Fantastic Loot Get!

Hi everyone! I have a VERY exciting loot post (at least for me lol) that I wanted to share because I'm so happy!

It all started when I saw this amazing figure offered at the last Treasure Festa in Ariake 10.

All photo credit goes to the amazing Figureneet: http://figureneet.com/

This figure has ALL of my favorite things (original character, cute lolita, flowers...) and I just had to have her ;_; Normally I would just look at Yahoo!Japan Auctions after the festival but it is extremely hard to find original sculpts on Y!J. I’ve found that most people who sell festival kits on there are only interested in making a huge profit so they jack the price up often 5-10k above retail value or more (a.k.a. they are scalpers) and usually only sell kits that are “in” like Miku, Saber, Bakemonogatari, Girls und Panzer, etc. from popular sculptors. This is also a really good heads-up if you want to look on Y!J; if the resin kit you like is from a popular sculptor and a popular series you are almost guaranteed to find at least one on auction after a festival. Yeah, recasts are also an option, but they also specialize in popular stuff (more $$$ of course) so you aren't likely to find obscure stuff so that was really never an option for me.

Anyway I was really sad thinking I’d never have this beautiful kit in my hands until a user on MFC sent me a PM saying this particular sculptor (figureneet) was selling her original kits online! So I went to the page and unfortunately I did not see any indication that she was willing to mail overseas. I sent an email for the heck of it in Japanese thinking I’d be ignored and she actually responded a few days later!!! And she was willing to sell a copy to me!!! After about a week of communicating through Google Translate lol she sent my order and it arrived today :D

She sent it all in a box and the pieces were all wrapped in plastic loool (most of the time you get a cute box):

Nobody wants to see the boring unpainted parts hahaha

And of course a parts list is included:

Every single part has a little picture next to it and the ones surrounded in a box are extra small and are included in a small bag. The right shows some contact information, how to construct the umbrella, and maybe some info about Ringo?

And honestly that's all I expected since that was all I purchased...but NO, figureneet threw a whole bunch of other stuff in too ;_; <3

She handwrote a separate note for me on how to assemble certain parts in English and included all of her contact information. I didn't scan that part since it's similar to the picture above but she also drew this on the back!!!

Ringo heading from Japan to America ;_; <3

Figureneet also included four small pictures of her original characters and a larger one (probably used for display purposes at her booth). I don't want to post too much of her artwork without authorization but here is one of my favorites:

Ringo and her friend Sakura  ^^

OK, so I got all this cute artwork and stuff so that should be it right?! WRONG! On top of the figure and all this amazing artwork figureneet actually sent me two mini GKs, Sakura and Ringo, that you can use as keychains or cell phone charms.

Each girl is around 7cm.

Mini Ringo

Mini Sakura

Apparently each girl costs ¥1000 at the festivals so for her to include them is really generous...

I was absolutely blown away by the service and communication I received. It truly means a lot to me that figureneet took the time to get back to me and was willing to send her sculpt internationally. I have asked a few other sculptors before if they would be willing to sell internationally because I love their items and want to support them directly but most of the time it’s too much trouble on their end for it to be worth it I guess. She even sent up a Paypal account just to accept my international payment and shipping was FAST, I received Ringo in about three days.

So I ended up getting one of my dream kits and much more just by taking a risk and asking about it. ^^ I guess the whole point of this is to let people know that many sculptors who sell kits do it just because they love the hobby (most of the time they are not making a profit). If you are interested in garage kits and truly want to support your sculptor do not be afraid to send an email and don't be afraid if you can't speak Japanese perfectly, I certainly couldn't. By directly contacting the sculptor you also avoid annoying proxy fees and scalpers who are looking to make a quick buck. Another GK builder that's pretty well known in the community, Leonasenshi, also did something similar recently with a Sonico kit and the sculptor was willing to personally cast her another one so it seems like my case is not an exclusive event.

Thank you for reading! I hope this inspires you to search for your grail GKs in new and creative ways.