Blanc Neige by Kotobukiya

I had never heard of Shining Tears or Shining Wind, so I was pretty unfamiliar with who Blanc Neige was but when I saw Happy Soda's review for the Max Factory bikini version, I immediately knew I had to get her into my collection. Unfortunately, I was never able to track her down, and at the time I was pretty new to the world of PVC figures, so I didn't really know any reliable retailers to go to. I had found this awesome comic and figure store in San Francisico on Geary St which has a huge selection and inititially was the only place I bought figures from. They no longer had her in stock, so she never made it to my shelves. Dissappointed, yes. But, my interest peeked after seeing some of the other character designs for Shining Tears the video game illustrated by Tony, and so I introduced myself to the world of Shing Tears and Shining Wind. Never played the game, but I watched the anime, and fell in love with Kureha...which, at the same time, as my luck would have it, Max factory was producing a beautiful figure dedicated to her, so I was totally juiced. Anyway, then I saw Toys Workz's review for Kotobukiya's latest installment and I had to track her down. By then I had made it my mission on my days off of work to venture out in search of new stores. My personality is pretty impatient, especially when I'm awating a package in the mail, so I prefer to buy figures at a store...unless its a new release from Japan and the figure rocks my socks off, you know what I mean? So, after a few weeks of hunting I finally found her at this little whole-in-the-wall store in pretty run down part of Oakland. I was so excited, and she definitely lived up to my anticipation.





What I find most intriguing about this rendition of Blanc Neige is her disposition. She is so fluid, and seems so fragile. From her somber expression to her flowing hair and cape, Blanc Neige is an absolute treasure.

She's a bit revealed in this adaptation, but I find that the sculptor accurately created what Tony Taka had illustrated. There is a difference in design though: in the artwork Neige is holding the center of her cape and squeezing her "assets" together rather that simply covering them with her arm, but I like the sculptor's take b/c it reveals a nice little jewel-adornment. Unlike most soft and flowing capes I've seen, Neige's reminds me of crumpled paper that somehow is smooth and fluid. I'm not too keen on the crumpled-paper style, and from the back it is most noticable, but I would have to say that it is unique and interesting to the eye.



I especially like her boots, and the level of detail is damn cool. I also really like her base; she's position on this blue ice-crystal with a clear base underneath.







Her left arm holding a corner of her cape is concealing a nice, tiny and frilly piece of lingerie underwear. Looking straight on at the figure you might wonder if she even bothered to put any on, but from a side and aerial angle you can notice the dainty piece, which from behind reveals more booty than you might expect.

Blanc Neige has a nice pair of eyes ^^

Summary:
This Kotobukiya rendition of Blanc Neige is absolutely beautiful and stands out as a treasure in my collection of figures. Her facial expression and body position is inspiring, and nearly forces her audience to want to inquire how she is feeling. Its ironic, most figures I see with red eyes almost automatically seem menacing, even if their disposition conveys another emotion, but Blanc Neige does not fall victim to that norm; she seems fragile and solemn. The level of detail and quality that this figure possesses is wonderful. If you are a fan of the Shining Tears franchise or just a fan of beautiful figures, I would certainly reccomend this figure to be added to your collection. I really enjoy figures that inspire emotion, and Blanc Neige definitely has that affect.

Figure: Blanc Neige
Series: Shining Tears
Manufacturer: Kotobukiya
Illustration: Tony Taka
Sculptor: Houjun Otoyama
Scale: 1/8 Pre-Painted PVC
Release Date: September 9, 2007

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Fatina, from Tower of Druaga Courtesy of Alter

Holy hot girl batman, this is Fatina from the anime series Tower of Druaga made by Alter. She's due sometime in July, and you can bet your pants that I've already pre-ordered her from HobbyLink Japan. I've tried to make a rule about figures lately, especially since I'm broke: I can only pick up figures if (1) they are super hot chicks with big weapons and (2) if I know where they come from.....so I've dedicated the past couple of days scouring the world wide web for episodes to this "acclaimed" fantasy anime series.

Well, I'm about half way through first run of the show, and with the exception for the random and pittifully wasteful first episode (minus the funny parody of Fatina's encounter with the giant tentacle monster), its definitley 'watchable'. I find myself more interested as Jil and his crew climb higher through the tower. I'm not too sure what all the buzz was about, 'cept for the sweet animation, but it seems like your run of the mill dungeon game made into an anime. But I guess I can't help but watching each new episode, and I definitly like watching out for Fatina considering my new found obsession with Alter's version of her.
Over at http://http://akibahobby.net/2009/03/miyazawa2009s_alter_fatina.html you can find a ton of great pics of Fatina. Below is one from Akiba Hobby's site:

She looks pretty bad-ass, what do you think?

You can pre-order her at Hobby Link Japan, and before April 5th you get a 5% discount ^^ http://hlj.com/product/ALT20217

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Wendy Garret < GunXSword> Max Factory Figure Review

Hey, so for my first figure review I've decided to go ahead with Wendy Garret from the anime GunXSword!

One day, a little girl named Wendy was walking through a fantastic wood and suddenly tripped and fell down a steep slope!
Down, down, down she went, pig-tails and all. Luckily she had her giant suit case, that fortunately enough for her, acted as a "sled" of sorts, until she flew off by way of a big stone at the bottom of the hill.

As she soared through the wood, she hit her head on a tree trunk! "Ouch!" she cried, for Wendy wasn't much for pain. As she got to her knees she saw a shining light through the foliage surrounding her. As she peered through some outrageously large leaves she saw a magnificent and magical garden. The grand garden was illuminated by a single, elaborate light positioned in the center. It was here that she realized her destiny, "Wouldn't it be the greatest plan in the WORLD to construct clothing out of such wonderful flowers and leaves?" Wendy wasn't the most practical girl in the world, but who can blame a creative mind?

