Haruhi goes to school ....

Suzumiya Haruhi goes to my campus.

...literally. Influenced by Adun's outdoor photoshoot, i decided to grab Alter's Haruhi, go to my campus, and do a figure photo session there, so yeah just as the title implies: Haruhi goes to (my) school... literally. Anyway, even this post is about outdoor photo session, I'll still add my review here.

Photo session done around campus' pond.

My campus was open at that day (16 January) when i did this photo session. The campus was open for administration but no lecture at all, so just as i expected there were only small number of people back then. I can freely grab my Haruhi around the campus and photograph it without any disturbance (people watching with weird thinking).

Haruhi's face, it's kinda rare to see this expression.

So this is Suzumiya Haruhi, my favorite character, and it's manufactured by Alter, my favorite manufacturer. Just as expected of Alter, the quality of this figure is excellent. The only thing that bothers me is her skin color, it's just too pale. Eventhough it's Alter's characteristic, i just can't bring myself to like it that much.

Back at home for indoor shot again...

Ooops... What's this white bg doing in this figure outdoor photo session? Well, i missed some details and photos while I'm doing the outdoor session, so i took this photo after i was back at my house. It's pretty hard to take outdoor photos, depending on the location.

Here a list of difficulties i met when i did this photo session :
1. Lighting! Sunlight could be harsh, shadow could get your object dark. So a wireless flash could help you with this. I used wireless flash from the left side (our left).
2. No EOS utility, so no direct camera to PC transfer, that means no more direct photo editing. Sometime when you take a photo and it turned out dark (underexposed), don't delete it yet! Left it untouched! When you arrived at home, grab that photos and open your Photoshop / Digital Photo Professional / whatever photo editor software you have, and edit your photos using level / curve / brightness contrast / color balance / whatever tools you want.
3. Must decide the right picture style and white balance, if you're using JPG. If you're using RAW, this won't be any problem because you can change it using DPP / camera's software.
4. Angle and position, sometime because you can't move freely you can't take certain angle. It's kinda annoying and it happened to me.

Dynamic pose = more fun experimenting with angles.

Back to campus again, Alter's made this Haruhi seems so active. I never knew / seen any illustration of Haruhi posing like this. It's kinda challenging to photograph a dynamic posed figure like this. You can experiment with some angles and find which angle is the best. I too tried 3 different angles only for her face. I'd say it's pretty hard to get a nice close view of her face.

This figure is one of my favorite!

A clearer side view of Haruhi. I took at least 30 minutes just for arranging and experimenting with lighting. As expected of Alter, details, paint, shading, and sculpt are all great. You could even compare it with Max Factory's Haruhi. I think this is one of the 4 best Haruhi figures in the world.

Haruhi's school uniform.

Getting her uniform photographed isn't as easy as it looks. Because there were some flower pot back there, it was hard to adjust flash position and camera angle. Moreover, Haruhi's pose itself isn't very friendly for lighting. So i came up with this unnatural light photo.

Another shot of Haruhi's uniform from different angle.

Because of that failure, i decided to take one more photo of her uniform back at home. Details and sculpt on the uniform are great as always. Wrinkles, folds, and shadings are excellent. The ribbon's also nice, with a wind blow effect. And even the north high symbol on the chest. Too bad Haruhi's body isn't very dynamite unlike Mikuru, so yeah i won't bother speaking too much about her breast size.

Avoid getting a photo of normal angle, try getting something new.

There's always something new if you did a photograph of a figure from extreme angle. Because the people never see a figure from extreme angle. Try to take a photo from angle that people never seen it before. Anyway, it's Haruhi's uniform from the back view. As always, you could also see Alter's great sculpt and paint from there.

Haruhi's left hand complete with painted fingernails.

Haruhi's left hand, with such a nice details. And also painted fingernails. It's painted pale pink, kinda natural but still visible. Even MaxFact's Haruhi doesn't have any painted fingernails, no wait.... it doesn't even have any nail sculpted!

Her right hand, you won't see it from the front.

Haruhi's right hand. This hand won't be visible if you see this figure from the front. I don't know why they put Haruhi's hand like this. Anyway, I never see a sculpt of palm line on a figure. Well even in anime you won't see any palm line, except Doraemon i think...

Haruhi's dan chou armband as usual.

Another difficulties i found when i photographed Haruhi outdoor. It's pretty hard to photograph Haruhi's armband clearly, especially if you want to make both kanjis visible (dan chou). In this photo i can only show dan kanji, the chou kanji is covered with her upper arm. The safety pin is visible from here, it's a very small detail looks kinda ugly if zoomed this near, but looks nice if you see it from normal distance (min 30cm).

Another view of Haruhi's armband.

Haruhi's armband from an upper view. No kanji visible, but it does look nice from up here. Talk about Haruhi's armband, I've seen a local store around my place selling this dan chou armband. Too bad it's kinda overpriced. My friend said it's better to make it yourself rather than spending some money just for this armband.

Haruhi's school bag, which i never seen in the anime.

