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！

So I apologize for my tardy reviews ^^;;;

Vivio, Mio, and Sheryl are all waiting in my queue but I still haven’t been able to tear myself away.

Luckily Tier has you covered for Vivio.  Awesome pics, check it out if ya haven’t already.  Check it out again if ya have, it’s great ^^

Had a whole post but it was mostly just inconsequential ranting so I’ll just leave it at this:  awesome game.  Single & multi both very solid.

Looks like I’m currently a low diamond 1v1 player though I’m happy to play whatever else. Send me a tweet if you’d like to look me up in game.

En taro tassadar!

And we’ll see if I can get those reviews out in the next week or two ^^;;;

以上！

Don’t know the exact instant it happened but that bad apple video is now the #1 all time most viewed video on niconico!  If you somehow haven’t seen it check it out here.

If you don’t have a niconico account here’s a youtube version:

While we’re at it, here’s some other tribute’s I’ve come across as the madness unfolded.  If you’re familiar with the characters and the themes, this medley is really awesome (niconico).  It takes the theme for each character as they appear on screen and somehow mashes it into one awesome song with the bad apple beat in the background.

For those that like source material, here’s the original video request that the awesome one was made to fulfill (niconico).  There’s actually a bunch of other videos that people made (some quite good), but I guess none of ‘em were able to snatch up those 8 million views like the silhouette one ^^;  The title loosely translates to [the uploader wants to see] Bad Apple PV [someone draw it!].

If you’d rather not dig up all of those other videos, someone combined a bunch of them into one ^^ (niconico). (fun starts around :40)

Or if you want the direct comparison of the silhouette vid to the original request, we’ve got that too :P (niconico).

And of course don’t forget the video that got onto CNN (niconico).

…or the one carved out of real apples (niconico).

Or if you’re tired of song being taken too seriously he’s a contribution that takes things another way ^^ (niconico).  Best enjoyed if you can understand the Japanese but I’m sure those familiar with the characters will be able to understand it just fine ^^

Anyhow that’s all today.  Alstroemeria Records ftw.

以上！

angel beats op

I have yet to find a format for these anime posts that i’m happy with so in the meantime… here’s some rambling steam of conscious stuff to help me come to closure with this series ^^;  ~major spoilers~

In a good news & bad news situation I’m a bad news first sorta guy so let’s start with the things that didn’t work out for me…

Yuri

I didn’t think it’d be an issue for me but surprisingly her haruhi similarities did have a negative impact on the show for me.  I kept finding myself comparing her/the show to haruhi, highlighting reasons why the quirkiness worked for the SOS-dan but not in Angel Beats.  Right from the start my first thought was, “ugh, why is she trying to be like haruhi” ^^;;;

angel beats ep 2

She’s got that same aggressive, “I’m always right” sorta personality… coming up with weird plans that feel awkward and out of place… but instead of regular world to act all this out, you’re in this weird purgatory wondering whether or not anyone has any idea how things really work.  Are her plans stupid?  Brilliant?  Because of the haruhi similarity I was inclined to feel like they were just stupid plans and her whims being carried out… and it gave her a “bad haruhi copy” vibe ^^;;  Also it really threw off my sense of what kind of show it was gonna be.  Was it just trying to cater to haruhi nostalgia or other recent hits?  Or be a serious drama or…?  Oh, and having a band in the show?  my first thought was, “they must’ve thrown that in there since k-on was so popular.”  prolly not true but that’s just the mood seeing yuri/haruhi put me in.   Which leads me to…

