Animatic Figmation Has Moved

This will be my last post on blogger. Animatic Figmation has moved to it's own domain under it's own host. We're using the Wordpress platform now. I'll be making the rounds to everyone's blogs when I get a chance in case you miss this post. Please update your blogrolls, the new site address is http://animaticfigmation.com The new site is up and working, and we feel that it is good enough to start redirecting our traffic there. There will still be more added here and there, though everything should be working just fine while the additions are made. If you find that something isn't working right, please let us know so we can fix it ASAP. We hope you all like the new site! See you on the other side!

Fuko Ibuki 1/8 PVC by Kotobukiya

Fuko Ibuki is a character from the anime/visual novel Clannad. I ordered this 1/8 PVC by Kotobukiya from Robert's Anime Corner Store for $35.08. She is still in stock at the time of this post, if you're interested in buying her you can find her here. Fuko was and still is one of my favorite characters from Clannad. When she arrived I was worried she might be damaged, because of the condition her box was in. Luckily she was unharmed after all that, although her box wasn't as fortunate. Read on for a full review and lots of pictures.








Fuko comes with 3 faces, her wooden star(fish), two dog ears and a tail. Her stand is pretty simplistic just featuring the Clannad logo, and she's held on it by two pegs in her left foot and one in her right. The dog ears attach to her head by magnets, which I find quite nice for keeping them in place yet making them easy to remove. Speaking of removal, it took me a matter of seconds upon holding her in my hands before I realized her skirt is removable. This is only my second figure from Kotobukiya, but it seems that their figures have something in common with each other so far. The body can be easily taken apart and put back together. No worries about damaging the figure to remove the skirt. Not sure if Kotobukiya does this with all of their figures but I will assume so until I own one that doesn't. At least her shiny purple pantyhose makes for a more interesting pantsu shot than the typical plain white. The dog tail slips in a slot in the bottom of her shirt, as you can see in one of the pictures below. I think I prefer the original face the most, probably only because it shows her eyes fully, and I also prefer to pose her with the ears and tail, and yes with her skirt on. I do enjoy her other faces though, extra choices are always welcome. Given that this isn't a high quality figure it's still quite nice, especially if you're a fan of Fuko like I am. This is my first Clannad figure and I've grown quite attached to the anime, so I don't think it'll be my last. More pictures of Fuko can be found on my Flickr photostream.

Just in case there's someone out there reading this who hasn't seen Clannad, here's an odd little video of Fuko in action. The first and second season both come highly recommended, though I would advise you steer clear of the movie version until you've watched them both, unlike I did.

MM (えむえむ) 1/8 PVC by Max Factory

Today I'll be reviewing MM ( えむえむ) 1/8 PVC by Max Factory. That's her official name, but I prefer to call her Emu Emu (which is how you pronounce えむえむ), though I'll be simplifying her name to MM for this review. She comes from the manga/anime Kemeko Deluxe! She was released in June of 2008, and meant to go along with the Nendoroid Plus: Kemeko. I found her at Robert's Anime Corner Store for $67.48 though it looks like she's out of stock now. I really wanted to get the Nendo Kemeko to go with because they combine, but I haven't been able to find her anywhere yet. I'm going to keep looking though.








MM is well made, but she seems quite awkward by herself. She really is meant to go along with the Nendoroid Plus Kemeko, and it's pretty obvious when you look at how she's held up by her base. She doesn't really look bad but the base and metal rod in her foot has her looking odd. She's held up on one foot by a metal rod that goes in the base and up her foot. She comes with an extra metal rod that is meant for holding Kemeko in place. MM's legs both come off and she can be attached to an extra head piece of Kemeko that's included along with her. The Kemeko head really can't be used on the base without the Nendoroid present, but I took some pictures of MM coming out of the Kemeko head anyways. If you've seen the anime or read the manga the whole concept of MM coming out of Kemeko's mouth would make sense, as Kemeko is a sort of mecha that MM practically lives inside. The sculpting on MM is great, Max Factory did a wonderful job making her. Hopefully I'll be able to find Kemeko but if not she still looks good alone.







