We missed a few companies(I forgot to add them to the list) and certainly our opinions won't resonate with everyone, but hopefully you guys enjoyed this fun little(big) vid
I shoulda done it a little bit more but I was really strapped for time as I was heading to my Brother's wedding for the weekend. Glad that improved the video a bit for ya tho
I was ready to grill you about Methos, but you saved it right at the end! The Jinx figure they made with the light up explosion (that wasn't in the description) is amazing! And the A-Z line, v detailed. One of the best Freeing 1/4 scale is X10. Then it was generic bunnies?! Union Creative did do a great and unusual figure i have of Calne Ca. One of my fave Miku figures. Square Enix did do one good figure, Million Arthur Nimue. Eikoh have v cheap well made figures in the Puzzle and Dragon line, I have quite a few. And a top notch Amazingly detailed figure for the price is GSC Bang Dream Girls Band Party Mitake Ran that was 18000 jpy but I waited for a sale price and got it for 9000 jpy! Never seen so much detail and colour for the price. The guitar is amazing and even has strings! 10/10. One figure i wish would come around again and I'm not sure why it hasn't, is Eureka (from E Seven). She has so few figures and are all cheap ones. Imagine a 1/4 scale. I often buy figures just because they look cool and have bright colours and I think this character has it all. Shout it out Zucco, I expect companies watch your channel! One last thing i need to say..... I wish companies would give up already on these stupidly huge boobed figures!! So tiring now.
I get disliking FREEing because of their lack of experimentation and shading/detailing, but seeing them below Union Creative especially given my experience with how poorly their figures turn out even compared to the prototype is a headscratcher personally. I guess we probably just had different experiences with them, and I am just coming off of receiving my 1/4 Reimu which turned out pretty well after all. I guess I could say the same thing about me viewing Spiritale poorly just because the one figure from them I wanted happened to be the Miku mentioned. Nice to see you guys do a collab like this, great hearing you guys' thoughts even about companies that I'm pretty unfamiliar with.
I hear alot of mixed things about Union Creative. When I talk negatively about them in my Preorder Roundups I usually get some comments about how im being too harsh so I figured perhaps I was in the wrong. I think both me and Derick just have so much more of an opinion on FREEing that it's easier for us to feel strongly about their figures where as UC it's just how they look a bit mediocre from afar. Unfortunately I forgot that I DID have some figures from them, but they were posable and havent been on display in years because they just suck so much and dont stand up straight lol
Idk, I do think Megahouse is pretty consistent high quality across their Digimon, One Piece and Shippuden figures but I do think they're a bit pricey too. For Kotobukiya, I agree about the exclusivity but generally the quality matches the price. Also last year they announced they're launching an official online store for the US in 2025, so hopefully that means we can start getting those bonus parts easily and preorder with them 🤞. They are actually my favorite scale figure manufacturer (lol!) because of cost/value, but I would put them and Megahouse in A tier and Alter in S tier (my three favorites). Alter figures just FEEL premium haha. GoodSmile scale figures are B tier for me but mostly because they just overall struggle to do male characters right (faces usually look off) and I primarily collect male character scale figures. Their male Pop Up Parades are usually atrocious but across the board the seem to do female characters well.
This was such a fun video! I loved hearing both your takes, especially on the brands I'm less knowledgeable about. I did want to touch on Claynel since I haven't seen anyone else comment on it. They're actually a rebrand of Revolve! They made an official post about it on 2023.02.12, but basically: "Since its establishment in 2010, Revolve has expanded its business beyond the production of figurine prototypes to include the production of decoration masters, reproductions, and mass production of these. In order to further develop as a figurine manufacturer, we will be changing our company name and corporate logo to reflect our desire to "have free creativity and passion, and bring new joy to the world. We will be exhibiting our first booth as Cranell at Wonder Festival 2023 [Winter], which will be held at the Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall on Sunday, February 12, 2023." And as Revolve, they released so many bangers!!! They have the best Holo figure, hands down, and probs my favorite Asuka (as someone who owns the Alter one, too). Also, their Touken Ranbu and Natsumes Book of Friends?? They really have a good record of making affordable figures that look almost identical to their prototypes. (Ok, I'll get off my soap box. I just - they have a good track record! It's just that no one knows! TT^TT) On Megahouse, I do think their quality control is pretty good. But they keep such a tight grip on all my favorite shounen. I just want some 1/7th scales. ^^" Who do I need to sell my soul to get a good 1/7th scale Kakashi. Or an Orihime.
Myethos and Apex Cater to me! As a new collector I dont have very much from a single company yet, but Myethos and Apex have so many of the character/ figures I am the most excited for. Edit: Freeing is a company I have mostly no interest in. I see some nice figures of my waifus but I refuse to spend that much on a figure. The only figure they got me with is the Bunnygirl Rupee from Nikke. It is the skin for my best girl that brought me back to nikke. I saved up reward points on my Credit card and hella points on TOM in preparation for it.
The very first scale figure that captured my interest was by Myethos and I was so frustrated because Myethos wasn't on MFC at the time. It was a vocaloid figure and I didn't even know what a vocaloid was at the time. I just loved it and I've loved seeing how their quality has remained consistent.
Most FREEing figures drop in price at least but I'll give em credit that their Nikke figures look better than most of their other products probably the character designs carrying the products
Fun video! I totally understand the view on Prism Wing, they don't have very good examples but I do have the Vanitas PO'd since there is no way I will take my chances. Expensive for sure. I do have the Prime 1 Studio Asta and I've currently ordered there Fairy Tail Erza/ Gray/ Natsu/Happy, but I feel pretty confident about them. Although I don't specifically love Erza's translucent hair ends, it wasn't a deal breaker. I do have the DMM Factory Erza PO'd too, so I hope the quality is there. Release is suppose to be next month. I wish there were more top tier companies that made things to my taste but I am expanding my companies for sure. Agreed on a lot of opinions!
If it means anything, DMM's Erza is one of their better sculpts so far. Nice composition behind that one and her face looks pretty good. Price feels much more justified compared to the Oshi no Ko girls too
Apex is S tier for me, but that's because they make a lot of figures that I'm interested in, and I think their quality is quite good. And I would argue that FuRyu is C tier. I think a lot of their stuff is crazy overpriced and their quality is just kinda mid. Other than that, I'd say I mostly agree with your list. I'm a Freeing hater, so I cheered when you guys put them in D tier, lol. Would love to see more collab videos btw!
I cannot believe that Madoka and Homura were manufactured by Stronger! I thought they were made by Aniplex but Aniplex was the distributor! I just received Homura and I am just waiting for Madoka to be released this month! Apex is starting to become one of my favorite manufacturers because their quality and price point is amazing! FuRyu's FNEX line is very hit or miss but when they hit, they hit! i have their Dark Paladin and Miku scale and they look so good!
