Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Robonimal Black Ham Gear

Spending most of his time swearing terrible vengeance on Pan-taro, the evil science hamster Dr. Jangary has been building his own super mecha to oppose his nemesis. Behold: Black Ham-Gear!!Black Ham-Gear is Dr. Jangary's answer to the unstoppable Panda-Z... despite wearing what appears to be a giant make-shift bandage on its chest. Black Ham-Gear features articulation at the shoulders, wrists, and legs. It has a surprisingly detailed paintjob considering the material.

Like Panda-Z, Black Ham-Gear also has a tail, the function for which, I remain uncertain. The copyright, clearly, is used to cover his ass.Dr. Jangary gets to sit in a snappy cockpit with lots of readouts to tell him the operational status of his mecha and somehow controls the humanoid form with a pair of joysticks. Thankfully, Dr. Jangary himself also comes with articulation at his shoulders to access those joysticks... which, puts him a notch above his enemy who had no articulation at all.Overall, I'm very happy with this and only wish Robonimal had taken off to bigger success and spawn more of these vinyl toys. So far I am only aware of 2 more in this scale - both are Rescue Ham-Gear mecha buddies for Panda-Z (one is a repaint of the other). And they seem even more rare than the ones I do have. That's a shame because the Ham-Gears also came with cool interchangeable drill and shovel for hands. :(

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Reaction: Harold&Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Laughed... but I wanted to laugh more.

On it's own it's pretty funny stuff. But here's the thing, if you liked the first one, it's more of the same... only you got the distinct feeling the script could have capitalized on a lot of opportunities for witty gags but instead just spent more time trying to crank up the shock value. One of my cohorts hit the nail on the head when he said, all they did was make the same kind of joke over again but even more preachy than before.

You kind of got the feeling they just wanted to see how far they could push the racism limit. And that's sort of okay because really this movie is all about anti-racism (because it surely makes the racists look REAL STUPID (which they are in real life).

Basically the movie opens moments after the boys decide they're headed to Amsterdam to chase after Harold's new girl (I'm not spoiling anything, am I? You had to expect him to win the girl in the end of the first one). And right away the shock-jokes start. It's just ridiculous (in a bad way).

The first movie was a simply road-trip buddy movie with a lot of weird (an unlikely) stuff happening to them all night. But in this movie, there was just one too many Deus Ex Machina elements... characters would inexplicably show up then disappear once their purpose was served with no pay-off later on. In fact, that's exactly what I meant earlier - they just didn't cash in all the chips when they could have.

But in the end, I have to admit that I laughed when they did hit their marks. I gave this a 7 out 10 (keeping in mind that I would have given the first film an 8 or 9).

Monday, April 28, 2008

GTA4 web commentary

There's a bazillion ways I could say the same damn thing as everybody else who is Not mainstream media. Hell, was it a slow news day or what to have Grand Theft Auto IV get coverage on all the major networks tonight? There was this one guy who even referenced that other big controversy "Bully" (which if you know anything about games has long-since been revealed to feature a school boy who prevents smaller kids FROM BULLIES, you f*cking morons!)

But instead of saying those same bazillion f*cking things to express how this whole crap-fest called mass-media is making my blood boil, I turn you to someone much more eloquent than myself: Wil Wheaton's take on the matter.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Revoltech round-up

Kind of a backlog but here's my collection of Patlabor Revoltech. The sci-fi comedy-drama of the Mobile Police have been sorely lacking in publicity over the last 10 years since the movies (and W-XIII had very little to do with anything at all). So I was thrilled to find out that the mecha from that franchise would be included in the Revoltech toy line.

Please feel free to ignore the jumbo vinyl Ultraman Tiga back there... and the 1/2-scale Kamen Rider helmet. That turned out to be a pretty big table and it looked funny with just the Revoltech figures lined up there.

This is the guy I picked up today. Details are available at CollectionDX as they got their hands on it when it was first released a couple of months ago. I choose to support the local shops by waiting for them. I tend to agree with CDX - it's a little disappointing that the "Aqua Unit" version really just the same damn figure as the "Flight Unit" version. Why couldn't they just include underwater pack as an accessory in a different mecha?

In the deeper backlog, here are the earlier "Fraulein Revoltech." That's Ayanami Rei from the classic Neon Genesis Evangelion with Tohsaka Rin from Fate/Stay Night.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

What is "win?"

I just got a weird message in my Inbox from eBay. It said I "won" an auction.

Normally I already find the lexicon of auctions amusing. When you win an auction, you don't really "win" anything because you still have to pay for your goods. In fact, all you really "won" was the opportunity to buy something... and you won it by offering more than the next guy. In a world where most people would prefer to pay LESS for something, that, in reality, sort of makes you a loser more than a winner.

