Fate Has Arrived!

At last, the wait is over! My most anticipated figure, ALTER 1/7 Fate T Harlaown True Sonic Form (aka Shin Sonic Form) has arrived! The figure arrived in the shop on Thursday night, and my mother and sister picked it up after receiving their call on the following night.

Their comment? "The box is HUGE!" ^^;

More pictures from my sister after the jump!








Current status:

Click for full size picture

Now it is sitting quietly on my desk back home. Not as big as Yagami Hayate's box (as shown in ALTER's official blog), but this is still a HUGE box! Not only has it dominated my remaining desk space, the fat PS2 is now completely obscured by it!

I won't get to see it myself until I get back home for Christmas, so no reviews or photoshoot until then. But at least no more waiting with anxiety, and luckily the total price we had to pay isn't as high as the retail price of 12800 Yen.

I have to thank my mother and sister for taking the trouble of retrieving it as well as to take the pictures for me!


P.S.
This is possibly the first time you'll get to see my desk. As you can see it has various sorts of things on it. The space that the box has occupied is where my laptop usually resides (when I am in Hong Kong), or is used for poseable figure reviews. For some reasons I just like having things around me rather than having them displayed on a shelf (because I will tend to ignore them as a result).
Read More!

Figutto Tamaki Kousaka preview

First seen as a coloured sample last month, Figutto's Tamaki Kousaka bikini version (from ToHeart2) is ready for reservation!

Pre-order officially starts on 26th November and will end on 15th January. Tamaki will be released in March 2010 at a retail price of 3200 Yen (or 3360 Yen tax inclusive). In fact, pre-order is now available at AmiAmi English site.








Image from AmiAmi

~16 cm in height. Comes with a swim ring, 3 faces, and 4 pairs of hands in total (i.e. 2 extra faces and 3 pairs of hands). Like Reimu, it should also come with a stand and a box for storing unused parts.

Not as expensive as Reimu, but still not so cheap as it's the same price as... Say, the accessory abundant figma Signum. Nonetheless this is the first Tamaki I know to be released as a poseable figure. Not planning to get her, but I am pretty sure that some will fall for her... ^^;


Top image from Figutto website
Read More!

MG GN-X Announced!

Recent hobby magazines have shown that GN-X is announced as the second MG for Gundam 00 series, after Gundam Exia!

It is to be released in January 2010 at retail price of 3780 Yen (tax inclusive).

This is truly unexpected for a lot of people, since GN-X will be the first grunt machine to be on MG (Master Grade) outside Universal Century.


Original artwork of GN-X

GN-X is a mobile suit introduced late in the first season of Gundam 00. Equipped with pseudo solar furnaces (aka GN Drive Tau), they are the first mass-produced units capable of matching against the Gundam units.

With the release of GN-X, it is very likely that other variants will be added to MG as well, including but not limited to Advanced GN-X, GN-XIII (from Gundam 00 Season 2), and even the GN-XIV for the upcoming Gundam 00 Movie.


From Random Curiosity

I didn't expect GN-X to be released for Master Grade! In my opinion, it's one of the more unique-looking designs for Gundam 00. Looks tempting I must say, and I love its long barrel rifle ^^; was thinking about buying several 1/144s to make a squad of them some time ago. Maybe I'll buy one and pair it up with my yet-to-build MG Exia :o

"This one I is gei-ren-ti must buy!! XD" - Ngee Khiong

Read More!

Figutto Reimu Hakurei preview

UPDATE: New pictures added!



Figutto has updated its official website, and we now get to see the full colour sample of Reimu Hakurei from Touhou Project.

She will be available for pre-order on 18th November, and will be released in March 2010 for 3900 Yen (or 3990 Yen tax inclusive). EDIT: Pre-order is now available at AmiAmi English site.

For more info about this upcoming poesable figure series refer to this previous posting.









Images from AmiAmi

Around 16cm in height. Comes with stand and small container box for unused parts (not shown).

Compared to figma and Revoltechs, 3800 Yen seems rather pricey. I suppose the size and quality will be important factors, but still it's not gonna be cheap for budget collectors, especially when they have other poseable figure lines to consider as well. Figutto may have to rely on its wide variety of titles and series that they are currently working on, some of them include Zero no Tsukaima, Sekirei, Shining Wind, and The King of Fighters (KOF).


What about Tamaki? Isn't she supposed to be the first one to be released in February? Beats me...


Image from Good Smile Company website

Besides, with Max Factory's figma planning to release its version of Reimu in January, Figutto will face quite a bit of competition there. Despite being available only to certain stores I can see people screaming over the figma version already.


Also reported on Ngee Khiong (kinda unusual for him since he normally focuses on news of Gundam, gunpla, and other mecha-related stuff ^^) Read More!

Final Fantasy XIII Trailers & Release Dates Confirmed

As many people may have known already, the release dates of highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII (aka FFXIII) are confirmed.

Release Dates:

Japan - 17th December 2009

North America - 9th March 2010

For those who wonder about the game's plot (including myself), here's what is written in the North America official site:

Coccoon - a utopia in the sky.

Its inhabitants believed their world a paradise.
Under the Sanctum's rule, Cocoon had long known peace and prosperity.

Mankind was blessed by its protectors, the benevolent fal'Cie, and believed that tranquil days would continue forever.

Their tranquility was shattered with the discovery of one hostile fal'Cie.

The moment that fal'Cie from Pulse - the feared and detested lowerworld - awoke from its slumber, peace on Cocoon came to an end.

