My living room: Bome Wall

Here it goes again... Stopped by the comic shop tonight after work. Found several items I'd been eyeing on-line on the shelves but decided to only give into what seemed logical: grab the stuff they only had one of so that nobody else could come along and buy it from under my nose.

So I picked up another figure for my "Monsieur Bomé" collection. Bome is a sculptor who started out as a "garage kit" artist. In Japan there's an entire industry devoted to these small-time indy sculptors who produce limited moldings of their works for amateur kits builders. Bome stands out as one of the few who got so popular with fans that he acheived some measure of international stardom, including a gallery show in France of some of his sculpts. Kaiyodo later picked up his models and started to mass-produce replicas in PVC plastic... this is where Diamond Comics Distributors comes into the picture: they smell money to be made in North America and snagged the license to sell them wholesale to comic shops in Canada and the US.

Over the years I've amassed a small collection...

Since I'm lazy, I won't bother to take close-ups as there are plenty of photos already on-line. Here's a shop that sells them: http://www.tisinc99.com/bome.html - click the pics there for bigger photos.

The red "Kirasaki" is the one I picked up today (the shop did have the green one as well)... at a glance they look the same but I've since found that their faces are slightly different... I'll think for this I'll make an exception to my rule about not buying "repaint" editions.

I actually also purchased a figure of an un-named soldier character from the art-works of Masamune Shirow (creator of such classic cyber-punk as Ghost in the Shell) but it's hanging in a different spot in the living room... I plan to photograph that after I've done some sorting (look carefully above and you'll notice that one of the 6 figures on the Bome Wall is not actually a Bome figure at all - in fact, it's yet another Shirow figure).

What I miss? surprisingly little...

I hesitated long enough that K took up the slack from B... becuase for the most part, I spent all my time trying to come up with 5 things I miss from my childhood and could only think of 1.

So here goes: I miss the certainty.

When you little the biggest problem you have is what you're getting for a birthday gift. Or when you're next trip to a local fast-food place like McD's. If mum'll let you go over to play at your best friend's house that day. Or if you could get away with another piece of candy...

Nowadays I wonder about things like this:
Who are my friends, really? That guy I really honestly thought would keep in touch with hasn't emailed me back in like 6 months... and hasn't called in even longer. I don't even have his current phone number anymore.

If I buy a bag of groceries tonight will it keep in the fridge that long? It's awefully humid out - stocking up fresh veggies probably isn't a great idea.... especially since I live alone. I should eat out and get my veggies in single-serving sizes like salads.

Hmm... what's that squeaking at every pothole? Don't tell me the shocks are going. What's that gonna be, another $200 or so? I dunno... oh well, just another bill in the pile.

And I suppose, at a certain level... yeah, I do try to still get away with another piece of candy. ^_^

Kancho!

Start at the beginning... and you'll learn of a Japanese game played by young children. It's funny in a very innocent or very twisted way... but actually, rather sick when you think about it. So much so that the disgusted author posted a retaliatory editorial to the readers to remind them of how childish his fans had become...

http://outpostnine.com/editorials/teacher.html

My other hobby: WH40K

Haven't posted about this sort of thing in a while... long-time readers from way back might recall that I occassionally collect a 28mm scaled army of aliens for the table-top strategy game called Warhammer 40'000. As it the heat and humidity rose in the last few days, I decided that painting the balcony wasn't such a great idea (unfortunately it hasn't cooled down and it'll likely remain half-finished until either my brother gets off his arse or the next time I have a chance to come home).

Anyway, since my folks foresaw that the restaurant would be dead quiet for the weekend, they didn't ask me to help out. Naturally, that meant my brother and I would stay in and enjoy the AC for all it was worth.

Here're some photos of the battle we staged on the kitchen table. The game lasted about 3 and half hours... and we ran it the full 6 turns! It's a record to say the least. ^_^;

Valve caps - don't want for much...

