Martian Successor Nadesico 1/7 Ruri Hoshino

Martian Successor Nadesico may be a dormant IP these days, but that doesn’t mean its best waifu can’t still get new merchandise. Ruri Hoshino is getting a new 1/7 scale PVC figure from Good Smile Company, and she looks stunning in her iconic young battleship captain getup from Prince of Darkness , one of the peak designs of the 90s. The figure is scheduled for release in October 2026 and will be priced at 18,000 yen. 

Ruri stands out as one of the best teen heroine designs in mecha anime of her era, a testament to the skill of her character designer. Her transition from Nadesico to Prince of Darkness captures her growth beautifully. Ruri becomes the epitome of the “young maiden falling in love” archetype, as she gradually develops feelings for Akito, the main character of Nadesico, a relationship that is emotionally complicated and borderline forbidden. Interestingly, the voice actors for Akito and Ruri are married in real life as well.

Non Scale Black Sarena assembled!

 Finally i get to assemble Kotobukiya's Black Sarena kit that i bought last year. while it is probably nowhere as flashy as Sentinel's Black Sarena, the model kit is definitely worth the money. Being a model kit, this version of Black Sarena has some catch mainly with forming the Black Sarena require parts swapping. Nevertheless you can still pull armor purge pose with the kit which is still a win in my Book. My First encounter with Black Sarena was ACE 3 and this guy has been one of my favorite ever since. It is such a sad thing that model kits from obscure series like Nadesico will have hard time getting a new model kit as company like Kotobukiya can't survive on them. At very least i am grateful that Kotobukiya did make some cool stuffs before they move onto Mecha Musume. I will likely procrastinate again, but i will try my best to paint this guy within this year.

Metamorforce Black Sarena

 After more than a year from the announce release we are getting the announce release for Black Sarena which ends up in Metamorforce lineup. The toy will be released around mid year which is about the same time like Baikanfu Last year costing 37000 Yen which is very pricey. Since i had Kotobukiya kit alrd i wont be getting this one but even if i don't have the former i won't be getting Metamorforce because Sentinel's price is too high. Out of all Black Sarena Toy no doubt Sentinel's would be the best in terms of sculpt but it doesn't Justify  the price is almost triple the amount of a Gokin toy released years ago which have the armor purge gimmick and i doubt articulation would be stellar either. I am rather curious what makes Sentinel set their price this high since Bandai could make one for half of the price if they really want it. Black Sarena holds quite a special place since i played ACE 3 and its Armor Purge gimmick is a huge plus too. So it really pains me that these kind of mecha find difficulty to get their toys released and would be pricey if they had one due to the market model. In any case i think Gravion would cost about the same as well and i wonder what Sentinel had in store after Gravion.

February 2018 Loot

 Last month got plenty of generous promotions in Tokopedia with Chinese New Year within the month. Since i got some pocket money, i went on quite crazy shopping spree around this time and bought stuffs off my wishlists. Saved myself around $100 through the generous promotion by Tokopedia which 8 out of 9 included Cashback Promotions. Through the shopping spree i got myself couple of rare stuffs whether it is Model Kit, Action Figure or Figurine.

Finally I bought myself Shinguji Sakura Figurine which is a must have as a Sakura Taisen Fan despite Sakura is not my favorite Heroine, As for Tieria Erde i decided to get her just because she is 50% off with further cashback some more. I also bought a second copy of VAH Rahxephon which i regretted not buying it earlier and hopefully i can get Raideen as well. For a long time already i also have been eyeing Kotobukiya's Black Sarena, because Sentinel's will definitely cost an arm and a leg despite looking promising. As i find SRC to be decent lineup to invest on, i decided to complete Big Order Room Set now as i got Hyoryu and Enryu, i still got two left and it is the hardest part to complete i would say. From GSC Product i got myself Nendoroid Estelle, Figma Caster and Parform Momohime. I think it is one of these days for me to complete Sora no Kiseki and Figma is probably the best lineup to invest for FGO despite they cost almost $100 nowadays.

