Kaname Madoka stars as a main character of SHAFT and Aniplex’s anime Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, also known as Puella Magi Madoka Magica. As the animation was and still is widly popular, I feel it’s a little redudant to go into too much detail about the show so for the uninitiated, pop over to the Puella Magi Wiki for a quick synopsis if you’re interested.

This figure, manufactured by Good Smile Company, features Madoka in her Ultimate form, also commonly referred to as Godoka or Madokami by fans. She stands at roughly 33 cm at full height which puts her at around a 1/8 scale.. this Madoka is easily the largest 1/8 scale figure we have in our collection due to all her bits and pieces. Madoka has been sculpted by Hiroshi whose better know works include GSC’s Saber Alter and the recently released Leviathan from Amakuni’s Seven Deadly Sins series among many other notable figures. Ultimate Madoka was a standard release whose retail price was up around 14000 yen back when she was released in late December 2012 although you may be able to find her at a slightly reduced price these days at certain retailers.

There are many things that stand out about this figure due to the elaborate sculpt and fancy paintwork so it’s hard to pinpoint a particular aspect as my favourite but I think I’d have to go with the sculpting done on the frills and edge work on her outfit. Despite being made from hard plastic, the sculptor has managed to make her skirt look like soft and fluffy fabric although this effect is somewhat lessened by the glossy paint they have chosen to use and the thickness of the plastic. A great effort, nonetheless!

The spectacular painting on her underskirt has a pearlescent finish, particularly on the outer pink side, that’s difficult to capture on camera but looks absolutely lovely in person. The stars are painted with surprising precision, so much so that I’m actually curious as to how they managed it. Well, whatever they did.. it looks great!

Madoka’s expression comes off as one of determination, or perhaps that of concentration considering she’s drawing an arrow. I do enjoy the way she’s glaring out at the viewer from under her fringe of hair as the majority of our collection features girls either wearing a joyful expression or a neutral one. Her head is on the larger side compared to her body, even for an anime character.. to make it any smaller though would be deviating from the anime design and would probably look a bit wrong though so it’s not really something I should be complaining about.

I’m a complete sucker for cute little details and I can’t help but to zero in on the small white bows that hold Madoka’s small pigtails in place. They’re big, puffy and sweet and I don’t have anything in particular I want to say about them.. I just wanted to take some photos of them to share.

Other little features of the lovely figure that tickle my fancy are things like the little gemstone she’s wearing on her collar, the ruffling around her exposed chest and the subtle wrinkling of cloth around her waist. All these little things that GSC have crafted into their Ultimate Madoka really make for interesting viewing from pretty much every angle.

Some assembly is required but it’s pretty straightforward stuff and the instructions are in the box if you do need them. We have trouble getting one of her foot wings in all the way so unfortunately it’s a little unstable but I’m unsure if this is a problem with our copy or a problem with the whole run. Thankfully, all her other wings clip in nice and snugly.

Madoka comes with two different bows, one with the giant pink flame and one without that features a small rose at the top. I’ve mostly used the one without the flame for my shots since the plastic flame is quite heavy and would twist the bow around in her hands and even force her to drop it when I moved the figure around. The flame is a great looking effect though and we typically display her with it over the more plain version.

Madoka’s base is gorgeous and I love the pattern that has been printed on it. The way the back of her dress connects to it is something worth noting too, it’s rather clever and the figure is a lot sturdier than it appears to be at glance. She’s still a bit wobbly due to her weight but it’d take more than a minor knock of a shelf to bring her down. Moving onto that box, well.. in short, it’s absolutely massive. If you’re interested in purchasing her and have to pay shipping costs, be prepared for them to cost a good deal of cash because it’s a monster and a half.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I was more than a little worried about how she’d turn out in terms of quality once she was mass produced. It must have been quite the task for Good Smile Company to get her looking as close to their prototype as she does and I imagine there must have been a collective sigh of relief when those who received her on release first opened up that huge box of hers and pulled her out. She truly is stunning and something I hope most collectors will get to see in person. Online hobby store AmiAmi are currently selling her at 43% off her retail price at 8000 yen so now is a great time to grab her if you’re interested in purchasing this beauty.

Thanks for reading my review and I hope you enjoyed it! Background is a random space photo that I changed the colours of and used as a backdrop on my TV screen. Nothing fancy, but she was a delight to take photographs of. Time to finish up with my usual left over photo spam and I’ll see you next time!

Caster from Fate CCC

Luth: I liked Caster’s character design from the original Fate/Extra and this design steps it up a notch. It’s cute and sexy and that little hat on top takes the cake. I could see GSC, Gift, Max Factory, or Phat Company possibly picking this up. I’m OK with all of those, usually I’m a little iffy about Phat Company but it looks like they did the original Caster very well so I’d be willing to give them a go for the CCC version. I wouldn’t be interested in one from Clayz, Sega, or Banpresto though. A lot of the character designs from Fate/Extra CCC look really cool and we had mentioned in the previous wishlist how much we wanted to see Saber Bride.

Zai: Like Luth, I also enjoyed Caster’s design from Fate/Extra and think I like this one even more. Phat Company’s Caster Extra figure was great and a near purchase for me and a figure with the above design would probably push me enough to commit to an actual purchase if it were to be made into figure form if it came out anything like the original. Still hanging out for that Saber Bride figure though, we’re sold on the Figma but would love a scaled figure too. Fingers crossed!

Cover Girl by Orchid Seed

Luth: This figure has been teased FOREVER in previous Wonder Festivals and in Summer 2012, they finally showed off an unpainted sculpt. It looks really impressive so far but I’d really like to see it painted and ready for release. The base is really impressive, original, and BIG. The only thing that might put me off is the price and oh god, I hope it’s a 1/8 scale.

Zai: It has been a good 2 years since the Orchid Seed announced they were going to sculpt this and I was delighted when the actual sculpt showed up last Wonfes. The only thing that gets me is that her waist looks a little odd so I’d like a closer look.. and it being painted would be even better!

