It has been awhile since I’ve updated my site – I wanted to get back into adding some more contents but Skyrim keeps beckoning me to play.  So yeah, I’ve been spending my free time lately playing Skyrim and watching Battlestar Galactica on Blu-Ray.  >_>’  So now that I’m finished with the BSG box set and taking a break from Skyrim – I’m feeling too lazy to take photos of figures – so I thought I’ll just post up my GTI build .  Though it’s a copy and paste from my build thread on [iDUB], at least it’ll ease me back in to the writing mood (I hope).

Yes, I actually have hobbies (and a life) outside of figure collecting (and gaming).  LOL

Got my Volkswagen GTI (Fahrenheit Edition) on Aug. 31, 2007 – completely stock. It was purchased from Owasco VW, with roughly 1200km on it as it was used as the sales manager’s car for about a month. I preferred brand new, but the car was in great shape and I got a decent discount, so c’est la vie! It was #37 out of 150, hence my username on [iDUB].  The Fahrenheit GTI is a limited edition of the MKV GTI released in the 2007 model year, there are 1200 in the US and 150 in Canada.  It’s basically a fully loaded GTI, but comes in Orange, Charleston wheels and European tuned suspension.

A few weeks later, I received something in the mail. Yup, that’s right, it came orange too.  For those that don’t know, this is a “Fast”, the mascot for the GTI (at least for the MKV, not sure about the other gens).  It usually comes in black if you purchased a GTI – it was pretty cool of VW to make an orange one for the Fahrenheit.

The car remained stock for about a year as I slowly became more involved with the local VW enthusiast scene – though I did change the North American light switch to the European version.  I then decided to go for a different look – I really hated the black plastic lower trims on these GTI’s (and some Audi models). It feels cheap and just doesn’t match the car at all – it should’ve been colour matched in my opinion. Everyone had Votex or ABT kits at that time, so I decided to go with OSIR. I really liked their kit design and the carbon fibre accents – the gloss black, to me, felt like a nice accent and contrast to the orange.

I purchased my kit from Frank @ EuroSport Tuning back in February of 2008 during a sale as recommended by Nancy (Wyng on the forums). The kit wasn’t installed till later in October of 2008 though – I shopped around for a reputable body shop but this was how it turned out.

The paint colour didn’t match, they had my car for about a month and still couldn’t match it. Not all the kit was mounted on either (CF trim missing), they used cheap wooden screws (that rusted in a week) to mount the skirts and they told me my original lower trim were garbaged when I had asked them to keep it. I wasn’t in the mood to argue at that time, just needed my car back for work so I just left. It was a bad experience for sure, but other people seemed to have had great experiences with that particular body shop. I do admit the finish / clear coat was done fairly well though, too bad the colour didn’t match. I was still able to get this pretty cool shot of the car though. Around that time I also got my R32 rear installed by H2Sport, although I forgot to take pictures. I also installed a Euro switch and a rear fog light – I love rear fog lights, but I hate it when retards on the roads turn them on when not needed.  The rear fog on the MKV GTI is also asymmetrical – it replaces one of the white reverse lights – which is a little annoying as people are always telling me I have a bulb out when I reverse.  >_<’

I later installed a boost gauge, as I wanted to see how my boost and vacuum were performing. I wanted the OSIR vent pod, but I didn’t like the position of that pod. So I went with VMR’s vent gauge that sits in the center which I find more preferable. I can see the gauge with my peripheral vision while keeping my eyes on the road - it also freed up my driver side vent, which allows me to adjust it (I think it’s more important than the center vent). The air still blows through the vent, I can still adjust the open and close dial as well, but the air just blows straight (through the gauge).

A few months later, I was recommended to 360 Auto (by Nancy again) to help with the paint work. Pae did a pretty good job at matching the colour and definitely earned my trust as a customer. Too bad he’s not there anymore.   I cringe everytime I think about having to colour match this paint colour as it’s so difficult to do right.  Pae also mounted the CF side trims correctly.

March of 2009:  I installed a Evoms intake and got APR Stage 1 flashed by H2Sport. Talk about a night and day difference in power!  The APR Stage 1 is rated at 252hp/303lb-ft (94 octane), but I usually set it to 91 octane mode for more fuel efficiency.  I prefer 91 octane as Shell’s V-Power doesn’t contain ethanol like the 91/94 from Sunocco/Petro Canada.  At 91 octane, the APR is rated at 246hp/282lb-ft.  Gotta love this 2.0T!

June of 2009:  I got the rear tail lights tinted by Pierre @ ShinzoWerks

August of 2009:  I brought my car back to Shinzo to get my hood and roof vinyled gloss black.

I also attended Vagkraft for the first time that year as a booth car for Frank @ Eurosport Tuning since Marco couldn’t make it.

September of 2009:  I installed the BSH Stage 2+ PCV Fix and Catch Can, got the kit from Andrew @ Redline Motorworks which I bought at Vagkraft.

March of 2010:  I finally got fed up with that POS noise pipe (that thick black pipe you see above, just to the left of the engine) and decided to get rid of it.  It was always in the way when I worked in the engine bay.  Removing this first should’ve been my first mod, it would’ve made the intake and catch can installs so much less painful.

May of 2010:  On a whim, I bought a Votex lip and installed it.  Which was later sold to James just prior to the 2010 Vagkraft (which he won 1st for the mild show car category).

Then there was the unforgettable GO Dubbin’ meet that same month, which brought in typhoon-like winds.  Many umbrellas lost their lives that day.

July of 2010:  I decided to give the hood a new vinyl treatment, so it was back to Shinzo once again.  This time I got the 3M dinoc CF vinyl, unfortunately it only comes in dry carbon and no gloss.    I really wanted a gloss CF hood to match the rest of the car’s CF, but this had to do in the interim.  I also installed the OSIR CF eyelids for the lights, I liked this much better than all the other brands with the droopy eyelids out there.  This followed the contours of the car.

August of 2010:  I got the new plastic OSIR vented fog covers, which was nice because I didn’t have to drill into my bumper like the CF fog covers (which I still haven’t installed because of this fact).  The plastic fog covers just screws on using the OEM mount.  I initially painted the fog covers gloss black to match the front mask, but it didn’t look good.  I thought there was too much black and too much gloss, it diverted attention away from the rest of the car and it didn’t match the dry CF vinyl hood.  I had these black fog covers on for a few minutes then told Pae to repaint them to colour match the car.  I also reverted back to the OSIR lip as I felt it matched the car more in terms of my current styling.  But I kind of miss that Votex lip now that I think about it. 

That same month, I also FINALLY got my car lowered on FK Silverlines (installed by 360 Auto) that I got from Max.  So nice not being 4×4 status anymore, but then again, once you go lower, all sorts of weird noises and gremlins start happening.  Ah well.  I didn’t slam my car though, I still wanted something driveable as this is my daily – so I left it at about one and a half finger gap.

And once again, I was one of the booth cars for EuroSport Tuning at Vagkraft.  Lowered my car just in time for the show.  My CF vinyl hood and side pillars were a HUGE hit at the show, everybody who walked by had the urge to feel it off.  My poor Fahrenheit…

September of 2010:  I installed the Waywell WD6050 HU in place of my stock Premium VII HU and also CF wrapped my center console.  The Waywell is somewhat of a replica of VW’s RNS-510 at a fraction of the cost.  I can now play an assortment of media as well as have bluetooth connectivity for the phone – it also comes with iGO Primo navigation.  The software definitely have bugs and needs polishing, but so far it’s working fine for me so I don’t have much to complain about.  Since I had taken apart the center console to install the Waywell, I thought I might as well give the CF wrap a shot.

November of 2010:  I’ve always wanted to get KW v2 coil overs, so when the opportunity came, I got a set for a pretty decent price.

December of 2010:  I would’ve waited until spring before installing the new coils, but due to an emergency, I needed some cash to help pay for some bills.  So I sold my FK coils as quickly as possible and got the KW installed.  (This pic was taken much later, forgot to take pics of the actual install).

January of 2011:  Got Euro LED tails installed, purchased them from Pierre @ Shinzo as he was parting out his GTI.  I hadn’t done this mod up to this point since I wasn’t sure how the crystal/chrome would look on the orange.  Also because I was afraid fo getting that dreaded light bulb out dash light, I hate warning lights on my dash if they don’t need to be there.  lol  But the install went well, and no bulb out warning lights!  The LED tail lights have also grown on me.  At least it matches the emblem and badges on the hatch.  The North American model of the GTI didn’t come with LED tails, so a new cable needed to be installed and plug configurations changed for the LED.  Some model years didn’t seem to like this – though the LED will function normally – the car will think there’s a bulb missing to the rear.

I also decided to slap an [iDUB] sticker on my colour matched fog cover, still can’t decide whether this was too “rice” to do.  No one’s really said anything to me about it, so I just left it there.  LOL

July of 2011:  Finally installed my Hawk HPS brake pads with Super Blue brake fluid and stainless steel lines.  These were purchased from Frank @ EuroSport Tuning about a year ago during the group buy.  But since I still had a lot of padding left and have just flushed my brakes during a maintenance service, I didn’t install these new items till this year.

August of 2011:  Courtesy of the 401 and a constrution truck, I had to replace my windshield.  Got it replaced by Pedro @ Speedee Gonzales Auto Glass, saw that he was recommended on a lot of different forums so I gave him a try.  He came to my house and replaced it within a couple of days (had to wait for the part) and I thought he did a really good job.  Seal was excellent and it was very cleanly done.  My only gripe is that the rearview mirror mount came from the factory higher than normal, so it feels a little weird when I look up at the mirror as things are pointing ever slightly downwards.  On the plus side, I have more visibility in front and that stupid rock chip I’ve had in front of my eyes for the past 3 years is now gone.

I also installed the OSIR Telson CF Spoiler as well as the OSIR vented double sided CF hood around the same time.  Bling.

We’re now almost there – in terms of how I envisioned my car to look when I first got it.  Performance wise, I’m pretty satisfied with my APR Stage 1.  No plans yet to go Stage 2 and downpipe as I think Stage 1 is a good compromise between power and reliability.

August of 2011:  And here’s how the car currently looks, pictures taken at Vagkraft 5.  You may or may not have noticed that I have changed the front mask to the OSIR CF front mask.  =P  I was debating whether to put on the CF fog covers, but decided to keep with the orange for the show.  I think the colours flow better with the orange fog covers.

And a pic by Calvin Lee from the show – I haven’t had the opportunity to take more formal shots of my car in its current form.  With winter upon us, I probably won’t be taking any pics of the car till next Spring.

What does one envision when they think of strength?  I would assume people would normally associate strength with muscles, power, Superman, etc.  But in Black Rock Shooter’s case, Strength comes in the form of a petite girl with massive mechanized arms.  How’s that for cool?!

I’ve been happy thus far with the BRS figures coming from Good Smile Company; in general, the figures are well made and lacks any significant flaws.  That is with the exception of BRS animated version, where the initial production batch was missing the star on the jacket.  GSC remedied that by issuing a sticker, but that was only for the domestic market as far as I know, those of us in the international community were SOL.

Strength is one of the supporting characters from the Black Rock Shooter OVA, which I still have yet to watch.  I even have the demo from the BRS Figma as well as the Blu-Ray movie which are just sitting on my shelf untouched.  I guess you can say the same for my BRS figure collection, they’re all just sitting in their boxes awaiting their reviews.  Strength is the first BRS figure that I have opened up and she just so happens to be the newest addition to my BRS collection.  I figure all the other BRS characters have been out for some time and have received many reviews already, so I might as well do something new and review Strength.

I can’t say I’m all that familiar with the BRS franchise, while I know what it is, I’m not intimate with the details nor the characters.  I’ve been thinking about this fact quite a bit lately, I realize I don’t really have any affinity towards most of the figures in my collection.  That, I think, allows me to review the figures as is and without bias.  But then again, sometimes this lack of connection to the characters will result in my failing to recognize unique elements that defines the figure from its original source.

All I know is that Strength is the alternate persona of the girl named Yuu and that she might end up being an opposition for BRS (or already is?).  Can’t say I’d be surprised if they fight and end up being allies in the end though, Strength doesn’t seem like an antagonist to me.  Either way, when I first saw the figure up for pre-order, I thought she had an interesting design that separated her from BRS, Dead Master and Black Gold Saw.  Alright, fine, I saw those massive mecha arms and thought they were pretty damn cool – and being the mecha fan that I am, I didn’t have any problems with justifying her in my collection.  Hey, I already have BRS, DM and BGS, so might as well get Strength  and complete the set.

Truly, when I think of strength, I would’ve never envisioned a little girl with such massive arms which are called Ogre Arms by the way.  For some reason I think this actually works and it has a little bit of that steampunk-ish feel to it.  Since Strength is an alternate persona, I assume the arms are a metaphor for her strength of character since her body is so petite.  But as I’ve said earlier, my lack of knowledge to the original source may be miscontruding my perception of the character.

When I showed Strength to a friend of mine, he asked me a bunch of questions I didn’t really have the answer to.  Note to self not to discuss figure collecting with my friends as I can’t even explain my obsession with these plastic things.

“Why aren’t the Ogre Arms attached directly to her arms?”  I guess it’s so she can rotate her arms more freely?

“Why a bracket then?  Why not some ball joints or servo?“  I guess it’s for the coolness / artistic design factor.

“Wait, is that a tail coming … “  Yes, okay, she’s an anime character – she doesn’t need to make any sense!  Moving on!

Strength is shrouded in a black hood which I think plays to her name’s advantage.  Her eyes are  somewhat emotionless here, which I usually find annoying in figures, but not in this case.  It works well with the rest of her appearance since you’re unable to gauge the expression on her face.  Her massive arms are probably what you notice first when you see her, thus you are left with the conceived notion that she is strong even with such a petite body.  Mix in that cold stare of hers, she is definitely intimidating!

The downside to this emotionless gaze is that you lose some context to her pose.  She is suspended in the air, almost like she’s jumping yet like she’s not.  You’re left wondering what exactly her body motion is telling you.  Normally, the “animated version” of BRS figures have a more dynamic pose – whereas Black Rock Shooter and Dead Master seem like they’re facing off each other, perhaps Strength will look like she’s jumping backwards when paired up with Black Gold Saw?  I actually haven’t tried that yet, so I can’t say for certain – I’ll update on this at a later date.

Speaking of petite, Strength definitely has the signature BRS look, a really slim body build and really flat chested.  I think Strength may be even flatter than BRS in this case.  ^_^’  Not that I have any qualms about it, but do you think she’s compensating in any way with those massive arms?

Her upper thighs have somewhat better definitions, particularly when viewed from her left side.  It’s nothing to write home about but I can appreciate the detailing here for what it’s worth.  But the dominant feature of Strength is her arms, of course, and I find them extremely well done.  The metallic paint work and “dry brush” effect on the edges make her large gauntlets look durable and used.  By used, I mean it doesn’t look all shiny and polished like it came straight from the factory.  The shading creates a nice weathered effect, though I think the surface could’ve received more “scratches” to make the pair look more battle-weary.  I have to give GSC credit here with the paint work, they could’ve used a flat colour and painted the entire arm one colour but they didn’t.

For the most part, the gauntlets (as I dub them) are fairly solid yet light weight.  You do have to pay careful attention to the thumbs though, as they are a separate piece and glued on to the rest of the hand via a little stub.  I can definitely see someone mishandling them and break off the thumb.  The attachment to the arms also need some attention, while the guantlets lock in place to the arms fairly securely (also via a little stub), her arms are quite thin.  If you’re going to take the gauntlet off for whatever reason, make sure to hold on to her arm with the other hand and lightly wiggle the gauntlet off.  For what it’s worth, both Ogre Arms clip in to the display base very securely and you won’t have any wobbling issues.

Strength rests on the display base via three points, her left foot and her two arms.  The base is your typical BRS style damaged “blocks”.  It’s certainly much more pleasing to the eyes than a standard disc or rectangle.  GSC didn’t cheap out on the details of this display base either, there are cracks and damages as well as careful shading of the paint work.  The base is sturdy and Strength is very well balanced on it, there’s no fear of her toppling over.

Now for that tail of hers, I’m not sure why it’s there nor why her designer even came up with the concept, but it’s there.  I actually didn’t even notice she had a tail until I got the figure; when I saw it, it reminded me of the tail from an alien from Aliens.  The tail is also reminiscent of the Borg Queen’s spine from Stre Trek – and ultimately I think that’s what it is.  It’s not really a tail but moreso a mechanized skeletal spine that helps Strength balance and move better.  I think I read that somewhere, but correct me if I’m wrong.  The “tail” is actually a separate piece which pegs into a little slot just behind (and above) her butt.  So you can optionally leave the tail off without fear of an unsightly hole dancing in front of your eyes.

Strength’s outfit is a one-piece suit with a very short “skirt” portion (writer’s block, can’t think of the correct term), as such her undergarment is rather exposed when you view her from just about any frontal angle.  Fans usually react negatively to the white underwear and I usually don’t give a damn, but in this case with the white so exposed in a midst of black, I found it a little distracting.  While it matches the black and white theme Strength has going on, I think a slightly darker shade (or even black) would have worked out better.  That is unless this was the intent - to arouse the little hentai in all of us?

Strength also has little white bow ties on the top of her stokings and her tail, I thought about taking detailed photos of them (as I normally do when I talk about the finer details) but ultimately decided to skip it in this set of photos.  I mean, they’re just white bow ties and nothing fancy!  ^_^’

If you’re a regular to my site, you may have noticed some difference in style with this review.  First and foremost, there are only 15 pictures as opposed to the usual 30+ that I take.  I didn’t take as many detailed macro shots as I didn’t feel it was necessary for this figure.  If you’re looking at Strength from section to section, she’s actually rather plain.  There’s not much pattern on her outfit and she doesn’t exactly scream colour.  But when you look at her as an entire package, she’s a very well polished figure.  Normally, I can find minute paint errors or production mistakes with the macro lens, but I’m rather surprised at how clean my Strength is.  She lacks mentionable flaws and I didn’t notice any unsightly seam lines.  The shading is very well done, even her outfit has a slight black-charcoal gradient thing going on.

For this photo set, I incorporated a bit more lighting work rather than post processing – I barely touched these photos at all.  Since I’ve been working on some other photo projects with my friends, they left their Speedlites and wireless tx/rx at my place - I took advantage of this and put our 580ex’s to good use.  =)  I normally just run a 580ex and modelling lamps – I’ve been meaning to get more strobes so perhaps this recent shoot can serve as a motivation for me.

Strength is rated at 1/8 scale, but given the size of the Ogre Arms, she looks larger than she actually is.  Head to toe, she is roughly 15cm, but if stretched out she’s actually 22cm.  So I guess 1/8 scale is somewhat accurate, for a little Asian girl anyway!  But hey, by now we all know size doesn’t matter right?  Strength can be defined in many different ways – mentally, physically, mechanically… but as long as you have a kick ass set of mecha arms, nothing else really matters.  Strength is definitely a figure worthy to be put on display, upskirt and all.  ^_^’

Hey look, my second gaming post!  I would’ve never expected I’d be talking about a Warhammer 40K game, but here it is!  Not entirely sure why I decided to post this, perhaps it was due to the stupid ordeal I had to go through this past week trying to get my order fufilled correctly and I just wanted to vent a little.

