Category: Otaku

Summer Land

June 15, 2007

Time for the summer plan update!

Summer, a time that I have for the past few years had off, is busier for me this year because I’ll be going to the lab most days a week to work on my experiment. However, I still have a good deal on my ‘to-do’ list during these next three months.

On the lego front, I’ve made good work of the backlog of kits I picked up over the spring. This past week I finished the Slave 1 kit and this weekend I will work on a kit I truly love, a crane from the Lego City line. Once that is complete work will begin on the mother of all lego kits, the Death Star II. 3449 pieces! Fifty centimeters in diameter! Approximately 15 hours construction time! I plan on taking many photographs to blog the entire process.

On the game front I made a good few purchases recently. I’m nearing the end of Super Paper Mario for Wii (fantastic) and well into the hardcore postgame of Etrian Odyssey for DS (one of the more difficult, strategic and challenging RPGs I have played in years). Next on the list is Baten Kaitos Origins for Gamecube, followed by Rogue Galaxy and Odin Sphere for PS2. It is always possible I may renew World Of Warcraft as well, just to see how things are going in Azeroth (it’s been four months since I cancelled).

Summer also sees Heroscape dragged out of the storage again. Anti-Yossie measures will have to be implemented. For instance, I won’t be able to build the map and leave the figures out while we are away since she may nibble on them. But I have a plan. Last year I bought the castle expansion for the game and have not even opened it, so I’m looking forward to making a map with a castle on it. Again, this will be blogged.

And also – if I have time – I still have a good few FF gamebooks to delve into. I want to (re)play each of them at least once, and there are nearly two dozen of the higher numbered volumes I haven’t gotten to. I also bought a couple of high-number Lone Wolf books in Hawaii (of all places…) that I wanted to play through at least once.

I’d like to go camping as well. Over to Ohio, somewhere near Cedar Point and Kennywood…

Pluqstahl

May 22, 2007

I’ve been a fan of the Guyver manga for many years now. It tells the story of a young man able to transform into the ‘bioweapon’ named Guyver and fight many different monstrous foes. Over the years I have aquired the various DVD series as well as a slew of different figures/models/toys.

Last year in Japan I purchased three figures from the recently launched (and quite expensive) Max Factory ‘Bio Fighter Collection’

From right to left they are Guyot (a Zoalord; one of the baddie leaders), Aptom (one of the good guys) and ZX-Tole (one of the more powerful, non-leader bad guys).

Recently, whilst trolling ebay, I found that Max Factory had released a new figure in the line. Behold, Pluqstahl:

As with all figures in the line, he comes with a range of accessories. In addition to the cloak and armor pieces (removable), he also has four sets of hands and the ‘lightning drive’ attachment.

I bought him of course, and yesterday he arrived safe and sound from Hong Kong. He is the most expensive ‘action figure’ I have ever bought. I’m very pleased with him as well – he’s second only to Guyot in my opinion in this line.

Incidentally, Pluqstahl (as Max Factory calls him), is another of the evil Zoalord leaders. His powers included the ability to control very powerful lightning and summon great storms. He was killed several volumes ago in the comic after a battle with one of the good guys (Dark Gigantic). He did not die at our heroes hand though, but as a result of an attack by three other Zoalords. It was suggested these three were rogues who were planning some nefarious act. Friedrich von Purukshterl therefore, could be considered one of the ‘good’ bad guys. Here’s what he looked like in the manga:

Queen Yossie

May 17, 2007

(Not the cat…)

I just beat Angband with a warrior. And it’s the first time in years I have accomplished this. The last few hours (thousand or so levels) were a massive chore – rapid descents followed by farming of giant/dragon vaults for artifacts. I got very lucky with some drops though, even if I never saw any decent artifact rings, +speed boots or Ringil.

In the end I swapped out a helm that aggravated enemies but gave me an extra attack for the crown (for the stats mostly). I also lucked out with a Morgoth spawn in a relatively empty part of the dungeon. For all his power, he could barely damage me…

Here’s the character dump in image form (approx 700×3500):

< No nether resistance! (By the way, if this post means nothing to you don't worry...)

Robot Claw