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Just a short post this week, but I think it’s safe to talk about it now. I hinted about this little project last week but here’s a little more info. As some of you may know, I occasionally write articles for a toy and collectibles site called Tomopop, where I tend to focus on mecha and garage kit news. The site is fairly large with an active user base and have good relationships with some big online stores like HLJ. These relationships allow them to get review samples of some figures which they then post on their sites and also do some pretty cool collaborative competitions (though I am now not allowed to enter any since I’m a staff member. BOO!!).
Anyway, back to the main point. HLJ have recently started to sell their own garage kits in limited numbers. The first of which is a kit of Aisaka Taiga from Toradora which was on sale at Wonder Festival and they offered to provide us with a review sample of the kit. Long story short, FREE KIT!!!
So here’s the plan. As this is a tomopop feature, the main bulk of the stuff I will write about the kit will go there. The plan is that I’ll be writing a tutorial on how to do a garage kit for the readers, try to make it look less intimidating and maybe even get a few readers to give it a try! Once the posts are up, I’ll write a post here as a little omake-like thing to supplement the main post. So for the beginners who are looking to try their hand at gk building, I’ll post a link up to the tutorial for you to follow and for the more advanced guys, you can tell me how you think I’m doing and what you think I should cover more on.
In other news, the Vanquish demo is now available on PS3! GO GET IT!!! Awesome fun! Not Bayonetta awesome but still very good! Can’t wait for Oct 22nd! Oh, and the voice acting is absolutely terrible! On both English AND Japanese!
…FREE KIT!!!
“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.”
Colin Powell
*Sigh* I had hoped to have found a little stability for my current situation by now but alas it was not meant to be. As it stands, I may need to find a new place to live in a months time which makes doing big projects rather troublesome. I don’t even want to think about what it’ll be like moving all my gear…
There is a chance that it won’t happen (and I had hoped to have it sorted by now) but until then, my projects are limited. Having said that, I remembered that I had an old Asagi kit from Taimanin Asagi, one of the last recast kits I purchased a long time ago before I went cold turkey on recasts. If you don’t know the source material, don’t worry. If you do, well good for you… This kit doesn’t really hint much on her origin though.
Seemed like a waste to just leave her, and a large portion of the cleanup was already done (I must have started and then moved on to something else) so she’s part way done already. In fact, she’s almost primed and ready for painting! And since it’s a recast, I don’t mind too much if anything happens to her in transit.
And as soon as she has reached this stage something else has come up! Still modelling related mind you, but I’m not really able to talk about it yet. It is kinda cool tho. In any case, I have a few things to do in the meantime while trying to sort out this housing issue of mine…
HLJ also seem to be doing the special decals again for certain macross items so I *could* get another set and try my VF25 again… Or maybe not.
And on top of all that, I’m still trying to contact Tokyo Hunter with regards to Chara Hobby this weekend. His site has pretty much gone dark… Only a few days left to put an order in…
Normally, I don’t really care for PVC figure news but this was too good to pass up.
I think everyone who collects anime figures have heard of Taki Corporation. They are known for making incredibly ugly, poor quality figures and a metric craptonne of Ikkitousen stuff! (please note that the 2 are not mutually exclusive)
Here’s one of their handyworks.
And that’s arguably one of their better ones!
Well, if this twitter account by AmagiBC5 is to be believed, Taki are finally bankrupt! That’s right, no more ugly Ikkitousen figures!! Here’s a japanese blog page with the twitter post specifically saying so, in case you can’t see it in the twitter (although some level of understanding will be required) and more pics of the Taki quality figures available.
Sankaku complex brought it to my attention but I thought I’d better do some extra investigating before posting, for obvious reasons.
And I’m 100% certain there won’t any disappointed faces. In fact, some may be crying tears of joy! How they managed to stay afloat for this long is beyond me! But it’s all over now. Unless they somehow rise from the ashes even stronger, like some cliché shounen plotdevice.
