BTW...

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


It will make you laugh.

You have been warned.

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!

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!

Short review of Rebuild of Evangelion #01 "You are (not) alone"

This movie was really really great! I was kind of bothered that there was very little original footage in the first half of the movie, but the last half more than made up for it. For instance, the battle with the 3rd Angel was almost entirely reused, and aside from new visual effects and recoloring, the first shot of new footage I noticed was when the Unit-01 regenerated it's left arm. The battle with the 4th Angel had a lot of new footage, since the Angel was redesigned and the Unit-01's loadout was changed.

There was significantly less of Shinji's day to day life, due to the shortened nature of the film, but not to the point where we don't feel what kind of character he is. Some parts of the story were changed and rearranged, since this is a reimagining of Evangelion after all. For example, Shinji ran away after the battle with the 4th Angel, and in that sequence he was wandering the streets of Tokyo-3, sleeping in a cardboard box, and basically trying to get away. He did not end up with his nerdy buddy from school, though NERV secret service did still pick him up.

The biggest change comes during the battle with the 5th Angel. It is completely different. Bigger, badder, and more action. When the Unit-01 first comes out to attack the Angel, the Angel physically reconfigures to fire at it, and they jettison an entire city block to retrieve Evangelion Unit-01. As we have seen from the merchandise, the key hardware in that battle have been completely redesigned, and it looks great.

My favorite scenes in this new movie are where Shinji (Unit-01) crawls back to the positron rifle after taking a hit, and the aftermath of that battle, where he cuts the Unit-00's entry plug out with a Progressive Dagger. The end has previews for the next movie, just as the show does, with the obligatory mention of fan service. Of note in that department: The appearance of Kaoru in the end of the movie, the mention of Unit-05 and a single shot of Unit-06, not a white EVA Series!!

Bottom line: I loved this movie, if you love Evangelion, you will too!

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.

Wall-E Movie Review

First off, I want to admit that I am a Pixar fanboy. I have seen every Pixar film but Ratatouille, which I plan on seeing, I just have to get my hands on a copy of it. Anyhow, I actually first fell in love with the movie when I first saw a preview in the theater. It was a Pixar movie, I was excited.

Since the movie has come out, I have seen it twice now, and I'm probably going to see it again this week.
The first thing that kind of strikes me about this movie is that the main characters don't really talk all that much. I mean, Pixar movies involve things that talk, talking toys, talking bugs, talking fish, talking cars, talking rats, here's a movie where the stuff doesn't talk much. The first 20 minutes of the movie are completly without dialogue, if you don't count the "Hello Dolly!" scenes. There's also a couple funny Apple references in this part of the movie. When Wall-E goes home to his crate to unwind after a hard day at work, he puts in a old VHS of "Hello Dolly!" which plays on a 2nd Generation iPod, which he magnifies with a refractive sheet. (which, BTW, took some serious iPod hacking skills, since he'd have to get the input to the iPod, get the iPod to play video, and somehow get a color screen for it too!) Secondly, when he recharges himself in the morning with his solar panels, he makes the iconic Apple boot up chime. Awesome.

So the basic premise of this movie is that Wall-E is the last of a series of garbage cleaning robots, and after hundreds of years of being lonely, he has developed quirks and habits and a personality. His only friend, at this point, is an unnamed cockroach. Again, side note, as much as I hate cockroaches, Pixar has somehow managed to make one cute and endearing as a minor character.
One day Wall-E's routine is turned upside down when a spaceship lands in the wastes and drops off another robot. Where Wall-E is clunky and boxy, Eve is smooth and sleek. Perhaps this is another Apple reference, but she kinda looks like a cross between an egg and an iPod. The technology that goes into Eve is obviously much more advanced than Wall-E, as she flies around without legs, and moving parts like her head and arms stay in place, though physically disconnected from the body. There are also several nice details that make her more interesting to look at than a plain, smooth, white exterior.

In any case, either due to being alone for so long, or due to the grace of Eve, Wall-E immediately falls in love. Unfortunately for him, as he works up the courage to indroduce himself to the new robot, he becomes aquainted with her trigger happy mentality. Personally, I think it's a bad idea to program an exploration robot to shoot at anything that moves, but you know, it works. Anyhow, I'm going to try to be a bit vague, since not everyone has seen this movie yet, but Eve is on a mission, and she has a job to do. When she finds her objective, she aquires it and shuts down. Sleep mode or something. This is where the story begins to get sweet, as Wall-E stays with her all the time. This part is mildly like "Castaway" where the guy builds this friendship with a soccer ball and takes it everywhere. Anyhow, one day he goes off to work and leaves Eve in the sun, where she's been for who knows how long. That also happens to be the day that the spaceship comes back to retrive Eve. Wall-E runs after the spaceship, and manages to get on before it blasts off.

