Daybreak's Bell

Japanese Pranks

2009-11-08T23:59:00.000+08:00

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... ^^;

Blog Featured on AnimeBlips

2009-11-05T23:59:00.002+08:00

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!

What goes with Halloween?

2009-10-31T23:59:00.002+08:00

Image stolen shamelessly from Actar's blog ^^;

It's Halloween again. Hope you all had a nice night! I did nothing special as I simply want a break for the weekend.

In terms of anime, comics, or games (ACG), what goes well with Halloween? I don't know, so let's look into some examples then.

A nice classic to associate Halloween would be Dracula from the long-running Castlevania series, who appears with his magnificent haunted castle every time (pretty much) only to be bashed back to oblivion by a protagonist of each game ^^;

Playing a Castlevania for the night is a fitting idea. If you ask the fans which one to play they will probably recommend you Symphony of the Night.

Perhaps a figure like the one above? This one is GSC's 1/8 Melissa Seraphy. Others such as Chuchu Astram or Pixie Hiyori can go well too (links slightly NSFW).

Maybe even figma Billy Herrigton in his Halloween costume?

Speaking of figmas, you can make your own paper hats and capes for your figmas. This was mentioned one year ago (wow time flies), and you can still find the download link of the cutout from the official figma blog.

How about this brilliant Moka photoshop by Radiant Dreamer? Radiant's photoshop artworks never disappoint me ^^

Original post + making of this picture available here~

Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom also comes to my mind. It sure looks badass in front of the moon~

Well I can't think of more right now, but I'm sure you have more ideas than I do, especially anime/manga as I don't watch/read much in that horror related theme (I know a friend of mine was watching Pet Shop of Horrors recently and he said the original manga was good). Nevertheless I hope you all had a good Halloween night though, whether you've done anything related to Halloween or not!

On the other hand, I think I will be getting busier this November and possibly December too, so I will take longer than usual on replying to comments as well as catching on my blogroll. Should I ever disappear, you'd know that I have been taken by ~~vampires~~ real life / workload... orz

The Complete Guide to Fake Toys

2009-10-29T23:59:00.005+08:00

いんちきおもちゃ大図鑑 (inchiki omocha daizukan), or "The Complete Guide to Fake Toys", features over 300 fake toys from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea. It will be released in November at a price of 1900 Yen (1995 Yen with tax).

Moeyo has a preview of it, so let's sit tight and have a look what will come ahead of us...

First off: the "Happy Drummer Cat Adventurer". Those who are into older anime will probably recognise this to be originated from Doraemon. In fact Moeyo has reported about this particular toy a while ago. I was a bit traumatised when I first saw it opening its face revealing an elephant's face and a trunk coming out on YouTube lol...

This looks like an enlarged version of Be@rbrick of some kind. The characters on the right are actually supposed to be Dorami and Nobita

Doraemon Siamese twins?!

Doraemon ~~crocodile~~ dentist o_O

What do you call Pikachu when it is hybridised with Bomberman? Bomber Pikachu??

Some pseudo-Ranma figures

Pseudo-Dragonball figures with some manly faces and dark hair

Some kind of bishoujo (?) figure with removable armours I think

Thomas the Engine... And... o_o;;;

This one appears to be based off the Travelion from Ozu family. Credits to annonymous on this information!

~~GaoGaiGar~~ Something copied from Ohranger Robo. Credits to Weeabo for pointing it out. I think Snark will have to wage another war on another front upon seeing these things

A mobile phone transformer with part swapping Kamen Rider's face on the phone's body?
According to annonymous the phone is based on the G-Phone from Gaoranger

Ultraman on a bicycle! XD

Be@rbrick X Gundam??

Notice the name "モビルスーシ" (Mobile Sushi), while the actual thing should be "モビルスーツ" (Mobile Suit)! Would you like a Mobile Sushi of Nu Gundam? ^^;

Wooden Gundam models!

Apparently this is based off Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV. According to the captions, the two figures' heads are based of some mobile suits in Gundam o_o

Gundam's head on a Mazinger.

A transformable Kung Fu panda. It even saids "Kung Fu" on the torso too!

Something that resembles Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV's head and arms.

This appears to be Golion's head and crest hybridised with Galaxy Shuttle's body.

My brain is malfunctioning; I have lost the will to find out what they are already. You're welcome to help me on this though. Thanks to Weeabo again for pointing two of them out for me there!

Korean's well known Robot Taekwon V, which originally is copied from Mazinger Z. Korea was actually way ahead of China for making their own versions of Japanese anime. I may talk about this on another day.

And last but definitely not least,

A basketball transformer, revealing Yao Ming as the head of the robot inside. Now talk about creativity...

I will need to take a break from these crazy counterfeits and fake toys after posting this ^^;

All images are from Moeyo

Drawing Strike Gundam in MS Execl

2009-10-25T23:59:00.002+08:00

"You thought you saw everything... Think again"

Most of us would have come across some amazing drawings made from various graphic editors, or even MS Paint. But have you seen something drawn with MS Excel before?

Made by Shukei, this Excel drawing features Aile Strike Gundam from the anime series Gundam SEED (and Gundam SEED Destiny). The drawing is purely made up with autoshapes to do the job. It appears that the artist has used Excel over MS Word or Powerpoint for the unrestricted drawing space as well as having the grids as guidelines.

"This is the first drawing on Youtube done with Microsoft Excel exclusively (Autoshape can be used to do lineart, colors, shadows, lighting effects and layers, like some drawing softwares). Just for fun.

Real length: 12 hours 56 minutes"

12 hours 56 minutes!! o_O

Actual video below, if it doesn't work click on the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YG_WWZYqUs

The finished picture. Too bad I cannot find the original version in the artist's deviantART page. But it's still breathtaking nonetheless!

Gundam OYW Gallery 2

2009-10-19T11:34:00.000+08:00

It's been 5 months since my first Gundam gallery post. Continuing on the One Year War of the Universal Century, this time I'll focus purely on Zeon and all its mighty glory. Sieg Zeon! Sieg Zeon! Sieg Zeon!!!

Anyway, click on the images to view them in full size~

Note: All images belong to their respectful artists.

And last but not least, another classic scene:

"This is no Zaku, boy! No Zaku!"

Hope you enjoy the Zeon gallery this time!

Previous Gallery:

Gundam OYW Gallery

Gundam OYW Gallery 2

New action figure series: Figutto

2009-10-14T02:51:00.006+08:00

It appears that Griffon Enterprises is making a new action figure series caled Figutto (フィぎゅっと)

Up to 21 titles are already under planning for Figutto. Some of them include Ikki Tousen, Queen's Blade, ToHeart2, Zero no Tsukaima, Sekirei, Shining Wind, and The King of Fighters (KOF).

Wow didn't know KOF will be in it too!

Figutto joints shown for shoulder, knee, pelvis, and knee.

A complete and coloured Kousaka Tamaki from ToHeart2 is in display, which will very likely be Figutto's debut figure. She will be released in Feburary 2010. Price TBA

Tamaki from several angles. She will come with two faces, 4 pairs of hands, and a float ring.

Kuzugawa Sasara maid version in sample display

More girls are under planning and have design drawings out already. Here are ToHeart2 girls in school uniforms, namely Yuzuhara Konomi, Kousaka Tamaki, and Kusugawa Sasara

Ikki Tousen's Kanu Uncho Nekomimi version

Reina and Airi's design drawings. Will they be better than the Revoltech ones?

In addition, Figutto site has shown a new Touhou Project line to be available in Spring 2010, here showing Reimu Hakurei (I think). She will be up for preorder soon apparently.

How interesting. Another new action figure line to consider. While it's non-scale just like figma and Revoltech, I cannot determine the exact size, but it appears that the Figutto figures may be a bit bigger than the other lines. I may be wrong though. We shall see when more info are out in the near future~ So, anyone interested so far?

Official website:
http://www.figutto.com/

Images from Moeyo via ToysDaily forum

Bandai Figurerise 1/8 Son Goku preview

2009-10-08T23:59:00.001+08:00

Ever thought of building a figure as a model kit?

Meet Son Goku, the well known protagonist of the well known manga and anime series Dragonball Z - in plastic model kit! XD

How can Bandai ever think of such idea in the first place? Beats me. ^^;

Annouced in the beginning of this month, Bandai is planning to release Son Goku in 1/8 scale as a Master Grade model. What's rather shocking though, is that the Master Grade (aka MG) is usually known as a very high standard model line for the Gundam franchise (and to a lesser extend Patlabor and the Dunbine) - the "symbol" of what gunpla are about to many Gundam fans.

Kamehameha!!!!

Which means that the decision of having Master Grade model for an individual character is something rather unheard of. Bandai has therefore put it under a sub-branch called Figurerise. Instead of those mechanical looks and details, we now have flesh and muscles.

MG Gouf ver2.0, showing its normal apperance as well as its inner frame
Images from Dalong

In additon to the articulations and mechanical details, MG gunpla models are well known for having a workable moving inner frame, which is like the skeleton of the mechs. So... Will Son Goku have movable skeleton frame too?

Image from AmiAmi blog

Judging from the runners seen in the display case from the 49th All Japan Plamodel Radicon Show, I can't see any "skeleton"-related parts, so I think I can safely assume that this won't happen (I guess).

Kamehameha!!!!!!!
Image from Akibahobby

Despite the unusual idea, this Goku does seem to have a lot of joints inside, making it rather articulate (well hopefully it should be). Optional face expressions and hands will be provided too.

Speaking of Dragonball, anybody been watching the "remake" Dragonball Z Kai? It's not exactly a remake, but apparently more like a director's cut that cut down length fights as well as other parts that dragged the story down a bit, making it much more watchable in this shorter version. I haven't watched it, but I've heard those who are fans of them enjoyed this version better.

Goku will be released in December at a price of 3675 Yen. So... Anybody interested at building your own Goku figure? A wild idea, but I have to pass on this one as I am not into Dragonball ^^;

Official images from Happinet Online

Info from Ngee Khiong

Random bits in Tokyo

2009-10-04T22:31:00.001+08:00

Not the best title for last post on my Tokyo trip I have to admit... ^^;

Final post on my Tokyo Trip this year. There is no specific focus on this post, just some bits and bobs that I haven't mentioned in other posts (many of them are actually for the last two days of the trip). Just thought I would bring them together for the finale.

Shiodome (汐留) - a really modern and developed district in Tokyo with a lot of offices. We were only passing through here so we could board the Yurikamome to visit the Gundam in Odaiba.

At the base of the Nippon Television Tower we have encountered this strange looking clock. Looks a lot like those in Hayao Miyazaki's works (e.g. Howl's Moving Castle), right? Well, it turns out that this clock is indeed his design afterall!

The clock "performs" with music at the times shown above. According to the sign the 1000 one only happens on Sundays and Thursdays.

Standing beneath the giant fantasy clock - we didn't know about this clock before coming to Shiodome. Didn't get to see a performance, but it's definitely worth checking it out if you have the time!

Here's a YouTube video I've found recorded at 1800:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-E1oqrPNTo

Remember in Tokyo, you stand on the left and walk on the right for escalators, which is opposite to other places I've been. Are they the same for your place too?

There are drink machines offered in some train platforms, and once you've finished your drink (or the train has arrived and you need to discard it), you can dispose it in one of these machines and get some cash back. If I recall correctly I think it's about 10 Yen per cup.

St Mary's Cathedral. I am not religous, but the boyfriend of my sister's friend, who joined us the day prior to Tsukiji and the Gundam, requested to see this for his architecture research. It is located in Mejiro area.

He is a Japanese overseas student studying Architecture in mainland China, and despite my previous post on English education in Japan, his English is actually fairly good - I could chat with him in simple English!

Can't remember what this is, but I think it is the bell tower.

No matter how you look at it, it sure is an unusual looking building.

Sometimes I really am impressed at how people park their vehicles in such narrow spaces o_o

Bicycles are a common form of transport in Japan. They do make good use of space by having them parked above ground as well :o

Soba noodles made with 100% buckwheat. Normal soba noodles are usually made of a mixture of buckwheat and flour. These 100% buckwheat ones are a bit more expensive, and we had these on the top floors of Takashimaya deparment store, Shinjuku.

Mobile ramen stalls do exist, but they only seem to come out at night.

Each district seems to have its own no smoking (or "do not drop cigarette butts") sign on the ground. This one is a bit more ordinary. Others, such as the one seen in Musashino, are a bit more interesting.

The small shrine on the roof of Takashimaya department store. T'is the same photo at the beginning of the post.

The roof of Takashimaya department store has many plants and seats, giving it a very calm environment for families and children to chill around for the weekends.

Some rhetoric signs in Japanese and English spotted in trains as a message for people to maintain good manner in the public.

Dorayakit (銅鑼焼き) - just as meronpan is Shana's favourite snack, the dorayaki is Doraemon's counterpart.

A glimpse at the train operators from the door window, when the train is about to arrive on a station.

That ends my coverage on my one week Tokyo Trip way back in June. It has been a fun trip to go, and I'm sure I will make another visit someday; there simply is too much stuff to explore even within Tokyo itself! Places such as Akihabara and Tsukiji are repeated visits, but I never got bored of returning to those places. I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts on it, and to finish it off I have included the summary list of my coverage below:

Chilling in Yokohama

Yokohama and Ramen Museum

Whole Day in Ikebukuro

Akihabara 2009 Day Trip

Random bits in Tokyo

Learning English in Japan

2009-09-30T23:59:00.000+08:00

Last post before I head back to the UK T_T

Anyway found this English test from a blog of my sister's friend, you can try it out yourself:

Click to view picture in full size

This is the kind of English expected for Junior High School standards ^^;

Image from A Japanese Book

So when do the Japanese start learning ABC alphabets?

According to my sister's friend, a Hongkonger who teaches English as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Japan, one starts learning ABC in Year 4 of Elementary School. Besides, the purpose of learning English alphabets is primarily for romanji, and not necessarily for English. English is not a compulsory subject, which means that it may or may not be available in some elemenatary schools. This is apparently due to the fact that the schools want to keep English easy enough for children to appreciate them as an interest, rather than a proper and serious subject.

But by secondary school (i.e. junior high, high schools), students are required to learn tons of English words, which sounds like quite a grind to me. This is probably why a lot of Japanese are afraid of English and cannot bring them to use effectively. Being afraid of English language is not a rare sight in Hong Kong too, and sometimes when I post stuff in English on a forum some people simply have their minds shut down. This is probably the reason why I see so many advertisments on English language courses here and there lately.

Starting from 2011 all elementary schools will have compulsory English lessons. Apparently students will have at least 35 hours of lesson time per year, which means... About 1 lesson per week. Man, we had a lot more English lessons per week in Hong Kong, yet we still have a huge spectrum on the performance. So how effective will this be exactly? To be honest I don't have a clue :\

So have you met foreigners who are shy of English? If you have been to Japan, what is your experience on Japanese people's English?

F-Toys 1/144 Hien

2009-09-28T23:59:00.000+08:00

Something different for a change :o

This is F-Toys 1/144 scale Wing Kit Collection shokugan. The one I've got for myself is a Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien (飛燕, i.e. flying swallow), which is the top plane that my figma Haruhi is pointing at.

I have mentioned about shokugan toys before (What is a shokugan?), of which some come pre-assembled, and some not. Planes are usually the latter, but they are pretty simple to build. I rarely buy Japanese warplanes as I do not recognise a lot of them, but here I've bought a Hien as it is one of the few I know and that it has large resemblence to German or Italian designs - in fact it was the only mass produced Japanese fighter aircraft that has inline V engine.

Anyway, let's have a look how this one looks like in 1/144 scale~

Opening the box there's the kit as well as small instruction manual. As you can see, even if they come unassembled, shokugan toys are prepainted already, which saves you the trouble of painting if you are not so skilled at it (like me orz).

The whole kit unpacked

Removing the parts from the runners - some of them, like this green one here, are incredibly tiny, and care must be taken not to have them rolled/blown off and lost. I've had parts dropped and bounced off my desk on previous kits before, which took me a while to find them on the floor T_T

The instructions itself - pretty self explanatory and simple. There are options for you to choose between flying or landed configurations. I choose the first as it has less parts and easier to assemble.

Assembling the model is pretty straightforward as seen on the manual in the previous picture. Gotta be careful putting those small pieces in though. That piece on the tweezers (it's a tail wheel btw) is probably only 3mm long ^^;

The completed model in flying configuration without the decals. The plane itself is very well painted already, so you can just have it like so just fine.

Decals are water transfers so simply wet the decal sheet and transfer each decal to the model with a pair of tweezers. Dab off excessive water with something like tissue or cotton bud and leave them to dry off.

Completed model with the base itself.

Underside of the plane.

A quick comparison with the German Heinkel He-100 on the left, of which the Hien's design seems to be heavily based on, although people often compared Hien to the much more popular German Messerschimtt Bf 109.

As an emphasis on how small the plane it is, here's Haruhi holding it. It's like a massive model plane for her! ^^;

Shokugan toys sure are small, but the unassembled parts are even smaller! While they are fairly popular in the Far East such as in Japan and Hong Kong, they are often overlooked outside Asia due to the small size, lesser details, and expensive shipping, which make them seem less valuable. However, their small size and cheap price make them more favourable to me, as I can collect more of these rather than owning just a few larger ones. Besides, I am a fan of 1/144 miniatures, be it Gunpla or military models, and as technology advances in plastic models, even smaller miniature models like these are getting improved too.

P.S. Despite the fact that I am a fan of WWII stuff, especially tanks, I've decided to keep it in low profile here because I don't find it mix well with the other stuff I usually blog about. However, mentioning some now and then without going over those boring facts or technical stuff probably wouldn't hurt. Hope you do find this article on shokugan model planes interesting though!

Revoltech Reycal Orichalcum

2009-09-24T23:59:00.002+08:00

A review due over a month orz. I've mentioned before that I would review Kaiyodo Revoltech's Reycal Orichalcum after 1/100 Gundam Exia Roll Out Colour, and here it is (finally).

I've got it very shortly after its release, and have been playing with the figure itself for some time, but didn't do much to the mecha-looking Knight Eagle until I started doing the review. On the other hand, reviews for it are surprisingly scarce. I've found one English so far. This makes reviewing Reycal a bit harder as I have don't have much guidance about it, until I started looking for some reviews from random Japanese blogs. Anyway let's take a look at this not so well known figure from Revoltech then.

Released on 13th August (2 days earlier than its announced date), Reycal Orichalcum of Revoltech Yamaguchi line costs 2400 Yen for retail price. She is the protagonist from the manga series "Orichalcum Reycal", whose author does the "JINKI" manga series. She doesn't come with much parts as her partner Knight Eagle takes up the majority of it. She does have 2 extra pair of hands, 2 extra faces, a stand, as well as parts for combining Reycal with Knight Eagle to form Knight Reycal.

Other than that she has tiny feet, Reycal can still stand pretty well by herself.

As with other Revoltech figures, most of her joints use Revoltech joints. I've seen a picture where Reycal can raise her leg up even higher, but I can't haven't tried to do that with mine.

The neck actually has two joints, so Reycal can look up and down to a large degree, even more than that for figmas. I do have a small rant with the upper legs though. As the they do not use ball joints at all, the legs can either go forwards and backwards or sideways, depending on how you have positioned the Revoltech joint in the thigh. I had to remove and replaced the joint whenever I want to change the direction where the upper leg wants to bend. Thankfully each joint are easily removable (a feature of Revoltech), or else it'd be a nightmare to do so.

Hair has joints. Still find it kinda strange especially when viewed from behind, but they do add some dynamic touch to the figure when doing action poses.

The two extra faces are an angry face and an embarassed face. Great for having different kinds of poses showing different expressions.

Various action poses. It's great how figma stands are compatible with her, just like Airi's case too ^^

The original stand. The base has two pegs, and Reycal can stand on either or both of them as she has a hole just in front of her heels. The base's arm uses one of them too.

Just like Airi's stand it's a bit too short to do mid-air poses, and the Revoltech joints are not strong enough to hold Reycal up in midair anyway.

However, it can hold up the Knight Eagle just fine, seen her with Reycal standing next to it.

The Knight Eagle is a mecha eagle, which is supposed to be a support for Reycal. It was built primarily to combine with Reycal for a more powerful but temporary form - Knight Reycal.

Due to the seemingly complicated nature of Knight Reycal's tranformation, an instruction sheet is provided on doing the combination.

To start the combination, first the Knight Eagle has to be dissembled, almost entirely.

There are extra parts which are required to use for Knight Reycal, this includes a different hair piece, to elbows, two knee armours, and a spear handle.

Knight Reycal after combination. The claws of the eagle have become gauntlets, and the main body has become the body armour.

Leftover parts that are not used in Knight Reycal.

In order to hold the spear, there's a peg on the handle for a hole on either a left or a right holding hand. Here only the right hand is shown, but the left hand is mirrored and identical.

A side note - exchanging hands is a very easy and painless process. A long but simple peg to insert into the hole in the arm.

Various action poses in Knight Reycal form. Posability is slightly hindered on the hair and arms due to Eagle Knight's armour.

Again, the backpack of the armour fits well with the figma stand.

Size comparison with figma Haruhi - like Airi, Reycal appears a little shorter, but I'd say that she's about the same height as figma Shana. Btw Reycal is actually quite tiny in the manga - I'd say that she's about that size if she were to be in real life too.

A very overlooked action figure from the Revoltech Yamaguchi series, but the Yamaguchi series isn't known for bishoujo figurines in the first place (Fräulein too was under Revoltech but was a different line), and Orichalcum Reycal isn't a particularly well known manga series either. In terms of retail price Reycal costs only 100 yen cheaper than normal figmas, but the local shops tend to sell it much cheaper as it's not one of the hot mainstream stuff out there so far.

Compared to figmas, the paint job on Reycal isn't brill; there are some excess paints spotted here and there, and painting isn't always spot on on some edges. For some odd reasons the Revoltech joint on the left leg is slightly damaged in the first place (but it doesn't seem to cause troubles with articulations at all so far), and I've opened the box at least a week after I bought it, so I doubt I could bring it back to the shop and change for a new one anymore.

Despite the setbacks, I actually find Reycal Orichalcum quite fun to play with, as she actually has fairly good posability thanks to the Revoltech joints and um... Lack of excessive clothings (laughs). The Knight Eagle is okay by itself. Combining it with Reycal at first looks complicated, but it's not too hard to do, though there are quite a few parts to remove and reattach and there are a few leftover parts for Knight Reycal, or even keeping the two seperated.

Overall, Kaiyodo Revoltech's Reycal Orichalcum is not a bad start for the Yamaguchi line to go back on female action figurines. Sure, its overall quality, especially the paint job, could be improved, but there's a good level of playability with durable articulated joints. It's not a bad figurine at all, but you can't compared it too much to Max Factory's figma line. If you can get it lower than the retail price of 2400 yen, then you can give this one a try. Both Hobby Search and HLJ has her in stock.

Reviews from English blogs:

Synergetic Beans

Reviews from Japanese sites:

水芥

YOの玩具箱

Phew this has been one long review to make @_@ Hope this will give you some insights on this not-so-well-known figure.

Anime I've watched in Japan

2009-09-19T23:59:00.003+08:00

Back in the Tokyo trip last June, I did spend some of the nights watching anime on the hotel TV. Since all of them were in analog the quality wasn't stellar, which explains the quality of my photos. Other than Wolf & Spice that I've mentioned on my Nakano & Akihabaro post, the anime I've watched and mentioned here were on Thursday (18th) and Friday (19th) night (or rather Friday and Saturday morning).

So let's have a look at what random anime I've managed to flick onto my TV on those two nights ^^;

On Thursday night: Hakushaku to Yousei (伯爵と妖精), literally "Earl and Fairy", with a very feminine style of artwork - it's not surprising that this series is supposedly aimed for the girls. Apparently it's originally a light novel series, which is still ongoing.

Some anime series featuring battleships in CG - had no idea what this is nor did I manage to capture the title. Anyone who know what this is?

Final episode of Higashi no Eden (東のエデン), or Eden of the East. I heard it's really good, but I have no idea about it. All I know is that there are 2 movies coming sometime later for a more wrapped up conclusion.

Haruhi new (?) season. This is the first episode of the notorious Endless Eight arc actually, and most of us who have watched it at that time would probably have enjoyed it without knowing what was truly ahead of us.

Chrome Shelled Regios (鋼殻のレギオス) - I had no idea what the series was about, execpt there were monsters, which were fairly big.

Pandoras Heart, airing at the same time as Chrome Shelled Regios. No idea what it was about either.

Final episode of K-On! excluding the extra episode. Haven't got drawn into the hype at all, but at least the plot (if any) was easy to understand.

After K-On!, I had enough for the night. With Tsukiji fish market, Gundam in Odaiba, and Tokyo Tower all happened on the very same day before this, it was more than a tiring yet fruitful day for me.

