This is my second order from Japan this year. I previously ordered a few figures in the spring of 2023 (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Sakuna of Rice and Ruin). In this order I picked up more second hand figures from AmiAmi for Lycoris Recoil, Laid Back Camp, another Rei Ayanimi figure from Evangelion, and an Excellent Model Core figure to complete a pair based on Tsukasa Bullet artwork. The figures cost about $110 CDN for 6 items, and $90 CDN for shipping by EMS mail. AmiAmi had backed up shipping processing so it took about 10 days to ship and 5 days to arrive via express mail.
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Group photo of the new figures
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I had all these unboxed figures assembled in one place and wondered what kind of anime crossover could you do with these characters. It would be easy to do a scene with them out of time and place, but which universe would you have them appear in? In the Evangelion world, it is full of giant Angels and Evangelions battling it out in a devastated Earth. In Lycoris Recoil, they would be in a peaceful Japan kept safe by teenage, orphaned assassins who eliminate violent folks before they can do their work in a surveillance society. The only anime set in a world like ours is Laid Back Camp where the girls go camping around Japan and eat delicious food without a world-wide apocalypse or big brother.
I think I'd set the crossover anime in the world of Laid Back Camp. It would be like a one shot OVA where Rei Ayanimi is battling an Angel that uses a weapon that blasts her Unit 00 into another universe. NERV might be able to contact her, but it takes some time to reset her Unit 00 AT Field to breach the dimensional barrier to return her. In the meantime, she sees some girls camping on the shore of a nearby lake and investigates out of curiosity. In the Lycoris Recoil world, the Lyco-Reco team from the cafe are trying to stop a malicious organization from building a portal that can gate to other worlds or even to the inside of a bank or missile silo by distorting space/time. Chisato and Takina are just a little too late to stop them from a full field test, and get caught in the gate that sends them to another world. Kurumi, our resident, hacker figures out how to get them back, but in the meantime the Chisato and Takina see some girls winter camping nearby.
Rei, in her quiet and somewhat awkward way, introduces herself to Nadeshiko and Rin at the camp site. She can smell some delicious food cooking and the girls end up inviting her for dinner as she looks disoriented and is hungry. Chisato and Takina then arrive. Takina thinks Rei in her plugsuit looks very suspicious. She is calmed down by Chisato who just says they are girls laughing and having a good time. Chisato thinks that a cookout looks like lots of fun and they have time to kill, so she cheerfully introduces Takina and herself as lost travelers waiting for friends to to pick them up. Nadeshiko and Rin are running tight on food, but invite them for dinner too. They have hot chocolate and a stew around the campfire while getting to know each other. Nadeshiko and Chisato talk up a storm, building on each others cheerful energy. The quieter girls, Rin, Rei, and Takina enjoy the excessive energy from their talkative friends and chime in every so often. They even take some group selfies and even find out their photo sharing protocols on their phones even work to exchange the pictures.
Eventually everyone is rescued and Nadeshiko and Rin return to school with tales of these strange girls they met and the giant robot by the lake! This sounds like a pretty laid back and fun episode to me and it would be fun to see if it ever happened. Fan fiction, anyone?
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I bought this set of Chisato Nishikigi and Takina Inoue in their cafe waitress outfits. I usually prefer action poses, but these claw machine prize figures kind of appealed to me.
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Some detail from the sides of the boxes. These were both JAIA premium game prizes being resold. The boxes had never been opened as far as I can tell and the figures were brand new. They are smaller figures at about 1/10 scale.
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Closeup of the Lycoris girls. I didn't like the fact that Takina did not come with a box or something to sit on.
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Closeup of Chisato hamming it up for a photo while Takina calmly gestures.
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I basically decide to order some more figures as these Laid Back Camp figures were available. I don't really want to pay like $120 or more for a really nice figure of one of these girls, so I'm settling for game-prize figures from UFO catchers. It was a bonus that the used version of Mizuki was also available second hand.
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| The boxes for Rin and Nadeshik. They are covered in the woven motifs used in the introduction of the show. These are game-prizes from Furyu and are about 1/9 scale. |
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More detail from the sides of the boxes.
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Closeup of Nadeshiko waving to get your attention while calling out.
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Rin enjoying a cup of coffee or another hot beverage. She looks like she is contemplating the view.
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The two together. One is excited, the other calm.
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Closeup of the two figures. They are fairly well done for the price ($10 -$20 range) and capture the spirit of the characters.
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Then we have a Rei Ayanami figure from Bandi (Ichibankuji) draw prize figure. This is a slightly more premium figure than the others.
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Front of the Rei Ayanami box. It is very orange and plain, matching the colour of Unit 00.
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Back of the box.
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I have a few Evangelion figures but haven't bought anything based on the re-make movies. I still haven't with this figure I think (I'd have to check plug suit details). This is a nice figure of Rei with a bit of a printed styrofoam board cutout of Unit 00. It is a nice looking figure, especially if you don't have one. I posted about some of my other Evangelion figures here
Neon Genesis Evangelion. Aged Anime 1995- 1996. |
The actual Rei figure with backdrop.
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Closeup of Rei. The sculptor has done a nice expression on her face.
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One of the figures I was really looking forward to getting was this Excellent Model CORE TSUKASA BULLET figure of Mizuki. It is based on art by Tsukasa Jun who is an illustrator/mangaka. I don't have his hit art book TSUKASA BULLET that many figures were based on though. This artist, like Range Murata and Hyung-Tae Kim were incredibly popular at the time. This figure is really old, being released in November 2006, 17 years ago. I managed to get the other figure Mariko Imai in her Space suit mini-outfit last year, but Mizuki was not available. It is hard to believe that figures this old can still be found unopened in their original packaging. The original price for these were 5,500 yen and I picked it up used for 3,300 yen. No demand I guess, because they are not part of series or franchise, but the price was right for me! Last year, I also picked up a PSE Skipper by Range Murata that I missed when it released in the mid-2000s (Range Murata, Last Exile, Shangri-La, and PSE Pro #01 Skipper and Scooter).
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Front of the Mizuki box.
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Back of the Mizuki box, showing the pair of figures.
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Mizuki on the left and Mariko on the right. These were fairly detailed, 1/8 scale figures, but they do lack some of the crazy detailing of the figures that are out nowdays (but at much higher prices).
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That's pretty much the end of the haul. I'm looking for used Izetta and new figures of Suletta from Gundam, The Witch from Mercury next. It might take years... who knows.
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