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！

Max Factory nailed this one. I think it’d be hard for a haruhi fan to go wrong in acquiring this version, she looks great. 1/8 scale standing 21cm tall and retailing for 7800 yen… (7057 at hobby search, 7429 at hlj)… make sure to gets yours while you can :P

Box is nice and vibrant to match the energy of the figure

Everything’s attached so no need to mess with attaching the guitar (thank goodness). Just pull off a little protective plastic and you’ll be face to face with the goddess herself.

I haven’t gotten a Max Factory figure in awhile so haruhi was a refreshing reminder of the quality they can put out.

She looks pretty good from any angle, though most interesting from the front due to the detail they put into the guitar ^^

Shot against some good ‘ol poster board for a change.  Had a feeling that my slightly improved lighting situation would make it acceptable… definitely think these turned out better than anything from my white satin experiments.

Poster board is pretty restrive though.  Have to pay more attention to angles and such to make sure the shot　is framed on the background ^^;  Guess it’s a small price to pay for a cleaner bg.

On the other hand, maybe the ambient daylight coming in through my windows helped a little… usually I shoot at night and limit the light sources to my lamps.  You can see in the above pic some still turned out a little gray due to lack of light.

Mmmm… her face, the mic, guitar, dress, necklace, tights, shoes… lovely!  Here are the things that motivated me to buy:

Bonus points if you recognize all the lyrics/quotes ^^

Mmmm lovely guitar

Lovely tights… or wait, stocking?

Ok, so there were some flaws on her back…

I haven’t tried to clean them up yet, so don’t know how serious the smudges are.  Thanksfully it’s not visible from the usual viewing angle.

Well timed release for whatever haruhi-isms may or may not be in store for fans in the near future.  If nothing else there’s haruhi-chan to enjoy ^^

Someday I’ll learn guitar…

Love how the figure captures the haruhi spirit… and oppai?

Mmm no comment we’ll leave that to mikuru-chan.

I guess another shortcoming is regular pantsu?  :P

Can’t go wrong I tell ya, long as you have a little haruhi love left :P

iHaruhi?

Looks like this brings my haruhi figure count to 5.

People have noted that the previous 1/8 release is smaller… and I don’t think the height difference can be explained by her slightly bent over pose… especially since gekisou version has her legs in a slightly wider pose.  It’s weird… but on the other hand figure manufacturers haven’t been known for their amazing scale accuracy ^^;

Great execution, solid work from Max Factory.  Check out more reviews:

• foobarbaz
• Animatic Figmation
• A Foreigner’s Tale in Japan
• Chappyの日記
• Happy Soda

Hmmm is that it so far?  Those are all that showed up while searching my rss reader…  Well, should be enough to keep you busy for now :P

以上！

1.) Fauna到着

Fauna arrived!  Actually arrived earlier… but after picking her up from the post office… I left her at the office ;_;

Definitely kawaii, but don’t think she makes it to the top of my list like she does for danny ^^;

As always… full review later… *sigh* orz

2.) Nyxパーツに付いて

A little preview to Nyx and PSA regarding her outfit, here’s a humble effort to explain how to get her damn thorn thingies attached ^^;

Forgive the over exposure, but wasn’t really focusing on that sort of thing for these shots ^^;  So here we see her left thorn thing… when attaching it, keep in mind you shouldn’t have to to stress the pieces to get it in place.  Basically once you’ve figured out the angle and right piece to attach, it should fit in place pretty easily.

From a slightly different angle I believe this shot also lets you differentiate between the two pieces (somehow it took me forever to figure out which piece went on which side ^^;;).

From the other side, this piece also fits in between the layers of her clothing, fitting around her arm.

Yet another angle for reference.

As I mentioned in an earlier comment, the key is simply getting the orientation right, and you might want to try fitting the pieces on the dress while it’s cast off to get a feel for how the pieces should fit in.  If you need more full body shots for reference, check out foo-bar-baz ^^

3.) 日本旅行

JAPAN!  Finally got my trip finalized!  Will be in Tokyo from 2/12 to 2/21… well 2/13 since it takes a day to get there ^___^  Anyone else gonna be around?  We should hit up an izakaya ^_^

…or a maid cafe ^_^

Last year I was able to go about in time for 花見 {hanami}… which I’d love to do again… but unfortunately my company has been having forced vacation time pretty much every quarter to cut costs or something…  This quarter is February, so that’s when I had to plan my trip -_-;

Believe a friend called this a weeping cherry blossom tree?

Luckily akihabara is available for enjoyment year round ^_^

Since the violence earlier this year, they’ve restarted the Sunday road closure I hope?

