helps accentuate her happiness. With both eyes open I think she’d have looked more crazy than happy. Her one legged pose is also interesting to look at. It’s full of vitality and motion with her hair and loose fabric circling around her as if she’s just spun round.

Kuroko was my favourite from Toaru Majutsu no Index and the Railgun spinoff, more so in Index. And while the anime was interesting and enjoyable to watch I’ve never had the urge to pick-up any figures from the series. The main issue being that many of the outfits are boring to look at – school uniforms, nun outfits, everyday clothes. Where are the pirates, priestesses (not just copy pasta nuns please) and ninjas? Okay no, please don’t put any of them in Index or Railgun, but hopefully you see my point. On top of that Kurokos’ ability is rather difficult to portray in figure form. At least Misaka has her electricity – how do you show teleportation?

As hypocritical as it may sound I’m glad Kotobukiya choose to put Kuroko in a maid outfit. Sure I may not be a huge fan of maids, but it’s certainly more interesting than a school uniform. How else do you make characters shown in dull school uniforms more interesting? You could go crazy like ToHeart2 has done with their Dungeon Travelers series. Or you could put them in a swimsuit (urgh have you seen the Kuroko swimsuit figure ) or something else. So in that respect the maid outfit is a welcome deviation from her ‘standard’ look.

I’ve been very impressed with Kotobukiya recently. Sure their figures aren’t top tier, but the characters they choose to release and poses they put them in are much more appealing to me. I’d say Kuroko here is the most accurate looking Kuroko figure available when compared to her anime counterpart. Maid ver Misaki on the other hand – eh, no. There are a few minor defects when you look at Kuroko up close. You’ll perhaps notice her skin isn’t smooth and has tiny black specs. These are only noticeable from the camera however – she look perfectly clean with the naked eye. Her hair looks a bit like spaghetti – however I do like how it shows some level of motion. It looks as if Kuroko has just pirouetted round to show off her outfit. This motion is also visible from her clothing with the ribbon at the back of her uniform.

Mmmm, I like the back of her outfit the most. Those laces at her back look great, as do the frills.

Kuroko comes attached to her base already – it’s simply a case of freeing her from the packaging and she’s ready for display. She’s also screwed into her base, just as Blanc Neige was, which is probably to offset any leaning. Which leads to a good point, all that weight on 1 very thin leg. Even with the screw in place I suspect she’s going to be a leaner sooner or later. I can already wriggle her around to shift her distributed weight and she’s typically defaulting towards a forward lean on a flat surface.

Oh lookies – Kurokos signature dark purple underwear. Need a closer look?

Incoming pointless cast-off option. Split Kuroko in half and you can take off the white apron and black skirt. Putting her back together you’re left with a visible break between her top and bottom half. But at least you can see those purple pants better? *Sigh*. The good thing about this cast-off option is it’s completely hidden when fully assembled so at least Kotobukiya haven’t sacrificed quality for this.

So yeah, Kuroko is a nice figure. If I didn’t get her for the price I did I probably wouldn’t have picked her up. She’s got many appealing aspects such as her facial expression, accuracy to her anime counterpart and interesting one legged pose. She’s just not an outstanding figure that I’d rush out to pre-order. The maid theme, while different and interesting when you take into account what other options are available for Kuroko, is not my cup of tea. Saying that it’s not like there’s a whole lot of outfits to coose from given the characters background. And I will admit the maid dress here has been nicely executed. Still despite any hesitations towards ordering her I do still enjoy Kuroko and I’m glad I decided to pick her up.

Check out Shadonia for a review of Misaka Maid Ver.
Or both Misaka and Kuroko over at HappySoda.

Here’s some wallpapers to enjoy.

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So that’s all the new figures I currently have reviewed – although there is one more on the way hopefully before the new year. Frequent readers may remember when I re-reviewed Yoko Swimsuit ver. I said I might revisit older reviews. Well turns out I won’t need to go back for the figure I intended to redo as she’s been given an alternative colour release. So expect to see her appearing sometime soon.

Left to Right: Housing front for DVD and Artbook, DVD front cover, Artbook front cover.

I don’t usually buy DVDs direct from Japan and I had no intention of picking up this OVA. But after watching the subbed version I was curious as to what was inside the book. Luckily it was still in stock over at Hobby Search so I picked mine up there. It’s now back instock over at Hobby Search if you are interested in picking up a copy. Although you might want to avoid reading their item description .

“New visual books and reading center”
“This item is flowers! !”
“DVD will be gas-vapor content”
“In addition, while the body is being trained as a bonus anime clogging instructor Alleyne
[Raw grueling boot camp instructor Alleyne] also included!”

Sorry to disappoint but there are no flowers or libraries. Instead you get a DVD with the 20 minute OVA featuring mainly Annelotte and Alleyne, and a 20 minute ‘Training with Alleyne’ type fanservice disk. And there’s a hardback B6 illustration book containing 29 single pages (no page breaks ) worth of illustrations from many of our favourite Queen’s Blade artists. B6 is quite small though, as you can see it’s comparable to a DVD case.

Left to Right: Housing back for DVD and Artbook, DVD back cover, Artbook back cover.

I’ll start with the illustration book although I do have a little gripe with it. It’s meant to feature all new illustrations – yet I am almost positive I’ve seen many of these elsewhere before. That or I’m muddling up the well known artstyle with Queen’s Blade characters.

I’ve included a few of my favourites from the book here. It’s only the original Queen’s Blade cast featured within – although there are 3 pages at the end covering the included OVA. There’s also no exposed nipples etc, just well placed censored where required. Pretty much what you’d expect from a Queen’s Blade artbook. Also only 1 Irma picture which is more of an Aldra picture – not impressed.

