No.30 Char's Z'Gok
Here's one SD which I have always wanted to open up and get it fixed. Finally can't resist the temptation any further and worked on it. And it doesn't take me long, just 3 days. Simple color, not much steamlines to get rid off. Sadly the dark red isn't even at all but at least it gives it a little "weathering" effect.
By the way, this is a hard to find SD these days. Maybe a re-release some days to come.
Tokyo, Japan June 2009 Here I am back in Tokyo, because I stayed in Narita area close to the airport, there isn't any Yodobashi or Bic Camera departmental shops nearby!!! I'm determine to get to any of those shops, did my online "tracking" using google earth and found closest one would be Yodobashi Camera in Chiba district. Using my "charm" on Japanese girls and "wonderful" luck for that day, I made my way to Chiba.... From JR Narita station ----33mins-------------480 YEN-------------------> JR Chiba station
MY REWARDS !!!! My next highlight of this trip is my flight on Singapore Airlines A380 back to Singapore, first time on the A380 even though I take alot of SQ flights and also first time trying out their Suite class seat, suppose to be Class beyond First lei.... The seats in the center were like mirror image of the one across, I really thought there was a mirror there in the first place. Here's how it look from the other end of the seat, where your "lover" suppose to seat across.. ya, Max 2 passengers in the compartment the warning says!!! And here's the yummy courses of meals... oh check out the headset, it's BOSH lei... after being on the B773ER First class and this A380 Suite Class seats, my verdict is A380 Suite WINS!! I like the privacy where you can close the door and window, the distance of the TV screen is much further then the 777 ones so my eyes isn't that strain after that much of movies, the seat is so much better like a "boss" arm chair unlike the 777 like a luxury oversized sofa seat, the toilet is SO much bigger, yes, high mile club inside is no problem, any position you like!! October 2008 Just did a 4 days trip to Tokyo. Quite disappointed with this trip as there's isn't ANY Gundam to show! I can't get Macross Frontier Valkyie VF-25F in any of the Bic Camer or Yodobasho Camera. I went Akihabara, Shinjuku stores can't find at all, WTH !! I also visited Manadarake stores in Akihabara, (Complex) and Nakano Store but found NONE of the SD I wanted. My heart sank big time. Too much of a sad trip for me. Next month I'm going Nagoya, and please may there be BANDAI for me!! Oh, I bought a Canon Powershot camera and shall take some better pictures of my works now on. Osaka, Japan November 2008
Another long awaited OVERKILL! It's been some time since I managed to grab so many SD back home. So happy when I saw the re-released SD placed on the shelves and I just quickly grab them, some boxes only left the last one there and phew phew so heng! Also got the latest Gundam 00 Exia kit. And also Macross Valkyrie VF-25S! I am so ready to build it!
Kyoto, Japan
April 2008
Here's some photos that was taken when I made the trip to Kyoto with my family. Can't say much about Kyoto just that I think the prefect time to be there is the cherry blossom time and cooling weather for all the walking. Lots of temple and shrines to visit there. Those who love walking and photography should enjoy the place. My suggestion is to spend 2 days there due to all the slow walking around. There's a direct train from Kansai Airport to Kyoto.
Osaka, Japan
April 2008
Another OVERKILL !?! Indeed but not with SDs instead it's MG and BBs this time round. Holiday trip with my whole family so I have more hands to help me to carry! We were there for the cherry blossom season and it's been great. Spend 6 days there went touring around Osaka and Kyoto. Could have visited more places but better save some other times...heee... anywhere, here's my purchases this time round. There's suppose to be 2 more boxes of the same Valkyries which I helped one of the forum guy to buy. Let's see if I can managed to sell off the MGs to support my SDs collection!
November 2007
Back from Osaka and it's OVERKILL this time round till I felt so OVER BOARD with my purchases!! I bought a total of 14 boxes of SDs/BB Gundams! 5thluna, a Japanese net friend who lives in Osaka happened to surf into my website and he guided me to Mandarake store in Umeda and also Yodobashi-Umeda. I only managed to pick up 4 boxes in Mandarake as it seems like 5thluna had gotten the ones I wanted too! Disappointed, I went to Yodobashi Camera which is nearby and WoooHooo.. it's like a small scale Gundam warehouse there! So many Gundams to choose from. As I only target SDs, so gotten quite a number there, that makes my trip! Then headed back to Numba and Den Den town for the Mandarake store there and found another 2! Yippee... Spent over YEN6000 felt so guilty but for my collections, I DON'T CARE! As of now, I owns 65 SDs Gundam! The problem is I'm running out of space for the boxes, my display cabinet is not up yet and I'm not working on them!!! Arrrgghhh... P.S. I got Fukuoka trip coming in 2 months time.... oh no..
