Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Marusan Wishbook Update!

I got a couple figures from my badly numbered (ha ha ugh) Wishbook and updated the image

Still quite a few more to go!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Sweet sweet mail day

I definitely wasn't expecting so much fun in one day! And you, the lucky reader, gets to mobile blog read along with me!

Envelope and little box contained lots of inexpensive D&D miniatures. Yes...i'm a nerd. Trying to match up some minis to new 4e characters is fun. Air genassi swordmage coming up!

The medium box was a sweet buy from another member of skullbrain.org. First the deliciously cheap Marusan Satan Beetle. Fun!

Then a completely transparent Medicom (?) Sharkman suit that should go nicely on my KWII clear cyborg.

The nerd continues.

The final big box is from everyone's favorite...Celga! Since I had this one shipped via SAL instead of the very prompt EMS, I actually forgot about it. So it was like Santa just walked in with this one!

It contains the set of Marusan originals that I wrote about a few weeks ago. I'm stoked about the clear, beer bellied Ultraman ripoff in particular. (He's at the top right)

Great mail day!

Friday, January 23, 2009

As promised, Stag Beetle shots!

Here are the completed DxSxH Stag Beetle photos. It took some hair dryer magic and some sore fingertips to work those antlers into the face. This suit was pretty tricky to assemble with those antlers and fitting the head inside the torso, but it looks great when it is all done I think!

It is one of my favorites

You can see a few more photos on my flickr.






Mobile fun with DxSxH Stag Beetle

I love getting packages at work, and I think this may be my first one ever from Singapore!

Opened up the box to find the Darkside Heroes Stag Beetle suit on top and a nice clean black Obitsu body hiding underneath.

I'm quite impressed how well all the parts fit on the Obitsu. Legs, arms, and inner head are all nice and snug.

I just can't get the damn beetle antlers into the tiny holes in the side of the helmet.

Hairdryer time!

I'll have to post some better photos once I get off my lazy ass and fix it.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Army of the Apes by Bullmark

Another TV show tie-in. I'm on a roll! I have a couple more to follow from old television programs as well.

Instead of breaking this apart into separate entries, I thought I could talk about all four of my Bullmark (ブルマァク) Army of the Apes (猿の軍団) toys that I have all at once.

This is not a show I have eny experience with outside of what little information exists on the internet. Army of the Apes, or "Saru-no Gundan", was Tsuburaya Productions' television version of the U.S. Planet of the Apes series. The Army of the Apes series lasted only from 1974-1975 with 26 episodes.
IMDB's synopsis of the show is "A female scientist and two children are accidentally transported into a future dominated by apes."

The show was adapted into an American dubbed movie in 1986 called Time of the Apes. I think it was covered on Mystery Science Theatre...


I feel like the slacker kid in class trying to give a book report on a book I obviously have not read past the back cover.


Anyway, there onto the toys. There are a few full sized apes I have seen floating around from time to time, but these almost minis seem to be pretty abundant.

Header
While I have only found one of these still in the bag with a header, the one that I do have is quite nice. There are a couple really cool paintings on the front and back featuring characters from the television series; an action shot on the front and more of a montage on the back. I like the style, and the fonts look cool. A great little header card.

Sculpt
For what they are, the sculpts of these toys are not bad. They get the point across and even manage a little detail while still maintaining a simplicity and ruggedness that many action figure sized toys from the 70s and 80s had.

All of the figures here are articulated at the shoulders and the neck so you can get some good fighting and generic ape poses in there... except for the red caped ape. Not sure of his name, but his gimpy left hand/arm holding the staff is not that great.

The figures are well balaced... maybe a little top heavy especially with their arms raised, and not many glaring issues in quality outside of a bubble on the shoulder of one of them. Not a huge deal with the mass produced toys of the time, however.

I really like the faces of the three suited apes. Like I said before, they are simple, but I think they are interesting and get the point across without getting bogged down in over-detailing. Again, though, the face of the elder caped baboon guy is not my favorite.

The ape with the white moustache and the loooong buttoned up suit is probably my favorite. His face has the better sculpt I think with the little details, and his clothing is well done.

The giant bowtie on the chimp in the tuxedo is pretty ridiculous.

Overall, nice sculpts... at least on three of them.


Paint
Not so good here.

I have a few handmade, street vendor style luchador toys in my possession now, and the paint job on those is just a little worse than these.

I don't know if it is due to the rush of mass production or what, but the brush painted areas on these figures have quite a few issues. It just seems to be slapped on really.

For the most part it is a smooth application, but they did not "stay in the lines" very well. And I don't mean in the nice, slight overspray with the airbrush way you see on the vintage (and vintage-style) paint jobs on larger vinyl toys.

You can see it the most on the staff hand of the caped ape. Pretty sloppy job painting the fingers and staff itself. The black feet underneath are very sloppy as well. His face is not great, but it is passable I suppose.

You can see these issues on the other figures as well. Fortunately these problems are not as pronouced as they are on the caped baboon.



Value
You can pick these up for relatively cheap considering the afe (30+ years old)... Even a bagged one will not feel like it is emptying your wallet. I suppose it is because the show was not ever that popular and the toys are not the fad of the day for modern collectors, but hey, more for me!


Overall
Positives: Apes in suits!
Negatives: Sloppy paint

These are not my favorite gorilla themed vinyl, but they aren't terrible. I can get past the sloppy paint. They don't have a huge footprint so they can be wedged in nicely to a crowded shelf. Pick them up if you want some pint-sized gorillas to add to your collection. They are pretty random to have... you could impress your friends when you talk about the Japanese version of Planet of the Apes! ....Or maybe not.



Thursday, January 1, 2009

New Years Resolutions part deux - 2009

OK, maybe I can keep the resolutions obtainable this year. Not that they were unobtainable last year, but I'm just trying to make myself feel better so shut it.

1) Lose at least 10 lbs.
Serious about it this time around. My wife wants to lose weight by March for a cruise, and she has challenged me to lose some with her. Hopefully I can maintain that momentum and lose a little more than that. I don't plan on joining a gym or anything, but I think some simple exercising at home (and maybe I'll pick up a Wii Fit copy if it is ever not sold out!) will help out. Also gotta avoid the easy candy at work... it's EVERYWHERE!

2) Get back on that sketchbook.
This list is feeling the same as last year. Boring, huh?

3) Oil paint.
Sometimes when I am falling asleep I have the weirdest images that float in my head. For example, the other night I saw in my pre-REM haze a red tyranosaurus rex with a blonde wig standing between 2 green Roman columns.

I have also wanted to paint scenes from my dreams for quite sometime. If they look shitty, oh well... no one knows what was in my head anyway, right??

4) Get back to custom painting toys.
I have a ton of blanks I have stocked up on in the past couple years that are itching to be painted horribly... and I am just the man to do it.......maybe.

I have a Gargamel Pinwheel I have plans for to take part in a little
Skullbrain competition, so we'll see! Dada here I come... I just need to figure out a better way to mask that paint!!

5) Work on my debt.
I have faith I can keep this one.


6) POST MORE ON ASSORTED LOAF!
The fans demand more. ALL 3 OF YOU!

Maybe not, but I have a ton more toys that will otherwise just sit there, so I need to take them out, appreciate them all over again, then write more drivel here all for you loyal readers! See the sacrifices I make for you?

Love me...please?

I think that's enough for now. Nothing too unreasonable, right? So I'll be back in 2010 to whine about how I didn't keep any of them, so stay tuned!