[LEFT IMAGE: Galaxy Angel Limited DVD, ALTER 1/8 Rina Rindou and ALTER 1/8 Takako Itsukushima; RIGHT IMAGE: Goodsmile Co. Saber Lion Nendoroid and Beagle 1/7 Chris Limited]
This blog post is a vain attempt on my part to try to play catch up with all of the updates or rather lack thereof for this site among other things. So, a forgotten haul is exactly what it is. For lack of a better way of explaining it, there was a period of time where I forgot to take pictures of a haul which inevitably lead to other incoming hauls being postponed, thus amounting to a whole lot of updates that need to be done.
The image on the right has actually been paid since the end of January and these figures were slated for an end of January/early February release. After much time had elapsed and it was well on its way to being past mid-February, I was starting to wonder what had happened to my haul. The last update I received was that the retailer was waiting to receive a shipment because they weren’t sent enough to fill in the preorders. Hmph. Fine. Then, there was silence on their part and it turns out that the response I got after emailing them was that the shipment was actually supposed to arrive some time that week. It makes me wonder if they just didn’t know what they were speaking about and gave me some half-assed answer about a shipment arriving soon. I am fairly forgiving as long as I am informed of these things and the communication between both parties are open and on the same page. What I don’t appreciate is the lack of updates when it should be the retailer’s responsibility to get in touch with and contact the consumer. I think being charged for a product that didn’t arrive until a month later didn’t help the situation any, either. I would have much preferred to be charged for a product that is ready to ship which gives me a better indication as to when my product will be shipped and an estimated time of arrival for the package.
So, this was a two product package as I don’t normally buy from this retailer unless I am, otherwise, forced to do so. Saber Lion nendoroid was about $25 and was a bit more expensive and sold out at other places, so I definitely seized the opportunity to preorder. I am a big fan of Range Murata and Beagle’s treatment of Range Murata’s art style. While I believe his art style can be handled much better, Range Murata does a fairly great job of keeping in line with the art style. There is a regular version of Chris, but I opted for the limited version to avoid a potential headache in the future. Both Chris and Saber Lion were coming out at the same time , so I decided to snatch both of ‘em up.
Now, what I was unhappy about was that the retailer couldn’t even wrap the figure box with tissue paper or peanuts or something and resorted to cheap newspaper for packing material, so there was some ink markings on the box. Yeah, I was not pleased with that at all.
As you can see, Saber Lion is a very cute nendoroid and received a positive reception from collectors. Out of all of the faces, Saber Lion has a very cute teardrop face and comes with a meaty drumstick and bowl with chopsticks. My husband was even half amused with the meaty drumstick that he was tempted in ordering the Limited Colosseum PSP game where you can control Saber in her Lion costume and beat down on other notable Fate/Stay Night
characters. She’s very cute, but for the hassle, I would have much preferred acquiring her from another source.
This is a very cute figure with a holiday theme to it. There aren’t that many holiday themed figures out there and none have interested me except this one. Unlike other figures, Chris has a double-sided window so you are able to see both the front and backside of the figure within the packaging.
In the left picture, the figures in this haul was preordered during a massive sale. If I could, I probably would have ordered more figures during the sale, but I ordered a good handful.For ordering a certain amount, you would get a free Galaxy Angel Limited DVD bonus gift. After waiting, a bunch of figures from my order were canceled due to being unable to fulfill the amount ordered. For the longest time, the status for the remaining figures were held indefinitely as “Processing” until an email was sent with the invoice. Much to my amusement, the package arrived with the bonus gift regardless of not meeting the requirement for it. Guess they really wanted to get rid of Galaxy Angel.
The brunette is Rina Rindou from Pastel Chime and the blonde is Takako Itsukushima from Otome ha Boku ni Koishiteru. The irony with Rina Rindou is that the other figure released by ALTER (Saika Farnese) from the same series is sought after and fairly hard to find for a decent price. I was lucky and bought it off of another seller who frequents a forum that I’m a member of. I have always liked this figure, but could not justify purchasing in lieu of other figures or upcoming limited and non-limited preorders.
