In today’s update: maid cafe Pinafore gets a Megahouse action figure, Solid Theater gets a brace of stationery-themed mascots, we preview next weekend’s Clayz Moe~ro Matsuri (and how!), Konami distracts you from the desert of the real with its digital Diorama Studio, Maritan gets an online PX and a couple of Comiket figures, and other stuff you’ll just have to read to find out because it’s not worth mentioning here. or maybe it is…

Hobby Side

  • Pinafore bills itself as the closest maid cafe to Akihabara station. It now has the dubious honor of being the first maid cafe with its own action figure, currently in production from Megahouse. Preorders for this artifact of meidoculture begin on November 27th, with release scheduled for February 2007. [eg scoop] [Comptiq scoop]
  • I’m not sure how long this news has been out in the wild, but Solid Theater began taking preorders for its Play Stationery series of original Azuma Yuki-designed, Azusa Rei-sculpted stationery-themed PVC mascot characters / artbooks back on October 20th. Presumably available from other online outlets as well, they’re due out in February of ’07.
  • The Bishoujo Figure Convention Tokyo site has updated with a list of the event-only items that will be on sale there on December 3rd. We scooped them here earlier, but now it’s official.
  • Some decent mid-resolution shots of Toysworks’ upcoming Tonagura Hatsune (pink ver.) and Kazuki (pink ver.) PVCs are now available courtesy of online shop Amiami; expect both to hit store shelves in February of ’07.
  • Konami’s Busou Shinki site reports that the mechamusume figures’ corresponding digital Diorama Studio has been updated. I haven’t gotten my hands on a figure yet, but when I do we’ll delve more deeply into the workings of the digital side of things here – apparently you need to download a client, input a Konami ID, and pay them money to provide various digital augmentations to your plastic figures… on the surface it seems like a mechamusume-themed Second Life, but I expect things will really kick into gear when they launch the combat simulation feature. Again, we’ll be keeping an eye on this.
  • The Maritan PX is now open! The latest item up for preorder from the world’s most brutally moe magical marine girl (BMMMG) is this pair of Army-san and Jie-tan figures due out at Comiket 71 from Pink Company. They’re a bit pricey, but so is war! There’s a new Navy-san CG on the front page to commemorate the occasion.

Now On Sale

I’ll be heading into Akiba later today in pursuit of Daiki Kougyou’s Koyori and a couple of games, so updates may be a bit sparse this weekend – I’ll try to get out some figure reviews at least, and a Harem Party preview. I played through the demo yesterday morning and it’s looking like a lot of fun…