Macross the Museum

Oh yes, so want to go! :) Anyone wanna join?

3 Point Landing...

... 3 point landing everywhere! :p

LEGO Back To The Future!!

Too awesome! :) Amazing it got licensed. :) Another must get for this year!

A brief respite!

Pouring heavily now strangely! Thankfully the haze cleared up on Saturday afternoon, and the PSI's been about less than 100 since then. :p Man, I appreciate simple things like breathing (moderately) clean air, and going for walk's without having to wear a mask!

Macross F - DX Chogokin VF-25A

Noooooo Bandai why? You're probably making it difficult to get again anyway... :(

Hazey Sale!

Another update on the haze situation... Air purifiers are sold out island wide! So says makcik! ;)

World War Z

Just finished watching World War Z, first thing you'll notice is how longggg the starting credits are, as though they're trying to stretch the film by a coupla minutes (show is only 116mins) long though.

Anyway, after a thankfully short portion about Gerry's life, we hop right into the action; people are getting bitten by zombie marathon runners! These farkers probably run 2.4 faster than me haha.

The slow build up of tension is pretty good; many parts have a good atmosphere and bring to mind some good survival horror games in their prime! 

So after Gerry is saved from the city by friend, he's taken to a ship and 'convinced' to help a doctor find the cause of the breakout. The scenes that take place after that up to the one in the trailers with all the zombies climbing the wall are pretty good... And once the plane they're on crash lands...

The whole movie goes to CRAP. It's like, WTH, it feels as though the film was directed by another person, maybe a rejected director from the RE movies or something. The cinema was LAUGHING at the ridiculous acting zombies like it was some comedy, and the creeping about felt really forced. The abrupt ending really didn't help either, but by this point no one really cared. Such a weak ending after a strong buildup... Sad.

I guess the novel would be better, and probably a TV series would have suited this more than it being a movie.

Kinda blah movie, i've read they had troubles with the production of the movie and even had to reshoot some scenes, but now i've seen the movie, the problems are pretty glaring and show through in the latter half of the film!

Arcadia 1/60 YF-19

Bout time they updated the YF-19 with the newer internals of the more recent releases. :) The bot mode of the V2 was kinda lanky, and suffered from 'thick neck' syndrome. Out in 2014, so that gives some time to save up! :)

TF Masterpiece 12T Tigertracks

This was just released coupla days ago for the tokyo toy show 2013, basically a yellow repaint of Masterpiece sideswipe. :p Still, pretty cool!

Phicen Doll

Mmmm... Phicen.... Mmmmm Fire Red Rose.. Nice name too! ;)

And the haze blows on!

Man, the haze got pretty bad yesterday methinks, it hit like, 155 yesterday at 9pm? Had to turn on the Air purifier with the humidifier, cut down on the smell a bit, but it was still lingering there! Looks like Beijing on a good day haha!

Kind of a weird season to have haze... usually it's around sept to oct. Best thing is, some of the companies doing the burning is owned by SG and Country X! :p

The haze the haze!

Woke up this morning to be greeted bu the familiar smell if burning leaves... Pretty bad this time as the smell permeated the whole house. When i stepped out i could SEE the smoke... That bad.

Killer for those with asthma. They should hang those who do this burning by their balls man. :(

Masterpiece Optimus Prime

Picked up the Hasbro version of Masterpiece Prime.... Mostly cos it's cheaper than the takara version, and i had vouchers to use haha! This is the Toys 'R' Us exclusive version, packaging is overdone for sure! Yup thats my boy holding it. :)

Man of Steel

Just finished watching Man of Steel, compliments of Fujixerox! Not too bad, it's pretty much a origins story and reboot for Supes. He DOES look less cheesy with the new suit, always found the underwear on the outside a bit strange!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of CG of course, but the fight scenes were pretty entertaining, lot of homages to the classic General Zod, who was pretty awesome in this movie too.

Overall a good movie! They definately left it open for at least another sequel, cos no kryptonite was used in the making of this film! ;) I also realised i DO miss the classic Superman soundtrack!

MGS V : The Phantom Pain

Pretty violent trailer for MGSV! Shows more than what they did at the E3 show :

Check it out here!

