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Monthly Archives: March 2010

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Review: HG 00 Gundam & 0-Raiser

Hey-ho boys and girls! Before we get started this week I would like to direct your attention to your URL bar. That’s right – Hobby Hovel now has its own domain! Nifty ain’t it? Unfortunately as a result of a bug within Blogger, all the comments from my older reviews (before I switched to IntenseDebate) were knocked out. Hopefully they’ll resolve this soon… Anyhow, on with the rant!

HG 00 Gundam & 0-Raiser

Back in summer 2008 when I first laid my eyes on the MS designs for the second season, I was sorely disappointed. Rather than taking a step forward, these four new suits seemed to be a stumble backwards. Gone were the distinctive orb-centred designs of the first season, and in its place I saw a bunch of simple and blocky designs that seemed to be the work of amateurs. The 00 Gundam was the least offensive out of the bunch, yet I still thought the GN drives hanging over its shoulders were ridiculously goofy. Assuming the reason for these simple designs was merchandise marketing, I thought to myself: “The models coming out this season had better be fucking amazing.”

Well, lo and behold a few months later I find myself waiting for the HG 00 Gundam and 0-Raiser to arrive in the mail. Not only did I learn to warm up to the second season’s designs somewhat, web previews of the HG models for the second season had all the innovation the mechanical designs lacked. My expectations, which were heightened greatly by these previews, were not betrayed when the models finally arrived. Simply put, the 00 Gundam is in a league of its own when it comes to articulation on HG models, and as long as you are willing to put a little work on painting some omitted details, these kits are must-haves.

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Delay, Sales and the Future

Belly of the Beast

It’s been a while since I posted anything not related to reviews. Here’s some housekeeping to get in out of the way. What fun!

First off, there won’t be a review this week. I have written one couple weeks ago in advance, but I really can’t find the time to take the photographs needed to compliment the rant this weekend. I’m really in the meat grinder now, bahhhh. The review will be on time for next weekend, though – it’ll either be on the HG 00 Gundam & 0-Raiser or GSC’s Kagamine Len (if that arrives by then).

The second item on the block is my plan to sell some of my figures. As display space runs low in my room, I feel it would be a good idea to sell off some of the figures that I’m not extremely attached to. This would also help finance my future figure purchases to keep the reviews running. I plan to sell the following:

With the exception of Neko-Arc, I have reviewed each figure in detail, so what you read and see in the reviews is what you get. I have the original boxes in good condition. If you are interested, let me know and I’ll work out something with you. I am willing to sell on and off Ebay. If you are a brave soul who trusts me enough to fork over the money before I send you the figure, you would get the figures for the listed price + shipping. If you are more cautious and would like to settle it under the eyes of EBay, I would also be more than willing, though the prices would be bumped up by 10% due to the deductions placed upon sales by EBay.

The last thing I want to bring up concerns the future of Hobby Hovel. As I have grown very fond of this little virtual soapbox of mine, I am considering purchasing a domain name in the near future and possibly a host. However, I am pretty ignorant on this subject and will require time to do a little research before I do anything. If you have any suggestions or advice to spare, I would greatly appreciate it! (I don’t have a credit card, sadly, so I think that limits my options…)

The other point I would like to raise about the future has to do with content. If you happened by my Tsuki-Board profile, you would probably realise that I am not a hardcore collector. I don’t have a new package arriving at my doorstep every week. While I am very passionate towards my hobbies, I do not feel comfortable spending money on it as long as I live in a position of dependence upon my family. Hence, I am very selective when it comes to the stuff I actually commit to buy. Even though my friends Jianyan, Alicia and Molly have been very supportive of Hobby Hovel, the weekly pace of my reviews will inevitably catch up with me, at which point I would have to default to the pace of my purchases, which probably would be around one item a month. Needless to say, this would not be good news for Hobby Hovel.

The answer to this problem seems simple – expand the contribution staff! However, chances are if someone possesses the means and desire to take pictures of their collectible and write about them, they probably already have their own site to deal with. However, if exceptions to this assumption do exist, hear me now and hear me forever:

Hobby Hovel is welcoming contributors! There are no requirements other than the ability to take clear photographs (no flash and blurry snaps) and the ability to convey your observations in words (I can help you if you are not confident). If you just want to dip your feet into the world of figure blogging just once, this would be a great opportunity; if you want to contribute regularly, I would love you forever; if you want to join forces and merge into a site with more content delivered more frequently, I would also be very supportive. Whatever your situation, if you have an interest in leaving your footprint on Hobby Hovel in any fashion, I invite to talk with me and work something out would benefit both parties.

On a side note, I have reversed my policy toward twitter – I now realise that it twitter is a social networking service, not a blog feed. Currently, I have a Twitter add-on hooked up to Firefox, so should you need to ask me a question or wish to strike up a conversation with me, I’d be more than happy to oblige. Alternatively, contact me via email at chag89@gmail.com.

Okay, back into the meat grinder I go. See you next week!
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Review: Revoltech Sanada Yukimura (Limited White Ver.)

Revoltech Sanada Yukimura (Limited White Ver.)

In my experience, I am often drawn towards collectibles by the source material. What usually happens is: I watch an anime, like it, and decide to get something nice to remember it by. However, there are times when the opposite is true: I see a figure, model or toy that looks so good that I am compelled to check out the source material before ultimately giving in.

Yukimura doesn’t seem to know too many words, but he makes good mileage out of the few he does know.

The subject of this week’s review – the Revoltech Sanada Yukimura (Limited White Ver.) – belongs to this latter category. Despite having dropped the anime Sengoku Basara, this toy dragged me by the ears to pick it back up again and changed my entire opinion of it. Just before committing to buy this toy along with the Revoltech Date Masamune (to be covered in a future review) however, I conveniently received the duo as presents for my birthday. Well, a good present deserves a good review – and what a good present it is! With the exception of one significant flaw, the Revoltech Sanada Yukimura proves that the Yamaguchi Revoltech line is no slouch when it comes to non-mecha figures.

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