One Year of Daybreak

Sometime this day last year, a new blog was born, just like any other daybreak one would see in a typical morning.

To the new visitors, I welcome you and thank you for stopping by.

To the returning readers, I thank you for coming back to my humble blog.

Not surprisingly, this is one of those "anniversary" post thats you may have seen on some other blogs already. Personally, I am not into the milestone or statistics, so rather than going into the numbers why not just sit back and know how all this got started?


Like many fellow bloggers with similar interests, I have started blogging in the summer last year. Due to the fact that I do have an interest towards a variety of things, I have decided to narrow my blog's focus to Gundam, figures, Hong Kong (where I live), Japan, and the otaku subculture in general. It may still seem a little varied for some, but for me I am happy with what I am blogging about already.

Originally there was a blog before this with the same URL known as Q's Random Journal, which I had around for about 4 years but I didn't do much blogging on it, and the stuff I did blog about were woefully varied, as if there's no sense of focus or direction at all.


How my blog used to look like

When it came to July last year, I gave some more serious thought about blogging after following a few blogs that offered me some inspirations, namely Ngee Khiong and Danny Choo. At the end I have decided to delete the old blog but start a new one under the same URL. However it took me a while to come up with a new blog name.


Although hardly ever mentioned in my blog, the band L'arc~en~Ciel was where I got the blog's name from

Those who know what Daybreak's Bell is would know that it is an opening theme song from a J-Rock band called L'arc~en~Ciel for the anime series Gundam 00. Other than listening to Japanese songs from various anime series, they're the only artists whose songs that I would actually focus and listen to. Having the oppurtunity to attend their only concert performance in Hong Kong, I ended up naming my blog Daybreak's Bell. For me the title (not the song itself) was symbolising a new start, as if with light shimmering from utter darkness it gives me a new direction to head out for, unlike what I have done with my old blog which was like poking around in a state of astray.


Getting back into blogging is quite interesting. Over this timespan of one year I have met a lot of fellow bloggers, exchanged links with some, as well as maintaining contact with them. I have met blogs that specialise on the Gundam franchise, those who solely focus on PVC figures, some who share a bit of both or even be blogging a lot about various Japanese things. There's been quite a lot of colours I have witnessed in the blogosphere, and it is overall a positive experience.


Kotobukiya's Candy Bikini Shana was my first ever PVC figure

As for how the blog is heading now, I will still focus on what I am blogging on at the moment, but with one more thing: to get people to understand and appreciate Hong Kong more than they used to so they don't find it more foreign than, say Japan, which is where a lot of my hobby and interests are influenced from.

I am not looking for "hits" or "popularity" particularly, but just sharing my common interest with others (anime, figures, Gundams), perhaps showing them in a different perspective or opinion, is what I want to do. However, each comment that you have given me has mean so much to me, and I want to thank you for your support all this time!


Last but not least, I want to thank those who helped inspired me to resume blogging, as well as those who have continued to support me throughout this year (in no particular order):


Ngee Khiong, Apt-1B, GunStray, zenical, Lightning Sabre, gordon, Otaku Dan, Blowfish, konadora, Roy, Saku, valho, Willie, Optic, seven6398, Jacques, James, meronpan, RyoBase, Danny Choo, T.I.P., radiant, Snark, persocom, vixion, blood on the mirror, Z, gndynames, AstrayP03, suki, and many more

Great apologies if I have miss anyone out there, but you can inform me should I have carelessly forgotten you so I can add it on the credits.




To finish off, and let's celebrate with a birthday cake, the 08th MS Team's way!

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Revoltech Airi

Got this from a shop last Friday, but didn't have the time to open it until last night. Anyway, let's have a look how Revoltech's Queen's Blade acion figure Airi fare, and whether it is worth me spending 195HKD on it.