This is Haruhi's school bag. Hey i think this is the first time i noticed that she has a school bag like this. I never really realized the existence of this bag in anime! XD . It's really greatly sculpted! Details like the belt, folds, zippers, and paint material are nicely done. I think Alter should add a small Kyon keychain on the bag XD .

Haruhi's butt isn't very... appealing from here.

Haruhi's butt... err, i mean... skirt. It's nice to see Haruhi's school uniform skirt, kinda sexy because it's pretty short. With a little lifting you can already see her pantie. Anyway, the wind effect on the skirt is nicely done, complete with wrinkles, shading, and stuffs.

Big H on Haruhi every figures' base is a must.

Haruhi's outdoor shoe. Well it's pretty normal so i can't really say things about it. The base is made from a pretty normal plastic. It's white and there's a sculpt of big H on it. All of my Haruhi figures except figma and nendo have that big H sculpted or painted on the base.

Haruhi's right leg...

Haruhi's right leg. It's pretty much normal for the shoe and sock. Her skin is just too pale and it can be seen from her thighs. Anyway judging from her body proportion, i think she has an ideal size of high school girl. Her breast isn't too big, her hip is at the right size, her arms and her legs are also at the right length and size.

Mandatory pantie shot, her pantie always white, i kinda expected pink or other feminine color.

And we're up for another mandatory pantie shot! Wow, she definitely has a nice butt, and it can be seen from down here. You won't get a nice pantie shot unless you drop her. It's pretty hard to get a low angle in the campus, so i decided to bring her back home for this private shot XD .

POI: her pose!

I think you could guess today's POI. I decided the POI of this figure is her pose. Well, i only had 2 special things from this figure i could came up. The first is her pose, and next is it's manufactured by Alter. So yeah, the POI is her pose! It's not the first time I've seen Haruhi so active like this, but this is a very nice original pose. It also pose a pretty difficult and challenging photo session.


Well that's it for now... I only have Airi photos backlogged for post, but i still haven't done photo sessions Haruhi beach, Nyx, Hayate, and Tomoyo yet. Moreover tomorrow's the start of new semester, damn! But yeah... new semester doesn't mean the fun ends here, it's just another start of my daily campus routine. So... just look forward for next post!

Happy Chinese New Year! 2560

As always, Chinese new year means more moe girls with Chinese dress.

And we're back to another post, and just before i started another rantings let me say this first:

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

I think you all must know what this line means, so i won't bother adding a translation here. Anyway, as always i spent this day visiting relatives home by home, and i have to visit at least 4 houses per year. Of course I've done this together with my family (dad, mom, and my 2 bros). How about you guys? How do you spend your Chinese New Year?

Bonus: Kyonko with Chinese dress is moe.

Oh and how about your Ang Pao? For me... well... not much, at least i can afford one figure with my received Ang Pao XD . Well that's it for now, see you at the next post!

Lottie Gelh - Chrono Gate

Lottie Gelh from Soukou no Strain.

Okay, it's time for another review of randomly bought from event figure. This cutie here is Lottie Gelh from Soukou no Strain, manufactured by Chrono Gate. Actually i never heard of Chrono Gate at the first place. I thought this figure is manufactured by Kotobukiya, but i was wrong. There are 3 figure manufacturer logos on the box: Kotobukiya, Happinet, and Chrono Gate. That's why i thought the manufacturer was Kotobukiya.

Manufactured by Chrono Gate.

Speaking of randomly bought in event figure, i bought her because she's cute and cheap. Yeah, i think she's the cheapest PVC figure i ever bought in my life (excluding gashapon and fake bootleg sh**). Her real price is somewhat around JPY 5000, and the store owner give her a price tag with IDR 200k on it (JPY 2000++), and with the help of my bargaining power i got her for IDR 150k (JPY 1500++). That's a very great deal i suppose.

Is she a real cutie? XD

Cute and cheap, yah... those are the reasons why i bought this. I never knew anything about her before, and i never heard about this name before. Her name and anime are written in katakana on the box, so it's hard to see who's she and where's she came from. But as always, my impulse didn't stop me from purchasing this cutie.

Super cute loli!

I've been doing some research about her. I found out that her name is written Lotty Gelth in Tsuki-Board. I read the katakana on the box and it's written like this: ro~ti gera. Whatever her name, doesn't change the fact that she's a super cute loli character. Thanks to noel, i got a clue about her and even i got the whole series transferred to my HDD.

Cute, but... why they made her covering her cute smile like that?

The biggest challenge you find when you doing a photograph of this figure is her hand and her smile. She's smiling, but you won't see her cute smile from this angle, she's covering it with her right hand! It's pretty hard to get a decent photo of her smile, so let's take a look on the next photos.

What're you thinking Lottie?

Judging from the pose, she's definitely think about something. What's she thinking doesn't matter to me, but yeah this is my first trial of getting her smile captured on the camera. It's pretty much still covered though. But i think you already seen a small portion of her smile. If you want to see more, then let's move on to the next photo.

Can you see her smile? Wow... it's cute!

