Familiar Faces in Movies (Part IV)

Very much the second half of Part II yesterday, another eight familiar faces in movies today~

Brian Cox


(Left) Troy (2004) … Agamemnon
(Right) X2 (2003) … William Stryker

Very much like the notorious partnership of Guy de Lusignan and Reynald de Chatillon in Kingdom of Heaven, Menelaus in Troy had an evil accomplish too, or rather the mastermind of the whole Trojan invasion, presenting Agamemnon played by Brain Cox. While Reynald, oops, Menelaus is fighting for his dignity (to get Helen back); Agamemnon only joined his brother to broaden his empire. An evil king who fits every quality as an evil king, I believe many audiences would cheer the moment he was killed.

Another villain role played by Brian Cox is William Stryker in X Men 2 (or just X2 in short). X2 for me is perhaps the darkest and bloodiest chapter of the trilogy, even though I did enjoy the brief alliance of Magneto and the other X Men. Presumably the creator of Wolverine, William Stryker heightened the hatred and fear of the public to make his move against the X Men community. Serve him right for his undoing by Wolverine at the end of the movie.

It’s rumored that an X Men movie with Wolverine as the lead (with his name as the title as well) will be out next year, and will be on the history of Wolverine. If that is true, then we will probably get to see Brian Cox as William Stryker again, and in a strange way, hate him again years after the same character died :)

Kelly Hu


(Right) X2 (2003) … Yuriko Oyama/Deathstrike
(Left) The Scorpion King (2002) … Cassandra

If you’re a fan of Wolverine, then you will have no problem recalling a female version of Wolverine in X2. Created through the same method used on Wolverine, she is Lady Deathstrike, played by the beautiful Kelly Hu. Unlike Wolverine, she was constantly under the control of Willaim Stryker, and only had a few brief moments of self-consciousness, only to be applied with more suppressive substances by her master again and again. Her fight with Wolverine in the end was unforgettable, and I remember cursing the editing crew for cutting in other scenes in between their fight. It would be extra cool if she could wake up halfway through the fight and join the rest of the X Men.

In The Rock’s the Scorpion King, Kelly Hu played Cassandra, a witch with an oddly modern name :) even though the movie was set in ancient Egypt, way before the event of Inmotep which triggered Mummy I and II. Kelly Hu was supposedly the target of an assassination by the Rock (I can’t remember his character’s name in that movie, haha), but the Rock sympathized her and escaped with her instead. After that the story just went like a roller-coaster ride of the Rock’s fighting, and more fighting, and even more fighting until he ‘inevitably’ became the Scorpion King :)

Kelly Hu is hot, don’t argue with me on that :-D She is great in both movies, though I like her more as the deadly Lady Deathstrike. She is in her late 30s this year, and she still looks, well, hot :-D Can you come up with other actresses with such qualities?

Hopefully she will be in Wolverine next year as Lady Deathstrike as well.

Anna Paquin


(Left) Darkness (2002) … Regina
(Right) X-Men (2000), X2 (2003) & X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) … Rogue/Marie D'Ancanto

I must say that Rogue, played by Anna Paquin in the whole trilogy of the X Men is quite a disappointment. Nothing wrong with her performance, but the characteristic of Rogue as according to the movies is unbelievably weak. Rogue in the cartoon series is the most powerful female member of the X Men in terms of sheer strength. While Storm needs the ‘cooperation’ of the weather elements, and Jean Grey is only good with her mind control, Rogue is more versatile and doesn’t need to depend on ‘external factors’. In the movie, Rogue is more like a little girl who needed constant protection from the rest of the X Men, and her special ability seemed to be dismissing more and more in each movie until she finally gave it up in the Last Stand. Why was she being written in such a way? I have no idea at all. Is it because Anna Paquin is so cute :) the writers just didn’t want her to get physical like the rest? Probably~

Anyone watched Darkness? I’m not very sure if it was in cinema back in 2002, but I only watched the VCD release two years back. You can probably guess from the title that it’s a horror movie, with the story centered on a haunted house, which was quite similar to the Amityville Horror. There were more emphasis on character development and emotional elements though, and Anna Paquin played a troubled teenage girl who was trying to save her family from the evil of the house. Her character in the movie was perhaps much stronger than Rogue in my opinion. Check out the movie if you can, the ending will definitely blow you off your seat.

Michael Biehn


(Right) Aliens (1986) … Corporal Dwayne Hicks
(Left) The Terminator (1984) … Kyle Reese

I think Michael Biehn is more popular in the 80s, as he was involved in two super blockbusters back then: the Terminators and Aliens, both directed by James Cameron. It’s probably because the big director liked his performance and wanted him in both his project. And no kidding, Michael Biehn is a very talented actor, and his performance as a battered soldier is really notable in both the Terminators and Aliens, even though in both those movies, he was shadowed by Sigourney Weaver and Arnold Schwarzenegger respectively.

Bill Paxton


(Right) Thunderbirds (2004) … Jeff Tracy
(Center) Predator 2 (1990) … Jerry Lambert
(Left) Aliens (1986) … Private Hudson

Between Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn) and Private Hudson in Aliens, I remember the later better. Before Hicks’s marine team got kicked in their asses :-D by the alien warriors, Private Hudson played the funny guy in the team, and after that, he became the noisiest and the most annoying one among the survivors. I also remember him as being the one with a smiley skull on his marine gear.

Although Bill Paxton’s roles have different characteristics for all three movies, one thing identical in him is his pitchy and a bit squeaky voice. It’s quite funny actually, especially when he played Jerry Lambert in Predator 2. The moment he started speaking, he sounded like he was trying to hold himself from laughing (even though he’s not). His ending however, was extremely gruesome. I probably shouldn’t mention it here to avoid scaring off readers who do not fancy the Predator series.

In Thunderbirds, Bill Paxton played Jeff Tracy, the head of the Thunderbirds. He played the character very well actually, and it’s hard to link his characters in Aliens and Predator 2 with the concerning father as portrayed in Thunderbirds. Anyway, since half of the movie is about his children instead of him, I didn’t pay much attention to him. Also, most of my attention goes to Lady Penelope as well ^^, so I guess I only remember Bill Paxton more in Aliens and Predator 2.

Oh, by the way, Bill Paxton played a very minor role in the Terminator as well. No idea at all? He was the among the three punk gangsters killed by Arnold Schwarzenegger when he asked for their clothes. A very minor role indeed, but a very important one nonetheless, since in the later two Terminator movies, demanding biker jackets became one of the two trademarks of the Terminator (another one being the more famous quoting of "I'll be back"), so Bill Paxton's role was in a strange way important to the whole series :-D It is very hard to recognize him, but again, his 'squeaky' voice helped a lot to identify him :-)

Sienna Guillory


(Bottom) Eragon (2006) … Arya
(Top) Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) … Jill Valentine

Here’s a question for people who watched Underworld: who would you cast as Selene if Kate Beckinsale is unavailable? For me, I will definitely cast Sienna Guillory. I like her very much as Jill Valentine in Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Not only was she skillful in martial art scenes, she looked cool with all sorts of gun and weapons on :-D As the final chapter of Resident Evil, called Extinction is coming soon, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing her again, hopefully in the same cute outfit as well. ^_^ Oh, not to forget Milla Jovovich as well, this time, she will play a short-haired Alice wielding double machete instead. Cool~

Anyway, still on Sienna Guillory. ^^; If you like Lord of the Rings, Eragon is the one movie you won’t want to miss. Instead of guns, Sienna Guillory was wielding sword in Eragon, and looks really wonderful as well.

Derek Jacobi


(Right) Underworld: Evolution (2006) … Alexander Corvinus
(Left) Gladiator (2000) … Gracchus

For both movies, Derek Jacobi is just spot on, as his short white hair, beard and moustache are very much his trademarks now. In Gladiator, Derek Jacobi played Senator Gracchus, one of the few Roman senators who supported Maximus to regain the Republic from the Emperor who assassinated his own father; in Underworld: Evolution, Derek Jacobi was Alexander Corvinus, the origin of the both the Vampire and Lucian clans.

A very serious actor, Derek Jacobi’s characters seemed to be able to command respect from people around him easily. He’s probably the most suitable actor to play an elder advisor in a movie.

