Random Foodie Post!!!...and update.

Y is for Yay and for Yakisoba; ergo YAY for Yakisoba!!!

Got lazy and hungry and had a craving. And its been a while since I've cooked. I usually overdo it when that happens ^^;

Not exactly traditional yakisoba, but tasty enough on the nom nom meter ^^

Then again, like I said- I sometimes overdo it,heh. So it better be tasty since there's plenty more.

If only I had a case of Sapporo or and nice pot of tea, my night would be perfect.

And in other news, much much sadder news, My PS3 has finally passed on. Do not shed tears though( My manly tears will suffice) for it has gone to a better place- Sony heaven.

Where everyone wins, where big businesses make over excessive crap tons of money and continue to make nice things,but over charge,BUT! it matters not, for it's sony heaven so the consumers have more than enough money.(plus its an effin heaven scenario- everyone's supposed to be all win-win,right??)...That, and I just shelled out $129 to get it fixed. Considering my PS3 was a first gen 60gb, its specs are way better than any new unit(plus backwards compatibility rocks!) I even bumped up the hdd up to 500GB. I didn't have a warranty(not that matters since its not covered anymore anyways.) so paying $129 to continue having awesomeness is a small price to pay. Hell, they know it too. Its $99 to get a new $120 slim PS3 instead of fixing my unit or replacing it. 6-8 weeks is a long time to wait, but it'll be worth it. BUT, I'll never forget you, my first PS3! {Insert lame music ala titanic style or something}

Oh, and I still can't continue my resin kit since the freakin Postal service sent my joints back to HLJ! Due to some wonky circumstances involving their held time and conflicts with the recent holidays, they sent it back. So lame. So now, I gotta send HLJ an email and hope I can just pay for shipping again(which really really sucks) so I can get my damn joints I already paid for. Til then, no progress. Hopefully, all the shenanigans won't take forever and my next post will be full of AWESOME. Til next post,later.

P.S.-Go enjoy some yakisoba.and get me a bottle of sapporo while you're at it ;)

Tekkaman Blade Resin WIP - 1

So I totally couldn't wait and started work on this on Monday. My poor keroberos revoltech had to sacrifice his joints so that blade could get jointed. Its alright though, this is just til the order of revoltech joints arrive via mail. Man, Hand drilling all those holes were a real pain. Since the original design called for basic ball joints and ball pegs, some pre-planning on how to make everything fit just right had to be done. Nice thing to be noted, is all the parts aren't just separated for detailing, but also for painting. All the red pieces are separate so when it was casted, it could've be done in color! There's a few places here and there needing putty so I'll have to pick up some green stuff at work tomorrow.

Aside from that, This has been a very rewarding build so far. I like the previous incarnations of Tekkaman Blade's figures and model kits, but most of them have all been following the more streamlined "suit" look from the first series. This design probably fits some of the designs from the end of the first series and the whole second series(OVA). It does what TF Classics did for the original G1 TF designs- it maintains the aesthetic charms and themes and adds to it. With wicked mecha style: long imposing proportions,harsh & sharp lines/angles, and intense details building on the basic look. The Armor plus figure is nice, but if this was a figure with that kinda price tag, I would've bought it without a second thought.

I'm slightly intimidated to paint this actually. I'm worried the paint job won't do this design justice. Still gonna try, but I am worried slightly. Unfortunately, I'm outta spare black revoltech joints so this will have to do til the package arrives. I even paid for EMS this time to get it here faster.Crazy, right?? Thats the AWESOME that is Tekkaman Blade. More WIP updates later!

Nothing Glued yet, but things are starting to come together already.

Head sculpt looks great. Lots of small pieces,too.

The iconic torso design. Putting this together made me think on how the joint placement and what to inprove on an actual revoltech tekkaman. If they're making revoltech Muv Luv and Z.O.E. , there's hope, right???

Look at the details! Frickin Awesome. The normal design is just basic panel lines.Bunk that, Raised cool sculpt FTW!

Mecha proportions indeed. Fit a human leg in that?Psssh...

Since I haven't started actually gluing parts since nothing's painted yet, some parts were just taped temporarily or placed carefully into position. Having some trouble with that breastplate, blade?

Had enough joints to pre-joint another arm. Looks like it'll have to rest on that stand til more parts come...

Its really starting to come together. I can't wait for it to get done. I'm so geekgasming over this. So cool.

OMFG- Tekkaman blade GETTTOOOO!!

