Dubstep

Whats up with dubstep? All my buddies are into it.

WOMP WOMP WOMP WOMP WOMP

WERRERREREREREREERE

WEEE EEOOOO MMMEIMM MIMIM MUMU MUMUMUM

do you know which dubstep song that is?

all of them.

Toys are Expensive

Toys are freakin expensive.

I would know. I have quite a few. I've read a lot of other blogs from the 30 day challenge and many of them involve babies, kids, playing with kids. But I never hear anything about toys.

Why?

I often use to think it was because toys are god damn expensive.

I just got a NERF gun called the Long Strike. I'm in the process of repainting it, it'll be up soon. It's 4 feet long

Regular price? $39.99.

For a Toy Gun. Thats outrageous. No wonder I never owned one when I was younger. I only picked it up because it was on sale.

It really sucks that Toys have increased in price so much. As a collector, I've seen prices skyrocket in the last 5 years. Figures that started out $6.99 now run for $11.99. Deluxe Toys/Vehicles from 10-15 now range from $20-30.

But I notice a ton of kids now have SHITLOADS of toys and they just play with something for one or two days and toss it aside to forever sit in a corner. Really crazy, expensive toys. So although toys are more expensive, parents are buying more of them. So then why do I rarely hear about them?

It's because toys over time have become just a simple distraction. I rarely see a kid value their toy and play with it for extended periods of time, cherish it by bringing it everywhere and throwing them in every kind of scenario imaginable. I might not be 100% correct, and there are kids out there who love and are deeply involved with their toys. But from what I witness, very few kids truly cherish the toys they are gifted.

I don't know what I'm getting at. I just use to have a few toys I cherished and my childhood revolved around. Now I see kids surrounded in a room full of expensive awesome toys while sitting in the middle playing a handheld video game.

So I keep collecting toys to keep the dreams alive.

I also feel that if a blog post has pictures people would tend to read them more. That's why I post pictures in all of mine. But didn't feel like bringing a Camera out today so decided to try a small rant without photographs and see who read its to the end. If you read it to the end, comment below and say "I buy toys for my kid, but really I still play with them"

Fusion Works Gundam StandArt: MSK-008 Dijeh

So another gift I received. This is actually one of my favorite desk accessories because of the amount of detail packed into such a small package (that takes up less room on a desk).

My girlfriend picked it up for me on one of her HK trips.

These Gundam StandArts quickly have become pretty sought after since their introduction. They stand relatively small, and come with one piece of gum. It's from those asian snacks that usually have a toy + snack together in one, but over time these models have become so detailed you receive 1 entire robot...and one piece of the gum the size of a chiclet.

He also comes with a collectible card as well.

I took two close up shots so you guys could see the immense detail.

If you ever come across one of these Gundam StandArts I encourage you to pick it up. I think you pay around 8-10 bucks and receive one of the most detailed (fully painted, panel lined and decaled) and durable (almost made entirely of solid vinyl) figures for that price.

Enjoy the pics. Blow up the closeups for the detail.

MG Gundam RX-78-2 (One Year War) Lower Torso complete

So got a tiny bit of time this weekend to finish his lower torso.

All the white was sprayed in Tamiya White Primer over gundam marker. Decals were added. The yellow and red was sprayed as the same time as the shield. Torso was already gun metal from before.

Darth Maul Force FX Lightsaber.

It's Late. This is a recent purchase. More pics/description up soon.

Sorry guys. Don't wanna fail the challenge...but a picture is worth a thousand words, so this is a thousand BAD-ASS words.

Gundam Fix Figuration: Full Armor Unicorn Gundam

This figure is pretty insane. Insane detail, beautiful stand and intense articulation.

Oh yeah. and a bajillion fuckin guns.

Today is a day for both good/happy and bad/sad news. So a short bit of history. My current co-op job was secured near the end of Feb, with the first day being May 2nd (also where I met Liam, Grandmaster of 30 day blog challenge). Upon this great news and also being so close to Valentines day, my girlfriend bought this gift for me both as a Valentine's day and congratulatory gift. I decided on that day that the perfect place would be right on my desk at work starting May 2nd. I brought that bad boy in the very first day and throughout the first week spent lunch breaks setting up part by part. It was a slow build up. After 1 week he was completed and sat on my desk in all his weaponry glory.

Fast forward till now, it is determined that I will be working at home for a while.

So I said today was both happy/good and sad/bad. The sad/bad news is unfortunately I had to start bringing some stuff home and this figure had to be packed up and brought home today (it takes up my entire bag). I really wanted him to sit on the desk and be seen or admired. Lots of co-workers had stop by to take a look and chat me up regarding it. It's also a friendly reminder of her throughout my day, which is a great bonus.

The good news is that he's home so I'll be able to take him out and take more pics for you guys to see (hopefully tomorrow...but probably less likely). However, he likely will be set up again and placed on my home office. But its nicer to bring a part of home to the office...than have a piece of home...well...at home. Enjoy the pictures. AND THE SHITLOADS OF WEAPONRY.

The day I received it:

Custom made China-man styrofoam box:

First impression of box:
First set up for test fitment:
Final home on work desk (or so I thought).

Limited Edition Iron Man Mark II 1/6 Scale by Hot Toys Part 2

The long awaited, full out of package review, Hot Toys 1/6 Iron Man Mark II. As promised.

Took me a while to tune the Camera until I felt it would fully demonstrate the detail and crafting gone into creating this figure.

If you missed Part 1 just click on the link to view the packaging and the first impression I got of it. After taking it out of the box the figure stands simply like this

Here are the specs from the official Hot Toys website:

Authentic and detailed fully realized Mark 2
- Stands approximate 30 cm tall
- Over 36 points of articulations
- Metal-like painting
- Special features on the MARK II armor:
+ Light up glowing eyes and heart (battery operated)
+ Articulated flaps at back of the armor and on legs
+ Working forearms missile
- "Prove that TONY STARK has a heart" accessory with light up function
- Three pairs of Interchangeable hands, including light up replusor palms
- Alternate head that has a raising face- plate revealing the face of

Robert Downey Jr. as TONY STARK
- 12-inch figure stand

So firstly, accessories. There is really only one extra accessory this figure comes with and its the Heart Reactor in the case. If you've seen the movie you know that it's the original reactor Stark made in the cave that Pepper Potts later had encompassed in glass as "Proof Tony Stark has a Heart". The Hot Toys version is remarkably accurate and something I did not expect was that it would be self lighting as well. The LED in there is remarkably bright and the seams on the clear top are flawless.

Next up we have the head. This version comes with 2 heads. One that is clear on the inside to light up, and the second version with a removable face plate, chin adjust and shows the face of Tony Stark.

First the light up head is made quite well and the inside where it pops onto the neck is made with pretty high quality vinyl. I've moved his head a lot over the years and its still snug as ever.

What I was impressed most with is the Tony Stark head. Check out just the face plate! The interior has all the wiring and gizmo's seen from the movie when your in the first person view of Tony and he's about to pop it on. Also, the face plate is held on by neo-magnets so they didn't have to design some fragile system that could easily be snapped and be super complicated. The magnets allow the face plate to sit on the top of his head pretty nicely.

The face sculpt is incredible. It looks entirely realistic down to the painted beard and his eyes having gloss to resemble real eye balls. Its pretty creepy having him stare out because its so realistic.

Next up is the Chest and Back. The back has fully articulated flaps that can spread open like an air brake and initially receiving this figure I thought it was amazing, but the later ones have greatly improved with using real metal and detailing the inside of the flaps even further.

The detail was very important to me which is why I picked up the Mark II instead of the infamous Gold and Red Mark III. This is most evident in the chest plate. The paint appears to be brushed aluminum and the detailing around the center arc reactor is fantastic. The rivets really made the difference in the realism of the figure because the Mark III had this very plasticy red feel to it while this figure appeared to be shaped from metal.

The articulated forearm rockets were a major plus but seemed odd to be include. It appeared the Mark III was the one that was weaponized while the Mark II was only a flight tester unit, but since the Hot Toys Mark II came out after the Mark III, they probably had just included it in there since they had spent so much time developing it.

The figure comes with 3 pairs of hands with the slightly and full opened palms having clear acrylic in the center so they can be lit up. The shading in the hands were excellent just like the rest of the figure. Again, the later Hot toys had improved on this aspect because they now have FULLY articulated hands where every joint can be manually moved.

And last but not least are the air brake and component flaps on the back of the leg. In the movie, it directly zooms into the back of the leg when Tony Stark suits up for the first time, so Hot Toys taking the time to simulate this was awesome. The wiring and all the little bits are painted in this nice metallic chrome which gives the feel of real metal even though I know their plastic parts.

That pretty much concludes the features of the figure. I leave you with him in my favorite Iron Man poses I could conduct with only one lit up hand. The other side is out of batteries because I kept it on over night by accident on the first day I received him.