I got the chance to re-acquire this lovely  Taiga Aisaka figure from MegaHouse’s Brilliant Stage line during HobbySearch’s sale earlier this month.  I say ‘re-acquire’ because I had her on my pre-order list at one point, but dropped her after every figure on my pre-order list was delayed to August — the month this Taiga was released.  The funny thing is, I had my pre-order with HobbySearch back then; so this could be the very figure that I pre-ordered.  Instead of paying full price, I’m bought her for 60% off instead.  ^^v

MegaHouse’s Brilliant Stage Taiga Aisaka was released in August and retails for ¥6,800 — apparently that’s the standard price for 1/8 scale figures nowadays.  Sculpted by Hatsumi, the quality is really nice for this tiny figure.  But one shouldn’t expect anything stellar, given the somewhat boring pose and that controversial face.  Yes, I’m talking about THAT face.  The one where Taiga is smiling, as if she was taunting her next prey.

I’m a little bit torn when talking about MegaHouse quality because they always give us chocolate with a hint of shit in it.  MH never disappoints when you look at the figure as a whole, I”m all for the gestalt principle, but the sum of its parts never adds up.  There is always something missing or something neglected in these MegaHouse figures that is really shameful on their part.

First, it was the paint transfer and bulky clothing on those dreaded Queen’s Blade figures with no instructions.  They fixed that problem, minus the instructions, and gave birth to a bigger issue which I’ll talk about in my next review.  Then there is that hair seam line problem that seems to pop up on every other figure they release.  I’m not talking about the seam line that shows up on the top of the head; I’m talking about the seam lines at the BACK of the head.

Nonetheless, MegaHouse still makes really nice figures that suits my taste and preferences.  The paint job is spot on with Taiga, the sculpt looks lovely, and the base is tiny; three essential elements nicely covered by MegaHouse.  But, personally, I find the pose on MegaHouse’s Taiga a bit too static for my taste.  Normally, they do a really good job with boring poses by incorporating an element to indicate movement with their figures; but that wasn’t the case here.

As I’ve mentioned in my Kotobukiya Taiga review, I like Taiga’s dere personality more than her tsun side.  That’s why I like this figure, even though every soul who reads my blog have told me the Max Factory Taiga is better.  Read this: I am not paying $200 for that figure!

MegaHouse did a really good job with Taiga’s dere face.  Sadly, the same can’t be said with her smiley face.  I’ve seen many comments about her face being “off” when I first posted about her back in April, but I still don’t see what’s wrong with her face.  She might not have the Taiga face that you prefer, but you can clearly identify her as Taiga.

To all you Taiga fanboys/girls out there, please elaborate on what’s “off” with her face if you’re going to tell me “her face is off” because, sadly, telling me “her face is off” in the comments is not going to help me with identifying what’s “off”.

Taiga’s smiling face looks better than what I had in mind, but it creeps me out just looking at this. :S

I didn’t realize this at first, but you can see the HUGE contrast between Kotobukiya and MegaHouse’s colour pallet.  You can see that MegaHouse have some really good painters working for them.

The level of detail on MegaHouse’s tiny Taiga figure is right up there with the big girls.  But you can see the sculptor’s negligence amongst the beautiful details on the figure.  That dreaded pair of  seam lines runs the length of Taiga’s long hair.  The sculptor literally slapped a piece of  plastic on Taiga’s head to finish the figure and didn’t care to blend that piece in with the rest of the figure.  They did this for Zero and Sakura Nanako as well.  It’s a shame that they chose to use this crude method to finish these, otherwise, really nice figures.

Aside from the seam lines, you can see that MegaHouse put in the effort to make sure all the details are there to be seen.  The finish is a bit rough for MegaHouse’s recent standards; but I’ll give her a pass having just reviewed two Kotobukiya figures recently.

Taiga can stand without the base.  But that’s not necessary because the base is quite small, the smallest in my collection.

MegaHouse is one of the few figure manufacturers that knows how to make their bases.  If you can’t make a diorama, make it clear!  But you must add some etching on it to make it look elegant with a minimalist approach.

Obligatory pantsu shot.

Meatballs!

The good:

• She was on sale!
• Taiga in her school uniform
• Really nice paint job
• Tiny, tiny base

The ugly:

• Smiling face that no one will use
• Nasty seam lines on her hair
• Boring pose

There are a only a handful of Taiga figures on the market to date, and unfortunately, MegaHouse’s Taiga only manages to sneak her way to the middle of the pack…somewhere between Kotobukiya’s Swimsuit Taiga and Chara Ani’s  Uniform Taiga.  This doesn’t mean MegaHouse’s Taiga is inferior to any of them, it’s just that she isn’t well received among her fans and to those who highly value “anime accuracy”.

The beautiful paint job is this figure’s best asset.  The sculpt looks really nice, but the pose is boring and the finish is on the rough side.  Her pose is so boring that I got tired of looking at her already.  She’s definitely not the best MegaHouse, or Taiga, figure out there.  But, if you absolutely must have a Taiga figure in your collection and doesn’t want to drop a fortune for the Max Factory or Kotobukiya versions, this should do the job.  Otherwise, spend the money or wait for a future release.  Her pose is just too boring in a world of fancy and panties.

I haven’t noticed anyone else on my blogroll with a review of MegaHouse’s Taiga yet.  Please let me know if have one.

Taiga Aisaka is definitely the fan favourite from the manga turned anime series Toradora! I, too, am one of those who adores this lovely midget of a beauty, both her badass character and cutesy appearance — this is what makes her great!  I like Ami as well, but she didn’t get a respectable figure treatment yet.  Anyways, back to Taiga.  Kotobukiya brings us this lovely, ultra adorable, figure of Taiga Aisaka in a lovely pink swimsuit with yellow accents based on an original design by Zekkyou.

