With this release of eStream’s “Shibuya Scramble Figure” of Gojo Satoru, has the perception of this company changed for the better?! Let’s discuss.

[Updated 06/16/2022 @ 10:30 AM Central]

Unboxing / Assembly / Review

AmiAmi & Shipping

• Paid on Saturday, 2022/02/12
• Shipped on Wednesday, 2022/02/16
• Arrived on Wednesday, 2022/02/23
• Picked up at Post office on Thursday, 2022/02/24

Not much to say about AmiAmi, other than being one of the most, if not the most trusted site to import your anime figures. They send an invoice to your email with shipping options and you just login to pick, which one you want. I chose EMS.

Paying With Paypal’s Conversion Rate

The good thing about AmiAmi is that they don’t make you pay right away if you use Paypal. I think some other sites like Good Smile Company US and RightStufAnime make you pay upfront with PayPal. One thing to avoid when paying overseas is using Paypal’s foreign currency conversion rate. They overcharge you for this! Please get yourself a credit card with 0% foreign transaction fee and save yourself some moolah! I use Blockfi’s “Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card.”

Use link here if interested.

If not, there are plenty of other credit cards and debits cards that you can use to avoid fees. I would recommend using credit cards though, why not get some cash back rewards while collecting your favorite anime characters?!

Figure Review

Assembly

The figure comes with the base and figure. You simply put the pegs in the peg hole and voila! It’s done.

Aesthetics

Two things pop out most about this figure, it is the face and the base. Estream gets an A+ for always choosing cool dynamic poses and they picked a good one with the cover of manga volume 4. The color of the base looks extremely cool, especially if you got some LED lights in your display! The past few days, I kind of just laid in bed and stared at it with the lights on, amazed.

The figure itself isn’t too spectacular, but the face is where this figure shines. Without addressing the obvious part about the tongue, his face looks exactly like the manga cover. Getting footage of his face and taking pictures of it, you’ll just notice just how photogenic he really is. Of course, those blue eyes are what the ladies are going to dig most about him. This is totally a figure that guys and girls would enjoy.

I almost forgot! If you like this figure, you might like many other figures by Design CoCo. A lot of “Shibuya Scramble Figures” are sculpted by them.

Box

I probably spent way too much time speaking about the box presentation, rather than the figure itself in the video. Is it really basic? Yes, it is.. My whole thought process is about receiving a product that looks valuable. No matter how much I want to publicly support this company, I can’t overlook how much better (insert any other figure company), has better boxing presentation. Ranking all of my scale figures boxes I own, all of the “Shibuya Scramble Figure” boxes would be at the bottom. Taking it to the extreme, you wouldn’t like paying $200+ for something that is based on its looks and it came in a trash bag right? No, you wouldn’t. Presentation matters. I just want the box to match the quality they are trying to portray as “high end” as the figure itself.

I would really like to know what you guys think about boxing and the presentation itself. Does it really matter to you?

Price

[Updated 06/16/2022 @ 10:30 AM Central]

I purchased it here at AmiAmi.com.

Cost – ¥19690 * 2 (Figure Price) + ¥12480 (EMS Shipping) = ¥51,860 or $450.96

The best deal for this figure from the US that I’ve seen has been from the Crunchyroll Store. $209.99 with free tax or if you have a premium account or higher, you’ll get the $188.99 price.

I know it may be hard to believe, but this figure is one of the more affordable “Shibuya Scramble Figures” you can get out there. Listed as $225.99 on RightStufAnime, the price difference from buying on AmiAmi with EMS shipping is pretty minimal. If you pick him up from AmiAmi, you can probably get him for around $200 with the cheaper, but slower shipping method like surface parcel.

Knock on wood; I have not dealt with returns on RightStufAnime yet, but I do know Entertainment Earth and the Crunchyroll Store have a good return policy. If you’ve read my ‘Wargreymon‘ blog post, then you’d know that I returned it with a full refund to the Crunchyroll Store. Assuming the worst case scenario that your figure comes broken, I would assume it to be much easier to deal with US stores, rather than companies across the globe. If you live in another country, I’d assume the same case as well, domestically.

Valuation

Even about a month after release, this figure seems to still be in-stock, so the aftermarket prices hasn’t really hit just yet. With eStream’s reputation, it may take a few more releases like this one to catch on demand later on. Also, they are releasing a ‘Monochrome‘ version of the same figure. So, that may take another hit to this figure’s value. After saying all of that, with a superior pose and cool blue effects, this scale figure has the recipe to appreciate in value overtime. I am really interested to find out what demand for this figure looks like a year from now—with more scale figure releases and if eStream’s reputation turns more towards a positive direction.

Shibuya Scramble Figures vs the Competition

Excluding some resins that I’m not sure are officially licensed; scouring the figures on myfigurecollection.net, you would find yourself looking at over 100 Gojo figures with many being prize figures and other small figurines. With a character as OP as Gojo, you would think there would be so many figures of him with special effects. With the recently released pre-order of the Figuarts ZERO line of figures, he may have maybe 4 figures with effects? He doesn’t have many options in the $200-400 range. Currently, that is what seems to be my sweet spot for the kind of figures I want to collect.

Another Gojo scale I’m picking up, is the “Mappa Showcase” scale that is suppose to be release in the coming months. Just from an Aesthetics standpoint, the Shibuya Scramble Figure wins hands down.

As I always do, I look at Kotobukiya figures to help guide me for what I should expect. Disappointingly, they chose really basic looking poses for him. If you stack up those figures with the prizes or Pop Up Parades, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference of what’s what. Thankfully figure-wise, this “Shibuya Scramble Figure” of Gojo is off-the-chain!

Pictures

Last Thoughts

Would I recommend this figure? YES! For $230, this is the first “Shibuya Scramble Figures” that I felt like the price was justified. With a dynamic pose and what we are looking to get out of this figure the most, this figure accomplishes. The base illuminates with just right melting of various shades of blue and the face 100% portrays the character it is suppose to embody. With his tongue out and glowingly pretty blue eyes, Gojo Satoru gives the ladies a titillating add to her collection and gives the guys some added alpha male energy to his collection. This figure is a “must get” if you are a fan of the character and Jujutsu Kaisen.

Gojou Satoru info

Otaku Sinh’s collection

Preview

Kotobukiya’s Kocho Shinobu ARTFX J

Figuarts ZERO Rengoku Kyojuro; Feb. 2022 release