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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 »

???? Update

Thursday, October 16th, 2014

Today was a special day. How special? Well today marked my 500th consecutive PazuDora login:

Five hundred days in an iPhone game?!? That’s crazy. Even crazier is it keeps growing and getting better so who knows when it all will end?

That’s my primary leader. I run a ‘row-enhance physical burst team’ that can (and has) beaten just about ever dungeon in the game.

I’m working on leveling this guy up since ‘I have the best subs’ to run a ‘GZL TP burst team’ that may be even more powerful than blue Sonia. For the remaining dungeons, such as those with orb limits or pre-emptives or type restrictions, I’ve also got a ‘Kirin combo team’ and a ‘Lucifer/gravity tank team’. Yes I’m speaking lingo here…

In 500 days I’ve spent $40 on the game, in two payments of $20. I actually feel bad about not spending more, but Gung-ho are so generously awarding ‘magic stones’ (the premium currency) that I literally never run out! Soon I’ll toss them some more cash for my enjoyment.

As you may be able to tell Puzzle & Dragons is a rich and complex game, and I’m still enjoying it a lot. However I don’t recommend it since it is a bit too difficult and hardcore, especially at the end game. But I love that.

I’ll update again in 2016 at 1000 days played 😉

Posted in Art, Games, Otaku, Time | Comments Closed

Day Four

Sunday, October 12th, 2014

Today was the final day of the con. We had about five hours to fill before we’d have to leave for our train. So fill them we did!

That’s my usual ’empty con floor shot taken before the doors open from the VIP room’. Twenty minutes later it would be hell 🙂

So as mentioned my #1 goal today was to get an autograph from esteemed thespian Patrick Stewart, arguably best-known for his performance of Gurney Halleck in Dune. I’d made all sorts of boastful claims to a certain person that I could get his autograph for them and by Jove I was going to get it!

Then he canceled yesterday. No worries, I said, there’s always tomorrow!

And then he canceled today as well…

To paraphrase KLS: “The only possible excuse for this sleight of his fans was if the next thing I read about him was his obituary! Either way, he’s dead to me!”

I hastily put ‘Plan B’ into action, and joined the line for an autograph from John de Lancie, arguably best known for his unforgettable portrayal of ‘Fish Halman’ in Crank 2. The certain person who shall remain nameless (cough, bear, cough) had recently waxed lyrical about the sensuality of de Lancie and I knew she needed his mark 🙂

At the risk of spoiling a gift, let’s end there for now…

Oh btw here’s a stealth shot I took while waiting (seemingly forever!) in line. I got neither of these guys autographs, but almost wish I had!

That’s Riker and Data, both in civilian attire. Riker was quite a fellow!

And what of the remainder of our final day at NYCC? Well we spent much of it shopping and looking at countless booths and just enjoying the spectacle of it all. Even though we’d spent dozens of hours already, the size of the con means there’s always something new to see!

Such as more retro toys: