Make Way for MG Destiny!

MG Destiny Gundam!! Wuhhuh~~





Images from The Gundam Base Side One.
Excellent details, unbeatable articulation (just look at how he can reach for his shoulder boomerang!), inner frame, bigger weapons, and bigger wings that has the same inter-connected function when they are being extended (very much from MG Strike Freedom). There's no holding back for this huge release.

On the other hand, I can't get much information about the Special Edition version of Destiny, except for this sketchy bits:


The Wing of Light! with gradient some more! Nice~ Also, is that a bolt of beam coming out of Destiny's palm? Not sure if there's anything else apart from these transparent parts.
With MG Destiny introduced, all the other upcoming merchandises seem so tiny XD Nonetheless, I should let all the dogs (or rather, Bandai's) out as well:

HGUC Jadg Doga, Gyunei's Customized Unit and Quess's Unit


Images from The Gundam Base Side One.
HG Union Flag



Images from The Gundam Base Side One.
At the same time, here's the 'official' introduction to another new mecha from Gundam 00: AEU-05 Hellion


AEU-05 Hellion, read about its specs on Gunota Headlines


Sorry to say this, but I think all these three mecha's transformation is the most uncreative one I've ever seen in all Gundam anime. Not only are they ugly in MS form, I wonder what's their transformation concept is anyway? How does two hands tuck beneath the torso helps in flying I wonder.
Images from Super Robot Wars Hot News
FG Gundam Virtue




With all the four box images gathered, this is what you'll get. Quite cool :)
Images from The Gundam Base Side One.
Also, more information and detailed photos of HG Exia and Dynames:


Images from Super Robot Wars Hot News
SD Sangokuden Sousou Gundam - Sousou, or Cao Cao Gundam. The left hand is again in the fixed 'pointing-the-finger' pose XD but the giant sword and the red cape he wears are quite special.


Images from The Gundam Base Side One.
Lastly, the rumors of a MG Gundam Unicorn started after a prototype was seen during Chara Hobby Show.

Well, it's a rumor no more, because MG Gundam Unicorn is indeed coming in December, and it's convertible between the Normal mode and the Destroy mode. Wow! Check out the same news from Winterheim HDD earlier on.



Images from Super Robot Wars Hot News

Jose Mourinho has left the building too

While Chelsea's boss, Jose Mourinho has almost nothing in common with the resigned Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, his exit from the Premiership giant is equally hard to swallow in such short notice as well.


"Mourinho quited, England shocked" filled up the header of today's sport column in Sin Chiew Jit Poh
To be honest, I never liked Mourinho a bit, and I did show my displeasure towards him once or twice on my blog. However, that doesn't mean that I shun his coaching at Chelsea. As a matter of fact, I think he is a manager every Premiership team with big bucks would like to have. His records of two Premiership titles, one runners-up (last season behind Manchester United), one FA Cup and two Carling Cup, all completed within the short three years of his reign at the club is unbeatable. Plus:

"Of the 185 games he was in charge of Chelsea, they won 124, drew 40 and lost 21, a record that includes a 60-match unbeaten run in Premier League matches at Stamford Bridge." (from BBC Sport)

Hell, that's like 67 percent wins, or 88.6 percent undefeated records out of all the matches he managed. Wow!

Of course the big bucks poured into the club almost immediately when it was being bought over must be counted for the silverwares, but the guy must have some brilliant game plans that cannot be disputed, like psychological warfare.

Like I said before, what I hated about him is his foul mouth. Regardless of whether his team was indeed not doing well in a match, and ended either losing or drawing, he would still refuse to give credit to the opponent and blamed the result on either the referee, bad luck, or worked out some brilliant Math formula to stun everyone.

Anyway, those are probably just my own feelings as a Liverpool fan. A fan always supports his team and help to defend it; and I'm sure a coach will do the same for his team as well.

Mourinho didn't just help Chelsea at the club level. I personally felt that without him, John Terry, Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, and Frank Lampard would never be as big as they are today, and England might yet be suffering a few major holes in both their defense and offense. Not to mention promoting underrated African players like Didier Drogba and Michael Essien, who both helped their national teams, Ivory Coast and Ghanaian respectively to reach World Cup 2006.

In a way, I feel very pitiful for Morinho. Obviously he was very confident about himself, and he had the skills to be so, but the bureaucratic pressure from his tauke (that means 'boss' in Chinese dialect) was too much to bear. Can you imagine a rich Russian billionaire sacking the winning formula because he "wants the stadium to be full and he wants to see people enjoying the football his team provides." (from BBC Sport). He also wants "his team to win trophies but also play with style" (from BBC Sport)


Make those wishes to a lamp genie, Mr. Abramovich, and you will get the latest FIFA 2008. Image from (from BBC Sport)
How to play like that? Spent money like no tomorrow on Andriy Shevchenko (31 million pound), who only scored 15 goals in 53 total matches with Chelsea; while good team players like William Gallas, and Robert Huth were sold. All against the will of the manager. Just who's driving here?

I don't think Mr. Abramovich knows the frustration of side-seat driving since he can afford paying big money hiring a driver.

Well, as you wish, Mr. Russian billionaire, let's see what your team can do against Manchester United in Old Trafford this Sunday, without Mourinho.

Wish you all the best ^^ but more likely, all your wishes will be realized... ... the other way round against your team!

Careless XBox Advertisement

I saw this on Mr Brown the other day, and thought I should share it with you here.


Can you spot the mistake?
No? OK, here's the answer.
Anyway, I think Microsoft XBox should not drop it. Not just because the girls are quite cute ^^ but for other reasons as well. So, here on my blog, I present to you the top five reasons for Microsoft to keep this advertisement:

Number 5: No one can beat the black loading screen of this XBox


Everybody loves black right?
Number 4: It's not XBox, it's the latest product from Microsoft


It's XMusicBox!
Number 3: It's wireless. WIRELESS man!!


A solar-cell powered wireless XBox, brilliant XD
Number 2: It's not our fault, everybody just forget to read the footnote


Saved by the footnote
And the ultimate reason is...
.
..
...
....
.....
Scroll down a little bit more please
.....
....
...
..
.
Number 1: It's not meant to be an advertisement at all


What's your test result?
* No mean of insult or any sort of such intention to the homosexual community *
The original image is from Mr Brown, edited using Adobe Photoshop 2.0.

Transformers Evolutions: Hearts of Steel

Prior to Michael Bay's Transformers, there were a few publications of Transformers comic by IDW Publishing called Transformers Evolutions: Hearts of Steel.

Not sure about you, but their designs are definitely better than Cartoon Network's Transformers Animated.


Cover for Issue 1. Bumblebee's design is extremely loyal to his appearance in Generation 1
Although it's of a new storyline, Hearts of Steel seems to build on the story after Generation 1, where the Transformers who battled to their last bits of energy were forced into a state of hibernation and went through the Ice Age. When they were awakened, they found themselves in the Great Industrial Revolution, and they changed form accordingly to disguise themselves from the humans, and the story of Transformers in steam engines and vehicles begins.


Very much like the movie, Bumblebee is the first Autobots to appear in the comic. Since the comic is published before the movie, this should be a coincidence then?
Another huge feature of the comic is that important figureheads of the Industrial Revolution are among the human characters, for example Mark Twain the very humorous American writer, Jules Verne, a French sci-fi author who wrote Journey To The Center Of The Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, and Around the World in Eighty Days, and John Henry, the legendary black railroad worker who was rumored to be the strongest man alive at his time. Instead of fictional characters as we see in all other Transformers stories, I'm really curious as of how these historical characters can blend into Hearts of Steel. Don't tell me Jules Verne will go on a ride with Starscream in the comic, which will then give him the inspiration for writing Around the World in Eighty Days :)


Optimus Prime as the steam locomotive.


Megatron as the ancient giant cannon.
In terms of the Transformers, I think they are extremely well designed. Not only are they close to their original designs, but most importantly they look mechanical and robot-like. I have no problem accepting Megatron as an interstellar fighter jet, but I have a lot of problem accepting Optimus Prime looking like Superman XD. What do you think?

Unfortunately for Hearts of Steel, its release was too close to Michael Bay's movie, and to avoid confusion, the publisher decided to stop the release of more issues until the movie is over, but they did not announce how long will the comic be hibernated before the next release, now that the movie is indeed over. Hasbro on the other hand, decided not to do any toys from the series as well, for the same reason as above (but we all know they want to milk the movie's toys dry before moving on to another product line, agree?).

With the coming of the animated series next year, I wonder whether Hearts of Steel will be frozen forever?

Let's hope not.

All images from IDW Publishing.

PLAMO Review 24: MG Gundam Ver. OYW Part 1

Sooner than planned ^^

As mentioned in the previous posting, this is more like a progress report rather than a complete review. I'm usually very lo-so (that's long-winded in Chinese :-) in reviewing a completed model, so splitting the review into different parts for a more complex model, like the one I'm working on at the moment, MG Gundam Ver. OYW is quite in place I believe.

If you like, you might as well call this kit as Gundam Ver. 2.0, since Ver. 1.5 improved only the legs, head and partially on the chest and the weapons. Ver. 2.0 however, takes away the Core Fighter transformation, and redesigned all the parts missed out in Ver. 1.5. That means except for the inner frame of the legs and the Gundam Hammer, all the other parts are new.


