Gunpla making equipment GET!

Hey all!

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days. My residence hall blocked my image uploading site and I had to complain through their online thingy for them to check it out.

Anyway, the materials I think I need for building gunpla arrived last Friday! I was totally psyched but didn't start building cos I wanted to spend time with Shin who came down for the weekend.

Stuff I got are (from left to right, top to bottom):

Pipettes (cos I can't find any in my uni labs god damn it), brush set, medium and fine abrasives and paint stirrer.

Model knife (which came as blades, damn website and their photos showing the pen-like holder too), paint tray (can be used for other stuff), tweezers and micro side-cutters.

White spray, clear spray, paint thinner, yellow, black, grey, blue, white and red acrylics.

I did a bit of work on my Beginning Gundam by nipping and sanding. Getting used to it a bit but I had cases of over sanding and nipping too close to the part :( Live and learn I guess.

One runner stripped and sanded nicely!

I'll be updating and posting any significant developments in my first Gunpla trial in years. 

So come back soon!

Thanks for reading!

~Fox

Taro Japanese Restaurant Review

Hey all!

Here's a review of a Japanese Cuisine Restaurant we went to the other day. Taro's situated on 10 Old Compton Street W1D 4TF, just a while from Tottenham Court Road tube station.


In my previous 3 years stay in England, I only remember having Japanese food twice. And frankly, they both were costly, and sucked.


So when my girlfriend said a friend of ours recommended Taro, I was skeptic at first until she said the friend was the one who recommended the Korean restaurant we liked.


Anyways we went as a party of 4: me, my sis, Shin and her bro. And here's what we ordered:

I got the tonkatsu ramen. Honestly, it was THE best ramen I had in my life! It didn't only look good, it tasted awesome! The soup base taste was what I imagined it was for a ramen base, and more. Sadly the restaurant back home only used miso soup. This one however, is hypnotising; a spoon full of the soup shines golden~ (or maybe that's just me) I give this dish 5 exploding volcanoes out of 5.

Sis had the bento. She thought it was pretty good but I didn't like the over sticky rice lol.

Shin's bro had tonkatsu curry. He thought it was pretty good too and said the rice was too much lol.

Shin had the chicken udon I think. She also seemed satisfied with it. The soup was miso though, so I thought mine was superior! Mwahaha.

Finally I wanted to try their sushi. This was sub par and waaay below my expectations. The front piece... I actually put wasabi and ginger on it, and realised I didn't take a picture. My sis told me to turn it over and so I did and we lol'd. The salmon looked bigger from there. So I went "LOL I should over turn the rest then!" And when I did, the top right one.... is only rice. It was the butt of the roll. Taste-wise, I've definitely had better. I did say I wasn't impressed with the over sticky rice, and coupled with the small portion of filling, made a pretty tasteless rice ball.


Conclusion
All in all, I thought Taro was pretty good! If you like Japanese cuisine for a budget price, this is the place to go! The taste and quality (for the most part) is better from the others I've tried. But do order the bento(set meals) or noodles or something. The sashimi and sushi on the other hand, will have you pay through the nose.


Definitely worth a try if you are looking for a new place to have lunch or dinner. Oh and they charge 10% service charge during evenings so dinners are more costly.

I would say Taro gets a 4/5 just because the ramen outweighs the bad experience significantly!




~Fox

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 Review

Hey all,

Just got back from watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and thought I might share some thoughts about it with you guys.

Now I for one haven't been following Harry on his escapades after the fourth book because I felt he started to become an emo kid plagued by bad storytelling. Yet he's still raking in loads of money for Rowling. Also I haven't followed his movies ever since the second one.

Anyways, Deathly Hallows (DH from now on) follows up (I hope) on the previous movie and starts off with a speech from the Minister of Magic, followed by a scene with the bad guys and back to Harry and it continues on and on. The movie is 2hours and 55minutes from what I saw on the movie info screen.

The acting in DH is pretty good I guess. Especially that woman, Bellatrix or whatever her name is. She is psychotic, which is all I remember of her from the book. Other actors make it very believable as well. There are a few scenes which try to be humourous and at most times it works.

I can't say this movie is "action-packed" nor very engaging in my opinion. I think that the latter's just because I know nothing that happened between the 4th book til now. Sure, there are scenes especially in the beginning that make it exciting, but it doesn't whet my taste to think "wow".

Graphics wise it looks pretty good, from spells flying to little knick-knacks though I can't say most of the explosive effects looked that hot. They look more like those sparklers that come off the Power Rangers after they were hit with a significant attack. The surroundings feel less magical than I thought it should be as it seems to appear in the real world or something. Interestingly, I went to Shaftesbury Avenue during the afternoon before watching it.

The movie ends with lowering tension but shows a cliffhanger-ish development.

