Today’s Updates

• Solid Theater’s String Swimsuit Girl preorder open
• WHF Ariake 18: garage kits galore
• Excellent Model Blassreiter Elea preorder open (updated)
• Gigapulse announces Koihime Musou’s Sousou, Junniku
• WHF Ariake 18: To Heart 2, Fate, Nanoha

The light is at the end of the tunnel for our coverage of WHF Ariake 18, with just two planned posts left in the pipeline. I thought things went pretty well this time around and look forward to producing similar coverage in the future. No more big events on the calendar for a little while, which should provide some breathing space to attend to other neglected aspects of the site (I really need to do a new Creator Spotlight…).

Shameless commerce below the fold, including the new Capcomaniax pair up at Play-Asia and Behind Moon’s latest doujin (futanari Miku) at J-List:

Amiami’s evening update today included a preorder listing for Solid Theater’s Himomizugi no Onna no Ko (string swimsuit girl) PVC figure. This is a figure we’ve been following closely, both for her obviously appealing attributes as well as her status as the first product unveiled by the Solid Theater brand since their acquisition by Movic; with her now available for preorder it seems the logistical transition went smoothly enough. As earlier reported the kit is based on the September 2006 cover illustration by Miwa Miwa of eromanga serial magazine Monthly Comic Papipo (月刊COMICパピポ), which has since ceased publication. The sculpt was produced by Shinano, who other than a few capsule figures and Solid Theater’s likewise Papipo-inspired Maid no Onna no Ko has been active primarily on the garage kit side ([ERO] Karen from Ai no Chikara and Sumire from Jokei Kazoku ~Inbou~ with circle Gankura). The figure is scheduled for release in August at 1/8 scale (20 cm tall) and 7,140 yen retail, with dress and front pieces castoffable. Full gallery below:

We wrap up our coverage of the garage kit side of WHF Ariake 18 with a final sweep through the day’s photo shoot, catching dozens of great figures that didn’t quite fit in anywhere else. A lot of sculptors worked really hard to make this final event one to remember, and all their hard work paid off:

Preorder listings went up this morning at Amazon and Moe Soul for Megahouse’s Blassreiter (Wikipedia) figure series, including the single bishoujo PVC announced in the lineup thus far, Excellent Model Blassreiter Elea ~Niθ Ver.~. As indicated by the title the figure was designed by Nitro+ artist Niθ (Nishii), and features a sculpt from Eye Up‘s Kibayashi Norio. Her scale is unspecified (19 cm tall) and she’s scheduled to ship in late August at 5,775 yen retail. Update: full image gallery below:

Ero figure maker Gigapulse yesterday unveiled the second installment in their PVC series based on BaseSon’s popular Koihime Musou eroge, Sousou (the first was Kanu Unchou). Like Kanu, Sousou is sculpted by Hormoneman and comes at 1/8 scale in two configurations: a solo version for 6,090 yen, and a version paired with a Junniku figure for 11,025 yen. Juuniku is castoffable, to the extent that she’s wearing anything. Both versions are scheduled for release in September, and will be made available for preorder via standard distribution outlets shortly. Images below:

With the early ’08 release of the To Heart 2: Another Days expansion new life was breathed into the venerable Leaf bishoujo game franchise, resulting in a significant garage kit presence at WHF Ariake 18 which we document here. Nanoha StrikerS continues into 2008 with the strong showing it had last year, and while reduced in number there were still a few Fate/stay night kits of note that were worth taking a look at: