I guess the chili dogs thing doesn't carry as much weight for Japanese Sonic fans. Or maybe since the new Nendoroid of Sonic is based off of his "Classic" form (from Sonic Generations) they left it out since I don't think they even mentioned the chili dog stuff in-game until newer Sonic games. It's hard to say.
Along with the new Sonic Nendoroid, we've got some pre-orders opening up for a (somewhat NSFW) Guilty Gear figure by Alter, a classic Dragon Quest figure by Square-Enix, and a Persona 4: The Animation wall scroll. We also have some newly available (and actually useful) accessories coming out this week, to make up for the heavy amounts of anime jeans and anime t-shirts to come out recently.
Nendoroid - Sonic the Hedgehog
- Manufacturer: Good Smile Company
- Line: Nendoroid
- Series: Sonic The Hedgehog
- Price: 2,600 Yen/$33.35
- Release Window: late April, 2012
I've been looking forward to this one for a while. Nendoroid is good at what they do, and I love it when they branch out into other styles. This is the first poseable figure I've seen from them... ever, but admittedly there's a good chance they've done one before that I haven't noticed. The figure captures the classic Sonic design in all its glory, and it comes with rings, a Chaos Emerald, a checkpoint gate, and one of those shield power-up boxes. It's also a great value; it costs about as much as the other Nendoroids, but it's bigger, poseable, and comes with several accessories. Definitely a must-buy for any Sonic fan.
GUILTY GEAR XX Accent CORE 1/8 Dizzy Complete Figure
- Manufacturer: Alter
- Series: Guilty Gear
- Price: 9,400 Yen/$120.50
- Release Window: late December, 2012
(It's worth noting that this figure's status is "Temporarily sold out" despite the fact that it's still in the pre-order category of AmiAmi's site.)
I've never been a big Guilty Gear fan (mostly through inexperience with the games), but I've always enjoyed the ridiculous character designs of the series and of Arc System Works' other fighters. I mean, look at this one. She has seat belt buckles strapped over her breasts, what look like a demon and an angel coming out of her back, and thigh-high stockings with big leather straps above them for no reason, since they're not connected to the stockings.
And Alter, as always, does justice to the original design as best they can. I'm a big fan of the detail work on the demon/angel. Also, the fact the detail on how the leather straps compress her thigh is quite well-done (as perverted as it sounds). It's definitely pricey, like everything Alter does, but it seems to be worth it.
Dragon Quest - The Legendary Armor Returns -Erdrick's Equipment-
- Manufacturer: Square-Enix
- Series: Dragon Quest
- Price: 4,260 Yen/$55
- Release Window: early February, 2012
Square's been releasing several of Erdick's items (his helmet, his coin, etc.) over the past few months as part of the Dragon Quest 25th anniversary, so them producing a figure of him was an inevitability. This one looks decent enough; I don't know enough about Dragon Quest to say for sure how accurate it is, but the materials look nice (and shiny), and he seems well-constructed. The armor, sword, helmet, and shield he has are all marked as separate from the main figure in the description on AmiAmi, but there aren't any pics of him without the armor, so I'm not sure how that works.
Persona 4 the ANIMATION Cloth Poster - A
- Manufacturer: Storm
- Series: Persona 4
- Price: 3,770 Yen/$48.35
- Size: 520x730 mm
- Release Window: late January, 2012
Not much to talk about here; it's a poster, so if you like the design, and you want to have it on your wall, and you're fine with paying fifty bucks for that (plus shipping), then it's for you. I like the design myself. The show has good art direction here and there, but part of me is really wary about supporting the anime after the whole Kanji affair. Oh well.
And this week's Unnecessary Actually Useful Accessory award goes to...
Specially designed for their line of figma action figures, the di:stage allows for easy posing of pretty much every figma in existence, as well as several other figures. (Just look at shots around AmiAmi.jp for examples of where it's used.) If you like posing your figures or building little sets for them to use, it's a must-buy, and it's cheap: only about $10 for the basic set, which includes everything pictured above, and you can buy more floors/walls. And the floors/walls are specially designed so that you can print out papers and pin them to the planes, so you can build small sets for your characters.
And, if you feel like using the di:stage for a classroom, you can buy some 1/12 desks and chairs here. They won't be compatible with every figure you own, but I believe they'll at least work with figmas, and the differences in scale between your figures could make for some funny set-ups.