Busou Shinki Strarf

Strarf arrived today, at last, and I wasted no time in sitting her on top of my computer near Arnval. There are some small flaws in the paint work on various parts, but they’re not especially annoying except for a small one on her hair that I’m slightly tempted to buy paint for. Like Arnval, the facial expression is very blank, but she looks nice otherwise. There are plenty of interesting parts for her which can be combined in all sorts of different ways. I haven’t put her together fully yet – I just have her perched on my computer wearing her back piece, the same as Arnval. I really like the design on Strarf – the blue pigtails are nice, and the grey/blue/black colour scheme is good as well. I really like the sharp, interesting shapes used in for the various mech parts she comes with. I think I like Arnval’s design slightly more because of the angel sort of theme, but I do like the darker colours on Strarf.

It’s a pity I can’t take photos. My dad has been talking about buying a new camera at some point, and hopefully if he does, I can have his old one. I’ll certainly need a camera for my stay in Japan.

I’m rapidly running out of space for figure boxes at the bottom of my bookcase. I’ll have to start stacking them down the side of it from now on.

Oh, and the box Strarf was delivered in was excessively huge, and was full of loads and loads of packing material as well as the figure box. It was plastic as well. At least if it had been tissue paper then I could have recycled the stuff.

Also in the mail came the first two issues of Jen Lee Quick’s Renascence, which I may make a post about at some point once I’ve read them through properly.

Parcel Fail Part 2

I had a dream last night where I had caved in and bought the Dengeki Hobby limited Eukrante and Ianeira auction that’s been up on eBay for a while. I’m not going to actually do this, sadly, because £110 is way too much for me to spend on figures at the moment. Also, I don’t want Ianeira, I just want Eukrante. I really love the design of Eukrante, but I don’t like the colour scheme of the regular version at all (purple and white with a bit of pink and black? No thanks). I like the alternate colour scheme used for the Dengeki version, but not enough to buy the Ianeira at the same time, and I don’t really want to get it from Yahoo through a proxy buying service. Maybe if the figure is still around when I’m in Japan I might get it then. The colour scheme is often my issue with the Shinkis. There are some beautiful designs in terms of shape and mech parts, but a lot of the colour schemes are kind of boring or just don’t seem to match very well. When Shinki colours work, they’re amazing (Graffias, for example) but often they just look a little off. I guess this is what happens with figures that are bought not for the love of a character of series, but just based on appearance – I’m a lot tougher on the designs.

Royal Mail tried to deliver my two parcels again today, and yet again they managed to pick the short space of time that I was out of the house. I swear, if I’m going out of the house in the afternoon, they deliver really late, and if I’m going out in the morning they come early. I thought at least one of my housemates would be in, but apparently not. I’m having them delivered on Friday now, and I don’t have a single lecture, so I’m staying in until they bring me my stuff, even if I have to wait all day. One of the parcels is almost certainly Strarf, and the other probably contains my Jen Lee Quick comics that I ordered a week or two back (I’m a big fan of Off*Beat, her series that Tokyopop are currently refusing to publish the last volume of) because it would be a miracle if my HLJ order arrived so quickly.

On the plus side, I have myself a copy of Photoshop CS4 that arrived yesterday, and it’s wonderfully fast compared to CS (which isn’t even supposed to run properly on my Intel iMac) and also the second DVD of Mushishi, which I’ve been meaning to buy for ages.

Parcel Fail

Royal Mail decided to deliver my parcel today twenty minutes after I had left to visit friends. I was rather annoyed, especially because not so long ago they would deliver large parcels in the morning rather than the middle of the afternoon (of course, once upon a time they would deliver mail in the morning, and then do a second round in the afternoon. Now it all comes in the afternoon, sometimes not until half past three). It had to go and turn up on the one day this week when I’d be out of the house for any length of time.

I suspect the parcel contained my Busou Shinki Starf, which is rather irritating. I ended up arranging for it to be redelivered next Wednesday, because it’s the only day when there’s likely to be someone here all day (I only have one class from eleven until twelve, and my housemates are on separate timetables). I refuse to go all the way up to the sorting office, because it’s half an hour each way on a good day, and if it’s Strarf, then the parcel will be quite large even though it won’t be heavy. We’ve had a lot of snow where I live over the past few days, and the pavements are treacherous (especially with all of the many, many hills in this city), not to mention the opening hours are short and early, so I usually have to leave the house at around eight in the morning if I want to get there before lectures start for the day. Dark plus icy roads equals no journey for me.

Figures on the Way

HLJ shipped my order out this morning. It will undoubtedly be a while before it shows up, since their cheaper shipping option is painfully slow (2-3 weeks in my experience) but I’m glad it’s on the way. I may well encounter customs charges this time, since it goes over the £18 limit by a few pounds, even if HLJ don’t include the shipping charge in the declared value (it seems as though Japanese companies never do. Maybe it’s standard practice over there?). If so, it will be my first encounter with charges, since the few more expensive things I’ve imported have been through eBay, and the sellers always seem to mark the value down, or through YesAsia who pay customs for you.

The figure I’ve ordered is the Kagamine Len Nendoroid. It will be the first Nendoroid I’ve bought so far – they’re really cute, but most of them aren’t characters I’m familiar with or interested in enough to buy a figure. That will probably change from now on, though. I’ve already preordered the Itoshiki Nozomu one from HLJ, and I’ll probably be getting Kaito when he is released later this month. I also have the Chara-Ani exclusive set of Junjou Romantica Nendoroid Puchi preordered from one of the few sites offering them (I got lucky – I was worried I’d have to buy them through a proxy service, which would be too expensive for my liking). I’ll preorder Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji once I can, although he’ll probably be out late enough in the year that I’ll be able to get him when I’m in Japan. I might get Miku (if she’s available) and Rin later on to go with Len and Kaito, but right now I have enough figures preordered and planned as it is.

My Busou Shinki Strarf should be on the way as well. I got her through a British eBay seller, so she was quite cheap. The newer Strarf Bis has a better face, and that really neat visor piece, but she would cost a lot more, and if I’m buying an expensive Shinki it will be Graffias. Still, now I have some company for Arnval.

On an unrelated note, I’ve been adding links to my various other accounts and sites in the sidebar. You can find things like my dA gallery and my Livejournal (which I use for personal things more than otaku-related posts) and my Twitter account. A proper banner is in progress, but I’ve got two commissions to work on as well, so they take priority.