Nightmare X Pullip (err Taeyang) Collaboration

For those of you who don’t know, Nightmare is a Japanese visual kei rock band. Even if you don’t happen to follow visual kei but happen to be an anime fan, you may just recognize some of their work  as two of their songs “The World” and “Alumina” have appeared in the anime Death Note. I personally recognized their name because their single “”Raison d’Etre” was used as the opening for the anime Claymore.

Recently Groove did a collaboration with the band and released a LE500 set of all of five dolls based on the band….
nightmare
The Band: Sakito (lead guitar & backing vocals), Ni~ya (bass & backing vocals), Yomi (lead vocals), Ruka (drums & percussion) and Hitsugi (rhythm guitar)
NIGHTMARE
The Dolls: Sakito, Ni~ya, Yomi, Ruka and Hitsugi

Information about the set: The dolls were released in June. Sakito, Ni~ya, Ruka and Hitsugi are all Taeyangs while Yomi is an Isul. Each of the dolls is a limited edition of 500, the original MSRP for the dolls was 18000 yen each.

I’d said Groove did a pretty good job capturing the band’s likeness, granted I was very fortunate to find a photo of them that they seemed to be wearing similar outfits as the dolls. I really dislike that Groove only ever released the one promotional shot of this set and that it wasn’t the clearest shot of all the dolls as it really didn’t do the dolls justice.  Personally I favor Ruka but all of the dolls are well done, not just as representations of the band but as fairly unique dolls. I love it when Groove steps outside of their comfort zone and takes a bit of a risk like this.

A very limited number of all five dolls are currently available as a set at Pullipstyle- here . At this time Yomi, Hitsugi and Ni~ya are also available separately unfortunately Ruka and Sakito are only available if you buy the set (why is it always one of the ones I want that can only be acquired as a part of a set T_T).

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009 RE:CYBORG Francoise Arnoul Pullip

Pullip started releasing anime collaboration models back in late 2006, since then there have been several different anime collaboration dolls released some were a better match for Pullip than others. I think I can safely say, I never expected to see a collaboration Pullip based off a character from 009 Cyborg. 009 Cyborg was originally a manga that started in 1964 and ran all the way into 1981, it has since been made into two different anime tv series and two different films over the years. The Francoise Arnoul Pullip was released to commemorate the newer of the two films that was released in fall of 2012, 009 Re:Cyborg.

Historically the premise of the series was nine humans were kidnapped by an evil organization and then turned into cyborgs with special powers, the cyborgs then band together to defeat the evil organization that made them into cyborgs and have continued adventures fighting other threats. 003 Francoise Arnoul is the only female on the cyborg team. She is originally from France and was a ballet dancer before becoming a cyborg.

Francoise Arnoul
I have not seen 009 Re: Cyborg movie yet as it was just licensed for distribution in the US by Funimation over this past summer but I have watched all of the newer of the two of the tv series and watched the original movie. While the 009 Cyborg series is massively popular in Japan, I still feel it was kind of an odd choice to do a collaboration with Pullip she is a really pretty doll though.
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Pullip Ally

Pullip Ally is a special Pullip model that was released to commemorate Pullip’s tenth anniversary. Ally was released back in August, she has the special low price of 8000 yen ($80 in the US), which was the same price that Pullip was when she was first released over ten years ago. Pullip Ally is only available for purchase through Groove’s website, I ordered mine through Groove’s US store JPGroove and she arrived last week.

Ally is the picture of simple yet stylish elegance. Ally seems like she designed with the idea of being the perfect starter Pullip in mind (lower cost doll yet not as bare bones as the My Select dolls) though she would make a great addition to just about any Pullip family!
Ally
A simple dress and brightly shining blond hair….That’s all I need to be wonderful….Feel Like So.

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MIO (Make It Own) Pullip Line & wig review

What is Make It Own (MIO)? Besides from being some fantastic Engrish on the part of Groove, it is a new line of stuff for Pullip (and company) so you can customize her and make her your own. The initial offering includes stock replacement bodies, wigs, clothing as well as shoes. Eventually there will also be blank doll kits (including an eye mechanism) offered. This line in theory is a customizer’s dream come true!
Make it Own!
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Sasha Pippin

By now, you should know the drill; Sasha invites you into a fairy tale and fantasy land, Sasha is an anthro type doll made by Groove (the same company that makes Pullip).  I finally decided to accept Sasha’s invitation to this strange fantasy world because Pullipstyle slashed the price on them, they went from being about $115 each to $89.95. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel they were worth the price before it was more of I have so very many dolls on my wishlist already do I dare trying out something new? I guess I do, with the price marked down it was too hard to resist bringing home a couple to check them out especially since I hadn’t been able to find much information/owner photos of them plus curiousity and all that.
Sasha Pippin
Tonight Sasha will come to you as an emperor in your dream..

