31 October 2011

Boxes

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Boxes, boxes, and more boxes.

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Boxes of Gunpla underneath my bed... Some have yet to be started too. Ack the everlasting backlog is something that Gunpla fans tend to worry about ^^;

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Figure boxes. I hesitate to throw them away in case I have to pack the figures away in the future for whatever reasons.

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Boxes of figma and a couple of Revoltechs as well. All unused accessories are still stored in them rather than in bags.

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Current state of my shelf.

I personally dont like putting things into shelf for display, because I won't get to interact with them as often, or worse if they get too crowded I worry that I may even start to forget them. This is the reason why the shelf still looks relatively spacious compared to... Say, Yui's collection ^^;


Posting this is some sort of a reminder for me to start to be more cautious for future purchases; space is limited and is always an issue for any sorts of collection, but we as collectors often try to defy this statement nonetheless. One extreme example would be this guy's collection which I have blogged about sometime last year. Well, I still have the space to sleep at least!

I know a lot of collectors throw their boxes away because they take up a lot of space. I keep mine just in case I have to pack my stuff away again for whatever reasons in the future. Do you keep your boxes or not?
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29 October 2011

Triple Jestas

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At last, my 3 units of Jestas are ready to roll out! Apart from the slight colour changes and the markings, these ones I've built are pretty much a straight build without modifications.

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The HGUC 1/144 Jesta was released in mid-September for 1600 Yen. An advanced version of the Federation's ordinary grunt Jegan, the Jesta will make its debut in a team of 3 in the upcoming 4th episode of Gundam UC OVA.

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Jesta with beam rifle (which is known as a beam carbine), which is an advanced variant of the Jegan's original beam rifle.

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The shield can be connected to the backpack via an option of 2 different connecting arms; one that is contracted and the other expanded.

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The expanded arm piece (as seen on the left Jesta above) can allow rotation of the shield, whereas the contracted one (as seen on the right Jesta above) will have the shield restricted to face backwards only.

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The shield is derived from that of the original Jegan. The shield missiles are still present but both pairs are now on the same side rather than being laid out symmetrically on each side.

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The beam sabre is tucked in beneath the left arm, whereas spare beam rifle magazines are store beneath the right arm. The Jesta can reach it with its right hand as shown in the picture above. Two open palms are used in this picture as well.

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Charging forward with the beam sabre.

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The side skirts are grenade racks just like the ordinary Jegan model.

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Three Jestas in action.

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Fighting in unison and professionally. These guys are no ordinary grunts.

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Jesta in comparison with Stark Jegan. Despite being derived from the same original Jegan the two do look very different here.

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In case those who are curious about the white stars on the left shoulders and the shields of the Jestas, they actually spare paper stickers from 1/8 GSC Black★Rock Shooter -animation version-. The original figureb had a missing star on the coat, so GSC sent a set of 8 white star stickers to the customers. I thought that I would use some to make them stand out a bit in terms of markings.


Previous WIP posts can be found here and here.

My sloppy pictures aside, the HGUC 1/144 Jesta is quite a complete model kit there; at least there are no parts that you have to borrow from other kits unless you want to swap out the backpack with other Jegan models. The overall design is dark and sleek, giving the Jesta an overall impression that it is no ordinary grunt unlike most of Federation's mass production mobile suits.

A big thanks to BMecha for hosting this Jesta group build! It's been fun doing this and seeing what others have tried on their own Jestas. Mine is a bit ordinary out of the bunch, but I suppose simplicity also has its own beauty too right? ^^
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25 October 2011

Snow Miku Magic Show

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Snow Miku wants to do a magic show! This comes at good timing as I am busy with other stuff at the moment. Well, let's have her take the stage this time shall we?

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Before the show starts, an assistant Ball hands over the trusted leek to Snow Miku.

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The leek magically turns into an icy leek, much to the Ball's surprise~ Well, I guess the show has already begun!

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With her icy touch Snow Miku will demonstrate her magic on the 1/144 Nashorn and Tiger II.

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Poof, and both have gone white!

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Next thing Snow Miku will try will be on a HGUC 1/144 Kampfer.

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A white Kampfer appears!

