Okay, well maybe there is, I mean I really could have done without Angelic Days, and I’m pretty sure The Shinji Ikari Raising Project was only a step above that, (by the way, if you didn’t know NGE means Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is frankly too long a title to fit anywhere other than body text). The reason I’m bringing up Evangelion is because, that’s right, there’s a brand new series! Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse releases this week. Written and illustrated by someone only known as Ming Ming, which I sincerely hope is a pen name, or at least just a first name, this is a whole new spin on the fave series. In this new vision Shinji Ikari’s parents are gone, and he lives with his legal guardian, Ryoji Kaji, while attending the private NERV Academy. But no one ever told Shinji about its secrets . . . or that he’d find his fellow students Kaworu, Rei, and Asuka out on the streets late at night-fighting with sword, spear, and whip against an enemy that looks very human, but who Kaworu insists are beings called the Angels.

There is plenty of other good things this week as well, which is great considering how noting has come out for the last two weeks. This is also a huge week for Tokyopop, which makes me think Viz is going to dominate next week. There is another series premiering this week that looks really cute and I think deserves some attention. Hoshi No Witch (aka Witch In The Artemis), by Yui Hara. Before his death, Kazuki’s father told many stories about Artemis, a magical star not unlike their own, Planet. Now an orphan living with his brother, Kazuki daydreams constantly about Artemis, despite his brother’s warnings that the planet doesn’t actually exist. Then one day, Kazuki runs into a girl from Artemis…who disappears and is quickly replaced by another girl…who puts a curse on him that he can’t remove unless he finds the witch of Artemis…who happens to be the first girl he saw! But when he finds her, he discovers she’s much more than just your typical sorceress. Magic and the struggles of growing up intertwine in this tale of learning to follow your instincts in spite of your best -or worst – intentions.

There is definitely a lot of stuff I adore reading coming out, like Kyo Kara Maoh Volume 7, Silver Diamond Volume 7, Future Diary Volume 7, (wait, pattern? Maybe I should buy a lotto ticket this week). But I think my final spotlight this week is going to Junjo Romantica Volume 12 by Shungiku Nakamura. It has been AGES since the last volume of this series, and it’s about time. The anime was finally picked up, and we’ve been seeing merchandise like wall scrolls and key chains and such, so thank god Tokyopop got back on the ball. In this volume Misaki knows that living with Akihiko Usami, the ever popular boys love novelist, can be challenging. Being in a relationship with this egotistical (and sadistic) man turns the challenge into mission impossible. And when Akihiko’s jealous, pushy cousin moves in and tries to wreck havoc into Misaki’s already chaotic life, all hell breaks loose! And in the midst of all the turmoil, Misaki enters his fourth year at the university, and the necessity to land a job closes in on him. Will Misaki be able to overcome all these obstacles and make it out in one piece? And what is Akihiko’s reaction to all this?

Anyway, that’s what I got for ya this time. Aren’t you Thrilled? See you all next week.

Ja Ne!

In 1989, the launch of Gundam 0080 attempted to do something new with Gundam: Create all-new mecha designs to replace the ones from the original series-updates, if you will. A lot of the fiction from this time supported this idea, like the SD Gundam OVA episode where the SDs go into the “real” Gundam Universe, and the “MS Era” book, which took a look at the One Year War as if it were an actual war in history. Well, this cool retcon didn’t last long, as Bandai eventually decided to consider them just variants of the original suits as opposed to replacements. Still, they’re awesome designs, and represent one of the coolest design styles ever.

Like all of the other 0080 suits, the GM Command (Or Commando, depending on your preference) was designed by Yutaka Izubuchi of Patlabor fame, and boy it shows through here. It’s very sleek, very late-80’s, and it’s probably one of my favorite “major” GM revisions out there. There are two flavors of this kit-ground and space type. I have the ground type, and the space type is largely the same, just coming in a traditional GM color scheme with a different gun and backpack. The HGUC kit here added a bit of Hajime Katoki/BEE-Craft styling, giving it a more modern look and coming out as the best of both worlds.

The head of this suit is my favorite part-it’s so sleek and awesome. Yes, it has a translucent green visor just like the original kit from the 80’s. Unlike the original head, it’s mounted on a ball joint, adding for better stability.

The torso is much slimmed down and streamlined from the original artwork, looking more in-proportion. The antenna on the right shoulder was always a cool touch to me, but you might want to file off the excess plastic on it. It moves to each side with no obstruction from the skirt, which has a nice basic construction, although the front armor can’t be split. Two sabers are stored on the butt as opposed to the backpack, but I’ll get more into those when I discuss the weapons.

The arms seem simple enough at first, until you get the elbows. Instead of a standard “peg plus hole with armor covering it” you get this cool circle joint. It’s made out of ABS instead of the standard polycap plastic, so it doesn’t wear out as quickly. It also has sort of a selection of hands, but again, I’ll get to that when I discuss the weapons.

The legs are pretty disappointing compared to the arms, but there’s nothing wrong with them. The coolest part is probably the ankles, though-like the original kit, the feet aren’t connected at the top, and inside, at an angle. It’s a neat touch that captures the look really well.

Now, for the weapons… you get the standard EFSF machine gun-always nice; the 0080-style shield, which has a neat molded EFSF emblem, and it can actually be held in the left hand while still being attached the forearm. But now I should get to the part that I’m really glad Bandai quickly abolished…

WHY DID THEY HAVE TO MAKE A BEAM SABER MOLDED INTO THE HAND!?

Honestly, this killed so many kits for me back in the day, and you know, it wouldn’t have been such an issue if they actually INCLUDED a right fist. The salt on the open wound? The sabers have holes in the tops in order to be attached to the rear skirt armor, so there’s no excuse why they couldn’t have just included saber blades. Anyway… like the regular GM, it comes with that neat outstretched hand.

In the end, the HGUC GM Command is an awesome kit, despite that stupid flaw with the right hand. It’s a great design, and a great army builder. We have them in the store, too, and it’s a relatively inexpensive kit, so hey, go buy one, or ten, it’s all good. Now, if only Bandai would make an HGUC GM Sniper II…

And we’re back at our look at the Eva 0-1 from Evangelion 2.0! I managed to finish this kit amongst the confusion of a bachelor party, birthday, an upcoming wedding and a trip to Atlanta, because I am a multi-tasking hero.

So to the left you have the Waist unit of the 0-1. The articulation here is way different from the traditional Gunpla, as most Gundams has a waist that turn left to right. Not so much with the 0-1, as the plates shift giving it some articulation, but you really cant move the it. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just something different from what I’m used to dealing with. The layers of multi-colored armor is nice as well, and the “spinal cord” pieces fit onto the lower back quiet well, unlike some of the upper back/shoulder.

Yes, this would be the leg for the Eva. Unlike the arms, there’s no cool plastic pieces that hide the knees, but the kit does a find job of doing itself. The legs on the kit are crazy long with makes sense, given the design of the mecha, and I’m happy to say that their pretty strong as well, despite on how thin they are. The feet are fairly impressive as well. Give how more Humanoid the EVA is, you have to construct a separate foot and heel, which are slightly articulate. Nothing special, but hey, it’s only feet right?

So now that the Eva is constructed, let’s focus on the weapons for a bit.

On the extreme right, you have the Eva’s Pallet Gun, which compared to all the weapons I’ve built in the past, it’s a medium sized weapon. Not too big, not to small, and can be wielded with a single hand without much worry. (There’s a set of hands made for wielding weapons like the gun, so you’re set with that). On the left there 2 pictures of the Progressive Knife, which works like a switchblade. Very cool, and there’s a specific reason why it’s design like that.

If you look at the left “fin” of the 0-1, you can see how it pops out and folds over. You can actually store a 2nd, pre-folded Prog knife in there, which is great as the only true action gimmick of this kit. It’s unfortunate you cant do that with the one that folds out, but you gotta take your victories where you can get em.

Another accessory worth mentioning is the emblicial cord that the Eva comes with. While it really doesn’t have any action features, it’s a cool addition to the kit, and I’m glad it was included in the kit, as it plays a crucial role in the series, serving as the lifeline to the Evas.

Words cannot express how happy I am a AT field is included with this kit. Oh sure it’s flimsy plastic with sparkly bits, it’s the novelty of it all that amuses it. Seriously, sometime the smallest of details in a kit can make a difference, and the 0-1 is definitely a winner in that regard.

Also to properly show the scale of the 0-1, I took a picture of it with a 1/100 scale Gunpla you guys may remember from the past. It’s actually taller than said Gunpla, which again, is awesome.

So is the EVA 0-1 worth the $50 bucks? Absolutely. Bandai went above and beyond with this kit, and it shows. Great build, solid articulation and a great selection of accessories make it a must own for any EVA fan. I have some issues with some of the smaller pieces staying attached to the kit, but other than that, it’s great.  The NYC store has both the 0-1 and 0-2 in stock, but if you don’t hurry up, who knows for how long.

So, I’m doing kind of a special review this time around. Remember how I mentioned back in the History of Gunpla article that the “support mecha” were the best kits in the original series lineup? Well, here we go, now I’m gonna sink my teeth into three of these kits-the Magella Attack Tank, the Core Booster, and the Dodai YS: a tank, a jet, and… well, I guess I’ll just call it “miscellaneous”. None of these are really essential parts to anybody’s collection, but they’re all fun little projects. So let’s take a look at them one by one…

The Magella Attack is probably my favorite of the three, and has the most balance between ease in construction and paint job. It’s not very large, especially when placed next to a Zaku or something, but if placed next to a real-world tank at the same scale it almost seems gigantic. It has rubber treads which unfortunately don’t move and have a very tedious construction-each wheel is two pieces that have to be glued together and there are about 20 of them. Getting the treads on isn’t too difficult, thankfully.

The turret is removable just like it is in the show. The gun itself is actually pretty stable and can move up and down freely. However, because the engineering at the time was still primitive, the turret can’t move side-to-side. Oh well.

The detail on this kit is REALLY nice, with a lot of rivets all over the kit, and other neat little details like the handlebars in the back and the headlights. Overall, it’s a nice little kit that can be found for about 400 yen, and it’s simple to boot. There’s also an EX Model that comes with the kit in both a desert and jungle color scheme, but this costs around $30-$40. I dunno about you, but I’ll take the one that’s a tenth of the price…

Next up is the Core Booster. Not too much to say about this one, but I’d say it has the easiest construction and hardest paintjob. It’s a bit of a challenge because of all the small areas you have to do. It doesn’t have many parts and despite the fact that it’s supposed to be white, it comes molded in that nasty green color a lot of the older kits came in. The construction is very straightforward although you’re going to need some clamps to keep the two halves of the fuselage together.

One issue I have with it is its scale. It seems a bit bigger than it’s supposed to be, especially if you place it next to the HGUC Core Fighters. Speaking of, this also comes with a Core Fighter to display separately, but I never bothered to build it. This kit also lacks a stand for some reason. Why would a plane kit not come with a stand? It just seems silly to me. Overall, this is one of the more “essential” support mecha because you’ll need at least one for your White Base crew, but even then, the same slot could be filled by the G-Armor if you prefer the TV series to the movies…

Last and, well, you could say least, is the Dodai… yeah. This thing wasn’t used much in the show. It’s a bomber that would carry around Goufs. It has the easiest paintjob, but the hardest construction because of how you need to line the parts up. Also note that mine is green-the actual plane is purple, but I thought that looked awful so I opted for green instead.

Of course, there’s one great thing about it, and that’s its compatibility with the Gouf or Zaku. Yeah, all they do is just stand on it, but it’s pretty neat, and makes your Goufs look pretty awesome. Thankfully, this one comes with a stand so it can actually look “flying”, and it supports the weight of even an HGUC Gouf pretty well. It’s not essentially by any stretch of the imagination, and not something you’d want on its own, but it’s a cool accessory.

In the end, support mecha are really just that-support mecha. They are hardly ever essential, but having them in your collection adds a bit of depth and helps break up all the robots. Sadly, after Zeta Gundam, “traditional” combat vehicles in Gundam became rather passé, and ones that do appear in the shows never receive merchandise. In fact, the only non-UC support units with kits I can think of are a few mobile armors from SEED, and the 0 Riser from Gundam 00, which we carry. It’s a shame to see these, well… I guess “underappreciated” mecha stay in their place.

Once in a blue moon when all of the planets in the solar system line up and an eclipse occur, Bandai releases a multi-set of HGUC kits as something that ISN’T a convention exclusive. There have only been five (six if you count the new “Gunpla Starter Set” of a Gundam and a Zaku), and they typically feature special color schemes, extra stickers, and on one occasion, special stuff. These kits are typically characterized by their white boxes with pictures of the actual kits on the front as opposed to a black box with an illustration. Typically, they aren’t very good deals, because you’re basically just paying the same price as you would for the kits separately with extra stickers and a nicer manual, so there’s no real value.

The “Triple Dom” set, as it’s typically called, was released to recreate one of the classic scenes from the original anime-the Jet Stream Attack. Basically, you get the Black Tri-Stars Doms in one convenient package with some optional parts to pull off the actual scene. It’s a nice little set, and a great thing for army builders, but you have to build three of the same kit, which can get kind of repetitive and frustrating.

The head of this kit is probably my favorite part. While the design heavily limits the movement, the construction actually allows you to pull off one of the Dom’s best traits-its wacky little monoeye. By removing the CLEAR PLASTIC in front of it (seriously-you don’t see that often on kits that aren’t Master Grades) and red Mohawk thing, you can adjust the monoeye easily, which is mounted on a ball joint. For whatever other flaws this kit may have, you can’t deny the awesomeness of the monoeye.

The torso of the kit is a bit of a mixed bag. It has a very good up-down movement that is sometimes hampered by the heat saber, which is positioned diagonally on its back. The scattering beam gun piece needs to be painted, which is kind of silly when you consider that it’s supposed to be yellow, and the heat saber comes in yellow on the standard kit. Oh well.

There isn’t much in terms of side-to-side movement because of the design, but I LOVE the way the skirt on this is made. It manages to capture the anime look very well while allowing for really good movement on the legs. Of course, it has the three boosters in its butt, and a polycap to allow for the stand to be used.

The arms are very unremarkable, very basic construction. The only thing worth noting is the shoulder joints, which have the additional movement allowing to hold the bazooka with both hands (although the trigger finger has issues holding the bazooka like that). It has some decent hands, but I’ll get to those later.

The legs have some pretty good flexibility considering their bulk, and have a nice double joint. The feet can extend pretty far and allow for some nice movement, helping a lot for poseability. Inside the feet (mounted on the joints) are the trademark three boosters.

Now, of course, it’s time to talk about the true reason you want this set: The accessories. All three kits come with a Giant Bazooka and a heat saber. One of the three heat sabers comes in blue to represent a heat saber that’s turned on.

But what you really want are the specialized accessories-the stand, rocket, smoky bazooka trail, and the “smashy” hands. Getting all of this together just looks awesome. It’s not as stable as I’d like, but the individual parts are adjustable to help get the pose right. Getting all the stuff together takes practice and I honestly still can’t get it right. It’s made out of smoky clear plastic so it has the “illusion” of being invisible. Whatever. Regardless, it looks just awesome when you have all this together, especially if you have an RX-78 for them to take on. Now if only there was a Medea kit at 1/144 scale…

Also included are several stickers which I didn’t put on my kit that allow you to make each of the Doms unique, with the markings to make each of the tri-stars suits.

Overall, this kit’s a really neat buy for anyway that likes army building, scene recreations, or customization. At some point I want to paint one in Ramba Ral’s colors, and another as a Dom Funf. My only gripe with the kit is the lack of Rick Dom parts, so you can’t choose to build one Rick Dom and two Regular Doms or whatever. We don’t carry this specific set in the store, but we do carry the smaller HCM Pro Jet Stream Attack set, which uses three of the smaller figures with more “action” parts, and the regular Dom kit, which comes with the Rick Dom parts. So get yourself some Doms and make the Black Tri-Stars proud!

Here on Earth we use games of both the card and video variety to distract ourselves from the misery of our daily existence. Logically, who wants to be an unemployed barber when you can be an attractive 60^th level elf woman who rides a tiger? A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, however, life was different. Games in the Star Wars universe were utilized for a variety of purposes, such as degrading droids, stealing space ships or just shooting whining farmers with lasers from a robot piñata until they learn to chillax.

I say “were” as everyone in that galaxy is now dead. Yes, even 2-1B. You didn’t know that? Sure, the Hubble Telescope has seen that their sun went supernova about  100 million years back. Like they said, it was a long time ago.

EARTH GAMES

It may be hard for today’s drooling fan-boys to imagine, but back in MY day video games didn’t have to have these fancy-dancy GRAPHICS or CONTROLLERS or SOUNDS … or FUN! We used to walk 30 miles uphill in the snow to the nearest computer laboratory just to TYPE to our video games on black screens. This was called a “Text Adventure,” in which the player had to use their imaginations to conjure up the graphics in their mind’s eye of tea-bagging fragged opponents or the jiggle physics of oversized breasts in fighting games. AND WE LIKED IT, GALDANGIT!

In 1983 Lucas Arts, George Lucas’s eponymous video game company, said “No Graphics? No Problem!” and released “Hibernation Sickness,” a text adventure that used technological limitations as a design feature when it put YOU in control of a blind Han Solo recently released from Carbonite freezing in Jabba the Hutt’s palace from Return of the Jedi.  If players could navigate Han successfully out of Jabba’s with Luke, Leia, Lando (The Three L’s) and the droids in tow, the entire screen would flash, thrilling the player with what passed for special effects while also ensuring their chances of developing cancer through the radioactive orange and green monitors of the time.

I’d provide a screen shot, but why bother? Just imagine a blank screen except for “C:/> You can’t see.” and you get the idea.

1983 also saw the release of the classic Star Wars arcade game, where you are Luke Skywalker in a wire-framed X-Wing attacking a rather ASCII looking Death Star with pre-recorded sounds. “Hibernation Sickness” is, by comparison, as much fun as cleaning dingle-berries off of an Ewok’s yub-yub, but is still considered a classic by video-game historians, those wacky funsters.

STAR WARS

As every facet of the Star Wars universe has been expanded upon by tireless experts trying to sate the demand for quality entertainment, there are complete books of fascinating rules for games glimpsed only momentarily or even mentioned in passing to thrill and entertain the Star Wars devotee.

That crazy holographic chess game played by Chewbacca and R2-D2, known as Dejarik or Vrax, for example, has a rich and storied history. Did you know that all of the pieces are hand sculpted by the players using a piece of equipment called a Holofreezix? The enjoyment of the game comes as much from viewing the artistry of your opponent’s holomonsters as from playing. In that famous scene featuring the match up of Droid vs. Wookie, R2 isn’t upset that Chewie made an illegal move but that he sculpted a Mantellian Savrip with five fingers on each hand instead of three. Uhm, Ew?!

Many know that Han Solo won the famous Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian in a disputed game of Sabacc, but did you know that Sabacc is not a card game, but an endurance test of reciting movie quotes conducted while both competitors are having their toes hit by hammers? Also, in the Star Wars universe, “Movies” are residents of the planet Mov, a curious race that communicate by farting.

FUN FUN

Yes, Star Wars games have quite the storied history, but what about their future? If anybody from Wizards of the Coast (makers of Magic: The Gathering) is reading this article I have a GREAT idea for a new collectible card game!

YOU play the part of George Lucas. A playing mat is laid out in front of both players containing memorable scenes from the classic Star Wars Trilogy. The point of the game is to ruin, beyond all recognition, these beloved classics by inserting new scene cards from your hand into the films! Playing a “CGI Dance Number” right before the first Rancor attack in Return of the Jedi scores 20 points, while adding Hayden Christensen into the end of the movie scores double points! The Jar-Jar card acts as this game’s “Golden Snitch,” Scoring 150 points for the one who throws it and finishing off the franchise for good … I mean the game.

Jeez, I cannot believe this month. Last week all we get was one manga, and this week? Nothing. Well, okay there is one single item coming at us from TokyoPop, but I’m not sure if it can even be considered manga. And not for the usual reasons I don’t count half the stuff coming from TokyoPop as manga, this is going to be TokyoPop’s first legitimate single-issue comic book. Here’s the deal. You all love and remember Priest by Min-Woo Hyung (which technically makes it manhwa in the first place, but let’s not nit pick). Well coming out this week is the official comic for the upcoming Priest movie “Priest: Purgatory” that’s going to be starring Paul Bettany (Silas from The Da Vinci Code and the voice of Jarvis in Iron Man). Basically, A veil of evil threatens to engulf humanity, and one man stands in the way of the apocalypse: our hero, a fallen priest who sold his soul for the power to battle evil and fight for humanity’s redemption.

