Unboxing The Quintessential Quintuplets Ichika swimsuit price figure

 Okay, even if she is "just" a price figure scale, she is one of the cutest Ichika's I`ve seen around.

But how does she look in the flesh, or plastic is maybe better?  

Let's find out!

She is most definitly a fantastic figure, and one of the best Prize figures I scored this year so far.

So if you come along her and you like the Quintuplets, don`t hesitate to pick her up!

On the Painting Desk 206

 So, a long weekend has passed, and I took the opportunity to prepare some figures.

Namely, some more gasaphon Gundam models to start painting up soonish.

 

 

A lot of "main suits" in this batch like the Victory, Zeta, ZZ and F91 for example, not the grunt types of recent.

 

With a blistering heat now going over the county, I guess this weekend I won`t be doing anything, while next weekend I`m on holiday.  But do not fear, I hopefully will be going at them soonish again, beginning with glueing and basing.

 

I just need to get to a hobby store for some white paint...

That Time I got reincarnated as a Slime volume 5 - Fuze and Taiki Kawakami

 We are back for more Rimuru adventures, and this volume brings the Monster Nation to it's first real battle to help some potential allies.

Rimuru and his friends engaged the hordes of the Orc Lord, who ravage the Lizardmen lands and threaten their territory next.

Majin Gelmund, responsible for creating the Orc lord, intervenes in the battle but is quickly cornered by the Kijin, angry for the destruction of their village.  He commands the Orc lord to free him, but is instead killed and eaten by the beast, causing it to evolve into Orc Disaster.

Rimuru faces off against him, and while absorbing him into his stomach learns the truth of how he became to be the Orc Lord.  While he can't be forgiven for the dameges he did, his motivations where noble for his own people and Rimuru decides to absolve him and his people of their sins.

In the enuising talks on what to do with the orc population, the nation of the Jura Forest Alliance is created, with Rimuru suddenly finding himself the chancellor of it all.  He decides to split the orcs over all the villages, and the capital itself grows into a city with more then 10.000 inhabitants, prospering on all levels.

I really enjoy this series, and the aftermath pov story of Veldora is always a fun read as well.  Now to tackle volume 6 which is already lying ready here.

Unboxing Gundam SEED GAT-X105 Strike Internal Structure

 When this figure showed up on TokyoCatch, I just wanted to win one (though honestly, the 50/50 version was even more my target, but I didn`t get that one).

And recently, it arrived safe and sound from Japan.

So let's have a look at this model in all it's transparent glory.

So, while I'm not over the top wild of it, it still is a good addition to the Gundam cabinets, AND it is the Strike after all.

Until the next unboxing!

Terra Formars volume 8 - Yu Sasuga and Ken-Ichi Tachibana

 It's time for more heroic tales of our desperate survivors on Mars, facing off against the huge evolved cockroaches.

And with the knowledge the chinese delegation has betrayed them, they are now pressed on different fronts.

While the political battlefield rages on Earth, the battle flares up greatly on Mars.  As the Russian and Chinese division battle it out, with both general's being forced to their limits, the balance shifts to and fro.

But then the Terra Formars arrive en masse, but instead of straight out attacking, they send in their younglings to train on how to battle the humans.

As the expedition members become overwhelmed, they figure out it is the Annex I that they want.  When the chinese unleash a biological weapon that takes the cockroaches off from the Annex I, the russians are forced to withdraw.  But Asimov's son in law, Alexander, stayed behind inside the spaceship to try and take out some of the chinese divisions forces using guerilla tactics.

He manages to fulfill his mission of sabotaging the missile tube in the Annex I, at the expense of his own life, and with the Chinese division still in control of the vessel.  The Russians take off together with the Japan / US division, and Asimov decided to tell all he knows to their allies...

I really like this series and how it is drawn, it's every bit as "hard" as the anime was.  So now to pick up the next volume one of these weeks.

The Haul Report 322

 Yessss, another one of my long en route (or better, on sea) parcels came in.

And this week, it was the box from Toreba that was shipped in march.  

I actually suspect it was on the same boat as my AmiAmi order last week, but that aside...

So now Tanjiro finally joins my collection of Demon Slayer figures, to go alongside his sibling.

And a nice little acryll stand of the VTuber Mel Oguri in chibi style, which was back at the time a Toreba exclusive.

So, that was a fun parcel to receive for sure.

Picard season 2

 Jean-Luc is back in his remaining life as a synthetic life-form, or at least partial, after the final events of season 1.

And the Federation seems getting back on track in the aftermath of the Borg artifact and recognition of said synthetic lifeforms.

While he enjoys his life at his wine chateau, he struggles with his feelings for his Romulan friend Laris, trying to supress feelings of love.  In the meanwhile, Rios has become the captain of the brand new Stargazer, a vessel with a legacy for Picard.  When send out to investigate a spatial anomaly, Picard is called in as the anomaly wants to talk personally to him.

It turns out to be the Borg themselves, and a new queen starts taking over the fleet, forcing the Stargazer to self destruct.  But Picard suddenly finds himself back home, as Q intervened and rewrote time.  As a result, the galaxy became a Mirror universe like distopian nightmare, with the Confederacy conquering one after another civilisation.  Picard collects his companions also stuck here, and together with a Borg queen's assistance travel back to 2024 to try and set things right.

But they lose Elnor on the way there, as he is shot and dies after the slingshot effect.  In 2024, they have to search for the Watcher, and Picard finds Guinan to help him in this search, while Jurati tries to merge with the Borg Queen to get the location of the Watcher that way.

