freak accident

When you play paintball, you kind of half-expect some pain and bruises. Maybe the occasional welt. It's part of the game to get the other guy before they get you.
One of those fingers is the wrong colour and... well the wrong size.

What's particularly uncool is that this didn't even happen to me during the game. I had my hand up and was walking down the edge o the field after being eliminated when a ball came out of nowhere to hit my pinky end-on.

Breaking a gelatin shell moving at 250ft/s was not unlike being hit by a hammer. And that sucked because taking my gloves off was just not fun tonight. Sheesh.

Hoihoi-san in 1:1 scale (part 2)

I decided to base coat the weapons in black even though the pieces are molded in gray plastic. Acrylic paint sticks better that way. I wish I had remembered this earlier because the orange USB port didn't turn out as smooth as I had hoped.
First I painted the black into the recessed areas. Then dry-brush the raised “USB” letters. Finally add the orange. The orange needed two coats because it's less forgiving than the recessed darker colours.

Painting multiple surfaces means you need to “hold” the pieces up to dry. An easy way is to use a clump of putty and let the pieces stick up in the air.

Sadly, I later discovered the “audio plug” to be a wasted effort. Turns out that particular piece is a tight fit and it pretty much cleaned the paint right off when I tried to insert it into the jack behind Hoihoi-san's head.
Speaking of her head, I debated a long time whether to matt-finish her face as well. But since Hoihoi-san is meant to be a doll, the plain plastic-y finish on her “skin” areas seemed to make sense.

The finished model has real tight joints. While she's poseable, Hoihoi-san is also very delicate. Some of her snap-fit parts (like her main torso) will actually fly apart in your hands if you're not careful while twisting her joints. Her bangs will also come apart every time you try removing her face to replace the “eyes-plate” underneath for looking left, right, or straight ahead.

Here she is completed (and ready for action).
Here we go!Any roaches hiding on this side?Perimeter secured! Okay... Must check bananas now...Alright - mission accomplished!

Hoihoi-san in 1:1 scale

In an anime mecha plastic-model kit (“plamo”) industry dominated by Bandai, there are few contenders. Kotobukiya is a relative newcomer working to carve out their own piece of the market by catering to the franchises that are NOT Mobile Suit Gundam. The Hoihoi-san kit is based on a PS2 game property about an automated robotic cockroach extermination system... which, interestingly enough, means any kit standing about 3 inches high could be considered “life-sized.”Hoihoi-san comes injection-molded in several colours not unlike the Bandai Gundam plastic kits (“Gunpla”). There is absolutely no flash and the sprues are clean and sharp. Kotobukiya, tampo-prints some of the markings directly onto the parts. However, if one chooses to base-coat and paint the kit, they also provide wet-transfer decals.
Kotobukiya also ups the ante by also pre-painting certain parts to simplify the build. Personally I would prefer they didn't but the ultimate goal seems to be for allowing the build to look its best without additional paint. The boot assemblies come with a smooth coat of black paint in the appropriate area.

When the instructions are marked with "!", pay attention to the orientation of the pieces or else they won't fit!
In all my years of plamo, I never expected one day I would be assembling a pair of miniaturized plastic bloomers.

At what appears to be the half-way point through the illustrated instructions, it's time to stop and consider what to do next. While a majority of the parts are molded in pale colours, the black parts pose a bit of a problem. When black plastic is strained, the plastic turns white. Even taking extra care with my snips and using a utility knive to gently shave the sprue, there are visible stress marks on the hem. Perhaps this is a good time to do some paint touch-up and start the matt-coat (especially because from this point, I'm starting to foresee certain parts which are indeed molded in the “wrong” colour such as the replica USB port, etc).

VF-19 Hi-Metal Series

Bandai's Hi-Metal Fire Valkyrie an attempt to break into the Macross figure franchise beyond the “Frontier” series Bandai has been stuck with while Yamato continues to hog the majority of Macross licenses. To differentiate themselves, they've gone with some perculiar build choices.
Firstly the scale is 1/100 making the VF-19 Kai Excalibur model only about 8 inches long (and similarly tall in battloid mode). Compared to Yamato's near universal 1/60 scale, this is almost puny. The size also presents an inherent problem: the need to compromise on what can been implemented for transformation and what's “faked.” So the set comes with a variety of “part-swapping solutions.”

The second design choice is the use of die-cast metal only where it counts. There is a main torso skeleton and ankles. Other than some screws, the rest is plastic. The red plastic is a nice deep metallic, however, so while it the main fuselage is not painted in pearl clear-coat, it's a nice cheap facsimilie.
Transformation isn't much different from the Yamato interpretation. However, it does improve a few things such as tabs in the right places while removing a few in others. The fighter mode snaps snuggly and by virtue of the plastic composition, it's not floppy or top-heavy. This is important because the VF-19 is has a very delicate GERWALK mode compared to the classic VF-1 design with its arms over the wings.Transformation to GERWALK is the first time parts need to come off. The head's main fin is an extra bit that needs to sanp on, but first, the panel that hides the neck joint needs to be temporarily removed to get at it. The hands are also plugged into the wrists which are hidden in fighter mode by pop-off panels.
Next, the metal endoskeleton in the torso goes into action by elevating the fuselage and then wrapping over the nose-cone. Beware the arms during ths transformation. Thankfully the arms are plastic on ball-joints so they are forgiving. They pop back on if they do accidentally fall off. And finally the pair of antennae are plugged into the head.
In battloid mode, Bandai also supplies a couple of extra bits to fill out the proportions in the thighs. As seen in the photo, they're a little skinny (but this is only visible from certain angles, of course). I actually don't like the bits much as they some don't plug in snugly enough.
I have mixed feelings about this rendition of the Fire Valkyrie. I'm so happy to finally have a transforming toy of the VF-19 Kai Excalibur (my first was a plamo kit from the 90s that didn't transform but was actually 2-models-in-1-box). On the other hand I'm torn over the mish-mash of plastic parts-swapping (which, in my opinion, is a cheap alternative to proper transforming-toy-design.

Vinyl Lion Voltron

Toynami is the outfit behind the Robotech Masterpieces series. That infamous line-up ranged from the mildly disappointing VF-1 quality control issues, down to the outright factory recalled Shadow Chronicles Alpha Fighter due to fan-outrage and, strangely, also up to the dizzying heights of rave reviews for the Beta Fighter.
So that is why when I found myself staring at the clear-plastic packaged 9-inch tall vinyl rendition of the Lion Voltron, I was prepared to let things slide a bit. Even my novice eyes picked out the over-spray on the hip. But you know, it's a relatively minor thing and it's not like this figure is terribly expensive. The key is to accept that Voltron is a license in that niche just a bit too mainstream for the likes of Kid Robot to make a Munny out of, but nowhere near big enough for Hasbro to turn into a Mighty Mugg.
Other than the paint defect, the rest of the figure is great. No mold deformaties to speak of. And the rest of the figure's paint is great. He's brightly coloured to all the correct shades. Joints twist where one would expect (and in some places one wouldn't). Heck, there's actually a waist joint. And each Lion head twists as well.
There's not really much else to say except I got the urge to finally pick one up because of the following news: Toynami has shown a prototype for a second in this series. That's right, CollectionDX reports that Vehicle Voltron will also be coming to vinyl form! And yes, he will similarly be adorable.