Some really goregeous scenery follows, and Wall-E ends up on the Axiom, which is a human ship. This is where we start to get some more characters. One of my favorite characters is a little cleaning droid called M-O, who spends nearly the entire movie chasing after Wall-E to clean up the tracks and dirt he leaves behind. Other interesting characters introduced are the misfit droids from the repair center, and the autopilot, OTTO, who is apparently voiced by Sigourney Weaver, though her voice is so processed it could have been Alvin the Chipmunk for all we know. Oh, also the ship is populated with fat people. Anyhow, the ending was a bit tense, and there's about five minutes in the end where you think, "if it ends like this I'm gonna kill someone."

The voice of Wall-E was put together by Ben Burtt, who perhaps is best known for voicing everyone's favorite droid, R2-D2. I don't know if he synthesized it or literally voiced it. Eve, on the other hand, was actually voiced by a woman named Elissa Knight, who must be a Pixar employee, because the only other thing IMDB says she did was a role in Cars. Anyhow, as a result of the way they do this, Wall-E's voice carries a lot of character, whereas Eve's voice holds more emotion, which is an intersting thing I noticed.

In the end, I found it to be cute and enjoyable throughout. There are a few statements made in this movie, more than in most Pixar movies, about ecology and society, but they are pretty tame. I mean, the opening scenes are shots of piles of garbage, with wind farm windmills poking out of them, and garbage surrounding a nuclear power plant, as if to say that clean energy like that won't stop us from junking stuff, and of course, the fat people, as if to say that if we don't get off our butts and do something, we'll end up like them, but they are tolerable because the movie isn't about that. Movies like "The Day After Tomorrow", and "An Inconvenient (ed: Un)Truth" were about those things, but not this one. This movie is, plain and simple, about Wall-E, and how he falls in love, and sacrifices everything for the one he loves. And about Eve, who learns that there are more important things in life than directives. This is much much more a sweet romantic comedy than a political platform.

This is something all the kids will love, and most any adult as well. This is a must see movie for the family.

My review of Yamato's 1/60 YF-19

So, on Saturday, I was sitting at home, working on a puzzle, when I hear the doorbell ring. My sister went to the door, talked to a guy there, then went about her business. Later my mom pokes her head in and says, "Zak, you know there's a big box here for you?" I go out to take a look, and sure enough, there's this massive box sitting in the hallway. I take it to my room and start cutting it open. The box is pretty nice, but not fantastic or anything, it's only purpose is to just carry the plane. And what a nice looking plane it is!

Back when Yamato first started, their first toy was the 1/72 scale YF-19. It was nice, and pretty revolutionary, certainly compared to the Macross figures of the time, but there were still some flaws that bothered fans. The sculpt was a bit off, and some of the parts didn't line up as they should. Still, despite those flaws, it was widely accepted by Macross Plus fans. Later, Yamato started rereleasing their Macross Plus figures with FAST packs, which provide additional weaponry and armor. However, despite high demand from the fans, the YF-19 never got rereleased. This plane is probably the reason why.





I've been crazy about this plane since I first saw Macross Plus, and I have been wanting a transforming YF-19 since I first saw the Studio Half-Eye kit back in high school. After taking a long look at this, I think the thing I like best about the plane is that nice long neck it has. It really makes it look elegant.



Traditionally, the gerwalk or Guardian mode has always been my favorite mode, and that's where most of my valkyries and veritechs stay. The gerwalk mode of the YF-19 is truely nice. After growing up with a Transformers Jetfire, I have really loved that the Yamato valks hold this really nice nose down gerwalk pose. It really just makes them look great!







This is another example of pictures making a better review than the words. Yamato has really outdone themselves with this one! The battroid mode is nice and stable, and able to make and hold a dynamic pose.







Yamato even took the time to add in a few nice details, like internals on the head, and a removable gun clip.



Here are a few comparison shots of the YF-19. Here is the YF-19 next to a Yamato 1/60 VF-1S, you can see how much bigger the YF-19 is.



Here are a few comparison shots with the old 1/65 scale VF-19. You can really see how much better the articulation, sculpting and detailing is on the YF-19.





From the back is where you can really see the differences. The old VF-19 had almost hollow legs, and a lot of stubby parts.



All in all, I think this is one of the better figures I've gotten, and will remain with my Aquarion as a pinnacle of transforming robots.

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