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Sounds Of The Universe

Saturday, December 13th, 2014

Well my friends it’s been altogether far too long since my last blog post! I won’t list the reasons since they are history now, and truth be told I was holding back a little, since today begins my third ever ‘blog event’! I present to you:

What does this mean? A new post a day, for twelve (very majestic) days! You can look forward to posts about crafts, weird collections of mine, year-in-review posts and even a secret or two (bears??!?).

What better way to start this cosmic event than with this:

Yes, it’s a vinyl record. I obtained this prize from a second-hand bookstore when I was in San Jose earlier this year. Although Bernard saw it first, he was strangely uninterested and I knew it had to be mine! Here’s the track listing:

This is not a music album, this is a sound effect album! None of that ‘Doctor Who Theme’ stuff here, no sir. This is a record for true fans!

Yesterday, I removed the album from the sleeve for the first time, spend about 10 minutes trying to remember how my record player worked, and gave it a spin:

The sounds that came from the speakers were not like anything on this Earth! It was as if I was right there on Exillon as I listed to the sonorous droning of ‘The Central Control Room in Exillon City‘. It was bliss.

But the next track blew me away, and since describing it is almost beyond words, why don’t you listen to ‘The Dalek Control Room‘ yourselves:

And so it continued as I listened to such wonders as the electronic hum of ‘Styre’s Scouting Machine‘ or the astral winds of ‘Sutekh Time Tunnel‘. I was being whisked from planet to planet with each new track.

Side two continued the trend, although the tracks are a lot more uplifting than on side one. As en example, here is ‘The Mandragora Helix‘ in it’s entirety:

Beautiful isn’t it? Believe me when I say the rest of the tracks on the record are just as good 🙂

This album was released in 1976, and I have the US version from 1978. It’s in astonishingly good condition for something 36 years old, and even though I will go to the grave without ever playing it again, it is certainly a jewel in my record collection!

I think these guys may agree with me…

Posted in Blog, Miscellaneous, Music, Otaku, Tech, The Unknown, Time, Toys | Comments Closed

Musha Gundam Mk-II

Tuesday, November 25th, 2014

You may recall that a couple of years ago I made a Gundam I had bought in Japan back in 2010. I loved making that kit, and last year during our Japan trip I purchased his cousin. Several weeks ago I decided it was time to put him together:

This is a ‘Master Grade’ gundam kit which means two things:
1) It’s pricey! (I paid about $45 in Japan but it costs $75 or more to buy on import)
2) It’s much more complicated than most models.

Here’s the contents of the box upon opening:

Lots of pieces! As usual Bandai impresses with the engineering. Not only does this piece have pieces painted with reflective gold paint, but this is also the first Gundam I’ve seen with transparent plastic on the same runner as opaque plastic:

The build was meticulous but not particular difficult. I had more trouble with Liger Zero than this guy. The instructions, which were all in Japanese, were easy to follow and the pieces clearly marked, and the superior engineering of the molding meant that removal was trivial and very little filing was needed. Here’s the workspace:

And a couple of in-progress shots:

The articulation is mind-boggling. Each arm and leg has many points, and the hips actually have two settings for action poses. Everything snaps together perfectly as well, and the final kit is incredible poseable and solid. Here’s a shot of the leg before and after the armor is added. You can get an idea of the articulation in the first shot:

I didn’t keep very good track of time, but I’d estimate this kit took me about a dozen hours in total. I didn’t apply the decals or paint it (since I’m not a maniac), but I think it looks pretty good finished:

Here he is on the shelf with his spiritual cousin:

As I like to do – and to demonstrate my inadequacy – I’ll end this with a shot of a heavily customized build of this very same kit. Not only did the person who made this ‘Ieyasu Tokugawa version’ modify some of the parts, he also extensively painted the kit and even applied ‘itasha-style’ floral pattern to the upper thighs. It all looks quite incredible:

My ‘to build’ model stack is now at an all-time low of only two kits: Sengoku Astray Gundam (MG) and the ‘Dark Horn Harry Special’ HG Zoid I purchased a few weeks ago. I wonder which one I will make next…?

Posted in Blog, Miscellaneous, Models, Otaku, Toys | 1 Comment »

At Last! The Annual List Of What My Brother Will Buy Me For Christmas!

Thursday, October 30th, 2014

The other week I got this text from a certain brother-of-mine:

I was astounded. In previous years I had produced such lists, but little did I know that they had worked their way into the tapestry of my brothers christmas-shopping life (so to speak).

He went on to say “money is no object“ and “the more obscure and difficult to find, the better“. Sadly I forgot to screenshot those bits.

So Bernard, as requested…

Books Category

The ZX Spectrum Book (Andrew Rollins)

A few years back Bernard got me ‘The Commodore 64 Book‘ which was just fab. I quickly snapped up the followup (‘The 8-bit Book‘) but have been tragically unable to acquire the first book from this small publisher. This is perhaps not surprising, since it was published over five years ago in small quantities and is long out of print. I don’t know exactly where he’s going to find it, but when I open this beauty on Christmas day I’ll be a happy reader indeed!

The World Of The Dark Crystal (Brian Froud)

Given there is now a sequel to the film coming, I believe Christmas 2014 would be the perfect time for my brother to put on his sleuth’s hat and solve an outstanding mystery. You see I don’t just want any copy of this book, I want my copy. Truth is, as a youngling sprout, I purchased myself a copy of this lovely tome from Angus & Robertson Charlestown Square. This would have been back in ’82, when the film came out. It was a mildly expensive book, and I had to utilize lay-by to get it! And oh how I loved it! It was one of my most treasured possessions, ‘my precious’ if you will. And then some soulless inhuman thief nicked it :<

As I hinted, the mystery of who stole my book is as yet unsolved. The only lead I’ve had these 32 long years is this photo taken by a security camera:

I’m hoping, in the spirit of Christmas, Bernard may finally discover the identity of the thief and return to me my beloved tome…

Trial Of Champions (Ian Livingstone)

Of course I own this book. Multiple copies in fact. But I don’t own the version shown, which is the US imprint. It was the last FF book released in the US during the initial series, and I have all the others. But not this one. And I have looked, oh how have I looked! The problem is sellers very, very rarely (ie. never) bother to specify the imprint when they sell this book online. And given there was probably 80 quadrillion copies of the UK version printed to every US copy, taking a chance is a fool’s errand. I consider myself one of the world’s foremost ‘online searchers for and buyers of’ gamebooks, and boast a bookshelf of more than four hundred. And yet I’ve never seen this one. I look forward to that changing this Christmas day.

DVD Section

It Couldn’t Happen Here (1988)

Otherwise known as ‘The Pet Shop Boys film’. I saw this a few years after it came out, probably at the Enmore theatre, probably with a lass named Caraid who I forget everything about except her unusual name. I think she looked like Karen Gillan though, and her mum gave me a beer once within 30 seconds of visiting her house. Weird. Anyway I want to see this film again, which means I want it on DVD. This is a tall order, since it’s never been released on DVD. Which limits my options to two: VHS or Laserdisc. The first option is of course absurd, but the second is a possibility since I own a working LD player. Maybe. So that’s the hard part out of the way, now all I need is the disc, in NTSC format of course. I’ve made your work easy Bernard 🙂

Adam Adamant Lives! (1966)

I’ve never seen this show since it never screen outside of England and I’m not an Englishman. Firstly, the BBC trashed a bunch of episodes so it doesn’t even exist in it’s entirety. Secondly, it’s never been released on anything outside of England. And lastly the DVD set (containing the 17 existing episodes) is long out of print. All these considerations aside, given that this show inspired Doctor Who and The Avengers (and some of Kim Newman’s characters) I obviously need to see it. And I shall, when Bernard gives me the Region 2 box set loaded with extras for Christmas.

Toy Section

Dark Horn ‘Harry Special’ (HM Zoid Kit)

There’s a lot of beautiful things in this world, and then there’s the limited ‘Harry Special’ variant HM Zoid Dark Horn kit. I mean look at that! Could there even exist a better looking model kit? Of course not, and I therefore must own it. Bernard will undoubtedly agree, and I’m just going to be ebullient when he gives it to me for Christm–

Oh to hell with it! This guy’s so pretty I just can’t goddamn wait until Christmas! Hang on a second, while I go buy it…

Ok, taken care of. It’s now mine, all mine. And in case you don’t believe me, let Emi prove it to you:

OMG the box is bigger than Emi! Sorry Bernard. Guess I ruined that as a potential gift 😉

L.E.D. Mirage V3: Inferno Napalm (FSS 1:100 kit)

If I ever met anyone that claimed that any other kit was better looking than this, I’d start by punching them, and I’d end by never being their friend. We all know that Five Star Stories mech’s are stupidly pretty and the jewel-in-the-crown of FSS model kits is unquestionably this one. Sure it costs more than almost every piece of furniture in my house, is supposedly extremely difficult to assemble and when you do takes hundreds of hours, but gosh it’s pretty. Even prettier, I suspect, than Caraid, the girl I saw a movie with 25 years ago and have forgotten about. Oh and Bernard, when you budget for this guy, be sure to add on another $50 or so for the sizeable cost of shipping the collossal box all the way across the USA 😉

Game Section

The Sacred Armor of Antiriad (C64, 1986)

I’m a canny beast. Much like Steven Moffat (aka. the favourite scribe of my illustrious friend Adam ‘The Bold’ W), I like winding secrets into the story of my life. I bet none of you knew back when I penned this that I was in fact laying the groundwork for this very post? That blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to this game was none other than a deliberate mention to plant the thought into my brother’s mind that “Hey, that’d be a good gift to get him for Christmas!” This game was never that great, but it has a lot of nostalgia factor, and I’d like to give it a whirl again one day. Now before you say it, I’ll quote my prestigious friend Florence ‘The Bear’ L: “Emulation, shmemulation!” She knows, as I do, that emulation is for fakers, and I must play the original C64 version. This introduces a… wrinkle into the equation though, for even if my bellowing brother Bernard ‘The Brave’ S gets me this game he’s going to have to get me something to play it on. It’s good thing therefore that this list also contains…

Commodore SX-64 (1984)

Let’s for a moment consider that there even exists a world in which my brother find a US version of one of these portable C64’s in working order and for sale. That alone would be surprising, given the fact they are 30 years old and contain circuitry that has almost certainly worn out after so long (not to mention the screens are infamous for burn-in). But if that happens, we must also consider the chance he would somehow manage to acquire it and not keep it for himself. I would imagine that chance to be miniscule, especially since in good working order this would cost more than that LED Mirage kit mentioned above. These reasons are why this would (no doubt) be a truly heartfelt and appreciated gift. Doubly so when he sends me hundreds of games with it 🙂

Gold Cliff (1988)

Last year I asked for the Zelda Game & Watch, but Santa ignored me. This year I’ll scale down my desire slightly to the even rarer penultimate dual-screen release: Gold Cliff. I saw one of these boxed, in Japan, for almost a thousand dollars. Naturally I’d want a boxed version, so it’s a good thing my brother made that quip about money not being a problem isn’t it? 😉

Miscellaneous Section

Now I’m no fool. I fully realize some of the above are hard to find. And therefore I’ll finish with a brief list of other items that would be wonderful to find under the tree. This list may not contain as much detail as the above, but I can’t do all the work for you now can I?

– t-shirts (large size, preferably with Ultraman on them)
– 4711 soap
– Any other FSS model kit
– A Stonehenge papercraft model kit
– “How to Master The Video Games” (sadly stolen in the same heist that nabbed the Dark Crystal book…)
– Any game & watch that isn’t ‘Turtle Bridge’, ‘Donkey Kong Jr’ or ‘Ball’
– trading cards, preferably sealed packs (of anything non-sport)
– Anything on old lists I don’t have yet (esp. the John Pertwee album of bawdy songs!)

And there we go! Happy hunting 🙂

Posted in Blog, Books & Comics, Family, Gamebooks, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, MTG, Otaku, Tech, The Unknown, Time, Toys, TV | 2 Comments »

The RPG Critic (Shining Forth history part 2)

Thursday, September 25th, 2014

It was more than three years ago that I presented part one of the history of my game fanzine. Read it here if you missed it. At the time I suggested a followup article would be forthcoming, and here it is!

To summarize (and to bridge the gap a bit): I printed a fanzine for about two years, and had no trouble selling every copy. But it was hard work, time consuming, and in 1996 I shifted my focus to a webpage. The website was quite popular, but it lacked a forum (which were somewhat rare in those days) and I was becoming swamped with emails from my readers (I used to run a letters page).

During the years I had worked on the ‘zine I had made a couple of contacts in the industry (at Atlus, FCI and Sega particularly) but none better than Victor Ireland, the president and owner of the company Working Designs. In late 1998, wanting to drive readers to his company website, he suggested buying all my content (my reviews, basically) and hiring me to continue reviewing games for his site.

At first I was resistant since I feared I’d lose editorial control, but he assured me I wouldn’t (a promise he never broke) and given the amount of work the website had become I eventually agreed. In early 1999 the Working Designs website was spruced up, and the ‘RPG Critic’ section added. That was me 🙂

Vic had the above commissioned in 2003, and it was intended for a website revamp (he had similar pictures made of all his staff). I had red hair in those days! You’ll note the review I’m writing starts with the line “This game sucks…” because by then – some four years after I had started – I had become somewhat infamous on the site for my occasionally scathing reviews…

But I jump ahead! Let’s go back a few years. When the RPG Critic launched all my old fanzine reviews immediately went live, as well as a dozen or so I had written but withheld from my website. There was some press in magazines about this, which was notable because US-based game magazines in those days mostly ignored the RPG genre. Online review sites were almost nonexistent in those days and Working Designs almost overnight became one of the web’s foremost sites hosting reviews of console RPGs.