Fal'Cie curse humans, turning them into magic-wielding servants.

They become l'Cie [i.e. the main characters] - chosen of the fal'Cie.

Those branded with the mark of a l'Cie carry the burden of either fulfilling their focus or facing a fate harsher than death itself.

A prayer for redemption.
A wish to protect the world.
A promise to challenge destiny.

After thirteen days of fates intertwined, the battle begins.

Anyway trailers below:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APatTjdHVg8

The long TGS 2009 Trailer, which shows a lot of CG videos as well as some plots in the game


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olYTG7hSPiM

The English announcement trailer that includes the North America release date at the end of the video.


The game will be released on PS3 and XBOX 360.




Final Fantasy titles are well known for their plots, music (especially those composed by Nobuo Uematsu), characters, and in the recent years their stunning graphics. I have only played the more well known ones. The first one I played was FFX on PS2, which was groundbreaking in terms of graphics back then. Others I have played and completed are FFI, FFII, FFVII, and FFX-2. I've stalled on FFXII, twice. There's something about FFXII that doesn't appeal to me and it doesn't help me to drive forward. My sister completed it and said she was disappointed how it felt rushed towards the end.

As for FFXIII, I am not sure what to say at this very moment. Plot looks deep, and graphics are (needless to say really) breathtaking. Is it gonna be groundbreaking as we have hoped? Well let's hope it's worth the wait since this game has been under development for years, and it could be a catalyst for me and my sister to get a PS3 in the near future. Besides FFXII it's been a while since I've played any RPGs, and due to their time-consuming nature it may become apparent for me to play fewer and fewer of this genre nowadays (same thing can be said to other types of games though).

Anyone looking forward to this game? I'm sure there are quite a few who will be :o


Website:
http://na.square-enix.com/ff13/
Read More!

Japanese Pranks

Japanese pranks are notorious for being crazy and funny, especially the scare pranks. I've chosen a few of the ones I particularly like, so let's just sit back and enjoy a few videos for a change.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQQYkhKPS48

Various scare pranks on actors. Quite an old video I think, but still funny to this day. There's also a water squirting microphone in the video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRmMAQUolUk

Another great video. The scare prank and microphone make a return here. I like the rolling boulders and exploding cigarettes, as well as the ostrich at the end.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrEPt79QQQI

Crazy ways of getting woken up. I would NOT like to wake up in any of the ways shown above...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msfORcpe0SM

This sniper prank is part of a show called "Panic Face King", which is parodying a scene from 24 I think. It's fairly new and was spread around the net rather quickly. Full version can be found here (includes two other people who also received the same prank)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycnJbfysho0

An actor is told that he has been given a important part in a TV series, and he was sent to a taxi immediately. Little did he know that this was all a prank, and the taxi driver was actually a stunt driver...

There's actually a second part of it; this time the same actor inside a police car with the same stunt driver. Not as funny IMHO but you can find it here.


There are a few more pranks out there I haven't shown here, namely the toilet and massage chair pranks. Hope you like the ones shown above! When I first watched some of those videos some time ago, I did worry whether I would fall victim to some of the pranks if I were to go to Japan again... ^^; Read More!

Blog Featured on AnimeBlips

For this week, my blog has been featured on AnimeBlips as "Featured Blog of the Week". It shall be a special week for me and my blog. :o

A full report can be found right here, which includes an interview with Robyn Lass, the editor of AnimeBlips.



For those who want to know what AnimeBlips is about, here's a quick summary quoted from its about page:

"AnimeBlips was created for otaku crazy about anime and manga, and the news, events, books, movies, and conferences that emerge from the anime and manga worlds. By combining robust technology with spirited editorial, AnimeBlips brings you inside the creative, obsessive world of the most popular anime and manga, removing the hassle of information overload, and providing one-stop access to all the hottest breaking news, rumors, and commentary from expert sources around the Web. If it's hot, if people are whispering, shouting, searching for, or sounding off on it—you'll always find it at AnimeBlips."

In other words, it is a site that gathers various popular news and articles submitted from users or blogs in the community.

Shortly after reading about Optic and Zenical getting their blogs featured there, I thought it wouldn't hurt to give it a try and sign up as well. I got an email from Robyn two months later saying that he wanted to profile my blog. To be honest, I didn't see that coming and was truly flattered.

As for the interview itself, I was actually a bit nervous about it (laughs), as I took a long time answering some of the questions and I was facing busy schedule at the same time, but thankfully Robyn is a very patient man, and I thank him for taking his time to receive my replies.

Again big thanks to Robyn Lass for featuring my blog on AnimeBlips as well as his big patience on awaiting my replies.

And special thanks to Optic for recommending Robyn my blog (you deserve a credit mate).

EDIT: Another special thanks to gundamjehutykai for helping me on availability of anime and manga in the UK!



This is a humble blog whose topics mainly revolve around Anime, Gundam, Figures, anime-related stuff involving Hong Kong, as well as topics on Japan. It can be quite diverse, but afterall I blog about what I find interesting and things I have in common with other bloggers in a different angle or perspective.

As I've mentioned above, this is not a huge blog at all; I am a fairly casual blogger myself. What matters most is I enjoy what I write about, and if you like it, then I am happy for you too! In all, I want to thank all who have left comments on my blog or even just dropping by! Every little bit means a lot to me!


P.S. Restored pictures for the recent blog posts. Will try to get back to reply comments asap!
Read More!