I’m certain I’ve seen the image on the left before with Aldra and Leina – but I can’t remember where. It’s illustrated by Eiwa, the artist behind Tomoe, Annelotte, Shizuka and Risty. Quite a lot of the illustrations in this book are by Eiwa. On the right is a character you may not recognise. She’s Anarista, the woman who betrayed Menace and caused the collapse of the Kingdom of Amar. She was shown briefly in season 1 via flashbacks in the Menace episode and is also a selectable character in the Queen’s Blade Official Card Game. She’s illustrated here by F.S – the artist responsible for Menace, Melona, Echidna and LunaLuna.

Again on the left I’m certain I’ve seen this image as well, but it may just be the art style I’m recognising. Airi is drawn here I believe by Akaga Hirotaka who also designed Irma and Lyla. Lyla is the new angel character for Rebellion who I’m liking quite a bit. On the right is one of many Tomoe illustrations featured in the book. After rewatching the first season of Queen’s Blade I’ve started to like Tomoe a lot more than I used to. This illustration is again by Eiwa and is quite relaxing.

On the left is Alleyne by Matsuryuu who is also the creator of Alleyne. I don’t believe Matsuryuu has designed a character for Rebellion which is a shame since I really liked Alleynes character design. I guess there’s still time to see if one is included. On the right is Nanael and Leina playing by the beach. The illustration is by Kuuchuu Yousai who designed Nanael. He has a few illustrations in this book – mostly of Nanael, but some of Melpha and Leina in a cuter form.

Now for my favourite illustration in the entire book – Tomoe. Both illutrations here are by Eiwa again. Shizuka on the left looks good – but Tomoe in that bikini is an instant attention grabber. Wouldn’t it be great to have a decent figure of Tomoe? There’s tons out there, but most are crappy, and the MegaHouse one is very dated. Plus she has the issue all early cast-off figures had, extreme paint transfer. In fact Airi is kind of similar – tons of crappy looking figures and an outdated MegaHouse version. Could be worse, could be Irma with no figure, or even worse only Griffon Enterprise version available like Claudette. Anyway I’m going off-topic – look – Tomoe in a bikini – do want.

And finally I’ve included the last 3 pages which contain text about the first OVA.

Next up is the DVD featuring OVA and Special. Sorry to keep you suspended for so long but there’s sadly no gas vapor to be found.

So, what’s the story about Hobby Search? “Anime DVD comes with a welcome.” That it does, that it does. “Relationship between the two really do look the deployment of what?” Ummm, say what now?

I think what Hobby Search is trying to tell us is the OVA features Annelotte and Alleyne. The OVA starts with Annelotte trying to fend off Queen Claudettes assault on her kingdom. She’s soon knocked into a river and winds up floating unconsciously into a dense forest. When she comes to she finds herself being pursued by Assassins of the Fang – now under Queen Claudettes command – who manage to strike a poisonous wound to Annelotte. This is where Alleyne appears, saving Annelotte just in time from the Assassins – while not forgetting to rip their tops off for us. Annelotte passes out again – stuff happens – Alleyne agrees to train Annelotte – we get to see boobs and some tentacle-like plant action. The climax of the OVA comes in the form of a lightning bolt destroying (Claudette or chance?) Alleynes house and Annelotte awakening to her inner demon powers.

Look, bewbs.

Epic Demon Horse

Unfortunately Annelotte doesn’t turn into her P2 form. Her eyes just go red and her sword transforms into a lance.

Probably the best part of the OVA – besides the fanservice – was seeing some of the other Rebellion characters animated for 5 frames or so. Can’t wait for the Queen’s Blade Rebellion series to start next year. Here’s the characters shown (minus Lyla who briefly appeared simply as her illustration book cover illustration with moving wings – kinda lazy).

Elina – although she looked way more badass when she appeared in the first OVA from the Queen’s Blade: Utsukushiki Toushitachi batch of 6 OVAs released last year.

Vingt & Huit.

Tanyan and Sainyan – Tanyan is the in red.

LunaLuna getting a whole frame to herself.

Leina, or Maria, looks so much better in her new outfit.

The second “Special” included in the DVD is not an “anime clogging instructor” in case you hadn’t figured that out yet, sorry. Basically it’s the same frames repeated over and over as Alleyne takes you through a work out – Hinako style. I personally found it boring, but if watching Alleyne on loop and hearing “fap” sounds as her breasts collide is your thing go for it. It’s rather difficult to take screen shots as well since everything is OMFG YOU SHOULD SEE THIS, ZOOM! Here’s Alleyne anyway showing a displeased expression as you fail to follow her instructions. This is a serious workout, put that away!

I’m not too excited about the next Premium Visual Book – OVA 2, since it’s Ymir and Siggy. If Hobby Search is to be believed then we can expect to see some “Original Anime DVD comes together to draw the head along the way Gainosu the Yumiru Chin. When two men meet not seem to have no contact, or what chemical reactions occur wound?”. Expect to see drawn heads of dudes who spark up a chemical reaction – but there’s no contact involved – understand? Sounds riveting.

That’s pretty much everything included. I liked the OVA and the artbook is quite nice. I’d maybe have preferred to see more Rebellion characters in the artbook as opposed to the originals – maybe the 2nd OVA will feature them instead. The Special was a bit naff, but then I wasn’t expecting much from it in the first place. At the moment I have no plans to pick up the 2nd OVA, but if I like it enough or see some interesting preview shots of the artbook I’ll reconsider.

I’ve also picked up the Vanquished Queen’s Artbook – the one without Annelotte revoltech. I might post a little review of it sometime. If you are interested in seeing the contents and translation of the book check out Queen’s Blade Battle by leecherboy. He has a full translation under the “Translations” section. He’s also got a nifty Application he made that lets you play the Queen’s Blade Battle Books with AI or human opponents. Check it out.

Just for good measure.

I’m going to review 2 figures in one go today, purely to get them out the way. I’ll be honest straight up, I don’t like either of them. First time Alpha Max customer – last time Alpha Max customer. The only other time I’ve been this disappointed with a figure was when I got Griffons Claudette, who nows lives in a box (not her box, no, just a box) hidden away in a cupboard. Read on if you dare.

