1/144 Freedom

A vast majority of the kits I build are originally hand me downs from people who were no longer interested and wanted to offload their kits but didn't want to throw them out. In fact a lot what I have are incomplete models that need a lot of surgery. This particular kit I volunteered to take on for a local anime club in order to make something that could be offered as a good display piece. It's going to be raffled off at the end of the quarter so I have some time before it happens.

This is missing the V fin, its gun, and has 6 points of articulation. On the other hand the detail on the face is really sharp. I'm planning on chopping it up to put into a dynamic static pose with some scratch built parts.

Anime Expo 2011

Conventions are just blurs to me these days.  I think this will be my last year staffing a convention since I’ll be headed off to nursing school in a month.  W00t.   This past week was anime expo, which celebrated its 20^th anniversary.  Good for them.  I hope things are better for the SPJA now that the CEO has been changed.  I’ll have to see what sort of budget cuts my friends who are on staff suffered through, but maybe things went ok.  I wouldn’t know, I was selling Gundams all weekend at our awesome BandaiShowsOffitsE-Penis booth.

NY Toyfair 2011 Part 2

Today we look at some pictures of the prototype wing zero.

Articulation and stability presented in the legs on the prototype is about perfect. The sculpt and proportions make this one of the best Wing Zero renditions out there. It will be the best Wing Zero EW you can get outside of getting one of the model kits. I didn't have a chance to take pictures of certain things, but I can describe them. The Chest had what seems like 3 joints in the center to allow the torso to bend in an extreme manner. The sole purpose of the bend of course is so the Wing Zero can pull off its signature twin buster rifle pose. I actually cheated a bit with the wing zero pose since the position of the rifle triggers are too close for the hands to properly grip them at the same time. I think, and this is speculation that the wing zero might have a single molded double hand similar to virgo shakka's praying hands on the Saint Myth CLoth line. I took a look at the MG Wing Zero Custom in the other case to compare and noticed that it too cheats for holding the rifle for the pose. It relies on one hand trigger while the other hand simply rests against the underside of the rifle, where the rear portion is wedged into the upper lip of the torso camera eye.

Accessory wise the prototype comes with closed fists, open fists, and 2 trigger fists which can also hold the 2 beam sabers. The hilts of the beam sabers slot into the arm that holds one of the wings, but I was unable to do this because I only found one of the saber handles in the bag. Must have been lost on the way to New York.



Slightly unrelated, but I know people would like to see a size comparison of the new Megaman X from the D-Arts line. Well here it is in comparison to a coke bottle.

NY Toy Fair 2011 Part 1

As I've mentioned in the past conventions are nice pain in the ass to set up, but the effort is worth it because you generate an awesome booth. We spent the entirety of Saturday putting the booth together and preparing our display pieces. We were there literally from 9am all the way to 11pm and still didn't quite finish everything until the following morning before the show started.

We shipped a lot of product samples to New York, something like 20 boxes of stuff.  Setting up always takes a while mostly because you have to pose the figures.  There's actually quite a bit of thought that goes into this since presentation is everything.  We had some help from a few local NY residents, many thanks.  Tear down is faster since you only need to worry about positioning everything so it does not break in the storage containers.

Here's some pics of our booth before everything was put in them.










 

Because of circumstances out of my control, I could not update this in a "live" format. So for now this is more of a backstage access to Bluefin and our support from Tamashii Nations. Working with new unreleased product is the greatest privilege out there ever and Bandai's Collector's division is dedicated to giving the U.S. some love that its citizens have been demanding. Many many yet to be released prototypes were flown in from Japan during Tamashii Features so they could be on display at New York. Let's take a look shall we?

Wing Zero ver EW Robot Spirits and S.H. Figuarts Sanji



Strong World Shanks, Ace, Tony Tony Chopper, and Megaman X


Will post some more pictures tomorrow!

New York Toy Fair Part 0

Hello all this is going to be the first in a small series of posts about New York Toy Fair.

This was my first trip in business class; a fairly nice experience. Shorter line for security during the peek morning hours, access to Unitied's lounge which has odourves and free wifi, and of course business class seating. The below photo shows what a ridiculous amount of space is given to you if you get the exit aisle. Yes I do think another pair of seats could have been added, but then I wouldn't have room to leisurely leave my junk on the ground.

Food consisted of a "green salad with choice of a balsalmic vinagarette or creamy garlic dressing" and "smoked salmon with capers rolled over asparagus on a bed of cucumber." Unfortunately I didn't have my camera out for the appetizers. I did however have it out for the Chicken, which I at this point cannot remember its name or description. T'wass good....and it was followed by dessert and coffee/tea. My boss had a stir fried shrimp with egg fried rice.





Upon checking into the hotel that night I couldn't help but think I was back in college.

Saturday comes the daunting task of setting up for the show. Will post some more soon!

My Card

Wow.  I like.   Also, SUCK IT HAAS MAJORS =)

Tentative Itinerary