Happy New Year! Last post for the year!

Been raining most of the day! But that's not gonna stop anyone from partying right? 2012 has not been the greatest of years, but we can only look towards the future and hope for a brighter tomorrow!

 

So to all my friends and loved ones, from all of us here, here's wishing you a blessed, peaceful, happy and fulfilling 2013!

Rx-93 Nu Gundam Ver Ka

Been working on this the past coupla days, how long has it been since i last actually built a MG kit from Bandai?

 

The Nu gundam is the second release in the Master Grade line for the same kit, bit it's been redesigned MUCH more this time round, with Katoki adding his signature 'look' to the kit. But still, it's kinda daunting how many parts actually go into this kit compared to the older MG kits or even any previous model releases.

 

 

Whereas previous kits consisted of premoulded features with minimal parts, the newer kits come in components for each section so there's less 'finishing' up of the model to do. That's good in a way, cos i don't have the luxury of time to slowly airbrush and finish up a model nowadays! Plus, all the parts are already moulded in the correct color's so only minor touch-up is needed.

 

The detail on the kit is pretty darn impressive too, lots of fine panel lines compared to the older kits. Plus water slide decals are provided now (which are of pretty high quality), so bandai has MOSTLY stopped cheaping out with stickers everywhere!

 

 

 



Guess this is gonna be like a weekend project for me, it's tempting to rush through it because the more you build it up, the more complete it gets and theres a temptation to see what the complete part will look like! But i guess i'll take it slow and easy, eventually i'll get to see the final product anyway! ;)

3rd last post for the year!

.. and this will be quick! Got this for X'mas, the God Phoenix from gatchaman, i remember wanting this a kid, and ended up getting some else instead ( from the old AMK Oriental where AMK hub now sits, that toy was pretty cool too though! ).

 

This version is pretty darn much an improvement over the older version; weighs a TON, so you know at least you're getting a lot of die-cast. The finish is great too! Would make a good display piece...

 

.... if i had the space to haha! :P

2 days!

3 more posts before the year end! I think i posted more this year than last, but still, there were coupla months when i totally slipped and didn't post for weeks! Well, i think i can be forgiven for that, you know, busy and all.. :P

Hopefully everyone's enjoying themselves out there! Hey, it's only once a year we get to kick back and relax. I think people here are too uptight about work! ;)

And the New Year approaches!

First time in a while i couldn't bear for Friday to arrive; it'll only be another 3 more days of 2012.... then 2013 arrives. Who knows what's gonna happen then? Well, the world didn't end in 2012, and neither did the rapture occur, so maybe it's gonna be 2013?

Anywayz, glad it's coming to a close. Time to begin anew in 2013 and clean out all the cobwebs out of the system! :)

On the third day of X'mas...

We went to the Singapore Flyer! Sky wasn't blue, but wasn't going to rain either thankfully! :) Lots of tour groups there, again, thank goodness we didn't get a cabin that was too crowded.

One revolution of the wheel is around 30 mins? Didn't seem that way though!

Merry X'mas!

Brrr! Chilly morning this X'mas! Well, it's raining outside as i type this, got back from my sis's place coupla hours ago, too much food these two days, but not complaining! ;)

Man, i miss the days i used to get more presents than i can count with the fingers on my hands haha! But i guess our time is over for that, and the next generation can carry on and get all the presents! :D My boy and girl sure got more presents than i did! :D

Here's wishing one and all a blessed, peaceful and wonderous Christmas! :)

It's the eve of X'mas! :)

Finally reached the Eve of X'mas! In a way, pretty sad it has to come so fast, Christmas is one of those times in the year i look forward to. To me, it has a unique atmosphere to itself which i like, perhaps one of serenity and peace. :)

The eve was spent cooking at home for wifey! It's her birthday today, so a few of her relatives came over as usual for lunch. Ordered Turducken from NTUC this year to give it a try, not too shabby! Goes great with the Apricot Chutney sauce. Plus the usual sausages from Cold Storage, and my once a year mushroom soup! :p

Add spaghetti and mashed potatoes and you're ready to party! :)

Countdown - 2 more days!

It's the eve of the eve! Went grocery shopping in the early afternoon at NEX to pick up some ingredients for tomorrow's lunch. We'll be having the annual gathering for my wifey's birthday; it's mostly her side of the family, but it'll still be a whole day affair!

Then... it's just a day away woohoo! ;)

X'mas - 4 more days!

Man, my feet hurt from all the walking today, really getting old man, haha!

 

Good news for LEGO fans! They're finally going to bring out the Back to the Future figs! :)

I thought they initially turned down the project cos of some copyright issues, but looks like

they got a green light, read more below!

