Saku's AFK Corner » Figure

Octavia at Avalon Castle

Saku — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:36:53 +0000

This is my first photo shoot since…… a while ago I guess ^^;;. Fall/Winter is coming and the weather is getting chillier everyday so I thought I would have an outdoor photo shoot for the last time. My last outdoor photo shoot was at Niagara Falls where I went there with my parents and I would love to go there for another photo shoot session. For Octavia, I chose Casaloma castle as my setting since a castle fits her image/clothing perfectly.

Fellow readers probably can tell that I am little bit rusty since I haven’t done any photo shoots for the last 4-5 months. Outdoor photo shoot would be great to get things going again.

One thing that I love about this figure is that she can stand without using her base so she is perfect for outdoor photo shoot because having her base would be weird in outdoor environment.

For this session, I only use her unsheathed sword because I just like her pose more ^^. Anime girls with a sword are the best thing ever ^^

If I can be nit-picking with this figure, her paint job is mediocre and there are quite imperfection on her clothing especially on her shoulder. More over, don’t even get me started on her face as she looks different than the one in the anime. Since it’s Kotobukiya, I didn’t expect much from this figure. I bought because it’s Octavia and I just love anime girls with swords.

You can see the castle as her background and it suits her perfectly. This one would be even better if it’s closer but I like the black-white version of this one.

Details

Manufacturer: Kotobukiya
Scale: 1/8
Series: Tears to Tiara
Release Date: Nov 2008
Retail Price: 6800 yen

Thanks for reading and I hope you guys enjoy the photos. Sorry some pictures are little bit dark ^^;;.

Sakura Matou 1/6 by Griffon Enterprise

Saku — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:18:34 +0000

After my previous double date Asa-senpai at harbour front couple weeks ago, Sakura had demanded me to take her out for a date and as a sign of jealousy, she wouldn’t let me to take her pictures until I do so. Not only that, since she is competing with Asa-senpai, she also wanted me to take her for a trip to Niagara Falls. She had never been there apparently ^^;; and t0 my surprise, she didn’t mind tagging along with my family who happened to be going to Niagara Falls as well. When we arrived at Niagara Falls, she told that she would keep her promise and let me take some pictures of her while enjoying the scenery of Niagara Falls . She was very excited since it’s her first time her and told me to hurry up and take some pictures of her. She was demanding, wasn’t she ? but she kept her promise and let me took some pictures of her.

She likes Niagara Falls so much that she wanted to have her pictures taken using Niagara Falls as the background.

This figure was released back on February 2007 so it’s quite an old figure considering the amount of figures being released every year. I barely remember when I bought this figure, although, I do think it was last year when I just started collecting figures. One thing that I am not sure of is the scale. It states that it’s 1/6 but the figure itself is more like 1/8 than 1/6 because 1/6 figures that I have are much bigger than this one. If there is a life size Sakura, she must be a pretty tiny girl ^^.

After along walk along the falls, Sakura and I went to a nearby park. She was little bit wet from the water falls but I was not really worried because her uniform is fully waterproof ^^ , although, I was hoping it’s not if you guys know what I meant ^^.

This is one of my favorite picture of her among others. The flowers background and some leafs beside her seemed to fit her image nicely

This would be my favorite picture of her. The angle is just perfect and the flowers match with her eyes colour and hair colour.

Browse through all pictures using the slideshow below ^^

Review

I am not sure if it is because I have been getting too many figures from Alter or GSC but I started noticing the different quality in particular, the paint job. I may be biased but other manufactures seemed not to be not as good as Alter or GSC, the attention to details are great and beyond expectation.. As for this figure, the paint job is pretty good but I don’t like her eyes and face for some reasons. I don’t think her face looks closed enough to Sakura in the anime/eroge version (I am justbeing nitpicked here). As a typical Griffon’s figure, this figure comes with a clear based and her name + series engraved on top it. I didn’t bother to bring it because it’s pretty much a hindrance during outdoor photo shoot. She is a 2-part figures as you can separate her top and her bottom part. Other than her eyes + hair, her uniform is nicely painted and her socks adds a moe factor(I think) to her.

During the photoshoot ( not exactly a photo session but it’s more like I took pictures as I walked ), I was kinda in hurry especially the ones with Falls’ background because the wind was quite strong so I was really worried that the wind might blow my figure away >.> . The funny thing is that my mom was more worried about the figure that I was lol ^^;; and she told me to hurry up and took some photos. Even though I took a lot of photos with the Falls’ background, unfortunately, only some of them turned at least decent because the rest is too bright. One thing that I found really annoying about outdoor photoshoot is the fact when the result on the screen of your camera and on your computer is totally different. I couldn’t measure if the result is too bright or too dark (damn sun) on the screen.