So work was quite slow(ish) today, what with the superbowl and all. The best part of my day came in the form of an unexpected late christmas present, the Space Knight Tekkaman Blade - Full Action Resin Kit!! Sound Familar? It was on my Want List post I did a while back. This thing is hella sweet! Its my first real resin kit and I'm so excited, I wanna start working on it now. Too bad I'm in the middle of working on a backlog right now. Currently working on a simple build of the 1/144 new hguc gouf custom and I'm still working on the rg inner frame. I'll get there eventually. One kit at a time. Besides, I still need some paints and airbrush stuff. I wanna do this right. Its gonna totally be my masterpiece ^^;

Not alot of info out on the web for this guy so I guess I'll just help things along with this post and some pics. Check out the details below.

This thing just screams horribly awesome.

Tupperware. The Ultimate in Resin Protection.

Awful xerox copy looking instructions. Luckily, most resin kits don't really need em.

Plenty of pieces...

Details are ridiculously amazing.

This thing demands the best work I can give it!

heh-In yo face, B-club manipulators!

Zebraman 2 viewed. now where's my tokusatsu merchandise???

So I finally cracked and watched the zebraman 2 film. For those not familiar with Zebraman, its an awesome Tokusatsu film by fav director, Takashi_Miike. First film got good ratings on both the tomato meter and on IMDB. No word if a U.S. dvd release for the 2nd film will occur anytime soon so I'll have to settle for the original RAW dvd. Too bad no one's fansubbed it yet. Guess it'll be at least another few months(hopefully??) before I can really appreciate the takashi miike jokes and dialog. Regardless, I totally cracked and watched it; not sure if a subbed dialog will change my views, but until I have it(or improve my translation skill^^;...so behind studies), I won't give a review or anything til then.

If I had to give an impression right now, I'd say that Zebraman 2 is alot like Iron Man 2: Entertaining, but not as charming as the first one. Not that its bad or anything, I still enjoyed viewing what I did see. With that said, I'd like to say that despite being a toksatsu ZEBRA hero, I'm totally diggin the designs. I liked the designs from the first film and Zebraman 2 totally stepped up for the costume design. Remember, when you were a kid watching bad batman films,but thought the batsuits were so badass? Nevermind batnipples and the lame script or any of the other semantics-the thought was, "cool superhero costume." A grown man dressed as a zebra themed hero can't be worse than a man dressed as a bat. Cool is cool. And I think Zebraman is effin BOSS.


With Japan's very big Toksatsu genre from kamen rider,godzilla, to numerous others, there's been tons of great merchandise. from statues,busts,RAHs, Bandai released figures and more, I have one question: WHERE'S THE ZEBRAMAN MERCHANDISE?? For anyone who's a kamen rider fan and collects figures, you know what the designs are and how that translates to figures. Look at the design of a recent kamen rider, Ryuki(or Dragon Knight for the U.S.)



This is the overall basic design of Ryuki.Not bad. Now look at another design of Ryuki from The SIC line...



Similar,but more detailed. I personally prefer this look.

Thats what Zebraman 2 did to the look of the first Zebraman designs. Below is the only merchandise of Zebraman I could locate. Very impressive indeed. Very detailed. Think of the possibilities with a figure!! Hell, even Batman and Spiderman got the SIC treatment.(yeah, they're bigger than zebraman,but dammit, they already got tons of merchandise.)










Anyways, if anyone knows of any additional merchandise for zebraman, let a guy know! We'll finish up with some trailers from the films and some pics.Enjoy and if you're interested and haven't seen it, check it out ^^. Til next post.


P.S. - Happy Lunar New Year! year of the Rabbit yo.

Kamen Rider Ryuki pictures from HobbySearch
Zebraman bust pictures from GunJap blog
Zebraman film pictures from Gonin Movie Blog

Finally! End of 2010 Loot. and WIP progress

I've been waiting for one more package for the last 2 1/2 weeks, but its here now so that means all the loot for 2010 is now complete for me- yay!

I would've done a christmas haul, but thats not really impressive and a total loot post sounded better.

Not the most impressive haul, but still tons to enjoy^^;

The 00 qan full saber add-on.(still need to buy hg 00 qan.couldn't resist; those clear green bits are awesome!)

BRS special edition Bluray/dvd set.comes with nendo petits and artbook.pretty sweet. the speed paint in the special features is simply amazing.

