Maiden of the North

I took some photos of Medeia (Iplehouse SID Eva) last time when I visited my parents' cottage, but due to other photoshoots, box openings, etc. I didn't manage to post the photos right away... Now that I'm at the cottage again, this time without dolls or camera, I thought that it'd be a good time to edit the earlier photos and post them, before I completely forget about them :D

Medeia lives in The Elven Kingdom of Solamnia (one of the fantasy worlds in my and Sarg's story), in a forest village which is the home for countless shape shifters (bears, wolves, ravens, deer, you name it). Solamnia and its surroundings remind us of Medieval period mixed with fantasy elements and European nature, and we've also been inspired by the world of The Witcher games. 

Meddy is a some sort of herbalist, she enjoys collecting herbs from the forest and preparing all kinds of remedies and potions to help the other villagers. She often takes long relaxing walks in the nearby forests and that's what I had in mind when taking her outside :3

The outfit is self-made (inspired by Iple's Witch Hunter set) and Sarg made the necklace :)

Taking photos outside turned out not to be such a great idea and I was only happy with these two shots... It was so cold (I was stupid and left my gloves inside, so my fingers froze instantly) and also insanely windy, thus Meddy's hair was all over the place and it was hard to make sure that the skirt covers the doll stand completely :'D I also felt like Meddy should've had more clothes to fit in the scenery better, I didn't want it to look like she was freezing there. Once the snow is completely gone, I hope to get better photos of her outside :)

I took a few photos inside and noticed that the wooden cottage makes quite nice photographing place for Meddy - it almost looked like she was at her own home. On the other hand, the lighting wasn't best possible, but I'm still satisfied that I managed to get at least somewhat decent photos :)

Azone Blue Bird Tsukiha arrival

Finally posting this box opening/arrival for Azone Blue Bird Tsukiha that I got home last week :) She's another doll in the Otogi no Kuni series and like the other dolls in the series, she was also inspired by a fairy tale.

I really loved this version of Tsukiha when I saw the first pictures of her and decided that I would pre-order her... I even set an alarm to wake me up at 5am on the day her pre-orders started to make sure that I managed to place my order before she's sold out everywhere, but suddenly I started doubting, got this weird feeling that "well, maybe I don't need her" and fell back to sleep without ordering her :'D A few hours later when we woke up, Sarg asked me did I get Tsukiha and got angry at me for not ordering, she thought that I was such an dumbass lol... Later that day my mood was totally different again and I realized that I had made a big mistake, unfortunately all the pre-orders for her were closed already ;____; I decided to stalk AmiAmi to see if she'd become available again sometime later, and that actually happened only a couple of days later! So, in the end I managed to order Tsukiha :D

Here's some background music that came to my mind:

I really love this song, you wouldn't guess that it's an opening song for Naruto Shippuden XD

The box is really pretty and detailed, love all the blue birds!

Are those blueberries?! :'D This immediately made me think of the Finnish forests hahah

Cover of the story leaflet

This page features a photo of the upcoming Sera of  Blue Gables ♥

The accessories~ I have no idea how I could've completely forgotten to take any picture of the cape D: Tsukiha came with one pair of extra hands, just like Chisa (another XS girl).

She's such a cutie pie~ ♥ The outfits in the Otogi no Kuni series have been so beautiful and well-made, I've had no complaints with the ones I've received. My favorites from this set are the bag and shoes :)

I struggled a little bit with figuring out the perfect name for this girl, but in the end I chose Mei. One meaning 

The bow on the back! It can be separated from the skirt and added to other outfits, or this skirt could be worn without the bow :)

Little Miu wanted to give a hug to Mei XD Mei actually loves little kids a lot (even though she's only 12 herself...) and wants to become a kindergarten teacher when she grows up!

Mei thanks you for reading! ♥ Sarg has ordered her twin brother, Blue Bird Sorane, which is hopefully going to be shipped later this month~ Mei can't wait to get her brother home as well ^^ He's also going to be the first boy in our Azone crew, which is quite exciting!