Moving on to other stuff since these past couple weeks have been money saving weeks (since next week begins September, there better be a hell of a lot of books coming), let’s move on to stuff you should be reading. Frankly, I have fallen in love with Arata The Legend, the first shonen style series by Yuu Watase (of Fushigi Yugi and Ceres fame). In an alternate universe where gods live in weapons and are wielded by chosen few and governed by a princess and her 12 guardians, the current princess is has run 2 terms because a replacement has not yet been born. In an attempt to buy time Arata’s grandmother put him as a girl on his birth certificate when he was born. When he’s dressed up and brought to the ceremony to take the princess’ place,   the 12 guardians turn on her and slay her, claiming Arata was an assassin. He runs for his life into a forest where he switches places with an outcast descendant in modern Japan. It’s actually pretty awesome, and I always love her artwork, not to mention pretty swords with magic powers.

One more thing you should all be reading if you aren’t already: Higurashi When They Cry. What’s amazing about this series is that each story arc only spans 2 books, and each arc is completely different except for basic commonalities. The basic story is a boy and his family move into a very rural town where the school only has one class for all the grades, and he quickly becomes close friends with a group of girls. The problem is this town is protected by a deity, who some declare to actually be a demon. A couple years back a dam was going to be built and destroy the town, but there was a massacre, and every year someone who supported the dam, or is related to someone who had something to do with the dam is killed and another goes missing. But in every arc the culprits and victims are different. Fantastic. Anyway, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. See you next week, hopefully with much more stuff to talk about.

Ja Ne!

Life, if done right, is long. It is also full of unfair twists. We start it off as mindless eating machines that get to take naps, everybody loves and wants to hold, and we get all our meals through breastfeeding. Six Flags! We end our tenure on Earth as interesting, battle scarred individuals that no one wants to talk to and who are routinely ignored for the new and unusual. Two flags.

I, and many of you other travelers, am/are “Middle Aged.” I’ve been around enough now that younger people call me “Mr.” and try to avoid listening to me, while at the same time they have to admire things I’ve done or powers I’ve accumulated.

Where am I going with this?

Well, it was recently announced by Hayao Miyazaki, “Mr. Totoro” himself, that we might get a Porco Rosso sequel! HOORAY!

QUESTION 1: What is Porco Rosso?

Pocco Rosso is an amazing animated film which, on the surface is about high flying adventure in dog-fighting seaplanes in the tense political climate of the Mediterranean Sea between World Wars, but which is actually about being middle aged. Specifically this aspect of Porco Rosso is about looking forward and looking back.

Did I mention the main character is a human pig because of a death curse from a bi-plane duel? Did I mention there are cute girls, handsome pilots, and more air pirates than you could shake a stick at? It is one of the best animated films from one of the best animated film directors of all time.

QUESTION 2: Where can I see it?

Well, Forbidden planet does a pretty dang good job of ordering or carrying in stock many of Miyazaki’s films from My Neighbor Totoro to Kiki’s Delivery Service. Last time I stopped in I believe I even saw the sketchbook and art books for Porco Rosso, filled to the brim with incredible background paintings and plane designs used in the film itself!

QUESTION 3: So will there be a sequel?

Who knows? Miyazaki said that he wants to do one, but only if his latest film is successful. That will be tough.

I usually leave all the musings on Japanese entertainment to Mat K. and the Gundam boys around here, but I know my Miyazaki. While his last film, Ponyo, was a spectacular piece of animation it was also slightly freaky and uninviting. Similarly Howl’s Moving Castle was a triumph from a technological standpoint but lacked the imagination and heart that made Miyazaki so famous.

See, as you get older the world changes. So do you. Sometimes you change with the world, or sometime the world changes in different ways than you do. Miyazaki is a cartoon God, a man responsible for animated films that will be studied, cherished and inspiring to children and artists for generations to come…but he is still making pictures that, while sensational, reflect an artists still creating for his own interests and not necessarily for his worshipers.

A Porco sequel will be a return to the linear fun of Hayao’s earlier work, and can draw on the artists’s experiences of staying true to yourself while the world clamors for you to stay true to it. A masterpiece on aging from an aged master.

That is something this middle aged anime junkie would like to see.

That and more flying pigs in bright red planes! And cute girls! And Sea Pirates! ZOooom!

Welcome to part two of Double Zeta week. I’d love to cover the new HGUC Gundam ZZ kit, buuut I don’t have that one yet. I’m going to cover one of the earlier ZZ HGUC kits, the Zaku III, which appeared only a few times towards ZZ’s end. The kit used the previous Zaku III Custom kit as a base, and unfortunately inherits a lot of that mold’s flaws, along with adding some new ones.

The Zaku III is a big, nasty, imposing pseudo-grunt that towers over all the previous Zakus. Its construction isn’t very involved or complex, but it has some issues with individual parts that make me hard-pressed to truly consider this a “good” kit.

The head is where some of my first issues with the kit come in. Aside from the number of pieces, there isn’t anything remarkable about the design. However, it has some parts fitting issues, mostly on the “snout” and on the vents in the back. Even if you aren’t gluing the kit, you’ll have to cut down the pegs to get the snout to stay together, and you’ll need to sand down the vents in the back to get them to stay in properly. Also, be careful when putting the antennae in, as they break easily.

The torso of the kit is pretty cool, actually, and is one of the kit’s better areas. The chest is connected to the stomach by a ball joint, which adds for some really nice extra poseability. The shoulders are connected with a standard stick joint, no added hinge on the inside. The backpack is pretty basic, but the elevating propellant tanks are pretty neat.

The skirt, however, is pretty much a block of plastic. The only movement on it is the little gun things on the front (and I thought The-O’s crotch sabers were hilarious…) with extending handles. Also, the boosters on the rear sides of the skirt are VERY annoying to get into place.

The arms are simple, with the shield and spike armor held on by polycap joints. No double-joint in the elbow, unsurprisingly. But my biggest beef with this kit is the hands… they SUCK. The ones I have here aren’t even the stock hands; they came off a 1/100 scale Endless Waltz kit. The actual hands the kit comes with are really ugly, and the trigger finger can barely hold the gun. Trust me, you want to swap the hands out on this one. I don’t even know where I put the original hands anymore…

The legs, sadly, aren’t much better, and feature one of the biggest problems I have with this kit-the thighs. If you don’t plan on gluing this, you’re going to have to do what I suggested for the face, and trim the pegs down. You’ll get some huge gaps if you don’t. Other than that, these legs would make a Dom jealous, and don’t have much movement, which is only exacerbated by the dinky little cables feeding from the knees into the lower legs. The ankles are pretty hollow, with only a ball joint attaching the feet to the rest of the leg.

You only get two weapons-the gun and the sword. The sword is pretty lame, with a beam waaaay too big for the hilt. I never bothered to do anything with mine. However, the gun is pretty cool, as it’s one of the few (maybe only?) canon weapons in Gundam to have a BAYONETTE that the suit can even carry around.

In the end, the Zaku III isn’t that good of a kit. It’s a shame, since the suit didn’t get much screentime, I would’ve liked to see it get a better kit, especially for such a nasty design, although I personally prefer the Zaku III Custom. It’s good if you like big, nasty grunts, because it is an imposing design, but if you want a cool, bulky, absurd suit, we have the Extraordinary Superior Gundam, also known as the “Ex-S” (or as I like to call it, Excess Gundam) from Gundam Sentinel in the FP store, which should feed your bulky suit hunger!

Fun facts kids: Bandai makes kits for other mecha franchises that don’t contain the word “Gundam”. Macross Frontier, Dragon Ball Z, Escaflowne, and of course, Gainax’s Neon Genesis Evangelion have all received the Gunpla treatment, and today, we’ll be looking at the EVA o-1 from the 2nd Eva movie “Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. Spoiler alert: It’s awesome, yet complex as hell.

Series Origin: The Eva 0-1  originates from Gainax’s 1997 mega-hit “Neon Genesis Evangelion”, a 26 episode series which spawned 2 movies, another 4 movies which retell the series (or at least we think they 2. So far only 2 of them have been released and things aren’t exactly the same. Remember the Mari review from a few weeks back), and a ton of merchandise, including countless manga, video games, figurines, and stuff I can’t mention here.

Legacy: The Eva 0-1 is probably the most popular of the mecha from the series, although Asuka and Rei have gotten a lot more of merchandise as fan service has made Gainax a lot of money. Aside from the various merchandise, movies and manga (aka the Gainax tri-fect  of  money) ,  the 0-1 has cameo-ed/been re imagined for the Japan-only Super Robot Wars game, has appeared on postage stamps, and recently, had a amusement park built at the base of a Japanese mountain with a 1:1 scale bust of the Eva 0-1 as well as a to scale entry plug. That’s all kinds of awesome in my opinion.

Appearances, Equipment and Build log: Like I said earlier, this kit is great. But for a 1/100th (?) scale  kit, it is super complex.

These are just some of the parts you have to work with. I literally could not fit everything into frame. And it makes sense, as there’s a lot of work to be done. First off, there’s an internal frame/engine to built, which includes a number of small pieces. Some gluing was involved, as there were some connecting issues, but man, the fact you have a functional entry plug/plug port, plus casing. From there, the other bit of armor can be constructed, which is a lot more humanoid looking than your standard’s Gundam. There’s actually several layers to build, but it’s fairly simple: you just have to snap together some pieces as you would with any standard Gundam kit.

The head itself is a unique piece. It requires being plugged into 2 separate neck slots, which means you really can’t move the head. However, you can open and close the  jaw, to reenact beserker mode. The eye stickers also come in calm and  beserk mode as well, which is a very cool feature. Either way, as you can see from the photos, it’s a fairly detailed kit, although the detail comes at the expense of articulation at times. At least for the torso.

The arm as you can see, has an invisible joint, which is awesome and gives a sense of realism visually. The elbow/forearm is actually a soft plastic which make slipping in the green forearm armor easy. As for the decals, they’re rub-ons, versus the average stickers, which are also included for other parts of the body.

That’s all for this entry. I’ll focus on the lower half and the weapons next week.

Alrighty, this week, I’m gonna cover some kits from Double Zeta Gundam-one from the old days, and one that’s… well, more recent. I took a bit of inspiration from Chris on this one. Old kits can be pretty fun side projects, but extra care and work must be done with them because of how few parts they have, and of course they need glue. But, with a lot of patience and maybe some kitbashing, you can get some nice kits out of them. Sadly, there are still some that haven’t been updated in HGUC or MG yet, like this one (well, two) here…

The Gazu R/L suits, used by a pair of twins in the later episodes of Gundam ZZ, were modified Galbaldy Beta units captured or manufactured by Neo-Zeon. As such, these kits are repacks of the Galbaldy Beta from Zeta Gundam, with extra parts and decals. This means that if you want, you could just build a Galbaldy Beta instead of a Gazu. I noticed this was the case with a lot of the suits from the later episodes of ZZ. I’m pretty sure it’s because the earlier ZZ kits sold poorly, so Bandai just modified pre-existing kits (ReGelg, Desert Zaku, Gazu, etc) instead of making kits of the newer designs.

Oh, and if you haven’t guessed, the Gazu R is the one with the big shoulder on the right, and the Gazu L is the one with the big shoulder on the left.

I’ve always kind of liked the way the head on this kit was made-you’ll notice that the monoeye is sort of “free-floating” instead of built into anything. A nice touch, and if you want to enhance the look a little, paint some black on the inside. The head has a command antenna, which is an extra piece exclusive to the Gazu kit. Also notice the tubes feeding into the neck. These were a pain to work with, by the way… The head has pretty much no movement due to the tubes and general construction.

The torso is basically… a block. No waist articulation whatsoever, which is standard fare for these old kits. The shoulders are holes on this part instead of pegs, like on newer kits. The backpack is simple, and holds the two beam sabers.

The arms, while mostly built as one single unit, aren’t too different from 90’s kits in terms of articulation, although the elbow can’t bend at a 90 degree angle. Obviously, the shoulders are what set off the “R/L” designation, with the big shoulder on the Right being the R and the big shoulder on the left being the L. There is also a spot to hold the Galbaldy Beta’s shield, which is covered by the smaller shield on the forearm. The hands are constructed similarly to some 1/100 scale kits in the 90’s and beyond, but have some issues holding the weapons.

The legs are very primitive, though, and are probably the easiest to break. Unlike almost every other kit made in the past 20 years, older kits didn’t have ball-jointed hips-instead they had stick joints, which break VERY easily if you aren’t careful. The joints are very limited and can’t do much in terms of dynamic posing, sadly.

The weapons are a cool selection-you get the Galbaldy’s beam rifle, two backpack swords (which can be combined into one double-bladed sword, but I misplaced the connectors), a Gyan-like lance, and a Galbaldy Beta shield you probably won’t even use.

I’d also like to talk about the decals for a bit. They’re really cool and really pretty, but damn can they be a pain. Also, they include two Neo-Zeon emblems just in case you mess one up… trust me, I did the first time around and put my finger on one before it dried. Whoops.

So, overall, this kit hasn’t aged well, but that’s the case for most 80’s kits. Really, the only reason you should get this is if you REALLY like the Gazu, and well, you’d have to get two for full “enjoyment”. I’m still holding out hope for an HGUC Galbaldy someday, which will hopefully lead to these two at some point. Old kits are fun side projects, however, and if you ever want to slap one together, we’ve got one of Mashymre Cello’s monsters-of-the-week in the FP store, the Galluss-J. Wanna give yourself a challenge? Go for it, and heck, I’d love to see what you come up with!

Despite all evidence to the contrary let’s say you actually believe that comic book collecting is a profitable, enjoyable and easy way to make money. God help you. Now let’s take this absurdly preposterous scenario even a step further and say you found someone JUST AS delusional as yourself to buy your boxes upon heavy boxes of smelly, worthless comic books and finally get them out of your parent’s basement once and for all.

Such a person might be found on Craigslist…in Bizzaro World!

Let me set the scene: You hear a car crash out on the interstate and, acting quickly, rush to the crash sight as fast as your little legs can carry you. You’re in luck, no one is dead and there’s still time! As the advancing ambulance works its way through the hustle and bustle you identify the person in the most need of help: a 35 year old man with a massive head wound, swaying back in forth in tremendous pain and considerable shock.

“Are you alright, sir?” You ask. “Do you know where you are? Do you require medical attention? Would you like to purchase a complete run of Marvel Comic’s Iron Man from 1987-1991?”

“What?” He weakly stammers, staring into nothing. “Yes. No? Where am I?”

BINGO.

You’ve got the fish on the hook, time to reel him in. Now, the most important part of selling off your comic book collection is getting the best price, and getting the best price is often based on the condition of the comic in question. The better the condition, the better the comic book’s “Grade” and the higher you can sell it at.

MAKING THE GRADE

If your book has never been opened, read, crushed, smushed, spilled on or looked at funny it is considered “Mint,” which is to say the same condition that it would have been the day it was minted from the comic book factory. Mint books are worth the most money, so a comic book graded “Mint” is clearly better than one with a lesser grade.

But let’s be logical for one second. NO BOOK is every truly “Mint.” Even a comic fresh from the printers has smudges, not to mention a book that was shipped to a store and put in a bag with other comics, dust mites, neutrinos etc. Just picking up the dang book in the first place negates “Mint” status.

Logic, happily, has no place in the realm of comic books. Grading a book “Mint” is an easy way to gouge the price. GO FOR IT! If you don’t say yours is “Mint,” somebody else will grade theirs “Mint” and you’re out of a sale! Besides, The buyer is going to want to keep it in mint condition themselves, so they’ll never open it to make sure its as pristine as you said it was.

It’s like Schrodinger’s Cat: A “Mint” copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 exists in a quantum state of BEING “Mint” or being a Sears catalog from 1967 with an amazing, high quality photocopy of Amazing Fantasy #15 for a cover UNTIL it’s opened, thus rendering it one or the other. As long as the person buying it never opens it to find out then you are in the clear, Paul Revere!

The next step down from “mint” bears the clever label “Near-Mint.” Every other comic book on Earth will be labeled “Near-Mint,” as no one really wants to label their books anything else lest they should lose a sale. If “Near Mint” was a country it would be the size of China, Russia, Alaska and the Moon combined. There is so much room in “Near-Mint” to wiggle around in that it makes the Tardis look like a match-box.

So you’ve got a copy of New Avengers #4 with a bite out of it? That’s “Near-Mint.” A very wrinkled copy of “Final Crisis #1” where you cut out some of the ads so that it was lighter in your backpack? “Near-Mint.” So you have a hand drawn copy of Teen Titans #21 that fell into your coffee, and you couldn’t remember what Speedy looked like so you drew Leonardo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles instead, but halfway through you realized you couldn’t really draw him either so you kinda’ turned him into Frankenstein with armbands and a bandana mask? You better believe that’s “Near-Mint.”

SECOND FIDDLE IS FIRST VIOLA

There are other grades in the system, but no one ever talks about them except real nickel-and-dimers. Some of these other grades are things like “Fine,” which means anything but, “Awful,” which isn’t as bad as it sounds, “Near-Awful” which is pretty bad, “Pretty Bad” which is, frankly, just awful and the final grade, the “F” of comic books called “An Unrecognizable Pile of Paper and Staples.”

Now you see why everybody is going to say their comics are “Near-Mint?”

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

With all these conflicting labels how do you know what grade your comic books is in?  You consult The Overstreet Price Guide, a guidebook that has been published since 1970! To tell the grade of your comic book you simply look up the book you want to sell in the Overstreet Price Guide and see what grade sells for the most amount of money. Is it “Mint?” Then THAT’S what grade you should say your book is!

In reality you should never expect anybody to pay that price. The handy rule of thumb is to then take the price listed in the Overstreet Guide and divide it by how desperate you are to sell your comics.

Another way for you to waste your money in an attempt to make money is the Comic Book Grading Company, or CGC. For a fee they’ll take your comic book, figure out the grade, write all that in a database and then seal your comic book up in weatherproof, age-proof plastic. Be the last human on Earth to own a perfectly graded CGC rated copy of Aquaman #94 when the Cyborg mutants of the future rise up to the surface to enslave us all and you win!

GIVE UP

Yes, comic book collecting is a fruitless, tiring exercise in staving off the natural process of entropy. It guarantees you’ll never have fun reading a comic book again, and is sure to render you a joyless, penny-pinching miser by the time most folks are kissing their grandkids.

Want to make money off of comic books? Invent a business surrounding the lie that someday they’ll have value and clean up on suckers! There’s one born every minute, and their money is as green as the next chumps, especially if it has the Hulk on it!

Bon Appetite!

Yeeeah this week’s title is pretty self-explanatory. That’s right, there is a book coming out. I can only stand to guess that this is because that very last week of July was a huge release week, immediately followed by the first week of August’s ginormous release schedule. On a completely unrelated note, according to the computer not underlining the word “ginormous” with a red dotted line, I believe it has been confirmed as an official real word. Thank you Miriam Webster.

So as for our single book that is showing up this week, it is a good one, frankly a book I have been waiting quite a while for. The irony is that it’s not Viz, it’s not Tokyopop, and it’s not eve Yen Press. Weird, right? Actually, the only company on the ball this week is Dark Horse comics. And the book? Bride Of The Water God Volume 6, which is fantastic, gorgeous art, romantic, and funny. So, at the start of this series, Soah was willing to sacrifice her life to the feared god Habaek to save her drought-stricken village on Earth. However, she wasn’t killed by the powerful Water God-she was rescued and taken to the magical kingdom of Suguk. Once there, she met moody gods of the elements and a mysterious husband who took her as his bride but then spurned her. While Habaek yearns to treat Soah as a proper husband would, he’s cursed to live in the form of a little boy during the day, only reverting to his true adult self at night. Trying to keep this strange secret from Soah, he hides behind the fake identity of “Mui” at night, when he competes with other unusual gods for her attention. Will this be the volume in which the Water God finally spills the truth to Soah-or will other conspiring, jealous gods succeed in driving a permanent wedge between him and his human bride? Cursed and pursued by an unknown, shape-shifting tormentor, Habaek is also led to believe that his previous human bride is still alive!

So, the good news is, we have been and are getting lots of restock in, so since your appetite for new releases may be a bit unsatisfied this week, it is also the perfect time to catch up on other series you have been falling behind in, and maybe even starting a whole new one that’s got a head start. So, what are some good titles you can jump into, and are actually still in print so you don’t hate me when you can’t find issue 4 or whatever? If you like psychopaths, mystery, action, murder, and a bit of fantasy I say check out Future Diary by Sakae Esuno. Basically Yukiteru is a quiet boy who spends most of his time typing on his cell phone diary. One morning he realizes that the entries in his diary are from the future! But according to what his cell phone tells him, waiting in the near future is his death. Unknown to him, Yukiteru has been dragged into a battle of survival involving cell phones that tell the future. With a shady girl named Yuno, who may be friend or foe, at his side, Yukiteru must face 12 opponents who all posses Future Diaries.

Not your style? Ok, this one’s for the ladies. I know everyone out there is super hot for vampires and werewolves right now. I know we’ve always loved them, I mean Underworld, and Anne Rice aside, it seems thanks to Twilight, we as a nation are flat-out horny for them. So if you’ve never heard of it, you need to start reading Dance In The Vampire Bund by Nozomu Tamaki. After millennia in hiding, Mina Tepes, the Princess of the ancient covenant and ruler of all vampires, wants change. Using the vast wealth of the Tepes line, she has paid off the entire gross national debt of Japan and in so doing, gained the authority to create a “special district” off the coast of Japan that is to become the future haven to vampires the world over! Now, on the eve of the landmark press conference announcing the existence of vampires to the world, terrorists and rival factions plot to assassinate Mina Tepes before she has a chance to make her world-changing announcement!

That’s all I got this time folks.

Ja Ne!

SEEDLESS OGN, Corey Lewis (W/A), Image

I love cartoonist Corey Lewis, a.k.a. “the Reyy” even though he comes off as an arrogant, preening twerp. Check out his insufferably smug blog reyy.com and see what I mean. So much talent in such a scruffy mirror junkie.

Corey is a comic book pretty boy with a high energy, fast graphitti style he used like a razor on fan art for Transformers, Thundercats and you name it. Back in the Deviant Art days he’d post a new sketch in marker a day. You could buy them cheap or commission em’ at rock bottom prices. He was cute and prolific. He was a media darlin’.

A smart lad, he turned that attention into output. He’s done some great work in the past: Street Fighter back-ups called Chop-Socky in the classic Udon Street fighter II comic, a fairly entertaining graphic novel about volley ball called Ping! and the crown jewel in his productivity: Sharkknife, the Scott Pilgrim-esque “We all live in a video-game” comic book about a sushi chef with a fantastic alter ego that came out WELL before Scott Pilgrim hit the scene.

Seedless is Corey’s new original graphic novel from Image. It gets my buy this week. As much as I hate his persona it is good for comics. As much as I love his work he’s still playing in the indie minor leagues. Corey has Scott Pilgrim greatness inside of him, it’s just going to take some time for that breakout hit.

Maybe Seedless will be the next big thing…or maybe it will just be more great comics from a great talent…who comes off as spending more time perfectly accessorizing his outfits and styling his hair for maximum lift than he does working on comics, the frickin’ peacock.

OTHER GREAT STUFF

This week is HOT for new comics! Did I say comics? I meant NOVELS. Yep, I’ma’ gonna’ buy that new MogWorld novel from Dark Horse and zeropunctuation video-game reviewer Yahtzee Crowshaw. That guy is a barrel of monkeys…drunk monkeys! He’s written a novel about a necromancer who’s summoned up a reluctant superhero zombie that would rather get back to being dead than do his master’s bidding. Let the suicide comedy begin!

Dark Horse also has a Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Riley One-Shot by famed BG and Buffy writer Jane Espenson. Gimme-Gimmee! What else?

Brightest Day #8 and Supergirl #55 go into my shopping cart. Guilty pleasures, to be sure, but I’m a character addict. If there’s going to be more Deadman in Brightest day “I’m in.” If there’s going to be the debut of Bizarro Supergirl in Supergirl #55 you better believe “I’m in!”

Over in the pages of G.I. Joe II #7 they’re revealing the origins of The Croc Master. YES! I love how COBRA does, employ a guy on the payroll to train killer crocodiles and let him wear a bondage mask and green, sleeveless croc vest everywhere he goes!

IDW is continuing its swell nostalgia comic MGM Drive-In-Theater with help from Forbidden Planet’s Cartoonist King Steve Mannion. They’ve got issue #2 on the shelves this week. Won’t you be a sport and check it out? It’s pretty dang good!

All this and Amazing Spider-Man #640, too. #640 begins the end of this One More Day malarkey for good. It is a good week for comics, yep yep indeedy.

Reissuing older toys to celebrate an anniversary is something both Western and Eastern collectors are familiar with. On this side of the world, we have seen re-released version of such properties as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and Star Wars, or redesigned version of classic characters with modern sculpts and articulation with properties like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and both Marvel and DC Comics. In Japan, where Gundam reign supreme, it’s very common to see the same Gundam re-released every so often, with a different scale, accessories, color scheme or action gimmich. The RX-78 for example, has had several different incarnations this year alone, and we’ll be looking at an original reissue of the very first kit today on the FPNYC blog!

Series Origin: The RX-78 of course originates from the very first Gundam series, Mobile Suit Gundam, which debated in the late 70s in a post-Star Wars influenced Japan. It’s piloted by one Amuro Ray, the hero of the Universal Century universe, who would also pop up in such series and movies as “Zeta Gundam” as well as “Char’s Counterattack”. For non-Gundam fans, think of him as the Gunam universe’s Luke Skywalker.

Legacy: It’s easy to say that the RX-78 is easily the most popular Gundam, at least on the Japan sides of thing (No idea which Gundam is the most iconic or popular in the States, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Gundam Wing related). Aside from being made into a staggering amount of different Gunpla, the RX-78 has appeared in dozens of different manga, anime, video games, stamps, promotions, as well as a “life-sized” statue that currently resides near the Gunpla factory in Shizuoka.

Appearances and Equipment: Prior to acquiring this kit, the oldest Gunplay I ever worked on was a 1/144th scale Gundam from Stardust Memory that I found while browsing Chinatown several years ago. As odd as that was, this kit is an entirely different beast itself. Not that it’s a bad thing mind you, it’s just a bit of a shock to go from the modern days kits from the OO line to what is more or less one of the very first Gunpla.

For comparison sake, this is a photo of a 1/144th kit next to the Reissued box. Aside from entirely different style of box art (retro!), you’ll be surprised how close the boxes are in scale with each other, despite the different scales of the 2 kits.  Upon opening the box, you’ll see the reason why.

As you can see, the kit doesn’t come with much, aside from a simple instruction manual, and 4 sheets of parts, which is a really low number for a 1/100th scale skit. Again not a complete surprise given how old the kit is, it’s just something out of the norm for me. You get the traditional RX-78 weapons (cannon and beam saber) as well a the iconic shield, as well as the smaller ship that makes up the stomach of the Gundam. Also after screwing around with the kit, the plastics used for it are a little more rubberly, but tougher than the current counterparts. I’m glad to see that a bulkier kit with a less accurate sculpt is also less fragile than it’s modern day counterparts.

Construction: And here’s where the big difference lay. If you noticed in the photo above, the pieces only come in 2 colors-red and white. What of the yellow, black and blue bits of the kits?  Well looks like you’re going to have to paint those yourself. A little bit of warning though: the material used for the kit isn’t compatible with all Gunpla branded paint markers, so you may want to stick to model paint if you want to avoid colors running.

And for the construction, this isn’t the snap together variety. Oh no, this is an old school, glue together type of kit, which is rage inducing to me, as you’ll have to let the glue set. Assuming it sticks to the surface.

Overall Opinion: To the left, you’ll see how far I’ve gotten with this kit. which is actually at least half of it. As I’ve said before, the yellow, black and red paint had no problem sticking to the kit, were as the blue began to fade over time. Also I had some problems with glue sticking on the left fist, hence it missing.

Does that make the reissue kits bad? No, but these kits certainly aren’t for newbies. They require more effort than the standard kit in terms paint and construction, but it’s also a neat little history lesson in Gunpla. They’re also relatively cheap, as the 1/144th scale kits go for $5-$10 each, and the 1/100th ranging from the $10-$15 range, both cheaper than most 1/44th kits, let alone 1/100th scale kits. Again, they’re not for everyone, but Gunpla enthusiasts deserve to give one a shot, just to see what nerds of old had to work with.

It’s really no secret that Quattro Vageena was really Char Aznable, I mean, they stated it in the first episode. You know what’s also not a big secret? That gold mecha tend to be awesome. Thanks to his Quattro stint, gold seems to be a recurring color for Char-like characters in Gundam (specifically, Harry Ord’s Gold SUMO in Turn A Gundam and Mwu la Fllaga’s Akatsuki in Gundam SEED Destiny), and they’re always pretty damn awesome. The Hyaku Shiki (“100 Type”) is no exception, in its gold, sunglasses-wearing glory.

The Hyaku Shiki was the fifth kit in the HGUC line, originally released in a VERY shiny chrome like that you’d see on an old Power Rangers figure. As a result, this kit has the same inherent problems I mentioned in the Gundam Astray review a few months back-the parts have extra flash that needs to be cut off. This kit received three releases: The first, shiny-chrome release; a later update with the enormous Mega Bazooka launcher, which had the gold molded in an almost transparent, slightly-sparkly gold (this one is good if you plan on painting); and a third time in the Gryphios War set with Zeta and MK. II, in a shiny-but-matte chrome with extra stickers, which you see here. Personally, I recommend this version if want a nice gold finish and don’t feel like painting.

The head is slightly different from most kits, in that it uses a stick joint as opposed to a ball joint. This is mostly due to the fact that the typical neck joint pieces are used elsewhere in the kit, but I’ll get to that. The stick joint for the neck actually works pretty well here, and allows it to nod and look up.

The torso and waist are rather unremarkable, and they have no additional shoulder joint allowing for forward-back movement. The skirt does not have extra plastic in the middle so in order to split it, you’d have to do some additional modding. There are two neat features on these parts, and those would be the beam sabers and the binders. The beam sabers are both removable, but don’t have a hole to fit blades in. What I also like is the way the binders are attached-they use the two head polycap joints on the polycap runner to stay on. A nice little touch using these parts in a creative way.

The arms aren’t anything special, and adding the little red details can be really annoying if you’re using a chome kit. All versions of the kit include stickers for the “Hyaku” kanji on the shoulders. The hands are just closed hands and one trigger hand, although the trigger hand has a slanted peg joint to allow it to better hold the guns.

The legs, sadly, are more of the same, and they don’t even have a double joint, mostly limited by the design of the knee. However, the way the legs are designed actually prevents gaps from being noticeable, although you can still see them in the feet.

Weapons, no surprise, are standard fare. Two beam sabers (all-clear), beam rifle, and clay bazooka. The beam sabers are the same as the ones from the Gelgoog Marine kits. The clay bazooka has a hitch on it, allowing it to store on the backpack next to the binders.

All in all, the Hyaku Shiki is an okay kit. It’s nothing special by today’s standards, but there isn’t anything particularly wrong with it, aside from the obvious chrome issues. As a very awesome design and a main character’s suit to boot, it’s a mainstay of any collection and should be added in some form or another. While we don’t have any version of the HGUC kit in stock right now, the Forbidden Planet store has several other flavors of Shiki: A vintage 1/100 scale Hyaku Shiki, (that seems to have the wrong picture…) which would make for a fun painting project, the 1/200 scale HCM Pro figure in chrome-a very nice line of figures, albeit small in stature; and the original HCM figure, which is sort of a model/toy hybrid, and a more stable version of the original model kit. You have your choice of three Shikis at three scales, so go grab the one you like the most!

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the amphibious mobile suits were a staple of the Principality of Zeon’s arsenal during the One Year War. They’re quite an ugly bunch of critters that seem to have gained a following of their own, but tend to be disliked by most. I tend to be indifferent towards them, for the most part, although this guy is actually the only amphibious suit active in my collection right now…

Char’s Z’Gok was the third amphibious mobile suit in the HGUC line, after the mass-production type Z’Gok and the Gogg. Out of all of Char’s Mobile Suits that have appeared in animation, this one tends to be the most overlooked, and for good reason. He only used it in what, two episodes, and it didn’t have the epic “last boss” appeal that the Zeong did, and it has the “amphibious MS” stigma attached to it. So, is he worth adding to your Char collection? Let’s take a look…

The… head, I guess we could call it,  consists of two parts and a polycap. The monoeye is a sticker, which is to be expected. The problem is, the amphibious suits are known for how much their monoeyes move around, and with this kit, when it’s done, it’s done. I positioned mine facing off to the right which makes putting it in action poses much easier. It can’t do much when it’s dead center.

The torso actually isn’t too bad. It doesn’t have much depth to it, but the polycap actually gives it some good flexibility that lends itself to the Z’Gok’s “stabby” poses. The two oxygen tank-esque jets on the back are affixed by polycap joints.

Now… the arms are where my issue with this kit really starts to come up. The part of the arms that aren’t the forearm/claws aren’t attached by a polycap joint-it’s all hard plastic, not even ABS. And when I say hard plastic, I mean it. It’s very glossy and you’ll need some serious wire-cutter action to get through it. They hold the pose well, but they don’t really move that much, and WILL get floppy with time. I wonder why they chose to go this route, honestly. Someday I might try replacing the joint system in the arm with a heavy wire or something. The claws open and close, and are based on plastic-on-plastic hinges which will probably wear out with time.

The legs, unfortunately, are pretty much the same as the arms, but the way the feet/ankles are constructed adds to its ability to strike the “stabby” poses, at the cost of looking a bit taller than they should.

So, is the Z’Gok a worthwhile kit? Well, not really, in my opinion. If you’re a fan of amphibious suits, a completist, or want to own all of Char’s suits, you’re gonna end up with this one either way. While I don’t have one of my own, our store carries the Acguy kit, which I’ve heard many good things about-and come on, you gotta love the Acguy-it’s adorable!

I can’t believe I went three years with this as my only 1/144 scale Char suit…

If you’re interested in ordering Char’s Z’ Gok for yourself, you can order through the FPNYC website here.

Comic books are all the rage, and tomorrow’s star of the printed page will be the next big thing on the silver screen! Yep, Hollywood money is whipping up every able-bodied creator into a creative tizzy. WHO will create the next Iron Man, Batman and Jonah Hex so that they can be watered down into unrecognizable action figure grade silhouettes of themselves for a feckless public to mass consume?

Maybe YOU!

But classic comic book characters like Constantine, The Mystery Men and Tank Girl don’t just bubble up out of the ground like some sort of addictive, mind controlling white food substitute, they (unfortunately) have to be thought up in the minds of human beings, those rotten jerks.

“Ah dangit!” you weakly bleat. “I’m barely a human being as it is. How the heck am I supposed to come up with a new comic book character with warmth, foibles and features…especially when I only want to do so to enjoy the contemporary financial windfall that comic books are (supposedly) enjoying?”

Well, the real question, sir or madam is “Do you want a little cheese to go with that whine?”

Never fear, peasants. Unkiedev is here to tell you what to think. Follow these simple steps and you too can create legendary comic book characters!

METHOD #1: Old School

This is perhaps the simplest and most direct way to come up with comic book characters that will stand the test of time: simply reverse engineer your life so that you could be a poor impoverished Jew growing up in Hell’s Kitchen during the Great Depression!

It’s a statistical fact that every single Jewish boy who grew up in New York City during the depression who DIDN’T die in World War II ended up being one of the most talented and creative peoples of our nation. Jack Kirby is, of course, the most famous, though other geniuses including Will Eisner, Bob Finger, and Will Elder prove this to be true.

Between Kirby and Finger alone we get the Fantastic Four, Batman, Captain America, The X-Men, the Joker, Dr. Doom and a wealth of countless innovations to comics as an art form. I mean, Will Eisner wasn’t satisfied reinventing comics as a genre singlehandedly through the pages of his sensational comic strip The Spirit; he had to go and invented the graphic novel to boot!

Now it’s true that Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, the creators of Superman, were depression era Jews growing up in and around Cleveland, of all places, but it’s easy to imagine that, much like evolution and the heliocentric solar system, this is absolutely some sort of snotty hoax concocted by liberal eggheads. We’ll one day learn the truth that Siegel and Schuster were actually from New York City the whole time.

How did this region, religion and economic straight provide the future with every single trope and standard to dominate comic books for over 60 years? No one may really know…no one outside of our next class of creators, that is.

METHOD #2: Steal the Credit

A wise man once said, “Don’t reinvent the wheel.” Maybe it was a fortune cookie. Regardless, a wise man once stole it from a fortune cookie and said it to me.

The point is, if some staving, struggling descendant of the tribe of Israel is going to go through all the trouble to invent amazing characters that generations will love forever, then wouldn’t you be a fool not to ride their coat tails and hog all the credit years later?

That’s right! Stealing credit for creating comic book characters is just as legitimate, and frankly a far more legally protected way to cash in than actually creating them yourself! Proof is in the pudding: just ask Bob Kane, the “Creator” of Batman and Smilin’ Stan Lee, co-creator of every Marvel comics character from Spider-Man on up to She-Hulk.

Stan Lee is one of the great architects of American comics, but sorting out what he actually created and what he just legally swiped co-ownership of is like trying to steal candy from a naked Rachel Ray dipped in E.V.O.O.

The most important part of this process is to come up with enough of your own embellishments to the character, say like making them relatable to audiences for the first time ever or just having a cooler looking signature in a box on the cover. That way future generations won’t be able to spot the theft.

This subtlety escapes some modern swipers. Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, and most of the Image crowd would flagrantly redesign a costume for Superman, The Thing or crib work from their betters month after month and expect to get away with it every time.

Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us for 3 years with 6 variant covers each and every time? Shame on the industry.

At least Erik Larson had the dignity to make his Hulk rip-off, the Savage Dragon, a cop!

METHOD #3: Go Dark!

Comicdom’s biggest offender to stealing credit is arguably one of its greatest writers. I’m speaking of beloved comic book creator Alan Moore. Moore has hardly created one character in his entire career. Don’t believe me? The Watchmen? They’re a pastiche of old Charleton comic’s characters such as the Creeper, the Blue Beetle and the Atom. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? All established book characters. Even break through career highlights such as Marvelman and Swamp Thing seem hollow when you know that they were all established characters Moore just filled with his own ideas.

IF you want to argue that he created anybody you could successfully lobby for John Constantine, the trench-coat wearing, chain smoking London street wizard, though I suspect that Moore used his OWN prodigious magical powers to turn a rival magician into a comic book character. THAT’LL show him.

So why does Moore continue to get away with it? A) He has more brilliant ideas and writing talent than a clone army of Stan Lees, Bob Fingers and Walt Disney’s combined. This ability allowed him to create NEW characters out of the old cloth by giving them depth, nuance and passion. B) He invented “Going Dark.”

If you want to rip-off Archie and the gang then make a DARK version of Archie and the gang, where Jughead has a literal jug for a head that he keeps covered by his weird hat, where Reggie is an opium addict and where Betty and Veronica is a Siamese Twin that Archie madly loves but whom he can’t share.

You’d read Archie now, I’ll wager!

Alan Moore’s success at this tactic invented a whole NEW way to come up with comic book characters.

METHOD #4: Be British

Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Warren Ellis, Brian Michael Bendis, Peter Milligan and countless others all have amazing careers and were all fortunate to be British in the right time and place, i.e. the comics market of the 90’s and early millennium.

What? Bendis isn’t British? Hmmmm. Then why doesn’t he provide a birth certificate to prove it, then?

Even as we speak Marvel, DC and many other studios are flying over Britain with high-powered helicopters towing nets, scooping up British citizens and then forcing them to come up with new comic book ideas.

It might seem cruel but the spice must flow!

METHOD #5 Hard Work/Some other X-Factor.

Or you could reject the ideas that came before you and struggle with your own creativity until you’ve distilled your thoughts, hopes and dreams into something truly new, vibrant and different… but that would take, like, forever.

Nope, to really come up with the next Men In Black, Wolverine or Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel the best thing you could do is be a British Jew with a dark side growing up in depression era New York, or better yet just steal ideas from someone who is.

Trust me, I’m a comic book columnist.

There may not be a whole of actual stuff coming in this week, but there are some pretty exciting titles. I think this time I’m going to start with a new title instead of your awaited favorites first. This week sees the release of Natsume Ono’s first series, (her previous books “Not Simple” and “Ristorante Paradiso” were one-shots), Gente. Ms. Ono is obviously a fan of languages and, it would seem, food. In this spin-off of Ristorante Paradiso you’re welcomed into Casetta dell’Orso, a quaint little restaurant in the heart of Rome. The food’s delicious, but the handsome staff of bespectacled gentlemen is the real draw. Follow these dashing men home and witness their romances, heartaches, hopes and dreams.

And I feel I have to report on the release of the first official Gossip Girl Manga: For Your Eyes Only. Written by Cecily Von Ziegesar, and Illustrated by HyeKyung Baek. The original Gossip Girl cast returns in a re-imagination of their high school days when Blair and Vanessa become unlikely roommates! Blair and Serena were BFF’s until Blair discovered that her boyfriend Nate cheated on her with Serena! As if that wasn’t enough, Serena then disappeared without a word. Now she’s back and trying to make amends with Blair. Too bad Serena’s former BFF has no intention of forgiving her. After seeing Serena with her new boyfriend, Dan, Blair intends to respond in kind! Will a photo of Dan kissing Blair put an end to Serena’s budding relationship? There. That’s enough of that.

Another series continuing this week is James Patterson’s Maximum Ride as Volume 3 finally arrives this week after quite a while. The Flock members are taken under the wing of an FBI agent and try to live ‘normal’ lives by going to school, making friends… and continuing their relentless search for their parents. But the Erasers return, forcing the Flock to abandon their search and make their escape once again. It’s also becoming more obvious to Max that her destiny is to save the world; a destiny which proves especially challenging to meet when she must first face her ultimate match: a newer and better version of herself, Maximum Ride II. The 3rd and 4th volumes of the manga are going to be covering the second novel of the series, in case you were curious.

Now for the other stuff you’ve been waiting for: 20th Century Boys Volume 10 comes out this week, along with Vagabond Volume 32, the much delayed second volume of Dorohedoro, Gurren Lagann Volume 5, Black God Volume 10, and Ooku Volume 4 for you period-drama, shonen ai loving fans. You know usually I don’t run lists that bad, but like I said in the title-line, this week has stuff! There’s actually a couple more things I neglected to mention, but I just got out what I was compelled to. Anyway, that pretty much wraps us up for this week, so until next time, it’s always nice to see people upstairs!

Ja Ne!

Last week I raged against the oncoming storm that is the Yogi Bear 3D CGI movie. A good friend and blogger, a.k.a. “Jim” of jimsmash.blogspot.com pointed out one of the posters for said celluloid turkey and the rather, awkward catch phrase it employs.

“Good things come in Bears.”

No, I did not make that up. Man this movie gives me the creeps.

CREEPS

Speaking of which, Dark Horse has a brand new arch in the ongoing saga of Hellboy’s ex-co-workers over at the B.P.R.D. It seems that Abe Sapien and the gang have been placed under U.N. jurisprudence and will have to fight red tape as well as monsters. Check out the battle between paperwork and the monsters it protects in this week’s B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth- New World #1… and buy Buzzard #3 while you’re at it!

Clayface is going to second base with Batgirl on the cover of Batgirl #13, and I don’t have high hopes that the comic inside the cover will be much better. It does steal its’ plot from a Ben Edlund episode of Super Natural. Stay classy, DC!

+2 STAPLER OF DAMAGE

IDW begins publishing comics based on Dungeons and Dragons this week, and where better to start than with Dungeons and Dragons #0. I’m sure this issue will feature Gary Gygax playing “Old Maid” and getting wistful for a BETTER game to play.

They'll hug it out later

I’ll read that before I read Incredible Hulk #611, where Green Hulk is going to hash it out with his son over their issues. Dang it! I didn’t care about the Hulk’s stupid son in the first place, and now you’re telling touching tales of reconciliation?

Quesada might have screwed up Spidey when he Mulliganed his marriage off to Mephisto, but at least he didn’t fill the Spidey-verse with basket-loads of kids from alternate planets, timelines and realities.

But then again, I’d read Incredible Hulk #611 a thousand times before I’m buying Excalibur Visions Warren Ellis Vol. 2 Staring that Kitty Pride kissin’ Mary-Sue, Pete Wisdom. Not only can Kitty do better, comic books can do better.

MARVELOUS

I MIGHT, however, pick up the Marvelman Vol. 1 reprinting the pre-Alan Moore adventures of Marvel’s newly purchased eponymous do-gooder! I like that hokey silver age malarkey.

NEXT WEEK: If the comic book publishing schedule is as slow as this one was then you’ll all get to read 500 words about Howard the Duck: The GREATEST modern aged bird character of all time.

One of those words will be “Bestiality.” BE THERE!

Every once in awhile, a kit comes a long that I just have to have, and I honestly can’t explain why. It has nothing to do with the design itself, or the engineering or anything of the sort. It just calls to me. And that’s why I love this monster.

The Pallas Athena/Palace Athene (the second spelling is the “official” one, but I much prefer to use the former…) is a hulking beast of a kit, much like most of the designs Paptimus Scirocco employed in Zeta Gundam. This specific unit was used by Reccoa Londe, one of the few characters in Gundam I CANNOT STAND. She was tolerable at first, but then she joined the Titans and just… anyway, I digress. Let’s get onto the kit, shall we?

Like I said, this thing is huge-closer in size to a 1/100 than a 1/144, standing about 2-3 inches taller than your average 1/144 when you factor in the parts on its back. It’s mean and green, and it’ll make your GMs and Zakus run away scared. I should get around to painting mine someday… what I did for the orange parts looks terrible.

The head is made up of only 5 pieces, with soft plastic tubes and a flexible plastic antenna. The tubes thankfully don’t interfere with the movement of the head in any direction, which is a huge plus.

The torso continues the trend with the soft plastic cables, which are a bit more of a hindrance here, but nothing TOO detracting. The massive backpack and its eight giant missiles all hold up very well and have no issues with stability whatsoever. With a full loadout, this baby sure is terrifying. The waist has a port for a stand to be attached, however, you’d need a special stand that only a few other kits come with.

The arms have a nice, sort of hourglass-like shape to them, going from large to small to large again. Inside the shoulders are soft plastic wires, like on the head and torso, but they don’t actually do anything. No double joint in the elbow, sadly, but that’s to be expected on a kit this size, I suppose. The hands are really cool and cartoony. All you get are both fists, and a hand to hold the beam saber (which I misplaced, whoops).

The legs, too, are huge and bulky. Because of the design, the skirt armor is connected to the legs themselves and not at the waist. They’re attached by a hinge, and don’t interfere with movement at all. The knees also have a double joint that isn’t interrupted by anything in terms of armor plating.

Possibly my favorite feature on this kit is the feet, which are slightly “transformable”. The heels and “toe” pieces can all swing down, which in fiction would be used to keep the suit grounded on an asteroid or something in space. It’s an awesome feature and adds even more height to the kit when deployed.

The weapons are plentiful-the aforementioned missiles on the backpack all stay on pretty well, and don’t get too loose. The beam rifles and shield both clip onto the forearms, sadly not with a polycap joint. I feel that if they were attached via a polycap, they’d be a bit more stable. Also, the sabers store in the shield and come with clear yellow blades.

Overall, if you’re into this design, or just want a big monster suit that won’t break your bank (I’m looking at you, Kshatriya), this is the way to go. It’s a fun build and a great display piece, and the weapons and transforming feet give some pretty good play value. Definitely recommended!

Hey there readers, I’m happy to announce we’ve got in a new shipment of Gunpla in last week with more coming in the next few days, so feel free to stop by the store to check out what’s in stock (although I imagine most, if not all of the models will be online soon). Today though, I’ll be looking at one of the newly released Playarts Kai figures from Sqaure-Enix: Bayonetta, the lead from SEGA/Platinum’s game of the same name (And actually my favorite game to come out this year so far). Bayonetta’s from the Black Label Collection, which is something I’ve certainly never heard of (outside of Johnny Walker), but after messing around with this figure a bit, I can tell how it differs from the other standard Play Arts, and will do so in a little bit.

Series Origin: Bayonetta is obviously from the PS3/360 action game Bayonetta. It comes from the same dude who created the original Devil May Cry (BTW, the Devil May Cry 4 Play Arts Kai are also in stock @ FPNYC), and like DMC, is a great over the top action game, as long as you don’t take it too seriously. The creators certainly didn’t.

Legacy: Bayonetta was a huge hit for Platinum/SEGA in both Japan and the West, selling over 1 million copies worldwide. Granted those numbers aren’t as good as say the latest Call of Duty, but pretty good for a new IP. There’s been no announcement of an official sequel/spin off, but Platinum has stated they are interested in exploring more of her world, so here’s hoping.

Appearance and Equipment: So what exactly makes Bayonetta “Black Label” material?

By looking at  this extremely fuzzy photo (maybe Santa will bring me a better camera this Christmas kids. Maybe), we can see that Bayonetta is “taller” than the older Play Art on the left (That would be Zack Fair from Crisis Core: FFVII, which was a fairly large Play Art itself), yet is smaller than Snow on the right . She also possesses over 27 points of articulation, putting her in the league with the original Marvel Legends/DCUC figures, which is fairly impressive, considering most Play Arts average less. How does the rest of the figure stack up though?

I’m happy to say that visually, Bayonetta is fairly appeasing. Just don’t ask me why her head is so small compared to the rest of her body, that’s something that’s in the game as well as this figured; Odd design is odd in that regard. Still, there’s an insane amount of detail in this figure, making it nearly 100% accurate to the game’s character model. Props to Square Enix’s sculptors for that, as Bayonetta is covered in jewels, ruins and other things that make her all-black costume stand out a little more. And like I said, she has over 27 points of articulation, which again, great, but it comes at the expense of the sculpt; her shoulders look odd,  as does her chest,stomach and waist/hips, and the use of Revoltech-esque joints for her ankles and her hair flowing down from her arms also make this a little bit awkward when it comes to posing her. I’ve including photos as evidence.

As far as equipment/alternate joints go, Bayonetta comes with a a pair of close, alternate hands, as well as 2 pairs of her trademark guns, 2 to wield in her hands, and 2 that attach to the heels of her shoes. The guns are pretty detailed, and fit snugly in her hands, while the ones in her shoes literally slip onto the back, which while is admittedly neat, tend to slip out from time to time. To be honest, I wouldn’t have minded them coming pre-attached to her shoe, sculpted into the figure, and getting one of Bayonetta’s alternate weapons instead.

My biggest beef with this figure: Lack of a stand. Every Play Arts figure I’ve own to date came with some sort of stand to help keep the figure up. Not Bayonetta, who needs is the most, give that she’s fairly top heavy and extremely leggy, and those heel guns give her no support what-so-ever. There’s a number of one footed photos on the back of the packaging which are obvious lies, and it’s nearly impossible to do with this figure. The magic of photoshop am I right kids? However,  if you own a number of Play Arts like I do, you can probably just let her use one the the stand/bases that come with figures that have no issues standing on their own.

Overall Opinion: I really like Bayonetta, and I’m glad Square Enix swung for the fences in terms of trying to make something that looks great and is crazy poseable, but feel that came up a little short in both areas. I would be more than willing to give up a few of those points for a better design in some areas, and at least a stand. Still, I’m grateful they’ve tried, and would like to see them attempt this sort of thing in the future. Maybe we’ll get a better figure if a Bayonetta 2 happens. Either way, it sells for about $40, and for that price, it’s a pretty solid deal.

There were about 30 entries this year across all categories, but only a handful were entered in BAKUC. Prizes were given across many different categories, including Best Small Scale, Best Large Scale, Best Diorama, Best Figure, Best General Mecha, and Best in Show. Both Best Large Scale and Best in Show went to our very own Monty, who wrote a review on the HGUC Unicorn Gundam kit earlier this year. He won for his awesomely-done Char’s Gelgoog, and his prize for Best in Show was a Perfect Grade Titans MK. II! He also won the local BAKUC competition and got a Master Grade Full Armor Gundam for that. The look on his face when they pulled out the Perfect Grade was priceless. Of course, he was in the masquerade, so I had to drag all of his stuff back to our hotel room, along with my prizes.

Oh yeah, I didn’t mention that-my GM Sniper, which I covered here a few months back, won best small scale! It also placed second in the World Championship preliminaries for BAKUC, and my Hi-Nu Gundam placed second in the 1/144 category for the US championship! I didn’t get any prizes for the BAKUC stuff, but I won two SD kits for the Otakon competition (Monty got one as well, which he later gave me cuz he didn’t want it-oh well, his loss!).

It was nice to enter the contest again. The real fun came from getting to chat with other modelers, exchange tips and other random comments. It’s not the kind of thing you get to do much anymore, mostly due to how inactive the Gunpla community has become since 2002.

I’m a little upset that my white Gelgoog-a restoration job made from two kits-didn’t place in any category. Which I find kinda ironic, mostly-as sort of an in-joke from ’08 I made my badge name “Gelgoog Builder”, and I didn’t even enter the winning Gelgoog! Whoops.
It turns out that BAKUC had been looking to do preliminaries are a few other cons before the year is out. I’m hoping to get them to come to New York Anime Festival/New York Comic Con in October. This will give us a second chance to compete, and hopefully bring in more of the local crowd. I’ve come to notice that comic conventions tend to draw in more Gundam fans than anime cons do. Fancy that. Regardless, if this ends up working out, I hope to see some of you there. If not, myself and some of the other contributors will be hosting a panel at the con sometime that weekend. We hope to see you there.

Stan Lee had many astonishing insights as to what would sell comic books, not the least of which was to pander to his audience.

“If my merry band of Marvel marchers are nothing more than lily livered teenage freakazoids,” He must have thought, “Then I’ll make half the heroes in the pantheon of Marvel teenage milksops, too!”

This notion worked brilliantly with the bookish Peter Parker in the pages of Spider-Man, worked so-so with hot head roast-master Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four and slightly less brilliantly in the pages of The Hulk where the tremendous jade giant was shackled with annoying teen sidekick Rick Jones.

Nowhere was the “protagonist as teenage outcast” more successful than in the pages of the X-Men.

STRANGE TALES

The X-Men were intended as an antithesis to the handsome, muscle-bound heroes of the golden age. Just as Lee and Kirby had done on the Fantastic Four, the X-men were created with internal struggles, awkward family dynamics and the strangest gimmick of all: they were all (supposed to be) ugly, freakish mutants unable to fit into society.

To audiences used to Superman and Shazam the X-Men must have looked far out. Angel was a thin teen with a frail body to support his massive wings, not the oiled up Hawkman of DC’s Justice League. Cyclops was Jimmy Stewart with a weird, one-eyed visor. The Beast was an overdeveloped muscle-bound ape more akin to gorilla than man. Iceman at this time looked more like a snowman.

They looked different and so they were shunned. THIS comic book reading teenagers could get behind!

Remember, the x-men premiered in 1963, around the same time that the pilot episode of Star Trek was getting slapped down by TV executives because Mr. Spock looked “too devilish.” This team of uber-weirdies must have perfectly scratched that itch for moody outsiders looking for a little more storm and drang from their funny-pages.

Of course, every dark cloud has its silver lining. To the X-family that silver lining was telekinetic, beautiful Jean Grey, a.k.a. the “Marvel Girl.” The perfectly proportioned red-haired token female of the group, Jean was loved both intimately or from afar by almost every character to walk in and out of the X-men title… including the creepy bald paraplegic they called their leader, Charles Xavier. Even today Jean is considered one of the hottest female comic leads of all time. “Well,” smilin’ Stan must have reasoned, “Just because my readers identify with mutants doesn’t mean they aren’t red blooded Americans!”

Right again, Stan!

FREAK BRIGADE

The X-men struggled to save the world issue after issue even though the world hated them and thought them a danger. Physically bizarre and misunderstood, the X-men taught strength, heroism and teamwork to the sci-fi loving kids of the 60 and 70’s who could see through the wish fulfillment nature of their older siblings comic books.

The 70’s actually made the team more grotesque with the addition of Nightcrawler, the blue devil-eared teleporter with three fingers and a tail, as well as Storm the African weather goddess, Colossus the titanium skinned Russian and the worlds most famous Canadian Wolverine.

Under penciler and co/plotter John Byrne and beloved X-men super scripter Chris Claremont the X-men continued to rely on each other while living as walking posters for fear of the unknown.

But then something happened that no one had anticipated: By creating a new allegory for drawing strength from your differences The X-men became the number 1 selling comic book of its time.

RING IN THE NEW

The changes were subtle at first. John Byrne always drew Wolverine as a stunted 4’8” hairy beast, but as his popularity began to rise so did the mutant’s height. Few pencilers today draw Wolvie much shorter than any other teammate. The team roster also began to fill out with more beautiful women, including the fashion model Psylock, Disco singer Dazzler and beautiful southern belle Rogue.

Did you catch that? Far from being shunned for their freakish behavior Dazzler blends her powers into her multi-million dollar pop star stage act, and Psylock was a fashion model. NOT ONLY THAT but penciler Jim Lee redesigned the purple haired British beauty as a stealthy Japanese ninja with d-cups who always insisted on wearing a blue thong bathing suit.

The emphasis of the team dynamic turned from “Triumph through diversity with your family of freaks” to the ups and downs of a soap opera. Bickering and inner-team hook-ups were all the norm. Soon the emphasis was on “Who was dating whom, “ not on enemies, plots or powers.

The X-books were delivering on what Marvel’s marketing and licensing teams wanted out of the books, but it started to ring hollow with long time fans.

GRANT TO THE RESCUE

In the early 2000’s wackadoo British writer Grant Morrison came on board and with him a whole mess of changes; Mutants were freakier than ever, some so disgusting that hardened X-hands had to deal with intolerance from within their own ranks. The Mutant race soared in population and so people actually HAD something to fear. Grant not only brought back the miserable menagerie aspect to the comic, he also showed how these dark themes could be beaten through comradery and trust.

After a few years of what most fans consider one of the comic’s best runs Marvel retconned or eliminated most of Grants influences in order to clean the books up for Hollywood.

So were do we stand now?

WHO ARE THE X-MEN

The X-men are a team of bickering though beautiful mutants who keep to themselves because they feel the world hates them, though past issues of the comic book prove this isn’t true. The team has many attractive female members, most of whom current penciler Greg Land has been proven to trace directly out of porn magazines, and who make it a habit of breaking that old office taboo of “not dating co-workers.”

The X-men are usually too busy with internal struggles or surly at a world inferior to their dazzling attraction and powers to help regular citizens. They prefer to leave the super heroics to the Avengers or Spider-Man while they themselves have adventures in outer space or wait around for one of their own members to get powerful enough to destroy the universe.

They are all immortal beings, as no team member who has ever died has stayed dead for more than ten years. NOT ONE.

The X-men are the embodiment of the current generation of America’s willful ignorance, celebrity obsession and lack of self-improvement. They isolate themselves from normal people and bemoan their own problems while making no attempt to understand anybody or anything outside of their own little world.

They are all almost physically superior in ability and attraction, though they complain nonstop about being shunned and feared.

In short: The X-men is the Marvel team comprised of all the popular kids you’d like to hang out with but probably aren’t cool enough to talk to. Their lives are as empty and meaningless as you might expect because they’re too wrapped up in themselves to appreciate the gifts they have.

That’s too bad. Guy’s like Stan Lee, Kirby, Byrne, Claremont and Morrison knew there was a great deal of money and great stories to be told in heroic tales of the disenfranchised. Looks like they never counted on the huger piles of cash to be made by dumbing down the concept till it was nothing more than an episode of “Gossip Girl.”

Mad dash? Why yes. Remember last week, when I mentioned how there were a ton of books coming out and I wasn’t sure if it was August coming early, or just a lucky week for the end of July? Well, as it turns out, July was just a very lucky month. And I mean that in the sense that just one week later, the first official release week of August, is another ton of books, both new and long awaited, that I know you are all going to be anxious to read. So let’s jump right in with the first of many interesting things, The Bleach Official Bootleg: Color Bleach+. This indispensable guide takes you behind the scenes of the shadowy world of the Soul Reapers. Read all about the illustrious Thirteen Court Guard Companies, study for the grueling entrance exam to Soul Reaper Academy, get tips on fighting effectively, take the personality quiz and more. This book includes 72 pages of full-color manga spun off from the original Bleach story.

Now for things that are long, long, LONG awaited, and I’ve got a few for you. Most excitedly for me, (because it is a damn good book and I love Matsuri Akino), is Genju No Seiza Volume 8. Volume 7 came out almost exactly two years ago, so yeah, it’s about damn time! Things were getting way too tense just to take an extensive hiatus like that! But I digress, I’m glad it’s here now. Also in the “it’s-been-years-since-our-last-release” category are Legends Of The Dark Crystal Volume 2 (the first volume came out in March of 2008), and Return To Labyrinth Volume 4 (the previous volume having been released in September of 2008). Oh yeah, I am so proud of Tokyopop finally getting back on the horse. They obviously finally noticed their massive back log of books they need to print, it’s only taken them 2 whole years to get to it. I know it sounds like I rip on them a lot, and I know they’re not the only company with book delays, but I do rip on them a lot, and it’s because they just behave awfully haphazardly with their properties.

Now on to the brand new series. First on the block is Code Breaker by Akimine Kamijyo (the creator of Samurai Deeper Kyo). Blending horror and action, this series follows the lives of Sakura, an ordinary student who loves food and martial arts, and Rei, a self-proclaimed “Code:Breaker,” he brings criminals to justice by eliminating their lives. Also this week is a new one featuring the artist from the series My-Hime. Qwaser of Stigmata (which admittedly sounds like they threw darts at a dictionary to name) actually looks pretty cool. Written by Hiroyuki Yoshino, and illustrated by Kenetsu Sato. In the near future, a dark war is being waged between Qwasers, supernatural “humans” made by the Church to control the elements. Oribe, a bullied school girl, is about to become the conflict’s center! Attacked by a Qwaser seeking a closely guarded Romanov family artifact that holds the power to grant wishes, Oribe pairs up with a mysterious silver-haired boy, another Qwaser, for the battle of their lives as they withstand the attacks of some very powerful-and curvaceous-super humans!

Hollywood movie producers would steal the liver out of a newborn baby if they thought it could turn a profit. If the taste of the day was mutants punching people’s grandmothers in the face they’d release a 12 disk DVD box set. Heck, for two cents they’d throw you and everybody you know into a giant blender just to get extra footage for “Saw 7.”

They aren’t nice and they aren’t your friends…but this time they’ve really gone too far. They have birthed a pig with two faces and they think we are so gullible we shall hail it as the second coming if they nail it to a cross.

And what is this evil I’m speaking of? What diabolical sin have they transgressed, placing a proverbial straw on the backs of our already weakened camels?

They’re making a CGI “Yogi Bear in 3-D” movie “staring” Dan Aykroyd as Yogi and Justin Timberlake as Boo Boo.

Put simply, this movie is the death of American culture.

NETWORK

Looking back on it now we should have recognized “Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties” for what it was: the John the Baptist of talking animal pictures. As long as strip mining cartoons and comics of the past continues to be profitable Hollywood will make Alvin and the Chipmunk “Squeakquels,” “PreSqueakquels” and “Trilo-Squeak-ogies.” I didn’t speak up when Owen Wilson made a Marmaduke film, I pray I’m not too late to save us all now.

I don’t blame Yogi…and not just because he isn’t real. Yogi Bear was a fairly funny cartoon from the 1960’s which was created to be as cheap as it was profitable, with humor directly derivative of superior works at the time. Yogi is long dead now, but they have dragged his zombie out of the grave to do some hip-hop dancing and lunge at your wallet. Not one creative thought went into this film.

Hollywood simply said “Talking animal movies are doing well, let’s make another one of those.” Another executive, looking up from his plate of broiled dolphin replied “Yeah, and my kids love that “Build-a-Bear” place. Are there any talking bear cartoons we could buy on the cheap?”

They probably cast Dan Aykroyd in this because they knew he too was in Ghostbusters and because Ernie Hudson probably had enough dignity left in him to turn them down.

Our country has degraded to such a degree that we are figuratively eating our own cultural dead for nourishment. It takes almost every ounce of my strength to stop myself from downing a case of pop rocks, drinking a six-pack of Coke and getting on my pogo stick.

Why do they get away with their constant crimes against good taste? Because YOU or someone you know is going out and paying money to see their films.

NEXT week I’ll tell you about what is new and hip in the world of comic books if there is still an America left to tell you in. Today I shall take a stand for what I believe in. DON’T go see another Hollywood remake, rehash or rerun until we have stopped them from crapping in our drinking water with their bland, insipid and insulting talking animal pictures.

And for the record: Why did you do it, JT? You were so cool in “Alpha Dog.” You go from “Southland Tales” to Boo Boo the bear? All I can say is SHAME on you, Justin Timberlake, SHAME!

If you follow the child-pool depth continuity of this blog, Loran’s off at Otakon this weekend. I like video games, drinking and not dealing with a city where “The Wire” took place, so I’m home this weekend, posting an additional article. But we’re not talking Gunpla today, or even Gundam. Instead, we’re going to focus on the overlooked import toy section of Forbidden Planet NYC! I’m hoping to turn this into a new feature on the blog, as man, I love me some Revoltechs.

Revoltechs, as some of you may or may not know, are the Japanese equivalent of Marvel Legends/DC Universe Classic line, only Revoltechs aren’t limited to just one brand. You’ll find properties such as Street Fighter, Sengoku Basara, Gurren Lagann, Trigun amongst  dozens of others represented in the 100+ figures produced, including some American properties such as Batman Begins, Jurassic Park and Aliens. Today I’ll be focusing on one of the newer figures from the Fraulein: Makinami Mari Illustrious from the 2nd Neon Genesis Evangelion remake movie.

Yes, she has a pink plugsuit. Japan’s empowering to females like that. SARCASM!

Series Origin: Neon Genesis Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (Which speaking of Eva and Otakon, 2.0 was licensed by FUNimation yesterday).

Legacy: Mari’s been around for all of the year, but if merchandising and cosplay photos have proven anything, she’s pretty popular.

Appearance and Equipment:

DAWWW, LOOK SHE’S WAVING AT US, ISN’T SHE SUCH A CUTIE….yeah, I’ll be honest, I felt just a wee bit creepy taking some of these photos. Real glad the wife’s not home this weekend to see that “photoshoot”…

Anywho, the figure is a spot on replication of Mari. The female sculpt in the Fraulien line has improved greatly over the year, as they look a lot less soulless little dolls.

And now Mari will show us what she’s packaged with in terms of accessories, because she’s a helpful little angel like that!

This photo helps illustrate that Mari is fairly articulated, and comes with a ton of stuff. There’s at least 5 different pair of hands, 2 different faces, a stand, and handy little box you can use for storage and a cellphone…

NO PHOTOS PLEASE, SHE’S CLEARLY ON THIS PHONE. Also, despite feeling like a complete creepward, I had a blast taking some of these photos. As you can see, I swapped out her face, going from the content one to the slightly irate one. The 3rd one is my favorite one though…

This is her Berserker face. It is both terrifying and/or hilarious depending on your stance. And again, all of those spare pieces fit into that handy little accessory cube.

ALL HAIL THE MARI-CUBE!

Construction: In addition to improved sculpts, the articulation and built of the Fraulein are better as well. The initial Eva Frauleins a few years back are prone to falling apart like crazy, something that Mari does not suffer from. Her articulation wasn’t sacrificed as a result of  an improved built, as seen in Mari’s ponytail.

She is less than impressed than this function. Hush you.

Overall Opinion:

Call me bias, but I’m biased and I love me some Mari. It’s a tad pricey ($40-45), but it’s a great figure that has a great sculpt, crazy articulation, and whole bunch of spare parts. I highly recommend it if you’re a fan of the Eva Rebuild figures, but there’s 2 things to keep in mind. Another Mari Revoltech in her original plugsuit coming out later this year, as well as a Figma (another highly articulated Japanese toy line) version of Mari coming out this fall with a cockpit she can sit in. Chances are I’ll buy all 3.

After what seems like forever here at the FPNYC blog, we actually have a new Gunpla to discuss! We’ll be looking at the 1/144th scale AMS-110 Gear Doga Neo Zeon Mass Productive Mobile Suit, which aside from a long-ass name, is actually a pretty nifty kit. I’ll also be trying a new review format, so let me here what you think of it in the comment section.

Series Origin: Char’s Counter Attack. The 1998 finale to the Amuro/Char saga, the film is based on a novel written by Tomino. It eventually made it’s way to the States in 2003 and was shown on the [adult swim] programming block. The plot has Char returning after self-imposed exile, due to the events from the original series and Zeta Gundam, now leading the force of Neo-Zeon. He now fights to bring forth an apocalypse on the  planet Earth, by dropping an entire colony on it. Char’s a bit of an over-achiever like that.

Legacy: According to Counter Attack’s canon- The Geara Doga is the grunt unit of the newly revitalized Neo Zeon army. It doesn’t appear in any other Gundam animated franchise as far as I know of.

Appearance and Equipment: At first glance, the Geara Doga bears resemblance to another mass produced Zeon unit- the Zaku. They both have a single glowing eye, have heavy shoulder pads with spikes and a single shield, and share similar body types. Plus, much like the Zaku, they can be outfitted with a variety of weapons and equipment, depending on the situation and the terrain.

As far as weapons go, the Geara Doga comes equipped with a beam machine gun, a beam sword ax, sturm faust and a grenade launcher.

Fun facts about the weapons time!

-The Beam Machinegun doesnt do much, aside be a gun. YAY GUN! Neither do the grenade launcher, but they snap into the back of the Sturm Faust. Snapping action kids! It’s awesome!

-The Beam Sword Axe comes with 2 different beam “energy” blades, a traditional looking one and shorter one that kind of looks like something that Deathscythe would wield. In addition there’s 2 different Ax handles, a large one which was can wielded and swap out blades, and a shorter one (notice a pattern yet?) that has no pegs for blades, but it small and can slip into the back of the Geara Doga.

-The Sturm Faust can also bend. Is that awesome? You tell me! Bending excitement varies from person to person these days.

And in terms of “equipped for various terrains and environments” The Geara Doga comes with a huge honkin’ backpack, and a alternate head.

Construction: The Geara Doga was a delight to assemble (frame/weapon wise at least) and fairly easy too. The joints are big, but easy to move so that the kit can be put into  a variety poses, which is nice when it comes to a “heavier” Gunpla.  Also with the large fat legs, it stands easily, and both the neck and ankles are pretty flexible, which is cool. My biggest complain though is that there’s several thrusters that slide into the back and under the shoulder pads of the Geara Doga that are kind of a pain to get in there, and are prone to slipping out from time to time.

Overall Opinion: I’m a tad bias towards the Char’s Counterattack line, but it’s hard not to be with kits likes the Geara Doga. They’re slightly more expensive than the average 1/144th kit (by 5-10 bucks), but they’re  also larger, and usually better armed. The Geara Doga is an awesome army builder kit (if you can afford to drop the money to build an army of them), and I can’t suggest picking one of if you’re a Zeon/Char’s Counterattack fan.

Well guys, Otakon is drawing near. And by near I mean way too close. It’s funny, up until today it didn’t feel so close, and I wasn’t particularly excited up until today. I’ve gone for several years, but for once there was no actual buildup. Now of course, I go to cons all the time but I never talk about them here. Well, this time is an exception, because as I mentioned before, they’re holding the preliminaries for BAKUC, along with their own model contest.

BAKUC is Bandai’s world-wide Gunpla competition. It’s something I’d only heard about in passing a few times. I never thought I’d actually see a competition in the US considering how little interest there is these days in Gunpla. Otakon only gets a handful of entries in their contest each year, so it’s nice to see a bit of attention added to it. I actually entered back in 2008 with my HGUC Gelgoog Cannon, and surprisingly won “Best Small Scale Gundam Kit”. I won a Kotobukiya Armored Core kit, a limited edition one, no doubt. Unfortunately, like 70% of kits I get, it has sat unbuilt in the corner of my room for the past two years. I didn’t enter last year because I was in a masquerade skit and way too busy to do, well, anything related to Gunpla.

So what am I going to be entering this year? Well, most of the stuff I do isn’t quite BAKUC material. You see, most BAKUC stuff involves doing all sorts of crazy modifications like replacing joint systems and all of that wacky stuff. Personally, I’m not too into it. I’m always fearful that I’m gonna sacrifice some stability of the kit while doing so. Thankfully, BAKUC is also doing a local thing where contestants can just enter normal kits, stuff with cool color schemes and whatnot, and that’s what I like doing. I’ve decided on three kits to bring with me, all of which have been covered previously on the site:

GM Sniper Custom: This one I can probably get away with entering in the main competition because it’s a “heavy” kitbash. Not many people do GM Sniper Customs, sadly. It’s a really cool design that deserves more love.

Gelgoog Marine Shin Matsunaga Custom: This kit has a special place in my heart due to its beginnings. It’s a kitbash made from two second-hand Gelgoog Marine kits that I bought off somebody. They were really dusty, dirty, and in overall rough shape. I gave them a new lease on life after spending a few days completely repainting them and making some minor modifications. I just wish I had more decals to give it.

Hi-Nu Gundam: You know, I wasn’t thinking of entering this originally, til I remembered the time I spent making it. I worked so hard to get all of those tiny little silver details on him just perfect, looking at every possibly picture in the manual. It was a labor of love, I guess.

I honestly don’t think I’ll win or anything, but getting a chance to display my kits in public at a con is a fun experience, as well as getting to talk to other kit builders. Maybe I’ll see some of you guys there, who knows!

Superheroes are thinly veiled caricatures of our own hopes and insecurities. Finding the right balance between subtly recognizing these deep psychological urges and making the character cool is the entire trick to creating interesting and compelling characters. Think of it like making your first mixed drink: You want enough booze in there to knock your socks off, but put too much in and it will taste like liquorices flavored Scope.

That said you should probably stay away from birds when you’re making up new comic book characters. No one wants to read about birds. Birds ruin everything.

WHY NO BIRDS?

The concept of a super evolved dinosaur with telescopic vision and the power to fly SOUNDS cool until you realize that this is just your average, run-of-the-mill bird. YES, birds can fly, people would like to fly and therefore many people wish they could be birds. Creating a character AROUND a bird theme never seems to embody the freedom we all yearn for, as it underlies poor creativity and too much blatant symbolism; Bird superheroes seem half-baked, tacky and fairly pathetic.

Consider two of the coolest bird Superheroes around: Marvel’s The Falcon and DC’s Robin. The Falcon has the ability to fly, talk to his pet bird and that’s all there is in the shopping cart. Robin is a taught 13-year-old boy in green satin short-shorts. What’s not to love?

BIRD AIN’T THE WORD

“The Falcon only has flight powers?” Kids might say. “Heck, Superman can fly AND he has lasers for eyes. So what if he can fly. Lots of heroes can fly…hasn’t he got anything else?”

“Well, the Falcon can also TALK to birds…or at least a bird.” You might explain.

“Yippee. One freakin’ laser blast from Superman and his pet talkin’ falcon is lunch. The Falcon is stupid.” The child might then, reasonably conclude. They might also add “You are stupid.”

Words Hurt.

Keep in mind, I LIKE the Falcon. His civilian identity was once a US Senator, he’s best friends and crime-fighting partners with Captain America, he once quit the Avengers to protest “Tokenism” and he has found a place in the contemporary Marvel Universe as the experienced voice of reason to the young and brash heroes of today.

His character is driven, brave and even-handed.

The Marvel Universe, however, has a cavalcade of steel bending bad-asses, characters of such amazing power and strength that they make the Falcon seems like a third stringer. Suddenly having the freedom of a bird seems insignificant next to having the powers of a God.

And Robin?

He doesn’t fly, he doesn’t hang out in “the bird cave” or ride on a “Bird-mobile.” He doesn’t throw “Birdarangs” or have feathers, make a nest or eat worms…. unless he’s on Fear Factor. Like Batman, Robin is just a regular human being…who dresses up like an idiot to punch crime in the throat.

Robin as a name evokes a lighthearted, childlike demeanor, but Robin the character is the most popular bird-named comic book character BECAUSE he has nothing to do with birds.

The original Robin, Dick Grayson, later fights crime under the nom du guerre “Nightwing.” What the heck is a Nightwing? Beats me! It sure sounds like some sort of scary, pissed-off vampire bird thing ready to spill blood…ANY blood. That Dick guy is a genius: Evoke birds but don’t BE a bird.

Other bird heroes need to get it together. DC has more then a few: The Birds of Prey which counts the Black Canary as a member, The Hawkmen and Hawkwomen from planet Hawkulon or whatever it’s called, the horribly costumed Hawk and Dove and the list goes on and on.

No one wants to read about birds in the first place, proof of which is that Ornithology Today would outsell “Amazing Spider-Man” by a mile, but asking people to read about a whiny pacifist dressed in powder blue named “Dove” really is adding insult to injury.

FINE-FEATHERED FIENDS

Villains make out a bit better as birds, probably because we get to hate them. The Penguin, much like Robin, is the first bird super villain to spring to mind and outside of his tuxedo the modern penguin has as much to do with birds as McDonalds has to do with nutrition.

The Penguin works well as a crafty thief with ties to high society, but anytime writers try to shoe horn ACTUAL penguins into his plans it seems horribly campy. Danny Devito’s penguin funeral, anyone?

Marvel has a cool bird villain in The Vulture, the leathery old bank robber who hates Spider-Man almost as much as he hates when Matlock isn’t on TV. Again, the bird aspect isn’t what makes the Vulture cool. The Vulture works as an aged foil to the youthful Spidey. Flying is a nifty trick, but without the angst of the aged the Vulture would be as forgotten as Slyde or Frog-Man, just another gimmick foe for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Guy.

BEST FOR LAST

There is one bird hero I DO like, and before you ask the answer is “NO, NOT Harvey Birdman, attorney at law!”

Eric Powell’s The Buzzard combines the best aspects of Spidey’s foil the Vulture with the zombie craze that has swept through comics like the Spanish flu, leaving a trail of the dead in its wake. You see, the Buzzard is an old west sheriff cursed by a voodoo priest to only eat the flesh of the dead…kind of a reverse Zombie if you will.

Part ghost, part gunslinger, the Buzzard has a weird west charm unprecedented outside of Jonah Hex, but the grizzly “Eat the Dead” twist that gives the character his name WORKS so well I can forgive Buzzard-breath his roots in the otherwise uncreative cesspool that is the Aviary of Ideas: Birds.

Birds are pretty and birds are tasty but birds and comic books are like Vaseline and M&M’s: fun in their own particular ways but never meant to be mixed together.

It need not be said that fish are even worse. If one wanted to make the most hated super villain of all time, might I suggest a character called “The Flying Fish?” He could fly, breath underwater and be a creepy freak that every child in America would rather eat broccoli for a weak than read comic books about.

So, the title for this weeks article is fairly self-explanatory. This week we say farewell to a title as it’s final issue is here, and then we welcome a new title by a couple of your favorite creators. Muhyo & Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation ends in a blast this week with Volume 18. If you all remember from the last volume everything hit the fan and every able body went to the Magic Law School in Europe that had been overrun by ghosts, and one of those ghosts was sucking the energy out of all the major Magic Law users, oh, and Muhyo could not keep his eyes open and kept falling into a deep sleep.In this final issue Muhyo has finally woken from his long slumber, but will his prodigious display of power be enough to stop Vector? Moreover, will Muhyo and Roji be able to keep it together when it seems like everything and everyone is threatening to drag the duo apart?

Now for the new kid on the block. With Tsugumi Ohba writing and Takeshi Obata drawing, (that’s right, the same guys who teamed up to bring you Death Note), bring us Bakuman, which is in a completely different gear than their first series. Average student Moritaka Mashiro enjoys drawing for fun. When his classmate and aspiring writer Akito Takagi discovers his talent, he begs Moritaka to team up with him as a manga-creating duo. But what exactly does it take to make it in the manga-publishing world? I know, it sounds almost autobiographical, but you know that old saying: write what you know. This is definitely the kind of series all you aspiring manga artists out there can get in to. Forget those “How To Draw Manga” books, this is the good stuff.

This is definitely a week of surprises. Granted, most of this weeks books are brought to us by the grace of Viz, there are a few releases coming to us from TokyoPop, and one of the most unexpected of which is the double-volume of Yubisaki Milk Tea (volumes 8 and 9 put together). If anyone remembers, Yubisaki Milk Tea was about a boy who after being caught up in a false wedding photo shoot for a photography studio (for their display purposes), as the bride, started to enjoy cross dressing in his sister’s clothes because he felt empowered being able to be someone completely different. That is, until he started to realize not only was he getting to mature to continue passing for a chick, but 2 girls (his closest friend, and some other girl from his class), are in love with him, and he has no idea how to handle it all.

As a final mention, there are a bunch of other sweet books coming in like Rosario + Vampire Season 2 Volume 2, Otomen Volume 7, Pokemon Adventures Volume 8, D Gray Man Volume 18, and sooo many more. I’m actually a little thrilled, though I’m curious if this is technically the “Major Release Wave” for the beginning of August, despite the fact that August is still some days away, or if next week is going to be equally impressive. Anyway, until next time!

Ja Ne!

The Week AFTER San Diego Comic Con is notoriously absent of whiz-bang-pow. The publishers limp out a few regular titles and hold their collective heads as the faint cobwebs of hangovers and sun-stroke fade into the routine of a regular work week.

DC is doing well for itself, and Action Comics #891 sounds particularly hot; Mr. Alexander Luthor goes all out in a mad quest for ultimate power brought to you by writer Paul “Captain Britain and the MI-13” Cornell. I like how things change. The story of an angry bald guy who wants power to hurt others is so much more compelling and believable to modern audiences than his opposite number, the alien with unlimited power on a quest for world peace.

Also: Batman The Return of Bruce Wayne #4 (of 6) has Cowboy Batman! Yippie Ki-Ki yay! Furthermore if you need another great book to sit atop the toilet cistern and help you while away the minutes then have I got the book for you: Showcase Presents: Sgt. Rock Vol. 3 is 496 pages of Joe Kubert drawing WWII awesomeness. I know war is hell, but Kubert makes it look so cool!

NEEDIN’ A READIN’

Uncanny X-Men #526 might get me tuning in. I love Namor the Sub-Mariner. Any guy who can be a pissed off bad-ass and still wear either a pair of green sequin speedos or a black cat suit is a formidable force of entertainment. I especially love when Namor drops by on the X-Folks, as it’s been established that they all have to begrudgingly respect him as one of their own and awkwardly ignore his past naughty trists with current Head Mistress of Xavier’s School for Gifted Mutie-Freaks, Emma Frost! Anytime Emma hangs out with her underwater Ex-X-Man is a good time!

I will also be enjoying The Muppet Show #8 by Roger Langridge, and I won’t even get upset that it features Gonzo as a Vampire…. A story I pitched BOOM! Studios with art samples at the Baltimore Comic Con in 2009.

TO BE CLEAR: Ideas are like birthday cakes. Everybody gets one, and sometimes two people get them on the same day. These creative coincidences are not to be mistaken for stealing. Ideas are butterflies that can penetrate the skull and then fly into another’s head just as capriciously.

Unfabulous Five: Greasers of the Black Lagoon was a book that completely slipped my notice. #2 is supposed to ship this week. Why should you care? Unfabulous Five is the new book from many of the minds of the INCREDIBLE Lucha Libre comic!

