Star Wars 'Black' Series

Looks like hasbro's gonna be releasing a new range of 6" figures! Proabbly gonna get scalped again, and all that'll be left on the shelves will be Jar Jar Binks haha!

More info here!

Zero Dark Thirty - Mini Review

Caught this movie just a while a ago, gotta say, it was better than i expected! This was probably cos i had heard from other friends that the show was kinda boring, and i guess that kinda put into my head that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. :p

Again, if you're going into the show expecting lots of gunfights and explosions, then you'd probably be disappointed, this movie was more about (over 70% of the movie) how they came to track down the whereabouts of UBL (Or OBL to some of us). The buildup is good, and i guess the main character is pretty likeable too.

Having read the book "No Easy Day", i more or less knew what to expect on the assault itself, which is the final portion of the movie. The movie does take some liberties on the operation itself (like the backup chinooks which accompanied the main force, not present at all!) to keep the pace going, but most of the happenings in the book more or less took place on screen too.

 

I was reading from SOFREP, that some actual ex SOF people who saw the movie weren't too impressed with the tactics/movement etc, yes, i have to agree that although some aspects seemed messy to me (weapon discipline, you can see their IR lasers aiming everywhere, and noise discipline was non-existant), it was still acceptable to the myself just for the 'cool' factor, and it wouldn't have made a difference to a majority of the crowd anyways!

Oh, and remember, if some stranger gets into your house at odd hours, and calls out your name, for heaven's sake, DON'T peek out to take a look! :p
 

So catch this movie while you can, a good two thumbs up for this, Hooah!

No more 3D Star Wars Prequels!

Goshdarnnit! Looks like the Disney buyover of Lucasarts wasn't so bad after all!

 

No More ‘Star Wars’ 3D Prequel Releases; Lucasfilm Passes To Focus On New Trilogy

 

I believe there are some people who like the prequels, but to me, Star Wars will always be EP IV to VI.... hopefully Disney goes through the IP's that Lucasarts has, and decides to revive them. We all know Lucasarts is just sitting on a lot of stuff, and generally not releasing much good stuff if any at all.

Go forth and kick ass at Larts Mickey!

YF-23 Black Widow II

Beautiful fighter that was probably way too advanced for it's time! And who knows what politics goes on behind the curtains for the YF-22 to win?

There were plans for a bomber version of this, and the prototypes were taken out of mothballing for a while, but that again didn't go through. Still who know? It may take to the skies again one day! Look at how much the russian T-50 Pak-Fa resembles it. Prob 'borrowed' technology comrade!

Sleepy Sunday

Man, weather's blisteringly hot again, but worse still, darned humid! Went walking at CSC but really nothing much, some stores were closed too, but the usual suspects were all there.

MP Soundwave touched down is SG yesterday, so went to TFH to pick mine up!

Singapore Flyer Night Shoot - Pt 1

Went up this evening to try to take some shots from the cab, man, queues were long and pretty much snaked around the building, reflections off the glass (which were smeared with fingerprints) didn't help!

Just one for now, will try to upload the rest soon! :)

The blue or the white pill?

Choose wisely! The next time you can swallow another pill won't be until 2016... ;)

Homeworld!

Remember this game? Hard to imagine it was released in 1999, almost 13+ years ago. The sequel was in 2003, and that too was great (although the last boss was darned annoying).

This was the first 3D RTS to me, the graphics were great, and the fleet based actions were way ahead of it's time. I love seeing the little fighters come out of the cruisers, and it's amazing when your capital ships start firing against the enemy fighters.

It's like what the Star Wars RTS should have been if it focused on pure space warfare!

Let's hope someone picks up this license since THQ has ceased to function, and gives us Homeworld 3!

The Good ol' 80's

Ah, yes, those were the best of days... everything was simple, no worries and everyone seemed generally happy. Compare that to these days, and you'll see we've become just another soulless concrete jungle.

Good piece on that here!

This pic's simply awesome... now it's become another run of the mill mall in an area packed with FT's and loonies. At least the shophouses and Big Mac centre are still there!

THQ no more

Wondering what's happening to all these big names, mismanagement? Well, at least most of the studios under them are being picked up by other companies.

