To many of you, it may just look like a regular old yugioh card - which it did to me at first as well. I pulled it out of common card binder at a comic/game/card/toy store yesterday, and set it aside to buy because I remembered that there was some sort of history to the card that I had read at some point in my life. I figured I'd go ahead and buy it and just look it up whenever I got home.
Turns out, this card is one of only 100 of these that were printed for the WB Kids Promo pack back in the early 2000s. And before you say wait - that card was released in The Lost Millenium - or I have one of those! - this card's set number is EP1-EN000, as opposed to the TLM set number, and this one is a common, whereas the other is a super rare I believe.
It turns out that because of the rarity of the card, and because so few of them are still in existence/located, the previous sales of this card have been over $3500. Imagine my surprise when discovering this! Now those other sales have been mint, and unfortunatly mine has a bit of a "ding" on one corner, but it's still in very impressive condition. The one flaw on it is actually pretty minimal, and the rest of the card looks perfect. Color me impressed for happening onto this gem out of dumb luck.
So I'm really excited about some of the upcoming Transformers releases that they showed off at Toy Fair this weekend. By far I'm most excited about the Generations Sky-byte, and I'm hoping to have the chance to pick up that Jetfire as well (on a side note, anyone know how much leader class figures cost? - just curious how much he'll set me back). The other generations voyagers are looking good as well.
One thing that I forgot to get a picture of to post here is the MP Grimlock that was being shown off - with a new redone box in the style of MP Soundwave and Acid Storm. I'm expecting (and really hoping) that this means we'll see a re-release of him! I love Grimlock, but wasn't collecting TFs much at the time of his MP release, and the crazy ebay prices have kept me away from him since. I'll definitly be on the lookout for him if he gets a release - which may lead me into picking up that third party MP Slag too!
EDIT: Wow, surprisingly poor pic quality here... sorry about that. Check out TFW2005.com for better quality images and a full look at the Transformers shown off at the show!
Sorry for not posting in the last few days... I had some organizing going on in my computer room and actually haven't really been online much. Anyway, last weekend I decided to touch up my FoC Grimlock transformer (or is it considered Generations Grimlock? I don't know...) I ended up painting a lot more on it than I expected to, but I'm really happy with the results. I think that it really added some depth to the figure (if you get what that means) and it really makes him stick out on the shelf. Check out the pictures and video below to see for yourself:
Seems like Bandai is (finally) releasing some Naruto figures in S.H. Figuarts. Of course Naruto, as pictured above, will be the first release in the line. While I won't be picking up Naruto himself, or the inevitable Sauske, I am excitedly awaiting the announcment or release of a Kakashi at some point down the line. Hopefully the line proves to be popular, as I'm sure it will be, and we'll get a wide range of characters from the series released in Figuarts form!
In an exciting bit of news, it seems that Bandai has shown off a prototype for their next figure in the Sailor Moon Figuarts line - Sailor Saturn! I am glad to see the line continuing past the release of Jupiter, as I believed that there was a good chance of them stopping releases (at least for a while) after her. This bodes well for getting the rest of the sailor scouts and hopefully a Tuxedo Mask as well!
Now THIS is what I call news. In what I personally find to be the most exciting announcement so far this year, Bandai has released images of their upcoming S.H. Figuarts Imperialdramon Fighter Mode figure. While many of you may remember that the previous Digimon releases were in the D-Arts line, Bandai has been slowly moving towards merging D-Arts with Figuarts, with other examples being their upcoming Mario and Lucario Figuarts releases.
The figure looks absolutly spectacular, and from what I understand, it seems like it will be released in July, with a retail price of around 6,800 yen. I know for sure that I will be the first in line for this guy once it goes up for pre-order (and I'll try to keep you guys updated whenever that happens too).
One of the most important things to me that this shows is that Bandai hasn't given up on releasing new high-quality figures of Digimon characters. We've been getting the re-releases of Wargreymon and Omnimon recently, and the new release of MetalGarurumon, but I had expected that those would be the last we saw - but now, here's Imperialdramon! I can only hope that this figure goes over well enough to warrant more new figures (and more frequent releases) of new Digimon Figuarts.
Check out the picture below for the full gallery released by Bandai:
I got this Gold Rapidmon Digi-Warrior figure in the mail the other day, and I must say that it looks GREAT. I bought it because it was very reasonably priced, and I don't own one. As someone who either owns or has owned almost every Digimon figure released in the US, I couldn't pass up the chance to get him, being an extrememly limited edition release figure.
I decided to go ahead and do a review of both Gold Rapidmon and the regular version of Rapidmon, as they both, just like all the other Digi-Warriors, are stunningly great figures in my own opinion. For being released around 2000, the quality of their paint, articulation, stability, and just overall design quality are extremely impressive to me. I honestly don't have a bad thing to say about them.
You can get the figure in almost any pose you want, as there are several points of articulation in each limb. At first it was a bit difficult to get a pse where the face of Rapidmon was showing, but with soe manipulation of the hip joints and torso joints, it worked out rather well in my opinion.
I'm hopeful to do some more Digimon reviews in the near future, as Digimon is a franchise very dear to my heart, and I'd love to get some more reviews out there of the figures. More awareness for the series is always great too, as I feel that this line is one of the overlooked gems in the recent history of toys.
Now that I've gushed over my love for these figures and the franchise, you can get a more comprehensive review of the two in my full video review below:
As you may have noticed in my haul post from Saturday, I got this Rodimus figure this weekend. I'd been looking for a Rodimus for quite some time, and was able to purchase this one because it is missing it's weapons that come with it. That's fine with me though, as I really just wanted a Rodimus to go in my collection.
The figure has a pretty good look in general, and looks nice on display, even when just standing there in a not-really-posed kind of way. The detail on the figure is quite good in my opinion, and the transformation is a lot of fun. In all honesty, the alt mode is a blast to play around with.
Unforunatly though I do have a decent amount of "cons" to talk about with this figure. My first few nitpicks are that he's a bit too bulky in spots. The lower legs are pretty huge comparted to everything else, and the red plates on the sides of his upper legs are pretty immobile, so they often look like the entire leg is one solid piece. Another area where the figure is pretty bulky is in the chest itself. My issue here is that it is at its thickest along the figures upper chest, so whenever you look at the figure from any kind of a downward angle, all you see is the block of red and you miss all the detail of the chest piece/hood because it is at an inward angle towards the torso.
My last issue with the figure is the lack of articulation in the arms. In the picture above you see the elbow at a 90 degree angle... and that is literally all the arm can do. There is no rotation at the elbow, no movement past 90 degrees, and no movement side to side at the elbow either. In other words, it's just pretty limited there.
Now I know that it seems as if I've listed more cons than pros to this figure, but in all honesty it isn't all that bad - I think I'm just nitpicking because it isn't the perfect Rodimus figure for me. I'll be on the lookout for a better one, (and hopefully a new generations one soon, but this will do for now.
Found some of the new Pokemon XY booster packs at Walmart today. This actually surprised me quite a bit because the set doesn't actually release until Wednesday, so it was pretty cool to get a "sneak peek" at it. Unfortunatly I didn't pull any EX cards, but I still got a lot of really nice Trainers (even two in reverse) and a Gogoat foil, which is surprisingly good.
Of the cards I pulled it actually seems like there some substantial grass support in this set, but I this is literally all I've seen of it so far, as I tend not to look at any spoilers for the set prior to buyinga couple packs first. I've always done that regardless of the game (Yugioh, Magic, etc) because I like the surprise of what I pull, and to me, knowing every card going in just isn't as fun as looking at every card you pull and seeing how good it is (or isn't). I plan on getting a few more packs of this later on (I got four today) in the hopes of getting some of the EXs (a Skarmory? Heck yeah!) and maybe I'll do a pack opening video of them then.
I actually just picked the Pokemon game back up about six months ago with the release of Plasma Freeze, after being gone from it for all the years since Neo Destiny came out - a REALLY long time ago. I've really been enjoying it so far just playing with friends, not so much competitivlythough. Anyway, I'll update you guys on any good pulls I end up getting from the set.
Got a couple packages in the mail yesterday, and got these. Some of this stuff is for me, others to resell. I'll probably be putting the Gurren Lagann and Patlabor revoltechs on ebay, but keeping Alphonse and Rodimus.
I've been looking for a Rodimus figure I like for quite some time, but never felt like spending the high prices that his figures fetch. I grabbed this one for only about a third of regular price, and I'm pretty happy with it.
Alphonse's leg is broken off as you can see, but I'm just gonna put a bit of glue on there and get it back in place. Again, got it for a great deal so I can live with having a fixed pose figure. The others were in the lot along with Al, and I don't have much interest in them to be honest, so I'll be reselling those at a pretty good price considering the Patlabor Griffon doesn't have any hands, and the Gurren Lagann is missing any accesories he may have came with aside from one extra head. Check out my ebay link on the top of the page if you're interested!
Since the weather was actually mildly nice yesterday, I took the opportunity to go out and primer and base coat three runners of parts - K1 and both Q plates. Which was a good thing, because a pretty decent sized ice storm hit last night and now we have over an inch of solid ice... everywhere. Doesn't look like I'll be going out to paint again anytime in the next few days. I've already finished detailing and top coating these, all of the pieces to the "inner frame" of the head, but I'm only about half done with the other parts I have base coated. These parts were actually a lot of fun to paint, especially the one in the bottom right corner - I expected it to be a paint with how small some of the details are, but it turned out pretty nicely in my opinion and it was quite rewarding to see how good it looks after everything. Here's a couple close up pictures of these parts:
I picked these up off of ebay, got the first pack for $5.50, and then found a listing a few days later with 3 packs for $10. This will probably be all I get of this set of cards, as the cards are fun and have good art, but it's just a 60 card set and by the last pack I opened I pulled all but one duplicate card.
I did some pack-opening videos for them on youtube, and I'll link them below, so give them a watch if you're interested!
I actually got a decent amount of work done on the Gojulas yesterday and this morning, and I'm hoping to get even more done throughout the day today. These are all the pieces from the I plate, and next up is K1, all of the "inner frame" parts to the Gojulas' head.
I know, I know, I already broke my promise about the "daily update" thing.... looks like I was being a bit overly optimistic about myself then. Oh well though, I'll get these posted as often as I'm able too.
Work has been kind of sporadic over the past few days because of the super-low temperatures around here. I've gotten out to paint occasionally, but it just isn't the most fun activity in the world whenever it's only 4 degrees in your garage. I got my space heater out of storage though and that's helped marginally.
Anyway, here are the pieces (and close ups of them) that I've gotten completed since the last update. They're what remained of the S plates. Onto I!
When I first bought Air Raid I didn't actually have any plans to keep him - got him at a good price and was going to resell - but then I got my hands on the figure and it was one of the best Transformers I've played around with in a long time. Now that's not to say he's perfect, just for some reason I absolutly adore this figure.
To begin, he's surprisingly good figure in robot mode. There are some really great example of articulation here, especially in the arms and legs. Very sturdy and stable as well. The paint application is very impressive to me - the silver looks really nice, and so does the red and gold. There's still a lot of detail remaining on this figure that would look great being done up with some paint - a huge plus for anyone looking to customize this figure.
His transformation is rather complex - in the perfect way. Instead of it being like a typical Bumblebee figure or something, and trying to cram all of him into a tiny space, the transformation itself was very fluid, and the complexity/ingenuity of it continued to surprise you along the way (if you know what I mean). All around it was probably the best time I've had transforming a figure since I messed around with Generations Blaster about a year ago.
Alt mode itself is great too (sorry I don't have a picture). I've actually had him displayed in alt mode more often than in robot mode, and that's really saying something for me. The weapons he comes with a very impressive too, especially the sword. The sword in itself is a fun little toy, and it would have been more than enough alone, but the weapon in the picture above is included as well. What is it exactly? Well, I'm not too sure. I have it posed as a gun/laser bayonet kind of thing... and I guess I still kind of like it! It's really that great clear red effect part and gold barrel that make it all so nice despite the fact I have no clue what it's supposed to be or how he's technically supposed to hold it.
Finally, there are a few criticisms to the figure. Mostly they have to do with the articulation. While I don't mind this too much, it could be bothersome to some people. The feet have a very small range of articulation due in part to his design, and the head has very little articulation too (more so because of the transformation than design here though). Another negative is that the legs are mostly hollow - this is really my only nitpick of the whole figure, as I wish they were just a little bulkier. As you can see in the second picture here or Air Raid straight on, they just look a little tiny; like toothpicks on him. But all in all, these complaints really hold no real meaning to me as the overall aesthetic and superb transformation of this kit make him one of my favorites in quite some time.
My overall rating of Generations Air Raid? 4.5/5
For my full review of him, check out the video below:
This is my custom painted Hasbro Dark Spiner zoid - technically the first Zoid I ever painted. It was about a year prior to me getting my first HMM when I decided to paint this guy, and I must say that it's one of my proudest accomplishments. I was actually very unexperience with even using an airbrush at the time, and the shading on this kit rivals what I can do to this day.
It's much simpler than an HMM of course, but there was still a wealth of detail to hand paint, and lots of great armor parts to airbrush. I honestly can't remember what insprired me to do this paint scheme, but I like it a lot more than the original to be honest.
It's unfortunatly missing a few pieces - the small vents on the forearm on each side - but those were gone whenever I first picked up the kit to paint. Looking back, the plastic on this kit (being an older hasbro model) is actually a bit unusual. It's very soft, almost to the point where it feel's malleable. That's not a bad thing however - it actually makes it feel sturdier after assembly than other kits.