Ah yeah, just as i thought, on the 2nd trial i tried a photograph from above, and i think it worked. Her smile is visible from above, but too bad, if you're going too high, her face especially her eyes will be covered with her front hair.

Drill hairstyle.

Enough with the smile, let's move on to the next part. She got a drill hairstyle, just like Matsudaira Touko from Marimite. Except Lottie only have single "main" drill and 2 on the edge of her side hair. Her ribbon is just... well.... pretty normal to me, just an accessory to add the cuteness of Lottie.

I think this is the first photo of (normal) figure ear in this blog.

Most of my figures have their ears covered by their hair. I think only Elwing's ears stand out the most (well she's an elf with elven ears). So this time, i used this opportunity to capture a figure's ear. Yeah... Lottie's hair doesn't cover her ears, so i can get a photo of one of her ear. I'd say it's pretty nice detail, sculpt, and paintjob there.

Nice shading here.

She's wearing a space-aged military uniform, with vest on top, and a one piece. From the back it's look like it's a separate. You can see they gave a good touch on the texture and shading on Lottie's back. Sometime if the shading isn't too hard, you should give it a touch of photo editing. Changing contrast could be a good choice.

Photography tips: If you feel like your photos are flat, no shading and no highlight, use your Photoshop, and edit the contrast setting. The higher the contrast, the more difference the photo get between shadow and highlight. The lower the contrast, the shadow and the highlight will blend and it'll turn out flat. But use it wisely, don't over-contrast your photo because a over contrast bright highlighted area will hurt people eyes.

Ergh... yet another flat chest, right after a flat chest.

She's a loli, so you should know how big... err... i mean how small her chest will be. She's a loli so she got a high possibility to have a flat chest. For DFC fan, i think this figure could be their favorite.

See a seamline?

This is the right hand which is covering her smile. I can see seamline accross her finger. But it's pretty small, and i think you can't clearly see it with your bare eyes. Anyway i have no problem with her skin color, it's not glossy, but it lacks shading, skin shading.

Left hand with nails but not painted.

It's the left hand here. Nothing interesting here. It's just her nail, it's sculpted but not painted. Her hand look so big here, but if you see her actual size, you'll know that her hand is sooooo small, and not to mention cute.

Lifted mini skirt, hmm.. nice... A sign of easily visible pantie.

This is the skirt, but actually it's not a skirt. It's one piece actually. It's kinda interesting to see a lifted mini skirt here, easy to see what's below it XD . I like girl wearing mini skirt, one piece, dress, or something to that effect, looks feminime and nice.

Nice shading and sculpt, don't be confused by the color, it shouldn't be that blue.

Just like the photo of Lottie's back before, you can see here that sculpt and shading on her skirt is very well made. Except that the dark blue shadow on her skirt isn't really that blue. I used Landscape Canon picture style for this photo, that's why it turned out like this. Landscape picture style focused on highlighting blue and green colors on the photo.

Mandatory pantie shot!

Not to forget, the mandatory pantie shot. A sky blue pantie i see.... XD . And you can also feel her smooth and soft thigh. It makes you want to feel more of this. Not much i can say about this, just... enjoy the pantie shot!

"She's floating" -> that's the POI, weird huh?

The POI of this figure is... well... she's floating! Yeah, a weird POI today. She looks somewhat floating. And i think that's why her skirt is kinda lifted up. I don't think you can find any loli cute anime girls, floating, smiling, and thinking about something. It's a rare combination of pose you see... That's why i decided that POI of this figure is "she's floating".

So this concludes another session my figure review. Next will be Airi or it could be Haruhi Alter. So far i haven't done anymore photo session, so yeah my backlog stayed the same except I've done Lottie's post. The rest is still waiting to be posted and to be photographed, so yeah... see you at the next post and look forward to it!

Sakagami Tomoyo - a very late haul

My first PA box in 2009.

It's the first loot of this year 2009, too bad it's not an item that released in January 2009. It's an item that already released in December 2008. I'm pretty surprised with this time shipment. It took 1 and a half month for this item to arrive in my place. If you're talking about custom, no... this figure is custom free because the price's below USD 50.

Sakagami Tomoyo - Clannad.

It's Sakagami Tomoyo from Clannad, manufactured by Kotobukiya. I've missed the first release because at that time i haven't even started collecting any figures and Clannad even haven't aired yet. Talk about Clannad air time, i think Kotobukiya made a great move to re-release this figure. Kyou and Tomoyo weren't really that popular in the 1st release, but after Clannad finished airing Kyou and Tomoyo's popularity went up to the sky.

Kotobukiyaaa, where's her megane!!!???

Tomoyo is my favorite character in the anime. She's beautiful, plus i like her grey long hair. She's extremly cuter if she wears her megane, MEGANEKKO MOE! XD . Yeah, i like a girl with maid outfit or a girl with megane. Too bad there is no Tomoyo figure with a megane attached. Heck, in my figure collection, there's no figure with glasses except Nendoroid Nagato Yuki.

The mystery: why only Tomoyo wears casual clothes?

