KOS-MOS!!!  Yeah, I got her.  Yeah, she was insanely expensive.  But hot damn, this is how 1/4 should be done :P

Just to a bit of warning, this post is gonna end up at over 40 pics ^^;;; But hey, she’s worth it :P

Hell, I have 4 pictures of the box ^^;  It’s been awhile since I’ve taken a picture of the cardboard box my figures get shipped in, but this was a special exception ^^; And if you were wondering how big her box was, well, there are the dimensions right there.  The inner box was only maybe 1 inch smaller in all dimensions.

Simply massive box, and like the other polystone figure I’ve gotten, no windows or anything.  Just nice and simple.

Love all the little labels they put on the box ^^

I didn’t take any pics of the packing material… but it was basically just a double decker styrofoam sandwich.  Head, base, and some miscellany on the top deck, and her body and sword and rest on the bottom.  After some assembly with the nicely diagrammed instructions…

Took a lot of photos zoomed quite a bit out to give you a sense of her presence with that massive blade.  Man, it’s impressive.

Very simple, yet effective pose, though best enjoyed from the front ^^;

To give you a sense of the massive scale we’re talking about here…

That’s good ‘ol 1/8 KOS-MOS by Alter.  Looks like she gets up a little past 1/4 KOS-MOS’ knee. ^^;

Trying to fit her in the frame was quite the challenge.

Really beautiful details from head to toe, love the stockings she’s wearing ^^

The laces on the boots could’ve been a little more detailed but hell you probably won’t be viewing her from behind anyway.

Because of her scale, all the text on her outfit comes out nice and (mostly) sharp, a very nice touch.

These gold… bronze? colored side pieces above were actually among the pieces that needed to be glued on.

and man her outfit is short.  Don’t know why i didn’t notice that before ^^;

And that flap of her outfit just barely keeping her modest ^^;;  After seeing that I had to do a little investigative work…

So this hand held, overexposed pic is proof that somehow, yes, she is wearing pantsu. Just being thorough.  ^^;;;

Did KOS-MOS have this outfit in the first two games?  I must admit I never got around to the third ^^;;;;  Yes it’s pretty blasphemous considering I acquired this figure but the game was never my favorite.  KOS-MOS transcended that though :P (Xenogears, on the other hand, was pure win.)

Not to dump all my closeups at ya in a row, let’s step back a sec, shall we?

Quite a different shoot having her fill frame with the blade cropped off with my 50mm backed up against the wall ^^;

Just love how obscenely massive she is with that blade.  Very impressive, impossible to fit in any shelving I have thou ^^;

The pieces over her oppai are actually attached by magnets (actually, same story with her arms), which means you could display the twins if you’d like…

…but unfortunately that means you have some weird white boob caps on display.

Wonder if it was a licensing thing that prevented them from giving her normal oppai…

Base is more than a solid disk, yet still nice and simple, which I like.  No need to draw your attention away from  her awesome beauty.  Unfortunately I think a little more detail would’ve been appreciated on her feet and ankle dagger thing.

Still with me?  ^^;

You’ll see some of the logos/text on her is this weird splotchy ink, but that’s only at macro distance.  Looks normal to mere human eyes.

Mmmm just love the chains on her hair.  And nice colors here ^^

Haven’t done any high angle shots in a while have I?  Maybe I have.  Thought it was moderately interesting given her insane blade :P

Another look at her hair and those chains~

And rather than try to fit that entire blade in one frame, here’s the bottom half ^^;

I hope I fit the pin in all the way… ^^;;;  Would be pretty terrible to have that massive thing falling all over my surrounding figures ^^;;

Ufufu dark and mysterious kos-mos!!  errr…  well, i tried ^^;;;

Just look at innocent face :3  mmmmm

Loooove the blue eyes.  Gorgeous.

