Preview: Aigis ART WORKS Ver. 1/6 PVC Figure

Disclaimer: Photos of the figure are taken from HobbyStock and Cospa's official website (http://blog.hobbystock.jp/report/2011/09/tp0754.html & http://www.cospa.com/detail/id/00000033770)

I never understood the hype behind Aigis, the android designed to combat Shadows in Persona 3, but there seems to be an awful lot of figures released in the past dedicated specifically to her. Where's the love for Metis?

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Persona series, it's kind of a spin-off from the Megami Tensei franchise of RPGs, featuring a bunch of highschool kids with special abilities to summon their psyches into various familiars to help them in combat. Persona 3 is the third game in the series. It was highly regarded by critics due to the many improvements made over its predecessors, one of which is the stat-building/dating-simulation feature where you, the protagonist, do things to improve your stats (eg. academics, charisma, etc.) to better communicate with girls. Depending on the choices you make during the dating segments (which increase their affection points), you could eventually turn one of them your lover, take her home and do all sorts of things to her:

Warning: the following video contains spoilers, watch it at your own risk.

After watching this video, I was suddenly reminded of Ar Tonelico (you'll understand what I mean if you've played both series, hint: revealing the most "delicate and precious" part to you)... speaking of which, I haven't seen a single figure from this series. Ar Tonelico is famous for suggestive themes and cute/sexy girls, it's got a big enough fan base, so what's holding manufacturers back?

Back to topic. The current Aigis figure from Alter is based on Shigenori Soejima Artworks SC, which you can order off Amazon for around $28.

For the most part, the figure is very faithful to the artwork, although the coloration in the figure is a lot warmer and saturated.

The mechanical components in her shoulders, wrists, thighs and feet are extremely detailed, and the paint jobs are meticulously done. I'm most impressed with Aigis' hairs, you can clearly see the amount of effort put into depicting individual hair bundles/sections.

The difference is night and day when you compare the current figure with that from Cospa released in 2010.

The difference is further demonstrated when you compare the decals found on Aigis' arm band, shoulder joints, wrist sections and hairband, which seemed to be absent in the Cospa version. You might be thinking, they're just decals, what's the big deal? You stick them on and that's that. You're right, but my point is the attention to detail. Alter could very well leave them out to save time and give those poor Chinese workers a break.

The inner-workings of her forearm and the machine guns at her fingertips are instant reminders that she ain't just a bishoujo, but rather, a badass android specially designed to take on Shadows. The job isn't easy, and can leave Persona users wounded or scarred, as reflected by the damages done on Aigis' thighs.

The base that comes with this figure has a pretty simple design. The checkered pattern is a reproduction of the floor tiles found on the first few levels of Tartarus. The brownish splash is probably a Shadow that was either trashed by Aigis, or is trying to molester her leg because it has leg/foot fetish.

It seems to me that the Shadow is the only support that keeps Aigis in the air. Frankly, I'm a little concerned about the figure's balance. Aigis was designed to lean to her left, which probably already shifted her center of gravity. While Alter's quality is superb on pretty much all levels, there is no guarantee that the current figure is bent-resistant. I personally don't think it's a good idea to leave her out over extended periods of time, which is a real shame.

If you can overlook the balance concern I raised, this is the definitive Aigis figure to get for Persona 3 and Aigis fans. The level of detail is unmatched, which is expected from a figure in the $90-$100 range. Furthermore, keep in mind that this is a 1/6 scale figure, which will surely bring out the prowess and beauty absent in the lot of 1/8 scale figures most people own. Of course, this also means that she's unlikely to be shipped via SAL due to size/weight restrictions, so prepare to be stung by the ridiculous shipping fee from EMS.

Preview: Nami "Sailing Again" 1/8 PVC Figure

Disclaimer: Photos of the figure are taken from AmiAmi and Mega House's official website (http://www.amiami.jp/shop/?set=english&vgForm=ProductInfo&sku=FIG-IPN-2499&template=default/product/e_display.html & http://www.megahobby.jp/products/item/745/)

One Piece needs no introduction. This is probably the only weekly Shounen Jump series that still hasn't lost its charm after 15 years of continuous publication and broadcasting. It was too bad that when the anime series first made it to North America, 4Kids got their hands on it and brutally butchered it and tarnished its reputation. Despite Funimation's effort in trying to salvage the series from dying before people witness its true glory, the ridiculous licensing fees requested by TOEI Japan significantly slowed down the progress of localization.

Regardless, One Piece is a name that is well recognized worldwide. And when a series is this popular, there is little reason for figure-making companies to skip over such golden opportunities of money grabbing goodness. Out of all the manufacturers that dedicate their efforts into creating One Piece figurines and other merchandises, Mega House is probably the best of the bunch.

Its infamous Portrait of Pirate (P.O.P.) Excellent Model series of One Piece scaled PVC figures are so hot nowadays that preordering them from online retailers like AmiAmi and Hobby Search has become the new mission impossible in the hobby world. Anyway, ranting too much about the hectic preordering campaign of P.O.P. isn't the goal of this post, so let's get back to topic.

Nami is no stranger to One Piece fans. She's the navigator of the Straw Hats Pirates and she loves money. She acts cunning and shrewd most of the time, but she does care deeply for her crew. Two years after the events at Sabaody Archipelagos, Nami reunites with everyone, and sets sail again for the New World.

The anime has yet to reach the "2 years later" arc, hence, it's kind of hard to evaluate whether or not the painting on her clothes are faithful to the original. Fortunately, this figure won't be released until late December, so there's plenty of time to make adjustments if required.

Nami's beautiful pale skin is "almost" completely exposed here (we'll get into the "almost" issue in a minute). In the previously released P.O.P. figures (not counting the horrendous swimsuit limited edition), Nami usually exposes her legs more than her upper body. Here, it's the reverse.

Her jeans are doing quite the fan service, revealing half of her nice round butt enough to stimulate healthy reactions from males. The crevices and folds, as well as the shadings on her jeans are very well done; they give the immediate impression that the jeans are very tight, probably too tight for her ripened body.

If you paid close attention to her bikini/bra, you could find junctions near the top strings, suggesting that the bra is probably removable. Mega House never seem to include such information in their descriptions, it's up to you to explore the prohibited regions.

Her face looks pretty much the same as the Strong Edition ones, nothing special. It appears that the sculptor decided to play safe and skip out on creating alternative expressions for Nami.

One disappointing point about this figure is that there is no accessories. Mega House might throw in an extra bra or something, but I can't see anything else being added based on her pose. To be fair, her improved Clima-Tact was only revealed recently, which is probably too late to include it with this figure.

As someone who collects P.O.P., I already placed my preorder. However, you can clearly see that I have a bias which heavily favors the Excellent Model series. If you're a casual collector and are not obsessed with One Piece, I don't recommend getting her. The lack of accessories just doesn't justify the price (which is around $75 now).

There is a Figuarts Zero version of Nami (New World Ver.), which is smaller, looks pretty much the same as this one, but costs 1/3 the price. In case you don't want to shed out that much money for a girl wearing a bikini, this would be the figure to get:

Preview: Touwa Erio 1/7 PVC Figure

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