I don't know why Kotobukiya picked this casual clothes plus apron for the figure, because the other Kotobukiya Clannad figures are wearing school uniform. But that's the uniqueness of this figure. But i prefer Tomoyo in her summer school uniform (plus megane!) over this casual clothes.

There's no alternate parts at all.

Here's a list of thing came in this figure box: Tomoyo herself, a pan lid, and a Tomoyo ribbon magnet. Oh and i also got a Soldner-X sticker from Play-Asia, but i don't know what's Soldner-X so i don't bother with it too much. Does anyone who got this figure already attached their ribbon magnet somewhere? For me, i (still) stored this ribbon magnet in my computer desk.

Tomoyo = Cute!

Overall, this figure is cute. Because it's a figure of Sakagami Tomoyo! And complete with casual clothes, apron, pan, and cute bear slippers. Her face expression is nice, except there's no smile on it. The only thing i hate is her stockings, yeah... i prefer she doesn't wear that, it's sexier that way XD .

Simple, nice, cute...

Well, another figure added to my figure review backlog. But yeah, that means i still have object to photograph! For complete reviews and nice photos of Tomoyo you can see at Optic and Ace. For my review, well... just wait for it :P . So yeah... see you at the next post!

Al Azif swimsuit version - Alter

Al Azif swimsuit version.

Yeah, I'm at last back for another review. After 6 days from the last review, i managed to get a break from my work, well actually it almost done. Anyway, this is Al Azif swimsuit version, originally from Deus Machina Demonbane, and manufactured by Alter.

Originally from Demonbane, manufactured by Alter.

I got this from Toy Magz Fair 2008, a pre-owned figure without box. I spent IDR 425k for this figure. This figure is actually cute, but i met a little disappointment from this figure. The most disappointing part of this figure is her size. It's small, even smaller than 1/8 Max Factory Haruhi. Talk about size, i remember about when people talks about Chua Churam's small size. I think this Al Azif body size is just as small as Chua Churam.

She looks plain to me, but still cute on the face.

I've been implementing "extreme" angle on my photos lately. And i think some of them turned out good, but some of them turned out not good enough. Giving angle in photos isn't just as easy as rotating your camera 45° and capture the object. You have to feel and find the best angle, and keep maintaining composition and balance inside the photos.

Al Azif is cute, and her cuteness came from this face.

I think this is a first Al Azif figure i got in my possession. In the Surabaya Toys Festival 2008, my girl bought Nendoroid Al Azif. After seeing those figures, i came up with a conclusion: Al Azif is a cute character! Her main cuteness came from this face. I've also seen MaxFact's Al Azif, but they didn't focus on her cuteness, instead they gave a dramatic and sad feeling.

Is she a loli? You decide!

Talk about loli, i don't know if Al Azif can be categorized as loli character. Judging by her height, i think she's as tall as Haruhi, so i guess she's not loli by height. But looking at her chest and her face, she's definitely a loli.

Cute hairdo, but unfortunately not my style.

Oh yeah, FYI her actual hair is long wavy hair. For some reason, i don't really like this hairdo. Well, from the beginning i never really liked this kind of hairdo. Fortunately, this hairdo isn't visible if you see it directly from the front, you can even see her as if she has a ponytail.

(Not so?) DFC!? XD

We're getting into not so good part. She got a very small breast, but not as flat as you thought. I think the size is just like Alter's Fate burst or Alter's Reinforce Zwei. Even her swimsuit itself isn't a sexy / bikini type. Noticeable thing here is the texture and drawing on her swimsuit.

Texture on the swimsuit is nicely done.

The texture on the swimsuit looks kinda futuristic. Is this the future of swimsuit? I guess not. Anyway, her swimsuit color does suit her, but i think giving her white swimsuit could be better. Her normal clothes itself is white, oh and not to forget, she doesn't wear that red ribbon on her hair in this figure.

Don't be tricked by my photos, i played with camera's Picture Style setting to manipulate the color.

I can see some nail sculpt on the hand, but too bad no painted nail. Anyway, just as always, Alter made her skin kinda pale. Well, most of Alter's figures have pale skin, i think it's their characteristic on making figures. But on top of that, the sculpt quality is great, and shading on the skin is still nicely done.

Her left arm, it shouldn't be floating like this.

She's sitting on a tube, supported by her left arm. Her base is a custom sand textured base, and it's not flat at all. In the middle of the base, you can put the tube and sit Al Azif on top of it. But there's no peg at all, so if you put it at a wrong position, there's a possibility that Al Azif will sit also at a wrong position on her tube. I displayed her without her base, in order to save space.

This skirt can actually be removed.

Most loli characters usually wear a 2 pieces swimsuit with a skirt. And yeah, Al Azif too also wears this skirted swimsuit. I never see Al Azif wearing swimsuit in the anime, and i never see any official illustration of her wearing swimsuit, so i don't know where Alter got this swimsuit design, but all i can say is the swimsuit is not sexy enough.

Right foot, wearing sandal and a weird broken heart symbol on it.