Devon Aoki


(Right) DOA: Dead or Alive (2006) … Kasumi
(Center) Sin City (2005) … Miho
(Left) 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) … Suki

When you first see her, you might think she is Japanese. But actually she only has about a quarter of Japanese ancestry. But Devon Aoki is hot, really hot and super hot! ^^ She played Suki in the first 2 Fast 2 Furious. Cute pink racecar and a hot girl, what more can you ask? :)

In Sin City, one of my all time favorite movies, Devon Aoki played Miho, the silence Katana wielding girl who appeared in the section featuring Clive Owen. Even though she had no dialogue throughout the movie (she didn’t even move her lips one bit!), she was absolutely hot (that’s the fifth time I used ‘hot’ to describe her now ^^). Nice to hear that she will be in Sin City 2 as well, which is under development right now.

As for the movie adaptation of DOA, I don’t think I would watch it if not for Devon Aoki. What is the abbreviation again? Dead or Alive? It’s very much Devon or Aoki for me. Muahahaha~ Nonetheless, Devon Aoki is very young (she an ’82, which means she’s just two years older than me, Ha!), so I’m sure she will have a very promising future as a superstar. I believe pretty soon she will be as shiny as Angelina Jolie, or Keira Knightley.

Familiar Faces in Movies (Part III)

Like the PLAMO Review series, another continuously blog entry I have on Ngeekhiong is Familiar Faces in Movies. If you have little idea of what is it about, you might want to read Part 1 and 2 first.

Also, I'm a lousy person at keeping spoilers after a movie, so please pardon me for exposing a lot of movie details below ^^;

John Neville


(Bottom left) Spider (2002) … Terrence
(Top) The Fifth Element (1997) … General Staedert
(Bottom right) The X Files (1995 – 1998) … The Well-Manicured Man

John Neville is a veteran actor, with many of his movies and TV appearances unfamiliar to me. I first knew him as the Well-Manicured Man from the X Files series I watched when I was still a kid. For me, he looks like a really well mannered senior gentleman, and perhaps the most kind-looking one among the ‘Syndicate’ members in that renowned sci-fi TV series. I guess most of the X-Files fans will only remember the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davies), or Cancer-man as he was called in the first two or three seasons, but John Neville played a much darker role than him, and the conspiracy plot became much complicated at one point when he was overthrew by the ‘Syndicate’ members lead by the Well-Manicured Man.

One thing for sure: in the few movies featuring John Neville, his appearance always conjures a heavy, serious and stern atmosphere moment. In Spider, a movie full of plot twists, John Neville is Terrence, the lead actor’s housemate in a halfway house for the mentally ills. In contrary to his role in the X Files, Terrence is a sad and miserable character, with many emotional scenes in that movie. Even in a sci-fi hit like the Fifth Element, which is full of humor and laughter, John Neville’s brief appearance as General Staedart created some really dark moments when he and his battle cruiser was consumed by the evil force at the beginning of the movie. No mean of disrespect whatsoever to him, but the movie certainly lightens up a lot after his death.

Ian Holm


(Left) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) & The Return of the King (2003)… Bilbo Baggins
(Bottom right) The Fifth Element (1997) … Father Vito Cornelius
(Top right) Alien (1979) … Ash

Another veteran actor as seen in the Fifth Element is Ian Holm, who played Father Vito Cornelius, who is a very funny character, most certainly more cheerful and likeable than John Neville mentioned above.

Most of us would know him as Bilbo Baggins, Frodo’s good old uncle in the Lord of the Rings. If you think about it for a moment, Bilbo’s role is very important to the whole trilogy, since his birthday is the start, while his voyage to the Grey Heaven marks the ending. For your information, years before Peter Jackson adapted the trilogy into the three movies we know of today, Ian Holm also voiced the radio drama version of the Lord of the Rings, and played Bilbo as well. Quite a natural cast for the character, is he not?

