Megurine Luka Gallery

I hadn’t intended on doing this until later in the month, because normally I’d include videos with a post like this, but fan arts of Megurine Luka have been spreading like wildfire throughout image boards everywhere. Since the anime review Riiana had intended on posting had to be postponed for today, I’ve decided to share pictures of Luka with you instead. I wanted to try something different with image heavy posts this time, so I shrunk them down to thumbnails. Please let me know if you prefer this way for galleries like this, or would rather they were large to start with. Just click on the thumbnails to get the full resolution picture. For those who might think Megurine is invading upon Miku’s spotlight, don’t think for a second I’ve lost interest because of this new arrival. I’ve just taken a liking to Luka. I’m more excited to see what kind of videos/songs people make with her when she comes out at the end of the month than anything, though I’m quite impressed with the quality and amount of fan art she has already. Well, enough talk, this is a gallery after all.

Images collected from Gelbooru and Pixiv

CV03: Megurine Luka – Unveiled

Megurine Luka has been unveiled as CV03. You may have heard her singing Amazing Grace not too long ago. When I heard that I wasn’t too sure about how I felt towards the then unknown next Vocaloid. But just recently the song in the video above was released and I found myself more impressed. Luka is made to sing Japanese and English, and if you ask me her English is clear as could be. Her voice comes from seiyuu Asakawa Yuu, the voice of Rider from Fate/Stay Night and Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh, among many other characters. Check out her profile on ANN. Megurine Luka will be released later this month, as her scheduled release date is January 30th. Luka is apparently to be aged at 20 years old, making her the oldest of the Vocaloid2 characters. So, expect your favorite video sites to be flooded with new videos come February. I’m sure I’ll be sharing some with you as well, as I look forward to hearing what people can create with her voice. I’m not going to go deep in depth on this post, but I just had to share this with everyone who might not have heard (though I haven’t checked my normal daily sites yet to see if they’ve been overloaded with news about her). So, who thinks they’ll make a Figma/Nendoroid of her by the end of 2009? I’d buy a Figma for sure.

There are already a nice flood of pictures of her on Piapro and Pixiv. Expect a decent gallery of Luka later this month! Hopefully you don’t all get completely sick of my Vocaloid related posts, but don’t worry there will be plenty of other kinds! I was going to post something else until I stumbled across the news of her first thing this morning.

Images from Gelbooru.

Nendoroid Miku Hatsune

What better way to start the new year than reviewing my very first Nendoroid. I ordered her from Hobby Search and she cost me about 2,715 Yen, not including shipping. She’s already sold out… again, but you might be able to find her elsewhere. Miku Hatsune is probably the most popular of all nendoroids, so you’ve almost certainly read several reviews and even more likely seen pictures and/or videos all over the internet by now. I don’t think she needs an introduction, but if you don’t know about her, check out the Vocaloid wikipedia page. I’m a latecomer to the Nendoroid fanfare, but now that my first is here, there’s likely going to be more coming soon. In fact, I have another one pre-ordered for this month, and another in February.

Miku Hatsune in Nendoroid form is absolutely adorable. I guess I don’t really need to tell you that though. She comes with 2 extra heads, 1 extra hair piece, a bent arm and a leg with a bent knee, her trusty leek, and a hand to hold it in that works on either arm. She also comes with a stand that she sort of sits on. Her headset covers up her ears and is required to remove in order to take the hair off. Her skirt is removable and her pantsu have a cute ribbon on them. Miku’s twin tails are also removable, and in fact they fall out if you mess with them too much. Her head is heavy and her body is light, but her twin tails balance her out pretty well so you don’t necessarily have to use her stand, I just prefer to use it for added stability. Well, other than that I can’t say much about her. If you’re into Miku, Nendoroids or cute figures this is a sure-fire addition to your collection. I might have gotten Nendoroid fever.

Sayonara 2008

Well, it’s 2009 already in most of the world, but I’m still stuck in the past. I got lucky and these two figures arrived this morning, just in time to be my last arrivals for the year. This ends my first year as a figure collector, and I’m ending the year happy. Figma Shana and Nendoroid Miku Hatsune have made themselves snug and warm in my cold living chambers. Maybe Shana can warm the place up a bit. Nendoroid Miku marks my very first Nendo! I have one coming in January and another in February. Well, I’m not really going to be doing anything special to bring in the new year as far as I know, maybe watch anime or something. I don’t drink or “party”, been over that stage for a while now. I am NOT going to add up my figure expenses or whatever for the year, I don’t even want to know so I definitely don’t feel like sharing it with others. Anyways, I really don’t like making new years’ resolutions, but I think instead I’ll just list a few goals that I should be able to accomplish. So here goes.

