English Instructions on Gokai Darin

I've never watched any episodes of the Gokaigers but I do own a couple of the Ranger keys.   I got this free with some Gokai Red  promotion at Jusco.   I'm horrible at reading Katakana and have pretty much zero skill at reading Kanji.   But here are a few pictures of this ship's steering wheel in case you bought this on Ebay and are wondering how to pose your Rangers with it. 

 It says "Gookai Darin" in Katakana there. 

S.H. Figuarts Jusco Exclusive Shinken Red Kaoru Shiba

I'll be honest.  I was planning on selling this toy to help me recuperate from my trip to Japan.  The longer I waited the more this figure depreciated in value so I just decided to open her up and keep her for my own.  And after opening I do not regret it because she's a great figure and I think I might make an all female team of Figuarts Rangers. 

I've seen this toy before and when I hit up the Jusco/Aeon Mall (I hope I remember that right) i was super surprised to see her shelf warming for about ¥2500.   I almost spent my whole toy budget on a bunch of her to sell at home for a hundred bucks a pop but I stopped myself.  I also got Gokai Darin at the time because of a special Red Ranger promotion they were doing with Gokai Red.  My Japanese is horrible so I could only half understand what the sales lady was saying to me.  

Play Arts Full Metal Alchemist Winry Rockbell

I didn't know Play Arts made figures from the show Full Metal Alchemist.   I was a fan of the show when it first aired on Adult Swim back in 2004 or 2005.  I don't remember.    Anywho I actually saw the Elric brothers go for ridiculous prices on the internet.   I don't feel right paying over twenty bucks for one of these smaller Play Arts.   Then I saw they made a Winry and she was only six dollars!   I figured why the hell not and placed my order on Amazon.   Winry was cheaper and a beer at the bar and I don't regret buying her.   I've yet to justify the forty plus dollars for the Elric brothers to buy them.    

Figure-Rise Master Grade Goku

*Warning*  This one is going to be very picture heavy!

Thanks to my lovely girlfriend she send me this model kid as part of my birthday present!  I've enjoyed Dragonball Z for a long time and it is one of my favorite franchises out there.   I've never put together something larger than a High Grade Gundam so I was a little worried I would mess this up.   I did have an amazing time putting it together though.   It's a ton of fun!

Final Fantasy X Play Arts Rikku

Whew I haven't posted on here in a while.    They changed the blogger set up so I'm a little confused.  

Anywho  I picked this up during the Christmas season for a good bit of money.   Something I normally wouldn't spend on a toy but I saw her going for fifty bucks on Amazon,  something I couldn't pass up at the time.   Rikku normally goes for close to a hundred dollars so I'm hoping this isn't a fake and that I got a lucky break on finding her.  

 

It's actually a smaller box than the Play Arts I have.   

S.H.Figuarts Nami Review

I'm not a One Piece fan but the Figuarts of Nami is pretty awesome.  I feel this way because of the extra faces she comes with!  I really like the screaming angry face.  If you can buy Nami for less than $20 then get it!  The faces alone almost make this toy worth $20+

Final Fantasy Play Arts Kai Vanille Review

Yay Joshin store again for having this cheap.  Vanille was marked down to ¥1800 compared to her normal ¥4000.   Compared to America over here the closest I can find her is on Amazon.com for $40.     I'm quite pleased with this purchase.   I haven't beaten FF XIII yet but from what I'm finding I like the cheerful characters in Final Fantasy.  They're going up against world threatening events and they also have a positive attitude.  Enough rambling here at some pictures for you to decide if you want to spend the money on her. 

Play Arts Final Fantasy VIII Selphie Review

Play Arts Selphie came out a while ago and in America you can find her, and other Final Fantasy Play Arts figures, for $20+ online and in stores.  When I was shopping around for toys in Japan I found her for ¥1000.  I'm happy I snagged her for that price because I can now make a Final Fantasy team on my desk. 

Japanese Crane/UFO Catcher Games

Real quick post.  At ¥100-¥200 a game these things are addictive.  In hindsight I regret playing them and dumping all that money into them.  Just look how awesome the faces are! But yeah if you're ever in Japan give them a try and you might end up with awesome prizes like these!  Japanese toys come with awesome faces. 

40th Anniversary Cup Noodle: Cup Gunpla Review

My super sexy mega awesome girlfriend picked me up this set one day after work.  I'm not sure how much it cost but both of these seem pretty Japanese to me.  I believe this set is based off of the bad guy Char.  I think this is his Zaku but with Cup Noodles logo all over it.  Please forgive me if I am wrong I did no research into this.  

S.H.Figuarts Piccolo Review

Finding cheap Figuarts of my favorite characters was not easy in  Japan.  It felt like I had to be in the right place at the right time.  In Akihabara I thought I was going to get a Goku for only 2500 yen but that turned out to be a lie.  I couldn't find any of the Dragon Ball Z Figuarts until I was in Joetsu City.  There I found Piccolo and Gohan for a whopping ¥3300.  I didn't want to pay for them because I could maybe get them cheaper online.  It as good that I held out because Piccolo here was at a Joshin store for ¥2940 and I really like him.   

S.H. Figuarts: Kazuma Review

Whoa another month has almost passed since my last post.  I've been in Japan seeing the sights and buying some new toys.   These toys aren't new and some have been out for a while but I think they are awesome because they didn't make me poor.  I wish I could have gotten the more expensive figures but then I would have walked away with only two or three instead of the several I have right now.

Kamen Rider W Blind Box Motorcycle + Figure Review

Oh alcohol what crazy things you make me spend money on.  For lack of better judgement I spent $8.99 on this toy.  I regret this because the toy doesn't really do anything and you need to buy four boxes to complete the stage.  I'm just gonna say save your money and buy something else cool but enjoy these pictures. 

Marvel Universe Cable Review

This is the Cable variant meaning he doesn't come with baby Hope.  I picked him up at the Toy Fair for $12 dollars.  I figured it was a good price because online Cable with baby version goes for $30+ while this one goes for $18+.  From Youtube reviews I's seen the baby Hope and X symbol do not attach to Cable very well.  I recommend getting this one unless you really want the baby because cable has enough loose parts already.

When I opened up Cable and went to move him limbs he broke at his left wrist.  I was angry because Cable is an awesome Marvel Universe figure.  He is in my top three figures to get from Marvel Universe. 

Monster Hunter Motion Revive Dragon Armor Review

I know I've been going on about these Monster Hunter Toys and since this one is very similar to my Rathalos Armor Review I will keep this one short and just show you the pictures. 

Monster Hunter Motion Revive Rathlos Armor Review

In the first Monster Hunter game it meant something when you got full Rathalos armor.  It took me two+ years to achieve this goal because I didn't have internet access on my PS2 for a long time.  No internet and combined with PS2 Rathalos' tendency to fly around all the time made this battle take forever.  Fast forward several years and it sometimes only takes me five minutes to hunt the regular Rathalos.  With each release of Monster Hunter they made the game easier to play.   

I've already talked quite a lot about the Monster Hunter Motion Revive series and I have nothing new to say other than this is my favorite armor because I use it with each game I buy.  I really wish this was the mascot armor instead of the Kirin set because when I think of armor made from a monster I think these guys, not a bikini that protects nothing. 

I forgot to mention this is the blademaster set if it wasn't too obvious from the swords and shields.  

Monster Hunter Motion Revive Giaprey and Ioprey Gunner Review

Monster Hunter fans please forgive me if I get any of the names wrong.

This is another part of the Monster Hunter Motion Revive reviews.  This part will cover the gunner sets.   The blue armor is the Giaprey armor and the red is the Ioprey armor.  In Monster Hunter Freedom 2 and Monster Hunter Freedom United these two armor sets are really easy to make.   There isn't a lot of difference between the armors other than one can resist poison and the other resists cold,  I think.

The Kirin Armors were a female sculpt so they had a different body sculpt.  The rest of the armors appear to have the same base body but have different armors attached.  I really like these toys. 

There was not a whole lot of weapons in this set that works with the gunners therefore there are less amazing pictures. 


You can get the whole set here for a reasonable price. 

