Category: Blog

Labo Miku

January 2, 2022

Time for another model kit post, this time another Miku. Are you keeping count how many figures of this character I have made?

I bought the above in Tokyo in January 2019. I was stopping in to the Yodobashi Camera near my hotel every evening and one day I was surprised to see pallets of the above set out with a strict limit of one per person. Naturally, I hastily picked one up!

It’s a plastic model kit that makes a posed figure with no articulation. This allows for fewer pieces and a bit more style in the pose and finish. The kit includes the gimmick of layered injection:

It’s remarkable to see how sophisticated the injection molding has become. Only a decade or so ago I was astonished at two-colour molded pieces, now we have four or more and pieces that have multiple layers including transparencies!

The kit also included dry-rub decals, which in my opinion are a big upgrade from wet decals and were both easy to attach and added a lot to the detail of the finished product.

Even Loppi was amazed!

The finished kit looks great, and hardly looks like something I assembled (rather than a premade figure). It’s quite voluminous with her hair, but fits nicely on this Miku shelf:

I’m not a fanatical fan Hatsune Miku by any means, it’s just that she’s so popular that manufacturers know kits of her will sell better than most other characters. And if they continue to be as high quality as these, I daresay this won’t be the last time I assemble a Miku plastic model.

City Christmas

December 19, 2021

After canceling Australia, we booked a (very!) last minute trip to NYC to ‘save Christmas’. In other words, get my mind off a disappointing event and buy some Xmas gifts at the same time.

We stayed in our usual hotel. The room wasn’t quite as fancy (or expensive) as last time but was still cozy and had a wonderful view, especially at night:

That’s the Bryant Park ice rink, which they set up for a few months every year. The whole park gets a makeover in fact, with lots of temporary shops and restaurants. Here’s a better view of the rink:

Mostly we shopped, and as usual we absolutely filled our days. But we also found time for eating, like delicious mochi donuts (made using rice flour):

Or this mozzarella potato corn dog:

We visited Madame Tussaud’s for the first time ever, which was crazy busy since it was raining and everyone else chose to go as well, but it was fun seeing the incredibly lifelike mannequins:

And to our surprise you could pose with almost all of them:

Of course we went to see the famous Rockefeller Center tree as well, which was dazzling at night:

And – to our surprise – Saks 5th Avenue had a 3.5 minute fully animated light/music show using 700,000 lights over the entire facade of the building:

Oh and the city was mobbed with people. In fact this was maybe the busiest we had ever seen NYC, and certainly the most people I’ve seen since the pandemic began. Of course the unfortunate side of this is that NYC is currently seeing pandemic-record covid numbers (due to the variant which affected my trip…) but it was great to see near-ubiquitous mask usage (even out on the sidewalk) and testing/vaccination tents on every block:

We had a whirlwind trip but a fun one. We packed a lot into 2.5 days and returned with an astonishing amount of goodies. This last photo shows most of what we bought (certain Xmas gifts are omitted). Can you guess which of these will soon inspire a blog post of its own?

Better Days

December 16, 2021

About six weeks ago I booked flights to Australia. At last the borders had opened, and I could once again go and see my mum and friends. The weeks after booking I became increasingly excited, and spent a lot of time preparing and planning. I also bought lots of things to bring with me, and my suitcases were stuffed like on no previous trip. I had little-to-no concern about covid, since Australia’s numbers were very low and I was triple vaccinated. It would be a happy trip in the sun.

Then… omicron.

Last night, less than 24 hours before my flight, I canceled. Ultimately it was more a ‘death of 1000 cuts’ rather than any single event that persuaded me, although a very real expectation that lockdowns are in the future probably weighed heaviest on my mind.

My hometown is thick with covid now, with cases rising alarmingly. Many other cities are in the same situation and I daresay everywhere else is short behind. Now is not the time to travel. Based on what I’ve read so far I expect omicron to flare briefly but very brightly, and I can only hope we all emerge stronger for it.

I couldn’t get a refund on the exorbitant price of my ticket, and instead have credit good for a year. I will use that to visit Australia as soon as possible. Let’s hope it’s not another year from now.

Robot Claw