"Sorry home of sexuals. Only straight men can handle this." -Uma Kompton

Before you say anything Paul, no this is not inspired by Uma or Ricegum. Sorry, that was just a disclaimer to a fellow consultant buddy who can get agitated real easily.

As much as I would love to spam this blog with hot bishies, it seems just to occasionally spice up the site with scantily dressed bishoujo, eh? For closet perverts like me, I promise Poison would not disappoint ;]

Arguably the hottest woman in the Street Fighter gang, besides knowing how to work the wrestling ring, she knows how to flaunt her package, precariously tipping into the sweet NSFW zone with those pieces of cloth barely there clothes.

Series: Street Fighter (Capcom Arcade Game)

Manufacturer: Kotobukiya

Product Line: Street Fighter Bishoujo Statue

Scale: 1/7

Material: PVC

Sculptor: Takamaki Busujima (Sculptor), Shunya Yamashita (Illustrator)

Release Date: Dec. 2015

Being terribly late into the promo shots of this figure (she's been sitting on my desk since Jan), I was suddenly struck with a set idea yesterday (27/07) and quickly got down to work.

Luckily this time, there is no need for sunrise, so no rushing to the park. Also, no thousand roses to fold :]

To amplify her dangerous woman vibe, I created these 'Keep Out' tapes on Photoshop. Incidentally, her outfit is that of a Policewoman (Relaxed ver.), so this also works to my favour.

Now this is a huge ass textured paper that I have bought eons ago specifically for her, and instead of the original intention of this as a warehouse shuttle gate, I'm simply using this as the wall (glued to corrugated foam board). Again the colour was chosen to complement her outfit.

Left wall: 240 x 300 x 5 mm THK

Back wall: 200 x 300 x 5 mm THK

Right wall: 200 x 300 x 5 mm THK  -Adjusted to just-nice dimensions

Finally, it's showtime!

*****

Somehow her weapon always reminds me of that kitchen utensil (its name slipped my mind zz) for scooping up veg

To create the fierce ambience, I increased the photo's contrast and clarity to make the dark colours stand out and rid the soft edges.

Does this look like she's holding on to a selfie pod? It better does.

Due to her fixed head that's also tilted upwards, I was restricted to taking from a top-down angle, as I make it a point for her eyes to be pointed towards the lens.

About those handcuffs: the hand is removable after her wristband, and her index finger has a hole to inert the peg to fix the handcuffs... Complete BS, the peg jumps out of the hole right after you pushed it in

This was the first shot I did, and after seeing how sexy this B&W shot turned out, I was super tempted to turn this post into those artsy black and white collage. However, doing that would mean letting down the past me for going through the trouble of choosing the textured background, and printing those high quality tapes at the blood sucker Xerox printing store. When you have to pay $1.50 for 2 sheets of A4 coloured paper, you know you're getting ripped off.

****

Amidst tackling a serious case of Youtube addiction, it was miracle that I could post so soon right after Lancer! Boy must I say I'm actually quite pleased with the final photographs. Once again, you're the best for reading till the end, and till the next shoot!

xoxo

Behind the scene:

P.S.: Can't believe I'm using the previous shoot's wall as the floor *face palm*

Borders courtesy of Calligraphic borders collection. (2015). Retrieved from: http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/calligraphic-borders-collection_759750.htm#term=border&page=1&position=1

My mother popped by my room as I was editing the photos.

"Show me what you took." I shrugged and silently loaded all the completed photos for Her Majesty. 

"Is that all?" She commented as she wrinkled her nose and easily shook off all the sweat and eye power I have poured into this.

"There are more, I'm still editing," I replied defensively while my confidence withered under her displeased eyes. Are these no good?

"Why roses?" She then asked, rather skeptically. Hah, finally something I'm confident about.

"Well, he was dead because of love."

**** 

For those who have read my previous post, it'll be no secret that I'm smitten with Lancer, one of the Heroic Spirits from the Fate/Zero series. Long lauded as one of the best anime that has been released (this is your cue to watch it if you heaven't already), the intricacy of the storyline and on-point animation is simply put, a feast for the (otaku's) eye. Although for a romance junkie like me, my love for this series has less to do with the epic battles than a certain character.