Pacing/Atmosphere

It really just didn’t sit well with me having the slap stick antics in a deathless society suddenly juxtaposed with the very serious flashbacks/resolutions of issues the individual characters were dealing with.  Not that I’m against comic relief in a dramatic series… I actually like those scenes very much to help you build your relationship with the characters.  But angel beats takes it a little overboard…

angel beats ep 2

Case in point – episode 1 you’re trying to figure out what’s going on, you find out that they’re in some sort of afterlife and can’t die, hahaha there’s a trap that knocks people out of the building if they don’t knock on the door right or whatever… episode 2 people are dying (for the moment) left and right as they navigate traps aaaaand *bam* we find out yuri’s 3 siblings were murdered in her previous life.  … … … ummmm ok.  Child murder in the midst of slapstick death antics  -_-  Just really didn’t work for me.  Why have such a sudden transition?  It was only episode 2!  I hadn’t developed any sorta feelings for yuri (especially since i was trying to fight the urge to compare her to haruhi) so rather than tragic the story just felt awkward and out of place.

angel beats ep 2

Basically they took what could’ve been a really shocking/disturbing reveal and dulled it down by shoving it in their viewers’ faces prematurely.  It’s like meeting someone for a first date and they bust out with, “oh yeah, did I tell you my mother got murdered last week?”  I mean… you can’t help but feel sorry for them but you’re shocked just kinda want to shrug it off and get on with things.

Also I think this sort of stuff works a lot better when you’re dealing with real world emotions… which I argue we are lacking in Angel Beats due to the lack of death in purgatory.  Lots of shows take fantastic elements in their heavy drama then mix it up with slapstick and lighter toned episodes.  Take code geass for example… really serious story at times with character death mixed in with occasional school festivals or cosplay?  Making a giant pizza?  The valentines day game?  But they haven’t altered your core reactions to tragic situations.  They’re not rewiring your emotions.  So with the lighter episodes you bond with the characters and appreciate the fleeting periods of happiness they get to experience.  Tragedy strikes and you’re that much more attached to the characters’ loss.

angel beats ep 9

Angel Beats on the other hand is trying (well, maybe not actively trying but effectively causing you) to rewire your reactions towards death and violence by eliminating any lasting consequences… while trying to build on back stories that rely heavily on your original interpretations of such -_-  Well, at least, that’s how it ended up playing out for me orz

I think the series would’ve benefited without the “no death” rule in the purgatory they were trapped in… did they really need that element?  I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be terribly hard to write it as such.  Honestly, why were they trying to craft an environment where death didn’t matter when the series revolves so heavily around death and matters left unattended because of it?  I guess maybe you could say it’s part of a theme that no hardship, not even death will prevent people from coming to peace with their lives?  But was that worth sacrificing the show’s pacing?

angel beats ep 10

Definitely not saying that a show needs to be all serious or all funny… but it’s just that this show puts you in a new world with new rules so personally it was just really hard to appreciate the lighter moments the same way.  Usually those moments give you a breather from the serious stuff, brief moments of joy to share with the cast and become more familiar with them… Angel beats felt more like they took 2 different shows and just tried to mash them together ;_;

On the other hand…

So then, despite all that I did like main story they were trying to tell… people trapped until they could come to terms with their regrets, wishes and what not of their previous lives…

Once I finally got somewhat acclimated to the bipolar nature of the show making death a slapstick gag one moment and a tear jerking tragedy the next, i finally was able to build some attachment to the characters.

angel beats ep 7

I’m quite the softy so otonashi’s backstory in ep. 7 & 9, yui’s passing in ep 10 and pretty much all of ep 13 were all able to produce some tears from me ^^;  So not to say any series that makes me cry is good but it definitely means I’ve developed a relationship with the characters which is always a good sign.

angel beats ep 8 ed

Music I enjoyed… though I suppose that may have actually hurt my appreciation of the series overall ^^;;  I say that because it was so nice and solemn… somber.  Made me feel like I was watching a serious drama instead of a comedy/drama fusion ^^;

With eva as one of the first anime i watched, rei type characters get on my good side quickly… made it pretty easy for me to like kanade ^^  Though i wish we got to know her better.  …and to that end… why did otonashi like her so much?

