Reunited!

After a release date difference of almost 5 years, I have finally been able to put together my SH Figuarts Domon Kasshu and Robot Spirits God Gundam side by side and they look glorious together!

I love how they can pose exactly the same way, just like they do in the show! So stoked! I am definitely dishing out the DSLR and taking more photos of these guys soon! 

New haul!

Latest haul! Been looking at reviews of this figure for awhile plus with some testimonies from the SHF Philippines FB page, I finally decided to get this awesome figure:

Dragonball Z's main character Son Gokou! 

Great buy all in all, with lots of interchangeable hands and faces plus a kamehameha effect part. 

My bucket list of figures to shoot is just getting longer! Haha! I am one happy camper though as I now add him to the Playground's growing population. 

PREVIEW: RD God Gundam

In my latest night-capade, I finally decided to open up my RD God Gundam and tried posing it a bit. The range of motion and articulation on this figure is absolutely amazing.

I did find that the ball joint connecting the upper thigh to the pelvis was a bit loose, making it difficult to keep the Gundam standing in stances where the legs had to be spread wide. After a few stokes of nail polish and a day to dry fixed that though and I am again marveled at how well it poses. I plan to set up the shoot before the weekend but here's a little preview shot through my iPhone camera: 

Very, very awesome as you can clearly see how wide the God's stance is compared to the RD Strike (who has a hard time standing already at that pose). Also tried a few God finger poses as well but reserving those for this weekend. 

Clearly I have a lot of re-arranging to dothis Saturday as I want this displayed in my "Tower of Power." Hehe. 

One more angle:

Love it. 

I suddenly had this awesome idea to have it spar with my SRC Dendoh. ;)

Till next time! 

TRCP House Party Protocol

Waking up during the wee hours of the morning could present some pretty good opportunities to indulge in your hobby, as I did last Tuesday morning. I got startled by a small crashing sound at 4am from a fallen hook thingamajig we had at the back of our door to hang clothes and stuff.

So, after a bit of grumbling, I got out of bed, reattached the contraption to the door, breathed a deep sigh and realized that I was fully awake and couldn't possibly go back to sleep. Thankfully, I had a bunch of toys I got last week that hadn't been opened for me to pass the time with. 

So... I decided to open up the Iron Man stuff: 

I was pretty stoked with the Figma Mk Vii Full Spec given its array of accessories as well as the RDJ open face helmet. Figure delivered on all aspects as it looked glorious in and out of the box. I love the paint apps although  I was a little but disappointed with the torso joints as they felt too loose in my book. It was with a bit of difficulty that I got him to stay on a decent flight pose. Otherwise, love the open face helmet, the mini rockets on the shoulders and thighs, those  back air breaks and those wrist mounted rockets. 

Next up was the SHF Mk 42. An equally excellent figure. When I first saw the design during IM3 promos, I wasn't sold eith the new color scheme but after watching the movie and now, with the figure, well, the design works. There's a certain charm that the new color scheme has that puts it at par with your classic Iron Man colors and it is faithfully captured within this 6" figure. It is just great. 

Lastly, the Iron Patriot. Again, another color scheme that didn't really suit well with me the first time around but upon getting the figure, it looks gorgeous. The US flag-military-esque color design looks awesome and the paint apps are great. He's slimmer compared to the War Machine armor though (Guess Rhodey's bern watching his diet...hehe) but still looks menacing. 

With all 3 figures already out, I decided to take out my SHF MkVI and War Machine for a mini house party: 

And they look great altogether. I didn't really have time to pull out my light tent so I just made a quick pose and shoot on top of my son's baby stuff cabinet ( hello green teddy photobomber!). I still think it turned out great though. 

As a follow up in the evening, I took out a few other figures just to do a small height comparison, as a request on Facebook: 

From left to right: Playmates Michaelangelo, Figma Kirito, Figma Mk VII, SHF Mk 42 and SHF Green Ranger. 

In front: the DeCool Hulkbuster Iron Man and Sheng Yuan Mk 42.

You can clearly see that Full Spec towers over every other figure. When it comes to height scale, I think he's a little too tall while everyone else seems to be just right in comparison to the others (should there ever be a crossover of all these characters). Well, except Michaelangelo who should be at the same height as Kirito. 

As parting words, I really enjoyed having my short playtime with my new Iton Man figs. They're all excellent figures and are highly recommended in my book. 

Till next time! 

New hauls this October!

Christmas came early this year as my preorders from CWTOYS finally arrived last weekend! I am absolutely stoked about my new acquisitions: 

Robot Spirits God Gundam; my favorite Gundam of all time

SH Figuarts Iron Man Mk XLII and Iron Patriot from Iron Man 3

SH Figuarts 1st batch gift prize Tony's Sofa

Figma Iron Man Mk VII Full Spec Version

I did not realize how Iron Man-centric this haul was until I had them on hand. Haha! 

At the same time, since we were already meeting at the Good Shepherd Bazaar, I decided to pick up a few minifigure playsets: 

SY 304: Iron Man's suit up gantry

SY 305: Tony Stark's Laboratory and Hall of Armor

DeCool Iron Man Hulkbuster armor

More Iron Man stuff! Yay! I still lack the walkway gantry, the third IM playset though as well as the minifigure for Iron Man Mk I which came along a 9-figure set that was mostly reissues. I didn't feel like spending again for a bunch of minifigures that I already had so I had to pass on Mk I for now. Hopefully, I'd be able to score a solo one in the future. 

All of them look completely glorious in their respective boxes and my hands were literally itching to open them up and fiddle around with them, especially the RD and Full Spec. More so on the RD since I've been literally dreaming of that figure ever since Bandai first announced its release! Can't wait to get posing on that one!

For now, really really happy with my new purchases. Hopefully, I get to whip out the SLR and take some shots really soon. 

SH Figuarts Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

It's Morphin' Time!

My first complete Super Sentai team, actually, since I got Trini instead of Boi, it would technically make this my first Power Ranger team and what better team to be able to complete that the global phenomenon that is the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers!

The team!

Signature poses!

Weapons!

Power Blaster!

A morphinomenal addition to the Playground! But wait... there's still part two: we still have this figure to add on to the team: 

Hopefully, I can get to do the 2nd half of this gallery in the next upcoming weeks. Stay tuned! 

Kirito is here at the playground!

I think I've mentioned in a blog entry at the start of the year that Swordart Online is probably one of my favourite animes of all time; albeit I have not been able to really watch Season 2 as religiously as I did Season 1 due to family and work. I am happy though that I was finally able to obtain the Figma Kirito figure last June after attending my annual pilgrimage at this year's ToyCon. 

Of course, I took pictures of him with his lady love, Asuna and I gotta say that this is really an impressive figure overall. 

I think that both really capture the spirit of their anime counterparts even with the limited face expressions. Focusing on Kirito, the sculpting on the figure as well as on the Elucidator and Dark Repulser are just topnotch. If I had to nitpick on the figures, it would be that they didn't have more accessories to actually interact with each other i.e. holding hands, that sandwich from the first time they met or maybe even a miniature Yui. 

Regardless though, I love both figures and they're certainly an awesome addition to the Playground.