Rios, Seven and Rafi go into Los Angeles, but Rios gets injured upon arrival and finds himself arrested by immigration after being treated in a public clinic.  He is set for deportation, but his friends set out to rescue him.  Picard in the meantime finds the Watcher, looking a lot like Laris, and learns that the event Q is about to alter is actually the Europa space mission, and the involvement of Picard's ancestor, Renee Picard.

But Q itself also has some tricks up his sleeve, as he contacts doctor Soong, helping him out with illegal genetic procedures to try and cure his ailing daughter.

After a failed attempt at his ancestors life at the gala, Picard gets stuck in his memories, and Talinn goes in to free him.  Rafi and Seven discover in the meantime that the Queen has influenced Jurati, and taken over her body.  While she roams the city to build up power, Picard faces his past and seeks the help of Guinan to summon Q.  But instead, the FBI come in and arrest him as they saw him materialize.  During the interrogation, Q appears before Guinan, and she learns he is dying, and all Q are stuck in the past.

Soong is faced by his daughter, who learned she is nothing more then a genetical experiment.  He is recruited by the Borg Queen to try and take La Sirenna, and remove Picard, but as she is about to succeed Jurati manages to convince her to merge into something new and maybe manage to change the Borg in the future, as they take off in the ship.  But Soong wants to prevent the Europa mission, to create a future where he left behind a legacy, no matter how grim it might turn out to be.

They manage to prevent him stopping the launch, but at the cost of Talinn's life, leaving him behind a broken man while his daughter Corey is recruited to the Travellers by Wesley Crusher.  Q returns all of them bar Rios to the future, who stays behind with the love he found there.  They return moments before the self destruct, but deduct the Borg queen is actually Agnes, and she seeks them out to use the fleet and stop a quadrant destroying galactic event from happening.  With the event stopped, Picard returns to his Chateau, and gives in to his feelings for Laris.

Not a bad series at all, giving of a vibe that makes it a mixture between The Voyage Home and First Contact, making for a nice adventure.  Though I can`t stop to feel for the agents of the Temporal Agency, because the amount of infringements against the Temporal Directive...

Gigant volume 7 - Hiroya Oku

 Our favorite adult actress Chiho Johansson is back with more of her efforts to save the world from invasion.

And while having to protect Japan from a giant that laid waste to the United States, she also has to cope with the scancal of her relation coming out with her younger lover.

While she is seperated from Rei, who not heartily had to break up with her last volume, she is visited by a group of travellers from the future, there to assist her.  They came to destroy an orbital AI which is the cause of all the destruction, and that has grown to strong in their time, reducing Earth's numbers to under 85 million.

So now in the past, they are looking to stop it here together with Chiho, and they teach her more abilities the mysterious dial grants like flight.  But then she discovers she is pregnant, and reunites with her beloved Rei.

But people start to commit mass suicide, as the terrible giant called Satan, who ravaged the United States, makes landfall in Tokyo...

It's still a series of good fun, and the, errm, carnal levels, where really down this volume, which was a change from earlier volumes.  Now to see how it will evolve... and with the handsome time traveller that develloped a crush on Papico...

No Game No Life Practical War Game - Yuu Kamiya

 An "in between" light novel collection of short stories of the No Game No Life series, this book came out between volume 9 and volume 10.

And it focusses again on the Great War in the first story, but from the point of view of Fiel Nirvalen, the Elven maid's, relatives: the two only octacasters ever known, Think Nirvalen and Nina Clyve.

While the siblings think it is the same person, in truth Think disappeared after she was defeated by a Dwarf.  But she reappeared in the dining room of Nina Clyve, and decided to make her the next Grand Magus to handle bureacratic duties, so she could focus on her goal: destroying the world and all on it to achieve ultimate victory.

As she reveals her plan to unleash the Aka Si Anse, a doomsday device bend on destroying the source of all magic, the spirits, the dwarves engage the elves.  She faces her nemesis, Loni Drauvnir, the artificer king, and realises she can't overpower him as easily as she thought.  But right as she wants to play her ultimate trump card, Jibril crashes into the battle...

Twenty four years later, as Think is recovering and putting her plans into motion once again, she is visited by Riku.  And suddenly the War is over.  With the new Ten Covenants in place, she is unable now to hurt Loni, but she vows she will find a way around the rules and destory every living thing on the planet.  But first, she and Nina need to form a nation in this renewed world they find themselves in.  And she starts with placing some wagers, including becoming married to Nina who reveals she is actually a man.

In the second short story, Sora is explaining to Steph the art and skill of reading microexpressions in a person's face, and how that helps in playing, and winning, games.  This leads Steph to sort of snap, thinking she has to become a pervert to beat Sora.  Unknowingly, she actually nearly did, but she is comforted by the siblings on how she is the only one capable of doing politics.

In the thirds story, we learn mora baout Clammy Zell and her relationship with Fiel Nirvalen, on how she grows from being just a slave, albiet one Fiel sees as a friend, to a partner.   In order to achieve this, Fiel is planning on overthrowing the whole system of Elven Gard itself, all to make Clammy, and as such herself, happy.

Rounding it out is a two part story, we get the famous tale of how Jibril became the only Flugel known to single-handily slay a Dragonia, a tale of trial and error and giving a look at the origins and abilities of the mighty dragonkin.  But also how the "Irregular Number" tries to please their creator, the god of war Artosh, and her relationship with her peers.

So it was a fun volume, that provides some good insights in the characters surroungind Sora and Shiro.  This due to the fact they barely play a role in the book, only appearing in one story.  So one might consider this a sort of lore volume, not only going deeper in some of their companions, but in events taking place in the Great War as well...