Overall I think if you're a Potter fan, DH will more or less deliver what you would expect probably.
Though if you're like me and are not really interested in it, the story might just breeze over your head. But it's still worth a watch with your friends. If you do want to watch it though, I recommend not drinking too much before and go to the toilet before watching.

I personally will give the movie a 2.5/5. My sis thought this was a pretty good movie though. She said it was better than the previous instalment which was crap. But I think if you compare something crap with something a bit better, the latter would seem better than it would, right?

On a side note, the nude Harry-Hermione scene was pretty good, lol.


~Fox

Revoltech Woody Review

Hey all!

I received a package from FedEx yesterday containing my order from Hobby Link Japan! Yes yes, I know this review is too long too late, but who cares? There are people like me who only get or have the chance to get at a later time.

The main word for Woody is: Articulation! Woody can be made into a lot of poses (some may be NSFW) and this accompanied by the many kinds of hands that comes with this is awesome! The number of exploitable photos are limitless, search online for more lol-able pictures.

This is what you get in the box.

The little "toy box" that comes with it to store the hands and other parts is... uhh.. handy.

Needless to say, the first few faces I played with was....

Woody wants to share something with you~

Checking something (or someone) out

Normal faced Woody says "Howdy"

Review

Anyway, on to the review! As I said, the articulation is godly, the Revoltech joints work pretty well. The only problem I found was I initially couldn't bend the limbs much so you have to be a bit brave and careful when stretching the figure to its new surroundings. 

The joints are made of uhh... Kinda like two half-balls with a stick? They make a ball and thus have 2 connectors. This gives the figure an almost 360 degrees turning for the most parts. The elbow, leg and ankle joints lock into position so you don't have to worry about "rag doll" physics though technically Woody's supposed to be like that.

Don't know if you can see from my sub par camera skills but the actual painting of the figure is pretty good! Down to every detail including Woody's "blush" and the "Andy" written on his foot.

Graah! The only massive problem with this one is that stain on the back! I think it's spilt glue and really made my mood turn sour >:(

Other than that, the figure's pretty solid, so to speak. One other problem I faced was facing was making him stand by himself, you do need a bit of patience and getting used to his features and little shifts in weight to get it right.

Finally, don't expect to have a big figure! I was quite surprised the figure was really quite small. He's about the size of a PSP. But the small size and proportion is rather appealing... Probably just me as I fancy miniature things~

Oh, how did I know he's about the size of a PSP?

Here you go!

All in all I think this was money well spent, I shall be having fun with this amusing face for a while I can see hoho.


~Fox

Digimon Xros Wars!

Hey guys!

Recently, and by recently I mean "yesterday" I watched the new Digimon Series called "Xros Wars" (read as "Cross Wars") and all I can say is... WOW! I didn't really fancy the previous Savers series for some reason but this series, I seriously recommend!

Long story short, Kudou Taiki is a kid who cannot say no to helping people who are in need even if it means sacrificing some of his health and well-being; i.e. the ultimate samaritan.  He hears a voice saying it's going to die. It turns out this was the voice of Shoutmon and from saving him and taking the X Loader (Cross Loader; basically the series equivalent of the traditional Digivice), Taiki and his 2 friends get sucked into the Digital world and go on a quest to save the place!

First thing's first, Taiki rings the bell of... You got it! (or not)

Taichi from the first series! Lol.

DIGIXROS!
There's no traditional digivolution in this series, but instead the Digimon accompanying Taiki can merge into stronger Digimons via DigiXros (Digicross; Yeah I don't know why X is cross and they have to emphasise it with the 'ros'. I guess it's the case like "PIN number". Also before I started watching I read it as "Zros" ). The DigiXros scenes are quite epic, gives me goosebumps like the first time I saw Digimon Adventures when they digivolve into stronger beings for the first time!

Without telling you spoilers, I can just tell you when I saw the DigiXros for the first time, the Digimon that came out reminded me of...

OMNIMON!!

I think that's where the series really sucked me in.. What I love about it is it cuts to the chase, no lengthy episodes to prolong fights to milk it; they progress story and character development as much as possible. Every character has a role to play in the group although some more than others, which is a good balance in the storytelling. And there are a lot of hilarious moments as well~ Even when you don't expect it.

Final words

All I want to say is, if you were a fan of the first 3 seasons of Digimon, this is a series you will enjoy! It is action packed, characters are fun to watch and the OP song kicks ass! As of now, only 16 episodes have been aired and it's still ongoing!

Follow Taiki as he collects them all! (You'll see what I mean)

~Fox

Beginning of Gunpla!

Yo all!

A while ago, I received the package I ordered. Dun dun dunnn!

It's the 1/144 Beginning Gundam from Gunpla Builders Beginning G "series"!

