"Storm"

Thankfully I got home in time before...





After an hour, clear weather again :)

"The Ultimate Adventure!"

During lunch time, we talked about where we would go if the we were sent to Plantation again for 2 months. This would've been the sequel to the Epic Adventure~~

Take a flight from Plantation to Buffalo, New York and drive to Niagara Falls (A). Following that would be a drive to Boston (B), New York City (C) and Philadelphia (D). The final point of the adventure would be Washington D.C. That's about a 900 miles road trip!

Unfortunately travel freeze and now our members have left or are leaving Modo soon :( There goes the trip... Shit, already 2pm, still dreaming and haven't go back to office! :P

"PC down, PC down!"

Yeah, age has finally caught up with my 6-year old PC. It has served well but looks like the motherboard has given way. Actually can see the signs already: occasional blue-screen, long start up times and finally that day the LAN went down. That means no more downloads. That's bad. I can forgo the games but downloads?? Oh no....

So, now I'm currently writing this using the Modo laptop, fixed to my LCD monitor and hooked to the speakers. It's tolerable for the short term... a quest to build a new PC is underway. Already surveyed the components from PC Depot. For a start, I'm sticking with ATI, in particular, the HD4870, a highly overclocked mid-range graphic card. Yeah, no skimping on that!

One thing I'm still a bit unsure is the processor. The new Intel Core i7 is out and supposedly much better than the Core 2 processors but they are very expensive. So will it be a faster Core 2 Duo processor or a slower Core 2 Quad for the same price? Hmm, decisions, decisions!

"Sideshow Indiana Jones!"

Hasbro's Indiana Jones line really struggled because of poor sculpting and painting, despite Indy being one of the most requested brand names. Lets see how Sideshow Collectibles fare with their 1st 12-inch Indy figure from Raiders of the Lost Ark!



My mom thought this was a Martell bottle -_-''



Comes with fake-leather jacket, real shirt, pants, interchangeable hands, guns and everything Indy!



Best of all, it comes with an alternate head, without Indy wearing his trademark fedora...



...so we can see the glorious likeness of Harrison Ford in plastic :D One thing Sideshow really focus on is to make sure their figures resemble the actual actors, like my all-time favourite Sideshow product below:



Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan!

Of course, these things come at a price; this Indy costs a whopping RM300+ after multiple discounts, more than 3 times the price of Hasbro's version!

"Dark Knight: Batmobile & Batpod!"

Here's something I bought during the height of the 'Dark Knight' fever: the Stealth Launch Batmobile! Ok, it's a crappy name but essentially the pull factor to get this was that it included the Batpod!

Huge box. Here's the Batmobile...





Press button #1 at the back, and the Batmobile pops open!



Inside is Mr. Batman on his Batpod...



Press button #2 and the Batpod springs out!



Ah, the Batpod: the highlight of the movie!

The Batman figure is not removable, partially I guess due to the extremely strong force when the Batpod launches. Actually, if you notice, this feature isn't exactly movie-accurate. In the Dark Knight, the Batmobile was badly damaged, and to continue hunting the Joker, Batman activated this 'back-up' vehicle, which is actually the left wheels of the Batmobile. Heh, just some trivia. :P

This is pretty much a kid's toy that is fairly pricey (RM209.90). I was waiting for the price to go down but it never did. What happened was that because the movie was such a success, people grabbed any (reasonably decent) Bat-stuff they could get. I asked Gf to buy it from me when she was in Melaka after all the ones in Penang were sold out...

(Note: Click on the pictures to see the full size)

"Macross: VF-1A!!!"

And here it is, Yamato's "VF-1A with Super & Strike parts" 1/60 scale from Macross:Do You Remember Love! Yeah, just had to buy it, especially with Christmas sale :D

This version is Hikaru Ichijyo's (Rick Hunter in Robotech). The VF-1A has 3 modes:

Fighter




Guardian


and Battroid

The transformation is complicated, especially from Guardian to Battroid, but the core pieces are made of metal so there's not much worry of breaking it. There's also a damn thick manual that shows you how to transform properly (trust me, you'll need it!) The material used is also PVC, very strong and pretty heavy too. The moment you hold it, you know it's not kids stuff!

And the best part about this 1/60 scale (1/60 of the actual plane size) version is that it comes with the Super & Strike parts! If you get the 1/48 scale version, it's sold separately and obviously at a very high price (RM1k++). I managed to get this for about RM400.

Every section snaps in place perfectly, no loose parts or anything dangling. That's the beauty of Yamato's engineering, which I feel is better than CMS' Mospeada.

And, based on the final scene in the movie Macross:DYRL!

You'll want one too! :D The missiles on the wings are interchangeable; there are 3 pairs included! Actually, if I had a choice, I would've preferred to get VF-1S, Roy Fokker's version as Skull Leader, but these things are released in very small quantity. So here's to hoping that they re-release it again! :P

"Macross: Do you remember love?"

Robotech is made up of 3 unrelated Japanese anime, with the first arc being adapted from Macross. Unfortunately when they converted it into Robotech, they converted the Japanese songs into English as well. After listening to both versions, I think the Japanese version is by far the more superior!

Macross opening song:



Bet you remember this: "My boyfriend is a Pilot"!



And from the 1984 movie "Macross: Do You Remember Love", the epic final battle! This movie is a condensed version of the entire series.



The studio version of the song :)



And Macross ending song...~~~



Next: Another Macross post! ;)

"Mospeada: Legioss & Tread!"

Ok, after the Cyclone, lets look at CMS' Mospeada: Legioss & Tread! The Robotech name for this is the Alpha & Beta Fighter. It comes in 3 colors (Blue, Red and Green). I chose Blue because its Scott Bernard's.



Legioss. The Alpha fighter, which can change into 3 modes:


Fighter

Guardian

Battroid

Transformation is reasonably complicated, but once again, the ABS/PVC and die-cast material feels really sturdy and helps prevent breakage.


And it comes with mini Scott Bernard on his Cyclone in several modes!

Tread. The Beta fighter which Scott's team discovered towards the end of their mission.

Fighter mode. The metal connector bar is removable.

Robot mode

Loaded with missles!

And finally, Legioss & Tread - yeah, the main reason I chose CMS' version (Mospeada license is given to several companies: Toynami, CMS, MegaHouse), coz it comes with both Legioss & Tread together and you can join them to become:



wow... ain't it cool? It's like a dream come true :D


It can also hold Legioss in Battroid mode...... drooling.........



And a family photo of the Mospeada collection. Legioss & Tread now has the honour of becoming the single "Most Expensive Item" in my collection. Can you guess how much this costs??

RM948!!!





...but I got a 15% discount, so that comes out to RM805!

It replaces the Millenium Falcon (RM749.90) and AT-AT Walker (RM499.90) as the most expensive item in my collection. Yeah, Gf would've killed me if she knew I went to buy this :P Actually, she did freak out when she saw it... hahahaha.... siggg

"Mospeada Ride Armor: 'Dark Bartley & Dark Mospeada'!"

I haven't done collection reviews in awhile. For some time now the collection has moved beyond Star Wars into some of the other stuff that I really like, like this one: CMS' Mospeada Ride Armor: 'Dark Bartley & Dark Mospeada'.

Mospeada is the Japanese anime adapted as the 3rd arc of Robotech, named The Next Generation, telling the story of Scott Bernard and his band of freedom fighters on their quest to liberate Earth from the Invid.

'Dark Bartley & Dark Mospeada' is actually the Shadow version of the famous Cyclone bikes used in the series. Too bad I started collecting these late, I would have preferred Scott Bernard's Cyclone, but hey, this itself is a great piece, retailing at RM245 after 5% discount.






Yeah, the Cyclone bike converts into the armour for the rider! The conversion is fairly complicated, but luckily the model is made of ABS/PVC with Die-cast metal parts so they don't break easily. Which also explains the hefty price for such a small item! This guy is about the same size as a Star Wars basic figure...

"Registration of Marriage!"

My wedding registration was on Feb 1st, the 7th day of CNY, which is People's Day.



And I got the ring just two days before ;) Two identical Platinum rings cost RM9xx each :-S Nvm, pay in installments... hahaha... Initially we were thinking of getting white gold, but they say that it will turn yellow (or lose its sparkle) after awhile. The white gold pairs we were looking at already cost Rm8xx-RM1xxx each, then we happen upon the Platinum ones. This one has a very simple bamboo-like design, and we liked it immediately. Ok, lets hope she forgets about the diamond ring for awhile~~ :P



Not forgetting the flowers to pose... 3 lilies and 6 roses...

Temple coordinator says registration starts at 9AM, first come first serve. Got 11 couples that day. Ok, we have to go around 8.30AM, get an early number, then can finish faster... Yeah, rite! XM and Sab arrived well ahead of me! I got there at 9.20AM, still need to wait for Gf side. Around 20 minutes later they arrived, but by that time, you guessed it, we got #11 :D



Quite a lot of people at there.. early birds..





Posing, posing, and gradually the number of ppl there got lesser and lesser. After 1 hour + wait, it was our turn! Actually if we're "aiming" for last place, might as well just come at 10AM :P

Signing the papers... 3 copies... maybe nervous or wat, but when I signed the 3rd copy, the pen got stuck.. oops, the signature doesn't look nice dy :P



"I do, I do..." ~~ surprisingly the ceremony was conducted in English. I thought in Chinese temple they speak Mandarin.



Echange rings, and "you are now legally husband and wife".



And pose for the camera. That's it, it was over in 10 minutes!



Pose again with the cert. This time was easier coz everyone went back already...



And thanks to buddies Sab, Eric, XM for attending :)