August-September Haul

Hello everyone and welcome to another haul post on Tiro Finale! Ever since I went on a one month hiatus, I have accumulated quite the backlog of figures, merchandise and trinkets that I have yet to catalogues. Today's post serves to consolidate all of my loot over the past two months and give you a better insight into each one of them. From the pre-ordered to the rare finds, let us dive right into it!

Starting off with the largest and most expensive item on the list, Union Creative's Hdge Motoko Kusanagi. Creative Union first released their premium scale Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex back in September 2015 and, later, re-released her at the end of July this year. Fortunately, I was able to hop onto the pre-order for this second release. Otherwise, finding one  in the re-seller's market was going to be very difficult, expensive or, worse still, both.

Besides being my first scale figure of the Major, this is also my first figure from Union Creative. If you have not heard of Union Creative, it would not come as a big surprise. They are a premium scale figure creator which, unlike Good Smile Company or Kotobukiya, have little presence outside of Japan. Nevertheless, their works have often caught my eye especially with their high detail Hdge series of figures. On top of that, they have a really easy to navigate website that is available in both English and Japanese.

For a relatively small figure production company, I was initially worried about the quality of the final product especially since this would be my first figure from said company. Upon arrival though, all those fears seemingly vanished. The large clear window which spans to top of the box certainly instills confidence in the quality of the product and the box itself was made from thick cardboard giving it a great deal of rigidity. While I have yet to unbox the figure, I must admit my initial impression are very good indeed.

Next up on the list are two mini Kancolle figure from Movic's Colorful Collection DX series of trading figures. These tiny boxes may be a familiar sight in your local hobby stores as they are often one of the most common trinkets on sale compounded by their luck-based blind box approach. As you might have noticed, both these figures come from separate releases with 20 possible Fleet Girls to choose from. When I say choose, it really comes down to your luck which you get unless you purchase the whole set.

 

Could you guess which two I got?

Of course, neither luck nor gambling has been my forte. As such, I avoid blind boxes like the plague and only jump on the opportunity to get them when I know for certain what lies beneath it. In this case, Mandarake was kind enough to offer both Takao and Atago for sale at 400 Yen and 600 Yen respectively. Currently, both Fleet Girls remain packaged and disassembled. It will not be for long as I intend to put them together for a review soon.

The next find was a truly rare one that I stumbled upon while browsing a flea market in one of my recent trips to Singapore. Held every Sunday, this flea market featured shops and collectors selling of their collection with many of them being anime-related goods. While browsing through the various stores, I stumbled upon these two Gachapon Tomoe Mami swimsuit figures made by Takara Tomy.

While I may have had prior knowledge about this Gachapon prize, never did I expect them to resurface in the wild once more. At 250 Yen a piece, I immediately added both of these rare Mami trinkets to the collection. 

Lastly, we have a collection of Mami clear files and miscellaneous items that I received from a Mandarake shipment. The four clear files sold for 100 Yen each, no complaining there. As did the mini towel made by Broccoli. The chopsticks were a little more expensive at 400 Yen but, their unique factor meant it was definitely being added to the collection.

With that, we have finally caught to the updates in my collection over the past two months. But, things are not about to slow down anytime soon with new figures and merchandise coming in over the next week or two. Before September is over, you can be sure that there will be another haul post her on Tiro Finale. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead.