Usually when it comes to video games, we here in the western part of the globe usually get short-handed when it comes to great bundle deals since so-called marketing gurus think that we simply won't buy these things. At least Europe is getting their piece of the pie with this awesome Gran Turismo 5 Prologue bundle deal. Priced at 399 Euros, this bundle is the 40GB PS3 with GT5. For us Americans who are feeling the burn on this one, don't fret too much; the kit doesn't come with the HD cables needed for Blue-Ray and 399 Euros will soon be worth $600 as the dollar continues to drop... so maybe we won't get short-handed? Of course I'll wait for a Ps3-Final Fantasy XIII bundle.
Oddly enough I've only seen only a bit of this very popular series and the little I've seen easily begs for more. Of course I have almost all the figures since practically every figure that comes out of Kanu, Sonsaku, Ryomou Shimei, and Ryofu Housen are the top sellers for obvious reasons. This anime has probably caused the most nosebleeds with the enormous amount of almost-hentai fan service. Great Guardians is the name of the new third season coming out in a few months and there will be more characters, fighting and panty shots. More info at Anime News Network and also at DannyChoo.com.
As many of you might know, Wonfes is just about over and if you are like me, stuck in the still anime-starved-states, you'd wish you were down there. This is the perfect place to view all the upcoming figures from companies like Good Smile Company. To keep up to date with all the cool stuff, check out Japan's top blogger, Danny Choo's site as on all the great pictures...well, actually looking at New York time compared to Japan time, things are ending or just ended a few hours ago. The picture above also via Danny Choo. Expect more figure posts soon as more cool stuff eventually comes to the US.
The instant I saw this item displayed by my dealers, my jaw dropped to the floor. Of course I was amazed by the $999.99 price tag. I've never even sold a Swarovski crystal worth that much, let alone a videogame item. Final Fantasy XII fans have already seen Square-Enix come up with wallet emptying figures (in a good way) but this one takes the cake. This helmet which is a wearable (I believe) 1/1 scale was made from FRP fiber reinforced plastic utilizing the CG data from the game. Its exact to Gabranth's helmet more than any other prob ever created. I'm a big fan of anything Final Fantasy but if I get this for myself too, I'll probably not go cosplaying with it. I wouldn't want to lose or damage this one. Check out more info on it here.
The list keeps growing on anime titles that are to get the Hollywood makeover. Whether that is good or bad is up to the fans but looks like the next anime to be a live action movie is Akira. What's even more interesting is the person who is going to produce the movie...Leonardo DiCaprio together with Warner Bros. I didn't know he was such a big anime fan... anyways, would have to agree with Danny Choo's take on the series, that of it being very gloomy. Set to come out during the summer of 09, add it to Transformers, Evangelion, Speed Racer, and Dragon Ball as the current list of anime titles turned into Hollywood movies. Expect even more once the American comic movies eventually lose their thunder.
Wow! Not since Shunya Yamashita's Mirei-San have I've seen a figure this beautiful. As most of you know I'm a big fan of Yamashita's work. Collected many of the recent figures my favorites being Shii, and of course Mirei-San; she sits right on the right end of my desk. This one will be on the left side. As you can see from the images, this one captures Yamashita's signature cute and erotic look. The blue-purple hair, the tribal tattoos are a perfect balance of sexy and violent strength that only Japanese artists are able to create. Check out some more info of her here. As for now, enjoy these pictures.
Speaking of "crashes"... looks like the spy satellite that was just recently shot down had bigger chunks left than expected. Just a few minutes ago about 5-7 streaks were in the air over our home in Selden, New York. These are definitly from the satellite that was blown up. Pretty creepy stuff. I know this isn't really anime related but if anyone from any other part of the Earth is seeing the same thing, drop a message. There are about 4-5 army helicopters flying near by and nothing yet on the news so this is the first I believe anyone is speaking of this. Above you can see the crappy photo I took of the streaks near the moon in the sky. A few more more overhead in crossed paths too. I wonder if any hit the ground o_O.
As most of you might have realized, the site was down since early this morning. This was due to my web-host having server problems. They have a network of over 50,000+ websites so that's alot of downed sites. We are back though.. unless their servers go. Here's some reaction to the site being down.
Keeping everyone up to date with the upcoming Dragon Ball movie that comes out in August.. here are some more actors confirmed last month for the movie; still no trailer yet though.
Grandpa Gohan - Randall Duk Kim Carey Fuller - Texas Battle Emi - Shavon Kirksey Agundas - Richard Blake
Ernie Hudson- Popo?
Other than Grandpa Gohan and Popo, I don't even know these characters. It appears that this movie takes place during the end of the Dragon Ball saga when the young Piccolo appears after King Piccolo dies. One scary thing though is the MovieFone description where they messed up by saying that Goku first love is Chi-Chi and then loves Bulma...which is completely wrong in many accounts and lets hope thats not there or there will be many pissed off DBZ fans. The picture above and more descriptions of the movie can be found here at the official blog.
Some of you might be familiar with the Revoltech Fraulein line of figures. These are Kaiyodo's newer line of jointed figures that are intended to be just as artistic as the non-jointed pvc figures. One issue with jointed figures as one could guess is that the ball joints usually take away from the beauty of the figure since they tend to be eye sores. Most American figures suffer very badly from this and also a few of the Japanese figures too...mainly the cheap ones manufactured in China.
The Fraulein line recently released the Rei Ayanami figure and the on mentioned here is the Pocco figure. What's so great about this one is that its designed from a character by the famous artist Shunya Yamashita. If you are familiar with his Arisa, Mirei-San and Sera-Chan figures or his work in general (like I am), this figure would excite you. Sculptor Enoki Tomohide managed to keep Shunya Yamashita's cute and sexy theme. Like the other Revoltech figures, she comes with 20 points of articulation and accessories to pose her in many different form. These sure beat those wooden human model figures used by artists. Check more details on her here.
Nothing is concrete yet but recently Apple applied for trademark protection for gaming technology. Could this mean that the 2009 featured product will be a gaming system to compete with Nintendo's DS? This is obviously a long winded guess for a future time but I'm game for any gaming system by Apple..or any company for that matter. Apple's touch pad technology could create some interesting games.
Also in a related note; another company us gamers are fond of, Sega did a similar action a number of months back. Who knows, maybe x-mas of 2009 will be the battle of the handhelds with Apple, Nintendo and Sega. Check more on this at Engadget.
Some of you might have been wondering when I'll update the contest page; well today I did. First off I want to congratulate Christina A. for winning the Hare Hare Yukai Contest. She won the Mikuru Beam figure by Max factory, (one of my favorite figures). Check out the video here. The next contest is up now and this is a bit easier; the goal is to have the best Fate/Stay Night fan art picture. The winner gets the Bome Vol. 22 Rin Tosaka figure. Check out the details here.
Got some great news. As of yesterday one of my dealers opened up pre-orders for the remaining Haruhi Suzumiya bunny figures for their statside release. Already as of next month or in April the Freeing Haruhi and Freeing Mikuru are coming to America. The rest of the figures, Yuki and Tsuruya are set to arrive sometime in July-August.
If you haven't heard about these figures, they are made by a company called FREEing and they are rather large 1/4 scale models of the Haruhi Suzumiya girls in bunny suits. They also have certain "squishy" parts too along with very delicate (and real) fishnet stockings. There size and quality is what makes them rather high in price at above $100. If anyone is interested in pre-ordering, check them here. For some pictures of them, check them out above and below this post.
