Coming soon

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Music Recommendation - "Brightdown" by Nami Tamaki

Was watching this anime D.Gray Man on the local free-to-air channel, and found the opening theme 2 to be a catchy song. The anime is not something to my liking, but still watchable.

Allen Walker is a young Exorcist who has a cursed eye that can see the suffering of the Akumas created by The Millenium Earl. He travels to England to the Headquarters of the Exorcists where his Master has sent him to meet with the other Exorcists. The battle with the Millenium Earl and the Noah Family vs. the Exorcists intensifies when some of the best Exorcists begin to get killed by hoards of Akuma. Japan takes center stage in this end of 19th Century plot in order to not let the entire human race be turned into Akumas and the Exorcists have the power of "Innocence" that was given to them by God on their side.

TV series opening


Music Video

Music Recommendation - 张震岳

I like 张震岳's music, not all, but some. His style to me is in its simplicity, clean and alternate feel, especially his ballards. Here are 2 recommendations that I have recently heard.

思念是一种病 sees some collaboration with Singapore's Tanya Chua, who appears briefly near the end of the video.


就让这首歌 sees a surprise (at least to me) collaboration. Besides teaming up his good friend MC Hotdog, he has Taiwan's TV Host 侯佩岑 belting out a few lines. Surprising because in another collaboration 我爱台妹 with MC Hotdog, the lyrics does not speak good about her.


Anyway, enjoy.

Video - Naruto Shippuuden New Opening/Closing Themes

The Gaara story is coming to a close in the next episode (32), and we are treated to what is coming in the next story arc, involving old familiar faces like Kabuto, Orochimaru, Sasuke and a host of new characters, in the new opening theme Distance by Long Shot Party.


There is also a new closing theme by little by little called Kimi monogatari, "Your Story".


Great animation and music as usual.

Haul of the Day - 26 Aug 2007

This is what I picked up from the TFH 1/6th event. Comes with a pair of dirty socks as well.



Sideshow 1/6th Princess Leia as Boushh from TFH.


Hottoys Modern Firearms Collection series II M4A1 R.I.S w/ M203 from Action City.


shaun is quite an amazing digger. If you need to find a needle in a haystack, he is da man. The above were what he had dug out from the Star Wars shelves at Seiyu. There were also Marine Troopers, but those are quite abundant everywhere.


Art Asylum Marvel Minimates AVENGERS Wonder Man and She-Hulk 2-pack from G&B Comics.


Bandai Jyuuken Sentai Gekiranger GekiBat candy toy from Comics Connection.


Bandai Machine Robo Mugenbine candy toys numbers 6-10 from Comics Connection. This is a re-release of the previous 2 sets, with different colours, and different combination using figures mixed between the previous 2 sets.

The Falcon's Hangar 1/6th Meet

Met shaun and laurens at the event organised by TFH. Had a great time, bought a pair of 1/6th shoes and enjoyed the food provided by the nice folks at TFH. Some cool stuff on display and on sale.

Click on the pictures below for updates on the event.

Live coverage by TFH.

Part 2
Not exactly Part 3

Live coverage by shaun.

Photography - Mint

I am not into photography, but just playing around with a couple of shots. I just converted the original pictures to grey scale. The end result looks better than the original coloured pictures. Also, I think adding a border would make the pictures stand out.

Haul of the Day - 22 Aug 2007

After some persuasion from shaun, and purchases by laurens and william, I decided to join the bandwagon and purchased the new Hottoys TrueType Bronze 12" figure from Playpen. Also snag 2 pieces of jeans while I was there. The Black is from Action City.


Checkout the reviews by shaun and william.

Haul of the Day - 20 Aug 2007

Got a call from the folks at TFH and asked me if I was interested in a set of the Kaiyodo Revoltech EVA Wonder Festival (WF) Summer 2007 exclusives. Without any hesitation (remembering shaun's motto), I said please put me down for one. These guys are great (at making me spend money) ! :P

The only difference between this set and the normal release (No.32, No.33 and No.Extra) is the additional trail clear miniature figure packed together with the exclusives. The coloured version of the miniature figures will be released on 4th September as a store exclusive.

And while I was picking up the set, I noticed they had another WF exclusive, the Transformers Movie Be@rbrick set.

Was not that really interested in it, but Mr Roy gave me an irresitable offer, so I just had to take it.

Review - Star Wars 30th Anniversary JAWA / LIN

I picked up this figure (2-pack) by mistake, thinking that there was a discount, only to discover that the discount only applied between the hours of 3pm-5pm. Damn you fine print !!! Anyway, I did not want a fuss, so I just paid full price.

Packaging

The 30th Anniversary card design is quite nicely done. The labels are place in areas where it is easy to read, and the figure is displayed prominently in the bubble. The card back provides details of the character, as well as a profile. It also displays the other figures in the series. It is not bland, and has a real designer feel to it. The art on the card is also fantasic.

Figure - Jawa

I have no idea if this is a new sculpt or an existing one. But I believe it should be a new sculpt made for the 30th anniversary series.



Finally they cut a Jawa some slack by giving it some articulation treatment. The new Jawa comes with ball-joint neck, ball-hinged shoulders, elbows,swivle hands and waist. Sadly, it does not have any articulations below the waist.
It also comes with a outer coat and a one-piece shoulder strap. At each end of the strap is a holdster for the blaster and the lock device.

