Yo yo yo! I’m here for my unintentional monthly update!
Bizarre weather led to spring in mid February. Flowers on our plum tree sprouted, so I used the opportunity to snap some pictures of my new Yamatonokami Yasusada figure!
Yasu is my favorite Touken Ranbu sword, and this figure of him, while simple, is just perfect!
Howdy howdy! Today I felt like taking a few photos. I needed someone who would look good outside, and wanted to use a newer figure, so I went with Kirito and Asuna. I ended up with mostly shots of Kirito, but hey!
I found some Momohime pictures languishing in a folder on my computer, so let’s…let’s look at them!
Momohime has always been a treasure figure in my collection, yet I’ve never dedicated much time to posting about her. What I can confirm is that she looks good everywhere and all the time. It’s scary that a figure can be this photogenic!
I was working on a little figure photo post, and ended up getting deep instead. Still, this is a bit about why I’ve slowed down posting a lot, and what I intend to so, so I made it a separate post. This is the last time I’ll get so deep and feelsy, ok?
I’ve been a little stressed lately by what this blog’s place is. I’ve run it since I was 15, and I intend to at least keep it going in some form, but I think a lot of people began coming here for reviews(which is great), but I don’t have the time for those so much anymore. Still, I like taking pictures, so I still want to share them, but I’m not sure what the best way is. I have a tumblr for figures, but figures don’t have an active presence there it seems. Twitter and Instagram are other options, and I am testing out Instagram at the moment. Something I noticed a while back is that I’ve always run blogs for other people. It’s true that I love collecting figures and writing about them, but a big part of this blog has always been giving people what they want whether it be news or reviews. It probably stems from my interest in branding, but I liked building up my blog as something people could rely on and benefit from. I made dedicated Instagrams and Twitters just for figures, so getting away from it all on my hiatus was relaxing for a change. I missed blogging though, and started using tumblr a lot only to have a little crisis when I found myself doing the exact same thing there–running a blog for something I liked, but slowly beginning to cater to other people. It was like having a big fancy blog was something I needed, and I couldn’t just be a normal person. As I’ve gotten older and moved on to enjoy other things, it felt wrong to keep having “figure exclusive” accounts. It felt like I was segmenting myself instead of being one complete person with many interests. I know this seems silly to fret about, but this is how I’ve been for so long that I have to continually remind myself to “cool it” and not worry about being the most popular or having tons of followers or dedicated content. Another reason I was so gung ho about being a noteworthy blog is because I saw a lot of figure bloggers and toy photographers being sponsored or working with companies which was my dream, and hoping to have my hobby become something more, I made a lot of work for myself. I loved it all, but it was also time consuming and stressful at times.
This all got a little dramatic, but I just want you all(whoever is left lol) to know what’s been going on with me lately. I’ve since started an Instagram account for myself where I intend to post about all of my life, and not just my figures. A lot of social media doesn’t allow for the comprehensive posts I apparently like to write though, so I will still post my figure photos with all of the overthought descriptions here, but far fewer reviews. I’ll probably move into Twitter too once I figure out exactly how it all works. My favorite photos will go on social media, but I’ll post full galleries here and of course on my Flickr which has all of my photos.
I just need to teach myself to slow down, be normal, and have blogs and such be a portion of my life, and not the driving force, and I want to I guess publicly admit that. I suppose this is all part of that weird maturing phase haha!
In conclusion! As dramatic as this all feels, one reason I can justify caring so much is because it was through blogging and collecting that I met a particularly wonderful group of real life friends. I have also made many connections with readers, so I see my blog’s future as something to worry about because it honestly changed my life! So, if you would like to remain in touch through social media of whatever, please leave a comment or send and email or something, and I can give you my Instagram…or something.
Aaah finally back to writing something! I do still care about this blog, but with college kicking my butt, I’ve transitioned regularly to more stress free blogging via tumblr. But just know that I still care. Maybe not as passionately about figures as back in high school, but I CARE. *ahem* Today we’ll be looking at a nendoroid of Fire Emblem’s Legendary Hero King Marth by Goodsmile
Company.
Ah, Fire Emblem. Where do I begin? The series’ newest installments, Awakening and Fates, have destroyed my life, but Fire Emblem is in no way new. To celebrate Fire Emblem’s 25th anniversary, there has been a small influx of merchandise including nendoroids of classic characters Marth and Caeda. Another game many people know Marth from is Super Smash bros, and this nendoroid uses the same design seen in Smash 4. The FE game his design originates from is the 2010 installment titled “New Mystery of the Fire Emblem”.
Marth does not appear as a story character in either of the two Fire Emblem games I’ve played, but I find him rather endearing regardless. I did not care at all when he and Lucina(oh my gosh I haven’t even reviewed her) were announced, but by the time both were out, I was obsessed and picked up Marth both to support Fire Emblem nendoroids and because I thought he was really cute!
So let’s take a look at our kawaii Hero King!
The box is the standard nendoroid layout with accents in what my friends and I have come to refer to as “Fire Emblem blue”.