I don't know what's this symbol is, but it keeps appearing on this figure, the broken heart symbol. I never see this symbol in the anime, so i can't say much about this symbol. Do you guys have any idea what's this heart symbol is?

Left sandal hanging on the left foot, you can remove it if you want.

The left sandal can be removed. It depends on your creativity, you can hang this sandal on her left foot, or you can put it on the base like she already taken off her sandal. I displayed her without this sandal, and i put the sandal on my storage. It's a small thing and it's easily fall off her foot, so i kinda worried of losing this small item.

Tube she's sitting on, without this she can't sit.

The last thing on this figure is this tube. It's the place she's sitting on. Without the tube, you can't properly display her. The only thing i don't like about this tube is... it's made of hard plastic. I kinda expect that this tube is a flexible type of plastic, just like the yellow blob thing Nendo Al Azif has.

POI of this figure is interestingly the tube!

The POI of this figure, which made me go LOL, is this the eye on her tube! With one eye, directly peeking, looking, staring, watching, seeing, whatever you name it... on Al Azif pantie, it makes you go LOL! Moreover there's :3 expression on it, making it funnier.

That's it for this review. Next review will be Lottie Gelh, I've done photo session of her, but i don't know when will i post her. Anyway I've already done photo session for Lottie, Airi, and Haruhi (Alter), so right now they're in queue waiting to be posted on this blog. While Hayate, Haruhi beach, and Nyx are still waiting their photo session.

So yeah... as always look forward for the next post!

Elwing Bikini version - Max Factory

Elwing bikini version - Max Factory.

Sorry for the delay, i did say that I'll post this review at around Thursday but at last i posted this today (Sunday). Yeah, it's the 2nd loot from Toy Magz Fair 2008, Elwing bikini version, from Shining Tears series, and manufactured by Max Factory. This figure is 1/7 scaled, so she's taller than your usual 1/8 scaled figure, at around MF Kureha's height.

It's 1/7 scaled figure, so it's tall.

Talk about scale, the only 1/7 scaled figure i got before this Elwing is Kureha from Max Factory. Elwing is tall, and has the same height as Kureha, but i think Elwing's head is a little bit too large. Larger than usual figure's head. I don't know if it's because of her hair or her ears, but it seems that her head is a little bit off sized.

Cute face, you don't want to miss this.

But yeah, she's damn cute and pretty. There's so much beauty in her face, blue eyes, pointy ears, blonde hair. FYI Elwing's an elf from Shining Tears game, and she's the first partner you can use in the game. But don't expect she wears that bikini in the game!

Green leaf bikini, i wonder if it'll easily ripped off. XD

You know, i never saw this bikini in the game or any illustration. Well, i never bother to download or read Tony Taka's illustration book, but i knew I've seen this bikini in Love Hina. I've read and finished Love Hina manga and i think Naru wore this bikini when she's trapped in Parara... WTH island (volume 9 i think, CMIIW).

A closer look to her pretty face.

A little closer look on the face. I'm still learning on how to take a good photo of a face, especially about how to make a nice face cropping. It's hard to do it in figure photoshoot if you don't have any macro lens, but cropping can be done in Photoshop. What's difficult on cropping is deciding where to crop, so you can get a good photo composition.

Side view of her face.

I never thought that I'd be fortunate enough to get this figure in these days. I started figure collecting at late 2007 and start accelerating on first half of 2008. But i think in 2007 itself, i already missed some nice figures, like this Elwing, Blanc Neige bikini, and Alicia Florence (GSC). I also see some people still wishing for those figures i mentioned. So yeah, that's why I'd say i was lucky enough to find this in Toy Magz Fair 2008.

Yet another wings hairband shot, it's Elwing's characteristic i guess...

If it's Elwing, then i won't forget about this wing. In my Elwing from Kotobukiya review, i also did a photograph of her wings hairband. But yeah, there's a significant different between this wings and Elwing Koto's wings. Talk about quality of sculpt and painting, MF owned the competition.

Sexy, delicious, big, what else? Add more if you want, just mention it.

Now we're getting into the good part. Her breast, yeah.... sexy, delicious, big.... but not as big as Elwing Kotobukiya's breast. Her cleavage is showing... well of course it's showing because she wears bikini. I'd like to get a real feel of her breast XD .

Another feather necklace, characteristic of Elwing.

Other than wings hairband, i noticed that she always had 1 or more feather on her neck, whether it's necklace or it's a necktie. I never watch any detail on Shining Tears version, but i know in Shining Wind version, she only has 1 feather tied on her choker. Anyway, bravo to Max Factory, they did a nice job of sculpting this little detail.

Leaf armband, nice accessory.

I don't know what's this leaf armband do there, but i don't think it's connected to the bikini. Once again, bravo to Max Factory, they managed to create some nice little details here. If you noticed, the sculpt and paintjob around there are great. Moreover, they added a shading effect on the skin.

If you want me to take your bikini off then tell me right away Elwing, XD.