These two characters are from Hobby Japans Samurai Girls series which has also received the anime treatment. The anime was rather mediocre but I still enjoyed the characters designs very much. Jubei is arguably the lead heroine in the anime series with your typical bi-polar split personality. The version of Jubei here is based on her more ditsy personality. Sen is your typical oujosama. Yeah, the anime really pushed the boat out with the characters personalities. Anyway, both swimsuit renditions here are from the anime episode 6. Their choice of swimsuit is quite different from your usual fair. Sen has interesting accessories such as her chain belt and looks stunning. Jubei has an interesting styled swimsuit.

The main selling point of these figures to me was their swimsuits. I mean you can’t get a swimsuit figure wrong, right? Jubei was supposed to have an elastic suit that you could stretch, and Sen was supposed to have one that was removable. From their promo shots they didn’t look half bad so I decided to give them a shot. Sen was a bit sketchy I thought but Jubei looked just like her anime counterpart. This is probably one of the rarer times where the promo shots look a whole lot better than the final product.

I’ll start with the lesser evil – Jubei. Here’s her promo shot: she looks colourful, well shaded and lively doesn’t she? Just look at that cute face.

But no, instead we get this -.- .

For some reason her head seems to be twisted round further than previously seen. Owls be haten’. And she also appears to be looking up at a higher angle. Who’s she looking up at? Godzilla? Her hair also lacks the level of shading seen in the promo as well – it’s mostly a flat bright red.

Fine details are not fine at all. There’s overpainting and jagged lines everywhere. Please keep in mind this is the better of the two figures . This is a swimsuit figure with not much detail yet Alpha Max still managed to mess it up, good job. Even the clip in her hair looks like utter crap up close. It’s just a odd looking shape – nothing what it could have looked like. Also the paint inside her mouth appears to have spread outside her mouth. Chapped lips dear?

At least she has some redeemable features. Her swimsuit is a bright shiny red. The bottom of her swimsuit looks nice and the creases look good. But then there’s horrible join lines between the swimsuit strings and the bottoms that just don’t match up. It looks like the swimsuit strings burrow into her skin as opposed to attaching to her bottom.

There’s also that neat stretchy feature right? Well more like plastic that moves. Describing it as stretchy would be a bit of stretch. Ahaha, see what I did there. *sigh*. Also notice the colour discontinuity for this part of her swimsuit. It looks slightly washed out – not like the promo shot.

Behind the plastic though she look quite good. If you could completely remove the swimsuit she might have been a bit better, but since you can only push the suit out the way you’re going to be left with an odd looking figure with breasts showing.

The base she comes with is just a plain white circle with a peg and some red writing. Jubei has a hole in her knee where the peg is supposed to hold her in place. Don’t know why they bothered since both her legs are at odds with one another and she just flops over. Pointless peg is pointless. Also her legs are bare – no cool looking sandals as in the screen caps at the start.

To be fair the strap round her leg looks not too bad. Maybe if this level of quality was applied to the whole figure and they fixed her pose so she’s not trying to break her neck she’d look quite nice.

In order to remedy this situation the expert skills of a certain someone are required. Shady dealings going down.

Hmm what’s in that envelope…

Business. Sorted.

Right, on to the ‘bad one’ now. Senhime, oh where to start. What have they done to you . This is how she was presented in her promo shots. Her face has an expression on it, her eyes look lively, her neck doesn’t look crooked.

And instead we get this.

Her skin looks so lifeless, more like a zombie than anything living. Shading is inconsistent with bright red marks in odd places. Her facial expression is void of anything and her eyes look stone cold dead.

Every single little join has a visible crack, it looks like even the machine putting her together had given up. I’m positive I could dismantle her by hand she’s so shoddily put together. Just look at that butt, it’s been ruined. Overpainting everywhere, some sort of gray residue, and what’s up with the creases in her bikini bottom. Her nails look quite good though.

The hair is just a brown blob that flops unnaturally. And what’s with that strand of hair near her right breast floating in space? It’s almost as if her head isn’t quite in the right place, I say quite, it’s miles off where it should be. If her head was perhaps further back on her neck and closer to her body it would look like her breast is forcing the hair into that position. But that’s not the case, so meh. We’ll later be seeing that when cast-off her right hand side again presents problems. Notice how the promo shots avoid this angle when presenting her cast-off .

High heels, you can’t mess that up surely. And they’re all black right. Come on, do a good job. *sigh*

The golden hoop belt can be removed kind of, removed in the sense that it unclips and just stays there dangling. Well that’s what I first thought. It wasn’t until after I took all these pictures I noticed you can fully cast-off everything. You pull her apart at her bum. . Anyway, it doesn’t matter that you can remove the belt since it leaves lovely holes in her backside, yay? The belt looks utter crap as well – gold + random hues anyone?

*Bang bang*

Okay I’m really struggling to find good points here. I know! She’s in a frog position if frogs are your thing, I guess.

Oh yes and she’s cast-off too, that’s a saving grace right? Not here. The bikini top can be fully removed after you break a piece that’s been glued to her right hand side. But really all that does is reveal one nice breast and one that’s been cut into and malformed. It’s as if she’s holding something invisible under her arm that’s causing her breast to squash into a square. Perhaps that explains the clump of floating hair we seen earlier too.

At least you can behead her. That’s a good point no?

Senhime has a similar issue as Jubie when it comes to her stand. You’d think in frog mode here she’d be fairly stable. Wrong. Everything is at odds with one another; both her legs and hand makes for the triforce of wobbling.

This look familiar.

Oh snap. Domo means business.

Good End.

As I started taking pictures of both Sen and Jubei I started to feel less harsh towards them, like they were growing on me or something. But that’s probably because I had more fun setting Domo up as opposed to liking the figures themselves. Jubei isn’t as difficult to like as Sen, but both are pretty bad I think. What do you think? Am I being too harsh?