…unlike this close up photo of her head thingy.  Ah well.  ^^;; No it doesn’t look that dingy in person ^^;

Mmmm just look at her :3

Lots of these angles are really similar… but hey, it’s 1/4 KOS-MOS.  Bear with me :P

Seeing that her blade was somewhat transparent, tried lighting it up a bit…

Turned out ok I guess.  Unfortunately some of that hard light was making some harsh highlights on her outfit.

And again, for any first time readers… all these pics are 1920×1280, so click away if you’d like to oogle in high resolution.

Feel like I should update my banner with something kos-mos :3

Just love that face ^^

With size such a noticeable attribute of this figure, wouldn’t be a meronpan review without some size comparisons, now would it?  Pictured above we have nendoroid petite tsukasa, nendoroid reimu, 1/8 alter kos-mos ver. 4, 1/7 alter vivio, and 1/6 alter swimsuit kos-mos… And even 1/6 barely gets up to 1/4 KOS-MOS’ stomach ^^;;

So there she is!  Yet another reason why I’ve been cutting my acquisitions back this year ^^;

Used the splendid Tokyo Hunter for this transaction, always a great option if you’re looking for rare or limited figures.  Heck it looks like he’s even taking orders for the touhou DDs.

If this looked a bit familiar, perhaps it’s the previous Volks gk you’re thinking of… E2046 did a recast and both wolfheinrich and tier have some lovely pics up of that version.

The end all figure for KOS-MOS fans!  woohoo!

以上！

Saber!  How many Fate/stay night figures can I acquire before I play the game?  … … ^^:;;;

Maids and Lily are fine and all but for a sword wielding babe, it’s about time we have a nice action pose.

When it comes to cast off or extra parts or whatever, this is how I like things.  Nice and simple.  Two swords to choose from and they both fit easily into her hands.  ^_^

Went for the no background just to try and spark some creativity for today’s shoot ^^;

Nice metal peg for support  ^^

Only problem with her pose is that her arm blocks most of her mouth.

I guess that could be a positive thing if you’re tired of yelling expressions ^^;

Base is pretty nice.  Are manufacturers finally leaning away from the plain bases?  Or maybe it’s just the ones i order ^^;

Excalibur has a nice solid feel, though I’m still waiting for a nice chrome finish someday :P

Armor is likewise solid.  No crazy gift armor but a faithful representation of the original art ^^

Now unfortunately that… what do you call it… gah, words fail me.  The front flap of her outfit… has some sort of weird problems…

It almost looks like a piece of plastic is covering it and there are air bubbles trapped.  As far as I could tell there wasn’t any film on it thou… ;_;

Good ‘ol gauntlets.

Boots~

And saber being saber… this is as close as you’re gonna get for pantsu

Something about her head, ribbon… outfit details… feels like they could’ve been a little finer.  But it’s still not bad as is.

The charged up version… errr… “Invisible Air”?  is made of clear plastic but unfortunately that means without some fancy lighting it looks pretty dull ^^;;

Luckily with some lights and post processing we can get it to look energized :P

In a bit more normal lighting:

Think I shoulda taken more full body shots to show off the pose…

Full shot of invisible air

mmmm really shoulda rotated lily so they were both facing the camera -_-;;

And alas the group shot didn’t turn out at all as I would’ve liked.  White balance is on the warm side, but when I correct it the pic looks a bit too flat… Ah well.  I’m sure I’ll order another fate/stay night figure someday and take more pics then.  Isn’t that rin coming out soon? :P

I think this version is my new favorite for armored saber… hard choice if i had to pick between her and alter maid ^^;

A great saber in a solid 1/7 scale.  Definitely recommended.

以上！

Hmm looks like I”m about a month late with these pics but better late than never.  FREEing’s rendition of mio, this time time based on her famous mmq scene ^_^

Before we move on, in case you need to remind yourself of the meme,

^_^

According to tsukiboard it’s been over a year since my last FREEing purchase.  Lotsa Alter and GSC ^^;

Hadn’t been planning on getting more k-on figures (especially considering i’m not getting the whole alter set) but loved the scene and couldn’t pass this version up ^^;

Listed at 1/8 and she feels like a proper 1/8 (unlike VN02 ^^;)

Hate to sound like an alter fanboy (not that i’m not :P) but she feels like she’s missing a bit of that alter finish… nevertheless i think she turned out quite nice ^^

And jeez they made that skirt short!

