I've started putting up some photo galleries on my site. I've got four up right now, and will hopefully adding more soon.
SH Figuarts Kamen Rider Odin & Goldphoenix Gallery
SH Figuarts Kamen Rider Ryuki Blank Gallery
SH Figuarts Kamen Rider Abyss Gallery
The latest release in the Kamen Rider Ryuki line is here, with Alternative Zero!
Alternative Zero is a completely different (all new?) body from the previous Ryuki Figuarts. WTF?
The feet are different, not just plastic, (booo!), but different sculpt, the hands are different (the card holding hand even - it reminds me a lot more of Den-O's pass-holding hand than the Ryuki card holding hands). If there is ANY reuse between Alternative Zero and Ryuki, it is so minimal as to be irrelevant.
The joints feel plenty solid, the articulation doesn't seem crippled anywhere, it seems like a totally excellent Figuarts - despite the plastic feet, they're still nice and large, they seem the same size as the Ryuki feet, not miniscule things like the Sentai Figuarts have, so I don't foresee any balance issues, but it's just totally weird that it's so very much NOT a Ryuki Figuarts, despite having the correct style of packaging and having cards, which also look almost nothing like Advent cards.
WHAT IS THIS THING? Abyss was from a completely different TV series, and yet it is very much a Ryuki Figuarts, but Alternative Zero, he has more in common with SHF Blade than with SHF Ryuki. I don't get it.
But it's a very nice looking figure, and well worth having, it just doesn't match my expectations. Do I display it on my Ryuki shelf?
Robot Damashii is a line I recently started collecting, it's a lot like SH Figuarts, in that it's a highly articulated line, generally with lots of accessories, mainly geared at one franchise, that of Mobile Suit Gundam.
Though I haven't finished watching the show yet, I really enjoy Kamen Rider Ryuki. Though I didn't at first, I know quite enjoy the Rider war aspect of it, and the Mirror Monsters is a great concept.
Additionally, the SH Figuarts line for Kamen Rider Ryuki is fantastic. Of all the many Figuarts I have, the Ryuki line is the best one, for posing, for quality, for sheer number of accessories. As such, I am most definitely a completist when it comes to the Ryuki line of Figuarts. I highly recommend any Ryuki Figuart to anybody.
I've been making video reviews of my collection, where I ramble about what I like and/or dislike about a given item in my collection. I have been meaning to post them here too, for the fun of it. And now I'm finally getting around to doing so.
I made another SH Figuarts gallery for TokuNation, Kamen Rider Ryuki Blank form
In Kamen Rider Ryuki, Shinjo Kido discovers an Advent Deck shortly before learning he is being hunted by Dragredder, a powerful dragon creature that lives in a Mirror World. Using the Seal Advent Card to protect himself from Dragredder, Shinji begins to learn about the Mirror World and the monsters that live there, preying on the humans of the real world.
He uses the Advent deck to access the Mirror World and summons a sword to attack a Spider Monster. The sword shatters because he lacks a contract with a Monster, which would lend him its power. After seeing a child weeping over the loss of her mother, consumed by the Spider Monster, Shinji destroys the Seal card that protects him from Dragredder, and forges a contract with the beast, using the blank Contract Card, becoming Kamen Rider Ryuki; his goal, to protect humanity from the Mirror Monsters. What he doesn't yet know, is that not all Kamen Riders share his goal.
I was experimenting with my dad's camera, cuz mine is pretty crap. Obviously, I don't know what I'm doing, but I found that in overexposing these shots a little, the light up features look pretty awesome. (click for larger version). The E is my favorite version of the Enterprise, and the B is tied with the D for second favorite version.
Enterprise B
Nemesis Enterprise E
All Good Things Enterprise D
While the E is my favorite ship, I really like the third nacelle on the AGT D, and the last shot here is one of the best pictures I've ever taken.
I seem to have trouble posting here regularly, but I'll see if I can't maintain a twice monthly accounting of what I got each month. Starting in March.
But since I got a big ol' box yesterday from a friend that works at a comic book shop and can therefor hook me up with good stuff I can't find locally, I want to share it.
The box is big.
The toy next to it, is 8-9" tall. So the box is really, really larger. And it contained a fair amount of goodies. Starting with three new Star Trek ships from Diamond Select Toys. The Enterprise E, Nemesis version, is a repaint of the Enterprise E they released a few years ago, with a much improved paint scheme, and new, beautiful blue LEDs in the warp nacelles. The Enterprise B and Bird of Prey are brand new ships, just released.
Then we have two new SH Figuarts, DekaRed from Dekaranger and Kintaros from Kamen Rider Den-O. yay!
