Robot Claw

Berserker Armor Guts

May 7th, 2025

I recently assembled the above model kit. It appealed to me not just because it’s a character from a manga I love, but because it’s designed to not require painting and has a cloth cape!

This is a Kotobukiya kit which means it’s got a slightly different design approach to Bandai, and from experience kits from this company are a little more finicky and difficult to assemble.

Appropriately, I used my new ‘GodHand’ nippers to make this kit. I bought these during the last Japan trip, and they cost more than a typical model kit! They are designed to produce a clean cut from the runners, which minimizes sanding and cleanup. They work very well, and I should have purchased a pair years ago.

There were no stickers and a tiny amount of pre painted pieces, but aside from these and the sword blade…

…everything else is black. This proved a bit problematic during assembly, since it was sometimes difficult to see the tabs and holes on the tiny pieces. Some parts are also very sharp, and I almost cut myself once or twice!

Overall I’d say assembly was a bit frustrating and a bit difficult compared to the average Bandai model. Aside from the reasons already mentioned, I was surprised to see some pieces required rotations when you assembled them, and others even required glue! The joints are also very stiff, and I even broke a wrist joint during assembly although the kit seems to consider this a possibility since the runner contained extras.

Here he is finished sans cape and sword arm. Incidentally – and unlike Bandai – the instructions contain no English.

The cape looks great and is threaded with wire to make it poseable, but it was a massive challenge to actually get it correctly on to the figure. A sort of collar device is supposed to lock it into place, but despite Herculean effort I never managed to get it working as the instructions suggested, so my cape is a bit ragged around his neck.

What’s interesting is while this is a model kit, once assembled it feels like an action figure. The seams are all but invisible in the black, and the stiff joints and excessive possibility mean you can display Guts into all the usual poses, including the crouching one I’m leaving him in.

And although it’s a kit (or action figure) once posed it looks like a statue, and will look nice on display. This may have been frustrating to make, and a little pricey, but I’m happy with it 🙂

Posted in Crafts, Models, Otaku | Comments Closed

Microcomputer

May 3rd, 2025

I bought the above at Miniso recently. It cost $10, and it’s a ‘construction block’ kit. Since LEGO no longer has a patent on their brick design, many competitors are releasing near-identical types of products, often at a much lower prices.

As you can see this series has six different ‘retro’ technology sets, and while I assumed they were blind packed (you didn’t know which one was inside until opened) mine had the computer on the front and that’s exactly what I found inside:

Over the years I’ve purchased many of these ‘LEGO knockoff’ kits and the quality varies wildly. Far too often the colours are weird, or blocks are miscast, or don’t fit together well This had none of these issues at all.

In fact if the pieces were given to me out of the packaging I would have just assumed they were LEGO. They have the same feel, and fit together the same as a LEGO brick. Even the strings used for the keyboard and mouse cables were the same as LEGO!

The only difference I could find was the instructions, which were a bit abbreviated compared to the average LEGO kit. This could of course have been since they needed to be printed small to fit inside the capsule, or because the build was very easy. At least they didn’t have any mistakes, something which I’ve found often in other knockoff products.

The final product looks great doesnt it? A tiny model of a first-gen Macintosh computer that fits nicely into the palm of your hand.

An attractive little model for a reasonable price. This suggests the LEGO competitors are no longer as second-class as they used to be.

Posted in Toys | Comments Closed

Mousu Mousu

April 30th, 2025

Mouse Computers is a Japanese company that makes high-spec computers for well-heeled customers. A bit like Apple for PCs. In 2017 they released this advert featuring members of the idol group Nogizaka46:

I only recently discovered this, and was immediately charmed. Not only are the girls very cute, but the song is catchy, the visuals striking and the premise absurd. It hardly matters that it’s got nothing to do with computers: it’s immediately catchy and instantly puts a smile on your face. This is an example of Japanese ‘kawaii pop’ at its finest.

The advert quickly went viral on the internet, and was far more successful than Mouse had expected. The group was riding high at the time and the ad featured some of their most popular members, so fans ate it up. Mouse capitalized on the popularity with a making-of video (which shows how much effort goes into getting the girls looking perfect):

They also produced a multi-part absurdist comedy series ‘Mouse Diner’ featuring the girls working at a cafe. This overflows with charm and made me laugh aloud many times:

A year later they followed it up with a new advert:

And they even made an animated version of the original advert and hired an Evangelion character designer to draw the girls! Alas this doesn’t seem to be on YouTube but here’s the key art:

Apparently the shops selling Mouse computers were inundated with requests for promotional material. Much of this is what you’d expect – mousepads and clear files – but I read there were also raffles for life sized standees and branded computers. You can find a lot of it for sale online these days at elevated prices:

Mouse Computers still exists, but I can’t find any mention of this campaign on their website. All the girls in the video have now left the band, and by now this ad has become just another piece of advertising history, albeit (apparently) a very successful one.

I even saw a pack of five promotional postcards featuring the girls in their mouse outfits! I’ll never find it, but you can bet I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for that every time I’m in Japan 🙂

Posted in Japan, Miscellaneous, Mousu Mousu | Comments Closed

Postcrossing Update

April 26th, 2025

Through Postcrossing, I’ve now sent 1624 postcards and received 1604. These are increases of about 200 cards since my last update five months ago, which means my average of 40 cards a month remains unchanged.

As far as countries, there have been no changes since the last update, with the top ranks (sent and received from) the same and no new countries added. About a third of my cards are sent to and received from Germany.