For me, the first movie I watched with Ian Holm is Ridley Scott’s famous Alien, where he played Ash the Cyborg doctor. I remember his performance very vividly, because I was as surprise as the other actors in that movie, the moment when it was revealed that Ash is not a living human being. The shock was very much like the moment when the Chestbuster appeared. Gruesome~

Miranda Otto


(Right) War of the Worlds (2005) … Mary Ann
(Left) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) & The Return of the King (2003) … Eowyn

Still on the Lord of the Rings. Now that I think about it, there are really few actresses in the whole trilogy. Cate Blanchett (Lady Galadriel) only appeared for about 15 minutes in all three movies! Most of her time was only in the first movie; Liv Tyler (Arwen) probably had another 15 minutes more than Cate, spending most of the time missing Aragorn in Rivendell. So the actress we get to see most is actually Miranda Otta, who played Eowyn. My favorite scene of Eowyn is her swordfight with the Witch King in the Battle of Pelennor. The moment when she took off her helmet, slammed her sword into the Nazgul’s head and said, “I’m no man” is just classic.

In Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, Miranda Otto had a less significant role as Mary Ann, Tom Cruise’s wife who only appeared briefly at the beginning of the movie (before the alien starts attacking), and at the very end of it (moment of reunion for her family). I don’t suppose her character had any big impact in that movie at all. So naturally, between the two characters, no doubt I like Miranda Otto as Eowyn more.

Marton Csokas


(Right) Kingdom of Heaven (2005) … Guy de Lusignan
(Left) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) … Celeborn

An actor with much lesser time of appearance than Lady Galadriel in the Fellowship of the Ring is Marton Csokas, who played Celeborn. Can’t remember him? He was one of the High Elves of Lothlorien, alongside Lady Galadriel who met the Fellowship after they escaped from Moria. That’s probably it if you only watched the theatrical version. In the Extended Version of the movie, Celeborn was also the one who gave Aragorn an Elven hunting knife before the Fellowship moved on with their journey.

In Kingdom of Heaven, Marton Csokas is Guy de Lusignan (pronounced as Loo-see-neon), the bloodthirsty king of Jerusalem who doomed his kingdom by launching a hasty attack against Saladin’s Saracen army, only to have his army exhausted to death under the hot sun.

It was actually very hard to draw any sense of familiarity between the characters played by Marton Csokas, but his voice gave me the hint to check out his profile on IMDB. In my opinion, he speaks with a slight arrogance and coldness, even as Celeborn. It’s hard to describe in details, lets just say his character is not a very warm and friendly person to have a conversation with. It worked fine for his role as a High Elf, because his race is supposedly way more superior to common men. But as Guy de Lusignan, his gifted voice made him a real villain. However, when it comes to discussing about villain in Kindom of Heaven, there’s one far worse than him.

Brendan Gleeson


(Bottom left) Kingdom of Heaven (2005) … Reynald
(Top Left) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) … Professor Alastor 'Mad­Eye' Moody
(Right) Troy (2004) … Menelaus

Presenting: Guy de Lusignan’s partner in crime in Kingdom of Heaven, Reynald de Chatillon played by Brendan Gleeson. As mentioned above, I think Reynald is much more evil than Guy. He raided Saracen caravan at least twice in the movie, heightening the tension between Saladin and Jerusalem. The second raid unleashed war as Saladin’s sister was among his victims. In history, Reynald did existed, and his evil deeds were quite accurately depicted in the movie as well. Even the way his throat was slashed by an anger-driven Saladin is very much true to the history book.

Brendan Gleeson’s record of being villains in movies also includes Menelaus in Troy. If you only remember characters like Achilles, Hector, Helen, or even Ajax from the movie, I don’t blame you. Menelaus was the husband of Helen, who ran away with Paris. During the beginning of the Trojan War, he was KO-ed by Hector in swordfight, which was supposedly between him and Paris. Anyway, I don’t suppose anymore missed him after his death at all.

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you would probably remember Brendan Gleeson as Professor Alastor 'Mad­Eye' Moody as well. I can’t comment much on that role, since I didn’t watch any of the Harry Potter movies. Anyway, when he is shaved, Brendon Gleeson doesn’t look like a villain at all.

Vincent Regan


(Bottom) 300 (2006) … Captain
(Top) Troy (2004) … Eudorus

One thing I don’t get it at all, actors like Brendan Gleeson and Brian Cox get to be the villains most of the time because of their huge figure, which makes them look naturally fitting as obese greedy kings and knights. But what’s the logical explanation for Vincent Regan for getting he roles as second in command of an elite army squadron twice. Not to mention that in both movies, he fought for ancient Greek. Is it just an odd coincidence, or maybe not from the casting crew’s point of view? In Troy and 300, Vincent Regan played the second-in-command for the lead heroes. He is the captain of the Myrmidons under Achilles in Troy, and the Captain of the Spartan army under King Leonidas in 300.

