#OTP: sticky little leaf

[x-whispers-of-october-x]

GABRIEL & JULIA + “You’re killing me” 😏🔥

[nostalgic-blood]

...

So I sort of told a friend of mine I'd never get Mokou. 8)

WHY I CHANGED MY MIND AND MORE AT ELEVEN UNDER THE CUT

Hey. Hey. I once told someone that I had three Kyoukos and was itching for another.

Look at em. Look how incomplete they are.

He told me why would I need four Kyoukos? This resonated with me. As you can see, I have yet to buy another Kyouko. I suppose moderation is key when it comes to multiples of one character.

HE DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT AYA THOUGH

SO MUCH AYA ALL OF THE AYA

AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA

WHAT DOES SANAE THINK OF ALL THIS AYA? I NAMED HER AYA'S WAIFU ONCE IN TOUHOU PUPPET DANCE PERFORMANCE. I'm pretty sure it should be the other way around. B)

Clemont's also got some new Pokemon at his gym. NO TRAINER WILL DEFEAT LUMIOSE GYM NOW! THE CURRENT CHAMPION IN KALOS WILL STAY THERE FOREVER!

His clone meanwhile is surrounded by women.

SPEAKING OF CLONES, here's an unsuccessful attempt at cloning. Why, it looks like they didn't even try whatsoever. This is the most overt-looking bootleg I have ever seen. Is it even a bootleg? I got it as a keychain after all. It never tried to be an actual petite nendoroid, just a keychain that looks vaguely like one, but seeing this comparison you can truly see how awful it really is. Egads. I still love it tho.

Okay enough of the rando images. Here's all them figures that I opened up and displayed for all too see!

The first package to arrive was something I ordered from AmiAmi using RSAL. It was surprisingly undamaged (a few small puctures here and there) despite containing ONE AYA. Both were used and decent prices, iirc. Well, Aya wasn't that decent of a price, but a slight bit better than her likely lower quality selves on Mandarake.

None of the Ayas I bought were cheap. ._.

Here's Mokou! Her box is similar size to Alice's box, and smaller than Aya's. EX-Keine's is still by far the largest thanks to her horns increasing her height and her tail increasing her width. It's still surprises me that it was smaller than Aya's considering ALL OF THAT HAIR ON MOKOU. But Aya did come with a few bits of accessories, like the leaf, camera, extra hat. Mokou came with none. I can't imagine what Mokou would come with anyway. She seems like quite the frugal person.

Only issue so far is a little bit of sticky plastic syndrome on the tips of her hair. Which is starting to reveal a pattern. Everything I've had that has become afflicted by sticky plastic syndrome is very light/pastel in colour. It's either light yellow, light skintone peach, or white that is affected. Only the whites on Alice's dress is affected, the back of Sanae's faceplates, Mokou's white hair, and my Evangeline figumate's very fair blonde hair as well. Coincidence? Maybe. My Sayo figumate is still in perfect condition (and despite being back heavy is very stable in her stand. BEST FIGUMATE 10/10)

Her hair is absolutely crazy though. So long and elaborate. THEM RIBBONS YO.

So yeah, I was under the impression Mokou would stay fairly pricey, but found this particular iteration of her dropping in price, and she became an impulse buy due to the UNAVOIDABLE GOOD DEAL. I actually like this more static Mokou better than Griffon's other Mokou figure which while has a dynamic pose looks rather stiff and dead. Like Mokou does not seem pumped up at all that she's about to attack, she seems bored like she'd rather be somewhere else. It looks like she's being forced to pose for a photoshoot as opposed to being in the midst of a fiery death battle against Kaguya or something. Disappointing :(

It's also infinitely more expensive for some reason, but eh.

Here's Mokou next to Keine and now I can harp about GRIFFON'S WONDERFUL QUALITY CONTROL!

Okay so far all my Touhou scales are the same height... now yes, Touhou is a very vague series and it's not like ZUN listed any official heights anywhere, oh wait yes he did. A very rough one but yeah, whatever. Anyway, when people speak of scales it's usually like 1/8, 1/6, terms that mean the figure is 1/8th of the size of the actual person, should they be real. Now yes I could complain that Keine is often depicted taller than Mokou and go from there, but even if that wasn't something Griffon picked up on I wouldn't have minded. What bothers me is that these two look off in terms of scale. It looks like Griffon has some sort of MAXIMUM HEIGHT a figure can be, and because Keine's horns would exceed such maximums by quite a bit, she was scaled down to fit in those restrictions.

So now it looks like Keine is really short/skinny compared to Mokou, which doesn't make an ounce of sense. Even if they were the same height, Keine's horns would have her still be taller than Mokou. It just looks so off, y'know? Keine's horns, tail, and spread out dress should give her such imposing size, but Mokou with just her hair, ribbon and pants of all things dwarfs her. In fact when I got Aya I thought she looked smaller than I expected, but she was of same height/proportions as Keine, Keine just looks big due to her giant dress, horns, and tail. Alice's head looked a little bigger, but her torso was of the same size as both Aya and Keine. Mokou's the one who looks off. She's even the only one with a shiny base compared to everyone's matte!

I have no idea how Griffon managed it, but somehow EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY TOUHOU SCALES LOOK OFF COMPARED TO ONE ANOTHER, despite ALL of them being from Touhou and ALL of them coming from the same company, as the SAME type of figure, as the SAME scale, 1/8th. Unbelievable. I'm actually kind of impressed in a way. Someone with OCD could not stand these figures in their room. Aya's leaning too far back. EX-Keine seems level and perfect, but her proportions are off compared to Mokou who looks like a bigger but shorter person, and Alice is still suffering from clinical depression. So, you know. There's that.

Ah well, still doesn't mean I can't take these kind of photos. 8D

Also I highly doubt these differences mean Mokou's a bootleg. I got her from a reputable retailer, but even then she looks far too good in terms of quality and detail to be a bootleg. Look at that Aya keychain for crying out loud!

Speaking of Aya...

Here's Aya's figma. If you remember some time ago I was lamenting the fact that someone didn't have a figma. That someone is Sanae, thus forcing me to buy their nendos so I can OTP to my heart's delight. Aya's figma is a bit older than the Madoka figmas (but conversely, her nendoroid is much newer than the Madoka nendos. Yeah I dunno either) So different box design and all that jazz.

Also Aya is supposedly used.

Look at this seal. It is completely sealed. Unopened. She's NEW! Or as close to new as you can get. Maybe part of the reason I like figmas so much is due to bias. They seem to come in fairly new condition or even new altogether, and thus likely have less problems that might pertain to age or overuse. Meanwhile my nendos come in destroyed boxes and have sticky plastic syndrome...

Nah. A sitting Sayaka and Kyouko still can't sit up by themselves without an unruly stand. It's definitely more than bias, especially as you'll find out more below D<

And it also seems like my used AmiAmi stuff come in better condition than Mandarake. Also slight bias because Sanae was bought at terrible conditions (but SO WAS ALICE FROM AMIAMI. IS IT NENDO OR IS IT MANDARAKE!?)

Here's all her stuff. Literally all the same accessories as her nendo, whose only additions are a tornado attack and a stupid meme face. So all-in-all I can't complain.

Some of my friends are not fond of the joints in figmas which are all the more apparent in Aya who has a relatively simple design and plenty of exposed limbs. I DON'T CARE IT'S AN AYA. IT EVEN COMES WITH PLASTIC DEALIES TO PUT ON HER IMPOSSIBLE GETA SO SHE CAN STAND ON HER OWN WITHOUT A STAND. Again, sitting nendos need stands to sit. This figma with literal stilt shoes can stand without one. I DON'T UNDERSTAND GOOD SMILE. WHY CAN'T NENDOS AT LEAST SIT WITHOUT STANDS!?

DING-DONG

Yes, in the middle of photo-taking I was surprised with yet another package. THIS HERE IS A GUNDAM. Astray. Red frame. Real Grade version...

I bought this last week. Yay Amazon Prime! This kind of shipping speed only otherwise happens if I give my entire savings account, first-born child, and the deed to my soul to the carriers. The only downside is that I was gonna come up with some sort of story to take, but spent the next eight hours (and then four the next night!) building this instead...

Here are my snapchat adventures.

This is in reference to my friend who sometimes snaps me her puzzle progress. A model kit is just as complicated, if not more so! I DON'T CARE IF THERE ARE INSTRUCTIONS.

I was under the impression those pink quotation-like symbols indicated some sort of noise, like a clicking noise. SO to put the thing in it'd have to click to actually be in. In reality it means the piece will likely be loose until the whole thing is put together. That toe joint with the foot is now overly loose due to my...

...elbow grease being applied for over an hour.

Y'see my only model kit experience before this was a High Grade Gundam a long-ass time ago, and a Zoid I built with my friend that he kept (I MISS YA STILL, JIMMY!). This is a Real Grade Gundam, far more pieces, far more complicated, the same size. That means tons of VERY TINY MICROSCOPIC PIECES that I can easily lose or break.

But several hours later my figure was complete! Almost.

These decals. I attempted for a bit. One eye sticker was lost. They's so tiny it's ridiculous. I probably should have had some sort of special tweezers for these but geh. I just put on the bigger ones and the ones that stood out the most on the box, but didn't bother with the rest. Maybe one day I'll paint those parts or something. My friend keeps goading me to.

