I cant believe how fast time is flying by… Its already been way too long since my last post on this blog and I dont seem to be able to get back into a somewhat regular schedule.I figured itd make sense to atleast deliver some sort of content until I can make some space for  figure reviews and  hence I present you an Artbook by RinSin given the creative name Visual Art Works.

While most of you probably havent heard of him I promise you that most of you probably encountered one of his works ( especially those of you with an Y Chromosome). Hit the Jump to enter the merry world of RinSin

I know next to nothing about RinSin except the fact that hes ( I actually dont even know that its a He but judging by the artworks im pretty sure that its a HE) hailing out of the City Mie in Japan and has the Blood Type 0. Luckily all of that doesnt matter to us since we only came here to oogle over some drawn boobs. Most of you probably know RinSin from two sources: Ikki Tousen ( S2 and ongoing) and Queens Blade

Ikki Tousen had a different Character Designer for its first Season of its Animation and I am more than glad that they decided to switch with their second Season . He was on the other hand responsible to bring  the very different Style of the Queens Blade illustrators together for the Animation right from the start and did a pretty good job with it. Sure the Characters may look  more generic than their initial illustrations but the series would have been  a visual mess if some sacrifices werent made.

Most people probably have encountered one of these two works throughout their anime viewer career but there are also some classic properties that are based on his designs. I expect that most of the guys have encountered these on these lonely,boring nights when you were young and searching for some “special” anime. He was  the Character Designer for such classics as Midnight Panther,Words Worth,Twin Angels,Body Transfer,La Blue Girl Returns. To put it short he knows how to design women that appeal to a certain demographic XD

I am more than pleased with the package Ive got since I only knew of his Ikki Tousen and Queens Blade works until then. I knew that there was some Tentacle Grape Images in this Artbook but I was quite suprised to discover that  some of these are from Twin Angel and that Id encounter some other very familar series.

I am still amazed how an artist in japan can illustrate the H Stuff and regular Mainstream Work without having to fear about any severe conquences. Back in the day when I found out that Rei Hiroe (of Black Lagoon Fame) also does H-Doujinshi I nearly lost my pants and couldnt believe my eyes. Guess such a streamlining between hardcore and mainstream is only possible in japan and thats why we love it so much.

The Book itself comes with a dustcover,a shoutout from the artist under the dustcover aswell as a folded two sided poster and an interview I cant read.The print quality is pretty good with strong colours and the binding looks like itll last quite a few years.I am a bit unhappy that sometimes the avaiable space in the book isnt used efficently with lots of free space and tiny pics while in other instances its pretty crowded with several pics crammed on one page resulting once again in small pictures.Thats the only beef I have with this book though.Most of the illustrations in the book come from his commercial works or tv animations so youre prolly gonna be unhappy if youre looking for Original Characters by RinSin

Some of the following pictures are more or less explicit so scroll down at your own risk. Most feature some boobies but there are also some Tentacle Grape ones at the end of the book that I threw in for Tier ( who of course owns this book ). As usual these pictures arent intended to serve as a substitute to buying the book and rather an incentive to buy this very fine book.

Without Dustcover this Artist Shoutout becomes visible:

Thanks for buying my Artbook! Since I started focusing on tv series, the amount of work i do on copyrighted characters has increased so i was able to release a second book

THX @ Meronpan

The foldout posters

I love my QB <3<3<3<3<3<3<3

I didnt expect that this book contains only tasteful QB Art. Considering the Artists  background I expected it to be a bit more on the ecchi side. I dont complain about that though!

This depiction of Ryomou becomes later on a pretty darn awesome figure by Alter

Rinsin also did the Designs for Cospas Ikki Tousen Dakimakura

I remember that I digged the Succubus and the Catgirl in Words Worth ^^

Doesnt this make you feel nostalgic?

Let the good times roll…

I cant remember much about Twin Angels except that the main baddies dick was so full of sperm that the girls he did exploded from it XD

Look he can even do cute girls!

Some Shoutouts from fellow artists he met along the way

Jeez whenever I see my lousy excuse for fingers I realize I should have become a Gynaecologist ^^;;;;

Ah Aldra! The former Queen of the  Capital of Gainos! The Girl with with the Meat Rendering Blades! The Girl who totally got ingnored by the Otakusphere for said  Blades! Shes back! This time shes armed with a much more crowdpleasing weapon! The Charm of a caring and loving housewive! Find out who shes married to right after the Jump!

Yup,Aldra is married and what sounds like another awkward move of  HobbyJapan, turns into one on ingenuity when you realize that shes married to you,the player. Aldra should prove to be a real crowd pleaser this time, now that those phallic blades are gone, but HobbyJapan of course delivers a worthy substitute in form of LunaLuna

Her character was designed  by a guy named Kantaka,which I sadly havent heard of before but a quick search on Gelbooru revealed that he designed the Original Aldra.Furthermore he seems to be the guy responsible for the Characters in Koihime Musou and some kinky Idolmaster Art.

