War has Arrived ... ...

and finally after some time of searching; I've attained War Machine from the soon to be released Iron Man 2. However, this is the normal movie version without the red Arc Reactor and markings on the figure.

Let's start with the packaging

Simple standard kind of carded packaging with everything in clear view so you know what you are getting. As for the back artwork, it could have been done better. But hey, this is meant for kids age 4+; do they care?

A little tutorial on how you can open this up with minimal damage to the card. Slide a pen knife in the seal between the plastic and the card and glide the pen knife round the packaging for a clean removal.

The Figure - War Machine (James Rhodes)

For $16.90, Hasbro packs in quite a number of stuff. The figure, shoulder cannons and gatling gun, the projectiles, display stand and a schematic diagram of War Machine.

I'm impressed with the articulation and it's much better than any 3.75" figure. It's much better than a $18.90 clone trooper from Star Wars!

There are articulation points in the arms, shoulders, knee, ankle, waist, wrists and neck. Decent enough considering this being a very small figure.

It's a great buy and I don't suggestion waiting for sales on this item because War Machine is the real STAR in Iron Man 2 and Iron Man figures are now just peg warmers hanging in the stores.

The Heat is on... ...

when the fever is over. Well, a good rest finds me back into action shooting action figures.

Bought a couple of stuff over the weekend and here I will feature one that is packed in a less complicated manner.

This is Heatmetal of the Kamen Rider Double or Masked Rider W from Bandai under the line of S.H.Figuarts.

This line has indeed grown on me as I simply love everything about it; from packaging to the figure itself.

Standards are kept for Heatmetal with weapon (metal shaft) and 2 sets of hands (open and grip).

Pose for this figure is no problem with the generous points of articulation. It's limited by only your imagination.

The metal shaft comes in two forms; the normal and the extended form.

Heatmetal here getting ready for some demo as to what it can do.

Bring it on!!

Now, the only thing I lack is one of those S.H.Figuarts stands that can grip the figure at the thigh or the waist.

See how long my shaft is; and it's solid 'metal'

Well, this figure is really a camera darling and I can't help but to keep posing and taking photos of it and I have ran out of caption for each photo. So, I'll spare you the agony of reading my corny comments.

My fav pose

This as well

This one is dedicated to Journey to the West

S.H.Figuarts is the line to collect if you are into Masked Riders as Bandai really made these guys real well. Highly recommended to all.

Tactical Measures ... ...

were the order of the day to get Astray Blue Frame to hold up the Tactical Arms II in a final thrust pose. It is not as simple as it seems to get the position right.

The stand provided in the packaging does the trick and it can be added to the display stand as seen in the photo above. The reason for that is because the base provided does not join together with the main display base. I had to fiddle with the many slots on the main base to get the position and pose right. Another problem is the color combination is way off and it wouldn't help even if I bought a black color base.

Alternatively, I can just leave the Tactical Arms II standing all by itself while Blue here goes Astray.

"Daggers are just as cool"

In the Spirit ... ...

of completing this long weekend with another blog post. Had this for about a week or so but was too engaged with Astray Blue Frame.

What we have here is the VF-25G Super Messiah of Michael Blanc from the Macross Frontier series. This is a non-transformable action figure with the super parts. 

 

Have been impressed with the mechas under the Robot Spirit line and decided to get it. The size is definitely very small, standing at 6" tall is a huge difference from the DX version also by Bandai.

Out of the box, the figure looks all right in terms of details and poseability. Other than that, I'm not totally impressed by it at all. A sense of regret set in the moment my hands got into contact.

Slapping on the super parts is fairly easy but having it to hold in place is another story which is quite similar to the DX version as well. Bandai; back to R&D and QC!!!

Another thing I don't like about this figure is the beam sniper rifle. Did the designer of this figure watch the anime?

Guess not. 

In a nutshell, what is fantastic about the toy is the articulation as seen in the pictures above. The bad is the scale is all wrong. The price is another issue and for what I paid for, I think I deserve a display stand and not an advertisement in the packaging asking me to buy one. 

Save your money for something else and I'm canceling my orders for all Super Messiahs (if it's possible).

Day 5 - Going Astray Final Stage ... ....

Good Friday and being a public holiday, my time needs to be shared. Had to put down my work and went out. Glad that happened as I saw this completed model in Takashimaya's toy department. The modeler did a decent job and the paneling was clean and most of the essentials labels were applied. Took the picture to serve as a reference for my project.

I also picked up a clear display base to better display this piece from Taka as well as it was on 20% discount. I spent about a couple of hours to first panel line the whole figure giving it a more 'used' look before applying the labels.

Effectively, Day 5 started on Saturday morning and it was quite disappointing not to find any waterslide labels as this figure came with clear labels and rub transfers only. The clear labels were actually the most difficult to manage as they are thicker and much more difficult to set in place.

Bandai was evil enough to provide labels for difficult areas such as the left shoulder plate (previous picture above) and the right knee. It should have been waterslide for these to make the job easier. Had to do some modifications to the labels to allow it to split when the joints move.

The final touch was completed when all the essential labels were applied and the last one went onto the Tactical Arms II. Not to forget, the important step of applying Mr Mark Softer to better fuse the labels to the model.

Photo Shoot Time!
Finally, after 5 days of work, it is ready to face the lens.

The Tactical Arms is really too huge, even for the shooting canvas.

So, let's move it to my fav outdoor location; my window.

See the glow in the eyes?

The Tactical Arms in Flight mode. Skipped the Gattling Gun and Blade mode.

Closer

The clear display stand....the Bandai label is from the Blue Frame

So, that's it. Another completed Gunpla project and I really took my time for this. Nothing really interest me at the moment now except for Perfect Grades but they are really too huge and too expensive for me at this moment. 

Taking a break from model building for now.

Day 4 - Going Astray ... ...

It was a Thursday evening and I was really feeling exhausted from work. Took a 4 hour power nap and woke up at 2a.m. to carrying on 'working'. I'm left with the waist unit, legs and the Tactical Arms II.

The legs took much longer time than expected as I was really trying to make sure I get it right. The left leg took me about 1 hour plus while the right took about 30 minutes or so. The waist unit was a breeze to put together.

Finally, Gundam Astray Blue Frame 2nd Revise is completed and standing proud; not to mention squeaky clean too. It was already about 5a.m. and I decided to move on to the Tactical Arms II.

The completed Tactical Arms II was completed in around 1 hour and look at the size of that sword!

Did some detailing to the Tactical Arm's exhaust as Bandai left out a lot of colors (and they call this a Master Grade??; what they meant most probably is a grade for Masters to fix!). Anyway, that really took a long long time and soon it was daybreak.

The picture above shows all the various parts getting ready for the final phase of this project, one that I am most excited about; Label Applying!! However, I think I better take a short nap.

Just a little side note....for this project I bought a couple of essential tools like this Magnifying glass which comes in real handy when painting those tiny parts. The electric eraser in the previous picture which comes with sanding erasers is useful to sand away unwanted parts and to create battle damages. All from Daiso at $2 each.