Taiga’s swimsuit ver. is based on this Zekkyou design.

Kotobukiya’s Taiga Aisaka -Swimsuit Edition- was released in October for ¥6,300 as a Dengeki Daioh magazine 15th anniversary mail order exclusive.  Needless to say, those who doesn’t live in Japan paid a hefty price for her.  Having just finished watching Toradora! when she was announced, I have to admit I was caught up in all the Taiga kawaii hype back then.  I’m not sure if I’ll make the same decision now.  But she is very cute…and tiny.

Sculpted by Hidemasa Kiyohara, the figure’s quality is exactly what I’ve come to expect from Kotobukiya.  Average. It looks average even for a 1/8 scale figure.  Kotobukiya did a really good job in retaining Taiga’s cuteness from the original design and you can see that they put in the effort to include all the minor details to make this figure look great.  The paint job looks really nice too, matte, just the way I like it.  But once again, Koto failed to deliver a finished piece.  The finishing on Taiga is really poor with scuff marks, rough edges, seam lines, and indents all over her body!  The good news is that you can’t see the shoddy finish at arm’s length, but it still sucks to know they’re there.

I have to say this figure serves its purpose of looking cute on display; she does a very good job too.  Aside from that, she is easily overshadowed by other figures because of her 8 cm stature, flat colour choice, and mediocre quality.  Taiga deserves better than that!

Taiga is looking cute with her tsun expression and killer blushes.  I love the blushes.  To be honest, I like Taiga’s dere personality more because she’s more fun to watch with her kick-ass attitude.  But for the purpose of this figure, I really like the expression a lot.  How do you like your Taiga?

Kotobukiya did a wonderful job with her face.  She looks as cute as ever with her hair tied up like meatballs.  Last time I saw her, her eyes were brown though…

Taiga @ the beach.  She doesn’t look too impressed.

Kotobukiya put in a lot of work to include all the necessary details to make this figure look great.  You can see the intricate details on her hair, the frills on her swimsuit, and the way they made her authentic looking tube.  I just wished they put in the same effort on the figure’s finish and quality control.  The seam lines, rough edges, and shoddy finish is something Kotobukiya needs to work on.

I understand seam lines on cast off figures.  But this isn’t one…

I love the way they made the tube.  I thought it was inflatable when I saw the promo photos. ^^;;

I just hate it when the figure looks this good, only to be ruined by something like a rough finish.

The good:

• Taiga is uber cute
• Lovely details and expression
• Matte paint job
• Really really cute

The ugly:

• Kotobukiya quality
• Japanese mail-order exclusive
• Tiny figure with a huge price tag
• You don’t get what you paid for

Kotobukiya’s swimsuit Taiga Aisaka is definitely one of the cutest figures I’ve seen so far.  She makes those Nendoroids squeal in fear!  Koto did an excellent job in conforming with the original Zekkyou design and made an ultra cute Taiga out of it.  The details and paint job are on the money, but once again, I find the final product lacking in quality.  I blame Kotobukiya for the lack of quality control at their plant in China.  Even if they outsourced it, they should have more control over what they’re selling.

I think ¥6,300 yen is a rather steep price for a figure this small.  And since she was a limited edition mail-order exclusive, her price has already doubled.  If you’re looking for a Taiga figure or really cute figure in general, there are many cheaper alternatives available.  But if you’re a die-hard Taiga fan, and must have her no matter what, chances are you already have her in your inventory.  If not, happy hunting. =)

You can also find some lovely photos at:

• foo-bar-baz
• Shadonia

Apparently, foo-bar-baz and I put on her tube the wrong way for our photoshoots.  ^^;;  Thank you for dropping by again.

MegaHouse will be draining every single penny out of my pocket with their extensive offering in August.  One of the most anticipated figure (for me at least) is this Alpha x Omega Sheryl Nome which will retail for ¥6,800.

I’ll most likely be buying two of them so I can display her in both styles.  I was a Ranka fan at first, but I grew to like Sheryl more as the series went on.  I still hated the ending though…is that the best they could do?

Anyways, the next two figures that I’ll be ordering are Minase Iori and Kisaragi Chihaya both of which will be retailing for ¥6,800.

I’m a fan of the Idolm@ster series, and I’ve been waiting for someone to release the whole crew in scaled PVC form for quite some time now.  Thankfully, my prayers have been answered by MegaHouse…can’t wait til they release the Futami twins.  ^^

I still need to order Haruka and Yayoi-chan.  I think Miki and Yukiho should arrive within the next week or so…just waiting for HLJ to EMS it.

A couple more Queen’s Blade releases from MegaHouse.  Echidna (above) will be re-released in special edition form and Ultra Vibration Valkyrie Mirim (below) will join as a new member.  The two figures will be retailing for ¥6,000 and ¥6,300 respectively.

Not sure if I’ll be ordering one or both of them, but I’m thinking about collecting the whole set (of original characters at least) because it seems like MegaHouse is (re?) releasing the Queen’s Blade figures as special editions now.

Last up is Aisaka Taiga from Toradora!.  I liked Ami more in the end, but I still want a Taiga in my collection.  Taiga will retail for ¥6,800.  All of these figures will be released in August, and are already up for pre-orders at HobbySearch.  I’ll be waiting for pre-orders to open at HLJ since I can save more on shipping with them.  ^^

Damnit!!  There goes my plan to buy less figures.  “orz  Did any of these figures tickle your fancy?