I think it will be a while again before i am pulling off crazy shopping spree like this again but this time it is mostly too secure stuffs for my collection before they go out of market.

Yami's Winter Wonderfest 2017 Highlights

Kinda late for one but here are some of the prototypes shown in the Event that i find noteworthy. This year's wonderfest got too many moeshit stuffs but at least the mechas are not dying yet. Firstly from Kotobukiya finally Raftclans is going to join the SRW plamo lineup which means one of my SRW kit wishlist ticked down and definitely keep a watch on it.

 While Frame Arms Girls seems to be the most selling Kotobukiya's lineup at the moment, Their HMM lineup will always be the best when it comes to quality and another 2 Zoids will join the lineup, Liger Zero Empire and Storm Sworder! With the empire side CAS coming out i guess Zero X will have a good chance to follow as well.

 I think the one who takes the crown for the best mecha lineup on this year's winter Wonderfest is Sentinel with their several toy lineups for several awesome under-represented mecha series. While we got Black Sarena and Baikanfu Toys before, it appears that Sentinel is going to one up Bandai with their prototypes especially Baikanfu which seems going to incorporate full fledged Pile Formation. Also it seems that we are going to get God Gravion complete with the gattai gimmick. Lastly that Mospeada power armor is going to be awesome. If the price for these prototypes are not too expensive i might be getting some of them.

Nadesico SPM Hoshino Ruri Figure Review

 Hail to the Queen of Moe! Though seriously i think Hoshino Ruri is the fictional character who starts the Moe trend in Anime Industry whether intentional or not. I like Nadesico series despite its flaws and thought it could have been something more than wasted potential and thats the reason why i decided to get this Hoshino Ruri figurine. Due to her status as Queen of Moe, Hoshino Ruri surprisingly got a lots figurine for her outnumbering other characters from Nadesico by far margin mostly garage kits and out of all renditions i choose this version since it portrays Ruri's character good enough despite being an ufo-catcher grade figurine.

 In Nadesico Hoshino Ruri was one of the Ship Crew of the Experimental Nadesico Class Battleship and mainly handles the Ship's Supercomputer Omoikane. Her Personality is cold and distant at first but she opens up more to other crew members with the help of Akito and Yurika. In Prince of Darkness Movie, Ruri eventually command her own Nadesico Battleship and more cheerful compared to her version in TV series. Being the youngest crew in Nadesico and the youngest ,Ruri is very talented Hacker capable of hijacking other Battleships or Electronic mainframe. She is also probably the youngest Ship Captain in mecha series because anything in anime is possible. In SRW she is very solid Battleship commander with very cheap "Disrupt" seishin which drops all enemies accuracy by half in a turn.

 For an Ufo Catcher grade figurine Ruri Hoshino sculpt looks superb enough though its limitation is very obvious compared to Premium Grade Figurine. The PM Figure version is one of the few version that have Ruri in her captain uniform considering majority of the figurine had Ruri doing cosplay stuff. I still wonder why out of many renditions for Ruri Hoshino, none of major Figure making company like Alter or Kotobukiya made Ruri's figurine which appears to have a lot of followers. I will definitely get Black Sarena one day to display it beside Ruri's figurine one day and might as well consider the Nadesico Battleship model kit too.

Nadesico: Prince of Darkness

More like incomplete rather than totally horrible.

Martian Successor Nadesico

You get to Burning~~~~

Non Scale Black Sarena

This mecha is from Nadesico Movie Prince of Darkness with Akito Tenkawa as the pilot. The kit looks impressive due to its bulkyness though i doubt the Aestivalis quality is any good with my previous experience with the kit. Mt first encounter with Black Sarena is when i played ACE 3 and easily the mecha is my favorite though i heard the Nadesico Movie was horrible that it prevented any continuation for the series. Definitely will get this one someday if i find any good deal for this kit.

Super Aestivalis Review

Rather dissapointing kit.