More Gundams

Two Gundam models and one GFF this time.

The two models: GP02A MLRS and HG Civilian Astray DSSD don't look so impressive to me. GP02A MLRS features new rocket launchers, a new bazooka (same one from its GFF release, designed by Katoki) and a new backpack to mount the launchers. HG Civilian Astray DSSD is perhaps the ugliest Gundam ever, just look at the legs! Apart from the helmet design, what's so good about this target-practice MS from Stargazer which inspires Bandai to give it a model release anyway?





The GFF Metal Composite Gundam Ver. Karelease however, is going to stir up quite a bit of commotion, I reckon.

This time the scale is MG-standard, with the first release being the super-famous Gundam Ver. Ka that comes with a whole array of armaments, as well as its supporting vehicle, G Armor. Bandai has announced that certain parts of the body will be made of metal, hence the name, and there will be plenty of details, just like a MG model! Am I the only Gundam fan salivating now? The one thing that is not so cool about this product is the price: 12,390 Yen from Amiami. That's equivalent to a PG model man!

Images of HGUC GP02A MLRS and HG Civilian Astray DSSD are from The Gundam Base Side 1, GFF Metal Composite Gundam Ver. Ka from Amiami.

Manufacturing a Pop Star

Indeed, like the title suggests, this posting is about how we can manufacture a pop star, physically.


Not sure how the real Yanzi should feel after this

My friend forwarded me an email about a Taiwanese girl who went through some serious cosmetic surgery to transform herself from an ordinary girl you see everyday on the street to become Sun Yanzi, physically. I was just breathless after seeing all the images, not only at how successful the whole process was, but also at the length of the girl's willingness to get a pop-star's face. I'm fan of Sun Yanzi, I don't know whether I like the girl now (for having a face like my idol), or the original her if I knew her.

For you who are reading this, would you be willing to pay that much of price, either monetarily, physically and psychologically to get the final effect that will stay permanently? Maybe you like Sun Yanzi very very much, but to be her is another thing. Some problems may occurs, like what to say to your parents, being swarmed by the public for a while until they realize that you are fake, and when Sun Yanzi is no longer the superstar, do you go for another artist's face, say Jolin?

I would be worry that if I go to Taiwan next time, I might get a fake Yanzi autograph -_-++

For sure, the only good thing is, from this posting, I really learnt quite a lot of vocabularies on cosmetic surgery.


From an ordinary girl, after going through...


...Blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), and...


...Rhinoplasty, to upgrade the nose, and...


...Mastopexy (breast lift), and...


...get rid of extra fat in her leg via Liposuction, and...


...botox injection in the cheek as well as...


...area near the eyes to get rid of any winkle, is that all?


...One last process to go: laser resurfacing of the face and...


...she will become Yanzi Number 2!!


Unbelievable

Familiar Faces in Movies (Part II)

Michael Wincott


(Right) Alien: Resurrection (1997) ... Frank Elgyn
(Left) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) ... Guy of Gisborne

I watched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves years ago and liked it very, very much. In that movie, Michael Wincott played Guy of Gisborne, the right-hand man of the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham. Not really noticeable, since his character served as the bad guy who always gets his ass kicked by Robin Hood before he was finally killed by Sheriff of Nottingham, who blamed Guy after his caravans were robbed by Robin Hood.

In Alien: Resurrection, Michael Wincott is Franck Elgyn, the captain of a cargo ship delivering a stock of live humans to be infested by the Xenomorphs. Unfortunately, he is the first of his crew to be killed by an alien warrior, while he is picking up some weapons left behind by dead soldiers. Very, very anticlimactic one can say.

The special thing about Michael Wincott is his voice; it's so low you might mistake it as coming from a machine if you don't see his lips move!

Djimon Hounsou


(Bottom Right) Blood Diamond (2006) ... Solomon Vandy
Constantine (2005) ... Midnite
(Bottom Left) Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) ... Kosa
(Top Right) Gladiator (2000) ... Juba
(Top Left) Deep Rising (1998) ... Vivo

Congratulations to Djimon Hounsou for being nominated for the 79th Annual Academy Awards in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Blood Diamond. I haven't watch that movie but I do recognize him from a still image from that movie.

Djimon Hounsou definitely came a long way to his achievements today. Almost never taken the lead in a cast, his acting in a supporting role is always interesting. In the 1998 sci-fi Deep Rising, he played Vivo, a vicious member of a pirate band trying to hijack a titanic-like cruiser. Couldn't really remember him back then since I was only interested in the story, not the cast.

Juba in Gladiator however, is one character hard to forget. Some of his scenes with Russell Crowe were quite good, like the one where Maximus (Russell Crowe) was trying to get rid of his platoon marking of his arm, Juba was asking "Won't your god be angry if you do that?". That question kind-of springs up some important issues about choices in life versus oaths to one's country in my personal thoughts. And not forgetting the final scene, where he buried the figures of Maximus's wife and son in the Coliseum where He died, and he said, "I will see you one day, but not now," and he walked away as a free man. That's was really good.

In Tomb Raider II, he played Kosa, the guide of Lara Croft in her quest for the Cradle of Life. Pretty good, I guess. I wasn't really paying attention to him in that movie. How could I, with Angelina Jolie flying and jumping around? :-)

By the way, Djimon Hounsou is Midnite in Constantine, a mysterious bar owner who has a used electric chair that can sent people to Hell and come back. Pretty cool huh~

Gary Busey


(Bottom Left) Soldier (1998) ... Church
(Bottom Right) Under Siege (1992) ... Cmdr. Krill
(Top) Predator 2 (1990) ... Peter Keyes

Gary Busey should be considered a household name for villains. That guy must have the natural gift of being the bad guy. In Predator 2, he is Peter Keyes, the ambitious scientist trying to capture the Predator. Human beings are no match for the hunter of hunters, and Keyes taught the audience that by having his body split in half by the Predator's Flying Disc. In Steven Seagal's Seagal-the-only-hero-who-can-save-everyone's-butt-movie Under Siege, Gary Busey is Commander Krill, the second in command on the battle cruiser USS Missouri who helped to hijack the ship. Unbelievably, the submarine he boarded for delivery inspection was blasted to bits by USS Missouri's main gun, courtesy of Steven Seagal of course.

In Soldier, one of the few really meaningless sci-fi commando movies I watched, he is Church, one of the military officers who train fearless, heartless and ruthless mercenary soldiers for combat. He was killed in the end by another officer in an argument. Death for the villain as usual~

No wonder his appeared in so many different movies: his character rarely survives in one movie, so he has no reason to expect a cast in the sequel right?

Raymond Cruz


(Bootom Left) Alien: Resurrection (1997) ... Vincent Distephano
(Right) The X Files - El Mundo Gira (1997 TV Episode) ... Eladio Buente
(Top Left) Under Siege (1992) ... Ramirez

Raymond Cruz in my mind is perhaps one of the favorite choices for a director to pick as the supporting actor number five or six for a movie. He isn't as impressive as Djimon Hounson or Tony Curran, where their characters would often leave some impression in the viewers' memory. His presence does, however, make the cast of the movie feel more "international". The guy got some Mexican feel, plus he is quite short among other huge actors, so the audience got to see some diversity among the cast. However, it's very easy to forget him entirely after the movie.

What surprises me is that for the three movies and TV shows I watched, his appearance never changed one bit. Either it's because his profile is universally suitable for all roles offered to him, or perhaps the movie team wishes to save money on his make-ups, you will definitely know it's Raymond Cruz, doesn't matter if it's Ramires the cook on USS Missouri alongside Steven Seagal, or Distephano the marine who got his head cracked by an alien-human hybrid in Alien: Resurrection, the guy is just spot on!

Jason Isaacs


(Right)The Patriot (2000) ... Col. William Tavington
(Bottom Left) Armageddon (1998) ... Dr. Ronald Quincy, Research
(Top Left) Event Horizon (1997) ... D.J.

Mel Gibson's The Patriot is one of my all time favorite movies. Great acting, great storyline and some surreal battle scenes. The ultimate villain in the movie, Colonel William Tavington was played by Jason Isaacs. His character killed two of Benjamin (Mel Gibson)'s sons, including Gabriel, who was played by Heath Ledger. Jason Isaacs's superb acting, as well as his English essence made him top of the hate list for the Americans after that movie I suppose, but a great actor he is nonetheless.

I watched two of his earlier movies, Armageddon and Event Horizon just recently, and immediately recognized him from both movies. In Armageddon, he played the arrogant scientist at NASA who snapped at Lt. Kimsey (played by Keith David mentioned below) rather sarcastically when the Lieutenant suggested to nuke the incoming asteroid. In Event Horizon, he played as a member of the salvage team sent to recover the ghost ship Event Horizon, whom despite the funky name, was the most boring character of the whole movie!

Keith David


(Right) Pitch Black (2000) & the Chronicles of Riddick (2004) ... Imam
(Left) Armageddon (1998) ... Lt. General Kimsey

I mentioned about Pitch Black in the previous posting. Its ending is quite surprising for me, as it is not the usual only-the-hero-and-heroin-will-survive plot as seen in most other movies. As a matter of fact, the only reason why I remember the Imam, played by Keith David is because he is among the three survivors who made it out of the wretched alien planet. The other two being Riddick and Kyra, whom everyone thought was a boy in that movie. The Imam returned in the second Riddick movie, peacefully settling on the planet Helium Prime until the attack of the Necromongals. Nonetheless, his acting was really good in both movies, as I thought he was really an Arab Muslim actor.

In Armageddon, his performance was again quite convincing, as Lieutenant General Kimsey who tried to detonate the nuke when the communication with the drilling team on the asteroid was severed. Quite an annoying character for me, but it just shows the versatility of Keith David in handling roles of different characteristics. This should be nothing special for actors and actresses, but the audience will definitely remember who's good and who's not in doing so.

Tilda Swinton


The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) ... White Witch
(Inserted) Constantine (2005) ... Gabriel

The first time I saw Angel Gabriel in Constantine, I thought she was Cate Blanchett. Both of them look quite alike for me: very fair, blonde hair, and in both movies mentioned above, Tilda Swinton played pretty much ethereal characters, much like Lady Galadriel played by Cate Blanchett in the Lord of the Rings.

Between the White Witch and Angel Gabriel, I like the later better. She was seemingly helping Constantine at first, being one of his guide in the movie, I couldn't believe that she became the villain of the story in the end, trying to help the devil's son to get into the mortal realm. She was unsuccessful of course, as the bad guys will never triumph over the good guys, especially when the title of the movie is the name of the hero himself. Tilda Swinton seems to be the prefect actress for that character, as her extremely fair profile suits the character of an Angel very well. And who would be a better cast for the White Witch in Narnia other than Tilda Swinton? I guess none. In this movie, she didn't have to hide any bid of the evil of her character anymore as the Sauron-equivalent super villain of a great fantasy movie.

Andrew Robinson


(Top) The X Files - Alpha (1999 TV Episode) ... Dr. Ian Detweiler
(Bottom) Hellraiser (1987) ... Larry Cotton

Hellraiser anyone?

I'm a great fan of the franchise, especially of Pinhead. In my opinion, only the first three movies of Hellraiser are good while the rest diverted too far from the original idea of Hellraiser, they seem to be abusing the theme. The original is the best, and Andrew Robinson starred in that movie as Larry Cotton, the unlucky husband to an unfaithful wife trying to resurrect her lover, who turned out to be the brother of Larry and was hunted down by Hell. For Andrew Robinson, he had to play two characters in that movie: the first half as Larry, and at the very end, played his brother who had killed him and disguised himself with Larry's skin (Talk about plastic surgery from Hell!)

In the 6th Season of the X Files, Dr. Ian Detweiler is played by a much aged Andrew Robinson. Despite his somewhat grayish hair and bread, it's quite easy to recognize him as the same actor from Hellraiser.

By the way, rumors had it that there will be a remake of Hellraiser this year. Is that good news or the opposite?

Kari Wuhrer


(Right) Eight Legged Freaks (2002) ... Sheriff Samantha Parker
(Left) Hellraiser: Deader (2005) ... Amy Klein

Another Hellraiser movie: Deader in 2005 which in my opinion, the worst of all the offerings. The movie has a very poor plot: some weirdos calling themselves the Deaders trying very hard to get into troubles with the forces of Hell, and was stumbled upon by a tough journalist Amy Klein played by Kari Wuhrer. I guess it's quite unlucky for Kari Wuhrer, the lead actress in that movie, as most fans just can't forgive the movie for destroying the sacred idea of Hellraiser, no matter how well Kari Wuhrer performed as Amy Klein. Personally, I think she did a marvelous job in showing between reality and a much fantasy-like world of horror and terror after she "opened the box" and summoned Pinhead. With a better and logical storyline, this movie should have been much more interesting.

Anyone watched Eight Legged Freaks? Although giant spiders attacking human beings is not a new idea anymore, the movie managed to provide quite a lot of humor and action, and the CG is quite good as well. I enjoyed the move very much, and Kari Wuhrer as the tough Sheriff woman is just brilliant. I wish I get to watch more movies featuring her in the future.

And for the fans of Command and Conquer, Kari Wuhrer is the voice actor for Tanya! I played the game once, and my Tanya got bitten to death by canine unit of the enemy! Hellish!

Leon Rippy


(Bottom) Eight Legged Freaks (2002) ... Wade
(Top) The Patriot (2000) ... John Billings

Leon Rippy is really good as cowboy-like characters. That's my opinion about him in both movies I watched featuring him. In The Patriot, he played John Billings, one of the militia recruited by Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson). Rather funny and a bit nerdy, his character provided a bit of humor in the rather sad and serious movie. His suicide half-way through the movie after his family was massacred by the British Redcoats was really a sad scene.

In Eight Legged Freaks, he played Wade, the selfish mayor of a town trying to sell off the people's land when giant spiders start to invade the town. Since the town is in Arizona, Leon Rippy got to wear his cowboy boots and jeans again.

At least he didn't die in the end!

Don S. Davis


(Left) Stargate SG-1 (1997-2006) ... Lieutenant General George Hammond
(Right) The X Files (1994 TV Episode) ... Captain William Scully

I love the Stargate series, especially SG-1 where producer Richard Dean Anderson is Colonel Jack O Neil. Each episode was interesting and the opening theme was just plain amazing. I was lost after the airing time was changed after one or two seasons, and before I realized it, it was off the air. Anyway, Don S Davis played General Hammond in SG-1. Not much can be said about him, since his role is just to brief the team before they travel through the gate. In the X Files, he played Captain William Scully, a retired navy officer who was the father of Agent Scully. He only appeared in two episodes, the first one was when he died and appeared in Scully's vision to tell her something; in the second appearance, he was in Scully dream when she went into a coma after her abduction. In both TV Series, his characters were respectful, and caring for his troops and children at the same time. The ideal cast for a military parent role?

Familiar Faces in Movies (Part I)

Have you ever watched a movie and felt that you have seen some of actors before in other movies. No, I'm not talking about Orlando Bloom in Lord of The Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean, or Ian McKellen in X-Men and Da Vinci Code. They are superstars in the entertainment industry, and they usually carry the leading roles in a movie. There's no way one cannot identify them.

What I'm trying to say is that there are actors or actresses in some movies we didn't pay much attention to, but when they start appearing in another movie we watch, there's this sense of familiarity that we have seen them before, but just can't seem to remember which movie.

Well, digging up the connection is one of fun things to do after watching a movie.

