Welcome to Featured Figures; a blog feature highlighting a handful of figures, my thoughts on them, the dents they'd leave in your wallet and maybe even links to sites you can buy them from. Let me know what you want to see from these blogs and I'll see what I can do.

After getting some good feedback across all the sites I'm keeping this blog feature going, now featuring figures spanning across anime, comics, movies and video games. Something for everyone.

This post is best viewed in blog format.

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Chie Satonaka, Figma (Max Factory)

It's my understanding that there are possibly a few Chie fans out there, so here's one for you guys; the Chie Figma by Max Factory.

Chie comes with a variety of different faces and accessories you can swap around to your liking. She's also posable, so other than changing her outfit you can pretty much get her looking exactly how you want. She comes with a standard face, a shouting face and even a Shadow Chie face. Accessories include glasses, joke nose glasses and a swoosh effect piece to attach to her leg for some kicking action. Looks like a nice figure with a lot of options.

As a side note, if you dig some good cosplay there are a couple of different Chie sets in the cosplay thread.

Chie can be pre-ordered for $46.79 (approx £30.41) on YesAsia

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Samus Aran, Figma (Max Factory)

Since several people mentioned in the previous blog that they prefer a fully suited-up Samus over Zero Suit Samus, here's another figma by Max Factory of just that; Power Suit Samus from Metroid: Other M.

Like the Chie figure, Samus comes with several bits and pieces to customize her with. Included is a Morph Ball, two different beam effects (single and double-shot), an opened canon tip (as if she's firing missiles) and a few different hands; open, closed and thumbs-up.

As you can tell from the images this figure is very posable, equipped with a figma stand to keep her up so you can recreate just about any of the well-known poses Samus has done over the years.

Samus can be pre-ordered for $55 (approx £35) on Hobbyfan

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Iron Man Mark VII, ARTFX Statue, 1/6 scale (Kotobukiya)

Taking the bad-ass award this week is the AvengersIron Man Mark VII ARTFX Statue by Kotobukiya. Tony's on the seventh version of his Iron Man suit already? Dude works fast.

No articulation or custom pieces here folks, this is just one solid, shiny, high quality statue. I think it's actually kind of harder to get figures like this and Samus wrong in a lot of ways. Faces are hard to get right, especially real faces. Robot-suits like these are more mathematical - make everything the correct shape and size and you're set. Even so, this thing looks amazing. The ripped-up concrete beneath Tony's feet here really completes the package. Makes Iron Man look super-heavy and powerful.

Oh, his chest and eyes also light up, as if the damn thing wasn't cool enough already.

Here's a question: who wins in a fight between Samus and Iron Man? I like Samus as much as anyone else, but I think I'd have to give that one to Iron Man. Maybe they should put him in the next Super Smash Bros. game...

Iron Man can be pre-ordered for $130 (approx £82) on Amazon

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Natsu Dragneel, HQF, 1/8 scale (Tsume)

My love for Fairy Tail is no secret. I like to think of it as Bleach and Naruto's cheeky little brother that runs around causing mayhem, it's a fun show to watch with a ton of likeable characters. I was pleasantly surprised to see some good Fairy Tail figures coming out, starting with this Natsu Dragneel HQF (High Quality Figure) by Tsume.

As a Fire Dragon Slayer, the plastic fire engulfing Natsu's hand is a great touch, it could have been a solid red or orange colour, but the mixture of orange and yellow and the red tips make it look really nice. The hair and attention to detail on the scarf look particularly good too.

The detail on the eyes and teeth is something I haven't seen much of before. It looks like someone drew the face with a fine marker pen or something. I usually prefer the sort of stuck-on pre-printed eyes you see on a lot of anime figures over painted ones, but it works pretty well here I think.

Natsu can be pre-ordered for €79.90 (approx $105 or £66) on tsume-art

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Yoko Littner, 1/8 scale, Bounty Hunter Ver. (Alter)

The last featured figure this week is the Yoko Littner "Bounty Hunter" figure by Alter. I haven't watched much Gurren Lagann so I don't know if Yoko actually dons this outfit at some point in the anime, but it's a cool figure regardless.

Yoko, being as popular as she is, has been rendered in plastic many times, but this figure is definitely up there as one of the best. Judging be the huge burn-holes in her overcoat she's been having a rough time, though other than a few bandages around her right hand her body is relatively unscathed. Yoko's enemies need some target practice.

Strangely enough the thing that jumps out at me most is Yoko's gun holster. They really nailed the leather look with that, the fake stitching looks great and the strap around her leg is a nice little detail that could have been left out, but wasn't. The sizes of the guns seems a little off though. The pistol looks huge and Yoko's trusty sniper rifle looks a little smaller than usual (it usually looks considerably bigger than her). Maybe it's just too big on other figures, either way these are small complaints in the grand scheme of things.

Yoko is listed at $105 (approx £66) on Hobbyfan but is currently sold out.

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What do you think of the selection this week? Would Iron Man beat Samus in a fight? Already ordered a Chie figure of your own?

— Daniel Newton is a moderator for Anime Vice and Screened. Follow him on twitter: @Daniel_Newton and @AnimeVicers

Other posts: • Dragon Ball Z Kinect Game Announced • Featured Figures #01 • Oreimo Season 2 Announced!

Welcome to Featured Figures; a blog feature highlighting a handful of figures, my thoughts on them, the dents they'd leave in your wallet and maybe even links to sites you can buy them from. Let me know what you want to see from these blogs and I'll see what I can do.

After getting some good feedback across all the sites I'm keeping this blog feature going, now featuring figures spanning across anime, comics, movies and video games. Something for everyone.

This post is best viewed in blog format.

Gallery

Chie Satonaka, Figma (Max Factory)

It's my understanding that there are possibly a few Chie fans out there, so here's one for you guys; the Chie Figma by Max Factory.

Chie comes with a variety of different faces and accessories you can swap around to your liking. She's also posable, so other than changing her outfit you can pretty much get her looking exactly how you want. She comes with a standard face, a shouting face and even a Shadow Chie face. Accessories include glasses, joke nose glasses and a swoosh effect piece to attach to her leg for some kicking action. Looks like a nice figure with a lot of options.

As a side note, if you dig some good cosplay there are a couple of different Chie sets in the cosplay thread.

Chie can be pre-ordered for $46.79 (approx £30.41) on YesAsia

Gallery

Samus Aran, Figma (Max Factory)

Since several people mentioned in the previous blog that they prefer a fully suited-up Samus over Zero Suit Samus, here's another figma by Max Factory of just that; Power Suit Samus from Metroid: Other M.

Like the Chie figure, Samus comes with several bits and pieces to customize her with. Included is a Morph Ball, two different beam effects (single and double-shot), an opened canon tip (as if she's firing missiles) and a few different hands; open, closed and thumbs-up.

As you can tell from the images this figure is very posable, equipped with a figma stand to keep her up so you can recreate just about any of the well-known poses Samus has done over the years.

Samus can be pre-ordered for $55 (approx £35) on Hobbyfan

Gallery

Iron Man Mark VII, ARTFX Statue, 1/6 scale (Kotobukiya)

Taking the bad-ass award this week is the AvengersIron Man Mark VII ARTFX Statue by Kotobukiya. Tony's on the seventh version of his Iron Man suit already? Dude works fast.

No articulation or custom pieces here folks, this is just one solid, shiny, high quality statue. I think it's actually kind of harder to get figures like this and Samus wrong in a lot of ways. Faces are hard to get right, especially real faces. Robot-suits like these are more mathematical - make everything the correct shape and size and you're set. Even so, this thing looks amazing. The ripped-up concrete beneath Tony's feet here really completes the package. Makes Iron Man look super-heavy and powerful.

Oh, his chest and eyes also light up, as if the damn thing wasn't cool enough already.

Here's a question: who wins in a fight between Samus and Iron Man? I like Samus as much as anyone else, but I think I'd have to give that one to Iron Man. Maybe they should put him in the next Super Smash Bros. game...

Iron Man can be pre-ordered for $130 (approx £82) on Amazon

Gallery

Natsu Dragneel, HQF, 1/8 scale (Tsume)

My love for Fairy Tail is no secret. I like to think of it as Bleach and Naruto's cheeky little brother that runs around causing mayhem, it's a fun show to watch with a ton of likeable characters. I was pleasantly surprised to see some good Fairy Tail figures coming out, starting with this Natsu Dragneel HQF (High Quality Figure) by Tsume.

As a Fire Dragon Slayer, the plastic fire engulfing Natsu's hand is a great touch, it could have been a solid red or orange colour, but the mixture of orange and yellow and the red tips make it look really nice. The hair and attention to detail on the scarf look particularly good too.

The detail on the eyes and teeth is something I haven't seen much of before. It looks like someone drew the face with a fine marker pen or something. I usually prefer the sort of stuck-on pre-printed eyes you see on a lot of anime figures over painted ones, but it works pretty well here I think.

Natsu can be pre-ordered for €79.90 (approx $105 or £66) on tsume-art

Gallery

Yoko Littner, 1/8 scale, Bounty Hunter Ver. (Alter)

The last featured figure this week is the Yoko Littner "Bounty Hunter" figure by Alter. I haven't watched much Gurren Lagann so I don't know if Yoko actually dons this outfit at some point in the anime, but it's a cool figure regardless.

