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Han Solo sofubi figure kit by Kaiyodo

I was actually looking for Kaiyodo’s R2-D2 sofubi kit when I found this. These kits are 1:6 scale, making Artoo twice as big as Bandai’s 1:12 scale kit. Plus it’s hollow inside, making it perfect for lighting. I found Artoo for a decent price on YAJ, but the seller said that he couldn’t verify the contents. Then I noticed that Artoo’s main barrel body was not in the photograph. Good thing I noticed that before bidding! There was another one listed on YAJ, but it was actually a link to Yahoo Flea Market and the seller would only accept PayPay. PayPay is a form of digital money (somewhat like PayPal), but the only way to have a PayPay account is to have a smartphone. It’s bad enough that some places only provide coupons to smartphone users or the only way to make an appointment at the tax office is via Line on a smartphone, but between payments only attainable through a smartphone and the totalitarian push for “vaccine passports” on one’s phone, it’s easy for anyone with pattern recognition ability to see how we’re being herded towards the Mark of the Beast. It makes me sick.

Seeing that Artoo kit only available through PayPay was my motivation for getting a Mercari account, as I mentioned in my previous post. There I can find that kit listed and I can pay cash at a convenience store for Mercari purchases.

Anyhow, while I did not get an Artoo sofubi, I did see this figure of Han Solo, and it was only like 3,200 yen! The detail is exquisite. The previous owner had already cut off the excess vinyl and fit the arms onto the torso. Look at how well-sculpted it is! This is definitely Harrison Ford’s face.

His head looks big because I am up close with my camera. There is also a Princess Leia kit, but her head looks too big. I can’t tell if it is sculpted like that, or if it is just the way it was photographed (like how I inadvertently made Han’s face too big in my picture). Like Han, Leia is dressed in her white gown from A New Hope. Unfortunately, she isn’t holding her laser pistol in that kit. This Han kit includes his blaster molded in black resin. So cool.

Of course, I’ll paint this with V-Color paints. I think I’ll get the Artoo sofubi kit next month since I’ve got a bunch of crap to pay for and I’ve already paid too much on model kits this month.

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Nautilus submarine model kit by Bandai

Recently I signed up for a Mercari account. It’s an online fleamarket. Often you can find stuff cheaper there than on YAJ, and a greater variety of smaller items. Lots of neat Sega stuff and whatnot. I’ve sometimes asked my wife to get stuff for me through her account and I’d pay for the items at the convenience store, but I decided to create my own account.

Although I bought the newer 1:1000 scale Nautilus model by Kotobukiya, I wanted to build the old 1:700 scale Bandai kit and give it another go. It is OOP and goes for a bit on YAJ, but I found it cheaply on Mercari (about half of what it goes for on YAJ). I built this when I still lived in America, and it was the first fully-airbrushed kit I ever built. This time, I want to drill lots of holes and use clear UV resin to try to light it. This Bandai kit is from the ’90s, back before they made all of their models snap kits. While this Bandai kit does not have as great of detail as the smaller Kotobukiya Nautilus, since it is not a snap fit model , I believe it has more hollow sections. I think I can drill out the window portals and replace them with Wave H-Eyes lenses, as well as casting the captain’s quarters on top in clear resin to light it up. That would be neat.

I made a page for my old build on my model gallery I stopped updating about 10 years ago here. It comes with a small 1:20 scale Nadia figure, and it was the first figure I ever painted.

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Yuuko Asou sofubi figure kit from the Valis game series

As a retro gamer, I really do not see the point in repurchasing games I already own. Unless it’s something expanded upon and improved, like R-Type Dimensions which lets you switch between updated graphics and sound and the original sprite and chip-generated sound on the fly, I typically do not want to buy games I have in my collection and can easily play through an emulator if I so desire. I just don’t have the money for that and would rather spend it on other stuff.

I bought the Valis games for the PC Engine when I first bought my Turbo Duo console in Osaka’s Den Den Town in October 2001. Except for the first game, I probably only paid about 1,000 yen each for these games. I don’t have a Switch, but for those who missed out on the getting the original Valis series, this might be a good way to go. As far as I know though, there is nothing new to this other than playing the games on an HDMI TV (which is something I could do with my Raspberry Pi).

The original Valis came came out on the PC-88 and the Famicom, but those were pretty much kuso-ge (“crappy games”). It wasn’t until the Valis games were ported to the Megadrive and PC Engine that they were decent to play. They are still a bit clunky and suffer from lackluster gameplay, but the charm is playing as a bikini armor-clad girl swinging a sword. On the PC Engine, Valis 2-4 were released on the CD-ROM2 format, then later the first Valis game was released as a Super CD ROM format with much improved gameplay, introducing a slide kick and such. This game was never released in English for the Turbografix 16, while Valis 2 and 3 were. (Valis 4 was released on the SNES as “Super Valis,” which did not include any cutscenes and only one of the two playable characters are available to play.)

The first Mugen Senshi Valis game is so very obviously heavily inspired by the anime movie, Genmu Senki Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko. Even the titles are extremely similar: 幻夢戦記レダ and 夢幻戦士ヴァリス. Leda’s protagonist is a high school girl named Yohko and Valis’s protagonist is a high school girl named Yuuko (even their names sound similar). They are both transported to a fantasy world where they are given a magical sword, and clad in bikini armor they must defeat a handsome, blue-skinned overlord who threatens to conquer the fantasy realm. Yohko has red hair and Yuuko has blue hair. The big difference is that in Valis, Yuuko discovers that her classmate has also been transported to the fantasy realm, and has been manipulated into serving the evil overlord. Yuuko must fight her friend to the death, which is pretty heart-wrenching.

I did not know this, but the limited edition version of the Valis Collection 2 for the Switch comes with a re-issue of Kaiyodo’s 1:8 sofubi figure garage kit of Yuuko Asou, the protagonist of the Valis games. While I was searching through Kaiyodo sofubi kits on YAJ, this showed up in my search and it floored me. I’m a fan of the Valis games, despite the generally lackluster gameplay, and I never knew that this kit existed. I saw a resin kit of Yuuko at a Summer Wonder Festival event many years ago, but the sculpting wasn’t so good, so I passed on it despite the low price. I saw this sofubi kit, bid on it, and won it with only minimal competition.

So of course, this kit is soft vinyl, and comes with a resin sword.

With that hairstyle, this is unmistakably Yuuko. Very nice sculpt.

Yuuko’s arms are pretty much straight down to their sides. Not very optimal, especially when viewed from behind.

Ugh. Look at how her arms just melt into the sides of her torso. The detail is very soft here. I will have to really cut into that and recreate the detail of her arms and her sides with putty to make this look good. Still, this is very cool and I am up for the challenge! I really had no idea that there was such a sofubi figure kit from Valis, and made by Kaiyodo no less.

I just find it peculiar that they sold a Nintendo Switch LE game with a sofubi kit, considering how the popularity of sofubi kits has waned over the years and how too many gamers don’t even build models anymore (unless it’s something lazy like Gunpla). You’d think that they might have included a pre-painted figure instead. I assume the seller didn’t care for the sofubi figure and just wanted the game after all. Mine did not come with any instructions, but it is so simple that I do not need instructions.

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Oh my gosh… Ash is Bilbo.

Well, I’m a doofus. As many times as I have watched Alien and LOTR and having seen the name Ian Holm many times, I never made the connection between the creepy, sociopathic Ash and the jovial, lovable Bilbo.

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A rare 7-11 appears!

A new 7-11 opened recently in Kawaba, Gunma Prefecture and perhaps due to local town ordinances or something, this 7-11 has wood paneling and the sign is brown. It’s the only one in Japan, apparently. My wife Mayu said it’s just like the turquoise-colored McDonalds in Sedona, AZ—the only one in the world. Sedona has particular guidelines for signage, and the garish yellow and red of a McDonalds sign was changed to turquoise to comply with Sedona’s ordinances. Maybe this is why this 7-11 is made like this. This is very unique and pretty.

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Ramaya’s magic attack

Arabian Fight by Sega (Arcade, 1992)

This early ’90s brawler game has its charm. Arabian Fight‘s gameplay is not as polished as it could have been. Hit detection is disappointing and can be frustrating, but what’s unique about this Arabia-themed brawler is that at times you’ll see the enemies in the foreground and they leap into the playing field. When your selected character casts a power move/magic spell, he/she leaps into the foreground.

I recorded gameplay from RetroPie using Simple Screen Recorder (a Linux program) and created this animated gif through Shotcut (another Linux program).

Rama is the token female character. She has pretty boobs. I wish her hair was black, but she’s still cool.

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MAGAAAAA!

So I guess we’re pretty much at the point of WW3. Isn’t that fun. Apparently Israel’s “Iron Dome” has more holes in it and is more like a “iron colander” as one person put it. Mossad HQ was apparently obliterated, so I guess all the Epstein and P. Diddy blackmail dirt was destroyed along with it? I suppose now there are a lot of politicians and Hollywood types who are wondering if they no longer need to do whatever Israel tells them to do.

I’m rather nostalgic for the days when there wasn’t constant war, everything was cheaper, pets weren’t getting eaten, and I could enjoy MEAN TWEETS that were directed at specific individuals who were corrupt, degenerate, inept, or vicious… or a mix of all four—while the other side denigrates entire demographics of average citizens and celebrates the deaths of people in Georgia due to a bad hurricane.

I made this meme using FontMeme.com and running a CRT filter over the image.

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A kitty’s prayer for President Trump

A meme I made to share with fellow frogs and centipedes. Although the stupid-ass ABC debate “moderators” supposedly “fact-checked” this and claimed that it was untrue, there are not only arrest records but actual videos that these people have taken of themselves eating people’s pets. It’s pretty disturbing and barbaric.

Speaking as an immigrant myself, if people immigrate legally into a country and choose to abide by the rules as well as adapt to the culture, then that is fine. For those who refuse to conform and inflict their disgusting traditions onto the host culture, then they should have stayed where they came from.

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I like weird people

My philosophy is that you are either weird or you’re boring.

Many years ago when I still lived in Fuji, I taught private English lessons at a dog cafe of all places. The woman who coordinated the lessons made dog outfits. When I told her “You’re either weird or boring,” She said “I’m not weird!” I replied, “Look, you make superhero outfits for pet dogs. That’s weird.” I’ve never understood why people would go out of their way to humiliate their pets by making them wear dumb clothing and such, but that was a side business for her.

I tend to gravitate towards eccentric people. Even those I disagree with, I can appreciate their unique point of view. People who do their own thing. People who look at things differently. It’s refreshing. That way I know they are not NPCs.