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Archive for the ‘Toys’ Category

A Couple Of Crafts

Monday, September 10th, 2018

It’s been a while since a craft post, and while these two aren’t particular novel I thought they were unusual enough to warrant a mini showcase!

I saw these Figure-rise Bust kits in Japan last year but they were all of (Gundam) characters I didn’t know. Recently however this Miku kit came out and I had to have it. And yes, it’s an actual kit and not a figure:

Pay attention to the face which is molded in many colours thus eliminating the need for stamps:

Assembly was easy, and even though the kit did include some stickers they were easy to apply and are mostly hidden:

Completed, it looks amazing!

The only customization I did was using my Gundam paint pen to give her black fingernails. She’ll sit now forever on a shelf looking pretty 🙂

Next we have this LEGO kit I bought in Scotland:

This was one of those kits designed by ‘normal’ people that – since it received over 10000 votes online – became a real product. It’s based on Tron Legacy, which is a much, much better film than you think…

Assembly was trivial for a LEGO prodigy like myself and I liked the unusual colours and ‘Tronny’ aesthetic. You can either have Sam fighting Rinzler in a high-stakes disc battle, or battling via lightcycles on the grid:

It’s a nifty kit, well worth the cost for someone who appreciates Tron Legacy as the masterpiece many incorrectly think it isn’t. It’ll now sit forever on my shelf looking digital.

Posted in Collecting, Movies, Otaku, Toys | 2 Comments »

Space Crusher

Sunday, November 26th, 2017

I picked this up at a local con the other weekend:

It’s a Tandy/Radio Shack LCD game from 1985! “Penetrate Space City” the blurb says, fighting enemy spaceships and meteorites whilst enjoying ‘quick-action fire’ and ‘battle sound effects’.

Here’s the contents:

As you can see it’s in remarkable good condition as well as being complete in box. You’ll also note it has four-way control. What sort of game is this…?

A quick look at the manual revealed all:

It’s a Scramble clone! And – for an LCD game – a fairly sophisticated one at that.

And yes, it still works perfectly:

The field scrolls to the left continuously and you have full control over your ship. The controls themselves are weird (Nintendo had debuted the d-pad by now so they should have ripped that off) but they are responsive and the game speed isn’t too fast.

Strangely everything is worth 2 points, and the game ends when you score 2000 (or run out of lives of course). I haven’t played it enough to see how long that would take, but my guess is easily more than one full loop.

As a kid I would have loved this game. As an adult I love the purity of it. A real gem of a find at a local con 🙂

Posted in Games, Otaku, Retro, Tech, Toys | Comments Closed

I Made This!

Tuesday, September 12th, 2017

It’s been a while since a craft post, so here we go!

BFS sent me this. He’s always sending me these metal kits since he knows they’re a chore to put together and he uses me as his proxy! There seems to be two companies making them, the ‘metal miniatures’ guys (that you see in stores everywhere) and these less common Chinese models, which are more difficult and have slightly lower quality control.

To put it bluntly, this thing was excruciatingly frustrating to assemble. The pieces were miniature and mostly black or very reflective gold – both colours seemingly chosen to make it impossible to see the sub-millimeter tabs and slots with the naked eye! Furthermore the instructions left a lot to be desired.

I struggled on though, cut myself more than once on sharp edges and made two critical structural errors that essentially doomed the thing. But I was able to pose it in a more or less finished state regardless:

Verdict: way way too fiddly. Save this one for when you’ve built all 500 other similar kits 🙂

I bought the above in Japan. It was a new release and as you can see quite cheap for what it is. Which is a Gundam? A girl kit? A girl Gundam?!? Who knows!

I love the colouring and the pearlescent plastic and the soft parts and the fact the manual is – for the first time that I’d seen – printed in both Japanese and English! Look at all those eyes though…

She was an easy build because Bandai has long since mastered these sorts of things. As a bonus she comes with a stand!

She’s a little creepy isn’t she? Maybe it’s just the lack of a pose. She’s got joints everywhere and her wings can spread out fully behind her so I suppose I should make her a little more dynamic. Overall a great kit for under US$20 and a lot of fun to assemble.

We also purchased the above in Japan, and it even cost more than the Gundam! As you can see it’s a ‘Real Scale’ plastic bonsai kit, which seems a bit of a lie since it’s actually quite small.

The instructions are very cute but also very short since the kit itself was only 5 pieces! I was a bit mystified by the manufacturing though: how did they get the tufts of green into the brown plastic like that?

Assembly was trivial and I skipped the painting advice in the instructions. Even so, I think it looks pretty good assembled:

That’s a normal sized Lego guy next to it for scale. See what I mean about small?! This was expensive for what it is but I suspect it may have been partially ‘garage’ built (i.e. handmade) and it’ll look good in our curio so I’m glad I bought it.

I think the next one of these posts may focus on electronic crafts. Look for it in a month or two 🙂

Posted in Crafts, Miscellaneous, Models, Otaku, Toys | Comments Closed

Bucket Wheel Excavator

Sunday, July 16th, 2017

‘Twas mayhaps ten moons since I be purchasin’ this one:

Bigger’n any before methinks. A kings ransom it cost too! Me hews burned with the lifting:

The innards are here fer ye to assess. The manual itself be breaking a titan with its weight!

Makin’ the thing was the devils work! I be capable of some smarts meself, but this was summin’ else! It took hours and days and me fingers were worn to the bone during.

Horribly, the act got tougher as it went. “The things too big!” I says to old mate Yossie, as she mewed from unner the table! How was I gonna gets the pieces into one thing?

But I never give up! And in the end, with a bit of sweat, a bit of blood and even a sprinkle of forbidden magick, it all cames together! Here she is:

I dunno how because it’s much too complex for an old dog like meself, but the beast even works when the dials are turned and the switches switched! It’s slow as a legless horse though, and clicks and vibrates like it’s gonna blow! I think I’ll be keeping the magic far away from it for this reason.

It’s too, too big too. Too big! Why they make summin’ this big?

And who’s the fool like meself who be buyin it?

Posted in Crafts, Toys | 3 Comments »

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…

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!