Man, soon it'll literally only be EA and Activision. Sad. :p

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-24/thq-wins-court-approval-to-sell-assets-for-about-72-million-1-.html

Transfomers MasterPiece 13 - Soundwave preview

Looks like HK has this already, or maybe leaked early? Pics are below :

http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/extensive-pictorial-review-of-takara-tomy-transformers-masterpiece-mp13-soundwave-with-laserbeak/26604/

From the pic, seems to be a localised release, as they have the sticker in mandarin, and so are the instructions.

Maybe it's the pictures, but the finishing on soundwave looks kinda rough. Looks good nonetheless, maybe there'll be a Blaster in the near future?

F-Toys TIE Interceptor

Been a bit slow on touching up the kits, but managed to work on the TIE Interceptor recently. Not too difficult, i think it's a good piece to start on. As usual, too clean out of the box!

Then again, i don't expect it to be VERY dirty or weathered; i imagine these TIE Interceptors are cleaned daily after docking in the hanger by an army of cleaning droids! :p

In the TIE FIGHTER series of games, it's a great feeling to get into one of these from the flying deathtraps called TIE Fighters... at least they can take more than 2 hits!

" The TIE/IN starfighter, or TIE Interceptor, was a TIE series starfighter used by the Galactic Empire. The TIE Interceptor was identifiable by its arrow-shaped solar collection panels, a distinct difference from the hexagonal solar arrays of its predecessor, the TIE Fighter. The Interceptor was one of the fastest starfighters in the galaxy at its prime, nearly rivaling the Alliance's RZ-1 A-wing interceptor."

Civil War!

A blast from the past!

X-wing Miniatures Game

Hmmm, would have preferred a flight sim on the PC; it'd be glorious seeing what they could do now with Xwing running DX11.... Why lucasarts, why?

Anyway, there's a X-wing BOARDGAME that was released sometime last year? The gist of it goes something like this from the website :

"Fast and visceral, X-Wing puts you in the middle of fierce Star Wars firefights. Use each craft’s unique maneuver dial to secretly plot its movement action for each turn. After each player has locked in his movement decisions, the dials are revealed and ships are moved starting with the lowest skilled pilots. Pepper the enemy with blaster fire as you rush into the dogfight, or move into combat range slowly, attaining deadly target locks before you launch a devastating attack"

Looks interesting... like a joystickless version of the game before the PC version is (eventually.. someday) released. Let your imagination run wild!

I wonder if they'll have a Star Destroyer expansion? Interesting review here!

BF3 Music Video

Haha! this one gave me quite a few laughs! :)

2 more weekends left till CNY!

Man, i miss how CNY used to be, that is, to be on the receiving end of the Red Packets, rather than to to be the one giving them out! Muahahaha! That's part and parcel of the whole process of life i guess. At least my kiddies will have a SWELL time.

Also, can't seem to eat as much of the goodies! Older we get, gotta watch our diet and sugar intake.... then again, it's only once a year..... ;) Excuses!

MG OMG REX

Rainy weather, been raining non stop for the past 2 days. Popped by falc's just now, didn't imagine the box for Rex to be THAT big! :p

TGIF!

Friday's almost over?!?! Just got back from Maxwell market for dinner with my coligs, still kinda crowded at that hour, but not too bad, still can get seats!

Well, only bout 2 more weekends before CNY! Haven't even taken down my X'mas tree yet! Gonna be busy next two days.. :p

F-toys B-wing

This came in recently, seems harder to find now, but they'll probably release another version of it!

The kit is like all the other Starfighters in the F-toys range is in 1/144 scale, it comes in two parts with a stand included; would have preferred a stand like that of the y-wing, but hey, you take what they give you! Out of the box, a basic paint job is applied, but really too clean.

It has lesser fine details than the Y-wing, but a larger surface area to cover. Lots of curved areas too. Too bad the S-foils don't close!

The stand included allows for 2 poses, the attack postion, or down on it's side. Oh, the cockpit does rotate, in many ways, it reminds me of the ERTL kit, just a scaled down version.

"The B-wing starfighter was one of the largest and most heavily armed starfighters/bombers in the Rebel Alliance's fleet. The name B-wing came from the craft's remote similarity in appearance to the lowercase letter "b", although its swordlike shape in attack mode has earned it the nickname "blade-wing", which may be another reason for the "b" prefix."

I LOVED flying the B-wing in the classic X-wing expansion, slightly faster than the Y-wing, agility sucks but man, can the shields take some damage! Used to use the B-wing to take out Star Destroyers and Nebulon B frigates Muahahahahah!

Hot Toys 2013

Hmm, most likely their 2013 stuff will all be delayed and come out in 2014, haha! HT is not one company who is exactly punctual with their release dates.

Still, they seem to be getting most every license out there, probably more than they can handle. Sad that quality has to suffer though although i'm hopeful they can maintain at least a baseline level of quality. Their stuff is still mostly better than most others out there though.

2013 Line up :

• Terminator T-800 Endoskeleton (both 1:6 and 1:4 scale versions)
• Tony Stark w/ Workshop Diorama (Iron Man 3)
• Iron Man Mark XLVII Armor (Iron Man 3)
• Bruce Banner (The Avengers)
• The Joker (Arkham City)
• Roadblock (G.I. Joe: Retaliation)
• Storm Shadow (G.I. Joe: Retaliation)
• Batman w/ Armory & Bat Signal Diorama (Batman Begins)
• "The Bat" vehicle (The Dark Knight Rises)
• Iron Man Hall of Armors Dioramas
• ED-209 Drone (RoboCop)
• Prometheus Astronaut (probably either David or Elizabeth Shaw)
• Iron Man Cos-Baby Figurines

Looks like they're shrinking down "the Bat" vehicle, as they apparently had problems with the size.... and the cost would have been too prohibitive for most people anyways!

FOV - BELL AH-1Z Viper

Picked this up to complement the AH-64 from FOV too!

Details are pretty good; not really at the Hobby Master level or Century Wings, but it holds its own!

"The Bell AH-1Z Viper is a twin-engine attack helicopter based on the AH-1W SuperCobra, that was developed for the United States Marine Corps. The AH-1Z features a four-blade, bearingless, composite main rotor system, uprated transmission, and a new target sighting system. The AH-1Z is part of the H-1 upgrade program. It is also called "Zulu Cobra" in reference to its variant letter."

Ah, the memories of this swooping down on me in BF3 and pwning everyone is sight! :p

MG Nu Gundam - Legs!

Finishing up one foot most of this afternoon, had previously done the lining and all for the model, just that the weather wasn't so good for topcoating. But today was good and warm, so managed to finish most of it!

Also finished up the leg today, no armor plates on it yet! :(

Fond Memories...

Man, who can forget these places? Growing up mostly in Serangoon Gardens is one thing i'll always remember... a lot has changed since then, but the memories will always last.

Remember this stretch? Coffeeshop is still there at the corner! Truthfully this view has not changed much.. and that's good. :)

NIB man... always great to find cheap books to borrow and magazines to buy. :) Beside that about 2 shops to the left was Serangoon Garden bakery, which has since moved to the new market next to chomps... how i miss their chicken pie!

MG Nu Gundam - Upper Torso

Left arm done! That makes the upper torso complete. :p Darn, a bit on the slow side i am!

MG Nu Gundam - Update

LED units for the Nu Gundam came in, so decided to connect it up to see how it goes! Looks good, but too much of a hassle to remove the head unit to turn on/off the batteries.. think i'll leave it out!

Now working on the legs! Starting with the feet first, well, at least one foot first... just... too.... many... parts!

Crazy weather!

Man, was sweating like mad last nite; darned hot and humid yesterday, but today? Suddenly dropped below 30..... perfect weather to get sick! :p

LEGO 2013 Modular Building

And this year its.... a cinema! Not too shabby, although the price will be high as usual.. haven't even gotten last year's town hall yet! :(

Nice tiling on the outside, but the interior seems a bit sparse this time.

F-Toys Y-Wing

Caught this today at a shop at CSC along with another 2 vehicles! A bit late to this as this was like, released over 3-4 years ago? Well, better late than never! The Y-wing was from series 4 of the collection, and was one of 5 vehicles ( the others being the Tie Bomber, shuttle tyderium, slave one, Star destroyer and 1 secret vehicle).