Sasara Kusagawa from Final Dragon Chronicle ~Guilty Requiem

Luth: Ever since Volks came out with the Paladin Sasara (and we missed out on it) I’ve always wanted to see more of her in her various outfits. GoodSmile Company recently did the Dungeon Traveler version of her that appeared in the fighting game Aquapazza. I’d love to see either that version or any of the armoured versions done by GoodSmile since they should already have a license.

Zai: Luth has been lamenting that he missed out of the Paladin Sasara from Volks for a long while now so it’d be nice to see him get a Sasara figure he enjoys. I reckon the armoured designs look really awesome too.. and I’d love to see a dynamic pose used if they were to be captured in figure form.

Kuramoto Erika from Mahou Shoujo

Luth: Native have already done Misae-nee and are soon coming out with Sasaki and I really want to like them but there are bits with both sculpts that have stopped us. I’m hoping Native gets it right with Erika (the girl to the left), especially since she’s got a lot of nice curves for them to show off their sculpting skills.

Zai: I’m a tiny bit sore over not getting Misae and somewhat upset that I didn’t like Sasaki’s face very much.. really looking forward to seeing how Erika comes out. I’m a little bit more excited about eventually seeing Yui’s (the girl to the right) sculpt though, I think she’s really cute!

2013 Racing Miku

Luth: I know this one is coming out, in Nendoroid, Figma, and scaled versions. I know exactly which one I want, provided they don’t completely screw up the design: the figma version. I’ll be paying out my ass but damn do they make those Figma look good. The teaser image was good enough to make me want it and I’m really looking forward to seeing how she turns out.

Zai: Unlike Luth, I prefer the 2012 Racing Miku design over the 2011 version and this seems to lean more towards the former.. pretty eager to see what she looks like from the front! The price of the Figma makes me choke a little too so this’ll be more Luth’s thing than mine.. but that little crown is pretty damn adorable.

Kouka from Beatless

Zai: Redjuice mentioned Good Smile Company was going to make a figure based on this Beatless character, Kouka, on his Deviant Art awhile ago and I’d love for it to pop up at this Wonder Festival. Satoshi Toda will have his garage kit of Kouka there so that’ll be nice to see too. We missed out on Lacia which I really regret as they would have looked fantastic together!

Luth: The Beatless designs look pretty cool and although we missed out on Lacia, Kouka could be pretty cool. Will have to see how her device turns out!

Saber Type Moon 10th Anniversary Edition by Alter

Zai: Saber, Saber, Saber.. how many Saber figures do we have now? Whatever the number is, it isn’t high enough. I adore this outfit on her and I’m was so happy when Alter showed off this lovely sculpt at a recent event. I would really love it if Alter decided to show us the painted prototype this Wonfes!

Luth: I first saw this version of Saber at a convention as a Banpresto lottery prize and she looked pretty awesome. Not enough to try for the lotto but I did wish someone else would make her. An Alter version is definitely a no-brainer.

More Shining figures from Alter

Zai: Alter have released a few Shining figure with a couple more on the horizon but I would love to see more! Airy in particular, mostly because poor Luth has been longing for a nice figure of her for a long time now. Hoping to see some better photos of their Melty prototype there too as I’m pretty keen to pick that figure up when it’s released.

Luth: AIRY!!!!! That is all

Horizon Figma from Max Factory

Zai: Max Factory told us they were going to be making Honda Futayo into a Figma a few months ago, it would be awesome to see it this Sunday along with maybe another one or two. The girls from Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere would make wonderful looking Figma even though I’m not a fan of the anime or novels themselves.

Luth: Futayo would make a cool figma with the Dragonfly Splitter, in fact, any of the Horizon girls would make cool figma. Scaled might be better. Still waffling on Max Factory’s Tomo, grr!

Keiji Maeda from Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride by Alter

Zai: Keiji Maeda is a character that’s apparently going to be appearing in the new season of Hyakka Ryouran that will be airing in a couple of months. Her design looks great and I reckon Alter could pull off a fantastic figure based off this design. Their Samurai Girls are among our favourite figures in our collection and I’d be more than willing to add more.

Luth: Wow, I didn’t know this character existed, she looks cool! A lot of the new designs from Samurai Bride look pretty awesome, we almost got cat-girl Jubei but the exclusivity kind of blocked us. Hopefully the new characters aren’t exclusive as well!

Here’s hoping we shall see a few of these pop up, along with some pleasant surprises! Bring on this Sunday. What are you hoping to see at the event?

First up, Touwa Erio is one of the main characters from the light novel Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko (which roughly translates to Electrowave Girl and Youthful Boy) and cousin to the male lead. It also has an anime adaptation by Shaft that aired back in 2011. To say Erio is strange is putting it a little lightly, not only did she apparently disappear for six months with no memory as to what happened during that time, she also claims to be an alien sent to investigate humans. Below is a video of the ED of the anime, which is ridiculously cute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWEfD-KU058

The figure itself is around 150 mm which puts her at around a small 1/8 scale. This PVC version was manufactured by Ques Q and based off a garage kit sculpted by Yuma which in turn was based off this piece of official artwork. I’d seen photos of the garage kit beforehand and was one happy camper when Ques Q announced they’d be releasing a PVC version which was released in early October 2012 with a retail price of 8000 yen.

To be upfront, she’s pretty rough quality wise. She’s not absolutely dreadful and I do feel I got my monies worth as her good points outweigh the bad ones for me but just as a warning – if you’re thinking of purchasing her do be aware you won’t be getting a flawless product. I’ll speak more about her flaws later but let’s take a look at how pretty she is first!