So I absent mindedly wandered into a random shop while hanging around Montreal's Chinatown. At the time I thought to spend a bit of petty cash on minor stuff - like finally finding a bootleg of Kung-Fu Hustle. I'd be more than happy to support legit business in Hong Kong, but sadly, and inexplicably, Stephen Chow's films are all region-locked for Hong Kong so I wouldn't be able to watch them... my alternative is a Chinese or Taiwanese bootleg (btw, I didn't find one)... guess I'll have to settle for a crappy edited American version some time in the next year. :p

Dropped a few bucks for a set of metallic red valve caps for my wheels. Hee hee - the odd thing is that I don't even own alloy rims - these caps will certainly look fast and furious on my stock plastic VW hubcaps. :o

There was a time when I would've been all over the import shops looking for auto accessories, but quite frankly I've settled into the reality that a heavily modded vehicle is simply beyond my means - I've got better and more important things to spend my hard-earned money on. Besides which, my VW bug is rapidly aging, racking up the paint chips and dings, and wear and tear on the interior... *sigh* she's not quite as slick as she used to be.

And I still never got around to getting that fender repainted. Oh well.

Elmo's an idiot

Elmo - he's a cute little red monster on the hit children's show Sesame Street. And he act's like a 4-year-old. Which, as far as little children go, is okay.

But chew on this for a while: Elmo debuted in 1985... which means if he was four at the time, he's got to be about 24 years old now.

Granted, he's done pretty well for himself considering he's got his own place (according to the Elmo's World segments) and has enough money to be able to afford a decent computer... but I just don't see how a 24-year-old still talks of himself in the third person in very simple terms (Dwayne Johnson's "The Rock" character not withstanding... if you smell what he's cookin'?!).

"Mr. Vampire" if you find it...

So my trip into Montreal ended with at least one major find: the HMV downtown had an insane selection of old kung-fu movies on DVD. Found the 1985 classic comedy-fantasy flick, "Mr. Vampire." (That's vampire in the form of a geung-shi - an undead creatue of Chinese myth traditionally depicted in burial robes and hopping around the dark of night with its arms raised in front of it)... Starring the late Lum Ching Ying and Ricky Hui as his goofball apprentice, this movie played on all the stereotypes of turn-of-the-century country-folk encountering western-influenced younger folks trying to deal with a rash of murders from mythological creatures...

And to top it all off? Turns out the DVD was a digitally-remastered affair so it looked (and sounded) better than I've ever seen it - all for the ridiculour price of $10. As far as I'm concerned, my dad doesn't need to know I spend so little on Father's Day. ^.^;;

Anybody out there with a penchant for goofy and campy action-comedy out of Hong Kong?

Hmm... new cell phone?

Considering this: Nokia 3205i - most gimmicks for the buck.
For around $200 I can get the phone and transfer my voicemail, existing phone #, and current minutes balance to the new toy.

There was a time when I wouldn't have given a flying crap about a gimmicky cellular. Who the hell needs multiple ring-tones, colour display, built-in camera, games, and text messaging? It's supposed to be a damn phone! You make calls!

But now that my younger brother has one, I experiencing a severe case of phone-envy.

I originally bought a phone because I felt that with all the driving I was doing back and forth to my hometown it'd be a safety net in case anything happened on the road. Ironically, the only time anything remotely close to an accident occured was a spin-out where I only got a scratch in my fender... and I had to drive an additional 40 minutes before my phone was able to get a decent signal.

Well I'm one of those who don't believe in instant messeging. I didn't even have MSN messenger installed until a few months ago (I was convinced it would be yet another burden on an already slow PC). But I came around - and my brother configured himself so that I could send him messages on his phone thru MSN, etc... Got me thinking, I've had a text-capable phone for 5 years and never had the initiative to take advantage of it. And now that I am, I'm carrying an out-of-style piece of crap.

The dumb truth about this whole mess?
...I'll be upgrading to an equally gaudy plasticy-looking piece of crap.

Minor update in the rain

I picked a horrible week to take off from work.... but it all worked out, I suppose.

There was a BBQ scheduled for Tuesday but it rained like you wouldn't believe (well, I suppose running42k would believe since he's not that far from me). That was the very day I decided to get out of Dodge and the drive over to Sherbrooke was insane. You know how when you drive in the rain, the windshield is wet but only splashes of rain appear on your side windows? Not on Tuesday: it was like being in a carwash - a constant sheet of rain water obscurred my side view... on both sides. Man that was fun passing people... ~_~;

My folks are asking me work the family restaurant today... just as well I got my "fun" in yesterday. Went to the local hobby shop and picked up a new Dragon model for my collection. Also worked on the previous one... fairly close to finishing it but I keep thinking I'm ruining my work by adding more and more paint detail. Hmm...
I should probably snap a pic of it when I'm done and post that.

