Figma News Fridays: 11/1/13

Welcome to the first November edition of Figma News Fridays! The end of the year is certainly in sight which is a little scary, but there’s still lots of holiday fun to be had before that. This week had a good assortment of figma news with a release date announcement, two sculpted prototypes, a preorder, and something…that I apparently missed a few weeks ago. So let’s get started!

Monday

Miku Hatsune 2.0 Release Date Announced

Miku was delayed last month, but it seems that delay was short lived as Miku will be out on November 9th.

Indiana Jones Preorders Begin

Indiana Jones is the next iconic live action character to join the figma line! Complete with two faces, a variety of artifacts, his trusty whip, and (thankfully) no snakes, he’s sure to bring an air of adventure to your collection. Indiana Jones will be available in March 2014 for 4800 yen.

Because of my affinity for anime figures, I was never remotely interested in buying this figure, so I’m out of my element when it comes to critiquing Indy. But I can say that many appear to be displeased with this iteration of Indiana Jones especially because of his face which they say looks more like the older Harrison Ford seen in the Crystal Skull movie. I do have to say that the face sculpt is different than the usual figma face since it is more wrinkled(and a tad waxy looking), but no real person has the baby’s bottom smooth skin of an anime character, so maybe it isn’t fair to judge that.
On the positive side, the clothes are beautifully weathered which is a great way to differentiate figmas of real people from the typical anime character. I just wonder how well western characters sell since a good chunk of their fans have never heard of figmas. It must be decent enough since western characters show up every now and then.
A pass for me.

Thursday

Eren Yeager Rerelease Preorders Begin

Upset about missing Eren the first time? Well, like with Mikasa, you’re in luck because preorders for Eren’s rerelease in May have already opened. Everything from the first time around including price and GSC Shop’s Di;stage bonus(available from 2013/09/05 (Thurs) – 2013/10/02 (Wed) at 21:00JST) still applies, and if the fact that he’s still available on amiami(unlike last time) means anything, Eren will be much easier to get this time around.
I thankfully secured my Eren preorder for the first release, so I can pass on Eren this time, but seeing that this has happened with both SNK figmas and the newest Madoka scale, it appears that GSC is changing their preorder system. Rather than having a widely available first release and gaging demand for a possible second, we are now treated to an insanely quick first preorder period followed by a more accessible rerelease not long after. I’m not entirely sure why they’re doing this. Maybe it’s to funnel panicked customers to their own “made to order” store, maybe it’s to manage quality and cut back on delays, or even just to create buzz around their products. I could even be overreacting since this has only happened with popular characters. But whatever this is, I can’t say I like it. I don’t mind having a special first release for the hardcore fans, but if this is the case, I’d prefer to be told so instead of spending a week wondering if I can secure a preorder only to have a second release spring up later.

Levi Sculpted

Give me an “H”! Give me an “eichou”! What does that spell? LEVI!
Alongside Eren’s rerelease is the newly sculpted scouting legion champ, Levi. I can only imagine how horrendous trying to preorder him will be, but let’s just forget that for now and admire him.
I was not originally very interested in Levi(he’s still not exactly my favorite character), but after ordering Eren and Mikasa, I will gladly add him to my growing army. I’m excited to see his alternate faces and will be shocked if we don’t get cleaning accessories of some kind.

Shimakaze Sculpted

After her nendoroid sold out instantly, figma Shimakaze is almost ready to test more wallets. I most likely will end up passing on her, but am definitely interested in seeing her painted. I bet she’ll be very cute!

Akagi Announced

Well, it’s technically inaccurate to list Akagi for this Thursday because she was apparently announced earlier in October, but this was the first time I’d heard of it! Anyway, Akagi will definitely be joining Shimakaze as the next Kantai Collection figma. Her design is noticeably more traditional Japanese.

That’s all for this week!
I also should mention that I will not be online this weekend because I’m going camping! This will be my first ever camping trip(maybe trip isn’t the right word since we’ll be about and hour away) and the timing couldn’t be better because not only has the weather been gorgeous, this is the prettiest fall I’ve seen in a few years. I’ll obviously be bringing Tamaki, Kagura, and a few figures along, so there will be plenty of pictures to share when I get back. This also means that figma Kaito’s review will be further delayed which I’m very sorry about since I try to get reviews out quickly. But with Halloween and other things, this week has been more full than anticipated.

So, are you excited by any of these figmas?