Honestly it looks like Alpha Max said ‘fuck it’ and just chucked any old junk out. The very first promo shots of these girls I remember both looked great. It’s such a shame Alpha Max have had to change so much from that original preview. If Jubei wasn’t trying to look up so high and twist her neck in the process I think I’d like her more. Sen, I dunno, maybe fix her neck. Even then I doubt I’d like her since her paint job and everything is just so bad. If I really like the pose or the character I can ignore paint issues. But here it’s just inexcusable since it detracts from the overall presentation. The poses of both look off, coupled with bad paint and poor assembly and you get a rather nasty looking figure.

I’ll keep these 2 around for a while and see if they grow on me. If not I’ll either box them up and hide them, or try flog them off somewhere. Although that doesn’t sound fun, people will probably think I sold them a bootleg. See that tag ‘Alpha Max’ below? you’ll never be seeing it again here ^^.

Maybe it’s a bit early for Christmas themed figures, although it is only 10 weeks until Christmas. That soon . Let me rephrase that, 62 days, now it sounds ages away, phew. Could have been worse though, the original release date was to be July – Christmas in July, classy. This figure here is an original character named Jumonji Tanaki manufactured by Orchid Seed. Read on if you want some early ecchi Christmas cheer.

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Queen’s Blade fans will hopefully notice similarities between this character and Nanael. Well the illustrator of Nanael – Kuuchuu Yousai – is the creator of this character. Kuuchuu was also involved with the anime Yuru Yuri which aired last anime season, not that I know anyone who watched it. Those more into VNs and h-anime will notice similarities to characters from MegaChu! and Makai Tenshi Djibril. I find the art style of Kuuchuu quite distinct. Most of the character designs have cute round faces with bright vivid colours. I especially like Nanael because she mixes the cute facial features and traits of a Kuuchuu character with a more mature looking body. Too bad the upcoming character Kuuchuu has designed for Queen’s Blade Rebellion isn’t too exciting – at least from the previews I’ve seen.

Anyway back to Jumonji, one letter off being a board game that attempts to kill you by summoning wild animals in your house. This character here isn’t anyone special – special in that she’s not from an anime series or VN. She’s instead based on an original cover girl illustration for Comic XO magazine Dec 2008 issue. Hopefully from the +18 warning you’ll have gathered she’s cast-off able, although she’s quite a bit more ero than you’re usual cast-off figures. Every detail is present and accounted for so just a little warning there.

The box she comes in is very Christmas-y with lots of greens and golds. There’s also a little slogan:

Santa cos.Girl
Put a band-aid on the … ♥

Hmm, Santa could be a function acting on the Girl property of object cos which returns a cryptic string. Put a band-aid on the ellipse heart. Deep.

Anyway, here is Jumonji

Naughty. She comes with plasters to cover these areas up, although I found they keep falling off. Both parts are sculpted which isn’t something we usually see on many figures.

The red of her outfit is very bright and bold. The preview shots I’d seen of her had colours that looked rather muted so it’s a nice surprise to see everything is bold and colourful. I’m not sure what the crosses on her outfit are about. Not that I’ve checked but I’m pretty sure santa isn’t involved with the medical society.

The front of her outfit shows a little bit of underboob. Nice . Even that green dude with the present on his head is like .

Speaking of the green dude I’m not actually sure what he’s meant to be. He’s like a super happy Dango with wings. Looking at the reverse side we’ve got a nicely detailed gold ribbon on the present. Interesting from both sides.

Her stockings are simply painted on, no fancy cloth or thread. She’s also got this metal ring round her right leg which adds a bit of asymmetry, although the paint seems to have wandered onto her legs a little. A minor annoyance is both her legs don’t sit on the base, one will always be hovering. Since she’s rather bulky and kneeling down it’s not an issue of stability just something I noticed.

Her little santa boots are cute and fluffy looking. That’s something that’s be executed very nicely with Jumonji, the parts that should be woolly actually look woolly.

I’m not sure I like the sticking out tongue. It looks a little odd from the wrong angles. Apart from that her face is very cute – looks exactly like a Kuuchuu Yousai illustration. Compared to other figures her head is very large, but that’s more due to the character design.

Despite how nice she looks there are a few flaws with her figure design. The biggest and most disappointing to me is how easily paint transfers from her clothing. I guess Orchid Seed aren’t as careful with this as MegaHouse. Even the slightest of scrapes will transfer colours to her skin. You can see here the green from her present has transfered to the underside of her breast. Her sleeves and jacket have also left red lines on her skin.

The cast-off process was really simple. Remove her head to take the jacket off, the sleeves just pop-off her shoulders and the skirt (obviously, just look at those seam lines!) separates into two halves. Too bad the cast-on process isn’t as simple. The sleeves, once removed become very loose and tend to fall off a lot. The jacket is impossible to clip back together. Luckily this is hidden by her arms. And the skirt just never seems to line back up the way it did before cast-off. Still in the grand scheme of things these aren’t huge problems unless you want to repeatedly cast-on cast-off, she still looks fine even with the clothing malfunctions.

Here she is with everything on but the jacket.

This is probably my favourite cast-off combination, skirt only. Saying that I prefer her fully clothed, the full santa outfit is better looking than no santa outfit. Plus the cast-on hides any paint transfer.

And finally fully cast-off. I take my photos cast-off first since unpacking the figure means removing all the protective plastic. So that means no paint transfer and a plaster (kind of, it kept dropping off) still in place.

A little closer look

Jumonji is a really nice figure that is let down by the technical execution on Orchid Seeds’ part. She looks great, has great cast-off ability and looks exactly like a Kuuchuu Yousai character. It’s such a shame that paint transfer and loose pieces of clothing really detract from my liking of the figure. I can’t help but feel that if a more competent (I want to say experienced but Orchid Seed have been doing cast-off for a while now) manufacturer made her she wouldn’t have these issues. Still, if you plan on only displaying her in 1 state you can easily still enjoy Jumonji. I plan on keeping her fully clothed provided her sleeves don’t keep dropping off. Paint transfer and seamlines, excluding the skirt, are hidden in this state. And if you choose to keep her fully cast-off hopefully you can fix the paint transfer or just don’t ever put her clothes back on.