 

"Hmmm, I wonder who that is."

Come on Lancer, wipe that swexy smirk off, you know it's you. And those lashes gosh-

Just to get the usual figure details out of the way:

Series: Fate/Zero

Manufacturer: Megahouse

Product Line: M.M.S. Collection

Scale: 1/8

Material: ABS, PVC

Sculptor: Arai Kyousuke

Release Date: 06/06/2013

Also, Lancer isn't really his name, it's just one of the classes of the Heroic Spirit that he was summoned as.

"That's right, my lady. My real name is called Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, the first Lancer of the Knights of Fianna. A pleasure to meet you."

Did I mention he's a knight? Forget knights in shining armour, who cares for those hard pieces of bulky and unfashionable metal in this age of skinnies and ripping muscles?

As with every Built From Scratch series, I usually begin with a rough plan of what I had in mind as the backdrop for Lancer. Clearly, the feature of this would be the wall of roses, and as mentioned above, I chose roses as it runs parallel with his backstory. The colour red also evokes associations with blood and passion, both of which perfectly captures his identity as a fighter and dedication to his Knighthood. 

Using this pack of A4 red paper that I have bought ages ago, cut out stripes of 15 mm paper - 1 piece of A4 should give you 14 roses.

Thanks to Tadashi Mori's video tutorial, I was able to confidently produce a decent rose after 50 tries... As much as I love Lancer, it was a real pain to do up all these roses. I was cursing and shaking my head as I glanced at the endless pile of stripes - I was not enjoying myself.

After about 5 days (?), I managed to fold too much roses (more curses!) and proceeded to do up the walls with these A3 black corrugated foam boards measuring 450 x 300 x 5 mm THK. As this is one of those just-nice sets where I mainly do close ups, its height of 300 mm covers the camera lens just nice to create a context. You can vary the breadth of the wall to your preference, and in theory the wider it is the more ease and room for interesting angles/shots. However, if you're lazy like me but still want to do something different, then here are the rest of the just-nice measurements:

Left wall: 170 x 300 (board's given HT) x 50 mm

Middle (Back) wall:  275 x 300 x 50 mm

Right wall (Rose wall): 220 x 300 x 50 mm (slightly longer than left wall to allow more coverage when photographing, without revealing the surroundings [aka real world])

The rectangular hole that I have cut in the photo above measures 60 x 100 mm. Its location was determined after considering Lancer's eye level and mimicking those narrow medieval windows to create an imprisoned feel.

Here's the completed prisoner's window, adorned with vines made from floral sticks, and tiny leaves cut out from some leftover green textured paper from my Landscape Archi days.

And finally, it's bedtime.

*****

A few days later...

7:10 AM: Alarm rings

7:20 AM: Peels myself off bed

7:23 AM: Walks to window and realise it's frigging good weather, then proceeds to hastily get ready

7:30 AM: Done with morning routine and began sipping 90°C milo w cereal while playing Tales of Link

7:40 AM: Realised that I've took my damn sweet time drinking and playing my phone, and began a mad dash towards Bishan Park

7:45 AM:

pants* sweats*

I was too late, the mighty sun waits for no man.

Ok strictly speaking, this was actually taken after the shoot, but just to make my point, the spot where I set up my camp was fully unsheltered and within seconds my entire back was soaked. To make matters worse, the floor was mostly wet from yesterday's downpour and yea, now even my shorts were soaked. OK no matter, it's business time.

So starting from the left wall...

Sunlight was generously bursting through the metal paper bars after I haphazardly glued the boards together and attached the lances into Lancer's fists.

And yes, he's ambidextrous! As though having mastery over those lances and those biceps ain't enough!

As though sitting and kneeing on puddles of dirty rainwater wasn't enough, the red lance frigging broke on me. However, at that point, nothing was stopping me from getting this shoot done and thankfully for UHU glue, I was able to make-do with a slightly crooked lance...

