Saber and Tohsaka Rin summer version figures by ALTER along with a Saber plastic kit by Kotobukiya.

I’ll be adding the two ALTER figures to Figure Haven sometime this week (perhaps tomorrow?) along with a bunch of other new arrivals. All I have to say is, ALTER does not disappoint.

ALTER

Fate/stay night: Saber Summer ver. [1/8 scale]

My favorite character paired with my favorite manufacturer. I haven’t seen this outfit before in figure form, so this is quite refreshing considering the multitude of armored versions of Saber out there.

Fate/stay night: Tohsaka Rin Summer ver. [1/8 scale]

Her expression is kind of bland here, but it seems like they were made to be displayed as a set.

Xenosaga III: Almecha KOS-MOS Ver. 4 [1/8 scale]

I always wondered when ALTER would decide to jump into jointed figures. This seems exactly like Max Factory’s figmas except at 1/8 scale, which makes it more like their Actsta line I guess.

Good Smile Company

Fractale: Nessa [1/8 scale]

Wow, GSC already has a painted prototype of Nessa? Surprising, considering that Fractale is still airing this season. No complaints here though since the pose and expression matches her personality perfectly.

Kotobukiya

Touhou Project: Kirisame Marisa [1/8 scale]

Touhou Project: Shameimaru Aya [1/8 scale]

Yes! I’m glad Kotobukiya decided to make some Touhou Project figures (even though I was hoping ALTER or GSC would). Marisa and Aya look awesome here, but where’s Reimu?

The first thing that came to mind when I was looking at WonFes 2011 Winter coverage was the absurd amount of Nendoroids and figmas. People must really love buying nendos although I prefer scaled figures myself. It also helps that they’re probably easier to sculpt, kind of like how chibi characters are easier to draw than normal characters. This is just my assumption though.

I also noticed GSC had a Valkyria Chronicles 3 nendoroid up on display, but the game was only released very recently in Japan. This plus the Nessa figure really shows how up to date GSC is with things. Hopefully more manufacturers follow suit since sometimes people lose interest in a figure if it comes out 2-3 years after the anime has aired.

Anyways, this concise preview simply consists of figures that I’m personally interested in. By all means visit the more complete coverage at Wcloudx (kumo)’s Blog.

Image Source: Wcloudx (kumo)’s Blog

Figure Haven‘s October 2010 shipment arrived and everything has been added to the storefront!

As always, you can view all our new products here.

October 2010′s additions:

• Fate/stay night: Saber ~Triumphant Excalibur~ [GSC]
• Nendoroid Petite: Bakemonogatari Set 3
• Nendoroid Ciel Phantomhive
• Nendoroid Sebastian Michaelis
• Nendoroid Mio Akiyama [Restocked!]
• Nendoroid Yui Hirasawa [Restocked!]
• Nendoroid Manaka Takane
• Queen’s Blade Rebellion: Shigi [MegaHouse]
• Saki: Koromo Amae [ALTER]

Saber ~Triumphant Excalibur~ was worth the long wait. Good Smile Company has perfected the art of crafting Saber figures.

I purchased a copy of the Type-Moon Magazine, Volume 4, which came with a neat calendar showcasing artwork from their various projects.

There was one illustration for every two months.

[Fate/stay night UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS]

[Fate/EXTRA]

[Sound Drama Fate/Zero]

[CANAAN]

[Fate/stay night]

[Witch on the Holy Night]

[MELTY BLOOD Actress Again]

It’s perfect for Type-Moon fans and the only calendar I’ll be needing this year.

It was my first time seeing this concept art a few days back, and I must say that this makes much more sense.

Since King Arthur was supposed to be male, this Saber fits the role better in that regard. What would his personality have been like? I could easily imagine him having a Shirou/Archer-type disposition, or maybe he would have been similar to the female Saber.

As for the female protagonist, Ayaka would have been an interesting choice instead of Shirou. Quite possibly less whiny and wearing glasses is always a plus.

It seems like the only reason they swapped the genders around and changed the characters was to make the Fate story into an eroge.

Nasu (writer of the Fate storyline) stated:

“Even though sometimes he [Takeuchi] says impossible things, at the time the concept seemed simply ridiculous. Turning Saber into a girl, that’d completely destroy Fate! At first I was very against the idea, but after a while, I thought some of the difficulties that might arise could be resolved.”

It’s a pity Type-moon hasn’t made an alternate version of Fate/stay night using the initial concept characters.

Source: Type-Moon Wiki

I was bored, so I took a quick look at the current round in ISML 2010. This will actually be the first time I’m participating and casting some votes.

The current round didn’t have any really difficult pairings for me. I noticed that Saber, Rin, and Illya were all there. Saber and Rin were easy picks, but unfortunately for Illya, I like Mio more.

Here’s what I voted:

ARENA 01: [Tōsaka Rin] Ikaros
ARENA 02: [Fujibayashi Kyō] Maria
ARENA 03: [Sakurano Kurimu] Fujibayashi Ryō
ARENA 04: [Sunohara Mei] Fate Testarossa
ARENA 05: Fukuji Mihoko [Nakano Azusa]
ARENA 06: Takamachi Nanoha [C.C.]
ARENA 07: Furude Rika [Nagato Yuki]
ARENA 08: Hiiragi Kagami [Saten Ruiko]
ARENA 09: Louise Vallière [Shiina Mafuyu]
ARENA 10: [Shiina Minatsu] Ichinose Kotomi
ARENA 11: [Senjōgahara Hitagi] Hiiragi Tsukasa
ARENA 12: [Sanzen'in Nagi] Furude Hanyū
ARENA 13: [Akaba Chizuru] Furukawa Nagisa
ARENA 14: [Suzumiya Haruhi] Okazaki Ushio
ARENA 15: [Aisaka Taiga] Saginomiya Isumi
ARENA 16: Shana [Kawashima Ami]
ARENA 17: Asahina Mikuru [Katsura Hinagiku]
ARENA 18: Ibuki Fūko [Saber]
ARENA 19: [Sengoku Nadeko] Haramura Nodoka
ARENA 20: [Misaka Mikoto] Kushieda Minori
ARENA 21: [Minami Chiaki] Izumi Konata
ARENA 22: Hirasawa Ui [Holo]
ARENA 23: [Akiyama Mio] Illyasviel von Einzbern
ARENA 24: Konjiki no Yami [Sakagami Tomoyo]
ARENA 25: [Hirasawa Yui] Nymph
ARENA 26: [Maetel] Nausicaä

I mostly put a bias in favor of characters from more recent series, and characters from series that I actually know.

On the Rules page, I saw the schedule and was surprised at the large number of rounds. Thus, I probably won’t be posting about this again until the finals.

So until then, let’s see how far Saber can go!

Image Source: Danbooru

I finally got around to acquiring the Saber Lily nendoroid, which completes the trio set of GSC’s Saber Lily ~Distant Avalon~ and Max Factory’s Saber Lily figma.

Unfortunately, the box was somewhat dented on the front, bottom, and back. A pro tip to sellers, don’t list your product as new and then make no mention of considerable imperfections. That’s not how business should be done, and we don’t tolerate that over at Figure Haven. If it’s not in perfect condition, then make a note of it.

The two 1-hour long Fate/stay night TV Reproduction OVAs have been released and subbed.

The first noticeable difference is the newly redone OP and ED. You can view them here at one of my previous posts.

Each OVA summarizes 12 episodes of the 24-episode TV series that aired back in 2006. It has been awhile since I’ve last seen the anime, which made it somewhat difficult to pick out the limited new scenes that are included in the OVAs.

For the most part, the OVAs are the major scenes and battles from the TV series all cropped out and linked together. Considering that they’re trying to stuff 8 hours of content into only 2 hours, many things had to be left out.

It felt like it was constantly jumping from battle to battle nonstop. If you’re new to Fate/stay night, you’re better off playing the visual novel or watching the TV series. Without prior knowledge, it’ll be hard to keep up with what’s going on in these OVAs. Otherwise, it’s a good refresher to put you in the mood for the Unlimited Blade Works movie.

On an ending note, I thought these OVAs were well done and served their purpose as a summary of the TV series. The animations, plot, characters, and setting are all the same as before. I liked Fate/stay night back then, and I still do now.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

I hope you all have a prosperous Year of the Tiger! Yesterday and today my family and I just did what we usually do every year. We visited our relatives and had ourselves a family dinner, and of course I received some red envelopes.

Otherwise, I just sat at home and played video games. Did you do anything special this year to celebrate?

Image Source: Danbooru

This collection has what I believe to be every single Saber figure/figma/nendo/dollfie that is currently out.

Very impressive, if not extreme. My own collection of Saber figures is only a fraction of this; mainly consisting of Good Smile Company, Max Factory, Alter, and Kotobukiya figures. Seems like this collector will have to find space to squeeze in a few more Saber figures with Saber Lily ~Golden Caliburn~ and Saber ~The Promised Sword of Victory Excalibur~ coming out later this year.

Due to the nature of this blog (the name), I felt obligated to post about this even though it has already widely circulated the blogosphere. A shout-out to the fellow bloggers I saw who posted about this: GNdynames, Shazzsteel, and zenical.

Source: Sankaku Complex