Valentine's Day 2016

In Finland we celebrate Valentine's Day more as "friend's day", so besides our partner we also give cards/little presents for our friends too :) Many doll people who I've gotten to know through blogging have also become great friends to me and I'm really grateful for that, so I want to give you all a little present in form of a Valentine's Day themed photoshoot~ Photographing Azone dolls always gives me happy mode and I hope these girls will bring a smile to your faces as well ^^

Me and Sarg made some tiny cherry blossom trees using an awesome tutorial by Kixkillradio! I've been wanting to try it out ever since I saw it last year and this Valentine's Day shoot felt like the perfect chance to do that ♥ Instead of crepe paper we used silk paper, which was actually Victoria's Secret packaging material from a gift that Sarg got me for Valentine's Day :'D

Oh and Mei-chan, my Tsukiha, is actually making her first appearance in these photos, I still haven't had the time to finish writing her box opening/arrival post ^^; I try to get that posted asap, probably tomorrow!

Happy Valentine's Day~ ♥

Wings of an Angel

Yesterday I took photos of a doll that I've had since last May, but haven't properly photographed  before because she's been a WIP for all this time... Some while ago Musumedesu even asked me if I still have this girl since it's been a long time and I haven't posted any pictures of her :D She's still not completely finished (some of her parts are unpainted and there's some work to do with her wings as well), but I thought I'd take a few test photos to share :)

If you're wondering which doll I'm talking about, it's Lanarwen - my Souldoll Bella with Justitia armor!

Lanarwen is an Angel and one of the chosen Guardians of the Heaven. Lana's specialty is light and healing magic, so as a typical game character she'd be a white mage/healer :) Being a healer, she's an important part of the team. She doesn't like fighting and isn't one to start a fight without a good reason, but she's always ready to defend the people of the Heaven and the ones she holds dear. While Lana sees herself as not so brave and unworthy of being a Guardian, she actually has a heart of gold and in dire situations shows true bravery, forgetting all of her self-doubts. One of Lana's biggest idols is her own sister, Sandrian (Sarg's Souldoll Justitia), and Lana often wishes to be just as fearless and brave as she is...

At first I thought that I'd play safe and put her on a doll stand, but since I wanted some full-body shots as well and didn't feel like photoshopping the stand away from the photos, I tried carefully if Lana would be able to keep her balance with the wings and stand on her own... And boy, I was worried for nothing - she stood steadily as a rock! XD I still need to suede her knees though, for even more stability.

These are just basic standing poses, but I really like the posability of this Zenith body so I hope to try out more exciting (action) poses later :D I just got two invisible doll stands in the mail too and need to test them soon, Lana and her sister would be good "test subjects" hmm...

Anyway, let's stop rambling and here are the photos!

I also took some close-ups to show the details a bit better :)

Closeup of the staff! I love this to pieces ♥♥ I wanted Lana to have something like this, since I'm such a videogame geek and what would a healer be without her staff! 8D I couldn't find any SD sized staffs for sale, so I came up with this DIY idea of using a wooden stick, Christmas decoration, some polymer clay, epoxy and tiny details. Because I'm horrible with anything that includes modeling, clay or glue, Sarg the sweetheart did most of the work here :D I pretty much just painted the stick and told Sarg what I want her to do, lol...

Sarg also airbrushed the armors~ ♥ I hope she teaches me to properly use the airbrush soon, so that I don't always have to bother her if I have some parts that need airbrushing ^^;

There are actually transparent Dream Ripper wings from Soom, but Sarg changed their shape and bended them by boiling them in hot water :'D Then she airbrushed them to match the armor colors and of course, added a little bit of glitter as the final touch! ♥

Close-up of Lana's new faceup, made by me~ (Sarg helped with the eyelashes though!) Her earlier faceup looked like this, it had too dark eyelashes and eyebrows :( I kinda liked the lip color of the old version more, but overall this new one is a lot better and also more suitable for Lana's character.

Detail pic of the purple swirly things ♥

The Justitia wings were originally black/grey, but since my girl is an angel, I obviously wanted her to have white wings... So I bought a huge amount of white feathers and glued them on top of the black.  I only had enough for one side, so this is what the backside still looks like hahah :D I need to buy more feathers to finish this project...