Takako Itsukushima is one of three figures from ALTER that I’ve seen pop up on a semi-regular basis. I thought they were nice, but they were simple figures and I wasn’t familiar with the series and could not justify purchasing any of the figures at most of the prices that I had seen.
For $23 apiece, I jumped on the chance to own both of these ladies and am pleased with my purchase. Takako Itsukushima actually still had her tissue paper on her. I don’t want to get my hopes up or set myself up for a fall, but I love ALTER so much that I wouldn’t mind owning a complete harem of ALTER figures. Now, I haven’t made this my official task as to give me some flexibility, but I am heading in that general direction.
So, the limited dvd set comes with 2 shitajiki (see pencil board), a special book for fans (read filler pamphlet) and a set of gashapon. The colors on the shitajiki are very bright and help induce a “tweaking on acid” effect. It’s too bright with the mixing of various colors of the spectrum and lies a bit on the tacky side. I really don’t see myself as having any real use for a pencil board, but if I ever do, I’ll use the Galaxy Angel ones, since I am not as attached to them. I am guessing that the gashapon that was included could be bought as a variant set by Bandai – who is notorious for cranking out gashapon. As expected from Bandai, the quality is not there and even moreso that this set is fairly old and quality was not so high back then. One of the character’s eye paint has been scratched/chipped off. This was a free gift, so the thought is always a nice one even if it’s not my taste.
So, there’s the first part of my Forgotten Haul post. Initially, I was going to include the other hauls that I forgot during this time period, but seeing as I am very loopy right now, I don’t see that happening with this post at least. My Battlestar Galactica afterthoughts has been postponed indefinitely due to writer’s block and my growing fascination with Shivering Isle in Oblivion. I’ve wanted to play this game for some time now, but put it off due to the gigantic scope of the game. I’ll be trying to get the other updates ready when I’m not feeling loopy or bludgeoning creatures of the night.
Edit: Stupid extraneous strings of code.
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The second version of Chris is very beautiful too. I hesitated between the 2 at the time of the pre-order. And I had chosen normal breadth version.
The thing with getting older figures is their rarity and often expensive price tags. I almost never find older figures I want at decent price.
For some reason, Saber Lion doesn’t attract me even if I love her tear drop face. Still waiting for GSC to announce Nendo Saber Lily.
This is the limited Muarata Version?
Wasnt the limited one with the crazy pink colours?
Anyway nice loot! Cant wait to see what else you have up your sleeve
@Jem-chan: Hehe, and here’s the abridged version: “This blog post is a vain attempt on my part to try to play catch up with all of the updates or rather lack thereof for this site among other things… I’ll be trying to get the other updates ready when I’m not feeling loopy or bludgeoning creatures of the night.”
P.S. While I like Range Murata’s style, I’m not particularly fond of the holiday theme. Too festive, lol. Not enough bludgeoning. ^_^
@lylibellule: Oh, the normal version is very beautiful also. I was going to preorder the normal version and then I saw the limited and fell in love with her. I also don’t want to go through a hassle for limited versions later on, so I just try to get them out of the way right now. I have incredible luck and skills to locate limited figures that are insanely hard to get for really awesome prices, but I have to put aside some time doing a lot of research.
@ELT: Well, since I think you are cool and you are most obviously not a person who would just request my service just because you want me to find something for you, you have my email – why don’t you send me a wishlist of yours with a priority and I’ll see what I can do for you. I am not as active in searching right now because I know that I will end up buying A LOT and my bank account and I have agreed to peace for the time being. There is always a good chance to find a lot of figures for really great prices and a bunch of my hauls is proof of it.
@Blowfish: The super pink one with pigtails is the regular version. Haha, it just keeps piling and piling on. I’m glad that I got those figures already at great prices, so it rounds out for me. There were some that I’d love to get because I can’t pass up a good deal, but my bank account highly disagrees with me. I can’t wait until your sexy mega-haul arrives^^
@Jay: HAHAHA. I don’t do festive either, but there was a charm to this figure and art style that did me in. I agree with the whole festive thing, but I really like Range Murata and there hasn’t been a Range Murata figure by Beagle that has me disappointed, yet. Yes, there is never enough bludgeoning in a 24-hour span. I’ve decided to delete my file and create a custom character class and really choose the right stats for my character.
