Clayz Haruka Nogizaka 1/8th PVC Figure Review (I FINALLY GOT HER!!!!)

I got her!!!! I got her cos I pestered the guard on duty and said it was urgent! Otherwise I wouldn’t have got her till monday!!! I actually squealed….(not in front of the guard, but when I got outside lol) Up1 are always good for delivery times, like Firebox (were when they were a fairly new site lol). Next day! :woot!!:

My first ever Clayz figure!

I preordered her like…. yonks ago… actual months…. I think I preordered her in August… and she was due out in September… but it didnt happen…. over….:counts:… 3 months since the order was put in… and almost a month since she was actually released…(Up1 took a while to get her, but I forgive em, cos they rock.)

So! On to the review!! I took over 130 photos! Mucho-overkill!! But it meant I got 31 to post! I might not post all of em though….. depends…

The overall figure is good. I won’t lie, it could be better. But if your a hardcore Haruka fan, you’ll buy this figure over the Toys Works version, because it looks so much more like Haruka-chan. (Although I’m checking up on the pics now…. might be tempted to get this one… since I am a big Haruka fan….)

(Many more photos and full review, just continue below)

Clayz Nogizaka Haruka Figure – SHIPPED @ 12:27 Today!!!

I checked my email today at 12:45 and saw that Haruka-chan had finally shipped from Up1!!! I so hope she’s worth the delay!!

Isn’t Haruka-chan lovely? I’m so glad she’s getting a second series!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I can’t wait!! And I can’t wait to get the figure! Preordered back in August…..long time ago now it seems…. This is the ‘outfit’ she’s in in the figure, not sure much an outfit really lol…. But its cute! And is the best Haruka-chan figure available! The Toys Works ones looked weird… the faces weren’t right and the boobs were too small… and since this is a character I actually have seen the anime for, I’d prefer her to be as accurate as possible. Am I right? High res available here at Konachan. I’m trying to work out if its a clever edit of all the bits from the op of the anime. Or if its an actual poster someone got ahold of…. I’m betting on edit. But I might be wrong lol.

Anyways, *if* I get her tomorrow I will post pics straight away obviously(I’m actually gonna wake up earlier than I usually do on a saturday just so I can check the mail… how sad of me… will be so gutted if she’s not here tomorrow… but the To Heart dvd’s were here the day after shipping….. I can only hope…).

To Heart Complete DVD Thinpack

Yesterday I got my To Heart anime boxset in the mail. 13 episodes, 6 mini episodes(I’ve seen 2, very cute!) plus the usual extras, trailers, line art etc. I’m on episode 7.

Pretty box art.

Prettyness. I didn’t think I’d like the art as much as I do. But it’s nice. charming or something. Bought for £20. Region 1. Released by Rightstuf and Nozomi. Better DVD’s than ADV or such like. Better dub. I can actually stand to listen to it lol. Has been a while since I have been able to listen to a dub for a prolonged length of time. Akari’s english voice actress sounds cute. The UK would never have such a good deal unless it’d been out for yonks. Then again… they’d almost never release this…

Kotobukiya Ikuno Komaki ~ToHeart2 Another Days~ 1/8th PVC Figure – An every-otaku review

Oha all! It’s almost 4am in the UK, and I have no lessons tomorrow, so blatently, I’m gonna be awake till about 5 lol. Sleeping in LATE lol. Then going for movies in the evening I believe… work inbetween then though. Like a good little student. :beam: Onto the review I say!

Today we look at Ikuno Komaki. Manaka’s younger sister.(A figure of which I might be getting for xmas off some friendlies.) The unique thing about Ikuno-kun is that she is in a wheelchair. I had never before seen a wheelchair-bound figure before Ikuno-kun. I first spied her on Play.com of all places. And avoided buying due to the £35 price tag and the smallish size, about 13.5cm or 5.5inches (Michiru Yamada is about the same, I’m sorry I haven’t been mentioning the heights of the figures in my reviews… thats one piece of information I always look for in reviews…. gomenasai…). When I saw her at the London Expo in October for £25 I didn’t hesitate in getting her. (Along with Michiru, Tamaki, Asakura and Fuko lol, £25 each, £125 total at that stand alone…) I was soooo pleased I finally got her! As you may already know, I love ToHeart. ToHeart2(and AD) in particular. I’m currently watching the first ToHeart anime. On ep 4. Tis nice so far. Nice backgrounds. But is making me wanna buy all the available older ToHeart figures… I already own 3…. but there are quite a few more I’m missing….(just reminded me… I made a list of my figures, just before the Midlands Expo… needs slightly updating….)

The figure itself has a great sculpt. The paintwork is nice. Very neat lines on the skirt detail and neckerchief detail. I’m very happy with Koto’s workmanship here.

The pose is nice. Slightly turning, book in hand. Very cute. Captures the sickly-hospital-bound archetype well.

The hair is nice. Though you can see a joint line in this photo on the hair. Only a travesty if your displaying back-first. And I’ve never encounted anyone to do that… yet lol. You can also see, the familar clear pink base. Even though you don’t really need a base for this figure due to the wheelchair. More pics n details below.

Character Design Workshop with Nick Roberson

Today in class, we had an awesome workshop taught by Nick Roberson(He worked on Corpse Bride, and has been in the animation biz, teaching biz and stone carving biz)! Last week we were given a character, we had to pic at random. I picked this fellow.

All the characters we had to choose from were designed by Carlos Grangel, who I just found out did character designs for Balto….. OMG Awesome much. Anyways. We were told to do sketches of our character, profiles, silhoettes, head shots, 3/4 views etc.

Thats just one page of the stuff I did. I haven’t scanned anything in yet lol. I named him Dr Rondhart, after the village Doctor from Tsubasa Chronicles in volume 4 of the manga. He reminded me of Kyle Rondart for some reason. The pic I got also made me think of Johnny Depp in Sleepy Hollow lol. I can just imagine the little guy scuttling round a village tending to the needs of the sickly. Looking all flustered and wide eyed.

We had to model in plastacine. 9-5 modelling plastacine KILLS your fingers. I swear… I’m gonna get blisters on my fingers tonight…. they feel so raw….

Thats what it started out as. Well… not before building up the feet n stuff. It’s a shame the wire frame we got was a bit thick for the uber-thin legs of most of the characters we got given. But Rondhart still looks good.

Built up more. I misunderstood Nick when he said to give my guy more of a butt, and more shape around his stomach and stuff. He wanted me to do what I wanted to do originally lol. (Read on for final model n more WIPs)

Memorabilia – Midlands Expo Sunday Nov 23rd

Now….. bad news… I forgot my camera…. didnt realise before I was on the train… just as it was about to leave…. you don’t now how gutted I was… I could have got a pic of the Fonz… of Gareth David Lloyd…. :sob: I wish I brought it….. damn…. nevermind though. My camera is pretty awful anyways. I have the memories, they are good enough for me. Not for you lot obviously. But theres videos and pics on the official site I’m sure. Content-wise, Memorabilia is much-much more varied than Expo. More actual scifi and comics rather than raging Naruto fans. And its on a larger scale. Bigger venue. And food INSIDE the venue too! Hot food and hot drinks and snacks and everything! You need never leave! (Unless you need to find a cash machine :cough: which I did…. and had to wait in line AGES for the only available one in the NEC….(for some reason the rest of the cash machines were out of order… grrrrrr). After I had been to the cash machine I went to get some lunch. I needed sugar and stodgy foods. So I went to a Free House/Bar/Cafe thing that was inside the NEC complex. Had coke and a cheese and ham panini. Was good. £6.60 total I think… pretty good considering they could have hiked the price alot due to its locale. Also got some snackage for inside, when I returned into the convention. (I went to get money for a Mecha-Musume mini figure, cos I only had £5 and she was £7.) The NEC complex is a BIG place, 20 showrooms, big rooms. There were two other shows on while I was there. The Golf Show(LOL) and the Christmas Festive Gift Fair….. I was so tempted to go in and be showered by the jollity. But I restrained myself from spending more….

I did get photos of my loot though. A fine loot for the limited cash I brought…. it was soooo tempting not to have got out more than I did….. No Hatsune Miku Figma though… :sulks: I did however, pick up another figure I’ve been pining over for a while now… Silfa from ToHeart2 Another Days! I’m soooooo glad I got her! And for only £20!! And I got the To Heart Akari figure which I regretted not buying in Norwich for the same price! £10!

 I also got two more of the GoodSmile VIP trading figures. I had MaRyan from the London Expo. Today I got Komaki and Akari(Two Akari’s! lol. The Komaki Sisters! lol).

 

As I mentioned before, I got a mini Mecha Musume gal, (Pic if you read on)