As the mischievous little girl opened the gate, she sifted through the wide range of flowers and split them apart and scattered them all around her. Luckily for her she had her best turtle side-kick and fashionista extrordinaire, Kameo by her side.
The two sat and pondered about the best way to use the materials Wendy had at her disposal. Suddenly, Wendy shrugged and exclaimed:

"K-A-M-E-O, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE CLOTHES!"

Kameo, ever the optimist, looked up and suggested that Wendy should make a hat for herself out of the flowers. Wendy smiled and patted the loyal little turtle on the head. She thought Kameo's idea was perfefct, and the most easy. At this point, it was well beyond dark time, and she knew that she would surely be in trouble with her big brother if she stayed any longer. With a hop, skip and a jump, little Garret decided to go to work on a hat that would suit her hairstyle. She quickly finished a hat she admired and ran home to show her big brother her creation.

What to you think, does Wendy have a career in the fashion industry?

Ok, well that does it for storytime. Don't make fun of me too much, I figured it would be fun to make up a quick story for the pics with her and the flowers. I won't bank on a career in children's literature! ^^ On to the review and pictures!

This is Wendy Garret made by MaxFactory

GunXSword was the second full anime series I embarked on and after completing it I knew I had to track down figures from the series. I couldn't help but falling for this rendition of the adventerous and brave girl with the weirdest hair-do I'd ever seen. Wendy comes featured kneeling on her infamous suitcase, and below her is her trusty turtle companion Kameo. The attention to detail is superb here, from her gun holster to the pait app on Kameo. The guys over at MaxFactory really did a fine job with this one. All of the lines are clean and the color choices are perfect.

I feel the pose is quite original, and looks dynamic compared to other standing figures that I have in my collection. With her hand above her forehead, she avoids the awkwardness that I find with her spider-like bangs. I love her expression:

Her figure tempts the eye, yet still maintains her innocent and child-like demeanor.

As you can see, Wendy looks great from all angles. I've heard some people feel that her likeliness doesn't truly match the art in the anime, but I would have to disagree. Her face shape might stray a little from the animation, but from her eyes...or eye...and hair design, its obvious this is Wendy.

Summary:
Overall I'm glad I picked this little number up. The design of the character is nearly 100% accurate to her artwork, I find her expression and pose to be really different than most other figures I have or seen, and the paint app on Wendy is fantastic. Small attention to detail concerning her turtle friend, her suitcase and her gun/gun holster has not gone unappreciated. If you're a fan of the GunXSword series and enjoy collecting figures, I'd say that you wouldn't regret tracking her down.

Here are some extra photos I took with the leaves, they made me laugh. :D

Ok, well that about does it for my first review/picture session. Tell me what you think, any suggestions and/or comments would be great! Hoped you enjoyed the first installment to my blog and please come back to see new upcoming reviews! Thanks for looking!

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Introduction

Welcome to How ReyJ Figures. My passion for the 3D medium has motivated me to create a blog designed to highlight the awesome world of figures. Here you will find reviews, pictures, and a bunch of other coverage of things that I find cool. Recently I've dabbled in figure photography, so I figured its about time to share it with the world and get some feedback. The pictures I'll be taking and uploading will probably range from PVC figures to action figures based on anime, comic book characters, and so forth. Anyway, allow me to briefly introduce myself:


I'm a 22 year old student currently at UC Davis in California. I pretty much collect anything I can get my grubby little paws on...that is, as long as the wallet can support it.

I love comics, movies, video games, LOST!, anime, Lara Croft and FIGURES! I've been a figure goon since I was in diapers, my mom and dad would buy me little pvc figures of disney characters sold by the Disney Store, and since then I guess my fate was decided for me. As a kid I loved anything toybiz would produce, from x-men action figures to the spidey one's. Ninja Turtle figures, Terminator and Star Wars figures by Hasbro were also at the top of my fave list. Once the Power Rangers dominated my life I lived to collect every figure possible....well thanks to mis padres, haha. When I finally was old enough to make money and go out and buy the figs of my choosing, I mostly collected action figures from the Marvel Legends lines, whatever DC Direct shot out, gamer figures, anything Tomb Raider and the misc figures from NECA, SOTA, etc. It wasn't until about 2-3 years ago that I discovered anime and all the glorious PVC figures that were produced by great companies like Alter, Good Smile Co, Max Factory, Orchid Seed, and so on.

The first PVC figure that I ever bought was Spike which I believe was produced by Tokyo Pop (you'll be seeing some him later on), from the first anime I ever watched, Cowboy Bebop. My second was Mellisa Seraphy, and since then I've been hooked. I'm a sucker for a good sculpt, and especially if its a character I recognize. Hell, even figures of characters who I don't know somehow make it into my room as long as the sculpt is awesome. The only down side to collecting these figures is their price tag! Unless you're diamond jim brady, you can't buy these little beauties in droves. Currently my top 3 must haves for 2009 are: (1) Static Arts Sora figure from Square-Enix (2) Alter's Fatima [damn hot] (3) finally Good Smile Co's Saber Lily.

Other than the PVC figure market, my newest obsession has been Mattel's DCUC line. Finally us DC fans are getting fully posable figs of the best characters in the DCU. Much like the Marvel Legends line by Toybiz, later to be taken over and DESTROYED by Hasbro, Mattel's DCUC line is friggin' awesome. My bank account hasn't been allowing me to pick up every figure in each of the respective lines, but I'm determined to figure out a way to get each of those beauties and post reviews on this blog. ^^

Anyway, that's me in a nutshell. I guess that about wraps up my first blog on this site. See ya 'round.

P.S. Here are some preview pics from upcoming posts:

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