I could write up a paragraph about Aldra by myself but since  Fabio of Synergetic Beans already translated her Character Profile Ill just repost it here:

Summoner Aldra

” Ill do my best for you! “

The half-demon that once won two successive Queen’s Blade championships and ruled as the “Bewitched Queen”.
In the last tournament, the Demon Delmore, the source of her super-extraordinary powers was torn-off from her and she was defeated. By losing most of her powers, her body that had stopped growing reverted to its true form.
After that, she embarked on  a journey to find her lost sister but she suffered memory loss.
What saved the physically and mentally exhausted Aldra was the “love” from a certain man. They married and Aldra’s heart was healed.
A short-lived happy live began before the war between the Queen’s Army and the Rebel Army spread through the whole Continent. To protect her loved husband, she was determined to throw herself in the fight. She will use her innate summoning skills again. She summoned and made a contract with the Underworld dwellers Belphe and Dogor. However, those two are a dangerous threat that plots to eat their contractor Aldra when they get the opportunity!!

STATS

Height: 163cm
Bust: 87
Waist: 57
Hip: 85
Occupation: Gondolier
Arms: War paddle (oar)
Protection: None
Likes: Her husband (for some reason, no one has ever seen him)
Dislikes: Carrots
Hobby: Going out with her husband

I most certainly didnt expect this turn of Events for Aldra since the  Anime hinted that she becomes a nun along with Melpha.This could be of course just another inconsistency of the Anime but most likely theyll explain the change in profession in one of the future OVAs.One of the simpler reasons I can think of is that since a Nun cant marry she probably left the church to marry her sweetheart but maybe her Mamoru past plays another role in this.

As long as we dont get any answers by HJ these assumptions will remain unanswered for now.

Lets take a look at Aldras Outfit for a Moment and lets discuss the crass change in Aldras Apperance.There  are two possibilities for the changes made to Aldra:

A: Her new Outfit is supposed to resemble the change of heart that Aldra experienced after getting seperated from the evil Demon Delmore. Her former Outfit was designed to show off her absolute power with spikes,blades and an aggresive colour scheme to impose fear and uncertainty in stark contrast to the cute and loving Aldra of today.

B: Hobby Japan realized that Girls with things resembling certain male bodyparts dont sell and tried to make her as Moe as possible as a counter measure.

Since HJ released another Girl with clearly phallic appendages and even a TRAP I prefer Theory A, unless they are actually aiming for financial loss with those two XD

Check out Persocoms Blog for more thoughts on Aldra

Without much further Ado I finally present you what you came for anyways: the pictures!

As usual you can find the 2P Colour behind the Dustcover

The Character Relation Chart finally gets populated!

One thing I noticed throughout the book is that the Size of her boobs varies quite a bit.I have no Idea if this is intended or just coincidence.

Now arent those two summons  cute eh…stuffed animals?

Nothing beats the good old myserious white liquids somehow ending up on girls

I wonder what role the golden sealing bind (?) will play throughout QB Rebellion.Its located on her former “evil” arm…Maybe it still needs sealing?

Now thats something original!

Aldras Healing Move is on par with Nyx`s!

The Usual Conversations at the end of the book plus the character profiles of  Aldra`s Summons

The Character Card and one of the AmiAmi Preorder Bonuses for ordering the Limited edition that came with a Original Aldra Revoltech!

As you probably noticed my Blog is still on semi-hiatus since my flat still hasnt been fixed and Im still stuck at my mothers place.Its really hard to get somewhat decent shots of anything in this flat and as you can see in this post the quality of these is still somewhat dubious.I do hope youre gonna stick with me some more though!

I have one major thing going on and a few other figures like Momohime and Siggy also arrived at my doorstep

Until next Time,

Blowfish Over and Out

Reviewing figures is still a pain because my flat is still flaiming hot so I decided to do a sweet and short review of Huit and Vingts Visual Combat book from Hobby Japan.Lets take a closer look at the Little Elf and her Clockwork Automaton right after the Jump.

I know your soul is burning to see Huits adoreable sidekick in its semi-poseable 1/8 figure form but I guess its sometimes good to be a tease and to post an interim book review inbetween both figures.

While my copy is the Limited Edition of the Visual Combat book theres no difference between the regular release of the book except for the excellent Huit Figure.I take it for granted that you like Huit & Vingt when youre buying this book so I recommend to get the decently priced Limited Edition

All in all its the regular Queen`s Blade (Rebellion) Visual Combat book deal: hardcover,full colored and comes with the character card you need to play.Only difference I noticed to other releases is that under the dustcover isnt a 2P illustration but a single one of Huit.I wonder why they decided to stray from the norm in that regard but it isnt a dealbreaker in any kind since most people treat these books as artbooks anyways…

Huit and Vingt were created by Koume Keito and were,if im not mistaken,the second release from Hobby Japans Queen`s Blade follow up series.Like all other QB Characters both of them have a detailed background history which I want to write about before advancing to the pictures:

HUIT

Vingt is from the tribe of the little elves who are specialized into alchemy and live in a secluded area far away from wood elves like Alleyne & co.Shes the daughter of  Great Alchemist Cyan,who happens to be a close friend of the weaponsmith Cattleya,and mastered the exceptional skills of her father already at a young age.The Neighbouring Kingdom of the Margrave-Kreuz family has close bonds with the little elves and their children Annelotte and Huit grew up playing with each other becoming childhood friends.Annelotte had to play the role of the crown prince, despite her gender, to keep order in her kingdom.Annelotte saw herself as the kind,big brother of Huit and spoiled her quite a bit throughout the years and even until today Annelotte remains the nii-san in Huit`s heart.

While Huit has a gentle heart and is kind to the ones close to her shes still a prodigy tactician and resorts to cold hearted tactics when the cause justifies the means.While she is able to defend herself she mostly resorts to her Alchemy powered Clockwork Automaton Vingt who she has a close bond with despite her robotic nature.

Who would have thought that Annelotte and Huit meet each other again in  a twist of fate thats so much different from their childhood days?

VINGT

Vingt is the Clockwork Automaton,built by Huits mother, that never leaves Huits side and is bodyguard,friend and assistant to Huit in one person.The key Huit carries close to her heart is used to wind up Vingt from time to time to keep her going full power throughout their adventures.Huit issues orders to Vingt via Runes written on the “remote control” she carries around.

Will she continue to fight for the good cause or might her remote control fall into the wrong hands?

As earlier mentioned the Character designs were done by Koume Keito which most people probably know from the Spice and Wolf and Kujibiki Unbalance Manga.He did a terrific job in adapting the QB Style while still keeping a mainstream appeal which some of the Visual Combat Books cant achieve.You could of course argue if its good to keep a general Anime style or the distinct style of some Artists but I think Hobby Japan does a good job to keep this in balance with its different artists.

All in all its another great Visual Combat Book that should find its way into your bookshelv if you even remotely liek the characters

No 2P behind the Dustcover this times

A Picture instead of Conversations this time.I guess this is due to the fact that no other characters were established at the time these went into print.

I find Vingt adorable despite her Elf ears :3

EAT LEAD!

VINGT KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!!!

My,my look where Vingts finger is “touching”…

Left Picture is one of my favorites throughout the whole book XD

This is her doing her Ultra Sonic Sound Attack.Not what you think you pervert

Ive been down with a cold the last week and didnt get around to do a figure review.Thats where I am pulling a joker out of my sleeve and present you yet another Queens Blade Book review! This time were gonna take a look at the follow up series of QB called Rebellion. It is set a few years after the last Queens Blade Tournament and contains some heavy spoilers concerning the end of the original QB Story.

Lets take a look at the grim new Rebellion World after the Jump!

The content of this book was originally released on Hobby Japans Hobby Channel on a monthly basis including the Artworks.Hobby Japan tweaked some of the minor Story Plotholes and graphical inconsistencies and threw in some extra chapters as well as a Drama CD and released it last fall as the book your seeing.The Story Book is,as expected of Hobby Japan, of high quality with 64 coloured pages bound in hardcover with an accompanying Drama CD with a great cast of Seiyuus.It is unlike the Battle History Books a Light Novel with lots of text and a few illustrations inbetween.

Sounds pretty boring to somebody who isnt capable of Japanese but luckily Fabio of Synergetic Beans did a translation for the Hobby Channel releases.This still leaves the extra chapters only avaiable in this book untranslated but youll be able to understand the big picture thanks to him. Thank you Fabio!

As a matter of fact I collected Fabio`s Translation in a PDF and want to share it with you here

(Its no beauty but beggars cant be choosers)

Lets talk a bit about the Story itself now…

Rebellion is set a few years after Leina has won the Queen`s Blade Tournament but she decided to pass the title to her big sister Claudette who she thought of as more capable as queen.Leina`s decision to pass proved to be fatal though since Claudette turned out to be a ruthless ruler thats driven by power and greed.She soon took over country by country through violent battles and doesnt hestitate to crush anyone that opposes her since she sees herself as ruler chosen by god.

Most of the Queens Blade contestants,including Leina, vanished after the Tournament and their whereabouts are unknown.There are two familar faces serving under the new Queen of Gainos though: Elina and Ymir.Elina is now the leader of the assasins of the Fang and proved to be totally unstable since the disapperance of Leina and loves to torture the prisoners of war.Ymir on the other hand was bound by dwarven law to serve the Queen who had beaten her in combat as right hand.She was happy more than happy to oblige since theres a profit to be found from that position and she loves to experiment on new crafting techniques with stolen technology.

The Story begins when Annelotte,the last remaining heir of the Kreuz family, stands in her destroyed homeland and decides to take it in her hands to take down the Queen to restore peace in the world.The Rebellion begins….