The Y-wing is in 1:144 scale and comes in 3 parts with a stand included. Out of the box, it looks reaalllly plain, but the details are outstanding and very fine! So i took the chance and tried to touch up the Y-wing with a wash and some weathering; i was afraid the paint won't take well to the enamel wash, but thank goodness whatever paint they used didn't run!

So after 3 hours of work, i present to you, the Koensayr BTL-A4 Y-wing Starfighter!

MG Nu Gundam - Progress update

Darn, been slower than normal fixing up the kit, but then again, don't want to rush things! Coming along nicely though. :) Only completed one part of the shoulder armor, to think this consisted of only 2 parts last time!



One more of the same to do and the upper torso is done!

3rd Party transformers - Superion!

Have never bought any 3rd party stuff myself, cos they're mostly SOOO expensive, and i have no idea how the quality is like. But still, the sculpting and proportions sure blow away what the official products are like sometimes! :)

Toys i collect - Macross Pt 2

It was mostly in the recent years that higher-quality stuff started to come up (ie. more expensive), with the release of the Macross Frontier series, Bandai got into the game and started making toys for the Macross range with the licenses they had. For MacF, the initial versions of the VF-25 weren't that good, the proportions were off and the fit and quality pretty terrible. They sorta redeemed themselves with a 'renewal' version.... which was sold in limited quantities and promptly sold out REAL fast.

Bandai had also re-released the old takatoku molds in new packaging, and generally improved upon the quality of the painting (more tampo printing), but basically it was still the classic 1/55 taka toy; wondering why they haven't released others in that line though.

Yamato still had the upper hand in terms of desgin and build still; quality was subjective! By now they had covered the Macross Zero series, released the Destroids (well, only 2 actually), and released an improved version 2 of the venerable 1/60 VF-1 range.

The last few months and future look pretty good (but expensive) for Macross, both companies are now covering the more obscure mechs, with Yamato releasing the VF-17/19 from Macross 7, and the just released VF-4G, and Bandai doing the VF-171 cannon fodders.

Toys i collect - Macross Pt 1

Still thinking it's like, Tuesday or something. :p It's actually Friday tomorrow yippee! That's what happens when you start work on a tuesday.

 

Dunno why, but been seeing a lot of Macross stuff around, not to mention having no space to display what i have kinda sucks haha. I haven't been buying much BUT the price has been going up and up AND it doesn't help that some vendors have decided to make the stuff exclusive, causing the price to inflate artificially.

 

*pic from anymoon.com!

My first Macross valkyrie was bought from OG in chinatown, back when they had TONS of japanese imports of Robots and such... ah, the golden days of toys. Anyway, it was a takatoku 1/55 VF-1J which was super fun to play with! Back then, manufacturers weren't so obsessed with proportions and such, cos of manufacturing and moulding limitations. Simplicity and playability was the order of the day. Somehow, i still managed to break the leg!

In between, smaller toy versions and various model kits, i never really bought other toys in that line other than a Bandai VF-1S Super Strike valk below.

Fast forward to the year 2000, and a company called Yamato released two toys based on the Macross plus line; this was generally well received as no one had made Macross toys for ages, and these two in 1/72 (the YF-19 and YF-21 were pretty popular).

 

You can see the rest of the Yamato catalog here! all the way up to the latest releases.

 

2001 brought in the 1/72 VF-11 thunderbolt followed by modernized 1/60 versions of the classic VF-1 fighter; these were good for their time; lots of die-cast, although it wasn't a perfect transformation. Also because it was in die-cast, the details weren't very fine, and the joint were kinda loose.

 

The following year brought the first 1/48 scale toys from VF-1, these were mostly in plastic with the critical parts in die-cast. The size for these were nice, but a nightmare to keep as the boxes were HUMONGOUS esp. with Yamato's habit of creating boxes with 50% empty space.

 

It was only in 2008 that yamato released a new version of the 1/60 scale VF-1 that it really began to shine, the balance of size and detail was there, but as with all toys, there were reports of breakages at certains points of the toy. Mostly to be expected these days unfortunately.

 

 

 

Hot Toys - Snake Eyes!

Now, THIS is much better! Only the beginning of 2013 and they unleash another license on us? At least we won't have to worry much about the HS! :)

 

I think it's a great improvement over the sideshow version that's yet to be released, would go nice beside my Viper and siegie!