Experienced it for the first time on my last trip, and I must say… akihabara is paradise, but on Sundays it’s twice the fun ^_^

Bonus Japanese vocab lesson:

到着　－　とうちゃく – touchaku – arrival
パーツ　－　ぱあつ　－ paatsu – parts (don’t confuse with the similar looking パンツ :P {pantsu})
に付いて　－　について　ー　ni tsuite – concerning
日本　－　にほん　ー　nihon – Japan
旅行　－　りょこう　ー　ryokou – trip

以上！

Hime caught my eye when I saw the preview pics, on a whim started watching the anime recently and that pretty much sealed the deal.  Was kinda confused when wcloudx proclaimed how huge the box was (after all, just seemed like your standard 1/7) but indeed, surprised me a bit when I got it.  Like hime herself the box just kinda has a commanding sort of presence ^^;

Again, sorry to tease, but still working on reviews… was hard to keep myself focused.  Decided to get everyone out of their boxes… didn’t quite make it though.  Gads it’s almost 3 am and nida will have to wait another day.  I think she’s the last one though (well… i had to leave mei feng in shitagi mode because i figured it was gonna take an hour to get her clothes back on ^^;;;).

Airi, Another Blood, Ymir, Hime all made it out, and it was great!  Airi and Ymir are my first Megahouse figures and damn I’m impressed.  I love the hair on both of ‘em and amazingly the cast off on Airi wasn’t insanely frustrating!

hawt.

Next review will most likely be haruka though I may end up taking some more shots which would delay it a little more ^^;

Really need more time -_- If I didn’t have work tomorrow I might’ve stayed up another couple hours ^^;;

Oh yes, one last thing… the base for hime is awesome.  Really solid feeling and looks great.

gyaaaa, ok, must sleep.

以上！

Hobby Search continues to deliver, I hope they can keep their record clean with me :P  At any rate, 2 more additions to the collection today…

FREEing ryouko!

In the end I couldn’t resist her ^^;

Full review to come later. Also in the box…

Max Factory nendoroid plus kemeko!

Before watching the first episode of the anime I wasn’t considering any kemeko figures at all… that quickly changed ^^;  This kawaii little bugger’s review will also have to wait a little… especially for special combo abilities she posseses ^_^

Anyhow, gotta get back to my Japanese homework… I’m behind again ^^;;

The current haruhi collection.

After seeing that I’m sure no one will believe me when I say I’m not really that much of a haruhi fan, but it’s true ^^;;  What you see here is the result of my inability to resist set completion and the power of suggestion… and cute nendoroids ^^;;;

I recently completed (to my satisfaction at least) my set of max factory haruhi releases.

haruhi and nagato were the only ones I was able to secure from stores.  Everyone else was obtained on ebay.

I’ll be “reviewing” haruhi and ryoko… skip to the end if you’re just looking for more group shot shenanigans.

copy cat

出なさい！ {get out of there!}

haruhi is packaged with her pointing hand…

…but as you may have noticed, I’m partial to the megaphone ^_^

Alternate uber director arm band also included, and ryoko gets her choice of bag and knife ^^; Figma like ball joint for swapping ryoko’s parts… first time I’ve seen this kind of joint for 1/8 Max Factory figures. Looks the same over at foo-bar-baz so I’m guessing it’s legit.

Danny mentioned in his kurushima kanu review that haruhi’s pantsu were originally orange! Obviously a check was in order.

Glad they made 'em change the color ^^;

Better check on ryoko while we’re at it…

mmm well, she’s got that knife so we’ll keep our distance and leave it at that for now :P

haruhi demands that erika drink more tea and show more pantsu.

Seemed to have a good amount of light coming in my room, so tried some macro shots again…

Serrated! Ouch! ...and looks like I didn't push that hand all the way in ^^;

Turned out pretty good this time (for me at least ^^;;)

I don't quite get why, out of all the things to list, they include the figure total height on the base ^^;

This figure is making me like the ryoko character more for some reason ^^;

So it seems this haruhi figure came out over a year and a half ago! Luckily she’s had 4 releases and I was able to get her pretty easily.

‘course that also means there must be a million reviews out there. Guess another wouldn’t hurt :P

ryoko came out in November, 2007, so I wasn’t surprised to have to go hunting for her.  Not that I enjoyed scouring ebay -_-

All together now!

Max Factory haruhi girls unite!

Was a relief to finally get everyone in hand.  While I was at it, got everyone else out for a group pic.  Kind of surprised myself that I had so many ^^;

How many haruhi figures are in your collection?

Breaking down by character…

Danny’s coverage and constant praise of the freeing bunny convinced me to get a hold of her. So far I’m not planning to get anymore of them but if I did, definitely ryoko next.

The Max Factory nagato was actually the first 1/8 figure of my collection. I kept considering her while in Akihabara but finally decided to restrict myself to the nendoroid. (good thing too since there was no room in my suitcase ^^;)  Ordered her later online.  Kind of wish I had two to display in each of her configurations.  Stuck with one I’m going with the hat and cape for now.

