Archive for the ‘Otaku’ Category

Sinanju

Saturday, April 8th, 2017

It’s been over a week since my last post (blame illness!) and quite some time since a dedicated Gundam post. Mostly the latter is due to my recent builds being quick-and-easy kits probably not worth their own posting, but this guy is a bit different:

This is Sinanju, a robot I know nothing at all about (since I neither watch the series or read the comics). However this is the first ‘Real Grade’ (RG) Gundam kit I ever bought and I’ve been very much looking forward to making it. While RG kits have been around for a few years, the only one that I had previously fallen in love with I actually bought and gave to SFL, so making that myself would have been ‘copying’ (to steal a term from AW) and only the worst sort of person would do that!

So when Sinanju came along with his gold trim and glossy red luster I had to have him! Here’s what was inside the box:

There are hundreds of Gundams in many different styles and levels of detail but very broadly they can be catalogued into four types:
1) High Grade (HG): Smaller (1/144 scale), easy-to-make and inexpensive (<$20)
2) Real Grade (RG): Smaller (1/144), more detailed than HG, more complex to build and more expensive ($35+)
3) Master Grade (MG): Larger (1/100), highly detailed with many more parts and higher complexity. Can get pricey ($50++)
4) Perfect Grade (PG): Super detailed, with insane detail and features such as LED lights. For true maniacs. ($hundreds)
I’ve made many HG kits, two MG’s (with another on my shelf waiting) and as I said this was my first RG. So how was it?

Well in short, complicated! As with most Gundam kits you start with the feet, and it was very quickly apparent that despite the lower price point and smaller size this was no less complex than the two MG kits I have already made. Here’s a shot showing one of the legs in the early stages of assemlby:

You can see the internal ‘skeleton’ onto which the superstructure connects, and then the outer armour (in red) on top of that. The three pieces shown include dozens of individual parts, and at times it very much seemed like the designers had broken an obvious single piece into two or more pieces just to drive up the part count of the kit. That said I was impressed with how well it all goes together, not to mention the (mind-boggling) level of articulation the finished piece has. Here’s two legs next to each other:

The difference here is only the the left leg (on the right of the picture) doesn’t yet have it’s armour. When finished, here they both are:

I posed these so you can see how much the piece can be manipulated to show the retro rockets when in flight mode. Otherwise these two are identical mirrors of each other, and all the rockets hide away nicely when the armour is closed up. Despite being an entirely plastic kit there are all sorts of moving pistons and joints underneath this armour and even the foot has about four joints which comes in very handy when trying to stand the finished model!

Here’s the legs attached to the waist with the skit armour attached:

This photo would have been taken after many hours of assembly. There is no paint or glue used at all, and you can appreciate how finely engineered the kit is by how well the gold-and-black pieces go together and how shiny the gold looks. There are also some flexible plastic pieces (such as the tubing in this photo) which are uncommon in HG level kits.

Now I took a few more in-progress shots but apparently deleted them so let’s jump now to the completed kit, which probably took at least ten hours over a few weeks:

It’s large and bulky and extravagant but stands easily with no support! As with most Gundam kits, it comes with a wealth of weapon options but I only opted for the sword and shield. If you like you can make guns, cannons and a polearm type weapon. It’s very poseable as well, so if you buy a stand you can put it in any sort of flying or attacking pose you wish. Here’s a side-view shot:

I’m very impressed with how he turned out, and he’s going in my curio alongside the two MG kits. While he’s not quite at their level of detail, he’s also quite a bit less expensive! As my first RG kit, this was a fun – albeit complex – build that ended up looking just as good as I’d hoped, and I’m sure there will be more RG kits in my future. If you’re new to Gundams though I’d recommend you start off with a HG kit or two before diving into RG. (Florence, this means Bearguy first!)

One last comment about Sinanju: there’s actually a pricey (~$120) MG version of him with more detail and ‘titanium gloss’ plastic. It looks incredible. I wonder if I can find it cheaper in Japan in a couple of months…?

B-Gifts

Monday, March 27th, 2017

I made some stuff! It was only after I started this post did I realize this was all given to me by Bernard!

The kuma crystal puzzle was much trickier to assemble than I expected but goes together well and locks together with a plastic screw! He fits in the palm of my hand and now sits in the new curio.

A kiwi kit he gave me after NZ! It took milliseconds to assemble and is probably the easiest puzzle I’ve ever made. But is it lifelike?

And lastly another kiwi, this time from the same people that made the tuatara. A lovely little kit, and impossibly cute when complete. I’m going to believe this is what real-life kiwis look like πŸ™‚

I’ve got loads of other craft/model kits to make. There’ll be many more posts like this as the year continues…

Birthday Aquisitions #5: The Rest

Friday, March 17th, 2017

A few months ago KLS and I found this in a local arcade:

I was dazzled, not just by the fact it was the worlds largest Pac-Man, but by the fact it used a giant bank of LEDs for the display:

So imagine my surprise when Florence sent me this for my birthday:

It’s a Pac-Man clock using LEDs for the display! And it animates!

The animations are of Pac-Man being chased by or chasing the ghosts, and are perfect recreations of the arcade sprites and colours. All using just LEDs:

I love it and it’s proudly displayed in my study! Thanks Florence!

Now I know we’ve been doing the birthday thing for days now and it’s obscene how much stuff I got but this next item – speaking two weeks down the road from my actual birthday – has turned out to be the thing I have used the most:

Yep, a ‘gherkin fork’! I have taken to occasionally buying gherkins and they’re just not the same unless eaten with a quality long fork. Yes I know it’s metal and yes I’m a weirdo that doesn’t like metal in his mouth but for this fork and a delicious gherkin I’m making an exception!

Mum and Dad: maybe I’ll bring one to Oz next time to replace the one that ‘got lost’ πŸ™‚

There’s a few other gifts I was going to list today (a sterling engine, the new Zelda, some tools…) but they will likely get their own posts eventually. I’ll end with one last item, very recently received in the mail from none other than Bernard:

A 3D Rilakkuma model! As with the Pac-Man clock had I known this existed I would have bought it for myself already!

So there you have it: a mostly comprehensive series of posts documenting much of what I got for my birthday. Too much to be true, and – since I bought much of it myself – tailor made for me. 

I’ll end with a request: Of all the items I listed this week, what item(s) would you most – or least – like to own yourselves? 

You never know. If it’s a Guy N Smith novel maybe I can make your wish come true πŸ˜‰

Birthday Aquisitions #4: Figures

Thursday, March 16th, 2017

I’m a sucker for a good figure, as you probably know, and in that regard the birthday didn’t disappoint. They were a common gift item from a few people.

I haven’t opened any of these yet. I’ve still got some work to do with a new curio cabinet before I’m ready to populate it, so all these photos are boxed.

I had thought the chance of new Guyver figures was about zero for years now, so when Max Factory announced Figmas a couple of years back I was pretty happy! Female Guyver is the second in the line and pretty snazzy. There’s actually two versions, with the other being purple and based on the anime appearance.

I’ve posted about Aegis before, and she’s still a favourite of mine! This incredibly cute not-a-Nendroid (also from Good Smile) was a gift from JF! I’m looking forward to getting this one out and putting her next to her twin sisters πŸ™‚

Now this is amazing. It’s my first Tamashii Nations figure, plus it’s a cute goth girl and she’s wearing dress/armor based on Gore Magala from Monster Hunter. Basically this is an ubΓ«r-otaku figure right up my alley. Also… it needs some construction! When I open and make her, she’ll get a dedicated post.

Florence got me this! She knows I’m a bit disturbed by RenΓ© Auberjonois famous changeling from DS9, but not so much that I’m not proud of my very own! So now I have two, and this one even has legs!

I’ll never open this one by the way. I wouldn’t want to ruin the value πŸ˜‰

Birthday Aquisitions #2: Trading Cards

Tuesday, March 14th, 2017

As you know, I’m a bit of a fan of (non sports) trading cards. And since hardly anyone releases any of worth these days, I occasionally pick up old boxes. Or five at the same time, as I did for my birthday!

Such things are cheap these days, and for boxes shown here, almost a song. None of these were over $20, some under $10 πŸ™‚

Fantasy art trading cards were big business in the early 1990s, and it seemed everyone that had ever done a game or novel cover had their own set. Including this guy I’ve never heard of – Lee Macleod – who got his 50 card set released by Cardz in 1994.

The art isn’t great, and the ‘tekchrome bonus card in every pack’ is a bog-standard chrome card. There are no other chase cards in the packs. But the cards have artist commentary which is nice, and with such a small set size I should certainly complete at least one in the box.

I know virtually nothing about Venus Swimwear Model Search (Star, 1994) and apparently neither did they, since nowhere on the box or pack does it list how many cards in the set or if there are chases. I bought it since it was only $7 for the box!

As it turns out, it’s 100 cards (all bikini shots of ‘professional’ models) with no chase. Pretty mundane set, compared to today where at the very least autographs and the like would be included. At least the copy on the backs of the cards is silly πŸ™‚

I’m not really a fan of gambling but I believe the theory that trading cards are successful in part due to the gambling urge. “Will I get that rare chase card in this pack?”  This must be why it can be fun to open even a box of cards for a show I’m not remotely a fan of, like Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (Pro Set, 1992)!

This was another very cheap box and to be honest I was won over by the 3D card in every pack! Spoiler alert: they’re crap πŸ™‚

It seemed that FPG and Comic Images competed in the fantasy art card market and both had many solid licenses (and truth be told, I bought many packs back then). Both produced high quality sets with desirable chase cards but once they had exhausted the ‘big guns’ the sets came from less famous guys like James Warhola (FPG, 1995).

While I’ve not really heard of this guy, the art is high quality, the comments on the back readable and the set includes metallic chase cards! I haven’t opened one yet, but there should be a few in the box and knowing FPG they will be high quality.

Everyone knows Frazetta (II; Comic Images, 1993) and unsurprisingly given his lifetime of work he had multiple sets back in the day.

What needs to be said about his art? He’s one of the kings of fantasy and was very likely an inspiration for every other fantasy artist that ever got a card set. The cards are beautiful, there’s two types of chase card, and I know I’ll have fun tearing into these!

Incidentally as you can see I have lots of packs! If you want some, let me know.