Supicotto Madoka Magica Figures 魔法少女まどかマギカ すぴこっと

Supicotto: is a combination of the words "speaker" and "mascot" (masukotto in Japanese) which results in an SD mascot figure on top of a speaker base that plays lines from the anime specific to that character.

The bases: are just as big as the figures themselves, in Kyuubey's case, bigger.

Styling: Whoever did the designs for how the girls are re-imagined did a nice job, as they turned out very cute and very stylized. The way they are conceptualized, the artist made them his/her own.

Zenryoku Usagi Trading Figures 全力ウサギトレーディングフィギュア

Coming from Ningyoushi.com - a wonderful Californian web retailer for designer/vinyl toys - these are trading figures from the 2008 anime series based on a bunch of 'full-power' (zenryoku) rabbits working construction, but none of the stories really revolve around construction. 'Zenryoku' can also mean "with all of your strength" or "doing your best," too which is what the running gag/theme of the show is. All of the rabbits do their best at everything. The style kinda reminds me of Keroro Gunsou, particularly the main usagi himself. These are all really neat, each of which coming with different signs/slogans. For some reason I really love the logo's design.

Kotobukiya One Coin Figure Collection Megami Tensei Jack Frost & Jack o'Lantern ワンコインフィギュアコレクション女神転生「ジャックランタン＆ジャックフロスト」

The very first figure in the Kotobukiya One Coin figure series, based on the Megami Tensei series. Very fitting, as Jack Frost is the Atlus mascot, and as you can see here, very detailed (especially for a trading figure!) and super cute.

Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City Collection 世界樹の迷宮III 星海の来訪者 コレクションフィギュア

Hmmmm, what to say about these figures, what indeed. They're not terrible, they're not poorly made, they're actually very well made for trading figures, intricately detailed, varied in pose, but they do have one problem that a lot of Japanese toys have: their stand. Most Japanese toys aren't free-standing, and whether they're poseable or not, they usually include some sort of stand or even more - a system of some sort to pose them. But in quite a few instances, companies take liberties with these stands, or get creative, and the solutions they come up with get downright awful at times. Early Nendoroid stands were hideous, with just a 3/4 ring that fit around the figure's waist to hold them up. When you design something to be SD (with a big head, yeah, like that), you kinda want something that's going to hold your top-heavy figure up. My Death Note Nendos all have marks on their heads from where they fell so many times onto my shelf before I finally took it upon myself to replace or tune up their stands. Recently, a few companies have started putting magnets in various places (back of the head, feet) on their figures. I am a HUGE fan of this method, and luckily some Nendos have adopted this design ethic. Before the magnet method, I was a great fan of the "peg in the foot" method. That said, to my knowledge I've never bought a CM's Corporation trading figure product before, but they easily have the worst stand system of anything I've ever seen. First, the stands included consist of the ubiquitous upside-down petri dish-shaped plastic disc to stand the figure on, which would've been easy enough to just put a peg on and be done with it. But, as I said, all of the figures have vastly different poses, so I'm thinking they were trying to save money by producing non-unique stands. Each figure also comes with a plastic model-like "rack" of little pipes and pegs and things that look like incomplete bubble wands to help stand the figure. This wouldn't be such an issue if any of the figures had holes in them or obvious places to put the support parts in/on/through. Also, all of the plastic parts are cheap, rigid, brittle plastic that will splinter or break fairly easily. In the case of one figure, the monk, I had to lean her on a peg awkwardly. It's just strange that such nicely done figures would have such a moronic, poorly produced support included with them. Much worse than the Disgaea 4 figures I got a few months back, with magnets in their feet and full color, metallic bases to stick them to that work like a dream. ^^ Also odd, but cute, is the inclusion of a farmer figure, lol.