 

http://legocuusoo.posterous.com/results-of-the-summer-lego-review

X'mas Countdown - 5 more days!

Ahhh.... the air was fresh and crisp this morning after the rain last night... today is the last day of work for the year.. how exhilarating!

Well, work begins anew on Jan 2nd, but at least there's a 1 week plus reprieve!

 

7 days! - Countdown...

Ah, X'mas is almost upon us, try as i might to avoid the yearly x'mas rush, it seems so unavoidable sometimes!

Also, 2 more days of work left for 2012... woohoo! :P

The Hobbit

Just caught the movie 'The Hobbit' today, admittedly i've yet to read the book, although i heard it's less of a challenge compared to the LOTR trilogy (enough with the singing!). The movie starts out nicely, and ties itself with the previous trilogy with some interesting cameos! It's does start out slow at first, but at least the pace quickens once the quest starts?

 

This time round, there seems to be more violence than compared to the LOTR series? A lot of the bad guys are now CG; somehow i preferred the raw look of extra's made up in costumes.... CG critters always seem so..... clean visually somehow. And the dwarves.. not ALL of them actually look like Dwarves i think, more like tiny men. I've always imagined dwarves to be stocky and broad, although these guys DO have the prerequisite beards! They somehow look... Klingon?

 

Still, all in all an enjoyable experience... it's gonna be a TRILOGY too.. amazing.

BF3 Aftermath

 

 

The  latest expansion (2nd last) for BF3 has been out for almost two weeks now on the PC, and have been playing a bit here and there (mostly to clear the assignments!). There are 4 new maps introduced, mostly around the theme of earthquake affected areas in some middle-eastern country, and new character models for each class for each team are also available.

 

The new mode introduced called 'Scavenger' is pretty interesting actually, you start out with only a pistol, and have to go to certain points where generally random weapons will generate, and each will only have about 2 mags of ammo. (Well, not really random actually, the weapons at each point cycle through one or two weapons only). It took a while but eventually one will get the hang of the points to capture, and where the weapons will be; the key is to know where the ammo boxes are for each stage so that you can immediately max up on your available ammo. This will really give a boost to your chances of survival. Scavenger games are pretty frentic affairs, especially the one on the Epicenter map!

 

Conquest modes for the new maps also introduces 3 new vehicles, the Rhino (a van with a remote .50 cal turrent), Barsuk ( Vodnik with a grenade launcher ) and the Phoenix ( a modified Humvee ). As with the overall theme of this expansion, most of the terrain is pretty narrow, so it's really a double edged sword; infantry can easily sneak up on vehicles through the rubble, but then again, vehicles can set up kill zones in the narrow alleys! Plus, there's a lot of alternate routes to the objectives, so this makes for interesting ways to capture them.

 

Finally, a new weapon (if you can call it that) is the Crossbow, it's fires a pretty crappy bolt, but as you complete the assignments, the other 3 bolts are open for use. It's kinda interesting in that it can give other classes long range sniping ability, but then again, the LONGGGG reload time really is a killer.

 

Overall, Aftermath pretty much interesting in it's own right; Close Quarters had tighter maps, whereas Armored kill was a tank focused affair. Aftermath sort of fits in between these two and fills out the gaps... at least till Endgame comes along!

X'mas - 12 days to go!

Finally got the lights in to illuminate the interior of the houses and such... hmmm, need more light! :p

Pacific Rim

So the trailer is out! Well, hope it doesn't turn out to be another RoboJox... :p Man, that movie was the cheese.

I think we can play a beer game with this movie, a swig of the can everytime the word "kaiju" is used!

Space Hulk!

Remember space hulk? Couldn't really stand the old top-down view of the old PC version, the Marines in Terminator Armor ALWAYS seem to get killed by the Genestealers cos they ran out of movement points!

May this version will make up for that? :p

http://www.spacehulk-game.com/

For the Emperorraaahhhgghh!!!!

The Phantom Pain? / AKA MGS 5?

Lot of rumors saying that this is a front for MGS V, after seeing the video, the protagonist sure looks like someone we know! Take a lookee...

A LEGO Xmas! 2012

Added the latest Winter set to my yearly Xmas LEGO scene, which i have been setting up for three years now? At this rate, i'll probably run out of space after another 5 years or so! It's now 4 buildings, the Toy shop, Bakery, Post Office and the Cottage. Interesting to see what they'll add next year!

Just a bit more lighting to add, and it should look nicer i hope! :)

 

LEGO The Hobbit...

Gandalf approves!

Happy 1st Month!

Happy full month my dear Kaelynne! :D

 

X'mas - 23 more days!

