Mini-Pla finished!

I took my time but built all 4 of the Ke-tai Sousakan Mini-pla plastic models. If one works hard at it, you can probably build most if not all of them in a day. But I'm super slow so I took a while. :p

Here are the pics of each in their individual modes as well as the combined mode at the end. You can mix and match the sets so that 7 wears Demolition and 01 wears Grindor as well as just mixing the individual parts. However 7 only has the Grindor Chakushin face and 01 only has Demolition's since that's the setup each PB usually use in the show.


One thing that this set has help me decide is that I'm not going to get the DX toy version of them. The samples of the electronic light & sound gimmicks on Youtube hasn't really excited me and on top of that I'm aware of their annoyance factor with them ringing at random intervals throughout the day (there doesn't seem to be an off button short of taking out the batteries). And if the mini-pla versions of them are any indication, the Chakushin form of them aren't that fun to play around with either.

Fully filled dakimakura cover

I washed the Daiba Minato cover and filled it with the Sears body pillow and a 20x28" pillow bought from Target. I was originally going to use a smaller pillow but it turned out the body pillow filling can be squished higher making the top fill out more but at the cost of having the body pillow take up less space in the cover. It's hard to tell from the picture but the 2nd pillow starts from the knees down. I'm happy with the way the cover is filled out but the 2nd pillow is much stiffer than the body pillow so I'm going to switch it out for something softer.



I built the first of the MiniPla. It was easier than I thought. You can pretty much twist the pieces out by hand and then use a model knife to shave off any sprue that sticks out too much. Next will be Grinder.



I decided to keep Tsugaru for now. If I get another EX, it would be Waffebunny and she would be my last EX. I'm on the fence on getting the upcoming Shinki figures; they've gotten rather expensive.

Brief & dirty Tsugaru review

I have mixed feelings on Tsugaru. I like her look but her execution leaves much to be desired. She's backheavy due to the fact that her backpack sticks out further from her back than is really needed. Her thigh armor doesn't serve much purpose other than to get in the way of either mode. The armor's alt mode is a joke; it doesn't stick together well and you have to perform figure gymnastics to get the figure onto the vehicle. Her blades and electromagnetic rifles can't be wielded by themselves; you need to find some other part to help her use them which is a huge pain in the arse. Frankly I'm a bit on the fence about keeping her and she may be the last EX armor I'm getting.

And it's here!

As expected, the package arrived this morning. Here's the package contents.



Sega prize figures Sawatari Izumi and Karauchi Anna, Nendoroid Japanese Life Set A & B, Re-ment Our House's Kotatsu, MiniPla Ke-tai Sousakan 7 01 Arrives 1-4, Se.Kirara w/ Aya Morning Coffee figma, and (the main breadwinner for me) Otoboku The 2 Elders 1st run edition w/ Softbank extras.



The Softbank extras are a shitajiki of Awayuki and a bedsheet featuring Chihaya and Kaoruko.

(edit 3/4/12: OTBK2 contents have been moved to ecchi-ism.)

Latest loot pics

This is from end of June.



Re-ment Cafe Table, Re-ment Sushi Meguri, Bushou Shinki EX Tsugaru, Revoltech Layton, and G's Festival Comic vol.12.

O M G

I just discovered that Sofmap just clearanced out Sora no Otoshimono DVD vol 1 1st print ed as well as both Saki DVD 2 & 7 1st print ed for under 2000 yen each. Why this is special is because they all have a dakimakura included as a bonus. Both Sora and Saki 7 are already sold out by the time I noticed this and currently only Saki 2 (1500 yen) is still available although I don't know how long that will last. The Sora DVD is a total steal and I would have so jumped on it if I had found out sooner.



Rats. orz

Finally a hugging pillow!

I bought a body pillow from Sears. I tried the Haruka, Hinata, and Saki 7 dakimakura covers on it.

Like the one from Bed Bath & Beyond, the pillow is 20"x54" and costs $9.98. The inside is polyester fiberfill; the outer cover is 55% cotton and 45% polyester. It is supposedly machine washable. I went with Sears because the the closest BBB didn't have the $10 in stock the last time I went there plus it was farther away. I didn't have much problem putting the covers on although Saki 7 had a tight fit. The pillow was a tad too short for all of them including Hinata; it reaches down to about their ankles. Hinata seems to have the best feel followed by Haruka then Saki 7. They all look pretty good including Haruka which doesn't look as good in the photos due to the way the cover reflects light. Thanks to the pillow being slightly wider than the dakimakura specs, the cover are stretched firmly so wrinkles or folds don't stand out at all. I decided to use the Haruka cover as my first one to use since she seems to be the least durable and she's been washed too. After a few days with her, I can see the attraction of dakimakura covers. You have a life-sized image of a 2D girl staring right back at you and if you like the girl, you'll really want to hug the pillow and stuff. I'm also finding I'm really liking the Haruka cover. She's so cute and sexy and the cover feels much better than I thought it would. It's very smooth and more comfortable to hold than I thought (maybe even more than the Hinata cover). I think I can get to like this LOL. I'm going to search out for a proper sized dakimakura body for my 2nd pillow. It'll probably be a while though since these things aren't cheap.

One thing I've noticed is that I don't really visit other people's blog all that often mainly due to lack of time. Usually I'll visit a site to read the review of a certain figure or toy I'm interested in and then I usually won't come back for a long time if ever. I wonder if there are others that are similar to me in that fashion or if it's just me.

Otoboku 2 has confirmed master up so I'm looking forward to getting it in early July. I'm dissapointed Para-Sol got delayed to late July but I guess that'll give me time to enjoy Otoboku until Para-Sol ships. NicoNico Chyokuhan has confirmed that my copy of Se.kirara w/ Aya morning coffee figma will ship around the same time as Otoboku so I'll be getting them at the same time. Speaking of which I've yet to play Se.Kirara. ^^;