FMP full bluray collection.When I have time, gotta regrind through all of it.with tons of snacks & drinks of course.

And muv luv alt. takemikazuchi 00r model kit. Mitsurugi meiya's personal unit,yeah!!!(was also the last package I was waiting for,heh.)

More Plasmo goodness:

HGUC 1/144 gouf custom(this thing is crazy sick!can't wait to build!)

RG 1/144 Char Zaku. Real Grades are amazing. still need to finish the rx78.

Digimon Reboot Omegamon.Need I say more? its effin omegamon(or omnimon)! Gonna do a full paint run on this baby.so it won't be done anytime soon unfortunately.

HGUC 1/144 Sinanju. Aside from small gimmicks like the shoulder shield clamp or the beam tonfas being omitted, this kit is a mini mastergrade. the gold trim will be a pain, but so worth it.

And of course, gotta get the sinanju head base for my brand spanking new sinanju kit. looks to have some nice internal details to paint.

I love painting and puttin the work into making these models more detailed and awesome,but this totally isn't helping the huge backlog...

Yay, someone saw my want list post! Blazblue artbook from P@nD@.mucho gracias,yo! and to Sp1t3 for mediating things so I could have this awesome artbook to replace my old one. It kicks the old book's butt by miles.(still need to get the Uk limited edition of the continuum shift.want that noel nendo)

And someone from work got me a tonberry plush for christmas.it can protect my artbook,heh.

And kudos x100 for kaiyodo re-releasing all the gurren lagann revoltechs! And I already pre-ordered the remaining ones from hlj. Can't wait for them[>.<]!!!

Now that the loot posting is done, I can get to the WIP progress on the RG rx78-2.

Currently painting inner frame's mech details. gonna use copper,gold,and silver.maybe some gunmetal,too.

I'm trying to really show the inner frame as it was meant to be shown. Lots of promo pics show the under frame or "skeleton frame." The real grade is supposed to be a pg/mg in 1/144 scale. That includes an inner frame which shows off mechanical details. Just showing the base frame doesn't do this nor does it take advantage of the molded details of multiple pieces included in this model.

This shows most of the additional parts that can be added to make the inner frame much more "fuller." Here, the inner frame resembles old mg frames alot more with how the frame gives the overall shape of the ms without actually having armor on it. The mg rx78 frame didn't really have an inner frame for the head so this matches up pretty well so very cool.

These calf leg parts were the only parts so far found that had mechanical details,but couldn't be seperated from the armor in front of it. Still, some nice details that would otherwise be ignored with the base frame and would be covered up with armor and never showed off.

Note: I totally painted the calf detail with the wrong gray. It dried alot lighter than I wanted. Gotta look for darker shade later.

And while I was painting the copper pipes around the legs, one of the ankle guard frame pieces got into the paint bottle. lost lots of paint to fish it out. Got some discoloration now from the clean up now as well. lame sauce. I guess I gotta paint the ankle guard pieces with the gray I'll be using on the calves...as soon as I find a dark shade I like ^^;

Well, thats it for updates for now. Work was slowing down, but there's been a recent management shift at my store. and the new boss is completely incompetent.scratch that. He's an incompuCUNT employee. He's only gonna be there til a replacement for him is found. Who knows how long that'll take to properly train someone capable. He's at our store cuz he sucked at the flagship store and lost them lots of money. why he wasn't just fired-no clue. Anyways, I have half a mind to just take over for him just to get em outta my store. That or I'll have to clean up his messes and "backseat" manage the store and make sure it doesn't tank. Either way, doesn't look like I'll be enjoying that non holiday downtime just yet.

I'll try to update more on hobby work, but no promises. Least not til this management issue is handled.Til then, Later everyone!

Merry Christmas & happy holidays everyone!

I know my blogging activity has been on a bit of the dead side,sorry bout that. If you work retail, your life gets busy round this time of year. If you're in school as well, yeesh. I'm not in school, but I do work multiple jobs(what can I say? gotta feed the addictions,heh. That and a guy's gotta actually eat!). Regardless, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and very happy holidays! Hope everyone got tons of prezzies and ate til they passed out from the itis ^^;

I'll try and whip up a holiday/loot/update/WIP post soon as the holidays should be coming to a close and things should be slowing down a bit. Til then, everybody!

P.S. - I wanna see Shinigami in a snowball fight against everyone else!

Wish list or Want list?

So we're about one week from Thanksgiving so I guess its safe to say we're pretty much in the holiday season ^^: ( I even saw some homes already rockin their christmas lights in full swing!)

I've been seeing more and more posts and videos about and asking about what are on people's list. That may be wish or want list(there's a difference. Wish list are for things you want, but not get otherwise(house,car]. And Want is you want it, and you'll probably get it eventually[figs,games,etc.]) and can be from things from gunpla,figures, to anything else. I thought I'd share my list and ask what everyone else has on theirs. Not quite sure if these fall under a want or wish. I want it,but won't be getting it anytime soon probably. I will get it though.Maybe not by christmas or new years though. That makes it...want?wish??gah,moving on to the list!

Hobby Japan subscription for a year from J-list
Price: $258.00 usd(shipping included)


There's a revolving pay per issue, but I think the flat fee for a year is a better deal for me($21.50 per issue). The other option is to have a sibling in NY pick it up for me at kinokuniya and ship it over, but I don't wanna hassle her.Plus the price point doesn't add up. Its about $20ish there for a reg issue, $35 for an issue with a prize.Then she still has to ship it. The $21.50 per issue from J-list is set so thats reg issues or prize included issues. and that includes shipping. I'd really love to not have to depend on scans.(nothing wrong with that, but having it in person is so much nicer to me^^)The sub price is definitely a bit steep though so I'll have to definitely wait when I have money to really burn.(maybe after income tax return??)



DX Chogokin Aquarion which is an amazing Goliath of a mech. Additional pics at HLJ or just search on google(mugen punch is epic)
Price: $348.90 usd (Shipping included)


From the moment I saw this monster in ACE:R, I was insanely curious. Next thing I know, I'm playing it, watching series and movies left and right and now I want my own aquarion to mugen punch the $%@# outta my other mech figs when they get out of line^^: Another big boy toy definitely,heh.



Xbox 360 Slim 250gb with Kinect
Price: retail - $399.99(without tax)


Not that I'm unhappy with my upgraded old 60gb PS3(these day sporting a 500gb 7200 rpm HDD though. can you believe the stock hdd is only 5400rpm??cell processors,bd drive and I get a 5400rpm drive? what tech blasphemy.) but I've been meaning to get one of these for a while now. I even gave my elite to my friend to spur me on to get one.(also he probably had more use for it than me at the time)Months after its release,still nada. I WILL HAVE YOU, SLICK AND SEXY DEVIL! Also, might as well try out kinect while I'm at it ;)





Double action top fed airbrush and mini air compressor (badger,tamiya,paasche,any)
Price:$$$(depends on brand,product,and where from)


I haven't been really into my hobby work lately, but one thing that I did alot when I was knee deep in it was paint treatment out the wazoo. figs,models,anything really. Sorta my way of "marking" my stuff. in a giving stuff my own personal touch sorta way.(Is there a way to explain this without leaving opening for jokes??) I used to use this huge full size 6 horsepowered compressor.loud as hell and space killer to boot. It was that or using CO2 cans( which any real airbrush user will tell you, totally waste. Absolutely right, but when you gotta make do, you gotta make do.) It'd be great to get back into things full swing with top notch tools to rock it out at the hobby station ^^



Logitech Harmony 1100 Universal Remote
Price: retail -$299.99(without tax)


I have a projector centered home theater in my room currently. 5.1 sound,my ps3, tv digituner, 5 disc stereo,etc. It a project that I'm fairly proud of doing.Everything was also set up to have remote operations so a universal remote could really be the metaphorica "cherry on top" for this. Sadly, I still do not have one and am currently using 6 remotes for home theater operations. Not a big deal as I know what does what, but it'd be nice to have ease of use. When I saw my uncle a long time ago with his harmony 1000, I was just blown away by how aweome it was. I know there's tons of tablet style u-remotes, but I totally dig the 1100. When I redid my room for the home theater, I even made a spot for it when I would get it right next to my psp go crade!{>.<}!
blazblue continuum shift limited edition U.K. edition - HMV
Price: £44.49( or about $71.06 usd)(shipping included)


This is where having a PS3 really payed off. Being able to play any region games without extras needed can be really nice, but wanting a special edition for a game you want where your country only released regular editions and ACTUALLY being able to get it and play it is hella awesome.
Plus I want that Noel nendo petit ^^;(Have only recently started to get nendos, but I really want to add her to my collection.)Oh, and I'm a total sucker for special editions.