The reason I bought it is because of seeing friends back home having fun fixing their gunpla collections. Makes me jealous and I was at my limit and my hands were itchy though my wallet went "No, Fox! Think about it first!". Come to think of it might have possessed my girlfriend cos that's what she said too.. Hmm hmm hmm.

Anyways I did think about for another... week or so, looking at tutorials and finding out techniques and thus what equipment I need. When I finally got the list of stuff to buy, my wallet, girlfriend and I, had this face:

Buuuuuuuuuuut I bought it anyway. Now I just want Monday to come faster so I can get them and start building!!!!11oneone

Anyways, a quick show of what you'd get in the kit:

7 runners and be aware that the "wolverine" sabre hand is the same material as the sabre, you'll need to do some painting to make it look nice.

And an instruction booklet with some basic how to tips too!

I might post some work in progress pics or maybe just show you the end product, I'll see how it goes!

Stay tuned for more!

~Fox

Nottingham Update 2 of 2 - Making pancakes!

Hey all!

Fueled by sugar and caffeine from Starbucks' Cinnamon swirl and Caramel Macchiato as well as a pint of Guiness, here's the second part of my update!

On the last morning of my stay in Nottingham, I made pancakes for Shin (she's been asking for the past few days but I kept over sleeping).

What did I use? Here's the estimated recipe:
300g flour,
3 tablespoon sugar,
1/2 tablespoon salt,
2 eggs,
A bit of milk,
water.

Just crack the eggs into the flour and add water, not too much though, it's easy to add water but impossible to balance too much without making too many. Stir/whip it and add a bit of milk then water as necessary and add the salt and sugar. Keep mixing until you get about a sticky consistency but watery enough for it to not be tough to mix. Mix til you're satisfied with it or it has little or no bubbles and/or chunks of unmixed flour (This is best done with a whisk as using a fork or spoon as I traditionally did was difficult to do).

Then depending on the size of frying pan you using, you estimate how much butter you need, for the small pan I used a quarter tablespoon of butter. First time was too much :( And just fry it over medium-low heat.

Cooking is a trial and error learning process! Do it and get better, don't do and eat other's cooking :P
Here I'm frying the first "test" piece.

Taste testing the piece. I used 1.5 tablespoons of sugar initially and kicked it up to 3 in total.
It's based on preference really.

Frying one more and it looks better!

Too high heat! Need to tend to it quite a bit lol, so no leaving it to chat with friends on MSN.

The ones after that were brilliant! Shin likes em crispy round the edges and I've grown accustomed to making them like this.

Finished product! A stack of pancakes will definitely woo the boy/girl of your dreams.
Just add honey/butter/whatever you want on top and serve!

There you go people! Hope you enjoyed these posts! Check back frequently for updates :P


~Fox

Nottingham Update 1 of 2 - Food galore!

Hey all,

Just a quick update with pics on my trip to Notts. It was awesome spending time with Shin as well as cooking some fabulous stuff together :P Oh the pic above? I found it amusing to see a pink pair of testicles with wings so thought I shared it with ya. lol

On one of the nights we made Wonton soup, mapo tofu and kimchi stew!

Wonton making in progress!

Ready to cook!

Just boil them!

Add some chicken soup and voila! Added some fried anchovies to the soup made it taste awesome~

Finished cooking the mapo tofu~ Basically used a mapo tofu seasoning powder, add water and cook as instructed.

Kimchi stew finally done~ Shin used pork, prawn, kimchi, enoki mushrooms and a bit of egg tofu!

The taste of that dinner was one I will not soon forget~

On another night we went to Nandos for some spicy Peri-peri grilled chicken~ But they boiled it first which made me sadface. Note 100% students.

At least the chicken was not cancer flavour (burnt epicly)

Chicken liver~! One of Shin's favs which I introduced hoho. It tastes great! Especially with the spicy-salty sauce; a must try!

There cannot be only good things... That's why somehow one of the days we went to New Ocean City for some dimsum... And it was CRAP! It was bland, tasteless, slow but the service was friendly I guess...

I still felt hungry after the dimsum so I ordered a paikut fan (steamed pork with rice)

Presentation I give a 5! But the taste is just a 2... the worst part is....

One of the pork was still fucking raw! WTF!

Bottom line is! New Ocean City is crap now, not worth the money and students only get 10% off now. Sadface, need to find another good dimsum place in Notts!

Last but not least~ I had the best watermelon in like... AGES, which includes even when I went back home during the summer. Can't remember when I had watermelons this good.

The deep deep red is not just for show! It was extremely juicy and sweet! So awesome! Hope we can find more next time. This was bought from Tesco, Sainsbury's ones can't compare :P

My next post will be about making a certain breakfast food for Shin, look forward to it~

~Fox