E3 2013

So it's the big day! PS4 at only US$399 haha! Way to stick it to MS! :p Well, still remains to be seen how the next gen of games will fare. Not too many original titles without a number behind.. ok, there's Destiny, which looks like a Halo/MMO mashup. There's The "Order 1886", which looks like some demon hunting steampunk thing. Too bad though that Bayonetta 2 is for the Wii U only... for now i hopes!

Persons who designed the XBONE and PS4 must have come from the same design school!

In other news, iOS 7 looks interesting... seeing how most of the wanted features are available on jailbroken phones haha!

Snake?!?!?!

Haha, so Kiefer Sutherland will be playing the VA of Snake in MGSV?... Ummm... seems a bit hard to believe! Haha, but watch the video here, cool, but some scenes seem so 'forced' haha. I like the part where Avi Arad say's "I used to have a friend to played Snake...." ;)

Arcadia VF-1J 30th Anniversary

So Arcadia's first VF is the 1J, guess they're playing it safe! Kinda garish looking.... but prob best to keep it in plane mode! At least Arcadia has taken over Yamato's reins in making 'new' macross toys... hopefully!

Toys I Collect - Starcom

Decided to put this as the next toy line as it's something i've re-collected most recently (though most of it's in the store now!). The starcom range by Coleco was an amazing range of toys which looked good, and had two gimmicky but awesome features; the Power-Deploy feature (which would be used in another series of toys called 'Xpanders'... yes. a rather unfortunate name) and Magna lock. Each vehicle had a button which you pressed to deploy a hidden weapon or feature, the buzzing sound from the little spring motor was most satisfying. The playsets and vehicles were complemented by little astronaut/space guys who had little magnets in their boots.... oooo fun time on the fridge!

There was a TV series too, which was kinda weak, and didn't hold my attention too long. The first series had great designs, and the transformations were innovative. Play value was high too, as each vehicle could interect with each other in some ways; most vehicles folded up and could be carried by the larger ships or cargo haulers. The magnets were also used to activate certain features, like the firing guns on the base playsets. To me the most awesome was the shadowbat, it could carry two little shadow parasites on the wings, and an invader in it's cargo belly!

 

Sadly, the series didn't really catch on, later releases were much simplified in design, and of poorer quality. Also, collecting this has it's own cons; very often the 'engines' (just wind up springs) didn't work out of the box. It would be cool with the technology nowadays, to have a revival of sorts for Starcom The rights are now with Mattel methinks!

 

Interestingly, Europe had another seperate wave of Starcom figures and vehicles, some which never reached our shores!

LEGO Ewok Village

Hmmm, so the newest large LEGO Star Wars set is the Ewok Village, prob cause it's the 30th Anniversary of ROTJ  methinks. Still, ROTJ isn't my favorite episode out of the trilogy. Although it looks pretty cool, i'm not much into Ewoks either..... or how easy they trounce stormtroopers! Also, at US$250, not cheap! Lots of minifigs though.

3D Printed Atlas

Man, i should really invest in a 3D printing machine (you up for this buddy?), i've got this idea to print replacement parts/upgrades/improvements for exisiting/vintage toys! I know shapeways does it, but it's still a very niche thing, so maybe there's a market there.

This one is very cool, didn't know it can print to fine now, from what i heard, the material is pretty tough (ABS or POM i think), but heckuva expensive.

Yamato VF-19S

The VF-19S is the 3rd revision of the VF-19 design that Yamato has released so far; the previous 2 versions always had an issue of the 'neck' of the jet mode being too thick. Amazing how far they've come since then. The proportions are mostly spot on, and most importantly, the transformation is intuitive and uncomplicated!

Thankfully, Yamato has been packing their toys in more compact boxes compared to the past (which was mostly 50% air), the paint job is excellent and the toy has a overall glossy look.

Gerwalk is sweet, and balances well. The hips, knees and ankle articulate well enough for posing, and is quite stable even though it seems front heavy!

Did i mention before how easy it was to transform? Amazing feat of engineering, how they actually manage to compact a lot of parts, and swing them away so they everything looks in place...lot of "Oh THAT's how they did it!" moments here!

 

Overall, a most enjoyable release from Yamato! Kinda makes it sad then that the company is no more. Hopefully the company who've bought over the rights carries on making these fine toys!