[Toy Unboxing] Touken Ranbu Nendoroid: Ookanehira

Here's the second part of my two-part Bizen nendoroid unboxing!

I was debating at first whether I should bundle them up together like Izuminokami and Horikawa, but my feelings for the two characters differ greatly that I figured out that they deserve separate posts each.

These two babies arrived just in time for my birthday.  My friend Reo Ouji was kind enough to pick them up for me from the Wattatoys booth at Cosplay Carnival last February and bring it to our house when she came for a sleep over.  Once again, thanks to Wattatoys for always keeping me updated regarding my pre-orders and for always being flexible in your methods of payments.  I am also glad to know that their on-hand items are now available for viewing in their newly opened Shoppee store!

Ookanehira was announced last December of 2016 and shortly after, a Regiment Battle event was announced.  For those not yet well-versed in the Touken Ranbu events, its where you send all your teams to the front lines and determine when you will change teams as each stage changes battle conditions.  Ookanehira was the price sword for 100,000 Otoshidamas, which was a pretty hefty number of otoshidamas back then, given that there was a limited number of Kiwame swords (there were only tantou kiwames back then) and chaos mode has not yet been invented.  In short, grinding for 100,000 otoshidamas was a pain in the ass.

But, we love Uguisumaru and we wanted him to be happy, so most of us sent out out best kiwames and soldiers out so that we can bring him his beloved just in time for the new year.  And after all the resources, kobans, and fatigued swords we had just to bring him back, what do we get?  A cocky brat who picked fights with your Tenka Goken the moment he stepped foot in your citadel.  Also, he came for 40% off on the next regiment battle!

 I may be mad at the character, but I am not mad with the nendoroid that I received.  My Ookanehira nendoroid was ten times more well-made than my Uguisumaru, it's like GSC knew of my hatred of the character and sent me one of the best makes to mock me.  I really liked that the holster of his sword came with his body so we can just insert the scabbard through it.  I ensures that there will be no falling swords while the nendoroid is on display.  The parts also slides into place like no big deal.  They were all perfect, except that I don't really like Ookanehira.  Something to note as well, is that everything fits so well together, they did not even fall apart when I filmed myself throwing him into the trash!  Not even a single scratch, I'm already thinking GSC put an omamori (protective charm) inside the nendoroid's body because it was so sure I'd be doing what I did.

On to the beauty shots!  Again, I'm so mad that he photographs better than his matcha brother.

Watch the video for the full unboxing and stay tuned for a bonus clip at the end!

See you on my next blog post which will probably be when the next TouRabu nendoroid is released!

[Toy Unboxing] Touken Ranbu Nendoroid: Uguisumaru

I have come from the dead with a double toy unboxing post!  This is the first part which is for Uguisumaru and the second part would be for his fellow Bizen sword, Ookanehira.  Of course, both posts comes with a lovely unboxing video.

Before anything, I would like to apologize for the quality of the videos as my old editor crashed on me.  Hopefully, the quality will be back to normal, if not better on the next unboxing videos as I work to get my hands on a new editing software.

Now on to the toy post!

These two babies arrived just in time for my birthday.  My friend Reo Ouji was kind enough to pick them up for me from the Wattatoys booth at Cosplay Carnival last February and bring it to our house when she came for a sleep over.  Once again, thanks to Wattatoys for always keeping me updated regarding my pre-orders and for always being flexible in your methods of payments.  I am also glad to know that their on-hand items are now available for viewing in their newly opened Shoppee store!

My new babies in their boxes

 Ahh Uguisumaru... In my opinion, he has been the most underrated sword in the Royal Iced Milk Tea quartet (for all of you unfamiliar, it's what people used to call the 4 special rarity Tachi swords). and also the one who was poked fun at the most because of his attachment to Ookanehira.  His in-game lines consists of almost 80% Ookanehira and some of us couldn't help but take pity on him and anticipate the arrival of this Bizen sword that he talks fondly about.  Some took it the other way and poked fun at Uguisumaru for having an imaginary friend that he likes to talk about most of the time.

That is what used to be the #NoOkanehira period where people would anticipate if the new sword announcement would finally be the sword that would make Uguisumaru happy at last (spoiler alert: it was usually an Awataguchi that ruins this for us).  There was even an Uguisumaru Twitter accound who would vent out all his frustrations about the sword announcements not being Ookanehira.  Finally on December of 2016, Ookanehira was anounced and there was no more lonely Uguisumarus after that.  I shall talk more about the perils of getting Ookanehira in the next blog, so stay tuned for that.

Upon opening the box for the nendo, I figured out instantly that I once again lost the nendoroid lottery.  The taping that held the plastic containing the extra arms and legs went loose inside the box and so some parts have already fallen at the bottom of the box upon opening, as seen on the video.  I also had an issue with the small parts (particularly the pom poms on his arms) being really fragile that I broke them without doing much at all.  This was also shown in the video.

Like all other nendoroids, Uguisumaru came with a number of extra parts.  My favorite was the tea set and the nightingale that came with him.

Aside from the issues that I have mentioned above, I have no other issues with this piece at all.  The color of his hair is particularly beautiful with the subtle fade of color nearing the tips.  All in all, I'm still happy with this piece.

On to the other pictures!

Watch the video below for the full unboxing.

See you on my next blog post where I trash Ookanehira!

[Toy Unboxing] Touken Ranbu Nendoroid: Yamato no Kami Yasusada

I know I haven't posted in this blog for a while and this unboxing is long overdue because by now, most of the Saniwas who pre-ordered him has got their item, but I'm still doing this for the love of Touken Ranbu.

