We’re back! After 4 months we’re finally back to yakking about figures over Skype and posting it on the Internet. Of course, given our generally abysmal work ethic, it takes a damn good reason to get our asses back in gear, but I’d say the biannual occasion that is WonFes more than qualifies for a “good reason”. Unfortunately, my annoying speech quirks are also back in full force, but I suppose you’ll just have to DEAL WITH IT as we give you the lo-down on what we think is hot (or not-so-hot) at the event.

• 01:40-- Hagenai stuff!
• 09:18-- Chara-Ani's Erio and Fear
• 13:28-- Alter & Max Factory's Menma
• 17:49-- Max Factory's Luka
• 20:47-- Madoka stuff!
• 24:23-- Ash bitches about the continued absence of Mikan (Orchid Seed Yui)
• 26:32-- Native stuff!
• 30:15-- Persona 4 stuff!
• 33:27-- FREEing's fortress Nanoha
• 36:19 -- Stocking, Mass Effect, Chag's Nendo temptation & BRS stuff

Is it just me, or has our tastes grown pervier since last time? With all this emphasis and tits and/or asses, this may be the end of our “good taste” as we know it. In any case, what did you think of this Wonder Festival? What were your biggest hits and misses? Let us know in the comments!

(By the way, while we might have said that we're doing away with the weekly updates, Ash and I do have some a potentially cool alternative planned for the near future -- we're thinking of doing a weekly figure livecast with our good buddy Ohnoraptors. The idea is still very much in its infancy, but when we settle on a concrete plan and start date, I'll be sure to let everyone know -- whether they want to or not! >=D)

Lobo and his loyal crew.

Yep, it's a new post.

Nope, it's not anything remotely figure-related!

Ash and I have been playing a lot of Star Wars: The Old Republic lately on the Republic side of Juyo. Both of us have leveled at a character to 50 (the maximum level). So since I’m in a rantful mood, I figure I’m going to write a tl;dr post that's probably completely irrelevant to the interests of most of you! I suppose this is kind of a review (though admittedly my last "real" MMO was Burning Crusade in WoW), but also kind of an update post -- now you know what Ash and I have been wasting our time with instead of blogging about figures!

WTF is The Old Republic?

TOR is Bioware’s big entry into the MMO market. Backed by Electronic Arts, this Star Wars game is rumoured to have cost anywhere from $80 million to $300 million to produce. The game is heavily story driven and features fully voice-acted dialogue, boasting over 200,000 lines. Though the gameplay is very similar to World of Warcraft (as people often call it “WoW in space”, one might say it’s the bastard child of a traditional MMO and a single-player RPG. What do I mean by that? Well, read on~

The Setting

The story of TOR takes place 300 years after the events of Knights of the Old Republic (a game both Ash and Ohnoraptors has bugged me to play) and 3,500 years prior to the events of the Star Wars films. The Sith Empire has returned, and after an initial wave of open aggression, the two opposing factions are in a state of a barely concealed cold war. Neither sides are committing acts of open aggression in the form of all-out war, but there are plenty of under-the-table dealings and skirmishes on various worlds in the galaxy in a bid to tip the balance of power.

Ashlotte = big bald man. Chag = little bald man. He may have the height advantage, but I have DEPTH PERCEPTION.

Each faction has 4 mirrored classes: the Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior, the Jedi Consular/Sith Inquisitor, the Smuggler/Imperial Agent, and the Trooper/Bounty Hunter. Each of these classes has two separate advance classes, and each of these advanced classes have three different skill trees, so there’s plenty of variety to be had. I play a Gunslinger, a long-range damage class that stems out of the Smuggler, while Ash plays a Vanguard, a ranged tank class that’s a variant of the Trooper.

When Ash brought the game to my attention, I was immediately dubious of the premise. As the vast majority of MMOs are set in fantasy settings, I wasn’t sure if the swords & magic model of MMOs would be appropriate for the lightsaber-swinging world of Star Wars. So does it work? Well, kinda.

The Old Republic takes full advantage of the vastness of the Star Wars setting. From the Toxic swamp world of Quesh, to the sleazy metropolis of Nar Shaddaa, to the frozen expanses of Hoth, the world of TOR feels truly vast. Personally, I have never been a big Star Wars fan as I was too young/illiterated when I watched the original trilogy, but even without picking up all the allusions and throwbacks to the movies and KOTOR, the planets of the galaxy far, far away were satisfying to explore.

Good ol' Tatooine -- it's every bit as dry and vast as you'd imagine.

However, as we have been introduced to the Star Wars universe through the films, there are a number of contradictions that ultimately break the immersion of the experience. The issue of lightsaber lethality is especially glaring: because of the needs of game balance, lightsabers are no longer these awe-inspiring weapons that can cut through steel like a hot knife through butter. When you see people swinging them through enemies repeatedly, they feel a lot less like hyper-lethal weapons and more like big shiny glowsticks.

Am I the only one who thinks Hutts are cute? Look at dem stubby arms...dawwww.

Asides from the lightsabers, there’s also the issue of shoehorning of MMO mechanics into the Star Wars universe. Most MMOs need special abilities outside of the swinging of swords and axes (i.e. magic). In the case of TOR, these abilities translate to force and tech powers. For the non-force using glasses, these abilities boil down the miniature droids and other gadgets that the player calls out of #hammerspace. The commando class calls down miniature droids and heals the target with a scan of some sort and throwing around globs of healing agents. The mercenary bounty hunters heals people by scanning them and shooting people in the face with hypodermic needles. As a gunslinger, I have some gadget that farts out a electromagnetic pulse that bounces enemies away from me. Not only have we never seen this sort of technology in any of the Star Wars movies, they also seem a little out of place in the universe as a whole.

The Jedi gets their own version of Force choke called "Force Stasis". I think I'll stick with Force choke.

The force users have a easier time since their abilities are more closely related to magic, but even for them there’s a lot of shoehorning -- what the hell is “dark healing” anyhow? Also, the Jedi consulars have an ability that is meant to mirror the Sith sorcerer’s force lightning which throws a torrents of pebbles at the enemy...ooo, scary!

Anyhow, the point is that TOR had to bend a few lines in order to make the Star Wars universe into an MMO, and I really can’t fault them too much for that. It’s Star Wars, but it’s not quite the Star Wars you know and love.

The Road to Fifty

"First one to make fun of my hat gets the business end of my blasters!"

The journey of Captain Lobo Vore began when a backstabbing douchebag stole my spaceship, which was loaded with a shipment of blasters due to be delivered to a particularly ill-tempered gangster called Rogan the Butcher. Thus began the endeavour to take back my ride while fighting off hitmen from both the dirty thief I’m pursuing and the less-than-pleased gangster. Of course, the story ultimately becomes intermingled with the fate of the galactic republic, and before I knew it, I was committing heists, having affairs with senators and taking down Imperial fleet admirals.

I wonder what my wookie is doing in my vision quest. Good thing blasters still work on vision-beasts.

Asides from the overarching class quest, each planet the player visits has its own main quest line, as well as a slew of side quests. The main quests vary in quality, but they tend to be more complex and creative. I especially enjoyed going through the vision rituals of the Voss natives and storming the Sith-occupied Parliament of Corellia, mowing down Sith lords left and right. Other quests, such as the diplomatic mission involving particularly cryptic protocol droids drove Ash and me bonkers.

The side quests are more or less standard MMO fare, i.e. doing chores for strangers that usually involves mild genocide. On the plus side, all the quests are fully voiced with multiple conversation options (and sometimes even alternate completion routes). The voiced dialogue gives context to why I’m killing 10 space boars for these people, which is a nice touch. Still. while this feature is a good thing, after going through 30 or so levels, my interest in the more obviously menial task descriptions started to falter, especially when playing in the wee morning or late at night.

Thankfully, there are more than enough quests to do in the game that one could simply skip the less interesting ones without worrying about having to resort to hours upon hours of mob-grinding.

Some of your companions have romance options. I ended up choosing the muscle-bound mercenary with teeth sticking out of her head. Deciding to choose her over the other decidedly more vanilla option wasn't easy, but Baldy's personality reminds me a lot of Saber Alter, and Saber Alter is the hotness.

Throughout your journey you will welcome 5 companions to your crew (plus a ship droid!). These companions can either fight alongside you or be sent off on missions to gather resources and craft items. As you complete quests with them and give them gifts, they will gain affection points (which improves their gathering/crafting proficiency) and unlock additional dialogue and quests that unveils more of their backstories. I don’t know how it is for other classes, but between a chivalrous adventurer, a noble slave, a streetwise informant, a vengeful mercenary, and a bumbling Jedi dropout, there is plenty of incentive for me to get to know my crew.

This is the bounty hunter alt that I'm probably never going to level. Ugh, I should've rolled a female character to begin with instead of...

The conversation system of TOR is very much similar to that of the Mass Effect series, albeit more linear. In any given scenario there's usually a nice guy response, a neutral response, and a dick response. The fact that my character has a voice made it easy to roleplay; asides from the obvious trash side quests, I like listening to my character talk, and I like trolling NPCs with my mean-spirited and sarcastic quips. But in the end, as hard as I try to be a total greedy dick, I still soften up and do the right thing (most of the time, anyways). Above all else, I think ease with which one can meaningfully interact with both the game world and other players is TOR's greatest strength.

...THIS. What was I SMOKING?

The choices you make affect the affection ratings of your companions based on their personalities, as well as you morality score during the occasional marked choices. Sometimes I feel like I'm power-gaming my decisions to raise my morality/affection scores, but the very fact that this bothers me shows how strong the characterization in this game is.

You have to wonder why these hover bikes don't have seats installed.

Overall, I had a lot of fun leveling up in SWTOR. The first 20 levels was a whirlwind tour with Ashlotte, and after that I mostly leveled solo (though I did have some help from Ash and Ohnoraptors for some group quests), which was also very satisfying. Sure, I was not plowing through everything like before, but the added challenge gave some juicy tension to the combat.

End game

After you reach level 50, the current end game of SWTOR boils down two two things: flashpoints/ops (dungeons/raids), and PVP. There’s a bunch of repeatable daily quests that yields commendation tokens which can be traded for some decent gear, but that’s not really worth mentioning.

Flashpoints

Cowering from afar while Ash takes the heat -- that's how I roll.

The dungeons in this game are 4-man encounters. Like the rest of the game, they are laced with dialogue and moral choices. The boss fights more often than not have a unique trick to them that you have to figure out to succeed as opposed to the standard tank & spank. Some of these conditions are pretty unforgiving to newcomers and don’t seem to be appropriate for these entry-level encounters, especially for pick-up groups. There was one boss in a renegade droid compound that virtually one-shots anyone standing outside of his melee range, and immediately dying to a unforeseen attack right off the bat without knowing the reason for is pretty frustrating. But as frustrating as some of these encounters may be, figuring out the tricks to these bosses and succeeding for the first time is a very gratifying experience.

It'd be cool if there were more bosses like this. Ganging up on fat people isn't very heroic.

