Figure Photography - Mixing Nendoroids & Chibi-Arts

When my Chibi-Arts C.C. (my first Chibi-Arts figure) arrived last month, I was very excited to discover that Bandai's Chibi-Arts uses the same neck joint as Good Smile Company's Nendoroids. They are also very close in size and general design. Once I made this discovery, it sparked ideas about mixing Chibi-Arts parts with Nendoroid parts but only now have I had the chance to experiment. And this is the results. It's not a particularly adventurous example, but here we have Chibi-Arts C.C.'s head and accessories combined with Nendoroid Takatsuki Ichika's body. I felt that Ichika's uniform colours are similar to that of the Ashford Academy uniform from Code Geass. I haven't actually watched Ano Natsu de Matteru so I know nothing about that anime, I simply got Ichika's body in a Nendoroid split on MyFigureCollection.net. Leave a comment to let me know what you think!

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Nendoroid Playsets

I was lucky enough to score the B set of the Japanese Life Nendoroid playset sealed from Mandarake and it arrived in the mail today so I immediately had to snap a few photographs. These playsets have become somewhat rare these days, they only pop up on Mandarake or AmiAmi's pre-owned section from time to time so I feel quite lucky to have picked this up. I also have the Culture Festival A set on the way. Hopefully I'll be able to complete both sets at some point in the future.

The Nendoroid playlets are the perfect companions for your happy little Nendoroids and they seem to come to life when placed into the tiny diorama-like scene. Each set comes with a bunch of accessories and extra hands for your Nendoroids to be able to hold onto said accessories. The Nendoroid playset boxes are the same size as a normal Nendoroid box which means the sets need to be assembled. The walls are held together with small plastic connectors and are very easy to assemble. The Japanese Life B is styled after a traditional Japanese room, the set comes with tatami flooring, a wall with a wall scroll and shelving and the final wall is almost completely taken up by a sliding door. The accessories include a metal basin, pot, katana with a display stand, floor pillow, teapot, teacup with saucer and a plate of dango. The set is sturdy, well designed and highly detailed. It photographs very well, which is exactly what I wanted it for.

Despite the fact that I haven't got a full set yet, I think it's safe to say that these sets are awesome and well worth hunting for. If you can find one for a decent price, then I think you should definitely go for it. They are a lot of fun and look great displayed as well. Everything is scaled perfectly for Nendoroids and every little detail is just right. The height of the room looks like it might even work well for Figmas as well.

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Creativity: Making Your Own Miniatures.

Many figure collectors are also cosplayers, the hobbies easily go hand in hand. I cosplayed for the very first time last month and I had a blast doing so. To complete my cosplay, I bought contact lenses online. They arrived in tiny plastic containers that looked somewhat like tiny jars. After transferring my contact lenses to the appropriate containers for storage, I decided to keep the original containers. At the time I had no idea why, but I often keep little bits and pieces like that in the hopes of doing something creative with them. And that's exactly what I ended up doing.

I attempted to make a little jar of jam with the first one. I can recall making homemade jam as a kid, and instead of using screw on lids, I remember using sheets of some kind of clear cellophane, held on with a rubber band. So for my mini jam jar, I used fake blood left over from a costume party (mmm, zombies!) to look like jam, then I used some clear cellophane, cut into a little square. It is held onto the jar with some thin purple ribbon, tied in a bow. I wanted to use a tiny clear hair elastics that you can buy, but I didn't have any at the time. I have two empty jars so if I attempt to make another jam jar, I think I will use something to add thickness and texture to the jam, and I will use a tiny elastic to hold the cellophane on the jar.

The other miniatures pictured below are made from polymer clay, the modeling clay that you bake in the oven. The second jar is filled with little marbled balls of polymer clay to look like candy. I used this tutorial for the mini sushi and a friend showed me how to make the little cupcakes. I then used an iridescent nail polish on the cupcake with the cherry on top for some extra sparkle and clear nail polish on the cherry, the purple cupcake and the salmon to give them some shine.

I had a lot of fun making these and with practice I should be able to create more complex minis for my Nendoroids and other figures! Making these tiny miniatures was surprisingly easy and polymer clay isn't very expensive. So if you want some minis for your figures and can't buy any re-ment miniatures or anything similar, I recommend trying to make your own. You can find polymer clay at your local craft store.

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Review: Adelaide Himeji Garden

During a recent trip to Adelaide, South Australia, I took a break from shopping to visit the Adelaide Himeji Garden. Unfortunately it was a somewhat rushed visit, I didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked, but I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and I look forward to exploring the garden again during the different seasons.

