Hello, and welcome to All Your Monies, where The Glorio Blog’s resident toy and figure collecting crew (and Aquagaze) will run down the last week’s new pre-orders, turning a loving or scathing eye over what’s been put out for you to spend your hard earned cash on. This week GAGAGA GAGAGA GAOGAIGAR
Super Robot Chogokin Genesic GaoGaiGar (The King of Braves GaoGaiGar FINAL)
Bandai, March 2014, ¥7060
Zigg:
YES
Timmy: I don’t know what this is or where it is from, but its got transparent flames for hair and that, my friends, is pretty badass.
D-Arts Noel Vermillion (BlazBlue)
Bandai, March 2014, ¥3840
Zigg: This is a surprisingly good representation of Noel, and in her much smarter ‘old’ costume as well. She’s looking good but on the other hand she’s also very accessory light and I’ve had questionable experiences with the quality of D-Arts before, so that tempers my enthusiasm somewhat.
Timmy: Not a bad poseable Noel, though I am curious how the D-arts line stacks up quality wise since I only have gotten my hands on Figmas. A bit light on the accessories as well, but still looking like a pretty nice addition to any BlazBlue fan’s collection.
Leafa (Sword Art Online)
Penguin Parade, April 2014, ¥10,480
Zigg: I can’t work out whether this is really impressive or actually kind of terrible. There’s some really good stuff – the pose is interesting without being over the top, and that base shows real effort. but I don’t know, there’s something a bit flat about the paint, particularly all the green, although that might also have something to do with the lighting. Not super sure about that face either. You could make a case either way, but that price might do it for you.
Timmy: This isn’t bad, in fact there is quite a bit to like about it, but was her outfit really that shade of green in the show. It just feels odd to me and there doesn’t seem to be any shading to tone it down either, though I suppose it could be lighting playing tricks. Everything else looks really nice though. Well, everything but that price tag anyways.
Mashiro Shiina (The Pet Girl of Sakurasou)
FREEing, March 2014, ¥7450
Zigg: Pretty typical FREEing figure – slightly questionable but not outright distasteful subject matter rendered competently if unspectacularly. Some of the paint on the kimono here looks a bit lumpy and I’ve seen corpses with more skin tone. Bet Life loves this one.
Timmy: So we go from super vibrant green to dull blue. The colors just seem boring to me as they hardly pop at all nor does that skin tone really help the matter. Not feeling this one.
Kirino Kousaka Cat Ears ver. (Oreimo)
Griffon, November, ¥7050
Zigg: Griffon in not terrible looking figure shocker! OK, leaving aside my personal opinions on cat-eared teenagers in bloomers, this actually looks to be a pretty well made bit of kit. The colours look really nice, there’s decent detail on her shirt and hair and this is an occasion where Griffon face actually helps rather than hinders. Of course, it’ll still have that horrible base, but you can’t win them all right?
Timmy: Daww. Occasionally Griffon does manage to make a winner and I think they have got themselves one here. That face is bloody adorable. All the clothing bits and hair have a fair amount of detail and look very nice as well. Really the only downer is that base. Given her pose though you can throw that stupid thing away and display her on a Oremo plate or some other creative thing that isn’t an ugly ass black base. I personally won’t be buying her for reasons related to not liking Kirino, but I wouldn’t hate anyone who gave me her either since I could then save face while taking tons of pictures of that lovely face.
Oh, speaking of, Kuroneko unfortunately looks terrible in the face department, so be aware of that if you are thinking of a set.
The Glorio Blog 
IMO the problem with Leafa is her hair color. That unnatural bright yellow combine with the green on her dress looks like someone painted her in a coloring book with marker pens.
I didn’t notice the band-aid on Kirino’s butt when it came out. ^o^
That one’s a keeper.
Yeah, that’s a good point. It’s very unsubtle, there’s not much shading or tone in the paint. Still going to check out some ‘live’ pictures and hope it’s just the lighting here.
You might be right. Both that hair and her green outfit are really bright and while I am all for vibrant colors, it feels like its just a tad too much.
And Griffon really surprises the heck out of me sometimes with how nice of stuff they can actually produce. I am hardly a Kirino fan yet I find myself quite tempted as they really did a great job on her. I have Tsukiko arriving soon and I could easily start a cute cat girl shelf with the two of them, and I am, for the most part, fairly indifferent to cat girls.
If I had to buy one of those it would have to be Leafa. I haven’t seen the series yet but to me she looks the best out of this week’s selection.
That first one is…interesting…
I so rarely get the chance to make mechas the lead item that I invariably take it when something this good shows up.
I’m not much of a mecha fan myself but I can appreciate the sense of epicness that figure represents.
Maybe i’ll like them more once i’ve seen some decent mecha anime.