Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

A conversation last night with Digikerot, fellow figure enthusiast, had both of us agreeing that the desire to purchase more PVC goddesses has subsided due to a lack of storage space. We were bragging about how we managed to reduce pre-orders to single digit amounts. Screw that.

Look at what’s coming up.

First, RANGE MURATA figurines. I swore upon my honour of Last Exile Fanboy that I would purchase every 1/8 scale figurine Murata designs and this UJ-14 figurine is no exception. Who is UJ-14? Back in the last century, a magazine titled "Ultrajump" featured this girl on the cover page of the November ‘97 issue. Priced at 4800 yen (4560 if you order now at HLJ but why should I advertise for them), this beauty is set for an October release. Wow isn’t that like, in two months! SUGEE! As always for Murata figures, Alpha’s the maker.

Then we have the adorable Sonsaku China dress figure. Ikkitousen may be trash but it sure has tonnes of good figurines. I like this one. It’s cheap too at slightly less than 3000 yen and will be released in November ‘06 by Wave. It’s a petite 1/10 though and with the crouching posture, may be a tad small.

Then for Revoltech, we have Revy and the White variant of the Eva-04. The latter is exactly the same as the black one so no point getting it. Revy is being panned by most collectors as ugly because of the abundance of uncovered joints. With these bigger pictures, we can see what exactly her body structure will be like. She’s going for about 1995 yen, 12 cm tall, 29 points of articulation and an October 15 release. Interestingly, some of her joints are pivot joints, albeit her being classified as a "revoltech". But with that 1/8 Revy announced, I will not buy this one. I’m laying off Revoltech for a while because I still have four unopened boxes of it.

As for other action figures, Shizuru and Natsuki from Mai-Otome are pretty tempting. I probably will not get these due to their 6900 yen price tag (each). Both are 1/10s and are action figures with not many visible joints. Ateliar-Sai is the maker and these will release in October. They come with bases and for Shizuru, an extra weapon. Natsuki’s huge rifle is pretty though. The craftsmanship on these seem to be pretty good. Someone please buy them so I can play.

Konami starts its Akazukin rampage with the non-scale voice figure of Otogijuushi Akazukin. As if that isn’t money sucking enough, it comes with three elemental cards which can make Akazukin say 3 different lines. But the catch is, there are seven types of cards in total.  And I don’t see any mention of there being booster card packs. Konami has always been a shrewd merchant, looking at their Yuugioh history. Nowhere is the size stated but it should be around the size of those unscaled Ichigo Mashimaro cosplay figures, that means 13-14 cm?

As for ultimate in otaku wallet massacre, there’s Busou Shinki. I probably will get this if I see it in the flesh. Someone is ordering them all though. While I liked the first wave a bit more for the rather wicked mecha girl hybrids, this second wave seems to be a bit more organic/animalistic. The cat claw girl is the win though. Each is going for 3600++ yen and they are action figures, with removeable armour and option parts. Looking at the girl, the joints seem to be the more sturdy kind of metal-bolted ones, which were popular in the 90s but subsequently replaced by less visible and more poseable types. September 28 release. Two more, Ninja and Samurai types are being made too. No pix yet though.