Nathan Jones


(Top left) Huo Yuan Jia (2006) … Hercules O'Brien
(Bottom) Troy (2004) … Boagrius
(Top right) WWE … himself

I watched quite a bit of WWE a few years back, and witnessed quite a few good wrestlers come and go, and Nathan Jones is certainly one of them. I only remember him in a tag team match with the Undertaker (back then still in his ‘American Badass’ silhouette) at Wrestler Mania. Like The Rock (Mummy II, The Scorpion King) and Triple H (Blade III), Nathan Jones did some acting as well. However, the muscleman’s role in the two movies seems to be of much less significant than what his predecessors got on screen.

To be honest, I only know him in Troy, where he played Boagrius the warrior killed by Achilles at the beginning of the movie. Nathan Jones is quite a tall man, and the scene where he walked out from the Greek formation to meet Achilles is just unbelievable, the other soldiers were just too tiny as compared to him. In real life, I don’t suppose Brad Pitt who played Achilles has any chance of touching Nathan Jones in a real fight :)

I saw Natahn Jones again on the poster for Jet Li’s Fearless (Huo Yuan Jia is the Mandarin title) last year, and his role was again limited as a one-one-one stage brawler against Jet Li, very much like what he does best in WWE. Not sure if he survived the fight, but I don’t think I will ever bother to check it out anyway. Even though Jet Li proclaimed that Fearless would be his final martial art movie, I have no interest to watch it at all. From what I read, the story is 180 degree different from the actual martial artist’s biography, in a bad way some more. It’s more like a close-to-mindless action movie flashing Jet Li’s name, which you will forget as soon as you get out of the cinema.

That's all for Part III, Part IV is coming up tomorrow~

PLAMO Review 18: MG ReGZ

It’s being a long time since the last update on my PLAMO reviews. The last entry was on Action Display Stand, which is not exactly a PLAMO anyway. Right now, apart from writing more updates, I’m thinking of new ways to make future reviews more interesting as well, including today’s entry on Master Grade RGZ-91 ReGZ.


Front and rear views of ReGZ
A bit of background information on ReGZ: appeared in Char’s Counterattack, ReGZ is short for ‘Refined Gundam Zeta’, and as the name depicts, it’s a further developed variation of the renowned Zeta Gundam used by the forces of AEUG in their campaign against the Titans in UC0087, some 6 years before the event Char’s Counterattack took place in the Earth Sphere.

The ‘refinement’ done on ReGZ can be summarized as adding of more firepower to both its MS and ‘Waverider’ mode. ReGZ is also being developed with the consideration of mass producing the MS. As a result, the ‘Waverider’ feature is built as a separate unit from the main body of ReGZ, called BWS (Backpack Weapon System). So, ReGZ is not a fully transformable MS like its predecessor. Instead, it can only dock with the BWS for higher mobility, and will have to eject it to convert to its MS mode. I guess the only benefit for not incorporating the full transformation feature is to allow separate units of the MS and ReGZ to be constructed at the same time. As a result, the BWS seems more like a sophisticated Base Jabber in my opinion.


Even an unmanned BWS can get upset on his own :-D
In Char’s Counterattack, ReGZ was initially Londo Bell ace pilot Amuro Ray’s unit. In a failed mission to stop the drop of asteroid ‘Fifth’ onto Earth, ReGZ saw action against Char’s Sazabi, and managed to shoot off a leg of Gyunei Guss’s Jadg Doga as well. Realizing ReGZ’s abilities was still insufficient against the forces of Neo Zeon, Amuro upgraded to his final MS, Nu Gundam, and ReGZ was passed to the golden-haired squadron leader Kayra Su, and sadly, it became her final MS as well. The story of ReGZ did not end after Kayra Su’s death, as Anaheim Electronic’s engineer Chan Agi would pilot a badly damaged ReGZ close to the end of war and managed to destroy Quess Paraya’s massive MA Alpha Azieru before going down herself.