If I weren’t collecting the Max Factory series specifically, I probably would’ve stuck with just the Alter version in this case. Alas, my wallet weeps silently…

ryoko is the loneliest for the time being ^^;  Looks like the chibi one has mikuru’s ring ^^;

nyoro~n

Once I get my collection back on display I’ll probably have more group shots like this.

…I don’t know how I’m going to fit everyone into the detolf.  Guess I’m gonna have some dusting work to do this winter ^^;;

omake!  Found a bunch of wallpaper on my hard drive, threw them up in the wallpaper section.

No figma shenanigans this time… was trying to get Fate’s hand repaired which really distracted me -_-  Alrighty, that’s a wrap~

GETだぜ！

As you can see my Wave kuze kiriha and my Max Factory haruhi have arrived! This marks the first and last figure order that I will suffer through having items held until all items have arrived. In this case the other items happened to get delayed so it wasn’t until I finally got fed up and canceled every other part of the order that I was able to get haruhi to ship -_- kiriha wasn’t part of that fiasco, but had the normal us release delay -_-;

I think it’s because I don’t have my collection on display at the moment, but when I got haruhi out of her box, it was just, wow, excellent. Looking forward to having everyone out of the box…

ACTION!

I really enjoyed kiriha’s scenario so I had to get a figure of her… now the cursed set completion mindset is corrupting me… might end up getting everyone orz

Couldn't quite get Fate's arms to mimic the pose ^^;

Alrighty, back to trying to write that H2O stuff I wanted to post…

[update: pics now clickable for full size... not sure why they didn't automatically have that... wordpress must be updating their stuff again -_-]

And how could I resist more miku? ^_^

Were I able to budget myself better I probably would’ve just went with the Alter maid version but I really wanted to have the entire Max Factory lineup ^^;

My apologies to any regular readers, but I don't think I'll ever get tired of haruhi in that pose ^^;;

My usual box shot... now with 100% more figma!

Fate to the rescue again ^_^

Some of these photos are from the same day I shot tsuruya & Saber… unfortunately a lot of them were way dark -_-

元気ですね～ {very "healthy" isn't she?} ^^;

パンツ！　その一 {first pantsu shot}

Wouldn’t be right if haruhi wasn’t giving mikuru a hard time, now would it?

「パンツ見せなさい！」 {show your pantsu!}

「うううぅぅぅ～」 {uuuuu}

「はい！　でかした、みくるちゃん！」　{Ok! Good job, mikuru-chan!}

Though the short skirt provides ample panchira opportunities I’ve always preferred mikuru with her hair down… not to mention the maid outfit really suits her ^_^

Fate wants some tea...

「お茶とみくるビーム一つ、お願いします～」 {some tea and a mikuru beam please~}

「いや、ちょっと待っててね。変わりになのはちゃん一人にしますね。」 {On second thought, I'll have some nanoha-chan}

「あの、この店はそういうじゃないんですが」 {Umm, this isn't that kind of shop!}

I liked the Max Factory tsuruya but for some reason their mikuru maid didn’t do it for me. Too outgoing in her pose or something… just didn’t feel mikuru enough. (coulda sworn I left a comment somewhere saying the same thing… ^^;)

Is it just me or does haruhi look weird straight on? mmm on second thought maybe it's just late ^^;;

Nendoroid inspection... haruhi: "Not enough pantsu!" miku: "Not enough leeks!"

Wish I had that wonfes edition that came with more props ^^;

On to some close ups…  note to self: I need a tripod and some lighting orz

Very shiny from this angle for some reason...

One thing I enjoy about doing these reviews is that you discover all the little details about your figures.

I love all the little things like buttons or finger nails painted. This is no Alter Saber maid, but it'll do :P

Pantsu fans foiled by tights! Tights fans service!

Max Factory mikuru has no chance of escaping the low anglers...

…aaaand back to shenanigans. I also need to get the ac adapter for my camera… it’s pretty annoying to turn it off every time I have to pause to repose the figmas ^^;

miku fell ;_;

Attack!

oshiri slice!

I’ve seen the term 攻め (seme) pop up in koihime (anime) and tsuyokiss (game) recently. Literally it means “attack” but it can be used to refer to the dominant partner in a relationship ^^; Was happy I understood the jokes – that’s always been one of the frustrating parts about watching Japanese tv for me… all the people in the audience laughing and I’m just sitting there thinking, “wait, what? that was a joke?” …and by then I’ve missed more dialog orz

「前から気になったんだけど…どっちが攻め？」 {It's been bothering me for a while, but which one of you is the "aggressor"?}

It just occurred to me the above comment could be applied to either haruhi <-> mikuru or Fate <-> nanoha ^^;

Skirts make it damned impossible for figmas to sit ^^;

say cheese!

Is it bad I keep depicting my figures as ero or violent ^^;;

Fate! Stop that!

Ack! nanoha too?!

Max Factory haruhi is supposedly in the mail, which I believe will finally complete my MF haruhi collection (to my satisfaction at least). I find it strange I’ve gone to such lengths to grab all these haruhi figures seeing as how it’s really not my favorite series or anything. I guess it’s just so influential in the oktakusphere I couldn’t not collect them ^^;

foo-bar-baz has a bunch of relevant review… wf summer uniform haruhi w/adventure of mikuru prop set, Max Factory mikuru (mikuru beam version), Alter mikuru maid, and Max Factory mikuru maid

And more Max Factory mikuru coverage from blogs I read – Opticzone, ~Koi Aichaku~… it’s late and that’s all I could remember at the moment ^^; Drop a line if you’ve got more pics~ Didn’t find any Alter mikuru owners ^^;

それじゃ、おやすみなさい～ {and with that, good night, folks!}

Some mikuru love incoming, and perhaps some H2O later…

Also got notice of my wave kiriha shipping… fortune arterial fans out there? ^_^

jya~n!

Hlj to the rescue! Soon as I figured out my shipment was delayed I looked around and hlj had her in stock! They also had a couple other things in stock so I kind of went overboard…

3 figmas, a miku, and a side of mikuru please~

the leaning tower of figma

^^;; Anyhow, back to the topic at hand… miku!  Been looking to get a hold of her forever.  She’s just too insanely cute to not have.

haruhi is eager to recruit new talent

Nendoroid owners are prolly familiar with all the goodies that come with her… extra faces, limbs… and a leek!

actually the disembodied parts are kinda freaky...

scene from a horror movie... ^^;

Finally free!

「じゃ～ん！」　{jya~n! (tada~!)}

haruhi gets miku to work right away.

「はい！歌ってちょうだい！」 {hai! utattechoudai! (ok, sing!)}

…haruhi never lets up.

「もう、許して下さい！」　{mou yurushite! (Please, let me go!)}

Ever.

「もう、限界です！」　{mou, genkai desu! (I can't take it anymore!)}

Saber to the rescue.

「いい加減にしろ！」　{iikagennishiro! (behave yourself!)}

Saber just wanted the leek.

「え？　セイバーさん？」 {e? seiba-san?}

One thing I found annoying when changing faces is that you have to remove miku’s two earpieces to do so. Can get a little tiring ^^;

「皆さん、歌いましょう！」 {minna-san, utaimashou! (Let's sing everyone!)}

Run faster miku!

「逃げるな！」　{nigeruna! (Stop running away!)}

Fate to the rescue?

「助けてあげます！」　{tasuketeagemasu! (I'll save you!)}

miku inadvertently steps onto a battlefield… [as always, click pics for higher rez versions]

「何ですか、これ？！」　{nandesuka, kore?! (What is this?!)}

Someday I’ll put my figmas in less violent poses ^^;

「いやあああぁ～」　{iyaaaaaaa~ (aaaaaaaaa~)}

nagato, ever stoic.

「。。。」

miku makes a hasty retreat.

「覚悟なさいよ！」　{kakugonasaiyo! (prepare yourself!)}

…only to be caught by a low angler ^^;

「パンツを見ないで下さい！」　{pantsu wo minaide kudasai! (don't look at my pantsu!)}

I love how her hair is adjustable. Unfortunately you need to keep her on the stand if you want to move it up, since normally it keeps her balanced ^^;

「ひどいです！」 {hidoi desu! (you're horrible!)}

About as much detail as you’d expect from a figure like this. It amazes me that the vocaloid text is so crisp.

「どうしてこんな事に…」　{doushite konna koto ni... (why did it have to be like this...)}

Seems haruhi and nagato decided to retreat for now…

戦勝！　{senshou! (victory!)}

「もしよかったら、このネギを…」　{moshi yokattara, kono negi wo... (If you'd like, please take this leek...)}

Poor miku!

「欲しくな～い！」　{hoshikuna~i! (we don't want that!)}

Be sure to stop by ..:: Anime Baka ::.. for intense miku love more coverage. Fariz Asuka has no less than 39 posts tagged hatsune miku at the time of this post ^_^

aaaand more at Excelica Meteor, Gordonator (ultra kawaii shots in a mini house), How a Girl Figures (miku + Lagann = win), foo-bar-baz, wcloudx, and I’m sure more on my blog roll that I’ve forgotten to list ^^;

And thus my review extras group doubled in size. You’ll probably be seeing a lot more of everyone in reviews to come ^^;