Actually, I have a backlog of stuff I should be posting... and if history repeats itself, then this stuff will never make it. ^_^

Looking forward to the weekend - gonna hit Montreal for some sushi with friends. In the meantime, another dull day in the sleepy town of Sherbrooke...

cabinet pics [updated]

Been a while (FusionAce dealing with personal problems - won't post them here). But I'm feeling a little better now...
My brother came by to see me on Wednesday night so it was my chance to bamboozle him into helping me pick up another DETOLF from Ikea. Not only are they priced half what they were last year, but they were on sale this month!! Sweetness.

Here they are side-by-side in my living room:

And here are some closer looks...

On other random notes: an old friend came to visit Ottawa yesterday. Went to see the Renaissance exhibit at the Nation Gallery in the afternoon (the A/C alone was worth the price of admission but the paintings were amazing too). Then we took in Kingdom of Heaven which was a whole lot better than I had imagined it would be. Too bad Orlando Bloom is still suffering from Legolas-speak.... thank you, Captain Obvious! My friends left early this morning - I don't blame them to be eager to get on with what was planned to be a camping trip.
They're headed west towards the Niagra area and want to set up camp before it gets too late. But I tipped them that the Chinese community are notoriously late sleepers. They share similar hobby interests as myself so I suggested that if they weren't really for the camp ground all evening, they could drive right into Toronto and head up to Markham to see the famed "Pacific Mall" - even on a Sunday evening. ^_^;

Simpler pleasures for the weekend

It's funny to realize this, but I'm actually not bored.
A while back I blogged about walking into town only to end up spending money on frivolous things to entertain myself. This was one of those weekends where I didn't spend a dime (except for a quick grocery run last night, of course). A little motivation goes a long way.

Having the Kamen Rider figures in my hands reminded me that I actually had a boxed set of the Ryuki TV series on DVD that I never watched. The original show was a 50-episodes series with a running plot (you couldn't really miss an episode) so DVD bootleg seemed the way to go (authentic discs would've cost me an arm and a leg, not to mention a lack of sub-titles and that they'd be region-locked for Japanese DVD players. Anyway...

Naturally, for bootlegs, you get what you pay for... and there were some questionable authoring technique employed. In fact, disc 4 of 6 refused to play the second half of the disc. I ended up ripping it and copying it to another DVD-R to watch the rest. And Disc 5... I'm not really sure what happened. At the time I watched part of it and somewhere along the way I think it had a skipping problem so I had a minor hissy fit and ejected it.

That was months ago.
Anyhow, Yesterday afternoon, I decided to watch Disc5 in its entirety. Still froze at one spot, but I hit the fast-forward on the remote for a moment and then it continued playing. And over the last 2 days, I took in the last 20 episodes of the series. *whew*

The final verdict? Put aside the cheapy CG work, and it's actually pretty good for a "children's show" (ok, right, "children's" programming is slightly different in Japan than it is around North America). I was pleasantly surprised at the end - the last few episodes wrapped up a lot better than I'd been previously told (popular opinion is that it's too open-ended; I didn't think so).

I also got around to sitting out on my balcony for the afternoon to read a bunch of stuff I had set aside. Finally got all caught up with my Sin City collections. Just missing "To Hell and Back" - seems like a pretty heavy volume, that one. Must've been longer than I thought out there... I got a little sunburned on my chest.

Yeah - yours truly shirtless on a hot summer day. BYOB: Bring your own barfbags. ^_^;
I've always been fairly self-consious so I never wear anything less than a T-shirt out - not even a tanktop. So natch: I have a "farmer's tan" ...I try my best to keep it under control... a bit of burn can't be helped.

Now ...gotta figure out what's for dinner... Maybe just a pack of instant noodle for tonight.

Pics: 2 SIC and an SIF

Goodies report!!

Well, I'm in a much better mood after giving UDG a call this morning so here's the latest package in the mail. (For details, talk to FusionAce).

