Robot Claw

World Postcard Day

October 1st, 2023

It’s been a year since my last Postcrossing post, which was when I passed 750 cards received. I was going to wait for 1000, but since today is World Postcard Day (did you send someone a card?) it felt like a good day to catch up.

As of today, I’ve received (and sent) 943 cards. I’m getting about 25 a month, so I’ll pass 1000 this year. There’s been no change in the top 10 countries from which I’ve received cards, but the order has shuffled a little bit:

Interestingly while I’ve received about 30 cards from Russia in the past year, I’ve sent none. I didn’t realize until writing this post that the service seems to not be assigning Russian addresses, no doubt due to the ongoing war.

The above is a map showing the locations from which I have been sent cards since I joined back in 2018. As you can see every continent is represented, with a strong concentration in Europe. If you look closely you may see one unusual one off the northwest of Africa:

That’s the island of Madeira, which is a region of Portugal. I believe that’s the most remote place from which I have received a postcard so far.

The above shows where I have sent cards, which is similar to where they have arrived from with an even larger concentration in Europe. Once again, one marker is notably more remote than others:

That’s Guam, out there in the Pacific. Although it’s counted as a country by Postcrossing, it’s a US territory and therefore I was able to send a card there using domestic postage! It also arrived very quickly, which suggests the USA doesn’t mess around getting mail to its territories 🙂

As far as cards received, the top two are notable. Both came from Australia, and both were examples of pre-stamped postcards sold at post offices. They date to 1997 and 2001, and the postage on each is much lower than what it costs today to send a card internationally. But since these are forever valid for international use, both made it here without problem. For comparison, it costs about A$3.60 to send a postcard from Australia to the USA today, but the doll one has only A$0.45 postage on it!

I was inspired by the above to test this myself when I found (in an Australian antique store back in May) a similar postcard from the early 1980s with even less postage on it. I mailed it and it arrived here without issue! If I ever see any others for sale, I’ll buy and send them for sure.

As usual I love looking at the cornucopia of stamps on the postcrossing cards, and during this past 10 months there’s been a lot of exceptional examples. I’ve only showed a couple of examples above, but the Diana stamps were unusually included on a postcard sent from Germany. I was under the impression that in most countries it wasn’t allowed to put foreign stamps on postal items so maybe this was simply overlooked by a postal worker or perhaps it’s not a problem at all. I’m tempted to try it myself…

The above show five unusually shaped stamps received in the last year. The standout is the absolutely wild owl stamp from Finland which was a Valentine’s Day issue back in 2011! It was one of five similarly unusual (but differently shaped) bird stamps, and I’m happy the sender hung on to it for so long and sent me one.

The other Postcrossing news from the last year was that for a time I was seriously facing the need to stop due to lack of postcards. It’s become impossible to buy new ones in Albany, so I used to depend on the freeway rest stop shops and used to stock up every time we took a long drive. However they have closed as well, which left only Rochester which itself has run nearly dry. Things looked grim indeed until by a happy twist of fate I learned of the existence of a dedicated postcard shop not half an hour from our house! Two visits later and I’d bought 200+ cards for about $0.25 each, most of which will be used for Postcrossing. It seems my membership can continue for the foreseeable future 🙂

Posted in Miscellaneous, Postcards | Comments Closed

A Couple Of Riders

September 29th, 2023

Being so close to having watched all Ultraman, naturally my eye is turning to similar franchises. The obvious pick is Kamen Rider, which has been going for almost as long telling stories of motorcycle-riding suited heroes defending the helpless from powerful enemies.

In Japan last June I eagerly looked forward to the midnightly screenings of the 1970s serial and I loved the recent Shin Kamen Rider film. This series is definitely my sort of thing!

Alas the majority of Kamen Rider has never been released in the west or even translated into English, so it’s currently beyond my ability to fully enjoy. Hopefully one day that will change.

Until then though, I can of course admire it in other ways… such as via plastic model kits! Here’s two I recently built.

This guy – Kamen Rider Double Fangjoker – is apparently from the 20th Kamen Rider series which screened back in 2009-10. The bicolour form is due to two Kamen Riders combining into one, and this specific ‘Fangjoker’ seems to be an ultimate version. Here’s a shot of the character from the show itself:

I bought this kit since it’s striking, and I knew (from experience) that having different colour arms and legs would make the assembly a bit more interesting. That said, being essentially monotone meant the runners weren’t too interesting when I took them from the box:

Assembly was easy; Bandai has perfected the design of their humanoid kits and everything fits together seamlessly. I particularly like the unusual faceted effect on the eyes achieved Dr by combining a textured back, a silver sticker and a transparent layer:

As usual I don’t paint these kits, but this one gave me the rare chance to use one of my fine ‘Gundam markers’ to add a thin black line down the very center. It looks better than I expected:

A couple of weeks later I made the second kit I’d bought:

This is from a 2015 series featuring a main character who is a dead ‘ghost hunter’ trying to collect 15 souls so he can be resurrected and take revenge on the villians that killed him. The story sounds wild and the action scenes look great:

I have a thing for black and gold and once again I bought this kit based solely on the powerful design. It’s much more complex than I knew when I bought it, with the ability to make multiple forms of the rider himself. I went with the default, and not the wacky ‘ghost’ form.

The first thing I noticed when I removed the box contents were not one but two sticker sheets. And even worse, there were loads of stickers. I don’t hate stickers on kits as much as some do, but I prefer them in moderation. But with instructions like this I was concerned:

Happily it wasn’t nearly as difficult as it looked, and the stickers aligned well and – even better – looked great when applied:

This is one stylish character, with orange parts that just pop from the black, and nifty use of transparencies. The black also helps hide what few visible seams/joints it has. It’s a very pretty kit once completed.

These weren’t too expensive for plastic model kits (about $40 each), and I loved making both. As I mentioned Bandai has got their humanoid (which includes many Ultramen as well as Riders) kits down to a fine art, and I’m happy to see them continuing to churn out new characters.

Assembling these kits and reading about the characters makes me want to watch the shows even more. Will they ever be translated? I hope so…

Posted in Miscellaneous, Models, Otaku | Comments Closed

Salt & Vinegar

September 24th, 2023

What’s your favourite chip flavour? Mine is probably ‘all dressed’ or cheese & onion, although I’m always very partial to a plain chip. But I love salt and vinegar as well, although eating them in any quantity tends to irritate my mouth so they’re become a rare treat for me.

It’s perhaps therefore surprising that I’ve decided to review salt and vinegar chips here on this very blog! Yes my friends, since I’ve all but exhausted chicken ramen, it’s time to move on to a new product, and what could be more ~~foolish~~ suitable than salt and vinegar chips?!

But before I dove in, a comment on ratings. These chips will be placed into four categories, based on the usual rarities in gacha games. They are:

C (common) – A below average chip, hardly worth the calories.

R (rare) – An unremarkable but satisfying chip; better than nothing.

SR (super rare) – The upper echelons of chip, never disappointing!

SSR (super super rare) – A god-tier level chip, worth seeking out!!

In this first entry I have seven brands to cover, and I’ll present them in reverse rarity order. Let’s go…

Stewarts and Price Chopper are both local stores, and these are their store brands. Both of these were very poor, with a strange ‘soft’ texture (as if they were damp) and a dirty, slightly overcooked taste. The vinegar was subtle but very acidic, and overall eating these was unpleasant. Both are very much on the lower end of the C range.

Interestingly these both have identical ingredients (which doesn’t actually include vinegar), and since the shops are both local I speculate the chips are made at the same factory and are probably identical. I’ll never eat either again 🙂

Wise is one of the smaller chip brands (possibly in the northeast only) and Great Value is the Walmart store brand. Both of these were less expensive than most of the others covered here. The Wise chips do not include vinegar amongst their ingredients, but the Great Value ones do.

The Wise chips tasted a little overcooked, but they were light and easy to eat. In fact they were perhaps too easy to eat, since of all the chips covered today they had by far the least vinegar taste. As a chip therefore they were quite acceptable, but as a salt and vinegar chip they were – unless you only prefer a hint of acidity – below average. I’ll score them R for eatability only, but they’re on the lower end.

The Walmart chip on the other hand was in many ways the quintessential store brand: it covers all the bases adequately but doesn’t take any risks. The chips are light and not greasy, there’s actually a hint of potato, the acidity is there but not too high, and overall they’re enjoyable to eat without being overwhelming. It’s perhaps the very definition of an R chip, and would be adequate in a pinch if it was the only option.

Hannaford was the first company I worked for when I arrived in these lands decades ago. We don’t often shop there these days, but of course I had to pick up their store brand to try it out. And what a surprise it was! As soon as I opened the enormous bag I was near-overwhelmed by the vinegar vapors, and the chips were light and airy with a sweet and only slightly acidic vinegar taste (interestingly the ingredients do not include vinegar). They are strong as well – although not too strong – and I was able to have a few generous mouthfuls before my eyes started bulging. These were much better than a store brand has any right to be, and combined with the fact they were also the least expensive chip in todays post I’d say they sneak into the lower end of SR. A great chip!

