Misaki Nakahara Figure

Dame ningen, Welcome to the N.H.K!



I finally got one of my most-wanted figures. I just posted earlier this month about 3 figures on my must-get list. One got pre-ordered, one I still need to figure out how to acquire, but this one I managed to find by accident, or is it coincidence? Anyways, I was looking around Ebay for something non-figure related and just decided to type in Misaki for the hell of it. I've looked for this figure many places and many times before with no luck, but this time I found someone selling it. I needn't say I payed much more than the figure is worth, so this could be considered a purely blind figure purchase simply for my own pride and joy and not looking towards value or even quality. Misaki Nakahara from Welcome to the N.H.K. This is the only known figure from this series, and it's a limited edition figure that came with Volume 04 of the original Japanese manga. The original price for the figure/manga in 2005 was 1,800 Yen. I'm not sure just how limited she is but I know it took me a while to manage to find her, and I'm proud to finally have her in my possession.






Considering she was released in 2005, before I even became a figure collector, I can't really compare her to other figures from those days. I bought the Welcome to the N.H.K. book a while back and watched the anime series and it's one of my personal top 10 anime. Back to my purchase though. I bought from a seller in Japan, and I received my order via EMS (I'm impatient enough to spend a bit more for shipping), unopened and packaged nicely. I was a bit surprised at the size of the figure, as she's a bit smaller than I expected, but I don't mind at all. The manga came in the box and has a nice cover (which I used for my background shots). Her cast off feature does show like most of those type, with a crack that is obvious, and I think especially so since the figure is older it's more noticeable. It doesn't bother me in this particular case. Misaki comes with 2 arms for when she's in cast off mode, an umbrella (in two parts), an extra hair piece with nekomimi, a postcard and the manga. As a N.H.K. fan I'm quite happy with my purchase, even though I'm a total baka and spent more than I should have. This is probably the last figure post you'll be seeing this month, but I do have one more impulse buy that should have been here by now.






A size comparison to Nendoroid/Figma so you can get an idea of how big she is.

If you haven't seen the anime, read the manga or the light novel, I can highly recommend you take the time to check one or all of them out. Perhaps it's not everyone's cup of sugar but I fell in love with all versions of this story. The original author of the book is Tatsuhiko Takimoto. I'll throw in the videos to the opening and ending songs just for good measure.

Figure Seeking in 2009

It's already been nearly a week since I've posted here, and I apologize for the lack of posting. I didn't disappear to an MMORPG or get run over by a reindeer, not just yet at least (not that I'm planning to in the first place). Anyways, we're getting a bit behind on the posting and have a nice long backlog of posts to do. I've just been notified that Kyouka Miderizaki Nendoroid and Figma Hayate Yagami are being prepared for shipping. They'll be the first arrivals of 2009. Yes, this year is starting off slow. That's mostly because of Christmas, after all we have a son, and Christmas is for him more than us. I've been taken back down nostalgia lane playing old NES games with him. My first gaming system has become his first gaming system, only his is one of those newer ones with tons of games on it. There's only one figure so far this year that I don't know any information about that I absolutely must obtain.



For those who don't know who these two girls are, they're Moro and Maru from xxxHolic, which I've been reading the manga of for a while now. Speaking of that I need to pick up the last few books yet. It's the first nice looking figure I've seen from the series that wasn't a gashapon. The only information I've managed to find so far is that it's made by Art Storm Co., Ltd as part of the Lilics Series, who were responsible for a rather bad Chi (from Chobits) figure, which right off the start makes me a bit worried. But, from the looks of this figure I can't see anything to complain about yet. The more recent figures look much improved over her though. If anyone who reads this happens to find out more about this figure before I do, I'd greatly appreciate it if you let me know.



Here's another figure that I want, but this one may just be the untouchable figure of 2009. More untouchable than Figma Saber Lily, it's Liquidstone's Flandre Scarlet kit. In case you don't know who she is, she's a character from a series of bullet-hell games known as the Touhou Project. She's my favorite character, and when I saw a random picture from a festival sometime last year of her, I searched all over trying to find out more about this figure. Well, I found out who she's made by and I found the product page, but, she's not for sale just anywhere. Of course, I found more and more pictures and got excited for this to be announced somewhere. This figure is not what it looks like. She's an event only figure, nearly impossible to obtain outside of Japan without having to pay (from the way it looks) between $150-350, only available through online auctions in Japan, at least to someone like me. My chances of getting her are very, very slim. Also, she comes in a box in little pieces that you have to assemble. No painting is required, but you have to wet-transfer her eyes onto her faces. It's basically like a Figma you have to put together, but it's not. Well, enough talking about her. Click here if you want to see her product page with more pictures.



Last but definitely not least, Misaki Nakahara from Welcome to the N.H.K. This is an old figure, and another hard to find one. You can see her product page on Hobby Link Japan. I wish I had been reading the manga back in 2005. I've read the novel and watched the anime, but this is the only figure I've ever heard of related to them. It came with the fourth volume of the Welcome to the N.H.K. manga, and at a very decent price I think. I'm willing to drop some money on this figure though, so long as it's in near-mint condition. I've been searching for her for months, but I haven't found anywhere I could get her from, auction or otherwise. This is my figure goal for this year. Again, if you have any information regarding this figure's availability anywhere, or you yourself would be willing to sell her to me through some safe method, please let me know.