One complaint I have about these flashpoint encounters is that more often than not, your party will be beating on some standard humanoid enemy, and half the time the enemy is a fat dude with a big gun. Now, this is mostly a limitations of the setting, but it really isn’t as exciting as, say, killing a dragon/ogre/anything that looks large/intimidating/exotic. I wish there were more fights like Imperial boarding party on Mandolarian Raiders -- that fight pitted the player’s party against an opposing 4-member NPC party. It was brutally difficult before the patch, but not even 6 wipes could discourage our party from overcoming the obstacle. The upcoming patch is introducing a flashpoint full of SPACE ZOMBIES, which sounds like it would yield adventure of the spicier variety.

A raid in a pit of lava? Gee, I sure have not seen this before!

Tanking lightning bolts. With my face.

Thankfully, the 8-16 member Operations seem to offer more exciting enemies. I was pretty impressed with Eternity Vault, and I’m particularly excited about the upcoming patch that’ll pit players against a Hutt in a giant robot walker.

PVP

The shining star in the end game for me right now is undoubtedly PVP. And by PVP I mean the warzones, as open-world hasn’t been properly implemented yet. There are 3 warzones in the game at the moment:

Civil War is your standard control point mode that’s in the same vein as WoW’s Arathi Basin. Voidstar reminds me of Call of Duty’d Demolition mode in which the attacking team must plant a bomb in one of two locations (Ash and Hamstercorp tell me that it’s a clone of WoW’s Strand of the Ancients).

Ashlotte loves balls.

The most interesting of the trio is undoubtedly Huttball, which is American football...with lightsabers and guns. And fire traps and acid pits. Yeah.

The good thing about being a ranged class is that I don't have to be apart of the clusterfuck I'm shooting into.

While overwhelming at first, I’ve come to love Huttball. This is largely thanks to Ash and Ohnoraptors, who make an unstoppable team as ball carrier and healer. I try to do my job to mow down pursuers on their tail, but oftentimes I lose track of of them simply because of their mercilessly efficient pace. Though we haven’t been PVPing together for too long, the name <Voidstar Velociraptors> is already becoming known on the server. Personally, I can’t wait for the eventual implementation of group ranked PVP, because it’s been a blast thus far.

Ninety-Nine Problems

Believe it or not, this is what top-end gear looks like for Jedi Guardian and Sentinels. Thank God for customizable gear.

As with many MMO titles, the post-launch period has been fraught with problems. In the case of TOR, the game has picked up a lot of negative attention. The short explanation would be that the game is simply not finished. The game is not optimized very well, and people are reporting poor frame rates in Warzones and capital fleets. As a direct consequence to this, Bioware has removed high-resolution textures from the launch version of the game and have been getting a lot of flak for it. Predictably, a lot of people are up in arms about this withdrawal of graphics fidelity -- some are even filing false advertising lawsuits. While I've never been a graphics whore, the difference between medium and high setting textures is quite significant, and I really hope this PR disaster gets resolved soon.

There's space combat in this game, which is pretty much a Star Fox clone complete with barrel rolls. It's not terribly deep, but it's a fun distraction.

What bothers me more are some of the other issues that directly impedes one's progress in the game. A number of the hard mode flashpoints are currently bugged, meaning that if you're unlucky, your group's evening would suddenly become a big waste of time when the final boss decides to spaz out. The Legacy system, a feature that encourages people to make more characters, will not be implemented for another 2-3 months. Similarly, updates to the currently barebones guild system will also have to wait. There is currently a myriad of small bugs and annoyances in the game: the UI sometimes breaks, companions randomly die on elevators, taunts not working, etc, etc. Mind you, Bioware has been releasing patches left and right to make people happy, but the fact is that the game feels obviously rushed to fit the holidays release window. Considering the amount of resources and manpower that went into this game, I think it's real pity that the game is slipping up during the vital early stages of the game, because people will unsubscribe when these small thing end up snowballing.

Conclusion

Don't mind me -- just looking awesome on my dope-ass 1.5 million cred ride.

So after everything's said and done, would I recommend SWTOR? The short answer is "yes", and the long answer is "yes, but take your time leveling your character", because it's going to take some time before Bioware fully fleshes out the end game experience (unless you love PVP).

Most of the flight path transports in this game are speeder bikes and taxis, but there are the occasional exceptions.

I don't think this game is going to be the "WoW-killer", but I do think it will end the virtual hegemony that WoW has enjoyed for so long. While the game mechanics may seem familiar, the overall essence of the game is very much original as it successfully transplants the feel of a single-player game into the MMO genre. Admittedly, the game is rough around the edges, but I am enjoying the game and look forward to future updates, as potential of this game is as vast as the galaxy it's set in.

The PVP rewards in this game come in the shape of randomized prize bags. I just so happen to have fiendish luck and assembled my full set at least twice as fast as Ash. BEHOLD, ALL DEM PURPZ

What's Good

• Immersive storytelling through fully-voiced dialogue and conversation options
• Varied and interesting companion characters
• PVP is a blast
• A game world that feels vast

What's bad

• Game is rushed. (post-launch bugs, glitches, texture nerf, etc.)
• Immersion-breaking issues (lighsaber lethality, out-of-place technology)
• Borderline bullshit flashpoint encounters

So, almost a month has past since the second anniversary post, and Hobby Hovel still hasn't resumed regular operations. By this time you're probably driving in the last nails into our coffin, but I beseech you, be not so hasty with thy mallet -- for here comes a filler post!

