Yuki Kusakabe (Vacances Edition)

Another moment in time where another figure arrives at the post office to pick up, because no one was home to sign for it. This time, it was another whim purchase because of the “30% Discount.” Sounds like the Saber that was reviewed a while ago . Being asian as I am, there is now a charge on my credit card for Yuki Kusakabe from To Heart 2 in a scad white bikini. This 1/7 scaled figure was sculpted by HIDE who modeled the figure after a picture of Yuki in a beach setting to give a warm reminder of some things are just hot. The base for the figure is a sandy texture to add the beach setting too. Also in the base there seems to be a slot for something and will be a mystery because there aren’t any instructions for it. The only instructions for the figure was how to put on the towel on Yuki, and even then it was a little confusing.

This is definitely a Kotobukiya product because of the detail compared to the original picture. One thing that’s missing from the original picture is the bracelet on Yuki’s left arm. At least the detail of Yuki bending over is kept to make the figure more…well you find the word.

Continue reading Yuki Kusakabe (Vacances Edition)…

Hobby Search Finally Arrives

After being away from another weekend, the package from Hobby Search finally arrives in arms of the receiver.

It did make attempts last week so it technically came sixdays after HobbyLink Japan.

There were a few factors in this: 1) HobbyLink Japan and Hobby Search shipped it at different times, HLJ being before the acceptance and HS being after, 2) Memorial Day weekend delayed both packages, 3) HLJ did manage to get past customs on time, while HS was probably backlogged at JFK due to Memorial Day (Federal Employees are off).

Even though it was late, here what it looks like:

Mmm Maids…..

The last time I said I wasn’t going to buy any more fate/ related items was the day I decided to order three of them and see which company (HLJ or HobbySearch) would get to my house faster. So, here are the figures. All three figures have the TypeMoon sticker of approval for distribution to be placed on shelves and admire.

Both Rin and Saber were released last year and Rider was released last April for all the Rider fans by GoodSmile. With the Saber figure, there’s nothing wrong with her in a French maid outfit with an antique chair to complement the figure. Rin is just a massive figure with the dress held up by her hand where connecting all three makes it almost hard. Rider on the other hand was hard to get out of the package because the amount of plastic covering her, but like Saber and Rin, it’s just too admiring once out. One problem with Rider is the pair of glasses that come with it. It’s just a piece of folded wire that was a pain to put on and take off.

Saber and the chair

A slight close up
Continue reading Mmm Maids……..

Back to the Race

Last week I posted the update about the shipping race we did with HobbyLink Japan and Hobby Search. Unfortunately I was at Animazement partying away when a package attempted delivery last Friday then Saturday when I was away. The package that arrived was HobbyLink Japan and the three figures inside and it wasn’t until this morning I was able to pick it up at the post office. It looked like the package went though a minor war with holes on a few sides; however, the contents seem to be alright.

Hobby Search on the other hand is still in New York on the queue of being processed by US Customs. This is what happens when a person ships a few hours late and later be forced to sit back during a US Holiday.

Below was the status of HobbyLink Japan (Shipping is completed)

Below is the status of Hobby Search

AZ’08 Overcrowded, Ninja’s, and drums oh my!

Another fantastic Animazement (located at Durham, North Carolina) has passed, and with plenty to show for it. The con is nowhere the size of Otakon, but from a quick glance, it almost seemed like there was no end to con goers and cosplayers. A huge increase of attendees per year has reached the point where this hotel was beyond overfilled. What does this mean? More people = more partying!

Starting things off, the weather was just right. Not too hot, nor too cold. Being on Memorial day weekend, the timing seems quite nice. An interesting change was that the registration was held in tents outside. These tents also hosted a few events through out the weekend (Eurobeats jamming from tents? Awesome). The front yard was also home to cosplayers wanting to relax in the sun or under the shades.

Cosplayers bring the action everywhere and this year, clearly, the ninja’s showed their dominance. Stare left and right, ninja’s everywhere. Behind you, front of you, in the restroom, in the dance hall, ninja’s everywhere. When you didn’t see a ninja, you did see some non-ninja cosplays. Some old school cosplays represented! It’s always great to see Ranma ½, Rayearth, and Dragonball Z cosplays.

Anime vs. Video game chess is simply a brilliant event. Fandom, cheering, and victory, all in one package. And let’s not forget about Anime Hell, an AZ treat that you can’t get anywhere else. As for the dance, it was definitely a different twist. No rave music or trance till about 2 am, with majority of the music being jpop. No change in the mood of the dancers at all however! The power of youth pushes forward them to dance to whatever music was playing. A huge negative was that there was almost no room in there (once again, the con’s too big for its own size).

