News Of The Whirled
May. 20th, 2019 02:02 pmhttps://www.facebook.com/SurugayaJP/photos/a.612221602143502/2452832728082371/
My favorite shop in Japan now can sell and ship direct to U.S. customers without needing a middleman!
Rumination commencing...
Research Addiction Hopscotch
Mar. 28th, 2017 07:16 pmA research thread that started with a fellow on Facebook posting the pictures of an old Doyusha car model he'd just bought last week has led me in a bunch of directions that appealed to my weirdness.
One such place was the particulars of my sister's first car, a Datsun 1200 (a.k.a. Nissan Sunny). At the time it was built it was the cheapest new car available in the States...and I sort of wonder what manufacturer and model has that title now.
After that, it led me to the story of Isuzu cars in America--which ended (among other places) with the Impulse and the Geo Storm. For years I saw Storms parked in the backs of people's yards and was weirdly attracted. Now I know why--they're four-fifths of the way to being LOTUSES. I wonder now how much work it would entail to fit a Storm with the same kind of Lotus suspension that was optional on Impulses--and what modern Lotus powerplant would work in the engine bay.
Event Horizons
Sep. 22nd, 2014 12:19 amContinuing to imagineer the Gundam RedLegger, and threw myself a hurdle I didn't need. A couple years ago, B-Club had a series of resin Gundam bust kits (as linked in a previous post) and I was particularly interested in the one for the GP04 Gerbera. While Gundam fans know that the GP04 eventually became the Gerbera Tetra in 0083, the bust design appears to have a lot more in common with the Alex Gundam of 0080--with some improvements that aren't seen in other Gundam family designs. So it lent itself very well to my project--if I could get one and if it was hardware compatible with the pieces I already had or could get.
And I can't find one for sale...on any side of the Rim.
My alternatives in the same product line include the Prototype Zeta #1 and the GP00 Blossom, but I'm not as excited about either. The Blossom isn't much different from the Zephranthes/Stamen family which followed it, and the Prototype Zeta just looks too strange and implausible.
My more practical side is trying to tell me to just build what I already have. It may come to that.
FP
For all I know they still could have some Korean knockoff kits, but they aren't on the website.
Fading Twilight
Sep. 14th, 2014 06:38 pmhttp://k-hobby.com/shop/item/1144-%E3%83%97%E3%83%AD%E3%83%88%E3%82%BF%E3%82%A4%E3%83%97z%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%A0%E3%80%80%E3%83%90%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%A2%E3%83%83%E3%83%97%E3%83%A2%E3%83%87%E3%83%AB/
http://k-hobby.com/shop/item/1144-rx-78-%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%A0-gp-04%E3%80%80%E3%83%90%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%A2%E3%83%83%E3%83%97%E3%83%A2%E3%83%87%E3%83%AB/
http://k-hobby.com/shop/item/c-o-v-e-r-kit-7%E3%80%801144-hguc-%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%A0gp-01-fb%E7%94%A8-%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A3%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%AD%E3%83%83%E3%83%88/
B-Club garage kits are vanishing from the market, as the division of Bandai stopped putting out new products two years ago and shops are selling off their remaining stock. It's becoming a chase for me...even though I expect I can't afford to get the ones I want that are still available.
FreeWill And My. Little. Pony.
Aug. 5th, 2014 08:18 pmLake Superior State University issues a "Unicorn Questing Privilege" to those people who are interested in hunting for unicorns. Are you one of them? I wouldn't be surprised if you felt an urge like that in the coming weeks. Unusual yearnings will be welling up in you. Exotic fantasies may replace your habitual daydreams. Certain possibilities you have considered to be unthinkable or unattainable may begin to seem feasible. Questions you have been too timid to ask could become crucial for you to entertain. (You can get your Unicorn Questing License here.)
I'm already trying to build the perfect beast in the form of the Gundam RedLegger mobile suit. It doesn't need to be a Unicorn...those are already done.
Can't Really Kick
Aug. 3rd, 2014 06:58 pmOver the course of my time here at LiveJournal, I've posted 55 times related to the show ROBOTECH. Yes, you'd think I'd have had an interest in the Kickstarter for Harmony Gold's ROBOTECH ACADEMY project--
--And you'd be completely wrong.
The problem is that the concept of ROBOTECH is obsolete on a number of levels. It does pain me to say that but it's true and I won't deny it. Harmony Gold is being very stupid with their choices, everybody knows it, and Harmony Gold is being very stupid about that too. It's a lot of playground bickering on all sides, and I'm staying the heck out of it because I know my opinion means nothing.
It's about fandom relationships more than anything else. When a producer is intent on making everybody into one another's enemies, it's better to lay down your arms and walk away than to stick around for the crossfire. This isn't worth my time.
FP
Mobile Enough To Suit?
Jul. 21st, 2014 01:42 pm
Thanks to me having a Bandai Channel account for years, I've been able to finagle a Bandai Namco account, which gives me the benefit of allowing me to play GUNDAM: DUEL COMPANY when the game still has yet to be released to the North American market.
This is my Troop's homescreen.
This is my card bank as it was yesterday. (There have been changes.) All my current cards are "Rental" cards, which means I got them for free but they aren't worth anything. I wish I could get codes for the Promo cards, but nobody who's got them is sharing.
This is a typical Formation screen, where you lay out your Troop cards to make Platoons for combat. It's good that everything's in English, else I'd be totally lost.
The results of my first practice battle the other day. I'm now in a multi-player Conquest campaign. Currently my Troop is #8 in a 32-Troop Army, with more than 100 kills so far.
I Suppose I Am Kildren
May. 5th, 2014 09:06 pmAlmost six whole years after I first posted about it here I finally got a copy of Sky Crawlers on DVD.
Yes, it's very much a Mamoru Oshii movie. It's got characters walking around in existential hazes, realism that makes you wonder why it isn't live-action, and even a basset hound. While there is action--in deadly earnest--it isn't an action movie. The setting is both real and unreal, and the themes of his previous movies are taken in a different direction.
Basically, this is ONE scene from CATCH-22 transformed into an entire feature movie. Where in the Heller work (and the movie that came from it) the scene was played for satirical effect, in this case the concept's tragic meaning is thrown to full relief.
FP (who is wrestling with the existential ramifications himself)