Anyway, what made this particular email extra special (or extra stupid) is that the auction it was referring to was a "Buy It Now" listing. That is, nobody else had a chance to buy it for more or less than the asking price. If this is a win, then that means I also "won" the hamburger to purchased at Harvey's tonight. Or I "won" the bag of milk I picked up at the corner store. And on the weekend, when I pay out the nose for a freaking tank of gas, I will "win" that too.

On second thought, looking at a gas purchase as a "win" kind of takes the sting out of the ridiculous price gouging going on. Maybe that's better all around.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Qee Good VS Qee Evil

Submitted for your approval: I picked up a pair of Baby Qee recently. I'm going for a theme here... an angel Qee bear and a devil Qee bear. Both are DIY and I'm not sure what I can do with them. You'd think angel and devil templates would be a no-brainer for ideas.
For those who don't know from what, Qee are a line of designer-toy vinyl figures from Hong Kong. The standard version is a "bear" shape with a lop-sided set of ears. Think avant-garde art crossed with Japanese "super-deformed" sensibilities.

Barring a small handfull of zipper-pulls and keychains, these two are my first "designer-vinyl" proper peices. Sofubi do not count. My ultimate goal however is a marry designer-vinyl with my other 2 loves... the Montreal Canadiens... and Warhammer 40'000. Going to need bigger template for this project. Hmm.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Commenting: GIJoe publicity

So you've probably seen them by now, right? Promo stills are beginning to circulate for the 2009 release of that other Hasbro vehicle, G.I.Joe. I won't lie to you: I loved it when I was little. And I was also pleased to find that the cartoon stood up to the test of time. Sure there are a few corny episodes but on the whole the stories they told are pretty good even by today's standards. I don't know that anybody cares but every time a little bit of news crops up fanboys suddenly get up in arms and scream bloody murder.

But rather than go into a flame war, I figure this'll be easier if I just make my analysis here.

So anyway, here are the two links I'm about talk about... first up is the promo material for Commando, Code Name: Snake Eyes...
http://www.superherohype.com/news/gijoenews.php?id=6958
In case you don't recognize him, that's Ray Park under there. Darth Maul. I'll be super-blunt here: I'm glad he's in a role that's pure action and zero-dialogue. First and foremost, the guy is a stunt-man. I think he got a bit of a big head when he stepped into the Darth Maul role (because they gave him a couple of lines, next thing you know, he's an actor and playing opposite the likes of Ian McKellan?!) On the other hand, since this is Snake Eyes we're talking about, the mystery man who doesn't talk but kicks all kinds of serious ass... well... Ray Park is certain to bring the required physicality to the role.

As for the photos... I'm so freaking tired of people who say he looks like a Power Ranger. What the hell is wrong with people? I think the suit looks like it stepped right out of the comics. They got everything right from the weird horizontal visor over his eyes, the utility belts with knives. Hell, even the serrated edge at the hilt of his sword is there just like the accessory from the action figure!
On the flip side, what leaves me scratching my head is why movie designers like to do sculpted muscle suits so much. If they want to do the armoured look, then do armour. But don't do this rubbery faux-muscle thing, it does kind of seem weird when you're aiming for a serious special-ops military action film. I'm also not terribly thrilled with his ninja clan symbol on his arm in BRIGHT RED... It's the second most silly thing I've seen in movies (the first silliest was the BRIGHT RED heart on Cpl. Hicks' chest in Aliens. Not the stealthiest choice in the world, you know.

The second is Counter-Intelligence Agent, Code Name: Scarlett
http://www.joblo.com/excl-gi-joes-scarlett
I've seen a lot of comments about the "oh no, she's all in black... just like X-Men and Batman." Well, sorry to say, but look at it this way, for a group of elite operatives, the original Joe designs were that military-looking either. If anything, I think the new Scarlett uniform is pretty awesome. These are soldiers heading into battle, they'll need all the protection they can get so the armour makes sense and low-profile colours make a lot of sense. In fact, let's take a closer look:
The material appears to be a kevlar weave of some kind, probably not real, but it would suggest it's tear-resistant. And did anybody else besides me notice that her back and front torso armour is held in place with straps at the shoulders and waist? Yup, if you look carefully at the tan+grey ensemble on the original cartoon designs, there it is. And she's armed with the hi-tech cross-bow gun, also from the cartoon and action figure. If anything I'm even more pleased with this costume than I am with Snake Eyes.

