This review is on the Sailor Venus S.H.Figuarts figure. Sailor Venus has always been my favorite sailor scout, so of course I jumped at the chance to get this awesome figure of her.

She comes with her Sailor V mask, different interchangeable faces and hands, and Artemis the cat. She can be displayed in many different poses and her joints and the paint applications look great.

The stand is a bit awkward. It has a clasp to hold onto her leg instead of a peg and a hole on her back like most figures I have. She falls over occasionally because of the stand design. It is also more difficult to swap out her face and hands that on some other figures I own, such as the Nendoroids. Sometimes, it also feels a bit awkward to try to pose her.

I briefly considered trying to collect all of the sailor scouts, but that would get far too expensive, so I will most likely stick to just this one. If they ever make one of her in her Sailor V  outfit, I might get that one as well too. If Good Smile ever comes out with Sailor Moon Nendoroids, however, I just might have to collect them all.

I do wish she came with some more accessories, however. Her transformation pen or wand would have been nice. Still, Sailor Venus is an awesome figure and she is worth getting if you are a fan of Sailor Moon.

I preordered the Nomwhal and Disapproval Meowchi from Tasty Peach Studios back in April, and they finally arrived in the mail yesterday!

Before I talk about the latest items I purchased from this company, I feel like I should give a bit of background. Tasty Peach Studios is a small company based in Indiana that sells items featuring cute Japanese-inspired characters. They offer a variety of plush toys, t-shirts, jewelry, and more. They sell their merchandise on their website and at various anime conventions. I’ve only purchased their plush toys, so I can’t comment on the rest of their adorable items, though I’m sure they’re just as awesome as the plush.

Most of their plush toys seem to be based on food. Their main line of plush, Meowchis, are mochi kitty cats. They also have plush dolls of several other food inspired characters, as well as Zombie Alpacas. The first plush I purchased from Tasty Peach Studios was the Kyandi llama plush, and I’ve been in love with their plush characters ever since. Eventually I caved and bought the Strawberry Meowchi too. It’s a super cute pink cat! What’s not to like?

Nomwhal

I was super excited for the Nomwhal plush when it was announced. Nomwhal is an ice cream cone narwhal. It is the perfect companion for Kyandi, the cotton candy alpaca. It looks like vanilla ice cream covered in strawberry syrup and sprinkles. Its horn is an ice cream cone, of course.

He is made of super soft minky fabric. The main part of his body is pure white and he has pink on his back and head with embroidered sprinkles. The pink color is a darker, more hot pink shade of pink than the pictures on their website and Facebook page.

He is kind of awkwardly shaped, and it is difficult to get a good picture of him that shows his face and body details. I guess that kind of goes with the territory of being a narwhal though! His awkwardness is part of his charm! (I keep calling him “he.” Truth be told, I don’t know what gender Narwhal is supposed to be. It is pink, but I think of it as a “he” for some reason.)

Nomwhal is quite a bit bigger than the rest of the plushies from Tasty Peach Studios. It measures 15 inches long. At $35, it is also the most expensive plush they currently offer. If you are a fan of large plushies, it is well worth the price.

Disapproval Meowchi

Disapproval Meowchi started off as an April Fool’s day joke. Due to high demand, Tasty Peach Studios opened up preorders for it so everyone who wanted one could actually get it. It’s grey and its face is the “look of disapproval” emoticon. ಠ__ಠ

He is just a hair bigger than my Strawberry Meowchi. He feels slightly more densely stuffed than the Stawberry Meowchi as well. The fabric on each Meowchi also feels a little bit different. I’m not sure if this was intentional or if they switched manufacturers at some point. I have a Lychee Meowchi ordered as well, and I’ll compare all three of them once it arrives.

Meowchi’s are pretty small. They stand at 5.2 inches tall. As with all of the limited edition Meowchis, Disapproval Meowchi was $25 (the regular “flavors” are $20 each). This seems pretty steep for such a small plushie. They are made of high quality minky fabric, however, and have beans in their bellies to help them to sit upright. Still, for the price I would say that they are more collectors items for adults/teenagers than toys for small children. Disapproval Meowchi’s face alone makes him worth the $25. The only thing I don’t like is the tag placement. It covers his face too much when it is facing down the right way.

A few more things

The gang’s all here! At least until my Lychee Meowchi arrives!

I was a bit disappointed that it took so long to receive my plushies. The shipment for the Nomwhals came in on time in July. I wasn’t aware that it wouldn’t be shipped until my Disapproval Meowchi came in as well since I ordered them together in one order. After inquiring about it, they said they won’t ship items separately if you ordered them together. The shipment containing the Disapproval Meowchis (as well as the Lychee and Mango Meowchis) was delayed by customs, so I had to wait almost two extra months to get my Nomwhal as well.

Considering how much they charge for shipping (not to mention the costs of the products themselves), I would have thought that they would make an exception for preordered items, and just ship them as they came in. If the shipping costs really are that big of an issue, some kind of acknowledgement that they actually appreciate their customers would have been nice (such as a coupon code for my next order or some small trinket or something!).

Instead of appreciation for the people who preordered, I noticed on their Facebook page that they were starting to get a bit rude to customers who asked about their preorders over the last few weeks. I understand that it can be annoying answering the same questions over and over again, but not everyone reads every single Facebook post or knows to scroll to the very bottom of their website and click on a tiny, tiny link to read the FAQs. Normally Tasty Peach Studios seems friendly to their customers on Facebook, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt this time and assume they either let someone new respond to customers on Facebook, or that it’s just a one time thing do to the stress of getting these items out.

That said, I will still likely buy more plushies from Tasty Peach Studios in the future. I will just try to be careful about ordering multiple items at once if they are preorder items. I plan on getting their Pug Wonbon plush when it is released, as well as a Unicorn Meowchi and Rainbow Meowchi if they ever release plush of those characters.

I bought the Haru-Chan Nendoroid solely because of how adorable she is. She is apparently a mascot for Japan’s NHK General Newswatch 9 and stars in her own webcomic on NHK ONLINE called Haru-Chan’s Weather Trivia.

Haru-Chan is the goddess of spring and all of her accessories fit the theme. You can check out her website on NHK ONLINE here. It’s all in Japanese, but there is a video that explains some things in English… for some reason.

Haru-Chan’s Weather Trivia Comic Strip

She comes with a giant koi that she can ride, three faces, different lower body pieces for sitting and standing, a cute little cat, an extra hair piece, and three different wands. The kanji on the top of her head says “Haru,” which means “Spring.”

The pictures online showed the cat holding onto the back of the fish, which was one of the main reasons I wanted this figure. While it can technically be posed this way, it’s a bit difficult to get the cat to stay on. There are no pegs or anything to keep him attached to the fish. Instead, his front legs just squeeze the fish’s tail and you have to set him on the back of the fish just right to get him to stay. Even if you get him on, he usually falls off eventually.

Other than the issues with the cat staying on the fish, the only problem I have with this figure is that the standing lower body piece doesn’t stay on very well. It’s too loose and separates from the upper body piece too easily. The sitting lower body piece doesn’t have this issue, however. I prefer displaying her sitting on the fish anyway.

It might seem silly for an American to buy a figure based on something from a random Japanese news channel, but just look at her! You know you want to add her to your collection! I’m keeping her on my desk right now, right next to Madoka. They look so cute together!

Overall, Haru-Chan is one of the cutest Nendoroids I have. I plan on keeping her on my desk all winter to remind me that spring will be here soon!

I bought the Nendoroid of Madoka in her magical girl outfit after finally watching the series. This Nendoroid is super cute and comes with plenty of accessories and extra pieces.

One of the best things about this figure is that she comes with Kyubey, who has two bodies to chose from. He can be posed sitting or hanging from Madoka’s arm. She also has three different faces, an extra set of hair bows with longer ribbons, and her bow and arrow.

I do have a couple issues with this Nendoroid. When I took her out of the box, I noticed that some of the parts felt kind of sticky and she had a plasticy smell. At first I was afraid that she might be a bootleg, but I found out that some Nendoroids have a problem with stickiness , particularly older ones that have been kept inside the packaging for too long.

Apparently they add a plasticizer to the PVC to make Nendoroids softer and more flexible. If you keep them sealed in the box, especially if they are stored in a hot environment, the plasticizer evaporates and leaves a sticky residue on the figures. You can apparently clean them with dish soap to remove the stickiness, but I want to make sure I’m using a soap that won’t damage the paint on the figure before I attempt it.

The other minor issue is that her hand comes loose sometimes and falls off when I try to pose her. I believe this figure is an older design, which could explain both the problems with stickiness and loose connectors. I think newer Nendoroids have tighter connectors so they don’t come apart as easily.

Overall, I’m glad I got the Madoka Nendoroid Figure. She is super cute and looks great on my pink desk with the rest of my pink action figures.

There are several other Nendoroids of Madoka as well, including her in her schoolgirl uniform and Nendoroids of other characters in the series, such as Homura. I may get one or two more Puella Magi Madoka Magica Nendoroids in the future.