October 2007
This post shouldn't be posted here under Osaka but I dun want to create more posting. Here's what I gotten in Hokkaido during my holiday there. I managed to locate Mandarake store in Sapporo but quite sad that they didn't carry any new models so only gotten 4 boxes of SD. Not easy to locate any stores selling Gundams, in fact I couldn't find any though my other mate told me he managed to see one around, sad.
September 2007
Here's another "stock taking" of my favourite SD Gundams at my favourite "hunting" ground Osaka, Den Den Town. At some good price too! Also got some Mr. Hobby paints, believe it or not, it only cost slight more then a dollar.
June 2007
Something which I always love to head to Japan anytime, apart from the nice people of japan, the food, the weather, the 100 Yen shops and that's GUNDAM!!!
Finally I found my shopping paradise! And its in Osaka, Den Den Town. The whole freaking street selling anime figures and toys, from Batman to Ultraman, from remote controls crafts to BB Guns. And best of all, there's Osaka Gundam shop there too, 2 floors.
But the grestest achievement out of this trip is getting 6 boxes of SD Gundams at only less then SIN $20 !!!! Can't imagine that! in SIN, each box would cost me about $10 each, can you imagine how much the price has been marked up when it reaches our shores? BTW, if you happen to be heading to Japan in search of Gundams models, go to this store call Mandarake I have been to the ones in Tokyo and Osaka, best price ever!
I bought this BB in Japan mainly because the boxart looks fantastic and it seems like the kit looks good too. And indeed it is. It is able to "transform" to a number of looks, from cute to serious damage fellow.
But, I totally screw up the paint job. Should have followed the Box art, a flat black for the hat and blue body. Anywhere its failure, as usual, Mr. Hobby color just doesn't work well with me but its cheap!!!
I'm aware I havn't been updating for quite some time. Havn't been touching my Gundams also. Good news is I managed to get some work done on a BB, hopefully can get it out by next week. Also got another SD, the no.322 OO Gundam + O Raiser, so that makes me owning 3 O Gundams already. Freaking Bandai coming out with so many varients to milk our money. Should be getting Devil Gundam this month and since I'm heading to Tokyo end of the month, I should be spending quite a bit on MG kits for investment!
My posts on locations of Gundam shops has been getting some traffic, thanks to the guys on hwz forum promoting my posts. Been looking through them and found lots of mistakes, will correct as I go along.
And here picture of the month:
May 2009 My re-visit of Hong Kong with my good friend after our last visit last year. Hong Kong is always the heaven of food and shopping, there's no way Singapore is able to overtake it. It's geographic location already placed it in the best place, getting cheap goods from China and on uphand then it's neighbour. It's the TRUE city that never sleep. For this trip, our main "objectives" were famous food hunting and visiting IT malls and toys too. IT stuff there were really cheap, it's more like Sim Lim Square and Tower under the same squeezy place. I bought 50 pieces Jap branded DVD-R for SIN$8, how to not resist? and here's the food pictures... TOYS IN HONG KONG I will be heading to Hong Kong again this month therefore did another round of research on where I can find Gundams, got this list from (Macross World Forums - When in Asia, Where to buy in HK, Japan, Singapore, Philippines etc. - http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=20563) incorporated the list that I built during my last visit, now I also added google map links. Hope it will aid some of you locating the shops easiler. Anime/Manga and Toys location in Hong Kong: My Notes " this is one location a MUST visit for Gundam modellers, a few shops that display professional standard model kits. and i think you can buy those custom made HKG kits there also. but only visit this place after mid afternoon, they dun open so early. there's also a few modelling shops around the corner of the street.and if you interested in BB guns, this is the place too"
- Mongkok - Sino Centre, 582-592 Nathan Road
my notes "i would say nothing much great here, more for those school girls type of place with lots of idols stuff. but since it's in mongkok, why not just roam and see see"
- Mongkok - Richmond Commercial Building, 109-111 Argyle Street
my notes "those who are into action figures and tranformers, must visit place. prices here are attractive too. lots of small stalls selling."
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Richmond+Commercial+Building&sll=22.315917,114.174664&sspn=0.009131,0.013669&ie=UTF8&ll=22.321396,114.174256&spn=0.008575,0.013669&z=16&iwloc=A
- Mongkok - CTMA Centre, 1N Sai Yeung Choi St S, Kowloon, Hong Kong
my notes "action figues, anime, toys.. good place to check out"
- Mongkok - UML Hobby. Actually they have few branches in HKG. I know Causeway Bay also has one
- Mongkok - Lots of shop in Mongkok around Dundas Street between Nathan Road & Waterloo Road. Toys/hobby shop, Airsoft gun shop, RC hobby shop. There are so many of them in that area, just look around.
- Causeway Bay - Toyzone, Causeway Bay Commerical Bldg 16 floor, No.3 Sugar Street
my notes "toys, model kits, plenty. do note only certain lift goes up to 16th floor!"
- Wan Chai - Tai Yuen Street - So call Toy Street of HKG. Gundam kits spotted but not latest release ones.
my note " good place for BB Gundam kits"
- Wan Chai - Oriental 188 Centre, C C Wu Bldg, 302-308 Hennessy Rd, Hong Kong Island
Oriental 188 Centre on Wanchai Road in Wanchai distict also on HK Island. Lots of great toy and hobby shops.
- Tai Koo Shing
There is also one shop in Tai Koo Shing (Hong Kong island, same MTR station name). The shop is located on the 2nd floor opposite the JUSCO department store building (there is a flyover from JUSCO leading to the toy store). The store stocks a lot of Gundam related stuff, gashapons and does have quite a good selection of garage kits (mainly older ones though).
- Kwai Fong - Kwai Chung, Hong Kong
Another place worth visiting is perhaps a shopping centre in Kwai Fong (Kowloon side, same MTR name). There is a shopping centre right next to the station with 4 floors and has a handful of toy and game shops!
August 2008
Did a last minute and short trip to HKG all thanks to tropical cyclone KAMMURI which blown across HKG giving it a Strength 8 wind gale warning on the afternoon that I'm suppose to depart. Ended up flight was delayed and was only there at 0400hr the next day.. Anywhere, thanks to the re-timed, I got to stay in HKG for a good 13hrs and did some shopping and makan. Visited the so called Toy Street (Tai Yuen Street) but rather disapointed, there's ONLY 5 toys shop there and mainly selling plastic and model cars toys. Yes, Gundams are sold in every of these shops but the variety isn't that great. I then realise that Hongkies likes BB Gundams instead of SD ones. They have plently of BB there but only selling those recent SD ones. BUT BUT, I still managed to get Box. 24 Victory Two Gundam. Not that wasted afterall.. And here's my meal on First Class on the way back, SIA Boeing 774, nice...
July 2008
Just came back from Hong Kong holiday with my friends. A rather short and budget trip of over 4 days. Our air tickets were budget, living in hostel and cheap travelling on bus. The only thing that's not budget was FOOD! Everyday we had close to 6 meals a day, from dim sum to mango desserts to oriental restaurant to road side stall to Jap belts... shall show the goodies we had when the photos ready.
This is some yummy You Tiao.. dame nice..cripsy cripsy...
And this is some nice milk Dan Dan..I name it this way lah... MUST try if you're in Macau..
As for shopping, our area of "OPERATION" was mainly in Mongkok, Causeway Bay and Macau. I was madly in search of SD Gundam since I was told prices there are cheap like taipei but DISAPPOINTMENT, I can't find much shops selling SD stuff!! Ended up buying few boxes of BB which were 2x more expensive then Japan, SAD.... but I'm glad I bought the SD Gundam Catalog book. We did saw lots of Transformer toys, excellent for collectors of those, seems like the prices there are pretty attractive...
Aiyo...so much little things...
And these what I got --------------->
We also made a trip to Macau to see the wonder casinos...really amazing sights at those blink blink casino...even more amazing is how much money the chinese people are spending there! Somehow feel like they are doing their "dirty money washing" there. Really, seen someone throwing HKG$4000 in just 3 rounds of Big Small Bet. Me, humbly throw in $200.. won $800 BUT, return back all...hee...there's nothing like a free shuttle bus!
Overall impression of Hong Kong for me? I only like it there for 4 days... anything longer then that I should start to feel cramp. I really can't imagine myself staying in such crowded, packed streets everyday. Service standard there is good compared to Singapore even though the Hongkies have to face the "unsightful" China people. Food there, excellent but still can't fight with our mutli-culture variety of food here in SIN. I would head back there to shop and eat but not to stay... you get it?? Buy...Eat..Buy..Eat... remember, the slogon never say experience...
May 2009
Back in San Francisco for the first time this year! ya, dame cocky. This trip did something more fruitful, finally managed to go cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. It's quite a good ride with nice scenery along the way. The ride itself isn't that tough unless you doing the other way back trip from Sausalito since it's a tough uphill climb. Went to Costco too and got a fantastic deal on enelope battery recharger + 8xAA batt + 2xAAA batt + 4xD size converter + 4xC size converter for USD$20 !!! WTH !!!
who's that girl ?!?
and this is anchorage which the flight flown across... such harsh place to be....
September 2007
Here's something from San Francisco which I was a last minute trip there. Spend a day though walking around the "urban jungle" which a lot of people descibe the city which I totally agree. Why?
Firstly, jungle refers to a dense forest in a hot climate. Ok, dense populated city with lots of buildings in a sunny climate.
Secondly, there's always lots of hills in jungle. YES, totally lots of high slopes walking to do there, I was sweating by the time I reach the bottom end of Crookedest Street.
I wanted to cycle to Golden Bridge but due to unforeseen circumstances, couldn't make it! Nevermind, that leaves something for me to do on the next trip there.
Something that I like about Francisco as compared to L.A which I have been there a couple of times, the airport staff is SO MUCH better. Nice, smiley faces, less crowded, unless LA where I felt more like a suspected terrorist all the time!
Here's a picture of Mt Fuji, Japan I took while SIA flying across it to Seoul! Cool huh seeing from above!!
Gundam X
It has been at least a one month break from my last production. Took time off to "enjoy" life I guess. It's not easy to come by these days.. Prehaps there's going to be more free time for me soon...
Very easy and simple model to build. Took me just a day to hand paint it. The silver fin at the back was it's sticker, I know I can't get nice glow if I used my silver paint. And those panel lines in it, will be a killer.
Why 3 Wii(s) as the subject title? That's becos this is the 3rd sets of Nintendo Wii that I'm owning! First set gotten it few months after the Wii was launched. An Auzzie set $400 which turns out to be PAL set, no mod those days therefore I only had 2 games and it's super expensive! 2nd set come from online forum few months after, saw a good deal selling US Wii NTSC set, gotten it within hours when the seller posted it at $600 with extra remotes and games. Eventually sold off both sets at the cost price that I gotten or did I lose just a little bit? Anywhere it's good fun but became 2 solid white elephant! And now, the 3rd set and it came from Korea, yes handcarried back. Korea Wii, English system, hardmodded and 2 sets of remote $400!! No way to find this pricing in Singapore. All thanks to the low Korean Won at this financial crisis. Since it's modded, I got alot of games to deal with this time round. This set should stay for quite a while, intend to use it as a learning aid for J.
Am I a gadget freak? I owned, 3 laptops, 2 Psp, 1 Wii. Hey, afterall I'm a Engineer / System / Administrator / Gundam Builder.
Havn't been posting in March as I havn't been in Singapore for more then half of the month. Went to Kota Kinabalu to climb the mountain there with my coursemates then off to Seoul and San Francisco for work then off to Dubai and Istanbul again for work. Sign.. just managed to see my son grew alot everytime I'm back. April will be better, at least more then half the month at home.
Due to all these trips, SD production has ceded also. For the time being I guess, when I'm free I'm sure I'll get back to them. Expecting my less few collection to be in this month and that should complete my entire collection. Just finished watch the last ep of Gundam 00 Season 2, not bad, Exia is out at the last ep to complete the anime, and there's going to be a movie on Gundam 00. Cool! Let's see now if Bandai is going to roll out more Gundam 00 series SDs and Macross Frontiers ones? I hope..hope....hope... there's really nothing much to look forward to Japan since my collection is complete....
Gundam Exia
Exia first appear on Gundam 00 Season 1. New technology into the Gundam which they call GN drive that powers the whole unit. And of course not only does it powers the unit, it also makes it invisible to radar because of the GN particulars. And this SD comes with one GN Drive! Yes, finally I can use it to power my PSP for unlimited PataPon!
I had quite high expectation for this kit because it started off on the right note. I managed to create the green glow effect on it's arms and legs just by messing the right colors. And the white potions on its head and body are all white spray paint making the kit looking more neat. But mess up came when doing panel lining, the paint didn't stick well creating smudge when I accidentally rub over it. Lesson learnt here not to hurry into panel lining before topcoat. And then there's the top coat again, too thick, giving it this unbelieve shiny look which I don't like.
As I mentioned before, new kits design are so much better, the joints are much flexible and no problems with the seamlines, all well covered up with not much requirement to sand them away. Here's a picture to show what I meant and my wonderful sanding skill *vomit*
Understand there's a "limited" stock on the Exia in Singapore after Bandai came out with OO Gundam. Lucky I got mine way early. Here's more picture for you to envy...
Recent Comments
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Matsu said:
Wow you have an amazing collection of the SD series, I never thought that the SD was so cool. I... read more
on No.313 Gundam Exia -
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Tuner said:
Noted your orders, I have to check with postage here on the cheapest means to send to you. Will get... read more
on Gundam Sale -
jaylicious said:
[this is good]i want these as soon as possible... 60, 42, 51, 63, 20, 224, 227, 59 so total $106... ok??? read more
on Gundam Sale
I guess it's the satisfication feeling once you complete building and painting the Gundam. So far I only owned 2... read more
on No.313 Gundam Exia