You probably find it strange that there are (omg) 4 consecutive posts this week, all of which are figures for sale. I figured it’d be nice to get rid of a bunch because I’ve got way too many. While I haven’t officially posted the figure listings here, there have been a few that were interested from my craigslist posting.
Rei was one of the figures that someone was interested in. I was pretty keen on selling her at first, various nitpicking reasons. But after I did a photoshoot of her, and played around with the raws, I realized that this was a HUGE mistake.
For one, she’s incredibly photogenic. I haven’t seen a figure take artistic pictures so well from so many different angles. She’s like the super model that just won’t quit! Instead of doing a detailed review style photoshoot, I went totally artistic with this one.
Rather than talking anymore, I’ll let the photos do the talking. Just so you know, all the photos were taken with the same lighting conditions. The only difference is whether the top light is on or off.
Above is the box shot. This was essentially the lighting I used for almost ALL of the shots. I achieved such different effects by shooting in RAW mode. I didn’t realize how powerful shooting in RAW actually is! I’m absolutely blown away by the sheer amount of control that I get when processing a RAW.
Between the time that someone was interested in buying, and now, I’ve pretty much done a 180 on selling her. She’s still in my figures sold category, because she technically was put on the market… who knows, I might still be interested in selling her if the price is right…
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Raquel Gothic – With Pixie Dust
I’ve been putting this off for months, but have finally gotten some time to do a proper photoshoot (34 pix!), review, photoshop image, youtube video, and wallpaper for this well deserved resin statue from e2046. I didn’t want to do a half-decent job because this figure deserves more, and so does e2046. This is probably the biggest post I’ve ever done.
Here is an account of my experiences in dealing with e2046′s customer service, as well as an in-depth photoshoot, and photoshop pic after the jump.
My Raquel arrived beautifully. It was in the usual e2046 weird green shipping paper and bubble wrap, sporting a beautiful printed box cover and high gloss black box.
Incredibly well packed with laser foam cutouts, with foam filler pieces everywhere, this figure was NOT going to get damaged during transport. But much to my dismay, an unforeseen problem…
Raquel’s wings wouldn’t fit. The problem was that when they put her head on, the angle was wrong, causing the hair to get in the way of the wings. You can see the hair that is touching her elbow is too close.
A back view shows that the wing is unable to go into the socket because her ponytail is blocking it for the most part.
Essentially, for the wings to attach, the ponytail needed to be in the position shown above, which meant the head needed to be turned A LOT more.
Having dealt with absolutely horrible customer service from Play-Asia, order screw-ups from Toyslogic, and figure delays from Kid Nemo, I was not looking forward to dealing with customer service from e2046. However, I was very pleasantly surprised!
The customer service representative that assisted me, Isaac, was incredible. He was patient, and very responsive – always got back to me within the next business day. Throughout the whole process, he answered all my concerns, and followed through with all my requests very well. He puts customers first before policy, and understands that “policies” are in place only to deter customers from taking advantage of the system, not to provide excuses to not service. Play-asia did the exact opposite, so I’ll never buy from Play-Asia again.
I had to pay for return shipping, but was assured that if indeed it was the fault of theirs, they would make sure that it was worth my while and to my satisfaction. And I can tell you that it was.
My figure returned to me a lot faster than I had expected. The amount of time I spent procrastinating about posting this blog entry is longer than my whole time dealing with e2046!
One thing that I wished Gathering would do with their bases was put on rubber pads. It helps prevent the underside from getting scratched, as well as provide more stability on less even surfaces. I bought a pack of 24 at Daiso for $2.
Here’s a close-up of Raquel with her wings in-tact. You may notice that she looks surprisingly like Asuka on Motorcycle. That’s because she’s sculpted by Vispo! 
In the above pic, you’ll notice that her hair is no longer touching her elbow. In fact, it’s FAR away from it now. They turned her head quite a bit! I don’t know how they were able to take it apart without damaging it, but sure as heck I didn’t want to attempt it myself!
Raquel originally came in two different colors – A black one with this colored clock, and the one you see, but with a black clock. To fill customer requests, they came out with this third one, which is the one I have – beige clothes with white clock. The roman numerals aren’t very well painted, but it’s forgivable. I really like the style of it and how well it came out.
Profile view. She’s lookin’ at you, kid.
I don’t know why I decided to take shots of her right from my desk. I guess just to try different lighting?
Absolutely gorgeous… This is the same lighting I used for my photoshop image – you can see the flower on my monitor in the background.
The corset detail is amazing! And that perky little nose is so cute!
Very clean bottom. Very nice bottom. ^^;
The frills on her stockings are very nicely done as well. Quite an amazing cast if you ask me. They’re pearl colored stockings!