In the end

In the end I just feel like the series could’ve been so much more.  To anyone who’s ever played a good tear jerking visual novel perhaps you’ll agree with me when I say this just scratches the surface of what a good story could be.  I really haven’t played too many but all of them I think had better execution/cohesion than angel beats.  I think either delaying the onset of the serious back stories and easing into it more towards the middle would’ve worked better or maybe starting out more serious and giving the audience a break with lighter stuff midway would’ve been a better approach?  Again though, it may just be that the whole premise that you couldn’t die in purgatory really didn’t work for me.

fortune arterial

Alas I have no background in literature or film so I can’t articulate my complaints with anything but an amateur’s vague sense of dissatisfaction… so yeeeaaah, I won’t try to convince any of you who liked it that I’m right ^^;  But for what it’s worth, the series just felt off to me and I wish it was executed better.

Guy has his thoughts posted in this post which seem to echo my general feelings towards the series.  I won’t be so bold as to say he agrees with me but if nothing else I guess I can say I’m not alone in my disappointment ^^;  (plus he mentions shigofumi, which I noticed he rated as a 10/10.  not sure i’d say it’s perfect, but i’m pretty sure that’s a vastly under appreciated series ^^)

ETERNAL on the other hand enjoyed it very much if you’d like a contrasting point of view.

TLDR

Despite my complaints, overall I think I’d prolly have to say the series was above average, but again it just felt like it squandered an opportunity to be top notch.

以上！

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！

Combo post today that’s part site update, part rambling on my current activities… I’ve been sick with a stomach bug or something for the last week which unfortunately put a stop to the momentum I was gonna have with azunyan + brs reviews going up. Think I’m just about over it now, so /cross fingers.  BRS review will be out probably sometime in the next week? but in the meantime you can check out some lovely shots over at Cool & Spicy.

So then, first order of business I have no shame and just want to give myself a huge pat on the back for completing touhou 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and, as of June 28, 2010, 12!  About a year ago I set out to 1cc all of them on normal… now I can finally call that done ^^

And I didn’t even have to abuse the 3-power marisa B for mof :P (just found out about that.  man is that fun ^^)

calm before the storm

I won’t lie, it was a horrible 1cc for ufo… stocked up a full 8 lives for byakuren and threw away each and every one of them.  Cleared her final card with just 1 bomb left (damn was that nerve wracking).  My final  score was less than 2 previous failed attempts.  Ah well.  At least now I can actually practice that stage if I want to get good ^^;

Not sure how accurate it is but according to the in game timers…

27 hours of pcb, 31 hours of in, 17 hours of mof, 25 hours of sa, and 13 hours of ufo is roughly what it took (no data for eosd or pofv).  ‘course that includes for fun runs, easy runs, and the like, but still :P  Looks like it was taking me anywhere from 15-30 hours to complete a touhou… which seems a lot shorter than I woulda thought ^^;

Oh, and before I move on… for the record, lasers shouldn’t curve.  It’s not fair!  They’re lasers.  orz (you wouldn’t believe how many times i had to practice toramaru’s regular transition attacks -_-)  (also, mostly typed that as a loose reference to a penny arcade dialog ^^;)

Next up, prints!  Adorama recently had a 20×30 sale ($10 each) along with 25% off certain size photo books.  Decided to try each out for future reference.

First up, wanted to check high ISO performance for large prints.  The following was 50mm f/1.4, 1/125s, ISO 800.

Looks ok at this size, but if you’re pixel peeping the original resolution you can see it’s gotten moderately soft.  So, how’d the print turn out?

Honestly I think it turned out just fine for a print this size.  Given the viewing distance, the softness from the lens and noise reduction are still tolerable… especially if your critics aren’t photographers themselves ^^;  Ryoko and yui to give a sense of size ^^;  Here’s a close up of the print:

Gets kinda fuzzy but I think if you compare to the original… it’s just reproducing the original ^^;

Next, feito!  I really should’ve taken a pic I was 100% happy with but instead chose from my existing stuff.  100mm f/8, 1/5s, ISO 100.