Kotobukiya One Coin Figure Collection Megami Tensei Taira no Masakado ワンコインフィギュアコレクション女神転生「平 将門」

If you've ever played any of the Megami Tensei, Shin Megami Tensei, Persona or Devil Summoner series, you already know that you summon and use demons, kami, monsters, gods and spirits to do battle for you, and that these are usually based on real myths and legends. Some of these are well-known in the west like Thor, Beelzebub, Shiva, etc, but others like some of the Japanese kami are less known to western players. Back in 2005, Kotobukiya started the coolest collection of 6 sets or so of mini trading figures of popular and not-so-popular summons from various games in the MegaTen series. Taira no Masakado, along with Yoshitsune and Susanoo represent the kami section of the games very well in this series (Though Masakado and Yoshitsune fall more into the "real people" category). His name plate is unique in the series - in that, his is printed vertically (ala traditional Japanese writing) whereas the others are all printed horizontally. It gives him quite a unique feel.

The real Taira no Masakado (taken from Wikipedia) was a member of the Kammu Taira clan of Japan. He was the son of Taira no Yoshimochi, Chinjufu Shogun. His childhood name was Soma Kojiro. Taira no Masakado was a powerful landowner in the Kanto region. He is regarded as the first bushi because he was the first to lead a self-governing party.

Masakado killed his uncle Kunika who was part Taira. The central government in Kyoto responded by putting a bounty on his head, and fifty-nine days later his cousin Sadamori, whose father Masakado had attacked and killed, and Fujiwara no Hidesato, killed him at the Battle of Kojima in 940 and took his head to the capital.

The head found its way to Shibasaki, a small fishing village on the edge of the ocean and the future site of Edo, which later became Tokyo. It was buried. Masakado's grave, which is located in the present day Otemachi section of Tokyo, was on a hill rising out of Tokyo Bay at the time. Through land reclamation over the centuries, the bay has receded some three kilometers to the south.

Over the centuries, Masakado became a demigod to the locals who were impressed by his stand against the central government, while at the same time feeling the need to appease his malevolent spirit. The fortunes of Edo and Tokyo seemed to wax and wane correspondingly with the respect paid to the shrine built to him at the kubizuka — neglect would be followed by natural disasters and other misfortunes. Hence, to this day, the shrine is well maintained, occupying some of the most expensive land in the world in Tokyo’s financial district facing the Imperial Palace.


Other shrines which he is deity of include Kanda Shrine (神田明神) and Tsukudo Jinja (which has multiple locations.)

His tomb (which contains only a monument to his head) is near exit C5 of Tokyo's Otemachi subway station.

All that fits with the pretty imposing image that Atlus has given him in the game, ne?

Petit Chara Land One Piece Mugiwara Pirates in Wonderland Tea Party ぷちきゃらランドシリーズ ワンピース 不思議のティーパーティin麦わらの一味

Megahouse seems to have a fixation with pairing up licensed series with Wonderland, but they do it well, so I have no complaints. Gin-san and company were subject to this mashup a few months ago and I loved that set, so when I saw the One Piece cast + donuts + Wonderland, I snatched up a box. Everyone has that Victorian style, there are certain characters in chairs that come with table pieces to complete the tea party effect, along with chara like Sanji serving. A very cute set overall! I particularly like the way Usopp is done, Chopper and Robin are cute, too. Brook is kinda awesome looking as well, but he's kinda "side-heavy" and even though they give you a cane to prop him up with on the back of his chair, it doesn't sit in there very well and he winds up falling over. I finally got him to stay by some miracle (and tilting him a bit), but it was super annoying to get right.

One Coin Grande Figure Collection Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Ancient Duel!! ワンコイングランデフィギュアコレクション 遊☆戯☆王デュエルモンスターズ 古の決闘(ディアハ)！！

The second set of One Coin Grande Yugioh figures to come down the pipeline from Kotobukiya. It has some really cool additions this time, including Black Magician Girl and Blue Eyes White Dragon. Another cool One Coin set that I obviously had to have.

Toranoana Touhou Project Shushuroku Figures Vol 2 & 3 とらのあな東方蒐集録 第弐と参集

Got series 2 & 3 of the Tora no Ana special Touhou Shushuroku figures, based on the art of Mota. I've been wanting these for a while, and Toranoana actually still had them in stock from last year, this April. Kinda surprised they still exist for order, considering the popularity of Touhou Project both in Japan and abroad, as well as the fact that they are so cute and the fact that they probably weren't made in that great of numbers, as Toranoana is a doujin goods site.

And there really isn't a bad figure here - of course some are better than others, like I would've bought a whole box just for the Flandre figure, for instance.