The Wild Bear of Russia- Completed?!

Alrightt, so here comes the first review of 2011, the HG Beargguy! Got this bear yesterday at a 20% discount and I managed to finish it late at night. Since I’ve just built the original Acguy, the constuction of this bear wasn’t really much for me and I just sat on my sofa for a relaxing and easy build. 😀

However, while browsing through the net few days ago, I got an idea to do a “custom” bear of mine, and yeap, the Wild Bear of Russia!! ^^;

As you all might know, the Wild Bear of Russia, Sergei Simrinov (totally screwed the last name…), has a trademark scar on the left eye. This idea hit me and I wanted the bear to have the same scar. With almost no planning and a really noobish skill, I started scribbing some lines onto the bear’s face and then went on with some silver paint.

The results were pretty great for me, just that the middle extension and the bottom should be much longer, but that doesn’t really matter. ^^; I’m pretty happy with the results I got and so now I got my very own Russian Bear! 😀

Despite being just a bear, this guy still retains almost all of Acguy’s weapons, but also added some of its own. 😀

The missile launchers on the hands still works fine. In addition to that, there is also a schoolbag on the back of the bear with a recorder hanging on the side. The bag is filled with missiles while the recorder fires beams together with the eyes! This is definitely not the regular school BEAR!

However, no matter how I look at it, Sergei really doesn’t need a school bag! 😀

The HG Acguy was famed for its articulation and partial inner frame and same goes for the bear. With such great articulation, this bulky bear can kneel with no difficulty at all. What’s more, the mouth can open up and reveal teeths, but mostly importantly, this opening mouth is for firing the beam recorder although you can’t do it with this model. ^^; However one downside of the bear is that the mono eye tends to fall off really easily. This tiny little piece might seem to click in really well, but it only stays there loosely, I almost lost it twice!

And with absolutely no reason at all, here’s a random picture of the bears I found lying around in my house. Sheesh, this is getting out of hand already!

Anyway, here’s the end of my look at the bear. Definitely a great model and a highly recommended kit. It has a really great bear look to it, which it obviously one of its main selling points, great articulation, highly customisable, you can really do almost anything you want with it!

However, there are still downsides to this kit and even the bear can’t escape my bashing! The tiny monoeye piece tends to fall of really easily. The model is also a little too pricey, the original Acguy is like round S$8 cheaper! 1890yen seems to be the standard price for HG nowadays and I can tell you that it’d continue to rise in the future. 😦

So yeap, that’s all for this post, hope you’ve enjoyed this post.

Till the next post! RAWR! 😀

2010 in review!

Just recieved this from WordPress about my blog and I thought I should share it with you guys. 😀

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 3 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 60 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 677 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2gb. That’s about 2 pictures per day.

The busiest day of the year was September 1st with 185 views. The most popular post that day was Gundam Fiesta 2010 @ Compass Point!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were chubbybots.wordpress.com, plamo-world.blogspot.com, donnygunpla.wordpress.com, WordPress Dashboard, and gunstray.blogspot.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for plamo world, reborns gundam, gundam fiesta 2010, gundam 00 trailblazer, and a wakening of the trailblazer.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Gundam Fiesta 2010 @ Compass Point! September 2010
15 comments

2

Gundam 00: A wakening of the Trailblazer thoughts September 2010
4 comments

3

HG Gundam 00 Qan[T]- Completed! September 2010
4 comments

4

Completed works! March 2010

5

Reborns Gundam- Completed! March 2010
3 comments

Not bad for 2010, I might get much busier in 2011 but I will try to keep this blog going. ^^;

Till the next post!

Updates for the week!

Alright, Christmas is over and I’m sure many have a great time. Instead of having a feast or party, I spent my Christmas on the computer and completing some Gunpla projects of mine. 😀

I did bought some new kits, the HGAW Gundam X and the HGUC Acguy. Those two are awesome kits that I cant miss. I wanted to get the the SD 00 Qan[T], the Standard Brave or the Bearacgguy but only the Brave was in stock, so I decided to pass it on for now and go for the X and the Acguy.

