There are so many anime (statue & posable) figurines in the market now, but since there are still unexperienced people (mostly in developing countries) in buying animango stuffs (maybe i'm one of 'em), they may later feel disappointed after seeing that some items they bought didn't satisfied them so much and would be a problem to refund them back (high prices would be a hassle).

All right, my main focus is about buying female figurines actually...:

1. Is it only resin the main material in most figurines? Any other types?
2. How could I know the quality of the figurines before buying them?
3. What type of figurines that have soft feel (read:squishy ^-^) in certain parts of a figurine and how would I know that?
4. Is it possible to create a new figurine mold, duplicate a figurine or modding existing figurines? What tools/type of paint I need? (Coz I could customizing stuffs like Gundams and Transformers, so customizing figurines would be a new experience to me).
5. What is actually the purposes of figurines anyway? (i.e As a collection? To make someone faps (sexual item)?)

Out of topic: There's a Haruka Takamori figurine (made by 2 different companies, Kotobukiya & Alter) which I planned to buy, does it have squishy boobs?

To answer question five (and this is a secret, don't tell anybody), the figurines are actually infused with a special kind of magic. If you know how to unlock the secret, they will come alive and scratch your back for two hours straight. It feels sooooo good, they can do it way better than any human can.

Huh? What secret?
Hmm... this one look nice too...
http://wcloudxkumo.wordpress.com/2008/10/24/kotobukiyas-tamaki-reservation-starts/

>>1

>What is actually the purposes of figurines anyway? (i.e As a collection? To make someone faps (sexual item)?)

I've seen pictures of them stuck in dicks, hope this helps

Yesterday I bought of a set of Sekirei gashapon figurines... yup, as I expected, NO SQUISHY BOOBS! (It's damn hard...) But it got some posability on the head (ball joints! wow!) and shoulders (360 degree rotation only, no spread via cylindrical peg). I wonder how I could soften it...

>>5

>I wonder how I could soften it...

Heat it up until it melts. Then it'll be real soft, and useless.

>>1
1) They're pretty much all some form of plastic. There are probably a handful of "polystone" ones out there.
2) You don't. The kits you assemble will look however good you are at assembling. The pre-assembled ones will look however good the guy who made yours is. Your best bet is to look at the pictures and see.
3) Squishy rubber is a terrible choice for creating a figurine. For one thing, it would be impossible to paint since the paint would crack when you squished it.
4) Quite a few modders exist out there, they typically show off their work as a single piece at a convention and if one person is lucky, auctioned for a lot of money. Start with a knife and some model paint, and you too will be ruining perfectly good figurines in an attempt to remove their shirts.
5) They're for peeking up their skirts, duh.