Dooooooe, Raaaaaaay, Egon! LUCY!

Yup, that’s right, the ‘Busters are back!  Well, maybe just ’Buster.  Venkman, Stantz, Spengler and Zeddemore are a thing of the past, now it’s Lucy’s time to shine!

The Ghostbusters is what I consider a legacy – they’ve been around for almost three decades and have found themselves haunting our everyday life.  Even those not old enough to remember the characters, movies, cartoon, toys, etc. have at least heard the catchy slogan and famous theme song sang by Ray Parker Jr.  While they’re not as big and popular as they once were, and Bill Murray is still traumatized by the lackluster Ghostbusters II movie, the fans are still out there and eagerly awaiting for the rumored / semi-confirmed third movie.

I grew up with the Ghostbusters; watched the movies, the cartoons, collected the toys – hell, I was such a fan that I even named myself after Venkman.  I guess that’s part of the beauty of the immigration process (US to Canada anyway), you can pick your own name / register a new name.  Hey, I was a kid and really didn’t know any better.

So when I saw that Kotobukiya was releasing a figure of Lucy, there was no doubt I was going to pick one up.  But wait a sec, who the hell’s Lucy?!  I remember the few re-iterations of Janine, but I don’t recall a Lucy.  I thought she might’ve been a new character from a new Ghostbusters series, comic, game, whatever.  But apparently she’s just a fictional character created by none other than Shunya Yamashita.  A lot of people say they know Yamashita’s work when they see one.  I honestly didn’t what they were talking about until I looked more closely at Lucy and many of the Bishoujo-line figures.  A light bulb popped up over my head – hey, all their faces look the same.  LOL  Lucy even resembles Hattori Kiriko quite a bit – there’s just a certain flare / aura about these illustrations that  screams Yamashita.

Lucy is part of Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo Statue line, so far they’ve been releasing quite a number of DC and Marvel comic characters.  I believe Lucy is actually their first figure derived from a movie, but correct me if I’m wrong.  Either way, she’s got the signature Bishoujo pouty lips thing going on – I can’t say I’m a fan of this style, but it is cute -  perhaps moreso on an illustration than a 3D figure.  Her hair is also somewhat translucent from behind, but very subtle.  Translucent hair also seems to be one of the mainstay features of Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo line-up.

my makeshift slimer says hi!

If you ask me why the Ghostbusters franchise went downhill, I would attribute it to a lack of sex appeal.  Let’s face it, sex sells, and as kick-ass as Sigourney Weaver is, she wasn’t the appeal the movie needed.  Plus, that giant head from Ghostbusters II still freaks me out – it still gives me nightmares sometimes.  Now, if things had worked out differently and they had someone like Lucy in the series, I think the movie wouldn’t have been all that bad.  At least I would have some pleasant dreams of the hottie in the ripped jumpsuit rather than nightmares of Vigo’s big bald head.  >_<’  That said, I honestly would’ve been fine if they designed Lucy in a normal jumpsuit.  I just can’t imagine what kind of ghost she was dealing with to cause all this damage to her clothing.  Kotobukiya should’ve included a small container of slime, like the old Ghostbusters and Ninja Turtle toys – that would’ve been cool to take a picture of.  “Ack!  I’ve been slimed!”

One thing of interest when I received Lucy was that she came in a beige jumpsuit rather than the olive drab as depicted in her illustration and prototype.  I’m not sure why the change, maybe beige paint was cheaper?  But I don’t mind, the beige colour resembles the original Ghostbusters uniform which is rather nostalgic.  I think either colour schemes work here, particularly with the blue and pink colour accents of her accessories.  What I found disappointing was that the paint work on the jumpsuit isn’t done as nicely as the prototype.  The entire beige jumpsuit on the production Lucy is devoid of any shading, unlike the prototype which had some weathering, dirty effect.  The beige jumpsuit is just way to clean, looks like it just came out of the washer which had ripped it to shreds.