My arrangement with Vic was simple: I would be reimbursed the cost of any game I reviewed for his site. This ended up essentially meaning I could get the sorts of games I liked for free, but very quickly I developed a near-obsession with reviewing anything that was an RPG and my game collection ballooned. Vic was occasionally slow with payment, but it always came eventually, and in addition I received a good amount of freebies from his company. In time I started testing games for them as well (not bug testing, more like system testing). The pinnacle of this was probably the extensive suggestions I gave him about endgame content in the Arc The Lad collection which led to my name in the credits 🙂

My reviews were out of 11, and as I mentioned Vic very rarely had any sort of comment on them. I’d write them, send them to him, and they’d be posted without edits. The only request he had was that I detail why I didn’t like games I gave bad reviews to, which was probably a reference to my sometimes too-short dismissals of bad games in the fanzine. I reviewed games from his company as well, and he never once suggested I change my scores (which was once as low as a 3). He was good to his word that the content of the reviews was 100% up to me.

That’s a shot of the site (obtained via the Wayback Machine) from 2003. By then it had become quite popular, and you can see Vic ran contests, posted fanart and had a very busy forum as well. The forum was particularly interesting, since everyone has an opinion, and often those opinions included critiques of my reviews. I recall Vic loved this, because it meant readers! During the five years I wrote for the site I very rarely posted to the forums except to answer direct questions, and I was amused to see that a sort of ‘supporter base’ had built for me, and whenever anyone would pop in to criticize one of my reviews (or me in general) they’d all chime in on my behalf!

Even my detractors though were impressed by the sheer content of my work, since by the time I ended writing for the site I had personally reviewed over 250 games (which meant I had played them all) and had become a sort of walking encyclopedia/expert on localized console RPGs. I recall most of the forum posts I ever made were to give information about particular rare or unknown games that people had questions about.

Here’s the first 11 I ever gave, to a game I still consider one of the greatest ever made:

And yes, I still own all those games…

One unusual issue that arose during my years writing reviews was people plagiarizing my work. I was usually informed about this via a forum post, and i can recall in particular the website rpgamer.com (which still exists today) ‘lifting’ the text from a few of my reviews and posting them under a different name. I contacted them and the reviews were taken down, but some time afterwards they went right back up! Even worse, a magazine (published by Viz communications) devoted to anime/manga/games stole one of my reviews as well and printed it essentially verbatim. I was actually a subscriber (!), and wrote them a letter to which I never received a reply…

Working Designs was very successful for many years, but ran into trouble during the transition into the PS3/X360 generation. I ended my association with them in late 2003. While I was still enjoying the work, I knew I had to devote more time to my graduate school work and couldn’t keep playing (essentially) every RPG released. Rather than pick-and-choose games to review, my intention was to pass the mantle onto a new ‘RPG Critic’. As it turns out, none eventuated, and with my departure the reviews simply stopped. The website stopped updating in early 2005 (no new reviews being posted for almost 18 months) and Working Designs themselves went out of business later that year.

By those days – some 6 years after I started writing for the site and 11 years after I printed my first fanzine – the internet had matured and game review sites were (too!) common. The niche that the WD website had once filled didn’t exist any more, and the RPG Critic was needed no longer. I remain proud of the work I did in those days – and the fact I played and beat so many, many games, but not for a second do I still wish I was doing it now 🙂

Posted in Blog, Games, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Time | 2 Comments »

My Very Own Opera House

Tuesday, September 16th, 2014

That’s the Sydney Opera House. It’s world famous. You all know it. Everyone knows it!

Thanks to the support of JBF and JAF, it was time to build my own. Here’s what it looked like in the box:

And what was inside:

The real Opera House is constructed of millions of kilograms of steel and glass and concrete, not to mention (exactly) 1,056,006 ceramic tiles. My version is a bit smaller, composed of only 2989 pieces of plastic. It won’t be less grand though!

The original Opera House was built in three distinct stages: The base/podium, then the roof, then the interiors. My version was build in four stages: Stage 1, 2, 3 and 4. Here’s a shot of the beginning of construction of Stage 1:

Here’s what Stage 1 looked like upon completion:

It may look simple enough, but there is some radical and unprecedented construction innovations in that piece of the podium, much like in the version in Sydney.

Here’s some in-progress shots:

Construction of the real Opera House took 15 years and ended up horribly behind schedule (by ten years in fact) and over budget (by more than 14x the original estimate of $7 million). Construction of my opera house had it’s ups and downs as well, not the least of which being a lack of necessary parts. A quick call to a supplier (otherwise known as ‘LEGO customer service’) remedied that problem but resulted in a delay of over two weeks inserted into the middle of construction. All told, I’d estimate about 20-25 hours were needed to finish it.

The original Opera House is 180 meters long and 65 meters high. My version is about 60 cm long and 25 cm high! In fact, it’s about as long and tall as Yossie and weighs about as much as well!

I loved making this kit, probably the most of any Lego kit I have ever made. Given my love for the original building, I can’t imagine how Lego may top this one. Unless they make the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

So how do I display such a massive piece? Well for now, like this:

Posted in Blog, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Tech, Toys | 5 Comments »

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