Archive for the ‘Toys’ Category

Gore Magala Girl

Friday, May 19th, 2017

That’s the figure/kit I got for my birthday. It was time to set it up!

But first a brief explanation. This is a figure inspired by this guy, Gore Magala:

He’s one of the enemies in Monster Hunter, and his armour – once you defeat him and collect enough parts to make it – is very distinctive:

So this figure kit, while not reproducing the in-game appearance of the armour, is inspired by Magala. Here’s the contents:

So many parts! There are several configurations the figure can be displayed in, and I wanted the dress-with-umbrella mode. This required use of the wings, folded around to form each half of the dress:

The problem was… it’s very difficult to assemble! The pieces hardly wanted to go together, and once I got it mostly done I couldn’t get the dress around her.

The archer mode was just as difficult, and since I didn’t want to use glue or modify the pieces I eventually just settled for replacing her normal clothes with the armour…

…and displaying her in ‘dual swords’ mode:

I think I’ll call her Momo πŸ˜‰

I think I could easily get the wings attached and set up like the image on the back of the box, but I want to finish filling my new curio first to see how much space I have.

Final review: looks great, incredibly (over) engineered, very challenging to assemble!

Lego Bridge

Sunday, May 7th, 2017

I got two similar-but-different kits for Christmas last year. I made them both today. First was this one:

I’d never made one of these miniature scale Lego architecture kits before and to be honest had dismissed them as an ‘executive toy’.

But it was a fun build and looks pretty good once made, especially considering the small size. It was easy and took only a half hour or so to make. But is Centerpoint Tower really black?

The other kit was this one:

I’ve got a bit of a love-hate relationship with nanoblocks. I like the tiny size of the blocks themselves, but feel the engineering needs some tweaking to increase the adhesion between individual blocks when assembled. In other words, these can be too fragile!

They’re also a bit fiddly to assemble. The bridge here in particular was trickier than it should have been and when I accidentally dropped and it exploded I had to start again almost from scratch! Eventually though, I got it done and here it is:

That’s a normal sized Lego minifig for scale.

I like how both kits felt the need to include boats on Sydney Harbour and the nanoblocks kit even went one step further to use the right colours for the ferry. These were quick and simple fun, but here’s hoping my next Lego Harbour Bridge will be some massive technic model πŸ™‚

Ten More Treasures

Thursday, April 20th, 2017

I’m in the middle of a lengthy reorganization of our ‘library’ room, which contains 6 bookshelves and loads of books, toys and other stuff. I spend a lot of time in this room doing my crafting and hobbie stuff and I’ve wanted to reorganize it for years.

This has entailed throwing away some books (and magazines, of which I had scads), putting others in storage, and generally moving stuff around. It’s taken ages, been harder than I thought, but has at the same time been a lot of fun since I’ve ‘rediscovered’ so much stuff I had almost forgotten I owned or simply hasn’t had the attention it deserved.

This then is a post containing ten items that live in the room. All unusual, all treasured, and all still getting a featured position in the reorganized library πŸ™‚

PS2 Slime controller (2005). This is a fully functional PlayStation 2 controller modeled after the famous slime from the Dragon Quest series. I bought it when it came out but never used it much since it’s uncomfortable to hold. Over the years it’s become a bit sticky since it has a rubber surface and while it’s appreciated in value it’ll just sit smiling on my shelf for ever πŸ™‚

Viewtiful Joe bobblehead (2003). This was a promotional item given away with early purchases of the game. It’s ceramic, looks like a bootleg and the head is a bit too heavy for the spring. It’s weird and has been a shelf fixture for over a decade. Amusingly this item is now ‘worth’ more than the game on eBay!

Darth Maul cookie jar (1999). I’ve mentioned this before on the blog; it was my first (and last? ever QVC purchase and is still my favourite piece of Phantom Menace merchandise. It’s fairly large (about 20 cm tall) but impractical for storage so for me it’s always been decorative. Another item that has appreciated in value.

A tiny castle (?). I don’t know where or when I got this but it may very well date to my teenage years. Items like this (and little dragons) were somewhat common decades ago and I always liked them and used to own a few. Alas this is my only one now and I love it. Incidentally if you ever see anything like this (the very small size is important) it may make a good gift…

Bootleg R2 droid figure (?). I got this in England last year, specifically by trading tickets for it in an arcade in Margate. I like R2 figures, and something about this one – with its wrong colours and mismatched leg lengths – is endearing. Although 100% bootleg, this is a key item in my Star Wars collection πŸ™‚

Burger King bobblehead (2006). These were sold at Burger King to promote the Super Bowl over a decade ago! It’s so weird I love it. Another item that is ‘worth’ (on eBay) several times what I paid for it.

R2-D2 plastic mug (2012). This was sold (and may still be today) at the Disney movie park in Florida. It’s gigantic, and yes I found space for it in my suitcase when we visited 5 years ago πŸ™‚

Dragonlance stained glass (1997). These were sold for $90 exclusively at the Gen-Con convention in 1997. I bought this a couple of years ago for much less at a local shop, and the seller had had it since she bought it at Gen Con back when they were sold! It’s quite pretty, made of painted glass with real metal lines between the colours. I’d like to hang it but it’s quite heavy and I don’t have an appropriate window so it rests against the wall. It’s tough to find these (there were three designs) for sale now but they seem to go for a premium.

Darth Maul glass ornament (2010?). It’s hard to find info on this online. I’m pretty sure I bought it at Target, which means it should have been fairly common, but I can’t find any on auction or sold online so I’m not exactly sure when it came out. It’s a highly detailed blown glass Christmas ornament modeled (again) after Darth Maul from Star Wars. It’s super creepy but also lovely and another treasure in my SW collection. No I’ve never put it in the Christmas tree!

This Doctor Who trading card (1996). This is card #26 from the 1996 Cornerstone Doctor Who card set. I’ll admit my memories of how I obtained this are clouded… can one of you fill me in? (No I didn’t write that outrageous slander on the card!)

My next goal is to organize the attic. Lord knows what I may find up there! If I ever get around to it, you can expect to see some very unusual ‘treasures’ here once I’m done!

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˜‰

Air Powered

Sunday, November 6th, 2016

It was time to assemble the Lego kit I’d gotten for my birthday. It’s a Mercedes Benz ‘Arocs’ truck with a pneumatic crane. Even by technic standards this is a complex kit. The manual alone is over 400 pages!

The kit is made in five broad parts: the chassis with gears, the pneumatic crane, the cab and the bed. The gearing mechanism is dazzlingly complex and requires careful assembly.

It’s also quite large. Here is the complete chassis (sans wheels) shown next to a rather large house at for scale:

The pneumatic system is even more complicated, and we’re not trivial to assemble! Many times I thought I’d attached the wrong hose to the wrong nozzle, or feared that once I’d finished it wouldn’t work and I’d have to take it apart. For this kit, that’d be a nightmare!

This is a real pneumatic system, which means the kit includes an electric pump that pushes air through these tubes to power pistons. It’s amazing just how much functionality they’ve worked in (four pistons and dozens of tubes) and how the kit is designed to fit all this in the crane itself. Here’s the truck 75% finished, only needing the cosmetic parts added (the cab and bed). Until this point, I’d been working for maybe 6 or 7 hours.

The remaining sections were easy by comparison, but that’s not to say they were simple. The mechanism to tilt the can forward was particularly nice. Here’s the finished kit in ‘road ready’ mode:

And here it is with the supports out, bed up and crane functioning:

All the functions you see above are controlled by the motor and switching system (via the astonishing gearing). I was very relieved it all worked first go πŸ™‚

It’s a beautiful, massive, complex (and yes expensive) kit and was enormously fun to put together. Highly recommended πŸ™‚