Figma Makoto Yuki

 Took long enough for Max Factory to announce the release but we got the release date for this guy Finally! Announced around the mid of last year, Figma Makoto Yuki will be released on April next year with almost 6500 Yen Price tag. As i expected the figma version of Makoto Yuki did cost as much as Yu Narukami considering the popularity of the series and from the sample the figma will come with the signature Evoker and a main weapon. While i think the figma is overpriced i might just get this to complete my collection along with D-arts Thanatos and Elizabeth which would make an awesome set altogether. I have watched two of the movie so far and might as well finish the rest before the Figma comes out.

Chaos in the Old World First Session

 It has been more than Three years since i begin collecting Boardgames which by now rival my toy collection. Personally i find boardgames are one of the few things worth to collect from the west as each box directly represent an idea of the creator and usually it is a good one! I tend to play thematic games whether it is Euro or Ameritrash though recently i get to appreciate Eurogames better.

Plamax Gipsy Danger

 Another Max Factory Plamo kit lineup after Dougram and we got Pacific Rim this time! Now we got a substitute for NECA for those who want more customizable version of the Pacific Rim Jaegers. For the initial release, Max Factory show the prototype for Gipsy Danger and Cherno Alpha as the first batch of Pacific Rim Kits. The Gipsy Danger kit will come in 1/350 scale which will be around 20cm in height and sports the price tag of 8800 Yen. Plamax Gipsy Danger also comes with LED Unit and effect parts such as the cannon arm and wrist blades. In the Pacific Rim movie, Gipsy Danger is the poster boy Jaeger of the series representing USA piloted by the Main Character and his twin brother in the beginning of the movie sporting the most well rounded stats among the jaegers. I hope Striker Eureka will get a release eventually which is going to be likely if the first batch are popular enough.

Misadventures of Tron Bonne

 My first entry to Megaman Legend series and arguably leaves me more lasting impression as i never get to finish the game until now. Tron Bonne was a fun game but unfortunately i raised my expectation too high due to Nostalgia factor. For a time the PSX copy was a highly sought after collector item but fortunately you get this game on PSN without paying hundred bucks.

Fall of Ming

 One of the Chinese movie i watched and as a fan of Chinese History, i am really pleased with the Movie. Taking place at the twilight of Ming Dynasty, Fall of Ming try to illustrate the bleak condition of China that eventually lead to the downfall of the last Han Dynasty by Manchu. The movie narrates its story through a Civilian Doctor whose life got involved with an Army General and A scholar turned rebel as he. While the movie focus more on the relation between the Doctor and General, the doctor relationship with the Rebel expand more on how three men who lead different life met their own different end. Despite Fall of Ming is not that heavy on the action department, the movie perfectly capture the image of China plunged into Chaotic period as peasants forced to rebel due to Famine and Heavy Taxation while any decent men from the government failed to do the right things due to rampant corruption by officials and merchant. I really like the General Sun Chuanting in the movie who's portrayed as a person who really try his best to save his nation and doing the proper thing but met so many obstacles due to corruptions and impatient leader. To me Fall of Ming Dynasty is one of the most regretful things that happened in Chinese history as the Succeeding Manchu lead a regressive reign after few decent emperor which leads to the defeat of China by western force by 19th century and perhaps Ming could have survived longer if Yongle didn't forcefully take the throne and moved the capital to Beijing. In any case this movie is a good watch for those Chinese History fans out there.

MH Generations N3DS XL GET!

 Never intended to play MH Generations but after some goading by my friends, in the end i gave in. As my old 3DS got worn out from thousands of hours from Monster Hunting, i decided to get a new 3DS and thought might as well buy a new 3DS. There were 2 candidates for my new 3DS which were the Animal Crossing Home designer version N3DS and MH Generations N3DS XL which in the end i picked the latter. While i think the Limited edition for MH4U N3DS XL was cooler, the MH Gens limited edition doesn't look too bad with Glossy exterior and Matte interior. Surprisingly the data transfer between the 3DS is much less complicated than what i would have thought.

Since i have clocked few hours in MHGens prior to the Data Transfer, i might as well share my first impression about the game. I was on the fence with MHGens due to some mess that Capcom did with 4U and it appears that Generations did fix some of them. The most apparent one is in the Palico system such as acquiring Equipment for Palico doesn't rely on annoying minigame anymore and Weapon variations doesn't get too redundant with the new forging mechanics. I hate to admit it but Capcom did a good job on hooking older players into this game with the nostalgia factor and certainly the solo experience on this game felt better than 4U. While Generations lack of G-Rank, the game will bombard you with high number of quests so it will take a while to complete all of the quests. As of now, i managed to reach 6* Village and the new Flagship monster is not half bad. As always i am still a Lancer and i use Guild style since i like the versatilty that this style provide even though i know that most people are probably using Striker style. I will share my overall thoughts about this game again once i reached the endgame with my First char.

ACI Toys Greek Hoplite 2.0

  When i saw the pictures for this year's Hongkong Toy Show highlights, a company called ACI Toys caught my attention with their product. It appears that they make high-end 1/6 Scale posable figures comparable with Hot Toys lineup. One of their featured products in the exhibition is their Greek Hoplites which looks gorgeous and soon will be available in 4 different styles. The Hoplite comes with Linothorax Armor along with Xiphos and Greek Shield as the armament. When i check the ACI website for the Hoplite 1.0, Hoplite 2.0 is designed as another variation of 1.0 which come with Cuirass and Javelin. Apparently they will sell the Hoplite's Equipment separately from the figure for some reason, probably because of production cost. Even though i am not to familiar with High-end toys like Hot Toys, but i think the Hoplite 2.0 will cost around 100-200 USD.

 Hoplites were the  Heavy Infantry of Greek in classical period which are mostly composed of Free Citizens of Greek City States and have been used as mainline infantry through the famous battles in Classical Period. Usually They fight with Spear and Shield and when 2 Forces of Hoplite fight against each other, the sight looks like 2 Porcupines sticking out on each other . Some of the more outstanding tactics using Hoplite in the period were the Oblique Formation used by Theban General Epaminondas and the Hammer&Anvil tactics by Alexander the Great. The Linothorax armor itself are rather interesting piece of equipment, made of layers of Linen Cloth, the armor provide better comfort than cuirass and at the same time capable of protecting the user from arrows in the period. The armor also had been featured in Homer's Iliad and seen to be worn by Alexander the Great on a famous mural. Nevertheless the depiction of the Hoplite's equipment looks accurate enough for a history amateurs like me and the Hongkong based company deserved a praise for putting respectable amount of effort on their research.

 Apart from the Hoplite 2.0, ACI Toys also made the figurine of famous Greek character based on Troy movie which starred Brad Pitt and i do see Paris and Achilles prototype from the exhibition which looks gorgeous. However the ones that i look forward the most is ACI Toys prototype for Sengoku Period famous Warlord, Shingen Takeda which is spot-on in terms of looks which will wait for its preview.

Sakura Taisen Variable Action Koubu Ichiro Ogami Ver Review

Imperial Floral Assault Group has come forth!

Some shots for Shiranui UN version

 I accidentally deleted my photoshots on Shiranui UN for stupid reason and here are some of what i can salvage from. I intend to do another take on this guy which i will do once i finished reading Muvluv Alternative which i intend to do in near future despite 6 months of procrastinating. This time i will do it with better setups compared to last time since these pictures are taken with Digital Camera instead of DSLR. Anyway case here are some of the shots that were taken for the Review.

Mechatalk: Super Robot Wars and Char Aznable Part 2

 A while i ago i have discussed how SRW further explored the much beloved Gundam series Anti-Hero, Char Aznable. As Alpha series provided the final showdown befitting of the caliber of his character, This time i will discuss the exploration of his character done in SRW MX. While MX did not incorporate much of Universal Century Gundam in its storyline, it does provide an alternate take on Post-Zeta Gundam Char something that is not much explored in the Gundam series outside Gihrens Greed. You can look at the previous SRW and Char discussion here

Mobile Police Patlabor Game Edition PSX

 Patlabor series is probably one the most well known work made by Yutaka Izubuchi and i certainly respect this series alot for having one of the most realistic approach for mecha genre. Little known outside Japan, the series actually had a decent game on PSX which was not too shabby at its time but doesn't age really well at the present with its graphic quality. In any case Patlabor Game Edition offers an interesting experience for a mecha game because it is made by people who understand the series really well.

Ys Seven Adol Christin Figurine Review

 It could be said that Ys series is quite an influential RPG series in japan but for some reason it didn't have much merchandise despite it deserved one and even Eiyuu Densetsu series got more love. Up until now there is no proper figure for Adol Christin and at best we got Gashapon tier figurine of him. It is such tragedy for a legendary hero like Adol didn't have proper figurine since Japan didn't bother to make a male figurine unless it is Fujoshi Bait. Surprisingly China beat Japan in the race of making figure for Adol as they made Ys Seven version of Adol Christin as a part of their release of Limited Edition of YS Seven game over there. Got myself one from Taobao for 40 RMB which is really cheap though recently it fetch rather expensive price recently. There's also SD figurine for Celceta version of Adol but it is rather pricey for non posable SD figurine. While it is not the best version of figurine, at least we get slightly more decent figurine for this beloved Red Haired Adventurer on par with Ufo Catcher tier.

Coyote Ragtime Show

 A solid action anime made by Ufotable back when they don't make TYPE-MOON stuffs. Coyote Ragtime Show is a short but intensely fun Space Pirate anime. For such solid overall quality, i still wonder why the series doesn't seem to be that popular and just end up to be anime of the season, i suppose it is not up to the taste of Japanese. Coyote Ragtime Show tells the story of two groups of Space Pirates racing down for a Space Pirate King treasure. One group is led by the Pirate King's best buddy who's an infamous Space Pirate by himself and taking care of his buddy's daughter while the other side is led by a powerful Female Space Pirate who murdered the Pirate King himself in the past and led 12 Gothic Lolitas battle maid android as elite squads.

 For a Sci-fi anime Coyote Ragtime Show gets a solid score as its intense actions and compelling story will get you hooked into the series. Best comparison would be that Coyote Ragtime Show is what Baccano will look like if it had futuristic setting and the latter is awesome anime. On the sidenote, the Space Pirate King kinda resemble Tokiomi from Fate/Zero and the Twelve Maids are quite nice eyecandy especially their leader named April which is the character in the header pics of this post. So if you are sick of Shonen protagonists and prefer characters who relies on their wits to solve their issues in a Sci-fi setting, Coyote Ragtime Show is a good choice. I suppose the series got better charm for Western Audiences and i think i will give a watch to Outlaw Stars or Cowboy Bebop eventually.

Front Mission - Dog Life & Dog Style

 One of the manga adaptation of Front Mission series and like the series, it has everything that makes Front Mission such a charming mecha series. Dog life & Dog style roughly covers the First Huffman war which was the first major conflict between OCU and USN in Front Mission mainly through the perspective of a freelance war journalist. In the manga you will see how people from walked from different paths of life affected by war for better or worse and the manga shows plenty of gory bits just to show how horrific war could be. My favorite chapter in the manga is Fruit of Eden which the OCU officer is just a badass guy for the feats he pulled off to survive the odds. Dog Life & Dog Style had finished its original run back in Japan but unfortunately the manga translation had been inactive for years as it stopped at the "Sheep Herder" arc which happen to be the  last arc of the series and the longest one as well. While the artstyle might put off some people, if you like gritty mecha series or Front Mission fanboy, Dog Life & Dog Style is certainly not to be missed!

Gundam Battle Assault 2

-Wealth and Glory to the Winner!

 When i was a kid, i played this game alot with my friend and certainly it was one of my early gateway to the series. Gundam Battle Assault 2 is probably the best Gundam game that was ever released in the west for PSX and still one of the top Gundam Games that got western release. At its release time Gundam Battle Assault 2 surprises lots of people with its solid gameplay, making it a well-remembered classic. While i am not good with fighting game, i really had fun with GBA2 and every now and then still play this awesome gem.