But first off, I just wanted to say I’ve been a fan of Warhammer: 40K and Warhammer: Fantasy Battles for the longest time.  I started collecting back in high school, my friends and I started off with Warhammer: Fantasy and my first army was the Bretonnians.  I think I amassed an army around 5000 points, sadly most of them are left unpainted.  LOL  I then moved on to collecting Space Marines for the 40K series and probably amassed an army around 2000 points.  It’s been a long time and I can’t really remember – I’ve always wanted to get back into playing and painting the figures but I just don’t have the time.  Plus, all my friends stopped collecting and playing too, so I don’t really have anyone to play with or to motivate me on painting the rest of my armies.

That’s where games like Dawn of War came in, it fufilled my tabletop gameplay urges conveniently on the PC, without having to mess around with bits and pieces nor spending hours and hours on trying to paint them.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s a great satisfaction in completing the figures, but it’s just so damn time consuming (and the figures themselves are fairly costly).  While the Dawn of War series satisfied the RTS aspect, I was eagerly anticipating THQ’s new release of the franchise in the form of a 3rd person shooter.

The game was released earlier this week, on Tuesday, September 6th, 2011, and I had placed a pre-order with my local GameStop Canada months ago.  GameStop’s pre-order exclusive was dubbed the “Emperor’s Elite Pack”, which contained special armor sets for the Black Templars and Space Wolves Chapters.  I got the call from the store on Tuesday and went to pick up my game after work – at checkout, I asked the sales girl about the exclusive code, and the look on her face was NOT promising.  She had that “Oh, sorry to disappoint you” look and told me that none of their orders had the pre-order exclusive codes included.  She had inquired with her manager but haven’t received any updates yet – so she took my name and number and said she’d call me back the next day.  But I knew she wouldn’t.  No girls ever called me back.

I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and waited till Wednesday afternoon before calling the store.  This time I talked to a guy, and he wasn’t really helpful at all.  He told me that all the pre-order codes were limited supplies so those that had came to pick up the games before me got all their codes already so I was SOL.  I knew he was just saying that to get me off the phone, but being the pushover that I am, I just said okay and hung up.

By this time, I was a little disappointed – but I decided to wait another day to try again.  Meanwhile, I played through some of the single player campaign as well as the multiplayer.  I have to say I’m quite impressed with THQ’s take on this shooter – the graphics are beautiful and the ambiance feels like the Warhammer 40K universe.  My gripe with the single player, though, is the typical storyline of Chaos corruption and the portrayal of the Ultramarines Chapter.  They’re so… vanilla, IMO.  Yes, they’re the poster child of Warhammer 40K, but there’s really nothing intriguing about their Chapter.  Dark Angels have a dark secret, the Blood Angels have their gene curse of the Black Rage, Black Templars are on their crusade, Space Wolves have their primal ferocity, etc.  Ultramarines?  They’re balanced.  Wooooooo!  Yeah, they make for a great army but lacks the intrigue that many of the other Chapters have.

The single player campaign is also a bit typical in that it’s “one man vs. the world” kind of deal.  It’d be nice to go into a mass battle site with squads of Space Marines against the countless Orks or Chaos Space Marines.  Maybe there is and I haven’t played far enough into the game yet, but so far it’s pretty much me, myself and I taking on hordes of Space Orks.  Sometimes there are 2 or 3 other Space Marines following me, but they don’t really do anything but yell and run in front of my reticules.

I’ve read a lot of threads and players complaining the game’s not polished and that the game crashes constantly.  Graphical bugs such as black texture and stretched textures plaguing the game, making players unable to play the game properly.  In my experience though, I haven’t come across any of these issues (yet), and I haven’t crashed once yet in my 15 hours of gameplay.  I’m currently running a Core i7-950 @ 3.07GHz, 6GB RAM on Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit with an nVidia GTX 580 (courtesy of EVGA’s superclock model) @ 1920 x 1080 resolution.

The multiplayer, so far, has been pretty fun as well.  It also has the somewhat industry standard RPG element, where you can attain achievements during gameplay to unlock more skills, armors and weapons.  From my experience, the gaming is pretty smooth and the online battles have been frantic and exciting.  Sometimes it is hard to distinquish if the other player is on the same side as you though, because Chaos Space Marines and regular Space Marines tend to look similar.  Many times I’ve found myself shooting at a purple coloured Space Marine, thinking he was Chaos (i.e. Emperor’s Children Legion) only to find out he’s actually on my side.  Luckily, friendly fire was turned off on the server – which can be turned on, but I’ll bet there’ll be a lot of rage quitting due to team kills.  LOL

Upon achieving level 4 in multiplayer, you unlock the Customizer for your profile, which allows you to start modifying the colour scheme, armor and weapon loadouts of your Space Marine or Chaos Space Marine.  I never did finalize a paint scheme for my custom Chapter when I was playing 40K way back when - my early sample squad of Space Marine had blue and shades of gray camo paint job, which I think turned out great but I never continued that trend.  I’ve always had the idea of basing my chapter off the Imperial Fists and making them a specialized urban defense / city fight themed Chapter.  But then that meant I should include some yellow into the paint scheme to relate the Chapter back to its origince.  Yellow in an urban camo, as you may have surmised, wouldn’t work too well in an urban setting.  I then thought of using some aspects of ACU’s (US Army Combat Uniform) colour scheme to paint my Space Marines, but by that time I had stopped playing the actual table top game and packed up my figures into boxes.  So with the customizer option in the recent game, I put a sample scheme together for my online Space Marine.  This isn’t final, but I think is a decent start should I ever get back into painting and designing my custom Chapter.

I’m currently level 11 out of 41, and thus far I found myself surprisingly decent at playing a support role using the heavy bolter.  In one session, I placed first on my team and had a 15-kill streak with the heavy bolter.  The score here isn’t all that impressive, but my team still won and sadly I was the best on our team for that session.  LOL  THQ indicated they will be releasing a 4-player co-op mode for online play some time in October, though it may only be something as simple as co-op against endless waves of Orks and seeing how long you can survive.  May not be that exciting, but at least it’s some form of co-op!  Games have been lacking some serious co-op gameplay in recent years – I miss the good old Rainbow Six / Rogue Spear days with my friends.

So Thursday rolled along and I decided to give GameStop another call.  This time the girl I was originally dealing with answered the phone and told me that they received a new batch of the game with the exclusive pre-order bonus codes inside and that she also obtained a code for me.  So I went to the store to pick up my code after work - very happily might I add - and came straight home to try it out.  I loaded up Steam and input the code, the amount of digits matched, so I clicked on “submit” and eagerly hoped for the best.  “Sorry, your code is not recognized.”  Cue sappy broken heart music.  I tried the code again and again, thinking I might have mis-typed it.  Nope.  The code simply didn’t work.  So I hit up THQ’s site dedicated to the Space Marine game and saw that they had a Pre-Order Issues thread.  Wow, I wasn’t alone – this seemed like a common problem in all regions and not just happening to me.  People who have picked up their pre-orders didn’t receive any code for the exclusive items either.  Even worse, there are those that have pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition (exclusive from THQ’s site) that haven’t even received their game yet.  Some are even being told that their pre-order couldn’t be fulfilled due to inventory shortage.  Talk about a logistical nightmare – someone, somewhere, screwed up really bad.  Is it THQ’s fault or somewhere in the supply chain management?

So I decided to try e-mailing THQ about my incorrect code to see if there’s anything they can do.  I had serious doubts that I’d get a reply, but by that night I received a reply.  They were able to verify my bonus code, but it was for the XBOX 360 version of the game, not PC.  I was dismayed and lost hope of ever getting my pre-order bonus.  Not that it was the end of the world, but I think it’s the principle of it all.  While I know these pre-order bonuses are subject to availability and are limited in quantity, these codes weren’t even supplied to the local retailers to begin with.  And it’s not just GameStop Canada, there are gamers out in the US, UK, Australia, etc. with the same issue.

So today morning, I gave my local GameStop another call and one of the girls I dealt with on Tuesday answered the phone.  I told her about the code that I got on Thursday wasn’t for the PC version and inquired if they really did receive a new batch of the game with the exclusive codes inside.  She said, “Yeah, we do.  Oh wait, why don’t I just open one up and give you the code?  Don’t know why we didn’t do that in the first place.”  I was like, suuuuuuuuuuuure!  It really wasn’t what I was going to ask, but if she could offer that to me, that’d be great.  So she gave met he code over the phone and I tried it out after work (yeah, work showed up a lot in this post, huh?).  Lo and behold, the code worked.  Interestingly, the “Emperor’s Elite Pack” also comes with the “Traitor Legions Pack”, which was supposed to be a Best Buy exclusive.  So now I have four exclusive armour sets unlocked instead of the advertised two.  I assume this is true for everybody else who has the code, but I haven’t come across anyone saying “Yahoo!” on the THQ forum yet.  Odd.

I later dropped by the store and picked up the actual card with the code on it so I can put it in my game packaging.  The sales girl showed me the new batch of the game that they got had a yellow sticker on the packaging whereas the version that I got did not.  I read a post on the THQ forum which rumored that there may have actually been two different releases of the standard game package in North America, one with the exclusive bonus code and one without.  Based upon my experience, I think that rumour may be true.

So if anyone out there is having the same problem I had with regards to the Emperor’s Elite Pack bonus codes, try your local retailer again to see if they have received a new batch of the game with the codes inside.  I decided to post this up hoping it might help someone out there looking for answers.  I’m glad my local GameStop came through for me and for THQ’s support department actually responding to my e-mails.  Hope those who pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition directly from THQ will eventually get their order fufilled too.  So far, I think this is a really well developed game and does the Warhammer 40K franchise proud – any Warhammer fan out there shouldn’t be disappointed in this title.  The game feels polished and the fierce ground combat (especially melee) is dazzling.  It’s a real shame about the logistics of the launch though, which may plague THQ’s credability in the long run unless they can offer a remedy to these missing codes and particularly the shortage on the collector’s editions.

*images found in this post were sourced from various sites, such as Games Workshop, THQ’s game site, Warhammer’s Wiki page as well as my own*

It’s funny how some things work out unintentionally - prime example is this review of E2046′s Elsa.  This review has probably some of the best photos I’ve ever produced that no one will ever see…

Note: the following review contains 18+ material and is NSFW.  Readers discretion is advised.  =)

So here we are – the Elsa review I’ve been itching (yet somewhat hesitant) to put out since her release.  I mean come on, it’s only been a year (6 months from the E2046 release)!  Elsa was initially released as a garage kit figure, designed by Diskvision, but since there’s no way I’d ever be able to piece together a GK figure and paint it adequately, I had to resort to the secondary market.  The first time I saw Elsa’s prototype photos at last year’s Wonder Festival, I fell in love with her – the face sculpt was beautiful, the eyes are alluring and the pose stunning.  The only thing I had qualms about was the fact she was completely naked.  Yup, save for some fishnet stockings, heels and weird arm/neck band things, she is completely, utterly in the nude!  Elsa is easily one of the most beautiful figures I currently have in my collection that will probably never get displayed.

Elsa is really unique amongst my collection as she has a realistic face and body sculpt (albeit slightly exaggerated at certain parts) – above all, she has a nose!  It’s funny how most anime figures lack a proper nose, but they look okay.  But imagine a real person without a visible nose, that’d be pretty freaky, huh?

Another captivating feature about Elsa that caught my eye when I saw her prototype was her eye lashes.  She had actual eye lashes!  It probably wasn’t anything new, but it was new to me as I was pretty new to the figure collecting hobby.  The eye lashes look pretty fake up close, in person, but in a photo, they look quite beautiful and helps make her eyes stand out.  It also helps add to the realism effect – well done Diskvision – and subsequently E2046 and Hobby Fan.  LOL

Elsa was released as a re-cast by E2046 and more recently Hobby Fan.  Had I known Hobby Fan was going to release a version of Elsa, I would’ve gotten theirs for two reasons.  One, I think Hobby Fan’s paint quality is better than E2046′s, and also Hobby Fan has magnetic attachable clothing.  The clothing look like crap - no offense Hobby Fan - it makes Elsa look fat (in pictures anyway) and she loses the beautiful body sculpt, which is her defining feature.  But then again, at least I could’ve displayed Elsa with clothes on!  The magnetic outfit is also what delayed Hobby Fan’s release, allowing E2046 to get the lead in market sales.  I thought about ordering an Elsa from Hobby Fan to do a comparison review, but I just don’t have the budget for it.  As a side note, their 1/4 KOS-MOS is simply beautiful and stunning – which I didn’t get a chance to review yet.  If anyone at Hobby Fan is reading this and would like to offer me an Elsa for comparison review, please e-mail me or leave a comment!  ^_~

So anyway, when I saw that E2046 was going to release Elsa, I impetuously jumped on her, uh – I mean – it!  It took awhile for E2046 to finally receive stock, but I was surely to be one of the first few people to get her.  You see, receiving Elsa as part of the first batch is both a blessing and a curse.  You get what you really want, but then you pay the price of being the guinea pig batch, the test group, the cannon fodder.  While the Elsa I received is beautiful and well done, there are many points that I found lacking.  I’m not sure if it’s just because I got the first batch, which is usually the rush order to appeal to the masses, or that subsequent batches are the same.  I’m sure the subsequent batches are improved but I won’t know for sure and my review will be based upon what I have in front of me.  That is, if anyone from E2046 is also reading this and would like to send me another Elsa, perhaps the dark skinned version, for a comparison review then please e-mail me or leave a comment!  ^_~

E2046′s paint work, overall, appears a little crude on Elsa, there are some nice tone and shading here and there but the colours seem off.  A lot of the darker areas appear really pink and unnatural to the rest of her skin colour.  What I also found disappointing was the finish on the paint work – it’s way too glossy!  Shining a light on Elsa, no matter hard or soft will produce an unnatural shiny reflection.  Post processing fixed that up a bit, but as you can see in the pictures, the sharper parts of her body are still reflecting quite a bit of light.  Bonus about the lighting is that it really shows off the sculpt and the amount of body detail Elsa has.

Elsa’s face is somewhat of an enigma to me, her face seems to change depending on the angle you look at her.  From the left side, she looks skinner and has a sharper chin.  But from the front, her face looks rounder and she looks more baby-faced.  It’s like she changed from a girl in her twenties to a girl in her teens.  Sexy -> cute -> sexy -> cute.  Then slightly from her right, she looks like a different person.  @_@

E2046 also should’ve taken more care painting her mouth – there’s a glob of paint insider her mouth, on her teeth which really ruins close up photos of her.  Poor girl used too much lipstick and it all ended up in her mouth!

Aside from the glossy paint finish, another drawback from this E2046 version was the quality control.  I noticed A LOT of black specks and dust debris in her hair and all over her body…

…but remember when I stated it’s funny how some things work out unintentionally?  Well, the somewhat bad quality control on Elsa actually turned out to be a nice surprise when I uploaded Elsa’s photos.  Aside from the glossy skin, black specks and dust debris, the prep work on Elsa prior to the paint job is kinda bad as well.  You can sort of see the material’s roughness, like it wasn’t sanded down smoothly prior to the paint application.  This led to the skin looking fairly uneven and porous – particularly under a macro lens.

But then I found a surprising twist to this during my post processing session – all the unevenness, pores, black specks start to look hauntingly realistic when I upped the contrast on the photos.  With my prefered harsh lighting setup, this created a visually appealing Elsa that makes her look almost like a real girl!

Save for her hair, which is too static, I think the rest of her look pretty realistic, no?  If she had a Barbie doll hair, maybe these few photos could fool some people that aren’t looking too closely.  In the first photo, you can see a few black specks on her body, which I thought added to the realism effect as they’re kind of like black beauty marks on a human body.  The roughness of the resin material, contributed by the rough gradiant of the shadows, produces an effect which I think makes her body look like actual skin.  Take note of the rib area, the armpit, under breast and pelvic regions.

The black and white versions may be a little less realistic as her skin looses surface detail in the low key setting.  But I like the way they turned out too – can these photos be considered fine art, rather than hentai?  I’ve always preferred low key photography, I find they can be dramatic and say quite a lot with so little.  I was already thinking about taking some photos like these for Elsa when I got her, but during a Victoria’s Secret store visit to buy a gift certificate, I noticed a number of photos of the Angels are in a low key setting, just like how I envisioned Elsa’s photo to be.  It really helped motivate me to get Elsa’s photos completed.  Say what you will, but I honestly do admire the photos in the Victoria’s Secret store and their catalogues, they have some really great composition and lighting.  For those who don’t know, Victoria’s Secret just started opening up stores in Canada last summer.

I’m normally a very harsh critic of my work and don’t like to toot my own horn - but I think I did a pretty good job witht he above three.  They’re easily my favourite out of this batch.  I also don’t normally post the full scaled photos in the reviews, but I think these deserve to be seen unscaled.  These may honestly be some of the best photos I’ve produced that no one will ever see, unfortunately!  The middle B&W picture could’ve used a little more light on Elsa’s face though…

So, back from tooting that perverbial horn, Elsa’s shading work is somewhat on the harsh side.  The shading isn’t as smooth as the one shown in the prototye photos.  The shaded areas are often too dark and not enough gradiant leading up to them.  The palette is also too much on the red side, so it looks rather fake closer up.  See the bottom breast photos, pay more attention to under the breasts as the photos zoom closer.  In particular, the bottom pic looks like Elsa had harsh bra straps digging in under her breasts and left a mark there.  And the vertical line going down to her belly button, it’s shaded rather pink and harsh as well, although you can’t tell given the way I took the photos and processed them.

I’m not normally a breast person, but I have to admit Elsa definitely have a nice set of breasts and perky sculpted nipples.  The paint work on the breasts is pretty good, but as you can see in the image above, the surface is not smooth like regular PVC figures.  You can see some textures, which is one of the oddities I mentioned earlier that actually help enhance Elsa’s photographic presence.  Whether this was intentional on E2046′s part, I’m not sure – but I’m really guessing it’s not.  Her breasts may be oversized for her body, but they have a natural look to them.  For the most part, I don’t have much to complain about with regards to her upper front torso, the body sculpt is superb.  The lines on her body shows off her body very well in just about any lighting situation.

From the side, however, things are a little different.  It still looks great, and it looks like Elsa works out quite a bit, but I think her hip bones are a little on the rough side. It could be due to the recast, but the original photos from the Diskvision model appeared to be more smooth - they’re pronounced, but isn’t as sharply cut on the edges.

Edit:  Also, forgot to mention that Elsa’s belly button here is a little deep and it seems like E2046 just drilled a hole rather than have it curve inwards smoothly.  Not that noticeable, but the latter would’ve been much better.

One other feature of Elsa, is that her vaginal area is right there in your face, while her crossed legs sort of tuck it away from your eyes’ focus, it is still very easily seen.  Again, this may be a re-cast issue, but the shape of Elsa’s v-spot appears a little different from the Diskvision version.  Here, it is almost Native like, whereas the Diskvision appears to be more realistic (bit of lips and all).  Okay, yeah, that was really weird to type and sounded really strange in my head.  Hey, this is my second figure review that actually details this portion of the female anatomy.  =P

Elsa’s hair is quite nice, albeit static and hard looking.  I appreciate the original sculptor’s attempt and design though, it’s definitely got a lot more detail than most figures out there.  I also really like the way Elsa is combing through her hair with her hands – although I don’t quite get what the pose is ultimately telling me.  She does look cute and graceful for a naked girl.

And now, the money shots!  Another one of the beautiful asspect of Elsa is her back side.  Diskvision did an amazing job with her rump, the drawback here is that pretty much all the negative things I’ve said about E2046′s paint application applies here.  Her backside is waaaaay too glossy and the shading for the skin is way too dark.  Here are two pictures that shows this – while I sorta FUBAR’d on the white balance here – you can see how the wrinkles in Elsa’s skin looks rather fake, more so on the left pic than the right.  The dark-ish pink shading used just seem relly bad and makes Elsa look like she’s wearing a meat suit rather than it being her skin.  This is somewhat contradicting to how she looks from the front.

The glossy nature of the paint finish also made her ass look flat, particularly her right butt cheek in the pictures below.  That glossy halo around her butt sort of creates a visual effect as if something is pressed up against them.  When looking at Elsa in person though, this isn’t as big of an issue as lighting changes depending on your movement and how you’re looking at Elsa.

The wrinkles in the skin, I understand, is really hard to sculpt, I guss you can say it appears to be folding the right way, but it still looks really awkward to me, I can’t put my finger on why that is.  It looks rubbery and un-skin like, from what I see on some of the other “bending” Diskvision figures, they all have this issue.  But I’m thinking it really has more to do with the way it’s painted than the actual sculpt.

Elsa’s outfit, or lack thereof, is an interesting one.  Long pink thigh-high fishnet stockings with two cute ribbons at the back.  I have a hard time determining what type of girl Elsa is and what she does for a living.  You look at the fishnet stockings and high heels and the mind automatically wanders to stripper or hooker – but I’d like to think there’s more to Elsa than meets the eyes.  I had thought about taking a photo of her beside a dancing pole, but I couldn’t find the materials to build a set.  C’est la vie!  I’m glad I didn’t build that set though, as it probably would’ve looked pretty shitty.  And Elsa seems to fit more with catalogue style photos (like the very last pic in this review).  The beauty of an original character design is that there’s no background and you can perceive the character based upon what you’re presented.  While that may be bland and a deficit for some figures out there, I don’t think that’s the case with Elsa.  I feel her eyes tell a pretty good story on their own.

Before I forget, Elsa is rated at 1/5 scale – she’s definitely got some height to her, especially with her hair up in the air.  At roughly 40cm in length, you better have enough clearance for her!  Luckily, she’s rather vertical and doesn’t take up much real estate.  Her legs are also very long and sexy, they may be somewhat disproportioned to her body, but it’s not something you notice when looking at her as a whole.  The footware looks fragile, and I’m sure the heels are, but her legs are sturdy and her feet are situated in the base firmly.

Speaking of the base, E2046′s release of Elsa comes with a base of their own design – it’s a transparent pink disc with the word ELSA written on it.  I actually like this base as it seems to glow beautifully even in the dimmest lighting conditions – it really suits Elsa well.

And so, there you have it folks, my first fully nude figure review and probably my last!  While there are a few other Diskvision figures that caught my eyes, I’m not sure if I’ll get them or not as I probably will never be able to display them.  Having them sit in a box just doesn’t seem fair to these work of art.

One thing about Elsa that I feel differs from her “sister figures” (Eve, Angelica, Erika, Grace) is that she has more of a nice girl aura about her.  The other girls, save for Erika, seem like Japanese AV idols.  Erika seem to be on similar lines of Elsa, both these girls have a more innocent face.  Erika and Elsa are both blondes, but Erika appears to have blue eyes whereas Elsa has brown.  Elsa’s facial feature also screams Asian, so I’m not sure if she’s suppose to be mixed or an Asian girl that dyed her hair blonde?  In fact, I had to look it up in Google to see if blonde hair with brown eyes are even genetically possible.  I guess the answer is yes, but I’ve never met a natural blonde with brown eyes - that’d be interesting.  Either way, Asian/Caucasian mixed girls are hot!  =P

Edit:  I went back and had a look at the Diskvision version again, and it looks like Elsa had blue-gray eyes.  But my E2046 version came brown.  Hmmm, sneaky!

I really do appreciate these well sculpted figures by Diskvision, and thankful for companies like E2046 and Hobby Fan that are able to provide a pre-painted kit for those of us who aren’t able to do it properly ourselves.  If there’s any chance one of these girls come out as a PVC version, I’ll definitely pick one up.  [Oh great, so I have just contradicted myself in two paragraphs.]  If anyone’s thinking of getting Elsa, I would definitely recommend the go ahead.  The only decision is whether to go for the E2046 version or the Hobby Fan version, there might be some other vendors out there, but these are the two I commonly shop at and trust.  Subsequent batches of Elsa from E2046 might have better quality than mine, but if you want a covered up Elsa, Hobby Fan the wa to go.  That is unless you’re good at sewing miniture clothing.

To be honest, if I displayed Elsa, it probably wouldn’t be so bad.  Elsa doesn’t look skanky or slutty, you can say she appears refined – maybe you can even consider her along the line of fine art sculptures?  Hey, Aphrodite was sculpted naked on numerous occasions throughout history, the only difference between her and Elsa is that Elsa has arms.  =P

Elsa was really fun to take photos of, the pink backdrop was kinda inspired by the visit to the Victoria’s Secret store – they had a pink motif going on there when I visited around Valentine’s Day.  Yep, that’s how long I’ve been sitting on this review and these photos.  With the recent site updates and lack of content, I guess Elsa is a good way to help kick things off again as I get back on the saddle.  So maybe I’m wrong, perhaps people will actually see these photos afterall.  I mean, you’ve read this far haven’t you?!

^_^’

I wonder what happened last night?

]]> http://www.visualfanfare.com/e2046-elsa/feed 8 http://www.visualfanfare.com/kotobukiya-lucy-ghostbusters http://www.visualfanfare.com/kotobukiya-lucy-ghostbusters#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 02:03:25 +0000 VF http://www.visualfanfare.com/?p=1407

Dooooooe, Raaaaaaay, Egon! LUCY!

Yup, that’s right, the ‘Busters are back!  Well, maybe just ’Buster.  Venkman, Stantz, Spengler and Zeddemore are a thing of the past, now it’s Lucy’s time to shine!

The Ghostbusters is what I consider a legacy – they’ve been around for almost three decades and have found themselves haunting our everyday life.  Even those not old enough to remember the characters, movies, cartoon, toys, etc. have at least heard the catchy slogan and famous theme song sang by Ray Parker Jr.  While they’re not as big and popular as they once were, and Bill Murray is still traumatized by the lackluster Ghostbusters II movie, the fans are still out there and eagerly awaiting for the rumored / semi-confirmed third movie.

I grew up with the Ghostbusters; watched the movies, the cartoons, collected the toys – hell, I was such a fan that I even named myself after Venkman.  I guess that’s part of the beauty of the immigration process (US to Canada anyway), you can pick your own name / register a new name.  Hey, I was a kid and really didn’t know any better.

So when I saw that Kotobukiya was releasing a figure of Lucy, there was no doubt I was going to pick one up.  But wait a sec, who the hell’s Lucy?!  I remember the few re-iterations of Janine, but I don’t recall a Lucy.  I thought she might’ve been a new character from a new Ghostbusters series, comic, game, whatever.  But apparently she’s just a fictional character created by none other than Shunya Yamashita.  A lot of people say they know Yamashita’s work when they see one.  I honestly didn’t what they were talking about until I looked more closely at Lucy and many of the Bishoujo-line figures.  A light bulb popped up over my head – hey, all their faces look the same.  LOL  Lucy even resembles Hattori Kiriko quite a bit – there’s just a certain flare / aura about these illustrations that  screams Yamashita.

Lucy is part of Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo Statue line, so far they’ve been releasing quite a number of DC and Marvel comic characters.  I believe Lucy is actually their first figure derived from a movie, but correct me if I’m wrong.  Either way, she’s got the signature Bishoujo pouty lips thing going on – I can’t say I’m a fan of this style, but it is cute -  perhaps moreso on an illustration than a 3D figure.  Her hair is also somewhat translucent from behind, but very subtle.  Translucent hair also seems to be one of the mainstay features of Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo line-up.

my makeshift slimer says hi!

If you ask me why the Ghostbusters franchise went downhill, I would attribute it to a lack of sex appeal.  Let’s face it, sex sells, and as kick-ass as Sigourney Weaver is, she wasn’t the appeal the movie needed.  Plus, that giant head from Ghostbusters II still freaks me out – it still gives me nightmares sometimes.  Now, if things had worked out differently and they had someone like Lucy in the series, I think the movie wouldn’t have been all that bad.  At least I would have some pleasant dreams of the hottie in the ripped jumpsuit rather than nightmares of Vigo’s big bald head.  >_<’  That said, I honestly would’ve been fine if they designed Lucy in a normal jumpsuit.  I just can’t imagine what kind of ghost she was dealing with to cause all this damage to her clothing.  Kotobukiya should’ve included a small container of slime, like the old Ghostbusters and Ninja Turtle toys – that would’ve been cool to take a picture of.  “Ack!  I’ve been slimed!”

One thing of interest when I received Lucy was that she came in a beige jumpsuit rather than the olive drab as depicted in her illustration and prototype.  I’m not sure why the change, maybe beige paint was cheaper?  But I don’t mind, the beige colour resembles the original Ghostbusters uniform which is rather nostalgic.  I think either colour schemes work here, particularly with the blue and pink colour accents of her accessories.  What I found disappointing was that the paint work on the jumpsuit isn’t done as nicely as the prototype.  The entire beige jumpsuit on the production Lucy is devoid of any shading, unlike the prototype which had some weathering, dirty effect.  The beige jumpsuit is just way to clean, looks like it just came out of the washer which had ripped it to shreds.

Lucy comes with a bunch of equipment, which I’ll get to later on.  The ecto goggles that comes with Lucy can be removed, if you prefer to display more of her cleavage.  I do like this design by Yamashita, Lucy is sufficiently covered yet reveals enough to get you excited.  It leaves more to the imagination – can that zipper come down any more?  The more you stare at it, the more you think the zipper is slow slipping.  Lucy’s sculptor is Gill Gill, who I think did a pretty good job translating the 2D Lucy into 3D.  She does seemed to have received a bit of a breast enlargement in 3D form though – perhaps that’s so her ecto goggles can rest on something when hanging around her neck.

As for the body sculpt, I think it’s fairly average by today’s standard.  I can’t say there’s anything spectacular, but it’s not bad either.  It has a very nice form, and I do really like Lucy’s body language.  Standing relaxed, feminine and yet somewhat seductively as if she’s saying, “Yeah, I got the job done right!”  Her body language says to me she’s confident and knows she can do the job, even though she got somewhat messed up in the process.  But hey, when you have the body to show off like this, you have the right to do just that.  Good for you, Lucy – and thanks for getting that ghost out of my attic!

While Lucy has a blue utility belt, there’s not much hanging off it.  The paint work here is also a little undermining of the rest of the figure.  The ink wash effect (black lines) is done very roughly, I’m not sure if this was on purpose or not.  I’m thinking it is done on purpose to portray a worned belt reminiscent of the Vietnam era US GI utility belts.  She definitely could’ve used a PKE meter hanging off the side of the belt – I think that would’ve finished the Ghostbuster look nicely.

And of course, to finish off the ensemble is Lucy’s jungle combat boots.  What girl doesn’t love a pair of nice boots?  Preferably the knee-high ones, but maybe that’s just me.    Nothing too much to talk about here, just that once again the paint work is really simple with no toning nor shading.  Also, considering how battle damaged her clothing is, you’d think the boots wouldn’t be so shiny and clean either.

The pink thong, however, is a really nice touch I find.  Like Lucy’s top, the thong is exposed just enough to leave your mind wondering, yet not revealing anything.  The pink colour adds a very nice accent to the blue belt and black glove and proton pack surrounding it.  While I’m not sure how comfortable it is to be busting ghosts while wearing a thong, I’m not going to complain about her choice of undergarments.

For those of you with a keen eye and like to nitpick on details, you might’ve noticed something odd about Lucy’s left leg.  Yeah, you’re not seeing things – that strap of fabric is just floating there by itself.  It should go all the way up under the belt, not sure if this was a sculpt error or manufacturing error.  Nevertheless, it’s a little annoying and it was one of the first things I noticed when I took Lucy out of her packaging.  I wasn’t the only one who noticed this, seems like the reviewer over at Plastikitty also noticed this issue.  I happened to end up on that site while looking at some pictures of Lucy, thought it was also interesting we’re using the same theme for WordPress.   ^_^’

With the ripped jumpsuit, it was the perfect opprtunity to show off some of that detailing on Lucy’s rear end.  Sadly, there’s not that much to show off.  I don’t think the sculptor did a bad job, it’s just sort of average.  I definitely wouldn’t mind if Lucy had a bit more roundness at the back to match her front.  Shooting a picture with harder lighting seems to help create a more perky effect.

As mentioned earlier, Lucy comes with a bunch of accessories and gadgets to help with her ghostbusting needs.  The ecto goggle can be removed or attached by the usual decapitation of the figure’s head.  I found it easier to take Lucy’s head off by putting my fingers around the back of her hair, which was more sturdy and runs the least risk of rubbing paint off by accident.  One thing that annoyed me about the goggles, though, was that the strap is somewhat hard, thus the goggles don’t fall and rest on Lucy’s chest properly.  There’s a slight, yet unseemly, gap between the goggle and her breasts – I kept trying to force the goggles to stay down during the shoot.  The end result, unfortunately, was that it left a green paint transfer mark on top of Lucy’s breasts.  I was able to remove this with the usual plastic eraser trick - so this is just a word of warning to those who has Lucy or is planning on getting her.  The paint seems to transfer rather easily on this figure.

What I’m most impressed about with this figure, is the proton pack – the sculptor did a very good job replicating the pack and ‘wand’.  It’s not entirely accurate, but it’s pretty damn close.  I’d be even sicker if the pack could light up, but that’s probably asking for too much.  There was a bit of glue-like residue on the back of my Lucy’s proton pack though, I didn’t notice it till after I uploaded the macro photos.  Ah well!

The ‘wand’ sits rather loosely in Lucy’s hand, so you have to play around a little to get it to sit properly.  Let gravity, her hair and the tip of her thumb do the rest.    The gold button (as seen below) sits just below her thumb, which practically holds the entire thing in place and prevents it from rotating.

I can remember the good old days when Ghostbuster toys were widely popular, like GI Joes, just about every kid had one.  Debates went on and on whether if the proton pack should be mounted with the round side up or the round sid down.  I kept telling the other kids that the round part is supposed to be on the bottom, but they didn’t listen.  They should’ve – for a guy who named himself after one of the characters – I SHOULD know!

I wonder what ever happened to my proton pack and ghost trap toys.  I gave them to my cousin when I moved – I think he sold them or gave them away.  I’m kinda sad now that I think back on it.  Those toys were pretty cool, especially the ghost trap.  Who knows, hopefully the Ghostbusters 3 movie will finally come out and be enough of a blockbuster that it’ll be a catalyst to spawn new Ghostbusters toys and other merchandise.  Maybe I can get my hands on a new ghost trap with flashing LED lights.  Wooooooooooo!!

Where was I?  Oh yeah, Lucy…

The Ghostbuster logo is printed faithfully on her right arm – yup, no ghosts allowed here!  Particularly with that ghost trap so close by her foot.  The trap is missing a few details, but for something that’s about 2cm in length, it’s not bad!  The foot pad even has a spring sculpted inside for that extra bouncy effect.  Unfortunately the pad can’t be depressed – wouldn’t it be so awesome if you could press it and the trap opens?!

Lucy’s base is the standard circular template, but at least it’s not like most Kotobukiya plain bases.  This one simulates a rough pavement with a Ghostbusters manhole cover, typical of what you see around New York city minus the Ghostbusters logo.

I thought Lucy looked a little lonely by herself, so I dug up a couple of friends to keep her company.  Wow, they’re a lot smaller than I remembered.  Pete looks like he’s at a beneficial height though – just turn around Pete! 

So to conclude this review, I’m giving Lucy 1 billion stars out of 10.  Just because I normally don’t give ratings to figures I review and that it means absolutely nothing.  Now, where did my Slimer toy go…

the mysterious ghost hunter

So I was going to upload some pics for Kotobukiya’s Lucy figure and write up the review when I realized I didn’t have Gallery Remote installed on my new computer.  So I go to Gallery’s site and realized that Gallery3 is now released.  It’s been kind of a long time coming so I stopped paying attention to it.  But it’s here!  Should I update or should I not?  I want to update, but that means I can potentially mess up all my images and database links, forcing me to go through all my posts to fix the links.  Nope, not a fun task at all.  But I think I will chance it and hope for the best, it’s part of the site’s growing pains but it’s best to keep up to date sometimes.  There are some features and themes I prefer in Gallery3 over Gallery2.  It may be best if I update it now rather than later when I have even more content.

Just look at me, jumping from one task to another, how very typical of me.  I haven’t even finished updating my site yet – it’s still using theme defaults!  I swear, the older I get, the less patience I have.  Or I’m starting to develop a case of ADD. 

Oh, hey!  There’s a squirrel outside my window…

Update:  Okay, so Gallery contents all imported properly from the old one to the new one, with one caveat.  I’m going to have to update the direct links of the images in all of my old posts so the automatic forwarding will work.  Since I’m using the same directory name “/gallery/” as the old one, I guess there’s now easy way around this.  If I had created a new gallery directory, say “/gallery_new/”, then the old links to “/gallery/” will forward all my hotlinked images to the new gallery.  Make sense?  Kinda hard to explain.  >_<’

So I’ve initialized the new area, root of my domain.  Woooooooo!

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to mix my personal ramblings with the reviews, but after debating for awhile among me, myself and I, we decided to go ahead and merge the two sections into one.  It should allow for some more interesting read and diversity to the site, as well as saving me time from updating two separate sections.

Welcome to the new setup, please bare with me while I get things set up and migrate over the previous posts and reviews – this is gonna be fun!  NOT!!!

Here’s another Saber review that’s been sitting on the bench for awhile – I really want to write this review but wanted to wait till after I finished the Saber Lily: Distant Avalon review. Little did I know that review would take me six months to finish – that’s gotta be some sort of horrible record. Nevertheless, I finally got that done and I feel a huge weight has been taken off my shoulders and my writing block has crumbled. I feel free, no longer bound by this nagging voice in the back of my head, I can finally move forward and get to this review I’ve been itching to write. Not that Saber Lily was a bad figure to review, but for some reason I just couldn’t find the words or inspiration to carry on in that review.

For the longest time I thought this figure only existed in the form of a garage kit. I’m not sure why I thought that, but perhaps it was because I’ve only seen E2046 advertise their kit version. But after researching some more about this figure I found out that there exists a PVC version, and to top it off it was made by Alter! Then comes the dilemma, this figure was an exclusive! /cry I can’t begin to express how much I hate Hobby Japan and their evil exclusives. Sure, it’s fine and dandy for those in the domestic market, but what about us poor saps in the rest of the world? I’m really tired of paying premiums for these exclusives (but at the same time, I just can’t stop). It’s a love / hate relationship, I swear!

Well, I eventually scoped one out on eBay for about $160, I guess that wasn’t too bad though after shipping it came pretty close to $200 for a piece of plastic. But a beautifully and artfully created piece of plastic at that! These prices no longer have any meaning to me, I’ve purchased so many collector items at stupid prices that I’ve become numb to the value. I think that’s one of the reasons my wallet has a hole the size of the Grand Canyon right about now.

One of the interesting things about this figure is its packaging. Alter decided to use a satin black finish with red and white text along with a glossy silhouette of Saber and mini Saber. The only image of the actual figure is on one of the side panels, and even so you are greeted with a red hued image of the figure. The presentation is very simple but I find it to be very effective and creates an aura of mystery. Holding it in my hands, I can’t help but feel special, like I’m holding on to something exclusive. Oh wait, it IS an exclusive. Mwuahahaha!

One thing that surprised me when I opened the box was Saber’s size. I forgot that she was made in 1/6 scale – I’ve been getting a bunch of figures in 1/8 and 1/7 lately I forgot what it was like to have a decent sized figure. Her skin tone is pale and her colour palette is pretty much non-existent, but that’s what I love about this figure – she gives off a very gothic and low key vibe. She is very different from her cheerful predecessor, and between the two I very much prefer this one. The facial expression on this Saber has a much more serious tone, from certain angles, she almost seem as if she’s pissed off about being a maid. Unlike her predecessor who seems all to eager to go mop the bathroom tiles. I’d be pissed off if I have to mop an entire castle all day long.

Just look at her eyes, staring into the corner like she’s thinking about murdering her master in his sleep. Yup, those are the killer eyes that I love about this figure, it just conveys so much emotion that many other (lifeless) figures fail to capture. There’s just so much eye candy to this figure that it’s hard for me to find a detail to focus on. Even if you don’t take into account her facial expression and nonchalant body language, you’ll still have the amount of frilly details of her dress to talk about.

Okay, so I for one, never understood what the fetish is about with the maid costume. Maybe it has something to do with being all submissive or the frilly dress? Either way, I just know it’s not for me – and this will probably be the only maid figure I’d ever get. But whatever the fetish is, there’s just no denying the amazing sculpt work on this figure. It must’ve been a pain to sculpt all the frills and creases in the dress.

Edit: Ok, I lied, this will be the second maid figure I’d ever get – I forgot I purchased the Native Shoujo M awhile back. I really don’t know why I bought that, I think I was influenced by Tier’s review. I think I only got that (on sale) because it was a collector’s item and I love Native’s quality.

From the front view, SAM has a very conservative look. She’s fairly covered up, even with a short skirt. Surprisingly there’s very little cleavage fan service either – not much of a “fetish” if you ask me. But then I turned the figure around and, wow, talk about a perspective change! Her dress is very low cut in the back and there’s somewhat of an upskirt thing going on. From behind, SAM is quite exposed compared to her misleading conservative front. I can only assume that not only does she satisfy a maid fetish but also a backside fetish (for those who likes it from behind). lol I can’t complain, the detail of her back and rump are very well defined – there’s a lot more eye candy from the rear – including her ribbons and the rusty bucket.

SAM’s hair ribbon is very simple in design, but I can appreciate the very fine details on either ends and all the folds/creases sculpted in. It makes it look a lot more complicated than it really is. The hair colour is very de-saturated compared to Saber Maid, it looks like it sits somewhere between a platinum blonde and sandy blonde. I very much prefer this colour, I found the blonde on the predecessor a little too yellow. SAM’s hair, like the rest of the figure, contains a lot of detail unlike many figures out on the market (for example, Buddy).

The way Saber is holding on to her bucket is a little peculiar, while I get the positioning, I’m not too sure why her hand is like that. I dunno about you, but I’ve never seen anyone hold a bucket like that – maybe her unconcious cuteness is trying to surface with a little “kira” pose.

Like the rest of the figure, the bucket came fairly detailed as well. Its got a very smooth brown shading to emphasize on its rusty nature. While I think it’s nicely painted, I don’t think it was the right application. The shading seems too even and well blended – if it is indeed suppose to represent rust, it would’ve been better if they painted it unevenly with some harsh spots. But at the very least, you get a sense of what the image is trying to convey (if you’re not still intently staring at her ass).

SAM’s mop also receives some love in the details department. I’m not too sure if it’s the same mop as the previous Saber though. But instead of holding it with both hands, Saber Alter holds it one handed because she’s just THAT much cooler than Saber. I actually really like the mop, particularly the spring design and the red metallic paint. It looks a little new compared to the rusty bucket though – perhaps it is a new mop as Saber broke the old one while kicking someone’s ass. It’s definitely one spiffy looking mop, nevertheless. Also of note, this mop is red whereas the predecessor was silver. Red = evil? Maybe??

The base that comes with SAM is a very glossy checkered floor design, when I opened the package, it was rather oily from the coating the factory put on to protect the PVC. It was rather annoying as I would get my figerprint all over this display base and it was hard to wipe off. Note to self, use a pair of gloves the next time I handle this base. But once again, it beats the plain white base of its predecessor.

While we’re around this area of the figure, I might as well mention the one design I’m not as fond of – that is the footwear. The stocking looks a little too metallic and the paint around this area seems thick (up close) for some reason. It just doesn’t look as realistic as the rest of the figure. The shoes are also really plain which lacks a certain appeal compared to the other “plain parts” of the figure as previously mentioned. The only thing going for it is the highly reflective paint job, which also seems a little weird.

In all honesty, I might have purchased this figure just to get my hands on this uber cute chibi Saber. Just look at how adorable she is with that mini-mop! What’s interesting is that this chibi Saber is based on the Disant Avalon version, like the previous Saber Maid (correct me if I’m wrong). The eyes are green, yellow blonde hair with an ahoge. It’s very detailed for a figure of its size, which reflects the sculpt work on the large SAM very well. Chibi Saber looks a little disgruntled though, maybe she’s doing all the work while SAM is looming over her as if she’s saying “You’re my b`tch!”.

For the most part, SAM was much easier to photograph than Distant Avalon Saber. Not sure why, maybe because I found a suitable backdrop for SAM, which allowed for a bit more creativity. The two pics below are probably my favourite pics, particularly the black and white version – I think it might be my favourite figure photo yet (ones that I’ve taken anyway). I had tried to post the B&W version on MyFigureCollection.net and though it made POTD, it didn’t make POTM. Darn! =P After I took the coloured version, I had an inspiration to change it to B&W for a more gothic feel – I think I accomplished that. The backdrop just illuminated correctly, shadow in the right places and matched the silhouette of Saber very well. From past experience though, I think the MFC community prefers coloured versions over B&W as I usually get more hits with my coloured photos.

My overall impression for this figure is quite high, I can’t say it’s my favourite, but I can’t dispute the amount of detail it has and the quality finish put into it. I usually notice a lot of flaws when zoomed in with the macro lens, but this particular figure barely had any. No scars, scuff marks, seam lines, etc. If I actually put ratings on a figure, this would definitely sit somewhere between an 8 or 9 out of 10. If anyone has a chance to pick one up, definitely do so! It’s a masterpiece that I’ve come to expect from Alter figures.

Speaking of Alter, the name of this Saber Alter always confused the hell out of me, especially when it’s made by, well, Alter. I mean, come on! Alter Saber Alter (maid version), seriously?! @_@ Alter, Alter, Alter… say it enough times and look at the words enough times and it beings to sound and look very foreign. It’s come to the point where I’m wondering why my spell check hasn’t kicked in – did I spell alter right? Alter, alter, alter…. bleh!!! >_<’

I better end this while I still retain some form of sanity – but before I sign off, I just want to say I found a use for the bucket! Awwwww, just look how cute she is!!!!

So it’s been a long time since I’ve updated the blog section – hey, what can I say?  I’m just not a very good blogger.  Even the reviews section has been taking a nose dive recently, while I would love to update with more content I just find it hard to find the time.  But anyway, I’m trying to remedy that, you see, and here’s proof!  Yes, I’m actually posting today on something that happened LAST week.  lol

As some of you may know, I drive a Dub.  Yup, a VW GTI – and I’m pretty active in the local tuning scene.  No, we don’t do Fast & Furious burnouts, donuts, race for pinks, drift through the parking lot, etc.  Seriously, who does that?  Well, there may be idiots out there (tons on Youtube), but the meets I go to are kept civil.

This year’s iDub.ca GO Dub’n meet was held in May again (hopefully there’ be another later this year) and sponsored by EuroSport Tuning.  And following tradition, the weather was wet and wet some more.  Seriously, can we not have a big meet day where it doesn’t rain?  On the bright side, at least we don’t have to detail our cars (much).  =P

This event brought more variety in terms of VW models (and some non-VW’s), as with the Krispy Kreme meet we have on Thursday nights, it seems like [iDub] is growing as a community and we’re no longer as MKV centric, though MKV members still dominate a majority.  It’s definitely good to see some variations – but what I would like to see is more Fahrenheit GTIs.  Seriously, you’d think someone who buys an orange coloured limited edition GTI would be more keen with the local enthusiast scene.  But nope, I seem to be the only active one around.  Even at Vagkraft last year, I was the only Fahrenheit out of the hundreds of VWs there.  I’ve seen some modded Fahrenheits around town, but I just find it odd they don’t show up to these events more often.  I have to say, I am feeling a little lonely here.  lol

For a moment I thought I wasn’t able to make this meet due to having to go to Montreal for work.  But plans changed and I was able to come home before the weekend meet.  Sweet!  A couple of us met up at the local Krispy Kreme and cruised down to the GO station together – though the traffic was wet and slow, it was a nice cruise.  And yes, I said the GO station, hence the name GO Dub’n. 

The money collected for this year’s event (raffle/fundraiser) are donated to those affected by the recent earthquakes in Japan.  From what I was told, we amounted to over $700 for charity, our highest GO Dub’n contribution yet!  Special thanks to all the folks that donated and helped with the setup of the event, and thanks to Frank @ EuroSport Tuning.com for sponsoring once again.  Oh yeah, and also thanks to the kimono girls who braved the lousy weather helping hand out the goodies.

We even had special guests attend this meet!  Yup, GO Dub’n is a family event – feel free to bring the little ones as well!  A lot of people drive by just to have a look, some actually get out of their cars to come talk to us.  But I guess most are intimidated by a lot full of modified cars, so they just drive around and leave, but the curiousity is always there to lure them in.  I remember once we had a meet at a lot somewhere and there was a senior lady that was so scared to walk to her car.  We weren’t even doing anything, just standing around talking, but even that is enough to intimidate some people.  She eventually ran to her car and peeled out of the lot, but I can’t help but wonder if we were really that scary or if the media had played into the minds of some people.  You know, street racing, F&F movies and all… we felt bad for that lady, but she dashed for her car rather quickly and was gone before we could say, “Volkswagen”.

This annual GO Dub’n event started out as a small get together for the east-enders, but it eventually grew to a large sized meet of MKV Volkswagens.  As the community grew (from TorontoMKV.com to iDub.ca), more variety of car enthusiasts started to join in on the events.  While Volkswagens are still the core, we now range from all Euro to JDM and even some domestics.

If anyone’s in the GTA (or surrounding area) that’s interested in coming out some time, or want to pop on the forum to join in on wacky discussions, hit up www.idub.ca / www.westsidedubs.ca / www.vwvortex.com !  And yes, we got a permit to use the lot for the event, or so I was told.  lol  But hey, it’s for charity!! 

More pics from the May 2011 edition of GO Dub’n can be found on my flicker page.

So after months and months of procrastinating, I finally got around to writing the review of this great figure. I’m sorry Saber, please don’t don’t kick my ass!

Here we have a figure that actually didn’t cost too much for me to get – Saber was released back in September of 2009, just a few months before I started collecting. She was still floating around with a decent price, although I can’t recall how much I paid or where I got her from. Recently, she’s going around for 20,000 JPY though, which is pretty pricey but not all that bad for a great figure that’s no longer in production.

Saber comes from Fate/unlimited codes, which was a PS2/PSP game based on Fate/stay night. I’ve never played the game but I did notice it in the Playstation Store a couple of nights ago while browsing for some games my PS3. I was going to download it but got lazy when I saw that it was only for the PSP.

Since this figure’s been out for awhile, there have been plenty of reviews and photos – one of my favourites has got to be the Winged Lily by radiantdreamer. But that’s getting ahead of myself a little, let’s take a few steps back and check out the – wait for it – box. I found that the design is rather unique and elegant, quite befitting of the figure. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the interior packaging – don’t get me wrong, the figure was VERY securely packaged and I appreciate that, but there were so many twisty ties and wrapping it was a little annoying.

Once I got Saber out of the package (which I’m never going to put her back in) I was greeted with a kick ass figure in a very striking pose. I like figures that are sculpted as if “caught in motion” or when their body language tells a story. This Saber is definitely one of those figures – she looks as if she’s just completed a slash or unsheathed her sword in an en garde position. Her facial expression also says quite a bit, I’m glad she wasn’t sculpted with a smiling face, that would’ve totally screwed with the pose. That’s one thing that I really dislike about Alter’s Selvaria Bles figure, that smile is completely unbefitting of her character – but I’ll save my bitching for that review later.

Speaking of facial expression, here’s a close-up Saber’s face – which I think the sculptor did a great job. I like the green eyes and blonde hair combo, in combination with her slightly peachy skin tone, I found it really brings out her eyes. The black hair ribbon adds a nice contrast to the lighter colours that’s prodominant on this figure. It also finishes the black “outlining” theme found throughout the figure.

I’m not too sure what kind of armour Saber wears, I guess you can call it a half-plate armour, if I recall the term correctly from my role-playing days. Actually, I still play RPGs, but never did get into the pen and paper stuff – I’ve always wondered what that was like. Was it really as stereotypical as TV always portrayed it to be? Ahem, what was I saying again? Oh yeah, the armour – I really like the design of Saber’s armour, it’s not all that protective, but it is definitely stylish. The inclusion of the dress-like skirt is a really nice touch – it blends Saber’s femininity to her warrior nature. I think I’ve always been a sucker for girls in plate mail – it’s like a medieval girl in uniform – uber hotness! <3

There is very little shading on the armour, I think a little more dry brushing on the paint work would’ve been cooler. Make the armour look a little more used and not just fresh from the smithy.

The skirt, on the other hand, receives a lot more attention to detail and shading. The white is mixed in with a peachy-pink offset with a very soft blending – at least on my figure anyway. The way the dress folds and wrinkles to Saber’s motion is well done, almost looks realistic especially with more dramatic lighting.

The plate boots are an interesting design, which I like – it exemplifies strength yet feminity via the high heels. Ever fight in high heels before? Never thought it was very practical but it’s definitely hot.

The base is well done as well, the marble-like flooring matches Saber’s colour theme and the “scarring” of the tiles makes the base more interesting. I only wish the base was larger and added some 3-dimensional aspects to liven things up. I pictured taking photos of Saber with large stone or marble pillars in the background, like in front of a castle or a grand hall. Unfortunately I didn’t have the props to get this set up, so I just made due with the white background. lol

Saber’s back is fairly exposed, the skin tone is smooth and subtlely shaded. The sculpt is also very nice, which reaps the benefits of being exposed. A lot of figures out there have nice back sculpts but are usually covered up by their long hairs. I guess if there’s a weak spot in Saber’s armour, then that’d be her back and her shoulders – guess you trade (practical) protection for mobility and sensuality. lol

I think you can say that I’m a fan of Saber’s upper body sculpt, particularly her armpit areas. I find it kind of sexy with her arms stretched out as it really defines her body form. You can almost feel the tension in her muscles as she prepare for her next move, what’s it gonna be? A parry or a strike?

Under the huge puffy skirt, GSC didn’t hold back on the details even if you can’t see anything unless you tip the figure over. There’s shading on the legs and the underwear, which may be a little heavy handed compared to Saber’s upper torso. The underwear is a deep white with a lot of “ink wash” effect, it looks out of place compared to the light white colour of Saber’s garter and the rest of her dress.

Another design I find really cool is her gauntlets, I just find it interesting that the outer part is armour while the palm side is cloth (or leather). It definitely beats a pure armoured gauntlet, I guess this goes along the rest of her armour set for added mobility. The left hand can be removed and replaced with one with a hole to attach the sheath. I think I prefer the one without the sheath though – as I’ve said, I think the gauntlet looks really cool with the soft palm. With the sheath, you lose this bit of detail.

Saber Lily comes with Caliburn, Excalibur and Avalon (the sheath) – you can sort of mix and match the setup to how you want it. I prefer just using Caliburn without the sheath, it looks a little more natural. Then again, it’s not like I have much choice, since Saber can’t seem to hold Excalibur at all. Well, she probably can if it forced it into her right hand, but that would definitely damage something (especially the paint).

This looks pretty stupid, doesn’t it? I wonder what GSC was thinking when they made Excalibur’s handle so thick and huge? Why couldn’t they have made it a little thinner like Caliburn’s so it would fit in Saber’s hand? Or perhaps give us another hand to fit Excalibur in – we already have an extra hand for the sheath, why not just give another one for the sword? I’ve seen photos from other people who have fit Excalibur in, but I really didn’t want to force it. If it doesn’t want to go in, it doesn’t want to go in. =P

I really adore this figure and it’s definitely one of my favourites in my collection. But for some reason I found it really hard to take proper pictures – perhaps it had to do with the fact I couldn’t set up the proper backdrop I wanted – so it was very un-inspirational. I also had a really difficult time writing this review, honestly I think it took me half a year just to get this far. I worked on this review on and off, lost my train of thought so many times, so this review is really fragmented.

I had a choice between this version or the limited Golden Caliburn version, I preferred this as Saber is adorned with armour. I guess I’m a sucker for armour and girl knights. I also thought the armour might’ve been a cast-off but I was wrong. lol

I later went back and took some additional photos of Saber Lily with a castle like backdrop (which I think I’ve over-used by now). The black and white photo below was inspired by one of the pics I took of Saber Maid (which I’ll be reviewing next). Hopefully it won’t take me another half a year to write that review! Anyway, I finally got this far and I’m tired of prolonging this so I’m just gonna hit the publish button that’s tempted me for the past six months and have this half-assed written review over and done with. Cheers! ^____^