It’s May already! The weather is quite nice here– even if my horrible habit of sleeping in late and then working all day means I do not get to enjoy it as I’d like.
The beginning of May also marks the descent of a black cloud of silence over our hobby which is known in Japan as…Golden Week! Yes, Golden Week, that group of holidays in which our favorite hobby stores shut down and our precious packages still trapped in their homeland may or may not move for a while. But our favorite companies and stores are always hard at work providing us with things to drain our wallets with, so why not give them a break? There probably will not be much news to share next week, but until then let us enjoy these tasty figure tidbits. I thought there would be just one piece of news this week, but two others popped up which are sure to make some fans quite happy.
Wednesday
Captain America Preorders Begin
Origin: The Avengers
From the film ‘The Avengers’ comes a figma of Captain America!
•Using the smooth yet posable joints of figma, you can act out a variety of different scenes.
•Great attention has been given to the smallest of details and painting of his armor, giving the figma a heavy, metallic appearance.
•Careful thought has gone into the articulation of the chest and other areas, keeping the Captain’s unique style in mind and still allowing for various action poses.
•A number of hand parts as well as his impenetrable shield are included.
•Like figma Thor, his eyes are moveable allowing you to change the direction he is looking.
•An articulated figma stand is included, allowing various poses to be taken.
Captain America retails for 6111 yen and will be released in September.
There are many famous captains: Captain Hook, Captain Courageous, Captain Crunch, Captain Obvious, Captain Morgan… but the Captain we’re here for today is the Avengers’ very own Captain America!
Like all of the Avengers figmas, Captain America sports a well executed realistic sculpt. However I feel that also like the others in the line, Captain America’s accessories are rather bare bone. As if merely sculpting the characters was enough and mind melding for impressive accessories was not necessary. For your money, you will receive Captain America himself, hands, and his shield. He lacks extra faces, but this is partially remedied by the fact that, like Thor, her has moveable eyes(on a side note, I’d like to try out the moveable eye mechanism, but seeing that only manly man characters have gotten it so far, I don’t see that happening). It is true that the figure features some detailed paint work, and perhaps the license cost is so high that additional accessories would raise the price even higher, but effect parts and maybe even a second head sans mask would make this figure much more of a hot commodity.
In the end, all I can say is that fans of the Captain will surely love him, but observers such as myself may be feeling lukewarm. In a very unpatriotic move, Captain America is a pass for me.
Friday
Haruka Nanase Painted
Origin: Free!
It looks like Max Factory is finally making proper progress on the Free! line. Haruka is finally colored, and is looking better than before, but perhaps a little far from perfect.
First the good: check out ‘dem muscles! Somehow shirtless male figmas(uncommon as they are) always suffer from “moobs”, but Haruka’s pecks appear much less ample and a lot of detail is in his abdominal muscles.
Now the bad: swimwear is probably still not the best attire for action figures. Swimsuit Sonico left me pleasantly surprised with her well integrated joints, but Haruka sinks me back into reality by reminding me that the action figure world is not yet, and may never be, fully ready for characters with minimal clothing. Have you ever flipped over a ladybug? If you think the ladybug is pretty, just don’t touch it, because what’s underneath that ruby red shell is not so pretty. In other words, unless you want to see weird breaks in the sculpt, a slight diaper butt, and very obvious knee joints, don’t flip Haruka around!
But I like to be optimistic, and now is too early to pass judgment on poor Haruka because I have a feeling that the accessories will make or break this figma. We’ve already seen a few, but I am waiting for the full colored package before determining whether or not Free! figmas is a good thing.
Makoto Tachibana Announced
Origin: Free!
I said the Free! line was moving along, didn’t I? Makoto is next in line, and I only wish the boys had been figmatized in their jackets and swim shorts instead of just shorts.
That concludes this week! What had you on your toes? Was it Captain America and his impenetrable shield, or the charming boys of Free? I only wish my wallet was impenetrable.
Never Outgrew Toys 
Would like to see the good Captain without his helmet. He looks kind of strange with it on — or maybe that’s the eyes. I know my girl dolls wouldn’t complain if Thor or maybe even Loki came here to live, but they are pretty pricy!
http://mylittledollcorner.blogspot.com/
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I am surprised he didn’t come with an unmasked head, but these Avengers figures don’t much with much any way(except Iron Man), so I guess I’m not surprised after all.
There is already Thor for preorder, but I think he’d be little more than a plaything for dolls XD
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I watched Captain America just a few days ago! I really love Marvel now ><
Spider-Man 2 is coming out soon
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The moving eyes were only good for one character and that was Revoltech’s Woody. I do wish the Cap’n came with more…. at least his pistol and grenade. Maybe even an extra head so he can be displayed mask less
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The moving eyes ARE Woody XD
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I know some may like the moving eyes, but holy crap does the Captain look creepy.
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No matter where you go, his eyes will follow you O_O
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Oh no, Usagi what did you see under the ladybug! You’re not the only one disappointed in Captain America, I still hate their crazy price tags. I don’t understand how figmas like Amy, Mikasa, and Shimakaze come with so much and cost less than the Avengers. Didn’t know you were into Free, I’m not picking them up, but they do look wonky in the back.
