Category: Otaku

Craft Work

September 16, 2015

I could fill this blog with endless posts going into tedious detail about the various model kits I always seem to be making. But that’s a bit dry for those of you not me, so instead I’ll take this chance to show off some of my recently completed kits.

The first is Imperial Girl, the second in a series of kits based on the character art done by Yuji Himukai for RPG series Etrian Odyssey. I made the first kit earlier this year and thought it was pretty snappy but this one is even better, with amazingly detailed armour (with metallic paint) and many cute faces to choose from. It was an easy build as well, and looks wonderful straight out of the box (ie. without additional paint).

Next was this ‘Metal Earth’ miniature metal Notre Dame kit, which Bernard gave me a while back. I’ve made many similar models, but this was the first of the larger ‘ICONX’ series (more pieces and complexity). It took me about a week working about a half hour per day and was certainly amongst the more difficult I’ve made. The finished product is very pretty though 🙂

I’ve always loved General Grievous, iconic villain of Star Wars episode 3, and this recently released Lego kit may as well have been designed with me in mind! Using the bionicle framework, Lego has created perhaps the single best Grievous figure yet made, that not only looks fab but has amazing poseability (including locking his arms together). It’s also quite large, standing over a foot tall. I love it!

Last but not least is this Gundam, or to give the correct full name of this kit: RX-0[N] Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn (Destroy Mode) Full Psycho-Frame Prototype Mobile Suit. Mouthful of a name aside, this is one hell of a kit that includes about 10 colours of plastic (including 3 transparent types) and seemingly-zillions of pieces that snap together to form a very angular and almost overdesigned beast of a robot. This was a fun kit to make and looks great with the contrast between the black armour and yellow ‘crystal’ innards. It’s a 1/144 kit which means it’s a tad smaller than the 1/100’s I prefer, but the price was low (~$20) and the quality extremely high. I enjoyed making this one a lot!

I’m finding myself spending more and more time making models like these. I find it very relaxing. Maybe you should give it a try?

Force Friday

September 4, 2015

Today was ‘Force Friday’, which was the heavily marketed release day for the first toys from the upcoming Star Wars film. It was a bit of a big deal, and while many shops had midnight launch events I stayed in bed and waited until after work to spend my cash.

Everywhere I went the in-store advertising was abundant, with special props going to Target for their full size animated BB-8 droid (lower left in the photo) as well as the way they replaced some of their register belts with Star Wars scrolling text belts:

I’ve always been a Star Wars fan. It has never waned, and I can’t deny a tremendous anticipation for the new film. I’m also a sucker for merchandise of all sorts, and spent a few hours today driving around several stores since there seemed to be different stuff everywhere.

So what did I buy…?

That’s the boring stuff. Two action figures, a mini model of one of the new Tie Fighters, and a placemat 🙂

Slightly more interesting was that balloon. I bought it since I hadn’t seen (and liked) the Drew Struzan art on it 🙂

Those are ‘collectable game pieces’ sold blind in packs of five. The games is a bit like dominoes but we love the fact they are magnetic! With the addition of a few tiny little magnets our fridge will now be covered in flashy Star Wars hexagons!

Avoid the blind-packed micro machine toys. Even at $2 they are terrible. The one shown is The Force Awakens heroine Rey on some sort of speeder.

Dog tags are always fun! I guess this confirms C3PO to be in the new film.

The less said about the above the better…

…but wouldn’t it make a fine Christmas gift?

This was my second favourite purchase of today. One thing I was surprised by was how much new merchandise of all sorts there was – not just Force Awakens stuff. These Lego kits are based on the old Bionicle style and look great, but Grievous is far and away the best of the bunch.

My favourite purchase was this children’s meal set, which will now be added to our cupboard alongside five (!) other SW meal sets dating back to ’99 when Episode 1 came out!

Look at that plate! Look at the cereal bowl with Kylo Ren and Phasma on it! And what about the First Order Tie Fighter on the cup?! Lovely stuff all of it 🙂

As I said: lifelong fan!

That’s something I didn’t buy: a $150 four foot talking Vader model. Pretty cool eh?

There’s one item though I should have bought, and probably will, and that’s the new Lego First Order Tie Fighter. I guess I just love the black and white design too much!

So readers, what did you pick up on Force Friday?

Crowns of The Collection

August 27, 2015

I was sent these two postcards recently:

OMG, those are gamebook covers?! Let’s see what’s on the back:

HOLY MOSES! Those are nothing less than the actual signatures of the creators of FF gamebooks, Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson! These are holy grails to a gamebook collector such as myself 🙂

So where did they come from? Well some months ago on twitter the company Tin Man Games (who makes app versions of gamebooks) started posting pictures of their collection. I jokingly suggested it needed organization, and this led to a conversation between me and them which led to them learning about my collection, being amazed by my collection, and saying they wanted to ‘send me something small for my collection’. Little did I know the magnitude of this ‘small’ thing they wanted to send me!

Here the autographs are with the books from pictures on the cards:

I think I have a fourth imprint of House Of Hell as well. But I didn’t want to show off 😉

Robot Claw