Categories
Miscellaneous

Hobby Hovel: Three Years Later

Seasons change, clocks turn, and before we knew it, Hobby Hovel is three years old! This past year has born witness to a dizzying amount of changes for me, both within and without the blog. Of course, these changes need to be chewed up, digested and expelled into the cauldron I prepare only once a year. That’s right my lovelies — it’s time for another anniversary post!

(Artist:  にわ子)

Categories
Figure Review

Review: 1/7 Megurine Luka (Tony ver.)

Nothing fancy here — just a mix between red and blue floodlights. Fun fact: my first red bulb exploded 6 seconds after turning it on. I’m so glad I replaced it. I wish I had more stuff going on in the background, though — I might revisit this shot with some glow-sticks or light-painting in the future.

Surprise, it’s a new review! Well, not really — this is just a short post showing off a few shots I took for the review. The actual review is over at Tomopop, because this figure was provided as a review sample by HobbyLink Japan. I had a load of fun writing and shooting this review, so get your butt over there and check it out!

Categories
Review Toy

Review: Chogokin Drossel von Flugel (Charming ver.)

They say lighting never strikes twice, but we all know that saying is full of crap, especially in the figure world. We keep buying the Tony Taka figures with their identical faces, we keep throwing our money at every iteration of Black Rock Shooter figmas, and we keep gobbling up the same familiar shapes of Nendoroids.  Indeed, change may very well be a dubious thing to bring into a successful formula, and this might’ve been the case with Drossel von Flügel from Fireball — the unlikely lovechild between Disney and Toei that took the figure world by storm three years ago.

While I loved the original figma Drossel, I wasn’t a big fan of Fireball‘s sense of humour. Thankfully, its prequel Fireball Charming relied less on puns and wordplay, and thus its sense of humour was more easily translated across language barriers. Its bolstered budget also made for some really nice art and animation — far beyond the quality of the first season.

Still, for whatever reason, the second season just didn’t seem to make that big of a splash, and the reception towards Drossel’s new design has been…lukewarm at best. I get the feeling a lot of people did not like how this robo-girl looks decidedly more “robo” and less “girl”, yet that’s pretty much exactly why I love the design so much (and people wonder why I’m single — hah!).

When the shoulder on my figma Drossel broke a couple months back, I figured I would replace it with the Fireball Charming version (henceforth known as Drossel 2.0). But as I browsed the stores, I noticed that Bandai’s Chogokin version was also in stock at discount prices. I was indecisive for a while, but when Amiami decided to discount it for 50% off, that was my cue to bust out the wallet. I could’ve gone for the safe choice and got the figma, but I figured I’d give Bandai’s long-running diecast mecha line a try, if only for the sake of trying something new. It has its share of surprises both good and bad, but ultimately I really enjoy it.

Categories
Figure Miscellaneous Plamo Toy

Show & Tell: Chag’s Room, Then & Now

Between Guild Wars 2, busy shifts at work, and clumsy attempts at home decoration, I haven’t felt like shooting photos of figures like I was supposed to this past week. So it’s time for another filler post, this time showing off my room from before the move and my room now. Without further ado, prepare for a critical mass of IKEA!