For those of you who don't know, the fifth Wonder Hobby photo contest invited figure collectors worldwide to submit their photos to have a shot at internet glory (as well as a bunch of nifty prizes). It garnered 1,598 entries, 322 of which belonging to foreign contestants. The winners of the contest were announced at the winter Wonder Festival 2011 over a live webcast. All the participants were given a commemorative Nendoroid display stand, and the top 200 contestants were given photo books featuring their work.  I was fortunate enough to place within the top 200, and I was really excited when I first heard the news. Sadly, I didn't win any other prizes asides from the photo book and the nendoroid stand, but I gotta say that having this tangible commemoration of my little achievement isn't shabby at all.

I've been meaning to share this thing since way back in April, but after having coerced my friend into de-binding and scanning it for me, I realized that not all scanners are created equal, as the quality from his humble desktop all-in-one left much to be desired. Fast forward six months, and I find myself surrounded by expensive printing and scanning equipment at work -- what better way to spend a lunch break?

...But first and foremost, allow me to show you the BEST page in the entire book. Beautiful, ain't it? I wonder how many people actually followed the URL I placed in the notes.

On the left side we have the winners for the grand prize, gold prize and silver prize. The prizes were a MacBook Air, PS3 + BRS OVA bundle and a Nerf machine gun, respectively...yeah, the silver prize winner kinda got the short end of the stick, which is a shame because I really liked that photo. On the right side we have two special category winners. The top photo is the winner of the Good Smile Company prize,  and the bottom the personal pick of Max Watanabe, the boss-man of Max Factory. That photo was shot by none other than Zai from Plastic Parfait, who received a big box of figures (and a scarf!) for her troubles!

Here's the pick of Masaki Apsy, as well as the picks from Type-Moon. Who from Type-Moon picked these photos? Beats me!

Of course, being the conductor to the GSC bloc's recent gravy train, Huke also served as a judge in the contest. However, unlike the Type-Moon judges, he did not exclusively choose photos which feature his characters -- and trust me, there is an overwhelming number of BRS figures in this competition. On the right side we have some people who won a figma Max Watanabe (thank you Luth for the correction!).

...And here's more people who won Max figmas! These are either runner-up picks or the winner of the internet vote. So yeah, if you know Japanese and can read some of these category names, I'd be super-grateful if you could drop me a few clues in the comments (many thanks to Luth for filling me in on many of these categories)! The page on the right shows off the gallery of these top 200 photos at WonFes 13, as well as the winner picked by the attendees.

I won't go over all the pages one by one, but here are a couple featuring the handiwork of two friends. On the left side you'll find Miette-chan's photo of the GSC 1/8 Misaka Mikoto, while Luth's photo of the animation version of Black Rock Shooter is on display on the right.

As you can probably tell by this point, there was a fuckload of nendoroid photos in the top 200, which shouldn't come as a surprise, as nendoroids are both popular and incredibly photogenic. While I personally prefer scaled figures, the creative possibilities with nendoroids and figmas are simply far greater. And besides, nendoroids are so cute that making funny photos with them is a breeze. Hmmm, maybe I should dust off that Nendoroid Saber Lion and do something with it after all...

Here are the scans of all the pages for your viewing pleasure. If you have better things to do than wait for these images to load one by one, you can download a compressed archive of these scans here. Feel free to spread the love and have this contest be known! ...Actually, that would mean there would be more competition next time, wouldn't it? Okay, scratch that -- enjoy these scans as privately as humanly possible. SPEAK NOT A WORD OF IT TO ANYONE.

Jokes aside, I'm not even sure if I'll have anything to submit for the next contest. I guess I'll go with one of the shots in the outdoor World is Mine Miku set, but I'm not terribly confident with those. I actually haven't bought anything new from the GSC bloc in the past year at all. I was supposed to get the Nendoroid Cirino, but then I ran out of money. There was also the figma Michael Jackson, but the five-month delay gave me plenty of time to reconsider. But hey, as long as there's a participation prize, I'm sure I can figure something out.

Hope to see you in the next contest! =)

Whew, another year has come and past, and a what a year it has been! So much has happened since last October that it's hard to wrap my head around. But hey, what better way make sense of it all than to make a tl;dr post of epic proportions? So without further ado, I give you a dense reflection on myself, Hobby Hovel, and everything in-between.

(Artist: はら)

State of the Chag

I hear a lot of people say that the college years are the best parts of one’s life. I, on the other hand, have had no such pleasure. There’s no point in giving out my life’s story of the past four years, but let’s just say it was less than pleasant. Now I’m out of school and working at a community college as a “reproduction equipment operators” -- a fancy way of saying I work the scanners and printers. It sure as hell isn’t a job that requires a degree, yet I’m strangely happy about my current situation -- perhaps too happy. Is it a job that I would want to stay in for the rest of my life? Naw, but it is stress-free, is relatively stable, and pays enough to support myself, so I’d say it’s not a bad gig for given the current economic circumstances. I find that I’m in a much better mood these days without the constant gloom of readings and assignments hovering above my head, so now I’m just going to focus on saving up the money to move out and probably take some courses to transition out of this printing gig when I’m ready.

For those of you who follow Tomopop, you might have noticed the smug mug of a certain hat-wearing guy with a name that’s awfully similar to Chag. Yep, that’s me posting as an associate editor. Writing for Tomopop has been a very different experience. It certainly isn’t as rewarding as working on my own blog, but it’s also an interesting experience in its own right. It’s nice to have an alternative soap-box and a different audience, even if the interactions feel less intimate than on my home turf.

