My rising obsession (forgive me if there are only a few objects)

Oh, that's it. Thank you.

So, wikipedia says it's really an anime. With school and sci-fi. That's why you say it's for "freaks"?

Must be at least good to watch, because this girl appears so much.

Back in the topic theme. How you guys collect these figures? Because in the anime and game events, I see some of these figures being sold "without box". Are they mostly hand-crafted? I ask that because I'm so "retail-oriented". I really like boxes (sealed preferably) more than "oem" things. Can you guys tell from where an unboxed figure comes from or you guys don't mind and buy the ones you like most, branded or not?
And about the market, there are pirate ones affecting the licensed ones? There's fans who support this market like the games market?
Or you don't need to care about that because maybe you found a figure posing a way that doesn't exist officialy?
hehe, sorry for so many questions, I don't know if you guys like to talk about it, but a market so big, with so many variables, it's so complicated... XD

 

I buy them online or offline:
Anime Jungle
Anime Conventions
http://www.ebay.com/
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/
http://www.hlj.com/
http://www.kotous.com/
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/
http://www.alafista.com/ and http://www.dannychoo.com/ are blogs that also mention figurines (more of the latter than the former). Although the former only alerts you to the figurines...
(I think that's it)

As for the other questions... I can't answer most of them so I'll try to answer them).

Either machine-crafted or mold crafted then painted or inked with color (or the garage kits successfully become the figurines). (materials are PVC or something else).

I buy my stuff from branded ones... or I buy it in eBay (even if the figurine is unsealed).

Doubtful (even if there were stuff like that), all around the world, the people are buying the licensed ones.
As for the figurine market... the hardcore otaku from Japan and around the world. This book shows you how many people buy figurines around the world. (but there's a mix of collections here) [both Japanese and English translations are there]. I have that book amongst my collection...

Sometimes the figurines have movable joints, so sometimes I don't care about it...
Or there's a piece of technology that helps...
http://www.akibanana.com/?q=node/959 (3D printer in Akihabara)

Anyway if someone can answer the questions above me better than I can (Rogue's post)... you can get a cookie from Rogue XD

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