I was slacking at home on a half-day off on Friday, when I received a call from Reggie asking me if I wanted to watch the F1 practice session that evening as he suddenly had two tickets. Wanting to “be part of history”, I fumbled for my dingy old camera, and to my dismay found out that one pair of batteries had already run out of power, and the 64MB memory card in it could hold only 72 pictures. Hastily replacing it with my 1GB microSD card, I was greeted with a message saying I had to format the card. My mum asked me if I wanted to take her phone instead but I had no idea how to use hers, and the battery life was pathetic. In the end, I left home without a camera, but I was thankful for my mum who dug up some earplugs which were very, very much needed later on.
More Upcoming Masked Rider Stuff
22 09 2008
Ripped straight from Toysdaily, SH Figuarts Dark Kabuto and SH Figuarts Urataros Imagin are scheduled for a 2009 release at 2625 yen each. Once again, this is proof of Bandai going full steam into the Kabuto series and its variants. I guess Dark Kabuto won’t be the last of the Kabuto releases.
On the other hand, SIC Volumes 45 and 46 have been announced. Vol. 45 will be Masked Rider Den-O Liner Form + Urataros Imagin while Vol. 46 will be Masked Rider 1 The First Ver. with bike. No news of a release date yet, but does this mean that there might be a release of Masked Rider Den-O Climax Form + Kintaros Imagin? Who knows.
Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: masked rider 1, masked rider den-o, masked rider kabuto, masked rider the first, sh figuarts, sic, urataros imagin
Categories : toys, upcoming merchandise
Upcoming Masked Rider Merchandise – SIC
21 09 2008From Toysdaily, a prototype photo of the upcoming SIC Masked Rider Zeronos + Deneb Imagin. Also, thanks to the heads-up from Ngee Khiong, I have some pictures of the soon-to-be-released SIC Masked Rider Den-O Gun Form and Ryuutaros Imagin ripped straight from Bandai’s Tamashii web site.
7140 yen, December release.
You can see from the above pictures the difference between the styles for the SIC and SH lines. SIC figures are more organic in appearance and may look different from the TV version. The original idea was to create figures that projected a dark feel (which the original Kamen Rider tried to) by re-imagining their appearance. That’s why they are called Super Imaginative Chogokin. Unfortunately, these figures aren’t produced in huge amounts and are very expensive. For a poor bloke like me, I’ll go broke very soon if I ever start collecting them. Besides, it’s very hard to find older releases now.
Bandai’s Tamashii Web has a gallery of the SIC Masked Rider Den-O Gun Form and Ryuutaros Imagin. It will be released on this 27th September for 6300 yen.
Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: deneb imagin, masked rider den-o, masked rider zeronos, ryuutaros imagin, sic
Categories : toys, upcoming merchandise
SHF Deneb Imagin + SH Masked Rider Zeronos
18 09 2008Here’s a second round of lousy photos. This time it’s the SHF Deneb Imagin. Deneb is the bumbling Imagin partner of Sakurai Yuuto in Masked Rider Den-O.
A shot of the accessories that come with the figure. A fan, Deneb candy, watermelon helmet for his awesome disguise, basket and extra hands. One right hand for holding the fan or lollipop (which have pegs), one left hand for holding the basket loosely, one pair of fists and one pair of finger guns.
Here’s a shot of Deneb trying to be serious and kick ass with his finger guns.
When he’s around other people, he comes up with (in)effective disguises, the most famous of which is his watermelon helmet.
Here is Deneb with Masked Rider Zeronos Altair Form.
Deneb prepares to combine with Yuuto to form Vega Form.
Transformation complete! ”最初に言っとく。胸の顔は飾りだ!”
“Let me say this to start. The face on my chest is for display!” Another famous trying-to-be-serious quote.
Yuuto bashing poor Deneb yet again.
Figures from the SHF line have a sleek silhouette and take articulation one step ahead with triple ankle joints. The only die-cast parts are the feet, which Bandai claims to improve stability, but I have not noticed much difference. The joints in the head and wrists resemble Kaiyodo’s Revolver Joints without the clicky feeling, allowing for great articulation. While Deneb’s robe has several joints, the fact that they can’t be bent like real cloth is a slight disappointment though. Can’t have such high expectations. Other characters with less bulky armour or clothing will have greater potential to be posed in a variety of ways and the SHF Masked Riders prove it.
Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: action figures, deneb imagin, masked rider den-o, masked rider zeronos, sh figuarts, souchaku henshin
Categories : reviews, toys
Revoltech Eva-01 New Movie Version
17 09 2008It’s been several days since my last post. I have been trying to get my hands on some batteries for my dingy old camera, and only today I have managed to 1. get a pair with sufficient juice, 2. set up some space for taking photos and 3. actually take some photos despite my horrendous and hasty photography skills. So here are several pictures of my recent get, the Revoltech Eva-01 New Movie Version.
I finally know what major disadvantage WordPress has – it has painfully long loading times. It took me 45 minutes to take these photos, and 15 minutes just to insert them into this post, waiting for blank, loading dialog boxes. Also, most pages take ages to load the first time.
Obligatory front view.
All accessories laid out. As you can see above, the package comes with a fair bit of things: a stand, umbilical cable, progressive knife/effect part, shoulder scope and extra shoulder armours, extra head (open mouth) and 4 extra pairs of hands. The hands are detailed and fixed-pose. In all, there are 3 pairs of open palms, one pair of fists and one pair for holding weapons.
Here’s a shot of the fixed-pose open shoulder armour to simulate the Eva drawing its progressive knife.
In this picture you can see the extra closed shoulder armour has a removable bit to simulate the removed knife.
A glimpse of the awesome articulation this action figure can do.
I totally forgot about a rear view until the end.
It takes several minutes of fiddling around between each photo putting the figure into a new pose and replacing the hands (which can be very difficult to remove and put on as the joints keep swiveling in all directions as you try to push the hand into place) and I could only manage these few lousy pictures. I have been having driving lessons this week – lots of boring Final Theory Practices, and more tomorrow (one more Practice and then an Evaluation which I have to pass before being able to take the Final Theory Test), in preparation for my Final Theory Test on 3 October.
So here’s a little review of this figure. Overall, the figure is quite detailed in certain areas like the head and hands. The figure isn’t made from solid ABS so a little flex is expected but in this figure, there aren’t many vulnerable break-prone areas besides the head horn. Numerous extra hands and an open-mouthed head make the figure capable of expressing more emotion. I particularly like the combination of an open-mouthed head and the claw-positioned hands which give the figure its characteristic primal rage look. The stand is merely a cheap-looking standard one that comes with all Revoltech figures. The base plate when used by itself is useful for keeping the figure stable.
The Revolver Joints are placed in the following locations: head, neck, shoulders (2), elbows (2), wrists (2), torso, knees (2 double joints), and ankles (2). Great articulation for a relatively cheap figure, even cheaper in my case as I bought it for only $15 SGD. Its design allows its joints to be flexed to a large degree as it does not have bulky armour or bit of clothing blocking the way. One potential issue would be the fact that despite Kaiyodo’s claims of eliminating loose joints due to wear and being able to hold their positions, some of the joints have a little play in them. My figure also has one of its shoulder armours loose. I guess it can be fixed with a little UHU or other not-so-strong adhesive.
I would say that this figure is rather good, and if there were more figures that I fancied, I may bust my dough on them too. The Revoltech line covers numerous franchises so most people would have their favourite characters/mecha reproduced in the Revoltech format.
Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: action figures, evangelion, kaiyodo, revoltech
Categories : reviews, toys
Gets for Today
14 09 2008Pardon my dingy old camera/poor photography skills combination. Here’s a hasty shot of my gets for today. Couldn’t resist not getting Deneb Imagin, especially having already owned the SH Masked Rider Zeronos Altair/Vega Form Set. There was a pretty big Revoltech sale at 2 boxes for $30 SGD. I only got an Eva-01 New Movie Ver. as there wasn’t much else I fancied at that time and the crowd was sort of putting me off. I managed to get a dude nearby to get only one (he settled for a Dix-neuf, no idea what that is) so we could both enjoy the offer.
I can’t promise putting a bunch of photos up as I do not have my own digital camera. Even if I did, I’ll be too ashamed to put any photos with my lousy photography skills.
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: action figures, deneb imagin, evangelion, kaiyodo, masked rider den-o, revoltech, sh figuarts
Categories : toys
Upcoming Takara Tomy Toys
13 09 2008Takara Tomy has revealed several new remote-controlled toys to its ever-growing lineup of Q-vehicles: The QFO and Hover-Q.
Image courtesy of Akihabaranews
It’s been a long times (sic) since we’ve had a small radio controlled helicopter. Takara Tomy has just unveiled a new one, the QFO.