(Note: This is NOT a full review due to the erotic nature of the figure, as well as the lack of time recently)


Revoltech's Airi is the second figure in the Queen's Blade line, which is just released on 1st July. Perhaps not surprisingly, she is much more popular than Reina (released last month), as she's sold out in many shops already. Hongkongers surely are quick and ruthless on these things o_o;;;


Standing side-by-side next to figma Shana and Haruhi. Unlike the Fräulein line, the similarity in height between the 2 different lines make them more playable with each other. Definitely a good thing there ^^


The ghostly flame parts can be attached to her ponytails. Took me some time to push it in though. The hole for attaching the flame part can be seen on the left.


Each ponytail has a revoltech joint just like the rest of the joints. You can actually take the ponytail off so you can attach or remove the flame parts easier. Additionally you can twist the ponytails so the unsightly hole can be twisted out of sight when not using the flame parts.


Changing the faces is pretty simple. Lift the front piece of the hair and change the face pieces. Due to the fact that the front piece is not a removable but moves like a flap, some people don't like the T-shaped seamlines on top of the head.


The hands for holding the scythe seem rather natural-looking (unlike figma's hole-in-the-hands), so you have to somehow push the scythe into the hands and hope it won't fall off.

Airi's legs seem a little loose (apparently it is the case for others who bought her too), but she can still stand straight alright.


The stand requires assembly, but it is pretty easy to set up and it uses the same joints as the figure itself.


Airi with all the flame parts (including the alternate scythe blade) attached.

The arm can hold the figure alright, though I somehow find it not as sturdy as the figma counterpart as it can sway left and right a bit.


Revoltech action figures revolves around revoltech joints. Which means most many joints use common parts (e.g. all leg joints, waist, and neck joints etc. are all the same; ponytail and wrists joints use smaller ones). The joints can be pulled out easily (well nearly all of them for me), supposedly for easy swapping should one get damaged or worn out, but according to Ngee Khiong, who has a Revoltech SFO Chun-Li, revoltech joints are pretty durable even if you play with one for a lot.


The two different chest piece (each has 4 pegs) for the maid's top. You can have neither piece on Airi so you try to appreciate her exposed chest in full glory, but at the same time you will have to cope with the 4 unsightly holes around it.


Here is the M mode (負け Mode / Defeat mode?) with the burst chest piece visually covered by the hand


Tried to exchange the damaged kneesock leg parts too for the M mode, but couldn't remove the joint on the thigh from the original leg, and I didn't want to force it so I gave up -_-


All Revoltech action figures now come with a little box for storing small parts. Even the leg can fit inside there, but there's no home for the alternate scythe blade to reside -_-


Funny enough, figma stands are compatible with Revoltech Airi - definitely a good thing there~ ^^


The exposable chest aside, the other thing I have not mentioned (confirmed on forums) is that the lower undergarment can be removed, and in addition to that the details beneath it are there too... I have seen some cast-offables figures before, but having the lower part of the body being exposable too is one of the firsts for me, much to my surprise. Without a doubt this is one erotic figure to have, should you decide to go all hell on it. o_o;;


Overall, good articulations, good proportions and look as well as the fair price (retail price is only slightly more expensive than regular figmas), Revoltech's Airi is a good buy for me. The new size makes it playable with the figmas too. It looks like that Revoltech is slowly competing in the bishoujo action figure market. The upcoming Reycal Orichalcum (not from Queen's Blade) looks quite attractive too, even though I know nothing about the character or the manga.

Might add a few more pictures later but that will do for now :o

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Chilling in Yokohama

Sorry for taking so long to get this, but there's a lot of photos to comb out. Without delay, let's get into the first day of my trip to Japan this year.

Surprisingly, our first stop is not anywhere in Tokyo, but in Yokohama. So we took a bus straight from the airport (Haneda) to Yokohama.


Charging the Suica card. We keep them from the previous journey last year (and the year before) so we don't have to purchase individual tickets all the time. Another good thing is that Suica cards don't seem to have expiry dates, therefore we can keep them for future trips.


We planned not to spend our first night in a hotel, so we stored our suitcases in the lockers inside the train station.