Manufacturer : Griffon Enterprise Inc.

Scale : 1/6

Series : Fate/Hollow Ataraxia

Character : Matou Sakura

Released Date : February 2007

Camera : Nikon D40 with stock 18-55mm lens

Price : Couldn’t remember where I got her and for how much -_-;; 5,600 Yen at HLJ

Location : Niagara Falls

Previous photo shoot: here (my old photoshoot back in February 2008)

Image via Gelbooru

Last but not least, Happy Mothers Day

Shigure Asa 1/8 by Alter

Saku — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:41:15 +0000

It was a long weekend in Toronto since we had a Good Friday so it’s a day off for majority of people. Not only that, it happened to be having nice and sunny weather in Toronto. It’s little bit windy though but there is no need for multi layers of clothing.

Asa-senpai and I decided to go for a date and we went to a well-known spot for tourism called Harbour Front. Asa-senpai was quite a klutz in the morning because she forgot that there is no school due to public holiday. Too lazy to change, she went on a date with a school uniform. Seeing Asa-senpai in a school uniform, I couldn’t complain, could I ? ^^.

Even when she is on a date, she will never forget to bring her little doll on her bag.

“Such a nice weather today, isn’ it?” She said.

“Lets go over there to the park” as she dragged me to go with her to the nearest park.

“Naughty wind…… you saw it, didn’t you ?” she asked. I was speechless and tried to find some excuses but no luck. At the same time, I thanked the wind for this rare chance ^^.

I was lost in my thought and said to myself how great it would be to see Asa-senpai in bikini.

“Look at the seagulls”

“I am so excited. This is my first time seeing a CN Tower. It’s so high” She said as she was admiring the CN Tower. Too bad I was not as excited as she was since I saw it too many times and I always thought, it’s just a tower ^^;;

I can never doubt alter’s quality. The frilly skirt looks amazing and not to mention the little doll on her school bag. As someone who loves the series, her uniform definitely looks like the one in the anime. A perfect match, I would say and her face is definitely pretty close to the real Asa so I think Alter has done a really good job on this figure (or any other figures).

For any shuffle fans or Asa-senpai fans, I highly recommend this figure. She is definitely worth buying ^^

Manufacturer : Alter

Scale : 1/8

Series : Shuffle! Memories

Character : Shigure Asa

Released Date : November 2008

Camera : Nikon D40 with stock 18-55mm lens

Price : 6,460 Yen at Hobby Search

Location : Harbour Front

Caren Hortensia 1/8 by Alter

Saku — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:08:01 +0000

As I promised from my last preview post. my next photo shoot would be the lovely Caren Hortensia by Alter. Hearing the name Alter, we usually have our expectation set to high whether it would be the paint job, sculpt or the overal figure. So far, Alter has not disappointed me even once so will it meet my expectation ? let the pictures decide ^^.

Manufacturer : Alter

Scale : 1/8

Series : Fate Hollow Ataraxia

Character : Caren Hortensia

Released Date : December 2006

Camera : Nikon D40 with stock 18-55mm lens

Price : $50 at DTAC

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Signum 1/7 by Alter

Saku — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:12:14 +0000

My backlog figures stack are getting higher, although, it may not be as high as Rin’s. Alter Signum is my first Magical Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS figure and the only one that really captivated my eyes. It’s no secret that I love anime characters with a sword and Signum is happened to be one of them ^^. More pictures below.

I won’t be using white background until I can fix my lighting and the grey background suits her well in this case I think. In addition, the lighting from my upper lamp is little too harsh ( I think) and have to make it softer on my next photo shoot.

Alter Signum is probably the biggest figure I have due to her dynamic pose and lovely base.

The sheath paint was chipped and there are some paint on her left hand when I got her (luck of the draw I guess >.>). For some reasons, I had a hard time putting her sheath on her left hand. Does anyone have this problem ? because I had to wiggle it around.

Some details about Signum herself.

Manufacturer : Alter

Scale : 1/7

Series : Magical Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

Character :Signum

Released Date : January 2009

Camera : Nikon D40 with stock 18-55mm lens

Price : 8,380 Yen at Hobbysearch (Out of stock)

Other review from fellow bloggers (that I can remember):

Meronpan (wawawawasuremono)

Optic (The dis-JoinTedzone)

James (Exelica-Meteor)

Sorry if I missed anyone >.>