I got this nendoroid two weeks ago, from Wattatoys.  Seriously, I don't buy my pre-orders anywhere else.  They are very accommodating, flexible in their methods of payments and they even have their own delivery service which I regularly use because I can't make it to most of the local conventions to pick up my goods.

Upon opening, I immediately knew that I got a good item as the parts are easy to remove and stays in place when attached.  The first thing I did, of course was to look under Yamato's hakama, because we all want to see what's under a touken danshi's hakama ever since we found out that Jiji goes commando under his thanks to his nendoroid version.

Yes, Yasusada wears a pretty sexy fundoshi under his uniform.

Same as with other nendoroids, Yasusada comes with two extra face plates and some added accessories.  For Yasusada, he gets a small plate and a stick of dango to share with Kiyomitsu who also came with the same accessories.  I didn't pose them like that, though because my Kiyomitsu nendo's box is deep in my storage.  Maybe some other time, when the whole Shinsengumi is finally complete.

I did pose him in an uchiban-like manner, though.

Seriously, this was one of my easiest unboxing for this year as I had no problems with parts not fitting right or the nendo falling off the stand or anything.  I would like to believe that this was Touken Ranbu's Christmas gift to me for being such a good spender on their franchise this year. hahaha

On to more pictures!

 

Watch the unboxing video here:

[Toy Unboxing] Nendoroid: Horikawa Kunihiro + Izuminokami Kanesada

As promised, I am back with an unboxing video for the Nendorids I picked up during Cosplay Mania 2017.  I was not really a collector until the re-issue of the Mikazuki Munechika nendoroid but since then, I have been growing my sword boy family. This time, I will show you an unboxing of the not-so-recently released nendoroids of Horikawa Kunihiro and Izuminokami Kanesada, both from Touken Ranbu.

For those of you who are not familiar, Nendoroids are manufactured by Good Smile Company (hereby referred to as GSC).  They are palm-sized figures with a chibi design that comes with a number of parts including face plates, arms and legs for the owner to be able to make the figures show different poses and expressions. Nendoroids also come with some props for the figures to hold or pose with.

GSC really did a number on me with this double release, though.  I preorder all my nendoroids so that I can save up for them when the time of their release comes, and also for the cheaper pre-order prices.  However, there is just nothing I could do when they do a double-release like this.  It's like paying for a new non-preorder Nendoroid altogether.

Enough of my financial rants, and let's get on to the unboxing itself!

First is Horikawa Kunihiro, since I wanted him waiting patiently for his partner when I get to unboxing Kane-san.  Also, I figured that he will be easier than Kane-san (did you just say palm-sized, GSC?!).

Normally, Touken Ranbu Nendoroids come with three face plates: a normal face for his idle pose in the citadel, the serious face for the battle pose, and a random expression for the-sort of internal affairs pose.

Kunihiro was just adorable with his smiling face plate.

Eagerly awaiting for his Kane-san

Then, his citadel pose.

Overall, I did not experience any difficulties with this Nendoroid.  Some batches come with difficult to remove hair or face plates, stands that just wouldn't stay put, or limbs that may come loose, but with Kunihiro, I did not experience any of that.  It was a bit difficult for me to figure out which hands or arm parts to use for a pose, but that was just an error on my part. 

Next, is his partner, Izuminokami Kanesada!

KANE-SAN

Kakkoii sword

Unlike Kunihiro, Kanesan was a pain in the ass just like the in-game sword.  First difficulty I experienced was opening his packaging itself.  The parts holding the pieces of the packaging together was so stuck together, that I knocked my camera off while filming the video.  Next is his hair piece and face plate which was also difficult to remove.  I had to wiggle it a couple of times for it to be detached, and then there was the hair piece, which was also attached to his ponytail at the back of his head.  It was also pretty difficult to stick the sheath of his sword to his side as the haori was getting in the way, and the handle keeps falling off.  Lastly, sticking him to his stand was difficult.  What you had to do is to remove his head, stick the holder through the haori and body, fail a couple of times, then stick his head back into place.  Here and there, you'd get a falling scabbard or limb and you'd just have to cuss a couple of times before you can get him to do even just one pose for you.

Please don't misunderstand me, I am not blaming the shop where I purchased this or GSC for the difficulties that I encountered with this Nendo.  The times I spent doing factory work has taught me that even if products are the same, there would be slight differences per batch.  Maybe I just got a bad batch,  but it's still a first release nonetheless so I am not really complaining.  I just wish I'd get more luck with the other Nendos I have lined up for this year.

Before I forget, Kunihiro came with the 二刀開眼 (nitou kaigan, literally meaning two-sword enlightenment) from the game. This is the game mechanism from Touken Ranbu where when a team contains at at least an Uchigatana and a Wakizashi, this could be triggered. Basically, it's a double attack where the Wakizashi wipes out an enemy sword's troops,then the Uchigatana goes in for the kill.  Izuminokami is an Uchigatana, while Kunihiro is a Wakizashi. They are partner swords both previously owned by Hijikata Toshizo of the Shinsengumi, so posing them for Nitou Kaigan is very fitting indeed.

I don't have the patience to have them do the battle poses, so this will do.

Obligatory aibou pic.

See the full unboxing over in my YouTube channel.  I also posted an unboxing of Sayo Samonji and Ookurikara nendoroids.  I also do some playthroughs of otome games when I have the patience to deal with damsels in distress.

Unboxing video: