ACGHK 2010 Event Exclusive Gunpla

Before I forget - here's a list of limited gunpla available in the ongoing ACGHK 2010 convention this year. Most of them, if not all, appear in previous Gundam events as event exclusive items too.

All prices quoted are in Hong Kong Dollars (HKD).


1/144 HG Gundam Exia R2 Metallic Coating version $120

Image from this previous post


1/144 HG Gundam Exia R2 + O Gundam ACD Clear Colour version $225


1/144 HG Gundam Arios + GN Archer Clear Colour version $160


1/144 HG 00 Raiser (w/o GN Sword III) Clear Colour version $145

Image from Ngee Khiong


1/144 HG Gundam Seravee + Gundam Seraphim Clear Colour version $155

Image from JBTALKS


1/100 00 Raiser (w/o GN Sword III) Clear Colour version $520

Image from Ngee Khiong


1/100 Gundam Exia Roll Out version $250

Image from Ngee Khiong Ex


1/100 MG Impulse Full Colour Plating $280


1/100 MG RX-78-2 Gundam 2.0 Mechanical Smoked Clear version $335

Image from JBTALKS


1/100 MG Destiny Clear Colour version $385


1/100 MG Zaku II 2.0 MS IGLOO 2 version $325


1/100 MG Gouf Custom MS IGLOO 2 version $275


1/100 MG Dom MS IGLOO version $365


SD Zhaoyun Gundam + Hieisen Night Battle version $100


1/60 Injection Machine $50

Image from Ngee Khiong


All other images are from Dalong or from me (first image and the SD Zhaoyun Gundam).


As usual, most limited gunpla are clear colour kits. I am not a fan of gunpla that are completely in clear colour, so that's ok for me. Most gunpla kits sold in the event are quite expensive because they are sold by Toys 'R Us. Therefore unless one is wanting to get those limited gunpla (Exia R2 Metallic Coating ver. seems to be quite popular), I would recommend buying gunpla in local model shops instead ^^;

The event will end on 3rd August (Tuesday).
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SCANDAL Fan Package & Autograph

Got all this in the ongoing ACGHK 2010 convention. All for zenical ^^;

Japanese girl band SCANDAL has an autograph event and did guest performance (a couple of songs) on 31st July. In order to be able to get an autograph from them one must buy a fan package in order to get an allocation ticket for the event.


A blue plastic bag with an orange rope thing to hold all the stuff in. Comes printed with a large SCANDAL logo too.


A light pink t-shirt of SCANDAL. There are other colours as well but what is given to you seem random.


The album that comes with the package is BEST SCANDAL. Not a new album at all though since it was released in 2009 I think.


Oh and lastly but not least - the autograph itself. It is on an A4 poster advertising SCANDAL's concert on 1st August in Kowloon Bay HITEC. I won't be able to go because of time issues (and I only just knew about it when I bought the package), but I know Rin from Koi Aichaku who went with me is definitely going for the concert. Luckily they sell concert tickets there too (250 HKD). No arranged seating there so be there and grab the best seats as early as possible!


Before SCANDAL appears


And afer the girls make their appearance


SCANDAL letting the fans take pictures before the hand shaking begins.

As for the autograph event itself, we queue up and wait for SCANDAL to arrive after giving the staff the allocation tickets we got by buying the fan package earlier that day (420 HKD). When they arrive at the scene they were greeted by a low pitch cheer (as expected ^^;) from the fans. Apparently to save time, the autographs are pre-signed already, so fans basically just get to shake hands with each member of the band and gets an autograph from a staff before he is asked to leave for the next fan's turn. So that means you won't be able to get them to sign on your CDs or albums or other merchandise. Oh well, at least you get to take a lot of photographs while queueing to shake hands, and getting to shake hands with a band one admires is sure something one won't get to do very often :o


SCANDAL members shaking hands with fans. After one shakes hand with the 4th member the next fan is then allowed to come up to shake hands.

Will have to keep them safe and send them to zenical once ACGHK 2010 ends! Coverage will come later this week :o

"I won't wash my hands tonight because of this!"

- Rin, after finally getting his hands on his autograph ^^;;;
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New Yamato Action Figures?

Updated: More pictures and figures posted



It looks like that Yamato is also going with the anime character action figures market, as seen from the very recent WonFes (Wonder Festival) 2010 Summer event which happened over the weekend.



Yoko, price and release date tbc


Rei and Asuka from Evangelion 2.0 Movie, price and release date tbc


Kousaka Tamaki, price and release date tbc


Ignis, price and release date tbc

I guess it's still too early to know much about them. No price, no release dates, and no size known so far. There isn't even a name for the action figure line yet, so it may still be some time before we get official information from Yamato. Another company going into the action figures market, but will it last against the established ones such as Revoltech from Kaiyodo, or even figma from Max Factory? And I wonder how Figutto from Griffons had fared. It appears that their first figure Kousaka Tamaki has only just been released recently (rather than being in Spring), so we *might* get to see reviews on the Internet soon or later.

Source:
ToysDaily Forum (WonFes 2010 Summer coverage from member genesicgaogaiga, worth looking outside girl/bishoujo figures exhibition) and GA Graphic
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ACGHK 2010 Coming Soon

The annual ACGHK convention (Animation-Comics-Games Hong Kong) is coming soon. Also known as Ani-Com, this is one of the big anime-related conventions in Hong Kong (the other one being the Comic World)

Date: 30th July - 3rd August 2010
Time: 10am - 9pm daily ; closes at 8:30pm on 3rd August
Venue: Hall 1, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre
Area: 126000 sq ft


Like last year and the year before, there will be a lot of stuff going on for the event, and it's not just limited to Japanese stuff - there are manga (and manhua), games, and other media from various places including Hong Kong and China. I will only mention a few interesting points below:

Entries for the Hong Kong Dengeki modelling tournament 2010 will be up. Without a doubt I will do a coverage on it like last year.

Microsoft will host a large area for people to play varioous XBOX 360 games.

Autograph signing will be available from many authors and artists. Those from Japan will include Tsushima Naoto (津島直人), Fudanjuku, Teshirogi Shiori (手代木史織, author of Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas), SCANDAL, light novel author Aoi Sekina (葵せきな), and Kalafina.

Brief guest performance on stage (and I do mean brief, no additional concert ticket required) by Fudanjuku, SCANDAL, and Kalafina on 30th, 31st, and 2nd respectively.

Competitions will include cosplays, image girl (don't really know what that's about), online games, and singing.

Doujin stuff will be available


Just like for the past 2 years, I will attend the convention at least once and will do coverage of it. A full post will also be dedicated to the entries of this year's Hong Kong Dengeki modelling tournament. So far Rin from Koi Aichaku and probably Asuka will be coming with me on different days. If anyone else who are interested in going together, leave me a comment or an email!


Website:
http://www.ani-com.hk/front.htm
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HG 1/144 Gundam Exia Repair II Metallic Version

A recent thread on ToysDaily forum shows another special edition of HG 1/144 Gundam Exia gunpla spotted. This one is a HG 1/144 Exia Repair II Metallic Edition. Not much info is known as for its release date, except that it probably has just popped out very recently.



Quite hard to see what kind of coating there is for the white parts from the photos. The thread starter claims the white parts appear more of a pearl coating than anything else, but I hold my doubts about it.

The other coloured parts are definitely holding that "metallic coating" like other limited metallic coating version gunpla, such as the Gundam Exia Metallic Version as seen from Dalong.

However, it's worth noting that the original clear colourless parts for the GN Condensers on the sides of legs, arms, and head are made of clear cyan / light blue parts this time.


It even comes with a leaflet showing Japanese-to-Chinese translations on assembly instructions


Ngee Khiong hasn't mentioned this on his blog yet, so I suspect this will be another one of those overseas outside Japan only gunpla like that MG Wing Zero Custom Pearl Gloss version I've also mentioned some time ago. Some of you may think this may be dodgy, but I doubt it's one of those bootleg gunpla. No pictures of assembled model spotted yet unfortunately. Well, I'm sure Dalong will get his hands on one of these soon or later.

Source:
ToysDaily forum
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Two Years of Daybreak

Tims sure flies. Before I know it, my blog has become two years old already.

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.

I have become busier this year, which has affected my blogging activities: The number of posts have gone down in some of the months, and my time to respond to comments has increased. I am currently in the UK while writing this post (trying to find good Wi-fi in some random town or villages is really, really hard), and time is not exactly on my side at the moment. I will be staying in Hong Kong for the rest of the year (no more going back and forth to the UK after this time), therefore I should have more time to myself in the future.

In this second year of blogging, I have managed to meet more people via blogging and the Internet, some even face-to-face in Hong Kong too, and I am grateful to have met them and had a great time together. On the other hand it also seems that that more people have become inactive or have quitted blogging due to real life issues this year, but that is understandable since things are expected to become more hectic as life goes on (until one retires I guess?).

Sometimes, I do not know how much I can go on blogging due to time constraint etc, but with the number of backlog I know I have left (especially pictures from the recent Japan trip), and recently purchased items to be reviewed or even stuff yet to come (e.g. figma Black Rock Shooter), I know I still have stuff I am happy to share with the readers, and getting people to enjoy what I am sharing and reciprocate with them via comments or emails is one of my greatest pleasures.

Well, at least after this trip to the UK I will be back in Hong Kong for good, so no more long distance, long stay in other countries anymore after this coming Friday, at least not in the near future. I am no tour guide in where I am from, but if anybody who happens to be coming to Hong Kong soon or later, I can recommend you places to go to for hobby-related shops to shop around! :o

Again, thanks for all the support for visiting and commenting on my blog; your support is greatly appreciated and valued!
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Asakusa

Asakusa is one of the districts in Tokyo, famous for the Kaminarimon front gate as well as the Sensou-ji temple that the gate leads to. I've been there back in 2007, but it was raining hard the day we visited so we didn't get to see too much. Luckily we have a much better weather this time we visited Asakusa, so we had a better time looking around.