As far as the hobby goes, this year has been pretty quiet, and that’s mainly because of the lack of any recent anime that made enough of an impression to have me for me to suit up and do battle with the horrible yen exchange rate. I enjoyed K-ON!, Bakemonogatari and Madoka, but for one reason or another they always came out just a little short. This is especially the case with Madoka. I may have defended GSC’s scaled figure before, but at the end of the day I still can’t bring myself to buy any of them because the art style still bothers me.

Another factor influencing the slowdown of my collection is my family situation. Once again it’s a story that I don’t want to elaborate on, but doing figure-related things in the house is very hard now. I would have gotten a couple of figures that I mildly want like Alter’s Black Hanekawa, but given the state of affairs, I figured that it just wasn’t worth the risk. This is also affecting my contribution Tomopop, because since I won’t be able to reliably take review photos, I can’t really bring myself to ask for any review samples, which is a big part of the incentive for the position. This means I don’t bring  myself to contribute as often as I would otherwise (not that I'm losing sleep over the prospect of not being able to work for other people).

This is not to say that I’m putting a stop to the figure hobby, though -- there are some things that I definitely can’t pass up. I’ve got that new Aigis from Alter on pre-order, and when the swimsuit Selvaria goes up, I’m going to be all over that as well. Sadly that those won’t arrive until next year, which does leave a gap between now and then. Oh well~

Photography

Over the past year, I’ve begun doing something that I never thought I’d do when I started the blog two years ago -- taking outdoor figures photos. Shooting outside is the double-edged sword for me. Every time I've ventured outside with my camera and figures I've come back with at some photos that I really like. Perhaps it's the novelty factor doing its work, but I can't help but to smile at the outdoors World is Mine Miku and Danbo shots. My favourite of the bunch is undoubtedly the Summer Saber shots, one of which was fortunate enough to not only nab POTD, but also POTW and POTM on MFC. To a novice photographer like me, the affirmation from all that felt like an amazing handjob on my ego. Awww yeah.

On the other hand, letting loose my power level on the unsuspecting general populace is still something that I'm not at all comfortable with, but given the right context, I can grit my teeth and tough it out, especially if a hiding spot is nearby or if there's a choice shot to be had in the end to justify my efforts. In conclusion: I still think Ashlotte is crazy for taking all those outdoor shots, but now he seems less crazy than previously imagined.

With that said, indoor shooting is still where I’m most comfortable. There’s no substituting the control that and indoor setup grants. As nice as that Saber shot turned out, nature is a fickle bastard. When I came back to the same spot a couple weeks later with Miette-chan and Exilehero, the stream has a shadow of its former self. Plus, given the variables such as weather, time of day and the presence of onlookers, the great outdoors is rather unpredictable, for better or for worse. Yet when I need to crank out a full set of photos for a review, I need that reliability.

But after 2 years of shooting in front of flat backdrops, the shtick is getting old. I’d very much like to play around with a different setup, perhaps with Plexiglas on the bottom and less constrained lighting. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, the problem with graduating out of my trusty collapsible light box is that I would need a dedicated space to put my new setup, and that isn’t happening as long as I live with my folks. The good news is that I already have plans on moving out. The bad news is that plan can’t be executed until next June -- an eternity away. Until then, I’ll be in a rather awkward spot when it comes to taking photos. This is not to say that there won’t be photos, but I’ll have to figure something out first.

Double H

The second year at Hobby Hovel also saw the beginning of Double H, a confused little project that I am ultimately very grateful for. My intention with the show was to add a personal dimension to an otherwise impersonal blogging atmosphere. I often find textual communication is limited, and ambiguities of meaning are commonplace. Yet with an exclusively online crowd like us, text is all we’ve got. That’s mostly the reason why I decided to venture into the realm of audio -- though it, you now have a better idea of what Ash and I are like.

Of course, soon after I started I realized that I’m not exactly spectacular at this whole talking into a microphone thing. This bothered me a lot, because I really didn’t want Double H to become something that our regular readers have to slog through. I tried to improve, and I think I was successful to a small degree. There’s still a lot of work to do in the future to cure my rusty tongue, but I’ll take it as they come.

One of the best thing to come out of Double H is being able to talk to Ash on Skype. This may not seem like much, but the addition of voice was like getting to know him all over again because of how differently people seem on the microphone as opposed to on the keyboard, and I find myself respecting him more now that I know the way he speaks. Also, the connection through Skype also eventually led to us playing League of Legends together, which then brought others like Hamstercorp and Ohnoraptors whom we had the pleasure of playing with and becoming more closely acquainted with. All this coming out of my silly little talk-show idea -- not too shabby at all, I'd say!

My current thoughts about Double H itself are mixed. I really enjoy the Q&A segments because they feel the most conversational. Conversely, talking about pre-orders and last season’s anime are a lot less so. There are plenty of moments where I have a lot of fun goofing off with Ash on the microphone, but the overall structure of it feels like a presentation. I wish we had an audience large enough for a live podcast of sorts where we could interact with the listeners directly, but that’s probably asking too much out of the small niche figure community and my ability to speak off the top of my head. Like the photography situation, Double H is also something I have to contemplate in the coming weeks.

The Current Status

So how’s the blog doing these days, you ask? Well, I’ve got some numbers for the stat whores (you know what you are!): the blog gets around 3000 unique visitors and 10,000 pageviews a month and there are around 75 people subscribed to the RSS feed, along with 50 on the YouTube channel. I actually haven’t checked the stats for quite a while, so I was surprised to see that the numbers haven’t fallen significantly over the slow past month.

You might have notice that the blog has been quiet recently. I’ve mentioned some of my reasons above, and without going into any details, Ashlotte is also tied up with thing in life that he’d rather not be doing. So to put it simply: both of us want to work on the blog, but for our own reasons, that order is proving to be difficult for the time being.