Ah, hard to believe we're in December already.. that many days have gone by? I always tell my buddy " only x more months to Christmas!" and before you know it, it's really here!

 

Set up the tree about 2 weeks ago already while i was on leave... man! Forgot how messy it was to set it up.. :P Well, tis the season to spend with your loved ones and kick back and relax!

1/48 Scale Airwolf

This came in last week from the usual joint, gotta say, box was prreeeetty light! This is the re-release of the 1/48 Airwolf helicopter by Aoshima, who also have it in plastic kit form.

Artwork for the box is the same as the previous releases; there is also a weathered version released alongside the regular edition, both are at the same price point though! The special version of the last release was a matte black version. :) Upon opening you see the fuselage, stand and blades all neatly tucked away. The tail rotor on mine dropped off though, but easy thing to just fit it back. The guns and missile launchers are hidden under the base. Thankfully instructions are in English too!

Detail on this is great; the doors open (please use a toothpick they say in the instructions!), the sunburst ports open, the hidden guns and missile launchers are swappable parts, so they can be displayed extended or hidden, the landing gear has this cool feature where a lever extends all three wheels out at the same time... AND... the main rotor and tail blades move! 2 AAA batteries needed, too bad no blinking lights! But that would have probably added more to the cost.

The included stand allows you to display the Airwolf at certain angles, the emossing of the logo is sweet. :) Worth the price of admission? Most definately! Pick this up while you can.

Masterpiece MP-12 Lambor

It's been a while since i last purchased a Transformer from the Masterpiece range, i think the last one i got was Grimlock? Well, Takaratomy has been at work recently and back on track to releasing more new molds for the MP range (really, all the Starscream recolors were getting out of hand).

Picked Lambor (that's the Japanese name, i prefer Sideswipe from the American series) from TFH a few weeks back, it came with a commemorative coin, and an extra set of piledriver hands. Found time to open it up and gotta say, pretty impressed with the transforming aspects of this guy.

 

The transformation sequence is of course, more complicated than your usual G1 toy, but the way they made everything tuck away and fit in when it goes from car to robot mode is very impressive. Not much die cast parts of course, paint jobs pretty good. Thankfully the Autobot logo is tampo'ed on and not a sticker!

 

Overall, a pretty amazing feat of engineering! We've come quite a long way from the 5 step transformation process of the original toys. Now bring on Red Alert and Sunstreaker! (Although that will require a new mold).

"Sideswipe is not nearly as much of a sociopath as his brother Sunstreaker, but he is every bit as skillful. He's more into battle for the sport of it. A bit of a jock, Sideswipe most craves a glorious fight to the finish as a test of his mettle.

 

There is a reckless edge to Sideswipe's tactics. He makes rash decisions that may endanger him, all in the name of possible victory. Cheating is also not out of the question. When everything is on the line, for Sideswipe, nothing is out of the question. However, Sideswipe is not without his humour. It's long accepted that Sideswipe is the resident prankster of the Ark, along with the occasional prank from Jazz."

Week 2!

Man! It's been 2 weeks since baby arrived, been pretty much busy with day to day stuff. But this girl is pretty mild compared to my boy, so that's a relief. :)

Weather here has been pretty crazy; hot one moment then cold the next. At least it's not so humid now!

Oh, and Christmas decorations are up.. just a few weeks more, better start on Xmas shopping too! :p

Baby's here!

Welcome to the family! :D A healthy baby girl was born this morning at 6.01am.

Disney... combine!

This ain't no photshop Job man! Bandai's releasing this Mickey and friend's combiner next year, costs about $160-70. So i guess they're buying Bandai next?

The force is not strong with this one...

Ol' george has finally lost it!

Disney has just confirmed that they will acquire George Lucas‘ Lucasfilm Ltd for $4.05 billion, in a deal that includes rights to the Star Wars franchise. Disney has scheduled Star Wars: Episode 7 for a 2015 release, with future movies to come every two to three years. Not much is known about what to expect from the films other than the fact that Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy will be executive producer on any forthcoming Star Wars movies, while George Lucas himself with serve as creative consultant.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said Lucas. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products.”

Well, nothing much new has come out of the farm so to speak. They seem to be creatively 'stuck', and just seem to be relying on the Star Wars franchise. Too bad they didn't release another X-wing game before that! But who knows, maybe Disney will!

November Rain!

Yes, it's November! That means the Northest Monsoon is coming again, and Orchard road and other areas will probably get flooded. How come places which usually have no floods have such occurances so frequently now?

With the rapid pace of 'development'. (job creation), most empty plots of land are giving way to high rise buildings and whatnot. As such, the groundwater has no more soil to runoff to. So where does it go with all the concrete in the way? Why, the basement of the shopping centres of course!