As for the MG model, it’s the third installment after Sazabi and Nu Gundam. I have to admit that when I bought this model three or four years back, Char’s Counterattack was not on my list of watched Gundam anime yet. The main reason for the purchase was of course the docking feature with the BWS. Also, as with the other two models from Char’s Counterattack, ReGZ’s is taller and bigger than other models of the same scale, so the proportion of the model is another attraction.

The division of colors for the model is also brilliant. The interior of all the thrusters are molded in yellow, so painting can pretty much be omitted. Even if you’re keen on painting your models, the color division of the parts can help you to save a lot of masking tapes.

The joints of the ReGZ are very sturdy, and since this is a 2001 model, screws are still used for its knee joints. Speaking of screws, they seem to be quite nostalgic now, eh? Since it’s very much a standard for Gunpla nowadays not to have any more screws. In terms of details, the legs of ReGZ reveal a nicely detailed inner frame (again, no more surprise given the standard of present MGs). I personally like the details on the back of the shield very much. They made the simple shield looks more sophisticated, but you’ll need to paint the details for it to look nice.


The inner frame of the leg
The specialties of ReGZ include a removable visor, which reveals bits of the interior in its head.


But I wonder what the real purpose of that feature anyway?
Also, the design of the hip grenade launchers, which takes down Alpha Azieru is also quite cool.


Panel lining each of the tiny grenades are not cool though +_+
The backpack mounting the beam saber is another cool stuff, since it features a link mechanism, which allows the beam saber to pop out when you open the caps of the backpack. Like how I’m very excited with how the eye of MG Zaku II Ver. 2.0 will move when its head turns, the backpack of ReGZ is quite a fun thing to play with.


Just make sure you don’t play with it too much and break them instead

And now let’s talk about the BWS: It’s quite big actually, even without the docking of ReGZ. The best thing about it is that the parts meant to cover ReGZ’s shoulders in Waverider mode are molded as single pieces, almost like two nutshells without any ugly parting line. Then again, the BWS has very little use when it’s idle, except sitting on a little display stand, which comes along with the model. The same display stand is also used for the MA mode as well.


Side views of the BWS, I don't see much connection with Zeta Gundam in it at all


Size comparison of the BWS with ReGZ
Speaking of the MA mode, the docking process is relatively simple, considering that it’s not a full transformation as seen in Zeta Gundam. Personally, I think the MA is quite ugly :( as the entire head of ReGZ is revealed within the shield. Also, another downside, and a serious one as well: parts of the BWS covering ReGZ shoulders can easily scratch off the decals during the docking process, and you’ll have to face the same risk when converting it back to the MS mode. Ouch! Be careful of that. For my model, I’ll need Char’s Counterattack’s waterslide decal to salvage ReGZ shoulder decal now *_*;; which is why you won’t see any of the docked BWS in this review. Sorry to disappoint you, I’m just provide image link to Dalong.net to show you his ReGZ instead.
- BWS Pic 1
- BWS Pic 2
- BWS Pic 3
- BWS Pic 4
- BWS Pic 5
- BWS Pic 6
- BWS Pic 7

So, continuing from above, I’m onto the negative review of the kit ^^; Apart from the interior of the shield which needs painting, the twin grenade packs in the forearms of ReGZ also need painting, since they are molded in grey. Without Gundam marker, painting red on grey did make me went crazy for a while back in those days.

And onto the armaments, if you’re an ammo maniac, or if you’re looking for the massive array of weapons as seen in MG Kampfer, then ReGZ is definitely not for you. The hand held weapons for ReGZ include the shield, a beam rifle, a shield, and… no more. Haha!


Can't blame the kit though, these are all the weapons ReGZ used in story
Personally, I’m not sure what’s wrong with the mecha design of ReGZ, but the armaments are really small. The beam saber seems to disappear into ReGZ’s hand when he is holding it. I was complaining that the beam sabers of MG Aile Strike Gundam are small, but the ones for ReGZ are much smaller. And the beam rifle, it’s a real featherweight for a MG!


The beam rifle's so small, it looks much better on my HGUC Rick Dias!
OK, since he’s not very happy anymore, I’ll wrap up with him in a few action poses.





Standing with the 'dai-kor' (big brothers) from Char’s Counterattack.



Interested? MG ReGZ is priced at 4,000 Yen (around RM 140). Get it to complete the MG Char’s Counterattack series.

