Here’s a gem of a figure right out of the popular tokusatsu Japanese genre. Toku… what? Tokusatsu refers to live action films notably from the Japanese film industry. But the term is most popular for referring to monster and superhero driven movies such as Godzilla, Ultraman and Kamen Riders. And Masked Rider No. 2 here is one of the characters out of the popular Kamen Riders franchise. In fact, here is a reboot of the foremost classic riders.
A visit to a local music store during lunch yielded a surprise find – the much coveted 24 Season 6 DVD boxset!!! Within seconds, my hands were all over it, my eyes scanning every inch of the box. It’s good to see Chloe, Bill and Jack again! To m, it’s really Day 1 of a thrilling ride through another 24 season. Excited, I called Mrs SWFToys to tell her of my find. Since Season 1, Mrs SWFToys has been transformed into a big fan of the series. “Oh really? Yeahhhhh!!!! We can watch 24 again!” was her exhilarated response.
Originally uploaded by SWFToys
Here’s a long overdue follow-up to my Avengers Disassembled read some months back. I had originally intended to follow the post Avengers Disassembled storyline closely but gave up Captain America Disassembled and Iron Man Disassembled turned out not quite the good read as Avengers Disassembled. Hmm… that was quite a few ‘Disassembled’ in the last sentence… humph!
Those following the story from Avengers Disassembled would have guessed that the ‘M’ in House of M refers to Magneto since his daughter, the Scarlet Witch, was the cause of some catastrophic events at the Avengers Mansion. She had suffered a mental breakdown and had used her powers to alter reality in an attempt to recreate her children. In its essence, it’s really a sad situation. The temptation to re-animate our loved ones who had passed on would have been real for all man – not only mutants. The difference is that non-mutants have to accept and deal with the loss.
Following the subject of how toy collectors like us can stay financially sound while up keeping our wallet-taxing hobby, here’s a sharing of strategies that have worked for me. Some seem delusional but hey, whatever it takes to have some financial sanity in this hobby.
Every collector has their way to dealing with the Toy Budget Bursting(TBB) Syndrome. Feel free to share yours too in the comments area. This post is beginning to sound like an anonymous group discussion!
Onto the strategies!
After more than 6 months in storage, my shrink wrapped Masked Rider No. 2 The First is finally ready to appear! I had hunted it in my March 2007 trip to Hong Kong. Though not a Masked Rider fan, I was most captivated by the beautiful sculpt of these The First versions of the grasshopper pair. And I’ve always preferred No. 2’s green and am most thankful that I was able to spot a piece in the Mongkok area. There were several shops retailing it then and it was pretty exciting running around looking for the best price!
Here’s a toy that I committed my toy dollar just because it was Darth Vader… and because it was a diecast Vader. It sure looked good in the promo pics I received in the email from the local store. After the shortest of hesitation, I put down the PO and here it is. It’s not frequent that I dig into the 1/6 budget to get a smaller scale product.
Here’s my first Revoltech – a VF-1J Super Valk from Macross. Was drawn to buy one seeing that they are very poseable. They sacrifice the ability to transform to have over-the-top joints to have anime-like poses. Unfortunately, I found that it wasn’t that easy to get them into good-looking poses as seen in the promo pics and on the box art. And I had to be gentle as these guys are small and can’t take as much of the pressure that I exert on my usual 1/6 figures.
Enjoy!
It’s a week where Mrs SWFToys is busy with a week-long conference working from morning till night… weekends included. As such, there’s some time for me when I get back from work. And I had the inclination to relive 24 Season 5. The waiting for Season 6 has made the inclination strong especially it’s the last lap of the year-long waiting.
So in I plonk Disc 1 into the DVD player to start the adventure from Frank Flynn all over again. However, this second viewing had a difference, I used the fast forward search button on the DVD player controller to skip over parts I did not want to see. Somehow, the assassination part was too depressing to see so it was skipped. Much of the First Lady’s earlier scenes were also promptly skipped. Only parts involving Jack Bauer and CTU were watched in ‘real time’. It’s a good way to re-watch a TV series because you can cover more episodes in a viewing.
SWFTOYS - Reviews, Showcase and Musings 