My goals for 2009.

To stop procrastinating and actually TRY to learn Japanese, by learn I mean to read, write and speak it fluently. I don’t have to master the language, but I want to do the best I can instead of slacking off. I need to buckle down and study seriously.

To get myself in better physical shape. That means more frequent exercise, but not too much, too fast because I’m way out of shape.

To shed some of my hikkikomori ways. You might wonder how one can be a hikkikomori and be married and have a son, but believe me it is possible. I’ve lived here for over a year now and I haven’t been around much, or met many people. More outings, more often. I might not seem to have a problem, but that’s only because I don’t talk about it much.

To cosplay for the first time, and go to my first convention. Yes, I, as an anime fan, have failed to attend even the smallest gathering, largely in part to the above factor. Why would a hikkikomori go somewhere where there’s lots of people? Anyways, I’m going to make it a goal to drag my butt to Nan Desu Kan in September, I’ll be posting more about that one of these days. I also have a few different ideas for cosplaying now.

To spend my online time more efficiently. Get more done in less time, and spend less time vegging out in front of games. I’ve already been doing this but I want to do it more. That means no more MMORPGs or at least, a hell of a lot less. Really this isn’t a problem right now, but if I find another game who knows how much time it will eat up, and/or money. This goal also means being a better blogger.

Alrighty, that’s probably enough on the goals. We might be moving the blog to WordPress sometime in 2009. We’ve been messing with it for a while now, and we’ve been considering the move. The only thing holding us back right now is money, because we’d like to have a host. For now, we’ll be sticking with blogger until the time is right. We have a nice list of future posts to work on, so January looks like it’ll be pretty busy here on Animaticfigmation. So to all our readers, have a safe and happy new year! May 2009 bring us closer to ourselves and make the world a better place.

Non figure images from Gelbooru.

Happy Birthday Rin & Len!

Well, I might be a day late in some timezones, but for me it’s only the morning of the 27th. December 27th marks Rin & Len Kagamine’s first birthday. I figured I should do a birthday post for the Kagamine twins since I did one for Miku. So I present you a small gallery of pictures and a few videos. Happy Birthday Rin & Len! If you haven’t seen them before you might be interested in my Figma Rin & Len posts, or perhaps the Figma Vocaloid2 group post. There’s also the Crazy Kagamine Video, and Vocaloid – Kagamine Twins post for more pictures and videos.

Click pictures for higher resolution. Images taken from Gelbooru

Vocaloid2 Figma Group Shoot

Now that I’ve done my reviews for Rin Kagamine, Len Kagamine and Miku Hatsune Figmas (whose individual reviews can be found by clicking the links), I can get all three of them together for group pictures. At first I thought about doing a “figma theater” type of post along the lines of what DannyChoo does sometimes, but I didn’t really have a story in mind, nor was the lighting very good. Oh yeah, you probably notice the new color scheme, I was trying for something more seasonal and this is how it turned out. Hope it’s not too much on the eyes.

These three are an awesome addition to my Figma collection. I don’t regret buying them in the least. They complete the Vocaloid2 Figma series so far, at least until the third (and yet unreleased or named) Vocaloid2 character is released, that is if they make a Figma of it. I would really like to see Meiko and Kaito made into Figmas.

Forgive me for not really talking about the pictures in the post, but I already reviewed all three figures so there’s not much more to be said. I had fun messing with them and swapping heads a bit as you can see. I thought about doing a story to go with them but I procrastinated too much and just decided to ramble a bit instead.

Poor Len. Don’t pick on girls when they’re swapping clothes or you might become a victim too.

I’d like to thank everyone who’s been reading my blog and for the new readers/viewers who have recently came here. I don’t really celebrate my hit counter because it’s rather innacurate, I already know a large number of hits are just me checking my page. Does anyone here know of a superior stat counter/hit counter that is free to use? Again I keep thinking about switching over to wordpress with my blog, perhaps I’ll make a test blog over there and see how I like it. Also, if you aren’t on my blogroll and would like to be, just let me know I’d be glad to add anyone that isn’t there already. Some of you are there twice and I’ll be fixing that soon, I got the Team Blue banners up-to-date as far as I know. I got more figure reviews on the way and I’ll be sure to do more Figma group shots like this as well, expect a Lucky Star and Haruhi one this month. I also plan to review my first 3 figures that I only posted a couple pictures of but never did actual reviews.