The Kaminarimon (雷門, i.e. Thunder Gate) is one of the most distinctive piece of architecture in Asakusa.


A kouban (交番) can be seen on the right in front of the Kaminarimon. They are like smaller police station, or sometimes known as "police box", although phone boxes outside Japan are different and resemble more of a phone booth instead.



There are people who offer rickshaw service around Asakusa. They also act as tour guides so they tell you history or other info of various places as they take you around the area. You can decide how long you want to do the guide, so it is quite a flexible service. We also have a guy who can speak pretty decent English (he said he studied in Japanese school when he was in Hong Kong), which is quite uncommon to encounter outside airports and department stores I must say.


According to one of the rickshaw guys, this coffee shop was visited by Ozamu Tezuka


Can't remember exactly what this is, but I think this door leads to Denboin


The two man who did the rickshaw service for us. Gotta thank their hard work for taking us around in such hot weather that day!


Asakusa Imahan restaurant (Orange Street branch). This restaurant specialises on beef bowls and other beef dishes, and is a well known and high class one, as it even appeared on TV shows as well (actually that's how we came to know this restaurant). That being said, the price is not exactly for those who want a budget meal though.

Website can be accessed here: http://asakusaimahan.co.jp/english/index.html


My beef bowl meal at Imahan.


Closer look at beef bowl.


Asakusa Kokaido Hall





Hand prints of various directors and actors can be found in front of Asakusa Kokaido Hall. Kinda reminds me of the Avenue of Stars back in Hong Kong.


And here's a hand print of Kitano Takeshi (aka Beat Takeshi)


The Tokyo Sky Tree, which is currently under construction, can be seen here in Asakusa approximately 1.7km from its location. As a new TV broadcast tower, its current state is already taller than Tokyo Tower.


Nakamise-douri is the street that leads one from Kaminarimon straight to the Sensou-ji temple. There are various shops on both sides of the lane, ranging from shops selling taiyaki, umbrellas, or other souvenirs and food. If it's raining that day, there will be a cover that covers the whole Nakamise-douri so you won't get wet. as you can see here and here.


Houzoumon (宝蔵門) - a second gate to the main temple of Sensou-ji. You see this at the end of the Nakamise-douri, i.e. Nakamise douri is sandwiched between the Kaminorimon to the south and Houzoumon to the north.


Closer look at the Houzoumon, with the gold colour lanterns next to the middle one, and the sign writing "Senjou-ji" in kanji seen at top


The large lantern inside Houzoumon


The main temple (hondo) of Sensou-ji itself was under refurbishment when we were there, but it was just for the outside only. There is a painting over the Sensou-ji to make it still looking attractive enough for people who come to visit it.


Omikuji are sold in one of the buildings near the Sensou-ji - 100 yen each.


Inside the Sensou-ji temple you can throw coins at the offering box and pray for blessing.


Beyond the net you can see there is a Buddhist monk praying there.


This is Asakusa Shrine, a Shinto shrine to the east of Sensou-ji.


A map of area around the Sensou-ji


A purification fountain at Asakusa Shrine.


I didn't read up what this ring is about, but apparently you are supposed to walk around it in a figure-of-8 pattern to give you good luck or something. Correct me if I am wrong.


Niten Mon Gate on the east.


There's an English description on the history


A view of the Houzoumon and the pagoda from the north-east.



The five-storied pagoda of Sensou-ji


Taiyaki being made in one of the taiyaki shops. The man first fills one half of the fish-shaped mold with pancake or waffle batter, then add red bean paste on top of it before adding another layer of batter over it like a sandwich.


He then puts the other half of the mold over, hence completing the mold and cooks them until it is golden brown.


View of Nakamise-douri towards Kaminarimon. It was an incredibly sunny day with very few clouds spotted in the sky.


View of one side of the Nakamise-douri. There are lots of people posing for photographs here and there or even just stopping around to take pictures of the place like me.


A machine that makes the taiyaki all the way from molding down to packaging - all done so automatically. It also serves as an attraction for the tourists who are visiting this shop (myself included).


The lantern in Kaminarimon.


This board at the kouban (police box) shows yesterday's casualties due to traffic accidents. The red number is the number of people killed, whereas the black one is number of people injured. In short, 1 died and 193 were injured as a result of traffic accidents in Tokyo the day before.


One more picture of the Kaminarimon before we left Asakusa.


I am not so familiar with temples and shrines, but if you want to know more about visiting a temple or shrine in Japan, you can check this page out so you will know what to do or not to embarrass yourself in front of the public.

Asakusa is definitely a place worth visiting as a tourist, especially if you are into shrines and temples. The Nakamise-douri that leads to the Sensou-ji has lots of shops and has a lively atmosphere. If you have the money do give the rickshaw service a try, especially if you find someone who can speak English! They know the place and will definitely help you to know and appreciate the place better. Man, they can even recommend you restaurants too after you finish the tour in the morning!
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