I used to spend quite a bit of my spare time at work sculpting these Barbie-type girls out of foam, even going as far as making outfits for them afterwards! To sculpt them in their various poses, I used to have to picture the finished figure in my head before beginning carving. You would have thought I’d have picked up one of those wooden jointed figures to help with the poses, but what I REALLY wanted was something to help me configure the structure in the girls’ faces!
One day my friend and I were browsing through a hobby shop in town, and I came upon this most BEAUTIFUL Figure of a Japanese Girl. The detail in it was just incredible, and I remember holding it and peering through the plastic window of the box and exclaiming, Oh My GOD, the detail on this Girl’s FACE is just AMAZING!!!
Now, THIS was the kind of reference Doll I needed to help with my sculptures! But then I saw the price and was taken aback by its price tag of $49.95. Whoa- That was like, FIFTY BUCKS! Though I thought the craftsmanship of the figure was excellent, I didn’t have that kind of money, so back on the shelf it went!
Fast forward to a few months later, and I’m at another Comic/Hobby store and I see that identical Figure of that Japanese Character, only this time it’s been red-tagged at an amazing $19.99! Well, you just COULDN’T beat THAT! So I purchased that girl RIGHT AWAY!!!
After using the doll as reference a few times, it went back in the box and instead of helping me in my artroom, went onto my mantle above my Album and DVD Collection with some of my other collectibles. She sure looked beautiful there!
Years Later, I’d invited a few of my fellow J-pop fanatics over to watch Princess Princess Concerts on laserdiscs, when one of them glanced over at the display shelf, and excitedly yelled, “HEY, YOU’VE GOT YUNA! I GOT THAT SAME FIGURE! WOWWW….I DIDN’T KNOW YOU LIKED FINAL FANTASY! I’VE GOT YUNA, LULU, ETC…”
“Dude”, I interjected, “Sorry, but I totally bought this figure ONLY because I thought the chick was hot and well-made. I don’t know the FIRST THING about Final Fantasy, and I have to tell you that until you said it, I’m not even sure I knew her name was Yuna!”
He gave me a disgusted look and I could tell that to him, this “Yuna” was a precious character that meant a lot to him. He dropped the subject but gave me the feeling he was thinking that someone who didn’t know/appreciate Final Fantasy had NO BUSINESS owning a nice collectible like that! FF Collectibles were meant to be collected by fans of FF!
I can sympathize to a degree. I had a friend whose parents bought him all kinds of toys growing up, and as an adult, I was in his room and saw that among the many toys he’d saved was one of those 24” SHOGUN WARRIORS dolls, the one of DRAGUN.
“WOW!” I said, “I didn’t know you liked GETTA ROBO–G! I have the GREAT MAZINGER one and the YUSHA RAIDEEN one, but I’ve NEVER seen DRAGUN til now!” to which he glanced over at the doll and said, “Oh, is THAT who that is? I dunno, my Parents bought that for me at a Swap Meet when I was a Kid.” I went “D’OHHHH”! LOL!
