This is an exclusive to Game, a UK video game boutique, and specifically only to Game Reward Card holder members as well. Luckily I’ve ordered from these guys plenty of times before, including The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (the UK version with the nice nudity, although the NA version recently got uncensored through a patch), the Far Cry 2 Collector’s Edition, and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky Collector’s Edition, none of which could be found in the U.S.

The kicker is that unlike the Prestige Edition of the game that comes with a set of night vision goggles, this version comes with a 12″ Kotobukiya figure of Soap MacTavish, the protagonist from the first Modern Warfare, and your commanding officer in the sequel. Apparently, the figure comes with interchangeable weapon arms, with ice picks, dual .45 cal pistols, or an M14 rifle. The game itself comes in the Hardened Edition.

I think I would rather have this bad-ass limited edition figure than a fairly cheap set of NVGs, which is why I promptly canceled my Prestige edition for this one. Of course, I’m still getting a PC version, as that is my primary platform for any Call of Duty game. Nowadays though, the PC version of a cross-platform game is always the one to get shafted by not receiving any special edition (Batman – Arkham Asylum, Resident Evil 5, Assassin’s Creed 2 all come to mind). It’s teeth-grinding for a special edition whore like me, being forced to choose between my favorite platform or the extra goodies (or just caving in and getting both, in which case my wallet is the victim).

Anyways, I’m also receiving a nice September loot of bishoujo figures as well. The order includes:

GSC Saber Lily. This is my most anticipated figure of the bunch. Should go well with my figma Saber Lily, and the upcoming Alter Saber Lily as well.

Wave Rika and Hanyuu from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. I’ve always liked the Higurashi series for the horror, mystery, and random humor interspersed. Hauuuuuu.

Double the Nia dosage, from upLark and Wave. Wave of course does the swimwear version. Should provide a healthy DFC counter-balance to the sheer mass of oppai from my current army of Yokos.

upLark Rei Ayanami in her plugsuit sitting in an Entry Plug diorama. My first Evangelion figure. Somehow I’ve avoided picking up any EVA figures till now, but that entry plug stand is just too cool, plus I’m psyched for Evangelion 2.0: You Can [not] Advance.

Hopefully I’ll be getting this package in a few days, whereupon I shall do another update. After that though is anyone’s guess as to how often I will update, as this school semester is kicking into full gear, and work is busy as always. Plus that pesky urge to play video games always crops up whenever I have free time.

In this package was:

FREEing 1/8 Zange-chan from Kannagi
Figma Konata Izumi in Summer Uniform from Lucky Star
MegaHouse Excellent Model 1/8 Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier
WAVE 1/7 Kyou Fujibayashi from Clannad

The Figma Konata also came with an alternate head of her cousin, Yutaka Kobayakawa, which I put on an extra Konata Winter Uniform figma I had, accounting for the fifth figure.

FREEing Zange-chan goes with my FREEing Nagi. I think they did a better job modeling Zange-chan’s face here as compared to the job they did with Nagi.

Figma Konata in her summer seifuku and Yutaka’s head on a Konata body. Konata comes with two other faces as well, but one is completely expressionless (no facial details at all) and a little bit creepy. Her only accessory is that Figma bag you see her holding here.

MegaHouses’s Sheryl Nome in cast-off mode, baring a decent amount of skin.

Here is Sheryl again with a newfound sense of shame, or better fashion sense. I think I prefer the uniformed version of her better.

Kyou Fujibayashi by WAVE made in 1/7 scale. She is holding a basketball and in her oh-so-delicious gym clothes and red bloomer. My favorite girl from Clannad, along with Kotomi-chan. At least Kyou got an extra alternate world OVA like Tomoyo did, to make up for the injustice that was done to her arc in the regular show.

I also just got back from watching Gamer in theaters. Being a futuristic depiction of an online multiplayer deathmatch video game, obviously some poor fool had to get teabagged by the guy who fragged him. This happens in the first five minutes of the movie, and from there it doesn’t let up, resulting in a constant frenzy of action and violence, and much incoherence in the plot. Unfortunately, the shaky cam caused me more motion sickness than playing a first-person shooter ever could, and detracted from my enjoyment of the on-screen mayhem.

This version of Ranka will go well with the MegaHouse Sheryl I will be receiving near the end of this month when my bulk package from HobbySearch ships out.

In the meantime, I’m currently playing through Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PlayStation 3 right now. Picked up the Limited Edition on Monday, which came with all these goodies, including the Batarang on a stand. This game comes highly recommended to anyone looking for a good third person action game with a good storyline, and if they are in any way, shape, or form a fan of Batman and comic book superheroes in general.

I really wanted to play this on the PC, but a combination of delayed release (Sept. 15th for the PC version), lack of limited edition, and the PS3 receiving the exclusive Play As The Joker bonus prompted me to pick up the PS3 version. But this game is pretty damn good, that I will probably pick up the PC version in a few weeks and play through it again with 3D Vision and PhysX effects for the ultimate encore experience. But for now, I must go back to kicking ass as the Goddamn Batman!

