Who is the Bobagirl???

Did everyone have a nice Christmas? Kagenami Q came home for a few whirlwind days, and is back in Japan now.

December's issue of Hobby Japan actually had some interesting stuff in it, for a refreshing change from the last couple of months, so here's my usual roundup with pictures.

First up is a look at the long-awaited Marmit Boba Fett! (Hey, someone pick Pam up--I think she fainted!) He's pretty cool, to be sure. There's another photo of him in this same article where they've got him standing to a different Boba Fett action figure, possibly the original Kenner large-scale one, and boy, does the old one look dorky next to this one! This is, of course, one of those evil 1/6 scale "polyvinyl kits" that comes in pieces and you have to put him together and dress him, but hey, what a great result! At 12,000 yen, its price is consistent with the other Marmit Star Wars guys, I think.

Okay, we're all used to anime characters with their big ol' eyes, but I have to admit, the first time I saw this doll, I yelled "GAAH!" I like big dewy anime-style eyes as much as the next person, but YIKES, this doll just looks creepy--she reminds me of a Walter Keane painting (oh no! not the '60s!). At any rate, her name is Candy, and she's from something called Cutie Comic, and there's a series name here but I didn't ask KQ to translate it for me--it's got a "5" on the end, if that's any help. She's 1/6, and is part of the Stylish Collection from Medicom. Her outfit sorta reminds me of "Judy" from that silly TV show "Big Shot" that keeps cropping up as a plot device in COWBOY BEBOP.

Speaking of BEBOP, there's a new model kit out of Jet Black and Edward. You get both of 'em for one money, and while Jet looks pretty good, Edward has legs like spaghetti, and one of them is significantly longer than the other. For 15,000 yen, I'd want both characters to look decent, so I didn't scan the picture--Ed's legs are a wee bit frightening, really...

Check out this lady! I love her two-colored-pink hair! She's 9800 yen, 1/6 scale, I'm not sure who makes her, and she has a butterfly tattoed over her left breast. Extremely cool!

And here's an anime and manga character whose debut in doll form is long overdue--Alita, from BATTLE ANGEL ALITA (or Gally from GUNNM, if you prefer)! She comes in 2 color versions--black hair with a black jumpsuit and white coat, and reddish hair with a red jumpsuit and tan coat. These are 6800 yen each, 1/6 scale, and, uh, I don't know who makes them either. Geeze, I'm sorry, I'm dropping the ball a lot this month. They also both come with spare hands for groovy action poses! Oh boy, another doll to beat up on the weaker, more submissive ones!!

Here's a good look at some of the fantasy armor those great guys at A-zone have created for us. I bet this set is available at HobbyLink Japan--for 5700 yen, you get everything you see here except the doll. (The sword might be separate...) Pretty neat stuff!

And I howled with glee when I saw this figure--finally, FINALLY somebody's making an action figure of Dark Schneider! This platinum-haired bad boy from BASTARD!! is everybody's favorite several-centuries-old almighty sorcerer, and it's about friggin' time he's immortalized in plastic! (Some years ago someone did a really lame, ugly scratch-build model of him in some competition or other, but that's best forgotten.) This looks like one of his outfits from later in the manga, when he decided he was a god or something, so they kinda lose points for putting him in one of the weirder-looking outfits, but hey, it's Dark Schneider, so I'm not gonna complain. Looks like the white claw-weapons on his hands are jointed at the index finger! Aside from that, I'm not sure how posable this figure is--there doesn't seem to be any leg or hip jointing, but that's okay--Dark Schneider is also very good at just standing around and looking great! Thank you, Kotobukiya!

Finally, here's some new items from Kubrick. These things are just the greatest--you get a lot of fun, playable toy satisfaction for relatively little money, and they're cute and funny as hell besides. Here's a really obvious choice for them: Astro Boy and friends!

Last but not least, there's a full page in this issue about the McFarlane anime figures, and I won't bore you by scanning it because we've all seen 'em by now, but they gave the biggest photo to Vash. And you probably heard it here first: here's a partial list of what's up for Series 2, according to this article--Serial Experiments Lain, Nazca (KQ was happy about that one), and Sol Bianca, along with a couple others that I can't remember. I asked KQ to translate the sentence for me, and there's a total of 5 series represented, I think, but I forgot to write 'em down--sorry...but those 3 I'm sure of. No COWBOY BEBOP, sadly. Darn. KQ pointed out that these are all Pioneer properties, too.

Hope everyone's staying warm!

--Simone