I was originally planning for each girl to get her own figure post…but I decided it would be harder to post group pics that way. Plus with the slow rate I go at (finally) posting figure reviews, I’d be posting nothing but this set for the next month. I try to hold back my “figure set completionist” ways whenever I think I’m buying something JUST because it’s part of a set. But for these I definitely felt it was all or nothing, I wanted all 4, or none at all. All 4 together tell a much better story, plus I really like all the cosplay outfits chosen. And lets be honest here…anything of the Lucky Star cast cosplaying has my interest, I think it’s adorable. Got to this post to see them in their boxes, and to see the rest of the Limited Lucky Star x Macross Frontier Set.

Konata got the plainest outfit, which belongs to Saotome Alto, but it definitely suits her. I really like how casual and masculine her pose is. PLUS I think Konata looks adorable in a ponytail.

Kagami has the best look to pull of Klan Klang, you really can’t do this cosplay without long hair. One could argue that Konata could be a better choice for this because her hair is blue AND long, but I still think Kagami was the better choice. Plus, if Kagami were Seto I don’t think her adorably embarassed face would match as well. After all, his outfit is just pants and a shirt, there isn’t much to be blushing about there.

Tsukasa looks SO CUTE in this frilly outfits, she has the closest look to Ranka Lee of the whole group in my opinion. If any one of the Lucky Star wore an outfit with a lot of frills/ruffles I would definitely say that it suits Tsukasa’s personality/style/body type better. My only complaint is the bulky wedge under her angled (right) foot.

Miyuki was born to do this Sheryl Nome cosplay, she has just the right body type and the closest hair type. Although Sheryl doesn’t have those glasses, this figure wouldn’t be Miyuki without them. I will note that this figure is the most easily broken of the group. When picking her up I hold her by the legs and keep one hand on her hat/upper body. Her upper body and legs separate easily and the hat isn’t magnetic so it will fall off if you go to grab her too carelessly. To me, it feels like the most care and detail was put into Miyuki’s cosplay.

I really like the bases, they’re simple and small. AND if I so choose they easily fit into one another so the girls can be posed closer together. Overall I really like these figures, I think they’re great quality for a prize figure. But the fact that they’re limited really increases the price, and I can’t blame people if they think that these are not worth the re-sale value individuals from Japan are selling them at. This is one of those situations where you probably have to be head over heels for the characters to pay these prices (if you’re on a budget). I see these ladies sell at $75 a piece, that’s more than even I’m willing to pay. Even though these are GREAT quality prize figures…for $300 you could get some particularly gorgeous figures from other manufacturers.

Recommended for Lucky Star fans (especially if they’re also fans of Macross F). To really enjoy these figures, and not cringe at their price tag, I think you need to know (and love) the characters. I LOVE Lucky Star, so I’m more than pleased with my purchase!

The Lucky Star x Macross Frontier set…oh how I’ve WAITED for you! I NEVER ever thought I would look forward to (or pay so much) for anything from Banpresto. When I saw the images of these items I immediately wanted to buy them, but I had a long debate with myself if the quality of the final product would match the price point I would have to pay. Especially since I’m a figure collector located in the U.S.  without personal connections to anyone in Japan. Originally I was only going to get the large figures of the main cast, and the small figures of the supporting cast. BUT bad luck turned into good luck, my pre-order for those items fell through and then I found the WHOLE set on eBay for what I was going to pay for just the figures. In this haul I’m going to take pictures of the plushes, jets, and mini figures. What about the main figures?! I’m going to do a review of each of the large prize figures individually.

First off let me admit to one thing I have NOT YET seen Macross Frontier. I plan on watching it for sure, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. I feel like I’m going to end up liking the series a lot, but even if I don’t…my passion for Lucky Star is enough to allow me to love and appreciate these figures. However a sad development occurred, Banpresto sent me a defective figure. Usually such a situation is easy to fix…that is if it occurs with another manufacturer, and ESPECIALLY if it’s not limited.

First up are these adorable mini-figures, but you can already tell from this group shot who my defective item is. I’m actually a BIG FAN of Banpresto’s chibi figures. I have their Code Geass set as well as their Gurren Lagann set. They don’t match up to nendoroids in terms of quality and pose options, but they’re considerably cheaper. As much as I love nendoroids, I’d prefer to have 4 of these chibi figures than one nendoroid. The character completionist in me approves. ESPECIALLY when they focus on characters that don’t get many figures (which I feel is the case for all 3 of the sets I own of theirs).

I won’t pretend I know the Macross Frontier characters everyone is cosplaying as, from keeping an eye on figure releases I can name who the entire (large prize figure) main cast are dressed as. But these mini gals I have no idea if they’re dressed as specific characters that are waitresses, or are generic waitresses at a restaurant from the series. My favorite of the bunch is this Konata, so damn cute. I really just cannot resist that face, particularly that face on a cosplay that would probably be considered the most undesirable of the bunch.  Patricia comes in 2^nd, I love her assertive happy pose.

So Hiyori here causes me pain, not only was this item missing the stick that goes in the stand to support the figure. BUT ALSO her hands/arms are spread too far apart to hold her dish in a cute way. I have a few options if I can’t work something out with the seller:

option #1 – THE CHEAPEST – Use the trick I’ve seen on blogs where you warm up a leaning figure with a hair dryer, move it into place, and run it under cold water. And then…just display her without the use of the stand and hope she stays standing tall.