The Adelaide Himeji Garden is a traditional Japanese garden situated on the edge of the city of Adelaide, South Australia. In April 1982, the city of Adelaide and the ancient city of Himeji became sister cities. The Adelaide Himeji Garden was a gift from the city of Himeji to symbolise the bond of friendship between the two cities.

The garden itself may be small, but it is still a beautiful example of Japanese garden design. You enter the garden through a gatehouse, modeled on a temple. Nearby is a water bowl so visitors may purify themselves by washing their hands and face before entering the garden. The garden is split into two classic styles. Firstly, the larger section of the garden, the senzui (lake and mountain garden) which reflects images of the Japanese countryside. Hills in the garden design represent the mountains of Japan and the body of water represents the lakes and ocean. A bubbling waterfall provides the soothing sounds of running water. A shishi-odoshi (deer scarer), a bamboo device provides a rhythmic clack against a rock every few moments. The back corner of the garden shows us a beautiful example of a kare senzui (dry garden), where raked sand represents areas of water and rocks take the place of islands. By the kare senzui is a teahouse, where you can sit and enjoy the peace and quiet and look across the carefully raked sand of the kare senzui. The teahouse is designed similarly to the porch of a Zen temple. The garden is completely fenced off and full of beautiful plants, so it is easy to relax and let yourself imagine that you have escaped on journey to Japan.

I took my Banpresto C.C. SQ prize figure with me to visit the garden for photographic reasons. Her outfit is the most suitable out of all the figures in my collection so it seemed fitting to photograph her there. I plan to visit the garden again in January and I will take the rerelease of Alter's Momohime figure (due for rerelease this month) with me then.

Please enjoy my photographs of C.C and my photographs of the garden itself. If you're ever in Adelaide, I highly recommend the Adelaide Himeji Garden as a must see spot to visit.

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Figure Photography - Kamui Gakupo

I shot these photographs of Nendoroid Kamui Gakupo in my garden over the weekend. I found a corner of my garden that I've never explored for photographic purposes before. I found a log just begging to be photographed. So I settled Gakupo there, looking very handsome. I found myself a spot and began setting up my shots. I got startled when something ran into the viewfinder, generally when you're photographing figures you don't expect any movement. I looked closely and discovered that a tiny lizard of some sort had settled itself by Gakupo. I shoot all my figure photographs in manual (both for exposure and focus) so I couldn't just start snapping away, but I quickly checked the light meter, adjusted the shutter speed, adjusted the focus and started snapping to capture the little lizard friend. You can see him in the very last photograph, click the thumbnail to view it larger. The framing isn't the best but I'm still happy that I managed to get at least one good shot of Gakupo with his new friend.

Sadly, during this little photo session with Gakupo, he suffered a fall. He didn't break (surprisingly, because he tumbled down a good 4 feet) but his little ahoge got scratched. So AmiAmi made more money from me yet again, because I came straight inside and ordered a replacement. At least I will have twins now! That should open up some curious photo opportunities....

Thanks for reading!

Figure: Nendoroid Kamui Gakupo
Manufacturer: Good Smile Company
Camera: Nikon D7000
Lens: Sigma 70-300mm f/3.5-5 Macro lens

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Figure Photography: Miku's Secret Garden

Figure: Hatsune Miku Nendoroid
Manufacturer: Good Smile Company

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Figure Photography: Ichigo Kurosaki - Bankai!

Figure: Bleach - Ichigo Kurosaki - Bankai Version
Manufacturer: Megahouse

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Figures: Storage of extra parts and accessories.

All figure collectors are faced with the same problem - storage. Whether it be the display of the figures themselves, the storage of the boxes or the storage of all the accessories that come with some scale figures as well as Figmas and Nendoroids.

Up until recently, I kept the extra faces and parts for my Nendoroids and Figmas in their boxes and the extra parts for scale figures in a ziplock bag in a drawer because I didn't have anywhere better to store them. It prevented me from changing them around a lot because I don't enjoy fighting with the boxes to get the accessories out then put them back when I was done. Then I had this idea.



I purchased a Plano StowAway utility box from a fishing and camping store. It it designed to hold things for fishing but I discovered it is the perfect size for storing extra figure bits and pieces! The one I purchased comes with removable dividers so you can create sections of different sizes, as you can see from the picture. It fits everything just nicely and it's a simple way to keep everything organized.

I hope this inspired you to get organized if you aren't already. It's Spring here in Australia, so it's the perfect time to do some figure Spring cleaning. How do you store your extra bits and pieces? Leave a comment.

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Lost & Found: Family Photos Swept Away by the 3.11 East Japan Tsunami.