I’ve already finished the Acguy and I’ve to say it’s a pretty damn good model. Being a 2007 model, it’s amazing to see that there are inner frame for the limbs and a mono-eye that can go anywhere you want. Although not much polycaps are used for this model, it stood up pretty well and there are no loose joints so far. The ball joints connecting the arms are VERY stiff and it could be quite a pain to exchange these arm pieces. ^^;

But still, the features and looks of the Acguy are still really awesome. With this Acguy in my hands, I already looking forward to get the Bearacgguy next! 😀

Now for some “mod” projects of mine, here’s the Proto 0 Gundam I’ve been working on. Still left with some minor cleaning up and a nice flat coat and the model’s done. 🙂

So yeap, that’s pretty much the Proto 0 Gundam. I’d be doing a full post on it pretty soon. 😀

Other than the 0 Gundam, I’m also working on another antagonist suit to go along with my 00 Gundam II, Cherudim Stealth, Seravee Kai, Astrea Type F2/M and the Proto 0 Gundam, and that’s the Gadessa! 😀

I decided to add some green accents to allow it to have some colour differences with the orignal Gadessa. I also added Throne Zwei’s trademark Buster Sword and Beam Saber onto this guy. Everything is looking pretty good right now, just some cleaning up will do. ^^;

Anyway this has been one of my “forgotten” project for quite some time but I finally managed to get around and complete it just yesterday. I might be doing a full post on it and its backstory like the 0 Gundam but that can wait. ^^;

Alright, that’s pretty much all for this post.

Till the next post! 😀

RG Char’s Zaku II- Completed!

I should have post this up already but I just got really busy with other stuff that I don’t even have time for any Gunpla or blogging here. ^^;

Anyway, today’s post would be on the RG Char’s Zaku II. And well, this kit did impressed me and it had somehow changed my views of the RG line alittle. 😀

First off, lets start with the all the contents of the box. I bought an extra red action base to go along with the trademark red colour scheme of Char and his Zaku II. I got both of them at the Takashimaya Christmas fair thingy, where all the Gundam displays of the BMKWC are displayed at. The fair is still going on but some of the kits are already sold out due to the crazy discounts, so yeah, be there fast if there’s stuff you want. 😀

The manual of this second RG model is also relatively different from the Gundam. There are black and white pages showing the stats, mechanics and all the information and whatnots about Char’s Zaku II. Not bad 😀

Like any MG Zakus, this RG Zaku also have beads that needs to go through springs and plastic rods to act as hoses. the inner frame this time round is also a little different from the Gundam, and that’s a good thing. 😀

Moving on to the model itself, I didn’t take any pictures of it in any crazy action poses but only a few shots of the Gundam and the Zaku together in thier shooting stances in different angles as I don’t wanna go through all the hassle to get them in the right pose. ^^;

And from here on, I would be talking about the positives and negatives of the model itself. 😀

For the good points, there are many. First off, the Zaku have its full inner frame with really realistic pipes around its body. This has already become a trademark of the RG line, so that might not be much of a deal.

Secondly, the mono-eye of the Zaku can rotate itself with you just turning the head. For example, when the head goes left, the monoeye would rotate to the left too without you rotating it. This feature had already been in many MG kits already but it’s nice to see it in the 1/144 scale too. The cockpit also opens up just like the Gundam, but unlike its MG counterpart, only one side opens up. And well, there isn’t any pilot/ figure in the cockpit so the Zaku remains unmanned all the time. ^^;

Unlike the Gundam, the Zaku II have hands and fingers that are much more solid and steady. And well, I’ve managed to place the weapons on to its hands and all of them worked. What’s more, none of the fingers fell out this time round. That’s a really great improvement from the first RG as it can be really annonying when parts that small falls off when you are trying to get the model a nice pose. ^^;

Enough with the positives, here are the negatives. The decals might look really great when all of them are applied on the model, but I doubt many would go through the hassle to place them on or even get all of them right. I don’t really care about placing the right decals at the right place and I just followed my own way. The results are still really great despite ripping several decals during the process. ^^; The metallic stickers does looks really great, but due to thier tiny sizes, they don’t stay on well, and they can be ripped really easily too. So yeah, the decals on the RG models might look really nice on the boxart and stuff, but there are not as easy to apply on as you thought. ^^;

The parts falling problem seems to have inherited onto the Zaku II from the Gundam too. Some parts really like to fall off, especially panels and the skirt armours. Luckily, the parts that fall off are not as much as compared to the Gundam. So yeap, at least there are some improvements being made. ^^;

So yeap, it seems that the RG Char’s Zaku II still retains some of the great features of the Gundam, but also inherited most of it negative points. But overall, I think there is a really great improvement for the Zaku II. I managed to get everything right, except the decals, and the parts falling problem seems to have ceased a little bit.

I really do recommend this model to others who think that RG might not be as great as they think as the model have changed my views of the RG line. I would still be getting any future RG models and I’m sure the next one would be a green Zaku II since it seems to be a common theme going on for the releases of model kits.

So yeap, that’s pretty much all I can say for this model. Not bad, for the second RG model kit, improvements are being made despite inheriting some of the flaws from Gundam. ^^;

Till the next post1

HG Brave (Commander Test Type)- Completed!

Graham’s definitely very brave in his Brave to kamikaze and help Setsuna solve a misunderstanding. 😀

Anyway, here’s Graham Aker’s final suit. No more Bushido style, just plain awesomeness of a transformable, bamboo type MS! ^^; I don’t about you guys but is the Brave like a downgrade? The Masurao and Susanowo all have thier own unique features and designs etc. Despite being much more superior than its two predessecors, the Brave is still some sort of a grunt suit, as you can see they are mass-produced (in test-type too!) but at least Graham gets the Commander one, not too bad. ^^;

Even so, I still really like the design of the MS as it goes all the way back during the Flag, Enact era but also having some features of a GN-Drive powered unit. Anyway, enough of the rantings, lets see how the Brave, in its model kit form fare. 😀

The Brave has the generic beam saber and a beam rifle with a name called Drake Howling(?). The Beam Saber came in white like the Exia did but the results of painting it is great! The Drake Howling beam rifle has two barrels that can be placed in two different ways to have it shoot regular beams or giantic beams. There is also a mode where the barrels are removed to have it in machinegun form but I don’t think it deserves to go on screen. ^^;

Oh and I really have no idea what the name of the rifle relates too, maybe some fallen comrades again? 

Frankly speaking, I’m quite impressed by the articulation and the sturdiness of the model itself. When I knew it was another polycap-less model, I had a feeling of DejaVu of the older Flag and Enact models and I’m really scared that the joints would all go loose again. Despite that, I bought the model just for the sake that it’s an all new model from the movie.

However, the completed model changed my views for it. The joints stood up really well and there’s still no loose joints so far. The pegs connects are very smooth and well articulated for really dramatic action poses. It seems that Bandai really improved thier polycap-less technology throughtout this 3 years(?) and this model really proves it. The model is indeed holding up really well, but being a transformable MS, I wonder does the fiddling of all the joints and all the movement for dramatic poses would wear off the joints as time pass. Nonetheless, I still have doubts and fears about polycap-less models ..^^;

The alternate mode of the Brave is  basically a very futuristic type of a space jet. It’s actual name is Cruise Position, sounds awkward, but yeah, there it is. ^^;

The Cruise Positon can have side wings coming out and act as blades, slashing enemies by its side. The rifle can still go to its cannon mode and spam beams. If my memory serves me right, the Brave shot a giantic beam and wipe out a huge number of ELS just like what Seravee did to the Gaga forces, erasing them to dust!

The transformign process was rather smooth, only that I got a hard time to do the waist as I was rather dumb at that point. ^^;

This MA mode is pretty good, much better comapred to Flags or Enacts, its sturdy, the design is good and the rifle helps to cover up the face really really well. 😀

So yeap, I’m pretty much done with the Brave. This is defintely another must-get kit for me as one of the reason is that it is a 00 kit, but that’s not the main point. The Brave surpassed my expectations for it and it really impressed me and I should really give a thumbs up for all its features, articulation and the polycap-less joints. I’ve already set my mind to get the Brave Standard Test-Type, maybe even 2 or 3 or 4! But that’s gotta wait. ^^;

Anyway, I’m currently working on a project of mine, the Proto 0 Gundam Weapons Test Type! 😀

Everything’s almost done, just some more painting, detailing and maybe some gluing will do. I was working on it at top speed until the Brave pulled me away and I kinda stopped on this guy. I’m not too sure if I would be able to finish it before school reopens as the backlogs I have are rather tempting.

So yeappp, hope you guys enjoyed this post.

Till the next post! 😀