Figures

Saber and...

Mahoro-san. Scroll down for more images

Well I originally thought that this would be a slowly growing page, but apparently I was mistaken. As of June 11th, 2007 a new model has been added in less than a months time of the first model's purchase. Crazy!

Saber was purchased in April 2007 as an end of semester gift for myself. Up to that point, I had been playing around with the idea of buying a model, but the cost and more importantly, the stigma associated with them (see: Welcome to the NHK) kept those thoughts from becoming reality. Eventually I broke down and gave in.

I'd like to say that it was an expensive model, but in reality the 65 bucks I parted with place it in the mid-range category. I've seen models being sold for 135 dollars, and many often go for 80-100 dollars. It comes with the territory, however as these are all high quality figures. You can still get models in the 20 dollar range, but often times these end up being action figures or smaller scale designs. That said, so called "capsule toys" (called gashapon) are small 3-5 dollar models one can purchase at random from vending machines. They're apparently popular with collectors in Japan, but I'm not very interested in them.

Saber herself measures in at almost one foot tall (11.5 inches) and is supposed to be a 1/6th scale replica. Its funny to make a scale replica of a fictional character, but oh well. Her size is one of the aspects that directly affects her price tag, that and the excellent quality of the model.

Mahoro comes from the anime Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden. Since it's relatively pointless to try to explain the plot of any anime, I'll leave it at that she is an ex-warrior android trying to live out the rest of her life as a live-in maid. Watch the series, its good! If you're interested, check out the thumbnails below, each leads to a bigger version (popup).

Its a pretty high-quality model that required me to actually snap a few parts of the bike together myself. It was a little difficult to do, because all the text was in Japanese and I was worried about damaging the parts. After about 20 minutes, I finally had it put together. The model itself consists of two parts, a plastic/metal bike and a PVC Mahoro. Like Saber, this model is highly detailed and well painted. It was worth the money.

After Otakon 2007, I added eleven "capsule toys" to my figure collection. These small yet well made models are truly fun to look at. Take a look below (click the thumbnails to enlarge).

They are incredibly detailed for their size and cost (at Otakon they were seven dollars individually and around 25 for a set of five). From what I understand, the figures are collected at random from either dispenser machines (can perhaps be compared to those machines found in American supermarkets that spit out plastic balls with trinkets inside) or from vendors. Either way, the purchaser has no way of knowing which figure he or she is about to get, which adds a great deal of excitement or annoyance depending on how you look at it. Either way, I think they're cool. The capsule toys shown above are from either School Rumble, Fate/ Stay Night, or The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.