No loligoth is complete without a bonnet.
The shoes have cute straps and buckles on them! Glad the buckles are black. It would not have looked nice if it was silver.
A battle axe. The loligoth weapon of choice. Such a contrasting weapon. At least this one looks elegant and highly detailed I LIKE!
The painted nails are a nice touch. I like this angle cuz it’s like she’s showing them off to you. “Look at my pretty nails!”
This profile shot shows her flaws. This statue definitely looks good in very specific angles. Since this would be really considered “the back side” it’s not all that important.
After taking some more pix, I decided maybe I should try some more studio shots.
I’ve got so many loligoth style figures now, they don’t all fit into my lighting rig! I should do a shot of all my loligoth figures at some point. I LOVE FRILLIES!
The lighting looks substantially different, and reflects her features in a very different way. I’m wondering why I took those desk shots in the first place. =_=
Gorgeous display base. It’s so victorian, and so perfectly suitable.
Another shot of her mid-section. You can see the ruffles and creases a lot clearer in this shot.
I don’t know why, but I really like this angle. She looks a lot cuter, like she’s peering over a corner or something.
A nice close-up of her under this new lighting. You can’t see the wings as much, but it’s good emphasis on her facial features.
A good wallpaper composition?
That rose reminds me of the ones you see on cakes.
Full body shot.
Some shots from the back and of her wings.
The wings are absolutely amazing! The detail on them is incredible. It’s like her wings are made up of clock machinery, which goes really well with the display base.
Another shot of some frillies! You can never get enough frillies, and Raquel is in abundance of them.
So here’s my photoshop image of Raquel. I found the hibiscus an interesting choice because she could lean on it. I was originally going to put her and the clock base with battle axe in a flower garden, but it took a lot of attention away from Raquel. There’s a lot more focus on her in this one. I probably could do without the bottom half of the image to maintain a good balance, but I do like the dash of green.
For the first time ever, I decided to make a video documenting my photoshop work. Here it is!
You’ll notice that I’ve used the paintbrush tool with masking exclusively as opposed to my usual method in my tutorials. The reason for this is because DSLRs have a much greater range of aperture, and with that great a depth, the edges tend to blur. Using the lasso tool would have been too sharp in the cutting, and feathering a selection is only artificial at best. Using the brush, it’s a lot more accurate, though only slightly more time consuming.
To end this post, here’s a parting gift: a 1280×1024 wallpaper of Raquel. Enjoy!
That’s another post by your truly! In closing, I’d like to say that I’m very happy with this figure. It’s got the perfect blend of demure coupled with incredible detail. The paint and sculpt is flawless. Gathering did an amazing job. It’s the first time I’ve ever had to deal with e2046′s customer service, but it has been the best customer service I’ve ever gotten from an online store. If you’re considering buying a pre-painted resin statue, look no further, because e2046 should be the place to buy! (Please note, that I’m not in any way affiliated with e2046. The views expressed here are purely my own).
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Asuka Langley on Motorcycle
As promised, the much anticipated review of Asuka on Motorcycle. I wasn’t even aware that my site has reached 61k hits now! But priorities first – a review of this absolutely amazing investment (yes, investment). More photos after the jump!
Asuka is a 1:6 scale figure, though I feel the approximation is closer to 1:5. I’ve never seen a 1:6 figure this big before. Her bent over is already comparible in height to many of my standing 1:6 scale figures (in retrospect, I should have taken a comparison shot).
The detail of this figure is absolutely amazing. The bike looks really good too! This combo really sells it as a complete package.
This was resin-casted and painted by the great gods at e2046 by Gathering. Made out of solid resin, she actually feels very sturdy, and VERY heavy compared to most kits I’ve seen. If you don’t know, the sculpt is done by Vispo. I unknowingly, am a fan of Vispo’s work. He also did Morte, as well as Raquel Goth, which I did buy, btw.
The decal work is incredibly well done. Pretty flawless!
Detail in the boot is nice. I kinda thought that the ring should be metallic colored though…
More awesome decaling, and the zipper is so cool! The sculpt of the leather looks totally awesome.
She has painted nails! I’m surprised at how well the detailing came out from this cast. I’m sure a lot of clean-up work was done to it too. The fitting was a little loose though. Her hand would fall out sometimes if I moved it. It’s essentially the handlebar keeping it in the socket.
The handlebar in itself deserves much attention. The different color/shine of the materials really bring realism to this already highly detailed aspect of this figure.
The wheels are awesome in detail too, though they don’t seem as clean edged as the rest of the figure. The wheels actually do turn, btw.