Friday night: Tayutama: Kiss on my Deity, which is on its final episode too apparenrtly. The whole episode seemed rather confusing, but that could very well be the fact that I knew hardly anything about it in the first place.

Hayate no Gotoku!! (the two exclamation marks are there to show it's the second season by JC Staff, not my enthusiasm towards it as I haven't even started on the first season yet) featuring Hinagiku and Nagi - two of the most popular girls in the series so far

I admit that I know hardly anything about the series other than that it's supposed to be focused fairly heavily on parodies (especially true for the first season), but I find Hinagiku dressing similar to Lacus Clyne or Meer Campbell (from the Gundam SEED / Destiny series) singing A Cruel Angel's Thesis rather amusing ^^;

A guy falling for crossdressing maid Hayate is rather... o_O

Hayate x Hinagiku - is this what the majority of the fans wanted?

Basquash! was another series that I didn't pay much attention to, mainly due to the fact that I wasn't so into sports related media, and I was feeling a little drowsy after watching so much anime on TV -_- zzz...

I've always wondered why a lot of anime tend to air late at night, usually around midnight to 2-3am (other popular hours were the early mornings or late afternoons e.g. 8am or 5pm), and they usually come one after another like a chain. Was hoping that I would have the stamina to watch more but I was too tired to do so - might as well save up more energy for daytime anyway, but it was interesting to experience watching the anime series that we tend to watch subbed on air.

Tokyo Tower

2009-09-15T21:47:00.001+08:00

Despite having been to Tokyo several times already, I haven't gone up the Tokyo Tower until this year. So let's have a look at this symbolic tower that represents Tokyo.

We got off from the Akabanebashi station by taking the Toei Oedo Line, and from there we can already see the Tokyo Tower (the first picture) from the exit.

The tower starts to light up as we were approaching it in the Shiba Park (芝公園, Shibakouen). I think this happens around 7pm.

Lots of black cars near the Zojoji Temple at the edge of the Shiba Park.

View of the Tokyo Tower with orange lighting from the ground. Apparently the light changes depending on the season or to a specific event.

Bottom of the Tokyo Tower. Unlike the Eiffel Tower in Paris where there's an open space in the middle we have a building with restaurants and shops there.

A 'floor plan' to show what shops and restaurants are available on the first four floors. The admission fee can also be seen on the right.

Hello Kitty (ita)bus spotted!

A good tip for those planning to go to Tokyo Tower:
Go there on your birthday and you'll be free of admission fee as well as a coupon to have a small birthday cake! That's the case with my sister, and she was one happy girl on that night.

Taking pictures of the city at night on the Main Observatory. As one can see it's getting darker as I took those 4 pictures.

There's another observatory floor much higher up, but one will have to pay a bit more to get up there.

A closer look of the really bright road seen from the previous picture

On each side of the observation floor there's a computer to show you what buildings can be seen from that direction as well as the scene viewed from morning to night.

Touch a building with label and it will show you its height, height comparison with the Tokyo Tower, as well as distance.

More night scenes

There's a small window on the ground for you to look down the Tower. Couldn't take a good shot of the view though due to the intensive lighting

And even more night scenes. This is my first time trying to take night scenes with my compact digital camera.

Tokyo Tower shaped water bottles. I've bought one for myself too~ ^^;

Model scenary of Tokyo in the 50s I think, which is to show how the area around the Tokyo Tower before it was built.

I am a fan of miniatures, and am always fascinated by the details that look as if the atmosphere would be alive.

Apparently baseboard board game comes out roughly the same time as the completion of Tokyo Tower, therefore there's a small display of baseball board games to show how much it is evolved throughout these 50 years.

For dinner we had ramen again. This time with these vending machines (no ramen don't come out straight from the machine ^^;). What happens is that you order what ramen you want with them, and you get an order ticket. The staff will cook them and call the number when it's done. Many fastfood style restaurants in Japan have this system too.

Various ramen for dinner

A light projecting text of Tokyo Tower near the entrance as we left the Tower.

One of the most important tourist attraction, Tokyo Tower is quite a sight to see for oneself. The Main Observatory floor gives a good 360 view of Tokyo, and there's a number of restaurants and facilities on the first 4 floors too, which I haven't mentioned above (there's an aquarium too I think). Oh remember, you get free admission if you go on your birthday~ ^^

Tommy of The Inferno Project also has a nice coverage of his visit to Tokyo Tower too!

For those who want to go to have a good view of Tokyo without having to pay admission fee, the observatory floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku is a good alternative place to go to too.

1/100 Gundam Exia Roll Out Colour

2009-09-11T23:59:00.003+08:00

Gundam Exia, ready to roll out!

Note: This review is on a sugumi (simply assembled) with some simple touchups.

The 1/100 Gundam Exia Roll Out Colour is a limited version of the normal Gundam Exia model, which has a grey and white colour scheme rather than the typical protagonist Gundam colours (i.e. blue + red + yellow + white).

There are some personal frustrations with this model (not the quality but its distribution). As it's an event limited model one cannot see it in shops usually, and I got this in a shop in Japan that focuses on resold limited goods and costs me a lot. Only to find out that the ACGHK2009 convention was selling them at regular prices a month later -_-

Image from Random Curiosity

First appeared as a 1/144 scale limited yet simple First Grade kit with preorder for the Gundam 00 NDS game as well as an alternative colour scheme as a hidden unlockable feature in the game, Exia does appear in this colour scheme very briefly in the anime as a flashback (last episode of the first season, to be precise).

Ah sugar even with my lowly digital camera the macro shot picks up the dust I don't normally see -_- But I like those little stickers and the colourless "lens" things.

The engine and power source of Exia - the GN Drive. It creates and emits GN particles, which are used for flying, weapons, and even cloaking (self concealment from enemy's sight).

The green part is supposed to be a ring sticker but I've decided to paint it green with my Gundam marker pen to make it look like that the drive is active. Same being done to the centre of the torso.

Exia's equipment excluding the 4 beam sabres/daggers on the Gundam itself. All close combat oriented.

Exia equipped with the GN Sword as well as the GN Shield.

Exia flying. Yes, for those who haven't watch the series, that's how it flies. No need for wings or stabilisers etc and it will just fly by emitting those particles from the drive.

Shooting with Exia's only primary range weapon; its GN Rifle, or rather I'd call it GN Pew Pew Gun. Not only does it sound like one, the pilot Setsuna rarely hits anything with it anyway ^^;

Action pose with its signature GN Sword. The blade itself was just one single piece of plastic in dark grey, so I tried 'blinging' up the edge. Looks pretty nice to me now~ ^^

Will mention what I've used for blinging near the end.

The "I will chop ya" pose

Exia has beam sabres at the back of each shoulder. Found its placement a little odd when I first watched the series but well at least it can still grab one out when needed.

Posing with the beam sabres.

It also has two GN Daggers stored at the back, which look exactly the same as the beam sabres. My guess is that they're pretty much the same thing except they can behave differently depending on the length of the desired beam?

House of flying GN Daggers

Exia has slots in its arms so it can attach weapons securely in addition to just holding them in the hands. Here, this beam rifle from my Gundam Astraea (which was reviewed sometime last year) is compatible with Exia, and I'm sure that there are more weapons from other Gundams in the series that are compatible with Exia too.

The last two weapons - GN Long Sword and GN Short Sword. Other than the different lengths the two swords are pretty much identical.

Exia is not supposed to have these two swords here as they were still being developed at the time of its rollout. It received them sometime in the series and it was pretty early on too.

The swords can be stored on each side of the hip, but the parts for storing them is unbelievably loose, and I'm just lucky that this one is holding just long enough for me to take this picture. Well it makes sense for leaving them out as they're still under development when it's rolled out ^^;

Gundam Astraea and Exia standing side by side. With Astraea being Exia's prototype, one can see some similarities between the two, like the legs, arms, and the torso.

The back view look less similar, but it's good to see the differences and similarities between the two.

As for what I've used to bling up the GN Sword (as well as the hasty works on the other swords), I've used a cheap nail varnish bought from a cosmetic chain store to do the job (with the help from my sister). Didn't have any masking tape to mask off unwanted areas, so clear sticky tapes did the work just find with a bit of care on cutting it out with a small pocket knife. That's how much I don't bother spending on proper art equipments as a casual person ^^;

While grey may seem like a dull colour, ironically I find it a refreshing change to the typical blue and red colours, and it makes the Gundam *seem* more realistic. Personally I like this colour scheme more, and that's why I've bought one despite the unecessary cost. For those who prefer Master Grade models, there's one coming out sometime in the future, which will be a Bandai Hobby Shop limited item - release date & price TBA.

Youtube vlogger Prime92 has made a review of this Exia too (she's a big fan of Exia, just like Ngee Khiong ^^):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62MxzbHRiCY

On a final note, there are two different box arts for this particular limited model. One is just plain text saying it's an event limited, while the other is a monochrome version of the normal box art. The latter seems a bit more common and was seen available even in online shops before. Not sure about it now though. Despite that it's still worth getting if you like this sort of colour (well that's why I got myself a MG G-3 OYW version as well, which as similar colour scheme)!

Gundam in Odaiba

2009-09-07T18:44:00.001+08:00

A bit ironically late to post this now as the Gundam should be getting / already dismantled by now, but here it is, the Gundam that has once stood proudly in Odaiba.

After a lunch in Tsukiji Fish Market, we took a few trains and finally arrived at Odaiba by Yurikamome, a monorail lookalike fully automated transit system.

Upon arrival, we can see the Gundam from the station already~ ^^

Getting off the station

Fuji TV Station

Hotel Nikko Tokyo

Getting closer and closer to the Rainbow Bridge

La Statue de la Liberte, one of the various replica of the Statue of Liberty all over the world.

A map of Shiokaze park. The Gundam should be in that circular space called The Sun Space

The moment we enter The Sun Square in Shiokaze Park - the 30 years old legend is here!

Even though it's half a month before its official display period, there were still a sizeable crowd standing before the Gundam.

Left and right hand

This is Gundam!

Slightly closer up: that's as far as my camera can zoom as it's not one of those fancy DSLR cameras.

Let's go on a Gundam 360 Tour:

It's like doing a photoshoot with a humongous figure XD

Details on the backpack

Gundam overlooking the buildings.

Something that would normally only appear on TV screens has finally come to life!

All sorts of people, men and women, taking pictures or just appreciating the sight of the life size Gundam in front of them.

Messing around with exposures.

More messing around with the shots, beginner style.

Last picture before going. To be honest I kinda miss it already by the time I start leaving.

It's been 30 years, and the Gundam franchise has grown so much thanks to the original Gundam, aka RX-78-2. Aired in 1979, where the super robots took the dominance for the mecha-related genre, Gundam took on some of the more realistic themes and ideas and put it in the show. It is said that this is where the "real robot" genre starts to boom, where it is one of the dominant genres right now.

Despite the fact that Gundam a common subject for otakus to associate with, it also means a lot to ordinary people, young and old, men and women, within Japan or outside Japan. It has appeared on TVs and other medias as well as in models (aka gunpla) throughout these 30 years, and after all these times it's still as popular as ever, with the franchise growing with more and more series (such as the recent Gumdam 00 and the upcoming Gundam UC which is getting animated next year). It definitely has become a symbol in the Japanese culture, not only for otakus but for the general population.

Even if you're not into Gundams or mechs in general, let's appreciate how a 18m tall mech has once become materialised, standing proudly in front of various fans and non-fans in Odaiba.

Haven't got the info for where the Gundam will end up after its display period in Odaiba, but someone such as Ngee Khiong may get us informed once the news come.

Gallery:

Gundam in Odaiba

Away Briefly

2009-08-31T22:40:00.005+08:00

Image from Random Curiosity

I will be away from Hong Kong briefly for the first week of September. As I will be fairly occupied I would probably keep my net activity down for a while, and will be back on 7th September.

Have been a little weary recently, and this trip I'm on isn't for recreational purpose unfortunately. Hope I'll get to refresh myself after this, and go back and enjoy building gunpla, watching anime, as well as going through the blogs again!

August Purchase & Backlog

2009-08-30T23:59:00.002+08:00

Have been a little tired recently so I'll make this short.

First off 1/100 MG Exia Ignition Mode and 1/144 HG Trans-Am Raiser. Found both at relatively good prices so I thought it's a deal and bought them (at seperate occaisions).

I've noticed that I haven't talked much about my own gunpla. In fact I have been building some this month, namely 3 1/144 HGUC GM Commands and the limited 1/100 Exia Roll Out Colour. I feel like doing a random post about them in general one day.

My 1/100 Exia Roll Out Colour version is near its completion - just getting its signature GN Blade 'blinged' up like those in MG Exia Ignition Mode. I lack paints and masking tapes so I'm just using normal cellotapes and my sister's nail varnish to help me get the job done. Compromisation ftw lol -_-;;

Will probably make a review of it in mid-September, as I will be away for a short while.

You may have already noticed that there's someone sitting on top of Trans-Am Raiser's box. It's Revoltech Reycal Orichalcum that I've mentioned last month. Doesn't shine as much as figmas, but it's ok. Will make a review of her after Exia Roll Out Colour.

Now off to the backlogs. For gunpla it's not too much, but I need to think about what to do on next, as I haven't made an MG for myself before. After completing the Exia Roll Out Colour I may go for another limited grey Gundam - the MG G-3 OYW version.

I'm starting to fall behind on anime too; Haruhi 2nd season (?) and Toradora! got stalled while I am still keeping in touch with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (I haven't read the manga) and Valkyria Chronicles (it's not bad but I heard that the original PS3 game is much better). I probably won't watch anymore Haruhi after 2 iterations of the notorious Endless Eight "arc" until it finishes airing, and I have no idea why I keep stalling on Toradora!; it's not a bad series at all so I don't understand what keeps me from going through it... orz

Have been a bit less active on the Internet too, which means I would be behind on blogs naturally orz Am probably just getting a bit weary as I have many things that I want to do, yet so little time. Heck I still have betatesting to do for a game mod too, and unfortunately they all have to wait as I will be away soon (I'll make a post about it tomorrow), *sigh* T_T

Footnote:

I haven't gone that far into Haruhi, but what's with Haruhi's face getting similar to K-ON!'s? Apparently it's not for one episode only. What's going on? :\

Screenshots from Random Curiosity

figma Signum

2009-08-24T23:59:00.002+08:00

This review is kinda overdued, as I've got her way back in ACGHK convention. Anyway let's get onto the accessory-abundant figma Signum.

Signum comes from the 2nd and 3rd part of the Nanoha series, namely A's and StrikerS. Released sometime late in July, she's one of the more expensive figmas due to her large number of accessories, as shown in the picture above.

There's a piece of paper on using the correct hand for the sword, part swapping for her weapon Laevatein, and using the correct hand for holding the arrow.

The special hand for holding the sword is actually similar to that for figma Shana.

Signum drawing her sword from the scabbard.

Signum with Laevatein in Schwertform (Sword form). Here you can see that I have wrongly used the normal hand instead the special hand, which only holds the sword loosely as a result.

Laevantein engulfed in flame, basically a powered up version of the Schwert Form (after loading with magical cartridge according to the lore).

Part swapping for the Laevatein is easy. However for some reason the end cap of mine is kinda loose and can fall out easily. Anyone got the same problem?

Laevatein in Schlangenform (Snake form). I only recall this being used in the second series though. The metal wire is pretty sturdy and can hold up pretty well by itself.

And I do mean pretty well - look how high I can pose it~ ^^

Btw did anyone notice the similarities between this form and Ivy's sword from the Soul Calibur game series?

Signum comes with 2 hair pieces, but I kinda find this odd as they are almost like mirror images to each other.

The fans' anticipated Bogenform (Bow form). Wow this bow is even taller than she is o_o

Posing with Laevatein in Bogenform. Kinda find the parts stiff so I didn't push one part of the bow fully into the handle for the fear of getting stuck or even breakage. Again like the Schlangenform I only recall it being used in the second series A's.

Action poses

Final picture of Signum standing next to Fate.

Despite being a little more expensive than normal figmas, Signum is surely a nice get with plenty of accessories for you to play with. She's not my favourite character in the series but she is surely respectful, as well as being mature, cool and levelheaded. It's worth a get even if you don't know the character :o

Reviews are also available from:

Animatic Figmation

Actar has a video review for it too:

Please let me know if you or someone else has a review of her too and I'll gladly add it here~

Tsukiji Fish Market

2009-08-18T23:59:00.003+08:00

Tsukiji Fish Market (築地市場, Tsukiji shijou) is one of the largest wholesale seafood market in Japan, situated in Tsukiji of central Tokyo. One of its most well known products there is the fresh tuna.

