Preview: Marine Admiral Kizaru (Borsalino) 1/8 PVC Figure

Disclaimer: Photos of the figure are taken from AmiAmi (http://www.amiami.jp/shop/?set=english&vgForm=ProductInfo&sku=FIG-IPN-2604&template=default/product/e_display.html)

Here's a stupid question: try and name a character that immediately comes to your mind when you see the word "troll" (no, not the one from Warcraft). I thought of Kizaru from One Piece, his face, he style of speech, his Devil Fruit ability and his outfit make him the king of trolls. Don't believe me? Watch the video:

Do you think he's a badass? I think not. Kizaru never seems to be serious when he's fighting, even when somebody points a gun at his head, his sarcastic tone makes everything sounds like a joke. As one of the three Admirals in the Marines, Kizaru adds quite the flavor into an otherwise dead serious top brass level of middle- to late-aged men (well, except for Aokiji).

So why do I even bother previewing him? Two reasons:

1. He's a troll, and you need a troll in your figure collection to make everything complete... or, you need him to complete your Admiral collection from Mega House.
2. His face and height make him the perfect molester for all kinds of messed up postures with other bishoujos in your collection for some nice, creative photos.

As always, the best One Piece PVC figures come from Mega House. This one is no exception. There are usually very few differences between the preview shots and the actual merchandise (unlike Kotobukiya)... Kizaru's troll face is faithfully reproduced here, with nice detailing on his striped yellow suit (who would want to wear this shit!?). The folds and crevices on his clothes look fairly realistic.

Based on the photos below, it looks like you can switch him with different hands: a pair that gets ready for a beam attack, a pair holding the light sabre he pulls out of thin air, and another pair in the same position except with more transparent colors indicating the activation of his Devil Fruit ability.

His Marine uniform is an additional accessory that can be removed if desired. Taking it off would make him look more like some producer in the Japanese AV industry, wouldn't you agree?

"It's time to start getting her undressed"

"Look you idiot, follow my gestures and pinch her sensitive parts like this..."

Kizaru measures up to around 260 mm, making him a pretty big figure, but he's likely shippable through SAL since Aokiji, who is around the same height as him, can be shipped via SAL. It's currently unclear whether or not his sunglasses can be taken off, but other than that, the number of accessories included looks decent: four pairs of hands, one light saber, and one uniform.

If you're a One Piece fan, there's no need for me to convince you to preorder him. For those who aren't interested in One Piece but are thinking of doing creative photo scoops with their existing collection, I would personally recommend getting him because of the intrinsic troll nature he carries.

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: