Recently quite a few packages arrived in the mail for me. As promised, I’ve decided to share with you guys all the cool stuff I get and share my thoughts on whether it’s worth the buy or not. First up, and probably one of my favorites to arrive recently, is the Hatsune Miku 2.0 Nendoroid by Good Smile Company!

Now, I never used to be a figure person. Being really into art, I started ordering art books a while back. One of the magazines I ordered, Volume 8 of Pixiv Quarterly, actually came with a petit nendoroid. After unboxing her, I began to understand why a lot of people love buying figures. And so, my figure collection began to slowly grow.

If you love collections of art work and figures, I highly recommend picking up this issue of Pixiv quarterly. I ordered mine from here. Right now, it’s about $16 with shipping on CD Japan.

Anyways, now on to the main event!!

As it stood, I had four other nendoroids from Good Smile before Miku 2.0 arrived: (in order from left to right) Sakura Miku, Yozora Mikazuki, Mirai Suenaga and Nyaruko. Now to open the package.

Nyaruko and her trusty crowbar are always a great help when I need to open any packages. Everyone knows she have some pretty sweet combat skills, but what few people know that is that she is a master in the art of opening packages.

And voila!!

Alright, now onto the details. Hatsune Miku 2.0 is the 300th Nendoroid released by Good Smile Company. Now you may be wondering, “Why the 2.0 on the end?” Well, that’s because Good Smile has released a Hatsune Miku Nendoroid before, back in 2008.

Pre-orders for Miku 2.0 began in mid-December 2012 and lasted until mid-Janurary 2013. She retailed at 3900 yen (not including shipping), which is roughly $39. the first shipment went out in May, with the the second shipment following the next month.

I don’t usually order my figures directly from the Good Smile Online Shop, the reason being prices on AmiAmi are usually cheaper by a few bucks. In addition to lower prices, they give you more shipping options, compared to Good Smile which only ships by EMS. While your figure will arrive much sooner, it will also cost you much more. However, if you did pre-order her from the Good Smile Online Store you received a Nendoroid pouch as a bonus.

At the time pre-orders went up, I wasn’t really into buying figures so I held onto my money. I actually had no idea there was a pre-order bonus until I saw people posting their pics of Miku 2.0 after the first shipment went out. I have to admit, the pouch is pretty freaking adorable.

Like I said, I held onto my money when pre-orders originally went up in December. I decided to look around sites about a month ago to see if I could find anyones that still had pre-orders open, or stock of the first shipment.I found three options, one here on Nippon Yasan and the first and secondary productions on Playmoya.I decided to order mine from Playmoya, where it cost me around $60 bucks, which is pretty reasonable.

If you decide you want any figure, my suggestion would be to check the top rated stores on MyFigureCollection. AmiAmi is the best place to get figures if you’re pre-ordering, while Playmoya and Nippon Yasan are the two best places to get figures after the pre-order window closes in my opinion. My only advice if you decide to use Playmoya, as I did, is to check the site everyday, as the price tends to go up and down a lot. If you watch it closely enough you can score a pretty good deal.

Here’s a better shot of what the front of the box looks like, as well as a shot of the back.

Alright, let’s open the actual box up now.

It’s worth mentioning that this box is actually slightly larger that what most nendoroids by Good Smile Company come in. This is not the first time the box has been slightly larger. For example, Snow Miku: Fluffy Coat Ver. came with a larger box due to the fact that a light up ice stage came with her (I still need to get this figure).

If you’ve ever bought a Nendoroid before, the picture above makes it seem like Miku 2.0 comes with just about the same number of poses. However…… Upon closer inspection……

BAMM!!! There are even more pieces hidden behind Miku herself!!! This came as a great surprise to me. I was paying around the same amount of money as I would for any other Nendoroid, but I got even more pieces than the average nendoroid!

Now before we move onto the final section of my post, a few shots of the different kinds of poses you can make, I thought I would mention two things. First, I want to point out a small little detail that I found interesting and quite nice about Miku 2.0.

Now normally when you order a nendoroid, the head pieces each have heir own joint that cannot be removed. That means if you want to change a facial expression, you have to pull the head off the body, then take the hair off the front and back, choose your facial expression, put the hair back on, and then attach it back to the body.

Miku 2.0 on the other hand comes with a separate joint that is used for all the facial expression. No need to take off the back of the hair or remove her head from the body. Changing her expression is as simple as taking off the front piece, changing the expression, and putting the front piece back.

Even though it’s something rather small, it makes changing expressions so much faster and easier. I think this is the first time Good Smile has done this and I hope they stick with it.

Secondly…..

It turns out that the back portion is actually a mini room for Miku. In all nendoroid boxes you can take out the back cardboard, but it is usually just a solid color with the word nendoroid in white repeated over and over as a pattern.

Just stand it up, pop out the pieces as instructed, and BAM!!! Miku has her very own room. It’s a rather simple idea and a nice addition.

Alright, now for the last section. I’ll show you some of the poses Miku 2.0 can make.

As you can see, Miku 2.0 comes with the standard square stand. I prefer the M-stands, but I guess the squares stands aren’t half bad. They just stand out in pictures a lot more than M-stands.

And for the Grand Finale I thought I’d bring in all my Nendoroids for a little jam session. What’s great about the instruments is that they can be used with any other Nendoroid! I’m a sucker for anything music related.

Let’s get some close-ups, shall we?!

To Buy or Not To Buy? That is the Question

First things first. Buying figures really depends on how much you like the character. You’ll enjoy buying a figure of a character that you really like much more than one that you may not be to keen on. Don’t just buy it because it’s a good deal, think it through. Buying a figure is not a cheap investment.

Miku 2.0 is definitely my favorite nendoroid so far. This is in large part due to the fact that I am a die hard Miku fan. If you’re a fan of Miku I highly suggest that you get this figure if you gather enough money together at some point. If you’ve never bought a figure before, I think Miku 2.0 would be a great first Nendoroid. The only other Miku nendoroid I have is Sakura Miku, so I can’t really comment on whether it’s one of the best Miku nendoroids out there or not. However, as you saw, Miku 2.0 comes with a lot of poses, more than the average Nendoroid. Compared to the other Miku figures, I think Miku 2.0 probably has the most poses, and therefore, the most bang for your buck!!