Looking at the photos now, I was really lucky that it was the longer red lance that snapped; most of the time the lance was chopped off by the camera anyway, thank the Heroic Spirits.

Figure photographers and Youtube reviewers always make it look so easy and hassle-free when changing the interchangeable parts. In reality, it made me perspire to no end and really, just biting my lips while hoping nothing else would break. Not the arm, not the face please...!

Trying to go for the inner, hidden world of Lancer's mind feel with the torn frame and grave expression... Oh Lancer, what were you thinking about?

"I'm sorry, Master. Please do not, ever forgive me for forsaking my duty as a Knight, and stealing away with your fiancé."

The Deputy Head of Armoury and Logistics was just heading for the East Gate as he caught Lancer gazing out of the palace's window.

"Good day, Sir Diarmuid! Are you heading for the training fields soon?"

"Aye, I have... An urgent errand to attend to." The Deputy Head nodded understandingly, failing to catch on to the momentary flash of darkness across Lancer's eye, skilfully masked by his easy and dashing smile. 

"Is that so? Please take care on your way, and send my regards to the King, would you?"

"The King huh." Lancer felt his thoughts faltered and resolve shaking, but quickly looked down, shoving the rational and steadfast Knight within him into oblivion.

"I have already made up my mind, and I shall have no more second thoughts. For it is her, it is no doubt the right decision."

*****

After deciding I have soaked up enough Vitamin D for the day, I sluggishly packed my things and called it a day. However along the way back, I grew more indignant at the excess container of roses that I have failed to utilise, and took a detour to the Lily Pond for some extra shots.

Going for that bottom up, I'm-in-awe-of-his-powers shot

Look here, Diarmuid! *swoons*

It was also at this moment that I realised I could turn his head___________ Good job TT

Looking for somethin', or looking hot?

*Ignores me and continues to stare at the lilies*

"...As an individual stalk, it already commands so much attention. Lord can I imagine the power it wields during full bloom!"

"Right, my lady?" He turned around when I realised I was still staring ogling at his back and failed to catch his previous sentence.

"Y-Yes, you're right!" That smile of yours, it's so unfair. You better not smile that radiantly to other girls!

That concludes my photoshoot (at long last, phew!) and to everyone who have made it till here, thank you for visiting my blog and allowing me to share a little piece of me with you.

For the ladies, I hope Diarmuid's smile has brightened up your day (mine certainly has, hehe), and for the gents, it does not matter if you cannot wield a lance or flash a smile that can stop the traffic - just be your very best self, the version that you're proud of, and capture that lady's heart with your clumsy candour and sincerity ;)

I have three main objectives in mind as I hopped on the train and headed expectantly towards Expo for my first Chara Expo. Firstly, there's something I need to get my hands on. Then there's that somebody that I have to take a photograph with, and I want to get a scope of the event for this blog. Sounds relatively reasonable and attainable yea? Alright let's hop right it ->

Oh and I must talk about the clickbait above. This dashing Lancer from Fate/Zero caught my eye from afar with those spot-on lances (just lOOk at those grooves, oh the feels~) As our eyes made contact, I loosely waved my phone, sending my (burning) desire to get his photograph, but to my surprise he actually waved back and smiled at me instead.

I totally thought the Heaven's Gate just opened (no movie reference intended).

Anyway, he quickly got into Shoot Mode and boy does he know his angle - just look at that face, and how he's holding his Noble Phantasms. Even the crowds knew better and cleared the background, this was simply meant to be...

... Okay, back to the event updates.

My expectations for this con is kinda between Anime Festival Asia (AFA) and the End of Year Festival (EOY), where the former is THE event to die for and the latter kinda meh, but passable, if there are some decent doujinshi booths.

The ticket cost $10, and is easily the most beautiful ticket I have ever received in my life - it's glittery and made of 80 gsm magazine paper, a wonderful piece of paper I must say.

The crowd is more forgiving than AFA, but I was really disappointed to find there was no Doujinshi Artworks sections, just mainly commercial booths.

What's more appalling than that was the number of booths dedicated to card games - this entire row is basically the Card Alley, plus a few others on the loose. 

