Toy Haul

To celebrate finishing Lia, I decided to buy some accessories. Among the purchases was a Ultimate Soldier 1:6 scale MG 34 set at Toys R Us. However, there were some unexpected finds on my way back at the local KB toys.

Picked up a Transformers Arcee for the sake of picking one up. It's quite a nice model with an interesting transform. Asuka now has a motorcycle to ride.

Hmmm. What's this? Looks like Hotaru found something interesting in the discount solider guy box. This "Soldiers of the World" series seems to be pretty rubbish based on the fact that no one's ever heard of this before and the fact that it's 8 dollars. But, hey, this guy comes with a M60E4 with two interconnecting belts of ammo, a beretta, and a awesome jacket!

"That looks nice! I'll take that." And so they stripped the US navy seal down and robbed him.

Hotaru shows the pretty sweet zippered jacket that the figure comes with. Much better than what I can do. She also is holding the M60 with both belts linked together. Why it didn't come with some magazine box, I don't know, but she can now go Rambo style all over the desk.

He also comes with a pair of sunglasses and a Beretta, featured on Lia. Quite detailed and not as generic/shoddily made as I expected them to be.

This series apparently has been around for some time, but no store seems to want to sell these things. Might be because of this guy's facial expression that was widespread among the other figures to choose from. It screams "HUUUAAARRRGGGGH! I LOST MY KEYS IN THE SAND!" I was going to throw him away and keep his accessories and clothes, but he's actually more articulated than I expected. I think I'll leave his basic clothes and use him as a male companion for my creations. He still needs a name.

Using the BONESAW!

Rather belated, but I've bought a saw. It's quite irresistible to to start sawing through everything I see. So, what better use for a saw than to actually saw through something? As tempting as it was to saw through Hotaru's legs for no reason at all, I figured, why not make another friend/victim?

Meet Lia, (build 4). She incorporates existing components from Hotaru (build #1), and corrects the most important design flaw: non-serviceable hip components. Lia now has stiffer ball jointed hips which can be disassembled into the housing, ball and hip support. Hotaru's closed hip structure (hip revision 3) prohibits maintenance without complete reconstruction of the joint itself.

I retained the second revision's layout, composed of a T shaped pipe fitted onto a ball/shaft mount. The change involves not enclosing the ball region to retain aesthetics. Not a big issue, as people won't be constantly looking up her skirt to "inspect her joints".

Other noteworthy changes to version 4: improved shoulder range of movement, non-epoxy feet (I cheated with Hotaru and used epoxy to mold her feet, with the problem of acrylic paint not sticking to epoxy), and more compatible proportions with other 1:6 figures (Read: smaller ass).

Construction progress from start to finish took less than six days. This time around, Lia was properly documented so the progress will take even less for someone who knows what they're doing.

Figure Review: Revoltech Fraulein #003 Asuka Langley

Last week's purchase: Revoltech Asuka Langley from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I don't really care about the series that much; I bought this because it was the only Fraulein they had left (it was either this or Pocco, and that looked too retarded for my tastes. They were all out of Rei Ayanamis). There's quite a bit of Asuka hate out there, but hey, I'll give her a chance.




First bit of note: my Asuka came with a paint flaw/chipping on the right knee. I'm afraid of more chipping now, so I'm going to treat her a bit better than normal. That means no violent slamming of my desk, lest she falls over and gets more chips.

Revoltech went for form over function in this figure. I like that, but it means her arms tend to fall off easily.

Obligatory ass shot.

Medicom's 20th anniversary Old snake's gun works well in her hands. It's better than the default assault rfle she comes with. The default rifle is quite thin and unexciting.

Overall, for $24, it's not a bad figure. The articulation meets my standard of at least 15 points. She's compatible with other 1/12 scale figures, especially Wolfwood's guns. However, her hair is tremendously bad because it restricts her head movement so much. Rei's shorter hair would make her a better purchase for that sake alone, if you don't care much for either. All in all, Asuka joins my ranks of test subjects for planned future revisions.