Sunday, November 27, 2011

Display updates

I just opened the figma Dead Master that I bought from a local collector today and put her into my Black Rock Shooter/female figures display. While I am at it, I took a picture of my Kamen Rider display as well since I don't think I've taken an update pic of this display yet.

Re-posing the Revoltech Saber Alter figure (purple one) reminded me why I didn't like Revoltech figures (although I have still been buying certain figures from them). Because of the Revoltech joints, the range of motion is limited to discrete steps instead of freely throughout the range of the joint. Therefore sometimes when you want to make a figure stand up normally, the combination of the thigh, knee, and ankle joints need to be fudged with a lot for it to stand up straight, most of the time it's either too much to lean forward or too much lean backwards. It's just not as fun to pose as figma which didn't have the clickity-clack joints like the Revoltech joints.
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This is what I like to refer to as my Decade shelf since it's in Kamen Rider Decade where I was introduced to all these riders.
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Friday, November 25, 2011

Black Friday Haul

Today was a nice day, we had a holiday lunch at a fancy golf club at work and then we got the beautiful and warm afternoon off. Of course, right after I got off I went hunting! And here are my catches of the day.

Prime stuff haves just arrived recently and there's a sale going on right now. Unfortunately, most of them are gone except for several BB. And we actually just got this wave of generations here in Canada, sucks that I paid a premium for Warpth and Kup at the toy show, now they are half the price I paid for them. Good I passed on Wheeljack and Thundercracker at the show.
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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Weekend Haul

Met up with a local collector today for this figma Dead Master from the Black Rock Shooter line. This was one of those figures that I passed on and then later wanted but could never find. I actually don't know much about Black Rock Shooter except for that short film feature. I just really like the styling of the characters in BRS though. I found myself wanting to get the Dead Master figma after receiving the Strength figure. She's a rare one to find nowadays though since it looks like all online retailers are out of stock on this figure and even if there's stock it is going for insane amount of $$. So I was pretty lucky to find this figure in perfect condition and complete with all accessories and box for about the same price as if I were to order from Amiami.

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And since I was in a part of town that I rarely go to, I figured I might as well go to this discount store that had reports of Transformers Reveal the Shield sighting. I lucked out and found these guys for only $9 each! Grabbed some extras for trades for other RTS TF's that I missed out on too.

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S.H.Figuarts Trunks

It looks like the SHF Dragon Ball Z figures line is finally picking up the pace on its lineup. With the Vegeta and SSJ3 Goku coming out next month, we have been shown pics of their next release: Trunks. It has been announced that this figure will be a US exclusive and a Tamashii Web exclusive outside of the US. Ever since the announcement of Vegeta and SSJ3 being exclusives, I know many fans were disappointed because exclusives are generally harder to acquire and most of the time end up being more expensive. I am not sure why Bandai is going the route of exclusives with this line, especially with the main characters as well.

Being a huge fan of Dragon Ball Z since I was a kid, I broke down and ended up preordering Vegeta online. The total came to $55 shipped for this figure alone which I think is a bit on the expensive side especially since it looks like he is not going to come with any effect parts. I passed on SSJ3 Goku though since I still think the hair looks weird on the figure and the price was way too expensive (about $80 shipped). Although I do plan on getting this Trunks figure. The preorder for this figure is available on BigBadToyStore already and it is going for $48.99. I feel this figure is of better worth since he apparently comes with both regular and SS hair, 2 swords, 8 faces, and 14 hands. This figure is being released in May 2012 so I have plenty of time to put aside the money for him.

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Anyone else going to get this figure?

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Stormtrooper Clock

I've been looking for one of these ever since I saw LEon over at Open the Toys reviewed this. Toysrus was the only place that had them here, but it was an Online-only item and I didn't want to pay shipping on top so I eventually forgot about it.

But while I was hunting for TF's at Walmart today, I found this guy on the shelf. And to my surprise, the price was even cheaper than Toysrus's price!
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My lone Stormtrooper checking out our new recruit haha!
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Seeing that I never look at the instructions for these things, I missed out on the light up feature on this figure. I went back and checked on LEon's review and he also did mentioned it, but it was a while ago when I read about it. So to light up the clock display, simply push on the Stormtrooper's helmet and you will get this yellow glow on his stomach which lasts about 6 seconds.
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I was thinking if Lego releases some of their "Mini-figs" in this scale without the clock, I would probably start collecting them. I actually think this minifigure clock gives off a designer toy look. It's definitely a cool and functional display piece.

Camera bag

I've been meaning to get another camera bag to store my Canon XSi for my astrophotography use for a while, but I didn't want to spend too much on just the bag since it was mostly for storage of the camera along with all the cables and such. Then this week I got an email from Henry's (photography store) about their camera bag sale. I end up getting one of the Lowepro Passport Sling bags, I've actually been eyeing this bag for a while for regular use when I don't want to carry too much stuff around. The sale just made the deal perfect since the price now is $20, original price is $40. Since I will be dedicating this one for astro-use, I am actually thinking of picking up another one at this incredible price.

On the outside, it looks like a simple bag. It doesn't even look like a camera bag which is a plus.
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On the inside, a padded insert is included which is secured to the bag by strong velcros. The insert can hold a standard size SLR (shown here with the Canon XSi and 35-105mm lens mounted) and another lens or flash in the space beside it. The grey flap on the left side of the insert is a memory card storage compartment. As you can see in the picture, there is also plenty of space in the bag to the left of the insert for some small items (sunglasses, wallet, figures haha). Another cool feature is that this space can be increased by unzipping a zipper on the outside of the bag which probably doubles the amount of space in the "extra" compartment. There's also several outside pockets, one of which should be able to fit a water bottle as well.
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All in all, it's a simple bag that does exactly what a bag should do. It is a perfect bag for those who do not bring a lot of equipment with them and just want a bag to protect the camera. The extra space and compartments are definitely useful to store all the other personal items. A plus for me is that it has space for a water bottle which is something that my other bag does not.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

October Amiami Haul

Since my October order from Amiami was much more tamed than my previous hauls from them, I opted for the SAL shipping which took several weeks to arrive. I was getting worried since I was so used to EMS. But finally it arrived safely today, it took 2.5 weeks in total which is not bad I guess.

Revoltech War Machine to go with Revoltech Iron Man and SHF Tajadol for my OOO collection.
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Monday, November 14, 2011

TF Haul

Picked up these 2 Generations TF's today. I just LOVE the Drift/Blurr mode, I actually didn't like Drift at first, but after getting Blurr, I wanted it again but never saw it again. I am actually really surprised to see it still in retail today, it was the only one too. And surprisingly Red Alert is the first figure of this mold I got. I regret not picking up Sunstreaker back then.

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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Mighty Morphin Power Ranger Haul

Got this lot from a local toy collector I found on Kijiji. I normally don't even look at kijiji, but for some reason I was led to the site and just decided to search the term "Power ranger". After browsing several pages of Power Ranger costumes and video games, I spotted a lot of figures. Then after several emails back and forth with the seller, we arranged a meet up today and I got the full set of MMPR flip heads! Although I think there's a white ranger flip head as well, but that is a rare one to find. I also bought another 8" red ranger to replace the one I originally had because his chest symbol was scratched off when I bought it.

I am really happy with the flip heads lot, I've wanted these figures since I was a kid but never got them. Now 16 years later, I got them all. YEAH!

The collector/seller was a really cool guy too, we chatted for about 30 minutes before I had to leave. I learned that he collected a lot of the older Power Ranger toys, Chogokins, Marvel and DC figures. I always find it really fun to talk with toy collectors, to learn about what they collect and their collecting history.

This is the lot I got, the white ranger is not a flip head though. I believe it's the movie version figure since it's chromed.
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Here's their human forms, by pressing on the belt buckle, their human heads flips to change to their ranger heads. I can never get bored of this gimmick, it just makes me smile to see the gimmick.
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This is how I have them on display right now...looks soooo goood!
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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Collection Panorama

Decided to try out a panorama of my "man-cave" since a friend wanted to see some pics of my collection. I figured why not show it all in one pic?!

I setup my camera on my tripod on a fixed location and just pan 10 shots. Then I used Hugin Panorama to stitch together the shots. Lastly I used IrfanView to convert the tif output to jpeg (original file was a 156 mb tif, jpeg was only 4.5 mb lol)

(Click for full size)

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Saturday, November 5, 2011

Weekend Haul

I really liked this Leader Class Starscream ever since it was announced, but I just couldn't justify paying $60 for this toy because I am not really into the movie line anyways. But recently, these have been found at the clearance stores Giant Tiger for $30 so I decided it was time to pick him up. They also had the Hunt for the Decepticons Leader Class Optimus that I was going to grab as well, but I found out he was the battle damaged version (which is REALLY poorly executed, the "damage" is literally random dabs of silver paint on the figure which totally ruins it, not to mention half of his face is black to simulate a burn or something). I would have gotten it if it had no battle damage done to it. Also picked up a 1:24 model of the Smart car, I really like this car and have been looking for a model of it for a while.

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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Beast Wars!

Just received this Beast Wars Boxset in the mail, preordered it on Monday and received it today already! Even though I am such a big Beast Wars fan, I didn't actually watched all the episodes of it before. I watched the show when I was a kid and sometimes I would catch it and sometimes I wouldn't. I actually only caught on during the period when they had turned into their Transmetal forms which is why my toy collection mainly consists of Transmetals. But maybe after watching the whole series I will be on the hunt for the original beasts again? I hope not haha!

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