I recall that no JR lines pass through this area, but you can get off from Ginza and walk there, or take other lines such as Toei Oedo line or Tokyo Metro line to get there.

More info such as the history etc can be found on Wikipedia.

As a tip, come in Tsukiji fish market in morning, and you'll get to appreciate the lively and busy market life there. Might as well stop by for some of the best tuna for lunch :o

We came a bit too late this trip, so most of the shops were closed by the time we've arrived. The pictures without my watermark on the bottom right are from my older picture hosting account Picasa.

These straight looking things are no seafood; they are in fact wasabi on sale

These odd transport vehicles are known as Turret Truck (ターレットトラック), which are a common sight in the fish market. Heard they exist in other areas such as factories, warehouses, and railroad stations too but this is the only place I've spotted these vehicles.

No smoking sign in Tsukiji. Different districts have their own no smokiong signs.

Now onto what I've eaten - too bad I do not know much about sushi types, but they're here anyway to get you hungry (unless you're not into raw seafood) ^^;

Tekkamaki (鉄火巻き)

Salmon roe sushi

This vegetable sushi is wrapped with bacon topped with mayonnaise. Unusual, but nice~

I remember that this particular tuna sushi is very expensive compared to the others

The damage in total... Don't wanna remember the price anymore >_<

When we've asked for the bill, rather than counting the dishes individually, one of the waitress used a machine to scan through the dishes and got the price in one sweep - never seen this outside Japan before :o

If you want to taste the fresh tuna sushi or just appreciate the atmosphere of a fish market, then Tsukiji fish market is definitely worth visiting.

Do be polite when visiting the fish market though, as the vendors and fishermen take great respect of their stuff - don't randomly touch things, and apparently one should refrain from using flashes when taking photos too. The market has banned foreign tourists from visiting before, so we have been warned. But if we play by the rules, then the visit would be an enjoyable experience.

However, it is apparently said that the fish market will be moved to Koto area in 2012 due to several reasons, including asbestos contamination, hygene, and other environmental issues. I have not found confirmations on this yet, but should this really be the case, there's only a few more years left before Tsukiji fish market to become mere memories not only for the locals, but to us as well.

ACGHK 2009 Part 2

2009-08-14T23:56:00.004+08:00

Following up from the ACGHK 2009 coverage, here comes the entry models from Hong Kong Dengeki Gundam Model Tournament. Like last year there are a lot of good work on display.

There are also a lot of great coverages from various blogs and sites, including Asuka (who went with me to the convention), Danny Choo with pictures from Avan, and Ngee Khiong who has coverages from various sources, be sure to check those out too!

Will be slowing adding captions to some of the pictures when I have time, meanwhile enjoy the photos!

1/144 HG RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. 30th on display

MG Gundam Exia on display

MG Gundam Exia Repair (from Ignition Mode)

Official images showing that MG Guntank is to be released in September

Official Dengeki's models for MG Sazabi, as well as Geara Doga and

Gouf Heavy Arms Type, modified from MG Gouf ver 2.0

MG Gundam Real Type Colour

Now off to the entry items:

1/35? Gundam EZ-8's head

1/144 HG 00 Raiser

I have no idea what this is made from, but this black beast surely looks fearsome! o_o

An inn setting for the BB Senshi Sangokuden series

A sniper variant for the GM Custom?

A very oriental style of the Nu Gundam

Enact Suille Palace Guard Type - was kinda surprised that somebody actually made this Enact variant which only appeared for a few seconds in the anime :o

Repainted Gundam Rasiel

Dunno who he is, but the monoeye looks ferocious!

A nice blue accent for the Masurao/Susanowo

MG Musha Gundam posing proudly on top of a pwned Zaku

A custom plated Gundam Unicorn :o

Thought it was the 1/400 NZ-000 Quin Mantha/Queeen Mansa on first sight, but turns out to be NZ-666 Kshatriya (modified from Quin Mantha presumably) from the Gundam Unicorn novel!

Two Zakus with Bonds of the Battlefield logo~

MG Force Impulse dashing across the water

A 1/144 Tieren taking up a firing position

A rather interesting Flag with a bow-like weapon

O Gundam after getting pwned at the end

Nanoha Gundam - lol Nanoha is often nicknamed by fans (jokingly) as the "White Devil", which is a reference to Amuro Ray, pilot of Gundam and Nu Gundam. Couldn't believe that somebody actually materialised it XD

Cheridum Gundam with shield bits deployed. Its sniper rifle seems to be modified with some M4 rifle attachments, including EOTech sights and M203 grenade launcher.

Another Cheridum Gundam, this time using its shield bits as... Surfboard?!

Custom made ORX-005 Gaplant TR-5 [Hrairoo] in 1/100 scale

Custom painted 1/100 MG Zeta Plus which resembles the one for the limited GFFMC version. I think I saw this in a local shop near me before it got submitted to the competition

Wing Zero Custom

1/144 Sefer Rasiel Form 4

A heavily damaged Neue Zwei

Custom made 1/100 Exia Repair (not the MG version)

Another Cheridum, with lots of inner details o_o

A Ground Type GM Sniper, appearing to be posing to shoot some aerial targets

An evil-looking Destiny Gundam ^^;

Custom paint scheme Strike Freedom Gundam, which resembles the colour scheme of the Unicorn Gundam in Destroy Mode - looks pretty nice to me~ ^^

A Zaku with a Gundam shield?

... Only to be taken back by the Gundam itself ^^;

Custom paint Astraea with Astray's katana

This beautiful scene resembles the final scene that appears in ending theme for second season Gundam 00 "trust you" by Yuna Ito.

1/60 Marasai, modified from 1/60 PG Zaku II

A car surface like shiny Sazabi

A modified Hambrabi

A heavily weathered and worn out Nu Gundam

MG Sianju

1/60 PG Astray Red Frame with

An interesting hybrid between Gundam Exia, Dynames, and Astraea

Can't remember where it is from exactly, but this Zaku's design is based on a particular designer's works, whose mecha are all featured with long armoured skirts

A 00 Raiser Statue?

A Ground Type Gundam supporting its comrade after a battle

This Wing Zero Custom looking shrine is simply... Gorgeous and magnificent O_O

Greater Zeong. This has some very nifty design concepts behind it. For example remove the legs and you have the Apsalus III on top, with Big Zam on the bottom half.

A GM trying to save its comrade from a cruel Z'gok in a volcanic scene

Custom made 1/100 Type-61 tanks battling against the Zakus

Keroro's gunpla room. Man you gotta admit that these miniature rooms are just crazy!

A white Zaku (namely the White Ogre from MS IGLOO 2 series) surrendering to the Gundam

Gundams vs an army of grunts and antagonist units, the Gundam Musou style

Custom made Tieren Recon type

RX-78-2 firing

RX-78-2 taking up position... Or it has fallen down clumsily?

A Federation soldier with a rather unsightly and unglorious death. This dark and realistic diorama is likely to be inspired by the first episode of MS IGLOO 2 series to show the cruelty of war.

Federation Type-61 with a ruined Zeon Wappa hoverbike nearby

Federation soldiers taking a break next to a rusty Zaku head - I just love military dioramas, which take a lot of effort to look right and realistic

A rather interesting model, which uses a 1/35 HG Hardgraph Wappa hoverbike, 1/144 HGUC Zudah, as well as a 1/144 Ex-Model Oggo. All these models are from the MS Igloo series

A custom made Innovator machine. Possbily a hybrid between the Garazzo and the notorious suicide unit Gaga

A knight-looking Gundam coming out from its throne. Apparently the throne is from a Saint Seiya figure set, which costs lots and lots and lots of money to buy. I heard a guy swearing how the modeller is willing sacrifice this expensive throne to model ^^;

A custom made GN-X

A 00 Gundam girl!

Exelica Gundam Exia in GN Arms ^^

These two are the only Gundam girls 'featured' this year. Want or do not want? ^^;

A monsterious creature s

Last but not least, this group work custom made Guntank-lookalike is monsterous in size - the GM Sniper and Gundam next to it look like midgets next to it!

Phew... That's 100 pictures! It was not easy pushing through the crowds to take these pictures, as well as sorting them out @_@ Coincidently this is my 100th post too, which I haven't noticed until posting. Again lots of good work this year too, and it's hard to compare them to last year's. I wonder which entry will make it through as the winner though - am anticipating to know~

This post has really drained me out; I ought to hit the sack now zzz...

Flickr Gallery available here:
Hong Kong Dengeki Gundam Model Tournament 2009

Nakano & Akihabara

2009-08-09T20:21:00.002+08:00

Continuing the Japan trip after the day trip in Akihabara. Had a late morning start, and got to Nakano Broadway by myself.

Upon arrival on Nakano JR Station, you have to go through Nakano Sun Mall to get to Nakano Broadway

Going through Nakano Sun Mall

Nakano Broadway in sight at the end of Nakano Sun Mall

野崎コイン - a shop that sells old coins, stamps, and other vintage items.

Lots of old game cartridges available, including the classic Famicom :o

Mandarake Galaxy - the shop that sells the game catridges shown above. Nakano Broadway is dominated by Mandarake - one of the largest vendors on anime and manga related merchandise

Cosplay outfits available for sale

Lunch - Yakisoba meal in Nakano Broadway, pretty good too

Doraemon movies VCR tapes! I remember I used to have some of these in Cantonese dub. How nostalgic~

Mandarake Special - a store that focuses on hard-to-get or limited/exclusive stuff.

Mandarake comics store - this one is huge o_o

Vocaloid cosplay costumes of Kaito and the Kagamine. Dunno about the one on the right though.

Actually, a lot of shops were closed on that day - it looks like that most of them are closed on Wednesday (as I was told on an forum), which makes my trip to Nakano Broadway rather fruitless -_-;; Oh well that will be a lesson learnt for me then.

Afterwards I head straight back to Akihabara. Going from Nakano to Akihabara is straightforward as you just have to take the Chūō-Sōbu Line (中央・総武線) which will take you to Akihabaras with no interchanges needed.

Back to Akihabara... Kotobukiya show room in Radio Kaikan. It's fairly new as it's opened in March, as mentioned by Ngee Khiong.

There are quite a lot of Itasha models. Anyone interested buying one? ^^

Saw some policemen handling the traffic on a crossroad. Not sure what's going on though but I saw an ambulance as well (left on the picture)

An itachari, basically a bicycle version of Itasha. There's a small ema (絵馬, wooden plaque) below the seat of it wishing for the return of Hokousha Tengoku to Akihabara.

Hokousha Tengoku (歩行者天国), literally "Pesdestrains' Heaven", is a place where roads are closed off for traffics on Sundays so that pedestrains to walk freely on them. According to Danny Choo, the only 3 that have this are Ginza, selected roads in Shinjuku, and finally Akihabara.

However, ever since the notorious mass murder that happened last year, Akihabara no longer has the Hokousha Tengoku status. I personally find this little wooden plaque rather touching as I saw it parked on one side of the pedestrian.

Nighttime at Akihabara.

More advertisments of Angel Beats.

More nighttime of Akihabara.

A lot of maid cafe banners at one of the smaller lanes. There's a loudspeaker saying things to draw the customers, but all I've heard was "Moe, moe, kyun! Moe, moe, kyun!" lol

Lunch in Shinjuku. Can't remember what I have to grind the sesame seeds for but I think it's for a sauce.

This is the real business: Special Tonkatsu in multi-layers of pork, hence you can see the unusual shape of the meat inside the fried crusts. A very soft texture to bite into~

This one has melted cheese in the middle, which is lush~

Will have to confirm later on the name and location of this restaurant, but I know that the meals are rather pricey; restaurants on top floors of department stores tend to be like so anyway.

Got moved to a single room that night. Got to watch some TV by myself and found Wolf & Spice.

I somehow think that it looks like a first season re-run, but I'm not sure since I haven't watched the series at all. Is it actually really good?

A rather short day, but I did manage to visit the rest of Akihabara despite the fruitless trip to Nakano Broadway (orz). Most of the loots I've bought were from both days in Akihabara.

Have been a little busy with various stuff recently. Will catch up with the blogs as much as possible!

ACGHK 2009 Part 1

2009-08-04T23:59:00.004+08:00

Here it is, the coverage of ACGHK 2009 as promised. Big thanks to litokid, Asuka, and J (Asuka's friend) for coming with me to this convention. T'is the first time I've arranged to meet up with someone from the Internet, but it's good to see some dannychoo.com members in Hong Kong.

It's been rather busy for me recently, so pictures are in seemingly random order at the moment. Will try and get them more sorted out in the next day or two. Meanwhile, enjoy the photos!

The convention started a bit later than planned on Saturday, and we had to wait all the way from another building!

The queue is moving while we are inside HKCEC. It took us more than 20 minutes to get into the convention from the back of the queue.

Going straight inside, and we see guys taking pictures of pretty girls near the entrance already ^^;

Football game on XBOX 360. Hongkongers tend to watch football (American English: soccer) often, and the preferred game is usually the Winning Eleven series (aka Pro Evolution Soccer)

Forza Motorsport 3 on XBOX 360.

Halo 3; couldn't take a good screenshot of it though

The night before, Mikuni Shimokawa made an appearance in Monday evening. She came a little later than planned but fans are definitely not disappointed.

I don't know much about her, but she is a pretty good singer, and she even sang Evangelion's opening, which is a pleasant surprise~

Luffy's hat is one of the more common items seen in this year's convention; a friend of mine who's a big fan of ONE PIECE bought one of them as well as Luffy's wanted poster

Char's MSs Clear Colour version and HGUC Operation V Clear Colour version, which were only available at Gundam 30th Birthday Festival in Nagoya, are available in this convention too.

Boxes of limited / event only gunpla on sale.

I can't believe that 1/100 Exia Roll Out Colour is there as well - makes mine purchased from Japan such a ripoff lol...

I know nothing about Saint Seiya, but this

Other than Luffy's hat, Urahara's (from Bleach) hat is also a fairly common sight in this convention

Piles and piles of manga on sale. This is what ACGHK was about back then - just a comics fair with manga and manhua (Chinese comics)

Hong Kong manga, which are known as 'manwa'.

Hataraki Man, which Gordon has mentioned in his post a while ago.

Piles of (empty) MG Exia Ignition Mode on one side! o_o

ONE PIECE wanted posters on sale

Lots of wooden katanas and swords replicas from various anime series available this year, ranging from Bleach, Naruto, and even Saber's sword from Fate/Stay Night

A Tieren with camouflage paint scheme on display

This is one of the winning entries for Gundam diorama competition, not for the Dengeki Tournament which I will mention in the next coverage post

A bitter end to a Gundam under the hands of a Zaku

One of the winning entries of Gundam photoshoot competition

Frankly, I find Freedom's pose a bit awkward though ^^;

Sazabi featured on Time! ^^

Winner entry featuring God and Noble Gundam

Megahouse has its own cabinet for its own figures and models

Megahouse Lelouch. My sister's getting one and it will be here sometime this month :o

Queen's Blade figures of Nyx and Elina.

The limited gunpla mentioned above

XN Raiser's box art, which looks pretty cool I have to say~

XN Raiser combined with O Raiser, 00 Gundam, and 00 Raiser

XN Raiser equipped on Seravee, Arios, and Cheridum

1/60 Exia on display

Light novels spotted.

Doraemon is back - and a new movie is coming out very soon. It looks like that a Doraemon movie is out every year, be it a remake or something original.

Dakimakura covers and cat ears on sale

Previous magazines that came with dakimakura covers or mousepads. I think I saw one that has the highly sought Feena dakimakura too.

Stalls that sell cushions, dakimakuras, pictures etc are definitely hot spots. litokid and Asuka came back to this stall again and again XD

Spotted this Monopoly City Edition, which has stackable building parts as you expand your properties (I think)

Call of Duty World at War I believe

1/6 Batman and Joker

1/6 Batmobile

Michael Jackson based on Thriller MV

Ironman Mark III Special Version and T-600 Concept Version

T-600 Concept version, which is exclusive for this convention only

Life size T-600 o_o

Astro Boy action figure

A poor image, but figma Billy Herrington sighted XD

1/1 Hoi Hoi San

~~I don't know this figure - perhaps somehow may recognise it?~~

Yamamoto from Sengoku Rance, thanks to Samejima for recognising it.

Yamato's 1/24 Ingram Unit 1 - Really expensive though o_o;;

The blue Ingram USA Unit 1. More info can be found on Ngee Khiong

Was wondering why there's a guy bringing a ladder with him, and it seems that it's for the purpose of getting to a higher and better view so he can take pictures of the pretty girls at an advantage point ^^;

A shot of what a typical stall will look like from the outside.