When Ashlotte told me that he had cancelled the bulk of the figures he had on pre-order and is planning to severely cutting down on the figure hobby due to money/space constraints, I wasn’t fazed at all. Rather, after two years of working on the blog and over a year working with Ash, figures have shifted from an end in of itself to a means to a different end. Over the past year I’ve had the pleasure to talk and play with many of you and even meet up with some of you, and in the coming year I’m planning to meet yet more of you. When I’ve had luck like this, would it matter if Ash won’t be putting out as many reviews in the future? Nah, stressing over that seems trivial at this point. What’s important is that though the blog I’ve made one dear friend amongst many -- a friend who lives over a thousand miles away, yet a dear friend nonetheless.

So what happens now? Well, as I mentioned above, there’s a lot of figuring out to do on my part, and Ash has his unpleasantness to deal with as well, so things may remain quiet for a while. I know that’s how a lot of blogs die out, but fear not -- just keep us on your RSS feed and you’ll know when we return to business.

Anyhow, thank you guys for another fun and rewarding year! As my interest shift from figures to the people behind the figures, your comments and tweets have become even more integral to the experience. There’s nothing quite like waking up in the morning to find a bunch of comment notifications in my email inbox, and I have you guys to thank for that. Here's to all the memories made in the past the all the memories to be made in the future!

Chag: I confess: I have a strange relationship to these rants. Oftentimes I would dread editing these, thinking they would be horrible and unredeemable, yet when I actually do get around to putting it together, the rant is always quite a bit better than I gave credit for. I still find myself asking "why would anyone want to listen to these?" now and, but as the YouTube subscriber count climbed to 50 in spite of the neglect, I guess there are all sorts of strange folk in the world!

Anyhow, here's the second Anime Wishlist instalment in audio format. As per usual, Ashlotte has to put up with my meagre watch list. Also, I think I might have dropped my cheap-ass microphone one too many times, because the audio quality on my end was less than stellar. I've bought a new microphone since then, but for this time, bear with it!

The first part has us talking about ancient grimoires, rollcake-dispensing robots, girls with too much money and time, and spunky superheroes.

The second part is about some blonde chick and a loli who loves  playing with balls.

Finally, there's Q&A, which is by far my favourite thing to edit through every time. We have quite the selection of question this week ranging from the serious to the absolute bonkers. I can see myself totally regretting putting this up few months down the road, but since I've never been one to follow sound reason, time to fire away! After this week, I hope that everyone will know that when we say "anything goes", we meant it. =D

As some of you might have known, my money situation has been tight the last few months – tight enough for me to cut down my already diminutive pre-order list. The Nendoroid Cirino had to be sacrificed, and the figma Michael Jackson would have faced the same fate had he not been delayed time and time again. But no matter the circumstances, there are some things I just have to hold onto, and the Revoltech SFX Tyrannosaurs Rex from the 1997 film The Lost World: Jurassic Park is one of them.

"T-Rex" – Chag, 8 years old

When I told Ashlotte that I received this toy, his reaction was something along the lines of “erm…why?” To which I responded with “why the hell not?” Is not the T-Rex the essence of every boy’s dream? Yes, it has been an awful long time since I was awed by the film when I saw it back in China. And no, I did not understand a word of English back then, so I am clueless as to what the actual plot of the movie is. But that’s beside the point. To any red-blooded 8-year-old, the sight of a giant rampaging lizard is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Not only is the T-Rex one the largest land predator to ever walk the face of the earth, but it also simultaneously tickles the boundary between fantasy and reality. If you don’t think that’s cool, then maybe something’s wrong with your head.

…Okay, maybe not everyone is as dinosaur-crazy as I was in my childhood, but you see where I’m coming from, right? And of course, when a good-looking T-Rex action figure surfaces, how can I possibly resist? Thankfully, my blind enthusiasm for the plastic dinosaur was not punished by the sting of disappointment, as the Revoltech T-Rex turned out to be a fine figure.  Hit the jump to find out more!

First Impressions

The Revoltech T-Rex is presented in an olive/yellow colour with some dark stripes running across its body. I honestly can’t say if this is accurate to the movie, as the T-Rex scenes I found on YouTube all took place during the night. I’ve always thought of the big lizard as a primarily grey creature, but I rather like the jungle colours on this figure.

The figure comes on base depicting a moist patch of primordial vegetation. It looks as if it’s been soaked by rain for long time, as I can almost feel the stickiness of the brown mud underneath the T-Rex’s foot. The two oddly shaped trees in the background rest on small revolver joins and can be repositioned and removed if need be. As with all other Revoltech SFX figures, a little nameplate is included.

One of the greatest things about this figure is the way the base is designed. Since the T-Rex is a bipedal creature, it would normally require careful balance in order to stand upright. And as any toy collector would know, balance is a fickle mistress, as a simple bump into the table could send the figure falling over. Sure, there is the usual Revoltech method of sticking a stubby peg on the base into the foot of the figure, but given the inherently lousy balance of the T-Rex, such a solution would not be dependable. So instead, the folks at Kaiyodo utilized the new solution – rather than having the ankle joint pegs inserted into the foot, they are instead inserted into the base itself! What comes out of this is a very reliable and stable way to display the figure without sacrificing the aesthetics.

The Revoltech T-Rex measures in at 21cm long and around 8cm tall – shorter than a standard-sized Figma. For anyone who’s seen the movies before, it’s hard to not be at least a little underwhelmed by the figure’s size initially, since the sheer immensity of the creature has always been the focal point. However, after my initial reaction I found myself happy with the figure’s size. Though the T-Rex’s height is not spectacular, it makes itself known with its healthy length. Besides, through collecting mecha models and toys, I’ve become used to seeing very large things being miniaturized into small plastic trinkets, and as I look closer, this modestly-sized bipedal lizard is actually quite big when it comes to the details.

Closer Look

The details on the Revoltech T-Rex are jaw-dropping. Everywhere you look you’ll find wrinkles in the reptile’s hide. The sculpted muscles give the creature a powerful appearance, while the spine and rips are visible through the creature’s imposing frame. On top of that, the way that the top coat glistens gives the T-Rex a life-like appearance.

The mouth deserves a special mention, as I really like how they handled the flap of skin between the upper and lower jaws. In between those jaws you’ll find a fully detailed (but not articulated) tongue and two sets of crisply molded teeth. Curiously, the teeth on the Revoltech T-Rex are tinted pink. While it may be a lapse in the production process, I’d like to think that it is the aftermath of the carnivore’s last grisly meal.

Above the heavy-set jaws rest the T-Rex’s eyes, which are what I consider to be the only flaw when it comes to the details on this figure. From what I read a long time ago, predatory animals (like eagles, sharks and lions) usually have forward-oriented eyes to help them track down their prey during a chase, while herbivorous animals tend to have eyes wide-set eyes located on the opposite sides of its head for a wider field of view, alerting them of the presence of predators. By that logic, the T-Rex should have its eyes fixed to what’s in front of it, but instead, the pupils on the figure are directed to the sides. I know this is a minor observation, but the unfocused look in the T-Rex’s eyes undermines the air of ferocity established by the rest of the figure, if only slightly. Thankfully, as the eyes are so tiny, this is one flaw that’s relatively easy to overlook.

Articulation

As far as articulation goes, the Revoltech T-Rex nails it down pretty perfectly. Aided by swivel joints at the neck and hinge joints on the lower legs and jaws, the figure fully exploits the sturdiness of the revolver joints. In spite of the weight, the figure is able to pull off one-legged running poses pretty reliably. There is even a pair of extra feet included for that exact purpose, so you can have the big lizard trample down your desk, your shelf, or wherever you choose to display it.

The positioning of the tail is held by a bendable metal pole, which is covered up by a soft rubber outer layer. The tails works well for the most part, though the pole does not quite extend to the tip of the tail, thus the end of the tail does not bend with the rest.

In all honestly, I can’t really think of anything figure lacks in terms of articulation. I suppose the torso could have a joint in the middle, and perhaps the little weenie arms could use an elbow joint, that just would be splitting hairs. At the end of the day, the figure does everything you would want out of a plastic T-Rex, which makes me a happy camper.

Final Say

By now you probably think I’m a strange(r) man for getting so worked up over a toy dinosaur, and I suppose I can’t blame you. Still, dinosaur fanboying aside, the Revoltech T-Rex is a simply a cool toy. It look great, plays great, and is a slice of Hollywood movie history to boot. For fans of the movie and dinophiles like me, I don’t see how one can go wrong with this one.

As for everyone else...wouldn’t a T-Rex be a neat thing to have in your collection anyways? You can have it terrorize the rest of your collection, or perhaps turn it into a might steed – you’d be surprised at the possibilities that the Revoltech T-Rex holds! Just don’t expect it to be in scale with the rest of your figmas, and I’m sure you’ll have a ripping good time.

Completely original idea, do not steal!

Pros

• Amazing details, especially for a figure of its size
• Appealing and functional display base

Cons

• Derpy eyes

...I really do need to re-watch The Lost World one of these days.

• 0:17 -- What is your favorite anime series?
• 3:55 -- Since you guys have worked together for a while, have you ever thought of actually meeting up and hanging out?
• 5:32 -- If you've reviewed a figure and disliked it while you reviewed it, would you ever sell that figure? If yes, would you still sell it near the market value even if you were not satisfied by it?
• 7:47 -- So, you guys frequent MFC right? What do you think it's the criteria for selecting the picture of the day/week/month? Have you had your pictures featured before?

Chag: Well, it's been a few weeks -- did you miss us? No?? =(

I wish I had interesting excuses for these delays, but sadly I have no such luck. The week before the last was skipped due to a general lack of figures we wanted to talk about, and last week was skipped due to...Ashlotte sleeping through the entire afternoon. To make up for that, we recorded this Monday morning, but between my fickleness of my new microphone and the inconsistencies of the Skype service, the recording came out very rough. It wasn't unusable, but since we were already late to the point, spending multiple evenings editing the audio just didn't make sense to me anymore. Thankfully the Q&A was salvageable, so here it is -- better late than never, right?

Slightly more complicated is the future of Double H. I've recently acquired a temporary job. It doesn't pay much, but it's easy as hell. Unfortunately, since it is full-time, doing our usual Friday afternoon recordings is no longer an option. A normal person would instead move the session to the evening or over the weekend, but due to my personal circumstances, they're not an option to me. As it stands right now, I can't make any promises, but I'll try my best to figure out a solution. Until then, bear with us!

As usual, if you've got questions, leave them here (or Twitter or Formspring) and we'll get to them. Until next time!

When it comes to quality and consistency, I doubt many figure collectors would disagree with the claim that Alter is the best maker in the bishoujo figure industry. Yet despite my tremendous respect for Alter, I don’t actually buy all that many figures from them. The only two Alter figures I owned were eventually sold off. That makes me feel a bit conflicted, because while I’d rather support Alter over any other figure maker out there, they don’t seem to tackle characters I feel strongly about all that often.  I would always admire the Alter figures I see in reviews, but it was never enough to make me budge.

