Tokyo: Collective Photos

Felt like looking back at my older photos from my previous trips to Japan. They were all taken with my old camera, which died shortly before I restarted blogging. I did not take as many photos back then as I would do now, but I thought it would be a nice thing to bring a few back up on the surface from my Picasa account.


The Fuji Television headquarters in Odaiba, Tokyo



View of the architecture of the Fuji Television headquarters from below. The observation sphere on 26th floor, and the elevator leading to it can be seen in the right photo


Auguste Rodin's "Gates of Hell" in front of the National Museum of Western Art, Ueno

For some reasons The Gates of Hell reminded me of the Gate of Alchemy / Door of Truth in Fullmetal Alchemist.


There are a lot of performers in Ueno Park. Performances vary from magic shows to martial dances, to a diabolo performance from someone called Koji Koji Moheji (unfortunately I have lost the photos I have taken of him)





No smoking signs appear in various locations in Tokyo (Tsukiji Fish Market, Nakano, Shinjuku, Musashino). For some reasons I liked taking photos of these signs, but haven't done so last year (mainly because I have revisited those places already).


Ever wondered how wasabi looks like originally? The root that is used to make the spice is seen here in Tsukiji Fish Market.


What's a good way to promote your music? A truck with advertisment of DOUBLE and Namie Amuro's new album "The Best Collaboration" spotted in Shibuya


Robot from "Castle in the Sky" (aka. "Laputa") in Ghibli Museum, Mitaka


Vehicles of Uyoku dantai (右翼団体), or right wing groups, parked on one side of the road with a man giving speeches in Shinjuku

Despite the fact that the Second World War is over for more than 60 years, there are still a number of extremists in Japan who would openly bring up the Rising Sun Flag and "re-justify" Japan's role during the war (among other things). This reminded me a concluding remark from a recent BBC news article: Germany has atoned. Young Germans know of their nation's dreadful crimes. But young Japanese are taught nothing of their nation's guilt.


Back to the first image of the post: A view of Shinjuku from my room in the hotel. Even though I live in Hong Kong, I too get surprised how much of a metropolis Tokyo really is with the sheer urban area, as if there is no boundary to be seen.


That's pretty much it. Unlike the Hong Kong counterpart this is probably going to be a standalone post of my past photos in Tokyo. Should you do wish to look at a few more photos you can feel free to look at my dormant Picasa gallery, which has other random photos including those I took in Bovington Tank Museum and some of the earliest figure review photos I did for figma Fate and Max Factory Shana. I moved onto Photobucket after doing the Shana review for normal images, and Flickr for trips/coverage photos.

One way or the other, I do hope that you like this little post of mine. Feeling nostalgic is somewhat linked to my mood recently (feeling like 囧 again). It's not about wanting to go back to Tokyo again, but rather just to look back at the past experience that I enjoyed and appreciated back then.
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New Gundam VS game announced

Despite the fact that Gundam VS Gundam NEXT came out on arcade in March and on PSP console (as Gundam VS Gundam NEXT PLUS) in December last year, a new Gundam VS game is already being planned for this year, currently named as Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS.

Not much info is known upon the announcement of the new game, but we have been given a teaser promotional video shown in AOU Amusement EXPO 2010.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GOKfEDynE0

New MS seen in the promotional video include Crossbone Gundam X-1, Zudah, Char's Gelgoog. Others mentioned or rumoured to be in the game as well include Astray Red Frame, Full Armour ZZ Gundam, Berga Giros, Tallgeese III.

With Crossbone X-1 now confirmed, we may have more units from Gundam series that are not animated, such as X-2 and X-3 from the Gundam Crossbone manga and maybe even the S/Ex-S Gundam from Gundam Sentinel novel etc.






No real gameplay footage can be observed so far, but it is said that the new game will be on System 357, which is apparently the arcade system board based on the PS3 (e.g. Tekken 6 uses it as well), so the game will very likely to be released on PS3 when a console version is announced.


Ack, a new Gundam VS game so soon already! I've only just got a PSP for Gundam VS Gundam NEXT PLUS at the end of last year! (laughs)

For some reasons I have a feeling that there will be a "DX (deluxe)" or upgraded version of the game some time after the game is released, just like how there is Gundam VS Zeta Gundam after AEUG VS Titans, or Gundam VS Gundam NEXT after Gundam VS Gundam. Nevertheless, I will still be keen on keeping track on what this upcoming Gundam Extreme VS will be like, and how extreme it's gonna be :o


Official site:
http://gundam-vs.jp/ac-new/

Images from Game Watch and Gpara via SRW Hotnews
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Happy Chinese New Year

Image from e-shuushuu, art by A.1 from pixiv (I think)

新年快樂! Happy Chinese New Year to all who celebrate it!

Year 2010 is the year of the Tiger, or rather Taiga from Toradora! as some will have put it that way. While I am not familiar with Zodiacs, Tiger is often associated with power and bravery.

Again this year I am not able to enjoy Chinese New Year with my family back home as I am in the UK, but I do hope everyone else are enjoying their day, and Happy Valentine's Day for those who celebrate it as well (which I don't, but hey it's on the same day as CNY this year which makes today more special than other years - I heard a lot of couples have arranged to have their marriages to occur on this very day for this reason)!

Here's a picture from Ngee Khiong's MG Acguy review done quite some ago to finish things off ^^:


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figma repair 2

Found a similar but interesting method of repairing borken figma joints recently.

The "patient" this time here is Cyranc's figma Cute with broken shoulder joints, which is actually a limited figma that comes with the special pack of the PSP game Queens Blade Spiral Chaos.


Solution:
Kansetsu Waza (関節技) ball joints from Premium Parts Collection. 小櫻 (Sakura) has also told me about this as an alternative to Kotobukiya's M.S.G. series. The ball joint sets come in 5 different colours (dark grey, flesh, light flesh, G grey, and pure white), and cost about 500 Yen each. More information on this as well as other joints available can be found on this page from Yellow Submarine.

Hobby Search currently has the flesh one in stock as of writing this post. The one shown above is the light flesh colour.


The top joint is the broken figma joint, and the one below is the replacement one. Cyranc found it difficult to remove the remainder of the shoulder joint from the figure's torso, so he has done so modification to the replacement joint while keeping the remainder of the broken joint inside the torso.


He drilled a hole through the remainder of the broken joint, and sand one end of the replacement joint so that it's just small enough to fit into the hole.


Glue the replacement joint to the hole, and it's done.


I hope I got all that right.

Again, there will be some work required to do the repair, but again if you put the effort and passion to what you like and succeed, then the end result can be very satisfying and rewarding.

Hope this is useful for those who are looking for ways to repair their broken figmas or other action figures, or just as a rough guide for possible future reference.


Source and images from Cyranc via OurToysLand forum

Again like 小櫻 (Sakura)'s method if you want to share it too please give a link back to Cyranc's blog too.
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Custom 1/144 Victory Gundam mod UPDATED

UPDATED: The secret behind the beam sabre's lighting is revealed (updated at the end of the post)!


One can really make something shine when effort and passion is put into it.

This is the 1/144 scale Victory Gundam 'enhanced' by a ToysDaily forum member tom0083. And yes it is a 1/144 one, not the 1/100 MG (Master Grade) ver. Ka that was released 2 months ago. This is no Master Grade, boy. No Master Grade!



According to what is said on the forum, the modeller has made a few subtle changes to the model in addition the decals for outward appearance. This includes but not limited the usage of double ball joints on the shoulder, increased height on the waist and legs, as well as added articulations.

Since the original height of Victory Gundam is supposed to be around 15.6m, this makes the 1/144 version to be a mere 10.5cm only in height!


Original gunpla box. This one is originally released way back in 1993, and that is more than 15 years ago!


In comparison with Revoltech AR-7 Arbalest and HCM-Pro Sazabi (1/200 scale)


In comparison with straight built V2 Gundam of the same scale. Victory is a bit taller than the V2 here because the modeller has increased its height on the legs (as well as on the waist).




tom0083 has implemented lighting inside ths tiny Victory Gundam: He uses a connector of some sort to complete the circuit, and hides them wires away with the chest part. Very nifty I must say!


To change batteries, he simply removed the backpack to reveal the battery that is installed inside the torso. You can see the wires that are going to the head unit.


Victory Gundam lights up!


It's a bit faint, but you can see the light at the back camera on the head too.


Even in normal lighting you can still see a bit of light coming from the Gundam's head!


If you think that the lighting within the Gundam itself is awesome already, tom0083 throws in this self-lit beam sabre. The beam effect part is removeable. With something so small I really do wonder how the wiring works there since it's independent to the Gundam itself.


Beam sabre ready...


... Activated!


The beam effect part is mixed with 2 different material, hence the difference in colour from one end to the other.


Beam shield activated with lighting too! o_O





o_o;;

My hats off to tom0083 for his passion to rework an old model into this little "masterpiece". Imagine having to install the lighting into the small torso, changing simple joints with the better ones, as well as the repaint and decals. This is no ordinary modding especially for this scale! And since I am a fan of things in 1/144 scale in general, it makes me admire his work more than people who work on, say, 1/100 MG models.

Some of you may wonder by now already: Why did he not just buy a 1/100 MG model instead in the first place? The modeller's answer is quite simple actually - he doesn't like how the waist the the legs being too thick for his taste on the MG version ^^;



UPDATED:
The secret behind the beam sabre's lighting is revealed!



EDITED: The lighting device he used are small LED fishing floats with some kind of pin type battery, possibly CR435 or CR535 :o



Apparently the LED lights he got have no switches - it's just a simple connect-the-circuit kind of thing. Remove the outer casing for the LED lights to reveal just the LED light and the power source, and you can stick it on a beam sabre and add a beam effect part to make your very own self-lit beam sabre! Very interesting there~ ^^


Source from ToysDaily forum
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