I've been intrigued by the Busou Shinki line of articulated figures for ages but had never got round to buying one due to the size of them and wanting other things such as Nendoroids. Whilst in Bath I was fortunate enough to come across a new shop, Iksentrik, which had this Busou Shinki Howling at a very good price and so I now have one to review!

The Busuo Shinki range made by Konami is based upon the concept of girls and mecha, combining the two in intriguing and dramatic ways. The first impression you'll get of them is quite good - they come in large boxes with a flap that opens to review a large window of the Busuo Shinki, packaging and all the accessories inside. Needless to say, you'll need a lot of space if you plan on keeping the boxes for these.

Open the box up and you're presented with lots of plastic packaging and lots of parts. Most Busuo Shinkis come in the plain, female form with all the mecha parts forming attachments that you can put onto the base figure. Be warned though, the instructions are not that helpful. They'll point out where a few of the parts will go but they're nowhere near as comprehensive as Bandai instructions would be. Fitting parts can be a matter of trial and error.

Moving onto the quality of the figure, it's made mostly from a glossy plastic. This includes the skin as well, so if you're used to the smooth matt textures of other figures you'll likely to be disappointed. The sculpting is reasonable and the mecha parts are dramatic. The joints aren't as pretty as some articulated figures and you'll see a lot of holes and screws which detracts from the appeal. The flexibility isn't intuitive but when you work round it, it does have greater poseability than other figures.

Once you put the mecha parts on though, the poseability reduces greatly. The arms in particular just aren't designed to bend that much. It does look more dramatic though - that gun is quite large and you can even take the magazine out to reveal moulded bullets inside it. It comes with a large display stand that requires some assembly and results in great mid-air poses. It isn't great for standing poses however because there is no way to get the figure's feet touching the floor with it. If you're careful, you could get the figure standing without the use of the stand.

All in all, it's not as high a quality figure as I would have expected. Having the 'mecha musume' market wrapped up is fine but I would really like to see some higher quality Busuo Shinkis produced - Konami has a lot to learn from companies like Good Smile Company who specialise in poseable figures. I wouldn't recommend paying the original price, usually in the region of ¥3500, but if you are a fan of the 'mecha musume' style and can find it for a cheap price then it might fit your bill.

My girlfriend and I were at the MCM Midlands Expo, which took place on Saturday 20th March - was great to see loads of people that we'd met before. The Midlands expo is the smaller twin of the London Expo that takes place twice a year and is very popular with anime fans in the UK. It's a shame that there was less in the way of things orientated towards the Japanese enthusiasts other than traders but the MCM was originally a sci-fi expo and the Midlands event is smaller. Somehow though I prefer the Midlands Expo - perhaps it's the fact it's not so large that makes the spirit feel more homely and it's an easy place for people to get to at a reasonable price.

There was a really good turn out of people, including cosplayers. There seemed to be a lot more from the more popular series such as Bleach than at other events - I was suprised that the girlfriend and I were the only Code Geass cosplayers!

There was quite a large group of cosplayers dressed up as undead Disney characters... certainly different.

My loot for the day consisted of two Gunsmith Cats manga, a Sgt Frog anime DVD and the KagaMiku Nendoroid. Very pleased with them and hope to get round to reading the manga soon!

Was slightly disappointed to see at least two stalls with fake Nendoroids and Petit Nendoroids though. It's heartbreaking to see them with keyrings through their heads...

All in all we had a good day - as mentioned before, it'd be nice to see more in the way of things to do for anime fans. Hopefully the MCM group will improve this in the future! If you're in the area next February, make sure to add it to your calendar.

Japan mocks us once again with another WonFes full of great figures. WonFes Winter 2010 was just over a week ago now and whilst there's a lot of figures that deserve to mentioned, I've picked out a select few that I would love to add to my collection.

First up are some of the barrage of Black Rock Shooter figures that we'll be seeing with the anime production in the works. I reckon the Figma will prove extremely popular, offering an affordable and quality alternative to the larger figures we've seen so far.

And as to be expected, a Nendoroid version of Black Rock Shooter - maybe Good Smile Company liked my artwork?

Also from Good Smile Company are the K-On! cast in Figma form, following on from the Nendoroid versions. A lack of space and pace means that I'll just be sticking to the Nendoroid versions, especially after shelling out for the Live Band versions of Mio and Ritsu... those looking for something cheaper could stick with Azu-nyan instead.

Also from the works of Kyoto Animation are further Haruhi Suzumiya figures to tie in with the upcoming launch of the Haruhi movie. And yes, more Nendoroids! I really adore Haruhi with the long hair.

Good Smile Company get round to producing Evangelion figures, with Asuka looking especially nice in her test plug suit - both the girlfriend and I will be wanting this one!

Also long overdue from Good Smile Company is another Strike Witches Nendoroid. They've been teasing us for ages with just the release of Yoshika and pre-production casts. Looks like Francesca Lucchini is ready for production. When will we see her? Also love the Strike Witches statues but again cost and space are against me.

Dramatic statue of Aegis from Persona 3. Have got the Figma, but never played the game - have you? Played Persona 4 though, should finish it at some point when I get the time!

More Fate/Stay Night releases. Whilst I like the Saber Nendoroid, the Saber Lily Nendoroid I have will suffice - not forgetting the Konata Petit Nendoroid in the Saber cosplay as well!

And we finish up with a couple of odd ones - mini-figures from the mahjongg series Saki and Queen's Blade Revoltech that isn't ecchi at all (much...).

Images were sourced from: Danny Choo, AmiAmi Blog and Thumbnail of Life.