However, a change came about a few months ago when I saw Alter’s Summer Saber up for preorder. Its white outfit and black hair bow instantly reminded me of my GSC Saber Lily, and therefore I felt that the acquisition of this new Saber was redundant. But after some contemplation over the following couple of weeks, I started to warm up to the new Saber on the block. She’s charming, she’s cheap, and she’s got that promise of Alter quality behind her. Of course, there was still that issue of redundancy, so I decided to sell off Saber Lily to a friend. I’m sure some of you would think that I was crazy for doing that, but in truth I never fully warmed up to that figure, and besides, I could’ve used the hefty wad of cash to cover my broke ass!

Now that the summer Saber has finally arrived, I can safely say that I don’t regret my choice. What she lacks in flashiness in spectacle she makes up for with her elegant and simple charm. Hit the jump to find out what I mean!

First impressions

I confess:  the first impression I had of the figure was not positive. Rather, it was something along the lines of “bloody hell, this thing is tiny!” But when I placed her next to the GSC 1/8 Miku, I realized that Alter did not cheat me in terms of scale, for the figure measure a healthy 19cm tall. Rather, because of Saber’s simple outfit and slim profile, she feels undersized, at least initially. Thankfully, the small size is well justified by Saber’s low price point, so there’s no reason to dwell on that.

Issue of size aside, I really like Saber’s body language here. Her pose is by no means complex, but I dig the way she puts her weight on her left leg, as well as her slightly tilted hips and shoulders. There’s a slight s-curvature in the way she stands which exudes feminine charm like gentle perfume, and together with her emerald eyes and gentle smile, the figure feels refreshingly elegant.

The figure comes with the postcard that conveniently features the illustrations on which the figure is based on. There are a bunch of differences between the source and the adaptation: Saber’s hair bow is a good deal larger in the illustration, and the creases and lines on her clothes give them a stiff look as opposed to the softer, more rounded look of the figure’s clothes. I think Saber’s clothes look a lot better in the illustration, though that’s mostly due to the shadow cast by the trees overhead, so I suppose it isn’t really a fair comparison.

Closer look

Starting from the top, Saber’s got a good head on her shoulders. The mould for her is very sharp and shading is applied subtly. Like GSC’s 1/7 Saber Lily and Saber, her hair is of a low-tone blond. Personally a prefer a more golden tone, as the hair looks slightly dull under my room lighting, but when properly lit it looks golden (no pun intended).

Unlike the more well-known Saber figures out there, the attire on Alter’s summer Saber is decidedly minimalist, comprising of only camisole and shorts. It looks really, really comfortable because it looks so lightweight, and the smooth finish gives the outfit a silky look. There’s shading to adorn the wrinkles on the clothes, and they look great for the most part. The only complaint I have is regarding the slightly uneven application of shading on the edges, and even that you'd have to look really closely to notice.

Saber’s armpits, collar bones shoulder blades and cleavage are all nicely sculpted. None of these particularly stand out – in fact, the figure has noticeably less cleavage than the postcard illustration. I’m not really bothered by that, though; as much as I like cleavage, a big crack down Saber’s chest might end up looking too distracting, detracting from the casual aura of the figure as a whole.  Of course, this is just conjecture, as I highly doubt that I’d ever complain about good cleavage.

Like virtually any other bishoujo figure, Saber is supported by a pair of supermodel-length legs, and because she is wearing no socks or shoes to speak of, her legs look even longer than they actually are. Can you believe Saber's only 153cm tall according to the in-game stats? Fancy that!

If you look closely at Saber’s hands and feet, you’ll find a pearl finish on her fingernails and toenails. Given the fact that each nail is only around a millimetre in width, this is a pretty darn impressive bit of detail.

The base is a simple white disk with the silhouette of a glassy field printed onto it, along with some moonrunes and “a sometime summer holiday” written near the edge. It still baffles me that no one involved with the figure bothered to run over that line with someone who knows English. You’d think that a country in which everyone learns English right from grade school would have no shortage of people with at least a competent grasp on the language. But weird Engrish aside, I really like the display base. The combination of light green and white gives off a really refreshing impression much like the rest of the figure, and I rather like the typography for the moonrunes.

Final say

Here’s the thing about Alter’s summer Saber: if you’ve got a pair of functioning eyeballs, then you probably already know whether you want it or not. The only thing to take away from this review is that there are no major quality control issues and the display base is looks very nice, because everything else you can discern from the official photos. From a technical standpoint, the summer Saber is like most Alter figures – virtually perfect. So in the end, it all comes down to a matter of personal taste.

In a market full of flashy figures, Alter’s summer Saber decidedly goes against the current with its simplicity. Though I doubt it’s the kind of figure that can win everyone over when there are so many more ambitious takes on the character out there, I like it a lot. The ability to evoke a feeling is the number one thing I look for in a figure, and through its pose, expression and attire, the Saber achieves that end by giving off an air of serenity. Even in the corner of my cluttered desk, the sight of her still reminds me of a cool breeze on a hot summer day. Not bad for the ~3800 yen I paid for her!

I’ve considered getting the accompanying Rin figure as well, but after Ashlotte pointed out the absolute immensity of her ears, I was no longer eager to have her. Still, I like Saber a lot, so if I see Rin in the bargain bin, I’d probably grab her. If you ever see her on sale, be sure to let me know!

Pros

• Refreshing feel
• Pearl finish on fingernails and toenails
• Low price

Cons

• Engrish on the display base