Lucy comes with a bunch of equipment, which I’ll get to later on.  The ecto goggles that comes with Lucy can be removed, if you prefer to display more of her cleavage.  I do like this design by Yamashita, Lucy is sufficiently covered yet reveals enough to get you excited.  It leaves more to the imagination – can that zipper come down any more?  The more you stare at it, the more you think the zipper is slow slipping.  Lucy’s sculptor is Gill Gill, who I think did a pretty good job translating the 2D Lucy into 3D.  She does seemed to have received a bit of a breast enlargement in 3D form though – perhaps that’s so her ecto goggles can rest on something when hanging around her neck.

As for the body sculpt, I think it’s fairly average by today’s standard.  I can’t say there’s anything spectacular, but it’s not bad either.  It has a very nice form, and I do really like Lucy’s body language.  Standing relaxed, feminine and yet somewhat seductively as if she’s saying, “Yeah, I got the job done right!”  Her body language says to me she’s confident and knows she can do the job, even though she got somewhat messed up in the process.  But hey, when you have the body to show off like this, you have the right to do just that.  Good for you, Lucy – and thanks for getting that ghost out of my attic!

While Lucy has a blue utility belt, there’s not much hanging off it.  The paint work here is also a little undermining of the rest of the figure.  The ink wash effect (black lines) is done very roughly, I’m not sure if this was on purpose or not.  I’m thinking it is done on purpose to portray a worned belt reminiscent of the Vietnam era US GI utility belts.  She definitely could’ve used a PKE meter hanging off the side of the belt – I think that would’ve finished the Ghostbuster look nicely.

And of course, to finish off the ensemble is Lucy’s jungle combat boots.  What girl doesn’t love a pair of nice boots?  Preferably the knee-high ones, but maybe that’s just me.    Nothing too much to talk about here, just that once again the paint work is really simple with no toning nor shading.  Also, considering how battle damaged her clothing is, you’d think the boots wouldn’t be so shiny and clean either.

The pink thong, however, is a really nice touch I find.  Like Lucy’s top, the thong is exposed just enough to leave your mind wondering, yet not revealing anything.  The pink colour adds a very nice accent to the blue belt and black glove and proton pack surrounding it.  While I’m not sure how comfortable it is to be busting ghosts while wearing a thong, I’m not going to complain about her choice of undergarments.

For those of you with a keen eye and like to nitpick on details, you might’ve noticed something odd about Lucy’s left leg.  Yeah, you’re not seeing things – that strap of fabric is just floating there by itself.  It should go all the way up under the belt, not sure if this was a sculpt error or manufacturing error.  Nevertheless, it’s a little annoying and it was one of the first things I noticed when I took Lucy out of her packaging.  I wasn’t the only one who noticed this, seems like the reviewer over at Plastikitty also noticed this issue.  I happened to end up on that site while looking at some pictures of Lucy, thought it was also interesting we’re using the same theme for WordPress.   ^_^’

With the ripped jumpsuit, it was the perfect opprtunity to show off some of that detailing on Lucy’s rear end.  Sadly, there’s not that much to show off.  I don’t think the sculptor did a bad job, it’s just sort of average.  I definitely wouldn’t mind if Lucy had a bit more roundness at the back to match her front.  Shooting a picture with harder lighting seems to help create a more perky effect.

As mentioned earlier, Lucy comes with a bunch of accessories and gadgets to help with her ghostbusting needs.  The ecto goggle can be removed or attached by the usual decapitation of the figure’s head.  I found it easier to take Lucy’s head off by putting my fingers around the back of her hair, which was more sturdy and runs the least risk of rubbing paint off by accident.  One thing that annoyed me about the goggles, though, was that the strap is somewhat hard, thus the goggles don’t fall and rest on Lucy’s chest properly.  There’s a slight, yet unseemly, gap between the goggle and her breasts – I kept trying to force the goggles to stay down during the shoot.  The end result, unfortunately, was that it left a green paint transfer mark on top of Lucy’s breasts.  I was able to remove this with the usual plastic eraser trick - so this is just a word of warning to those who has Lucy or is planning on getting her.  The paint seems to transfer rather easily on this figure.