And a mess of DC stuff. Batgirl bust from Women of the DC Universe series 3, Supergirl bust from the New 52 line, Eaglemoss DC Chess Collection: Special Edition Batsignal, and pieces Black Mask and Man-Bat, and Kotobukiya ArtFX+ Superman and Green Lantern from their New 52 line. There was also the 66 Batmobile from the Eaglemoss Batman Automobilia line that I forgot to put in the picture. All very beautiful items and stuff I'm glad to have. My friend has been storing this stuff up for me for a month, and it's great to finally have it in hand.
Pics of the Star Trek ships to follow!.
I've seen the first episode 3 or 4 times now, since I bought these DVDs, I watched it by myself, I showed it to my girls, and I watched it again, just now. It's a really good introduction to the franchise.
In MTMTE part 1 we are introduced to nearly all of the Transformers I remember as a kid, those that are staples of the franchise, as well as some of my favorites, including Soundwave and his main cassette minions, Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker, and obviously, Optimus Prime and Megatron. The introductions are enough to inform us of their personalities (which I imagine don't change much throughout the show), ie Soundwave is awesome, Starscream is a bit whiny and power hungry, Megatron is a maniac, Prime is heroic, etc. They all have distinct voices as well as looks - excepting the Seekers, being redecos of Starscream, but even so, each of them is featured individually, they're not just Starscream and his clones, they're definitely three different characters.
We also get a good amount of footage of Cybertron, with a nifty voice-over to start the episode, explain the Heroic Autobots and Evil Decepticons, the war, and their search for Energon. My favorite part of Cybertron is the cybertronian modes, that in my memory we don't see ever again. They're all decent, the Seekers having the best forms in my opinion, though Laserbeak's is also great, though Soundwave's is pretty darn lame, pretty much being just a 'T'. I'm still waiting for toys of the Tetrajets, in Starscream and Skywarp colors
The Autobots are leaving Cybertron to seek new sources of Energon, the Decepticons follow because anything Prime can do, Megatron must to better, and first. They fight, they damage the ship, it crashes on earth and 4 million years later the ship's computer awakens and goes exploring (Explore! Explore!). The first vehicle it scans is an F-15 jet, and the first Transformer revived (Repair! Repair!) is Skywarp, which I think is awesome, his is the best deco after all. The Decepticons start building a base, and attack an oil derrick to harvest the oil into Energon cubes, for storage and eventual return to Cybertron. The Autobots show up (flying? I didn't think they could fly, and (spoiler) it seems to be forgotten by the end of this three episode story arc), disrupt the Decepticons plans, who flee to their base. And thus is established the basic pattern of the show (or so I'm told).
Unfortunately, we also meet the humans. Ugh. Spike and Sparkplug Witwicki are okay, but damn they have stupid names. Hopefully they won't be too terrible as the show progresses, and maybe we'll meet some evil humans that will team up with the Decepticons, like Cobra Commander or something.
One last thing to mention, the theme song. It's awesome. The lyrics are primitive, and the song just kinda stops, but it is very catchy and I like the instrumentation of it. The first episode was a decent enough hook that I can totally see how it captured the attention of kids, and though it took me 4 years of toy collecting before I started buying Transformers, I was tempted by them on several occasions long beforehand. In the end, it was my love for Skywarp (and finding the Masterpiece figure on clearance for $15) that started me down that dark path, from which there is no return. Anyway, despite some very terrible art in places, the voice acting was decent, the story was interesting enough that so far I can say I enjoy the show, and I'm curious to see where it goes. And of course I cannot wait for the eventual introductions of my other favorite characters, Ultra Magnus, Ramjet and Devastator, all of whom, like Skywarp, I like for their designs, I don't remember them at all as characters.
Oh yeah, and Soundwave's voice is AWESOME.
I have a lot of ideas of things I should be writing about here, so of course it's been around 6 months since my last post, and already the first month of the new year is gone.
I'm going to watch Transformers, the original cartoon from 1984. I've been collecting Transformers with reckless abandon for 3 or 4 years now, seems like I should at least watch the cartoon that sold the original toyline.
I also intend to write a couple of stereotypical Best of 2012 posts, but I'm waiting on trying to learn how to take better pictures. So for now, I'll be trying to focus on Transformers (1984). I'm sure I won't keep to any schedule, but hopefully I can do one or two a week, I'll be trying to keep them short, not doing an entire write up of each episode, but more a short summation of the highlights, good and bad, of each episode. But I'm sure my nifty new game, Dragon Age: Origins, that I can play on my nifty new computer, will do a fair amount of distracting me from my purpose.
But, in that vein, I will now go watch episode 1, More Than Meets The Eye.
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