Radha Mitchell


(Bottom) Silent Hill (2006) ... Rose Da Silva
(Top) Pitch Black (2000) ... Carolyn Fry

Pitch Black is the first episode of the Chronicles of Riddick made famous by Vin Diesel. For me, it's a great sci-fi movie which seems to be missed out by many. Radha Mitchell played Carolyn, the leader of a surviving team of space passengers on an alien planet. Her portrayal of a strong leader, despite being put to the tasks rather harshly, as well as her surprising death at the end of the movie were hard to forget. When I watched (re-watched) Silent Hill not long ago, the sense of familiarity mentioned at the beginning made me went to search for information on her acting career, and, Bingo!

Laurie Holden


(Bottom) Silent Hill (2006) ... Cybil Bennett
(Top) The X Files (1996) ... Marita Covarrubias

Alongside Radha Mitchell in Silent Hill is Lauren Holden, who played a highway policewoman, eventually ends up in the same dreadful ghost town. Very tough looking, and sexy too ^o^. Quite different from her role as Marita Covarrubias in the X-Files. Marita only appears in Season 4, after the death of X, the second source of classified information to Fox Mulder's investigation. However, Marita plays a two-headed-snake in the series, where she would help out Mulder, and report to his
nemesis, the Cigarette Smoking Man all his progress.

Kate Beckinsale


(Bottom) Underworld (2003 & 2006) ... Selene
(Top) Van Helsing (2004) ... Anna Valerious

Kate Beckinsale won't have come into today's discussion because it's obvious she is the leading character for the two Underworld movies. Many people would remember her performance in Van Helsing as well, as Anna Valerious who helps Van Helsing in destroying Dracula. However, I feel really funny at the point that she keeps getting vampire and werewolf movies for the last few years. She must have sent them to extinction! Whether she is fighting as a side-kick in Van Helsing, as with a side-kick in Underowrld, she really rocks. Personally, I like her in Underworld better because of her tight leather outfit ^o^

Liam Neeson


(Top Left) Kingdom of Heaven (2005) ... Godfrey
(Top Right) Batman Begins (2005) ... Henri Ducard
(Bottom) The Chronicles of Narnia (2005) ... Aslan

Liam Neeson always plays the very wise but kind-of sad characters in movies featuring him. In Kingdom of Heaven, he played Godfrey, father of Balian (Orlando Bloom) who taught him how to fight, and how to be a good knight but eventually died from a crossbow strike; in Batman Begins, he plays Henri Ducard, the mentor of Bruce Wayne before he became batman, too bad for him, he eventually becomes Batman's enemy; in Narnia, he is the voice actor for Aslan, and the scene where he was captured by the White Witch must have made many children cried. Not to mention he is also Qui-Gon Jin in Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace, the mentor of both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. As one of the master Jedi, he is the only one who has a dialogue, but didn't last a single episode!

Except for Narnia in all these four movies I watched, Liam Neeson's character never live to see the end!

Stellan Skarsgard


(Inserted) Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) ... Father Merrin
King Arthur (2004) ... Cerdic

For these two movies, Skarsgard's characters are on both extreme ends: in Exorcist: The Beginning, he plays Father Merrin, the hero who defeated the devil, and established a legend for that character in the subsequent movies (which are made long, long time ago instead); in King Arthur, he plays Cerdic, the super notorious leader of the Saxon invaders who was killed by Arthur in the final duel.

Tony Curran


(Top Left) The 13th Warrior (1999) ... Weath the Musician
(Top Right) Gladiator (2000) ... Assassin #1
(Bottom Left) Blade II (2002) ... Priest
(Bottom Center) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) ... Rodney Skinner (The Invisible Man)
(Bottom Right) Underworld: Evolution (2006) .... Marcus Corvinus

Tony Curran has appeared in more different movies I watched than any other actors. However, his characters are hardly the noticeable ones until recent years, in my experience watching him of course. Starting with Antonio Banderas's The 13th Warrior, he played one of the Northman warriors, whom I only remember being the one laughing after been kicked off his horse by Antonio Banderas's one, and only had one line at the very end of the movie. Possibly the most boring of all the 13 men, but incredibly, he survived till the end! In Gladiator, he played the executioner sent to finish off Russell Crowe after the betrayal of the new Caesar. The plan didn't work out of course, Tony Curran was killed instead, ending his about 30 seconds’ appearance in that great movie, and he didn't even speak a word! In Blade II, he played Priest, the first member of an elite team wiping out vampires to be killed. Again, no line (or maybe nothing important to be remembered), just a hell lot of screaming before he's gone.