As with HGUC Advanced Hazel, I separated the different components of the model and put them into little paper boxes, which are DIY origami work you can learn from Origami-Instructions.com :-D
I also use tiny KFC containers for take-away mashed potato or salad (of course washed and cleaned ones) for that purpose :)


The head is the only component completed so far, and the unpainted figure of Amuro Ray is standing next to it. It's a good thing that Bandai threw in the base for the figure so that it can be posed with greater ease.
There's quite a lot of work for panel-lining the parts for this kit actually, and most of them are really giving me a hard time ^^; For the legs, the inner frame are harder to paint than I initially thought. This is the first time I use paint on the legs actually, since I omitted it in my Ver. 1.5. I was too timid back then to tear out the parts to paint ^^; The hydraulic pipes in particular, are molded together with their hosts so that they slide together. Good idea by the designer, but impossible to separate to paint them separately. So this is how I did it:


Firstly, detach the hydraulic pipes (along with their hosts) at the joints.


Then use marking tape to cover the hosts, and paint the pipes in silver.


Shiny :-D Don't forget which part of the legs these pipes are from. All four of them look too identical and being confused is hard to avoid if you're not careful.


I painted the hosts in gold to make them look more outstanding. It's an option anyway. Wait until the paint is dried before pushing them back into their sockets on the inner frame.
There are a lot of lines and ornaments on the surface of the armor, and some of them are just too narrow for my pen tips to move in. Hellish -_-++


Here are the parts for the leg (polycaps and screws not shown). OK, now work on the other leg.
Wuhhuh~ (lazy grumbling XD)
A list the weapons (Some of the minor parts are not shown):


The weapons are all newly molded parts as compared to Ver. 1.5, a bit bigger, and feature a lot more details too. The Beam Javelin is not available anymore.


The rich details behind the shield are too precious to be missed.
The ultimate fun is painting the chain for the hammer (Actually I prefer calling it a flail, with an extremely long chain design).

I saw the silver paint used by Marvinryan on his MG Turn A, and Wow, I want that too! XD So this is how I did it:


Using the same silver oil-based paint marker for the hydraulic pipes, I just swiped the chain back and forth many times on a gloved hand :-D
Wearing glove not only keeps the hand free from the paint (which is very hard to wash away), it also prevents fingerprints on the final work.


Done a few nights ago, I wasn't quite satisfied with the first version, so the next morning I applied another few layers to make sure all the rings are covered in silver.


What will the completed hammer looks like? I'm anticipating that too ^^
At the moment, there are other parts like another arm, leg, the body and the backpack are still 'under construction'. Maybe I should use the famous 'Slow Men At Work' sign when I'm working on my Gunpla next time. Anyway, I'll try to finish everything by next week.


MG Zaku II Ver. 2.0 is getting impatient as well ^o^

New Gundam 00 Trailers

Two new trailers for the upcoming Gundam OO on Youtube. Plain awesome ^^


*Spoiler* Gundam + Evangelion effect at the end of the clip XD
If you can't see anything, follow this link to Youtube.


Not sure about the storyline yet, but the quality of the animation seems definitely better than SEED and SEED Destiny.
If you can't see anything, follow this link to Youtube.
By the way, the narrator of the clips is Toru Furuya, the voice actor for Amuro Ray from the original Gundam series. What a bonus!

P/s: I'll post the 'progress report' on my MG Gundam Ver. OYW hopefully by tomorrow. Stay tuned ^^

Stupendously Idiotic Competition

I saw this by accident on Rant & Raves today, and immediately felt extremely angry and disgusted about it.


Visit Selayang Municipal Council (MPS)'s homepage to see the original disgusting poster.
Since the original text is in Malay, please refer to the same article again to see the translation.

My comment for MPS is very simple:


Hey MPS, you don't like the dogs? Well, guess what?
THE DOGS HATE YOU TOO!!
To show my disgust,I signed a petition against the competition, and dear readers of my blog, please sign the petition as well. Maybe you don't have a dog, or you're just happy having Gunpla or Transformers toys as your pets, nonetheless, dogs or any other animals should never be treated so horribly and being hunted down as if they have no dignity and value in this world.


Please sign the petition like what I did by following this link.
At the same time, I suppose just some angry words won't help the situations either, so here are my suggestions to MPS:
(1 - most important) Don't shit the people's money on torturing innocent dogs when you wasted RM40,000 of their money going for your stupid meaningless golf session at Awana Genting Highlands Golf and Country Resort!!

(2) You will get RM39,000 from adding up all your prize money from this stupid competition (assuming you can count or operate a calculator), donate the money to SPCA Selangor, and they will know better of how to treat the problem (as compared to you obviously)

(3) If you have so much money to spend, please reward the public who catch/help to catch/report about snatch-thieves in your area. I don't know if Selayang has the highest number of dogs in this country, but Hell, your state, Selangor is NUMBER ONE in terms of crime happening in broad-daylight! And fucking do something about it already! before blaming the dogs!!

(4) The Selangor Water Supply Board had risen the water tariff in the state by 15 percent. Surely you can ask/force them to donate some of that money to the proper organization handling stray animals.