Jet-powered Prime

I've been wanting this combo for a while, it's the second movie leader class Optimus Prime and the Fans Want It Jet-power upgrade set. Ever since this 3rd party set was released, I knew that I would want it. I eventually tracked down a loose Optimus Prime to use with this set. However, as time passed, this had fallen down the list of to-buys. But this bot popped up on the local Transformers site, the upgrade set with the prime for the same price as if I were to the get the upgrade set alone. So I pulled the trigger...and I am glad I did. This bot looks super cool! Much better than the Jetfire + Prime combo from Hasbro! It sits at about 12-14" in height which makes him MASSIVE! I need a whole shelf of my Detolf to display him. The cool thing about this set is the mobility is not impeded whatsoever, the articulation of the leader prime is all retained. Although that is not to say he can strike many poses because he is still really back heavy. That and together with the flimsy plastic (I read on the forums that the plastic on this snap really easily), I had to handle it with extra care. It was all worth it though as I finally got a screen accurate display for the Jet-powered Prime (one of my favs in Bayverse Transformers!).

First 3D-Doodle

Today, I received my 3Doodler! It's basically a plastic extruder on a pen which allows you to draw in plastic. I saw this on Kickstarter about a year ago and thought why not? For $100, I got the 3Doodler pen and 5 packs of plastic (25 strands each). I was VERY excited for this because I love stupid gimmicky fun like this.

Here's my impression of it so far...

First 10 minutes: Okay this thing sucks! The plastic is not even coming out straight, it's getting caught on the tip of the pen and just creating a twirly mess on the tip. I don't even know how I am suppose to "draw" anything.

After: Okay, I think I am sort of getting the hang of it. The thing to avoid doing is random doodling in the air. The plastic cannot support itself indefinitely so gravity will take over and drag your doodle to the ground. The "technique" that I am using is drawing pieces on paper and then connecting them together.

Annnd here's my masterpiece! LOL


Thoughts: I think I can definitely learn to improve on using this tool. It is frustrating to use and not just something you can pick up and put down anytime (need to clean out leftover plastic to avoid jamming it). But I can see myself 3D doodling a lot more in the future!

Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan)

Happy New Year everyone! I am still around, just been lazy with the blogging after getting an exercise bike to keep up with the biking on my off season. Spent a lot of my spare time on the bike...until Xmas...stopped for a couple days and then ended up stopping for a whole two weeks! I have to start getting back on it now or I won't be able to do the rides I am planning to do this year (50km in June and 80km in September). Gotta work off those pounds to fit in my motorcycle gear too since the season is starting in a few months...can't wait!

Anyways I am still getting toys, not too many additions since the last post in November though. Although I did just received my December Amiami haul earlier this week. And one of the pieces I've been waiting for is the Nendoroid Titan from the Attack on Titan anime (Shingeki no Kyojin!). This set was a big one for a Nendoroid! I don't normally collect Nendoroids, the only other one I have is Iron Man. But this one was too cute to pass up since the Titan came with an awesome diorama/playset.

So for those that are not into the anime, the story is basically about these gigantic human looking beings (the titans) that do nothing but eat humans. Humans are on the brink of extinction due to the attacks from these titans. The only thing that is stopping the titans from eating the rest of the humans is a massive wall surrounding the city. Little did they know there are several "super" titans, each with their special strengths and abilities, that one day destroys the wall, allowing the smaller regular titans to come into the city to wreck havok. However, the humans also has an army of trained soldiers using a set of gear called the "3D maneuver gear" that allows them to grapple and sling themselves around to fend off these titans.

ANNND that's what this set is about! You can see the little guys flying off the roof of houses. There's three regular titans in this set, they are the smaller ones. One of them even has an articulated mouth so he can look like he's about to chomp someone's head off. The titans each have a distinct face just like in the anime, but in a cuter version (they look pretty scary in the anime!). The set comes with many little houses so you can arrange it to your liking. It also comes with a wall piece that's intact, as well as, one that has the hole in it (the one used in the pic, but you cannot see the hole in this angle because it is blocked by the titans). Then of course, there's the massive titan that's towering over the walls. When this titan appeared in the anime, there were a lot of steam surrounding him and this set also included a cute steam to replicate that.

All in all, this is a great set that pretty much sums up the anime in a small package. I am really glad I picked this one, it was really fun to setup and play with. I literally LOL'ed when I found out the blond hair titan has an articulated mouth which can open waaaaay too far (it's only half open in the pic). This pic also has one of the heaviest post-processing I have done in any of my pictures. One reason for this is I was lazy and tried to hide the dirt on the sensor that showed up easily, but I also think this PP suits the atmosphere of this anime. Let my know what you think!