Close the door, confirm the locker number, present the Suica card to pay for the fee and voila, it's done. A receipt appears afterwards for reference. To open it, just present the Suica card. There will be extra charge for storing items longer than 1 day.

Alternatively, there are coin lockers, which means instead of using Suica card to pay you insert a coin and take the key out after locking your content inside. My sister used them often for storing her shopping stuff so she can shop some more without having to carry them around.


World Porters, a huge mall that we have spent inside for the afternoon.


A panda with scary glowing eyes XD


Lunch: Omurice (オムライス) - literally rice within a huge omelette.


Dog sculptures made out of charcoal. These are surely impressive! Apparently having charcoal in your room is good for absorbing odours, but I am not sure.


Yokohama is celebrating its 150th anniversary of opening of its port, and therefore there are various souvenir and goods here and there. Here are the starwberry cheesecake flavour KitKats.


A quick picture of the mall's ground floor


Dinner in Manyo Club (part 1 - Tonkatsu + Curry


Dinner part 2 - I think was a little hungry that night


Dessert - An ice-cream of matcha (抹茶) and vanilla flavour


Tuna roll - even though I am not really into seafood, I somehow really like tuna and salmon sushi


Hot spring egg, or onsen tamago (温泉卵) - which are semi boiled eggs.




Looking at the Cosmo Clock 21 ferris wheel from the roof of Manyo Club. It normally displays its lights like a clock, but does some fancy light 'performance' every 15 minutes. A great sight at the nighttime I gotta say~

Well, that ends the first day of my trip to Japan. It was the first time we didn't spend in a hotel for the first day of a trip. We arrived pretty early that day and didn't sleep much as it was a late flight and around 4 hours of flight, so we didn't do much and spent most of the time relaxing in Manyo Club. Hope you like the photos so far. Will get around to day 2 sometime next week.

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Inside a Shokugan Shop

Here it is: the shokugan shop that I've mentioned before in the previous post. As promised, I will show you what a shokugan shop looks like (what is a shokugan?), and to a small extent, how it is like to bump into a small trendy shop in Hong Kong. Ready to have look?


Entering the shop, one will notice the small but typical size of the shop, usually less than 3m in width or length. Shopkeepers have to make really good use of the space to stuff in as much stuff as possible but still make good display for the items.


On the left there's a huge shelf of many sorts of shokugans, ranging from weapons, trucks, warplanes, down to guitars, and trading figures too.


Dragon Ball stuff. Despite it being one of the most watched anime out there I didn't really watch much of it.


A 1/400 Big Zam surrounded by many little Magella Attack tanks. When it comes to Gundams he's a fan of grunts of the grunts, namely Magella Attack and Ball ^^;


Various trading figures. How many do you recognise there?


The red robot at the back is Robocon from a Japanese TV series Ganbare!! Robocon. It was pretty popular in Hong Kong as well, where it is known as 小露寶.


A closer look on some of the shokugans on the shelf. Closely packed together we see different kinds of shokugans here. Didn't notice that there's one for Peter Pan until I was blogging this. o_o


Various Kamen Rider (aka Masked Rider) action figures on top of the shelves.


Various Gundam and mecha stuff, as well as 2 antique High Complete Model (HCM) of Nu Gundam and Auge at the back.


More antique toys from anime series including Casshern, Blocker Army/Corps, and Combat Mecha Xabungle. I seriously know nothing about them ^^;


The vintage Gundam Mk II, ZZ Gundam, and Z Gundam. While nothing compared to MGs today, they awere some of the earliest (completed) action models out there when the series came out, and are very rare now.


As for the shopkeeper himself, I know him several years ago as military shokugans were much more popular back then, and I always came back to his shop for more releases. Yep, and this means more than half of my 1/144 tank collection (and most aircrafts) are purchased from him. Soon we knew each other and became friends.