Sorry about the black background… she’s blending in a bit much ^^;

Shoulda taken a pic of it but i love how in her packaging there’s a heart shaped support for her hands ^_^

Kinda mixed feelings on her expression.  Sometimes i think it’s just right but other times I feel like it’s slightly off…?

Turned on highlight tone priority for this session though i’m not sure how much it helped ^^;

Now again I know she’s just a 1/8 from FREEing but still couldn’t help but compare the details on her outfit…

mio

saber alter

mio

saber alter

Though one thing mio brings to the table is shimapan :3

Think I messed with the white balance unnecessarily for these shots… ah well

And coming back to that skirt again…

Base is pretty vibrant so a word of caution if you’d prefer something more subdued.

Not sure if it’s the figure, me, or both, but just wasn’t finding much inspiration for my shots this time… only 20ish images today.

As far as the figure goes though I’d say that’s just a product of her sculpted to be viewed head on.

In case you were wondering how she stacks up to Alter’s release:

I’d say she fits in quite well ^^

If you prefer mio in mmq mode unfortunately your choices are pretty limited… the only other one i could find on tsukiboard was this banpresto release ^^;  Luckily I think FREEing delivered a pretty faithful rendition so fans shouldn’t have any reservations picking her up ^^

以上！

Despite having picked up Alter’s metatron (ugh, forgive my horrible white balance from back then ^^;;), still haven’t partaken in an Demonbane.  As such al azif was able to convince a purchase out of me on execution alone ^^  Really liked the preview shots and orchid seed didn’t disappoint!  Little warning, Al Azif has some nsfw castoff!

I believe this is my first Orchid Seed figure.  Think the only reason I don’t have many more of their figures is that usually they’re a bit too far on the ero side of the spectrum for my collection ^^;

Found it hilarious that 75% of the box is for her stand and ribbons ^^;

Speaking of which I was not pleased to see that I would have to attach a shitton of ribbons to her ^^;;;  And they’re all different!  Luckily they did include some assembly instructions but still made me nervous given my history with little parts ^^;

Her base is really neat… but unfortunately it was actually a bigger pain than all the ribbons!  For some reason the book doesn’t really attach neatly even though it looks everything’s lining up.  To make things worse the book is hollow (or feels as such), so I was afraid to apply too much pressure and possible crack something…

After finally getting the book down I was also surprised to find the pegs for her feet were also really hard to get attached ;_;

Wasn’t able to get then in without twisting them on one at a time first… and even then I ended up detaching the book from the base on accident… gads it was like 30 minutes before I had her assembled!!!

Thankfully that’s all over with… at least until I move again ^^;

A bit of a departure from the usual anime character proportions… al azif has a bit more meat on her bones than the average gal :P

From what little I do know of her, Al Azif is normally of more loli proportions… not sure if this is a re-imagining of her character or some sort of transformation (in which her clothes stay the same size ^^;).

All the ribbons seemed a bit overboard when I first saw her in the box but after getting everything attached I like how she looks ^^

Anyone able to tell me what the funny looking wing things on her back are? ^^;

Ah well, on to some close up shots…

oppai!

Those pantsu really look stretched to the limit ^^;

Bit of a chip or something on the paint but unless you’ve got your face planted in her crotch I doubt it’d be noticeable :P

Moving on to less ecchi shots…

Love the detail on her finger nails ^^  Crop from above pic:

One of her feet has this weird standoff that doesn’t firmly attach to the base… made getting that peg to fit even more of a problem ;_;

You can see it here not quite resting flat ;_;

Other foot attaches well enough after you finally get it on the peg.

Really liked the base in the preview shots, wish it fit together better but otherwise pretty satisfied.

