Back in late January, I made a short post about Luth and I being delighted about having both made it into the top 200 photos of Good Smile Company’s Wonderful Hobby Life For You! 13 Photo Competition.
Later on, while frantically trying to take in all the information coming out of Winter WonFest, I read a comment somewhere that Max Watanabe and Max Factory had chosen my entry for the Max Factory award on a live GSC NicoNico Douga Wonder Festival broadcast. I waited until it had been officially confirmed on the whl4u website before I let myself get too excited though!
I’m not even going to try to put into words how surprised I was to win an award like this but I will say that I’m incredibly thankful to GSC and Max Factory for both the award and prizes! Also a big thanks to Luth for encouraging me to enter when I was gathering up the courage to actually submit an entry.
As for the photo itself, it was taking using a Panasonic Lumix G1 using a Canon FD 50mm f1.8 lens. During a review shoot I was taking for Aya, I turned around and decided to pop her up next to the window since the lighting looked nice and it was a gorgeous (if cold) spring day. I didn’t do a whole lot of processing, just a bit of dodging on her face to brighten it up a little and a few other basic tweaks.
Now I’ll get onto the prizes that the very generous Max Factory have sent me! The box arrived yesterday while I was getting ready for work. I emerged from the bathroom to run into a very excited Luth claiming that something had arrived so I followed him as he ran off to go point to a large box.
20,000 yen worth of ‘toys’ from Max Factory? Not a bad way to start a day! We were both very excited so I apologize for the lack of effort we put into the unboxing photos, haha.
We opened the box to find a letter in a plastic sleeve from GSC and Max Factory. I stared it it for awhile, perhaps in hope of suddenly acquiring Japanese reading skills or something. I’ll have to find someone to translate it for me since I’d love to know what it says!
Tokyo F.C. scarf! The scarf is so well made and feels so lovely, nice to get it just in time for winter too.
After I unpacked the scarf, we just decided to unpack everything at once since this taking photo thing was just slowing us down!
That’s a lot of Figma, good thing we’re both huge Figma fans! We were lucky enough not to get any repeats either! From bottom left is Izayoi Sakuya from Touhou Project and above her is Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. The middle is Figma Metis from Persona 3 sitting on top of a Kagamine Rin Nuclear Fusion figure. Top right is the Manabe Nodoka from K-On! and below her is Miyafuji Yoshika of Strike Witches.
My favourite from all those is the Metis Figma, she’s a beautifully made Figma and I didn’t fully appreciate her until I unboxed her and held her in my hands. I believe Luth said he likes Izayoi which doesn’t surprise me considering his thing for maid like outfits. Rin is bloody tiny but looks great on display with our VN02 Miku and it was really nice of MF to include a Wonder festival exclusive with Nodoka, who is adorable. Neither of us know anything at all about Kamen Rider so we just messed around with him and he ended up in some over the top pose.. I think he’s gonna end up being a lot of fun! Yoshika is, well.. I’m not going to pretend to be a Strike Witches fan and I’m not into her character design but that gun she comes with is goddamn amazing.
Once again, a huge thanks to Good Smile Company and Max Factory for all of this!
Well….I’m jealous, nice set of figmas, exclusives at that too. Seriously, now that’s a cool way to start a day.
Miette-chan recently posted..This weekend I got to play a lot
I’m really happy with the selection they have chosen to send! Yeah lol, especially a Monday.
Yep, I’m jellen. But congratulations on doing so well! My picture didn’t even make it past the first phase…
Coincidently, I was also thinking of entering a picture of Aya standing in front of a window, but I went with a picture of Takoluka.
Thank you! I wonder what their criteria for making the top 200 was? I was surprised by the amount of great photos that didn’t make it through. It was great that they gave away those nendo stands to everyone though.
Wow, really? Do you still have the photo? I’d love to see both it and your entry!
The photo I sent in was this one, and the one I thought about submitting instead was this one. Though minus any text I had stuck on the pictures.
I remember not seeing many Takolukas in the 200, so maybe none of the judges like Takoluka, which lowers my opinion of them! I thought I might have a bit of a chance since I had Takoluka out in such an unusual and extreme place, but I guess they weren’t impressed.
hamstercorp recently posted..Yotsubeatmania! Episode 9- Canaan Asks Britain for Help
That’s so awesome, I bet no one else has taken a figure photo on LAVA before. It makes me wanna go there but sadly the closest I’ve gotten to Hawaii is flying thousands of feet above it, haha.
I would have thought you probably got pretty damn close to getting into the top 200. It’s a really well taken photo! Also, your gorgeous Aya photo is making me lust after morning coffee ver Aya again. Thanks heaps for showing me those!
R#)O#2QW#T67(G1E)(H SO JEALOUS.
Congratulations, Zai — ’twas a victory well-deserved. Now you’re certainly not going to be running out of review fuel for quite a while, eh? =)
Rin has always been my favourite Vocaloid, and I’m mighty curious as to what you’ll do with her. There’s definitely a lot of photographic potential with her — long exposure + strobe, maybe?
I fiddled around with figma Yoshika for a while at a friend’s place, and I thought she was really cool. Her lack of pants really makes her a flexible toy. She was a perfect fit on Freeing’s giant figma bike, too!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22639977/Header%20005.jpg
Now all that’s left is that photobook… I wonder if they’ve shipped it out yet.
Chag recently posted..Review- MG Shenlong Gundam Endless Waltz ver
Thank you, Chag! Man, I’m not going to run out of stuff to review for about half a year! Kamen Rider should be.. interesting, haha.
Oh, the pressure’s on now! I don’t have any ideas about how I’m going to shoot Rin yet. It’ll be fun though, she’s such a cutie! She’s better than what I expected her to be as I’d read a few unfavourable reviews back when she was released.
That bike looks awesome! I feel a bit bad for underappreciating the Yoshika figma but she’ll probably grow on me once I start playing with her a bit more. I mean, she’s pantless.. she’s gotta be fun, right?
I found your photo in the photobook earlier, looks great in there! I wish I’d be clever enough to include my blog URL in the comment section.
Oh LOL, the URL made it in there? I just threw something random in the comment section. Now I’m a little embarrassed about such a shameless plug ^^;
Chag recently posted..Review- MG Shenlong Gundam Endless Waltz ver
It did! It’s only small though, nothing to feel embarrassed about!
I wish I’d written something in that field now, my entry just reads Comment:
..
YES, LONG EXPOSURE STROBE/DESK-LAMP. ‘Bout time Zai learns to shoot in the dark when that blasted sun can’t hurt our eyes and scorch the skin xD
Congratulations and lovely photo that you submitted!
Wow, very nice of Max Factory to send you such lovely figmas, a figure and a scarf (perfect, since winter is coming up XD).
tabetaiii recently posted..11-595 AJATT – SilverSpoon
Ahh, thanks heaps!
I’ve been wearing the scarf when I watch TV or play games since that room is a little cold.. it’s been freezing here in Melb! I’m a tad too fashion conscious to wear it around the city or something though and I wouldn’t know what to say if an actual FC Tokyo fan came up to me, haha!
Wooooow! Congratulations! They know how to pick prizes thats for sure! They even sent exclusives. If you scan the letter, I’m sure someone could translate it for you
ESW recently posted..Hanasaku Iroha 07
Thank yooou very much! Yup, no collector could be unhappy with a prize selection like that. I’ll give scanning in the letter a try if I can’t find anyone to translate it soon. ^^
WTF!
sorry I wanted to say “wow that is a huge monsterprize” ^O^
I really like the scarf, good that you don’t have one of the prizes already in your collection.
Your pic was very nice, congrats you are the winner ^^
Fabienne recently posted..Review Morishima Haruka by Max Factory
I know! I feel a bit spoiled and greedy with all this stuff! I should also thank Aya for being such a damn adorable Figma and helping me get these things, haha. She’s still one of my favourites.. nnn..