Anpanman with other characters I'm not familiar with

Fat spiderman is fat o_o;;

Edward Elric and a chibby Alphonse XD

Chopper giving out the red card XD

Maxima punching out a Ralf out of his cyborg arm... How bizzare.

Both characters are from the King of Fighter fighting game series.

Rather than just taking pictures of the pretty girls, I always find it interesting to see the photographers taking pictures of them enthusiastically ^^;

Fate mousepad might be interesting, but what got litokid interested was Mio's dakimakura.

Lego exhibition. Wanted to go inside but it's really crowded, so just took this outside of the stall

Kadokawa stall - incredibly long queue just to get in like last year. Luckily litokid has a PSP with Gundam vs Gundam game for me get over the waiting~

Shana and Wolf & Spice manga

Gundam novels such as Gundam the Origin, Ecole du Ciel, and Unicorn can be bought here.

Shana CD-R, which I think are blanks.

Horo mousepad (not the popular 'oppai' ones) and keyboards.

Combined loot of litokid, Asuka, J (friend of Asuka), and mine.

I have the least stuff (perhaps not surprisingly), but will tell you what they are later on.

Final picture - extension of HKCEC. Took the same picture of it last year, which was still under construction with framework only.

It was a long and tiring day, but it's worth having a good look. Hope you have enjoyed the general coverage of the convention there. Again big thanks to litokid, Asuka, and J for coming to attend this event with me, and I am grateful for that.

Link to Asuka's coverage:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Phew... Managed to get all those sorted out. Now I have to see how to comb the 150+ photos of the Dengeki Tournament down to reasonable number @_@;;

Akihabara 2009 Day Trip

2009-07-31T23:59:00.000+08:00

Possibly one of the most anticipated part of going to Japan? (laughs)

Day 4: Spending the whole afternoon in Akihabara.

Note - Again no pictures of shops' interiors as there's an emphasis on the rule that no photography is allowed.

Breakfast: Onigiri. Onigiri's are usually packaged this way so that the seaweed is not in contact with the rice in order to keep dry and fresh

There are a few but simple steps on preparing it. First off tear the middle part around the onigiri.

Pull one side of the package - this automatically gets the seaweed to wrap around the rice.

Pull the other side as well...

Done! Now the onigiri is ready to be eaten~

Lunch - Tonkatsu in Sunshine City.

It's worth mentioning that me and mother noticed a rice dispenser in the kitchen. With a press of a button rice falls out like grains into the rice bowl, always in equal amounts. This saves the time and effort of having to scoop out rice into the bowl and keeping consistency. o_o

Fried shrimps for mother.

A crisper look at the tonkatsu

Anyway, enough with the food. After the tonkatsu lunch, I went to Akihabara by myself while the rest continued shopping in Ikebukuro.

Akihabara JR Station Electric Town Entrance - remember to take this exit when you got there - the Chuo Avenue (中央通り), which is literally the high street of Akihabara.

Getting out of Akihabara JR Station and the first noticeable building is usually the Radio Kaikan.

There are 6 floors to it as follows (source from the guide book I use, excluding small shops):

7/F - Yellow Submariine (Game Shop / Scale Shop), VOLKS (Rental Showcase)
6/F - VOLKS (Akihabara branch)
4/F - Kaiyodo, Yellow Submarine (G-Shop)
3/F - K-BOOKS (whole floor)
2/F - Kotobukiya

1/1 Kenshiro statue outside Kaiyodo shop
You are already sold out.

Eva Unit 04s on display.

Uchusen (宇宙船, i.e. spaceship). The "Animate" shops in Hong Kong are related to this, and not the ones of the same name in Japan. Confusing, isn't it?

Volks Akihabara branch. Finally got to see the Dollfies myself, and

VOLKS Rental Showcase - basically a store with many labelled shelves so you pick what stuff you like and grab them all at the end.

Example right here - say I want this particular black plane (which is seen in my loot post last month), then I grab a form and write down the shelf number it belongs to as well as the item's number. Write down how number of items wanted and hand it to the cashier at the end. A member of staff will lead me to each shelf I've requested and unlock them so I can grab them. Once everything's ok I pay the money and it's done.

Such shops are great for hunting smaller toys such as gashapons, shokugans, and other harder-to-get items that may be gone in many places already.

Kotobukiya store on ground floor. There's also one on the 2nd floor but I will show that on the next trip post.

GAMERS.

PSP game Project DIVA, not yet released at the time of visit.

Nendo Miku as well as a Miku Itansha on display there

AsoBitCity - hobby chain stores. These stores tend to focus more on models and such, so it's not so much of a hit for figure collectors.

Setsuna's dream of becoming a Gundam has finally come true XD

Animate store in Akihabara. Not as big as the one in Ikebukuro, but definitely more crowded.

Generally Animate always sells things at retail price, so if you are looking for cheap stuff, this may not be the place to go for in the first place as other stores tend to sell the same items for a discount.

Liberty - another hobby chain store. They are pretty varied so you have to look and see what each particular branch focuses on (e.g. models, figures, games etc)

A huge poster of Prime Minister Aso Taro

Figure Hobby Kan - I surprisingly took a long time loitering around there - many second hand or resold items can be found there. T'is one of these places where you can look for hard-to-find items such as exclusive figures etc.

Notice how many buildings in Tokyo are thin and tall. Hong Kong has many highrises but are usually not as squeezed as Tokyo's.

SofMap is another

Nightlife in Akihabara

GiGO - various arcade games can be played there, and each floor are sorted by game categories. Ikebukuro has one too which I've forgotten to mention last time.

LaOX Hobby - another hobby chain store similar to AsoBitCity (i.e. mostly models and such), so another one that figure collectors may like to skip.

Mini 4WD courses spotted in LaOX Hobby store. When I was little there was a hype of mini 4WDs in Hong Kong (obviously brought by Japan's hype wave), and many kids had their own mini 4WD. It's nostalgic seeing this popping up again.

Nightlife in Akihabara 2

Angel Beats! is getting animated soon. Anyone know anything about it?

Dream Club; I somehow almost mistakened it as IDOLM@STER

On my way back in Ikebukuro there's really heavy rain going on there. Even with a raincoat and an umbrella my lower half has gone completely soaked.

But t'is good that my mother and sister have ordered me a large curry rice dish in advance for my dinner, which was a good way to end the day.

I couldn't finish going through Akihabara in one day, mainly because I got stuck in some shops and loitered around too much. As a result I ended up only visiting one side of Chuo Ave, and had to revisit it again on the next day. Since my sister was still on her shopping spree with her friend, that didn't cause interference to my compromised plan.

ACGHK 2009 Coming soon

2009-07-26T15:53:00.004+08:00

July is coming to an end, and the annual ACGHK (Animation-Comic-Game Hong Kong) will be coming up soon - a convention focusing on animations, comics, and games in Hong Kong.

Date: 31st July - 4th August 2009
Time: 10am - 9pm daily ; closes at 8pm on 4th August
Venue: Hall 1, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre
Area: 126000 sq ft

Like last year, there will be a lot of stuff going on for the event, and it's not just limited to Japanese stuff - there are manga, 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 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 Isuna Hasekura (支倉凍砂, author of Spice and Wolf), Mikuni Shimokawa (下川みくに, singer–songwriter), Shoko Nakagawa (中川翔子, idol singer).

Mikuni Shimokawa and Shoko Nakagawa will make guest apperance and perform at 19:30 on 31st July and 1st August respectively.

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

Doujin stuff will be available

As mentioned by Wikipedia, the name of this fair has been changed several times as categories of products and services in ACGHK have been extending in the recent years. When it was first started in 1999 it was originally called Hong Kong Comics Festival (香港漫畫節). In 2004 the convention was sponsored by Animax, and subsequently it was renamed 2004 Animax Summer FUNtasy for that particular year. In 2006 and 2007, the convention named Ani-Com Hong Kong (香港動漫節), and was held together with the Hong Kong Games Fair (香港電玩展). Since 2008 they have merged together to become what we call today.

I will attend the convention sometime during the weekend. Will try to take as many photos as possible like last year but don't expect me to come back with lots and lots of things.

It's only less than one week before it starts~

Official Site (Chinese):
http://www.ani-com.hk/front.htm