Wallpapers:

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For those unaware, which I imagine most are now aware of where Buddy originates, she’s a character from a Visual Novel by Leaf called Kimi ga Yobu, Megiddo no Oka de. Leaf are behind the popular ToHeart series of Visual Novels, as well some others with anime releases you may be aware of such as White Album and Utawarerumono. In that respect Buddy is a rather obscure character given there’s no anime or translation of her game.

Buddy was one of those figures I decided not to pre-order but later regretted after seeing many fantastic reviews of her. To me her pose was rather bland and unexciting, I still think that, but Buddys’ beautiful sculpt and character design are more than enough to make up for that. She’s got a sense of elegance that my other more exciting figures perhaps lack, which is equally as charming I find.

Buddy is actually my first Alter figure. I’ve been collecting for over 2 years now and only just set my eyes upon the quality of Alter. It’s quite astonishing seeing the perfect fine detail painting on Buddy. I mean just look at those crosses and white outlines on her sleeves – everything is crisp and sharp. My only minor complaint is I believe Buddy is meant to be 1/8 scale yet she’s being dwarfed by my other 1/8 scale figures. Maybe 1/9 would be better, or 1/10 more believable if you want her ‘real’ height.

Her pose, while not all that exciting, comes across as very overpowering. She looks ready to slice something in half at any moment and is unlikely to be pushed around. It’s clear Buddy knows her own mind here. Yet at the same time there’s a sense of loneliness emanating from her facial expression.

There are no extra accessories with Buddy, the only removable part is her scythe. Normally I like my figures to have various display options, but Buddy is so charming I’m more than happy to settle for a static figure. The scythe just simply rests in her hands, which as a result makes it feel a bit flimsy, but it’s not going to be falling from her grasp unless something gives her a knock.

Taking a closer look at her scythe, at the non-business end there’s a translucent plastic orb. This adds some flair to an otherwise dull grey weapon. At the sharp end there’s nothing all that spectacular. The shading is nice but the actual design is rather plain and the blade looks a little too thin.

I like her necklace/collar and how it’s separated from her main outfit. Outfits with big pointy collars usually look wicked as they are, but it’s certainly a treat to have a bit of skin exposed between the collar and main dress. The black and white also make her look guarded, without it she’d look too exposed and less domineering.

My favourite aspect of Buddys’ design has to be the back of her exposed shoulders. If her hair wasn’t in the way I’m sure I’d love her exposed back too. She’s got quite a slender frame too which I like.

Buddy wears some interesting shoes, they look rather impish. They’ve got a strange shape with weird bumps but for some reason I like them more than the boots some of my other figures wear. Plus the heel on these shoes is much lower than I’ve seen on other figures. Also seen here is the base Buddy comes with. It’s a translucent red with various cogs and gears. Much more interesting than sand, transparency or plain white .

And of course how can we forget Buddys’ beautiful face. Alter have done a fantastic job of creating a solemn yet cute facial expression. There’s not much emotion being shown here, Buddy is a very calm and charming figure.

There you have it, Buddy by Alter. I may be late to the party, heck the party finished ages ago, but I finally got a chance to own Buddy and an Alter figure. Thanks again to wieselhead for selling her to me ^^. She is a fantastic looking figure and has perfect detailing to go hand in hand. My only complaint, and probably the reason I don’t own many Alter figures, is her pose is rather bland. There’s a story there sure but it’s just not immediately attention grabbing. Cast-off – instant attention grabber, crazy poses with crazy hair – instant attention grabber, standing still looking glum not so attention worthy. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just not my thing. Although sometimes, with Buddy here for example, I can enjoy a more peaceful looking figure.

In terms of future figure reviews my next 2 are going to be a bit more ero. I’ve also not seen any English reviews of them yet so hopefully they’ll be interesting enough for others to see.

This review also let me test out my new macro lens – AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR 40mm f2.8G – which is a reasonably priced lens for my cropped sensor D3100. The fixed focal length took a bit getting used to but now I can get really close to my figures. Capturing really close up details should now be possible, so close that the AF sometimes extends out and knocks the figure.

Check out other reviews of Buddy:
Figyura
Tailgrab
Tentacle Armada
Visual Fanfare
wieselhead

Wallpapers

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This is the tale of Captain Liliana, pirate so brave on the seven seas. A mystical quest, to the Isle of Tortuga. Raven locks sway, on the oceans breeze. Yeah that was kinda weird.

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Close enough, minus the quest, and isle, and locks, oh whatever. So Liliana is a fairly recent addition to the Queen’s Blade Rebellion universe. In her past life she was an infamous pirate who is believed to have fallen victim to a Kraken. Not one to miss out on an opportunity to revive hot underlings, everyones favourite Swamp Witch (Airi, Melona and Menaces master) has revived her in Rebellion to do her bidding. Good choice I say, we really needed an awesome looking pirate character.

I always enjoy writing (and reading) reviews for Queen’s Blade figures – in a way they write themselves since there’s usually different combination of cast-off available. Not like a swimsuit figure or static pose figure where what you see is what you get. Captain Liliana here probably has the most amount of accessories and combinations out of all my QB figures so far, plenty of potential to lose stuff.

I’m going to show 10 different combinations which should cycle through all the changeable parts and various states of undress. Some are subtle changes such as swappable hands; others more obvious such as a complete face change.

First up is Liliana in her fully clothed form. Probably my favourite aspect of her outfit is her jacket which we’ll be seeing more of later. It’s a shame mine has stray white lines where the painting messed up. Good thing it’s only on the back of the jacket since you’ll probably spend most of your time looking at her front. The pirate hat is really cool as well – without it I feel she looks rather dull.

