Some interesting news...

This was brought to my attention this morning. The forthcoming Master Grade Gundam Astray Blue Frame was originally claimed to be able to mount all Strike packs, which, for starters, was an interesting idea. As far as I know, the Gundam Astray Blue Frame never was modified to mount Strike Packs. Furthermore, the connections for the Master Grade Strike Packs and the High Grade Strike Packs are different. Well, the Ruli PlaModel site today posted the answer to that question.



The Master Grade Gundam Astray Blue Frame will come with adapters to mount both HG and MG Strike Packs on it, and will also come with an adapter to allow any MG-type Strike Pack to attach to any HG Strike derivative. Also a part that makes it so the Frame Arms can attach to the new SEED kits.

The second thing that was brought to my attention is the fact that apparently Bandai is adding a new subline to their Master Grade line: Dragonball characters. It apparently WASN'T a typo when Bandai announced a MG 1/8th Son Goku. Happinet Online posted a picture:



The model will feature gimmicks like flexing muscles and a moving shirt. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I guess Bandai put a lot of work into it. Bandai did pseudo-organic once when they made their MG Dunbine. I guess Bandai has figured that they've pretty much mastered robots, and want to move on. I can respect that, as long as they don't neglect their robot fandom.

More Alternity!

Came across this link earlier today. Amazon.jp has got the Alternity Convoy up for preorder, and they included some pretty nice pictures too. This is the best shot of the head we've seen, and the first good shot of the back. Looks like the way the legs form up is going to be pretty intricate.

BTW...

Danny Choo just posted the awesomest review of Figma Tsukasa Hiiragi.


It will make you laugh.

You have been warned.

Good Smile Company English site up!

Ummm, I'm just gonna post it: http://eng.goodsmile.info/top/eng/

Bookmark it, seriously. I was first introduced to the Good Smile Company two years ago when my blog was still young, (has it been that long already?) and I posted about a diecast Tachikoma. Of course, I didn't know anything about it back then, so I didn't say anything, and I didn't recognize the Good Smile Company for what they were. Since then, I have found them to to be a group of people who love their jobs and are dedicated to excellence. Seriously, I haven't been disappointed in anything I've personally owned of theirs or anything I've seen them make.

Anyhow, as part of their strategy to bring their quality product to consumers worldwide, the Good Smile Company has just launched the English version of their site. You should seriously go see it, and look at the pretty pictures and read up on your favorite figures.

My review of Figma Mikuru Asahina

Mikuru Asahina in a character from light novel, and now anime, series, "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya." In this series, Haruhi forms the SOS Brigade, to stave off boredom. The purpose of that club is to search for aliens, espers, time travelers, and basically anything abnornal, because normal is completely beneath her.

Mikuru was dragged into the club completely against her will, because Haruhi felt that her cute face, large breasts, and luscious curves would make her a great mascot and a powerful marketing asset. Little did Haruhi know, Mikuru Asahina was in fact a time traveller sent from the future to investigate a temporal disturbance centered around Haruhi.

Figma Mikuru Asahina is the ninth release in the Figma line. Err, sixth, I typed it upside down. The Good Smile Company continues their long standing excellence in their action figures, as I will show in this picture review.


This picture practically shot itself.

The Figma releases come with these really nice bags to hold the figure and all of their stuff, which I think is awesome.




This figure seems to be born to be shy and timid, which is perfect to the character. When I was posing her for this shot, I noticed that her right leg is about a millimeter longer than her left. Has anyone else had this concern?




Mikuru comes with five sets of hands, (as opposed to four with Saber) two extra faces, and one extra pair of shoes. I kinda wish that she came with an extra hair that didn't look like it was so windy, but this one works fine.




She also pulls off the "sweet and innocent" really well. Again, that comes with the character.




Her elbows bend a little over 90 degrees, just a bit less than Saber's elbows. I kinda wish that they bent a little more so that she could clasp her hands to her chest better, but with the right photography, you can't really tell.




She also comes with a pair of cute shoes, that in the anime, she keeps in her locker and changes into when she gets to school. The first time I saw pics of this figure, I noticed the shoes, but I thought it was a production error. But I'm glad she comes with them, they're really cute!




Changing into her cute shoes is a simple as taking off her feet, and attaching these alternate ones. The Figma joints are all modular and standardized, which is great. I'm also going to take this time to say how thoroughly pleased I am with the work GSC put into Figma Mikuru Asahina. This pose is one that many of my figures, such as Revoltech, Transformers, or even Gundams would have troubles with, but the Figma figures pull off really well.




The five pairs of hands she comes with really add to the character of her poses.




Everything on this figure is pretty much perfect, but there are some things that could have made her more perfect. For instance, if she came with a hand and face for her "Mikuru Beam" that would have been more awesome than words can portray.

All in all, if you are a fan of the Haruhi series, (like me) get one. If you are a fan of Mikuru, (like me!) get one. If you are a fan of Figma, (like me) get one, or even if you are just a fan of some cute moe anime girl figures, (um, that's me too...) get one. This figure is great!

A new scan of GT-R Alternity Convoy

A new scan of this figure, in it's awesomeness! The image is rather small, so there's not a lot of information to be gleaned from it. I think we can reasonably rule out the forearms claws the lineart had. The roof and windshield hang a lot lower than I hoped they would, but such is the nature of kibble. I'm looking forward to seeing how this figure transforms, especially seeing how the middle section of the bumper integrates into the chest. If I were the Transformer designer, the head would probably be in that section.

Figma Saber Review

Today I'm going to be offering my thoughts on the Figma Saber, by the Good Smile Company. This figure is the third release in the Figma line. I'm not sure how the Good Smile Company got their start, but it's obvious that they know what they're doing.


I saw the Fate/Stay Night series, and I fell in love with the Saber character. Kaiyodo came out with a Revoltech version of her, and then came out with a Dark Saber version, from the Heaven's Feel scenario of the original game. I bought both, then later decided to get this figure.

Saber comes with four sets of hands. Two fists, two relaxed hands, two grippping hands, and two option hands. The left option hand is a pointing finger, and the right option hand is a open hand. The left relaxed hand has a small hole in the middle of it, the right size for a sword handle. This helps for the classic pose where Saber rests her hands on the handle of her sword.

She also comes with two swords, the Caliburn and the Excalibur. Now, I know that Caliburn and Excalibur are two names for the same sword, but the mythos for this series is understandably different. For starters, King Arthur was a man. In the F/SN mythos, the Caliburn was the sword she pulled from the stone to become king of the Britons, and then later it broke or something, and she got Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake.

Both swords come with sheathes, and are very well detailed. From the gold inlay on the handle of the Caliburn, to the engraving on the blade of the Excalibur, everything is sharply painted, and intricately molded.


Saber also comes with three faces. A regular calm face, an angry face, and a yelling face. These are well molded and detailed, and convey emotion very well.


The best parts of this figure, I feel, is the joints. Before I go any further, I need to say that I really love the Revoltech Sabers, and think that they are really awesome figures, but that being said, if the Revoltech Sabers are a ten, Figma Saber is a 12, at least. I mean, she's that good. The joints aren't click joints like the trademark Revoltech joints, so they have an endless amount of positions you can keep them in. This allows for a huge amount of character and nuance in the pose of the figure.


The sculpting is incredible. From head to toe, inside and out, everything is carefully molded and detailed. The people at the Good Smile Company are obviously people who love their jobs.


All Figma releases come with a stand, molded from clear plastic, with a peg that plugs into the back of the figure. This is much easier to work with than the base that plugs into the foot of the Revoltech Saber. Though actually, the only times I've needed the base is for jumping poses.


The Figma version is smaller in height than the Revoltech one, but it is still a good 7 inches tall.


Here's a cool detail. If you pull on the waist balljoint, it comes off, and you can remove the chest armor and there is the detail of her shirt underneath.

All in all, this figure is the best Saber figure I've seen, and it was well well worth my $30. Go get one!

Mega Blocks Neo Shifters

Sorry about the absence, it's been a couple days since I posted. I've just had a busy weekend, is all. The 4th of July, or Kaboom Day as I call it, was fun. We went to a nearby stadium and sat so close to the fireworks that firework debris fell on us and around us.

Whatever the fireworks are that don't do a starburst or flares, but just do a really loud, really bright flashbang, I want some. A whole lot. I wanna wake up the neighbors for three miles! Actually, blowing up things is a pastime of mine, but that's not what I'm posting about today.