Magazine scan via NekoMagic

Revy, also known by the nickname “Two Hands,” in reference to her John Woo-inspired wielding of a pistol in each hand, is a Chinese-American outlaw working for the Black Lagoon company, a mercenary group that does jobs for the various criminal organizations in the fictional Thai city of Roanapur.

The anime currently consists of two seasons of twelve episodes each, with a third season arriving in OVA form sometime in 2010. A highly action-packed anime with a colorful cast of characters and memorable scenes, Black Lagoon comes highly recommended.

The figure itself features Revy sitting while either cocking or unloading one of her trademark custom Beretta 92 Sword Cutlasses.

She is wearing her normal attire, consisting of a black top and very short cutoff jeans, along with her boots.

Revy’s tattoos on her left arm are fairly inconsistent throughout the manga and the anime series. Sometimes, they are more detailed, and other times they are less detailed in the design. Unfortunately, this figure seems to have gone for the less detailed rendition.

Revy is quite well-endowed, but the same can be said for nearly all the other female characters in Black Lagoon as well. However, they would all just as likely kill you dead for mentioning such a fact. This is definitely not a moe show, as Black Lagoon’s bishoujos are some of the deadliest and most mentally unbalanced characters in anime.

The figure’s base sports some sort of checkered floor pattern with a crumbling brick wall.

It also comes with her second Beretta pistol, along with three extra ammunition magazines.

Revy’s ponytail also flows out from behind her head, either defying gravity or caught in the wind.

From behind Revy, you can get a clear view of the holsters for her two pistols.

Another view of her exceedingly short cutoff jeans. Just don’t let Revy catch you leering, or the next thing you’ll see is a swift boot to the face followed by the muzzle flash of her Sword Cutlass pistols. I guess you could call her a tsundere, except her tsun side manifests as the slaughtering of boatloads of pirates and mobsters, while her dere side only shows up once or twice in the entire course of the anime series.

Revy is a smoker, and she is having a drag here. Shouldn’t be considered a moe trait.

Revy and Roberta, the FARC assassin turned meido turned combat meido while doing her best Terminator impression. Two out of the “three most terrifying women in the world,” as described by Black Lagoon computer specialist Benny, the third being Russian ex-special forces turned mobster Balalaika. Roberta is a 1/6 cold cast made by New Line as well.

Revy with Shenhua, the Taiwanese knife-wielding assassin, as made in 1/8 scale by Max Factory. Revy, a Chinese-American, share plenty of barbs with Shenhua over the latter’s English pronunciation difficulties and the latter’s white-washed twinkie nature.

Revy and Revy. The other Revy is the Alter version made in 1/8 scale. There is also a third Revy figure out there that I know of as well, the Revoltech action figure, but I unfortunately lack this version.

Being made from cold cast, this figure seems a lot heavier than the standard PVC figure. It is also much more rigid, which could translate to being more delicate as smaller parts, such as strands of Revy’s hair, could be more brittle. PVC plastic is somewhat more flexible, but this also means that PVC figures have the possibility of leaning, while these cold cast figures are much less prone due to the material’s higher rigidity. The cold cast make also puts the price of the figure above PVC figures as well.

However, this figure of Revy is very well-done, and both the sculpting and paint work are top notch, with the exception of the simplified tattoo design. Being a huge fan of Black Lagoon, this figure was still worth the extra premium the cold cast make put on the price. Hopefully New Line will release even more figures of other characters from the show (I would like to figures of Eda in her nun outfit, and Fabiola), as I anxiously wait for the third season.

The regular version of this figure just did not do Ranka justice, with her hair in that version some sort of shade of booger yellowish green, rather than the deep HULK gamma radiation green that she sports in the anime.

I don’t believe I’m going colorblind here. I know that this hair color is no where close to this:

The only time I confuse yellow for green is when a traffic light turns yellow and I instinctively drive faster to get through before it turns red. Then I do my best to pretend that I thought it was green, when I get pulled over by a traffic cop catching me speeding through a just-turned-red light.

The other difference between the versions is that her undergarments are colored white rather than red.

Her top is also not secured, and is cast-offable, which I will heartily revisit later on.

A simple design, but MegaHouse has done a good job modeling and painting Ranka’s body in this figure. Her hair is also well done too, and of the *cough* correct shade as well.

Of course, she has to wear pantsu that are a little bit too tight for her. Ranka is suffering from some serious constriction.

From here on out is definitely NSFW. We are traveling into deliciously flat territory at your own risk.

Although it’s still a tease, as Ranka’s oppai still have censoring stars over the most intimate area(-ola)s.

Alas, her bottom is not cast-offable.

Ranka comes with a base that for some reason says “Call Up” and “Monster Girl”, and comes with two little white wings as well, giving Ranka the appearance of some sort of loli bishoujo cherub. This Ranka does not disappoint, as I do love my swimsuit figures, and there just aren’t enough Macross Frontier figures out there. My irrational desire for limited figures definitely applies to this one as well. As for the service I used to obtain this figure, I will definitely use Goody Japan again if I come across another limited release figure that can only be found on YJA in the future. Now, I patiently wait Sheryl and the next Ranka, both also part of MegaHouse’s Excellent Model Core series.

A few screencaps from the episode show the original source material from which this figure is based on.

Her long coat is considerably shorter and more tattered in PVC form, but for display purposes, its good that the figure doesn’t take up a massive amount of space because of lengthy clothing.

Of course, being the queen of fanservice that is Yoko, her oppai are ample within her flame-decal top.

As the anime is made by GAINAX, makers of Gunbuster and Neon Genesis Evangelion, the famous Gainax Bounce is inherited by Yoko.

There is excellent detail in her hair and attire as well. The sculpting is very well done, and there are no visible defects in the paint job either.

From the side, you can see her hair and clothing extend a considerable distance behind her.

From the back, it’s apparent that Alter has not skipped out the details, and the tatters and bullet-holes (?) in her clothing are particularly well done.

You can barely call those shorts. A few inches less and you would be entering thong territory.

Also, being Yoko, she packs her trademark massive sniper rifle that is probably of a very high caliber.

The recoil of this rifle gives a considerable amount of Gainax bounce.

Yoko’s alternate Bounty Hunter form also packs a revolver, seen here in its holster.

This is an old Wild West style revolver, probably something similar to the Remington 1875.

Of course, also being somewhat of a gun otaku, I switched out Yoko’s revolver for some other hardware that my other figures happened to be packing.

Here is Yoko with a Colt M1911.

This pistol is courtesy of Dutch by Hot Toys.

Yoko does a little anime cross-over here with one of Revy’s Sword Cutlass pistol, from the anime and manga Black Lagoon. It is a customized Beretta 92.

I should do a review of my New Line Revy that I received with one my loots.

Yoko’s arsenal on display.

Another fine work by Alter, this Yoko does not disappoint, although there is a serious glut of Yoko figures these days. If you absolutely must have a Yoko in her trademark attire, the Kotobukiya Yoko might be a better choice. However, amongst the Yoko figures, the Alter one stands out because it is unique in her attire, and the quality is second to none. An excellent addition to any Yoko fan’s collection.

The base that comes with the figure is fairly unique as well.

C.C.’s trademark green hair is really detailed in the sculpt here. Her face is a tad off though, maybe its the lips?

I’m sort of getting the effect that C.C. is crying here, there seems to be tears welling in her eyes. If it’s unintentional, its still a pretty cool effect.

Her arms put her oppai in a nice squeeze here.

Got a nice body too, the straight jacket is also very detailed with creases in the attire, and the outline of her bellybutton as well.

Her hair is also very detailed from the back.

From behind, and you can also see more of the unique base that she comes with.

More details in the hands from behind, as well as C.C.’s fine bum. The nails look like they’ve been polished.

From the side, you can see that she is propped up by a transparent beam that is going into her right leg.

A closer shot of her legs.

Although this is a pre-painted resin kit, there was very little assembly involved, as I just had to mount the figure on the beam, put the head in, and then mount the struts on the sides of the base. This was my first Gathering figure as well, and I am very impressed with the quality of the figure, and the detail of the sculpt and paintwork. I wish I had the time to invest in doing my own garage kit figure building, but still being able to get my hands on a unique figure like this is a nice consolation, and kudos to Gathering and e2046 for releasing this version of C.C.

While I unfortunately don’t own a Japanese Wii to play the game on, the figures themselves were worth the asking price, at least in my rabid Haruhi fanboy mindset (that is doing its best right now to justify/ignore the current Endless Eight trolling by KyoAni). I might eventually obtain a cracked Wii and try my hand at the game. In the meantime though, I can admire the figures.

The SOS-dan is certainly in an interesting getup here. Haruhi is doing her best Jack Sparrow impression as Capt. Suzumiya, plundering booty in the name of the SOS-dan.

H-AARRRRRR-uhi!

H-AARRRRRR-e Hare Yukai!

Alright, I’ll stop with the pirate puns.

Haruhi also comes with an alternate head with an eye-patch.

Yuki is in a nice form-fitting space-age outfit, carrying a pew-pew lazer pistol. Fits with her alien persona.

I would say her outfit is almost like EVA‘s plug suit.

The plug suit resemblance comes to a head *ahem*, especially with the nerve clip mimi on her skull.

Her lazer pistol looks more like a drill actually. A miniature Giga-drill-breaker?

Poor Mikuru here is relegated to a fairly standard meido-fuku holding a broom.

I really need to get around to playing this game someday, as the screenshots and the box description (from what I can ascertain with my limited Japanese) make it sound pretty neat. One day, when I get my hands on a cracked or Japanese Wii.

Yui!

Mio!

Afternoon Tea Time!

Hopefully we will see scaled Mugi and Ritsu figures as well. Although I would like to see figures of the gang in their various Sawa-chan sensei provided cosplay. Via HobbyStock.

I got a Kannagi artbook signed by Yamamoto-san, and Oh My Goddess! Colors manga signed by Kikuko-neechan!

I also submitted my room to the Otacool competition hosted by figure.fm for Kotobukiya. You can see the pics of my room here. Please bear with it as I recover from this illness and do my best to begin to profile the glut of figures I obtained recently.