Love this collabs!! Looking forward to more!! sad that Phat Company has soo many QC issues with the paint work. thankfully they seem to do kinda well for the no game no life figures. I have alot of shiros from them and the colours are vibrantly beautiful ❤
Even though I'm planning to sell my Shiro figure from Phat since I'm downsizing, I will say for the price it's a pretty solid figure and all the mini figures she came with was a nice touch
I love this collab! I wish freeing would just branch out the designs a little, like when characters have a canon bunny outfit I wish they would take some inspiration from it
The thing that makes something like this difficult for me is that I don't know whether I should rank something by their best or by their average. On the one hand, the average is what they "are" in general. On the other hand, as a collector with finite resources, I would often ignore the "average" and only get the best. For example, I got the Milim Nava from Prisma Wing and she actually look right, as opposed to the many others that do not. It was also mentioned that FREEing do have some that aren't just typical bunny girs and those do tend to be their best work. In addition the Mirko, I'd say the Jibrils was also quite nice. On the flip side, if we were to go by "average", Alter would be the only one I'd put in S. None of the other company is consistent enough for that honor. Well, maybe Myethos, I don't own anything from them as I'm not interested in the characters they do but at least as far as I know all their scale looks quite nice and are reasonablly priced(relatively speaking). GSC and Max Factory suffers especially on this front, they simply have too many figures and lots of them are... not great to say the least. Poor Licorne didn't even get ranked. It is basically known for the one grail Jalter, everything else is meh in every way possible.... Also pretty much dead.
I didn't rank Licorne because yeah they closed doors. I added them to the list but decided while filming to skip it last second to save time(we filmed both our vids back to back). Also considered Aquamarine but they've been gone for so long that it felt unnecessary
After getting the Azur Lane RQ trio, and especially Prinz Eugen, I think APEX can rival ALTER, Max Factory or any other top tier Japanese brand. They really upped their paintwork and sculpture, and their premium figure line's price is very attractive in this non-stop inflating time. Myethos is pretty good up there too. For the budget concious crowd, both of these companies are also putting out affordable, sub-10k yen scale figures with decent details and paintwork and tbf they look much better than the Japanese offerings like PUP or Tenitol.
There's a few incoming Apex figures that have a ton of potential imo(New Jersey Wedding Dress, Remilia Scarlet Blood Version). Like these two in particular feel a cut above many of their other products(which are already good) so if they stick the landing on those I would probably just bump em up even higher
@MigPadin ah the reason we didn't talk about Bandai is because they didn't really fit alongside everyone else in terms of what they mainly focus on. If it was strictly non posable figures I'd put em low but I like gunpla and figuarts so they cool enough in my book
I definitely agree with bumping Stronger up to A. I own their Dark Sakura and Saber Alter pair and they're fantastic. They seem to make a lot of great Type Moon figures with their Mash, Nero, and Ryougi Shiki figures being considered the best of their respective characters and the rest of their line up with Madoka Magica and Love Live look great too. I might also advocate for bumping up Good Smile Arts Shanghai to A. I just received their Surtr figure and it's amazing especially for the price. I don't think they've ever really missed with their scale figures, their prices seem good, and their line up of figures is pretty diverse too.
The only thing I wanted to mention is that Claynel has been around the block for a while (2010), just as Revolve. They are wholly owned by Aniplex. I think what could be done would have been making a weighted grading system so that you can breakdown value, sculpt, paint, and lead times, but then that would be like a 5 hour video at that rate. That way, you can show companies where you would recommend them for their superb quality even if their price would drag them down or you can show that this company makes the best bang for the buck with great pricing structure but still have pretty good sculpt (previously I would have put Kotobukiya with a great prices and great sculpt but mid paint job but their prices have been creeping up recently). Might be a different video or maybe just a scoring system where Value (3), Sculpting (3), Painting/Shadowing (2), Lead Time (1), and Bonus Points/Others (1).
I'm a huge Final Fantasy VII fan and I wish Square Enix did a better job with their figures. I do collect them, but I refuse to pay full price, thank goodness for AmiAmi Pre-owned section. They just recently annouced a new line "Play Arts Shin" from what I can see these will be the same size as the Play Arts Kai. Promo picture looks good for the fist figure (Vincent Valentine), so fingers crossed they are finally stepping up their game with the figures.
Right now my girlfriend has been collecting those Bring arts figures of the FF7 characters but based on their original Nomura art. She just wants the main party but we missed Barret and of course he's super expensive now and hasn't gotten rereleased. I heard clouds figure has a bunch of issues but I can't lie I dig how they look since they went with the older designs
@ I’ve been collecting them too. They look spot on to Nomuras art. I’ve also missed out on Barret and Red XIII. Clouds biggest issue is his hip joint likes to pop out, nothing major, but does make issues for posing
I loved how this video came out it was great! The collab was amazing!! Would you consider doing a tier list of websites to pre-order/order or from I wanted to give this idea if someone else hasn't commented this yet :3 And Hello!!!! :D
I would put Union Creative on B simply because of the Tohru figure that I own, which is a great figure, but that's it, just personal bias, they're pretty hit or miss from what I see online, but the Tohru figure in particular they did a great job.
Prisma wing is crazy with their pricing but I have the shadows house figure pre ordered... over a thousand bucks, I pray it lives up to the prototype. People who have see it in person say its immaculate
got a possibly unpopular opinion about apex even though they make a lot of genshin/chinese game characters that i'm interested in. their 1/7 xiao had a lot of inconsistent QC issues; there were complaints on his MFC page about missing pieces on his necklace, effect parts, etc. mine has an orange paint splotch on the white part of his sleeve. also, their paintwork is nothing special, shading is almost nonexistent and very simplistic. it lends itself to a very cheap plasticky look, especially on the faces. i find they are carried by good sculpting and the intricate designs of the characters, which they can recreate with decals instead of paintwork. lastly (this is kind of a positive), but i noticed that the facial expressions look better in the final product than in their promotional images for several of their genshin figures
Maybe some people would get mad at me for saying this but I feel like across the board Chinese companies use less shading for their figures and I wouldn't be surprised if apex is the same( even if I do like most of what they make)
@@ZuccoFigures yeah i've observed the same, it's probably to save costs which at least reflects in lower prices. personally, i know lack of shading will bother me so i try to stay away from chinese manufacturers unless it's one of my all-time favourite characters. my freeing bunny has better shading than that apex figure lol
My top 3 are definitely Alter, GSC, and Max Factory these days; high consistency and excellent marks across the board for execution (sculpting, shading, and composition). Myethos and Apex are fast becoming some of my favorites as their value and consistency are incredible. Ques Q I love as well for consistency and execution, but good lord their wait times and that price point sometimes...
Ques Q has long wait times yeah but GSC feels just as bad ever since the pandemic. It's a shame that we never bounced back in that regard but they're also making so many more figures now that It's not super surprising
@@ZuccoFigures No shot, GSC has been very on top of their releases, at least for scales, when's the last time anything got a major delay ? During the pandemic you had 1 year turnaround + 1 year delays, nowdays is a dream. I misread a bit, yeah their turnaround is similar, but we definitely bounced back compared to the pandemic.