Now our toy is in shape of a UFO. It measures 65×65x43mm, and will be available at the end of this month.
I have managed to dig up a video of the QFO in action, courtesy of Diginfo.tv
A quick check on the Takara Tomy website has revealed several more new lines of remote-controlled toys: Hover-Q and Aero Spider. While there isn’t much on these websites currently, the Hover-Q looks to be a mini remote-controlled hovercraft and more information will up on the official site mid-September.
The Aero Spider on the other hand, is a rebranding of the Air Hogs Zero Gravity Micro (I can’t link to the product page directly as it is a pure Flash website) under the Takara Tomy brand. It’s an RC car which uses vacuum to drive on walls and ceilings. Get set for some Newton-defying fun for a slightly pricey 4725 yen this October.
Here’s a Shiny Review video of the car in action. Nice try.
Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: hover-q, qfo, rc, takara tomy
Categories : toys, upcoming merchandise
Upcoming Masked Rider Merchandise
12 09 2008Here’s a look at two upcoming action figures under the S.H. Figuarts (SHF) line – Masked Rider Ketaros & Heracus, and Super Imaginative Chogokin (SIC) Limited Edition Masked Rider Den-O Rod and Axe Form.
All images courtesy of Toysdaily
These characters are from the Kamen Rider Kabuto spin-off movie, Godspeed Love. The movie had a dark storyline which matched well with the first half of the series, something which attracted me to watch the show. However, I think I’ll pass on buying these as they are almost merely variants of Kabuto with different heads and colour schemes. I find the spin-off movies like to have new Riders that look almost identical. I have already busted quite a bit of dough on SHF Kick and Punch Hopper (which are almost identical as well), and Bandai is clearly rushing full steam into milking Kabuto fans who have not seen any major merchandise other than the Souchaku Henshin (SH) figures. Of course, I will be waiting for the release of SHF Kabuto and Gatack sometime in October and November respectively.
While the SHF line lacks the armour transformation gimmicks the SH line is famous for, I find the SHF body sculpt to be way more sleek than the SH figures, not to mention the superior articulation. The sleek silhouette suits the Kabuto line very well, but not so for old-school Riders. The SH Kabuto figures may have the awesome Cast Off gimmick (with a second dummy base body to show both Forms), but their stocky old-fashioned appearance and outdated articulation makes the SHF line a better choice for me.
Both figures are slated for a December release at 2625 yen each.
Off topic, I initially planned to write and save posts before publishing them so that I could post new content regularly. However, I was bogged down by duty and driving lessons the past three days. What a great start to a new blog eh? I guess having frequent content updates can be too ambitious, so I shall strive to post meaningful posts instead of frequent, inane ones.
[edit @ 1800] I have hotlinked pictures of the upcoming SIC Limited Edition Masked Rider Den-O Rod and Axe Forms below.








All images hotlinked from Amiami
The above has been planned for a November release at 6300 yen.
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: action figures, masked rider den-o, masked rider kabuto, sh figuarts, sic
Categories : toys, upcoming merchandise
Review: n+ for DS
9 09 2008
Image courtesy of DGEmu.com
I kick off my first official post here with a little review of the game, n+ for the Nintendo DS. Having played the original Flash version, I was pretty excited for its release when I first heard news of its development on the handheld platforms. I managed to give it a try after finding numerous reviews full of praise.
Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: nintendo DS
Categories : games, reviews
Hello World
8 09 2008Here’s yet another user who has hopped onto the bandwagon that is WordPress. Having heard of the numerous features in WordPress that are not available in LiveJournal and Blogspot, the two hosts I have used before, I have decided to start a new blog with this host. Besides, WordPress looks pretty Web 2.0-ish.
The features and tools are currently overwhelming right now so I’ll probably take some time to get used to the controls. Having only a rudimentary and outdated knowledge of HTML doesn’t help so I’ll settle for the generic templates provided.
So, as the Internet moves to the 2.0 age (long ago), I realised that blogs which were no much more than:
- diaries, check
- walls of text, check
- gatherings for emo release, check
Are now passe. Having read much more blogs than posted, I found out that as a reader, I would be inclined to look for the main point of an entry at its beginning (which I realise I’m not doing now.), pay more attention to pictures than text and ignore long paragraphs.
With this new blog I hope to put in a little bit of commitment and see if I can share my interest with anyone reading this.
Comments : Leave a Comment »
Categories : about

































