VMan of Mana's Comments for 2008/01 (3)

The big 3 labels are Max Factory, Alter and Good Smile Company. Max Factory and Alter are consistent in creating top quality figures. Good Smile Company is very often on par, but sometimes they lags behind in the design aspect.

I would then put Beat/Beagle and Kotobukiya. Beat/Beagle's figures based on Range Murata are at least on par with Good Smile Company. But stuff from Beat's other labels lag behind. This Shana under the Toys Works label are an example. Some of Toys Works Aria figures are very nice, however.

Kotobukiya is good on average, but their offerings often compete with the big 3 and lose badly (their Ayu and Kureha vs Max Factory's) , and they have a chronic problem of bland design (visual novels/eroge figures). Sometimes they do have some gems. Their old Snow figures are very nice.

There's also Megahouse. They are consistent but not very spectacular.

At the end its a question if you really like the figure. But personally, I find myself ordering almost only from the "big 3". They are expensive, but they do deliver, and their final products are as good if not better than the prototypes shown in preorder pages. Other than Beat/Beagle I can't think of another label able to consistently do that. ( View formatted comment » )

Not for me. My main computer is a Macbook Pro, so I pretty much out of the target audience of the Macbook Air.

However, I really like the concept. If I had a Mac Pro as my main computer, I would strongly consider the Macbook Air as a mobile extension of the Mac Pro. ( View formatted comment » )

Not for me. The only real good Shana figure I have seen so far is Max Factory's, and it takes more than just an 'inviting' pose to make me dish money for a figure. Overall build, design, and manufacturing quality go first, and this one doesn't seem to match the big 3's quality. ( View formatted comment » )