It’s always fun to remove the cards from my P.O. Box, since I never know what to expect. Unlike some users, I don’t have a large list of preferred types – and no restricted cards – so what I receive tends to run the gamut.

I do mention that I like vintage tourist cards, so I get a decent amount of them. A lot of Postcrossers don’t like such cards, so I hope users are happy to find someone that does!

If you’re wondering, other card types that people usually say they don’t like are ad cards, homemade cards, animal cards and religious cards.

I seem to have gotten a lot of celebrity cards these past five months, and I’m actually considering adding a line to my bio asking for postcards of very obscure or forgotten celebrities just to see who I get!

I have added ‘fantasy’ to my short preferred list, but so far very few in that category have arrived. I tell people if they have any particularly strange or unusual card to send it my way, but so far I’ve not seen anything that has greatly surprised me 🙂

Three of the cards I received since the last update are ‘maxicards’. These are postcards featuring a stamp affixed to the art side that is identical or thematically similar to the card art. These are usually sold by postal services, although independently produced versions exist. I’ve got a lot of these from Postcrossers over the years, and maybe I’ll do a post on them one day.

Maxicards have been produced by Australia post for decades, and Adam seems to have gotten his hands on a bunch of older ones which he has been sending me periodically. I wonder where he got them from?

I continue to get a lot of unusually shaped stamps, and the one from Finland at top right is particular interesting. The ‘missing’ part of the stamp is also a stamp, and I’d actually received it from a different sender some time ago. The USA should do a stamp set where each state is its own stamp!

Most postal services are struggling with a drop in people sending mail, and one popular method to raise revenue continues to be issuing licensed stamps. Very often these are sold as collectibles and therefore people rarely use them for postage, but when I travel I always try to buy and use such stamps.

The UK issues a lot of these sorts of stamps, and I seem to be getting more and more on recent cards (possibly since the QR codes on the ‘normal’ stamps are ugly). The podracing stamp above is quite large and one of my favourite stamps I’ve received so far!

I received two very special things these past five months. The first was the above acrylic painting of a cute duck! This is my second piece of original painted art received through Postcrossing, and as you can see it’s incredibly good. I messaged the artist and she said she painted it and liked it so much she and hung on her wall for a year before she mailed it. She was nervous the recipient wouldn’t appreciate it but I assured her we did. Now we’ll frame this and hang it on our wall.

The second amazing delivery came from a Japanese user. When I read her bio she mentioned she really loved stamps, so I used a large card and filled it with about 20 different stamps. This made her super happy, and she messaged me saying she wanted to send me something in return. I agreed, and a month or so later found an envelope in my PO Box that contained a packet of older Japanese stamps! She mentioned I can use this on my next trip to Japan, which I absolutely will.

But that wasn’t all she sent: the envelope also contained eight Ultraseven postcards! These are beautiful, featuring classic art from one of the most important Ultra series of all time. I’ll be sending these all to myself from Japan over the years. I was so happy with what she sent me I will be sending her another card loaded with stamps, this time from Australia 🙂

Right now I can send 41 cards at a time, and usually ‘do postcards’ weekly so I’ve always got the maximum amount in transit to users around the world. I send/receive about 10 a week, which is a lot but not too many, and I’m happy to continue at this rate for the time being.

Posted in Blog, Postcards | Comments Closed

Ramen 31: March Of The Ramen Queen

April 24th, 2025

It’s been a long time since the last post reviewing some chicken ramen, but I’ve (finally!) found a few more. Let’s see what I thought…

Cup Noodles Chicken (290 Calories, 11g fat, 1160 mg sodium)

This is a new version of one of the ubiquitous chicken ramens, with the difference being it’s in a paper cup and intended to be cooked in a microwave. I followed the instructions (2.5 minutes at maximum) and it worked well, although the paper cup was much hotter to hold than the styrofoam version. The contents seemed a bit ‘blobby’ after cooking, but a quick stir and everything was ok.

As far as taste this was simply acceptable. As with the ‘normal’ version the flavour is cooked into the noodles and it lacks veggies aside from a few tiny pieces of corn and carrot. In a world with no other options this would be ok, but with better available I won’t be trying it again. I’ll give it 7/10.

Oolongmen Chicken Ramyun (310 Calories, 10g fat, 1430 mg sodium)

This was purchased in Canada, and I didn’t eat it for months since most of the other Canadian ones were awful. But when I finally got to this, I was pleasantly surprised!

The first taste was unusual – arguably not like chicken at all – and the ramen contained lots of veggies included dehydrated mushrooms. Subsequent forkfulls were better, and since I actually ate it all I deem this a higher-quality product, probably in the top 10% of those I’ve tasted. I’ll score it 8/10.

Cup Noodles Rice With Noodles Teriyaki Chicken (300 Calories, 5g fat, 1100 mg sodium)

I know this isn’t a ramen product, but since it clearly says ‘with noodles‘ I purchased it anyway. It’s another microwave-only product, and after the required 4.5 minutes on high the contents had become a sort of brown slush.

I was hesitant since the sickly sweet smell was reminiscent of rot, and when I tentatively tried a small forkful my fears were confirmed since this was one of very worst cup noodle products I have ever tasted. I hated this, and even now regret preparing it since the stench has filled the house. Score: 0/10.

I know brands I haven’t yet tried exist, but I’ve never seen them in local stores. I wonder how long it will be until my next installment?

Posted in Food, Ramen | Comments Closed