Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Wondercon 2010: Friday & Saturday

Following up on my post about Wondercon. This time for Friday and Saturday. So, Friday I helped out at the Toyslogic booth. The crew and I met at around 7am at the TL warehouse and grabbed whatever we needed before heading out to the Moscone Center. We got there at around 8:30 am and met up with 2 guys who were helping out that day as well. We finished setting up and got the booth ready for some figure selling.

The dealer hall opened at 10 am and in less than a minute we saw people flocking in and checking things out. People came up and took a look at the figures laid out on the tables and shelves. They asked questions about figures and their prices, and they generally bought stuff. There were some cheap figures there that normally went for almost double the price. Those figures sold well. It pretty much went on like that until 7pm when the dealer hall closed. We restocked some items and covered up the booth before grabbing dinner at a French restaurant with a live Jazz band. It was pretty cool and the food was alright. However, the past week of hard work and long hours took a toll on me and I was exhausted and dehydrated. It was my last day helping out though so I was relieved.

Saturday was the day I was finally able to enjoy the convention. My nephew and I got ready and my buddy Hsunami Prime met us at my place where we took the BART to Moscone Center. The cool part was that not only was I able to keep my free dealer pass, but I got 2 free extra passes as well. So when we got to Moscone, security was only letting people in on the far side and those people had to line up to get in. We just showed security our passes and they opened the door nearest to the hall for us and let us in. No waiting, no lining up, and no frustrations. Very cool. The dealer hall was busier than what I saw Friday with crowds of people roaming around.

It just got busier as the day progressed and at times it felt almost impossible to get through some aisles. One of the first stops we took was at the Kick Ass booth. There we got some free swag. A small 3d poster and bumper sticker. There were 3 booth babes there and I had my nephew pose with them so he can show off the pic later.

We checked out some booths near by and just wandered around checking stuff out. At one point we saw James Marsters (Spike on Buffy, Brainiac on Smallville) signing autographs at a booth. There were tons of people so I didn't bother lining up. We also saw Chris Gore, Attack of the Show's resident film expert. I wanted an autograph and opinions on some movies, but again the line was long.

We just wandered around checking stuff out, left to grab lunch, came back and wandered around some more.





All in all a pretty good trip. I think for next time, I'm going to spend more than just a day and actually make time to check out some panels. I regret not being able to check out the Kick Ass panel with the cast including Nicholas Cage, The Prince of Persia panel with Jake Gyllenhal, and the Doctor Who panel with new Director/Writer Steven Moffat. The first episode of the new Doctor Who series was premiered there so I would've loved to see that.

And of course my hauls from wondercon. Not a whole lot and the 2 MMS figs and the sweet knight figs I got from TL as part of working there. The rest I got for cheap at various other booths.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Wondercon 2010: Set up day

This week, I helped my friends at Toyslogic set up for their booths at Wondercon held in San Francisco. Set up day was on Thursday and I met up with the crew at the TL warehouse in Concord at 6 am in the morning. We loaded up all the boxes of figures in a big shipping truck and drove to the Moscone Center in San Francisco. We got there at 8:30 and met up with a couple of other folks that were going to help set up. At 9am we were let in the huge dealer area where we looked for our booth number. From there we waited for the truck to arrive with the figures and set up the display racks.

I noticed half way through the day that our booth was right next to some really "Kick Ass" booths.

Yup, across and to the right of us was the booth for Kick Ass the movie. They had 3d posters set up as well as LCD screens where the trailers played.


Across and to the front of us was the booth for Dante's Inferno.

This booth had LCD's connected to PS3's and you can play a demo of Dante's Inferno. There was also a statue of Dante inside.

Across from that were various other booths. Since the TL booth was at the rear next to the lounge and restrooms, we had a good view of some cool stuff.


It was a lot of hard work and we had to have it set up for all the con goers to see. At the end of the day we pulled it off, but it was around 7pm when we finished. The booths looked pretty good though. Check them out below.


Oh yeah, What I got out of working there was these figures.

