Unboxing: Yamato life-sized replica VF-1 helmet

Months ago, the opportunity to order one came up and believe me, it made me delay a few other things. This was effectively made-to-order since I don't blame any retailer for not wanting to stock this insanely expensive (but so freaking exclusive) item without a pre-order. In fact, it was so hard to come by, I wasn't even sure my order would ever arrive and if I would end up with just a refund 6 months later.There it was... Apparently nothing ships from Toy-Wave.com without some. Even if that's the original shipping box from their own distributors. Next I looked at was the declarations documentation. Frequently these make the difference between practically "free" and the likes of my Macross-themed jacket where I paid over a hundred bucks in duty and taxes. In this case, written all over the box was a declared value of $3000HKD (that's about $425CAD)... and for some mysterious reason, Customs didn't charge me a single penny for duty except for about $20 for federal sales tax and a handling fee. I've given up on figuring out the CBSA.Openning the shipping box reveals that it literally is the shipping box and nothing else. It's fit exactly to the retail packaging with no room to spare.Interestingly enough, the retail packaging is nothing more than a plastic wrap and a cardboard slip around a huge styrofoam affair.What's a nice touch of class is a pair of white cotton gloves so I can pretend this is a ridiculously expensive collector's item up for auction. No wait, only the auction part is pretend, the rest is real. ^_^;;;And there it is in all it's glory. This this thing is simply huge. The replica is made to imitate the line-art proportions from the Macross animation work. The visor is supposed to house the eye-tracking targetting systms but of course, this replica is made of solid fibre-glass resin... so while my head fits in it, but it's so front-heavy that it won't sit properly without tilting forward. What the photos don't really convey is how beautiful it is in person. It's painted to a pearlescent finish and there's not a hint of over-spray anywhere. It will definitely get a spot of honour above my display.

Planechase deck box

Two whole months after the Planechase sets came out, I finally found the Planechase deck boxes at my local comics and gaming shop. There seem to be only 2 models available - one themed for Grixis (and or Zombies in general) and I got this one which is combination theme for the artifacts deck and the "Strike Force" red-white deck which I happen to play.The box is a typical Duel Deck-Box with an interior space that would normally fit two standard sized Ultra-Pro deck boxes. However, this set comes with a plastic divider to compartmentalize the interior into a space large enough for Planechase cards and about a deck and a half of normal cards.The highlight of the set is that comes with Ultra-Pro premium sleeves for the Plane-chase cards. They are matte black on the back and have the Ultra-Pro hologram-seal on the fronts. Surprisingly, they are "top-load" - the cards go in oriented bottom-in-first even though the Planechase cards, unlike normal M:tG cards, are "sideways" (wider than they are tall). The set also comes with 60 normal sized premium sleeves. These are glossy on the back with an image of the standard back of a M:tG card (in case you forget what game you're playing in the middle of your match!).
The downside, which kind of annoys me, is that the unique divider provides way too much room for the Planechase cards. The divider board fits so that it divides the box into 2 halves and then the front half into two quarters. That means the thickness of a 60-card deck won't fit into one of the quarters and must partially be stored on the second quarter. This doesn't leave enough room for a second deck (but it should have, if the divider sat slightly farther back).

T-shirts delivery

A bunch of new T-shirts arrived in the mail this week so I wanted to share them.
Machine56 is an independent designer from Indonesia. You can check out his art on DeviantArt here. His last major line-up features some kind of cyborg skeleton guy with headphones. It's neat!I also pre-ordered these Mobile Suit Gundam shirts a couple of months ago. I was a little worried because at the time I had forgotten about the whole Japan standard sizing being smaller than elsewhere. Thankfully, for some reason these L-sized shirts fit me just fine.This shirt's colours and pattern is designed to resemble the uniform of a naval officer in the Earth Federation Space Force. Since I couldn't decide which to get (and they aren't terribly expensive as far as novelty-shirts go, I also ordered the brown base-command shirt as well).

Wearing a Valkyrie

I couldn't help myself... It's a little tacky but it's rare and limited outside of Japan. And on top of which, I'm a long time Macross/Robotech fan. This Valkyrie-themed jacket caught my attention right away. It was just a matter of finding a means to acquire an item intended only for the Japanese market exclusively (because well, I'm pretty certain Harmony Gold would have something to say about their international rights for the Robotech brand).And I couldn't help wearing it. I had to at least once. During the course of the day I gradually discovered the little features all over the jacket.The most distinguishing feature is the VF-1 regalia. Everyone keeps calling it a "flight jacket" but it isn't a cosplay piece (everyone knows the pilot's uniform on Macross was a plain white and red jumpsuit). From the shoulders down the sleeves, the jacket resembles the paint scheme on Hikaur Ichijio's Valkyrie fighter. Details include embroidered UN-Spacy logos, appropriate craft numbers, and of course carrier name. A real embroided name patch for Skull-leader with Ichijio's name is on the chest. For that authentic military touch, the patch is held by velcro.

The groovy feature is the music-player storage system. The forearms have zippered compartments for a portable device. The left sleeve has a velcro shaft to hold down an ear-phone wire. The velcro clasps continue right up to the colar. I'm sure Minmay would have approved.And it has the requisite "Engrish" not to be missed!

There are a some compartments of questionable practicality. The side pockets are button-closed (the left pocket has the official-licensed product seal inside of it). There is a pocket just inside the left breast. Lastly there's also a large compartment inside the back. For the life of me, I can't figure out what that's for. It seems to follow the entire length and I can't imagine the jacket being particularly comfortable if I were to put something in there. However, there is yet another little hole behind that pocket coming out to one of the velcro clasps on the back. I have no clue what this is for either.My jacket is sized "Large." The lengths fit me perfect (I rarely find anything where the sleeves actually stop of my wrists). But I don't know if I have a bulky frame or what, but it's very close-fitting. Am I disappointed? Not really, I plan to treat this as a collector's item more than an actual jacket. And in that respect, how far does it reach up the geek-o-meter? Very high.

Imperial Guard Valkyrie 4

The Valkyrie build was delayed for a variety of reasons, but here's the final follow up.
First I wanted to turn the kit over and present possibly the ONLY image of the underside of the model anywhere. It's not clear from the instruction sheet nor from the photos. But the hatches don't have anything holding them in place until you finally put the wings and tail fins in place. Once everything's together, the hatches sort of get sandwiched in the grooves naturally. You'll wonder how it wasn't so obvious before you test-fit everything.Another trick I had to ask for help with is the canopy over the cockpit. Firstly, do the easy thing: base coat the "window frame" bits first. Just remember to leave the underside unpainted because that's where your glue will make contact! While you're at it, carefully tape off the windows leaving only the horizontal cross-bars that are molded into the clear plastic. These "bumps" will form part of the frames on the finished model so you'll need to paint that too.Here's a shot of the finished canopy resting on top of the cockpit assembly. Don't glue it in place yet!
Why not, you may ask? I painted the interior first for a reason. The finished canopy will serve as a conveniently cockpit-shaped template. How? Here's an easy trick for basecoating: wrap the finished canopy in plastic-food-wrap then sit it on top of the cockpit you want to protect. Plastic wrap is easy to hold together and easier to remove when you're done spraying!And finally... the photos you've been waiting for. This is after a coat of black, then a dusting coat of generic olive-drab green. A touch of randomness is done by holding up a sheet of card-stock with holes in it. And a final touch: sky-gray on the bottom... look it up, there's a reason for this paint scheme on military aircraft. Finally weathering is done with a combination of more chaos black, tin bitz, and boltgun metal from Citadel Colour paints.