Anyway, so I finally got into the whole "SIC" line-up. I'm both pleased and disappointed at the same time. A little while back I was in a specialty collector's shop and on a whim bought what appears to be an imported robot made of a soft PVC material (kinda rubbery) but with a glossy metallic finish so it actually looked good if not entirely solid. At that point I was turned off from ever buying another PVC figure again.
The PVC figures turned out to be ultimately unplayable or posable due to their construction: bits and pieces kept falling off and their feet, also made of the same soft substance, wouldn't hold up the top-heavy designs.

SIC has one major saving grace: they look damn cool. Paint jobs are awesome and the designs? Slickness - absolutely slickness. I can't get over how badass these guys look...

On the left is Kamen Rider Ryuki (a title character from a 2002 Japanese sci-fi show) and on the right is Kamen Rider Faiz (another title character from a 2003 incarnation).

What about the bits falling off? Well, sadly, that still happens. I had a hell of a time with Ryuki keeping that armoured plate on his crotch in place for this photo. Faiz was a little more cooperative (he doesn't have anything that "snaps" into place - all his pieces plug in with pegs-to-holes). On the bright side, both guys are quite hefty and are way more solid than that rubbery 'bot I picked up years ago... Well worth the cost of hunting these babies down.

And here's another figure that arrived today:

This is Maria Freed (or Fenicia if you're French Canadian). She was one of the supporting characters from the classic 70's anime UFO Robot Grendizer (or Goldorak, to my Francophone buddies at work). The SIF-EX series is a line of collectable fixed-pose figures - like mini-statues. Made of a very different kind of PVC, these are solid as a rock. Paintwork is amazing. Sculpt is... well, although I'm very happy to meet my sexy new roomie, she has a bit of trouble holding onto her flight-helmet. Yamato was thoughtful enough to build a hidden bit of plastic into the interior of the helmet sculpted to match her empty right hand but for whatever reason, the two pieces, do not balance the helmet at all. A little putty solved the problem for this particular photo... I'm not too sure how to display her permanently tho as I'm not entirely certain what effect putty could have on PVC or acrylic paints...

Disposable income rapidly diminishing

One thing's for sure - what with the training seminars downtown I've been eating a lot more. Multiple reasons, I suppose. I've been hungrier for one. The 30-minute walk to the school does a number on my calorie-burning. And the walk back in the afternoon doesn't help matters (I felt almost sick today - like I hadn't eaten enough during the day). Naturally I spoiled my appetite for supper because I was so desperate for food I bought a bunch of junk food at the corner store before I arrived home.

My financial outlook, while fairly stable, is dangerously out of control ever since I discovered how high my credit-car limits had risen over the last few years.

Just yesterday I threw down nearly $200 on non-essentials. Goodies, to be sure, but not stuff I necessarily needed. Just stuff I thought was a long time coming and convinced myself by way of a quick "hey, it's not like I can't afford it."

So I picked up the latest volume of Ghost in the Shell - this one came in one of those big boxes again with a limited edition T-shirt (I love these - they're actually quite nice for a freebie). And I also stopped by SportsExperts to grab a new pair of pants and a golf shirt - all new stuff. I know, I could've done with some sale items but pants selection for me is an adventure in itself... those who've met me in person know that I'm a fairly stocky guy - not too wide, but just wide enough and short enough that I have trouble finding pants my size. Let's just say I don't fit in anything by Nike (which, I'm convinced are always designed for baskball players). Ironically, the shirt I got turned out to be by Nike and fits me perfectly... go figure.

Off on an eBay tangent - no I haven't won. Many a seller should thank me for jacking up their final sale prices. I'm always outbid on that UMD by a single bid (and no higher). Mostly because I think people have figured out that they oughtta be buying this sort of thing in stores anyway and getting a decent price there.
What's driving me nuts is that I started this hunt weeks ago because no retailers had the one movie I wanted. But this week I discovered several EB outlets that had it... for the insane price of $30CAD... But consider this - the average eBay final bid (that usually beats me) is around $15.50USD. Tack on shipping (let's say $5 is fair), and then finally convert to Canadian money. That's almost $30 already... and that's if I'm lucky and the Customs inspector doesn't hit me with import duty... at which point, not only did I pay the same amount I would've at a store, but I probably would've waited an extra couple of weeks for it to come through the mail.

I'm seriously thinking I might just spend the extra couple of bucks and support my local retailer... ~_~