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Well considering its MARVEL, I’m sure they had to get rights to make the figures. So that costs money…. plus its the Avengers. Who wouldn’t milk something so popular for all they’re worth? Its just like the Seahawks, as soon as they won their major event, prices on their products skyrocketed to ridiculous prices. But I’m sure the Marvel characters cost more because of the legal stuff they may have had to go through for production… I hope I made sense. I’m still in the process of waking up >.>
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I know the why, but it doesn’t make the price feel any better. I didn’t really need another Cap or Iron Man on my shelf so this probably better in my case.
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I’m not actually into Free(although I do sometimes shamelessly listen to the ending song), but I’m trying to give better evaluations on figures even if I’m not interested in buying them.
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It’s okay I like reading your evaluations, I’ll be sure to make more comedic responses next time. Even though there’s no figma news you probably caught the news on Red’s Nendo, considering how much you like Pokemon. And the Sailor Senshi are almost completed at Tamashii Nations, so there’s some good things this week.
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Haha yep I saw Red! And after freaking out in real life, I proceeded to plaster the news all over my FB and Twitter XD The world must know!
I’m still holding out for scales of my favorites before jumping on board the revived Sailor Moon train XD
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Incoming wall of text. I had a feeling you’d be interested in Red’s Nendo. By scales, do you mean Bandai’s overpriced prize figures. You should check out Banpresto’s Statue which releases next month, Moon’s only announced so far, but they might expand. I only buy Bandai’s stuff on extreme sales these days, then it’s back to figmas. Speaking of figmas…………….
http://ameblo.jp/figma/, I’ll need this. Like now. Right this second.
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It’s something I’d always hoped for even though I wasn’t sure it’d ever happened. Now I just hope it’s not a one time thing…
Anything really. I haven’t been pleased with any of Bandai’s Sailor Moon scales so far, and am not a big enough fan to settle just because it’s Sailor Moon–although that may very well be becasue they haven’t made any of my favorite characters yet. I hope that when the new anime airs, there will be enough hype that other companies can at least get in on the SM merch. I’m not optimistic enough to expect a full nendo/figma line from GSC, but anything Bandai needs competition.
You mean the tank?
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Yes, Yes, Yes, that analysis was spot on! I like what you said about, not buying it because it’s Sailor Moon, I feel that too many people are buying them because Bandai’s the only one making merch. now. I’ve read people saying that they’ve bought them because, “The quality might improve later”. Bandai’s scales just look like overpriced prize figures, with the price of GSC’s scales. They don’t even look very good as a group. I’m so used to Bandai’s QC issues I’ve dropped most of their “Arts” line now, unless I find them on a generous enough sale and I REALLY like the series. If GSC makes Figmas, I’ll sell off all my Figuarts immediately. Oh, and if they add Card Captor Sakura figmas, we’ll be able to have the Magical Girl Trinity of Madoka, Sakura, and Sailor Moon =D. As for Red’s Nendo, I don’t understand why they made him exclusive, I’ve got rid of my Pokemon D-Arts, and I certainly wouldn’t mind, GSC taking the license. Oh and yes everyone needs a figma Tank, ViVa La Ex Ride!
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Yep, that’s my deal with the Sailor Saturn Figuarts. I’ll only consider her if she’s on sale somewhere. Although, I often feel that I’m in far too deep with figmas to even try to incorporate any figures from another pose able line(not counting chibis).
GSC’s being able to make a Pokemon nendo seems fishy to me–I mean it can’t be that simple. Bandai has had Pokemon for years with no reason to give it up, and the whole exclusive thing reminds me of that one time deal where GSC made an Edward Elric(sacred Square Enix property XD) petite as a magazine bundle. It makes me think that a third party would have to be involved in order for GSC to get close to Pokemon. Maybe for an event(although I can’t think of what it would be). Or perhaps Nintendo is involved since GSC and friends have had access to a lot of their characters lately. Or it could just be that GSC has just become so reputable that issuing them a short license it worth it since their products sell so well. My final guess would be that Bandai’s license relies on the anime and GSC went through Nintendo to get a license for the games(which could explain why they made Red and not Satoshi/Ash)–I know that Max Factory did something similar to make the Kamen Rider figmas.
Long story short, I’m thrilled to see a Red nendo, but seeing that he’s exclusive to two Japan only stores and isn’t even on GSC’s domestic shop whereas other Nintendo characters were standard releases makes me doubtful that we’ll get much more.
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Finally someone who understands my frustration with Bandai, great minds think alike XD. I’ll try looking out for a sale for you, when I pick up Saturn, I made a vow to not pay more than 30 dollars for Tamashii products, saves me money. Maybe Nintendo saw how meh the Pokemon D-Arts were and gave the license to Good Smile, but Bandai has plenty of money so I can only dream. Licensing in Japan can be strange, because unlike the U.S. there’s usually no monopoly over a license with rare exceptions like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest which are under Square. It’s a good time for Nintendo fans, I never thought I would have super possible Nintendo figures until now. I only wish Max Factory made Mario because I don’t want to do business wth Bandai anymore. I’d rather not jump through hoops to pick up a Nendo so I’m probably passing on Red. I don’t think you reviewed Link and Samus, so is Pokemon like your favorite Nintendo game.
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