Nobody told me the Singapore card scene is so happening, and even Aunties (bottom left, spotted and trying to appear inconspicuous) were inevitably drawn into the mixture.

It appears that the Marketing team of the SONY booth has done their research and somehow got the faces of Sword Art Online to don the Singapore Airline's stewardess's uniform. Whether they knew that National Day is coming or it was a secret collab with the government to promote patriotism through anime, I do not wish to know.

For the SAO fans who might already know, there's also gonna be a movie for these two models. Phew finally back to their normal (and appropriate) outfits.

I need to know who designed this sick poster, I mean just look at how badass it is! Totally giving out the Steins;Gate feel.

As a chronic bishie fangirl, I'm always on the lookout for good looking anime guys. Incidentally next to the SAO promo poster, there were these SERVAMP manga laid out and calling for me to read them. I looked up the title and the first episode of this 12 episode long series actually just aired 5 days ago! *Mad grin*

Speaking of anime to watch, has anyone heard of Sakamoto? <3

If there's one anime that was heavily advertised throughout the expo hall, it has to be Love Live. Seriously, if the show is popular enough to warrant its own full, empty booth solely guarded by 9 cardboard cut outs of its main characters, you know this series is making serious bucks off the poor fanboys (and girls).



If anyone still remembered about the objectives I mentioned at the beginning of this post, you're seeing it - this booth. More accurately, this booth is the reason why this post even existed; I wouldn't have go if Voltage Inc. had not announced on its Facebook page (that I checked 10 times a day) that it was flying from Japan to Singapore for the first time.

What's Voltage, you're asking? Only the creators of some of the Best. Sexy. Fantasy bishounen, delicately packed into their delectable platter of dating apps, made for people just like me. And they're here with my favourite man in the form of merchandise - how can I miss the world for this?

...

Apparently, I still ended up missing him.

See, when I said I came down to get a certain something, I seriously only intended to get this one thing. I meant business. Now let me zoom in on that item.

 

Oh hold on, there seems to be something blocking the view. Hmm what's that offensive piece of paper doing on my bae's face? Someone tell me, what are the odds that a red SOLD OUT tape happened to run loose and coincidentally ended up stuck to my Scorpio keychain?

...

...

S...old... out...

SOLD OUT.

It's only Day 1 and less than 3 hours since the opening- I can't. I knew it's going to be popular, even entertained thoughts that it might get sold out, but not BEFORE I got my hands on it...

After walking listlessly away from the booth, my surroundings immediately dimmed and the crowds' chatters faded into a sort of hushed muffle. The world became lacklustre, and I felt like I've lost direction.

Okay exaggerations aside, that tape did dealt some serious damage to my fragile mind, and my mood sank to the dead bottom for a good half an hour. This tragedy was clearly avoidable - why couldn't I just get my sorry ass out of my house earlier?

 Anyway, there's no way I could have left the booth empty-handed, seeing there were no other options of bagging their merchandise anywhere (no online or physical shops in Japan either). I have to make-do with my other favourite app - Our Two Bedroom Story's Tsumugu and Minato. The Guide Book is free and I snagged that too, not that I needed one but anything with hot bishies printed on I must.

Objective #1 - 0.5 completion.

Look at me, at this time I was still deeply fraught with disbelief that I failed to take note which anime this is from, my bad. Anyway, this is a dandy booth filled with animator's original sketches (scanned, duh) and character designs.

I chose a few that caught my eye and snapped them for future references.

Side-view with insider's colour and alphabet markings

Ah lucky me, seems like they're characters from, nope not diomedea that's the anime studio's name, but Mayoiga, or The Lost Village and it has just finished airing last June.

*****

Now let's move on to the figures, shall we? Besides a few repeats from AFA last year like the Miku mebae. ver. and Saber bride ver., I've noticed a surge of of Ichiban Kuji prize figures. Big names like Aniplex, Bandai (with their S.H. Figuarts and Figuarts Zero), and GoodSmile Company created together have a conservative display.