Cape Cod is another northeast brand, and I have a small bag of their plain chips every day with lunch at school. I’ve respected their salt and vinegar chips for a long time now, and indeed they’re one of the reasons I’ve chosen this flavour for this pursuit! They are very strong, with a level of acidity that can be overwhelming. Indeed, they’ve been known to bring a tear to my eye if I eat them too hurriedly, and for that reason I enjoy them only infrequently. The vinegar (which is an ingredient) is complimented by wonderful kettle-cooked chips; crunchy and with a good potato taste. These are the definition of an SR chip!

And so we arrive at Lays, perhaps the king of chips. This company is the worlds leading chip manufacturer, and operates under different names (such as Smith’s or Walkers) in different countries. These kettle cooked chips are a relatively new item here in the USA, and I was eager to try the salt and vinegar flavor.

The chips themselves are just fantastic: crunchy without being greasy and containing a nice potato aftertaste. The vinegar (which is an ingredient) is sweet and strong without being overwhelming, and it’s shockingly easy to just keep shoveling these into your mouth with gay abandon. These are the king’s chip, and I wonder if I’ll find anything quite this good (much less better) in future installments? If you’re craving a salt and vinegar chip, reach no further than a bag of these; they’re an unequivocal SSR snack!

Due to the effect these chips can have on my mouth choosing to try every brand I find is the decision of a fool. But if you think I’m taking this responsibility lightly I present the above photo. As you can see we’ve accumulated a stockpile of chips to sample, and you can look forward to future installments as the weeks continue. Will I taste better than Lays kettle cooked? Or perhaps worse than Stewart’s? Time will tell…

Posted in Food | 1 Comment »

28 Hours Of Gridman!

September 19th, 2023

In 1993 Tsubaraya, makers of Ultraman, released a show called ‘Lightning Superman Gridman’, also called ‘Gridman The Hyper Agent’, that I’ll here refer to simply as Gridman. Over the last few years I’ve watched the entire series, as well as a couple of truly extraordinary spinoffs. It’s time to discuss this mysterious show…

Gridman The Hyper Agent (1993, 39 episodes, 16.3 hours)

This series was created to capitalize on the popularity amongst children of home computers, and tells a story of a group of youngsters that – with the help of a mysterious being called Gridman – battle evil viruses in the ‘computer world’. It’s a bit like ‘Tron with kids’ except the humans never actually go into the computer world. Since it’s a Tsubaraya tokusatsu production, there is of course a battle in every episode between men in suits; in this case the hero Gridman and a ‘virus’ which is (of course) a giant kaiju monster. Humorously, these creatures are created by a being known as ‘Khan Digifer’, who manifests the monsters using the anger and frustration of an eternally (sort of) bullied almost-friend of the hero kids:

These are our heroes that work with Gridman to defeat him:

These days the computers on the show are hilariously dated, although it was fun to see such things as people playing games on PC-88 machines. The fight scenes are interesting since they’re always on the same set and therefore get creative with the kaiju suits to spice things up. But ultimately there’s a disconnect between the real-world and computer-world segments, and Gridman himself seems to take a back seat to the main story toward the end. I enjoyed it as a glimpse into early 1990s Japan since there’s so much on-location filming, but it doesn’t hold a candle to a good Ultraman series.

SSSS.Gridman (2018, 12 episodes, 6 hours)

To everyone’s amazement, in 2017 Tsubaraya announced an anime sequel to Gridman! Or was it a sequel…? The show was SSSS.Gridman, and it took the anime world by storm when it screened in 2018, becoming one of the most popular series of the year. The story is based around an amnesiac boy named Yuta, who discovers Gridman (yes the same one from the 1993 show) on an old computer. Gridman tells him he has a mission to complete, and thus begins a rollercoaster of events as Yuta fights to save his town from Kaiju, all the while trying to work out the many mysteries going on around him.

This show is incredible. It’s one of the best anime series ever made, and a shockingly good retelling of the Gridman story from a different perspective. What are the kaiju? Why does no-one remember their attacks or even the people killed by them? Who is Akane, the frustrated girl who creates the Kaiju for a mysterious villian on her computer? And who are Gridman’s friends who eventually turn up to help Yuta?

The visuals are bright and colorful, and the battle scenes use tokusatsu motion capture methods which gives them Ultra-DNA. The show is a love letter to Gridman via Evangelion (which itself was a love letter to Ultraman…) and countless other giant robot series, and it’s so meticulously scripted and directed that when you get to the very last shot – one of the very best final shots of any anime – you immediately want more. I can’t recommend this enough.

SSSS.Dynazenon (2021, 12 episodes, 6 hours)

After the success of SSSS.Gridman, a sequel was inevitable, and when it came in 2021 it took the series in a new and unexpected direction. Nothing from the first series returned: here we had all-new characters, all-new heroes, all-new villians and all-new kaiju. Was this even Gridman?