What I’m most impressed about with this figure, is the proton pack – the sculptor did a very good job replicating the pack and ‘wand’.  It’s not entirely accurate, but it’s pretty damn close.  I’d be even sicker if the pack could light up, but that’s probably asking for too much.  There was a bit of glue-like residue on the back of my Lucy’s proton pack though, I didn’t notice it till after I uploaded the macro photos.  Ah well!

The ‘wand’ sits rather loosely in Lucy’s hand, so you have to play around a little to get it to sit properly.  Let gravity, her hair and the tip of her thumb do the rest.    The gold button (as seen below) sits just below her thumb, which practically holds the entire thing in place and prevents it from rotating.

I can remember the good old days when Ghostbuster toys were widely popular, like GI Joes, just about every kid had one.  Debates went on and on whether if the proton pack should be mounted with the round side up or the round sid down.  I kept telling the other kids that the round part is supposed to be on the bottom, but they didn’t listen.  They should’ve – for a guy who named himself after one of the characters – I SHOULD know!

I wonder what ever happened to my proton pack and ghost trap toys.  I gave them to my cousin when I moved – I think he sold them or gave them away.  I’m kinda sad now that I think back on it.  Those toys were pretty cool, especially the ghost trap.  Who knows, hopefully the Ghostbusters 3 movie will finally come out and be enough of a blockbuster that it’ll be a catalyst to spawn new Ghostbusters toys and other merchandise.  Maybe I can get my hands on a new ghost trap with flashing LED lights.  Wooooooooooo!!

Where was I?  Oh yeah, Lucy…

The Ghostbuster logo is printed faithfully on her right arm – yup, no ghosts allowed here!  Particularly with that ghost trap so close by her foot.  The trap is missing a few details, but for something that’s about 2cm in length, it’s not bad!  The foot pad even has a spring sculpted inside for that extra bouncy effect.  Unfortunately the pad can’t be depressed – wouldn’t it be so awesome if you could press it and the trap opens?!

Lucy’s base is the standard circular template, but at least it’s not like most Kotobukiya plain bases.  This one simulates a rough pavement with a Ghostbusters manhole cover, typical of what you see around New York city minus the Ghostbusters logo.

I thought Lucy looked a little lonely by herself, so I dug up a couple of friends to keep her company.  Wow, they’re a lot smaller than I remembered.  Pete looks like he’s at a beneficial height though – just turn around Pete! 

So to conclude this review, I’m giving Lucy 1 billion stars out of 10.  Just because I normally don’t give ratings to figures I review and that it means absolutely nothing.  Now, where did my Slimer toy go…

the mysterious ghost hunter

Girls say they love a man in uniform, well I think I can say the same about girls in uniforms too. That is one reason I added Kotobukiya’s Xecty Ein (Army version) to my collection, the other reason is the amount of detail that was placed in this figure.

Now, I’m relatively new to this anime figure collecting thing, so I’m not sure what to say about Kotobukiya as a company. I’ve read that their figures have been subpar before, but the recent figures I got from Kotobukiya appears to be finished quite well. And as I’m also unfamiliar with the Shining series, even though I did play the game before very briefly, I’m not going to get into the background of Xecty here as anything I’d say would just be paraphrasing from the Wikipedia entry. LOL

What I can tell you is that this is a very good figure with a lot of details and that was the biggest factor in my getting this Xecty (and I pre-ordered the EVE version as well). This version of Xecty is sculpted by Nakamura Hirotoshi in 1/8 scale, so she stands around 20cm tall. I can’t even begin to imagine how much time it took to shape this figure, particularly the ribbons and straps on her arms! If it were me, I’d probably would’ve gone mad and rolled everything back up into a ball and said frack it!

The colouring is quite straightforward, however, and nothing spectacular. But the paintwork is fairly good with some shading on the skin and inner clothing. The coat is somewhat flat olive drab, which is a bit of a snooze, but taking into account the careful paint work, the snoozefest is forgivable.

Xecty comes in a fairly secured package and her feet are screwed into the base from the factory. This is the first time I’ve seen this, I don’t mind it at all as the figure stands very secure and solidly, but the glossy black base is really boring.

