Turn-back Thursday (TBT) featuring Figma Emiya Shirou and Saber 1.0

Introducing a new segment here in TRCP that I would like to call the Turn-back Thursday (TBT) feature! (Now, there's something original!). In this new segment, I propose to feature an old photo I've taken each week as a sort of a looking back on my more than 10-year history as a toy collector. This would feature my earlier works that for me, gives me a good perspective of how far I've come from my simple point and shoot to the pictures I am producing today. 

Today, I feature my very first Figma power couple: Emiya Shirou and Saber 1.0 from the anime Fate Stay Night which was first aired in 2006. 

Both characters exhibit a strong sense of duty but both clash continuously as Shirou is a weak mage with a naive sense of justice while Saber is a powerful Servant but driven to correct past wrongs caused by her insecurities as King of Camelot. It's an interesting dynamic as they struggle with each other throughout the series but eventually come to a mutual understanding by the end. 

I took this shot in 2012 as part of my Figma collection catalog and I use it as the cover photo of that album on my Facebook account. It's also, in my mind, a good representative of a staple I have used for most of my best photos which is the half-body, close up shot. I think many of my own favorite shots have this similarity in composition as I feel it provides ample emphasis on the character's face yet still provides enough body expression to make the shot look alive. 

Anyway, that's it for this week's feature. Tune in next week! Thanks! 

TRCP House Party Protocol

Waking up during the wee hours of the morning could present some pretty good opportunities to indulge in your hobby, as I did last Tuesday morning. I got startled by a small crashing sound at 4am from a fallen hook thingamajig we had at the back of our door to hang clothes and stuff.

So, after a bit of grumbling, I got out of bed, reattached the contraption to the door, breathed a deep sigh and realized that I was fully awake and couldn't possibly go back to sleep. Thankfully, I had a bunch of toys I got last week that hadn't been opened for me to pass the time with. 

So... I decided to open up the Iron Man stuff: 

I was pretty stoked with the Figma Mk Vii Full Spec given its array of accessories as well as the RDJ open face helmet. Figure delivered on all aspects as it looked glorious in and out of the box. I love the paint apps although  I was a little but disappointed with the torso joints as they felt too loose in my book. It was with a bit of difficulty that I got him to stay on a decent flight pose. Otherwise, love the open face helmet, the mini rockets on the shoulders and thighs, those  back air breaks and those wrist mounted rockets. 

Next up was the SHF Mk 42. An equally excellent figure. When I first saw the design during IM3 promos, I wasn't sold eith the new color scheme but after watching the movie and now, with the figure, well, the design works. There's a certain charm that the new color scheme has that puts it at par with your classic Iron Man colors and it is faithfully captured within this 6" figure. It is just great. 

Lastly, the Iron Patriot. Again, another color scheme that didn't really suit well with me the first time around but upon getting the figure, it looks gorgeous. The US flag-military-esque color design looks awesome and the paint apps are great. He's slimmer compared to the War Machine armor though (Guess Rhodey's bern watching his diet...hehe) but still looks menacing. 

With all 3 figures already out, I decided to take out my SHF MkVI and War Machine for a mini house party: 

And they look great altogether. I didn't really have time to pull out my light tent so I just made a quick pose and shoot on top of my son's baby stuff cabinet ( hello green teddy photobomber!). I still think it turned out great though. 

As a follow up in the evening, I took out a few other figures just to do a small height comparison, as a request on Facebook: 

From left to right: Playmates Michaelangelo, Figma Kirito, Figma Mk VII, SHF Mk 42 and SHF Green Ranger. 

In front: the DeCool Hulkbuster Iron Man and Sheng Yuan Mk 42.

You can clearly see that Full Spec towers over every other figure. When it comes to height scale, I think he's a little too tall while everyone else seems to be just right in comparison to the others (should there ever be a crossover of all these characters). Well, except Michaelangelo who should be at the same height as Kirito. 

As parting words, I really enjoyed having my short playtime with my new Iton Man figs. They're all excellent figures and are highly recommended in my book. 

Till next time! 

Figma Iron Man Mk VII

Now here is an absolute beauty of a figure, Max Factory's Figma line has already announced a while back the eventual release of Iron Man's Mark VII armor from The Avengers movie and it is absolutely stunning. 

The armor sculpt, paint and shine plus the features are just so awesome to behold and it is, so far, the best Mark VII figure I have seen to date, with exception of the Hot Toys release. Only problem is that it is very pricey with a whopping 7800 japanese yen for the regular release and 8800 yen for the Full spec version. Woah! 

The Full spec comes with Robert Downey's head in a open mask plus the additional armor pieces for the rockets. So cool yet so expensive. 

Figma Avengers are incoming!

Crap. 

Crap crap crap.

Crap crap crap crap crap.

I had known that these guys were coming out for some time and back then, I thought, yeah I'll probably skip out on these but lo and behold, here are the production pics and damn do these guys look good! 

So far, we have Thor (who already has a release date of Aug 2014), Captain America, and Iron Man Mk VII! Sweet! Price tags are a little steep though but damn, just the armaments on IM are already enough to make me shake violently in excitement... That's a bit exaggerated but I am really excited about these. 

Since denouncing the Marvel Legends line back 2004, I haven't had any superhero figures till 2009 when I bought, on impulse, a Spectacular Spider-man action figure which came with a Conan O'Brien head. The next time I got something suoerhero related was just last year when I got the SH Figuarts Iron Man and War Machine. And the only reason I got them was that Bandai made them. LOL! 

Anyway, based off of the preview pics that were first posted sometime last last year, we still have a Hulk to come out. Not sure if Black Widow or Hawkeye will come out too but one thing is for sure: these are some awesome wallet busters that I would be happy to have on my display cab.