 

This is an example of the Ichiban Kuji prize figures (prize line is the alternative and cheaper version of the usual scale figures), featuring Asuna in Japan's famous maid costume.

They have this thing with doing alternate colours for the same figure, but i thought this Sonico was really neat, especially the pastel version.

They did the same for Shinobu too but I got bored and just took one

Cuteness overload! However where's my Senjougahara :(

Spotted this ravishing beauty by Alpha X Omega, one of the earlier figures from 2009

Ranka Lee by Banpresto, released in 2012 as a prize figure for the movie ~Sayonaya no Tsubasa~ (*Intentionally inserted below Sheryl Nome coz I'm on Team Sheryl)

Here are the lovely 12,000 yen Miki and Kyouko Maiko ver., joining hands and tempting defenceless fangirls and boys

A blurred shot of Ho-ho-homura

 

Moving right into S.H. Figuarts territory, still hot from their 20th Anniversary (aka merch overload), an anime convention can't be complete without some dose of classic Sailor Moon

 

In the spirit of celebrating pretty gals in super short skirts, I have just finished this watercolour postcard of Usagi as an early birthday gift for my best girl in Canada~

 DBZ, yet another classic that has shaped the anime industry. Loving that effect!

 

The ships are real (One Piece, Bandai)

Random Angela ochatomo-ish figures

 This is a figure that can lure a smile and lighten burdened hearts. Max Factory presents Miku's long lost twin sister, Tamayorihime

I have a lot to say about this hot stuff... But I have to mention there was this geezer with a DSLR, seemingly doing expert shots of her in front of me, until I took a causal glance at the photos - yep classic panty shots. Consecutively. Way to go.

...And the only reason Kogitsunemaru from Touken Ranbu made it to my page is thanks to the scale figure by Max Factory. Luckily for me I don't play the game (yes they may all be bishies, but none are comparable to Voltage's)

Of course we can't have a figure showcase without Nendoroids, and it was a delight to see the Harvest Moon Miku in flesh and plastic after so long

This year's Snow Miku nendoroid (2016 - Snow Owl Ver.) and figma (right)

And here's the ever famous Hatsune Miku, now available in 1:1 scale lol

 (the box is roughly the size of a seating stool)

*****

Sliding straight to the last portion - cosplay.

Looking at this duet conjures many feels, but mainly the tough and arching decision to forgo adding Kamui (left) to my bishounen figures collection. Kagura (right) is looking way too soft and happy facing her baka older brother!

This beautiful Saber in her midnight blue gown totally adds class (and a dose of deadliness) to the deadpanned concrete floor

Very satisfied with this year's Saber cosplayers, including this sweet lady in Fate/Stay Night Rin's borrowed outfit ver.

More magical girls - this is easily the prettiest Kinomoto Sakura (and female cosplayer) I have seen in a looong time 

P.S.: It was my [denied] childhood dream to wield that pink wand

Just now we have Homura sealed behind a piece of glass, and now, in flesh and blood with Madoka

A striking and statuesque Bismarck from Kancolle (I think that's her, I've only watched an episode on Aniplus HD). So thankful to get a shot posed just for me ^.^

"It all began with a bashful tap on her shoulder from behind..." I actually spotted 2 Chun-Lis, and the limited pink version was unfortunately trapped behind a booth, so I couldn't approach her TT



The ever popular squad of Love Live gals, nicely done in front of their poster

When I spotted Akutagawa Ryunosuke and her (why do they always turn out to be cosplayed by gals) on-point cosplay, I just have to. Look at his her expression!

Concluding this lengthy post, I have henceforth completed Objective #2 and #3 - to capture cosplayers at their best and snag a photograph with my Itachi, as usual <333 What I love about Itachi cosplayers are their attempts to stay in character, which equates to zero utterance of words and emotions. I totally don't mind (reeling in it really). Even though this time round's a female, I ain't complaining. 

All in all it was another great con experience and a timely outlet to release my inner otaku amongst the likeminded.

Thanks for staying until the end, and till next time!

P.S.: I'm gonna work on my next figure photoshoot and not put them off again, I swear!