But the simple fact is, this will all come down to execution. We won't know if the movie will suck until we're right there at the theatre (or in our living rooms with the DVD). I wish people would just relax.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Ume-boshi Chazuke

There it is. I didn't have anything to go with anything in the fridge so I broke open the package of umeboshi I had lying around. Danny Choo would have you know that this is a super-common super-convenience food in Japan. If you've got rice (and any self-respecting Asian has some on hand) then one of these packets turns a plain bowl of rice into a meal.
Interestingly, I noted that this particular 3-pack appears to be intended for the international market. Not only did it have the usual Canadian nutrition sticker added, but the package itself has a fair amount of English text. On the back of the wrapper there's even a cute blurb explaning kabuki make-up design Nagatanien uses as its trademark.
This is what the content looks like. The ingredients on the wrapper (also helpfully in English) lists about what you'd expect: salt, rice cracker, MSG, (real!?) pickled plum, green tea powder perilla leaf, kelp powder, a bunch of chemicals I cannot identify...
The packet specifies 5oz of boiling water should be added when you drop this on top of rice. But since I didn't have a measuring cup handy, I just sort of eye-balled enough water to make it soupy. I'm a little bit disappointed that it's not quite as colourful as the photo on the wrapper. I mean, it's supposed to be green like green tea... but it looked rather bland to me. The taste was nothing surprising. Considering the amount of salt in this, it pretty much tasted exactly as I imagined any kind of instant meal tastes like. I've got 2 more packets...

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Reaction: Soulstorm (knee-jerk)

Good lord, I heard there were bugs but I had no idea how bad it would be. I'm not a picky gamer - I mean, I'm no hardcore gamer who will nit-pick the tiniest detail. But for Soulstorm, even I saw these problems right away.

After big time successful expansions like Winter Assault and Dark Crusade, you figure you can't really go wrong when you release a new one. It's like sports games - once you have a winning formula, all you really do is tweak the stats a little, throw in a few new features, and you're milking the franchise on the gaming public every year, right?

No! I didn't have time to sit down and go through the main game tonight so I just quickly checked out the skirmish mode. In order to get a good feel for the changes, I decided to play a race I was already familiar with: Imperial Guard. I'm so familiar with them, I even noticed the little tweaks like the Chimera tank now carries only 2 squads instead of 3. But what about those bugs?

For one thing, in my first skirmish, one of my squads got stuck while rounding a corner! Part of the squad went on ahead to their destination, but the rest were sort of in gaming limbo. Somehow the game AI had moved their bodies into an area of the map that was invalid so there they were, trapped for the remainder of the game. And this didn't just happen once - but several times! During the same freaking match!

In fact, collision detection not only sucks, but holy smokes, it's non-existent! I had previously briefly skimmed the complaints all over Relic's Dawn of War forum. Seems everybody by now has noticed the line-of-sight looks weird. Weapons fire not only goes through terrian, but right through units themselves (if a turret is on top of a vehicle, and the target is below, the weapon flare will disappear into the vehicle hull and then emerge underneath). Wow! So hi-tech!

*sigh* On the bright side, Relic is hard at work building the first major patch and hope it'll be available soon (it's been in testing almost a full 2 weeks now, according to their latest updated message). I, for one, can't wait.

weekend haul (again?)

DC Direct finally released their second series of Justice League of America figures a few weeks ago. I swear, I think there's some kind of racketeering going on between the different comic shops around town. One store has only a stack of Batman figures on the pegs, while another has only a bunch of Hawkgirl pieces. The one I went to today had neither of those but a selection of the bad-guys who are part of the line-up.Amazo is one of those legacy villains who keep popping up whenever DC editors want to make fans realize the JLA are not invincible. Who can blame them, it's an android who basically fights back with all the JLA's powers... sort of like the DC version of Marvel's The Super Skrull. Heck they both even have that pointy hood pattern on their foreheads. But despite the threat, Amazo also happens to have a goofy name and an even goofier costume (where else to get a topless android in green tights but the Silver Age?). And that is why I call him a "legacy" villain.Admirably enough, Ed Benes' take on Amazo brought a new level of creepiness. And the figure comes with a neat destroyed-torso option (the chest plate comes off). The promo material for the figure also showed the head plate is supposed to come off but for the life of me, I can't seem to take mine off. And I'm afraid of breaking it.

Anyway, besides this dude, I also grabbed the first collected edition of Nova, which was a lead-off from the Annihilation event and also tied into the Conquest follow-up. Nova, as a character, is conspicuously absent from the Conquest proper mini-series which features Quaser and Starlord, both of whom were bit-players in the initial Annihilation story.

Finally, I also finally picked up Dawn of War: Soulstorm. I've been putting it off since I've heard there were several show-stopper bugs in the game and Relic has been buzzing about releasing a major patch on their forums. Also, it retails $40 for a mere expansion to a 4-year-old game. That's ridiculous. However, tonight Futureshop was having their Customer Appreciation event so knocking 10% of retail made the buy a little easier to swallow. I'll do a follow-up blog post when I get into it.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Reaction: The Band's Visit

I saw another one of those little known gems again last night. The Band's Visit is, in short, a slice-of-life film about the experience of a small group of ordinary people lost in a strange land. An Egyptian ceremonial police band has been invited to Israel to perform at a newly opened Arab Cultural Centre. However, due to a logistical error, the arrives at the airport without anyone to pick them up. So off they go looking for help.

With what little English they know, the Arabic group stumble their way along until they wind up in a small rural town which unsurprisingly has very little in the way of hotels or public transportation. The band finds that their only recourse now is to find a place to stay the night.

Through their encounters, we slowly learn about several of the members. One, who at first appears to be an arrogant but smooth-talking womanizer turns out to be a pleasant fellow willing to help an awkward local teen score with a girl. A tired and regretful second-in-command finds inspiration to complete his concerto in a most unlikely place. And grouchy lonely old band leader confronts his own past with the help of a kind local woman willing to listen.

And as the film winds down (the morning after), just as suddenly as they arrived the previous afternoon, the band disappears and makes their way to their performance. I suppose that made for a debate among my fellow movie-goers. I enjoy these vignette-style tales about ordinary people. Nothing has to conclude in order to tell a story. Life, more often than not, is about the moments in between events.

This is not a Hollywood movie in any capacity. It's not something I can seriously recommend to anybody who's not willing to look beyond the surface of a movie. I sound pretentious but I know some people who won't even watch an animated feature because "it's a cartoon" and by definition, they cannot take it seriously. What I mean is that this film looks at the way people see each other. In fact, it speaks volumes about small-town people, which is far more universal that Hebrews versus Arabs. This movie could have very easily have been about a group of English performers stuck in rural Quebec, and it the stories of them would have unraveled in a very similar fashion.

For such an exploration of human natures, I give this film a thumbs up. However, for everything else. Well, a movie is a movie and therefore must at the end of all things, be entertaining. And while it did have several amusing moments, was not particularly consistent with its pace. It's most definitely a mood-film.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

The PSU story (still)

Well, the story, hopefully has a happy ending (even if it took forever to conclude). My folks visited me this weekend. If you hadn't figured that out from my previous posts, then at least you have noticed some unusual activity in my Twitters. They brought along the failed Corsair.

Previously I had gone back to the shop and asked about changed out the PSU. The guy said he'd waive the 30-day limit for me and told me that since I'd been reporting ongoing troubles ever since the original purchase that he'd deal with Corsair himself and that I'd get a store credit to pick another PSU.

I chose an Enermax. I know, they're not fancy by any means, but they're reliable and I trust them (I've had one for nearly a decade now). So now I've got the new unit inside my machine.

It seems to be working okay. I'll give it a couple of weeks because well, you simply never know. Heck, it was at least 6 days after my install of the Corsair in my parents machine before it up and died on them. I mean, what the hell? Still haven't applied the case sticker yet (nor for that matter have I removed the Corsair sticker). I think I'll keep it as a reminder that from time to time, even the most reputable guys can make a lemon.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Intron Depot gashapon

A few years back Toycom was trying to break into distributing anime merch Stateside (this was before Yamato opened up shop as YamatoUSA) and they tried something new: they sold gashapon figures... not blind boxed! Utter insanity ensued. That is, I got suckered in.

While tidying up the guest room (aka: room where I throw stuff when I'm too lazy) I found my collection of "Story Image Figures" inspired by Masamune Shirow's "Intron Depot" artbooks. Being the sucker that I was at the time, I made an effort to "collect them all" including the variants and I even kept them in their blister packs. What? As if I'd ever get around to selling these or that they would be worth more in their stupid American blister versions.

I leave their fate to you, dear readers! Should I keep them in their semi-mint yet utterly worthless blisters? Or should I grant freedom and open up all of them to display all over the house and my office like the geek that I am?

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Voltron Omnibus: what not to do

Let this book serve as a warning to other publishers. Devil's Due Publishing hit a homerun with its G.I.Joe license in the midst of the 80's nostalgia boom. However, DDP failed miserably to capitalize on a Voltron license, a franchise which arguably enjoyed a fanatical following in its day. This comic is what not to do to a license.

