News from various corners of the figure world today, including the preorder availability and subsequent vanishing act of gargantuan Suzumiya Haruhi, a surprise in the chest area from Alter’s upcoming Witchblade Masane PVC, the release and immediate sell-out of Max Factory’s Pachira from Majipoka, another version of Romando’s bizarre Nami SOS tentacle figure, and a good deal more!

• The Suzumiya Haruhi PVC kit of epic proportions coming out from FREEing and Goodsmile that we scooped two days ago now has an official page up at Goodsmile. It went up for preorder last night at various online shops, and as predicted was sold out almost immediately thereafter. Good luck to anyone hoping to score a copy of this at anything close to retail price… ;_;

• Alter’s official staff blog is reporting that the bosoms of their plainclothes Amaha Masane PVC kit from Witchblade are made from the soft and bouncy flexible plastic that has graced a few other recent figures (the only one I can think of off the top of my head being Keumaya‘s recent doujin offerings, but I know there have been others). Apparently it’s rather tricky to work with and requires a high level of manufacturing skill, so I doubt we’ll be seeing this as a huge trend; the kit in question was scheduled to go on sale yesterday and looks to be actually hitting store shelves tomorrow.

• Various outlets have listed an original PVC kit up for preorder from maker Beat and sculptor Minatogawa Amaha (perhaps best known for his Amie Gran Sailor Moon kits) entitled Dancing Girl Nile and due out in July. Listed here because I sometimes have the irrational need to post about things that don’t look very good.

• Max Factory’s Pachira PVC from Sankyuu Renkin Magical Pokan went on sale today, or rather the few copies of it that were left over after filling the massive black hole of preorders (one of which was not mine… *weeps*). When it was first announced I failed to notice that it was listed as equipped with Max Factory’s POLO system, POLO being code for “you can take her clothes off”. I was a fool not to have studied up on her more carefully back when preorders were in the offing, and I will now pay for my folly with blood and treasure…

• An ero-ero white dress version of the earlier-scooped Nami SOS PVC kit from Romando is now up for preorder at Amiami. It’s due out in July, and is just as freakishly bizarre and oddly compelling as her orange-kun original, if not more so… I know I really shouldn’t find this kit as fascinating as I do. -_-

• From the Moeyoverse:
  • A sample of Bome’s Honey Bunny Karen & Rio original PVC kit is now up for viewing in Kaiyodo’s Hobby Lobby location in Akihabara; the figure set is due out in early May.
  • Wafuudou Ganguten’s Princess Waltz Iris PVC is on display at Yamagiwa Soft in Akihabara, confirming that as with the original Cerberus Project resin kit her dress is prime for casting off. We can expect to see her street in early July.
  • Volks’ A-Brand presents Uesugi Kenshin and Kouhime resin kits from Sengoku Rance, now on display in their Akihabara Radio Kaikan showroom and set to go on sale on May 25th. The Kouhime kit is a bit dodgy, but given her popularity and the quality of the kit I’d place a gentleman’s bet on the Kenshin selling out within an hour. I wish there were even the faintest hope of it coming out in PVC…

• Hobby Japan has opened mail orders (via its June issue of the eponymous magazine, on sale today) for a Megahouse-produced limited edition Izuruha PVC kit from their multimedia franchise Ru Li Lu Ra. While I personally find the generic Hirai Hisashi designs unattractive, this figure has one of the most magnificent, nay almost classically Greek [DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK AT WORK] cast-off sculpts I’ve ever seen. Tempting indeed…

• Finally, news from Kaiyodo today that their Revoltech Saber Alter (dark Saber) action figure from Fate / stay night will go on sale July 1st, complete with mask (scroll down at the above link for pictures).

And that’s a wrap! Welcome to anyone reading this who’s here from Kotaku for the first time; we don’t primarily cover games, but if you like what you see we hope you’ll stick around.