Nice long hair~

Decent detail in her outfit~

Like her expression a lot for some reason

Time for some oppai~

You have to remove a couple parts of her outfit to get to her bust but once you do you can remove it (in my case with much difficulty orz) and replace with the bare oppai.

Personally won’t be using it since not only would that creep out my roommates way too much but it also just looks sort of weird that her outfit only got destroyed in one place like that ^^;

Alrighty, I think that pretty much covers her oppai option ^^;

Triple ahoge ftw

Some high angle shots~

And low angle~

Top pic w/small dof:

Nice 1/7 release with good execution and an interesting base… a bit pricey at 9800 yen though I got her at amiami for 7520.

Didn’t see to much of her around, I suppose not as popular? ^^;

以上！

At the risk of being horribly inaccurate I’ll go with the spelling on the box for this one ^^;

Been awhile but finally here’s another Alter review… their latest entry to the StrikerS series!

I am the master of mediocre box shots! ^^;

For those of you not familiar with the series, well hmm I guess it would constitute a spoiler huh… Skip to the next paragraph if you care ^^;  Anyhow, as I was saying, Vivio is indeed that little orphan girl (heterochromia-philiacs eat your hearts out :P) that gets adopted by Nanoha and Fate, making the ultimate yuri family.  I forget the exact reasons but you know, latent powers unlocked, transformation sequence engage, blamo we have adult vivio ^_^

Par for this series of releases she stands at a monstrous 1/7, giving signum a run for the money.

Speaking of monstrous I had forgotten how much of a bust upgrade her transformation had granted her ^^;

*ahem* we’ll get back to that later, but for now:

Was kinda having trouble find different angles/framing and ended up with a ton of similar shots… guess I’m getting out of practice ^^;;;

Wouldn’t have minded if her pony tail was a little more detailed but at least it’s got a nice flow to it.

If I remember correctly her uniform sorta compliments her numbers allies.

Sporting some sort of body suit so no pantsu today.

My room is the dust capital of the world.  orz

Base is… base is also par for the series ;_;

We don’t get to see much of adult vivio fighting but she does have some sort of weird energy ball attack which is what I assume we see here.

Alrighty back to that bust shot…

I mean jeebus that’s quite an upgrade.  To those unfamiliar with nanoha… no the series isn’t just service ^^;

x’mas eyes~

Dramatic framing?  Well, I tried ^^;

I think the lower angle shots turned out better…

Liked getting the entire energy ball thing in the shot below…

…but kinda liked the framing better with her off to the side… ^^;;

or maybe portrait, low angle?

You may have noticed the group shot missing from my shamal review… was lazy since and delayed it for this review ^^;

I think that’s everyone so far, right?  Left out chibi nanoha since technically she’s a movie release and I was out of room ^^;  Had to crop off the top and bottom and use my 50mm but i managed to fit everyone somehow ^^  (though stupid signum is sticking her sword in hayate’s face ^^;)

Tried taking some other shots but i think they’re only only passable resized down ^^;

Ended up just focusing on vivio ^^;  Sorry hayate, vita, you’ve been relegated to bokeh duty.

<3  Maybe they’ll come out with a StrikerS movie… think the figure looks way better than the anime at this point ^^;

ep 25

Especially as a follow up to the lamentably forgettable Shamal, Vivio’s another great addition to the lineup ^^  Which reminds me I really need to get around to reading vivid ^^;; 2nd volume already came out a while ago i think?

Once again, would recommend stopping by Tentacle Armada for some really awesome shots.

Totally off topic: Previously I only followed a small group of folks on twitter so that I wouldn’t be overrun by tweets all day… decided to part with that plan and so now I should be following pretty much everyone.  yoroshiku na~

Slightly on topic:  Still in the queue: moe moe kyun & sheryl!  Al azif in the mail!

以上！

Finally!  Meant to have this review out a lot earlier but azunyan love & vn02 pushed it out a bit.  Above I was actually going for a full on silhouette but didn’t execute the lighting properly… ended up pasting a bw version of the pic over the original then just erasing over the flame to add some color… turned out ok maybe i guess?  ^^;  lemme know whacha think

Nice colorful box that’s actually quite wide yet narrow.  Even without the mondo base they still needed to fit her twin tails

Ah, and don’t forget all the accessories.

So the first thing I thought when setting up for this review was, “Well, screw being original, I liked my shots last time on black, let’s try that again…”

Turned out pretty nice I guess but then I remembered why I did all those shots on white… bit harder to see any details when she’s melting into the background ^^;; (like the black bg for style purposes though)

Alrighty, well, now you can see a bit better.  ‘course now you can see my inexperience with white lighting ^^;

I’ll have to try again, but part of my problem is that i wasn’t having much success illuminating my light box with my smaller light so then my background is way blown out… not sure how you normally describe it but it seems to detract from the subject when your background light is overpowering…

But enuf of my photo woes, just look at her!  A pleasure to behold from all angles… for once I enjoyed doing the once around ^^

As you can well see brs has her coat off… it actually attaches to the base with it’s own peg.  It also has an awkward sort of peg that she grabs onto.

Thankfully it didn’t take me tooo long to get it in ^^;

pettanko lovers can rejoice, damn brs is flat ^^;

like seriously, super flat

You might notice her skin tone is a bit more healthy… not sure if that’s consistent with the actual color but super pale isn’t my thing so I didn’t have any qualms tweaking the white balance ^^;

Execution is very solid.  No complaints from me ^^

Base is very nice.  Not as nice as the rock cannon release but as always, just compared to a plain white disc, it’s amazing :P

I thought it was a really nice touch with the broken blade stuck in the floor ^^

Like the first release, just love how her hair is flowing everywhere all crazy

And of course this is the black blade ver, very nice to add another blade to my collection ^^

Now strangely I didn’t notice any instructions in the box so I had to check online for the direction of her blade… but then from what I could tell it looked like the official shots had the blade facing forward?  Couldn’t figure out why she’d be holding the blade that way so went with it the other way (my reasoning being that if she swung it from this position the blade would actually contact instead of the back of the sword?).  Ah well, let me know if there’s a reason for her to be holding it the other way.  Oh and about the instructions… did she come with any?

alternate parts for her blue eye which go nicely in well lit conditions.  really makes the blue stand out

again like the previous release you just have to switch out her bangs rather than mess with a separate flame piece.  Caution on this version though it seems like you could easily rub off some paint on her arm trying to get it in place.

short shorts

so no pantsu today :P

prolly shoulda used a smaller aperture but below at least you can see her crazy hair ^^

A color version of the top pic:

Better angle than the top pic too… didn’t have blade version rotated right for the silhouette so you can’t see her flame as much.

I did manage to slip in some shots on black:

Personally I like it but again, not so great when you’re trying to also show off the figure for review purposes ^^;

showing off her slender figure~

boots~

kinda like the below shot

‘nother group shot but on black~

‘course i had to boost up blade version to get her on equal footing as the previous release ^^

Guess I went a little overboard again… lotsa pics today ^^;

Well, といっても here’s the last one

The economic brs I’d say ~ retailing 3,000 yen cheaper than the previous release, all she’s lacking is a crazy cannon and base. and I’m sure some prefer the blade to the canon anyway.

If you haven’t already, check out anonymous object’s Cool and Spicy for a nice review!

Not much to say today so guess I’ll leave it at that for now ^^

以上！

Well as you can you see I’ve delayed the BRS review yet again… when VN02 arrived I just couldn’t resist ^^

久しぶりのMax Factoryリリースだな。 Been a while since my last Max Factory review.

With their figma craze I guess it’s not too surprising ^^; (though i really should’ve gotten their recent tama-nee release ^^;)

VN02 is another figure I got without really knowing much about her origins.  Miku with a dash of mecha was definitely enough to persuade me though :P

Turns out this rendition of miku is courtesy of nagimiso (blog… i think? ^^;) for a cover of moon.

nagimiso is also behind the rin release later this year.

Pretty much love everything about this release… pose, the mecha elements, outfit, color scheme… very striking ^^

I really like miku stuff but it’s usually ‘cuz I’m amazed by the covers that make the rounds on niconico.  If you’re not a fan of miku’s voice I recommend giving the covers a try… human voice adds a lot imo ^^

Hard to convey in the pics so far since there’s no reference but she’s actually a lot smaller than I thought.

Of course with her base and mecha attachment thingies and hair she takes up quite a bit of space.

Actually now that I look at it I have no idea what’s going on with that base… some sort of engine thing spewing green flames everywhere?  or something? ^^;

Her right leg has some sort of… armor… extension… thing ^^; that sits in the base to help support her… had to bend her a bit to get it to fit though nothing out of the ordinary (though that sort of thing always makes me uneasy ^^;).

Base material reminds me of freeing’s kanu.

Like all the little details on her outfit

Because she’s got so much going on you can appreciate vn02 from a wide variety of viewing angles ^^

Or up close macro style

Though I must say up close (read: reaaaaaaally close) you start to see a lot of minor flaws in the paint and such.

Luckily it’s nothing you’ll ever notice unless you only view your figures with magnifying glasses.

Love her sleeves which fade into transparent material ^^

That combined with the arm length gloves, just great ^^

You can actually notice the imperfect transparency from further away as it weirdly distorts light but again, so much else to appreciate, hard to get hung up on such a small detail.

They should add VN02 to the cast of exelica in a new game :P

Prolly shoulda used a narrower aperature for the above shot… ah well ^^;

I dunno why but I like the above shot ^^  Not as much as the below shot thou :P

mmm she just begs for shots from every angle ^^

Nice details in her outfit~  and if you haven’t noticed by now… vn02 is also much more well endowed than normal miku ^^;

maybe it’s just ‘cuz i like the color green but i think this is an amazing release ^^;

‘nother look at her headset thing

Of course love her long flowing hair.  Awesome twin tails ^^

‘nother look from above

Again used the highlight tone priority since vn02′s outfit has black + white.

‘nother portrait

Ah, actually do have one comparison shot.  The good ‘ol gsc release:

sorry for the pic deluge, I was just having too much fun :P

Someday I’m gonna get around to making some improvised light controls… until then… ooo single light from the side! … … … ^^;;

not that that doesn’t change things up nicely… just wish i had other tricks up my sleeve ^^;

Probably the biggest downside to this figure is the price… retailing at 12,800 yen she’s nothing to sneeze at.  amiami actually had her for 9800 yen and for some reason I got an additional 15% off (some sort of sale maybe?) so my final total w/ems shipping was 11,370 yen.  Still pricey though ^^;

If you can spare the cash, a pleasure to behold and a solid addition to any collection ^^

以上！

One of two june arrivals, after recently finishing k-on vol. 3 and catching up with the second season… decided to go with azunyan first ^^

Nice petite little box to match azunyan’s figure ^^

Not exactly my favorite pose but hey, it’s alter and nothing else on the market persuaded me otherwise :P

As you’d expect, nothing special going on from her sides and back so let’s just get the once around over with real quick…

Something about her face/expression seems not quite right to me… well… more like, not quite to my taste… but meh, nothing major.

Takin a closer look at her guitar…

If you check out the full size you can see there’s actually some sort of texture on the white part.

pic hand

あずにゃん可愛い～　＾＾

As always I wouldn’t mind more detail in her hair, but guess ya can’t expect too much from a 1/8…

gomen azunyan, chotto shitsurei…

I like the clear plastic better than solid colors… but metal bars or something would be best… azunyan’s foot supports are quite… impressive ^^;

matching base isn’t bad

azunyan is just such a great name ^^

As you probably noticed by now she comes with both regular hair and nekomimi ^^

Was looking for something to add some color to the background and just couldn’t find much ^^;

nyan nyan nyan

^^

Decided to stick with yui, mio & azunyan.  maybe i’d pick up ui if they decided to release her but for now gonna save some money ^^;

Yui’s strange face angle really clashes with my lighting setup ^^;;

guess we’ll relegate her to bokeh duty :P

A pretty nice azunyan release in what’s shaping up to be a very nice alter set. Recommended if you want the set or are just looking for the good execution alter provides. I guess it’s in her character to be more reserved but I woulda preferred something more energetic like yui or mio’s pose.