Fernando Torres is Liverpool's New No. 9

From BBC Sport, Liverpool just sealed their biggest deal in the Premiership transfer market through Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid at a club record of 20 million Pound. However, the transfer fee may be much higher, 26.5 million pound according to another report. Nonetheless, Fernando Torres is a very promising player who has great reputation for both his previous club and on international level for Spain. Current Spain manger, Luis Aragones once commented him as a player who "never scores two goals the same". Wuhhuh, how stylish can that be. His appearance will surely improve the club's chance of winning their first Premiership title next season.


Torres is called 'El Nino', or The Kid in Spain because of his baby-face. Image from BBC Sport.
Torres will be wearing jersey No. 9 in Liverpool now, a number previously worn by the best strikers of Liverpool, including Robbie Fowler and Ian Rush. The history of the number alone can tell just how much expectation is being put on Torres's shoulders, or maybe I should say his legs and head.

While Torres joined Liverpool from Spain, another Spanish Liverpool player goes home. Luis Garcia is now off to Atletico Madrid at a transfer fee of 4 million pound. This transfer is said to be part of the deal for Torres to join Liverpool. Garcia in my perception, is a very small frame player, but very versatile and skillful on the pitch. He is perhaps one of the best wingers after Steve McManaman. Among the honors on his report card in Liverpool include the Champions League champions in 2005. Liverpool fans will surely miss him.


A highly unusual Garcia-goal-celebration style, usually he would suck his thumb after scoring XD. Image from Liverpoolfc.tv

MG Turn A - the Most Human-like Model of All?

I can definitely understand why Bandai chose Turn A as MG 100 now. It's both mechanical and organic for a Gundam, so the burden was for Bandai to create a Gunpla which is harmonic in both ends. Since most MG releases in the are able to mimic human actions, and I would say, very mechanical but quite successfully nonetheless, MG Turn A not only needs to have these actions, but must be more human-like as well.

But Bandai being Bandai never fails to impress. Just look at the leg design: even I can't stand so elegantly :-D I remember one of the design sketches for Turn A many many years ago when it was initially launched, which looks exactly like this photo! Many many thumbs up for Bandai and MG Turn A.

Image is sent to my email by a friend. Thanks in advance to anyone who can verify the source.


Yes, folks, the cow is indeed included XD


An unbelievable pose for a model o_O

Funny Signboards

Thanks to my friend, Michie who likes to email me funny stuff, though I never bother to forward them to my other friends. Haha ^^;; One of the recent laughters I received were some funny signboards, not sure how real are they, but are funny nonetheless~

Just for laughter ^_^


A very honest shop owner :-D


That means if there's any accident involving this machine, you can't blame it as the only one being brainless eh?


Just in case a 'professional dancer' boards the train ^^


Look! A dog-friendly signboard, but you'll have to teach your dog ABC first right?


Yeah, that right! Just squash the little fellas, don't turn them into second-hand smokers.


Are they protecting the people or the animals?

FG Gundam 00 and Others

Here's more information regarding the upcoming Gunpla series for Gundam 00. While most of the time we only get to see the FG prototypes and the tiny Gundam Collection figures, Gundam 00 will definitely be featured other product lines as well. According to Hobby Shop Midori, Gundam Excia, the main Gundam will be out in the following versions:
- HCM-Pro (October, 2,415 Yen - inclusive of 5 percent tax)
- HG (1,050 Yen)
- 1-100 scale (2,310 Yen)
- 1-60 scale (N/A)

Anyway, this time we can have a good look at what to expect from the FG line. Like I mentioned before, articulation is bad, and the color division of the models is poor. The prices for these models are very low, so they are very suitable for Gunpla starters. All images are from Hobby Shop Midori.






Coming out in September, the FGs are the first series of Gunplas from Gundam 00 to be released. After that, we have the HCM-Pro version in October. The first two HCM-Pro Gundam 00 figures are Gundam Excia and Gundam Dynames, both are priced at 2,415 Yen.




Does that HCM-Pro Gundam Dynames laying down on Sniper Mode reminds you of another mecha? Sure does for me! It looks just like Evangelion Unit 01 using a high-energy positron rifle in one episode of the series!