Today I'm going to impart some thoughts on a Mega Blocks toy, called a Neo Shifter. My first thought, being raised on Legos since a small child was Hisssss! The enemy!! but it's actually pretty nice. The Mega Blocks that are basically bootleg Legos are still evil though.


The basic idea of a Neo Shifter is that you have a robot, and it folds into a ball. Now, one of the things that I love in life is robots, especially transforming robots. Why Lego doesn't do transforming things, I don't know. But they should. (actually, Lego should license with Hasbro to do just that, but that's for another discussion.) My brother bought this, and he built it, and he took it home, and I started messing with it. My first thought was that it played more like a figure than a building toy. It's joints are kinda like the Lego Exo Force figures, but they don't click. Actually, I was suprised by how well the whole thing is put together.


Basically, the whole thing just crams itself into this little space of the ball. The ball is about the size of a bocci ball, but I think they come in a bigger size and a smaller size. When unfolded, it stands a good 11 inches tall or so. In some respects I think it could have done better with ball joints in some of it's joints, instead of the straight swivels (single axis). I especially would have loved some lateral movement in the elbows.


It's got this propeller launcher gimmick, that I didn't try out, but I like the way it looks. Like a big fusion cannon. I positioned it kinda reminiscent of Megatron.


The large hold in the chest holds, I dunno, a pilot, operator, something like that. A little ball, that turns into a little robot. It's molded all in black except for the face, which is reddish orange.


The little hunched over guy it turns into is actually pretty well articulated, since it's held together with ball joints. Also, he holds these little guns that came with the figure, and are attached to the big fusion cannon.


All in all, I think it's a pretty nice figure. I mean, for $20, and for being Mega Blocks, it's not bad at all. If you like transforming building toys and Lego doesn't cut it, go looking into one of these, they're pretty nice.

GFF NT-1 Alex

All pics scalped from GA Graphic's site. All text scalped from me.

Also, I'm trying a new image host site. I've heard that majhost.com supports unlimited storage and bandwidth, so that's pretty cool. It doesn't batch files automatically, but it'll uncompress ZIP files, so it's almost the same thing. If anyone is having trouble viewing this, just say so in the comments, and I'll get to the bottom of it.


The NT-1 Alex is one of the main mecha from Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. The design gimmick of it was magnetic coated joints for increased speed. The EFSF star pilot/deus ex machina Amuro Ray was showing reaction time that outstripped the capabilities of the RX-78-2, and so the EFSF was designing this new MS for him. The Gundam NT-1 Alex also includes a panoramic display for increased visibility, The first Gundam to have one, I think.


The Gundam FIX Figuration line of figures are high detail figures designed and overseen by Hajime Katoki. Well, he doesn't design them all, the original designer was a man named Yutaka Izubuchi who later went on to design mecha for Char's Counterattack and is probably best known and the designer and director for RahXephon.


No, Hajime Katoki just slathers 100% pure awesomeness over every mecha design he touches, and he releases them to the general public. The Alex is no exception to this. The lines and angles are very sharp and detailed, and the panels are covered with the trademark Katoki decals which make it look awesome.


Hopefully the armor is not a pain in the butt like it was for the MSiA incarnation. It was tough to get on, and you had to remove the beam sabers any time you wanted to switch. Oh, and at some point my Alex's leg decided it never wanted to stay on again. But I don't expect that'll be a problem with the GFF, they've usually stuck together pretty well. The only real exception I've had to that is the arms of my GFF Gundam Ver Ka like to fall off from time to time. The joint system for the shoulder of the Alex looks to be similar, but I'm sure they stay on better.


Most of the GFF lineup features Mobile Suits with swappable parts to reconfigure the figure to another MS, but aside from a rather noticable seam around the collar, there's nothing to suggest that. No seams on the legs or anything.


The other figure gimmick, besides the pop-out gatlings in the arms, is the Chobham armor. First of all, where did that name come from? I envision someone at Sunrise:
"Hey! I made this snazzy armor for the Alex! What should I call it?"
"I dunno, how about Chobham?"
"Chobham? Where the crap did that come from?"
"I dunno, I was thinking about naming my firstborn son that, but I felt that Steve was a better name."
"Um, okay, whatever dude..."


The Chobham armor is nicely made, with panel lines in all the right places. This is only a gray prototype version, but I'm sure the final version will have the correct color, which is, uh, actually, about that shade of gray. Also I'm sure it will have little tiny decals all over it. This IS Katoki, after all.


Kinda sad that we only get this front view, because I can't quite figure out how that armor attaches. I'm sure the shoulder armor just snaps on top, and the skirt armor is a real no-brainer. The forearm armor looks like the top and either side is one part, and that slides on top, and then the back attaches to encase the arm. I'm sure that the chest and back armor goes on kinda like the HGUC armor, but I can't tell from this angle. And I have no idea how the leg armor works. There does look like there's a little seam around the front panelling of the leg. Hmmm....


In the end, it looks like a bulked up body builder or a guy in football armor. I like the Alex, and if I have the money, I may pick it up.

Wesperio: MMS Type Bat

I now bring the other half of the Wave 10 Busou Shinki preview. This figure is named Wesperio.


The first thing I notice when I look at her is probably that she seems to have less armor than her Scorpion counterpart. You know, less pieces, smaller pieces, just not as good of a deal all round. A couple really cool points about this figure are, first of all, the black and blue color scheme is very nice, and her red hair makes a spot of vividness in the middle of it all. Also, she seems to specialize in ranged weapons vs Grapios's melee weapons. She carries those rifles in her hands, and the armor parts sticking over her shoulders make it look like she has cannons. Cool!


One unfortunate aspect of this figure is that it is lacking in the clothing department as well. I know this seems like a very minor thing to rant about, since it's the same mold regardless of what color it's molded or painted in, but still, it's the idea of the thing! Modest is hottest, right?


Here's a wider shot of Wesperio showing the full armors. I'm sure she has a lot more in the box that don't attach on the 'official' configuration. Every Shinki so far seems to be like that.


Next up is a couple shots of the armor by itself, in its bat form. This is a new trend in the Shinkis. Starting with wave 9, the Shinkis have had a form for the armor itself, and also the configuration for the armor combined with the figure. I wonder if this is going to have some effect in Battle Rondo, the Busou Shinki free downloadable game.


This brings us to the last couple pictures of this post.



The armors combine to form a dragon configuration. The dragon is very very cool looking and looks very believable. In fact, I'd wager that these armors were designed with the dragon mode first, and the Bat/Scorpion modes second.

All in all, I think that my feeling for Wesperio is the same as my feeling for Grapios. Namely, I like the armors almost as much as I dislike the bodies. Unless I can find someone who's willing to split the cost of a set with me, I doubt I'm going to get these.

Grafios: MMS Type Scorpion

First up in the lineup of the new Busou Shinkis is Grafios, a Scorpion Type. The first thing I thought when I saw this was, "GET SOME CLOTHES ON, WOMAN!" The second thing had something to do with how sweet her armor looked. I've always like the way the colors red and black went together.



Some things of note on this figure, first of all, the figure itself adheres to one of the anime stereotypes of elves. Namely, she has to have dark skin, pointy ears, very light hair, and be nearly expressionless. Oh, and have a huge rack, but that's kind of a general anime staple. Someone on the Busou Shinki World wondered whether or not Konami was going to come out with a MMS Naked body to match it. I should have pointed out to him that all she needs is some ethyl alchohol and it'll be a naked body anyhow. For that matter, my Tigris is molded mostly in skintone, but she at least has paint on her.

The designer for this wave is the same who designed Eukrante and Ianiera, so that also explains the overdeveloped chest on Grafios. I swear, when I see animeish characters with a tiny waist and a large chest, it makes me think of Ms. Shikijo from Mahoromatic.


The armor looks really good on her. It'd be nice if it formed more of a body armor config instead of mostly attaching on the back, and not just because it would make her more decent.


There are some little door looking things on the scorpion claws, the parts that are hanging to either side of the figures shoulders. They are probably little missile doors.


The scorpion mode is pretty nice though. A nice looking mecha scorpion. This thing probably has about 50 joints, and I don't even know how many parts.


In the end, my verdict is that this is a Shinki with good armor, but a bad body. Next on the list, MMS Type Bat!