Medicom Toy has just launched a new be@rbrick dedicated to Alexander Girard. After the release of 2008, the giant Japanese Toys now presents a second format be@rbrick 200% features a visual and the signature of one of the largest designers and pattern makers of the twentieth century.
The ‘Chogokin International Love Heart’ is a limited edition of only 100 pieces and is now available at Colette.

Just messing around with some new acquisitions… Takara’s 1/72 dual-model Dougram figures.  Die-cast skeletons with plastic armor parts and fantastic articulation and detail make for a win in my book.

Mostly SIC updates. Definitely would want to own the KR Kabuto SIC. That Chogokin Drossel looks interesting though.

• SIC Kamen Rider Kabuto, January 2010, 5,775 yen
• SIC Kamen Rider Dark Kabuto, Gatack, March 2010, price TBA
• Tamashii Nation: Chogokin Drossel, February 2010, 8,400 yen
• SIC Kamen Rider Decade, November 2009, 5,775 yen
• Deformover Alteisen Nacht, February 2010, 5,800 yen
• MG GN-X, January 2010, 3,780 yen

As for the MG GN-X, that’s an interesting release. I kind of expected MG treatment on some other mecha from the Gundam 00 series but I guess Bandai figured it’s the right time to release and antagonist mobile suit as a Master Grade release.

NCS Preorder Synopsis
«©NCSX» Our private collection of “Soul of Chogokin” toys contains robots like Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, Dancougar, and Raideen. We’ve got a few Evangelion in there along with a King Joe toy too. Still waiting for a Voltes repaint but maybe we’ll get one in 2012 when the Mayan calendar ends.

NCS never thought we’d see Disney’s Drossel join the Soul of Chogokin series but she’s coming. Drossel measures 18cm or 7.08″ tall and is packaged with helm attachments that bolt onto Drossel’s head. Five pairs of hands are also included so Drossel can be expressive. Her facial expression is pretty much non-existent so she’ll have to signal her mood with finger jive. Preorders are welcome to ship in mid-late February 2010 at JPY8400 or US$92.90 from NCS.

Vinyl figures conquer the shelves!  Phil Reed’s (from Battlegrip.com) gonna hate this update… he’s currently trying to keep himself from falling off the vinyl cliff, and here I am pushing just about every robot toy I own out of the way for more vinyl!  I’ve got standard-sized Kaiju up the wazoo… I’ve got a separate space for unpainted M1 Kaiju, sort of as holding area for them, and then a Max Toy Co shelf, with more Neo Eyezons on the way, and an ‘everything else’ standard-sized shelf.  On the bottom is the Real X Head shelf… I’ve been having alot of fun seeing all the different colorways out there… especially in the Chaos family.  Of note are the two Mark Nagata handpaints, Toybot Studios Rock and Roll Kemur Seijin, the SDCC Goto-san painted Drazoran, M1 Lucky Bag Red Ultraman, and the awesome Superfest Kikaida paint-scheme Chaos Adult.

Edit: threw a fight pic on the end.

I discovered the other day there’s a new game coming out called Tatsunoko vs Capcom, which features Tekkaman Blade. Also, it’s getting released outside Japan. Do I even need to tell you why this is awesome?

There’s also a Soul of Chogokin Tekkaman Blade on the horizon, and it’s awesome.

And yet guess which country you can’t even buy Tekkaman Blade on DVD? Yeah, that’s right. MY country. Such is life that I’m forced to turn to the interwebs to enjoy the majesty that is Tekkaman Blade.

Onto the episode, anyway: This episode we’re actually given a bit of backstory: Turns out the humans built a huge space station to explore the stars and it was taken over by the afformentioned nasties. D-Boy is lucky enough to remember just enough to be able to turn into Tekkaman Blade and wipe out a considerable number of them, which works out well for the humans as it seems they don’t have a single weapon capable of defeating them and until this point were more or less screwed. Tekkaman Dagger is around however, forcing Tekkaman Blade to duel him once again.

Spiffy:

• No idea why, but I really love that harpoon-on-a-rope attack.
• Tekkaman Dagger is able to turn his blade into a bow-and-arrow, which is pretty sweet.
• Tekkaman Blade lays waste to Dagger pretty considerably, ending with a massive laser blast from his shoulders.

