Saku's AFK Corner » Alter

2010 Hobby Expenses

Saku — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 05:00:55 +0000

It’s that time of the year for another not so obligatory post for my 2010 hobby expenses ranging from figures, nendoroids to custom skins for my PS3, PSP and iPhone 3G. In all honesty, I am quite happy that I managed to trim my expenses down to below $1,500 so I met my quota from previous year. See my 2009 hobby expenses for comparison.

Item	Manufacturer	Shipping	Price (Yen)	Points	Total(Yen)	Total(CAD)
Black Rock Shooter	Good Smile Company	¥5,400	¥8,867	¥ 581	¥13,686	$166.42
Takamachi Nanoha Exceed Mode	Alter	¥4,000	¥12,160	¥414	¥15,746	$191.47
Takamachi Nanoha -Stand By Ready-	Alter	¥3,200	¥9,310	¥ 587	¥11,923	$144.98
Asakura Nemu Circus Ver.	Circus	¥2,040	¥7,480	¥436	¥9,084	$110.46
Black Rock Shooter: Black Blade ver.	Good Smile Company	¥2,800	¥5,181	¥352	¥7,629	$92.77
Saber -Triumphant Excalibur-	Good Smile Company	¥1,580	¥7,933	-	¥9,513	$115.68
Selvaria Bles Valkyria Ver. (PVC Figure)	Alter	¥3,200	¥11,530	-	¥14,730	$179.12
Alicia Melchiott (PVC Figure)	Kotobukiya	¥ 980	¥6,760	-	¥7,740	$94.12
Nendoroid Saber: Super Movable Edition	Good Smile Company	¥ 340	¥3,238	¥950	¥2,628	$31.96
Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st Alarm Clock w/ Voice (A) Nanoha Takamachi	Movic	¥ 795	¥7,140	-	¥7,935	$96.49
Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st Alarm Clock w/ Voice (B) Fate Testarossa	Movic	¥ 795	¥7,140	-	¥7,935	$96.49
Angel Beats iPhone case Yuri and Tenshi for iPhone 4	GSC	¥ 890	¥2,640	-	¥3,530	$42.92
Custom skins for PSP, PS3 and iPhone 3G	GelaSkins					$82.04
Grand Total						$1,444.91

Throughout the year, I had to cancel some items in order to cut down my expenses. Here is the list of items that didn’t make into my precious collection.

Saber Lily 1/7 by Alter
Inaba Yui 1/7 by Good Smile Company
Nendoroid Petit: Angel Beats by Good Smile Company
Asuka Langley Plug Suit Test Type Version 1/8 by Alter
Black Rock Shooter -Animation Version- 1/8 by Good Smile Company
Mina Tepes 1/6 by Kotobukiya

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Image via Safebooru

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Dizzy by Alter

Saku — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 01:34:22 +0000

Dizzy from Guilty Gear XX Accent Core game is given her own spotlight in the figure world by Alter, which is famous to produce a high quality figure. If I may recall correctly, the last Dizzy figure was manufactured by Kotobukiya (someone correct me if I am wrong ^^). She is one of my favourite characters in Guilty Gear series and I only use girl characters in any games anyways ^^;;.

Even though Dizzy is scaled at 1/8, she takes a lot of space due to her wings. I wonder how big her box is going to be since height alone is 310 mm including her wings. It kinda makes for her price which is 11,800 yen MSRP.

Crazy sculpture work on her back especially on making those two wings but does it have enough support for those two wings ? it seems fragile to me. Don't you guys think so too ?

I just love her eyes. There is something about her eyes that piques my interest in this figure.

One of Dizzy's wing, Necro

Another Dizzy's wing, Undine

I got this preorder but I am still 50-50 on whether or not I will get her. How about you ?

Additional Tidbits

Manufacturer	Alter
Scale	1/8
Original	Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
Release Date	Late April 2011
Retail Price	¥11,800 (Price varies due to discounts or other promotions for each store)
Available for pre-order	Hobby Search, Ami Ami, jlist, Play-Asia,Otacute, Hobby Link Japan

Fate Testarossa -Phantom Minds-

Saku — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:56:34 +0000

My wallet is getting thinner and thinner these days, more preorders left and right. October this year, I may need to file for bankruptcy since they are quite a few figures released on that month. The next month after, November, another high profile figure is being released which is no other than Fate Testarossa -Phantom Minds- (Nanoha The Movie 1st edition).

She is just gorgeous. I just love her hair and jacket as if she's flying in the air

Another look from the the inside part of her jacket. Nice dark reddish colour and it's really shinny too ^^

She has a few Bardiche form to pair with so figure photographers can expect many poses from her ^^

It looks like that she will take a lot of space on your figure shelves ^^:;

Usefull stand to hang the Bardiche while they are not being used.

Additional tidbits

Manufacturer	Alter
Scale	1/7
Released Date	November 2010
Retail Price	~11,800 (some online retailers offer discount)
Currently available for preorder	Hobby Search

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January and February Loot

Saku — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:53:15 +0000

2 greatest loots (arguably of course) arrive on January and February consecutively and both of them are probably my two most expensive loots of this year.

Nanoha Takamachi Exceed Mode 1/7 by Alter

I just picked up my Nanoha at the post office tonight and was quite shocked with the custom fee. I was charged CAD$37 which is higher than usual because it’s usually around CAD$25. Nanoha and Fate are almost at the same price so I would expect ~$25 custom fee. I guess it all depends the mood of the officer who was examining my stuff. Does anyone experience a sporadic custom fee too in your country?

Side View Left - Magic Circle

Back View - Nanoha Silhouette

I like Nanoha Silhouette on the back

Side View Right - Magic Circle

Side view left and right have the same magic circle.

Top View

“Ace of Ace”….. I like it.

Bottom View

The other loot is Black Rock Shooter. It arrived 2 weeks prior to my Nanoha and I still haven’t opened it yet ^^;; since the box is nice enough to be on display. In addition, it’s a medium size so it does not take up that much space.

Black Rock Shooter 1/7 PVC by Good Smile Company

Side View Right

BSR box is great. I love the photo of the figure on the right side. I wish I can have a setting like that for my BSR photo shoot ^^.

Side View Left

On the left, you are given the illustration of BSR figure. Pretty nice ^^.

Back View

On the back, there are couple BSR photos from different angles

Top View

Bottom View

So how much did they cost ? Lets talk about that briefly.

Nanoha Takamachi 1/7 PVC Exceed Mode
Unit Price: 12,160 yen
Shipping: 4,000 yen
Points: -414 Yen
Custom: CAD$37
Total: ~$221

Black Rock Shooter
Unit Price: 8,867 yen
Shipping: 5,400 yen
Points: -581 Yen
Custom: CAD$25
Total: ~$185

So far, I meet my quota of 1 figure per month, although, I need to keep the cost of each figure down >.>

Box is friggin huge ^^;

Saku — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:12:07 +0000

Front View

My Fate-T-Harlaown 1/7 figure by Alter arrived yesterday. It’s been a long wait for us, figure collectors, especially any Fate fanboys/girls out there.Delay after delay, does it really worth the price and the delays ? Let pictures be the judge.

Front Bottom View

Top View

Rear View

Rear View - Option Parts

Rear View

Right-Side View

Left-Side View

Bottom View

I think the box is pretty nice and I like the colour scheme. Now, lets talk how much it cost.

Original Price : 12,160 Yen
Shipping: 4,000 Yen
Points: -532 Yen
Total: 15,628 Yen
Exchange Rate to Canadian Dollar: ~$186
Custom fee: $23
Final cost: $209

Ouchie $209. I complained a bit about the custom fee in twitter but after hearing what James (Exelica-Meteor.com) had to pay ($55), $23 is not so bad after all . So how much did you have to pay for the custom fee ? Anyone pays more than $55 ?

Btw, James got his review/photo shoot up at his blog. I haven’t opened mine yet so photoshoot has to wait ^^;;. Currently, I am satisfied looking at the box.