If you haven't seen Kemeko Deluxe! you might be interested in Riiana's review of the anime.

Site News, Recent Gets & Box Damage

First off I'd like everyone to know that despite a long delay, Animatic Figmation the actual site is well under way. It's up and running right now but I need to do some work on it because of the theme I'm using. I might have one or two more posts here before I completely migrate over to the new site. So everyone prepare for the move. I know I said I was doing it soon a while back but so many little things have delayed me. I'm very eager to finish the final steps before the move. I'm going to be spending the weekend testing things out and messing with it, and hopefully early next week I'll have it all ready to go. I'll do one last post here before the big move and go to everyone's blogs to let them know since I doubt half of the people on my blogroll will even see the post.





On another note, yesterday I received my first package from OtakuFuel. I wanted to try them at least once. I had ordered Clannad DVD Box Set Season 1 Complete Collection, Pixy Hiyori 1/8 PVC and a Gurren Lagann mug. Well, I got Pixy and the mug, but they said Clannad was on backorder, but I still got the free shipping from spending enough, since they kept the money for Clannad. Hopefully it doesn't take too long for the backorder to go through, but I guess these things happen. I can't really form an overall opinion of OtakuFuel until I see how they handle that. The only thing I can say I really don't like is their shipping method, Fed Ex. The package arrived early morning on the 19th, and sat in the Fed Ex warehouse or whatever until the 20th. Around 10 AM the Fed Ex truck drove two houses past our house, stopped for a few seconds and then did a U-turn without even looking at our place. Then they drove up the road behind us and did the same thing, drove back past our place and went down the opposite road, did a 360 in front of the mailboxes and took off. They were obviously lost, and lost with my package. I did manage to get my package yesterday though, about 5 hours after they got lost. I was pretty upset that they didn't even look at our house number. Fed Ex is not my favorite shipment method that's for sure. Anyways, I got a free gift with my purchase since it was over $20... nope, not a Nendoroid Petit like I've seen many people get, I got Naruto Bubblegum! Oh well, I'm not complaining, I'm just jealous of the people that got better stuff. I don't even read/watch/associate myself with anything Naruto related so whatever. It's free so there's nothing I can complain about. I really do like the packaging that OtakuFuel used though, Pixy was in her box, inside a box, inside the main box, surrounded by air bags and peanuts, and the mug was inside plastic, inside it's own box next to the Pixy box inside the main box. Phew, that was a long sentence. Technically the order was in Riiana's name because I still haven't received my replacement card after my little incident. The bank screwed up and didn't get my address right so I had to cancel the replacement and send for another one. I think since she's a bit ecchi, Pixy Hiyori will be the first figure review of the new site!




Well, I was about to end my post when a new shipment arrived from Robert's Anime Corner Store. I've got to say this time I have something to complain about. The mailman delivered my package and it was all dented in despite the Fragile warnings all over the box. For the first time ever I can say I'm disappointed in the way my packages arrived (ok, aside from my very first figure get). I got Emu Emu 1/8 PVC by Max Factory, and Fuko Ibuki 1/8 PVC by Kotobukiya. Both figure boxes are damaged, and Fuko's to the point where I don't have to open her package because it's already opened for me. Since I'm unhappy with this I'm going to take pictures of the boxes before I even open them.




Styrofoam is evil. It was even on the inside of Fuko's box as you can see from the pictures. Well, I know I shouldn't make a fuss over boxes unless the figures inside were damaged, but it's quite annoying anyways. I'm one of those people who likes to keep my boxes and keep them in decent condition in case I need to store my figures or move them. Emu Emu's box wasn't damaged too badly, but Fuko's practically fell apart. The only thing holding the box tab on was a piece of tape. Isn't it wonderful how responsible mail carriers can be sometimes (sarcasm intended)? Alright then I won't complain further, the figures are in good condition and that's all that really counts in the end I suppose. They're happy to be free from the tyranny of bad mail carriers, just look at how happy they look to be in my home!



There, now I can end this longer than expected post. Reviews will be coming soon!