No more plastic

There is science behind toys. After reading the various materials used for action figures and toys that I usually buy, I decided that I should not buy those made of plastic anymore. Other than space and monetary contrainsts, I am concerned about life span of plastic figures.

PVC is the most commonly used materials for action figures nowadays (and it also includes Storm Kotobukiya and Yu Yu Hakusho ArtFX J from Kotobukiya which I am interested in buying previously). The advantage of PVC is that figures won't break when they fall and the paint does not rub off/flake off easily. However, there are plenty of issues with PVC figures as they age, namely the stickiness, the oiliness, and the discolouration. Since I am away from home for most of the time, the temperature of my room can be quite high :( I think heat will cause the plastic to "melt" and become sticky. Oil and discolouration are likely to be due to chemical stability or separation of the plasticizier and other chemicals from the rest of the materials. Another issue is the leaning of figures. This is happening more to female figures thanks to their skinny legs but heavy boobs and hair. Thank goodness that I am more into guys (figures) :p Haha..

Among my collection so far, the ones which are nearest to all these problems are the Gundam Seed Destiny action figures. The clear plastic thingy which holds the feet are already sticky :( Lunamaria cannot even straight :( I think it starts to lean and the holderis unable to hold her in place (she will slide down). Emos :(

Photo taken in Singapore. Laguna is in Indonesia :(

Next is Vinyl, which is less commonly used. The only Vinyl figures I own are the Final Fantasy VIII Scale 1/6 by Kotobukiya (which I have yet to share on the blog). Vinyl figurines are somewhat similar to PVC (which stands to poly vinyl chloride) that they do not break easily if they fall. However, they are like "hollow" tubes and tend to be lighter. Although they do not break easily, breaking is still possible. Yes, they are more brittle than PVC. I had Selphie and Quistis who have a tip of their hair broken (presumably the previous owner dropped them) as well as Seifer's wrist gave away when I tried to force his Hyperion into his grip. Painting-wise, they are also less superior to PVC figures as the paint is more easily rubbed off.

ABS is a more solid plastic material. The most common example of something made of ABS is Lego blocks. Gundams are made of ABS too although I am sure Lego blocks are much stronger than the Gundams. Gundams will break if I accidentally stepped onto them but my toes will shout in pain if I accidentaly stepped onto Lego blocks :p ABS do not break when it falls. Its main advantage is its impossibility to be painted. Even the decals do not stick onto ABS properly. I only own Gundam Wing figures which dated about 10 (if not more) years ago and I can testify that they are in still very awesome condition. The imperfection came from the PVC-like materials for the joints. After so many years, the joints just give away to the weight of the rifles, swords, gattling guns etc. My Wing Gundam Zero Custom is never able to hold the Twin Buster Rifle, Epyon cannot even stand straight now and it has always difficulty holding its beam saber and heat rods, Heavyarms and Serpent are unable to support their gattling guns anymore. I want to cry :( Ok no picture for the Gundams.

After buying Final Fantasy VIII Transcendent Artist's Collection statues, I am falling in love with resin/polyresin/polystone statues. After 13 years, they are still in solid condition. That alone is a testimony of the durability. On the flip side, they are (freaking!) heavy, (freaking!) expensive, and extremely brittle. A drop and everything will break into pieces. The material is something akin to stone so it is very difficult to shape and paint them. That's why many of the resin figures are "limited edition" and each numbered edition may not 100% look alike. Basically, each figure is unique. 

I think now I will only buy resin figures. The price is one thing but at least they will last forever provided that I don't drop them. For now, I guess I will just wait for my PVC figures to slowly die one by one.. Emos.. I know it will feel that I have wasted TOO much money but if I don't buy these things,  I don't know if I have anything to make me happier in my stressful times.

Little things in life

I am a bit bogged down with work lately. It seems that my luck is terrible that everytime I do closing shift, it will always end pretty late. Last Monday was my worst record with knock off time at 1815 :( But one small thing brightened me up as I was leaving my workplace. It was the black cat near the main gate. I randomly made meowing sound because I knew the cat would ignore anyway. It didn't!! It meowed at me back :) Hehe.. Then it looked at me when I looked at it. It meowed again and followed me to the bus stop.. Haha.. I normally don't really like cat. But it seems that I am too lonely and even a small caring gesture from the cat made me happy. The cat has a necklace with a pendant so I think it belonged to someone.. Did it get dumped? Or did it lose its way home? Sigh..

Anyway, I was a bit sad when I could not find it on Tuesday morning before work.. But today I am glad to see it again!! Hehe.. Although I am happy to see it, I really hope that it is not being dumped or anything. I don't want to see it run over by bus or something leh :( Sigh.. It is so cute that I feel like keeping it.. But I know I will be a sucky pet keeper :( People may think black cat is a bad luck or something but I really think that this black cat is cute. Haha.. I am pathetic to get a respite from an animal.

My friend posted something interesting (and very funny) on facebook. He likened healthcare workers to prostitutes. We are fully aware of the risk but we still jump to the profession to get verbal or even physical abuse daily for the sake of better pay. Another friend replied that even prostitutes have better pay and have better control over working hours. Haha.. I think they just had a bad day at work. But it is not only funny but also true :)

Tomorrow I am going home for a short break. Yup it is against my principle to go home for 3 days (I usually even consider 1 week as too short). But oh well, I have too many toys to bring home.. And I had been eyeing this period since 2 months ago when I knew I would be off this Saturday. Despite making decision rather late (only about 3 weeks ago), I still managed to find reasonable airfare so I guess that was a sign that I should just take a break!

Too early for Christmas...

Sexy Zone released their 3rd single "Sexy Summer ni Yuki ga Furu" on the 3rd October. As peculiar as the snow in summer (as the title), it is peculiar to release a summer song in late autumn. It becomes even weirder after listening to the song: it is a Christmas song!! Yup.. A few months too early. The song itself is not very catchy or memorable. I don't think I will like it if it is not without the Christmassy feeling. Looks like it is a trend for their song to always have people speaking in the song, which I find irritating. Thank goodness they keep on the trend to let people have their solo lines instead of singing together throughout the song. The video clip itself is quite nice but it adds on another dimension of peculiarity of the song as it features all the 4 seasons. I am very confused haha..

Live version! The solo parts need more pitch control but the parts sung together sounds good for a live performance.

The other songs in the single are much better than the previous 2 singles. In fact, "Kimi no tame boku ga iru" was introduced a few months earlier and I think is even better than the Sexy Summer. The other song is also pretty nice but I will not talk about it because the Youtube video had been made private so I can't share it here.

"Gingham Check" is AKB48's first single after departure of Atsuko Maeda. Hmm.. on the first glimpse, my eyes opened big big.. I was like how come AKB48 is also singing Gangnam Check?? Haha.. Too much Gangnam Style.. Anyway, I like this song better than their previous single Manatsu no Sounds Good. And as usual, the PV is not uploaded by the official AKB48 channel yet so I will just share the live performance. Kinda sad to see Acchan watching her friends performance. She looked sad :( Haiz.. She should not have left!! And nothing beats girls in dresses :)

Anyway, the video clip is still something like Manatsu no Sounds Good which I don't like. There are a few plots: the police vs robbers, the street gang fights, the ghost story, and the Godzilla, which I don't think quite make sense. Bleah.. they should stick to the straight forward cutesy type of PVs bah..

Should I change?

Sigh.. I am tired to be a guy.. Should I undergo sex operation to be a girl instead? Lol.. joking.. Actually the root cause of my emo-ness lately is my job. Sigh.. I dislike my job. To be honest, it is not that bad, there are other places which are worse. However, this is not something that I like and is not what I aspire to be. I hate seeing endless unreasonable idiots daily.. I hate to provide good customer service when they don't even deserve one. I hate it when other departments can sabo mine with all the wrong information and then we get lambasted with no chance to correct the misunderstanding due to "ethical reason". Dumb dumb dumb!! The bigger problem is: where should I go if I decide to leave? Haiz.. Reality check: it is impossible to find a perfect job. I wonder where I can go in which the benefits will still outweigh the disadvantages.. Having said that, I am NOT happy now and I think it is not unhealthy to stay on something which does not even make me happy!

I just had an interesting course 2 days back. The trainers are experienced in facing nasty people in nasty circumstances so their sharing is somewhat more meaningful than the "bosses' talk cock". When putting myself at the other side of the counter, I can understand why sometimes these idiots are frustrated and for that I can emphatise.. It is also true that I can consider myself lucky when I get blasted because, as pointed by the trainer, when people want to make complain etc, they will "survey" and will choose the one who looks able to help them. It means when I look things positively, it means that I am reliable -__-"

However, theory is easy and practice is crazy. I just cannot emphatise with unreasonable people with no manners. My brain simply cannot rationalise what they do. If I need someone for help, I will not be nasty and bang table. If I make a mistake, I will not be nasty and bang table. But these are what these people do. Is it my fault that you overslept and you missed your appointment date? If you know the other department gave you the wrong information, is there any use of getting angry at me who knows no head no tail about the issue? Jeez.. I remembered 2 occasions when I made a big fuss to M1 and to SingPost but I thought these were reasonable. M1 staff did not renew my students' plan even after I explicitly told her so. Isn't that reasonable? SingPost call centre was the "middleman" between me and the insurance department. I was not angry at them because of the insurance department cock up but I was angry because the useless person refused to handover the phone to a manager after I said it nicely for 3 times. Reasonable right?? Haha..

Another thing which made me enjoy the course was the participants. I actually like to interact people from other department to know what one another do. Just like other people share, it is actually good to know that almost all are facing more or less the same problem with the FON. That forms a common sense of purpose haha.. Ironically, it is human nature to be selfish.. and although realising this, instead of working as a team, usually the different departments end up saboing one another because each one just want to pass over the problem as soon as possible to the rest. I also learn to pay more attention to people whom I met. There was one girl whom I found very familiar.. When I asked her, she pointed out that we just went another course together 2 weeks ago. No wonder she seemed to be very familiar!! Aiyo paiseh leh :( For the other course on Friday, I decided to be better :) I remain friendly to the new financial counsellor (first time I knew her when she bought medicines from me but I forgot her name.. so bad of me -_-) and to another guy who also went for the course on the day before. At the end of the course, as I exited the building, I bumped into another course participant from the day before and at least we greeted each other.

So if previously I always wished for a 9 to 5 job, now my wish is to have a 9 to 5 OFFICE job. Of course grass on the other side always looks greener. As of now, I think it will be good to stay in office and avoid the contact with stupid people.. I am sure there would be another breed of stupid people in office.. But at least no customer service leh!!

And thank God for the blood donation site at Dhoby Ghaut now!! That is really convenient for me :) Hehe.. However, it may be my last time donating.. My blood pressure was so low :( One-Zero-Sumthing/54 I was told that I could not donate if the diastolic is less than 60.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

What the heck is a wallflower? That was my very first thought when I read that Emma Watson is going to act in this movie. And that was many months ago. With such a peculiar title, it was difficult to even guess what the story would be like and it just simply goes out of radar. 

Fast forward a few months, I was bored, and I happened to read a brief synopsis of the movie which was released 2 days ago. Only then I knew that it was based on a book. I googled "wallflower" and it turns out to be a proper english word which means "a type of loner. seemingly shy folks who no one really knows. often some of the most interesting people if one actually talks to them. cute.". With that, I set my mind to watch it.

The movie may seem uninteresting at first. However, it is much deeper than the surface of "typical high school stories". Underneath, there are themes like sexual abuse and psychological problems which are dealty quite subtlely.

Not exactly a favourite but I think I had a good time watching it nonetheless. I think I sort of a wallflower too. Even up to now, I often eat meals alone, go out alone, and watch movies alone. Haha.. Perhaps my JC (i.e high school) was sort of the worst as I disliked almost all of my classmates and ended up sitting alone in lecture and at meal times. So it is rather personal as I can relate to it. I left feeling rather emo as unlike Charlie, I am not blessed with good friends eventually.

Acting-wise, I think Logan Lerman is superb. I sort of like him from Percy Jackson as he seems to be a decent, cute, innocent guy, still not corrupted by Hollywood yet. Of course the acting in Percy Jackson was rather dull. However, he is awesome here. His natural facial expression suits the description of a wallflower. Other than that, he can act as being "high" on drugs, being shy on the love-related matters, being angry when his dear ones got hurt, and near the end.. being depressed and all that. Simply wow!

It is difficult to see Emma Watson not as Hermione, especially when her character shares some of Hermione's traits such as bossiness and being more mature than the boys around her. However, she still convincingly acts as a crazy party girl here.

Unexpectedly, the star of the show is Ezra Miller. I never see or read or know him previously. His acting is also terrific. He can act flamboyantly as a gay and in his tranny theater show, as a good "big brother", as well as the Mr. Funny throughout the show. I thought it was hilarious when he told his lecturer "If you fail me, you get me again next semester".

Near the end, something kinda struck me when I see another similarity with my personal life. I am not so into having a relationship even though there is someone I like. I always think that I suck and she deserves someone better. Perhaps what Sam said to Charlie near the end is true: there is no point thinking/behaving that way as the person you like will not even know/feel anything if you are not doing/saying anything. Aargh.. should I just wait for a girl to make her first move?? I know but I am a lousy guy..

So where are my perks of being a wallflower? I also wish that I can also find my Emma Watson someday..

Too hard on myself..

God works in wondrous ways. My JC roommate who left to Australia after JC is currently back here for a 6 week elective. It is still a peculiarity to me that he would choose to be back to this sucky place. Anyhow, by hook or by crook, he happened to be attached to the same hospital and the same ward as another friend (who was his roommate in secondary school). No plan for them to meet or to contact each other but if God destines them to meet, it happens. So ya, with that, a reunion was arranged yesterday with the last remaining few of my fellow secondary school scholars who still remain here. It was a bit early but it became like our reunion to celebrate 10 years of our friendship, laughter, and sorrow in this foreign land.

After a bit of catching up, we realise that we hardly change since 10 years ago. One remains as sarcastic and as nasty as ever (that's me!). One remains as idealistic as ever. One remains as weird as ever.. and so on. I realise that I am too hard and too critical on myself. I was told that my face is so smooth now. When I see myself in front of the mirror, I think I still have a lot of pimples. Yeah, to me smooth means something like a photoshopped picture. I was told that my youthful look still remains but everytime I see myself in the mirror, I think I have wrinkles here and there. Oh well =x

I should be grateful with what I have instead of focusing on things which I am lacking when I compare myself with others. Now I am contemplating whether I should start a relationship or I should still wait. Sigh.. Again, I am too critical and too hard on myself. I always think that there are 1001 guys out there who would make a better boyfriend or husband for that girl and yada yada.. I keep telling myself that if that person is indeed my soulmate, then she will also not be taken. If she is taken, then perhaps that would be better for her. Haiz.. I am really confused.

Today, I felt so sad at church. I saw a girl with a crooked leg that she could not walk normally. Initially, I felt pity.. I asked why God would allow such a young person to be created that way. I wonder if someone would marry her someday, after all she was quite pretty. However, what amazed me was her expression. She looked happy.. I think she may be a happier person than I am. I was also touched with the love shown by her brother (or father? I can't tell) who supported her by her shoulder from behind as she was walking towards the Holy Communion.

I think that despite the many things I hate with myself and my life, there are tonnes other things which could have been worse. For that, I know I should be more grateful, kinder, and more Godly etc. Easier said than done :( Especially with the types of people I see everyday at work.. Sigh.. Emo...

Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary

I am slow to realise that this year is a special year for Final Fantasy fans as the series is celebrating its 25th anniversary. I came to first now about this when my friend posted about Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box on my facebook last month. The collection consists of all Final Fantasy games from I to XIII (excluding the prequels and sequels), a special video to commemorate the 25th anniversary, artbook, soundtrack disks, and the best part in my opinion: a visual and stand by Yoshitaka Amano. The rumoured retail price is 35000 yen and it will be released on 18th December as the first Final Fantasy game was released on 18th December 1987.

The stand with original artwork for the 25th anniversary

As good as it sound, it is likely that I would give this a miss. The reason is that the main "bulk" of the set i.e the games would be unplayable. FF I-IX are released for PS1 and by now my PS1 is dead. FF III is an exception because it is rumoured to be released as an UMD for PSP (although I think it would be PS Vita, rather than PSP). FF X-XII and FF XIII are for PS2 and PS3 respectively, which I do not own.

Anyway, below is the promo video.. Yum yum..