@Jem-chan: LOL, “festive bludgeoning”, I get it, I get it. I’d sure love to see your Christmas katana, hahaha… Aww, to alleviate your “Beagly” disappointment, here’s my “Onimusha” reply to your “Ignis” reply, lol. ^_^
@Jem-chan: Oh yeah, I definitely agree. Which is why I told FlyingBlow: “Thankfully, I don’t follow the ‘burger’ or ’steak’ trends too much. I like to mix up my meals, lol.” Like u said, it’s all about variety. If it ain’t served to u, then create it yourself… Ahh, I remember them, both the Alter and Orchid Seed Ignis! But I ultimately chose Max Factory, cuz the scale of Alter was a bit small, and the vertical pose of Orchid was too boring despite her “nipply” ecchi appeal, hehe… {Evil smile} Ahhh, yes, lol. Too many Ignis and Yoko figures! {Evil nods} Ahhh, the benefits of curbing my own unbreakable addiction and witnessing other figure collectors suffer from the nightmarish ecstasy! You know what? If Alter’s smart, they’ll focus on creating the “Evil Nia”, mwah-ha-ha!
I still don’t have that Lion Saber figure, I totally forgot about it. Would you like to exchange blogroll links?
Did they forget to ship it to you? She is very cute and I’ve already got into the habit of buying those bank bloodsuckers. Sure, let’s do an exchange. If you have a banner, I’d gladly put it up on my site. Although, I am having problems adding space in-between each side blogroll picture, so it looks like one long image. I’m such a noob at this
That Saber is definitely one of my favorite nendoroids, and I was really happy to only pay $25 too. Seems some nendoroids are getting pricier these days, I ended up skipping Ryoko because she was about $45. My most recent haul (not posted yet) wasn’t wrapped very well…that saddened me a bit because they had gotten so much better about how they packaged things for a while.
@duckie: The Saber nendoroid was definitely one of the cheaper priced ones, but I don’t know if it’s because she was mass-produced and Goodsmile had a good MSRP for her. Most nendoroids have an MSRP of $32-37 with the exception of limited ones. I buy anything that aesthetically appeals to me which turned out to almost owning all of the nendoroids. If I didn’t love limiteds and scaled figures and video games, I could easily own every nendoroid ever released. Oh well.
I think it’s cool that some people own ALL the nendoroids, it’s really impressive (and they’re damn cute). But I think it’s good you don’t have “completionist” syndrome, you may have almost them all but there is no sense pushing yourself to get the rest if they’re simply ones you’d buy just to complete the collection. It’s hard for me to tell myself that though, sometimes when I’m not impressed with one of the figures from a certain set and a little voice goes “but you own the other 2 from the set!”
@duckie: hahaha, you’re actually wrong. I’m quite the completionist/perfectionist and I go extremely hardcore into it. Maybe I am subtle about it some times, but I really don’t know. I always thought that I made it clear that I would go extreme hardcore perfectionist in things. Oh well. I would get them all, but I also really love limiteds and scaled figures, so when you put them together, it becomes a costly endeavor. If I only went after nendoroids, I would have all of ‘em. There’s no one that I know of that owns all of them which is a bit surprising. I get that voice, too. I still have to weigh some factors to see whether or not I’d get the complete set in the end.
Is the completionist part of you why you go after the Limited figures? I can’t remember if you usually buy the originals on top of the Limited ones.
@duckie: I have always loved limited things. In my experience, I have always been happier and preferred limited items. If I already like the regular item, then I will most likely like the limited version as well, so I go and get the limited one first to save myself the headache. I didn’t usually want to go for the original, regular paint version, but I’ve no longer had that ideology since Queen’s Blade. Even if I don’t buy it right away, I always have the intention of getting it when it is the best chance to buy it. As much as I am a completionist, there are certain things that I can’t bring myself to complete because it conflicts with my views on aestheticism.