Hope you enjoyed the photos and have a great weekend everyone! ♥ I got my Otogi no Kuni Tsukiha home today and will be posting her box opening here during the weekend ^^

WonFes 2016 winter - figure & Azone doll picks!

I feel bad for making yet another post, while I still haven't replied to the previous comments ;___; But I will get to it after this one, I promise! I'm so excited that I absolutely had to make this post as soon as possible!

For those who didn't know, Wonder Festival 2016 Winter was held this weekend in Japan. WonFes is a big event where many companies announce their future figure and doll releases and have them on display :) This is typically a big weekend for figure collectors, since the amount of upcoming releases is quite overwhelming, especially if there are new figures from many of your favorite series/characters... People will know to start planning their purchases month by month and save up money XD

My earlier WonFes posts:
Winter 2015
Summer 2015

First, let's take a look at the future doll releases from Azone! The news about upcoming Pureneemos are usually posted on Twitter first, so unless you're on Twitter, you might've not seen some of these yet. I'm such a stalker, so I've been aware of most of these for a while already, some were introduced for the first time at WonFes~ Neemosi had posted great photos of all the dolls, so I'm sharing her tweets :)

サアラズ ア･ラ･モード ～Twinkle a･la･mode～『ペリドット/マヤ』

#azonejp #wf2016w pic.twitter.com/ZUzrnqBOTO

— にーも氏 (@neemosi) 7. helmikuuta 2016

Peridot Maya is the first girl from Twinkle a la Mode series, which is based on gemstones. The one with darker outfit is the standard version (available for purchase on Amiami, HobbySearch, etc.), the one with white outfit is the Direct Store version (available only through Azone International web store and physical stores). I really like the white outfit, but already have Maya with blond hair, so I'm going to pass on this one... I'm not sure when the pre-order will start, but I'm suspecting later in this month.

『Original no kuni/Sera of Green Gables』(赤毛の少女 せら) 通常販売ver.

トータルデザイン・パターン作成 チクロ

2016年春発売予定 #azonejp #wf2016w pic.twitter.com/VpT3jmb4Wu

— にーも氏 (@neemosi) 7. helmikuuta 2016

Next we have Sera of Green Gables, another doll to the Otogi no Kuni series, possibly released in March/April :) This one with dark copper hair is the standard version. I really like this hair color and the green eyes, but would've preferred the smiling mouth and the other (blue) outfit... I guess you can't always have everything XD

『Original no kuni/Sera of Green Gables』(赤毛の少女 せら) アゾンダイレクトストアver.

トータルデザイン・パターン作成 チクロ

2016年春発売予定 #azonejp #wf2016w pic.twitter.com/WpbH846QLg

— にーも氏 (@neemosi) 7. helmikuuta 2016

Sarg fell in love with this black-haired Sera, which is the Direct Store exclusive. It also has the smiling mouth and blue outfit >3< Me and Sarg don't have a Sera in our Neemo family yet and first we planned to get both of these new girl (the red-haired for me and this black-haired for Sarg), but Sarg decided to skip due to other doll-related purchases so I'm re-thinking which one I should order... I do like the smiling mouth a lot more and green is my least favorite color, so the blue outfit would be better. We'll see, we'll see...

『Otogi no Kuni/Snow White Princess AIKA』『Otogi no Kuni/Snow Black Princess AIKA』 #azonejp #wf2016w pic.twitter.com/N8KT7FGf5u

— にーも氏 (@neemosi) 7. helmikuuta 2016

Snow White Princess and Snow Black Princess Aika were announced earlier this week. Snow White (blond-haired) will be available as standard version in summer, Snow Black (caramel-haired) is a Hobby Japan limited doll that can only be pre-ordered through Dollybird vol.23 magazine until summer (the other details are still unknown). Of course I fell in love with the limited version, though once again, I would've preferred a different mouth XD I've ordered the Dollybird magazine and will try to figure out a way to get her, but if it gets too complicated (since I don't live in Japan), I might hunt her down from Yahoo Japan or just pre-order Snow White instead.