All in all, it was a pretty good experience and getting paid in figures was cool. Today I'm going to Wondercon as a normal guest and I get to keep my exhibitor badge. That means me, my nephew, and my friend don't have to wait in line to get in. Awesome.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Claymore Miku

I've been wanting to create a Claymore Figma. Sadly, the materials I have aren't enough to make one. Although, perhaps if I use a blank Busou Shinki body then it maybe possible. Anyway, I've been messing around with my vocaloid figma, Hatsune Miku. When I gave her the sword as an accessory it definitely made her more to my liking. After all, the possibilities with this character are enormous. So in developing her character for my story, I've experimented in some customizing. My first attempt was to turn Miku into a black rock shooter. However, an actual BRS figma is forthcoming so I thought to move miku away from that. My next option then is to customize her into something that would fit her broadsword or claymore as it might be called.

A Claymore Miku. An interesting idea, yet how can such an interpretation be approached. I have thought of 2 ways. One is to actually take Miku's body and customize it into a Claymore Clare body like this figure:

The second approach is to turn Miku's vocaloid appearance into an armored version. This approach will take less work but, the end result may or may not be to my liking. In the interest of experimentation I decided to try this approach.

First, I modded the shoulder armor so that it can be placed on the figma shoulder while retaining its articulation. I did this using some glue and rubber. Next I test fitted the chest piece to see how it would look with her tie.

Miku looks pretty good with just the shoulder armor and chest piece on. However, I decided to start the modification to her legs to see if that will improve it.

I took the two bottom leg pieces and sanded the black paint off of them. Then I started to paint it silver like so.

I then finished painting it and test fitted it on Miku. I took off the skirt since I may do a skirt armor. Or maybe the lapels on her shirt can act like the skirt armor.

This still needs some work and much thought.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Fate/Haruhi Wars chapter zero

While surfing the net, I came across some comic strips that other figma fans have done. Seeing them showed me that developing a storyline and making it into a comic can be fun. So I gave it a go and I think I have a fairly simple story line to go with the figmas I have.

Now, my comic was more to get me used to using Gimp 2.6. I haven't had much experience using it and I didn't really have a reason to use it until now. It's similar to photoshop and it's fun testing it out.

The comic itself is simple and this first chapter is a prologue. The first chapter will take place some short time before this chapter. So in essence, chapter zero is just a taste of what's to come.




Some previews of what may or may not show up as I do more stuff.



Wednesday, March 10, 2010

February Figma Haul

I'm kinda lazy so I hardly post any of my hauls unless I feel really excited about them. So to rectify this I'm going to start by posting my figma hauls from February. I made 2 acquisitions from last month and they are Figma #55 Hakurei Reimu and Figma #58 Akiyama Mio.

Reimu Hakurei



I preordered this one from Toyslogic for around $73. It was kinda pricey, but this figma wasn't a mass release figure and was only available through a limited number of stores in Japan. Online figure stores like Toyslogic and Otacute put it up for preorder, so I guess it wasn't limited enough.

Anyway, she came with some nice accessories and 2 of the best face expressions I've seen in a while. Her annoyed or angry face:


Her drunk face:



Oh yeah. I had a good laugh posing her drunk. She just looks silly with a face like that and I love the inclusion of the sake bottle.

Mio Akiyama



Mio I preorderd at Otacute. It was my first order from that site and it went pretty well. I chose the cheapest shipping available which meant that I finally got it 2 weeks after it came out in Japan.

So by now every figma fan knows that Mio came with accurate pantsu on. I further reaffirmed this inclusion for myself by taking a gander at her shimapan.

Yeah, pervy. Speaking of perversions, I took a shot with her alternate face on as she had a bit of fun with Mikuru.

Yeah, it's evident that I've been watching way too many hentai animes lately. I should take a cold shower now.

Momentary lapses of perversions aside, I'm quite happy with this figma. Of course that doesn't say much since I'm pretty happy with all the figmas I buy. The inclusion of her shimapan, bass guitar, guitar case, and facial expressions are cool. However, I noticed that she has smaller feet than previous figmas. Also, her lower legs are a bit small. I guess that matches the character designs of the show, but I'm partial to the standard long legs. To me though, it's not a big deal and I'm still happy with this. Now I can't wait to get the rest of the girls so that I can pose them performing.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Figma Supergirl: The Disaster

Last week I was working on my custom figma Supergirl. Unfortunately when I was prepping it for painting, I accidentally broke the peg that connects the arm to the shoulder. This means that the shoulder joint is useless. I then removed the joint from the body part as can be seen below.

I now have 2 options. I can do a shoulder joint transplant from an extra figma I have lying around and continue on using that body. Or I can instead use a Figma Archetype to finish this custom as demonstrated by Supergirl Mikuru.

Ryomou: "Oh shit! He broke your shoulder!"
Mikuru: "NOOO! What have you done to my body!?"

I'll now have to take my time and figure out what I'll do next.

Monday, March 1, 2010

New project: Figma Supergirl

I've had a cold for the past week now so while I rest and recover I've been thinking of what custom figmas I could make. A lot of the anime characters I want in figma form are already officially being made. All I have to do is wait and make sure I make a pre-order. The other characters I want in figma form are ones I doubt will ever be produced. These would be characters based on American Comics.

I've already experimented and did customs of a figma Dark Phoenix and Rogue from the X-Men. Those came out pretty well despite my lack of customizing experience. Now I think it's time I get back to making some customs of other comic characters.

So here are my choices or rather ones I'd like to do if possible:

Emma Frost



She's Hot and this artist has done the best rendition I've seen. She has a skimpy outfit that doesn't really makes sense in fashion logic, if there was such logic.

Psylocke



She's also Hot and the outfit has been the same one since the 90's. This should be pretty easy to do since all I have to do is follow the same procedure that I used when making Dark Phoenix and Rogue.

Batgirl



This batgirl is the Cassandra Cain version. I think she's the first and only asian batgirl and that makes her pretty badass. She's fought using a katana as well. Using her ninja skills to take down the baddies is pretty hot. This one should be real easy to do since all I have to do is paint a figma archetype flat black all over and use some putty to shape the ears. I should buy some putty.

Supergirl



That Supergirl is pretty Hot. I like the costume with its short skirt and midriff. I also like this artists rendition with a pretty face and flowing blonde hair. Hotness+1. I think this one will be fun to make, but of course until I learn how to sculpt faces, all I can do is make the bodies.

Let's see how I go about starting a Supergirl figma. First I procure the body that I'll need and prep it. The prepping process for this one is to sand the chest down as much as I could. Also, I used a modeling knife to cut a bit of the chest and skirt off to make them shorter.

Then after a bit more sanding and trimming, I put it together to see how it looks.

Okay, not a bad start. I need to sand a little bit of the leg that's colored black so that the skin tone will show. I'll need to get a red cape for her too. I should start painting the chest part blue first.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Figmas I preordered and new stuff I'm looking forward to

Early this month I picked up Bioshock for the PS3. The end result was that I spent most of my spare time playing that awesome game. That meant no time for customizing or blogging. Now that I finished the game, it's time I get back to the swing of things.

So, after seeing pics of the new stuff coming out this year from wonderfest, I decided to make a note of what I plan on getting as well as what I've preordered. Starting with the K-on figmas. I've preordered Yui, Mio, Mugi, and I'm still trying to get a pre in for Ritsu. I just need to wait for another store to open pres or a 2nd batch later on. Azusa I definitely can't miss out on so I will be on guard when she goes up for pre. Ui is an exclusive and a minor character so if I find a good deal later then I'll get her, but if not it's all good.

Seeing that a Kos-Mos figma is gonna be made is good. I hope they keep on making figma based on other game characters. The four figmas in front of kos-mos I have preorderd. Kagura, Yomi, Lum, and Kagome. I have 2 Lums coming for a custom I've yet to decide upon. Kagura and Yomi I'm excited about. They have some nice weapons and posing them will be quite fun.

The next one is Figmas from Fate/Stay Night. I have the Fate/Extra PSP game with Mordred Figma preordered. I can't wait to get that. I also pre'd on Rider this week and I'm excited to get that in. Saber Alter is a good one to get when it comes out for pre. I'm skipping Archer due to my no figma dudes rule.

Then the Eva girls. I'm definitely pre'ing on all 3 and I may get doubles since I got some ideas for customising their plug suits. It just depends on when they come out and how much.


Finally is this Figma that I don't know the name of. Actually I read what the name and series that she comes from, but forgot where I saw it. Oh well, she looks different from my other figmas so I'll get her if possible.

Oh, and also the Sekirara figmas. I don't know if I'll be able to get any since they are packed with the game and maybe only available in Japan. I'd like to get at least some of them if possible.