High Mobility Zaku II from Spirits of Zeon

I saw MS-06R-2 High Mobility Zaku II a couple of years back, and like the design of the yellow spikes on red armor and a huge bazooka. That particular unit turns out to be Johnny Raiden's Zaku II, which eventually being released as one of the many MG Zaku II variations. I guess I started to like Zaku since then, as the ordinary MS-06 Zaku IIs seem too weak for GMs and Gundam. High Mobility Zaku, though lack the power generator to carry any beam weapon, has advantage in terms of pace and agility.

I saw another two MS-06R-2 variations on Spirits of Zeon's official site, and becomes extremely hopeful that those two will come out as HGUC, or even MG kits. To start off with, Spirits of Zeon is a new game under development by Bandai. The Zeon will be the main character now, as players get to play Zakus shooting down EFSF. The two MS-06R-2s belong to the leading characters, Kurt Roswell and Robin Bradshaw. The unique thing about the two Zakus are the spikes on the right shoulder armor are replaced by horns from their squadron crest. Pretty cool!

For HGUC, High Mobility Zakus are yet to come out, so I guess there are some possibility that it will be released, just like Zaku I Sniper, and original design from the game 'Target In Sight'. For the MG version, the previous two releases, Johnny Raiden's Zaku II and Shin Matsunaga's Zaku II are pretty much out of date. Johnny's unit for example, has the yellow spikes in red (too bad for those who are painting their models) and both these MGs has poor playability. I hope that Bandai will consider a Version 2.0 for Zakus - not just the High Mobility versions, but the others as well. It's not fair only the Gundam has version upgrade, leaving out the Zeons.

Hope that they start with High Mobility Zaku IIs!

The red one, Kurt's Roswell's unit is almost identical to Johnny Raiden's except the head and the shoulder armor of course


The blue version, belonging to Robin Bradshaw - two spikes

3D-izzy

Being really busy with my 3D assignment lately, even though the final exam for my MA in Multimedia draws near (actually I'll be sitting for two papers tomorrow. Wuhhhuh~). I'm in front of the PC monitor for about 6 hours now fixing the A3 sized 'posters' for a giant booklet, which is part of the final hand-up.

This subject, formally called 3D Animation & Special Effects has no paper-based exams, but the assignment loads are pretty scary: four phases altogether, so if you slacked off a bit during one of the phases, then there's a hell lot to make up for. So, even though there’s no final exam, there’s still quite a bit of pressure of the coming presentation and the hand-up of one-semester project.

Plus, a 30-second animation is required, which is a pain in the a** to produce. 30 seconds is very short when viewed, but the production can take a few days. Here's the Math: if you have a lot of textures and image mapping for you models, one frame (one still image) will probably takes 11 minutes to render (that's my scenario). For PAL-video standard, there are 25 frames in one second, that's 25 X 11 minutes of crunch time to produce one second of animation (which is like nothing to our eyes). So, 30 seconds? You need 8,250 minutes = 137.5 hours = 5 days and 17 hours of heart-pumping prayer session to do (pray that the entire stuff goes well).

Of course, there's safer way to do things: break up the animation sequence into pieces, so that you only render a few seconds now, and another few parts of the work on another day. This will help your computer to rest a bit in between those rendering processes as well.

When this is over, my computer would probably send me nightmares for what I’ve made it suffered all these days!

Some of the modeling work done by me ^o^


The CD Box cover design for the final hand-up. No no, my project is not a horror story anymore, and yes yes, the kid sitting is me when I was 4

MG Croosbone Gundam X-1 Full Cross & MSIA Zudah

From Hobby Net Web Shopping - images of MG XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1 Full Cross and MSIA EMS-10 Zudah. This is the fourth MG release by Bandai based on F91's kit since previously we have F91, Crossbone Ver. Ka and Harrison's F91. If not mistaken, there's another purple and black version of Crossbone Gundam, not sure if Bandai is going to release that or not. According to Hobbt Net, MG Crossbone and MSIA Zudah will be priced at 4,725 Yen and 1,575 Yen each respectively.

Images are from Hobby Net.

The Handwriting Test

Found this special little test today that might interest you as well - a handwriting test to see your personality. You need a steady hand, and a good mouse to do this. So here's my try...