…and again i’m at a loss for linking other reviews. or maybe i put too much faith in the google reader search ^^; ah well, lemme know if ya see others.

Oh, and before I sign off, a little preview of next review~

以上！

To be quite honest I wouldn’t have picked her up if I weren’t completing the set, perhaps that’s why I was pleasantly surprised ^^;

Another thing about not being too enthusiastic about her… for some reason that made me think she was 1/8 or something.  That’s anything but true as you’ll see in some comparison shots later… for now, here’s the huge box!

…that doesn’t really tell you much without a reference does it?  Well, it’s about as tall as nanoha’s box.

She definitely feels like the most simple of the gang with just the book.  And poor zafira is tiny.

Is he supposed to be in puppy mode? ^^;

Don’t mind saber in the background :P

…i really shoulda shot this with the lights on to give a little more color to the background ^^;

…let’s put zafira out of his misery.  Just have 2 more shots of him ^^;

On the bright side it’s nice to have the whole gang ^^;

Hey let’s try something… 800 width images!

woo!  Apologies in advance to my 1024×768 viewers… a little over a year ago you guys were about 14% of my readership (or at least, the readers who voted :P) and as time goes on I assume people keep upgrading.  I’ll run the poll again to see what ppl think (i remember even some higher rez folk actually preferred small pics) but I must say one of the few things I can deliver is sharp pics… so rather than try to be foobarbaz or artistic like Tier I’d rather just build on my strength ^^

Speaking of sharpness check these out:

…for examples of not sharp!  ^^;;  Alas, that’s the trade off shooting wide open on my 50 f/1.4.

If nice creamy bokeh from a fast lens is something you’re aspiring for, be sure to check reviews and be ready for less than optimal results shooting wide open (sharpness wise).  Here’s some ISO 12233 shots from a great Canon review site I frequent.  Of course, being able to shoot at f/1.4 can be the difference between having a shot or no shot, so it’s not terrible by any means.  But moral of the story, remember that your lens performance may vary quite a bit throughout its aperture range!

Here’s my 100mm @ f/2.8

And a side by side comparison:

Both shots were focused on the eyes.

Alright, enough geeking out with camera babble.  gomen!

Then again, not really much to say about shamal ^^;  Her outfit is relatively simple and she lacks the exciting accessories everyone else has.

You can see the clear plastic support bar included to suspend the 闇の書 above.

Unfortunately her device is a ring… not the most exciting thing in a figure ^^;

And the other hand~

A little more camera babble… sorry, can’t help myself ^^;  But another reason to get a circular polarizer… shot without:

With polarizer:

Much better, darou? ^^

Not having much to work on, the sculptor perhaps put all the effort into her pantsu?

fancy pantsu!  not expecting that ^^;

The support for shamal’s foot is built in to the base/pre-attached so no futzing around with that ^^

Closer look at 闇の書

Maybe if shamal was less of the team mom she’d be more exciting? ^^;;

close up!

below shot prolly woulda been better without that support bar ^^;

i think it is the impressive 1/7 scale that makes this figure for me ^^

Speaking of which, here are those comparison shots i promised:

Saber’s…1/6? and you can see Shamal’s raised hand gives her a definite height advantage.  (ignore my stupid f/2.8 putting saber all out of focus ^^;;)

Here we go.  f/10 ftw ^^;  KOS-MOS is 1/6!  Haruka is 1/8.  Shamal wins ^^;

Sorry for the delayed review.  She was set to ship together with another May release, I forget who, but whoever it was was delayed and I forgot to change her to ship immediately.  Hobby Search’s system doesn’t really take care of those sort of things by itself ^^;

Check out foo… wait… foobarbaz didn’t get her? ^^;; hmmm… did anyone else put up a review? ^^;;;  My google reader search isn’t turning up with anything and as you’ve probably noticed my starcraft playing has cut deeply into my blog reading ^^;;;  Well, let me know if you see a review up.