I think it’s her face that gets me. It’s, for lack of a better word, super cute and feels like a very Erio like expression. I’m also quite fond of how they have done her eyes, they have added some very subtle shading (so subtle that it apparently doesn’t want to show up on camera) to her eyes that gives them a bit more depth rather than just looking like a couple of decals that have been slapped on. The short chin, small upturned pointy nose and that trademark Erio smile reflect Buriki’s illustrations well and although it appears hard to truly capture his style well in figure form, Ques Q have done a pretty good job here.

One of my favourite, and also one of my biggest gripes, is Erio’s hair. I adore what they have done with the slight gradiented transparency and the pearlescent paint work, particularly how it manages to both reflect and let through a little light at the same time. It looks very pretty in photos and also on display if you use a lighting setup or let a little natural light onto her.

Alright, as for the gripes, yeah.. the hair is fairly rough around the front, particularly on the right side of her fringe. There are a few dots and dabs of paint and plastic in her lengths too which is something you don’t typically see on some of the higher quality figures.

Toes, toes are great.. and even better, Erio’s got some polish on. I really love her feet and I can’t help wanting to touch them or tickle them or something. She’s got a black mark on one of her heels although as she’s been sitting on my desk for a couple of months, I’m unsure as the whether it came like that or I’ve done it myself. I’m sorry, Erio.

One of the other things I find endearing is the way her knees almost touch, it makes it almost seem she’s got a bit of knock-knees going on. Although as the not so proud owner of a pair of knock knees, I wish it looked cute in 3D. I guess nothing ever does.

You have probably already decided by now but if you prefer your figures to not be panty shotting the world then this probably isn’t the product for you. Poor Erio’s panties aren’t all that nice and could have done with a little more finesse while being sculpted and painted.

Erio’s loose shirt and skirt are not the finest thing quality wise although they do look better to the human eye than what they do under the harsh scrutiny of my camera lens at close range. I actually quite like the pleating on her skirt and the edging on her tiny underskirt. The shirt, however, could have done with a bit more care as the buttons and edging are both rather rough.

I’ve used to words cute and adorable far too many times than I’d have liked for this review but there really isn’t any other way to describe the way Erio grips onto the sleeves of her oversized shirt. I wish I could hold her cute little hands. Creeper? Me? Never.

I had no idea until the figure was released as Ques Q didn’t seem to announce it but Erio’s skirt is actually cast off. She pulls apart rather easily at the waist which allows you to slip her skirt up and off. The result is a better look at her not so attractive underwear and her bum isn’t anything you can’t see with the skirt on anyway so it’s not a display option I’ll probably use.. but it’s nice to have options, regardless. The peg also looks like it’s going up her bum when the skirt isn’t covering it.. which isn’t something I can imagine Erio enjoying, with that look on her face anyway!

Last of all, her base features a simple, stylized UFO that she plugs into via a peg sticking out of the top and the UFO itself connects to the simple black disk which supports the figure a bit better. The flat underside of the UFO is stable enough to support her if you’re going to be displaying her in a place that’s safe from rattling and shaking.

Overall, I actually really love this figure despite its technical flaws. She gives off the playful, happy vibe that I associate with Erio and she’s exactly the type of figure I like to keep on my desk.. the type of figure that makes me smile when I look at it. She’s probably not going to please everyone due to her price point versus her quality but if you’re after a really cute Erio figure then I’d at least suggest considering this little cutie. We picked her up over at AmiAmi for 5860 yen and she’s actually still available there as of writing if you wish to pick her up.

Thanks for reading my review, it’s been around 6 months since I last took any photos and written up anything! I’m not completely happy with my photography, some are quite overexposed in areas but I’ll forgive myself since I’ve become so rusty. Past readers might remember that I use mostly natural light for shooting and we have since moved to a new apartment so I’m also getting used to a new set up.. not sure I’m happy with it yet. My health has also been picking up very slowly but surely picking up so expect more reviews in the future! I’ll finish up with some photo spam of my left over photos. I wanted to play around with glitter but it didn’t turn out so well.. I’ll show the results anyway, haha. Thanks again, and enjoy your 2013!

The above image is a test shot for focus and white balance. I’m shooting Miku on a black Lack tabletop.

I’m trying an idea with having Miku backlit with car headlights like she’s about to start a race. I grabbed an LED bike light and tried light painting with a 2 second exposure. I had a black cloth I would try to cover the light with and move it to the next position, uncover for a split second, rinse and repeat. I didn’t have any model cars so I would try to photoshop in the dim fronts of the cars in post-processing. Unfortunately, it wasn’t coming out as I had hoped. Placement of the lights needed to be exact to simulate the headlights, I needed to get the timing right to have the light intensity match and lighting her front appropriately was going to be a nightmare. Also, with the long exposure, the white curtains in the background are starting to show up so this location wasn’t going to work. Also, this idea wasn’t going to work without some major work I’m too lazy to put in. Next.

If I couldn’t do cars starting out behind Miku, why not have them zooming past, with their back lights doing some cool trails like you see in long-exposure photos of streets. Argh, again, really hard to keep steady. I don’t like all the red light she’s being bathed in. I don’t like the reflections on the table. This isn’t going to work. On the other hand, I’ve moved to our bathroom, which has no windows and when I close the door its completely dark and I have complete control of the light. You can’t even see the white tiles in the background and I didn’t have to do any post-processing. But yeah, I suppose it’s kinda creepy in hindsight: guy locks himself in dark bathroom, taking pictures of plastic women.

Another idea I had was from her source picture where the lines in the road were glowing. In the left picture, I’m trying to ‘paint’ the tabletop with my light pointing to the ground but as you can see, it’s not very even, the actual light from the bulb is leaking onto the picture and further experiments in trying to angle the light away resulted in less light on the table, which is already pretty weak here. In the photo on the right, I try light painting with the light pointing at the camera instead and trying to drag it across the table to give it more stability. It’s a bit rough but the floating will-o-wisp effect isn’t quite what I wanted. Noted for a possible future picture idea though.