And speaking of boring, Xecty’s facial expression rather bland too, it just doesn’t say anything and shows no emotion. Her eyes are also looking to the left, which resembles her thinking of something, but what on earth is she thinking of that would make her look so dead? The pose is not spectacular and her body is angled in a weird way, but I don’t mind this as much due to all the eye candy on her uniform. But I can’t shrug off the fact she looks so lifeless for such a good figure.

Her hair is also fairly plain at the front, the strands detail is very flat, unlike the rear. The shading is pretty smooth though, and the two antenna things on her head are pretty reflective (as you can tell by the picture below). I’m not too sure what those things are, whether they’re functional or merely decorative for Xecty.

From far away, you probably won’t notice as much from a distance (and due to her scarf), but I like the shape of her breasts underneath the uniform. They look just right and fairly proportioned, in a way, it reminds me of the SOFT version of Xecty. I get a good laugh everytime I think about the advertisement photo for that, “Oh, feel so good!” Anyway, I’ll save it for that review when I get a chance to write it up.

I like the fact that the skirt received some shading, the tan colour with the dark brown belt sets off a nice contrast between the inner and outer layers of her uniform. The fact that her belly button is showing via the opening of the uniform is pretty nice too and adds to the sex appeal.

The side of Xecty’s “skirt” on the dress uniform has some slight “frill” to the sculpt, at least an attempt at it. I think the details are a little too flat too for it to stand out and oftem your eyes will probably miss it and not even notice it was there. The amount of detail in the ribbons on her arms really overshadows these minute details.

The frilly design carries around to the back of the uniform with a little black bow. The bow is really unimpressive either and a plain flat black colour. I’m not sure why there are so many fine details on the figure while other parts seem flat and dull in comparison. Maybe the sculptor got tired after finishing up the laces on the arms? lol

Xecty sports a beige stocking with almost knee-high boots. It would’ve been nice if there were a bit more shading work or different tones of brown on the boots for that extra bit of detail, but oh well. At least the laces are well done, and the knot at the top isn’t a flat piece that’s completely attached to the boot – this adds to the visual 3D cue – if that makes any sense.

Xecty comes with a silver sword in this version, and it totally sucks. It’s all plain gray-ish silver looking with absolutely no details. At least in the proto-type photos, the sword was chrome like, very shiny and reflective. Maybe I will update the paint work on this sword myself if I have time.

One surprise that I definitely didn’t expect is that Xecty’s uniform is a cast off! You can take off her uniform’s bottom portion by separating Xecty just below her bust line. I have to say, she does look much cuter in that short skirt – and boy is that skirt short! From a slightly lower angle, you can see Xecty’s underwear, which may lead to a case of nosebleeds for some people. ^^’

But that’s not all…

… so one cast off equals a cool surprise. But a double cast-off?! No way! @_@ This was something I definitely didn’t expect on this figure. Maybe it wouldn’t have been such a surprise if I had kept up to date on the previews and stuff, but I didn’t. Now I wonder if it’ll be the same for the Xecty E.V.E. version? Probably so!

The side straps have a slight lacey look to it, and some patterns on the front and back, but it’s still plain white, which I’m sure some fans will not like. Also, Xecty’s bum isn’t exactly sculpted very round, it’s rather disappointingly flat. Not the worst, but definitely could be better! That said, I prefer to keep her skirt on, as I find displaying her with the underwear looks rather strange, given that her top is still in uniform. Now if the top was a cast off or a switchable part, then perhaps.

Overall, this figure is really good and have quite a bit of detail, even though some of those details came out a little subpar while other details came out to total awesomeness. It’s definitely a nice figure to have in your collection if you’re a Shining Wind fan, but she does look a little lifeless. I think the upcoming Xecty E.V.E. version may be even better, as the facial expression on that looks a little more pleasing. But I guess I’ll find out when it’s released. Since this figure was delayed by almost two months, I think the May release of E.V.E. will be delayed as well.

I’m not sure how popular this figure is, but so far I haven’t see any reviews out for her which is cool because I’m usually one of the last to publish a figure review. It’s good to finally be one of the first (if not the).