Here it is next to my High Grade Gundam. Look how outdated it looks compared to it. This is like a Gundam from the Industrial era compared to that of the Technological era. Like if you compared an Atari console to a PS4. As nice as it looks though, I snapped a piece on its back so the backpack unit is loose. The sheath on its side is also loose for some reason, and the chest piece likes falliing off. The gun doesn't like to attach to its back so I can't even kept it on.

...still sturdier than my HG one. I wish they came with stands though. Both sort of suck at standing up on their own.

And yes it's night-time because I started building this thing at 5pm. I finished at 11:30 pm, the next night. I went to work in the day though, but overall it took around 11-12 hours.

Here it is in front of a yearning Gundam Force Impulse, and my brother who was watching Kids React videos on our big-screen TV. They were eating sushi or whatever that wasn't American sushi. Plebs.

...I couldn't finish writing this or doing anything with these photos in time before YET ANOTHER PACKAGE ARRIVED. Madness. These two were shipped with USAL, or unregistered SAL. Not traceable, no tracking, but cheap shipping. I thought I'd never see these figures for at least a few more months. There's a figure I ordered on March 7th, the only other thing I used USAL for and it's still not here. I got a refund for now, but my country's parcel service is either incompetent or my customs is. Either way that thing is MIA.

So here's Petit Nendoroid Reimu, Suika, and yes Aya. And yes I bought this for Aya. This is essentially the youkai that annoy Reimu at the Hakurei Shrine Playset. I hope they come out with expansions that include Yukari or Clownpiece or Miko someday.

Especially Miko. ;_;

This one was unsealed. This will be important for later.

The other thing is yes, another Zinogre.

You know that thing I complained about earlier, about Mandarake sending me the wrong order? That compilation of figures of the same character thing above was meant to include Zinogre. I was supposed to get a Stygian Zinogre figure (along with others in its set) but got a different series instead, and thus was never able to include Zinogre in my "OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TOO MANY FIGURES OF THE SAME CHARACTER!!" collection. Alas. Alas.

Anyway this was way smaller than I expected. BUT WAIT, SUCH BOXART!

It's apparently rare because you can only get it at USJ, presumably at the gift shop? That's a place I wanna go to someday, like even more than Disneyland. Because I like Japanese crap too much. Especially Japanese crap that isn't as prevalent in the West like Monster Hunter or Touhou.

These four monsters in particular look great with Clemont. THEIR COLOURS MATCH! The most badass and lethal of gyms, Clemont turns vanilla playthroughs into nuzlockes!

And now onto the Petit Nendos which were somehow more frustrating than the twelve hours I spent building the Astray... observe.

Fuck.

Fuck.

FUCK.

Nendos are annoying. PETITE NENDOS ARE THE SPAWN OF SATAN, SUCKING OUT THE CONCEPT OF FUN FROM TOYS EVERYWHERE. Granted the broom is my fault because maybe the way I was trying to put it in Reimu's hand was wrong. But the stands. The ABS stands, that you can't melt with a hairdryer (I had to heat up these petit nendos to get the stands into their backs) are the absolute worst designed stands I have ever seen. You see there were two secondhand Reimu and the Annoying Youkai™ playsets I could have chosen on AmiAmi. One was cheaper because it had a broken Suika stand, so I bought the other one.

ONLY TO BREAK THE FUCKING SUIKA STAND. THAT IS A FOUR HUNDRED YEN BREAK.

LOOK AT THIS ONI ALL DRUNK AND CAREFREE, LITERALLY STEALING FOUR HUNDRED YEN FROM THAT OTHERWISE EMPTY DONATION BOX TO PAY FOR ALL THE DESTRUCTION SHE CAUSED.

So yeah. Look at these awesome petit nendos, all upright and stuff! Look at it!

Oh no! Suika just spilled all of her sake! Luckily she is not Yuugi, so spilling of the sake is socially acceptable.

Oh and I'm never going to buy a regular Reimu nendo, so here's the best comparison to my bootleg Reimu nendo I can get. It's still fairly obvious. Oh, and let's just pretend Suika spilled some of her endless signature BLUE SAKE onto Reimu's broom too.

On the bright side, Aya is untouched. The reason I bought this in the first place. So, uhm... yay?

I thought to take some pics of the red Astray in the day too and...

It was only then I realized, with this figure being surrounded by Ayas, that it has the exact same colour scheme as her. In fact, since I know jackshit about Gundam Seed, I could argue this is the GUNDAM MANIFESTATION of Momiji, here to repel the multiplying Aya clones that threaten to take over my shelf. Since I would never buy a Momiji figure (not like that stopped me from Mokou) this was the only way Momiji could return some sense of normalcy back to my shelf! Will MOMIJI SUCCEED!?

Probably not. :)

This has been Spotto and boy do I wish my figures didn't all arrive at the same time. Fun fact, only two figures left. And I don't think I'm gonna buy much of anything after that.

Hmmm... it looks like there's still room for another scale though... maybe? ;)