Back in August I attended the exhibition opening of Lost & Found: Family Photos Swept Away by the 3.11 East Japan Tsunami. This exhibit has been shown in Tokyo, New York and my small city in regional Australia was very lucky to have this exhibit on display throughout August. The exhibition showcases photographs salvaged from the 2011 East Japan Tsunami. The photos have been carefully recovered, cleaned and digitized to be reproduced and displayed to tell the story of the silent survivors and the victims of this disaster.

Please read the following information from the official website:

Until the day of March 11th 2011, all the photos we have here today were in people’s homes.
After the earthquake hit, a massive tsunami swept away houses, and everything that was inside them. Coastal towns were buried in rubble. Cars, clothes, refrigerators, photo albums: everything was swallowed up and turned to waste as people stood speechless.

As the search for survivors ended and attention turned to the clean up mission, Self-Defense forces, firemen, and policemen who were in Tohoku to help survivors began to pick up photos they found in the mud, and to store them in an elementary school gymnasium. They were not asked to do it, nor did they have a clear sense of their objective. Perhaps they were just desperate to find something in of the rubble that could be saved. Over time, the gymnasium began to fill up with salvaged photographs.

Two months after the earthquake hit, a group called the “Memory Salvage Project” began to sort out the photos and prepare them for return to their owners.

The images were cleaned and digitized by volunteers who came from Tokyo and other parts of Japan.
The images varied in condition, from relatively clean to damaged beyond recognition. Some of the photographs you see here were so badly eroded by bacteria that they could not be cleaned, and therefore could not be returned. But each of these images, kept in a drawers or cabinet, was someone’s treasured memory until that fateful day.

We all take photographs. A few special ones are cherished, and the rest forgotten. We take pictures when we are having fun, when we want immortalize a moment shared with another person. The photographs you see here were also taken under those circumstances. The depth of emotion might vary from snap to snap, but each one captures a point in time that somebody wanted to keep.

What are we supposed to feel and think when we look at these pictures?

Should we be happy that they were found at all, or sad that they will never be returned to their owners? Or should we simply mourn for the dead? The more I struggle to find answers, the more missing pieces I seem to find.

But without looking at the pictures, I don’t think we’ll see anything at all.

It was a very moving exhibition. I invited my best friend who enjoys Japanese culture and she enjoyed it as much as I did. We did two laps through the exhibition and found new things we hadn't noticed the first time around. We found ourselves talking about who these people were and if they were still alive or not. As I said, it was quite emotional.

Please take a look at the pictures below that I snapped at the exhibition. I didn't have my SLR with me, so I had to take these photos on my iPhone so I apologize for the poor quality.

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Figure Reviews: Bandai's Chibi Arts C.C.

C.C. is the first of the Code Geass characters to have a figure in Bandai's Chibi Arts line. The chibi style certainly suits C.C. well. C.C. comes with quite a collection of accessories which include two extra faces, three alternate arms, Arthur the beloved car, Zero's helmet which can be held by C.C. in her lap or worn by Arthur to give a nod back to Code Geass and one of the anime's most amusing scenes. C.C. also comes with a pizza which is true to her character. Finally, she comes with a stand, two spare neck joints and some speech bubbles with their own separate plastic stand. Quite a list of accessories indeed!

Sculpting
Starting at the top and working our way down, C.C. has long green hair which flows freely behind her in a gentle V shape. The ends fan out into stands which are sculpted well. Two sections fall over her shoulders and her face is framed by long bangs. The bangs have sharp details. The seam that separates the front sections of her from the back to allow you to change her faces is very thin. There is another small seam behind each of her ears but it's barely worth mentioning.

Her clothing has creases in all the right places and has all the details a Code Geass would expect. Buckles and straps in all the right places. Arms and arm sockets are sculpted in a way that her arms don't merely attach with a noticeable seam, but her arms fit into a sculpted socket so the joins don't stand out as much. Her tiny hands and feet have just the right amount of detail. All of the joints and connections are very tight and feel very secure, there's no concern about her arms coming lose and her hair and extra faces fit on tightly.

Posing
Unfortunately C.C. is quite limited when it comes to posing. This is mostly due to the fact that she is seated. Her body and legs cannot be changed at all. The extra arms allow for some variety in her poses. Although another downfall in this category is her hair. Because of the length is gets in the way most of the time. C.C. is also quite unbalanced so getting her to sit flat is somewhat of a challenge. Her stands seems unnecessary at first because she is sitting, but depending on which pose you put her in, you may need to use the stand to stop her from tumbling over.

Painting
C.C.'s hair is another slight let down in this category as it is just painted a flat green with no shading. The sculpting of the hair allows for shadows and highlights to show with lighting but it would have been nice to see a little bit of shading. Her face is well painted with lots of crisp details. The paint work on her clothing is neat and tidy, with silver accents on the buckles and buttons. Her clothing has no shading much like her hair but the sculpt allows for shadows to add them.

Packaging
The Chibi Arts packaging is very visually appealing, with a large window in the front and crisp photographs of the figure itself. It's a pretty simple box but it is a very nice box and it is also a small box, which is always a bonus when it comes to shipping.

Conclusion
Bandai have done a fine job with their Chibi Arts C.C. They have done a great job of including all the right accessories for any C.C. fan to enjoy. Her possibility may be limited, but she still looks very nice sitting on a shelf and it is a lot of fun to swap her around.

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Anime reviews - K - Episodes 01-03

K - Episodes 01-03
My rating: ☆☆☆☆ 4 stars (out of 5)

K is a 2012 anime series that follows the story of a 17-year-old school boy who has been accused of murder, which ultimately places him in the middle of a war.

The story so far has revolved heavily around three main characters:

• Yashiro Isana aka Shiro, a student being accused of murdering a member of the Red Clan, Homura.
• Neko, Shiro's pet cat who has the ability to transform from her cat form into the form of a naked human girl. She also possesses the ability to use illusions.
• Kuroh Yatogami, also known as the Black Dog or Kuro. He is mysterious and highly skilled with a sword and some form of magic. He is on a mission to hunt down Yashiro on behalf of his late King and master, Ichigen Miwa.

Aside from these main characters, there are also the seven coloured clans. There is the members of the Red Clan Homura lead byMikoto Suoh - the Red King, the Blue Clan Scepter 4 lead by Reisi Munakata and the other five clans have only been briefly introduced so far.

The animation is the high point of the anime so far, the artwork is beautiful but it is quite easy to become absorbed in beautiful animation and forget that the story needs substance as well. The first three episodes of K have held my interest, although it's a challenge to understand who all the characters and their intentions. There is a perfect mix of drama, action, supernatural themes and even humour. I found myself laughing out loud several times during episodes 2 and 3.

If you enjoyed Durarara!! I think you should enjoy K. There is even a character that looks like he could be Heiwajima Shizuo's long lost twin brother.

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Bandai Celebrates Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary

I was one of those kids who grew up watching Sailor Moon fighting evil by moonlight so naturally I am looking forward to the Sailor Moon 20th Anniversary anime which was announced a little while ago. Now I have even more reason to be excited. Bandai have revealed new Figuarts and Chibi-Arts Sailor Moon figures to celebrate the 20th anniversary. Both figures were presented during Tamashii Nation 2012 in Tokyo. So far there is no information on release and per-order dates, or any news on the other Sailor Scouts, so if you're a Sailor Moon fan, keep your eyes peeled. I know I will be anxiously awaiting these two.

Source.

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Armageddon Expo, Melbourne 2012

This year I attended Armageddon Expo for the very first time, after wanting to go for several years. Armageddon is an Australia/New Zealand convention with a focus on sci-fi, comics, anime, gaming etc. The main attraction for me this year was voice actor Johnny Yong Bosch who you may know as the voice behind Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach, Vash the Stampede from Trigun, Lelouch vi Britannia from Code Geass, or as the Black Power Ranger. Once I knew that Johnny was a confirmed guest, I just had to go. Being an artistic person, I decided to create my own artwork to have him sign - you can see it properly here on my deviantART (link). So in the weeks leading up to the convention I drew, scanned and digitally coloured an artwork of my 3 favourite characters voiced by Johnny - Ichigo (Bleach), Lelouch (Code Geass) and Izaya (Durarara!!). I'll talk more about that in a minute.

Exporing Chinatown the night before Armageddon.

Armageddon started off a little bumpy when my best friend who I traveled to Melbourne with the day before woke up on Saturday morning with a migraine. A legit, hardcore migraine. So she dossed herself up on her prescribed meds and went back to bed while I worried about what was to become of our weekend. It was a 6 hour drive from where we live to Melbourne, so we had traveled quite a long journey. But 4 hours later, she was awake and feeling human enough to make the journey to the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre. We put off cosplaying until Sunday and went off to the convention dressed as civilians. We walked around, looked at all the exhibitors and the stalls. Straight away, I purchased 2 wall scrolls, which I ended up kinda regretting pretty quickly because they weren't easy to carry around in crowds of people. We checked out the Madman stall, where they were selling all their manga at $10 per issue, which is fairly cheap for Australian prices. I grabbed some Bleach, volumes 18, 20, 21, 23 and 24 because they had sold out of 19 and 22. I absolutely adore Bleach but I'm very behind on the manga so I need to fix that. I really want to get up to date because avoiding spoilers is getting harder and harder. We joined the autograph line for the animation guests early to get a decent spot, but not early enough to be close to the front of the line. I played with my 3DS and collected lots of Miis with StreetPass which is always a fun way to pass the time at a convention. A stranger in line noticed I was playing Mario Kart 7 at one point and we played together for a bit but he easily kicked my butt.


