TRCP has gone mobile!

Great news! 

I just downloaded the Blogger app! It's not exactly new and has probably been there for forever but it just dawned on me to search for it today so there. 

With the added mobility, this should now help me update the blog more often. Cheers! 

New DeCool set plus Avenger's Hulk!

Late update (as usual) but I picked up the latest DeCool set already a couple of weeks back and the figures are just sweet! I also went ahead and picked up a DeCool Loki, a couple of new Iron Man armor variants and the new Lele Avenger's Hulk and Black Widow set! Yay!

From left to right: Robin (Tim Drake ver.), Nightwing, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Shazam
Back: Blacksuit Iron Man, Mecha Iron Man (not its real name)

From left to right: Avenger's Loki, Black Widow, Doctor Doom
Back: The Hulk

I did find it weird that Doctor Doom and Martian Manhunter had lightsabers for accessories but I guess that's just the way things go for bootlegs. They are quality bootlegs anyway so no biggie for me. And thanks to Lele, I now have a complete Marvel's The Avengers team. Awesome! 

Avengers! Assemble! 

Still thinking how I can mimic some of those movie scenes, given the limited articulation of these minifigures but what I do know is that all of these figures are gonna be a helluva lot of fun to shoot! 

Bath time, fun time!

I was able to pass by my old home (meaning my parents' house) the other day because I was returning the car I borrowed from my brother. There I saw that my old toy cabinet has fallen prey to a year's worth of dust and grime. Right then and there, I decided to go ahead and take them home with me to get them cleaned, one layer at a time. Unfortunately, I could accommodate 1 layer at this time so I decided to grab my Robot Damashii figures from Gundam 00 as well as my Yoko/Nia figures. 

When I got home, I got a large pail, heated up some water and with a bit of laundry soap, soaked them all in the mix and slowly peeled off/wiped off the dust on the armors and head as well as the stands for the girls. After I was satisfied that most of the grime was off, it was just a quick rinse with water and then left them on a towel laid on a chair to dry.

After a day, I went ahead to see if all the water had dried and started testing out the joints. I was particularly happy with my Revo Yokos, which had particularly flimsy joints before cleaning, and found them to be back to being able to hold poses and even standing on their own without support.  

And since they were already out, I decided to have a little fun. I didn't want to do a full photoshoot with lights and camera and all since that took way too much time to set up (more time than what I had anyway) so I just decided to use my iPhone to take photos. Here are the results: 

Always did like how the O Gundam paid homage to the RX-78

This is me just having fun

Comic-like captions are thanks to the Text Here app on my phone which let me put captions easily on any picture (shameless plug! LOL!). I had a lot of fun just doing these simple shots. Note to myself that I need to take it easy and need not always be too formal whenever I take toy photos. I found this unedited, candid shots more relaxing than having had to setup my photobooth and DSLR. Next week, I might go ahead and take home my Revoltech Gurren Lagann's as those need cleaning too and maybe sneak in a few choice shots as well. 

I missed you too girls....

Justice League War

I had just watched last night DC Comics’ 18th animated film:  Justice League War directed by Jay Oliva and scripted by Heath Corson. The film is an adaptation of Justice League Origin by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee and Scott Williams which covers Justice League #1-10, I believe. This was a time in which there was no Justice League, none of them knew each other and it was as Silas Stone said: a dawn of a new age. 

I found the movie to be very enjoyable. I kinda missed Kevin Conroy doing Batman though. It really doesn’t sound the same if it isn’t his stern, gruff voice doing Batman although Jason O’Mara did do a pretty decent job at it. Comic relief provided by Green Lantern was spot on and they were able to replicate the dynamic (or lack of) between Bats and GL as it was portrayed in the books. I was surprised that they chose to remove Aquaman from the movie and replaced him with Shazam instead, making him more a Cyborg sidekick, so to speak in this iteration. The lack of Arthur and the change in Wonder Woman’s costume was probably the most notable difference of the movie from the comic. Oh and the fact that it was Shazam who gave the name “Super 7” in the end, as opposed to Flash in the comic. 

The fight scenes were pretty awesome as well with Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Cyborg and Shazam putting up an awesome fight against Darkseid although I did feel that the lack of Supes/Bats during most of the fights. Shame that they only came in during the final moments after Darkseid was already weakened to finish things off. (Spoiler!*) Props though to the Flash for the awesome way he disabled Darkseid’s left eye. Pretty awesome scene there where he lunged in with a crowbar, driving that thing down the eye plus the assist from Shazam’s lightning bolt. 

All in all, an enjoyable watch and one that I would recommend for every DC fan. I hope that they release a follow up movie which would tackle the second Justice League arc from the New 52 which is the invasion of Atlantis! In the meantime, I look forward to watching their next upcoming feature, The Son of Batman. 

More on those minifigures

Tony Stark: Jarvis, drop my needle.
Music plays....

I have to go on to say that I am really enjoying the DeCool and Sheng Yuan (and some IQ Alliance) releases of my favorite superheroes and I am now actively on the hunt for their new releases, as they come. And the fact that convention Exclusives are coming out from the bootlet releases at very, very affordable prices. Exclusives such as Green Lantern, Black-suit Superman, Shazam and even some never before released official Lego pieces such as Cyborg Superman and Bizarro really elevate the appeal that these bootlegs are providing. 

To date, I have about 43 pieces and having just picked up the 4th wave of the DeCool Superheroes set (except Dr. Doom) and 2 more Iron Man suits from Sheng Yuan's Iron Man set 2, I am up again by 7 figures and looks like there's no stopping in sight. Just looking at the catalogue for DeCool, they will be releasing Batman Beyond, Green Arrow, Odin, Cyclops (Jim Lee version), Venom, Winter Soldier and Fantastic Four in the next few weeks/months.

And I still have to go back on some of the figures I skipped out on: Clark Kent, Winter and Techno suit Batman, Black suit Superman, Future foundation Spider-man, Black Widow plus Lele just recently released the Avengers' Hulk! Both DeCool and Sheng Yuan had the Lou Ferigno Hulk out for some time but since he looked gangly, didn't bother getting him. Hehe.

As for getting authentic Lego, well, we'll see. I am really loving the playsets, especially the Batman and Iron Man sets but damn are they expensive! The Riddler Chase set, for example, alone which comes with the Batmobile, the Riddler car plus 3 minifigures already costs about Php2,200! I already have the KO minifigs so it's really the Batmobile I am after. Sigh.

For now, I have my eyes set on completing the Avengers and the Justice League in the meantime and maybe grab a few of the villains after. Still waiting for a Cyborg and hopefully, a comic version of Green Lantern in future iterations.