I love lurking on 2chan’s /y/ for things like this.

Saw a thread linking to a new Shining Tears/Wind official blog, with a new entry on the upcoming 1/8 Neige Blanc figure by Kotobukiya. According to the entry, this is the final prototype version, that the mass production version will based on. It’s the exact same figure that was displayed in the 47th Shizuoka Hobby Show (coverages of it here, here and here, as linked from Heisei Democracy) .

Apparently, the final version is different from the previous versions shown in the other Shining Tear/Wind official blog, in terms of the shading, as seen here:

Left: previous version, right: final prototype. The shading sure looked brighter and more colorful, though it could be argued that the previous version’s picture was taken in under terrible lighting conditions ┐(´д｀)┌

Given how Kotobukiya has a (bad) reputation of producing figures with “oily”, “yellowy” skin color (mainly due to the materials used for the skin base. I heard that this kind of material is much cheaper, and thus allows Kotobukiya to continue producing figures with a cheaper pricetag. Most of their figures still go for 5000~5500yen pricetag, despite many other companies having a standard 6000~7000yen pricetag for 1/8 scaled figures), this upcoming Neige Blanc’s skin color/texture looks really good, just like their previous 1/7 Sasara Kusugawa figure (excellent gallery of it by Happysoda here). Can’t wait for it to be available on the market.