2013 Figure Greetings

I want greetings for special occasions to be special. If I have time, I'd make photo collages for friends' birthdays or use any cosplay photo of mine as a greeting, but there are times when I'm just too lazy to choose and compile pictures or put on a full cosplay of a favourite character with all the makeup, contact lenses, and the wig. When laziness strikes, I take pictures of my figures instead. 

In 2013, I used my figures much more for birthday and holiday greetings. The most difficult to set up was probably the New Year greeting because I dressed two of my figmas in yukatas. You'll see that later.

Now let me show you the greetings that I created last year:

Hainrihi's birthday

For my friend Hainrihi's birthday

I made this greeting with figma Irisviel, figma Saber, figma Kiritsugu, and Chogokin Gilgamesh for Hainrihi's birthday. On the picture, Irisviel is the celebrant because Hainrihi is my Irisviel in our Fate/Zero cosplay group. Of course, Kiritsugu must be there, and because I used Chogokin Gilgamesh's golden goblets and wine jug, I had to include him there, too. :p

Birthday greeting for Arnel

Birthday greeting for my friend, Arnel

Arnel is Berserker (Lancelot) in our Fate/Zero group, so on his birthday, I set-up this greeting for him. Berserker doesn't have an articulated figure, so I had to use Banpresto DXF Fate/Zero Berserker and just tried my best to conceal Arondight (a.k.a. his sword). Nope, I couldn't take the sword off his hand. I think it's stuck there forever. X'D 

To make the picture more festive, I included the figmas of Kiritsugu and Irisviel, then the Chogokin figures of Gilgamesh and Saber. The stars and sparkles were added later through Photoshop.

Happy holidays from Gilgamesh and Saber

Merry Christmas from Gilgamesh and Saber

To make that Christmas greeting, I printed background, pinned it on an illustration board, and borrowed a Christmas ornament from our living room. The gold orbs and snowflakes were Photoshopped. I used Banpresto Ichiban Kuji Kyun-Chara Fate/Zero Gilgamesh in his casual clothes and Good Smile Company Nendoroid Fate/Zero Saber.

Kirei Kotomine's birthday

I started to like Kirei Kotomine in 2013 especially when I re-watched Fate/Zero for the nth time and completely read his profile on TypeMoon Wiki, so for his birthday (December 28), I decided to make a greeting as tribute for the character. Those are food erasers, the table and chair are from a Sailor Moon palace playset, and the gift is... well it's just another eraser that I wrapped with yellow-orange paper, drew dots on, and then I placed a lavender ribbon around it to create a makeshift gift prop. The gift probably looks familiar because I also used it as a prop for Arnel's birthday greeting (Irisviel is holding it).

New Year greetings

For the New Year, I made two figure greetings. The backgrounds I used were the ones I took with my own camera during the 2013 Pyromusical Festival on March. I set up the figures in front of my monitor, displayed the pictures of fireworks on full screen, and then clicked away.

Happy New Year from Saber and Irisviel

I bought cheap doll clothes from a Saizen store nearby (Saizen sells Daiso or Japan Home products. Saizen and Japan Home are probably like those dollar stores in the US). The clothes were big for figmas, so I altered them a bit with the help of a pair of scissors and safety pins. They still obviously look big on the figmas of Saber and Irisviel though.

Now here's the second one with my Fate OTP:

Cheers from Gilgamesh and Saber

Gilgamesh and Saber were easy to set-up. I just used two of Gilgamesh's golden goblets and then it's done.

Setting up these figures were fun, but I think I need to be more creative with backgrounds and set-ups, improve my lighting, and of course, avoid cramming to get better results. There were times when I'd shoot the figures on day of the birthday itself (usually at night), and then hurriedly upload the best photo on the celebrant's or my own Facebook timeline then tag them before midnight.