When I heard the Plot of Rebellion for the first time I was really amazed at Hobby Japans decision to take a turn into a dark and grim direction that explores the nastier sides of some of the former good guys and ignoring most of the established cast and going for a new one.I do know that some people were more than unhappy how Elina and Ymir developed but these character traits were always there but never manifested this extremley before.I can only salute Hobby Japan for having the balls to take the franchise into a whole different direction which will surely piss off some of the fans.

Throughout the progression of the story two other familiar characters pop up: Tomoe and “Maria” (who looks like a certain QB touranment Winner) but those also have changed drastically.Tomoe has been cursed throughout her travels and lost her eyesight and Maria has been struck with a mysterious disease thats forcing her to sleep 16 hours a day and intense drowsiness haunts her during activities.

Hobby Japan decided to reduce the activtities of those two to a minimum though and they merely act as sidecharacters that aid the Rebellion army.The Focus clearly remains on the Rebellion Army and the opposing Queen.

Ah look how I ramble again….Anyways I didn t expect the new Queens Blade series to take this radical turn and I am more than delighted that Hobby Japan tried something different.I am still on the edge to see what will happen next and luckily they started a second Illustrated stories volume at the beginning of the year.You can find the translations of those also at Synergetic Beans. Fabio hasnt progressed too far as of now but there are already quite some twists in there!

Profiles for Annelotte and Claudette

Yes,thats Melona Slime.I wonder what happened to her…

Maria and Elina

Huit and Vingt

Punishment? as ordered by the Queen

Poor Mirim…This Scene was nearly too much for me

Ymir and Mirim

Extra Stuff from here on

Training under a Waterfall is nearly as essential as training in the mountains

Tomoe and Tan Yan/ San Yan

Who might be that mysterious Maria? XD

Siggy and LunaLuna

Without the Dust Cover

Lets have some fun talk about German customs this time…Remember how I was ranting about a package probably returning to Japan? As it turned out its was witheld by german customs for 1 1/2 months for investigation of forbidden materials.I cant see how a order consisting of this and Siggy`s Visual Combat Book could be even suspected to contain forbidden material but yeah they checked it very,very through.I dont know what they expected to find but they even checked the sealed Drama CD.

I dont mind that they check deliveries entering Germany but I do mind that they dont send a notice to the reciepent waiting desperately for the package.I already saw it lost somewhere in transisition because it took so long.This is far from consumer friendly and would take very little effort from them to make this a more pleasureable experience.

Thats it for today Boys and Girls!

I hope you enjoyed your trip ^^

Its been already 2 long posts since Ive posted something ecchi (gasp).I do know that my blogs audience is, except for GnDynames, a bunch of hopeless perverts and you gotta give the masses what they want.Did you think that Menace`s Battle History was Ecchi?Leina`s Battle History increases the ecchiness sevenfold with the appearance of good old furnikura and his toy Nyx.Are you thirsty for tentacle grape?Quench your thirst after the Jump!

This is the second Queens Blade Storybook I own and the concept is the same: give a deeper insight into a characters motivation and relationship with other Queens Blade Participants through a book and drama CD.While Menace`s book focuses exclusively on her past theres a little twist to Leina`s book: it is basically the story of 3 characters that are deeply interwined with each other: Leina,Claudette and Nyx.

The Overall Theme of the book is the emancipation of Leina from her heritage and the story follows her as she matures from a princess to a bitoshi.One of the two sidethemes is Claudette`s envy of Leina`s position and how she disapproves of Leina`s decision to become a warrior.The last and probably most interesting theme is Nyx grief history thats dominated by the Vance family.She was a servant at the Vance Castle and had to undergo humilation and torture by her masters and especially one member of the Vance family: Elina.

In the end Elina was more or less responsible for the death of Nyx` mother because she took away the food Nyx saved up to feed her sick mother in prison.Her shy and weak nature always kept her from fighting back and buried everything deep down within her soul.Years later she has a fated meeting with the living artefact furnikura who grants her unbelievable power which she cant control though.Furnikura mistreats her as the Vance household did years ago but this time she endures it in exchange for power.She lacked the power to fight back when her mother was sick and wont give up the new found power to change things for good this time,even if it means to endure even more punishment.Her fights for justice is of good will but often ends up in a disaster for the bad as well as the innocent because she cant control the massive power of furnikura effectively.Theres a second side to Nyx though due to Furnikuras influence and that personality can only be described as one mean bitch and surfaces mostly after his beatings or during fights.

The production Value of the Drama CD is once again of great quality and has,as far as I can tell, the same cast as the Anime which is not essential but always a nice thing.The CD has 19 Drama Tracks and the additional tracks are random lines spoken by the characters.The Artwork is this time handled by Kaneko Hiraku,whos also responsible for the Cattleya Visual Combat book.The Art is great but quite ecchi and definately not something for people that have some sense of shame.