@@lootyy sorry yeah I just meant that before the pandemic the wait time was alot shorter but it's true we don't get many major delays anymore. Maybe like a month or two
@@ZuccoFigures I'm actually not even confident that's true, looking at pre 2020 GSC scales on MFC the lead time was about 8 - 12 months, and 3-4 month delays don't seem rare.
I will say I just got the Rias Gremory 1/4 figure and I must say, she looks amazing. I'm also waiting on Akeno. But the best Triforce of all the figures will always be Alter, GSC and Max Factory.
I agree with y'all on Amakuni, I'll keep an eye on that Ariel, Shiraori was my 1st pre-order, and she's been needing a perfect companion. I scooped up Prisma Wing's Milim Nava on Amiami's Black Friday sale. I hope it delivers!
Of the manufacturers I am familiar with, my tier list largely mirrors the one in this video , as I am sure it does for many others. :) Thank you for this collab video! It was a lot of fun to watch. Please do more in the future if it is equally fun to make. :3
Square at the bottom made me laugh. They truly deserve that honor. I swear, their final product rarely if ever look like their promotional materials. You know what they can do? Outsource to almost any another manufacturer.
@sasamiadachi if people enjoy our collabs we'll do more for sure but I'm sure this vid will get alot of dislikes just due to all the opinions being thrown around lol
To be fair megahouse dose amazing figures even outside of one piece. Their phantom theves line is amazing, I recently boght their "black mask akechi" figure and its one of my favorite figures in my collection the sculpt and paint is all around realy good. I also love their hollow purple gojo figure but its realy expensive and hard to find so i dont have it.
@Morbius664 The phantom thieves Figures are solid for sure but I still think they are separated from their more extravagant figures. The gojo though falls into that category but the pricing and exclusively hurts for me
@@ZuccoFiguresyea i hope they re relese him one day even if its unlikely. Also how do you think is the bocchi figure from aniplex going to turn out? I was going to cancell my order but now im stuck whit her since i preordered from a physical retaller.
Probably my top list since collecting 2008 is ALTER, their consistent with their quality & craftsmanship - even there once in blue-moon dip with FATE trading figure quality still sufficiently good even though its their only trading figure which i got hold & also which they made. Followed by MAX FACTORY and GSC and some ALPHA-MAX and ORCHID SEED but definitely on the mature and risque side. FLARE is also good but the thing the deviates me from them - is their price factor which often is over-kill, they do make figure which sometimes can be on par on ALTER, but in some cases its a miss...also i collect YAMATO figure before which focuses on SHUNYA YAMASHITA illustration to figure translation which was quite good til the company suffered financial issues and went bankrupt probably around 2013. Although much Shunya work is absorbed by KOTUBUKIYA in bishouju series nowadays.
I have the most love/hate IntSys figures since I have gems like Camila and Lyn(I don’t know why it became popular to hate that one suddenly?) but then I didn’t get Lilina and Roy since the price was stupid, but then I love the Corrin and Alear as the Corrin is a top figure of mine… and then I see Square Enid and am grateful it didn’t turn out that bad
I think ALOT of people bought Lyn so there's just more people vocal about the QC issues she had. I still like her figure overall though. Currently in the living room with some other videogame figures
I kept imagining Reverse Studio was an expensive diorama manufacturer (who made the Shadow House upside-down Emi), but that was incorrect. After I learned Reverse Studio actually made a good amount of GFL/MICA Team figures. I'm hyped to buy something from them.
I would've put Claynel on A for sure too, her Illya and Kuro are so CUTE Not to mention that I own their Kama, and I fell in love instantly ❤️❤️ one of my cutest figures! The only thing I'm sad with that figure is that the shoe's base was a little fluffy puppy paw and the base which impales it was kind of sharp And the paw got severely damaged😢 But I'm not sure if that's due to the design. Anyways, it's on the bottom and no one can notice (bedsides of course the owner :c) Edit*, I'll leave this as a PS: I think a good way to do this was just going in order, and mentioning the name of each Cuz I got lost with some companies and their logos XD
@@ZuccoFigures Btw I edited the comment, because I focused so much on the bad things instead of the actual content And that was not my point (I'm still finishing the video, I'm loving it so far!)
Vertex was a company I just completely forgot about in the moment unfortunately. Same with Ribose. There's definitely room to tackle this topic again down the line though, especially with so many new companies popping up
Sorry but Apex deserves S tier. You guys aren't the audience of that company but the figures they've made are well crafted and Alter level. But the catch is - they are substantially cheaper than Alter for same amount of parts, poses, or faceplates. They almost always have a bonus item included with the figure (acrylic, card, file, etc). I would rate Apex higher than Alter currently. Amakuni is another good manufacturer. What you see is what you get. But I may not give them S tier only because their pricing is a little steeper. But if only quality is concerned, Amakuni is a comfortable S tier. Mimeyoi, again, easy S tier. Pretty much unrivalled. Pricing is fair too. This is the most unjustified out of the 3 that you guys did imo. B is like unfair and underrating them. Forget A, they deserve S tier.
Memeyoi is easy B tier, have you seen their le malin (super obvious bands on tights + way too pearly, not even close to the promo) and recent javelin that had the same issue + was INSANELY shiny overall and leaning, and their recent red skin issues with shoukaku on top. Plus they try to add cheeky cast off but it just looks straight up bad and unnatural.
@@lootyy I own the shoukaku, and her red issue is not even close to what was/is spread in rumours (mind you I was hesitant to buy her for this reason as well). You can even check some of the yt reviews which show her skin tones not red but the same color as taihou, which is completely natural (and like 10x more appealing than Freeing's yellow shades). I can't rate mimeyoi A or B tier because their sculpts, paint jobs, facial expressions, clean/smooth surfacing, is a tier above most manufacturers, like max factory for example, which is lacking in sculpt department when it comes to the figure being "sharper" (example: MF asuna, her hair strands are rounded and not pointy enough. Her hair is also bumpier like Freeing's and not as sharp and smooth). Regarding apex, I will admit their early figures were pretty bad, I believe the 2020-2021 timeline. But post COVID era, their figures have improved drastically. I will say yeah they are still not as sharp as Alter's, but for the price I certainly can't put them a tier below. Both of them are on par with each other. And I own like 9 or 10 figures each from both companies.
@@fangservicex2964 I have seen plenty of pictures, she looks obviously off next to Zuikaku, and given they were supposed to be displayable together that's a huge miss. Plenty of people on mfc also complaining about it, don't just handwave it away, it's a real issue. IMO Apex is way better than mimeyoi.
@@lootyy alright, so I'm supposed to change my pov, when I own the figure, to someone else's, when they don't own the figure and have only seen pictures, obviously the pictures must be doing the figure justice by lighting, angles, etc. over my naked eyes. Good luck to you buddy. I don't think this is worth arguing anymore.