... and the result:

You plan ahead, and are interested in beauty, design, outward appearance, and symmetry.
You are a shy, idealistic person who does not find it easy to have relationships, especially intimate ones.
You are affectionate, passionate, expressive, and future-oriented.
You are not very reserved, impatient, self-confident and fond of action.
You enjoy life in your own way and do not depend on the opinions of others.

Well, that's a very subtle way of saying: I'm not getting a girlfriend soon :(

MG Hi-Nu Gundam

Thanks to Sandrum for posting a link of the rumored MG Hi-Nu Gundam's setting on Danny Choo's blog. Yeah, it's Hi-Nu alright, but the guy seems to be a lot thinner than all the previous designs I have seen. Hope Bandai's not sacrificing the size to mark down the price!

MG Hi-Nu's setting, what's your thought?


This one's a conversion kit from B Club found on HLJ

MG Strike Freedom - Photos

Some of the upcoming Gundam merchandises from the Gundam Base Side 1. some juicy images of MG Strike Freedom are up (Good luck painting 1-100 Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne~), plus Kerberos BuCUE (official name is Kerberos BUCUE Hound) which KO-ed Blu's Duel Gundam easily in SEED Stargazer. Apart from the models, Bandai released a flexible display stand that seems to fit all models, new or old, the flexibility seems to be so cool, it allows any action pose except that of a bungee jump ^o^. Anyway, all cool stuff as usual. Is your wallet ready?

All images are from The Gundam Base Side 1.

MG Strike Freedom

MG Harrison's F91

HGUC GM Striker

HG Kerberos BuCUE

SD Strike Noir

Action Display Stand

By the way, Gunota Headlines reported that among the MG releases next year, Crossbone Gundam Kai Full Cross, which features a crossbow-like weapon is be out in January, but the more shocking news is that MG Hi-Nu Gundam will be out as well. Although the date of release is unclear, mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi will be the producer for the big guy. Yutaka Izubuchi is the designer of Nu Gundam, and Sazabi if not mistaken, plus most of the MSs in UC0080: War in a Pocket, most of them being my favorites.

Wow, can't wait to hear more about that!

Anime Review: MS IgLoo: Apocalypse 0079

If you haven't watch MS IgLoo: Apocalypse 0079, you may find some hints from the short synopsis of each episode below, and all the screenshots, on why this is an anime series not to be missed. 10 pictures for each episode, not bad huh? Considering the time I spent to pick the right moment for each snapshot. :-D

Episode 1: I Saw the Ocean in Jaburo's Skies
Zeon pilot Prochnow was given the experimental mobile armor ZeGok to complete assignments on stopping EFSF cruisers from launching into space. Although each task is near impossible, he accepted them without any complain because of his love of the sea, and the blue sky on top of Jaburo could be the reason he makes the dangerous descents into the Earth atmosphere from Jotunheim multiple times. He failed three times in destroying the enemy fleets; will he fail again for the fourth time?

Episode 2: Go Beyond the Light Beam Peaks
On 28 December UC0079, defeats have force the Zeon to move back to their space fortress A Boa Qu for last defense. Their last resort is to develop Mobile Pod Oggo, much like Ball deployed by EFSF, using near depleted resources. To complicate matter to the worst, many capable soldiers are not available anymore, and teenagers from Side 3 have been enlisted. The group of test pilots for Oggo is sent to Jotunheim, which include Monique's brother, Edwin. As the final battle draws near, Jotunheim is being placed under the command of Colonel Herbert Von Kuspen. When two Salamis class battle cruiser approaches Jotunheim, Edwin is being sent out as the first team against a squadron of Ball?

Episode 3: Spirits Returning to Thunder
On 31 December UC0079, massive EFSF forces storm A Boa Qu as the Zeon desperately try to defend a defeated war. Mobile Armor Big Rang was rolled out, and Engineer Oliver, the person overlooking each of the previous field tests was the only one left to pilot it. Lacking mobility due to the massive maintenance bay connected to a Bigro, Oliver must protect the team of Oggo consists of the young pilots with little battle experience, as A Boa Qu is finally being sank, Big Rang, the remaining Oggos, Monique's Zudah, and Kuspen's Gelgoog are out for their final assignment: to protect the escaping Zeon troops from A Boa Qu. Can they survive?

Now how's my storytelling skill? Usually I would just tell you what's going on, who live and who die, and the exact structure of each new MS (my favorite part), basically the entire story. This time taking the length of the posting into consideration, I've decided that long missive is going to cast the Sleep spell on everyone, so you go find out the ending yourself.