RGM-79SP GM Sniper II

This is the RGM-79SP GM Sniper II in the "White Dingo" team colors which appeared in a few PS2/PS3 games. This is the web exclusive version (huh, since when didn't Bandai milk a mold?) of the regular Sniper version which is in Blue Color.

I'm more of a Gundam UC fan than any of the side stories, because the technology and back stories behind each faction seem to mirror previous wars closely. Also the design and use of these mobile suits are more realistic and less fanciful then some other stories in the Gundam universe!

The most recent is the Gundam Unicorn series, which has a very classic feel to it with really gorgeous animation!

Good guys wear black?

No matter how cool starcom's vehicles were, one area it was extremely weak in was character development; i guess that's where the Cartoon series tried to fix, but it was too little too late, and it flopped it the USofA.

The figures for starcom generally ALL looks the same! differences are mainly cosmetic on the suit and helmet. Perhaps the size of the figures restricted how much customization options there were for the mold.

I think some toy series succeeded very well in this aspect, M.A.S.K immediately comes to mind! Just mention Matt Trakker, Miles Mayhem, Dusty Hayes and Gloria Baker, people will immediately recognize those to be from that series! ( others being He-man, Transformers, GIJoe etc.).

The good guys for starom had such generic names, i'm even having problems remembering them now as i'm typing! :P At least the bad guys had robot drones!

For Starcom, there was an exclusive mail-away figure for the bad guys, Emperor Dark himself! (Cue evil Laughter). Nothing outstanding about it; could at least have given him a throne with power deploy features or something. :p

Cool App!

Hey, didn't realise i crossed 100 posts for this blog already, coolz. :)

Anyway, saw this cool app called SkyView over at the itunes app store, basically it's a Augmented Reality type of app, which allows you to track Stars, Planets and whatnot in the sky. ( Can even find where the ISS is! )

Quite accurate and fun! :)

Lego Super Star Destroyer!

Is this cool or what? It'll be huge! (and expensive!)

"UCS LEGO Star Wars 10221 Super Star Destroyer set. Included LEGO minifigures are Darth Vader, Bossk, Assassin Droid, Dengar and Imperial Officer. This thing is massive and even includes a mini Imperial Star Destroyer for comparison."

End of Times?

Cool and creepy! Check out this video..... better stock up on MRE's and Survival Kits! The ending is especially creepy.. and what's with this? Weather balloons?

Next catch....

Another bunch of stuff from the Fruit Box! The Missile Fox and Tornado Gunship were part of the 3rd wave of Starcom toys release in 1988 in UK, Canada and parts of Europe. These is definately do not remember seeing in the local stores! (Or maybe they were there, just didn't pay attention. :p )

Once again these had random figures placed within; haven't opened these yet, so have NO idea what's inside.

I think after the first wave of toys a lot of the design philosophy and complexity of the toys started to change; except for a few cases, i feel quite a few of the later waves didn't have the impact that the original wave had. :)

Lazy Sunday

Spent this past weekend zoning out; weather was too hot to go out, plus really too lazy.. must be getting old! :P All the better actually, spent more time with my boy which is a good thing, brought him down to the NTUC at gardens to walk around. He pointed at a bunch of Bananas and said "Nanas"... Ah, sent my heart soaring! (and didn't know he knew a foreign language! :P)

But seriously there's not much to shop anymore; i find most of the things i want can be bought online for a much cheaper price. I guess most shopping is done for clothes and such now? Or just to hang around these places to chill out.

Also keeping me entertained these coupla day is the game Crysis 2, wasn't expecting much from this game since the first one didn't really keep my attention. But man, was i surprised. The pacing this time was much better and the usage for the suit seemed 'necesary' this round. Graphics were AMAZING on my old rig (1600x1200 too!)... so the code is darn tight!

It never got TOO boring at any stage, but if there's any nitpicking i'd say there are too many set-pieces with "defend this area" type of missions. Nonetheless, much fresher than the uber-stale HALO line.

Pilots get all the chicks!

I don't think the HARV7 (Heavy Armed Recovery Vehicle) driver has the most glamourous job in the Starcom universe; i mean, while the Starwolf and Starmax pilots are out in the thick of the action, this guy is.... recovering broken down vehicles? Anyway, a jobs a job and SOMEONE'S gotta do it! I think the SAF equivalent would be the driver for the 5 tonner. :p

This is one of the classics from the first wave of Starcom vehicles, quite simple in design and definately not the prettiest, but heck if it has a TON of guns! :) Got these earlier on when i started re-collecting Starcom.

Pictured here are the Canadian and Euro boxes, both lacking the US flag. Gotta admin though, the power deploy feature is kinda cool when you see it in action, espcially when it's picking up things other than the fuel container! :)

Shadow Vampire

Got this from the "Fruitbox" delivery; a Euro boxed Shadow Vampire! I actually kinda liked this when i was younger, i had one (and i still think it's around) and i remember i bought it from the then Hougang Oriental Emporium. (It was $15.90 or $19.90 then?)

Other than the odd shape, i always thought it was kinda cool.... but what DID the rear pilot do? The "power deploy" feature was the guns that you had to wind up and a trigger at the top of the nosecone will activate the gatling feaure. The VTOL thrusters swiveled 90 degrees when you squeezed the trigger.... i guess that's where the design gets weird as the trigger is part of the craft! :P... you could probably explain it away that it housed the radar or something i guess!

Being the Euro boxed version, the chance of getting the ACTUAL pilot is slim... seems i got the gayest bad guy o' them all! :p I mean seriously, he wanted his suit pink?!?!

BSOD

Darn! Hit by the dreaded BSOD! For all of XP's improvements, this is something the WinXP OS users still have to live with in this day and age. Vista wasn't any better but at least Win7 seems to be a step in the right direction!

It's so ANNOYING having to ritually do this even 1+ years.... the system gets too clogged up with junk in the registry that it slowwwwws to a crawl! Well, in my case, i think my system was literally clogged... with dust!

I looked at the underside of my casing (dunno why i did it this time) and found a CARPET of dust clogging the intake fan for the PSU! Gawd it was gross.. :p Managed to backup my stuff and format to SP3 again, dun think my current hardware can take Win7 anyway... next time! :D

Starcom Starhawk F/B

Finally, got around to opening the "Fruit Box", and sorting out the stuff that was inside, a LOT of trees were harmed in the process! The guy used like, tons of newspaper to bundle everything....... well, that's better than having the stuff crushed i guess. :p

This is the Euro boxed version of the Starhawk F/B, the funny thing about the Euro boxes is that they'll give RANDOM figures in their sets! Yeah, kinda weird i know. Europe had it's own range of figues which can be considered rare. (They were also sold in two-packs with the original figures from the 1st few waves)

I always wondered WHY the Starhawk had two cockpits, and who was supposed to sit in the other one, imagine my surprise when i opened the box to find the euro co-pilot of the Starhawk! :) Nice bonus i guess.