Figures at MoeMall 
Before I knew it, the guests returned to the signing table and the line was moving - slowly but surely. First up was Charles Martinet who is the voice of Mario! He was fantastic, he was so lovely to absolutely everyone. He signed my autograph to 'Princess Jena' followed by 'Mama Mia!' and 'You da best!'. He was a really great person. Next up was the one I have been looking most forward to - Johnny Yong Bosch. I don't get starstruck but I was flustered by the time I got to him and I was still struggling with my A3 folio in which my artwork was in, my purchases and my handbag because I'm a woman and that thing is a necessity! I tried to tell him that the characters I drew were my 3 favourites but it all came out jumbled but he knew exactly what I was trying to say because the next thing he said was "You drew this?!" so I told him that I spent quite a few hours working on it specifically to get him to sign it and he was just so impressed, he couldn't believe I drew it and at that point I handed over the one that I printed for him to have. He was like "Wait, this one is for me!?" - he was just so stoked and he said he was going to frame it. SO HAPPY! I was just so overjoyed. But as I sit down to write this all out, I realise that I wanted to get a photo of him holding it but in all the craziness I totally forgot! So bummed! But I still got it signed, he signed it in the empty space I left without me even needing to say anything. I tweeted a message of thanks to him later that afternoon to let him know how much I appreciated it and I was amazed to wake up the next morning to find that he had tweeted back to me! I hate to sound like a little teenybopper but it really just made me so happy that he loved it. That entire encounter was definitely the best part of the weekend for me. I tweeted him again yesterday to say that I forgot to ask for a picture of him holding it and I asked if he could take a picture for me but he replied saying he is twitter handicapped so I'm assuming that was a nice way of saying no. Bummer!

My friend and I walked back to the car to rid ourselves of my folio and shopping. We browsed some more once we returned to the convention centre and I spotted some stalls selling bootlegs. I saw some bootleg Miku's and a Sakura Miku. The worst part was that when I walked by later, I noticed that someone had purchased the Sakura bootleg. My inner bootleg alarm went off quite a few times over the weekend, it just goes to show that you have to be careful at conventions and know what to look for.

On Sunday we returned to Armageddon Expo but this time we were in cosplay. We were dressed as Matryoshka versions of Miku and Gumi. It was such a fun cosplay, I enjoyed doing the makeup and I liked the freedom that came with that cosplay because you can basically wear whatever you want on the lower half because it's never shown in the video. We were asked for a few photos and a few people told us we looked awesome which makes it all worth it. The sad part was that we didn't get the chance to get a photo together other than some crappy iPhone photos we took of ourselves at the apartment we were staying it, so now we're trying to hunt down some photos via Facebook. Fingers crossed!

The best part of Sunday was the Eyeshine performance. For those of you who aren't aware, Eyeshine is Johnny Yong Bosch's band. They were really fun, great tunes, awesome performers. They got everyone to come nice and close so it was super intimate. It's not every day you get to hear your favourite voice actor sing in his own band and stand super close as they perform. I shot some video with my DSLR although the audio isn't fantastic because I was right next to a paid of speakers. And the video has a few focus issues because it was the first time I'd ever filmed any video with my DSLR so I didn't really know what I was doing! The performance was awesome. A group photo was taken at the end so I'm looking forward to seeing that too. You can find my video here: (link)



I didn't buy any figures because there wasn't really any that I wanted and I didn't want to accidentally end up with a bootleg. But I did buy a few cool things. MoeMall had the Wonderfest K-ON! Nendoroid sets and oh boy those were hard to walk away from! Those little beauties. As mentioned above, I got Bleach and Code Geass wall scrolls, Bleach manga, Heroes & Heroines Character Design Book, Wacom Bamboo Stylus for drawing on the iPad and extra nibs, a Link plush, a Kon plush, a Zelda iPhone USB cable, a cute little keychain that looks like a gameboy, the Limited Edition 25th Anniversary Copic Marker set (link) (SO AMAZING!) and the lady gave me a free carry case that is some Japanese exclusive and a 'Keep Calm and Gangnam Style' pin even though I'm over that fad but I still find it funny. I think that's it.


I think that just about covers it! It was a great weekend.

You can find more pictures on my flickr.

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