The Masquerade was rather bland this year. Honestly, a lot of the music was overplayed and some skits even felt like they didn’t really plan on anything except to dance to some music. Not to say that every skit was like that. The Portal skit stood out for being a great with using all the internet humor (Chuck Norris haha). The final skit also showed that you don’t need fancy music or crazy effects to put up a great skit. We’ve all been Rick Rolled a few times through the event. They really enforced the two minute rule on all the skits here. Any skit that went passed two minutes? Lights off. This was a brilliant idea that was also one of the worst ideas. Great to keep things moving, horrible because there were some excellent skits that got killed off.

The best part of AZ has always been chilling out on a Saturday night. Sit back, take a drink, and chit chat with your friends. Staying up till around 5 am having fun only to be waken up to a fire alarm in the hotel sometime around 7:30am-ish. What a wonderful way to start off the last day o_\/ Someone also played the drums from like 11 am to 2 pm. A nice little jam to end things off.

With the 11th Animazment finishing, officials state that the con will be moving to the convention center next year. At the rate of attendees going every year, they may need to start looking for even a bigger place already. Let’s wait and see what next year awaits us all.

Woo Hoo! Sheraton Imperial Wake Up Call

About 7:30 am this morning, everyone in the Sheraton Imperial got a nice wake up call with the fire alarm blarring in every room. Some, if not all, of the rooms are out of power at the hotel; however, luckily the locks on the doors are on battery power. Who knows, this was probably a scheme to get people together early in the morning. Now how did all the drunk people did who were about to crash for the morning? Or better yet, what was the first thing people took as they evacuated the room?

HobbyLink Japan (hlj.com) vs. Hobby Search (1999.co.jp) - update

Since the orders were placed last Friday EST (Saturday JST) huge progress has happened. Both orders as of 5/20 have been processed and shipped. Even though both shipments were out yesterday, HobbyLink Japan had the advantage of getting it out of the door first, with the posted time about 1:12 PM JST and Hobby Search had their shipment posted about 6:00 pm (5/21 Japan).

We thought the orders would be out and be on the same flight out of Japan; however, it’s now uncertain because, the tracking number for HobbyLink Japan showing to be leaving Japan soon.

-HobbyLink Japan

-Hobby Search

HobbyLink Japan (hlj.com) vs. Hobby Search (1999.co.jp)

The race is on to see which company can process their stuff, ship, and arrive first at my door step a half a world away. Most of the figures on quadrain.com have come from these companies; however, never have we ordered something at the same time.

The objective, we are going to see how three figures are packaged and when they are sent out. Here are the receipts of the orders. Each of the orders were placed within a few minutes of each other during 10:30ish pm EST (Saturday 11:30ish am JST).

-HobbyLink Japan

-Hobby Search

Both are using the same credit card and both are arrive at the same location. To make things more even, both shipments are the same figurines for shipping purposes and see how well they go through JFK customs.

Lucky Star Vol. 1 DVD

Getting to the main point, Bandai didn’t completely destroy the DVD like what MediaWorks did to Strawberry Panic, since the DVD videos are in better quality than the standard def fansubs. Like with many DVDs these days, the companies seems to have fixed their ways in editing the videos in any way. After watching the video side-by-side the fansub, both the sub and dub were not edited.

It might just be myself; however, the dub of this DVD was killing me. I understand the whole series was not to have much feeling into it, but the voices were just killing me. It was almost like watching Barney, Sesame street, or some other kids PBS show.

Other than the bashing of the dub, the DVD is the standard anime DVD. The usual Japanese and English selections, sub, and extra features. The extra features include a few things including, the trailers, openings, “key scene gallery” (1 & 2), and “The Adventures of Minoru Shiraishi #1″ are all included in the DVD.

The key scene galleries, it consists a slide show of various scenes and comments made by someone. Some of the comments seems to be personal comments or elements in the series where the commenter points out parts of interest the viewer may not have noticed. The Adventures of Minoru Shirashi is mainly how they made the special endings of Lucky Star with the real voice actor. In the video, it’s just random like the endings where Minoru just gets a little wild while singing and such.

Mario Paint Action

So a friend sent me this a few minutes ago, it’s quite interesting. This makes me feel a little old with some 8 bit goodness, so enjoy.

More here - http://kezins.com/2008/05/02/the-10-most-creative-mario-paint-compilations/