Monster Hunter Motion Revive Female Kirin Armor Review

Alrighty, this review is part one of my earlier reviews of the Monster Hunter Motion Revive Here.  This review is going to be focusing on the Female Kirin Armor set. 

As I mentioned earlier I love the Monster Hunter Franchise.  These little Motion Revive toys are as big as GI Joes but in my opinion way more awesome because they involve Monster hunter.  The only glaring weakness in my opinion is instead of packaging eight different armors the company decided to make four different ones and include paint swaps for just three of the armor sets. 

The same genius at the Motion Revive company decided to pack three Female Kirin Armor sets with the only difference being light, medium, and dark skin tones.  Not too bad but I would have liked if they used the Dragon armor and painted it an exclusive Motion Revive color or something.

To make things a little easier to understand each blind box came with:
-3 Female Kirin Armor sets(can be blademaster or gunner)
-2 Male (gunner) sets
-2 Male (blademaster) Rathalos sets
-1 Male (blademaster) Dragon set

While the Kirin armor is the most common in the set it was probably packed this way because besides the monsters on the games boxarts the female Kirin Armor has become an unofficial mascot.  She's barely wearing any armor and from what she is wearing it doesn't look protective at all.  Point in case, sex sells. 


The best thing about the Kirin Armor is it is able to pose with all the weapons and accessories included because there is no visual difference between blademaster and gunner. 

 These are a pain to pose and stand up.  Please bear with me as I know my posing skills suck, I just wanted them to be upright when I took these photos. 

Motion Revive Series Monster Hunter Kado Karyudo G Review

*Warning very picture heavy.   I couldn't find any other reviews on these figures as a group on the internet, in English.  The most I could find was reviews on the Kirin armor figures because those are the cheapest ones in the set.*

***Monster hunter fans please forgive me if I type the wrong name for the armor sets.   I'm going based on Memory here and I'll be using the American names for the armor sets. ***

This Review will cover the whole box set from packaging to my overall thoughts on these Motion Revive Monster Hunter figures.

I am a big fan of the Monster Hunter games.  My interest first sparked when I first saw the ads for the Ps2 game in a PSM magazine.   After looking at only ads in magazines and researching a little online I didn't hesitate to pick this game up when it first released.  Yadda, yadda, yadda seven years later I still play the games as they are released in America.  Capcom when are you going to release Monster Hunter Portable 3rd in America?!?!?!

Anywho I got these guys back in December, 2010 when my friend Barry noticed they were on sale at HobbyLink Japan for about twenty dollars a box.  Doing some quick math we each would have to pay $30 a box which included shipping.  A really nice deal since at the time I would see the most common figure, the Kirin Armor, go for at least $10 dollars without shipping on Ebay.  A quick check right now and it seems that each figure goes for at least $24.50 on Ebay before shipping almost double for the Dragon Armor. 

What you get in this set is: (I'm not sure what weapons came with what.  I store them all in the same spot and it kind of all got jumbled.   But just like the game your character can equip all the different weapons, of course depending on the armor type. )  They also come with two sets of hands to allow them to hold various weapons and tools. 

-3 Kirin Armors with different skin tones.   Dark, medium, and light.  These are the most common set to find on Ebay.  They also work well since KirinGunner and Blademaster armor look the same.  
-2 "prey" gunners armor.  I believe Giaprey(blue) and Ioprey(red) set.
-2 Rathalos blademasters .  One regular (red) and one variant (silver).
-1 Dragon blademaster set.

So where we go all eight figures in this set.  At first we thought since it was blind boxed it was somehow going to be all luck on what we got in the cases.  But as it turns out it's all the same thing. 

***I'm going to do individual reviews for each of these in the future. ***

I'll try to let the pictures do most of the explaining but if you want to pick up this set right now they still have some at HobbyLink Japan here. 

Yay Presents from Japan

Almost as soon as I was done with the previous review I went to go check the mail.  Along with a new gift package from my girlfriend (horray !!) I got jury duty summons (dangit).  But here's a little something she sent me.  Not pictured i the awesome Natto sticker which is now on the back of my phone.  Thanks to the cell phone charm I now sound like a cat everywhere I go and Hot Wheel's cars have nothing on the mini trucks from Japan.   Thanks dear!!!