Arin 1/8 PVC by GoodSmile Company

Arin comes from the Korean MMO (massive multi-player online) golf game Pangya, though the game itself has different incarnations all over the world. I played the US version titled Albatross18 on and off for over a year, but I never got into it too much. I did however like the characters and enjoyed playing the game when I did play. I'm sure I'll play it more in the future when the US version re-opens under Ntreev with the original title of Pangya. Anyways, on to the figure. Arin is 1/8 scale PVC made by GoodSmile Company back in 2007, so finding her might be a bit difficult these days. Luckily I stumbled across her still being in stock at Robert's Anime Corner Store, an anime store based in the US. Unfortunately it looks as if I ordered one of the last ones, as she's no longer available at the time of this review. I paid $47.68 for the figure and $7.99 for shipping, and received the figure within around 3 days of the time of ordering.








Arin comes on a green base with two pegs holding her left foot and one peg holding her right. Papel, the funky looking paper bag caddie next to her feet is attached by two pegs. Arin's dress is quite detailed as well as her hat. Her hat isn't removable but her golf club is. The golf club comes apart in two pieces to more easily put it in her hand. I really love the detail on her boots, dress and hat. Also her pantsu are true to the game, as they are polka dotted. Her flowing blue hair looks especially nice, and it feels soft, just like the bows on her boot laces. The details in her eyes could have been a little better I think, but even so they look great. Considering this figure is about 2 years old I think it's great quality all around. Even if you've never played Pangya or golf in your life you can appreciate this figure. Arin isn't my favorite character but she's the only one I've managed to get so far. This is a great PVC figure and I'm glad I was able to get one for myself. I'm working on getting Kooh but she's literally sold out all over the place, but I think I might have found somewhere to order from even though it's going to be a pain in the butt. If you do play the game Arin has some awesome outfits besides this one, it's too bad they didn't make a version of her in her gothic lolita attire. All in all this figure is excellent, a great job by GoodSmile!







Now that my Flickr account has been upgraded and I've uploaded most of my pictures you can find the rest of the pictures from this set in my photostream. There's a ton more than shown here in my review, so do check them out if you're interested. I thought I'd finish off this post with a Pangya video, so here's the promotional video for Season 3.

Fewture Models Chii by Art Storm|Lilics

Alright, first up from the newly owned figures is the Fewture Models Chii by Art Storm/Lilics. I had been interested in this figure since seeing fellow Team Blue member Lovelyduckie's review on her, and finally acquired her. If you're even the least bit interested I suggest you check out her review because it's great. Chii is from the manga/anime Chobits, whom I'm pretty sure everyone out there has at least heard of. I hold it responsible as the gateway show to my otakudom. Anyways I got this figure used for $35 USD from a figure sale Dancing Queen was having, originally I had thought about buying her but the asking price was a bit high, especially after I got curious about the figure more and re-read Lovelyduckie's review, and found her still selling at Robert's Anime Corner Store for about $40. Dancing Queen gladly lowered the price for me, making me unable to resist the buy. So once again thanks to both of my fellow Team Blue members, without them I wouldn't own this lovely figure. This was one impulse buy I'm glad I made.

I decided to try and show all the details in the figure since I rather like the attention to them in this figure. You probably notice a few places where paint has come off, this isn't a brand new figure after all, and with a pose like this you can expect such a thing to happen over time. You'll see the base is quite huge though not too big for the figure, and there's some paint that's been transferred onto it. Well, the very fabric I used for the background here is what I'm using for my base until I find something more suited. She might be pre-owned and an old figure but I'd like to keep her from further damage. I think the base is probably the only real thing I would have complained about had I bought this figure when she first came out. It's just asking to scrape paint off her really. Even though she's not in perfect condition I have no complaints. She was made back in 2006 and I can happily say she's a welcome addition to my collection. I really couldn't ask for a better looking Chii figure, although I would be ecstatic if Max Factory made a Figma of her (honestly don't see it ever happening but I can daydream right?). I really love the outfit, even if it's up a little too high in the back. She's also quite large, being 1/5 scale or 10 inches long. It's nice to have a figure that's not standing once in a while as well. It's a good figure for a low price, and if you like Chobits I really couldn't recommend a better PVC yet. There are a few other Chobits figures I plan on getting when possible though, so we'll see. Once again thanks to Dancing Queen for selling this to me.

Chobits was the first anime that I bought the entire series on DVD, even though I originally downloaded and watched it. I enjoy both the subbed and dubbed versions pretty much equally, which doesn't happen all that often. If I had never seen Chobits I wouldn't be the person I am today most likely. Before it, there was Miyazaki films and things like Sailor Moon. Of course, since then I've become addicted to all things Japanese, and I probably watch about as much anime as the average American watches normal TV.

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.