Lucha Libre was everything right about comics: Fantastic art, fun and fast stories combined with a devil may care attitude! I’ll walk a long mile to get my hands on the pure creativity on every page of these Lucha books.

HEAT WAVE

The temperature outside is 1,000 degrees but the week after Comic Con the books are always a little tepid. Stick with these Unkiedev recommendations and get a raging sun-burn of fun.

Greetings readers! Welcome to “News from the Front”, our newest feature on the FPNYC Gundam Blog, with a title I clearly swiped from a Bad Religion song!  With this new  “monthly”/whenever I’m between kits feature, we’ll be exploring the latest news in the Gundam world, Gunpla related or not!

News from San Diego Comic Con:

Any self respecting nerd should be aware that the annual San Diego Comic Con is going down on the west coast as we speak, and that in the last decade or so, it’s focus has expanded to not just only comics, but movies, television, toys, video games and anime. At this years panel, the company revealed that the remainder of the Bandai Entertainment Gundam OO DVDs may face slight delays when it comes to US release (something is sadly common when it comes to Bandai products these last few years). In more positive news though, Bandai of America has announced that they’re FINALLY bringing over the 50 episode AU series Turn A Gundam.

The series boasts a impressive amount of creators involved with the series-originally created for the 20th anniversary of Gundam, it’s written and directed by the creator of the franchise Yoshiyuki Tomino, music by Yoko Kanno (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Wolf’s Rain), and mecha designs by one Syd Mead, who if you remember me mentioning from the history of Gundam articles, had his hand in many a popular Western sci-fi film properties in terms of design. No release date has been given for Turn A, but it’s safe to imagine a 2011 release.

Recent DVD releases:

Speaking of Gundam 00, the 2nd DVD set for season 2 has hit shelves not too long ago, with both a standard and special edition. The key difference between the standard and special is that the special editions come packaged with a tie-in manga, which saves you a trip to the bookstore/comic shop of choice (Which is clearly Forbidden Planet right?.

And if you’re feeling something a little more old-school,  set in the Universal Century era, Bandai has 2 different options for you! If you want to explore the origins of the Gundam Universe, Bandai has released the long out of print Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy under it (discounted) Anime Legends Label. It’s worth a viewing, as the original series in nearly impossible to find new on dvd, and these 3 movies can get you caught up on the original series in 5-6 hours.

And from there, you can follow up with the Gundam Mobile Suit Zeta: Movie Complete Collection.  Unlike the original series, there were at least 3 separate releases of Zeta in the last decade in the States: a deluxe,$200-300 box set (or $40 if you managed to find it in an Otakon dealer’s room back in the 2006 like I did) which came with 20-somewhat figurines, an artbook and poster in addition to the complete series on DVD, several nine episode collections, and finally a 2 box set collection released under the Anime Legend Label. These 3 movie, like the original collection, recap the original Zeta series, but also offer several new animated scenes each movie, which you can easily spot as the 20 year difference between animation styles is quite different.

The concludes the first News from the Front article! I would like to thank you for reading it, hope to hear some feedback from you, the reader, regarding future topics. It’s back to reviews for me next week, as I look over an entry from Char’s Counterattack. The Next “News from the Front” article will probably show up in late August, with a preview of 2 new upcoming animated Gundam projects in Japan, the return of an old friend in the Tokyo skyline, and what other series Bandai has made Gunpla-like products for.

The History of Gunpla comes to a conclusion in the modern era, when Bandai placed most of their money in the HGUC and MG lines, with lines just for the two Alternate Universe series occupying most other slots.

First Grade: 1999

A 20^th Anniversary special line, of sorts, consisting of 3 1/144 scale kits-the Gundam, Zaku, and Char’s Zaku at 1/144 scale. All of them have the proportions and details of their Perfect Grade counterparts, but they lack polycaps, and instead, are constructed like the original kits from the 80’s. As such, you get three very inexpensive, nice-looking kits that, unfortunately, break easily.

High Grade Mechanics: 2001-2002

A small line consisting of the three mobile armors from Gundam 0083. These were all produced at 1/550 scale and included similar scaled mobile suits from the series. However, the GP03 Dendrobium is out-of-scale, coming in MUCH larger than the Neue Ziel by comparison.

EX Model: 2001-2009

Basically, Limited Model redux. However, instead of doing mobile suits, this takes on support mecha and battleships. Like the LM kits, the prices are ENORMOUS-for example, the first kit in the line was the trailer the Gundam was transported on in the first episode. This kit was priced at 3000 yen-that’s over $30! The kits are all very nicely detailed, but I wouldn’t recommend them unless you’re a serious enthusiast or REALLY like the designs. However, if you can find them for at least half price, they’re worthwhile.

Gundam SEED: 2002-present

Because there have been so many SEED sublines, I’m going to cover them all there in this, going by what each of the scales/grades do for them:

“First Grades”:

A term retroactively added a few years back, these are the “cheapo” kits in the SEED and SEED Destiny lines. They are VERY simple, with the only articulation at the neck, shoulders, ankles, and hips. However, this is the only way to get some grunts, and some upgrade packs for the Strike and Impulse Gundams.

High Grades:

All lines except the current Frame Astrays line have these-these are the HGUC-equivalent 1/144 scale kits. They’re fairly decent quality, although some of the earlier ones suffer from the “saber molded in hand” like the contemporary HGUC kits. Not many grunts got released, just some GINN variants, one or two Daggers, the CGUE, and the three UC tribute suits. Some kits even come with stands, for “action poses”. Of note are some of the Stargazer kits, which actually have double balljoints in their shoulders.

The massive Meteor unit also received a release, coming with a slightly redesigned Freedom Gundam to operate it, with extra pieces to make the Justice Gundam compatible.

“No Grades”:

The 1/100 scale kits, appearing in all lines save for the MSV and Stargazer ones. These are like the 1/100s from X and Wing, but a little more advanced. Overall, not much better than their High Grade counterparts. The SEED Frame Astrays line which is currently going on consists of redesigned Gundams in… rather bizarre ways. Mostly a way to make more money. However, some kits are very cool, like the basic Gundam Astray kit, specifically, the Gold Frame Amatsu. It’s the only way to get this design, and it’s a very nice kit to boot.

1/60 scale kits:

Only a handful of these were released, and just of the hero mecha. Once again, they’re basically upscaled High Grades, although one version of the Strike includes all the weapon packs. Of note is the Strike Freedom, which has a lighting gimmick that allows all of its silly, tacky, gold joints to light up. Others like the Force Impulse feature light piping gimmicks in the eyes.

Gundam 00: 2007-present

00’s lines were a similar case to SEED.

First Grades:

The first kits to officially use the FG label since 1999. These are a huge step up from the ones in SEED, having polycaps and joints similar to those of the Wing-era kits. However, the only kits released in this line are the four main Gundams from the first season.

High Grades:

Thanks to the grunt-heavy action in 00, the curse of most alternate universe model lines was turned around in this case. Many of the grunts got kits in this line, like all of the Tieren and Flag variants. Transforming gimmicks were abound, and the “combining” gimmick of the Seravee and Seraphim Gundams was able to be accurately recreated at this scale. All Gundams seen on-screen as well as many grunts got released, along with two versions of the huge GN Arms platform, one for Exia, and one for Dynames. Some “Trans-am” kits were released, representing the “hyper mode” seen on the series, replacing the colors of the heroes’ Gundams plus the Susanowo and Reborns Gundam with sparkly pink plastic. Fabulous.

“No Grades”:

Again, the same case as the SEED kits, but this line actually received two grunts, but an incomplete lineup of Gundams. Of note are the Virtue and Seravee kits, which both include the “inner” Gundams and really neat combining gimmicks. Only Exia received the Trans-Am treatment here, but all of the second season Gundams got reissues in “Designer’s colors”-which are just more muted tones with extra decals.

1/60:

One lone kit was released at this scale-the Gundam Exia. There isn’t much worth mentioning about it, aside from the nice decals inside the GN drives. Like the other 1/60 kits, it’s more toy-like than anything else.

And so, that decade comes to a close, and so does the current lineup of Gunpla. Of course, there will always be more, and this will remain incomplete, especially with the Gunpla-centric series in the works. But hey, adding more stuff just makes things more fun.

Also, you may have noticed that I left out the SD Gundam lines. I consider them to be their own entity unto themselves, and to be honest, finding information on and release dates for them is a crapshoot, especially with some of the earlier ones. Maybe some other time!

So, today’s title is pretty self explanatory, oh yeah, manga is first on the block, followed by Magic: The Gathering, which I know isn’t exactly anime related like you guys are used to reading in my columns, but hey, this is the Manga and Gaming department up here on the second floor of Forbidden Planet NYC, I have a little bit of a duty to go on about whatever I deem necessary. Besides, to be perfectly frank, there are only a hand full of manga titles coming in this week, and I doubt I could fill this entire article with the stuff that is arriving. So, big names first. Much to my surprise and amazement, Akira Volume 3 by Kodansha Books is showing up this week. Yeah, despite the 8 month wait between the first and second volumes, the third comes very briefly after number 2. I guess they are trying to catch up. Sweet.

Speaking of reprints, two of the other titles in our little handful of books this week are the VizBig editions of Dragon Ball Z Volume 8, and Vagabond Volume 8. I have to say as I’m writing this, if each of these things is 3 books in one, I’m not entirely sure how the Dragon Ball Z one is going to work out. Technically the 8th volume would bring you up to book 24, but there are only 26 in total, so either 8 will the final book and be super thick, or they’ll put out 9 and it will be a bit slimmer than its predecessors. But I digress.

Two more items of note this week, Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 23 comes in, and much like their Darker Than Black Omnibus, Yen Press is doing it again by releasing the Romeo X Juliet Omnibus (and I have to put “volume 1″ with a question mark, I can’t tell if this will be a multi-parter until later). What’s funny is that William Shakespeare is still listed as the writer, so I guess this really is just a manga version of the classic love tale, though of course it takes place in Neo Verona, but let’s face it, 14 year old heroes who seem to behave way older than they actually are, are no strangers to the average anime storyline.

Anyway, now that that’s all out of the way, some of you upstairs shoppers and gaming geeks may have noticed the release of Magic: The Gathering’s Core Set 2011 last week. And yeah, it’s a little sexy. For really the first time ever in a Core Set, the Intro Packs (also known as decks), are full-on dual colors. Also, it seems that wizard realized that having all the older Intro Packs with only 40 card decks and 1 booster is not really enough to get you started playing, at least not and have a chance. So the new M11 Intro Packs now have 60 card decks along with the booster. So enjoy. More good news: we have plenty of everything. I got a little fed up with Wizards Of The Coast’s ridiculous allocations of their product, so we went ambitious for the sake of not disappointing all you gamers out there and got tons of Fat Packs, Intro Packs, and whole Booster Boxes when you need them. Until next time folks!

Ja Ne!

Brian Michael Bendis was an unloved worthless nothing before he self published a few crime comic books. Now? He’s Marvel’s top writer, recognized by dozens of people the world over and he probably got to meet Stan Lee once or twice.

Harvey Pekar was just a shlubby file clerk from Cleveland, but after self-publishing his award nominated comic book “American Splendor” his sad, pathetic life was turned into a movie. COOL!

Forbidden Planet favorite Steve Mannion was just another sex addicted race-car driver before he began self publishing his own comics. Now he sits in a room in New Jersey and draws comic every day…and if he ever stops he’ll starve. I bet he hasn’t seen the sun ONCE this month!

Yes, the fun and rewards from self-publishing your own comic books are evident to anybody with access to an electron microscope. Follow these simple instructions and you might be trapped in a special, private hell all your own because You Too Can Self Publish Your Own Comic Books!

STEP 1: LIE TO YOURSELF

Perhaps the trickiest step in this entire endeavor (next to step number 2) is to actually convince your self that this is a good idea. For every Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are thousands upon thousands of horrid wastes of paper that no one has ever read and no one will ever care about. Comics destined not for the Silver Screen but to be carted around by the box load, unopened from your printers, as you move from one flea infested apartment to the next, ducking creditors and avoiding your family/backers.

The best way to do this is to attend a big comic book convention. The San Diego Comic Con is perfect for this! Once there, take a look at the HUGE booths big publishers like Marvel, DC and IDW have. Gaze longingly at the long lines of fans that popular artists like Adam Hughes and Arthur Adams have to lined up at their booths, all eager to buy their self-published sketchbooks. Check out the huge banners for the movies Hollywood is promoting based on small books like Scott Pilgrim or Kick-Ass.

Stare into the sun of success until you become blinded to the hundreds toiling away in the thankless obscurity known as “Artist Alley,” where smelly broken creators fail at selling smelly, broken comic books.

Tell yourself “I’m better then all of them. I’m going to be somebody.”

Tell yourself this over and over like a mantra. Tell yourself this lie until you believe it in your soul.

Now you’re ready for stage 2.

STAGE 2: FIND ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS

Borrow money from your parents, your parent’s friends, your college fund and your dog’s retirement fund. Take out loans against your car, your braces and your future. Pawn your expensive guitar you never learned to play, ‘cause you’re going to need the cash!

Don’t worry about how you’ll pay that nice bookie back, or how your little brother might feel once he’s discovered you took his college fund. You’re going to be rich, remember? Mr. Big shot comic book publisher man!

Got the money? Good!

STAGE 3: THROW THE MONEY IN A HOLE AND BURN IT

I sincerely hope you did that step as you were reading it, otherwise you might have had time to think about it before you took action. This step might seem cruel, but it is for your own protection.

IF you are deterred in any way from continuing on with this operation knowing you are now hopelessly in debt and forever shamed with the stink of financial ruin in the eyes of the people who believed in you, well then I have only one thing to say:

You didn’t want it enough.

If you didn’t care about the money and this is just some sort of ego trip then you are ready for stage 4!

STAGE 4: GET MORE MONEY

This is self evident.

STAGE 5: BOOK A TABLE AT A COMIC BOOK CONVENTION

By spending this new influx of cash on locking yourself into appearing at a comic book convention, ostensibly to sell your new magnum opus, you are burning the rope you are climbing up from the bottom to the top.

There is no going back now. It is publish or perish. Meet your deadline or else you fly halfway across the country to sit at a table with nothing.

STAGE 6: SELF PUBLISH YOUR OWN COMIC BOOK

Again, this should be self-evident, though if you need more help with this step I hear you can read about it on internet blogs.

STAGE 7: SUCCEED!

You did it! The most likely scenario is that your book was a huge success and that you are now riding the gravy train for life! Hello, Hollywood! Hello, Gold plated Taco Bell trays! Hello, using mint copies of Action Comics #1 as pooper-scoopers to pick up after your genetically engineered pet, the hypo-allergenic Tigerkeet!

If, for some strange reason you are not now a multi-millionaire then please continue on to the following, harrowing steps:

STAGE 8: FAIL AND BLAME EVERYBODY BUT YOURSELF

In this penultimate step you return to your parents basement in defeat. Own your failure like a cold, wet fur coat. Drape it on. Sit in the drippings of your own soggy failure and conjure demons to blame for your short comings.

“It wasn’t my fault.” You can reason. “The printer screwed up the gray values in my book. Plus the cover was too dark. Plus the market has shifted. Plus the stupid convention gave me a table outside of the floor traffic.”

In the years to follow make sure you talk big about your own petty accomplishments in the field of self-publishing. Tell everybody how much of a true visionary you were when tiny slivers of your ideas are recognizable (only done better) in superior works from big professionals.

You are now faced with two choices. The wisest of these would be to learn a valuable life lesson about “working hard to achieve your dreams,” to put this unfortunate chapter behind you and to slowly work your way out of debt and back into the financial stability of, say, a postal worker or a retail manager. We all make mistakes, we all learn as we go. To this I can only say:

You didn’t want it enough!

THAT’S RIGHT, THIS WAS ANOTHER TEST! You left the movie theater before the cool bit after the credits.

STEP 9: START AGAIN FROM STEP 1

Repeat until death or success, whichever comes first.

THE END.

I’ve been reading over past columns to make sure I don’t repeat myself. Still, there is a line I used last year that pretty much sums up my feelings this week. I’m not sure how improper it is to quote yourself, but here goes: “Seriously, San Diego Comic Con is like NOTHING you have ever experienced … and once again I shall not be going.”

I called up my publisher to ask WHY they hadn’t come up with the money to send me all expenses paid to San Diego and you know what they said? “This is a dry cleaners, kid. Stop calling us!”

The nerve of some people!

COMIC CON CANS

Last year at this exact time the AMAZING comic book Dethklok vs The Goon was published by Dark Horse. Seeing Eric Powell’s massive brawler pummel TV’s funniest death metal band kept me from sobbing overly that I was attending San Diego.

This year Dark Horse is publishing The Buzzard #2. I’ll take it, but I’d much rather be in San Diego attending the Dark Horse Horror Panel with Eric, Mike “Hellboy” Mignola and Steve “30 Days of Night” Niles, or even attending Friday’s The Goon Movie panel about the upcoming computer animated film from Eric and Blur Studios.

Or even the Danny Elfman panel on Thursday celebrating 25 years of collaboration with Burton. Or figure out which panel at 11:30 on Thursday to attend, Tron or Stan Freberg.

WE’RE DONE

I have to stop writing about this because I’m actually upset now. I WILL attend Comic Con next year, even if my parole officer has to hunt me down via a bounty hunter. Lucky for me the bounty hunter will probably turn out to be my ex-husband and we can out shoot, out quip and out wit each other as we fall in love all over again.

KEEE-RIST?! Jill Thompson is doing a watercolor demo Friday at 12 in San Diego Convention Center room 30CDE?! SOME ONE JUST FREAKING SHOOT ME IN THE HEAD.

COMIC CON CAN’TS

Since I can’t talk about the Comic Con without flipping out and murdering people (maybe myself) I’ll just talk about what comics are coming out this week.

Oh, big whoop-dee-doo. Power Girl #14. Doesn’t the amount of free pornography on the internet negate the allure of a super-heroine who’s biggest super powers are her chests? I bet the guy who wrote this’s mom won’t even buy a copy of this turd. Who wrote this waste of trees? Judd Winick? And Judd Winick is going to be a special guest of DC at the con on both Thursday and Saturday nights?

Poop. HONEY, GET THE SHOT GUN, DADDY’S GONNA’ HAFTA OFF HIMSELF.

WAIT, what’s this? IDW has a comic book out this week called MGM Drive-In Theater #1 with art in it by Fearless Dawn creator Steve Mannion?!

F’U San Diego Comic Con, I have a reason to live again! Hooray for comic books!

With Gundam’s popularity waning after Gundam Wing’s success, the model kit lines died down, and Bandai began to focus more on their “nostalgic” lines like HGUC and MG. As such, there weren’t as many individual model lines in the late 90’s.

Gundam X: 1996-1997

Largely the same as Gundam Wing, in terms on construction. The 1/144 scale models included every Gundam in the series save for the Ashtaron Hermit Crab, and the 1/100 scale kits had every hero Gundam plus the Gundam Virsago. Aside from three of the four “evil” Gundams, no enemy mecha were released in this line. Of note is the 1/100 scale G-Falcon Unit Double X, a repackaged Gundam Double X kit with the G-Falcon fighter-very impressive kit.

Limited Model: 1996-1998(?)

A line developed my Bandai to include kits from many of its series (Evangelion, Escaflowne, etc), this line naturally featured a few Gundam mecha. However, these kits were limited in almost every sense of the word-limited colors, limited poseability, limited edition. The line included suits the Ball K-Type from 08^th MS Team, the Leo and Taurus (which can’t even transform) from Gundam Wing, and the Daughtress, Jenice, and G-Falcon from Gundam X, all at 1/144 scale. They’re all primitive, unremarkable models, with the only decent one being the G-Falcon, which of course, can combine with the 1/144 Double X. These kits fetch absurd prices on the aftermarket, and I certainly hope we’ll see these designs in the current High Grade line…

Gundam Wing Dual Story: G-Unit: 1996

One of the very few model kit lines being based on a manga, G-Unit featured only five models, all at 1/144 scale. They have the “HG” label on the box, but aren’t that much better than the Wing line aside from clear beam sabers and better transforming gimmicks. Not much to say about them, but if you want yourself the Hydra Gundam we all came to love from Gundam Battle Assault, this is where you have to look.

Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz: 1997-1998

The Gundam Wing OVA spawned its own line of model kits that took a strange departure from the established norm: releasing the 1/100 scale kits before the 1/144 scale ones. Thankfully, both scales got the same kit lineup of the five Gundams, the Serpent, and the Tallgeese III. All 1/100 scale kits came with 1/20 scale character figures, and the Tallgeese III is extremely notable because it includes parts to make the first two Tallgeeses. The 1/144 scale kits all included “fighting action” pieces-alternate parts like repositioned torsos that allowed you to put the kits in specific poses from the anime. Conversely, the Tallgeese II kit is the one you want to avoid in this scale, because it’s just a modified Tallgeese from the Wing line, molded ENTIRELY in white. It doesn’t hold up well to the kits made for this line.

Turn A Gundam: 1999-2000

The oddly-lovable designs from the far-future got a small line of kits, with much nicer details than the kits from previous years. Six models were released at 1/144 scale, and two at 1/100 scale. The 1/144 scale kits are all fairly decent, with the Turn X being very nice, although requiring a lot of paint. The lovable Kapool that first appeared in Double Zeta made its model kit debut here, and displays well amongst its UC brethren. The 1/100 scale Turn A is rather unremarkable, now dethroned by its superior MG counterpart, but the gold-chrome SUMO is VERY nice, and one any fan of the design or series should own.

High Grade Universal Century: 1999-present

Refer back to the “guide to scales and grades” for information on this line.

G-Savior: 1999

Yes, the infamous live-action movie spawned a single 1/144 scale model kit of the titular mech. And you know, it’s a pretty impressive kit, featuring engineering better than that of the early HGUC kits. The skeletal frame is partially recreated and looks very nice, and it even comes with a clear plastic beam shield. However, if you want it to look more like the rendering, you’d have to paint it a more silver color. Overall, if you like the design or are one of the two people that enjoyed the movie, definitely pick this up.

In the 90’s, Gunpla started to get a bit more complex. 1990 introduced the “grade” system, which is still used today. This era featured many kits that most people second-generation fans know from their childhoods.

High Grade: 1990-1991

Bandai launched the High Grade line in 1990 to update the four classic Gundams (RX-78, Zeta, Mk. II, Double Zeta) using their new “True system injection” technology-which featured parts that were actually molded out of several colors. This practice lasted only less than five years because of the adverse effects it had on the parts, and it made the parts very difficult to paint. The kits themselves looked questionable at best, and the first Transforming Zeta Gundam at this scale was infamous for its floppiness. The RX-78 is the only kit in the scale with a transformable Core Fighter, however this comes at the cost of an unmovable torso. The only worthwhile kit was the Double Zeta, which FINALLY got replaced by an HGUC kit. Aside from nostalgia value, they don’t have much worth these days.

Gundam F91/F90/Silhouette Formula 91: 1991-1993?

The Gundam F91 series spawned three different lines, all at 1/100 scale. Because of how short these designs were, they were produced at a larger scale because Bandai didn’t quite know how to do smaller kits that still had the level of poseability fans would have wanted. The F90 kits all featured interchangeable weapon parts, although the line only consisted of about 4 or 5 kits. The Silhouette Formula line was an MSV line of sorts for F91, with some very cool reimagined takes on some suits, like the G-Cannon Magna. The R-44 Guntank kit in the main line is known for being a very small kit, coming in shorter than an average 1/144 kit. There is also a 1/60 scale Gundam F91; basically a toy with some model kit armor.

Gundam 0083: 1991-1992

Remember how I said the Gundam 0080 line was one of the most beloved kit lines of its era? Well, the same couldn’t be said of the 0083 kits. Only five kits were released, only at 1/144 scale, and with one exception, it was nothing but Gundams. These were mediocre at best on average, with the GP02 being infamously bad. They’re unposeable and need tons of paint, with some very questionable looks and proportions. All have been replaced by superior HGUC kits except for the Gerbera Tetra, which remains the only passable kit in the line. Unless you REALLY like the Gerbera Tetra, stay away from this line.

Victory Gundam: 1993-1994

Bandai’s first really small 1/144 kits were an interesting site-all of them were based off the same frame, and they were essentially assembled by attaching the trees the parts were molded on, then with the frames slid into the limbs. The kits look rather nice, but are sadly known for falling apart. A lot came with neat extras like stands, backgrounds, and “bent” beam sabers that look like they’re “in action”. The 1/100s are similar to the F91-series kits. There is also a 1/60 scale, transforming/combining Victory Gundam that, while it executes its gimmick very well, is NOT very good looking, only extenuated by its ghastly yellow polycaps.

G-Gundam: 1994-1995

A series of all Gundams was a pretty wise marketing decision, because well, that’s what it was. All of the “hero” Gundams got released at 1/144 scale. These are decent kits that, like many other 1/144s to follow, needed lots of paint. The polycaps became more advanced, but still had issues with falling apart. The 1/100s were a huge step up in quality, also being the last model kits to feature True System injection. This started the weird tradition of only releasing a handful of hero mecha at this scale, giving everyone incomplete teams. Two 1/60 scale kits of the Shining Gundam and God Gundam were released, with light-up chests. A “Grade Up” set was produced for the 1/144 scale kits, adding more accessories to their arsenal, such as gold hands for Shining Gundam and a “bare chest” for Gundam Maxter. Of note are the 1/144 scale Devil Gundam, capable of transforming into the giant “head” mode, and the “Hyper Mode” kits-gold-plated versions of the 1/144 scale lineup and the 1/100 God and Shining Gundams.

Master Grade: 1995-now

Refer back to the “Guide to scales and Grades” for information on this line.

Gundam Wing: 1995-1996

The kits a lot of us grew up with! I’m sure most of you had a Wing kit for your first model. This line consisted of kits at 1/144, 1/100, and 1/60 scale-with the only 1/60 Scale kit being Wing Zero (who was, unfortunately, the last 1/60 kit released outside of the perfect grade line until 2002…). All of the Gundams got 1/144 kits, with the only OZ suits getting models being the Tallgeese, Tallgeese II, Mercurius, and Vayeate. The Tallgeese II is molded in only two colors-black and white, with all of the blue parts being stickers… The 1/100 line has the same problem as the G-Gundam line, with only a few Gundams getting kits. Later on, the 1/144 kits were reissued with 1/35 scale pilot figures. These are the easiest ones to find.

08^th MS Team: 1995-1999

This line was widely considered to be the “precursor” to the HGUC line, starting off with a “Gundam Versus Zaku” two-pack, depicting a scene from one of the first episodes. The kits were released only at 1/144 scale, and like the OVA, took several years to come out. Of note are the Zaku, which later received a reissue with parts to make the classic F-type Zaku, and the GM Sniper, which came with a 1/1200 scale kit of the Apsulas III Mobile armor. Earlier kits used the same joint system as the Gundam Wing kits, and later ones used the joints from the Endless Waltz kits.

Welcome back readers! I’m going to continue with the article in a minute, but I wanted to do shamelessly plug something first.  Always the trendsetters, both FPNYC and I are on twitter and if you wish to follow us, you can add @FPNYC and @ Anarchris to your follower list! Warning: I curse like a sailor. Anyway let us continue!

War in the Pocket, MS 08^th Team, and Stardust Memory

Even though MS Gundam didn’t live up to it’s expectations, the franchise still had some life in it. MS 08^th Team was placed on Toonami, which was kind of an odd fitting, given it’s plot and setting. Stardust and War in the Pocket did fairly well on Adult Swim though, which I’m sure pleased Bandai, as 3/4^th of that block were shows from their catalogue. However, merchandising behind these shows wasn’t as easy/strong as it was for Wing and original Gundam, but we did manage to get a few kits over here, and some figures as well. A handful of games were released as well for the Playstation 2, but they were pretty subpar (Most of the Bandai games are simple cash-grabs for the record)

G-Gundam/SD-Gundam

Here’s when things get a little bit odd. Toonami was desperate for another mecha-related hit. The Big O did well for them, but we were still a little away from season 2. “Mecha Week”, a week where heavily-edited for day-time TV ADV’s mecha shows were aired was a disaster. Cartoon Network wanted another Wing-sized hit, and the only show that Bandai felt met that criteria was G-Gundam, which didn’t do so well in Japan, but apparently they felt would do better in the States. It actually did well here, as tons of kits and toys were pushed throughout retailers. Bandai also made sure to edit names of mecha, so that the no one would be offended and not carry their merchandise. Still it proved that Toonami’s viewers preffered self-contained AU stories versus UC stories, which is something all 3 parties took notice of when it came to the next series, SD Gundam, which in my opinion, is Sunrise’s revenge for America shooting down Doozy Bots.

The show wasn’t too big of a hit in the States (big surprise there). In fact, it did so poorly that the 2nd season never aired in the US. However, thanks to fan’s pleas the show did make it’s way to the US via a DVD bundle, complete with a dub. Hopefully this will teach Bandai/Sunrise that America does not care much for super deformed Gundams (the amount of unsold merchandise-Gunpla, action figures, video games)  was probably a indication as well.

By now, things were looking pretty grim for the Gundam franchise in the US. There were talks of bringing over Zeta Gundam on airing on [adult swim], but there was a fear that a show that old may not bring in viewers, despite how much it would please the hardcore.  However over in Japan, the franchise got the shot in the arm it needed.

Gundam SEED: Savior or a Little too late?

Gundam SEED revitalized the franchise in Japan. With solid ratings,  renewed interest in Gunpla, and a new female audience (it aired with the original Fullmetal Alchemist), the property was hot, and Cartoon Network/Bandai of America was looking to get in on the action. It had the potential to be the next Wing, something both companies were banking on when it debuted on the new Saturday night Toonami.

In theory, given it was a self-contained AU series with great (for it’s time, at least in the earlier episodes) animation, the series should have been huge. However, the new Toonami did not fair too well with the viewers, and SEED was butchered in terms of being edited to being Y-7 TV friendly. Also the once a week showing killed the pacing of the series statewise, and halfway through it’s run, it was changed to a 2am death slot. Bandai of America tried giving it a push with tons of merchandise, but retailers were wary since there was still SD Gundam/G Gundam merch still sitting on the shelves. The follow up series SEED Destiny was never aired in the states, although both shows sold well enough on DVD. Also worth noting that even the the show did poorly in America, it was a hit in Canada, where it was less censored, and Destiny was aired. However the damage was done, and the Gundam brand was more or less dead in the eyes of the  mainstream. It was strictly an Otaku only franchise as DVDs were still coming out, as were Manga series by Del Ray, Tokyopop and Bandai’s own label.

Rebirth: Gundam OO

It had nearly been 5 years when Manga Entertainment/Bandai of America/ and the Sci-Fi channell announced their new alliance to combat the monopoly Cartoon Network/[adult swim] had on showing late night anime. The 1st 2 Bandais properties announced for Sci-Fi came as no surprise: The hot-blooded Gainax hit “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann”, and Gundam OO, the first show to be aired on a non-Cartoon Network channel. While neither show did Wing numbers, neither were considered flops, and the fact that Gundam still sold after a 5 year absence proved that the brand still had some life in it when it came to the mainstream anime crowd. While there’s no word of when the new series will air in Japan, let along in America, there’s a good chance someone will air it on our shores. Will Gundam ever be as big as it was when Wing aired? It’s kind of doubtful, but who know what lies in the future.

By Devin T. Quin

Collecting comic books is a fabulous hobby! It combines some of the nicer aspects of Asperger’s syndrome with the never-ending sights and smells of rotting, musty paper. Shun humanity while you’re constantly reminded that matter decays! See you in the grave!

The best part about comic book collecting has to be the mythological heaps of money to be made from selling off you comic books. Yeah, let me be the first person to tell you: That’s not going to happen.

THE WAY WE WERE

You see, back in the 30’s and 40’s comic books were one of the chief forms of entertainment in America. They were cheap, exciting and covered a wide assortment of subjects and interests such as westerns, romance, detectives and yes, even Superheroes. Comic books were so inexpensive, so wide spread that it was totally understandable to read one a few times, lend it to a little brother and then throw it out. The dang thing only cost you a nickel, and there’d be stranger tales of weirder heroes on the newsstand tomorrow.

It was a comic book paradise. It was comic’s “Golden Age.”

The hard boiled citizens who made comics their fun time du jour grew up to be what we now call “The Greatest Generation,” the people who guided us through the depression, WWII and into the new age. The sixties brought new talent into the fold, and sparked a new generation of comic reading fans, what we now the “Silver age.” We don’t call the fans who grew up with 1960’s comic books the “the Greatest Generation,” however. We call them “hippies.”

Many of these enterprising people became wealthy, EVEN some of the hippies, and they wanted to recapture the fun and energy they had as kids from reading their favorite old comic books one last time.

Enter supply and demand.

THROUGH THE NOSE

Since no one ever thought much about a raggedy five cent bundle of ads and art generations weaned on the funny pages looked around to find that most comics where gone to the trash incinerators! Suddenly it was only the pack rats, the hoarders and the obsessives who had the comics. Now it was revenge of the nerds, payback time from all the little school-yard milquetoasts who had been taunted by stronger kids for reading comic books instead of drag racing, malt drinking and attempting to get to second base.

It was time for a good old-fashioned American price war. It was time to let the market decide what was a fair price.

One such generational schemer was Steven A. Geppi, a mail carrier in 1970’s Baltimore who saw his nephew reading a Batman comic and remembered how much fun he used to have pouring over similar books. He then wisely deduced that if he had a pining for the old and familiar, lots of other guys his age and older might, too.

He bought a huge stack of old comics off of a sweet old lady on his route and began selling comic books full time. Geppi’s organization grew in size and popularity until it became what it is today: Diamond Distributions, the exclusive distributer of comic books and comic book materials in America.

Geppi for his part is now filthy stinking rich. He owns half of the Baltimore Orioles as well as a few newspapers, magazines and the fantastic Geppi Entertainment Museum in Baltimore’s Camden Yards. There Geppi displays the spoils of his toils: mint conditions of Detective Comics #1, the first appearance of Batman and Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman which introduced the Superhero to our consciousness, as well as many other incredible pieces of comic book history.

Most recently Geppi sold his old mansion for 10 million dollars.

The success of Geppi and others like him gave America the impression that comic books would appreciate with age, that buying the issue of Action Comics where Superman was killed would someday garnish future generations of their wretched progeny a nifty profit!

As I said, not going to happen.

HAY IN A HAYSTACK

What makes a comic book from 1930 valuable is its scarcity. The modern comic book industry flogs tons of books to suckers thinking their piggy bank is growing thanks to #1 issues, event comics (like the death or marriage of a character) or variant covers. The fact of the matter is these books are printed in huge qualities and then saved by mass audiences expecting a payday.

The catch-22 of these “collectors items” is that they are virtually worthless to collectors. Long after the last human being has died there will be countless copies of “The Death of Superman” sitting in dank basements across America.

WHAT NOW

The really valuable books today are books that no one will ever identify: Tomorrow’s big box office hits will have their origins in today’s small, indie comic books. If you really want to make money off of comic books then go to the weirdest comic book stores you can find and buy every obscure, photocopied piece of crap, drawn by art school drop-outs and written by mental out-patients they have in stock.

Who knows, maybe one of those cheap turds is tomorrow’s Bone, Scott Pilgrim or The Goon!

I did say maybe, but really they aren’t. You should just give up.

One might expect a little more excitement from a week in the middle of the summer, but all is not lost, there are still quite a few interesting things, some old friends as well as brand new faces. Okay, enough with the personifying of manga, here’s the beef: Inu Yasha Volume 50 shows up this week, and aside from being proud that they finally picked up the pace of it’s production, we must celebrate that it finally made it to this milestone. And by celebrate, I mean buy. It seems to me lately that a lot of people still like Inu Yasha, even miss it, but by and large have lost interest in the progression of the story. Well, for anyone keen on learning the origins of the powers of the brothers’ great swords, and to see Naraku try to corrupt the purity Kagome instilled in the Shikon jewel, it is still dramatic and exciting as before. Besides, who doesn’t love watching Inu Yasha and Sesshomaru duke it out?

Now, to talk about old friends long overdue, MegaTokyo Volume 6 appears this week by way of CMX. I know, I know, it has been a hell of a long time since 5 came out. But in case you thought you’ve lost interest in this one, here goes: Piro and Largo are now more or less settled into their lives in Tokyo, where the lines between fantasy and reality sometimes blur. The city boils and churns under the threat of impending d00m, led by an invasion of Zombie hordes. Fanboys gather to protest the rumored cancellation of a long-awaited game featuring Kimiko, their new favorite Idol. Piro races to save Kimiko from both the fanboys and a mysterious benefactor whom he does not trust. Largo enlists the aid a novice magical girl who is still trying to understand herself, her powers, and what exactly she should wear. And the cover is pretty.

There are a couple new things this week as I mentioned before, including a new Shonen Jump series called Hyde & Closer, by Haro Aso. Shunpei Closer is your average…well, slightly below average kid in junior high who finds himself in the middle of a great battle of dark sorcery. With cursed dolls coming after him one after another, Shunpei Closer’s life is in danger! If that weren’t enough, Hyde, the teddy bear given to him by his grandfather, suddenly comes alive to rescue him. With Hyde’s help, can Shunpei save himself and live to see another day? Nothing like owing your life to one gangster teddy bear. I mean, just look at that hat! You know he’s badass.

And finally, premiering this week is Wolf God by Ai Tenkawa, and brought to us by way of Doki Doki. Basically, a boy with sparkling gorgeous golden eyes, Kyonosuke sniffs Koyuki like a dog… and suddenly asks her the strangest question, “have you seen my brother?” Turns out that he is not a human – he’s a wolf – a member of Inugami, the Wolf God tribe. Kyonosuke’s brother has been missing for days and he has been instructed to find him and bring him back to the leader. But why is he around Koyuki all the time? Can she be holding a key to a missing brother?

That’s all the news this week, so until next time!
Ja Ne!

Aspen comics have managed to publish a comic book WITHOUT a half-naked lady on the cover! This is an impressive feat for them, one sure to turn over some long standing bets with bookies keeping tabs on such things.

It’s called Scourge #0 and it’s written by X-Men scribe of old Scott Lobdell. Lobdell is one of those writers who I rather despised at the time, but who’s work still seems readable, almost fun and innocent now.

Apparently the Scourge is about people in New York City turning into gargoyles. I think there’s entire internet-chat rooms for people with that particular kink.

DARK HORSE

Meanwhile Dark Horse has a new book out this week from 14 time Eisner Nominee Mark Crilley named Brody’s Ghost Book 1, as well as a sequel/one-shot to the new Predator’s movie called Predators: Preserve the Game. I think Predator’s 2 would have been a much better movie if it took place in the New York of Aspen’s the Scourge! So would have the TV show “Friends.”

DC, Marvel and Everybody Else

Love him or hate him Grant Morrison continues his run on Batman with Batman #701, an untold tale of the bat between the tomb and the return. Doc Savage and The Spirit each have a #4 out for their latest revival, and Superman begins his new reign in J.M. Straczynski’s Superman #701. After the doozy ole’ Babylon 5 did on Wonder Woman, not to mention the never ending court battle between the heirs of Superman’s creators and DC over Supe’s origin story can we expect unconscionable retcons to run rampant in the Big Blue Boy Scout’s impending revamp?

Yes, yes we can.

Image has the sure to be awesome Chew #12, and IDW has (Amongst other things) new stuff from Darwyn Cooke and Scott Morse with The Man With The Getaway Face and Strange Science: Fantasy #1 respectfully.

Over in Marvel we have Amazing Spider-Man #637, a comic which begs the question: “Zombie Kraven the Hunter? Has it come to this?”

There’s lots of other comic books from Marvel this week, including Gorilla Man #1, but frankly I’m kinda’ broken hearted after that Spider-Man thing. I think I need a hug.

MONSTERS!

My money will be spent this week on IDW’s relaunch of Famous Monsters of Filmland, re-emerging from the primordial depth of cancellation with issue #251! I frickin’ love this magazine and can’t wait to submit headshots, I mean buy it. Also I’m buying X-Files/30 Days of Night #1 from Steve Niles and Wildstorm. Sounds like a humm dinger!

Now that I think of it, over half of the items I covered this week are relaunches, revamps mash-ups and otherwise reissues of older ideas. Geez, aren’t there any hip, new ideas around this country?

I mean BESIDES “Zombie Kraven” and “everybody in New York has turned into Gargoyles.”

While I take a small break from GM Cannon articles to get some painting done, I figured I should go over another important topic-the many lines kits come from. Gunpla has evolved considerably over the past thirty years, grades and scales aside. So let’s take a look:

Mobile Suit Gundam: 1980-1982/3

The first kits in the line were… well, a product of their time. Very simple construction, no polycaps, and almost all kits were molded in just one color. Every Mobile Suit from the series was released in both 1/144 and 1/100 scales, including four amphibious Mobile Suits that weren’t seen in the animation (Agg, Juagg, Agguguy, Zogok). The line also included battleships, aircraft, and Mobile Armors, and one tank, in varying scales-most Mobile Armors were in 1/550 scale, with the aircraft and tank coming in at 1/144 scale, and the ships coming in at 1/1200 or 1/2400 scale. These secondary mecha are all really nice and the 1/144 scale ones look nice alongside modern kits. Also in the line are a handful of 1/60 scale kits that actually had polycaps, and some Zeon suits had light-up eyes.

There was also a series of four “diorama” kits released in 1/250 scale. They’re fix-posed, but really neat and are actually kind of uncommon these days.

Mobile Suit Variations: 1983-84

The MSV line is probably my favorite line, consisting of new designs based on ones fans made up. These were all, as the name suggests, variations on pre-existing suits from the original series. This includes suits like prototype versions, full armor versions, cannon toting versions, whatever-all sorts of cool suits that make for excellent kitbash fodder to be used with newer kits. Some of my favorite designs are the High Mobility Zakus, the Guncannon II, and the Full Armor Gundam. However, I’d suggest only using the parts for kitbashes, because the models have the same style of construction as the first series of Gundam kits. Some manuals depict other designs that don’t have kits, and could be made using parts from that kit or whatever. These kits came mainly at 1/144 scale, with a few at 1/100 scale, and only a few at 1/60 scale. The 1/60 scale kits had polycaps, like the previous series.

Of interesting note is the 1/144 Perfect Gundam kit-the first kit in its scale to include polycaps.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: 1985-1986

The Zeta Gundam kits were the first to include polycaps on all scales. The construction, while not much improved over MSV, had a bit more poseability and stability. This was also the first case of a line being based on a TV series where some kits did not receive models, some only getting little 1/220 snap-together kits. Most other suits received 1/144 and 1/100 scale treatments, with a transforming 1/60 scale kit of the Zeta Gundam that looked… rather questionable. Of note are a handful of reissued MSV kits in new color schemes to coincide with their brief appearances in the series, models of the Psyco Gundam and Psyco Gundam MK. II at 1/300 scale, and limited-editions of the Hyaku Shiki at both scales in gold chrome.

Also of note are two suits that did not really get kits-Paptimus Scirocco’s The-O did not receive any kit and Haman Khan’s Quebeley only got a 1/220 scale kit. Pretty strange that the two “final boss” mecha barely received models…

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ: 1986-1987

The Double Zeta line was essentially the same as the Zeta line in terms of construction. However, the 1/100 scale kits were almost nonexistent, with the only kit in that scale being a transforming Double Zeta Gundam. Once again, some suits went without kits, such as the Mass Production-type Qubeley, Quin Mantha, and Geymalk. I think the early kits from this series didn’t sell very well, because some of the last kits released in the line were modified from MSV and Zeta kits, such as the ReGelg, Desert Zaku, EWAC-Zack, and Gazu R/L. Shows how much toy sales affect these shows, doesn’t it…

Some of these designs don’t have modern equivalents-in fact, a LOT don’t. If you really like the design, I’d say go for them if you like a challenge. Otherwise, hold out for an HGUC.

Gundam Sentinel: 1987

A small line consisting of only 5 kits at 1/144 scale, Gundam Sentinel was the first line based on a side-story instead of a TV series or “off-screen” designs. These kits were partially snap-together and still required some glue for stability. The Zetaplus C1 is a very noteworthy kit because it was the first small-scale transforming kit, and has actually aged pretty well. This line is also the only way to get a 1/144 scale kit of the Full Armor Double Zeta Gundam, at least until Bandai gives us an HGUC…

Char’s Counterattack: 1987-1988

Yes, of course, the big theatrical movie needed its own kit line. This kit was also the first fully snap-together line, although they still required screws for stability. This line also introduced “system injection” (Or was that Sentinel? I can’t recall right now…), which meant several colors of parts were on the same tree. Bandai actually has this system patented. These kits were mainly released at 1/144 scale, with a (very nice) 1/100 scale kit of the Nu Gundam and a 1/550 scale kit of the Alpha Azieru. One thing of note is the Sazabi model-it’s molded in two completely different shades of red!

Gundam 0080: 1989-1990

The first (and best, in my opinion) line for an OVA got some of the most popular kits for years to come. All of the kits with the exception of the Gundam Alex feature translucent monoeyes and visors. They’re fairly nice-looking kits, although the polycaps tend to have issues, specifically in the hips. These kits are entirely snap-together-no screws or anything. All of these kits have been replaced by HGUC kits at this point, and have unfortunately lost their relevance these days. These kits were only released at 1/144 scale.

After many hours spent watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes on my laptop with my hobby knife in one hand and putty in the other, this kitbash is starting to come to a close. Thankfully. I have to say, this thing has made an even bigger mess than the GM Sniper Custom was, if that was even possible-I’ve been finding shards of plastic from this thing in my hallway! But, of course, I’d say this came out about as well as I figured, albeit with more jagged edges than I hoped for. That may be a bit premature, though, because I still have to paint the bugger…

Seeing as I’m planning on going with the White Dingo color scheme from the Dreamcast game “Rise from the Ashes”, I decided to equip it with the clip-fed machine gun all of the Federation suits from The 08^th MS Team have. What always bugged me about the suits designed before 08^th carrying these guns were their lack of spare ammo. So, I ventured into my spare parts bin hoping to find some hip armor from a Gundam or GM from the series, and lo and behold, I did. Unfortunately, the way the part was designed, it doesn’t properly sit on the skirt as I’d hoped. Oh well, I guess he’ll be stuck with just one clip for battle…

It now came time for my least favorite part of these kitbashes-the knee joint transfer. Cutting the joint from the HGUC kit was easy, even if it required a fair share of chopping down. The part on the MSV kit was another story, because it needed a lot of knife work and almost hammering with the knife-I had to take the part off, but I didn’t want to damage any other areas of the leg. Doing this four times was a huge pain, for the record.

I made sure to glue the halves of the leg together before putting the joints in because it makes lining it up much easier-it would really suck if I couldn’t fit the polycap in because the holes were too close to each other or too far apart. The part went on pretty easily, but unlike the GM Sniper I’ll have to use a lot of putty.

Next came the more… gruesome part of cutting down the remainder of the leg. This is always trial and error, and I don’t quite like the method, but it gets the job done.

The first leg managed to fit in pretty well, and I used the foot as a guideline to make sure I didn’t get the issue of the heel being too “forward” like it was on the Sniper. It actually came out pretty well.

The other leg wasn’t so lucky, unfortunately, and I might have carved off just a bit too much plastic. I took one of the shards lying on my bench and glued it in place-now the leg joint stays in place.

As far as the construction goes, the GM Cannon is mostly finished. I haven’t put the feet on yet, mostly because I’m afraid of forcing the joints inside the legs-I’ll wait until they’re painted and use the hot-water trick to get them on. Welp, I guess I should start painting now…

?

Well now, this project has been proving to be a bit more complex than I figured. Well, actually, just as complex as I figured. After finishing up the head and waist parts, I figured it was time to dive right into the part needing the most plastic removal-the cannon. Let’s just say I should’ve been a bit more prepared for that. Because of how messy that proved to be, I’m thinking of not using this for BAKUC, and trying something else, which I’ll show at the end of this entry. So for now, this GM Cannon’s going to be yet another piece of kitbash experience, because I doubt this’ll be the last one I do…

It was now time to take the “track” from the Cannon off and mount it to the HGUC GM’s body. With the crotch part removed already, I didn’t have as much plastic to cut through on the Cannon’s torso, thankfully. Surprisingly enough, after all of this was cut off, a sizable chunk of the torso was left, which was good because I needed an extra source of plastic plates.

After removing the part from the body of the GM Cannon (which wasn’t all the hard, mostly thanks to how thin the plastic is on these kits), I tried to match it up with the body of the GM. The width wasn’t off by too much, thankfully. After that came the incredibly messy and almost horrifying process of removing about a quarter of the plastic from the body of the HGUC kit. It was a preeetty terrifying sight, let me tell ya, and I didn’t take any pictures, with good reason.

After all that was done, I cut down the track from the cannon and mounted it to the HGUC’s torso, using the assistance of some parts from the back of the torso and some extra plastic. This would prove to be mistake #1, because I cut too much plastic off the cannon track, and should have cut some more off the back torso piece from the HGUC kit…

After this, I made sure to put the rest of the head together to make sure I won’t have any issues with it being too close to the cannon.

This picture was taken after a LOT of additional work was done-first, it turned out that I couldn’t fit the cannon in the way the torso was put together-there was too much plastic inside the GM’s torso, so I had to open it up AGAIN and clear that out, and the cannon itself needed a lot of trimming done on the mount. Because of this, all of the putty holding the additional armor into place got cracked, so I would have to do that all over again. Well, you learn from your mistakes. I’ll make sure to avoid all this with the next GM Cannon I do…

After letting this thing rest for about a week, I picked it up again, re-applied almost all the putty, and sanded it as smooth as possible. It looks much better now, and with the ammo clip in place the cannon doesn’t droop forward as easily. There are some indents in the putty; thankfully those will be covered by the shoulder armor.

With the torso all done, for the most part, I can move onto the last piece of kitbashing: the legs. Hopefully that won’t be as complex as the torso, but of course, these things like to be deceiving… After that, I’ll just take care of the arms, the gun, and pick a color scheme. I’m thinking White Dingoes…

Also, as for my alternative project, I’m thinking of doing something neat with these two kits… hmmm~

Andy Rooney, Ed Anger, W.C. Fields, Rodney Dangerfield. Each one of these gentlemen is an established pioneer of their chosen artistic fields, though each one will always be remembered as bitter, crusty, cranky old sour-puss!

They are the veritable Mount Rushmore of angry old cranks. These guys are %100 pure coots! They make the Muppet’s Statler and Waldorf look like Bodhisattvas. My hat is off to these disgruntled old fogies, men who dare to stand up and hoarsely declare that they hate the music of today, have no idea who Lady Gaga is and that America is going to heck in a flaming hand basket.

I’d cry a tear in solidarity, but it would only make them hate me and my generation all the more, dismissing us all as soft, blubbery hippies.

It is in this spirit, that of being a bitter and frustrated old prune with nothing nice to say that I’ll shall get to the point of this article and make my own declaration. “I’m don’t like the new Marvel cartoon, the Marvel Super Hero Squad.”

BUT IT’S GOT M.O.D.O.K!

I know, I know, the cartoon does feature M.O.D.O.K., as well as many other great underused Marvel villains like Mole Man, Fin Fang Foom and Batroc the Leaper. It has Stan Lee as a regular voice actor. It constantly features references to the most obscure points of Marvel minutia, such as putting the Hulk-Bot from the aborted Megamorphs transformable Marvel action figures in the credits. The show has plots where the Silver Surfer gets to fight rival Galactus herald Stardust, regular appearances by Doctor Doom and Wolverine, not to mention Falcon, the Heroes for Hire and all manner of other great things going for it.

But then there’s so much to hate about it!

They focus on gentle humor and learning lessons rather than action or super-heroics. Bloodthirsty Marvel crazies like Wolverine and the Punisher are nerfed into caring buffoons who just need to experience “Fair Play.” The Hulk is treated like a pet dog. The pint-size dimensions of the heroes make them seem creepy, like you are watching a cartoon from the planet of dwarves. They spout horrible catch phases, and call each other “Squaddies.” The show will often feature fart jokes.

All of the complaints can be boiled down to one single problem: It’s a kid’s show.

SUPER FRIENDS

Make no mistake, Super Friends, the 1980’s cartoon, which was a never-ending cavalcade of DC super heroes and villains, was also a kid’s show. The difference between The Super Friends and the Marvel Super Hero Squad is the changing definition of what a “Kid’s Show” IS.

On the surface the Super Hero Squad is much better than the clunky ole’ Super Friends. Mired with bad production values, bad animation and the typical slop that passed for plot lines, the Super Friends pales to the surprisingly loving and clever dialog of the Super Hero Squad, as well as it’s constant homage’s to the comic books they are based on.

A typical Super Friends episode will center around Lex Luthor devising a way to steal Batman and Robin’s utility belt, preventing the Super Friends from saving the day. A clever plot twist will then unfold, such as Batman and Robin were actually Aquaman and Superman in disguise or those were actually dummy utility belts or the Flash will run in with new belts once he’s done fighting Solomon Grundy.

The entire point of the show was to sell action figures. To sell the figures there needed to be action.

This is the rub.

They didn’t try to teach you lessons, they didn’t try to instill values…heck, some episodes they barely made attempts to entertain. The Super Friends just had a bunch of heroes punching villains for a half hour and that was it.

NOSTALGIA

What makes the Super Friends a retro slice of good ole’ fashioned fun and the Marvel Super Hero Squad an exploitive dreck of family values nonsense?

Maybe nothing. Maybe I like the Super Friends because it’s what I grew up with, because everything else is going to compare back to what I knew and loved as a child. Maybe both shows are horrid exploitation.

NAH! Marvel Super Hero Squad stinks because it’s a product of this twisted generation and their worthless viewpoint on America! I hope those rotten kids get off my lawn and go get haircuts, decent jobs and stop listening to their Insane Clown Posse MP3s! In my day, MP3s were called “Records!”

You hooligans don’t deserve a decent cartoon like the Super Friends! BAH HUMBUG!

Well, as I’m sure everyone in the city has experienced this week, it has been Satan’s armpit in New York City, hot and humid as all hell. Fortunately, as a small consolation, there is a few bits of awesome coming out. And what is most odd about this week, it isn’t dominated by any one publisher for once. It usually seems like they give each other space and a chance once a month to put out as much as they can, but relatively speaking, everyone is entering the fray. There is even a new book coming out from Vertical (the guys who bring you most of Osamu Tezuka‘s books these days).

Chi’s Sweet Home is the new Vertical book by Kanata Konami. And yes, this is a cute one, though also full of adventure and drama. How could a book about a lost kitten not be? That’s right, Chi is a mischievous new born kitten who, while on a leisurely stroll with her family, finds herself lost. Separated from the warmth and protection of her mother, the confused kitten becomes distraught. When Chi feels all hope is lost, she is found in a park by a young boy named Yohei. The little kitty is soon under the protection and care of Yohei’s family – the Yamadas. And kitty isn’t the only one with a little bit of a problem. The Yamadas have taken in a cat when their lease explicitly states pets are not allowed in their building!

Another premier manga this week is Alice the 101st by Chigusa Kawai. This is one of Doki Doki’s titles, where even though not technically yaoi, is full of boys and is incredibly adorable. And yes, Alice is a boy, in fact his name is Alistair. Mondonville Music Academy attracts thousands of elite musicians as applicants from around the world, but only 100 students are accepted into the program every year. But this year, Alistair Lang, who doesn’t even know how to read music score and has no formal music training, was somehow, accepted into the program as 101st student. His classmates wondered how and why he even made it into the program. Everyone outcasted him and called him “The 101st.” One day, during a violin session, the class hears Alistair play his violin, and everyone finds out that they were all listening to the answer as to why he was accepted in to the program.

Other than that, there are lots of continuing series coming out this week. Finally the second volume of Ultimo, the series brought to us by the grace of Stan Lee. In the new volume, things just keep getting more complicated for teenage Yamato since the mechanism known as Ultimo showed up. Now Yamato and Ultimo must face other doji and their bizarre masters who’s intentions are not always so clear. Can Yamato find the strength to meet these challenges and solve the mysteries of the darakuri doji?

Anyway, that’s what’s here this week, as well as plenty of other neat books (but you can read the list for all that). Til next time!

Ja Ne!

COSTUME REDUX

J.M. Straczynski has revamped Wonder Woman and, along with the considerable help of Jim Lee, redesigned her costume. This sort of thing happens.

They left her reboot fairly nebulous, so at a moments notice they can restore her former continuity. Heck, half of the plot to her reboot is her seeking the ability to restore her continuity. I guess DC thinks that’s something we’d all like to read about, though to look at that another way you could argue that DC figures people tired of Old Wonder Woman will read about the new one, and for people who liked the old one the new one will be in a quest to put things the way they were. It’s WIN WIN!

NICE TRY

I wrote an article an article a while ago on Wonder Woman. You can read it here. It essentially boils down to the crux of Wonder Woman’s biscuits, i.e. most like her because of WHO she is (DC most powerful woman with a keen mind for war and strategy) and many more only know (or care) WHAT she looks like.

I do get satisfaction out of this reboot because BOTH of those aspects have changed.

URBAN POUT-FITTERS

The part I’m a bit squeamish over, and before I get on a big drag race with this one I’ll admit I haven’t read the issue in question, is the urban setting. Marvel stories take place in New York, a very real city with rich, poor and everything in between. Often writers want to give their creations that raw, edgy feeling to make them shocking, new or controversial.

Resetting Wonder Woman as a girl who grew up in a harsh urban setting seems like (being kind) lazy writing and (being harsh) pandering to the “Urban” demographic. As originally conceived by DC’s designers, Wonder Woman was an attempt to lure more girls into buying comic book by making the lead character a woman. This might be viewed simply as an attempt to break WW into a new demographic that might not have been buying her books previously.

If you rebooted her and made her black, Hispanic or Asian then maybe you’d have something interesting. By revamping your heroine and just throwing her into that timeworn “Urban Setting” I’m afraid you only seem out of touch, DC.

COSTUME AND EFFECT

As for the costume itself, well, there’s not much to say, is there? We’ve seen WW with a simple shirt and jacket every time somebody revamps her character. Instead of going further Greek with the thing they decided to go further chic.

It looks nice, but nothing I’d call “New.” There’s also no point in caring, as it’s a place filler until they bring her back to the way she was.

DC has a few books out RIGHT NOW featuring Adam Hughes amazing, though revealing takes on Wonder Woman’s classic costume. DC will switch back when they look at which version is still selling more, cover galleries of her curvaliscious, booty shorts wearing former tokes or her new lycra pants suit.

AGREED: Wonder Woman needed a change. I’m not sure this is it, however.

Happy belated 4^th of July everyone! I assure you while you were off celebrating your independence this weekend; I was off suffering through “The Last Airbender”, which was truly terrible.

Anyway, in celebration of the US’s birthday, I figured this week’s article would spotlight Gundam’s history in America, as it did not start off with Gundam Wing on Toonami. Oh no dear readers, the relationship goes back way farther than that…

Enter the Doozy Bots:

I’ll be honest- I never heard of the Doozy Bots until several years ago, at a Gundam fan panel at Otakon, where ironically, Loran was one of the speakers. The group managed to dig up the never aired pilot for the series, which is easily the worst Gundam-related idea for a series I’ve ever saw…and I’ve seen G-Savior.

Basically Sunrise’s pitch was the following: 5 ordinary, stereotypical American kids meet up with wacky mad-scientist Professor Doozy, who creates a small army of tiny robots. Tiny robots who want to take over the world and “destroy fun” However, luck was in “fun’s” favor, as the professor also created a machine that would transfer the kid’s brains into tiny bots to combat them. Bots that look a lot like the the RX-78-2, Guncannon, and a RGZ-91 Re-GZ, amongst other Gundam-mecha related series. To recap, Sunrise wanted to make a show where a crippled black kid could turn into a Guncannon, so he could fight a tiny Zaku who rode a mecha chicken that laid eggs that spawn more enemy units.

Needless to say, the show was never picked up, and nothing of value was lost.

Other Pre-Wing Projects:

Also worth noting that in September of 1990, Del Rey Books published 3 Mobile Suit Gundam novels, written by Yoshiyuki Tomino himself, and translated by Frederik Schodt. The books were then re-released with a more accurate translation in 2004, under the title Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation, Confrontation. Another fun fact/spoiler: Amuro dies via a Rick Dom bazooka. Further proof that Tomino may just be insane.

The original Gundam series also surpasses Wing as the first to be available (legally) in the US. Bandai brought over the original movie trilogy via VHS to the US in the later 90s, which a completely different voice actor cast than the one used for the MS Gundam run on Toonami post-Wing. I believe there may have been UC-related Gundam PC games released in the US pre-Wing as well, but my google-fu is weak, and wasn’t able to come up with anything.

Sy Mead also deserves being mentioned-Not only has the acclaimed designer/futurist/concept artist of Tron/Blade Runner/Aliens fame actually designed a Gundam used for a series (Turn A, which never made it to the States, legally), but according to an article shown to me via Loran’s google-fu, he worked on a propoed Lion Gates’ live action U.S Gundam film that never saw the light of day.

Toonami and Gundam Wing

Allow me to be blunt: Most of Gundam’s success in American is due to Wing. It had great ratings, printed money for Bandai, and brought the franchise into the mainstream. Come Christmas season 2000, you couldn’t walk into a Toy’s R Us/Walmart/Target without finding Gunpla, Action figures, apparel, video games, TCGs, etc. The anime scene had exploded in America, thanks to shows like Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z, and Wing debuted just in time to reap the benefits. The entire 52 episode run + movie (“Endless Waltz”) were some of the highest rated programs for Cartoon Network that year, and CN was eager for more from the franchise.

Mobile Suit Gundam

With Wing being the ratings monster it was, Bandai had to decide what entry in the franchise to bring over next. They decided to start at the beginning, and on July 23, 2001, the original series debuted on Toonami. Bandai made sure there were plenty of Gunpla, toys and video games (including the excellent Zeonic Front which was an early PS2 strategy-rpg) to be bought once the series debuted, in an attempt to catch lightning in a bottle. The show didn’t perform too badly, but it failed to do Wing numbers. It was pulled from Toonami after the 9/11 incident, but the final episode would be played that New Year’s Eve, and the show was given another chance on the adult swim programming block in 2002. This wouldn’t be the last time a UC show was played on Cartoon Network though….