Iffy:

• D-Boy has acquired what I’m going to refer to as “Selective Amnesia” – He doesn’t remember anything other than how to fight as Tekkaman Blade pretty well. I’ve never seen a character tell another character “I have amnesia, I can’t remember” before.
• I’m totally never going to get one of those Soul of Chogokin Tekkaman Blades.

Good second episode, I’m really liking this series so far. I really hope we get it over here in Aus some time soon, and NOT under the “Teknoman” guise because that would be lame. With Tatsunoko vs Capcom coming out hopefully there’s some more interest in these old shows and we can see some of them released.

Happy Children’s Day to me! Even though I’m not a ‘children’ anymore… yeah… Anyways, it is indeed a Happy Children’s Day for me as my second musume arrives from the land of the rising sun! If you haven’t identified her yet, whe is none other than Ranka Lee, one of the two songstress(es?) of Macross Frontier, that sang alongside Sheryl Nome.

Today marks another special event as well. This is the first time I’m actually attempting to do a figure photoshoot with an SLR Camera, a Nikon D200 to be exact, and I hope the pictures turn out well! (^.^)

I was exceedingly elated when a package containing the above box arrived on my doorstep today. After Asuna, Ranka was the next doll that I knew I had to get. Ranka here is a Doll in Megahouse’s Limited Action Figure Collection line. They have also previously released a Sheryl doll in this line. Being a limited edition figure, I was afraid that I had missed out on the opportunity on getting her, thankfully, I managed to find a terrific deal on Yahoo! Auctions Japan that was too good to pass up. (^o^)

The box that Ranka comes in is a traditional Monochrome design, indicating a limited edition figure. The front face features Ranka in various poses.

The bottom of the box features the Macross Frontier Series logo at the top right hand corner. Ranka’s name is at the bottom left hand corner of the box, while the Magahouse logo, Megatrea Online Shop logo, Limited Action Figure Collection logo and the sticker of authenticity is also on the bottom of the box as well.

The side just sports a ‘Macross Frontier’.

…and the top has the usual warnings and so on.

The box is surprisingly massive. I would have never guessed that it was this big just by looking at the official pictures.

The box has a simple flip open lid. I do like the design.

Here’s Ranka!

Looking at the internal layout of the box, I have to say that it is pretty well done. The orange color scheme compliments Ranka’s school uniform very well, and the twist ties do hold Ranka solidly in place so there’s no worry of her flopping around during transport. I’ve also noticed that the orange bottom does simulate a stage.

Ranka’s name is in the lower right hand corner, along with the words ‘Action Figure Collection Limited’.

A closer look at Ranka In-Package.

The top section is separate from the box and is elevated by a cardboard support.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that what I first believed to be regular Hasbro-grade twist ties, turned out to be elastic strings that have metal bars at the end. Great touch as this will allow one to display Ranka back in her box even after she has been taken out before.

~Figure Photoshoot~

Releasing her from her bondage (wow that didn’t come out right…), Ranka’s genki and bubbly personality translates well to her doll representation of herself. Her lively persona complimented by her orange school uniform, that also fits well with her Green hair. The figure is exceptionally accurate to her original animated counterpart.

Back of the doll.

The details on this doll are indeed superb. We can see the individual strings on the back of Ranka’s skirt that are tied up nicely in a ribbon.

Great details up front as well. The school logo and badge are seen on her socks and her uniform.

POSE TIME!

The S.M.S. wants you!

So, as can be seen, the articulation on her is simply astounding. I’d expect nothing less from a figure of this caliber. While the visible joints do bother some people, I don’t find them intrusive at all.

Niang~Niang~

In the immortal words of Misato: ‘Service~su, service~su!”

The only imperfections on the figure are some slight paint transfers. A speck of orange paint on her hair and some green paint on her ribbon.

~Accessories~

Unlike Asuna, Ranka does come with a number of accessories, including 2 pairs of exchangable hands, Ai-Kun and Ranka’s phone. Sadly, no ‘Kira~’ hands were included.

"Nyaa~" "Squee~" They are actually talking about the secreets of the universe.

Ai-Kun, Ranka’s pet, is made of PVC and is nicely detailed.

Same goes for Ranka’s phone.

The hands are connected via simple pegs and the fingers are made of a flexible material. You can place a number of thins in her hands and it holds on pretty well.

The obligatory 'figure holding figure' picture that everyone seems to love, but this time, it's a figure holding a figure holding a laptop.

In conclusion, I have to say that I’m really impressed and pleased with this figure. It has great articulation, stunning details, nice but simple accessories and it’s really accurate to her show counterpart. The figure is sadly an online exclusive to the Megatrea Online Shop and made in limited quantities, so she’s pretty hard to find now, but I do highly recommend her and do pick her up if you have the chance. As I’ve said previously, there is also a Sheryl doll, but I’m not that huge of a fan of Sheryl and I would have preferred if they had provided Sheryl with her stage outfit instead.

Well, that’s it for this review and I do hope that the pictures were alright, just got my hands on the camera and I’m still learning the ropes. Will definitely get a some extra lights or set up a photobooth in the near future to get rid of those shadows. (^.^)

Here’s Ranka with her famous song to end this review:

Fotos de astina88 Tomadas del Foro de Toys Daily

Two of my pickups from the awesome East Coast Chogokin Summit this weekend!  Onda Jeeg is an elusive and funky cheapie figure, and the Magnemo Acroyear is part of a massive Magnemo set that was a gift from the gracious host.

What more can I say? The SOC SPECs by Bandai are definitely THE figures of the Evangelion units. Forget Revoltech, forget the original Soul of Chogokin figures, you need to own this if you consider yourself a fan of Evangelion.

Part 1:

I shall be talking about the packaging, manual and articulation of the figure as well as showing the steps to don the armor of the Evangelion Eva 01.

Part 2:

An indept look at the figure and the accessories.

———

Ah, also changed the intro to include the Mid-Childa Magic circle and phased out the old ‘Actar’s Reviews’ logo. You won’t believe how much work was needed to animate the circle with just Windows Movie Maker from just a still image. (^.^;)

This video was viewer requested and released early to celebrate the 2000 sub milestone for Actar’s Reviews.

Pics of my shelves seem to have become pretty popular, so here’s an update including much better pics of my vinyl shelves, and the bottom shelf totally redone with my TF big-guns in anticipation of some new stuff coming!  Right now I’m loving the Max Toy Co and glow display on my nightstand.

SOC GX-47 Energer Z (del anime Shin Mazinger) agosto 2009 – 6300yen

SOC GX-49 Shin Mazinger octubre 2009 – 8800yen

SOC GX-50 Combattler V – diciembre 2009 ? 17800 yen

Habrá una versión SOC GX-50S con la base Nanbara… (diciembre 2009? 27800 yen)

SOC GX-51 Getter Dragon (De Shin Getter Robo) – noviembre 2009? 7500yen

Info Adicional

Releasing in July of 2009 is MEDICOM TOY and Bandai’s follow-up Chogokin-style Bearbrick. Originally conceived in white, this black version comes in at a relatively rare 200% size. A+

My current shelf setup… a combination of real robots in scale and the vintage super robots I’ve been accumulating lately, along with some vinyls and vintage Transformers.

Just messing around with some various things that have come in on a lazy Saturday morning before work… I went to wrok on a big model the other day and found that my spray-gun’s air hose was broken, so I’m spinning my wheels until the replacement hose shows up, and since I was ordering I ended up buying the Badger 200-20 single-action fine detail airbrush, which works just like the spray gun, and hopefully will open a number of new techniques to me once I get a handle on it!

Energer-Z ….. otra vez…… Esta gente no entiende que la economía está mala y comprar todos estos modelos va a quebrar a uno?

EnergerZ the prototype model for MazingerZ makes its grand appearance in the all new anime series, “Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact!”. In this all new Chogokin, EnergerZ’s signature motorcycle pilot seat on head and slope back (cape/ramp via which the motorcycle climbs to the head) are recreated in precise detail. Entirely new tooling and design from GX-7E.

Product Details:
- stands apprx. 6.3″
- included with figure:
- back ramp
- bike
- display stand
Product Number: TOY10337
Shipping Weight: 2.80 pounds