『Original no kuni/Mermaid Princess Minami』(人魚姫 みなみ先生)

トータルデザイン・パターン作成 nico

2016年春発売予定 #azonejp #wf2016w pic.twitter.com/eTSKdC7k8R

— にーも氏 (@neemosi) 7. helmikuuta 2016

This is the doll that I'm most excited about right now, Mermaid Princess Minami! ♥ A teaser of her was posted on Twitter earlier this week, showing just a glimpse of her pastel-colored outfit and even that got me really excited. Back then they didn't say the doll's name yet and I thought she'd be either Himeno or Miu... I was so surprised when it was actually Minami! I also thought that she was a fairy princess, but fairies and mermaids are both very relevant to my interests so it doesn't matter XD I absolutely love her~ ♥♥ 

She'll be released sometime this spring, I haven't noticed details on her availability (standard or limited) yet. I hope she'll be a standard version ^^; Anyway, I'll be hunting her down no matter what! 

サアラズ ア･ラ･モード ～Twinkle a･la･mode～『ラピスラズリ/柚葉(通常販売ver.)』

2016年5月末以降発売予定 #azonejp #wf2016w pic.twitter.com/51vmix5Flt

— にーも氏 (@neemosi) 7. helmikuuta 2016

After Maya, the next Twinkle a la Mode girl will be Lapis Lazuli Yuzuha, no sales schedule has been given yet. This black-haired girl is the normal sales version, the one with white outfit in the background (you can see better photos on Neemosi's Twitter!) is the exclusive version. For once I like this standard version more, hahah XD Definitely going to pre-order her, I've been wanting a black-haired Yuzuha! My nickname safir comes from sapphire (one of my favorite gems) and I thought that 's the gem behind Yuzuha, but it was actually lapis lazuli... This actually gave me the idea to name my Yuzuha as Sapphire, so she'll be my lovely sapphire in any case~

ハピネスクローバーシリーズ

『もか/春のシンフォニー』

2016年3月発売予定 #azonejp #wf2016w pic.twitter.com/SYyuYE2mXD

— にーも氏 (@neemosi) 7. helmikuuta 2016

I don't know much about this girl, but she's a 50cm Azone doll from the Happiness Clover series and looks really pretty! There are so many lovely releases coming up that I will have to pass on this girl, but I would definitely love to have a big Azone girl someday ;___;

***

After dolls we're moving on to the figures... At first I thought I'd share my thoughts on everything that caught my interest, but there were more than I expected and this would become a looong post if I rambled about all of the figures ^^; So I'm only sharing the photos and info on what the figure is.

There doesn't seem to be a complete list of all new WonFes figures on Myfigurecollection yet, but once I see one, I'll add a link to this post! (EDIT. The list!)

Toujou Nozomi Sunny Day Song ver. from Love Live (SEGA)

Cyan from SHOW BY ROCK!! (Good Smile Company)

Shiratama Mikan and Kurosu Aroma from Pri Para (Good Smile Company)

Saber Alter from Fate/Stay Night (Good Smile Company)

Kanzaki Ranko from iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls (Max Factory)

Shadow Wing from Aion (Orchid Seed)

Michelle K. Davis from Terra Formars (Good Smile Company)

***

Besides prototypes and colored figures, there were also some interesting announcements as just concept art. When the figure companies show just the image, you don't really know the final product  turn out until there are pictures of the prototype. I usually try not to get too excited of releases at this point, since I could easily end up disappointed if something turns out the way I don't like, but thought I'd still include these in this post.

Caster from Fate/Grand Order (by Flare)

Cyan from SHOW BY ROCK!! (Ques Q)

Kinomoto Sakura from Card Captor Sakura (Good Smile Company)

I guess this became a long post even without a lot of text, sorry about that ^^; This was a lot of figures (many Nendoroids again, hahah) and I'm still uncertain if I'll be ordering all of them - if I had endless money sources, I'd definitely want to lol XD Once there is more information on their release schedules, I can decide which ones to get and which ones to pass. I hope they won't all get released in the same month...

Did you guys find any favorites from the huge selection at WonFes?