Even though there are far fewer shokugan releases related to military now, I still come by and visit his shop to have a chat now and then. Running a small shop by himself isn't easy; having to decide what to stock in and sell them at competitive prices yet enough to keep the cash flow steady is not easy, and he admits that he doesn't earn much daily. One mistake and you can have a lot of surplus goods left behind and no one wants them even for a price that you'll not earn a profit. Nevertheless he continues to do his job as he likes the hobbies he sells, and there's a demand for them afterall. I was happy that the stuff I've bought for him from my trip really satisfied him, and such little things mean a lot to him already.

I want to thank him for kindly allowing me to take pictures of his shop, and you for stopping by and reading about this. Really do hope that you'll get to appreciate how the shops are like and how it is not easy to run one! Do you have shops like that in your area or in a trip, and if you've met them before how's your experience on them?

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Back from Japan

ただいま, 我回來了, I'm back.

It's a long week, and I was pretty exhausted after the trip. Came back really early this morning, and finally got time to settle down and blog.

Not surprisingly, anybody who would have returned from a trip, an expo, or an event etc will usually come back with something. The "loot", as we commonly call these days, is shown here on my bed. However a huge portion of the right are not mine but are for friends of mine.

No PVC figures? That's right, but you may or may not know that I am not much of a figure collector anyway, and there weren't any that are in my mind at the moment so haven't bought one (if you don't count the figmas in that is).


Star Wars Vehicle Collection 2 - 1/144 scale shokugan toys I have bought for a friend who runs a shokugan shop (in fact he's the guy who I got a lot of my tanks from). Will talk about his shop one day.

For those who do not know what shokugans are, you can have a quick read right here.


Another one for him: JWings Navy & Marines Freak secret item - F/A-18 Hornet Top Gun version. Really hard to find as this one is not only a secret item, but can originally only be bought and randomly picked in Circle K Sunkus convenience stores, making it even rarer than other hobby items (including figures).


One for my friend who studies chemistry: Element Girls - a chemistry book with each element represented by a moe looking girl. Maybe those who hate science will now give it a second chance somehow? (laughs)

For more info, you can check out what it is about on Trends in Japan.


My stuff from here on. Second hand PS2 games: AEUG vs Titans and Gundam vs Z Gundam. The latter could be an enhanced version of the first game, so making the first one redundant, but I will have to check. Not a big problem as they are pretty cheap anyway.


Gunpla parts: GN Launcher parts for 1/100 Astraea, Zaku weapons parts for 1/144 HGUC models, and a kit of battle axe and some long rifle from Kotobukiya for any mecha models (looks cool and cheap so I bought one for fun).

Now I can have double GN Launchers for my Astraea~ ^^

Couldn't find the head parts for HG 1/144 Slaughter Dagger as the horn/fin of one of mine broke a while ago. Oh while he can live with a compromised one I've given him which looks kinda weird though...


Discrimination among the gunpla. And yes I do have 3 of these guys.


figma Haruhi (summer uniform ver.) and figma Fate T Harlaown. Fate is ridiculously rare in Hong Kong for some silly reasons of distribution issue so I've decided to buy another one just in case. As for Haruhi, well, I can't resist a good price and a ponytail (laughs), and I got a blue schoolbag too.


1/100 Gundam Exia Roll Out Colour ver, an event limited item that I kinda wanted for a while. Cost me an arm to acquire though o_o...


And finally, Ex Model 1/144 Hildolfr. This one is huge (!), and it costs me another arm to purchase! This strange looking hybrid between a Mobile Suit and a tank is from the second episode of MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War. Never quite caught the reason why Ex Models are so much more expensive than other gunpla models though...

Maybe this gets slightly closer to what I want mentioned in my random post about this secret ambition thing a few days ago. ^^;


That's it for now. I did take some photos, and it will take a while to sort out. Meanwhile I still have quite a backlog of blogs to read, as well as anime to watch, and gunpla to build (not at least to say I have to do some betatesting for a mod too!). It looks like that I will have a heck of a time on the catchup right now

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