I personally find this a great addition to any QB Fan and I definately prefer Leina`s inbook history over her Anime Story which made her a bland whiny rookie.The fact that theres a subtle note of hate/envy from Claudettes side makes the whole package bittersweet and I cant thank them enough for providing a deeper look into Nyx` troubled past which should change some peoples opinion about Elina.

I hope to acquire the last Storybook featuring Tomoe and Shizuka in the near future and I wish that theyll release some more Battle History books even though the focus shifted to the follow up series Rebellion.

She used to be such a nice girl…

I cant stress enough how much I dig the fact that Leina is actually capable of something in this book

I guess Yi will like this one ^^

You gotta love random yuri encounters with people you saved from thugs

Leina`s Face is priceless XD

Howdy everyone! Instead of my promised Busou Shinki post ill present you another quick shot.Ive visited Lylibellule`s Blog today and stumbled across her Menace Visual Combat Book Review.In there she also mentioned the Menace`s Battle History Storybook even though she was a bit unsure what it actually was.Beeing the QB Nut I am, I felt obliged to clear up what this book is actually about.

This is of course a NSFW Review

The Queens Blade Universe has a vast amount of characters and every Bitoushi has her own backstory and motivation to join the Queens Blade Tournament to fight for the throne of Gainos.The Anime and the different Mangas tried to give a little insight into the bitoushi`s history, but due to the sheer amount of characters it was impossible to give everyone the spotlight they deserved.This is where the Queens Blade Battle History Storybooks come in and focus on a Characters history.

The book is bound in hardcover with 34 coloured pages with artwork by F.S. and is of excellent quality as expected of Hobby Japan.The Highlight of the package is without a doubt the Drama CD that comes with the storybook and brings the story to life.Menace`s Drama CD sports 44tracks with a total playtime of 62:44 minutes.The first 20 tracks belong to the drama and the rest seems to be some random lines by Menace and Setra.

The production quality is great and the cast is made up of talented seiyuus.Anime Veterans might be in for s suprise though since the only familiar seiyuu is Yuko Goto which plays Menace in the drama and anime.Setra and Melona have different but nevertheless charming seiyuus and its interesting to hear other artists interpretations of the same character.Its quite scary how spot on the voice artist of Setra is while Melona has a much more playful vibe in her voice.

Its a shame that they switched those two seiyuus for the more famous Rie Kugimiya and Tachiki Fumihiko for the Anime that followed these books.I wouldnt have mind to hear them in the Anime aswell

If youre fixated on the “original” seiyuus keep in mind that the battle books were made long before the anime and that these are basically the original cast.Dont let the fact that the voice artists differ ignore these dramas since theyre very well executed.

There are two other battle history books I personally know of: one focuses on the Vance Family/Nyx Conflict and the other one features Tomoe/Shizuka and the Attack of the Assassins of the Fang.If youre a nut for audio dramas you might aswell be interested in the Queens Blade Rebellion Story Visual Book which also comes with a drama CD.

Lets get back to Menace`s Book…Here`s a short reminder that some people might consider this a spoiler but it wont destroy your anime viewing pleasure in any way since its Menace`s HISTORY.

Im gonna quote Fabio for this short rundown of her story:

Entitled by birth to be the 15th Queen of the Amara Kingdom, Menace was betrayed by her fighting instructor and best friend Anarista. Her kingdom fell to the enemies and Menace was thrown into the slave pit where she was killed by her own slaves.

Thousands of years later in the Amara Ruins, the Marshland Witch brings Menace back to life as an Undead Mamono. Unwilling to obey the Witch, Menace runs away and eventually meets Anarista (who was also supposed to be dead for a long time). Seeking revenge, Menace fights Anarista, but like in the days of the Ancient Kingdom she is no match for her former instructor. Menace is knocked into a weapons shop where she reunites with her old friend, the living scepter Setra. Eventually, Menace unleashes a new power and defeats Anarista who turns out to be Melona. Melona, a Shape-shifter Mamono associated to the Marshland Witch, was provoking Menace disguised as Anarista to awaken Menace’s Cursed Aura.

Menace still doesn’t want to follow the Witch and Melona, who couldn’t care less about it, left her to do as she wishes. Menace learned about the Queen’s Blade tournament and participates in it to become the Queen and revive the Amara Kingdom.

You might have noticed a little inconsistency with the Anime here since Menace isnt a Marshland Witch lackey in this version but the Anime took some liberties and merged many different Queens Blade Universes into one.In the end it doesnt really matter though since Menace was far from helping the marshland witch in the anime ^^

Ive gotta say that I disliked Menace Character in the beginning but my love for perverted cats and the anime made her grow on me.Shes a bit of a ditz in the anime but the Battle History Menace is a strong woman like the rest of the QB cast.I was really suprised by the strong bond of friendship between Setra and Menace thats displayed throughout the book.I always thought of Setra as a comic relief character but this book has shown me that hes far more and an important character for Menace.

Gosh this was supposed to be a quick post but here I am rambling about QB once more ^^;;;;;;

Lets continue with the pictures!

You gotta love Setra ^_^

*Sigh* They fell for the old Troyan Horse trick.

And thats one naughty bug XD

And who`s allied with the Enemy Nation? Anarista! DUDUDUDUN!

Does anyone know the name of that wrestling move?

Not the prettiest death

Look who sneaked into the background

Ah time for a can of refreshing Tentacle Grape

STFUppercut?

What a lovely reunion

Now that were through with the Review I want to ramble some more…

Remember my Rant about DHL?Well,DHL never fails to amaze me since theyve sent one of my SAL Shipments back to HLJ because “I never claimed it at my postoffice”.Yes,thats right I have to pay re-shipment because my goddamn DHL Driver isnt doing his job.I never got a notification that a package is waiting for me at my postoffice and since SAL isnt trackable via the internet I never knew that a package was waiting for me.Ive voiced a complaint once more on their billed hotline and got the same corporate mumbo jumbo they always pull at me without changing anything.

The worst thing is that Im also waiting for my QB Rebellion Visual Story Book and QB Rebellion Siggy Visual Combat Book for more than a month (shipped on 6th january) and Im pretty sure that it must be on its way back to Japan aswell since the longest time i had to wait for a SAL Shipment was 28 days.

So what am I doing now to prevent this stuff to happen? I run bidaily to my postoffice and ask if there are any packages waiting for me.Seriously DHL: Show some customer Service!

In the end I get the wrong end of the stick and have to pay once more for your shitty service <.<

Has anyone an idea if I can get THEM to pay for my re-shipments? Its their fault after all even though I cant “prove” it

EDIT:

Im feeling seriously taunted by DHL now…What do I find at my doorstep today? A SAL Package shipped out by HLJ 6 days ago! This is the fastest SAL Shipment I ever had while I still havent heard anything about the other one ive been waiting for since 6th january <.<

What would you expect to be my very first Loot of the Year?Heres a small hint: its related to tits and asses a franchise that are very dear to me.Correct! Its just another Queens Blade Related Post! Are you looking for the definite Queens Blade Book?Stop searching and hit the Jump!

Ive found this little Gem the day after my New Years Eve BBQ,where the Grillmaster burnt my chicken wings to a small black crisps.I was quite amazed to find it on my doorstep since the first january is a holiday but maybe god thought that I deserve some chicks after the burnt chicken incident.Anyways I didnt mind to get this earlier than expected

The book is as the name suggests the definite Queens Blade Book with tons of exclusive artworks,regular artworks and novel artworks done by a vast variety of artists.It is interesting to see how different Artists portray certain Characters and its definetly the strong selling point of the book with about 100 illustrations spread among the 192 page strong hardcover bound book.

Since the Character Roster of the Queen`s Blade Franchise has been completed this summer its the first book that provides character files on all existing characters (including romanization of their names),their stories and relationships with the other tournament participants.To undermine the books ambition to be the perfect Queens Blade book it also gives an insight into every characters ending as well as an extended World Guide known from the Masters of Queens Blade Figure and Visual Book.

The book is a real bargain at 2,667 Yen and has already been discontinued at HLJ.It is no wonder though since its the perfect wrapup for the Queens Blade Franchise and a good starting point for the already strong going Queens Blade Rebellion series which is a continuation set after the Queens Blade Tournament with many new characters as well as some veterans.

OMG Tasteful Artworks in my QB!? Yes,actually alot

You can think what you want about Aldra`s Meat Rending Blades but this Artwork is gorgeous

Life as a snake must be delightful

Holy Poses Training with the help of Melpha.I love the guys`expressions ^^

This Artwork is the final proof that YMIR ISNT A LOLI BUT A DWARVEN PRINCESS! You see that crown? Whatcha gonna say now? huh? HUH!?

The following pictures are dedicated to my good brother in arms Tier whos fighting for a better,ecchier world:

I hope this helps you over the waiting time until an Irma figure is announced ^^

Character Files

Yup,even Anarista and Shizuka got a Profile

Ive found a translated Relationship Diagram from one of the Visual Combat Books a while ago and thought I should share :

World Guide

Character Endings

Queens Blade Rebellion Preview (Might be considered Spoiler)

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Ive already got my next figure review done and it just waits to be watermarked and posted tomorrow evening.I bet you wont see that review coming

Ive finally got some news on my cospa dakimakura incident.Ive sent back the dakimakura in November and after I didnt receieve any news for a month I asked them on the status and they told me that the parcel didnt arrive yet.Further Investigation revealed that one of their warehouse workers signed the dakimakura in November but forgot to bring it to the right department and left it in the warehouse.The Pillow was sent to Cospa for inspection afterwards and today Ive finally got a shipping notice of a spanking new dakimakura and the refund of my shipping costs.