@@fangservicex2964 You told me to check reviews, I told you I checked the pictures, apparently they're only valid when they support your opinion, okay then.
where would you guys rank Medicos Entertainment? I'm expecting the FGO Kama Final Ascension next year, but no idea regarding their quality....I just know they do a lot of Jojo stuff....
I forgot about them while making the video so maybe we can talk about them in the future but most of the figures I've seen from them didn't have the same ambition as their Kama figure so I'm really not sure. I know people really liked their Black Lagoon figures though
@@ZuccoFigures Thanks for the reply! Yea, their Black Lagoon figures do look awesome so hopefully the same quality comes through for Kama next year. Appreciate it! Great rank vid!!
Phat company stings bc they are the only ones making Danganronpa scale figures. The Chiaki rerelease took a year and a half to almost 2 years from preorder to release which for a rerelease is really weird especially when she still had QC issues 😭💀💀. I still love my Danganronpa figures but they need to shape up for future releases or I don’t see them being in business in 7-10 years. The concepts are good (I would argue far better than most kotobukiya figures) but they just can’t stick the landing. If they did consistently in quality and time lines I feel they would give kotobukiya a run for their money as to me kotobukiya is the only company somewhat comparable.
I like the Danganronpa figures just because I like Danganronpa but the QC issues make it hard to love em. Even putting them together is a bit of a pain
I actually don't mind Phat company, but that might be because the only figures I own from them is their Danganronpa line. Their Kyoko and Kaede are solid. Their persona figures aren't too bad either I don't think? Honestly, I'd rather buy one of them than a Freeing figure. And yeah Freeing is just below average. The only reason I own anything from them is because of the character less than the quality of the figure in question. Again Danganronpa, I love Danganronpa so I own the Junko, Chiaki and Kaede. And their prices make no sense. They are so, so lazy just doing several recolors and bare leg releases to get the most money out of people. No other company does that. Alter can have high prices too, but at least you know you're getting high quality sculpts. If they made figures of other franchises like One Piece and Persona I'd just buy Alter figures for everything. I won't forgive them for never finishing that Joker scale from P5, it would've easily been the best one.. Also, Amakuni is pretty good for the most part but I have to bring up their Power figure. That was so disappointing, a definite misfire there. Square Enix might be the company that has the most potential though that is being wasted away. Since okay you have final fantasy, but you also have Xenogears and Chrono Trigger/Cross and the entire Front Mission series and Dragon Quest and the entirety of Kingdom Hearts. What a waste.
I had to unbox kirigiri after moving and it was maybe the worst experience I've had in a long time with a figure. She was in the box for so long that I guess her hair drooped a bit too much and I had to pull on her hair while trying to fit her butt on the desk and it actually took so long while I was sweating during the entire thing lol. I do think the end result looks pretty good but there's always a bit of QC issues with their figures for me, DR included. I feel like I've used the Amakuni Power as a punching bag in so many of my videos at this point lol. Surprisingly I didn't even think to bring it up while filming, but I likely would have kept them in A considering it's really their 1 dud for me among a sea of quality.
P1 had to pump out about a dozen SE IPs before they were like, "Yeah, you've proven yourself worthy of using our FF7 license." And they start preorder this month😅 😅
I know, controversial opinion here. But I think Amakuni is a bit overrated. Yes, their sculpt work (detailing, scaling) and paint job are amazing! However, they do nothing creative (ever) with their bases, and their characters are usually super static. No effects, no posing, little design work in posing. It's like they never dare to do more, go bigger, or try to challenge themselves. I love their quality, but for that reason, I would argue that they would be a low A or top B for me.
Hobby max S tier just for nana figures. lol Really though I dont think I have any strong opinions figure companies. Other than i'm cheap so estream is no and my 1 phat figure is trash quality even though you can't tell unless you touch it so i wouldn't buy from them again. Also kotobukiya deserves an A, horror bishoujo series
S-Fire is basically Sega but just their "premium" offerings. Banpresto we decided not to get into this time around for a few reasons but I'd like to talk about them another time
This list is opinion based so of course I am going to disagree. 😃 I will just comment on what I feel is the most overrated and the most underrated. Most overrated is Myethos. I have a few figures from them. The shading is lackluster and the plastic seems cheap and thin, like I can see light through the figure too easily. Most underrated is Estream. I have 17 Estream figures and only 1 is a disappointment and 1 other I probably shouldn't have picked up because I am not crazy about the design. I have loved all the others with several among my favorite figures of all time. This is a better success rate than Alter of which I have been disappointed with on several occasions. Estream did get an early start on higher pricing when they started out but it is time to let that go as many other companies now charge the same amount or more for comparable figure designs. Estream for me is a top S tier.
Probably true but Prime 1 statues are a bit different than the rest of the figures we we're talking about in the video. Didn't feel right comparing them imo but hey maybe another time we can talk about em
![Best Phantom Knights Engines Tier List! - ft. Nicholas Lipsette [Card Brothers]](/img/n.gif)
We missed a few companies(I forgot to add them to the list) and certainly our opinions won't resonate with everyone, but hopefully you guys enjoyed this fun little(big) vid
Thanks for having me on for this fun video! 😆
I got the deluxe edition of Rozemyne from Ascendance of a Bookworm, only Stronger I have but she turned out great!
appreciate you editing in figure pictures as you talk about the companies
I shoulda done it a little bit more but I was really strapped for time as I was heading to my Brother's wedding for the weekend. Glad that improved the video a bit for ya tho
OMG My favorite creators collaborating together! Thank you so much! You guys have opened my eyes to new shops I have never heard of!
I was ready to grill you about Methos, but you saved it right at the end! The Jinx figure they made with the light up explosion (that wasn't in the description) is amazing! And the A-Z line, v detailed. One of the best Freeing 1/4 scale is X10. Then it was generic bunnies?! Union Creative did do a great and unusual figure i have of Calne Ca. One of my fave Miku figures. Square Enix did do one good figure, Million Arthur Nimue. Eikoh have v cheap well made figures in the Puzzle and Dragon line, I have quite a few. And a top notch Amazingly detailed figure for the price is GSC Bang Dream Girls Band Party Mitake Ran that was 18000 jpy but I waited for a sale price and got it for 9000 jpy! Never seen so much detail and colour for the price. The guitar is amazing and even has strings! 10/10. One figure i wish would come around again and I'm not sure why it hasn't, is Eureka (from E Seven). She has so few figures and are all cheap ones. Imagine a 1/4 scale. I often buy figures just because they look cool and have bright colours and I think this character has it all. Shout it out Zucco, I expect companies watch your channel! One last thing i need to say..... I wish companies would give up already on these stupidly huge boobed figures!! So tiring now.
I really do wonder if any companies actually watch my channel lol
omg 2 of my favorite youtubers collabing this is awesome
I get disliking FREEing because of their lack of experimentation and shading/detailing, but seeing them below Union Creative especially given my experience with how poorly their figures turn out even compared to the prototype is a headscratcher personally. I guess we probably just had different experiences with them, and I am just coming off of receiving my 1/4 Reimu which turned out pretty well after all. I guess I could say the same thing about me viewing Spiritale poorly just because the one figure from them I wanted happened to be the Miku mentioned.