I don't know what's her hand doing there, but i think she wants to take her bikini off just makes a cute girl pose. I don't know why that's cute, but I've seen a lot of girl putting her right hand in front of her chest and leave her left hand below in visual novel or anime. I think they did that to make a feminine and cute aura.

Painted fingernail, it's kinda hard to notice.

Here's the other hand. Did you notice something special here? Yeah... it's painted fingernail, and it's painted pink. Somewhat a natural yet pretty color. Her arm looks soooo smooth. And paintjob on her skin makes her looks alive.

Nice skin on the back.

What did i tell you before? Her skin color and paintjob makes her really alive. From behind you can see her smooth skin, unlike other figure skin. Anyway her bikini isn't actually tied behind. I think the leaf just below her cleavage tied it.

Semi transparent green cloth, can be removed.

Moving below, we got her semi transparent green cloth, covering her pantie. I don't know what's this green cloth called, it's weird if i called that a towel, so yeah I'll keep calling this green cloth. Once again, MF is great! They made a nice detail on this green cloth, especially around her pantie. Notice that there are some folds around.

The green leaves on the side of her hip.

This leaves is a removable accessory. But i don't think you want to take it off because, it'll leave a small hole. It won't be easily seen from 30cm distance, but you don't want to see a hole in your beloved Elwing's body, right? But you have to remove this if you want to take her green cloth off or put it back on.

Just see this for a second and continue on, the good part is still covered.

You might want to miss this photo and continue scrolling below. Because her butt still covered with this green cloth. I too doesn't have much to say about this because, yeah... the interesting part is right down below.

Another painted nail, if you noticed.

Her base and her feet. Her left feet is somewhat floating, so the right feet is supporting almost the whole body. I'm not worried about leaning, because her right feet is actually screwed on the base, just like Koto's Shining Wind figures series. Too bad Max Factory didn't do this in Kureha. As a result, my Kureha got a broken peg, and she can't easily stand.

You buy this figure because of this.

As i said before, the green cloth is removable, and you got Elwing with only a sexy green leaf bikini. She's become even sexier, hotter, and even more delicious. Right now, i am displaying her without the green cloth, just like the photo above.

Elwing bikini version is IMO the best Elwing figure there ever was.

Elwing is sooo beautiful. I never actually realized this until i bought my first Elwing's figure: Elwing Shining Wind version from Kotobukiya. And from that time, i started to worship hunt other nice Elwing's figure.

HAWT! This is what i want to see from this figure.

Hmm... very nice view.... This is what i called bikini. Almost the whole body skin is visible. I don't know much about girl's pantie, but i played H games (Artificial Girls 3), and i know Elwing's pantie is 2nd hottest pantie available. FYI the hottest pantie is G string IMO XD . Anyway, notice that there are some nice sculpt detail around the upper edge of the pantie. This pantie is made of leaf, and that details makes it real.

After you see this, you definitely don't want to see the green cloth covered one.

Have you done what i said above? Because if you've done it... then you saved some energy and time used to see that unsexy green cloth covered butt. We want to see real (figure) butt, and this is the answer. Max Factory is great! The skin shading and sculpt can brought this figure to life!

POI of this figure : skin paintjob.

And we came into the POI section! I declare that POI of this figure is her skin paint! Yeah, i keep talking about skin shading and paint and stuffs.... While i was editing these photos, i noticed that some part of her body really looks like it's a real human. Max Factory did a great job on doing the paintjob especially on the skin.


Well that's it for this figure review. Anyway, my dad gave me a job, a real programming job. My task is to develop a automated computer system for ground (truck) transportation company. Yeah, my dad owns a traditional ground transport company, and the company still uses typewriter to create their report. This is the reason why i delayed my post of this review. I have to bring my computer to my dad's office and develop the system there.

For now, i've already done photo session of Al Azif swimsuit. The only thing left is just edit the photos and post it. I also scheduled another photo session in Thursday night and Friday night. I hope i can get 4 figures photographed at most. So yeah... as always... look forward to it!

Komaki Manaka maid version - Kotobukiya

Komaki Manaka maid version - Kotobukiya.

Wow, it's been a while since i made my figure review. The last figure review was Blanc Neige from Kotobukiya, in 12 October 2008. That's sure a really long time! I feel glad and refreshed to be able to do another figure photo session and made a figure review. The honor goes to Manaka maid version, for the first figure review in 2009.

My favorite character from To Heart.

Why i choose this figure for the first review? Well, because after Blanc Neige, this was the next figure i have in my possession. I bought this in Toy Magz fair 2008, and this is the first figure i bought in that event. Komaki Manaka is a character from To Heart series. I've watched To Heart 2 anime, and came up with 2 favorite character from that series, Komaki Manaka and Kousaka Tamaki.

I've been hunting for this!

I've been hunting for nice figures of those 2 characters, and i ended up buying this figure. From all Manaka and Tamaki figures, i only have my eyes for 3 figures: Manaka maid (Kotobukiya), Tamaki maid (Kotobukiya), and Manaka (GSC). The other figures were manufactured by miscellaneous manufacturer like Clayz or Enterbrain. So i think I'll pass on them. I'm glad that i found this one in Toy Magz fair 2008 with a low price.

