Sailor Moon Crystal: Sailor Saturn?!

Sailor Moon S from the original anime was my favorite season/arc. It was dark for Sailor Moon and it featured the Outer Senshis. Have to say, while I do like me some Mars and Venus, I have to say that Neptune, Saturn, and Pluto are my top favorites. This story arc also puts Sailor Moon in the "S" costume, which, let me just say is my favorite Sailor Moon outfit.

With the conflicts high, the different chemistries between Outer and Inners, not to mention, the antagonist ended up being a Senshi possessed... there were plenty of things to like! But there were some things to dislike... I abhor the return of Chibi Moon since I hate that brat. But that was a minor thing to hate. My main qualm was the short end of the stick that Sailor Saturn got. 

Well, Sailor Moon Crystal seems to want to rectify that. While I was a bit underwhelmed with Crystal(I thought it was going to be the revival that Sailor Moon needed), the introduction of Saturn, the S arc, and the Outer Senshis(and more Saturn time) may just be the gate way I need! 

2014 Collection Highlights

My second year of "Toys of the Year". In comparison to 2013, I say that I got about the same amount despite certain months last year being 'dry'. Regardless, 2014 was a good year for collecting and I'll just briefly go through as to why within the next few selection that stood out last year! Without further adieu... here we are to the list of 2014~!

Marvel Legends: This year Hasbro is staring a trend with really coinciding with cinematic releases and boy, are they going to let it all out this year. 2014 wasn't exactly FILLED with the best Legends, but still, it was a start of the trend. So these are the Legends that stood out in my opinion:

Black Cat, Nova, Omega Red, Black Widow, Storm

Top Legend:

Toybiz is still winning awards in my book after all these years. Honestly, the details, the accessories, and not to mention he came from an amazing BAF set... he was meant to win this year; yes and he trampled over some of Hasbro's Legends in my book.

Build-A-Figure(ML): I got a decent amount of BAFs over the course of 2014 but honestly, not a whole lot of them are memorable except for two. So I suppose these two are the BAFs of the year for me:

Sentinel and Groot

Just speaking in terms of now, 2015 will be better in terms of BAF I think. With how Odin starts and the next few in line I am planning on getting, it will be hard to say that it will turn out as sour as 2014's line up. But who knows. Sometimes it's hard for me to judge BAFs; it's either the set of figures that makes it or breaks it and sometimes the BAF itself has little influence.

Statues: Last year I named this section "Bishoujo", this year it has to be named differently since it isn't just Bishoujos parading last year's catch! And like last year, I didn't get a whole lot so I am pretty much displaying all of them; ALMOST all of them with the exception of one or two.

SDCC Spider-Woman, Elsa, Asuka, X-Force Psycloke

2014 brought forth variety in my statue collections; With Elsa joining the fray, of course it won't just be imports. So these fourth are the ones that stood out in my eyes from 2014. But who took the top?

The Winning Statues:

It was hard to just pick one out of these two since they are both great pieces. I'd say that Asuka has the most sculpt, the most height, and most definitely outshines in details but the Bishoujo Spider-Woman is just damn beautiful and it is Spider-Woman(the normal version of her was also pretty high on the list but--you know!). I say it's quite reasonable that these two are top of the list.

Anime Figures: This set! These four are the only ones I captured in 2014 and I have to say, it's not a bad haul. All my reviews pretty much conveys the fun factor of the photoshoot I had with each one, and dare I say they offer a whole lot! Figmas and Figuarts usually offer a myriad of things so it's no surprise that these four are memorable and worth putting together in this list.

KOS-MOS, Mikasa, Sailor Saturn, T'elos

All four gals offered a lot and when it came down to the two, it was a real hard fought battle. Mikasa and KOS-MOS definitely offered the most even though the other two ladies were a hard hitting figure! But who between the Xenosaga heroine and the Titan killer gets the award?

Most Enamoring:

Mikasa had more accessories, more fun factor, plenty of detail to boot! Not that KOS-MOS didn't offer any of that, but Mikasa gained the victory for me. I think a big factor to that is the fact that there were times that KOS-MOS wasn't the easiest to get into positions with her weaponry(the dual gatling gun to be exact) and Mikasa was just a fluent photoshoot.

"THE ONE"

Super girl Playarts Kai and Iron Man Silver Centurion

It's a given that the Hot Toy would get the award but something happened this year: Supergirl Playarts Kai. She had the charisma, the detail, the accessories, and the fun factor to almost put a scratch on my all time favorite Hot Toy version of Tony's armor. Alas, I couldn't bring it upon myself that Iron Man would be dethroned(a Hot Toy that is) so 'the one' had to be split. Honestly, both of these figures stand out in my head as 2014's hard hitters in my game room. Glad to have them both and glad they are paid off since they did take a chunk out of my wallet. Stark more so than Kara, of course. Still.... what great pair to add to my collection! 

After Word: I am elated with 2014 and the growth I had. Honestly, I think there was more quality this time around than quantity. As room starts to disappear and funds starts to tangent off to someone else, I think I will be doing more quality as the days go by. Though 2015, as I have mentioned, had already lined up a LOT of prospects. Maybe next year's edition will be up to par in both quality and quantity as 2014. 

Other than that, there is really nothing else to say. Happy collecting for 2015 it is!

S.H. Figuarts: Sailor Saturn

Hotaru Tomoe is one of my Xmas for 2014 presents and yes, it took me this long to get her reviewed for reasons that should be obvious by now! So, despite the lateness, what do I have to say about S.H. Figuart's rendition of the Soldier of Silence? It's all good things let me tell you!

Box! Pretty! Indeed! Love it. Of course taking her out of the box is what makes the review, NOT the box itself so here we are!

Just to tangent off about Sailor Moon S and Sailor Saturn for a bit here before I jump into the figure itself! Bear with me! So Sailor Moon S stood out for me for a few reasons: the introduction of the Outer Senshis and the story arc of the Messiah of Silence, Mistress 9. The details are lost so I might not be 100% accurate but, the body of Sailor Saturn was possessed by Mistress 9 who was going to bring Pharaoh 90 into the world and bring chaos. So Uranus and Neptune didn't want that to happen so they did everything and almost anything to make sure that doesn't happen. Of course their more drastic ways didn't sit well with the Inner Senshis so... conflict. To make a long story short, we Mistress 9 did come out, but Sailor Saturn's will overtook her and so BLAM! But not before the damage was done and Pharaoh 90(a big giant black blob) was already into our world. Oh, Sailor Moon got her "S" form in this season too. Here's another fact: Sailor Saturn did not get her spotlight in this season; in fact, her cool looking costume got about 5 min of love before forever disappearing until we get into Stars(which gives her the lame default "super" costume all Senshis have).

Despite all of that, Saturn did gain a following and for those who managed to gain this toy in homage to her S appearance, well, it's something to praise for! The details as always with S.H. Figuarts are amazing! Sailor Saturn looks like Sailor Saturn. Every details I remember from her Senshi uniform is intact from the shoulder pads, the crystal like brooch, the knee high lace boots, and then of course the ominous purple and burgundy color scheme remains. That's me saying that the paint job is amazing by the way. All the faces that are included in this figure are all well done! As always, they are consistent on making it look like Hotaru Tomoe! No real use of going overboard with the figure's details because the pictures can speak for it self. Let's talk about what she comes with.

Ten pair of hands, four variant faces, the Figuarts stand trademark(Figma still has the better stands in my opinion), and of course her glaive. On a side note, I didn't use the 'twhipping' pair hands because... I'm not quite sure when Sailor Saturn ever did those hand motions. Oh, and her signature weapon looks pretty dead on like the anime counter part.

Four faces that consists of 'happy', 'concentrating eyes closed', 'serious', and 'angry I am yelling at you'. Again the likeness remains consistent as I have already mentioned. One thing that perhaps imports really needs to start getting into are the hair articulation or perhaps the hair variants. Since Hotaru's hair is really 'blocky' at times, she should have some variants to give her a dynamic look to her said hair.

The articulation is amazing and she is able to perform the majority of things I wanted her to do. The shoulder pads hinder a few movements when posing her arms upwards, but no major issue to ruin the overall figure.

Though admittedly, I don't remember Sailor Saturn's 'signature' technique and truthfully, I don't really think she has a flashy one, but some affects would do some major points on making this figure that much more amazing(something I'm finding to be a terrible flaw in both imports and domestic toys).

Couldn't find it in me to pose her without her glaive.

Next to Sailor Moon, Sailor Saturn does fall slightly short, and no, that's not me saying that this figure is bad. Sailor Moon (as she should) comes with more things in terms of accessories and the likes so if one goes from Moon to Saturn, there is a short supply of perks. I would imagine the other Senshis don't exactly fall in the category of having an abundance of accessories either though. Still, side to side, these figures are amazing.

All in all, I love this figure! Great addition to my already cramped and dominantly Asuka shelf of 'anime'! Wow, I'll need to be more creative in consolidating my game room!

Happy New Year 2015!

Well, it's the New Year! So this is just a minor representation of what I accumulated during 2014! While some may make the roster as figures of 2014, I just decided to pull some figures that came up from the top of my head and displayed them. As you can see, Playarts Kai Supergirl and S.H. Figuards Saturn haven't been reviewed yet so I'll get on those soon enough and then get the 2014 figures top whatever listed down! But all in all, what a good year!

-Masterless

Spoils of 2014

Christmas this year has a bit of a different theme and all for the good. Suffice to say, while mine is still fruitful in my catch, it's not as much in the collection department and honestly, I don't mind at all! Well these are my catch(and yes, that is a gigantic Vemon Lethal Protector blanket in the background)! I'll be reviewing things as I go(although I might be a bit late this year). As one can see, I have plenty of apparel to go with the collection~!

Well, these are are the projects for the closing few days of December:

-T'elos Review
-Damsel of the Month(hopefully)
-Sailor Saturn Review
-Supergirl Playarts Kai review
-Figures of 2014!