I hope you remember to enter the next contest, Fab! xD
Oh don’t feel bad about it, you deserve it, do you have space left to display your prizes?
One side question have you also already received the photo book of whl4u13?, I guess I’ve asked that before^^
Next time I hopefully won’t forget it.
Fabienne recently posted..Review Morishima Haruka by Max Factory
Yup, I have them all on display!
I have received my photo book (it was sent the day after, lol) but Luth is still waiting for his.
Congratulations… and that IS a whole lot of loot…
For a picture that nice, it’s sure worth it.
Wait… is that Sakuya? If it is…
HNNNNG~! >.<
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Thank you so much! That just so happens to be Sakuya, was pretty damn stoked to get one of the Touhou girls. Now even more tempted to track down the other ones. >.<
Congratulations! Metis is an awesome figma, she was the first I ordered (but Aegis ended up arriving first haha). Sayuka looks really good too! Yeah, that Rin looks tiny but Meltdown is easily one of my favorite Rin songs so if I manage to get her, she could be one of my favorites. I’m not the biggest Strike Witches or K-On! fan but hey, they were a gift
. Kamen Rider looks interesting for poseability.
Thank you, haitechan! I’m really looking forward to doing a photo shoot for Metis, she looks like she’ll be pretty photogenic and she’s highly poseable.. ahh, should be great fun!
I’m interested in playing around with an Aegis Figma now but I’m not sure I’ll get her, Metis looks a little nicer anyways.
Rin doesn’t seem that bad in terms of size when you take her base and stuff into account. I’d probably complain about her price if I’d had paid for her though!
Hey! It’s been a long time since I’ve commented here. Sorry, I’ve just been terribly busy!
Congratulations on winning the competition (you definitely deserved it!) and the first anniversary! I am only a new visitor to the site but I admit, Plastic Parfait has quickly become a site that I visit every time I get on the computer. I just wish I had discovered it earlier!
I wish you guys all the best for the next year!
Phi recently posted..Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk-II’s limited edition and figurines
Hey Phi! Nice to see you again.
I’m glad you enjoy visiting our site so much. It’s always nice (and still somewhat surprising) to know that people actually wanna read our stuff, hehe.
Thank you very much for your well wishes and I wish you success with your great blog!
Hello! Nice to see you again also, Zai.
I really enjoy the content on Plastic Parfait and, like I said earlier, I try to get on whenever I can. You guys also make regular posts so it’s always fun to read new posts! I know some blogs that only update once in a very long time. Personally, I’d really like to post more – like on a daily basis – but I’m just having a hard time.
No problems! You guys deserve it for all your hard work! Thank you!
Phi
Phi recently posted..Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk-II’s limited edition and figurines
Wow, you post so much more often compared to either of us! I don’t think Luth or I could post on a daily basis but even if we did find the time we’d probably have trouble with content unless we became a different kind of blog. Can’t blame you for having a hard time with that, hehe.
You guys generate all the content in your posts though!
Posting on a daily basis would be beyond amazing! For me, I think it’s just laziness that’s got me. I’d sit down and decide to write an article about something and then decide not to after the first sentence.
Anywho, thanks for taking the time to picture that Neon Genesis Evangelion DVD!
Regards,
Phi
Phi recently posted..PSP Remaster games will not have trophies
Hey, the picture is wonderful so why not give yourself some confidence and say you deserve it? haha kidding but! it is true that the picture surely deserves something and here you go you received all those presents =)
Congratz!
Hehe, that be so very incredibly modest of me! xD
Thank you very much, Fabrice. I’m really happy that you think that I deserve the prizes!
What a way to start the day with free figures being sent hahaha. Man i actually want these prizes over the PS3 or maybe (JUST MAYBE) the nerf vulcan.
Congratulations on being one of the winners =D
duqs recently posted..Hi-Nu Gundoom Review- Part 2 and Beyond!
Lucky ducks!! I envy you… >v<
Any chance we can see reviews of these in the future?