Category: Toys

Bucket Wheel Excavator

‘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?

Broadway

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…

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!

Broadway isn’t just shops, there’s also a few arcades and lots and lots of gashapon (toy vending) machines:

We love all this stuff. It was a great day 🙂

Gore Magala Girl

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 😉

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!