The very first thing I did when trying to set her up like this was break the crossbow ¬¬. In order to put the crossbow in her hands you remove the stock from the barrel and try to re-connect them between her hand. Well I slipped and the crossbow snapped against my leg. On the plus side I got the thing connected. It’s not too obvious I broke it – if you see one of the strings at a weird angle or bending that’s the part I broke. Repairing it will be difficult because the tension holding it together is gone. So be very careful with the crossbow if you plan on picking her up!

Anyway enough about my mishaps. The crossbow looks amazing. The silky black finish with gold trimmings really jump out at you making this a rather exquisite looking weapon.

One rather annoying aspect of this figure is her hat. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the pirate hat, it’s just the implementation could have been better. You’ll see in my initial pictures it’s resting at an odd angle. I got fed up trying to balance the thing so used some tape to stick it to her head. Much better .

Here’s the second combination where I’ve remove her pirate hat and swapped her crossbow hand out for the Rapier hand (umm). Without her pirate hat on her head looks too bare for my liking. The hat adds more volume to her head which is otherwise dwarfed by her body shape – ie breasts. The black and white of the hat also contrasts with her pink hair which is much more interesting than without any hat.

The Rapier isn’t as fragile as the crossbow, saying that I almost ended up breaking it at one point. Luckily the blade is bouncy. It’s also much easier to put in her hand so this is the safer option if you choose to display her with a weapon in hand.

This third variant I’ve removed her neck tie. From lower angles she looks best without the tie I think. Looking from up top there’s too much cleavage on show which the necktie helps obscure. You’ll probably want to display her above eye level though since she’s looking down at the ground which makes trying to see her face in full difficult.

You’ll also notice I’ve swapped out her arms with sleeves for sleeveless ones. Liliana comes with 7 arm (+2 swappable hands) options so there’s plenty of combinations to get through.

Here’s a close up of her boots. At first it looked as though she had sprained her ankle because of how she’s standing. The more I look at it though the more natural it looks when you take into account her pose.

For this fourth set I’ve sadly had to remove her awesome looking jacket. Don’t worry though, it’ll be back again. It’s a little tricky to take the jacket off since it’s quite chunky and you’ll probably graze her shoulders taking it off. Good thing there’s no paint transfer from what I’ve seen so far.

From this angle her breasts look huge! Reminds me a little of MegaHouse Nyx when viewed from the side.

Her red top looks okay, although there’s not as much fine detail as found on her other items of clothing. The red certainly add more colour to her overall appearance though and it’s typically covered by her jacket so I guess it doesn’t need to be overly detailed.

Her black mini skirt is very nicely detailed just like most of her other clothing. The gold buckles on the belt are my favourite. The skirt can be removed, as you would expect, by unclipping it at the side.

Sneaky pant shot. Yeah like we’re not going to be taking that skirt off!

Here’s some shots for those interested in a closer look at those pink pants. I’m not all that thrilled by them personally.

This is the most you can remove from Liliana. You could remove those white and red armlets but you’ll be left with a very obvious join line.

Torpedoes ready for launch.

And a bit closer.

You’d think the full cast-off would be the most exciting way to display Liliana however I’m not satisfied with just a plain cast-off. So it’s time to throw some of those clothes back on. As Tom Jones would say…

Those keeping track of Queen’s Blade figures during various figure events may remember seeing Liliana with starfish pasties when cast-off. Going off on a tangent for a moment: this is a Pasty to me, not a nipple cover but oh well.

The pasties are provided as gooey plastic starfish shapes and they simply rest over her nipples. I imagine over time as dust gets to them they’ll become less sticky but for now they fulfill they’re role. I must admit I wasn’t keen on the idea of starfish pasties from the preview shots but now I’ve seen them I think they’re great. Also since they’re not a permanent fixture you can simply take them off when you’re bored of them.

This is also the second head option Liliana comes with. I prefer her ‘plain’ face. The unfazed confident look while naked is much more attractive than this expression I think.

Moar clothes! Now to put that awesome coat back on! Hmm without the skirt she looks too bare down the bottom I think.

Hmm almost, those sleeveless arms are a but distracting though.

This! The perfect combination. This is my favourite look for Lilianna and I’m going to be displaying her like this.

As you’ve probably gathered from the number of pictures here I really like Liliana. She’s the quality of a scale figure but with the customisability you’d expect from a Queen’s Blade figure – in fact probably even more then you’d expect from any Queen’s Blade figure to date. My favourite aspect of Lilianas’ design is her jacket. Being able to take off different parts of clothing and still having the jacket on is my favourite way to display her. My only annoyance was with her hat continually falling off but some sticky tape soon fixed that. Any other complaints are just personal preferences. It was unfortunate I broke her crossbow, but then that’s my own fault.

Here’s some wallpapers I made again (okay they’re not that varied but this was my favourite viewing angle ). The first one here is 3 photos under red, green then blue light which I merged into one after some tinkering. The result was quite weird but I think I like it.

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Next figure I’ll be reviewing will be using a new lens for my camera. Hopefully it was worth buying . (both the lens and figure). I’m aiming to try post it in about 2 weeks time so see you then.

That’s right, no exposed boobies in this post. But there is hot swimsuit action! This is probably one of my most anticipated of all the swimsuit figures I’ve order/pre-ordered recently – Blanc Neige from Tonk Taka/Segas’ Shining Worlds franchise by Kotobukiya. I’m glad to report Blanc has met my expectations and is a fantastic looking swimsuit figure. Read on to see more of the beautiful Blanc Neige.

Blanc Neige, from my very limited high school French I believe translates to ‘White’ ‘Snow’. Very fitting, or perhaps cliché for an ice witch. It’s interesting Blanc Neige here is listed as a Shining Winds character when usually she’s listed as a Shining Tears character. Maybe Kotobukiya is trying to make a distinction between this one and the pre-existing one from Max Factory. Or they’re cashing in on the recent success(?) of the Max Factory Shining Wind girls. Another peculiar feature is her hair length. Usually we see Blanc with short white hair whereas here it’s much longer – a change I very much welcome.

