Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category

Bonus Post: The Incredible Model Toilet

Saturday, June 3rd, 2017

Yesterday in a ‘retro candy’ shop we saw this:

A toilet model kit for under US$3? Naturally I had to buy it. Here’s the contents:

Looks like we got the ‘cute boy’ version (there are four randomly packed in the box). Here’s detail of the toilet parts still on the runners:

And here’s the assembled toilet:

He’s a charming guy isn’t he? Even better, he’s not just for looks: he has a function!

You pour in crystals from the packet, then add a bit of water and a magical thing happens:

Yes my friends, toilet-boy turns those crystals and water into a delicious foam that you can sip through a straw right from his bowl:

KLS tried it! Here’s her reaction:

It was, she said, an “evil banana” flavour πŸ™‚

Here’s a final shot of toilet-boy presented in his diorama (cut from the box) with a full bowl of pleasure waiting for a lucky sipper:

I can’t guarantee we’ll see these things for sale again, but if you like what you see here and want your own let me know and I’ll keep my eyes peeled.

With The Fishes

Wednesday, May 31st, 2017

Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan is a very popular tourist destination for good reason, and that’s because they have – in maybe the biggest tank I’ve ever seen – whale sharks on display!

I think they are juveniles, but even then they are car-sized. There’s two of them, swimming slowly with hordes of fish, sharks and rays. The aquarium is designed so you continually circle around the giant tank, and although the water is crystal clear the tank is big enough that you can’t see the other side and the fish seem to swim out of an abyss.

There are many other displays as well, and I was particular taken by the seals πŸ™‚

Not to mention the weird little guys (like this blenny) in the ‘fish face’ exhibit:

We spent a few hours here and we’re very impressed. If you’re ever in Osaka (and like fish!) don’t miss it.

KLS’s dinner was the above double chocolate waffle. The remainder of the day was spent idly wandering the Osaka CBD and getting involved in the usual madness…

A very KLS-centric post today! I’ll try to get more photos of me tomorrow πŸ™‚

Broadway

Monday, May 29th, 2017

I just wrote a lengthy post but the app I used to blog from my phone crashed and it was all lost! So here’s an abbreviated version…

Yesterday we spent the day at Nakano Broadway mall, a Mecca for fans of anime/games/manga/toys etc, filled with shops that look like this;

And this…

And this…

We’ve been many times but it gets better every trip. It’s not for those with shallow pockets though; I think as the awareness of this place has grown so have the price tags!

I saw countless amazing things but none more so than Japanese imprints of the FF books I collect. That deserves its own post in the future though; watch for it!

Broadway isn’t just shops, there’s also a few arcades and lots and lots of gashapon (toy vending) machines:

We love all this stuff. It was a great day πŸ™‚

Harder Than It Looked

Wednesday, May 24th, 2017

Gore Magala Girl

Friday, May 19th, 2017

That’s the figure/kit I got for my birthday. It was time to set it up!

But first a brief explanation. This is a figure inspired by this guy, Gore Magala:

He’s one of the enemies in Monster Hunter, and his armour – once you defeat him and collect enough parts to make it – is very distinctive:

So this figure kit, while not reproducing the in-game appearance of the armour, is inspired by Magala. Here’s the contents:

So many parts! There are several configurations the figure can be displayed in, and I wanted the dress-with-umbrella mode. This required use of the wings, folded around to form each half of the dress:

The problem was… it’s very difficult to assemble! The pieces hardly wanted to go together, and once I got it mostly done I couldn’t get the dress around her.

The archer mode was just as difficult, and since I didn’t want to use glue or modify the pieces I eventually just settled for replacing her normal clothes with the armour…

…and displaying her in ‘dual swords’ mode:

I think I’ll call her Momo πŸ˜‰

I think I could easily get the wings attached and set up like the image on the back of the box, but I want to finish filling my new curio first to see how much space I have.

Final review: looks great, incredibly (over) engineered, very challenging to assemble!