News: Final Fantasy XIII gaming update

Been playing the game everyday after work, found out that the battle system is actually very complicated, each character has several roles and each role has special abilities, then you create paradigms which are combination line up of characters with different roles, and you switch on the fly during battle.

I am still in the early part of the game where I don't have full control of part members, so each time a new party is formed, I have to try and memorize which paradigm is what...it's kind of hectic and kind of fun when you fiddle through the menu and try to beat the crap out of your enemies as fast as possible...

The game so far is quite linear, we shall see...

Also, I love the opening theme and will probably be buying the CD from eBay...

News: Mega House Excellent Model Sheryl Nome Last Frontier Version

If you are a fan of Macross Frontier, you probably have already ordered this rendition of Sheryl Nome...all of her 17 year-old youth, 168 cm height, 56kg body weight is transpired into this Excellent Model from Mega House...

News: Working at Bandai means...

...that you could be responsible for building one of the 300 PG Gundam OO to be used in Pro shop and hobby store in Japan...I had thought that the store staff would built the model when they get the shipment in but apparently that's not how it works, Bandai actually ship out these display models to them...nice...

I imagine there is a team of people to built these, but it's still a drag to repetitively do the same thing over and over again...

Pictures from Bandai's PG Gundam OO development Blog.

News: Hyper Gokin Ironman Mark III

To me, a gokin (metal alloy) toy and ironman is the perfect marriage and a no brainer...Finally, someone figured it out.

Coming this summer, EZHobi will be bringing us a 1/10 scale Hyper Gokin Ironman Mark III in all the iron glory. Very scatchy details but looks like it will be 21cm tall, 60 movable joints, all gimmicks and full of diecast material...it will be selling for 13,800 yen before tax. Let's hope they accept overseas order...directly...

Hmm...just read the company info, as it turned out the company main business address is in Taiwan with a subsidiary in Japan, I'll contact them to find out if this can be purchased online or they will release it through broader retail channel (so far, I have not seen anyone carrying this yet, although some are carrying other EZhobi stuff...very hopeful...)

News: Mega House 'Lord of Lords' Ryu Knight Zephyr

I remember in the early 90's, RPG fantasy games were gaining momentum worldwide (with the help of a couple of video games called Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest), then came Lord of the Lords Ryu Knight written by Takehiko Ito, and if memory serves me right, it had to be one of the first anime to introduce RPG elements into the story, and combined with robots, SD shaped robots.


Back in those days some 15 years ago, I was actually oblivious to the existence of this anime. Then I chanced upon an anime theme song collection on a CD and was struck by the really, really, really...energetic, upbeat and of course catchy tune that is the theme song for Ryu Knight. From then on, as they say, it's history...and to this day, the song remains in my top 10 list of all times, a great way to start the day - title of the song is Good-Bye Tears by Yumiko Takahashi.

Very glad that Mega House resurrected interest in this anime by making a fine toy, you can order yours at a discount from Hobby Search (which is where I snatched these fabulous pictures from).

News: Robot Damashii V-Gundam and F91

The Robot Damashii line up is coming with full force, releasing later this month is the V-Gundam Full Armor Assault version (or whatever its called), and in April will be F91...

Personally, I love the F91 although I know a lot of people are not fond of it. To me, the F91 really revolutionized the Gundam design and it inspired many works that came after - not very hard to see shades of V-Gundam, Wing Gundam, Wing Zero, Freedom, Strike Freedom...

News: Hot Toys Ironman 2 - War Machine (aka Gun Cannon Ironman)

Hot Toys is introducing the first entry into their Ironman 2 lineup, the 'War Machine'. It looks like a souped up Ironman with redesigned armor, missile pods and of course, the back mounted gatling gun. It needs a core fighter and beam rifle to complete the transformation...It will feature the likeness of actor Don Cheadle in an alternate head.

According to wikipedia as of today, the Don Cheadle War Machine will not only appear in Iron 2 this summer, but is also going to appear in the Avengers movie in 2012...

News: Final Fantasy XIII

I just started playing the game today, what a thing of beauty. The battle system is so easy to learn, yet, I love the fact that my efficiency in battle is graded, not sure if it means more treasure or what not, but getting 5 stars sure is satisfying.

According to Square Enix, Final Fantasy XIII had shipped over 5 million copies world wide by March 10, and more importantly on a personal level, it was the first game in a long time that I paid full price for and bought in its debut week.

Get your wallpaper at the games' official website: www.finalfantasyxiii.com

Review: GFFN Gundam Unicorn ReZel

Just got my GFFN ReZel, so just want to share some thoughts. These pictures are borrowed from GA Graphics because the site has good pictures and I am still fiddling with my studio set up...(not ready to take pictures yet).

Personally, I think the GFFN is going down hill if they don't start to address some value issue. If you read my review on the 1st item released in this series (the ZII), you would know that I really had high hopes for it since you really get a quality (lots of metal joints), well designed, sharp looking piece in the ZII. Then I got the GFFN Strike, ok, good design, much less metal usage, still, sharp lines...

Then I got the ReZel, you'd notice that the packaging is identical to a normal GFF (other than the label 'Next Generation' of course, the first two releases both featured a different designed package from the standard GFF). There is very minimal metal in this figure if any at all, it's very sharp and the plastic is of high quality, but I just feel being misled...this is more like a transformable Robot Damashii item to be honest...

You can see more pictures at the GA Graphics website or wait for mine if and when I get to do them...

News: Gundam Formania

Gundam For Mania! What a name, haha...

Anyway you don't have to be crazy to love this, the sharp lines and details really speak of quality, although I wish they had released a full body version instead...I wonder why they picked this Gundam as opposed to any other to do this product...pics from Bandai website.

Gundam Formania, just released Mar 13, 2010 for 12000 yen.

Gallery: Bandai 1/48 Mega Size Gundam

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