Funko POP! Cthulhu Review

 Happy Halloween! and as part of the celebration i will be doing couple reviews in the spirit of Halloween and this is the first part. I don't really collect Funko since they are too expensive to collect outside USA but i do make exceptions for some including Cthulhu. There were two versions of POP! for Cthulhu and i happen to purchase both version during my trip in Singapore. Apparently the cranky version of Cthulhu is supposed to be glow in dark but mine doesn't really work

In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming

  The first time i really got exposed to Cthulhu Mythos is when i played my first run of Arkham Horror years ago and got hooked instantly afterwards. Cthulhu is the most well known creature from Lovecraftian Horror because of its distinct Winged Humanoid appearance topped with Octopus Head and one doesn't simply face this guy since a single mean look from him will make you die from insanity. In the lore he is introduced as gigantic alien creature who is sleeping under his sunken city R'lyeh in Pacific Ocean. He had fishmen creatures called Deep Ones do his bidding and they had significant colony in a rural American fishing village called Innsmouth from the unholy interspecies mating between the creature and human. Apparently Cthulhu is powerful enough that he is capable of destroying earth when he is fully awakened but for now he will dream until the day comes.

 Cthulhu: ZZZZZ

 Nyaruko: Taste my space CQC >:)

Cthulhu: Are you trying to disturb my sleep Nyarlathotep?!

Nyaruko: Nope, Nothing~~~ :P

  In my opinion POP! doesn't really worth $20 pricetag but my admiration toward Cthulhu mythos warrant me to get some for Cthulhu since they are the most decent looking and accessible version of this guy. What makes Cthulhu Mythos appealing for me is the potential of the genre to bring out the greatest amount of despair which is important for horror in my opinion considering one does not simply face Cosmic Horror. During Halloween after more than 3 years getting into the hobby, i think playing Boardgame is the best way to celebrate since there are tons of quality Halloween materials in this medium and here is my playlist for this year.

Monster Hunter Double Cross Announced!

 From the recent Nintendo Direct, Capcom announced a new monster hunter title named Monster Hunter Double Cross serving as the Grank version of MHX/Monster Hunter Generations. The game will be scheduled to be released on March 2017 and so far here are the main things that have been revealed:

• 2 New Hunting Styles, one has been revealed as Brave Style which seems to be capable of dishing tons of damage once you build up your power bar. The other style has not been revealed yet but it appear to involve lots of bombing.
• New Hunting Arts, but nothing much revealed at this point
• Prowler mode will have some boost for melee option including adept style dodge and aerial jump
• New Map, one is revealed as mountainous type, reminding me of part of Great Forest map from Unite
• The G-Rank Quest Hub will be revealed as Airship
• 2 New Monsters revealed so far, One is Devil Blos which will likely join the Deviant Group and other one is Silver colored wyvern which seems to be the agile type

I think more information for MH Double Cross will be revealed later on considering the current stuff is lackluster for an expansion game. I think with the recent popularity of MH in the west it is possible we will get the English version of Double Cross on late 2017 probably around 6 months after the Japanese release. I am still crossing my hands on this one since the current new features does not convince me enough to get a copy and to be honest i am rather burned out with MH on Nintendo Platform.

1/60 ARX-7 Arbalest Renewal ver

Years ago Alter made Quality figure for Arbalest long before they made one for M9 Gernsback and this time the toy come with more improvements i suppose. The Renewal version of Arbalest will be slated for  release on May next year with price tag of 14800 Yen and Arbalest will still come in 1/60 Scale. While the toy will be smaller than the plamo version made by Aoshima a while ago, the Alter's version of Arbalest come with more accessories no doubt. I wonder if the decision made by Alter to renew the series coincide with some plans to reboot the series in the future? Considering the anime got into some complicated license dispute back then, A reboot is certainly a nice thing to have considering FMP is one solid Real Robot series. I think i should repaint my FMP kits too.

Shura no Toki

 An old battle manga but this is really awesome mix of history and martial arts title. As far as i know Shura no Toki is the spin-off series of the Author's previous work narrating the tales of the protagonist's ancestors. They were known as Mutsus and while they were not recorded in the history, they are well known for their undefeated status as martial artist fighting anyone with their fists and win anyway. With their prowess, they inevitably got themselves involved with famous people throughout Japan's History like Nobunaga or Yoshitsune and the series strong point is how the author blend the fictional part with real history seamlessly. So far the manga had 17 volumes already which are partially translated and back then there was even an anime for this series. I would really love to see someone pick the translation for the prequel since it looks interesting enough.

Union Creative Monster Hunter Revo Glavenus Blademaster

 It appears that one of the Monster Hunter action figure that had the prototype shown got a release date at last and it is the Glavenus Blademaster Set. The Action Figure will be released on January 2017 around 6000 Yen pricetag. Compared to the Revoltech Figurine, it seems the the Union Creative lineup will stand around 18cm taller with 31 Articulations. The Glavenus Blademaster Action Figure will also come with the matching Greatsword and SnS though the latter doesn't have the shield part show up. From the shown sample it seems that the Revo series will be better quality compared to the previous Revoltech Figurine and for the quality it offers it seems more worth it compared to Figma.

 This Reddish Blademaster Armor is made from Glavenus or Dinovaldo in Japanese which is one of the Flagship monster in Monster Hunter Generations and in the game the armor grants its wearer more power when they polish their weapons. Stature-wise Glavenus is quite similar with Deviljho with its Blade-like tail as its most prominent feature. Despite its size, Glavenus is very agile and wield its tail dexterously and occasionally imbue its tail with fire element. This guy is very capable of sending new hunters to Kitty cart with its signature 360 degree Spin Slash which has huge coverage. I wonder if Union Creative will make the Hellglaive repaint of this guy considering they did the same thing with Rathalos Blademaster.