Nice to see you guys do a collab like this, great hearing you guys' thoughts even about companies that I'm pretty unfamiliar with.
I hear alot of mixed things about Union Creative. When I talk negatively about them in my Preorder Roundups I usually get some comments about how im being too harsh so I figured perhaps I was in the wrong. I think both me and Derick just have so much more of an opinion on FREEing that it's easier for us to feel strongly about their figures where as UC it's just how they look a bit mediocre from afar. Unfortunately I forgot that I DID have some figures from them, but they were posable and havent been on display in years because they just suck so much and dont stand up straight lol
So happy with this collaboration, you both are my favorite creators 😁😁
Ha thanks. I'm sure there will be more in the future
Idk, I do think Megahouse is pretty consistent high quality across their Digimon, One Piece and Shippuden figures but I do think they're a bit pricey too.
For Kotobukiya, I agree about the exclusivity but generally the quality matches the price. Also last year they announced they're launching an official online store for the US in 2025, so hopefully that means we can start getting those bonus parts easily and preorder with them 🤞. They are actually my favorite scale figure manufacturer (lol!) because of cost/value, but I would put them and Megahouse in A tier and Alter in S tier (my three favorites). Alter figures just FEEL premium haha.
GoodSmile scale figures are B tier for me but mostly because they just overall struggle to do male characters right (faces usually look off) and I primarily collect male character scale figures. Their male Pop Up Parades are usually atrocious but across the board the seem to do female characters well.
This was such a fun video! I loved hearing both your takes, especially on the brands I'm less knowledgeable about.
I did want to touch on Claynel since I haven't seen anyone else comment on it. They're actually a rebrand of Revolve! They made an official post about it on 2023.02.12, but basically:
"Since its establishment in 2010, Revolve has expanded its business beyond the production of figurine prototypes to include the production of decoration masters, reproductions, and mass production of these. In order to further develop as a figurine manufacturer, we will be changing our company name and corporate logo to reflect our desire to "have free creativity and passion, and bring new joy to the world. We will be exhibiting our first booth as Cranell at Wonder Festival 2023 [Winter], which will be held at the Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall on Sunday, February 12, 2023."
And as Revolve, they released so many bangers!!! They have the best Holo figure, hands down, and probs my favorite Asuka (as someone who owns the Alter one, too). Also, their Touken Ranbu and Natsumes Book of Friends?? They really have a good record of making affordable figures that look almost identical to their prototypes. (Ok, I'll get off my soap box. I just - they have a good track record! It's just that no one knows! TT^TT)
On Megahouse, I do think their quality control is pretty good. But they keep such a tight grip on all my favorite shounen. I just want some 1/7th scales. ^^" Who do I need to sell my soul to get a good 1/7th scale Kakashi. Or an Orihime.
Myethos and Apex Cater to me! As a new collector I dont have very much from a single company yet, but Myethos and Apex have so many of the character/ figures I am the most excited for.
Edit: Freeing is a company I have mostly no interest in. I see some nice figures of my waifus but I refuse to spend that much on a figure. The only figure they got me with is the Bunnygirl Rupee from Nikke. It is the skin for my best girl that brought me back to nikke. I saved up reward points on my Credit card and hella points on TOM in preparation for it.
The very first scale figure that captured my interest was by Myethos and I was so frustrated because Myethos wasn't on MFC at the time. It was a vocaloid figure and I didn't even know what a vocaloid was at the time. I just loved it and I've loved seeing how their quality has remained consistent.
Most FREEing figures drop in price at least but I'll give em credit that their Nikke figures look better than most of their other products probably the character designs carrying the products
Great taste as always zucco 😊❤
Ha thanks. I tried to be pretty fair though even now I might make a change here or there to the list now that I'm rewatching and reading opinions
Fun video!
I totally understand the view on Prism Wing, they don't have very good examples but I do have the Vanitas PO'd since there is no way I will take my chances. Expensive for sure. I do have the Prime 1 Studio Asta and I've currently ordered there Fairy Tail Erza/ Gray/ Natsu/Happy, but I feel pretty confident about them. Although I don't specifically love Erza's translucent hair ends, it wasn't a deal breaker.
I do have the DMM Factory Erza PO'd too, so I hope the quality is there. Release is suppose to be next month.
I wish there were more top tier companies that made things to my taste but I am expanding my companies for sure. Agreed on a lot of opinions!
If it means anything, DMM's Erza is one of their better sculpts so far. Nice composition behind that one and her face looks pretty good. Price feels much more justified compared to the Oshi no Ko girls too
@@ZuccoFigures It is nice to hear, I totally agree!
Apex is S tier for me, but that's because they make a lot of figures that I'm interested in, and I think their quality is quite good. And I would argue that FuRyu is C tier. I think a lot of their stuff is crazy overpriced and their quality is just kinda mid. Other than that, I'd say I mostly agree with your list. I'm a Freeing hater, so I cheered when you guys put them in D tier, lol. Would love to see more collab videos btw!
I was real close to bumping Apex to S but I think with a few more in person experiences with them it woulda happened
I cannot believe that Madoka and Homura were manufactured by Stronger! I thought they were made by Aniplex but Aniplex was the distributor! I just received Homura and I am just waiting for Madoka to be released this month! Apex is starting to become one of my favorite manufacturers because their quality and price point is amazing! FuRyu's FNEX line is very hit or miss but when they hit, they hit! i have their Dark Paladin and Miku scale and they look so good!
Really should get those Madoka/Homura figures myself, though who knows maybe they'll get new figures now that the next movies approching
@ I plan to do a video on them hopefully by the end of the month. I remember when each was going for $500+ in the aftermarket!
@@DiamondFlame45 super expensive yeah. tbh I left my old Madoka behind cause she's very broken so I am in the market for a madoka...
Love this collabs!! Looking forward to more!! sad that Phat Company has soo many QC issues with the paint work. thankfully they seem to do kinda well for the no game no life figures. I have alot of shiros from them and the colours are vibrantly beautiful ❤
Even though I'm planning to sell my Shiro figure from Phat since I'm downsizing, I will say for the price it's a pretty solid figure and all the mini figures she came with was a nice touch
I love this collab!
I wish freeing would just branch out the designs a little, like when characters have a canon bunny outfit I wish they would take some inspiration from it
It's weird they wouldn't just make the canon bunny outfit 1:1 in cases like that
A freeing tier list would be a fun watch haha
plum is very low for me because of their headless scathach incident. the figure was prize quality too
I gotta look into that, unless you don't mind telling me about it
The thing that makes something like this difficult for me is that I don't know whether I should rank something by their best or by their average.
On the one hand, the average is what they "are" in general. On the other hand, as a collector with finite resources, I would often ignore the "average" and only get the best.