Figure - LIN Droid



The LIN droid comes with a cover which is already assembled. I took out the cover to take a look at the details inside. It also comes with 2 antenna, a light and an articulated arm.


Note there are no wheels under the tracks.

Overall
Not a bad deal for with 2 new figures. If you like driods, LIN will be a good addition. Only grip is that it does not have wheels and I would prefered the original blaster that came with the Jawa, instead.


UTINII !!!

Haul of the Day - 17 Aug 2007

Bought this jape (an apparent bathing ape / slurpin's ape clone) polo t-shirt at Carrefour for S$10.90. I like the ape design and the chinese character. Had a hard time choosing between black and dark brown. In the end, my friend said black would be easier to match. It's a tad big, but hopefully it will shrink after coming out of the wash.

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Haul of the Day - 14 Aug 2007

Was checking with the guys at TFH if they managed to get the SDCC exclusive She-Hulk since they got the SDCC exclusive Stan Lee. They told me that they did not have it, but were kind enough to let me know what Simply Toys did bring them in.

On checking their blog, I noticed that they still had some stock, albeit low. And I also noticed that they had another SDCC exclusive, the Mezco Abe Sapien from the Hellboy Comic series. But to my disappointment, it was sold out.

So today during lunch, I hurried down to their branch at Suntec, and instead of finding She-Hulk, I found Abe Sapien. Pure joy. Upon checking with the owner, She-Hulk was also available. Double joy.


This completes (well, almost, because I did not buy the rocket pack Hellboy from series 2) my Hellboy Comic collection.

Abe Sapien is probably the last Hellboy figure from Mezco, as Gentle Giants has taken over the license to produce the Hellboy Animated figures. Some wicked figures I might add.


I bought She-Hulk because from the pictures posted at some forums, she looked pretty nice in the laywer outfit.

Haul of the Week - 12 Aug 2007

This was a tough week, and I mean tough on the wallet, with the arrival of the Transformers Encore series and more Transformers Movie merchandise at TFH.


Takaratomy Transformers Encore series


Takaratomy Transformers Movie Basic Ratchet/Megatron/Blackout, Real Gear Booster X10/High Score 100/Meantime, Voyager Megatron and Deluxe Bumblebee 08/Arcee


Daiblock Convoy


And lastly, some stuff I picked up at OG (20% off) while shopping for my nephew's birthday (today) present: Bandai Ben10 Delxue Kevin 11 (his present), Hasbro Star Wars VOTC IG-88/Bossk and Bandai MachineRobo Mugenbine Razorninja.

Haul of the Day - 07 Aug 2007

Funny that during the Great Singapore Sale, all we got were 20% discount for only a limited period. And only after the GSS, we get great bargins.

From Suntec Carrefour,

• 6" Ghost Rider Movie Fire Blast Ghost Rider
• 6" Ghost Rider Movie Chain Attack Ghost Rider

Lucky I did not get them when it was first released. Now they are 2 for the price of S$10. The 12" Ghost Rider with Bike is also available at S$30, an amazing low low price. And there are tons of these figures in mint condition.

Check out mybearbrick's report here.

From Takashimaya's 11th Crazy Toy Sale,

• Avatar: The Legend of Aang 12" Ultimate Avatar Aang (S$15)
• SOTA Street Fighter 6" Sakura (S$5)
• Avatar: The Legend of Aang 6" Sokka (S$7)

There tons of other PVC statues and action figures from Japanese anime, and some of them are at low prices. Tempted to get a Street Fighter Chun Li statue, going for S$10, as well as some acticulated Mai-Otome action figures at S$30.

Review - Transformers Movie Legends Blackout

The first Transformer that appeared in the movie was Blackout, and boy did it leave an impression on the viewers. But after that initial attack, we do not get to see Blackout until the final street battle, where it whisk in and out, and finally back during the Megatron vs Optimus Prime. It was sadly destroyed by the human with some lame shots.

Today's review is based Hasbro's Legends class Blackout.

Hasbro's Legends series has been around for some time, starting with the Transformers Cybertron series. They are small versions of their counterparts in the other classes, and have very simple transformation. The transformation itself might not be the same as the original sequence, due to the size of the figure.

Packaging

Blackout comes with the standard Legends class packaging, with the card altered to feature the movie prints.

Robot Mode


In robot mode, Blackout has the following articulations:

• ball-joint shoulders
  
• swivle elbow
  
• ball-joint hip
  
• ball-joint knee
  
• rotating main and tail rotor blades

Note that the ball-joints have limited movements due to the design of the figure. Joints are tight.

Transformation



Transformation is fairly simple. The only difficult part is getting the legs, which form the lower half of the helicopter to click in place. It gets stuck at the outer groves, but you just have to force it in.

Vehicle Mode




The helicoptor's main rotor blades are divided into 2 sets (upper and lower) of 3 blades, and they click in place to form the 6 blades and rotates as a unit. This is a good design, and does not leave you with loose blades that spin out of control.

Overall


A nice figure, and nice collection to the other flying vehicles like Evac from Cybertron series.