Yoko, being as popular as she is, has been rendered in plastic many times, but this figure is definitely up there as one of the best. Judging be the huge burn-holes in her overcoat she's been having a rough time, though other than a few bandages around her right hand her body is relatively unscathed. Yoko's enemies need some target practice.

Strangely enough the thing that jumps out at me most is Yoko's gun holster. They really nailed the leather look with that, the fake stitching looks great and the strap around her leg is a nice little detail that could have been left out, but wasn't. The sizes of the guns seems a little off though. The pistol looks huge and Yoko's trusty sniper rifle looks a little smaller than usual (it usually looks considerably bigger than her). Maybe it's just too big on other figures, either way these are small complaints in the grand scheme of things.

Yoko is listed at $105 (approx £66) on Hobbyfan but is currently sold out.

Gallery

What do you think of the selection this week? Would Iron Man beat Samus in a fight? Already ordered a Chie figure of your own?

— Daniel Newton is a moderator for Anime Vice and Screened. Follow him on twitter: @Daniel_Newton and @AnimeVicers

Other posts: • Dragon Ball Z Kinect Game Announced • Featured Figures #01 • Oreimo Season 2 Announced!

Those are certainly some classy figurines, though it's clear from your last blog that you have picked ones more accommodating to people on Giant Bomb. Considering your last blog led me down a dark hole where I realized that there is apparently an anime out there entirely focused on a ninja girl using ninja magic to steal the boobs of others so hers can get bigger, this is probably for the best. Not much for figurines personally, though I bet that would at least partially change if I was a single adult with lots of disposable income instead of a poor student. I'm not much of an anime guy though, so I would probably err on the side of manly things and recognizable characters.

In particular, I'm really digging the Chie one, though Iron Man and Samus aren't too shabby either. I feel like this blog would be less creepy with fewer pictures focused on Yoko's bust, even though I understand these posts are mainly for the Anime Vice crowd and we are merely another audience with similar interested. The figurine itself is alright, but I was never much for her character in Gurren Lagann. Basically the obligatory spunky female lead, and as we all know spunky female leads are supposed to have large boobs.

I always like the figma stuff. Usually pretty good prices for some nice looking figures. I gotta say though, that Samus looks really good. It's joints don't seem obvious like the other figma ones.

I'm very impressed by the Iron Man figures, seems very high quality. That Chie figure is also pretty neat

@ArbitraryWater said:

Those are certainly some classy figurines, though it's clear from your last blog that you have picked ones more accommodating to people on Giant Bomb. Considering your last blog led me down a dark hole where I realized that there is apparently an anime out there entirely focused on a ninja girl using ninja magic to steal the boobs of others so hers can get bigger, this is probably for the best.

If you think that's bad, just be glad that Legend of the Overfiend isn't a merchandising sensation.

That Samus figure is nice, though I definitely prefer the Zero Suit Samus figure more.

I have personally found Ami Ami to be a good place for buying games as well as these figures. The Chie figure on that site costs about $28 not including shipping. Consider looking over there for figures along with the other places you noted.

Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed the blog. I was never a big fan of Fairy Tail, but that Natsu statue is gorgeous.

@Hailinel: Well thanks for that. I now know far more about terrible seedy anime than I ever have wanted to know. If I am ever required to use knowledge of Z-tier exploitation stuff or "This is obviously just fapping material despite not being hentai" material, I can do so. With confidence?

@ArbitraryWater said:

Those are certainly some classy figurines, though it's clear from your last blog that you have picked ones more accommodating to people on Giant Bomb.

After getting some good feedback across all the sites I decided to make it more appealing to everyone. It's definitely more anime/games focused this week than it is comics or movies, it will be a little different each week, I'll try to hit a nice balance.

Considering your last blog led me down a dark hole where I realized that there is apparently an anime out there entirely focused on a ninja girl using ninja magic to steal the boobs of others so hers can get bigger

There ended up being a few posts about it on the Screened version of my blog last week. It was definitely amusing trying to explain the premise of that show to people.

I feel like this blog would be less creepy with fewer pictures focused on Yoko's bust, even though I understand these posts are mainly for the Anime Vice crowd and we are merely another audience with similar interested. The figurine itself is alright, but I was never much for her character in Gurren Lagann. Basically the obligatory spunky female lead, and as we all know spunky female leads are supposed to have large boobs.

Originally I didn't include those close-up shots but ended up adding them back in to make the grid total 20 images (two rows in blog format) and now it's totally come back to bite me in the ass! Ultimately though, these blogs are supposed to appeal to lots of different people, that's why I posted five different figures instead of just the Chie figure or just the Yoko figure. You can tell what those images are from the thumbnails, so if it's not your thing just move right along.

I like Yoko, but from what I've watched the male leads are definitely more interesting.

@SuperWristBands said:

I always like the figma stuff. Usually pretty good prices for some nice looking figures. I gotta say though, that Samus looks really good. It's joints don't seem obvious like the other figma ones.

Yeah, without really looking closely for the joins you don't really notice them at all, they show much more on the Chie figure. Both are nice figures though.

I have personally found Ami Ami to be a good place for buying games as well as these figures. The Chie figure on that site costs about $28 not including shipping. Consider looking over there for figures along with the other places you noted.

Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed the blog. I was never a big fan of Fairy Tail, but that Natsu statue is gorgeous.

The fact that you can move the joints and stuff and it still looks great is what makes the Samus figure look so so dope.

@jewunit said:

I have personally found Ami Ami to be a good place for buying games as well as these figures. The Chie figure on that site costs about $28 not including shipping. Consider looking over there for figures along with the other places you noted.

Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed the blog. I was never a big fan of Fairy Tail, but that Natsu statue is gorgeous.

Thanks, it can be a little hard tracking these figures down. I'll bookmark that.

Glad you enjoyed it. Someone else said they didn't think much of the Natsu figure at all, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes it. It's better than a lot of Bleach figures I've seen, not that there are no good Bleach figures, but there are quite a few bad ones.

Damn that Iron Man one looks so damn good....  

@ArbitraryWater said:

@Hailinel: Well thanks for that. I now know far more about terrible seedy anime than I ever have wanted to know. If I am ever required to use knowledge of Z-tier exploitation stuff or "This is obviously just fapping material despite not being hentai" material, I can do so. With confidence?

I'm glad I could help.

Also, I'm sorry.

@ArbitraryWater: Here you go dude, it should balance out the Chie pics:

@ArbitraryWater said:

an anime out there entirely focused on a ninja girl using ninja magic to steal the boobs of others so hers can get bigger

Wait, what? Is this language's assault on logic?

@SuperWristBands said:

I thought about mentioning ami ami but when I was looking at some of the stuff (mainly figma since that is what I have bought in the past) I noticed that a lot of them are set only for sale in Japan. Even on ones that weren't before. For instance both the Chie and Samus figures featured in this blog have a note that says for sale in Japan only. Not sure what is up with that.

I don't have any personal experience with the items that have the For Sale in Japan Only moniker, but I have heard that Ami Ami doesn't actually enforce that very well. Anyway, when there's something I want that Ami Ami seemingly won't ship, I use Hobby Search, another Japanese company. Ami Ami is usually cheaper by a pretty small margin, but up until recently Ami Ami didn't have any sort of reward program. Now they do, so ┐('～`；)┌

I'd be interested in getting Chie and the other P4 characters at some point. I have a lot of figmas (about 30+, I'd say), but I've had to stop for the time being. I like them because they're fairly cheap and you can set the poses yourself.

I also recommend Ami Ami, as it's usually the cheapest place and I haven't had any trouble with them delivery-wise.

Damn girl. Youse sexy for a tiny plastic statue. What'choo gonna do with all dat gun?

@Daniel_Newton: It's also worth pointing out that a Yukiko figma went up for pre-order pretty recently too. That Samus figure looks rather good.

@SuperWristBands: Amiami don't really stick to the 'Japan only' disclaimer at all. Letting international orders have that kind of discount is likely a very good draw compared to other sellers.

Gurren Lagann is awesome, and so is that Yoko statue.

I usually hate poseable figures since the joints just make them look like shit, but Samus actually look pretty good.

@sameoldstuff: Yeah, there are a handful of nice Persona 4 figures out there, might feature another one next week.

@AdzPearson said:

I'd be interested in getting Chie and the other P4 characters at some point. I have a lot of figmas (about 30+, I'd say), but I've had to stop for the time being. I like them because they're fairly cheap and you can set the poses yourself.

Wow, don't hesitate to post a photo of that, that sounds like a pretty impressive collection to me duder.

I would love to have both Samus figurines and that Club Nintendo's figure in my collection. Wait, I don't even have a Nintendo collection to start with it. I'm going to start it off with Yoshi.

Great blog, Daniel! (even though I already commented on Anime Vice) Oh yeah, Samus would whoop that rich boy's butt.

@takashichea: The Peach figure looks kinda weird. The rest look alright.

I still can't see Samus beating Iron Man. Iron Man has so many more weapons. And he can fly ...Samus can't fly, right?

Chie is hot, I don't know if you guys know this.

@sameoldstuff said:

Yukiko figma

Me wanty. Should not getty....

I've found a lot of interesting figures here: http://japan-best.com/

@goca: Damn it, spambot! You made me think that Daniel was doing this feature again, and not that someone would somehow necro an 18 month old thread to sell anime figurines on a video game site. Grrrrr.