To celebrate the special occasion, there are still other things such as mugs, tumblers, mini towel, chocobo plushie, postcard set, and playing card set. Many were released early this year and were already sold out by the time I knew about them 2 weeks ago.

The only thing I managed to buy is the playing cards set. To be frank, nothing sensational about it. Well, how "great" a playing card set can be? I bought it more for "sentimental" values. Haha.. I bought 2 sets for 1080 yen each. The hearts and spades are good as they form a complete Dissidia and FF logo sets. The clubs and diamonds, however, are disappointing. It seems that they just find any pictures to make up the respective cards without any "theme".

The packaging box

Club.. I thought all would be guardian forces -_-

Diamond.. The worst set for me. Why is the special treatment for certain FFs only?

Heart.. a.k.a Dissidia set

Spade.. Final Fantasy logos

Jokers.. and the back of every card

Since the topic is about Final Fantasy, let me also comment on Theathrythm Final Fantasy game. Very very sad that it is a Nintendon 3DS game :( Sigh.. I can never imagine playing a rhythm/music game related to Final Fantasy.. Perhaps this would be the one and only of such genre ever created and I will not be able to enjoy it.. Sad.. Despite the skepticism, I am quite curious about this game. After all, Dissidia is a huge HIT for me, although initially people doubt that Square Enix would be able to make something good in the non-RPG world. Thus, I am expecting that this would excite me as much as Dissidia.

You are so ridiculous!

You are "I". I am so upset with myself and I wish that I can shake my shoulders and slap my face to bring myself into reality. I am delusional.. I am hallucinating.. My priorities are upside down. It was so hard for me to come into a decision to fly back home for a 2-day holiday because of cost issues. $200 seems so much for that and yet I can spend thousands of dollars for toys and action figures. Seriously.. what's fucking wrong with me!!

Sigh.. A bit emo again as another Rinoa-Siren statue was sold for 500 over dollars :( I decided to forgo the damaged Squall-Bahamut statue as it was somewhere near 200. Grrrah.. Anyway, I have found new targets: Lunar Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar Eternal Blue Complete collectors' edition. These 2 are my favourite RPGs after Final Fantasy VIII. I still remembered when I was a kid, my mum had a business trip to Singapore and I asked her to help me buy one of them in Singapore (at that time, all games were pirated ones in Indonesia). Obviously my mum did not buy for me because the price was sooo ridiculous as compared to the pirated games. Oh well =x and now I am supposed to pay even more!! Haha..

I have won the Lunar Silver Star Story Complete from eBay and purchased the game guide (by Working Designs!) from Amazon. Still waiting for the same things on the Eternal Blue. Will take photos and show off when the time comes.

As promised, I would share about what happened with my Zell, Irvine & Diablos statue. It actually arrived damaged :( Lucky it was insured although the claiming process was rather hellish thanks to the inefficient postal services. However, I am glad that the seller is being very helpful and accomodating. I am glad that in the end the insurance will refund in full. So basically I get that statue for free. I don't know whether I should be happy to get it for free or I should be sad because a limited and out-of-production rare item is damaged =x Oh wells..

The damage may seem "small" or even invisible unless someone scrutinise the statue with a microscope. But still, for collectors, it is a heartache to see a masterpiece goes wasted!

Broken horn

Irvine's broken rifle

Irvine's broken rifle

  

Difficult to see in photos but the tip is actually an exposed metal wire skeleton. I know about the metal wire skeleton because I have damaged Seifer with exposed metal wire skeleton.

Final Fantasy VIII Transcendent Artist's Collection: Zell, Irvine & Diablos

This is supposed to be the second rarest and second most expensive statue in the whole set. Many fans think that Selphie, Quistis & Leviathan statue is the best but for me, I think this Zell, Irvine & Diablos is better! Yup, that is despite the fact that Quistis is my favourite character. There are 2 reasons. The first being Zell and Irvine are beautifully sculpted (in contrast to the atrocious Selphie and Quistis). They are as pretty as their in-game CGs so that is a big wow. The second reason is Diablos' details: the teeth, the gum, the tiny horns, etc. Simply wow! In fact, that is another reason why it is rare to find the statue intact. Often, Diablos' tiny horns are damaged. Anyway, the box size is 36cm (L) x 23cm (W) x 44cm (H).