In LXG, his roles improved a bit, but as the invisible man? Gosh, how can you be noticeable when you have wear white make-up when there's no action, and vanish completely during stunt scenes. His biggest role for me was in Underworld: Evolution where he played Marcus, arguably the strongest vampire (but the ugliest one as well) who tries to kill Selene.

Although he suffered a gruesome death in the end (turn to mince meat by helicopter blades), at least he speaks more!

Paul Levesque


(Right) WWE: Triple H
(Left) Blade: Trinity (2004) ... Jarko Grimwood

I'm not sure if Paul Levesque's his real name, but I would definitely remember him as Triple H, one of the best wrestlers in WWE, formerly known as WWF. Unlike The Rock who moved from wrestling to Hollywood entirely, Triple H's involvement in the silver screen industry has only been in Blade III: Trinity where he played Jarko, one of the bodyguards of the vampires. His performance was quite impressive actually, being mean but funny in a way, and he got to show a wrestling style body-slam in one of the fighting scene with Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds), with effects some more!

Vladimir Kulich


(Right) The 13th Warrior (1999) ... Buliwyf/The 1st Warrior
(Left) The X Files - Dod Kalm (1995 TV Episode) ... Olafsson

I'm quite sure not many people would know Vladimir Kulich, unless they have watched The 13th Warrior like I did. Kulich played Buliwyf (pronounced as "Bull-Vie", the leader of the Northman warriors returning to their homeland to fight a rumored ancient evil. His performance in that movie was incredible, especially his booming voice, plus his body size which fit into the character of a Viking very well. Surprisingly, when I watched The X Files Season 2, I noticed one of the characters to be him. Then I found out that he was in The X Files much earlier than The 13th Warrior. However, Vladimir Kulich didn't really appear in many movies we commonly watch, most probably because of his profile as an North European, which limits his role in a way or so.

Bill Duke


(Right) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) ... Bolivar Trask
(Left) Predator (1987) ... Mac

The one thing that made me connect Bill Duke between the two movies was his eyes. When he was talking to the President in X Men: The Last Stand, the way he looked at the President rang a bell in my head, and I tried to remember the last time I saw him. A small role as Bolivar Trask, but if you're a big fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger 20-year-old sci-fi Predator like me, you would definitely remember him as Mac-the-marine-dressed-up-in-suit in X-Men. He was bald in Predator; he is bald in X Men as well. :-D

Rubén Blades


(Bottom) The X Files - El Mundo Gira (1997 TV Episode) ... Conrad Lozano
(Top) Predator 2 (1990) (as Ruben Blades) ... Danny Archuleta

Just like Bill Duke, if you're not a big fan of Predator, you won't remember him either. Starred in Predator 2 as Detective Danny who accidentally stood in the way of the Predator and his prey, it is hard to connect him between the movie and the TV series because both characters have distinctive profiles. This time, the voice, or rather the Mexican essence of Ruben Blades rang the bell in my mind, and after checking, Bingo!

Ruben's quite an interesting person, actually because if you check on IMDB, you can see that he's now the Minister of Tourism for Panama! Wow!

Month of the Gelgoog

As mentioned yesterday, March will be the month for Gelgoog as we will have three Gelgoog offerings: Mass Produced Gelgoog and Kuspen's Customized Gelgoog in HCM-Pro format. The Mass Produced version will add to the HGUC line as well.

Here are some images from Hobbynet. Some are still in lineart. Check out MG Strike Noir and Akatsuki Full Set. The later is priced at a whooping 7,350 Yen. Must be the most expensive in the 1-100 scale series of SEED and Destiny models.

MG Strike Noir



HGUC Gelgoog Cannon



HCM-Pro Mass Produced Gelgoog



HCM-Pro Kuspen's Customized Gelgoog



HG 1-100 Akatsuki Full Set

Not-so New Gundam Merchandises

MG Hi-Nu Gundam mentioned earlier on is definitely a newer release than these fellas. Some of the Gunpla modelers might have already built these models as well. But they are still quite fresh for me; at least they are scheduled in this year's calendar.

I've trying to update my Blog since last year, about a month now, but my connection seems to be having quite some trouble. Right now, I used to save a copy of my entries, including this one, in MS Word first before pressing 'Publish' because on many occasions previously when I didn't do so, Firefox will tell me that the connection has been terminated after some painful waiting and everything I wrote cannot be retrieved anymore. Damn!

Speaking of 'Stone-age Connectivity'.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the Not-so new Gundam stuff from The Gundam Base Side 1:

MG Crossbone Full Cloth - The armor looks awesome, but some people complain that it's too heavy for the shoulder armors to carry and will eventually drag them down. The Peacock Smasher is cool but again, too heavy for the hand to hold. Pro and cons eh?



HGUC GM Quel - For a MS that only appear for about 2 seconds in the last episode of UC0083: Stardust Memory, GM Quel is really lucky to have a MG release several years back and now, a HGUC version. Based on the frame of Gundam Hazel, posability is superb and will enable it to be cross-compatible with previous HGUC models from Advance of Zeta series as well as Gundam Mk. II.



HGUC Gaplant TR-5 - a superb transformable model that will keep you hands busy for a while. Gotta love the bunny sticker on the shield.



UCHG EFSF Land Briefing Team - How many 08th MS Team figures you can recognize in this model? Since it's in such a big scale (1/35), many details needs to be considered to deliver the realism of the kit. Not my cup-of-tea obviously.



HG BuCUE - Can't help thinking that the HG Kerberos BuCUE released last year was a test bed for this one. Maybe Bandai's not too sure of a non-MS model in the market? But this kit is brilliant, even better than some Zoids models. Andrew Waltflet's LaGOWE is next, maybe?



HCM-Pro Hyaku Shiki - Shiny model for those HCM-Pro collectors. If you've the previous release, will you add this one to your collection as well?

MG Hi-Nu~ Finally Here

I should talk about why I'm gone from my blog for around a month but something has to come out first...

MG Hi-Nu is finally out!!

Check out the beam rifle, is it going to be in metalic plating as well?


Smaller fin funnels and propellant tanks definitely help to reduce the weight. Can he kneel properly?


Coolsome display base, and the fin funnel effects as well. Can they be used on the previous release of MG Nu Gundam?

Awesome! After so many small-sized MGs, Bandai's rolling out the giant, a preview to the greater Nightingale? Maybe, but at the moment, Gunpla lovers are going to go crazy on this one. No pictures on the rumored new bazooka yet, but the display base with Amuro Ray’s insignia is quite a bonus. This one is going to be a massive hit in the Gunpla world, I’m sure of it.

At the same time, Gunota Headlines reported that products to be released in the near future include:

• MG Strike Noir (March, 4,725 yen),
• HGUC Mass-Produced Gelgoog / Gelgoog Cannon (March, 1,680 yen),
• 1/144 EX Model Hildolfr (March, 7,140 yen),
• 1/100 Akatsuki Full Set with gold plating (March, 6,300 yen),
• HCM-Pro Gelgoog - Kuspen version (March, 2,100 yen), and
• HCM-Pro Mass-Produced Gelgoog - IGLOO version (March, 2,100 yen)

Looks like it’s going to be a month filled with Gelgoog :-) Nonetheless, I’m really looking forward to the big tank Hildolfr. This time it’s not a ridiculously expensive resin kit anymore, but an EX release. The scale of 1/144 is great, since you will able to pose it with HGUC Zakus. Judging by the price, I bet it’s transformable between the MS and MA mode as well, hopefully.

Images are from the Gundam Base Side 1.