Blazblue Artbook available from Japan - Ebay
Price: $57.99 usd (Shipping included)


I originally had the small art book that was exclusively available online for gamestop Calamity Trigger pre-orders(which was nice,but kinda small), then my cat peed on it!!little bastard...he's fixed now, but I still had casualties T.T
But thanks to that incident, when I went online to look for a replacement- I saw something better. An artbook that was released for the psp version in Japan. 144 pgs and even has a dust jacket.snazzy. A friend of mine was able to snag one of the few last ones HLJ had a while back. Saw it.AMAZING. My shelf is lookin lonely waiting for the spot to be filled...and its still waiting.



PG Astray Red Frame Model Kit Sp. Edition
Price: $200-250(before shipping)


Its just so damn awesome. Its not as epic as the pg mk II titans or the zaku2 or the rx-78, but I still like it. Plus I was totally digging the designs before I even knew what it was or even saw an episode of any gundam series. Plus, giant mech with giant katana? How does that not qualify for instant want?? The SP. Release comes with clear parts, a katana base, and ANOTHER KATANA. I've also never had a PG kit before so I'd like to try one out.




Both the 1/144 Vardant kits for Kurogane no linebarrel
Mid range unit Price: $25-40(before Shipping)
Reg. Version with binders Price: $75-90(Shipping included)


Why oh Why didn't I get both when I had the chance??? Now its barely available online and costs have reflected its scarcity. I'm such a big fan of the mech designs in Kurogane no linebarrel and Zone of the enders(same designer). If I get my hands on both, I'm combining their awesomeness into one kit and giving it a "real grade" paint scheme, meaning different shades of blue to really make the details pop. Koto kits are best painted and not just straight built and the vardant has the potential to be even more beastly than it already is! My Linebarrel model totally needs a partner to share the shelf and cross swords with ^^;

ASUS Eee PC 1215N-PU17-BK

Specs:

OS Provided:

Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit

CPU L2 Cache:

1MB

Widescreen Display:

Yes

Max Resolution:

1366 x 768

Display Feature:

LED backlight

Graphics Processor:

Next-generation NVIDIA ION graphics

Memory Slots:

2 x 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM

Hard Drive RPM:

5400 RPM

Price: retail $499.99(without tax before shipping)


Last year, I gave 4 netbooks for christmas. This year, I turned my old clunker of a laptop into my secondary workstation(see room post). Currently I don't have any portable replacement, though my android phone does try at times,heh. I'd like to get one and be able to do a few things even when I'm on the road or have time to kill. I'd also consider it an additonal tool in my personal studies as well. A study tool is still a study tool,even if you have other uses for it sometimes ;)



Space Knight Blade Full Action resin kit from E2046
Price:$51.58 ussd (before shipping)


For anyone growing up with the anime boom or the 80's or 90's, especially mecha related- you might recognize this. Maybe not as Tekkaman blade, but as Teknoman Slade. hah, anime dub changes. regardless, Blade here was one of the first mech designs to get me into mecha,anime, or anything related(along with guyver). I bought the old bandai kit and I know that there's 2 great premium figures of blade(there's even a pegus figure, but this really appealed to me. Its got that exaggerated offset design that some resin kits do, but its still tekkaman. Plus, LOOK AT THAT LANCE. its hella awesome.Its compatible with revoltech joints as well for revoltech styled posing,yay. That and this would be my first resin kit. My childhood demands this be bought!...eventually.



Ikkitousen's Kanu Uncho Miko ver.
Price: $200-290(before shipping)


I've never bought myself a figure(plus there's so many to pick from@_@),but I really like this look for Kanu. I've watched the ikkitousen series, but I wouldn't even think to put it in my top 10 or anything. I'm not saying its bad or good, but its not gurren lagann epic,but isn't like spiderman horrible. I just really like this design and look. Either figures look great and I wouldn't mind having the figure(either) or a resin kit of it. Of course, I don't think I'm quite capable of making it look as awesome so I'd rather the figure over the resin kit,heh.




Well, I think thats it for my list, until something gets thrown in there later. Anyways, these are the things I want and wish to acquire and aim to do so regardless of holidays or not. They're also the bigger and pricier things though as well ^^;


What kind of things are your wish/want list?


All this posting about models and stuff is putting me into the mood to do some kit work. Maybe I'll put out a model/figure/WIP post later. I guess that's it for now.til next post.






Pics from HLJ,E2046,Newegg,Hobbysearch,Jlist, and google image search.