At nearly 10,000 yen I can see why people were hesitant to pick her up, but hey, I had to catch ‘em all ^^;

以上！

If you already own Alter’s previous Saber maid release, you know what to expect in terms of quality and execution.  We’ve got yet another awesome maid figure from Alter, such a shame it was not up for sale through the usual channels.  I opted to get her from Goody Japan this time, and that ended up being 13,400 yen (including EMS shipping).

Making a statement from very beginning, we’ve got a nice box with no windows.  Not sure if that was to cut down on costs or just to make it more elegant looking, but I thought it was a nice touch.

Sides of the box give you some indication of what awaits inside ^^

Was so excited to finally have her in hand, forgot mini saber was included as a little bonus ^^

As usual, click through for 1920×1280 versions when you want to see every last detail ^^

Figured I’d stick with a black background and kind of build on saber’s serious, almost kind of pale/goth look.

Upgrading from the original saber maid, alter saber maid now has a bucket ^^

Loved all the details in the original saber maid and that’s all back in this release.

Lots of people had issues with the execution on the previous saber maid’s  face… personally I didn’t really mind but nevertheless, like this version better ^^

The mop is back at well, making it the second mop in my collection :P

Love all the frills and details on her outfit

mmm delicious ^^

Just love the pose and how she’s got the bucket swung over her shoulder ^^

Frills everywhere, here’s the bow on her back~

just look at her, just excellent execution ^^

Her hair is also very nicely done, great detail work

Love that short skirt.  Not enough skirts here in the bay area :P

Obligatory pantsu examination.

I think some of my white balancing shenanigans has added some color to her skin but this saber is actually quite pale.

Like how this next shot turned out ^^  Focused on her bangs, wide open at f/2.8.

Let’s do a little comparison with the previous saber, shall we?

Here you can really see how pale saber alter is (or how yellow my original saber made is ^^;;;)

saber alter is definitely my new favorite maid figure now ^^

yum

With the base had pegs for the original saber maid too.  They look great together!

Looking at the base (which is huuuuge!), it’s just a very simple checker pattern.  Like it a lot though ^^

Hmm forgot to put some nendo comparison shots in but for reference the mini saber is about nendoroid puchi size.

All the food is not included :P (that’s from the phat classroom set)

Matching base to boot ^_^

Back to the main attraction~

Again too bad this was a limited/special/whatever it’s called release.  A great get for saber/maid fans

low angle :P

Adjusting to a more tasteful (?) angle~

Ack, forgot to shop out that bit in the corner.  ah well :P

So there ya have it, sorry for the pic spam, it’s been awhile ^^;

Beautiful beautiful saber maid figure, I hope fans have gotten their hands on her already or else i’m sure the only options at this point are likely expensive auctions.  Love the different pose and adjustment to her face.

foobarbaz has a much more cheerful lighting setup so that you can better see all the details.  Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already.

guy also has his review out as well!

Now then, a little site update before I sign off – May this year was probably the busiest I’ve been at work in years… so that combined with excessive Starcraft 2 and Touhou playing has cut deeply into my usual activity on the figure blog scene.  So yeah… down but definitely not out.  I won’t make any promises for more posts or comments or anything but I will say that when figures come in I have been able to churn out reviews in a somewhat timely fashion.  As such, you can blame all the figure manufacturer delays for my lack of posts :P  Been chatting with blowfish on msn lately and on the off chance anyone else would like to drop a line, you should be able to add me through my gmail account.  What, you don’t know it?  Go check my about page.  Or I guess I could just tell you -  madaminu.　：P

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