The figure itself is 1/7 Scale and stands about 23cm tall, so she’s not going to be towering over or dwarfed compared to Max Factorys’ swimsuit line-up. The illustration Blanc is based on is shown on the box with her sporting a purple bikini and pareo combo. ‘Pareo’ that’s a new one for me, my clothing knowledge goes as far as “hat, top, bottoms, shoes”.

5 Licensed by Sega, man I must be lucky.

Her choice of purple clothing is very fitting. Not too bright and not too muted, just a gentle soft purple. She’s got a calming yet sexy aura about her.

My first thoughts when opening the box were ‘she looks a bit rough’ and ‘what’s that horrid translucent plastic’. Her hair looked rough with visible bubbles in the paint, and the clumps were distracting to look at. But then when you step back and take a proper look at Blanc you begin to see just how beautiful she truly is. Sure Max Factorys’ girls look crisp and clean close up which is nice, but Blanc has a superior body sculpt and pose that really makes her stand out as a swimsuit figure. Plus I like her character design which allows me to easily overlook certain flaws that may annoy others.

It’s been a while since I last had a Kotobukiya figure so when I opened her up I was greeted by the sticky plastic they like to package their figures in. That means I had to work out how to remove all her pieces before I could display her. To take her pareo off you need to pull her in half about her bikini top. This is good because the seamline is invisible. The only issue I had is there’s nowhere to really grip and pull her in half, so it took quite a bit of wiggling to separate her. The pareo then just lifts off.

So for that reason we’re going start looking at Blanc without the pareo.

Something interesting with Blanc here is she comes already attached to her base using a screw. I wonder if she had leaning problems or they just wanted to make life easy for us. The downside to this is you can’t remove her from the base without undoing the screw.

The angles below are my favourite angles to view Blanc Neige from. The shadow/light transition across her face at these angles highlights her beautiful facial structure and features. I also like her pose. It’s similar to UBW Rin Tohsakas’ in that she’s in the process of turning. This is great since we can see all the good parts from one angle and don’t have to rotate her a lot.

I’m sure I’ve said this many times before but white/grey hair anime characters are usually my favourites in terms of design. So that already puts Blanc in a positive light for me. If she had a black bikini she would have looked smoking hot maybe with a gold or red trim, but the purple is nice too. It’s not in-your-face bright and obnoxious yet it’s not a drab looking washed out purple. The silver patterns jump out from the purple which is much more interesting to look at than just a plain purple too.

Her hair could have been a bit better I think. It looks rather clumpy here and the paint job is a bit rough. Although I imagine you will be spending most of your time staring at her front.

Blancs’ body sculpt is beautiful to look at. Her ribs and collar bones are slightly visible, her breasts are a perfect size, and her waist is slender.

I’m sure bum lovers will like these shots. She has a gorgeous rear which is further accentuated by her string bikini.

Putting her pareo back on I’m still not 100% sure I like it. I’m liking it better than when I initially saw it, although the transparent colouring looks odd and a bit tacky. It can look more like a plastic lump than an item of clothing at the wrong angles too. But when you do manage look at it from the correct angle it creates a completely different look for the figure. Without it she simply looks sexy in her bikini. With it she still looks sexy, but with a little more mystery. For now I’ll be displaying her with the pareo on since I can’t be bothered taking it off again.

If you were wondering how she looks next to the other Max Factory girls in the Shining Wind series she fits in quite well. Her scale matches and her overall aura doesn’t jar with the other Shining Wind swimsuit girls. There is however slight difference with the bases. The sand colour tone for Blancs’ is much lighter, although it’s hardly a game breaker.

Blanc also comes with an extra arm, rather odd I thought since on first inspection it looks the same as the one she comes with attached. So armed with that false knowledge I went on my merry way taking photos of her. Then I notice this lump sticking out of her thumb. I immediately thought it was a manufacturing error, just as well they gave me that second arm! Well no I was completely wrong. I later realised that the first arm with the lump is for use with her pareo and helps attach her hand to it, making it look as if she’s lifting it slightly. The second arm without the lump is for display without her pareo, derp on my part. Kotobukiya even give instructions on this, in Japanese if that counts as a defence?

To me this Blanc Neige is my current favourite figure rendition of the character, she might even be my favourite swimsuit character beating Alpha x Omega Villetta Nu. That’s a tough call though, both look stunning. I also really enjoyed taking pictures of Blanc. She simply looks stunning so I ended up with loads of them. Plus there’s nothing loose which can fall off, so it doesn’t become frustrating trying to rotate her at different angles. She does have a few flaws such as her hair where the paint is rather rough looking, but on the whole she’s a wonderful figure to own and look at.

I’m slowly acquiring a little collection of figure wallpapers it seems . Here’s some for Blanc Neige:

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Around this time last year I picked up a few artbooks. One of which I really liked was the PUSH!! Illustration Archives featuring many artworks from various eroge. Well, this year a new PUSH!! compilation book has been release – PUSH!! Illustration Museum. Read on to see some of my favourite illustrations from inside.

For those unaware PUSH!! is a monthly magazine published by MAX which covers upcoming eroge. MAX are behind many other artbooks and series compilations for anime and eroge. This artbook deals with PUSH!! magazine publications between 04/2010 and 06/2011 so it covers a fair few notable releases over this time period. As with the previous artbook there is also a CD included with some of the illustrations seen in this book. It’s a great addition since you can have access to the images in digital format and without any page creases. It’s a shame not all the images are included though.

When I bought PUSH!! Illustration Archives last year I found there were many eroge characters I had no clue who they were or what they were from. Well this year I’m more clued up on the recent eroge so I’ve been able to identify a fair few in PUSH!! Illustration Museum. Some of my favourites have also popped up which has been a nice surprise. I picked up my copy from Hobby Search, although it looks like they’re on Waiting List status for now.

Onto the book then. There’s a total of 61 unique images contained within spanning 113 pages. The first few pages contain all but one of the cover illustrations from 04/2010 to 06/2011 on plain white backgrounds. Each one takes a single A4 page.

First up is the covers from (left) 07/2010 and (right) 08/2010. The first featuring Kudryavka from Kud Wafter, a spin off title from the Little Busters VN. The second features Sei and Shuri from Shin Koihime Musou Moeshouden. It was Koihime Musou so I had to include it

The next cover I really liked (on the right) was from the 03/2011 issue featuring Yui Amagi from eroge Itoshii Kanojo no Mamorikata by Axl. The character designs in Axl games have a very distinct look which I really like. Too bad Yui doesn’t appear in the game with this outfit on. The super reflective image on the left there is from the 02/2011 issue. I’m not aware of who she is although she doesn’t seem to be very good at brushing her teeth.

After flicking through all the cover illustrations the main meat of the book contains various unique artworks from select eroge. The majority of these illustrations are spread over 2 pages, so you’re going to have to put up with a page break. It’s not a huge deal since most of the illustrations are biased to one side. Some are also included on the CD so it’s not that big a disaster.

Turn the first page and we’re met with this beautiful illustration of Riho Kaguya from DEARDROPS by Overdrive. Overdrive are the parent company of MangaGamer and they are currently in the process of localising this game. I’m now very interested in trying out DEARDROPS sometime and possibly other Overdrive games after seeing this image. At the moment you can buy KiraKira and Edelweiss (re-translation almost complete) from MangaGamer if you want to try out some of the games Overdrive. There’s another Overdrive game shown at the very end of this book too, Dengeki Stryker, which is also planned for an English localisation. Overdrive are one of the only eroge makers with a worldwide audience in mind. Their CEO, Bamboo, attends various cons in the US to promote eroge to western audiences and also holds live stream chat sessions where we can ask him questions or provide suggestions for future translations. I really hope his hard work pays off and we can establish some sort of presence for eroge in the english speaking market.

Tangent, gone off on one I have. Oh also worth noting both Overdrive illustrations do not appear on the CD sadly .

Back to the book. This one is of Mii Todoroki from Bitter Smile by Giga. She caught my attention because she reminded me of Koko from Da Capo 2, has cute rabbit hair clips, and is holding a cute pink bear. I wasn’t aware of where she was from before seeing this image but she was interesting enough to investigate Bitter Smile. She looks quite different in the game unfortunately.

Here’s another image of an eroge I only recently found out about. I wasn’t able to find these two characters names but they’re from Worlds and World’s end by Rootnuko. These two aren’t my favourites from the VN, but I thought I’d show off this page since the artstyle is very nice.

Time include one of the more explicit pictures I think. This is Nagisa Hanamiya from Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete by Trumple. The artist behind Nagisa is Shinobu Kuroya who I’d like to see more from in the future since Nagisa here has been drawn beautifully.

Here’s the same image without creases.

This is where things start to get more interesting for me since it’s mostly images of characters I’m more aware of. This is Tsubaki Yatake from Mecha-con! by onomatope*. Usually in eroge you get multiple girls to choose from and a few h-scenes with each. Sometimes they include the odd extra such as like 2 girl scenes, but generally it’s not too common. Well Mecha-con! goes all out and gives you many h-scene with each of the heroines. And if that’s not enough there’s joint h-scenes involving every possible combo of the girls available. That’s a lot of h-scenes!

The next one is from Henshin !!! ~Pantsu ni Natte Kunkun Peropero~ by May-Be Soft. This is a strange eroge. Instead of playing as a dude after multiple girls you instead gain a strange ability – the ability to transform into any object. Clothing, chairs, laptops and many more. There’s certainly many weird scenes as a result in this mechanic but it’s oddly amusing. Some scenes are also animated ^^.

The last full page I’m going to show is of Yuera from Kamidori Alchemy Meister by Eushully. This eroge is similar to the usual RPG style VNs out there. Normally however you get a set girl with a set class in these types of games. Well in Kamidori Alchemy Meister you can choose the form each girl takes on based on the items given to them. This then dictates what outfits they wear and what h-scenes you get, similar to Manaka de Iku no by Leaf featuring the ToHeart2 girls. Yuera was my favourite character so I wanted to include her here.

And finally I’ll show off one of the last pages in the book which basically acts as a reference for all the images contained within. This should give you an idea of some of the other illustrations available, there’s more on the other pages too.

The CD that comes with this book is the same deal as the previous book. You can use the .html/flash stuff and what not to navigate the images or you can say sod that and just go to them directly. As previously stated not all images appear on the disk but most of them are here. Images are in 2 sizes (+Thumbnails): 1600×1200 and 1280×960 – ie not 16:9 format . The cover illustrations are modified for wallpaper instead of a plain white background. The other illustrations are mostly untouched with a coloured letter box (border top & bottom) to frame them.

I’ve posted 2 examples below out of the 42 unique ones available. The first we’ve already seen – Yuera from Kamidori Alchemy Meister.

The second is one I really like is Yumi Makishima from Koi dewa Naku –It’s not love, but so where near by Syangrila Smart. You’ve probably seen many illustrations by this artist before – Shunsaku Tomose – since they have a very distinct artstyle. This is another eroge I’d be interested in playing since it’s not your usual multi-heroine deal. There is no harem. This is the only girl you get and she’s super hot. The game appears to take you through the lives of Yumi and male protagonist Norifumi as they go through various stages in their lives.

As with the previous PUSH!! Illustration book I’m very pleased with the contents. Being able to take a glimpse into some of the artworks featured in PUSH!! magazine is a treat and the images are relatively tame, mostly boobies \o/. Not much worse than the magazines seen on the top shelf of news agents round these parts. Included are some really beautiful illustrations from various eroge I’d like to try some day and it’s introduced me to some I’d missed.

Hopefully if this book interested you enough you can find a copy out there too. I was hoping HLJ would stock this artbook then I could add Rinsins’ artbook, but unfortunately only Hobby Search stocked it.