[News] HxHxH [the second]

HYPE: RealxHead has teamed up with HK toy shop, oldbalance, to bring you the oldbalance Chaosman as one of the first new figures of the year. A rumor that the figure was limited to a run of 10 was quickly put to rest, but that didn't stop the price from skyrocketing- or the allegations from flying...

HOT!: Bwana Spoons, the technicolor toymaker, has buddied up with Japanese vinyl icon, Gargamel, to create an original figure to be released at the end of the month. Killer the whalegator has only been shown in bits and pieces, and I'm dying to see the whole thing. Bwana's collaborative pieces with Gargamel sculpts have been nothing but incredible up until now- between the Stroyers and the Bwanabakos- and this one looks to be, well, Killer (huh huh huh). Come on Bwana, make us a clear blue with white spray! Or maybe a Hawaii spray. Hmmm... the possibilities.

HUH?: One of my fave stores, Bigbadtoystore.com, has recently announced a heretofore unknown Japan-exclusive box set of Beast Wars figures. All that we know is that it will only be up for order at a "trade show," and will contain Optimus Primal, Megatron, Waspinator, Cheetor, Blackarachnia, Dinobot... and Archadis and Cohrada?? Only catch is that preorders HAVE to be in by this Thursday, so that they can order the proper number of sets- and no one knows what they look like yet. Oh, and it's 225 leaves of green. Did I mention that the figures are reportedly all new molds?

Foto Fun

Just playing around with my new photo setup. This is so much better than taking pictures in the hot sun with the blinds open.

Trying out some directional lighting with my EXOHEAD Bolan- this is my favorite pic of the night. These guys are so awesome.

Shooting the new Tetran mini from Gargamel's 2007 Lucky Bags was a challenge in that the camera would typically pick up on the contrast between the neon green-yellow and black and oversaturate the image.

All it took to get this together was:

1 x 10" large work lamp from (Home Depot)
2 x 5" small work lamps (Home Depot)
6 x rubber-tipped clips (Home Depot)
1 x length of black felt (Ben Franklin Crafts)
1 x length of white cotton (Ben Franklin Crafts)
1 x table/platform (already had)
2 x Modular wire storage cubes (Fisher Hawaii) (to hold up the dropcloths)

Easy... sort of.

[Bandai / Gundam MSiA] GuAIZ, Bill GuAIZ

So I like coming up with eccentric and obscure titles for my review. It's like a nice salad before a meal at a restaurant. So I've been told, anyway. Most of my meals involve screaming into a small black speakerbox from my driver's side window. Anyway, I've been thinking that this might not be a great idea from the perspective of people who are not intimately familiar with both the mecha and kaiju/vinyl genres. You know who you are. Still spelling Cronic with an 'h' and Methuss with one 's'? For shame.

Without further ado, this review is for Bandai's Mobile Suit in Action ("MSiA") figure of the GuAIZ from Gundam Seed.

Who/What Is This?:

The GuAIZ was sort-of the crossover grunt mech for ZAFT's side in between the Gundam SEED and Destiny series. Those who have seen the series might recall that ZAFT (the SEED equivalent of the Zeon empire from the Universal Century timeline- whole 'nother story there...) essentially progressed through the GINN, followed by the GuAIZ (which was modified into the GuAIZ-R), and finally finished with the Zaku Warrior in Destiny. This, of course, ignores the millions and billions of official and fan-based variants of each different grunt suit. The GuAIZ was also piloted by the ZAFT ace and blatant Char/Zechs ripoff, Rau Le Creuset.

This figure of the GuAIZ- the only one existing to my knowledge- then came out at an odd time, which was well into the release of SEED Destiny. Odd only because the GuAIZ had only been featured in SEED; why release it well into the broadcast of its sequel series? Bandai seemingly was struggling to time the release of its figures, due to the dueling demands of the recently-ended SEED series, the ongoing Destiny series, and the remakes of the Gundam Z movies all being released at around the same time. As such, the GuAIZ was a somewhat forgettable release: a grunt suit released in June 2005 (well after the end of the only series in which it was featured) amid a slew of SEED Destiny and Zeta MSiA.

Packaging:

GuAIZ is sold in a standard-size MSiA box. Includes catalog and data file card.


Design/Sculpt:

SEED simply came out with so many different designs and color variants that you could spend a pile of money in trying to collect them all. Consequently, this was the only ZAFT grunt suit that I picked up; I think it is honestly the best in show, despite its lackluster and poorly-timed release.

The basic design of the GuAIZ is a modification of the ugly, clunkiness of the GINN (yes, I don't like the GINN, wanna fight?). The torso was slimmed down to more athletic proportions; the "shell" boosters were reduced and made to supplement its backpack boosters; and the head was shrunken down from its formerly monstrous size. Still, the designers managed to retain the Roman-armor appearance of the GINN. Accessories were also improved; the smallish handweapon of the GINN was changed into a long beam rifle, which it can wield one-handed in the way only anime-mecha can. The best upgrade, in my opinion, is the dual beam-blade shield, which is highly reminiscent of the infamous Tauros from Armored Core (the sword used by Stinger/Vixen in his AC Nexus: Revolution appearance). Overall, this figure is both faithful to the anime design and looks great as a figure from all angles.


Gripes are few. Mainly, the little extensional arrestor claws are a PAIN IN THE ASS to keep in place. They essentially attach to the tank- beneath the backpack, which must be removed to equip the arrestors- by little ball-and-socket connections. The PVC is so bendy, and the ball joint is so thin, that I feel like I run the risk of breaking the arrestors every time I swap them out. Making it worse is the fact that they included both the extended and holstered versions of said arrestors, making it almost inevitable that you will move them around at some point. These must have fallen out around 5-10 times as I was repositioning the GuAIZ on the stand.

Materials/Color/Paint:

Materials are the standard PVC of Bandai's MSiA releases. As those familiar with the line might note, the PVC is now slightly stiffer than previous releases.

The color scheme of the GuAIZ is another thing that initially drew me to the figure. The olive, grey, and orange really look good together, and suggest a Zaku-ish coloring, without totally selling out to the nostalgia-soaked designs of Destiny.

Paint on my figure was clean, save for a big orange blob on the right side of the chest (not visible in photos). I wish they had kept up panel-lining in the MSiAs, rather than splitting the Extended and regular lines. Can't have it all, I guess. At any rate, the dark colors used in this figure hide the lack of detailing very well.

Articulation:

Articulation is fairly standard for this sort of figure, and is commensurate with other similar figures of the time. Elbows are double-jointed; the legs are somewhat limited by the skirt-armor, however.

Price Point:

I think I bought this for about $15 USD prior to shipping at the time of release; it shouldn't run you more than $20 at any rate.


Why I Like It:

Great design. I wish they had kept this model going in the series, instead of switching over to the Skittles Zakus in Destiny. The beam-bladed shield is simply the icing on a very cool cake.

As a side comment, you may wonder why I used black and white backgrounds in this shoot. I've been trying out various photo environments; (1) white with extended exposure, or (2) black with reduced exposure time. The main drawback of black is that the spotlights really highlight every single bit of dust on the figure. Which do you think looks better?

[Amapro] King Grandpas

Who is this?:

Kingranpas is a character from one of the lesser-known companies of the Japanese vinyl world, Amapro. Amapro, for reference, is the company responsible for the Christmas Narutons and sexual-harassment Wanigon. Their products are quite varied and range from the very stylized kaiju (like Denguu) to the 'realistic' kaiju.

Kingranpas, the website notes, is not King Ranpas, but Kin (gold) Glampas. He comes in both walky and sea-and-air versions. This is the legless sea-and-air version.

Forgive my ignorance of any origin- I'm certain this guy is from some obscure kaiju novel or other. I just bought it because it was cool.

Design/Sculpt:

Kingranpas really pops as a sculpt, simply because it's so different from the other kaiju out there. While a lot of the more popular figures- Cronic, SB, RxH, to name a few- rely on smooth lines, this guy is so angular, it almost looks as if he were hewn from stone or made of folded paper. The rough texture of the vinyl is also unique here, again giving it that feel of papercraft.

For anyone familiar with pre-dinosaurian creatures, Kingranpas really reminds me of the giant shrimp, Anomalocaris, no?

Materials/Color/Paint:

Kingranpas is made of a harder, light-weight vinyl. Again, it's fairly textured, which gives it an interesting look and feel.

The paintwork is not the cleanest that I've seen. There's some slop, and a blob of yellow (??) paint made its way on to his back-plates.

Price Point:

Kingranpas is on the low end of expensive designer vinyl- it should only run you about $25 as of this post. He's not very difficult to find- both KT and Mandarake have specimens available.

There is, however, a glowie version of Kingranpas that I have yet to see for sale.

Why I Like It:

The semi-sloppy paintwork aside, I think Kingranpas makes a neat addition to my collection because of his differences from some of the more popularized sculpts. The imprecise painting is actually fitting, because the character as a whole reminds me of something from a children's book. Maybe something from a Roald Dahl story or a Maurice Sendak storybook.

Meeting Mr. Sometimes

Who says no one ever comes to Hawaii?

This past Saturday (and possibly again this Friday), the co-founder (and creator) of the tokidoki brand and character series, Simone Legno, made an appearance at Ala Moana Center's LeSportsac retail store. The tokidoki line, loved by girls 15-35 and widely reviled by their boyfriends, includes not only the (overpriced) handbags by LeSportsac, but a line of clothing and little figures. Simone has also collaborated with other artists and designers to bring the tokidoki look to the Gosho Ningen line and TREXi's Devilrobots.


I entertained the dog, as I waited for a certain someone to get ready to go. He seemed more interested in finding a sunny spot to lie down in.


Simone's appearance was to take place beginning at approximately 1 p.m., so we arrived at around 12:30. The line, as you can see, was already in its formative stage; Hawaii being Hawaii, the bulk of the attendees would not arrive until nearly 1 p.m. Most of the people in line were local girls in their late teens or early 20s and their boyfriends, who no doubt were coerced into attending by their feminine wiles. There were a few guys who seemed perfectly happy to be there by themselves. They also carried tokidoki bags.

A murmur ran through the crowd as Mr. tokidoki himself arrived on the scene. He was accompanied by a couple of other people whom I could not identify. Free stickers and fans were passed around. Good times ensued.

Despite being only about 30 feet from the entrance of the store, it took us over an hour to 'meet' Simone. The reason for this being that some people insisted on having him sign multiple items, which would in no way later be sold on eBay. One lady behind us brought a stroller full of tokidoki bags. The couple in front of us brought a folder full of color-printed images from the tokidoki website, which would be signed by Simone. Apparently that would qualify as signed artwork in their minds.


A giant Qee, to be signed by Simone, was the subject of a lucky draw, er, raffle. Why people pay $80 for a giant lego figure is beyond me. I'll only pay that much for giant rubbery dinosaur-monsters, thanks.


Behind Simone's table was the spring line of LeSportsac tokidoki bags, which featured a pirate theme (yarrr!). The lady directing the line made me stop trying to take pictures of them, although there were like 3 other people on the other side of her photographing them. Do what you can with what you have, I suppose. Still, if you look in the corner of one of the pics, you can see the bags... kind of. Screw her! Ha!

We just had Simone sign one of the TREXi figures, which he informed us was not designed by him. Whatever that means. You put your name on it, buddy.


Simone is a genuinely nice guy, and even did us the favor of drawing a little cactus girl on the back of one of the flyers, without us asking. I gotta feel for the guy looking at the hungry line of 100+ fans behind us, all of whom no doubt would want something similar. The crowning moment of the day was getting a group photo with him, with all of us throwing up the shaka sign.

I should have asked him to produce more figures.