Who are the morons who didn't plan for all this? I dunno.

Well, onto another topic, X'mas is a month away! Holidays too woohoo! :p

Review - MOH Warfighter

The MOH series has always been to me a WWII shooter on the Playstation back in the days, the graphics were blocky, and the game was very linear, but for what it offered at the time, it was an outstanding achievement, and i really enjoyed most of the releases. Also, the main theme was very memorable.. who could forget the fat kid with the falsetto voice who sang that tune? :p

 

Fast forward to 2012, and we have the 14th installment of the game; beginning with the 13th version, which was simply called MOH, the series jumped into the modern era ( i guess following the footsteps of the other FPS Call of Duty ). But before i start on Warfighter, i'd like to say i enjoyed MOH thoroughly; it was a refreshing change of pace from COD:MW, although some ideas were lifted here and there.
 

Warfighter follows the adventures of TF Mako, and a few other groups, and is a follow up from the previous installment. The game is now powered by the Frostbite 2 engine, which is also used for Battlefield 3. This is where the mileage will vary for some users; unless you have a good graphics card running the settings at ultra, don't expect to see quality similar to to what you saw in the trailers. The default graphics at high are still 'muddy' to me. I guess the developers of the game, Danger Close, still don't have a clean handle on mastering the frostbite 2 engine.

 

Ok, back to the storyline, single-player is truthfully a short affair about 10+ missions max, and some can get dragged out quite a bit.... then again, there's this Sniper mission which takes all of 5 mins... wth? Was this tagged on at the last minute to bring some credence to the "Inspired by Actual Event" tagline they're promoting?

 

There are some driving sequences which i feel are out of place too, and drag on for too long AND are sooooo obviously scripted... guess they want to have a 'action movie' feel for the game? Still, for a moment there i thought i was playing Need for Speed - Warfigher.

 

The game is also buggy in places ( there was a Day 1 patch, which usually doesn't bode well for the quality of the product ) and the AI is..... atrocious for both the Enemy and your team! There are times when the enemy can be right beside your teammate, and he's just... standing there... boooo! The AI doesn't suffer from Marksman syndrome, but still, they can shoot and hit you from the wierdest places without you even knowing, that's really annoying.

 

On my first playthrough of the first 5 levels, the autosave didn't work either! That really sucked ballz.

Spread out throughout the game are segments where you have to breach and clear a roomful of enemies, there are different methods of breaching which are unlocked when you do headshots upon clearing a room. The problem is, the breaching techniques are just visual differences in entering and clearing, there's no actual reward or difference once that animation is done. So after you've unlocked all the breaching techniques, you're just left.. kinda empty, and wondering what that was all about.

 

So, in spite of all that 'venom', the game was still rather playable. The characters are likeable and some sequences were quite fun. I suspect certain portions were rushed to cater to the Multiplayer portion (which i have not tried yet.).

 

I'd give this a 6/10, although i'll still stick to BF3 for now.

 

Next time Danger Close, more shooting! Less Driving. OR at least let us fly an apache again!

Robocop Reboot.

Robo can ride a bike now? Actually, he looks more like a cyborg now, not very intimidating. Still, remains to be seen whether this remake will be any good... otherwise, i won't watch this for a dollar! :D

Ready for... Revengeance?

Is there even such a word? :p  The next in the MGS series by the same guys who did Bayonetta and Vanquish.. which were pretty interesting games i guess, with a certain 'flair' to them. I feel MGS has always been grounded in current or in development weapons technology, no matter how outlandish the bosses may seem. MGR seems to be... a little bit harder to swallow. More like a sci-fi hack and slash now. :p

Well, should be interesting still! There's a premium edition, and a Japan exclusive PS3 SPECIAL EDITION premium edition which includes a white version of the upcoming Raiden fig from the Kai Arts Squenix series :

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance Game

Yoji Shinkawa Artbook

CD Soundtrack w/Steel book

Magnetic Dwarf Gekkos/Scarabs

DLC code for Cyborg Ninja Grey Fox skin

Iron Man 3

Coming soon! May 2013... looks to have a darker storyline... prob because the director is now Shane Black? Still think the new armor is too.... golden.

 

Armor even matches the furniture! ;p



 

LEGO 2013 - Awing Fighter

Another iteration of the A-wing for next year! It's prob gonna cost near the $50 mark cos of the number of minifigs included... plus the Star Wars license is expensive anyway. Still, looks like they did a better job of  replicating the curved surface of the A-Wing!