It has taken ages but it seems that the Operation Dakimakura is finally over!

On a completley different matter…I know that you guys are eagerly waiting for my business cards to ship but ive been too lazy busy the last few days and only managed to get the envelopes ready.I hope to send them out by the end of the week.If anyone else is interested in one of them be sure to post about it and send me your adress.

Ive also gotta mention that I hate DHL for always coming when I am not at home…Theoretically BRS would be in my Detolf right now but thanks to them and their policy shes back in their cold,lonely warehouse.I have to give em a call tomorrow and ask for a second delivery on friday.

My 2 week long hiatus is finally over and believe me I havent been lazy over the holidays! In fact I am proud to announce that this blog finally provides something useful to its readers! Ive posted before about ESGLabs Guide and translation of the QB Books but Ive never really been happy with their guide.Its quite confusing and complicated and it took me quite some time to understand the mechanics of this game. Hit the Jump for more Information and the Guide in handy PDF format!

This is my very first attempt at such a guide and it looks less than spectacular or even fancy.Its just a basic guide to the Lost Worlds Battle system the QB books are based on.I tried my best to explain the rules as easy as possible by merging my knowledge with the official QB guide from their official Homepage.Ive added direct links to the character cards from ESGLabs for your comfort and hope that this guide will aid those who want to try out their Queens Blade books instead of simply looking at them.

If you find any faults despite Persocom`s awesome proofreading be sure to drop a comment and ill update the script.If you are having any questions feel free to drop them off aswell and ill include them in the next version of the script.

The following characters have been translated and are therefore playable:

• Leina
• Risty
• Irma
• Nowa
• Echidna
• Tomoe
• Elina
• Menace
• Airi
• Cattleya
• Nanael
• Nyx
• Melpha
• Claudette
• Melona
• Alice
• Moetan

I wish I could provide further help with Translations of the Characters not translated by ESGLabs but my lack of japanese makes this impossible.If you do know by any chance of other translations or feel like your up to the task yourself be sure to comment as well and maybe we can make this work somehow!

Long Story Short: Here`s the guide by yours truly

Dang I totally forgot about this: HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

UPDATE: Thanks to Feldis Investigation Ive got ahold of some Translations for Ymir,Alleyne and Aldra.Ill have to take some time to make some Character Cards for them though.This should make the regular QB Cast complete.

All thats left now are some Queens Gate and QB Rebellion Characters

Ho,ho,ho! Youre favorite blogger Blowfish didnt drown in a sea of christmas cookies but merely has been very,very busy with real life.Ive finally found the time to take a break and take some pictures of a book that has been lying on my desk for quite some time. Check out my review after the Jump!

How do you know that youre beyond good and evil when it comes to a merchandise?The answer is simple: You buy a book that features pictures of the figures you have in your own cabinet XD

Masters of Queens Blade focuses on the figure related merchandise of the franchise with a heavy focus on Megahouse`s line of figures.The book features the whole Megahouse Line Up Until late spring 09 and selected figures by other manufacturers aswell as illustrations and other nifty extras.The book even has something for the perverts out there with its sealed Gravure Picture section that features the girls in all their naked glory

The softcover book is a 120 pages strong with nice strong quality paper and is mostly in full colour with a few exceptions like early design sketches etc.The sealed gravure section gave me a bit of a headache since you have to seperate the pages with a knife or scissors to get a look at the busty beauties.My attempt to seperate the pages was rather unsuccessful and I ended up with a bunch of jagged pages.I sacrificed a few milimeters of the pages and used my hobbyknife and a ruler to get a clean look.

The book itself is seperated into Megahouse figures and their Colour Variants,the Gravure Section,other Queens Blade figures,Queens Gate figures,Illustrations and early design sketches,an interview with Megahouse`s figure sculptors and a tour guide to the world of Queens Blade.

Hobby Japan and MegaHouse are some sneaky bastards and added an exclusive figure coupon at the end of the book.I cant really tell for which figure the coupon is but its probably invalid for quite some time anyway.

The book is a nice way to get an overview over the vast Queens Blade figure merchandise and probably gives a good insight into the production process when youre able to understand japanese.The Illustration section gives an insight into the characters and makes the package complete and an interesting addon for the sophisticated Queens Blade afficiando.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the book at the price point of 1905 yen if youre interested in MH`s vast figure releases but if youre looking for illustrations you better place your bet on one of the other avaiable QB Illustration books.

Oooohh thats one sexy colour variation of Menace <3

Echidna is probably the figure with the most colour variations from the whole QB cast

Hmmmm….Where have I seen those Unofficial WonFes QB Accessory again…?I think I know with which items the next Special Editions will be delivered with

The Sealed Gravure Section

show

Annelotte is the only QB Rebellion Character in the book so far

Stats and Illustrators of the Characters

Illustrations

Sketches

Early Designs…Look at Shizuka and Risty ^_^

Soooo….what have I been busy with?Ive had a Job Interview Marathon the last two weeks and Ive finally been successful last week and got myself a new job.Its alot closer to my place and pays better than my last job and Im kinda happy now that I was fired from my last job ^^

Im still busy getting used to the new work enviroment and I fear that blogging has to take a backseat at the moment until the holidays come.Ill try to write up some posts in my free time but dont expect too much from me until christmas ^^;;;

About a month ago Ive also got a mysterious shipment from england…What could it be?