Option #2 – MEDIUM COST - Hunt her down individually either via eBay or a proxy in Japan. BUT I’m really not willing to spend more than $15 on this plus reasonable shipping.

Option #3 – Potential to be the cheapest (RISK) - Re-Buy the entire (MINI) set and sell off the rest of the figures individually on eBay. This has the potential to be my cheapest way to find another one. That is if the auctions go decently, but it’s a real risk. After all these are mostly supporting characters that may not return much $$ (a whole set will probably be $70 after shipping for me to buy). I’d have 5 figures I could sell. I’d have to sell each for about $10 for this to be a consideration.

The jets are nice, I wouldn’t pay a lot for them individually, but since it’s cheapest to buy the set as a whole I appreciate that I have them. I’m going to display each one at the base of their FREEing Figure counterpart for now. Normally I wouldn’t display jets but…it’s Lucky Star, and that changes everything for me. If there were One Piece jets I’d display those too, but I can’t think of many other series where if they had characters on jets I’d display them. I prefer characters to machinery in my figures.

PLUSHES! Once upon a time I craved plushes, I used to try and collect all the Sailor Moon ones in elementary school. But plushes end up taking up a lot of space in an awkward way that makes it hard to display them all. So I put the Sailor Moon ones I had into storage in the basement and didn’t buy any more. HOWEVER I like these ones and am happy to have them. The Lucky Star cat makes a perfect plush for me (I’d buy a bigger one if I could) and I don’t mind the Akira one. I’ll be proudly displaying them. Also I’m linking images of their tag here and here in case bootlegs are ever made you can compare. Although I have no idea if bootleg plushes are common? If GIFT did Lucky Star plushes they way they’re doing Vocaloid ones, I would be sure to buy.

EVEN THOUGH having Hiyori being defective is sad I don’t regret this set one bit. My main purpose was to get the prize figures, followed by the mini figures, followed by the plushes, and last the jets. I could only find the main prize figures at about $75 a piece, so it was cheaper to buy the whole set at $245.

Top Left – Kagami and Tsukasa (Wave)
Bottom Left – Gin (Megahouse)
Top Right – Ace and Luffy (Banpresto)
Bottom Right – Sheryl Nome (Megahouse)
Shirts Left to Right – Nami, Saber Lily, and Zoro
Leftmost – Lucky Star Tea Cup
Rightmost – Saber Lily/Dark Saber Mug

Well actually this was my only haul in the past 2 months (I was a bit delayed in doing my last haul post). See? It shows I really am cutting back in comparison to before. Because this haul is actually older I already have all these figures up on display, drank coffee from my Saber mug each weekend, and have worn each of these shirts quite a few times. I love wearing these shirts around the house, they’re comfortable and they have my favorite anime characters on them! Although I don’t wear them out in public, not because I’m embarassed but because I don’t like wearing baggy things outside the house. I have a couple more One Piece shirts coming but after that I need to stop buying them unless something really special comes along. My anime shirt drawer is already almost full.

I have to say that the Luffy and Ace BanPresto figures are impressive! I really like them! Prize figures are really starting to earn their $20 each price tag these days! They’re smaller then the Megahouse figures but the use of coloring and details is great. I’d almost say I prefer the Banpresto Ace to the Megahouse one, I say “almost” because I’ve never seen the Megahouse Ace in real life. I didn’t take pictures myself but rankai has images of the set here (images taken by GA Graphic). I think the Grandline Men BanPresto line is the most affordable way to get decent figures of the One Piece characters, and they’re a great substitute if you’re unable to collect the Megahouse line!

I rarely buy figures that have clothes that cast-off, the few I owned gave me nothing but headaches to try and dress. This Sheryl Nome is CONSIDERABLY easier then trying to put the clothes on my old Sanzo or my Shuraki. I was really pleased. Plus…she just has a certain presence, I really fell hard for her after I saw the review of her at HowaGirlFigures. I was lucky that Toyslogic still had them up for order at the time of her review. They actually still have some in stock (at the time of writing this post) if there are people having issues tracking her down. 

I gotta love Gin! So far I love all the GEM figures that Megahouse are releasing! Yay for more male figures! GEM is one of the few sets I’ve decided to stay a collectionist to. Although the first time they do a character I’m not that fond of I’ll skip him. I have to admit one thing though, I was not THAT impressed with Kagami and Tsukasa (Wave) . I think Wave did a much better job on their Shrine Maiden version then this one. I might drop the Lucky Star Wave line after this. 

Although I compensated…I may have purchased less figures but I bought way more manga! Although what I spent on the manga was still less then what I used to spend on figures, especially since I got a few series used for a good price. I didn’t take pictures of the manga but these are the series I purchased/pre-ordered the last 2 months.

Mushishi 1-10
Pluto 3-7
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles 1-20
Immortal Rain 1-8
Dragonhead 1-10
Hellsing 4-7
Dance Till Tomorrow 1-7
Honey and Clover 3-9
Tail of the Moon 10-15
Land of the Blinfolded 1-9
Monster 5 – 15
Black Lagoon 8
Berserk 14 – 22
Bride of the Water God 3 and 4
High School Debut 8
King of Thorn 1-6
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service 9

Seems like everything on that list is either a shoujo series or a horror series, probably an odd combination of genres. So far I’ve read what I have of Berserk, Pluto, and Kurosagi. I’m currently working my way through Tsubasa. Not all the volumes from the other series have arrived yet, so I’m waiting for them to arrive before I tackle the other series. Anyone reading or have read these series? What do you think?