However, there is one thing which I dislike about this statue: the skin tone of Zell and Irvine is very dark as compared to Seifer, Quistis, or Selphie. Bleah.. When I saw for the first time, I was wondering whether they are discoloured or they are just sculpted that way. Diablos' pose is also a bit hard to decipher. Why is the tail at the front below the face? Haha.. My guess is that Diablos is wrapping the wings around his body as he appears from the other dimension or something. But I certainly love Juyi Oniki's style better than Kenji Ando and Takayuki Takeya.

I won this together with Selphie, Quistis & Leviathan statue. Unfortunately, it was held by customs and I had to fork out additional $70+. Emoz. And there is a reason why I am only posting about this statue now, even though I wrote about the other statue last month. But the story will be for part II of this post next time. For now, just enjoy the pictures ^o^

Front side of the packaging box

Back side of the packaging box

Top side of the packaging box

Serial card.. and small serial number!! :)

The other side of the serial card

Unboxing.. The statue consists of 4 parts: Zell, Irvine, Diablos, and its tail

The statue and the packaging box

 Close-ups for the statue itself now.

 

No idea why Diablos is spelt as "Diabolus" here.

No wonder I'm so fat!

Idle minds are the devil's playground. That was what happened to me on Sunday. I suddenly had the urge to go to China Square Central. I wanted to check out the price of cool Square Enix statues which Toys N Toys (the name of the shop) display. Thus far, this is the only shop which I can see such huge, expensive, and cool statues on display. I think the display is not for sale. Even after leaving them an email to ask whether they are for sale (and for how much), I heard no reply. Oh wells..

And the devil is smart.. My trip there caused me to fall into another temptation. I saw a shop selling limited edition Storm Kotobukiya from SDCC (San Diego Comic-Con) for $90. Even before this limited edition, I was tempted to get the normal edition since Storm is my favourite X-men. The statue itself is very cool as Storm is placed on a whirlwind and the extra pair of hands depict her summoning lightnings. Throw in the pose which perfectly depicts her mutant powers. I was a bit skeptical with the East-meets-West style of Marvel Bishoujo Kotobukiya line and that was the main reason for me not buying. Another reason is the normal edition Storm's black outfit which is a poor contrast with her dark skin. The limited edition Storm wears white. I never thought of buying it since I never expect that a few sets would ever land in this island. Haha.. So after knowing this, I quickly went to google to see reviews and after seeing the details that's it: I would buy both haha... I can't make up my mind to choose which is better. Although I love the white outfit, I hate the clear reddish tornado base :( Real tornado does not look like that :(

 Normal edition (black costume) and SDCC limited edition (white costume)

So after my course today, I went to check out other toyshops for prices. First stop: Absolute Comics at Bugis. No Storm.. But generally the figure from this line is selling for $90 each. However, my heart skipped a few beats because of something else. PlayArts Selphie is $10 only now T_T Darn!! I was so excited and bought it at $25 last time. Sad sad.. PlayArts Rinoa is $35.. Now I am tempted to buy them both haiz.. Perhaps I can sell them :( FYI, I bought Rinoa in Indonesia.. If I convert the price, she cost me about $60-70. She is half price now.. I am a bad investor but I think Rinoa's stuff usually can sell for higher prices (provided I am patient enough to wait.. and provided I am lucky enough to have buyer).

I then went to the various toy shops at Plaza Singapura. $90 is rather a standard price. Anyway, it would be cheaper to buy normal edition Storm off Amazon even after the shipping so it would make more sense for me to buy it online. For the limited edition, $90 here will definitely a better choice. I don't know whether I should buy now or I should wait for the coming AFA in November. Bleah..

Anyway, I feel so tired now. I realise that it has been forever since the last time I had the chance to go for toys hunting after the end of the work. Perhaps the last time was during my pre-reg days? Haha.. No wonder that I am so fat now! Looks like retail therapy is the secret to my slimming. It is a great form of physical exercise with all the walking (long distance :p) and the carrying of the shopping bags. Plus I will spend money until I have to save for my food. Not to mention that my pay was pathetic too previously. That means I should shop more often now.. But where to store the stuff :(