Friday, April 04, 2008

Gundams, vampires and friends, oh my!

Current status: Doing a victory dance after completing my new figures. Damn they're smexy!
Currenly listening to: Swat On Dekaranger, from a sentai anime, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger (Special Investigation Squad Dekaranger), the inspiration for Power Rangers: S.P.D. A nice hot-blooded song to celebrate my first ever MS figures.
Quote of the day:
A woman has a close male friend. This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around so much. She sees him strictly as a friend. This always starts out with, you're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way. This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying, You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired. - Some anonymous guy on Wikichan

Today, I picked my figures up from the post. First thing to note is that the boxes are bigger than those of the Revoltechs, although the figures are a few centimeters smaller (my camera is busted, so I'll post pictures later). The robots themselves are already built, but their weapons and accessories aren't. You need a knife or scissors to cut them free from the plastic support. Easier said than done. Earned me a cut finger (my middle finger, too... Daaaaamn, now I can't show it to anyone anymore...) and another cut (on the same finger. Neither was fatal... I think). Took me a whole hour to build Nu Gundam's signature Fin Funnels (long range remote-controlled beam launchers o' Doom), mainly because they were neatly matched on to another and ignoring the instructions would make the whole process useless. I also discovered that I am completely blind, not understanding the drawing that clearly showed the Funnel's connection to the figure. Nevertheless, Nu Gundam looks awesome with his beam saber and bazooka. They could've given him a stand, though. There's no way of displaying the Nu Gundam in flight, surrounded by the Funnels (same goes for Sazabi. It's a pity, really). The Sazabi was less of a pain to assemble, and even gets more weapons, I think. Also, you have 3 funnels, but I have NO idea how I'll display them or at least avoid losing them. I'll try hanging them from the ceiling. Anyway, let's see what accessories you get for each.

Nu Gundam
1x shield with Amuro's custom logo, containing 3 missiles. Attachable to arm
3x beam sabers: one is off (stored in the left arm), one is lit on one end, one is lit one both ends (though the second end is quite small)
1x beam rifle: even has ammo
1x bazooka: also has ammo, as well as an adjustable handle
6x fin funnels: can be stored on back
2x open hands
2x closed fists
2x holding fists

Sazabi
1x shield with Neo Zeon logo, containing 3 missiles. Attachable to arm
2x beam sabers: both are identical.
1x beam tomahawk: one-sided
1x beam tomahawk: two-sided
1x beam shotrifle: like a shotgun
6x closed funnels: immobile, stored on backpack.
3x open funnels
2x open hands
2x holding fists

All in all, I can give them 5/5 on mobility, 4/5 on accessories (why don't they have a stand?), 5/5 on design. Final score: 4.66/5 to these two figures. Now I can reenact Char and Amuro's final battle. Yay!

A new Hellsing chapter (91) has been released, and Hirano claims we are heading towards the end. Basically, nothing happens. Seras joins Integra to fight against Major, but we knew that since chapter 90 (2 months ago). All Major does is gloat over his wonderful victory against Alucard. He's really reminding me of Mojo Jojo. Finally, Integra orders Seras to shoot, but only on the last page. On the other hand, the fight between Walter and Heinkel continues. Walter tells Heinkel to shoot at him, only to slash his arm and leg off. Heinkel had become nothing more than a vengeful ruin, bent on killing Walter. On the other hand, Walter is close to his end, and attacks the zeppelin with his Deadly Floss o' Doom. What's he up to? Someone in the LJ Hellsing community thinks that Hirano initially wanted to kill him off this chapter, but he made up his mind. All I can hope is that Alucard comes back, because the manga series is crumbling to a disappointing ending. In fact, ever since Anderson died, nothing has been working like before. Let's just hope Hirano has one trick left for us... Unlikely, since he seems to make it up as he goes on.

The point of the quote is that it sounded very familiar. I've been through this quite a few times, and I'm getting sick of it. Sometimes you'd just want a girl who'd stop appreciating you and would just love you. Is it too hard? Well, if you want brains AND feelings, you're knocking on the wrong door. The best you'll get is their friendship. If you do get their love, it's almost never because you liked them in the first place. I do hope some persons recognize themselves in this portrait and act more carefully along boys. Who aren't perverts and assholes of their own choice. It's girls like these who make them like that. I do hope I won't hear anymore gossip about my inconstant choices. I'd gladly settle for one girl, if she'd stop saying that I'm such a "good friend, end of story". To quote Friends: friend zone = dead zone. I dare you people to prove me wrong.

That would be all for today. Signing off, yours truly.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Otaku

Current status: Ecstatic. My newest order from Hobbylink Japan has arrived! Tomorrow I'll go get them!
Currently listening to: TWO-MIX - Last Impression. The ending theme to Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, the sequel OAV (and movie remake) to the popular Japanese mecha anime, New Mobile Report Gundam Wing. The song combines slow, ambiental vocal with very dynamic, rock-like instrumental every now and then. Kitsch? Who cares?
Quote of the day: "As long as people like you exist, there will be need for soldiers like us!" - Heero Yui, Gundam Wing's protagonist, in Super Robot Wars Alpha 2, when fighting against Neo Zeon units.

Being in my last high-school year and all, I have 2 large problems. One is that of love and stuff, which I haven't developed on this blog, for fear of snoopy classmates. The other is that of the upcoming exam. Regarding the first, all I can say is that I am sick and tired of the soap operas surrounding my and everybody's love-life. Who needs cable when you have twenty-f***ing-eight girls around you? I have seen everything. Absolutely everything. It's enough to make men go gay, sometimes. Till you realize you'll be forced to become a bit girly, which can have horrendous results. Mind you, I've known decent girls, and quite a few of those. Just that the majority has little pity for my braincells, which have been fried over and over.

The exams? Lessee... Romanian literature and non-literature, oral and written? Check. History? Check. Latin? Check. German oral? Check. Psychology? Check. 6 exams. Thank God I'm not Hungarian, else I'd have one MORE exam. Lots of work, stress and more work. Oh, and your friends and colleagues are of no help. Think you're calm, with your mind clear as a mirror and still as the water? (Copyright G Gundam) That's too bad. Everyone around me, except for pathological cases, is worried. "Will I pass?" "Will I get all 10s?" "How did you solve this Economy problem?" "Is this a subjective or a predicative clause?" "How am I gonna rephrase this?" "I haven't learned anything, I'm DOOOOOMED!" "I'm gonna die!!" "Tell him about Barbu's poem!" "HELP ME WITH THE LATIN QUIZZES, MIKE!" "YOU'LL NEVER PASS! "YES I WILL!". And so on, and so forth. The ministry helped us a lot too. They gave us all possible variants on the Internets (to quote Bush). 100 complete subjects, each containing 3 exercises. For the written exams, that's a total of 1200 exercises. And 200 published ones for oral. And 200 more that are unpublished. 1600 exercises. Stick'em up your asses, darlings.

There are two solutions. One is working all day, all night. That's what my classmates do. Look at them. Sure, I did it too, but in another way. I'm going to 3 national contests, all taking place in the same city, during Easter holiday. 3 more exams, in 2 days. French, Latin and Old Greek. Wish me luck, since I'm an arrogant bastard who wants to get some prizes. It's not like anybody else even reached the national phase. And, as if this performance wasn't enough, I don't need a college entry exam, being an international contestant in Latin. In your faces, people!

There's the other solution, much more peaceful: being an otaku. Yes, I mean manga and anime, not pornography. More specifically, mecha anime - anime with and about robots. I enjoy certain robot series because they're formulaic. You know that by the end of the episode, the good guys will use the big bot to beat the baddie of the day. And if they don't beat him, you know they'll get a bigger bot or a bigger gun. How can you not like that? This is why I play Super Robot Wars. This is a crossover game, almost 20 years old (since 1991), with many new versions. It's all about putting some mecha series together, combining their plots, making their characters interact and fighting their enemies. Sometimes, the story modifies the original plot, so that you can save some of the ones who die, especially in Gundam series. Playing a few of these games has reintroduced me to a childhood idol, UFO Robot Grendizer, a 70s anime about Duke Fleed, an alien prince who escapes his conquered planet with the invaders' robot, Grendizer. He is followed by the Vegans (the baddies), who are bent on conquering Earth as well. Duke (adopted by a scientist, under the name of Daisuke Umon) must give up his peaceful life to protect Earth. I'll give more details another day.

The main point of this post is action figures. I already possess 2 Revoltechs (highly articulated 6-inch figures), one of Getter 1 (from the 2004 New Getter Robo) and one of Shin Getter 1 (from 1998's Change Getter Robo: The Last Day of the Earth):
I received them in January, when I went to get them, despite my toenail surgery. I hope to make a similar photo for the HCM Pro Nu Gundam and HCM Pro Sazabi, both scale 1/200.

These are some photos of the two figures in action. As I said, they are highly posable. (In the third picture, you can notice Dr. House, by the way).

Tomorrow, I'll go pick up the two HCM Pro figures. Here are some pictures of them (credit goes to Hobbylink Japan).


Kore ga shouri no kagi da! - This is the key to victory!, to quote the narrator from The King of Braves GaoGaiGar.

I do hope I'll be able to keep posting here from now on. If anyone (among the ones I may or may not have insulted) feels offended, well... that's too bad. The last thing I'd want is censor myself in a blog.

Fellow otaku, Lion of Genesis, signing off once more.