Birthday of Ayanami 2011

It's almost like an annual tradition now that every year I post up an Ayanami Rei related post on her birthday on March 30th. This year isn't as grand as last year's posts... I've only got two things to show you here ^^;

First up is the 1/7 scale Ballerina Rei by Kotobukiya. I've been going back and forth about getting this one when she was first announced sometime last year. She looks really good, and I like her face, but I was slowly running out of room in the Rei Shrine ^^;

But eventually she won me over... At a sale on Play Asia, hahaha. I was actually expecting to get her locally, but the chance never came up. So here she is finally in my grasp! And she is very pretty!

It's also good timing since I watched Black Swan within a month or two months ago, so I was still on the ballerina high. Her ballet slipper here looks good... I like the straps.

Her tutu and her headpiece (?) are semi-transparent material, so they add a nice effect. I'm not too thrilled about the base though. A very strange looking base. Maybe it's supposed to connect to Asuka's ballerina version?

Her bare back and the ribbon around her neck is a nice addition to the outfit.

Panty shot? ^^; It almost looks like Rei is glaring at me too for taking a picture of her at this angle, lol.

From the top... There's a nice view from this angle :3

But in the end, it's her face that got me... After buying so many Rei figures, I've gotten choosy about faces on figures. And this applies to every figure out there that I want to get. It's all about the face. If the face doesn't win me over, the whole figure doesn't get added to my collection.

This is just bonus ^^;;; Um... She was doing a mid-air twirl? XD This is what I like about Kotobokiya. Even if their figure is lying down or sitting down, the bottoms of their figures aren't flat, but fully fleshed out. I've seen ones that are completely flat. They're convenient to place on flat surfaces, but can look ugly.

And another from Kotobukiya! A pair of chopsticks in the shape of Rei's entry plug... And no, you're not seeing double. I do have 2 sets. With cheaper items like these, I'm starting to buy like Konata ^^; I only bought two though. One to use, and one to keep. I have actually used it a few times on California rolls... Very slippery... No grip at all!

Maybe they weren't meant to be used after all ^^; Anyway, here's a close up of the small Rei inside the entry plug. Looks quite detailed for something so small!

From the front side... I think her eyes are actually painted red too! Such detailing!

And now, the changing of the guards... Enma Ai has been in front of my monitor for the longest time... Now it's time for Rei to take reign over, especially since it's her birthday... And the shrine is basically spilling over ^^;;;

Bad Mood Loot

Aaahhhh... Just looking at that face make my bad mood go away... Until the next time I'm in a bad mood, that is. My Friday started not the way I wanted it, so I was in a perpetual bad mood as I was driving... Not a good idea, but I don't cause accidents just because I'm in a bad mood. Unfortunately I do tend to spend money when I'm in a bad mood... It almost sounds like a girl (not to be sexist or anything) who relieves her stress by shopping. That's what I did...

A lot of my purchases when in a bad mood tend to be impulsive. Good thing this Re-Ment dress thing was pretty cheap. It was $7.99 but marked down to $4.59. It's still impulsive because I didn't know if it'll even fit my 1/6 RAH Rei. Thankfully Yunamon and Aquilla to confirm on Twitter while I was still near that store!

Even with the confirmation though, the dress that I got, which is a marching band leader dress, doesn't fit Rei well. Well Rei does have that plugsuit and arm cast on... Still it does kinda fit, but not perfect. It's like Rei is size XL while the dress is size S.

A close-up. Her right hand isn't really inside the dress.

Trying with a Figma with no success... I didn't even bother putting the hat on Saber.

The slightly bigger Revoltech doesn't work either as Haruka demonstrates here.

The hat's still too big, but kinda cute how Haruka holds it up here.

Next up are the Vancouver Winter Olympic mascots. At least they were cheap. They're a good medium size too and only $10 each; marked down from $30 and $32. The one on the right is Quatchi. I only wanted to get Sumi on the left, but I guess Quatchi's pretty good too. Though the only reason why I get Quatchi is because he sounds like "kuaci", which means "watermelon/sunflower seed" in Indonesian.

I was very choosy with Sumi. There were several of them, but I was looking for a round face. It's basically a teddy bear with wings. Very, very cute!

This came in the mail, but it sure lighten my mood. Kalafina's new album, Red Moon, 1000 Ton no Bara Bara soundtrack and a Koihime Musou strap dangly thingy made up the package from YesAsia. The Koihime Musou is a freebie if you buy two specially marked items. I got RinRin, but I was hoping for Sosou ^^;

The backside of the two CDs.

 The 1000 Ton no Bara Bara soundtrack is the music to the recently released PSP game (called Patchwork Heroes in North America). After hearing the Japanese trailer and listening to the in-game music, this was an easy purchase. I'm listening to it as I'm typing this. The CD includes a sticker and a special present that expires April 30th! I better get to that soon! I'll include the theme song from Youtube as a sample of the CD.

 

I picked up Kalafina's new album because of the Boston and Anime Boston feature. I did go see them in Anime Boston last year and enjoyed their concert and CD that was signed by them. So naturally I bought their second one.

The CD came with a DVD extra showing their music video and footage from Boston in 2009. I haven't seen it yet though. It also came with the booklet featuring the three members doing a photoshoot in Boston.

Concert photos in the booklet.

Photoshoot in the streets of Boston.

I fell in love with their songs from the last album right away, but some of the songs in this one seem to be a hit and miss. The Sora no Woto opening theme, Hikari no Senritsu, is included which is one of the reasons why I got this CD. I haven't seen all of the anime yet, but I loved the opening song immediately.

Oops almost forgot that someone else wanted to try out that impulse purchase dress...

Is that a baton inside your dress or are you just happy to see me?

Birthday of Ayanami: Shrine Update

So with the additional new Rei figures, I have to update the shrine, don't I? ^_^ This is part 4 of my Birthday of Ayanami series of posts on March 30th. Rei's birthday is actually based on Megumi Hayashibara's birthday, her voice actress. Megumi is also my favourite voice actress.

The new ones immediately gets front stage... Well just because they work better up front, plus I'm too lazy to move stuff from the back to the front. It seems to work.

The Rei Russian nesting dolls had to move down one level. I could easily put them back into the large one, but then what's the point? It's blocking some of the smaller figures, but still good.

And here it is from a different angle... But wait... where'd the Real Action Heroes Rei (Bandage Ver.) that I just got? Oops... Looks like Saber Lily's got a hold of it...

The Melancholy of Saber Lily Special 4

Pardon the panel recycling, lol. I wanted to finish this before the end of March 30th on this end of the Pacific ^^; This is also posted on The Melancholy of Saber Lily site.

So, yes, Saber reminds me that March 30th is not just Ayanami Rei's birthday, but also Ayako Kawasumi's birthday. She's the voice of Saber and also my second favourite actress. I've discovered Ayako while I was watching Niea_7.

She doesn't play the titular character in NieA_7, but she plays one of the protagonists. The DVD was released by the now defunct Geneon which used to be called Pioneer.

This is one of my favourite picture of Aoi Sakuraba from Ai Yori Aoshi, also voiced by Ayako Kawasumi. I was watching Ai Yori Aoshi around the same time as NieA_7. This DVD was also from Pioneer/Geneon. Later on I found more and more roles played by Ayako and I was slowly falling in love with her voice and I wanted to watch more and more of her shows! I still try nowadays, but sometimes the shows that she is in aren't that great ^^;  I enjoyed Queen's Blade though, where she played the main character, Reina.

And finally I leave you with Ayako's cutest role, Unagi, the ferret from Popotan ^_^

Thank you for joining me in celebrating Ayanami Rei, Megumi Hayashibara and Ayako Kawasumi's birthday today on March 30th!

Birthday of Ayanami: Real Action Heroes

Ayanami Rei, real action hero? Kinda... but this is Medicom's Real Action Heroes series featuring Ayanami Rei, Bandage Version. I was going to put this in the previous figure post, but I had so many pictures already, so I figured giving this one a separate post would be nice. Plus I added some extra bonuses for this post :)
This is part 3 of my Birthday of Ayanami series of posts on March 30th. Rei's birthday is actually based on Megumi Hayashibara's birthday, her voice actress. Megumi is also my favourite voice actress.

The opportunity to own this Rei came unexpectedly when I came to work one morning. HLJ was having their spring sale. This Rei was staring at my face at 50% off! I was considering whether to get this one or a resin figure that was paired with Asuka. In the end, this was much cheaper than that one ^^;

I thought this was going to be the bigger box, but the Uplark was actually bigger... even though the Rei inside is really, really tiny.

Here's the full pose. She also comes with a stand, which I haven't opened yet. I've been playing around with her already so there are some wrinkles in the plugsuit already...  Can I consider her as "my daughter"? It's not really a Dollfie though ^^;

The bandage around her chest is real cloth. Pretty cool.

The bandage on her head (and arms) aren't... Still ok though ^^

Even injured, Rei can strike a pose!

Showing the back angle... And no, I didn't purposely pose her in a provocative position... I have no idea what you're talking about...

Close-up on the bottom of her foot.

Close up of her cast. You could barely move this arm. I couldn't rotate the upper arm. I'm afraid of breaking it.

The bandages on her other arm.

Here she is holding the Kaiyodo figure from my previous post. No, I didn't purposely positioned the static figure's hand on the boobs... Seriously!

And here she is holding her bandaged sisters... Revoltech Rei, bandage version and the Kaiyodo mini figure.

Add another sister to the photo shoot. Great balancing act! She's a REAL Action Hero!

A great family shot!