Ninja Senshi Tobikage

 Another 80s Mecha series that i managed to give a watch and this one proved to be a miss. A Ninja Robot in space seems to be a cool premise but Tobikage unfortunately failed to deliver. Mecha series in 80s tend to serve as glorified commercial advertisement to sell Toys and Tobikage is one of them. This inevitably limits the things the series could do and the materials that Tobikage need to work with are not the best either. The story of the series is your typical protagonist fighting with robots for the underdog faction against mighty evil empire featuring some love triangle along the way. The story formula is quite stale like the majority of its peers and only briefly get slightly better around late 20s episode when Obari decided to contribute something and then goes flat again. Tobikage ends with ambiguous note as the series was cut short due to budget issues and the last two episodes were just mere recap. Tobikage could have used 2 or 3 OVA Episodes to tie loose ends but i suppose budget was the issue once again.

Figuarts Zero Mini Fate/Grand Order Babylonia

 With the release of FGO Babylonia Anime, Bandai finally made its move onto the series! It seems that they are only able to touch on Fate Series whenever there are any anime adaptations like Apocrypha and Last Encore. For the FGO Babylonia, the Tamashii Nation division contributed to some of the products including the recent Figuarts Zero Mini Lineup. Ishtar, Mash and Caster Gil will be debuting in this lineup with the price tag 3000 Yen with March 2020 release schedule. This makes a good substitute for Nendoroid because some of the characters may easily cost twice for the latter.

 Figuarts Zero Mini is one of the new lineup introduced this year featuring Kotobuki Squadron as the debutting series and later on Sailor Moon series. FZ0 Mini probably serve as the continuation of Tamashii Buddies and perhaps will feature more characters from anime series. I think Bandai probably applied some their experience from Petit-Rise model kit onto the FZ0 Mini in particular with Mash. If the FGO series proven to be profitable enough for Bandai, i think we will see more FGO Babylonia characters to make an appearance in this lineup. FZ0 mini is somewhere in between Bandai's Petit-Rise and GSC Nendoroid which makes a good substitute if you are looking for something outside those two lineups.

Glass no Kantai

 One of the relatively obscure mid 2000s Space Opera that i gave a try a while ago and it was rather different experience. To put it simply Glass no Kantai is a victorian renaissance style drama with a space setting and it probably had rather ambitious vision at its time. The main premise of Glass no Kantai is the intertwining fate between three different individuals which will decide the destiny of the Galaxy they lived. The main protagonist Michel Volban served as the focal point as he leads the revolutionary army to overthrow oppressive Empire regime and his destiny soon changed as he encountered the legendary glass battleship.

Mobile Suit Gundam Ensemble 07 Review

 More Universal Century goodness on Gundam Candy Toys!

Realm of Darkness is now on Instagram!

 Rather late into this trend but finally i figured some use of this popular social media platform for this blog! Realm of Darkness Instagram page will be more focused Toy Photographies part of this blog and i will try to post stuffs around the same time with the Review post in this blog. Hopefully if things go well i can put more plans in the future. You can follow Realm of Darkness Instagram page through this blog sidebar or directly here

Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative

 Early this year Bandai advertised this series to oblivion and obviously it meant having distributors like my Company to take in tons of Gunplas related to this series. I guess Gundam Unicorn is considered to be very profitable so that Bandai tried to squeeze money down further by making another spin off based from the series which of course include newtype hax. The result is we are having a movie length anime narrating the story of Unicorn and Banshee's third sibling, Phenex. As expected, Gundam Narrative have solid animation quality like Unicorn OVA with good action sequences, but other than that there are not much things out of it. If you are someone who dislike the original Unicorn OVA like me, you will likely find Gundam Narrative to be mediocre because it is mainly made to sell Unicorn Phenex complete with the OP hax that unicorn had.

I am just baffled how Bandai coerced my company to stock in model kits like Narrative A-pack in the quantity of hundreds while it only made appearance in less than two minutes. I doubt this particular notorious trend of Bandai to shove cats in the bag to the distributors will change anytime soon and i bet the recent Build Diver Re:Rise will follow the same trend too. Nevertheless i am quite curious how the Newtype Power of the Unicorn Gundam will end up incorporated to Turn A. I am very sure this won't be the end of Unicorn series as Bandai is going to have their way to milk the franchise again with Hathaway's Flash movie next year.

Fate/Grand Order Pop Up Parade Saber Lily

 Goodsmile's promising new budget figure lineup, Pop Up Parade now officially have the popular series Fate/Grand Order join under their wing! For the first choice of character from the salty gacha hell game, GSC picked Saber Lily in her second ascension form. Pop Up Parade Saber Lily will be scheduled for April 2020 release for 3900 Yen Price tag. It appears to be a strange choice for GSC to pick Saber Lily out of many popular characters from FGO for the first figure of Pop Up Parade, but i suppose the adolescent youth of Saber Lily can represent this budding figure lineup. The only gripe for me is the Saber Lily figure doesn't come with Caliburn even though i think it is still doable for GSC to pull it off. Though probably GSC tried not to overlap with Aquamarine's Saber Lily which was up for Preorder early this year. While i am content with my Figma Saber Lily, i will get this one to support the Pop Up Parade lineup.

 I am always excited when i see a product lineup with good potential and Pop Up Parade is one of them.  Pop Up Parade is Goodsmile's answer to Bandai's Banpresto Ichiban Kuji and Prize Figures. While it might lose in terms of size and weight compared to Bandai's, from my impression with the lineup's version of Hatsune Miku and Kizuna Ai the product has decent sculpt for its price with acrylic packaging which only Premium PVC Figure usually have. I am hoping the best for GSC and Pop Up Parade because this lineup is worth supporting for.

Persona 3 D-Arts Elizabeth Review

 Here comes the number 1 Elevator Attendant!

Moderoid Escaflowne

 It has been a long time we see any toy products from Escaflowne and with the courtesy of Goodsmile company, the fantasy dragon mecha had an opportunity for a comeback in Moderoid lineup! Moderoid Escaflowne will be scheduled for March 2020 release with 4300 Yen price tag. With that kind of price we will be getting a non transformable 14 cm tall Escaflowne Model Kit. Even if the anime was a downhill experience, Escaflowne is still a very good fantasy mecha design; a Testament of Shoji Kawamori's talent who is famed for Macross series. So i hoped the series could have more products but should Moderoid Escaflowne sells well, another rendition for Guymelef is a given. I won't be getting this one since i prefer finished product nowadays. Therefore i am still waiting for Bandai getting triggered and makes Robot Damashii out of this fellow. For a classic fantasy mecha genre, Escaflowne together with Dunbine and Rayearth makes the holy trinity so these three series worth a visit even i considered two of them to be wasted potential. Also Maaya Sakamoto did an amazing job for her debut in Escaflowne considering her age at that time.

Yuru Camp

 As usual i steered away from moe anime in general but there is another one that make it into exception. Cute girls doing camping stuffs appears to be unlikely combination but Yuru Camp managed to prove it works. While i really doubt that average Highschool Kids are capable of camping independently or even bother to sleeping outdoors during winter, there is one thing that this anime aced. I suppose moe genre works so well in Japan because people need something to unwind through stressful life and cute girls doing cute things provide an avenue for that. Yuru Camp managed to provide a very relaxing experience by showing the joy of camping, something that can be considered a luxury that most city dwellers unable to afford. This kind of relaxing experience is something that i can appreciate after having a full time job which degrades mind no matter how you like yours. While i have no interest in camping, i could appreciate an opportunity to enjoy nature relatively untouched by civilization. In the end Yuru Camp is worth a try if you want to watch some anime to relieve from your life stress even if you don't like Moe Genre because it is one of the more tolerable of its kind.

Sakura Taisen 1/20 Koubu Kai Ichiro Ogami

 It took more than a decade for Sakura Taisen to get any model kit again but finally Bandai decided to pick up this legendary JRPG series and made the model kit out of it! While Bandai has made some Koubu toys through its Megahouse division back then, this is the first time they attempted Model kit which could have more coverage in target market. The Koubu Model Kit will be scheduled for January 2020 release with 3500 Yen price tag. If Megahouse went with Sakura Taisen 1 Remake for the Koubu design, the Bandai model kit goes with Sakura Taisen 2 version, in particular the version used for the final showdown after the Shinbu malfunctioned. The initial model kit release will feature Shinguji Sakura and Ogami as available variant which Sumire will follow up later on. Hopefully the rest of Teikoku Kagekidan Koubus will follow up which i may get Maria and Kohran version at very least. If this lineup goes well, hopefully it will pave up the way for Sakura Taisen 3 Model Kit.

 You can check my review for Megahouse Variable Action Koubu here

Danball Senki Hyper Function Odin

 It has been ages since i posted anything related to Danball Senki but the recent product revivals by Bandai do piqued my interest to the series again. While Bandai mostly re-release the previous Model Kit they do make some new products out of Danball Senki. The recent one is the transformable LBX Odin and it made it into the deluxe LBX Model Kit, Hyper Function. The Model kit will scheduled for January 2020 release with 3500 Yen Price tag. With the price that easily triples an average LBX Model Kit, Hyper Function Odin offer a solid inner frame which should make the model kit more robust and provide better articulation at the same time. Unfortunately for a pricetag that closes to a Master Grade, Hyper Function Odin doesn't appear to come with a lot of accessory since it is only equipped with Retaliator Lance as its armament and doesn't come with a Shield. I had the regular Odin Model Kit back then which unfortunately the review didn't come through and its articulation and transformation wasn't really good. I think the Hyper Function will definitely address the issue that the previous model kit had which makes me considering to get this kit. At very least i will try revisit Danball Senki W again

Fate/Apocrypha 1/8 Assassin of Red Semiramis

 Around last year there was this particular Semiramis figure got released by Aoshima which looked gorgeous but fleeted away really fast. Generally a popular PVC figure will get a rerun production and this Majestic Assassin class servant got her 2nd run which is quite a rarity for PVC figure outside Goodsmile which meant there is a significant demand. Aoshima actually the distributor as a company called Funnyknight is the one that manufacture this particular Semiramis Figure. The second run of 1/8 Semiramis will be scheduled for December release with 14000 Yen price tag which will further inflated once it reached Indonesia unfortunately.

  I quite like Semiramis design since the first time i watched Fate/Apocrypha due to her simply beautiful and elegant design. Performance-Wise i heard Semiramis is mediocre but it doesn't matter to me because you prioritize waifu over meta in this salt mine. Her FGO ascension is a miss unfortunately so if i somehow able to get her with my saved SQ, i will just stick to her First Ascension. For 1/8 Scale Figure, Semiramis is rather pricey but if i managed to get her in FGO Valentine Banner next year, i might just get her figure. Because as a rule of thumb, i only acquire the Premium PVC character of the servant that visited my Chaldea. Therefore i will just stick with Semiramis Toysworks SD Figure for now.

Mobile Suit Gundam Senshi Forte 9 Review

 Up until now I only cover the 500 Yen Variants for Gundam Candy Toys, but the 300 Yen option are quite good as well. For the 300 Yen Price tag, Gundam Candy Toys is represented by Gundam Senshi Forte nowadays which is the continuation and step up from Gundam Senshi Next. Featuring better Joints compared to its predecessor, Senshi Forte deliver Super Deformed Gundam Candy Toys with ever better proportions and now have reached Vol 11. Actually i started Gundam Candy Toys again from this lineup two years ago which continue with Converge and Ensemble.