BF3 - Aftermath

2nd last expansion from BF3! Check out the trailer at

http://blogs.battlefield.com/2012/10/aftermath-first-look/

OTAKU Cobra's!

Nice artwork on these Japanese military choppers! ;)

Another Sunday!

So goes another weekend! Whew, think i woke up late; feels good to sleep in without a need to wake up by a preset time. Unfortunately... there's work tomorrow urgh!

 

Anyways, just like, 9-10 weeks away to Christmas! Scary man.... :p AND No. 2 is coming in in another 4 more weeks...

 

Hooah! :D

Wedding Bells!

My little bro got married today! hard to believe how much time has passed and he is now starting his own family! i'm happy for him and here's wishing you a long and blissful marriage with his wife Yvonne.

Going off for the dinner shortly! ;)

MG Nu Gundam - 52nd Japan All Plamodel Hobby Show 2012

Pics out! Looks good, can't wait to get this.. so tempting to restart scale modelling again. :(

LEGO Stig!

Awesome cool! this figure is being offered to uk readers ok top gear.... expect to see it in eBay soon!

 

 

Cowabunga!

.... and the Turtles get the LEGO treatment! Tres cool! From the New York Comic Convention now on in the US!

MOH + Linkin Park

These guys are everywhere now? Their songs are ok but... after a while, they all sound the same.

Here's their latest promoting the Warfighter game.

Too many Toys!

As we inch ever closer to the end of the year, the releases for toys and games are slowly starting to ramp up! Not been having much time to play on the console ( prob get worse when no. 2 comes!), so haven't been picking up any releases for the PS3 recently.

 

The 360 is almost stagnant to me; aside from a few exclusive titles, i hardly touch it these days. I wonder when consoles can truely match the processing power of a PC one day? I bought the Crysis bundle off Steam for cheap, and it's pretty much amazing how the graphics have improved over time. Crysis still looks pretty good for it's age, but when you see Crysis 2 on DX11 with Ultra settings.... boy oh boy... day and night man. :p Another one to see is the BF3 SP level "Going Hunting"... amazing.

 

Toys are getting too expensive these days... most of the 'nicer' stuff have become exclusives or limited and are AT LEAST $200 minimum these days.. Sigh, how i miss the days when i could go to Toy's R US and pick up an Aerialbot off the peg for $5...

 

Still, darn Hasbro/Takara is tugging at our Nostalgia by releasing MORE classic figures to whittle away what's left of my emancipated wallet. Know what i'd really like? A re-release of the headmasters... they'd probably do that knowing them!

 

This weekend is the NYCC and also the Plamo show in Japan... AND my brother's getting married too!

 

Time flies. ;)

 

Zaku I Sniper

Another thing picked up from TFH, this time, the Zaku I Sniper piloted by Yonem Kirks from Bandai under the Signature Ka version (basically a redesigned version by Hajime Katoki.. and an excuse to jack up the price!)

This version was from the Unicorn Gundam OVA, it was basically hovering overhead in a "Fat Uncle" cruiser using the beam rifle to snipe at the base to support an ongoing assault... The set also comes with decals to spruce up the look of the Zaku if you feel inclined to!

The Zaku I can be seen in the video above at about the 1:55 mark. :)

Unicorn Gundam - Glowing Stage Set

Picked this up from Falcon's this evening after work, been quite a while but i hope the orders are slowly trickling in.... TFH was packed with quite a few people... and newly arrived stock too! The whole gang was there today which was kinda unusual. :)

No photoshop work here! ;) The 'glowing' red areas are actually the way the paint is sprayed along those areas; the whole set comes with a display base with black lights, and the flourescent paint on the figure stands out from the body itself. Pretty good effect, and one of the better quality releases from Bandai recently.

 

All the have to do now is release a Die cast version with built in LED's! :p

Encore Fortress Maximus

Ooo! Wonder how this slipped my radar; didn't know about it till TFH released the preorder for it! This is considered the 'Holy Grail' for TF collectors, largely due to it's size. As with all Encore releases, the 'feel' won't be the same as the original, as the plastic used is different, and the moulding of the figure may change in some places. Still, pretty cool to have as a door guardian or something!

1/35 Scale EX-S Gundam

Seriously awesome piece of work. A 1/35 scale EX-S Gundam from the Gundam Sentinel Series! The EX-S is about 28m tall in the series, so at 1/35 it'd be about 80cm? Pretty darn big i guess.

 

This was the combined effort of 3 Korean guys; think if it was built by one guy, it'd take 3 months at least! Not to mention the amount of paint required for this.

 

There's also been a 1/100 scale kit from Bandai for this. But one takes the cake with all the tiny details afforded by the scale involved!