Len Kagamine Figma

As I said the other day, both the Kagamine twins showed up together from Hobby Search, Len was 2,261 Yen. Well here’s my review on Len Kagamine. After this review I will be doing a Vocaloid Figma “Theater” style post which I hope to do the shooting for today. So you’ll see plenty of the twins together and Miku too. It looks like November is truly a Vocaloid month for me. For those of you who may be tired of seeing nothing but Vocaloid things I assure you there will be more diversity next month, I’m currently awaiting arrival of two more Figma ^^ Well then on to the pictures and review!

This marks the first male figure I’ve bought, and my first male Figma. I’m happy to start out with a Vocaloid because I’m a fan. Len’s quality is again just as his twin sister Rin, near perfection in comparison to previous figmas. Len comes in total with: 2 faces, 11 hands, one keytar, one keytar strap and of course the default Figma stand. The detail, the paint job, the easily removable and re-attachable hands, and the coolest part of all, the keytar. I really love it, one of the coolest figma accessories I’ve seen. The keytar comes with a strap which feels like thin plastic or rubber and does stretch a little bit. I noticed the keytar wasn’t quite flat as if it possibly deformed a tiny bit during shipping from heat, or maybe during the creation process. I really don’t know if this was a manufacturing defect or just supposed to be that way, but it doesn’t bother me in the least because it doesn’t really have any negative affect on the figure or it’s looks. Well, nothing to rant about on this figure otherwise. Another fine Figma from Max Factory. Now I’ll be quiet and let the pictures do the talking.

Rin Kagamine Figma

Move over road roller, the Kagamine twins, by Max Factory have arrived! Rather than do them both in the same review I figured it would be better to put them in two seperate posts, then follow up with a Vocaloid group shoot soon after. I bought these from Hobby Search, my most favorite trusted figure retailer. First off is Rin Kagamine.

Rin comes with 10 hands, 2 faces and a microphone. The pictures speak for themselves for the most part. The quality of this figure is on par with Miku Hatsune, only the legs are even more flexible. I rate this figure 10/10. If you like Rin I can’t suggest a better figure to buy. Then again this is coming from someone who enjoys articulated figures, not everyone has the same taste. One thing to add about her, is that her hands are EASY to remove and replace compared to all the other figmas I own. It’s actually a good thing because her sleeves would normally get in the way of moving the hands. I could be a bit biased because I’m a big Vocaloid fan, but I love this figure.

You might notice some of my pictures have dust on them already. The place I live in is extremely dry and always full of dust, it’s becoming a royal pain dealing with it. Anyways, you can see from the pictures the amount of detail put into her, right down to Electronic Voice System written on her left leg warmer. Overall, she was an excellent buy for the 2,261 Yen I paid (shipping not included).

Crazy Kagamine video

Yeah, So, I was browsing through youtube videos and found this…
I laughed so hard it made my head hurt, quite the entertainment while waiting for Rin Kagamine and Len Kagamine Figma to arrive at our door today!:D I’m sure my husband Persocom-San will do a review on those later on in the week.

Hatsune Miku Mixing Box

Yesterday I received an impulse buy from J-List, which I believe was a bit overpriced but I couldn’t resist. First time I’ve used SAL too. I remember a while back when I saw a bunch of figures from Wonfest that I wanted to get if possible, and if I’m correct I posted a picture of a very cute Miku figure. Well I found out where she came from and when I saw it for sale I had to do it. The contents of the mixing box include the figure (which requires you to put her twin tails in and attach her to the stand), a fan book and a dvd. Included in the fan book is lots of stuff that I can only hope to one day read, because it’s all in Japanese. One day I’ll be able to read it all though, just you wait! Lots of cool little pictures and what even appears to be a small board game is in the book, along with a history of Vocaloids, popularity charts and secrets about each Vocaloid.

The DVD contains 5 videos (not 3d ones, but good nonetheless), a LOT of songs (didn’t bother counting sorry), pictures of Miku and the other Vocaloids on an interactive map of Japan, and something I had anticipated, a papercraft Miku with stage, which I didn’t realize would be on the DVD but thought it would come in sheets, so… I don’t have a printer that works right now. Guess I’ll have to take it to the print shop eh? BTW, if anyone is interested in the papercraft thing themself maybe I could email the pdf files to you. I will assemble the papercraft Miku eventually, once I get to a print shop and find the patience to do it, and when I do I’ll put it up here for everyone to see. Oh yeah and the figure is made by Yujin.

2nd to last shot simply because I know someone will ask for it. Anyways, I recommend this Hastune Miku Mixing Box to anyone who is a complete Miku fanatic (like me) and especially to those who can read Japanese, because you’d get more out of it than me (for now).