By this point, it’s getting late and I’m getting desperate. I pull out an old trick and chuck her on top of an iPad to see what it’d be like. Not the look I’m going for but somehow the lighting on her makes me think of Tron. Hmmm…

Other things to note: The light from the iPad leaks like crazy, you can see the white tiles and our lovely dark towels strategically placed behind Miku. I can be lazy about my dark background, even on white tile, if it’s so dark light doesn’t even reach it but the parts that light does leak onto need to be covered. The towels aren’t even black, just a dark green and blue which is good enough to absorb a small amount of light.

I really like the Tron-esque and the glowing road stripe idea. This time I take some LED lights, which will produce a stronger light that can light up the figure and tape a few of them to a long chopstick that I try to drag along to paint a line. This doesn’t quite work, plus the table is a bit wobbly. Maybe I’ll just have them sit still and I can photoshop it

This is actually looking quite good. I took about 20 shots here, using a phone screen to light paint her face and front and trying different timings and angles for the light in a 2-3 second exposure. These were my 2 favorites from that series. I like the brighter one for how it lights her face nicely and I like the atmosphere and contrast of the blue-ish one. I can’t decide…

There’s only 1 thing to do when you can’t decide between 2 pictures. Take another based on what you liked about both! I took about 12 more pictures and the one on the right is my favorite of this shoot. The spot lighting on the table is not what I really want though, I need a long line of light and the accompanying light falloff on the table. This turned out to be quite difficult for someone of my skill level so I’ll probably need to go with a photomerge

So I tried taping all my LED lights close together on the table to try and make a solid line of light, chucking a strip of baking paper on top to diffuse it, and it looks pretty bad. I was planning on trying to do it once, clean up the ‘strip’ and copy and rotate it onto the other side and then merge the lights into the previous day’s picture. So it looks like I either need to figure out how to make a proper line of light or learn some serious Photoshop.

Ugh, work had to get in the way of photographing for awhile. Also, I was spending so long on the picture, I was starting to become jaded. Messing with Photoshop, trying this and that. I’m not particularly skilled with adding effects so there was a lot of trial and error going on. I suppose this part took more than a day so I’m cheating a bit here.

I first ended up cleaning up the background and painting out the LED lights I originally used with a flat-ish black but leaving the area immediately around the base kinda alone, there is a small amount of light reflecting onto the table. Also, cleaned up that race line on her base, that was throwing the mojo off. I drew 2 straight white lines then threw outer and inner glow effects on them for the lane lines. To differentiate the end of the road from the background, I threw in a background glow thing. I tried a few different things like rendering clouds and merging a cityscape in the background but those weren’t working out, so I ended up cropping a little tighter and here it is. Not perfect, but it was what I had wanted to go for so I can’t complain too much.

When I first saw the 2011 variation of Racing Miku’s designs I instantly hoped there would be a figma or figure version of her. When the figma did come out, it was awesome. But 10k yen for a figma? Maybe not that awesome (although every time I see pictures of her, regret). So when a scaled figure was shown at Wonfes, I had to jump on it.

The original design was done by Yuichi Murakami, a popular illustrator and has a futuristic and sexy look. I really dig the extensive use of transparent bits and in a figure, I have to admit, I’m a sucker for that gimmick as well. This is the second iteration of a custom Racing Miku design, you can see the 2010 version in Ashlotte’s review here.

My favorite thing from the design that Good Smile Company managed to capture in figure form is the hair. They managed to capture the motion of it wrapping around her and the flowing motion of the hair without making them look like blobby tentacles. The ends of her hair are actually quite sharp and I’ve poked myself on numerous occasions handling her. Oh, it hurts so good.

The other cool thing about the hair is how it gradients to transparent at the ends. This is true of all the strands. At the top near her fringe she’s got bits of hair sticking up which looks cool and a bit different than your normal helmet head anime hair but damn, I’m so afraid of breaking them off!

Here’s a good shot of her umbrella, which for some reason is slightly yellow, giving it the appearance of old plastic, eww. Also, in every shot, I have it placed wrong. I found out later it’s actually supposed to be at an angle, like the original drawing. But it’s so fiddly that way where it keeps falling every time I bump the desk, I might just stick with my ‘wrong’ way. You can see her headphones here and the head ornaments. Her hair pieces and the ornaments actually come separate in the box and you’re required to thread them through the ornaments onto her head.

Unfortunately, it can be a really tight fit and I didn’t get one of them plugged in all the way. With all the crazy strands and bits that stick out in her hair, I am really afraid to put more force into it so I just leave it sticking out a little. For the most part it doesn’t bother me though.

You can see in this picture the awesome detail they put into her details like the metal puck thingy on her back. Also, they did an AWESOME job with doing a see-through effect in her outfit with a gradient where it’s more see-through in the middle of her back and gradually gets more opaque at her shoulders and collar.

They used the same effect at her front too with great effect. This is a deviation from the original design, the figma, and the Nendoroid, who all just had the whole part clear. I don’t know if it’s just GSC showing off, but damn, I’m glad they did because it looks good. Also, note that this is a macro shot and even up close the rough edges on the paint are barely noticeable and for the most part the paint application on the figure is flawless. Also, love that facial expression, she seems so serene. And they have the very faintest blush on her face as well that I didn’t notice until I started taking pictures!

They did a great job on the decal detailing as well. While we’re doing a close-up here, let’s touch on a gripe I have with the design. The boobs are kinda of weird, they seem so… artificial. I’d think that normally when wearing a skintight outfit like that, it presses them together like a bra but hey, it’s futuristic so maybe there’s some kind of boob-physics defying magic going on in that outfit.

Going down to her hips, they have the translucent effect going on here as well. They have a wide variety of paints going on in this figure, ranging from super glossy outfit, to metallic bits here and there, and a more matte pearlescent for the translucent bits.

You’ve gotta think, with a skintight outfit like that, she’s got to have a killer behind and GSC doesn’t disappoint.

Racing Miku has some long slender legs with a bit of a variation on her normal thigh high boots. I like how her ’01′ tattoo on her shoulder bleeds down to a green stripe on her gloves. As for her size, I didn’t get to take any comparison pics but she’s a healthy 1/8, comparable with the larger 1/8 scaled figures in our collection.

She sports some crazy slim heels. While not quite as crazy as the 2010 version, I like how they have a bit of a futuristic bit in the heel itself and are metal. Unfortunately what I don’t like is the base. It looks like the same cheap, grey hollow plastic disc with a crappy asphalt texture as the 2010 version. C’mon GSC, you gave us an awesome asphalt base for Motorcycle Saber, you could have copied it here.

In conclusion, this figure is pretty much all I could hope for in a figure for the awesome design of 2011′s Racing Miku. There are a few niggles here and there like the base and the hair not fitting properly but overall, it’s an excellent figure. We managed to snag her for 6580 yen from AmiAmi and she’s still on sale there as of writing. Was she worth it over the figma? I’m not sure about that, although seeing teasers of 2013′s version of Racing Miku taking some of my favorite parts of this design takes away some of the bite of regret.

Most of the pictures in this review used an LCD background with scenes from the Nascar raceway in Gran Turismo 5 for the background. The top picture used a picture of a 3D model of the 2012 version of the GSC racing car. All pictures were taken with daylight and reflectors

This was a figure I was looking forward to for a long time, my favorite Vocaloid from my favorite manufacturer, and from an artist whose style I like. Max Factory has done a figma version of Luka and you can see my review of her here. But this is different, a 1/7 scale statue vs a 1/12 scale action figure. Does she live up to the expectation though?

For background information on Luka’s character, please reference the figma post here.

First shown off as a sketch in a magazine right before Summer 2011 Wonfes (I wishlisted her here), she’s never failed to disappoint with each iteration and even when she was released, they threw in a few surprises, which I’ll go over in a bit. But you can see she is a dynamic figure with plenty of detail even though her scale is on the larger side.

The first thing to grab the eye is that flowing pink hair. Lately Max Factory and GoodSmile Company have been using lots of clear plastics for things like hair and clothes and it works nicely in Luka’s case with a nice gradient from barely clear pink at the top of the head to nearly clear bits at the tips. I’m a big fan of that and love shining lights through translucent bits in my photos. The hair has plenty of motion to go along with Luka’s sexy and dynamic pose

The pink color is just right and definitely worlds better than the iffy purpley-pink in the figma. I can’t explain why but it looks like actual hair and not tentacle-ey bits that you sometimes see on other figures. You can also see here that they’ve done a good job on the back of her dress with the folds and in typical Max Factory style, awesome paint shading as well.

Oh Tony Taka, no top can be that crazy tight but hey, I’m not going to complain. Chieri, the sculptor, has done an amazing job with the detail in the wrinkles. And Max Factory needs to be commended on their absolutely flawless paint application. Look at that gold trim! And the belt buckle and pattern!

They didn’t skimp out on her face either, it’s a great rendition of Tony Taka’s art style except for the blush. Kinda wish she had it, but the face is still pretty solid. Also, painted fingernails! We’re seeing it in more and more figures these days and I just can’t get enough of it. It’s a slight natural pink and they even used glossy paint on it. Of course, perfect paint application as well.

Now the little surprise I mentioned earlier? Luka’s cast off! Kinda. You can take off her skirt by ripping her in half (gory) and the skirt just comes off. No seam lines, no compromises for the gimmick. They didn’t skimp on the sculpting here and even gave her quite a nice bum.

They did a great job with her sheer stockings and her sheer under-top thing. The shading is more pronounced, definitely giving more of that sheer look. Another of Luka’s trademark costume elements is her golden boots. I’ve heard them being likened to wrestling boots and.. yeah, they do look like them. I’d like to see Luka in something a bit more sexy like high heels or something but I guess those would be hard to dance around in. Another costume! The bows are cool, although whenever I pick her up, I always find I’m nearly ripping them off. The paint application on the laces in the boot isn’t as precise as some of the other parts of the figure but since the boots aren’t really my favorite part in the first place, it’s not a big deal to me.

While she may not have a super elaborate costume or gigantic weapons, Tony Taka’s Luka is a superbly executed figure. At a healthy 1/7 scale, she has all the details you’d normally see in a great 1/8 and top-notch quality control. She’s one of my favorite figures but part of that might be due to me being a big Luka fan. One who has been waiting and waiting for a quality Luka figure and Max Factory has delivered in spades. I’ll be a little greedy and hope that this one does well enough for figure companies to make more Luka figures.

If you want to see another review check out:
Tomopop’s review written by Chag of HobbyHovel

By request, I did a setup shot for the first picture . Shot in our shower, Luka’s sitting on a stool at the shower’s entrance and I stood in the back of the shower holding a black sheet of metal (taken from the side of Zai’s computer tower) with the water going between me and the figure. Zai triggered the shutter while I fired off the flash manually (trying really hard not to get the flash wet). The blue glare you can see on the stool’s legs is an iPad propped up on the floor running a flashlight app providing lighting for the front/side and a long exposure.

Please note, I’m not looking for suggestions or feature requests at this point, just bug fixes.

So if you’d like to help, have an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad thats running iOS 5.0 or higher, and you know how to get your UDID (16 digit device identifier), please leave a comment below with your MFC name, which I’ll use to try and contact you with. Thanks!

Update: Beta testing has ended, thanks to all the testers and look forward to the official release soon!

It’s time again for our Wonder Festival Wishlist where we pick out what figures we hope to see in the upcoming Wonfes happening on July 29th at the Makuhari Messe Exhibition Hall in Japan. This is the event where many figure manufacturers announce new figures and show off their prototypes. For us, it’s almost the roadmap on what our figure purchases will be like for the next half-year.

Luth: First off, we’ll start with the characters we’d like to see. I recently managed to marathon season one of Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, mostly because those bodysuits were HOT and the characters looked interesting. It was definitely alright, and I’m enjoying the second season, but I’d love to see more quality figures from that series. Max Factory is making an Tomo figure and Volks made a Horizon figure but I’d love to see some of the other characters, most notably the witch duo, Margot Knight and Malga Yuruze. I love their character design with the wings and outfits (although the ‘normal’ outfit is pretty awesome too) and their broom cannons are sweet as well. C’monnn Max Factory!

Zai: I’ve seen about 10 minutes worth of Horizon so I can’t comment on the series itself although I can’t deny that it features some interesting character designs. I prefer Horizon’s design the most although the witch girls Luth longs for look pretty neat too.

Luth: Next up is Muv-Luv Total Eclipse. The anime series so far has been pretty intense, in a good way. And damn, I’m loving this trend of skintight body suits. So far there have been a few figures by AlphaMax and Kotobukiya but all with little clothes on. Which is all good but body suits! In the show they look incredibly shiny, which would fit Good Smile Company’s glossy finishes well. I haven’t seen much of her in the anime yet but Cryska Barchenowa looks like a fox and her suit’s colors are pretty cool so I’m hoping for a GSC release there.

Zai: Totally up for some more Muv-Luv figures that aren’t in swimsuits or underwear as I’m all for bodysuits too. Cryska is nice and I certainly wouldn’t say no to a good looking figure of her although I prefer Inia a little more, design wise. GSC or Max Factory would be by pick for manufacturer here.

Luth: I’m still waiting for her: Airy from Shining Hearts. Kotobukiya seems to be really beating around the bush on her, even though she’s one of the main characters in Shining Hearts. Also, Alter seem to be picking up their Shining lineup with their amazing recent renditions of Melty and Mistral. So even though its a long shot, I’m hoping for an Alter rendition of Airy.

Zai: Poor Luth, if he doesn’t get his Airy this Wonfest then he may never get her! I don’t mind Airy but lean a little more towards Amil’s design so I’d love to see her pop up too. Kotobukiya’s Shining line isn’t bad judging by their Rufina, who we recently picked up, but I have to say I’d probably pick Alter as my manufacturer of choice.

Luth: Moving onto stuff that’s been announced but not sculpted.. one of the characters I’d love to see is Cat Girl by Native. It has that ‘just enough’ naughty appeal to it, potential for lots of details, and hey, it’s Native! The sign says ‘Next Product’ so I’m guessing they’ll have at least an unpainted sculpt by Wonfes and I’m excited.

Zai: I wonder if by Next Product they mean the very next product? Well, let’s hope so ’cause this is super cute. I’m not usually into the whole catgirl thing but she’s doing it for me so far.. well, in the illustration at least. Let’s hope she translates to figure form well, which I’m sure she will!

Luth: The next figure I’d love to see more of is ‘Cover Girl‘ by Orchid Seed. Orchid Seed have really been upping their game lately and they’ve ever so slowly been sculpting illustrations that were featured at various Wonder Festival events including gems like Mecha Nurse Nana and their upcoming Winter Ignis. Cover Girl has a cool, almost nonexistent outfit, she’s got a magic wand which might have cool sparklies, and GLASSES. Definitely interested in seeing how well Orchid Seed does with her.

Zai: We don’t yet have anything from Orchid Seed and it’s more than about time we did so I’m looking forward to what they have to offer at the upcoming event. Cover Girl looks quite nifty and I hope they capture her pretty face well in figure form. Orchid Seed are notoriously slow but I’m hoping they pick up their pace and give us a good sized showing at this Wonfest.

Zai: Ah.. sweet, sweet Eucliwood Hellscythe. I’m actually quite surprised there hasn’t been a decent figure of this lovely little lady made yet and I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only one interested in buying it. I think so far she only has a garage kit and a trading figure to her name, poor thing. Really, really hoping to see some Eu love this year and I fear if we don’t.. we probably never will.

Luth: I would have thought figure manufacturers would be all over Eu, at the very least a Beach Queen or garage kits. I have a feeling that something else is going on here and that Eu’s chances for figuratization are slim.

Zai: This one is a long shot, okay.. a really long shot but I think it’d be lovely to see Chris from Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? Why? Because she’s a cute drunken loli and that’s all the reason I need.

Luth: Haha, I wouldn’t mind Chris actually, I like the white and pink color scheme and being constantly drunk makes her endearing where you can forgive her for yelling out in a loud, sometimes annoying voice. Also, lovelove spirally hair.

Zai: We’re hoping to pick up the Saber Bride Figma a little cheaper after release as we did with Saber Extra but I’d still love to see a gorgeous scaled figure of her. Look at her in that body suit.. delicious, yeah? My picks for manufacturer would be either GSC or Gift.. Satoshi Toda’s take on her could look quite cool!

Luth: After the newest slew of photos came out of the figma, damn, she looks awesome and that is a LOT of detail. A scaled figure of Saber Bride could be the new favorite if done well.

Zai: Good Smile Company sure are taking their sweet time when it comes to poor Sena from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, who they announced they were scuplting at the previous Wonfest. Yozora is about to be released and we haven’t even Sena’s unpainted prototype yet. I was really looking forward to this figure but after having waited so long, my enthusiasm has dampened quite considerably. It’d want to be really good or I shall be giving Meat a miss.

Luth: I used to like Meat a lot but I have a feeling that GSC’s upcoming figure will be in a boring school uniform and based on their Yozora, in an unexciting pose. They could prove me wrong and come out with a fantastic sculpt but I’m not holding my breath.

Zai: I doubt we’ll see the Charles D’Artagnan (who was announced about 2 years ago along with the rest of the line) sculpted considering Alter are pretty slow with their Samurai Girls line and they revealed a painted Gisen that went up for preorder not that long ago.. but it’s still nice to hope! I’d love to finish up our Hyakka Ryouran collection with this lovely lady.

Luth: I think there might be a chance we could see Charles in an unpainted sculpt but to be honest, a lot of the Samurai Girls first peeks have been in magazine scans so we could be left waiting. Charles is the girl that I’ve been most looking forward to though since Hanzo, I mean, look at those swords!

Zai: Moving onto things that we want to see painted, I’m really looking forward to Gift’s ultra cute King Arthur from Eiyuu Senki all painted up. I wouldn’t mind seeing Gift pick up some other characters from Eiyuu Senki also.. some of those character designs are pretty damn neat.

Luth: I’m not usually into characters like this but the outfit and design are done so well that I folded. And it’s Arthur! I’m eager to see her painted as Gift has been doing well so far and I agree, there are a lot of other designs in that game that look pretty awesome.

Zai: I was pretty set on purchasing Good Smile Company’s first Tenshi release but ended up finding it just a touch too lackluster for my tastes.. and boy am I glad that I held out. I love winged figures and am a big Kanade fan so this figure really does it for me.

Luth: I was surprised to see another rendition of Tenshi come out as GSC had already done a version that seemed to be popular and it’s been awhile since anything Angel Beats has come out. That being said, we were so close to getting the first version but I’m so glad we decided to pass as this version looks amazing.

Let’s hope we’ll see a couple of characters we’d like to see on our list pop up. Who knows what else manufacturers will surprise us with.. we can’t wait!

Selvaria is one of the antagonists from a great Playstation 3 game called Valkyria Chronicles which was released back in 2008. According to a Valkyria Chronicles wiki she also makes a cameo appearance in both Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3. She served as one of the main antagonists, Maximilian Gaius Von Reginrave, commanders and, attractive as she is, she quite honestly scared the crap out of me every time I faced her. If you’d like to know more about Selvaria and the game, check out her page on the Encyclopedia Europa.

Manufactured by Alter and retailing for 8800 yen, this Selvaria stands rather tall at 290 mm and is classed as a 1/7 figure. Based off of RAITA’s design, she’s been sculpted by the talented Yagyuu Toshiyuki who has also been responsible for some of Alter’s most beautiful figures such as Dizzy and Chua Churam. She’s actually Alter’s second go at Selvaria which was a fully clothed version that was released back in 2010.

My love affair with this figure started back when I attended the 2011 Summer Wonder Festival and Alter had the unpainted prototype displayed. I didn’t get much a chance to look at it for long (Alter’s stand was really crowded) but what I saw piqued my interest enough to look forward to seeing her get a coat of paint. Of course, she turned out looking absolutely wonderful in the initial promo shots so we preordered as soon as we could.

Before I start talking about all the merits of this figure, I’ll get the negatives out of the way. I think one of the things that might turn people off potentially buying this figure is her elongated face with it’s long nose that sticks out pretty far. While I think Yagyuu has captured RAITA’s style almost perfectly, it does look slightly odd in figure form. Having said that.. I wouldn’t have her any other way and enjoy her stylized look but understand that it’s probably not to everyone’s taste.

The major draw of this figure is probably her boobs. Yes, they’re almost ridiculously large but hey.. look at them obeying gravity! We’re not at all fans of balloon breasts over here at Plastic Parfait so this pleases us greatly. Her tight swimsuit gives the appearance of cutting slightly into her flesh which leaves enough of an indent to make her breasts actually look slightly squishy (sorry – they’re not). Luth isn’t much of a fan of the ribs but I think they look fantastic along with her deliciously sculpted tummy.

Let’s move onto other assets such as her back and butt. They’re not easily viewable even after looking at the figure from a back angle due to her mass of hair but that hasn’t stopped Alter from putting in a lot of effort to make her as desirable as possible. Her bum is fully sculpted and features no flat parts where she leans up against the brick wall.. unlike their lovely but unfortunate Nanoha that was released recently. This makes me happy for I am no great fan of flat bottoms. She simply perches on the corner of the brick rubble and is secured by holding onto the shower pipe and by a peg in one of her feet.

Selvaria’s hair leans more towards grey in the game normally but I think I prefer the look of it with the blue tones of this figure, more like when she gets scary in the game. Her hair here is slightly translucent through some of the length of it, making it look slightly glowy in certain lighting. It features some slight shading but lets the sculpting do most of the work and also has a shiny, almost shimmery finish to top it all off. It’s gorgeously done and really sets off the rest of the figure.

Apparently ready for battle even while washing herself, she comes with a variety of weapons including a sword, two knives and a gun. All of the weapons are permanently attached to her apart from her sword, which slots into a hole on her hip. Unfortunately, none of the weapons come out of their sheaths but that’s probably asking for a little too much.

I’m a bit blown away by the detailing on her right down to the cracked shower handles, the ‘stitching’ on her leather straps, the wonderful gold details and the surprisingly precise painting applied to her fingernails. I know, I know.. it’s Alter, it’s to be expected.. but they deserve credit where credit is due and they have done a marvelous job on Selvaria. She’s a shining example of Alter’s almost unrivaled craftsmanship.

I love cute toes as well as cool looking boots and shoes on figures and hey, lucky me, Selvaria has both of these covered! Her toes do look a tad too long because of they way they have been sculpted but it’s hardly noticeable under regular lighting. The foot on the rock sits on a peg to stabilize her while the other foot sits comfortably against the brick wall. As to why she’s wearing heels while showering, maybe the ground is contaminated or something? Well, whatever.. they look good anyway. Trying to apply logic to this figure is clearly futile so I’ll just enjoy her for what she is.

The superb detailing doesn’t stop when it comes to the base with the brick wall and sand texturing being rather impressive themselves. The vines creeping up the wall, the loose bricks scattered around the back of the base and the seashell in the sand add interest to an already elaborate base. I think it’s the little things like this, along with the old rusty shower, that pull the whole thing together and stop it from becoming just another swimsuit figure.

Speaking of the shower, I didn’t get a lot of photos of it because it was hard to fit into some shots because of the way I was doing the shoot. The pipe comes apart just above the shower taps and you thread it through her hand then reconnect it and this’ll offer her the final bit of stability she needs to safely sit on her base. Apart from this, pegging her foot into the base and attaching her sword to her hip, there is no more assembly which makes her a pretty low fuss figure.

Selvaria’s box is of a decent size considering her large scale, I don’t think they could have made it much smaller without compromising her safely during shipment. If you’re into the boxes, the design is nice but nothing terribly fancy.

To wrap things up, I’m obviously quite impressed with her and both Luth and I are happy to welcome her to our collection. Selvaria is an Alter figure so you know how it goes – if you like the look of her then go ahead and place an order because what you see will most certainly be what you get. We purchased her from AmiAmi’s online store but it appears she’s sold out at the major online Japanese retailers as of writing so you might have to scour the internet for her or get lucky and find her at a local retailer.

For a couple of different takes on this figure, check out these great reviews of her over at Hobby Hovel and Otagamers.

I’ll finish up with a bit of photo spam now, I hope you enjoyed my review! I’m thinking of starting up loot posts again just so we have something happening in between figure reviews so keep an eye out for those and even request a review if you like. ‘Til next time and thanks for reading!

Ika Musume hails from the comedy manga series Shinryaku! Ika Musume (侵略!イカ娘 The invader comes from the bottom of the sea!) also known as Squid Girl in English. The manga received an anime adaptation back in late 2010 with a second season following in 2011 due to it’s popularity. Ika is exactly what her names translate to, a squid girl complete with tentacles in place of hair as well as a few squid-like abilities such as glowing in the dark and producing ink from her mouth. She’s fond of shrimp and has a few quirky speech mannerisms such as ending the majority of her sentences with “geso” (squid tentacles). She also claims she will die if anyone attempts to take her hat off.. so please don’t.

Overall the show is great if you’re looking for some lighthearted laughs from an incredibly moe squid (and really, who isn’t looking for that?) but don’t expect much more. I’ll leave you with a video of the opening for the first season which is probably rather cruel of me considering every time I hear that song it’s stuck in my head for hours afterwards.

The Figma itself was released back in late April this year as a standard release with a retail price of around ¥3333 although we got her for considerably less at ¥2600 with AmiAmi’s discount. She stands at around 120 mm tall which puts her on the shorter end of the Figma line but seems accurate enough as she’s a small character. As is typical with Figma action figures, Ika comes with a variety of additional parts and accessories.

Max Factory’s take on Ika Musume is very accurate and they have executed her design in a way that makes her head full of tentacles and long PVC dress less restrictive to posing than they initially seem to be.

One thing that pains me about this Ika Figma is the way she’s supposed to hold onto her accessories, namely the plates of food she comes with. Unique plate holding hands are included to make this easier but it took me more than several tries to get the plates to sit in her hands without them falling right back out again. However, the beer mug is a little more forgiving and is easy to simply slide onto one of her tentacles.

Ika includes three different face plates which include her opened mouth “invasion time” face from my first photo, a cheerful face and the upset, scared looking face pictured in the photo above. When it comes to Figma, there is usally one or sometimes even two faceplates I don’t like and never use but I adore all three that come with Ika.. I have a hard time deciding what to display her with! I’ve decided to stick with the cheerful face for now because I can’t help but smile a bit at a cheerful looking Ika.

Max Factory have fortunately continued their habit of including joints on longer hair as it not only allows for more dynamic posing options but makes it a hell of a lot easier to get a Figma stand plugged in the back on the figure. Ika herself is lucky enough to have 4 hair (well, tentacle) joints, which the innermost tentacles being able to be posed in a way which lets them be brought around to her front to hold things like the beer mug.

Ika comes included with not one or two but three front hair attachments, the longer tentacle one, a shorter one which I’ll talk about and an extra long wired one that looks a bit strange above but it’s a lot of fun to play with!

The wired tentacles are not only fun but keep their shape well and can hold a surprising amount of weight without sagging although Ika’s neck joint starts to collapse after a period of time. And yes, it was hard to keep that shot clean.

Ika comes with yet another hair display option, if I remember correctly this look comes from the final episode of the first season. It’s a cute option but yeah, I’ll take the tentacles, thanks.

Her dress is made from soft PVC material so it doesn’t restrict posing as much as I thought it would. I despise the impact that hard PVC dresses and skirts have on Figma posing and love Max Factory for doing this, it was a very pleasant surprise and I hope they continue to make all skirts like this in the future. However, the poor girl can’t sit down due to the length of of it.

The plates of food Ika comes with so she can waitress for you too include some shrimp fried rice, a mug of beer and some squid ink pasta. I regret writing this review while I’m hungry now as it’s a meal I’d quite enjoy! The beer can even be taken out of the mug if you’d like to use it empty instead.

Ika Musume’s box is pretty standard fare and as with most Figma, a di:stage cutout is included for you to use.. does anyone ever actually use those?

Above is Ika pictured with all her accessories which include Ika Musume herself, 2 alternate head pieces with both long and short tentacles, 3 alternate front hair pieces, 3 different face plates, 5 sets of hands, 2 plates of food, a mug of beer and a standard Figma stand.

Overall, she’s a great Figma and I think Max Factory have done a great job with her apart from the issues I have with her ability (well, lack of) to hold onto her plates properly. If you’re a fan of the show, squids or Figma in general and you’re interested then I say go grab her while you can! Ika has sold out at AmiAmi at the time of writing but she’s still in stock over at Hobby Search.

There, I made it all the way through without a single squid pun or de geso, pretty proud of myself right now. Not particularly proud of the dodgy white balance that’s going on up there up but I’ll cut myself some slack as I get back into the swing of things. As for now, I’ll finish up with some headswaps then go back to spending all my free time on TERA. Thanks for reading and see you soon!