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.

Unboxing: Movic Fate/Zero Color Colle Box

Fate/Zero Color Colle Box is by Movic and the set consists of eight small figures that you can hang on your bag, mobile phone, or anywhere else that you can think of.

What to expect. (Image from AmiAmi)

I obviously bought this to get Gilgamesh, and then I started liking Kirei Kotomine as a character recently, so the more I looked forward to the set. Only six characters are in the box, but there are two Sabers and two Kiritsugus. 

I sold Rider, the two Kiritsugus, and Waver to two friends, and my fiancé got the other Saber. I kept Gilgamesh, Saber, and Kirei. Of course I had to open the box for inspection and see which one's which. But don't worry, the little ones are mint in sealed plastic condition, as you can see below:

I took a picture of Rider and Waver before I let them go

Here's what the box looks like:

It's just a small box--shorter than a figma's box, and there are eight smaller boxes inside. When I opened them one by one, I realized that they're arranged neatly by master-servant. On the left column are the masters, then the servants are on the right column. Kiritsugu and Saber on the top row, Kirei and Gilgamesh on the second, Waver and Rider on the third, and Kiritsugu and Saber again on the last row. I don't know if all box sets of these figures are arranged like that.

The goods that I got to keep

The figures are about more than an inch in size, so they're really small. They can't stand on their own, and they're basically designed to hang from somewhere. If you don't want to hang them up, you can probably make them lean on something.

But they tend to fall over because of their big & seemingly heavy heads

They're cute and they didn't have a strong PVC smell when I got them out of the plastic. They make excellent collectibles if you're a huge fan of Fate/Zero or any of the characters included in the Color Colle 4th Holy Grail War Box.

Here are more pictures of Kirei, Gilgamesh, and Saber:

Kirei's like, "Okay, I'll leave you to frolick with your woman." to Gilgamesh

Kirei: "No, seriously, what am I doing here? What if they start making out in front of me? Take me somewhere else, human!"

And that's it for this short unboxing/review of the Fate/Zero Color Colle Box. :)