Was more than  happy how this one came out.

Wanted to put this up somewhere in the house but alas my enthusiasm was met by reality talking it over with one of my roommates…

“Mmm… this would probably creep guests out, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Guess I better keep this one in my room, huh?”
“Yeah.”

…not that single glance in my room doesn’t already creep ‘em out :P

Once again a close up… still very sharp.  Love it.

I’m guessing it’s ‘cuz my subjects are figures… but in this case the 129.6 dpi doesn’t look bad at all (from what I’ve read 240+ is what you should aim for for maximum quality).  So just another anecdote but personally a 10 megapixel camera (3888×2592) can handle 20×30 prints, even (depending on how picky you are) at moderately high iso.

Last but not least, the photobook.  Fans of super rats are probably aware of the book he released.  Alas I didn’t nab a copy myself so I can’t compare, but I must say that what I ordered was significantly more expensive ^^;  Super rats’ book was 68 pages long… the likes of which would cost $75-$100 at AdoramaPix, where I got mine done… soooo yeah… even *if* I took shots as awesome as rats I’m pretty sure no one would pay the prices I’d have to charge for a book of my own ^^;; (not to mention even if i was taking those awesome shots, I’d still need a lot of ‘em!)

I’m guessing the price difference is due to the material/process/something difference between a photobook and book with color content?  Curious as to what the actual quality/longevity differences are… (especially when the subject matter is just figures ^^;)

But anyhow I ordered a 14 page book and it set me back ~$21 (that was the discount price, now back up to $29).  It’s 8×10, hardcover, and printed on Fuji Crystal Archive photo paper.  As you can see the photos go all the way into the seam… there’s no dead zone between pages.

Must say I’m really happy with the results.  When they say photo paper they’re not kidding.  The pages are beautiful, just like regular prints.  I suppose that’s probably where the price comes from… 16 (14 pages, front + back cover) * $1.28 (8×10 print cost) = $20.48… then add cost for the hard cover and labor and I guess $29 doesn’t seem so unjustifiably high.

Now, if I was trying to sell books I’d be hard pressed to justify that higher price for the quality delivered.  Yes, it’s totally awesome, but when you start getting into the 50, 75 page range… how they heck would you convince your customer that this quality is worth $75-$100? (or $100-$140 for a 12×9 book)  I guess I mention this ‘cuz I did have delusions of maybe selling a couple books or something (after all, AdoramaPix let’s you do it directly from their site) but looking at these numbers these books are most likely gonna remain as personal mementos or gifts.

My future goal is to get enough pics of my figures I’m happy with to make a (somewhat) comprehensive album of my collection.  Because of the above mentioned pricing issues I suppose it would pretty much be for myself since I’m sure no one would pay the $100+ for their own copy ^^;;  On the other hand this little experiment has given me another outlet for this little photography hobby… I have some relatives who I think would be quite thrilled to receive a photobook of family cat pics ^^  Or rather than an album, a photobook of trip pics would be nice after traveling…

…and I’m sure all this blabbering is terribly naive to anyone even remotely familiar with photography prints and/or book publishing.  Bear with me as I try to bring myself up to speed ^^;;;  Otherwise, hopefully this has been informative to fellow photographers ^^

If you wanted I’m sure you could get really creative with the layout software.  You can put tons of pictures on a single page if you want, add all sorts of borders and text… I just wanted my pics with (for better or worse ^^;) the least amount of distractions so I didn’t futz around with much of that stuff.

All in all it was a great experiment.  All 3 items were at sale prices, got to see the quality of the photobooks, and how my pictures would hold out blown up to 20×30.  Was painful dropping even more money on frames, but now I have 2 more room decorations to boot ^^;

If you’re curious about any aspect of the process or results I haven’t gone over, feel free to ask, happy to try and help.

Now to work on that brs review… :P

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！