About a year ago, I bought the “March Comes in like a Lion” Re-ment set with the intention of doing a casual review on it! However after shooting a few pieces, I lost my sunlight, and while I intended to go back and shoot the rest, I never did, and the pictures have been rotting in my folder. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and cobwebs were everywhere. It was terrible.
Uh anyway, I really liked the pictures I did take, so I’m going to accept that I’ll never photograph the rest of the set and just post what I have, so here we gooooo
*My first intro was deleted somehow, so this review is a tad brief as I don’t have it in me to rewrite all that*
Today we’ll be looking at Flare’s 1/7 Caster from Fate Extra CCC. Caster is not only my first figure by Flare, but one of my favorite characters!
I like many characters, but there’s a precious few that I rate above the rest and prioritize finding merch of simply because they appeal to me very much personally. Caster is one of those(I have a list of the others on my MFC profile if anyone is curious *sweats*), but when the bondage-riffic designs from CCC began to get figures, I was able to easily pass on them. However in addition to the black leather and strap-fits, cuter casual outfits were also introduced, and I preordered Flare’s casual Caster right away.
Flare is affiliated with Alter, but to be honest, I do not know the exact reason for their existence. Offshoot companies like Orange Rouge or Altair are often created to serve a specific niche(in these cases, male figures), but I do not know if Flare is one like this, or if they simply utilize the same resources as Alter. Regardless, their quality is often on par.
I’m very sad to have to write this post, but judging on how I’ve been posting lately, I don’t think it’s too surprising of a jump.
You all know I love to talk, so first, some context:
(and an unrelated pretty picture to break up the text)
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I started this blog back in 2012 which was a very very different time. I was a junior in high school with about a year and a half of figure collecting and photography behind me(I started when I was 14 oh my gosh). I had no job, a lot of time, and -I don’t mean this pitifully- not many friends. Like I said, I’m not trying to drum up pity, but it’s true that I had very few friends of people to spend time with, and I say that only now looking back. Naturally, I took to the internet and began blogging as the best way to chat with others about my hobby. Having lots of time also let me write tons of reviews, take tons of pictures, and write for tons of hours. Reviewing my stats, 2014 was my best year for views and posts, and ironically, it was a tough time in my life. However, as I began college and my life changed in 2015, I found it just a little bit harder to keep up with my previous pace. When I compiled the photos for the 2015 Photo Summary(which I will write one day…), I found several months with absolutely no pictures which was very uncommon in past years. My review pile grew also to be so large that I had to change the way I publish pictures. Amid this, my personal life changed a lot. I made many more friends in college, at work, and in the hobby too which was something I didn’t expect. My hobbies also expanded to include sewing, crafts, dolls, games, and most recently cosplay. My time was no longer solely for figure photography and blogging, and I hated to think of it becoming a chore. Over the past few months, I have done my best to remove the scheduled posts and routines on the blog in favor of something more spontaneous and less time consuming. However, it has only prolonged the inevitable which is that I do not have the time right now to maintain the blog as I have or need to.
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Which brings us to where we are today. This semester is much more difficult than my past two, my grades are slipping which worries me, and I already have plenty of distractions which I am having to deal with.
For these reasons, I sadly have to put the blog on hiatus for my own good. And as much as I hate to say it, this includes Figma News Fridays. I often receive messages saying how helpful FNF is to fellow figma lovers, so I really really hate to stop writing it, but I have to. Just today when Max Factory teased a Ted figma(YOU HEARD ME. THAT BEAR FROM THAT MOVIE), I seriously wanted to not go on hiatus, but I have to keep myself focused.
This hiatus means that I will not be writing new posts for a while, but it does not mean that I will stop blogging forever or quit collecting. I still love figures very much, and when I do return, I’d love to bombard you all with tons of figure, doll, and cosplay love and pick FNF back up! I also will not be leaving the internet or Facebook, so please please feel free to continue reading or leaving comments on older blog posts(they go straight to my email), PM me on MFC, or message the blog’s Facebook page. I check all of these things regularly, and will happily answer any questions you have about anything or even just chat about figures with you! Even during this hiatus, the blog and FNF will likely live on in an abbreviated form through the Facebook page which is much faster to update than the blog itself.
The elephant in the room is Wonderfestival which is tomorrow. Admittedly the four hours I usually spend writing the wrap up post for Wonfes is part of what convinced me to go on hiatus, but I’d feel terrible stopping literally the day before a huge event for figmas, so rather than the traditional monster post, I will create a Facebook album for pictures of every figma at the event with any comments I have which I feel is better than nothing.
So to everybody who has kept up with the blog for its many years, left comments, and shown me your support, thank you thank you thank you. I hope to return properly in due time, but until then, I wont disappear!
Welcome to Figma News Fridays!
But, Yami Usagi, it’s Tues–*slaps* and what a lovely week it was, so let’s get started!
Asuna ALO version Release Date Announced
Never Outgrew Toys 