When I went to Japan in 2019, I was on the lookout for some iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls figures, in particular ALTER’s Ichinose Shiki: Perfume Tripper Version. For those that don’t know, this figure was based off of the illustration of Shiki’s first SR card in The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage, or deresute for short. The ones I found at second hand shops were quite expensive for me at the time: 22-24k JPY. I ended up finding and buying ALTER Koshimizu Sachiko instead, as she was based off of an SSR card I had recently gotten at the time.
Fast forward another year and a half to a few weeks ago in February, I managed to find her online at a local shop. Advertised as $290 for a brand new figure, I quickly refreshed myself on the original price, and after factoring in potential shipping and import tax had I bought it when it first came out from other shops, this was actually a reasonable buy. They also had a 10% off coupon, which made it even more enticing. Since I had never bought from them before, the skeptical me decided to ask for some photos of the figure box. I didn’t see any bootlegs of her before, but just to be on the safe side, I compared with some photos of the box on MyFigureCollection. It had the licensing sticker, and nothing seemed out of place, so I ordered and picked it up at my local mall at Metrotown.
And here are some photos of her after I picked her up and got home:
ALTER Shiki in box, front view. 
ALTER Shiki in box, right view. 
ALTER Shiki in box, rear view. 
ALTER Shiki in box, left view. 
ALTER Shiki in box, top view. 
ALTER Shiki in box, bottom view. 
ALTER Shiki in box, closer front view.
Taking her out of the box, we get the usual plastic holding her firmly in place during transport. Inside, we have Shiki herself, the chair she sits on, the box she rests her legs on, the book and bottle she holds with her hands, and a chair arm. The right chair arm is actually detachable because her cape actually goes on both the chair and the arm.
Shiki still in the plastic. 
The right chair arm, detached. 
The box that Shiki’s leg rests on. 
Shiki’s book and bottle. 
After removing the top half plastic.
Shiki’s base is also quite detailed. There are are bunch of papers on the base, and its colour reminds me of alchemy, which I find befitting for someone like Shiki who is like a mad scientist. She also goes well with Plachta from the Atelier Sophie series as well.
And with that, after sliding the left side of her cape into the left side of the chair, I attached the right arm into the chair, put the box on, and viola:
Ichinose Shiki, with everything out. 
Close up of Shiki’s face. 
Shiki has a bunch of test tubes strapped to her waist. 
Another shot of Shiki. 
I also tried playing around while taking photos of Shiki; the results of that are below. The first and second comparisons are from moving the lighting source around Shiki. The third comparison is from changing my camera’s aperture number to play around with getting more of Shiki’s book and legs in focus.
Light source from the left 
Light source from the lower front 
Light source from the top right down 
Light source from the left 
f/5.6 
f/32
I was really happy to find her after like two years. As usual, the quality of ALTER figures are top notch: no complaints here. I also have ALTER Kamiya Nao on pre-order, and she’s slated to be shipped in October 2021, so I’m looking forward to see how she turns out!
Anyways, that’s all I have this time around. Until next time!
~Lui
