its been more than a year

Good grief! I just realized it's been over a year since my last post... seriously been neglecting this blog.

Since then I've changed collections around 3 times, gotten into bikes again, got married, and not my wife's pregnant... oh and will be starting on a new business soon. Just decided all of a sudden to check in on the blog to look through the few posts I have here and bring back the odd memories here and there. I really missed this space... I should find time to update it ... first I think is a new banner ... ill get to that this weekend. then maybe see what exactly is in my field of interests at the moment and ill write about that... hmmm


-alger

My Tron Attempt... First Custom Munny

I Glow...

I have had this design in my head for some time now. Ever since the concepts for the recent Tron remake came out, I've been doodling on different toy formats but eventually settled on the GID Munny... umm because I thought it would be cool if the figure glowed. :D

Went out to Secret Fresh and grabbed a GID mini Munny and went about my first attempt at a custom...

The Secret Beast ! (review)

Just realized I have not done a toy review for some time... actually I have not put up a post for some time. :P hehe my bad, but anyway I want to get back into blogging mode with a really awesome post...

Fondly called the "Secret Beast or Fresh Beast"... the latest addition to my shelf, the Beast Brothers' SecretFresh exclusive custom 8" Calendario Dunny Azteca. There were only 2 ever made and sold, and thanks to the awesome guys at SecretFresh, I was able to score one of them!

Filling Up Blanks

Part of the fun of moving into a new house, well at least in my opinion, are the new cabinets and shelves waiting to be filled with stuff. It doesn't really matter if said stuff are new or old really, I simply find filling up the empty spaces to be a joy.

For this new house though, it was even more exciting because we had a say from the ground up. Besides the basic layout and feel for my room, what I had specifically wanted from the beginning were book shelves and display cases with frameless glass doors. I wanted somewhere for my collections to be seen, so that I could finally take them out of their boxes and put them where visitors can enjoy them as much as I do.

Secret Fresh Ortigas branch has opened

Secret Fresh at the RONAC Art Center along Ortigas, has just opened shop and are offering a great selection of vinyl toys and other cool collectibles.

I use the word "toys" but really what these guys have up for sale and display are truly works of art. Visitors to the store/gallery are treated to viewings of rare pieces as well as new releases. For instance on display they have a set of Gorillaz vinyl figs, gigantic hand painted dunnys, and even the Manny Pacquiao & Mickey figure set, though unfortunately not for sale.

Happy 50th Dad!!!

Happy birthday dad!!

Our father's birthday is actually on the 20th of the month, but we gave him a little advance on the party and presents last sunday. We had a small BBQ session at home, that nearly became a kitchen affair because the typhoon decided to threaten the late afternoon with strong winds and a possible downpouring in the evening. Besides the wonderful meal and the ipad mom got dad, me and my sisters were able to surprise our father with a little custom toy we made for him.

it is based on the Danboard toy by Revoltech.

My First iPad Art

I finally uploaded this! Oh happy day!
My first try at using Sketchbook Pro on my iPad. Did this Tron inspired Mighty Muggs in about 2 sittings. I used 3 layers, 3 brush styles, 2 main colors, the mirror and erase tools, and my fingers. I'm pretty pleased with how this piece came out, though honestly finger painting wasn't as easy as i expexted it to be. I realized once again how fat my fingers are... and here i thought the iPad's bigger surface would be more forgiving. Don't get me wrong though, I had a lot of fun doing this and deffinitely hope to do more stuff in the future.



-alger

The Mez-Itz line looks promising

A while back I got a couple of Mez-Itz, namely the Hellboy and Abe Sapien ones. I was very pleased at this toy line. Mezco translated the character's images into their mould very well, and maintained a unique personality as a toy line. The fact that their articulation made them really posable and looked awesome on the shelf helped as well.

Mezco came out with a few others like Freddy & Jason from their respective horror franchises, a monotone Zombie, Perseus from the Clash of the Titans, the Wolfman, and a few others. None of these really caught my attention and so until now Me and Kat have kept to our ever growing Mighty Muggs collection and didn't buy any further into the Mez-Itz line. 

Recently though there was an announcement that Mezco would be partnering with DC to introduce characters from their universe. This actually piqued my interest, and I have been keeping an eye out for possible sneak peaks. Recently my wait was rewarded and I saw these guys online...

Backstabbing Fun!

The last time my gaming group met up, we ran Cutthroat Caverns. This game, by Smirk and Dagger Games, came highly recommended by a number of people from the TW forums, and I have to admit we had a blast with it. My thanks to Brel and Adrian for this one.

I can't help notice though that the game wasn't recommended just to me, but more to my gaming group. We have a reputation as a bunch of self-serving backstabbers, who regularly play co-op games. It has never been just about winning the game in my group, but its how much you can beat down each other along the way.

Soul of Popynica Kaneda's Bike ... finally here

I just picked this up yesterday from Greattoysonline's Greenhills branch.


It is the 1/6 scale replica of Kaneda's bike from the phenomenal Akira manga and anime. This is by Bandai, or Project BM! to be precise, in collaboration with Katsushiro Otomo, the creator of the Akira franchise. From what I have read online, this is supposedly the "ultimate reproduction" of this Iconic bike, and has all the bells and whistles to show for.

New stuff on the shelves and in the closet...

Yup it's been a while since I last made a post. Looking at my posts listings, I find that there are actually very little that are published, a lot that are in-the works, and none that are recent. Well here is one to break the long absence, and hope that it kicks me back into gear.

We Finally Got Them !!!

We finally found Jazz and Shockwave! Absolutely love them. The wave that they are released in also includes the Optimus and Bumblebee movie versions, but I don't find them as appealing. I'll check with Kat if she wants to get them latter on though for the collection.

Initially I was planning on displaying them sealed, but temptation overcame me and so...

Hellboy and Abe Sapien Mez-itz !!! (some holiday loot...)

It has been a while since my last post. It has been a busy holiday, with the sudden onrush of festivities and work related distractions. Anyway, now as my daily routine goes back to a more normal pace, I would like to take the time and write a review for some toys I got during my hiatus.

Elusive Mighty Muggs (We wants our Jazz...)

This post is just a quick follow up on the last one. (I know ... I really should do the next painting tutorial, but I saw something online that really made my day)

From the very start of our Mighty Muggs craze, Kat and I wanted to complete the whole Transformers series of the product line. The classic designs of the characters translated really well onto the format, and this appealed to us and which is why these guys easily became our favorites.

One character in particular that we sought after was Autobot Jazz. He and Shockwave, were supposed to have been in wave 3 along with Megatron and Starscream. However because of some weird internal decision, only both of the latter mentioned were released. Rants and rumors began to spread online and some even believed the whole line to be cancelled (there were also other Muggs that weren't released, which fueled the rumors). 

My Mighty Muggs Craze

A few months back, my girlfriend Kat and I started collecting Mighty Muggs. They are vinyl collectible toys released by Hasbro, featuring characters from the Transformers, G.I. Joe, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Marvel franchises. They are rendered onto a common frame/mold that lends the characters a rather cute super deformed look. We currently use the official website and mugglab to to get more info on the characters available.

Miniature Painting Guide Part1

This post is a follow up on my first one. As I mentioned I recently acquired a copy of the Space Hulk board game by Games-Workshop. Not wanting the beautiful miniatures to go to waste, I have decided to take up the brush and try my hand once again at miniatures painting. Before rambling on though, I would like to point to someone else's work that I really admire. Below is Ork 105; painted with two colors only by paulvalenx As the title implied, the model was painted using a mix of 2 colors. This awesome style really game this miniature personality, placing the lone orc on a bleak battlefield atmosphere. Kinda like being one of the few survivors after a major battle where neither side truly won.

Updating the Blog with crappy connection

I am long overdue for an update to this Blog. I wanted to do a tutorial on the Dead Hero mini from the Space Hulk Board game, unfortunately the internet connection at home refuses to cooperate with me. It's odd that as I try to upload stuff onto Flicker, the status message confirms the files are up but they aren't. It seems that the connection at home isn't stable. The annoying part is we just upgraded to a Cable internet service with Sky, and it goes screwy everytime there's a storm in the Metro as it seems.

The Battle Masters

The Battle Masters (TBM) is a relatively young web comic set in the World of Warcraft Universe. Its being drawn and directed by Yonzon, a friend of mine who also writes for WoW.com .

I got my n00bz !!! yay

A friend of mine attended Blizzcon 09 where the n00bz by Blizzard and Bigshot Toyworks were released. There were three versions for sale, a murlock, ghoul, and ragnaros, oh plus a 'blank'. I asked him to help me grab a Fury of Ragnaros and I just got it from him today after he came back to the Philippines

( actually I was begging to buy his Raynor n00bz which only came in the goody bag... I failed :( ) 

I got my Space Hulk !!!

I want to use this space to talk about my gaming hobby in general. From what games I'm looking for, currently playing, and currently working on.

To start things off I want to get into Space Hulk (3rd. Ed.). I have wanted a copy of this game for a very long time, and finally this year a new edition was released. Bought my copy from Paradigm Infinitum (PI) in Singapore last month, and was able to add on another set of board tiles and accessories from Fed on Tabletopwars.com who was looking to split a box's contents.