May updates for Hotaru

Yay. I can sew straps on a top. Hooray for ribbon.
I got bored and made an Attim M-Zak hairdo. Why? No idea. It's really cumbersome.
And a long overdue project: Lego furniture. First attempt: a space themed captain's chair. Somewhat fitting for the new hair.

Regarding the hair construction process: Plasti-Dip is NOT a good means of hair strengthening. I've isolated hair strength quality issues to the cutting process. X-acto blade cutting tends to leave weak points in the strands that make it vulnerable to falling apart. Solution: use scissors like a wage slave. Also, the rubberizer doesn't leave a satisfactory finish, making the hair really greasy feeling.

Comic Shop Loot Haul (May 22, 2008)

Unrelated note to the loot haul, there's a half off book store near MPC Products Corp. in Skokie. Bought a second copy (yes a SECOND) of the Dungeon Master's Guide for Dungeons and Dragons, just because of the Kev Walker artwork in this one. Evil bastards and their art circulation. The store also had software titles half off, with Half-Life Anthology 1 for $10, Painkiller for $10, and Freedom Fighters for $1.60. Pretty good deals, if the train ride didn't negate all the savings for a small trip to buy one item from that place. Great if you plan on buying a ton of DnD books which they still have lots of.

Yep. That's one sexy book. Still shiny.

Now, for the main event: Phoenix Comics, west of Skokie. 5920 Dempster Street. Two words describe this place: "Fire Hazard". Once you step into this place, you're greeted by a wall of crap. There's action figures from the early 90's til the current, with some interesting finds. Revolver Ocelot, Fortune and Olga from McFarlane's Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty can be bought here for $12 apiece. That and boxes of Star Trek novels and Buffy the Vampire Slayer toys.

 

After digging through the pile of Buffy the Vampire Slayer toys, I managed to move around and find something that I've been missing for a while: Vol 18 of Ah! Megamisama! that I happened to not buy when I completed my collection. Their manga collection is best described as "abandoned" and old, with nearly an entire Sailor Moon manga set available. I'd have bought it if weren't for the fact that it was in a shelf blocked off by more boxes of crap. I swear, the owner loves Half-Life 2 and how boxes are everywhere to piss you off.

After digging through more Buffy the Vampire Slayer toys (did I mention how everything's covered by these blasted things?) I made my way to a nice find:

OHHHHH, SEXY. BASU ZA TSUTAMPEDO! Hotaru agrees. I'm afraid this one's going to stay in the box, since he's missing the one element that makes the other Trigun figure bad ass: a cross Punisher. I'm curious on his poseability though, especially his legs. For now, Vash is going to play hard to get until I break down and open him up. Cost $23 at the store, somewhat reasonable.

May Figure Haul

Last week's figure haul: Kaiyodo's Nicholas D Wolfwood figure from Trigun. $18 for the figure, which I hear is still being produced. It's one nice figure, but suffers from some minor issues. Hotaru's joint system actually shares similarities with Wolfwood's, with the use of pin joints that can pop out sometimes. However, Wolfwood has nice shoulder articulation, something that came across as a surprise.


Here's a shot of the heavy Punisher cross that makes Wolfwood's thin arms already stressed. His right elbow shows signs of wear after figuring out how to get his cross pose to look nice. Wolfwood comes with a lot of accessories, many of which you can probably forget about attempting to use. He comes with a cloth to wrap up his Punisher, and a chain to hold it together. The instructions to wrap it are in Japanese, and the images incomprehensible to me. Not to mention, the end cap on the chain accessory (which I must say, is pretty sweet for an accessory) doesn't fit on the end of the Punisher, let alone fit on a wrapped Punisher. Pointless and a waste of attempting to cover up a bad ass weapon that shouldn't be covered.

Yes, we all love Wolfwood. But as you can see, Hotaru's 12" body is too tall for the 7" Traveling Chapel. But I do however have a friend who seems up to the task of being friends with him.
Finally figured out a way to get Old Snake to balance on his own! Give him a cross Punisher!

Well, giving Wolfwood Old Snake's M4 makes him look a lot like Tony Montana. At least I can have some variety with my figures now.

Anyways, other items of note: I've heard Wolfwood's replacement hands tend to snap off easily. Caution if you plan on owning one, and don't place him anywhere he'd easily fall over. I've had his special Punisher holding hand come apart (luckily the hand separated from the Punisher skull, which I glued back on easily).

In all, Mega Pelvic Thrusting Wolfwood is a great figure that I don't mind having opened to play with for a mind boggling hour or two to get a pose right. Worth the 18 dollars I paid.