For example, I got the Milim Nava from Prisma Wing and she actually look right, as opposed to the many others that do not. It was also mentioned that FREEing do have some that aren't just typical bunny girs and those do tend to be their best work. In addition the Mirko, I'd say the Jibrils was also quite nice.
On the flip side, if we were to go by "average", Alter would be the only one I'd put in S. None of the other company is consistent enough for that honor. Well, maybe Myethos, I don't own anything from them as I'm not interested in the characters they do but at least as far as I know all their scale looks quite nice and are reasonablly priced(relatively speaking). GSC and Max Factory suffers especially on this front, they simply have too many figures and lots of them are... not great to say the least.
Poor Licorne didn't even get ranked. It is basically known for the one grail Jalter, everything else is meh in every way possible.... Also pretty much dead.
I didn't rank Licorne because yeah they closed doors. I added them to the list but decided while filming to skip it last second to save time(we filmed both our vids back to back). Also considered Aquamarine but they've been gone for so long that it felt unnecessary
As long as Max Factory is in S and Prisma Wing is in last I'm happy.
I've got beef with Prisma Wing after that luka figure went up, 32000 for WHAT
If Luka was put up before we filmed i woulda brought her up cause that price is horrid
After getting the Azur Lane RQ trio, and especially Prinz Eugen, I think APEX can rival ALTER, Max Factory or any other top tier Japanese brand. They really upped their paintwork and sculpture, and their premium figure line's price is very attractive in this non-stop inflating time. Myethos is pretty good up there too.
For the budget concious crowd, both of these companies are also putting out affordable, sub-10k yen scale figures with decent details and paintwork and tbf they look much better than the Japanese offerings like PUP or Tenitol.
There's a few incoming Apex figures that have a ton of potential imo(New Jersey Wedding Dress, Remilia Scarlet Blood Version). Like these two in particular feel a cut above many of their other products(which are already good) so if they stick the landing on those I would probably just bump em up even higher
I've never agreed more with a tier list. Good takes, fellas
Just came over from the DTTCReviews video!
Welcome!
I like the headphones Zucco!
I think it's a Sennheiser HD 598
I usually don't like wearing headphones but I gotta during calls lol. I've had em for years though. Sennheiser HD 598 like nemeadyneskal said
nice video, loved the colab, now im really curious, what are ur thoughts on bandai?
Cheers :)
@MigPadin ah the reason we didn't talk about Bandai is because they didn't really fit alongside everyone else in terms of what they mainly focus on. If it was strictly non posable figures I'd put em low but I like gunpla and figuarts so they cool enough in my book
Any company that make good miku figure is an S rank for me (as long as it doesn't hurt my wallet)
I definitely agree with bumping Stronger up to A. I own their Dark Sakura and Saber Alter pair and they're fantastic. They seem to make a lot of great Type Moon figures with their Mash, Nero, and Ryougi Shiki figures being considered the best of their respective characters and the rest of their line up with Madoka Magica and Love Live look great too.
I might also advocate for bumping up Good Smile Arts Shanghai to A. I just received their Surtr figure and it's amazing especially for the price. I don't think they've ever really missed with their scale figures, their prices seem good, and their line up of figures is pretty diverse too.
I probably could have left Shanghai in A yeah
The only thing I wanted to mention is that Claynel has been around the block for a while (2010), just as Revolve. They are wholly owned by Aniplex.
I think what could be done would have been making a weighted grading system so that you can breakdown value, sculpt, paint, and lead times, but then that would be like a 5 hour video at that rate. That way, you can show companies where you would recommend them for their superb quality even if their price would drag them down or you can show that this company makes the best bang for the buck with great pricing structure but still have pretty good sculpt (previously I would have put Kotobukiya with a great prices and great sculpt but mid paint job but their prices have been creeping up recently).
Might be a different video or maybe just a scoring system where Value (3), Sculpting (3), Painting/Shadowing (2), Lead Time (1), and Bonus Points/Others (1).
THE collab of the year
I'm a huge Final Fantasy VII fan and I wish Square Enix did a better job with their figures. I do collect them, but I refuse to pay full price, thank goodness for AmiAmi Pre-owned section. They just recently annouced a new line "Play Arts Shin" from what I can see these will be the same size as the Play Arts Kai. Promo picture looks good for the fist figure (Vincent Valentine), so fingers crossed they are finally stepping up their game with the figures.
Right now my girlfriend has been collecting those Bring arts figures of the FF7 characters but based on their original Nomura art. She just wants the main party but we missed Barret and of course he's super expensive now and hasn't gotten rereleased. I heard clouds figure has a bunch of issues but I can't lie I dig how they look since they went with the older designs
@ I’ve been collecting them too. They look spot on to Nomuras art. I’ve also missed out on Barret and Red XIII. Clouds biggest issue is his hip joint likes to pop out, nothing major, but does make issues for posing
@@Remi_Edits Shame that Zack will likely have the same issues considering theres a 99% chance its the same mold lol
This was an interesting video.
I loved how this video came out it was great! The collab was amazing!! Would you consider doing a tier list of websites to pre-order/order or from I wanted to give this idea if someone else hasn't commented this yet :3 And Hello!!!! :D
I'm not sure I would do a tier list but making a video based on stores to order from is something I'd like to do
@ZuccoFigures Yes! I'm pretty sure it's something a lot of us would like to see too! :D
Wow! Had no idea you guys knew each other! Great video.
He's a good pal
I agree about Amakuni being annoying, I would love to use some of my TOM points to get some of their stuff but you can't.
I would put Union Creative on B simply because of the Tohru figure that I own, which is a great figure, but that's it, just personal bias, they're pretty hit or miss from what I see online, but the Tohru figure in particular they did a great job.
Prisma wing is crazy with their pricing but I have the shadows house figure pre ordered... over a thousand bucks, I pray it lives up to the prototype. People who have see it in person say its immaculate
That's a strange Anime.
For that price it better be perfect lol. The prototype is certainly one of the best they've shown off at least
got a possibly unpopular opinion about apex even though they make a lot of genshin/chinese game characters that i'm interested in. their 1/7 xiao had a lot of inconsistent QC issues; there were complaints on his MFC page about missing pieces on his necklace, effect parts, etc. mine has an orange paint splotch on the white part of his sleeve. also, their paintwork is nothing special, shading is almost nonexistent and very simplistic. it lends itself to a very cheap plasticky look, especially on the faces. i find they are carried by good sculpting and the intricate designs of the characters, which they can recreate with decals instead of paintwork. lastly (this is kind of a positive), but i noticed that the facial expressions look better in the final product than in their promotional images for several of their genshin figures
Maybe some people would get mad at me for saying this but I feel like across the board Chinese companies use less shading for their figures and I wouldn't be surprised if apex is the same( even if I do like most of what they make)
@@ZuccoFigures yeah i've observed the same, it's probably to save costs which at least reflects in lower prices. personally, i know lack of shading will bother me so i try to stay away from chinese manufacturers unless it's one of my all-time favourite characters. my freeing bunny has better shading than that apex figure lol
Whoa whoa lol this is just a bias but estream Megumin? Yukino yukinoshita? The gojo figure too? And for union creative i like the C.C
I woulda probably put estream a lil higher if I was on my own but we were just making this for fun. Full of our own bias of course
@@ZuccoFigures of course lol
My top 3 are definitely Alter, GSC, and Max Factory these days; high consistency and excellent marks across the board for execution (sculpting, shading, and composition).
Myethos and Apex are fast becoming some of my favorites as their value and consistency are incredible.
Ques Q I love as well for consistency and execution, but good lord their wait times and that price point sometimes...
Ques Q has long wait times yeah but GSC feels just as bad ever since the pandemic. It's a shame that we never bounced back in that regard but they're also making so many more figures now that It's not super surprising
@@ZuccoFigures No shot, GSC has been very on top of their releases, at least for scales, when's the last time anything got a major delay ? During the pandemic you had 1 year turnaround + 1 year delays, nowdays is a dream.
I misread a bit, yeah their turnaround is similar, but we definitely bounced back compared to the pandemic.
@@lootyy sorry yeah I just meant that before the pandemic the wait time was alot shorter but it's true we don't get many major delays anymore. Maybe like a month or two
@@ZuccoFigures I'm actually not even confident that's true, looking at pre 2020 GSC scales on MFC the lead time was about 8 - 12 months, and 3-4 month delays don't seem rare.
@lootyy well it's certainly been a while that maybe I just forgot the specifics. Oops
I will say I just got the Rias Gremory 1/4 figure and I must say, she looks amazing. I'm also waiting on Akeno. But the best Triforce of all the figures will always be Alter, GSC and Max Factory.
I agree with y'all on Amakuni, I'll keep an eye on that Ariel, Shiraori was my 1st pre-order, and she's been needing a perfect companion. I scooped up Prisma Wing's Milim Nava on Amiami's Black Friday sale. I hope it delivers!
I've looked at Ariels page for what feels like a year now. I think I need to just order it lol
Of the manufacturers I am familiar with, my tier list largely mirrors the one in this video , as I am sure it does for many others. :)
Thank you for this collab video! It was a lot of fun to watch. Please do more in the future if it is equally fun to make. :3
Square at the bottom made me laugh. They truly deserve that honor. I swear, their final product rarely if ever look like their promotional materials. You know what they can do? Outsource to almost any another manufacturer.
@sasamiadachi if people enjoy our collabs we'll do more for sure but I'm sure this vid will get alot of dislikes just due to all the opinions being thrown around lol
To be fair megahouse dose amazing figures even outside of one piece.
Their phantom theves line is amazing, I recently boght their "black mask akechi" figure and its one of my favorite figures in my collection the sculpt and paint is all around realy good.
I also love their hollow purple gojo figure but its realy expensive and hard to find so i dont have it.
@Morbius664 The phantom thieves Figures are solid for sure but I still think they are separated from their more extravagant figures. The gojo though falls into that category but the pricing and exclusively hurts for me
@@ZuccoFiguresyea i hope they re relese him one day even if its unlikely.
Also how do you think is the bocchi figure from aniplex going to turn out? I was going to cancell my order but now im stuck whit her since i preordered from a physical retaller.
Seeing Prisma Wing so low makes me kinda worry for the newly updated Purple Heart Chaos Form figure lol
Probably my top list since collecting 2008 is ALTER, their consistent with their quality & craftsmanship - even there once in blue-moon dip with FATE trading figure quality still sufficiently good even though its their only trading figure which i got hold & also which they made. Followed by MAX FACTORY and GSC and some ALPHA-MAX and ORCHID SEED but definitely on the mature and risque side. FLARE is also good but the thing the deviates me from them - is their price factor which often is over-kill, they do make figure which sometimes can be on par on ALTER, but in some cases its a miss...also i collect YAMATO figure before which focuses on SHUNYA YAMASHITA illustration to figure translation which was quite good til the company suffered financial issues and went bankrupt probably around 2013. Although much Shunya work is absorbed by KOTUBUKIYA in bishouju series nowadays.
I have the most love/hate IntSys figures since I have gems like Camila and Lyn(I don’t know why it became popular to hate that one suddenly?) but then I didn’t get Lilina and Roy since the price was stupid, but then I love the Corrin and Alear as the Corrin is a top figure of mine… and then I see Square Enid and am grateful it didn’t turn out that bad
I think ALOT of people bought Lyn so there's just more people vocal about the QC issues she had. I still like her figure overall though. Currently in the living room with some other videogame figures
I kept imagining Reverse Studio was an expensive diorama manufacturer (who made the Shadow House upside-down Emi), but that was incorrect.
After I learned Reverse Studio actually made a good amount of GFL/MICA Team figures. I'm hyped to buy something from them.
I would've put Claynel on A for sure too, her Illya and Kuro are so CUTE
Not to mention that I own their Kama, and I fell in love instantly ❤️❤️ one of my cutest figures!
The only thing I'm sad with that figure is that the shoe's base was a little fluffy puppy paw and the base which impales it was kind of sharp
And the paw got severely damaged😢
But I'm not sure if that's due to the design.
Anyways, it's on the bottom and no one can notice (bedsides of course the owner :c)
Edit*, I'll leave this as a PS:
I think a good way to do this was just going in order, and mentioning the name of each
Cuz I got lost with some companies and their logos XD
Hey, not trying to say it was not good
I loved it
That's fair. Maybe I could add chapters later
@@ZuccoFigures Btw I edited the comment, because I focused so much on the bad things instead of the actual content
And that was not my point (I'm still finishing the video, I'm loving it so far!)
Felt like Vertex should be on this list as well. Their neptunia and elf series are pretty great. Agree with 99% on your list of choices though.
Vertex was a company I just completely forgot about in the moment unfortunately. Same with Ribose. There's definitely room to tackle this topic again down the line though, especially with so many new companies popping up
Sorry but Apex deserves S tier. You guys aren't the audience of that company but the figures they've made are well crafted and Alter level. But the catch is - they are substantially cheaper than Alter for same amount of parts, poses, or faceplates. They almost always have a bonus item included with the figure (acrylic, card, file, etc).
I would rate Apex higher than Alter currently.
Amakuni is another good manufacturer. What you see is what you get. But I may not give them S tier only because their pricing is a little steeper. But if only quality is concerned, Amakuni is a comfortable S tier.
Mimeyoi, again, easy S tier. Pretty much unrivalled. Pricing is fair too. This is the most unjustified out of the 3 that you guys did imo. B is like unfair and underrating them. Forget A, they deserve S tier.
Memeyoi is easy B tier, have you seen their le malin (super obvious bands on tights + way too pearly, not even close to the promo) and recent javelin that had the same issue + was INSANELY shiny overall and leaning, and their recent red skin issues with shoukaku on top.
Plus they try to add cheeky cast off but it just looks straight up bad and unnatural.
@@lootyy I own the shoukaku, and her red issue is not even close to what was/is spread in rumours (mind you I was hesitant to buy her for this reason as well). You can even check some of the yt reviews which show her skin tones not red but the same color as taihou, which is completely natural (and like 10x more appealing than Freeing's yellow shades). I can't rate mimeyoi A or B tier because their sculpts, paint jobs, facial expressions, clean/smooth surfacing, is a tier above most manufacturers, like max factory for example, which is lacking in sculpt department when it comes to the figure being "sharper" (example: MF asuna, her hair strands are rounded and not pointy enough. Her hair is also bumpier like Freeing's and not as sharp and smooth).
Regarding apex, I will admit their early figures were pretty bad, I believe the 2020-2021 timeline. But post COVID era, their figures have improved drastically. I will say yeah they are still not as sharp as Alter's, but for the price I certainly can't put them a tier below. Both of them are on par with each other. And I own like 9 or 10 figures each from both companies.
@@fangservicex2964 I have seen plenty of pictures, she looks obviously off next to Zuikaku, and given they were supposed to be displayable together that's a huge miss. Plenty of people on mfc also complaining about it, don't just handwave it away, it's a real issue.
IMO Apex is way better than mimeyoi.
@@lootyy alright, so I'm supposed to change my pov, when I own the figure, to someone else's, when they don't own the figure and have only seen pictures, obviously the pictures must be doing the figure justice by lighting, angles, etc. over my naked eyes.
Good luck to you buddy. I don't think this is worth arguing anymore.
@@fangservicex2964 You told me to check reviews, I told you I checked the pictures, apparently they're only valid when they support your opinion, okay then.
Got to give my top pick to goodsmile followed by max fac.
where would you guys rank Medicos Entertainment? I'm expecting the FGO Kama Final Ascension next year, but no idea regarding their quality....I just know they do a lot of Jojo stuff....
I forgot about them while making the video so maybe we can talk about them in the future but most of the figures I've seen from them didn't have the same ambition as their Kama figure so I'm really not sure. I know people really liked their Black Lagoon figures though
@@ZuccoFigures Thanks for the reply! Yea, their Black Lagoon figures do look awesome so hopefully the same quality comes through for Kama next year. Appreciate it! Great rank vid!!
Phat company stings bc they are the only ones making Danganronpa scale figures. The Chiaki rerelease took a year and a half to almost 2 years from preorder to release which for a rerelease is really weird especially when she still had QC issues 😭💀💀. I still love my Danganronpa figures but they need to shape up for future releases or I don’t see them being in business in 7-10 years. The concepts are good (I would argue far better than most kotobukiya figures) but they just can’t stick the landing. If they did consistently in quality and time lines I feel they would give kotobukiya a run for their money as to me kotobukiya is the only company somewhat comparable.
I like the Danganronpa figures just because I like Danganronpa but the QC issues make it hard to love em. Even putting them together is a bit of a pain
I actually don't mind Phat company, but that might be because the only figures I own from them is their Danganronpa line. Their Kyoko and Kaede are solid. Their persona figures aren't too bad either I don't think? Honestly, I'd rather buy one of them than a Freeing figure.
And yeah Freeing is just below average. The only reason I own anything from them is because of the character less than the quality of the figure in question.
Again Danganronpa, I love Danganronpa so I own the Junko, Chiaki and Kaede.
And their prices make no sense. They are so, so lazy just doing several recolors and bare leg releases to get the most money out of people. No other company does that.
Alter can have high prices too, but at least you know you're getting high quality sculpts. If they made figures of other franchises like One Piece and Persona I'd just buy Alter figures for everything. I won't forgive them for never finishing that Joker scale from P5, it would've easily been the best one..
Also, Amakuni is pretty good for the most part but I have to bring up their Power figure. That was so disappointing, a definite misfire there.
Square Enix might be the company that has the most potential though that is being wasted away. Since okay you have final fantasy, but you also have Xenogears and Chrono Trigger/Cross and the entire Front Mission series and Dragon Quest and the entirety of Kingdom Hearts. What a waste.
I so agree, one of my favorite figurines is my Yurucamp Nadeshiko from Phat Company and it has incredible detail!
I had to unbox kirigiri after moving and it was maybe the worst experience I've had in a long time with a figure. She was in the box for so long that I guess her hair drooped a bit too much and I had to pull on her hair while trying to fit her butt on the desk and it actually took so long while I was sweating during the entire thing lol. I do think the end result looks pretty good but there's always a bit of QC issues with their figures for me, DR included.
I feel like I've used the Amakuni Power as a punching bag in so many of my videos at this point lol. Surprisingly I didn't even think to bring it up while filming, but I likely would have kept them in A considering it's really their 1 dud for me among a sea of quality.
Flare is an easy S. Even the figures theyre roasting are incredible.
P1 had to pump out about a dozen SE IPs before they were like, "Yeah, you've proven yourself worthy of using our FF7 license."
And they start preorder this month😅 😅
And bad(or good? idk) news is they planning to do ALL of FF7 characters
@PettheW ah right Zack Cloud and Seph. Too large for me but they should be in good hands
no alphamax? :(
I know, controversial opinion here. But I think Amakuni is a bit overrated. Yes, their sculpt work (detailing, scaling) and paint job are amazing! However, they do nothing creative (ever) with their bases, and their characters are usually super static. No effects, no posing, little design work in posing. It's like they never dare to do more, go bigger, or try to challenge themselves. I love their quality, but for that reason, I would argue that they would be a low A or top B for me.
That's a fair point honestly. Can't even imagine how much they would start charging if they made intricate bases for their figures
Hobby max S tier just for nana figures. lol Really though I dont think I have any strong opinions figure companies. Other than i'm cheap so estream is no and my 1 phat figure is trash quality even though you can't tell unless you touch it so i wouldn't buy from them again. Also kotobukiya deserves an A, horror bishoujo series
1:08:10 Theres no such thing as too thicc
Truly cultured
SEGA? BANPRESTO?
S-Fire is basically Sega but just their "premium" offerings. Banpresto we decided not to get into this time around for a few reasons but I'd like to talk about them another time
This list is opinion based so of course I am going to disagree. 😃 I will just comment on what I feel is the most overrated and the most underrated.
Most overrated is Myethos. I have a few figures from them. The shading is lackluster and the plastic seems cheap and thin, like I can see light through the figure too easily.
Most underrated is Estream. I have 17 Estream figures and only 1 is a disappointment and 1 other I probably shouldn't have picked up because I am not crazy about the design. I have loved all the others with several among my favorite figures of all time. This is a better success rate than Alter of which I have been disappointed with on several occasions. Estream did get an early start on higher pricing when they started out but it is time to let that go as many other companies now charge the same amount or more for comparable figure designs. Estream for me is a top S tier.
prime 1 = sss tier
Probably true but Prime 1 statues are a bit different than the rest of the figures we we're talking about in the video. Didn't feel right comparing them imo but hey maybe another time we can talk about em
Hard to tell what companies make what.