The story tells of a young man, Yomogi, who is recruited by a mysterious man named Gauma to help fight off a kaiju attack. Gauma does this by summoning a giant robot named Dynazenon, which can split into several independent vehicles, each piloted by Yomogi and his (new) friends. They fight the ‘Kaiju Eugenicists’ for the sake of the world itself, but as the show progresses we learn that each pilot -and Gauma – has personal struggles of their own that make the conflict even more difficult…

This is another triumph of a series, with even more over the top action and characters. The transformation scenes of Dynazenon in particular are incredible, and if you’ve ever watched any giant robot anime from the 70s or 80s you’ll be laughing out loud at how good they are. At the same time the characters are charming and their struggles resonate even after the show has ended. This is not a happy-go-lucky story of kids saving the world, perhaps unsurprising since they attend Neon Genesis high school. The mystery quota of this series is high as well – including the links to Gridman – and you’ll be guessing at what will happen until the very end. Another highly recommended series.

And that would be that, except for the fact that SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon were followed up by a theatrically released film called Gridman Universe, which was released in Japan this past March. As is often the case, this has been slow leaving Japan, and with releases in other Asian countries still a month away who knows when it will make its way to the US?

Suffice to say as soon as I can I’ll be watching this, since I want to know more about the links between Gridman and Dynazenon, but more importantly I want to see these characters again, even if just for one last time. Both these anime series are amongst my favourites ever, and I think if you give them a chance you may love them too.

Posted in Movies, Otaku, TV | Comments Closed

Let’s Open Some Cards!

September 17th, 2023

When we went antiquing a few weeks ago, I picked up a motley collection of old trading card packs for a song. In addition, I had a couple of other notable packs aging on a shelf. Let’s open them all now…

These Fievel Goes West cards date to the release of the film in 1991. This was the ‘junk wax’ era, when publishers gave anything a card set, and one wonders what the demand was for these cards? I’ve never seen the film and after glancing at the pictures on the cards never want to. The only positive I have about these: the card stock is heavy, the print quality high, and twelve cards per pack is bounteous. But I’ll be trashing these regardless 🙂

I once saw an entire box of these All My Children cards on sale for only a few dollars, and almost bought it only because it was so cheap. I’m glad I didn’t, since these cards (also released in 1991) are trash. Of the ten cards in my pack 4 of them were quiz cards with no art (the bottom two in the pic are the fronts and back of such cards) and the others are just studio photos of characters. I’d say even a rabid fan of the soap (which I have never seen) would be disappointed with this low-effort set. Into the bin they go!

These six packs of Megametal cards (from – once again – 1991) cost a shiny quarter each. I’d never heard of the set but gambled that with six packs my chance for a hologram was decent so I bought them all. The cards are decent if generic: a photo or album cover image on the front with some fluff quote on the back. What makes the set amusing are some of the included bands: have you ever heard of M.O.D., The Front, Heaven’s Gate or Dark Angel? Sets like these puzzle me, since it’s extraordinarily unlikely someone would be a fan of all these bands and would they buy multiple packs just for the 8% of cards that are Bon Jovi?

I got a hologram! A shame it’s L.A. Guns. If you want it, leave a comment, otherwise it’s heading to the trash with the rest of these cards!

A more recent pack now, from 2018. The Doctor Who card license is currently in the hands of a company called Rittenhouse, who prints high quality card sets with lovely art reproduction, loads of informative text and overloaded with chase cards such as autographs and costume pieces. The problem is their cards are too expensive, and a single pack of these Who cards retail for $10. With only five cards per pack, that’s $2 a card and they’re absolutely not even close to worth this price. It’s easy to ignore these sets right now because they’re ‘new Who’, but if Rittenhouse turns their attention to classic Who and in particular the Pertwee era, I’ll be miffed!

I picked up this pack of Bass ManiaX cards earlier this year in Japan for only ¥50 (about 40 cents). Released in 2000, this was a trading card game that seems to have disappeared from the internet as I can’t find anything on it (even the official webpage printed on the packs is gone). From the contents of this pack it seemed to have fish, lure, event and technic cards, and translating a few cards I’m guessing the goal was to catch fish – that were upside down on the table – for points.

I love buying clearance card packs in Japan because you never know what you’ll get. This is a classic example of ‘weird Japan’ (who was the target audience for a bass fishing tcg?!?) but even though the set was probably doomed to fail the production quality is high and the cards themselves feel better in the hand than an MtG card printed today.

So there we go. Five more card sets never before seen on this blog, many of which arguably should never have been seen at all! I’m always on the lookout for more, so let’s hope this isn’t the last post of its kind 🙂

Posted in Miscellaneous, Trading Cards | Comments Closed