Current preorders and releases are unaffected but then, that’s all folks!
Try not the make too much noise when you celebrate! ^_^
After all this time and far too much teasing, Volks have finally released colour shots of their 1/4 scale Bayonetta!
Not too shabby! I do think that this kit is better than the cerberus project offering but the face, while having an appropriate expression, looks a little off. The absolutely stunning level of detail is still ever present though!
In the end, the colour pics haven’t turned me off the kit, but it hasn’t strengthened my desire to own one either. Anyone else decided for or against the kit after seeing her in colour?
Just under a week to decide what to purchase from Chara Hobby, although Laila (who I missed out on at Wonder Festival) and Celia are back for a second round as well!
[via Volks chara hobby page]
One of the worst feelings a modeller can have is that feeling that, after everything is done, you know you’ve done your best… but it’s not good enough. I’m no stranger to the feeling, especially in my early days but it’s been a while since I’ve felt it. And who would have thought it would be a set of decals which set it off…
The build itself admittedly, wasn’t perfect but as I was applying the decals, I really thought that they were much better suited to a non transforming kit. especially since the decals made transforming pretty much impossible without destroying them. And no amount of topcoat or solutions will fix that issue. Heck, even the slightest movement on the fighter mode damages them, to which I can attest! Damn I hate decals…
Continue reading Last Frontier
Well, that didn’t take too long! All the parts are now completed and the next stage is… I’m not too sure. Some areas will require painting but I’m not sure if I should work too much on the details as the decals will cover a very large area, making any panel lining either redundant or an eyesore which detracts from the new artwork… Guess I’ll have to tread carefully from now on.
But since the kit is complete, I figured I’d do a quick shoot of the various modes as it’s highly unlikely that I will move it out of fighter mode once everything has been completed. Aside from the decals being damaged, I notices several “break points” where the parts are likely to snap off with repeated use, so to preserve the kit, I think I’ll keep it in fighter mode, though gerwalk remains a possibility for now.
So white… One thing I always hated about transforming kits is that unless the build is absolutely flawless (and even if it is!) there will always be little gaps where the parts don’t quite fit together 100%. The smoother and more aerodynamic the kit, the more obvious the gaps are, and this is a fighter jet we’re talking about here! I wonder how badly that will affect the decal applying procedure…
Continue reading Project: Frontier (Part 2)
OK, it’s official! I’m getting old!!! Back in the day (see? I even sound old!) I used to be able to snap together a MG gundam kit in the space of a few hours (3~4 hrs to be precise). Now, in the same time, I can barely do the limbs and front nose of my VF25!
In any case, it’s been a long time coming but my next project will be the VF25 model kit with Sheryl Nome decals. And I assure you, I am really dreading the decals!!
It’s been waiting to be built for quite some time. I had primed all the parts in their base colours ages ago so it just needed to be put together and detailed. I just never got around to it. But I needed something relatively simple to work on at the moment as there’s a few major things going on IRL which may very well take a lot of my time. I had initially wanted to start work on KOS-MOS but I don’t want to start work on her unless I can guarantee that I can give her my undivided attention. Izanagi is on hold while I try to figure out what remaining joints I need and I couldn’t decide on which GK I should start on (tho the Try-GK saber was winning). So in the end, I started work on the VF25. I should finish the actual build very soon and will take pics then but once the decals are on, I think it will be restricted to a single mode as from what I can tell, there are far too many “scratch points,” points of contact which could damage the decals regardless of how much clearcoat I apply to allow it to transform.
In the meantime, I’ll be looking out for the cool stuff which will be on show at Chara Hobby at the end of the month. Volks have already announced that they are bringing Gundam garage kits to the event, which is a bit of a surprise since bandai are notoriously protective of their property. Otherwise, it’s pretty much a corporate event so don’t expect any circles to be showing off stuff like at Wonder Festival or Treasure Festa. Also, unless there’s a really amazing kit on show at the events, I think I’ll be on an effective spending freeze. At least up until winter Wonder Festival. Let’s see if I really can make it to next years event!!
Getting the motivation to write this post was surprisingly hard. Maybe it was because I researched too hard prior to the event so there were no big surprises in store on the floor. Maybe it’s because I failed to obtain my 3 target kits and the likelihood of them hitting Y!JA is pretty slim. Or maybe it’s because it feels like my regular news sites seem to be taking their time with this one compared to the winter event.
It’s probably due to my failure to acquire my intended targets but I didn’t really find any other kits which really made me want to go out and get it. In hindsight, I should have tried to get the Mr Surprise Kanu 2020 since I really liked that sculpt. In the end, I did manage to get the Himeji Shoukanjuu from silent minority. Another kit I wanted from the last WF but pickings were slim this time round. Still, there were some impressive kits. Oh, and there’s some seriously NSFW stuff at the end. Consider yourself warned!
Seeing a full body shot of the Volks Bayonetta was definitely a highlight. Tokyo Hunter did some excellent shots for Tomopop so I’m shamelessly pilfering! Additional images are from Dengeki hobby and WFS21
Still not as amazing as KOS-MOS but with a coat of paint, I’m sure this kit will go from “probably buy” to “definitely buy”
Sousou Moutoku from Shin Koihime Musou. I don’t know why but I really like this flat-chested character.
Fate Extra seems to have breathed some new life into the Saber sculpts and this one in particular was amazing! Shame that I don’t enjoy doing the same character over and over again…
Continue reading WonderFestival 2010 Summer Garage Kits
Damn you Volks!!! Stop jerking us around and just show her off!!
At this point, I think it’s safe to assume that we won’t see a complete version of the kit until Wonder Festival itself. But that doesn’t stop Volks from publishing even more teaser images of the kit. But if there’s one bright spot this time, it’s that the preview pics leave little to the imagination.
The new images pretty much shows off her complete pose as well as facial expression and kit detail.
Continue reading Volks continues to tease us with their 1/4 Bayonetta!
Cutting it a bit close since the event is on Sunday but that has given me the chance to catch some better images of kits as the makers have finished their previews and are gearing for the event in earnest! Colour shots of kits which were initially only grayscale are becoming more common!
Having said that, I have not really been looking forward to this post. Not because I don’t want to do one, but simply because this Wonderfestival is shaping up to be awesome and there are too damn many kits which have caught my attention!!
So I’m going to do things a little differently this time around and try and organise things a little. If you’re interested in just a quick glance, then I posted a gallery over at Tomopop earlier this week which is just images. I’ll be putting in a few lines for several over in this post. At present, I’m still trying to decide on a max of 3 kits to purchase. 2 slots are taken with a 3rd up for grabs. With that done, let’s get started!
These kits are definites for me, as in I’ve already put in a request order via Tokyo Hunter for them!
Sheryl Nome Black bunny version by Grabianski
Oh come on! You’ve seen my Sheryl fanboy credentials when I bought (and posted) the Sheryl Nome LAF from Megahouse. (I’ve gotten the stage version as well since then!) so when I first saw this sculpt months ago on the FG site, I’ve been keeping tabs on it and now I finally see it in colour! Granted, it’s not perfect but none of the Sheryl figures GK or otherwise are so I can cut some slack here!
Laila Ria Sorel by Volks (A-Brand)
Normally, I don’t buy kits of characters which I know nothing about. The closest thing was back in 2007 when I purchased the Cerberus Project Ignis kit which was later turned into a PVC figure by Creators Labo. But then I was able to research the character a little. No such luck with Laila. But I guess that just goes to show how taken in by the design I was. If she was an original sculpt, I probably would have still bought her, and originals have to work VERY hard to get on my radar!! She narrowly won out against another volks kit for the 2nd kit slot from this event. Which one was that? Well, we’ll cover that next with the “maybe” kits.
Continue reading Wonderfestival Summer 2010 Preview
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