She got a cute face.

So why Manaka? Look at her face, i think she got the cutest face of all characters in To Heart, see the photo if you want a proof, except if you like loli then i think you'll choose Konomi. I hate Konomi, she's just too.... loli XD. Manaka herself isn't just cute in her face, but she's also sexy, not as sexy as Tamaki though. Anyway, Kotobukiya successfully manufactured this figure with a nice cute face, but i can see that her face skin is somewhat a little too glossy. And i can still see pixels (?) in her eyes (something like dots), not smooth enough.

Maid hairband, somewhat rough on the surface.

Anyway, i only watch the anime and i never play the visual novel, so i don't know where's this maid outfit came from, but hey... the reasons i bought this figure are Manaka and maid! Yeah, i have things to girls wearing maid outfit and girls wearing glasses (meganekko). This hairband is an accessory of the maid outfit. All i can say is she looks good with this hairband.

Manaka's favorite hairpin. Her hair sculpt is okay, but her hairpin is somewhat rough on the surface.

This hairpin is Manaka's favorite hairpin. I don't know how she done her hairstyle, but all i know is her hairstyle is unique, and she looks cute because of it. Kotobukiya made a nice sculpt on her hair. The only thing i don't like is the rough surface on her hairpin. But i think that doesn't matter much. This hairpin can't be clearly seen from the front.

Nice size, too bad she's not showing even a part of it.

We're getting to the good part. She's not just cute, but she's somewhat sexy. She got a nice breast size. It's not that big, but it's pretty nice for a girl of her size. The only downside of this part is, she's not showing any part of it. She's fully covered with this maid outfit, including her breast. All you can see here is just size, but no cleavage or any parts around it.

Nice maid outfit!

She got nice maid outfit. A nice combination of black suit and white apron, frills, and ribbon. This maid outfit has long sleeves and mini skirt. Depending on how you look, it could be sexy or not, it could also be gorgeous or not. It could also be both sexy and gorgeous. There's no problem with Kotobukiya's sculpt on her outfit.

Maid mini skirt and apron.

A maid outfit is not a maid outfit if it doesn't have skirt and apron. Kotobukiya made a nice mini skirt for Manaka. Too bad the frills on the edge isn't that smooth as it looks. She also got nice apron, and Kotobukiya made it well, except once again it's not very smooth on the frill edge.

She needs to carry something on her hand to make it more interesting.

Her hands and her sleeves are nice, except for the skin color. But that doesn't really matters. Kotobukiya could make her hand opened a little bit so you can hang something there. I think adding a rose would be great. Or it could be a broom, or well... it's a matter of creativity i guess... I was hoping that Kotobukiya added something regarding her hands.

Long socks (or stockings) to cover glossy skin problem.

I keep talking about Kotobukiya's glossy skin. You can see it clearly on her thigh, right below her mini skirt. But fortunately, she got a long socks (or stockings?) to cover the whole glossy skin problem. Anyway she got a nice and smooth legs.

Nice glossy shoes.

She got a nice shoes, except it's not highheels. But i like the glossy surface on the shoes. She got a nice custom base, with Japanese wooden floor texture. The base and shoes color on the photo is not the real color. I played a little bit with the picture style and white balance settings.

It's screwed on the base.

Playing with white balance and picture style can affect photo color significantly. That's why i suggest you set your WB and picture style settings on your camera to get a nice photo with a proper color or your favorite color. Oh and anyway, i forgot to mention that this figure is screwed on the base.

I like big back ribbon.

Back ribbon, my favorite parts. In maid outfit, one piece dress, or even in wedding dress, a big back ribbon is always a nice accessory to have. Too bad in this photo, i can't really show the big ribbon, because it's covered with her arms.

Seamlines on the ribbon edge.

Her side ribbon is even longer than her skirt. But as you can see, there are some nasty seamline on the ribbon edge. It's pretty rough, and it's pretty visible. Seamline is always an eyesore for every figures. You certainly don't want to see those seamlines all over your figures.

Nice white pantie, nice view from here.

It's a mandatory that every figure reviews always have a pantie shoot. She got a nice white pantie, except it's frillless. But i can see that Kotobukiya made a nice job with her pantie, just look at the texture and you'll know. This figure is actually castoffable on the skirt, but i never bother to remove her skirt.

POI : maid outfit! Maid outfit is moe.

Oops, i almost forgot. The POI (Point Of Interest) of this figure is her maid outfit. Yeah, very nice maid outfit. I'd say her maid outfit doesn't show her sexiness, but she looks gorgeous in it. The maid outfit is also the reason i wanted and i bought this figure.

Well i guess this concludes this figure review. My next review will be Elwing bikini version from Max Factory. I'll post it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, so look forward to it!

Happy birthday (not to me)....

A nice yuri action of Fransizka von Karma and Adrian Andrews (Phoenix Wright) for celebration.

