Leader Class Battle Ops Bumblebee

During the Calgary Expo, the Stan Lee comic had already taken a substantial hit on my wallet, but I also picked this up. He's a Canadian exclusive and is coated in special metallic paint. Stands a foot tall and has pretty intense shelf presence.

Since he is a leader class, lights and sounds are included and when h is transformed into the Camaro, he's suppose to be quite big, but I'm never going to find out.

SDCC 2010 Batman & Joker Mez-Itz

Mighty Muggs were licensed only for Marvel, Transformers and GI Joe. Unfortunately this left out DC. However, Mezco decided it'd try its hand at the urban vinyls and the Mez-itz format was born. They didn't make a lother and overall wasn't very popular, but this exclusive seemed to fit right beside my Muggy collection.

First FR-S/BRZ Meet

Had the first "unofficial" Edmonton FR-S/BRZ meet today. Because there are so few on the road, turn out was low. It was suppose to be just me and Mikael in our FR-S to map out how we wanted to reach out to other FR-S owners and then we saw a hint of white flash by. Turned out to be a white BRZ that was turning the corner and then we waved our arms and flagged him down. Getting 1 extra guy was 1 more turn out than we were expecting. So bonus. All of our cars were white and quite a few people were slowing down and doing double takes. I only had a chance to take one picture, but it was a nice experience connecting with owners of the same car and talking about what future mods everyone was hinting coming up here.

Edmonton Expo!

Just got word that the Calgary Expo will also start taking place in Edmonton! Should be here around October and one of the guests will be Billy Dee Williams. Gonna try to get this guy signed!

Wrist Watch X Car

Pretty pooped, but recently got in a nice package that I'll tease for you guys. Longer write up tomorrow.

Avengers Mini Muggs

Had these sitting on the shelf for a while. I picked 3 of them up from Toys R Us locally. The Iron Man, Hawkeye and Nick Fury were all bought here, while Captain America, Thor and Hulk were brought from the US. You can tell because all the Canadian boxes suck. Like the full sized Muggs, the Canadian counterparts had a single character chosen to grace the top of the box. in this case, Iron Man. I got too excited when I found them in store and bought the first 3. Should have waited and bided my time, but I've been screwed by that before and have ended up saying more for rarer figures when they flew off the shelf. But I have all 6 and I can't justify rebuying a Hawkeye and Nick Fury just for the US packaging. Oh well, enjoy the pics.

Shots are IN.

The shots are processed and were sent over to me just last night! 

I was very excited to receive them and soon they will grace the wallpapers of all my devices and all the car form boards I frequent. 

I want to again thank Herb for being the camera car and Zach from Exposure Photographix for these sensational shots. It was a blast and I think we'll be doing it again.

Please like his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Exposure.Photographix

Check out his Flickr containing much more expensive and mouth watering cars:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moroccanspice/

A picture says a thousand words, so I present to you, 6000 words of fury:

GrimmSpeed Limited Edition 86 Oil Filler Cap

Even before ordering my car, I knew that I wanted to add some customized parts or a little bit of personalization. I wasn't going to go full out right away, but obviously a few things were in line to be changed.  I knew that the FR-S was a cheaper vehicle and soon there would be many more on the streets. My desire to add parts or customize was also driven by the fact that I was a major gear head, yet someone who knows very little about cars or anything about this specific vehicle could just walk into the dealership and come out driving the exact same thing. So I knew some customization was definitely going to come up here, but where was the line drawn? I told myself that all the parts I was going to add were going to be something that added performance, safety, or functionality. But there was a little gem that popped up, that I couldn't pass up. 

After I ordered the car, I started surfing the FT86club forums like a mad man and GrimmSpeed had started up an interesting thread for a replacement oil filler cap. After seeing some of the design proposals, I knew that this little guy would look great under the engine bay and would immediately set my car apart from the others once the hoods were popped. They had a group buy in place for a limited number run of 140 and after putting my name down June 8th, 2012 the waiting game began. I was secured position #62. The next two months were spent monitoring the thread closely with anticipation and with each update they posted, the cap became much closer to reality. After seeing several design proposals, the final version was shown and they started posting teasers of the caps being made:

Seeing the manufacturing process really shows the care and craftsmanship GrimmSpeed puts into each and every cap and how tedious it was to get them to match the finalized designs laid out. It was a very fine piece and with the limited numbers being produced, many more members started swarming the thread to try to secure their positions. Finally the day came where payment was required which I immediately sent and received a tracking number, while many others were unable to make the cut off date.

Today, the wait was finally over. More than 2 months after watching the initial designs and following the manufacturing process, it was finally at my doorstep. I have to say that it's very solid and felt very nice in my hand right after I took it out of the box. The part looks great in person and all the little lines, grooves and cuts show that the part use to be a solid hunk of metal and extensive metal work was employed to create the minute details in every single cap. The cap wasn't made out of cheap materials and then horribly poured into a cast mold which was then polished down. It was definitely an extraordinary piece to behold and for the promo price they gave the first limited 140, the cap was a bargain.

The box:

Packaged very nicely:

New vs Old:

062 of 140:

Finally in the Engine Bay:

Although Grimmspeed has cut off the initial limited run of 140, they have since added another group buy which will not be numbered and won't be offered at the same price. But I can assure you that the new price is still a bargain for this little meticulously manufactured detail that will put a smile on your face every time the hood gets popped.

S.H. Figuarts SSJ 3 Son Goku

I have been a huge DBZ fan since it aired while I was still in elementary school. even today I'm still a big fan even though I don't express it as often as I should, or it is poorly reflected in my collection.
But there is a reason for that! Before the introduction of the S.H. Figuarts, all DBZ figures were shit. Articulation was poor, classic tv show poses could not be reproduced and molding poorly captures the appearance in the show. The combination of all these crummy factors has prevented me from getting a new desk accessory, but it all changes now:

Unboxing and initial parts.

Today's going to be a short post, because it was a pretty uneventful day.

Worked, gym and then came home to start on the model, as promised.
Only had some time to take everything out of the box and start taking out the larger pieces of the body and some sanding and filing to get it down.

The first bits are the chassis and engine, so pretty excited to start on that. Resulted in me running out to the garage a TON to look in the underside and check whether the colours they chose were accurate. Seems to be pretty close so far.

Sorry for the short post. I promise you guys a longer one tomorrow!

Photoshoot + ROLLERS

Today I had the fortunate chance to shoot some pictures with Zach Cherkaoui, owner of Exposure Photographix. It seemed like the perfect time to get the FR-S shot after I had kept it super minty for the last week after the intense detail job conducted by Mr. Chow combined with the great weather we have been receiving.

I've never been a very good photographer, nor have I had the patience to get into it, but Zach has a ton of experience and his previous rollers 100% vouch for his careful eye and distinct shooting style. For me, after going through so many of his albums throughout the years, I feel his special trademark are his badass rollers. They always look great and it's always been a mystery how these shots can be done. They look amazing and I've never been able to wrap my head around how such shots could be made from a certain angle, at a certain speed without any motion blur, rumble or blurriness from movement of the camera. Needless to say, Zach has figured all these out and has perfected his technique in taking some bad ass roller shots.

Started the shoot by meeting Zach at the Esso on Argyll & 91st at 4 PM on this sunny Sunday afternoon along with my friend Herbert who would be the driver of the camera car in his WRX. First thing was going into Esso to grab some refreshments followed by moving around certain areas to get some good settings for many still shots. Around 5PM we started doing the rollers up and down 91st street. The shots turned out wonderful after seeing them on the camera. So far Zach has sent me one photo as a teaser and currently working on the full set which I'll put up when they are completed.

My first experience in having a car as the subject of a shoot was wonderful and really makes you appreciate the angles of the car, because the photographer definiately has a knack for knowing which sides of the car looks best. And hey, how many of us actually get to see how our cars look driving on the road? We're always behind the wheel. But today, for me, that mystery has been solved by my friend Zach Cherkaoui.

DAT ROLLER. MUST BLOW UP TO FULL RES. DO IT!!!!:

Gundam Fix Figuration 0011 EX-S Gundam

So I do really enjoy building Gundam models, but as you guys have seen from the last 30 days blog challenge, I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the hobby, so often time's the process takes forever and I rarely get it done. A major bonus in building your model yourself is that you can deck it out in as much detail as you want, and often times pre-built figures or boxed figures can never match this level of detail.

However, Bandai has released a Gundam line called "Fix Figuration" which do contain a high level of detail, pose ability, and an assortment of weapons and armaments. This figures are often produced in lower quantities and once released, prices of certain ones sky rocket if they are sought after. My favourite is a Full Armor Unicorn Gundam given by the lady friend last year that had sat on my work desk until work from home, but I recently acquired another one for the basement desk. 

The thing that attracted me to this figure was it's sheer size and that in it's relaxed form it already looks destructive. The figure is decked our in armaments and the detail and model is unmatched for his scale. The scale is 1/144 for normal Gundam kits and if your unfamiliar with the Gundam sizing scale it's about half a foot tall (just the robot itself, minus the armaments). With all the packs and weapon upgrades, the figure soon becomes a decked out desk piece. This is truly a good example of a pre-made figure that matches detail of most models that you would have to build. They command a higher price, but for the lazy and most demanding of collectors they are well worth the money.