One major thing that threw me off during the initial run was that the covers were a strange mix of art-work, some of them pin-up-like pieces and other story-oriented. As a newcomer, I wasn't sure if this was an anthology or a new ongoing series. This confusion is fatal because a cover's purpose is to entice a potential reader to pick up the book off the shelf.

Then, DDP committed the second sin of comics publishing: inconsistent collections. The first collected edition reprinted the initial run in a small cute "pocket-sized" format. This I didn't mind - in fact, I thought it was great that I only paid a few dollars for the book. What I didn't know at the time was how much of a loss this property was going to be for DDP. However, when a second volume followed, it was, to my dismay, collected only in black and white!

Not that any of this mattered, because Voltron simply wasn't making anyone any money. The series would later wind up on the chopping block. The fans who were following cried foul when news leaked that not only was the title canceled, but there was actually one more issue that was already produced and simply not published in time before the cancellation occurred, thus leaving a glaringly unfinished plot.

DDP later appeased the loyal fandom by announcing the end-all and be-all of collections: The Voltron Omnibus. If you were desperate for Voltron material, you could at least get it here... even with the strange DDP interpretation.

This leads me to DDP's biggest comics sin of all: unexpected reinterpretation. With the likes of "prequel-mania" thanks to Star Wars and "reimaginings" by Battlestar Galactica, DDP went ahead and decided to do a bit of both. Hardcore types will recall that Voltron shares a historical niche with Robotech: it was a product of necessity, which took on a life of its own. Voltron was a reedited and re-scripted version of Japanese anime series. DDP's writers decided to mix and match elements from the cartoons and combined them with some lifted from the original anime shows. The result was a bit of a Frankenstein.

Certain characters received all-new personalities to suit the plots. Fan-favourite Sven became a jerk. The evil Drule Empire gets shuffled (Zarkon is not a renegade but a respected member of the "Supremacy"). Galaxy Garrison runs top secret shadow ops (and the Vehicle Voltron crew come across a bunch of naive incompetents). And Voltron itself is a sentient entity (but only sort of). One could live with such changes, but the moment I could no longer envision Keith's heroic "Let's form Voltron" war-cry in my mind's eye, I felt DDP had stepped a little too far across the line.

And finally, totally droving me up the wall was the horrible proofing that went into this book. DDP had the balls to promise us the ultimate collection of their material, giving it a suitably impressive title like "Omnibus." I love having hardcover treatments because I feel like it's something special. But this is for naught if the book isn't even printed correctly! Misprints occur, not once, not twice, not even three times, but I've found at least 4 errors in my copy.

Keith's family name is revealed to be Konage, but changes to Kogane everywhere else. Pages are printed out of order: Zarkon manhandles his son. But after a oddly placed image of Voltron leaving an alien planet (obviously part of the previous portion of the script), we come back to Zarkon and Lotor. This second time with Zarkon entering the Lotor's home for the first time. In one of the final pages, the art has been blown up resulting in a cut-off word-balloon at the bottom. And silliest of all, the introduction to the back-up story is full of typeset errors (question marks in place of apostrophes). I'm no professional editor, but giving a proof copy to just about anyone should have prevented these errors before they went to print!

There's also no accounting for taste. The script in an early volume-2 issue seemed to jump around in Tarantino fashion. At first I thought this was a misprint but the captions (and lack thereof) would indicate otherwise. While breaking into a Galaxy Garrison lab to recover the Lion ships, our heroes encounter the Vehicle Teams crew. Then without explanation, the action jumps to their escape. However, several pages later, the action pulls back (without any captions) and then recounts the daring fist-fight that ensued between the two crews before the escape. Without any captions, the action then leaps back to the chase scene from before.

Finally, what of the new material? The missing unpublished issue sees the light of day in this tome. Unfortunately I could start to appreciate why sales were on a decline. Throughout the final issues of the series as it began to wind down, the art chores were passed on between artists. Overall, the inconsistency was a liability. There is a distinct incongruity. In earlier issues, DDP went with the "Pat Lee" look: mechanical elements were rendered in hyper-detail. It helped offset the cartoon-look people. But as the issues progressed, that style gave way to much more roughly inked images with thick lines and is no comparison to the earlier artwork. The remaining plot to speak of seemed to me that the whole affair was an afterthought. Sometimes material left on the cutting room floor probably should have stayed there.

While I'm glad the whole thing finally got the final publication it deserved (and yes, it's by no means the worst book I've read), it's just very unfortunate that DDP didn't have Voltron blaze a new glory trail as it did in its hey-day.