I already reviewed Lumina here and did a comparison post with other Groove dolls here so now it’s time to review Sasha Pippin. Pippin was one of two Sashas released earlier this year that had a golden skintone, the other was Cecil who is much more of a feminine feline. I had incorrectly assumed that just the heads were actually the gold color and that their bodies would be a normal skintone but as you can see in the previously linked comparison post their entire body is that lovely golden color.

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Sasha Comparison Post

Sasha is a newer doll line put out by Groove, the same company that makes Pullip. They are anthro dolls and they come with either a cat or a rabbit head. I recently had a few come into my possession and since there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of owner photos or information about them I decided that I should share as much information as I could about them as surely I couldn’t be the only one being killed with curiosity about these.
Sasha Pippin & Lumina
Sasha Lumina and Pippin were picked as the representatives for Sasha so that I had one of each type of head (cat and rabbit).  I also happen to think that Lumina and Pippin make a quite striking pair together.
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First Look at Sasha Lumina

Sasha invites you to a fairy tale and fantasy land. Sasha are 1/6 dolls that come with either a rabbit or cat head depending on the model. Sasha dolls are made by Groove, the same company that makes Pullips. They are somewhat similar in style to Groove’s other 1/6 fashion line Jdolls but focus on more fantastic clothing, they also share inset doll eyes but both lack an eye mechanism for movement.

They say curiosity killed the cat, I’ve been very curious about Sasha for a while unfortunately her price even at Pullipstyle who is renowned for their reasonable prices on Pullips and other Groove dolls was quite high at $115 (and they were the cheapest).  Curious or not, I couldn’t quite justify spending quite that much an unknown doll thankfully the price for Sashas has been recently been reduced to a much more affordable $89.95.

I received two Sasha dolls from Pullipstyle, Sasha Lumina (cat type) and Sasha Pippin (rabbit type) since I haven’t been able to find much in the way of owner photos of Sasha dolls I decided they needed full reviews. Lumina is up first as well as they say ladies first…
Sasha Lumina
Lumina was inspired by the star’s light. She was  released in February of 2013. Unlike Pullip, Sasha seems to have an infrequent release schedule the first two were released in January of 2012 and the rest have been sporadically released. As of this writing eight different Sasha dolls have been released so far (four cat type models as well as four rabbit type models).
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Arrival: Pullip Io!

I had a new arrival this past Saturday, the lovely Pullip Io! Pullip Io is part of the Dreaming Bird of Myth series, she has a peacock theme. She was August’s Pullip release (September here in the US) and I preordered mine via my favorite purveyor of Pullips Pullipstyle.
Fatima
Like the blue sky, Like the green forest, Like the pitch black night… Wearing colors and stepping out with excited… Feel Like So.
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Wilhelmena the Witch Pullip

Pullip Wilhelmena was released in June of this year but I didn’t actually manage to get mine until mid-August. Wilhelmena is the second witch-themed Pullip  release, the original witch pullip was the limited Banshee who was released back in 2011 (if you are so inclined you can read my review of her here and/or buy her at Pullipstyle here ) whereas Banshee was a cute witch Wilhelmena is quite scary.

Upon seeing promotional photos of Wilhelmena I was initially very excited about her until I noticed her price (her MSRP is  ¥16000) which kind of put me off a little, luckily I found a  good deal on her (I paid roughly $100) and I’m glad I did as I absolutely love her! I have to say though I was reluctant at first to pay the full price for her  knowing what I know now and how thoroughly impressed I was with her quality that I would gladly buy her again at MSRP if I didn’t have her already as she is totally worth it.
Fairuza
Abracadabra!! I will make you mine with this magic Spell!! …. Feel Like So.
I named her Fairuza after Fairuza Balk who played a witch in the film The Craft which was quite popular back when I was like in middle school. Somehow Fairuza just sounds like a witchy name, so it works for me.
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Nurse Natalie Dal

Nurse Natalie has actually been here  since late July, unfortunately I haven’t had much time for photography lately due to events in my personal life. Now that things have calmed a bit for the moment, I am hoping to be able to focus more time and energy both on this site and on photography in general.

Natalie is a Gothic Lolita themed nurse Dal and she was released in April of this year. I tend to like things that are cute yet slightly disturbing at the same time so this release was definitely a must have for me!

I purchased Natalie from Pullipstyle, she actually arrived alongside Pullip Supergirl who I’ve already blogged here.
Annie
It’s not scary so don’t run away… don’t cry even if it hurts… I’ll treat you!!
I decided to name her Annie after the character Annie Wilkes from Stephen King’s book Misery who was a rather unhinged nurse with a passion for romance novels.
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