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Last but not least Snow Miku will test her magic on figma Black★Rock Shooter, without the latter's prior knowledge of what's going on at this moment...

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... And with that figma WRS has been summoned. Probably a bad move. Oh dear that didn't go too well now did it? ^^;


For those who are interested my Snow Miku review can be found here


This post is to also be made for a local forum posting game where one has to make their own thread with pictures of Q-version toys (i.e. chibi). While I have very few of such toys, the game suddenly gave me some inspiration with what I have in my collection, and I came up with this post. Hope you've enjoyed this silly but lighthearted post though!

It feels good digging up some older toys even if it's just for a quick snapshot. That way they don't feel forgotten as you interact with them now and then :o
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23 October 2011

Something New

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???

Having a bit of a writer's block recently, so I decided to show something a bit... Different. Anyway here is a teaser picture with the good ol' mosaic effect. If you have been to my other stuff you would have known what it is already.

I guess it's only a matter of time before I will talk about it here. ^^; Read More!

15 October 2011

Evangelion Sachiel Swiss Roll

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Anime goodies can be random... And edible too! Premium Bandai has recently released a limited Swiss roll set with a knife and Asuka figure from the Rebuild of Evangelion movies. Gigazine has done a review of it, and let's see what it really has to offer.

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The boxes come as they are. The red one has the cake while the orange one has the Asuka figure along with the progressive knife inside.

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Cake unboxed.

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The cake itself. The face is distinctively that of the angel Sachiel in the anime and movie. The outer layer is said to be made of chocolate sponge, while the inner layers are chocolate cream and ordinary white cream. That is a lot of cream in the cake...

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Progressive knife of Eva-02. The knife is made of stainless steel and is 17cm long.

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The progressive knife comes with a stand as well as an Asuka figure, which stands about 13cm tall.

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So what do you do when an angel cake appears? Cut it down of course!

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Even though Sachiel has been cut, a new face still emerges from the cut portion...

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... Just like in the anime and the movie ^^;


The cake, knife, and figure set was sold for 4410 Yen (tax inclusive), and it was only available for pre-order in Premium Bandai's pre-order site. Reservation is long closed on 31th July, and the cake is released on 8th October.

Sachiel has been a rather popular "character" in the Evangelion franchise, with a lot of merchandise released for it. My sister is absolutely frightful of it, and she does not understand why it is appealing at all ^^; Anyone here a fan of Sachiel though?


Sources:
Premium Bandai
Gigazine
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12 October 2011

My History with Anime

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Fellow blogger Nopy has started a project back in February encouraging like-minded bloggers to share their own histories on watching anime. Many have shared their colourful experiences on it, and how anime has become part of their life now.

My history is nothing as amazing as those I have read so far, but I thought I will give this project a shot and share my story out. My childhood memory is pretty vague now, but I will do my best to put together the fragmented pieces to a picture of some sort.

For many years Hong Kong has been submersed in a lot of Japanese media, so watching anime, tokusatsu, or reading manga have been something that many people have shared in their childhood, and perhaps into their adulthood too. That being said, I actually don't get exposed to them as much as many other Hongkongers have. There were no particular reasons as for why this was so, but I remember that watching TV was not something I do very often, even back in childhood. Most things I have watched really early on were those I watched with my sister, rather than just by myself.

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I can't remember what the first anime series I've watched back then (it may have been Princess Knight that I have watched with my sister), but I think Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid was the first anime film I have watched on a video tape, which follows closer to the original story unlike Disney's adaptation. I remember I was never able to hold my tears back by the end of the film.

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While I have glimpse through a few odd episodes of various anime series on local TV network, Doraemon remains to be the one I've watched and read the most in my early childhood. The variety of gadgets/tools Doraemon has, the distinctive personalities of each character, and overall family-friendliness of this franchise is really appealing, and Doraemon is still one of my favourite characters to this day. I still have the 45 volumes of short story manga in my shelf.

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I have watched a few Ghibli films back then on VCD, such as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and Laputa: Castle in the Sky. The music composed by Joe Hisaishi is still some of my favourite music even to this day. Among the Ghibli films I have watched, Graveyard of the Fireflies was surely one of the most profound one, and even though I have only watched it once it is one of the few movies that gives a vivid and stark image of war in my mind.

