Type-Moon Tycoon: Under a Frozen Sky
And so it ends: Part I and Part II, and this is Part III.
I took the pictures for Shiki and Aoko along with Rin and Saber. If I’m going to cuddle up with snow and ice and below-freezing temperatures, I might as well get it all over with at once.
Alter is a company that makes kits that have some very cool sculpting dynamics. But beauty has always been a function of the observer, and that’s the reason people are still buying Kotobukiya kits. What I’m trying to get at is that the Type-Moon FA4 set has diversity. The two Tsukihime heroines are very dynamic and the two Fate Stay Night heroines are a lot more traditional. Saber sports a solid, traditional but agressive stance (with very good footing versus lean), and Rin has her best foot forward (or she just shifting weight?) and secured just by her rear foot (like Shiki).
Still, in the end you’re paying $60 or so for 8 boxes of this stuff. It’s a great deal as each kit itself is worth probably $10 alone. I have PVC kits that were slightly more expensive and even worse crafted, even if it’s got more “material” to show for, at least. These feel good to have showing on your shelves.
Onward with the pictures. Of not-so-sad girls in snow…
Type-Moon Tycoon: Ice Queens
I guess I really do mean it that it doesn’t snow in Singapore. Aoko-san must’ve frozen her ovaries off wearing that in this weather. Haha. Anyways…
The Fate Hallow Ataxia FA4 set has been released(?) and people love that stuff more. I can understand why; partly because the characters in this set are either so classic that they’ve gone Rei Ayanami, or too cool and obscure to draw a lot of attention. I guess some people like Aoko Aozaki and Shiki Ryougi? As you can tell with this entry, hopefully, that Alter has done a good job with the obscure girls as well.
On with the pictures. Burrrr.
Type-Moon Tycoon: Arc and Ciel
You too can be a Type-Moon Tycoon!
Today’s otaku might find themselves more infatuated with the typical kits you find demonstrated on websites like these, but this is not the whole story. A casual browse through Hobby Link Japan will tell you that the Japanese figure/model otaku is quite diverse in trade and genre. The 2-D visual culture stuff is actually a rather new thing encroaching on the visual model arts.
To get to the point, I’ve been always impressed by some of the Type-Moon trade figures. Trade figures are usually a sign of popularity as most popular franchises have them…then again, often not-so popular franchises do too. Well, Type-Moon’s characters have had many different runs, between Tsukihime and Fate Stay Night, and I’ve enjoyed a lot of them. In fact, I’d say that I enjoy them more so than most of the larger, 1/6 or 1/7 or 1/8 ones. The trade figures tend to be cheaper, it gives you this extra layer of “zomg what’s in which box” when you’re comfortably assured that if you buy an entire display box, you can get most if not all of the set…
That is partly why the trade figure system just doesn’t work out so well. But even as individual figures, Alter’s FA4 Type-Moon Collection has been pretty impressive and in this blog entry I’m going to just post some pictures for just two of the figures. Why two? Kind of to highlight the fact that each individual figure is probably as good as some of the cheaper 1/8 ones you can get separately for a lot more money. And LOL I get to make 3 blog posts on ze purtty figurinez~
[An aside, I think the next FA4 comes out for Fate Hollow Ataxia later this month? I skipped out on it because I only wanted the small version of Magical Rin since it looks to be just a smaller, but equally good version of the dekkai Magical Rin? If you ordered a box and you got a repeat of her, let me know…]?
I only have a few pictures of Ciel and Arc today. If you google you can find some nicer ones, too, so I’ll try not to beat the same dead horse. In fact, I encourage you to look around for other pictures of them.
National Geographic: Suigintou
I am not this man, and thankfully so.
I never was much of a photographer, so when I posed Suigintou under a cool October sky it didn’t occur to me to procure the right equipment, let alone finding a good angle. It was kind of brisk and I took care to spend as little time possible outside. Part of it was also I just don’t want to be found doing this in public. Or even by people I know. Alas, the journey towards the right degree of shamelessness is life-long.
Given my circumstances I cannot afford many hobbies. I think between PC gaming/MMORPGs and the occasional anime con, I’m pretty wiped. Maybe I can squeeze out some living expenses towards a few DVDs on sale or a trip to Book-Off, but a figure? Man.
Maybe all the more I should go nuts like TJ and get my money’s worth? Sounds like a good idea.
One of the big motivation behind me taking this picture and writing about it was a bit of a plea. I haven’t seen any figure reviews of Yujin’s SR series Suigintou. When I was putting the stuff together from the box, it was a bit of a delicate piece with ribbons that you have to attach. All it took was a little bit of trial & error, but lacking a well-addressed reference picture leaves me a bit in the dark. I’m not sure how the finish product should have looked in detail.
It wasn’t obvious. In fact in the picture above, something is missing. I didn’t realize after the fact that I actually made a mistake in putting her together. Alas, it has been remedied but I am not going to risk being exposed again, to take her for a walk under the sun.
If you are a bigger, better, superior Suigintou fan than I am, then you may have noticed what was missing. And just in case you’re like me and you bought this figure and didn’t figure it out yet, or planning to buy it, I hope I may save you some figuring-out.
The box it came with is fairly standard. In one corner it contains 5 ribbons and a feather, each laid within its own inset. The smallest one goes on her neck as a part of her tie/choker thing. Two of the remaining ribbons go on her sleeves, one on each side, right under her shoulder padding. The last two go on her gothloli headgear, one on each side. The 4 larger ribbons look similar, but they have different shaped attachments which only fit with the proper part of the figure. It’s a bit of annoyance.
It’s almost as annoying as putting her wings on, and to do so without taking her head off.
“Off with her head!”