Yes,I am officially now one of the cool guys and ordered myself a free pack of 50 Moo Business Cards.They come with a moo branding that features a discount code which may bother some but I am not really troubled by it.I wont use the cards for any serious business anyway and theyre free after all!

Be sure to change the Images you want to use into CYMK Mode before uploading them.I didnt and ended up with rather dark prints ^^;;;

Now with who could I share those….. ^_^

Made of 100-percent polyester inside and out, this lovely long pillow body is the perfect size to fill a 50 x 150cm pillowcase! Cospa quality!

This Image and item descrition are taken directly from the corresponding Item page on HLJ and this sounds like a good way to fill up your empty dakimakuras right? No,its not…Wonder why? Answers directly after the jump!

Cospa is one of those anime merchandise brands that has myriads of products ranging from keyholders over mugs to tshirts.Compared to their competitors they have a reputation to deliver top quality goods which is clearly resembled in the steep price of their products.So far I havent heard a single complaint about the so called Cospa quality and decided to snatch myself a Cospa Dakimakura Body when the opportunity arrives.Said Opportunity was taken during HLJs free EMS Shipping Offer and I instantly added a Cospa Dakimakura Body to my cart.A few weeks later,thanks to slow german customs,it finally arrived at my doorstep.I was planning to do a review of the body and documented the unpacking of the pillow.This turned out to be a very lucky turn of events for me since it all went downhill from there…

The Pillow arrived deflated and vacuum sealed as expected

Genuine Cospa Product

I opened the packaging and the pillow deflated with a satisfying sound.This was when I was getting the first doubts since the pillow was as limp as a hotdog on a hot day.My first idea was that the pillow and its filling need a proper time to deflate and I gave the whole thing another 3 days to accomodate to its surrounding.Those 3 days didnt change a thing though and it remained in its hotdog state.

After unpacking

After 3 days…

My next thought was that something with the filling of the pillow couldnt be right because it felt like if its filled with cotton.The polyester hull of the pillow allows some semi-translucency when held against light and I was quite shocked when I saw what the pillows innards looked like.

Oh really?

This is where I panicked and mailed several other bloggers and asked them how their cospa dakimakuras felt and looked like.Ive got the same response from everybody: a strong,thick pillow that could never be bent in way like mine is able to.My Kudos go out to LightningSabre and Smithy who really,really helped me out there.

This dakimakura is clearly flawed and I am amazed that this actually made it through Cospas Quality Check.Where is that famed Cospa Quality?This couldnt have happened during shipping since it was still sealed so it had to be flawed when it left the factory!

This is where I emailed HLJs Customer service and after a few days I got the following reply:

Hi

Thanks for writing.

We’re very sorry to hear about this problem. Please ship the pillow back to us here at HobbyLink Japan as follows:

*Package the item up very well in a good box, especially if our shipping box was damaged.

*Enclose a copy of this correspondence in the package.

*Mark this on the outside of the box: “CONTENTS MADE IN JAPAN.”

*Ship the item back to us via the post office, and send it by REGISTERED SMALL PACKET AIR MAIL.

*Send the package to this address:

HobbyLink Japan

Sano-shi, Kurohakama-cho 162-1

Tochigi 327-0813 JAPAN

When your item arrives back here in Japan, we will send it to Cospa for replacement or refund. We will also refund the cost of return shipping.

Again, please accept our apologies for the problem and the inconvenience this has caused you.

Thank you very much for shopping with HobbyLink Japan.

I am happy that HLJ accepted to replace/refund the dakimakura body without a complaint but its still a bummer I have to send the body back.The Pillow is huge and I knew that this is going to cost me quite a sum,to be precise it costed me 62€ to send the body back.Yes,I paid 62 € to send a 38€ Item back to HLJ

HLJ told me that theyll refund the shipping costs and I hope that theyll keep their word since 62€ are quite a sum.

I wonder how long this whole process will take since HLJ forwards the body and I hope Cospa admits that they are at fault and dont try to act like I was treating it wrong or something the like.

How about you guys?Have you experienced any problems with Cospa Products so far or are you happy with what you got?I admit that faults do happen when you are manufacturing goods but to let those faulty goods with obvious flaws slip through Quality Control and to ship it to customers is a veeeeeery big fauxpax.

Cospa Quality? Non-existent for me.

My 10€ Discounter Side Sleeper Pillow is of better quality than this…True,it might not be the right size but atleast you can use it as a pillow!

In case anyone wonders how the body looked with Dakimakura