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Around mid to late 90s, me and my sister have started to become more interested in watching anime, and like many people this was started with the more well known ones, such as Gundam Wing, followed by Rurouni Kenshin and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Other less well known ones include Yu Yu Hakusho, Fushigi Yugi, Hoshin Engi. Hoshin Engi was also one of the very few long manga series that I have read and actually finished. This was considered one of the peak times when we both watched a lot of anime I suppose.

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Most of the 2000s had been a gap of some sort where I have very little contact with animation in general. It was also the time I have slowly reformed my interest in military, and mostly in WWII. It was in the late 2000s a fellow Hongkonger has tried to reintroduce me back into anime with series such as Gundam SEED, and Fullmetal Alchemist, as well as some of the older series such as the original Cyber Formula TV series (I have watched the 4 OVAs beforehand with my sister), Slam Dunk and Dragon Ball GT (though admittedly I have paid very little attention to the Dragon Ball series despite its worldwide popularity).

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It was shortly after that I have then finally started to watch some of the series by myself, with some of the really popular series at recent times such as Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, Shakugan no Shana, and Fate/stay night. They are a few examples along with the Gundam franchise and Evangelion where they have been heavily promoted for merchandise, and it appears that it is becoming more common for more series nowadays, but this is another discussion to be made in another place at another time.

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This was the time shortly before I take up blogging again, and it was about the time when Gundam 00 started airing I begin to follow anime series as they start to air. With the aid of blogging network and the availability of the Internet watching anime, or choosing what to watch, has become much easier than it has been in the past.

And from then onwards is where I am now... I suppose.


If you are nosy into what I have watched and see what I like, you can always have a look at my anime list. You can easily tell what kind of series I like as well too. I tend to like series that are bound to be serious (e.g. Gundams, Fullmetal Alchemist etc.), while comedy or slice of life are usually not what I would watch or that I would find myself hard to enjoy.


So what can I say about the anime I have watched all these years?

There is a clear trend of what I have watched from those geared towards children, and later for teenagers, and later those that are a bit more complex. This is a change of sign in age, but perhaps also what anime is trying to do these days, from back then having a clear theme and point of what they want to do, to something that has become muddier and sometimes perhaps even "pointless". It's not surprising that a lot of people have yearn for things in the past, though now and then there are some gems that pop up now and then, but it is perhaps less obvious than what it has been for the past decade or two.

As long as there are still nice gems out there, there's still hope. While I don't watch anime as much as I have used to nowadays, I will still watch some as long as there are some that may pique my interest.

I do want to thank Nopy for making this project and get everyone to share out their history of watching anime. I have left this article backlogged for too long, but I am glad that I did manage to write it up at the end, despite the fact that the project was started more than half a year ago ^^; It's an intereting feeling to try and recall what one has done in the past and recollect them like putting puzzle pieces together. If you are interested, do check out others' histories as well, or even share your own!
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5 October 2011

Jesta WIP 2

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Continuing from the first WIP post, the 3 Jestas that I am building as part of the Jesta Group Build are nearly complete.

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The Jesta standing without shield or beam carbine. Overall colour scheme is pretty much identical to default colours and straight build with very minor touches on colouring here and there. No modification to parts or pla plates are used (which applies to most of my models I build anyway).

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The chest vents, node on shoulder, the pipes on the elbow joint and the pipes around the waist are coloured silver.

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Vents on skirts and legs are also coloured silver, along with the pipes at the back of the leg joints

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I have been thinking whether I should colour the shield arms or not. I may still go ahead with it as it will stay consistent with the arm and leg joints.

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Here is a before and after comparison with the arms connected to the shield and the backpack.

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A quick pose with 2 Jestas. Thanks to the shoulder joints they can hold the beam carbines pretty well.


Now I have mostly the touch-ups to finish, such as cleaning up rough colouring work with my Gundam Marker pens, as well as a possible use of stickers for markings.

Not much left to go. Now I just gotta be more careful with the colouring and give it a flat top coat at the end then it's done!
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