... but to this blog. At exactly 1 year ago, at this date 5 January, i started my blog and my first post. It was just a post about starting a blog. The first commenter in this blog is ron~. He said that he found my blog because of that Fate clock. I used the Fate clock hosted by otadesho, and he found me through the backlink.

This blog is 1 year old, and has already (or just?) reached 109 posts. I don't know if it's a big or small number, with average of 8 posts per month and 14 posts in holiday months (June - July and December - January). Because this 1 year with this blog, i met so many nice and great friends. Thank you all for keep reading this blog!

As for me, I'll keep this blog filled up with more nice photos, nice figures, and nice figure reviews. That's it for now, see you at the next post!

Nyx as birthday present

Nyx, a birthday present from my girl.

In this birthday i got a birthday present from my darling wili_huang (see previous post). She's my girl, and we've been in relationship since 1 year and 1 month ago. She actually got this figure in Toy Magz Fair 2008, but amazingly she bought it without me knowing about this purchase. She didn't choose this figure randomly, she picked it because i said "I like it" but i ended up leaving her at that time..

Nyx and Airi (red version) on the box.

Anyway, every Queen's Blade figure box always have 2 figures photos on it. In this Nyx box, there's Nyx herself, and Airi (red version). I just knew that Airi, the one in my possession, is an alternate version. The real Airi has a dark red hair, and black maid outfit. But i think i like Airi with blonde hair more than the red hair.




Because i said "i like Nyx, it's cool", my girl taken an initiative to buy it secretly. It was fortunate that Nyx was sold by my favorite local store, Saber. The store owner already knew me and my girl. So she could plan something up to hide this purchase with the store owner. And she got me there, in the 2nd day i saw Nyx already sold out, and i thought someone else took it.

Too bad a week after that there was an unfortunate event happening. See meronpan's post about Nyx bargain in HLJ. I saw this and almost buy this Nyx right away. At that time i didn't know that my girl has already bought Nyx, so i told her that i want to buy this HLJ's Nyx. But she unusually refused and convinced me not to buy her. After that event, i knew right away that she's the one who bought Nyx, and my guess is for my birthday present. Well, it's not a surprise anymore, but hey... I'm still glad that my girl care and bought this for me.

Nyx's parts, she's fully castoffable.

Anyway these are the parts for Nyx. Her clothes is somewhat flexible, and can be removed. Just like another Queen's Blade figure, she can be naked. I kinda worried with those long green things, they're made of hard plastic, and somewhat can be easily broken. I have to be careful with this.

She's HAWT!

She's damn hot and got a nice pair of big boobs XD. I like her dress, and this dress was the reason i said "i like this figure, she's cool". The only thing i don't like is that blue thing behind her. I don't know what's that or what kind of weapon is that. I think it's some kind of living whip, it's kinda creepy.

She's HAWT and cool! XD

Her face is also cool. I also like her long hair, and especially her right front hair, covering her right eye. It's giving the cool and killing aura. Overall she's a nice figure, and a must have especially for Queen's Blade fan. Hey, i don't know anything about Queen's Blade but i know Airi and Nyx are HAWT!

Well that's it for now. Once again thanks my darling wili_huang for this great present, i love u my dear! Anyway starting from tomorrow I'll be doing my photo session with my photographer friends: Joan, Jaya, and Halim. So that means, a stack of figure reviews coming right up! So look forward to it!

Happy birthday ....

Yay... a birthday cake from Tsukasa!

...to me! Yeah, today 3 January is my birthday. I'm 20 years old now. It's a very long journey up until now.... Well, there's nothing much i can say here, really... Anyway, it's my first birthday post in this blog, because this blog itself haven't reached its birthday.

Well that's all for now. See you in the next post!

Happy New Year! ~ 2009

A new year greetings from Noe and friends.

This is the first day of 2009, and i already spend my time sitting in front of my computer and blogging. So before everything else starts, let me say this first:

Happy New Year 2009! 2008 has ended and today is a start of a brand new year, so let's make this year became another great year of our life!

Haruhi + ponytail + yukata = moe!

As an otaku, i think our concern in this year 2009 is global economic crisis. We have to withstand a high exchange rate while all manufacturers keep announcing a line-up of great figures such as Alter's Teana and Louise, Max Factory's Extravaganza series, etc. I guess we have to be wise with our money and expenses, so we won't regret what we've done / bought.

Fate also greets you a Happy New Year!

I myself started to find some programming job, it's pretty hard to get one really... I still don't have any title and experience yet, so it's gonna be hard. I'd like to focus on Java developing and web developing (PHP, Javascript, and MySQL). I think this year I'm gonna focus on taking my Oracle Administration Workshop exam and getting the OCA title first.

Nanoha too....

Wow, it's a new year and i already ranted this much!? I just feel like it anyway. Talk about new year's resolution... I never think about it. But yeah, i still have goals to reach. Well that's it for now, i hope this year will be a great year for us all. See you in the next post!

Oh and i think I'll use the rest of the holiday to do some photo sessions of the new figures, so keep looking forward to it!