figma Yuki witch haul - also with some other items

Stack of box and bubble envelope (? CMIIW).

I think this is the biggest haul i received at a time ever. That's because i tend to order and ship 1 item at a time. But I'm also amazed with the shipment time. It took only 1 working week to arrive, eventhough i used HLJ's SAL shipping and PA's free Air Economic shipping. Normally those kind of shipment took over 3 working weeks. So... let's see what's inside.

figma Yuki witch, Force Impulse, Burnout Paradise, and RnC Quest for Booty.

Four items, each in their own package. The 2 bubble envelopes contained 2 PS3 games, Burnout Paradise and Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty. Those games are my brother's orders. I got Burnout Paradise with a bargain price, around USD 30 (normal price around USD 50), and RnC Quest for Booty for around USD 30 (it's the normal price). My bro's played RnC series and the last game he played, RnC Tools of Destruction, had been completely finished. The ending of that game is actually a cliffhanger, and you'll feel like you HAVE to buy RnC Quest for Booty to see the continuation.

HLJ Box contained Force Impulse Gundam MG kit. It's also my bro's order. And once again, i also got it with a bargain price in HLJ for around JPY 3150 (not including shipment, normal price JPY 5500). The last PA box contained figma Yuki witch version, which is my order. Yeah, from these 4 items, only 1 is mine.

Inside of figma Yuki witch, pretty wide, just like figma Fate.

I'm gonna focus on figma Yuki for now, so don't expect too much with the games and Force Impulse. I first heard that figma Yuki witch was a festival exclusive item. But i think i was mistaken, a few days after that, i saw figma Yuki up for pre-order in Play-Asia. And so i ordered her without any hesitation. The only disappointment i got from this chance is PA is so slow in releasing this item. Almost everywhere on the net already mentioned that they already had their Yuki witch arrived, but PA still haven't released it yet. But in the end i still got her, and that's all that matters.

So many small parts, make sure you keep them in safe place.

figma Yuki witch has so many parts. Even figma Fate parts are still fewer from Yuki's parts. From witch hat, 3 halves of witch cape (1 for the right side, 1 for the left side for guitar, and 1 for the left side without guitar), 2 cup of tea, a teapot, a tray, 2 magic wands, 1 board, 4 promotion sticker, 1 guitar, Shamisen, and a couple of hands (usual 4 pairs of hands, 1 right hand with guitar pick, 1 left hand for guitar chord, 1 right hand for magic wand, and 1 right hand for the board) and the usual 1 set of figma base and 1 plastic bag. It's so complete, for almost all Yuki's role in the anime.

Yuki and her tea set in "I'm an alien" scene.

Remember when Kyon came to Yuki's room and told about those alien things? If you remember that scene, you must also remember this tea set. I don't know how many cups did Kyon drink that time. It's actually pretty hard to get a fully focused object in short distance photo, the depth of field and lens blur keep coming and haunts you.

Photography Tips:
Depth of Field (DOF) : a value of how focused an object is and how blurry the background and foreground is.
A good photo must have nice depth of field. It must have blurry background, and focused object, to get the feeling of "this is the main object of the photo". But how to made this DOF and what are the parameters that affect the DOF value?
DOF is about how focused the main object and how blurry the background is. The higher the blur level, the better the DOF gets. Here a schema on how DOF work:

C ----Fc ----
54321O12345

C stands for Camera, Fc stands for focus point, O stands for object, and the numbers represent the blur level (the higher the number, the blurry the image gets). If you focused your camera to the object, things in front of the object and things behind the object will get blurry. The further the distance between the object and the things, it gets more blurry.

There are 3 parameters that affect DOF:
- Aperture Value (Av) : how wide the diaphragm of a lens opened. The lower the value, the focus area became more small. That mean the area that focused became smaller, and the other things will become more and more blurry. You can only set Av in certain kind of cameras like DSLR, prosumer, or pocket camera with M, Av, and Tv settings like Canon PowerShot.
- Distance between camera and object : the further the distance, the bigger the focus area, that means if you shot an object from a far distance, there's a high possibility that it won't get a nice blurry background.
- Focal Length : zoom length on the lens. The higher the focal length the smaller the focus area. That's why using tele lens (high focal length) will give you a nice blurry background.

The hardest part of getting nice figure shot is how to adjust the DOF level. You have to get your camera close to the figure, so that means the 2nd parameter of DOF will be affected. The closer the camera, the smaller the focus area. That's why in the photo above, the tea set is somewhat blurry.

For countermeasure, increasing Av is an option. But that also means that you have to prepare a tripod or a good light, because increasing Av means lowering shutter speed. Lower shutter speed means a higher possibility of getting blurry (shake) image.

FYI, blur in DOF and blur in shake are different blurs. Blur in DOF called lens blur, and blur in shake called motion blur. Lens blur caused by DOF and the parameters i mentioned above. Motion blur caused by moving your camera while shooting (regular problem you'll find in photography world).

"Do you want (to eat) Shamisen?"

Yuki came with Shamisen, the cat that appeared in Asahina Mikuru no densetsu episode 00. I don't know what does this cat do anyway. Notice that shamisen in this photo are sharper than the tea set. That's because i put my camera in a further distance from Yuki, and i also reduced the focal length (used a wide length).

Who'll win, Mikuru's beam or Yuki's magic?

This is figma Yuki, witch version, so basically the main attraction of this figure is her witch cosplay suit. There are 2 version of the cape. The 1st version is this cape. The left side of the cape covers Yuki's left hand. Just the same as her pose in Live a Live episode. This episode is my favorite episode, just because of God Knows... But the main role of this witch came in the first episode (Haruhi's order) of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, in Asahina Mikuru no densetsu episode 00.

"subete wa GOD KNOWS!"

This is the main reason why i bought figma Yuki witch version, the guitar. Yeah, God Knows rocks! And so does the Live a Live episode. I think I'll stick with this pose for a while. Yuki's so cool yet rocking with her guitar. Too bad i didn't bought figma Hatsune Miku. She came with a microphone, and i could use that microphone for Haruhi, and creating a legendary duo of Haruhi-Yuki singing God Knows!

Haruhi got a friend (after being left by Nanoha), she's not alone anymore!

Another figma means more possibility to create something great and creative. I'll stick with figma Hare-hare and Lucky Star dance. Maybe next up i'll also create a figma comics or something like that. So just look forward to it!