An e2046 exclusive is this awesome display base. It’s embedded with blue LEDs that light up the whole figure all around. Unfortunately, the one I received is broken somehow. The wiring was obviously done without any skill whatsoever. But I don’t really mind, since blue LEDs would make this figure look like crap anyway.
Visit the site. vispo.cc and check out the making of Asuka, as well as some other really cool stuff they’ve got. It’s amazing and worth looking.
A close up shot of the NERV logo, and gas cap. Check out Asuka’s necklace! <_<;
Speedometer. SO. DETAILED.
The rear… of the bike. GAINAX, and another Asuka logo. <_<;
She has a star on the back of her leather jacket! Very Rock Howard! <_<;
This is one of my favorite shots. The lighting, the spokes on the wheels, the chain, the angle… love it!
Somewhat redunant, but here’s her ass.
More amazing detail. This thing actually comes with a metal stand to hook onto the peg, like a real motorcycle. But I found that I don’t really need it since Asuka props it just nicely. Check out those spokes!!
The exhausts are quite nice.
Rear suspension. The cool thing? It actually works!!
Asuka’s amazing hair. It reminds me of Cheetos.
UCC Coffee in hand. Most excellent.
Vanity shot. *heart*
I’m normally a Rei fan, but seriously, Asuka makes the better appearance, hands down.
I’m very impressed at how clean the sculpt lines are, and how sharp everything is. Vispo did an excellent job, and Gathering an excellent job of casting this amazing figure.
Full shot. I was originally going to do an awesome awesome photoshop image idea, but couldn’t get the proper angle, or find the proper photograph for my needs. Looks like I probably won’t be getting a chance to do that anymore, as my interest in doing one for her as died.
This didn’t come with the figure, but I thought it was suitable.
This didn’t come with the figure either, but sits very nicely on the display base. It’s almost race-queen-like. So wraps up another figure review! Stay tuned for the rest of the week, as I’ve got a little something more to celebrate the 60k hits.
Hyudorana Amis Resin
So I stumbled upon this pretty wicked resin kit on hobbyfan. It’s most impressive with excellent detail, and a creative idea. For $100 for a prepainted statue of this caliber, that’s a pretty slick deal. Especially considering standard PVC figures nowadays can cost upwards to $80 a pop. I would have bought it. But, well… there’s a reason why I decided not to. (NSFW)
Yes. Bare breasts. You’d think that something this cool would have some sort of non-breast-bearing version. I REALLY like this figure, but with the boobage for all to see, it’s been striked off my list.
I’m sure this would interest some others, so that’s why I’m posting this. So enjoy more pics!
Hmmm… looks like there’s some sort of tube going up her vajayjay too. But whatever. This figure is freakin’ COOL!
Look at the incredible detail! It’s like Optimus Prime meets Armored Core meets Anime! DO WANT! *sigh* I suppose if I REALLY wanted to, I could shave off the nipples, and just paint a skin-tight black body suit, but that’s just silly.
There’s even a wicked black version! Well, if you want to see more pics, or heck, buy one of these, check out hobbyfan!
http://www.hobbyfan.com/product_info.php?bcAdult=yes&products_id=7485
So why am I against it? No, I’m not against it, but I do think that figures are meant to be displayed, and displayed without large breasts distracting from what is truly an artistic and magnificent sculpture. That and I don’t think my wife would be very happy about this figure. Well, if they do decide to create a more “covered” version, I’d definitely buy it.
EDIT: My mistake. This is for an unpainted figure. Hmmm doesn’t make it so worth it after all. But for you hobbyists out there, this is definitely one to get!
Happy Holidays from Radiant Dreamer!
Happy holidays everyone! It’s the first day of my holidays, and fortunately all my shopping is done. It’s been snowing a bit here, and apparently, record temperatures, but nowhere near as bad as say, Halifax or something, where the temperatures fall below -40c. Now THAT’S crazy cold!
This festive season is when most of my friends have gone back home to visit their families. This of course, makes a boring holiday season for me. But what better time than to put some effort into improving my art, and playing Valkyria Chronicles!
I’m fortunate that most of my family is local, so I don’t have to travel long distances to celebrate Christmas with them.
In case you’re wondering, no I didn’t get a special variant Loligoth Asuka figure. I am a photoshop artist after all. More on that after the jump!
Tada! The original, untainted, spontaneously taken photo of Asuka.
I started by painting (yes painting) a layer of red over top the black sections, and set the layer to Color. I then adjust the opacity and brightness of the red to get a tone that looked more natural and realistic.
Because the black absorbs a lot of light, the clothing looked a little dull. When it has color, it should reflect more light. I wanted more shine, so I started a new layer and with a slightly off-white color, painted highlights on the specular areas and set the layer to Color Dodge.
Because the dress is no longer black, red color should be reflected onto the white frill of the dress. This is called radiosity. Here you can see me faking that radiosity with a soft airbrush set on color dodge. In this close up, you can also see how close to the edge the red was painted. I’ve discovered that painting is more accurate than using the marquee tools.
What’s Christmas without a Santa hat? This is the first santa hat (and probably most popular) you get when you do a google image search.
The hat is then color and tone adjusted to fit into the scene, shadows are painted underneath and around the hat to blend it in more. It’s not perfect, but it gets the point across. Finally, a lens blur effect is added for the final image.
Less than five more days until Christmas! I wish you all a safe and happy holiday, and may you get the PVC girl you want under your christmas tree!
Rei always had it in her. Not a single Rei out there that isn’t photogenic, I say. oUo
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lol well, I’d have to disagree, but I get your passion.
I’ve been contemplating chopping my collection down some too, I think I’ve got at least eight or ten figures I could let go without feeling bad at all about it, and I could really use the extra shelf space. Unfortunately, the BRS and Mio re-releases are going to chop down their value, and I do not think my old Griffon Ikkitousen figures are worth very much.
It’s funny how Rei Ayanami might be the most merchandised character in anime, but there don’t seem to be that many memorable figures of her. Of those that are, I think this one is one of the best; it shows off an ethereal expression, it’s in a very good scale size, and she’s got some bangin’ curves.
I didn’t shoot in RAW until just a few months ago, when I finally overcame my distrust of bundled software and installed DPP. Now I shoot everything in RAW and really wish I had started earlier, because I can think of a bunch of photo sets that I could’ve saved had I done so.
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I think I’ve got around that many that I could chop too. I was tempted to put BRS on the table, but I guess she’s okay.
At some point, you have to decide whether or not you’re going to sell because you need money, or if you need space. It’s probably why I’m letting so many of my figures go for cheap.
I totally decided to keep this Rei in the end, and told the buyer I changed my mind. He didn’t seem to take offense, which is good.
I started using Adobe Camera Raw that comes bundled, and it’s just incredible how much control you get from it. I started doing a few HDRI shots (from a few posts back) and that too is incredibly powerful. Though I’ve found little use for it for strictly indoor/studio shots. It’s only useful when you have a large range between light and shadow…
I on the other hand, have to grow my collection – which is turning out exceptionally difficult, what with Magic the Gathering being the primary basin my meager funds go into. Priorities, priorities…
Much of her photogenic-ness is really a result of your camera work, imho. I see her as quite unremarkable without your dynamic camera angles and effects – it’s probably because I’ve seen waay too much Ayanami Rei over the years.
That box is probably the highlight of the figure; it allows for a really pretty silhouette shot.
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Ah, for you, finance is an issue. For me, it’s just space. If I had a mansion… oh wait… I’ll get into that in my future post that I’m writing.
I took some time to really observe this figure for its’ beauty, and it actually is as beautiful as she looks in the photos. She’s got this pearly sheen on the plug suit that really brings out the details and curves when it’s bouncing light. You’ll notice that the little “backpack” thing is really clean and smooth. This is prominent throughout. Rarely do you see such clean lines in a figure.
Her simplicity is actually her virtue for this figure, imo. Her lack of intricate detail is compensated by the incredible attention to the details on her.
Yes, I really love the box too.
I’m not too fond of her hair, but the rest of the figure looks nice. She has a really shapely body, it’s excellent ^.^
I agree with you on the hair. It was a bit of a turn-off for me actually. It still kinda is. I think they could have done a better job than have the “sideburns” as separate pieces…
Yeah, she’s DAMN sexy!! ^.^
I’m not one for figures, but I gotta agree….very photogenic.
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Glad you agree!
Nice photos… maybe will try to shoot in raws too since I like some of the effect.
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RAW is so powerful… it’s fun to play around with them in Photoshop.
I always, always, always shoot in raw — it makes such a difference. These were gorgeous!
Thanks Colette! And thanks for visiting my blog!
I’m only a casual Evangelion fan, but when I looked over my collection with the intention to cut back none of the Kotobukiya ladies from this set were ones I’d give up
I like them a lot. I like this Rei even far more than her Alter version.
Thanks! This confirms my decision not to sell her. That makes me very happy!
I’m only a casual Evangelion fan, but when I looked over my collection with the intention to cut back none of the Kotobukiya ladies from this set were ones I’d give up
I like them a lot. I like this Rei even far more than her Alter version.
That’s good reassurance that I made the right decision to keep her.