Decepticon Thrust

So recently, i acquired a new deception to my collection. To be fair, i have not yet to review any of my deluxe class decepticons, so even though it's not my first of the collection, it's the first to be introduced to the perauverse.

Also i think it's probably out of my current collection a good one to be introduced because it falls into the original 1985 G1 (generation 1) transformers cartoon and it's very very close to cartoon accuracy. Which is a big YES to many transformers collectors.

For those who don't know him, here is Thrust from the cartoon. He's a conehead and a decepticon Seeker. Originally the conehead design was unattractive to me. But the market for transformers currently doesn't hold many variety (unless purchasing online, which i'm quite afraid of in case the toy has a imperfection). Out of the coneheads he is probably favourable to me because he does not have the main wings lying on the legs, (the toy version anyway).

Here's what my toy looks like. It's almost identical to the cartoon! Probably only difference is that the wings are on it's body instead of the leg but i prefer it that way anyway. Things to note about is that the rifles and the turbine are removeable, so you can socket them anywhere you want. The turbines can be socketed on the feet. Similar to the dreamwave arch version below.



Guess the part where you can accesorize him however you want kinda puts your own touch to it. The transformation of this decepticon is relatively easy, i say relatively because in comparison to most transformers it's a piece of cake. The vehicle mode is a normal jet, it's supposed to take on a form of a modified f-15. Probably because the original seekers are modeled after the f-15 and this is modified from the original seekers. Here's what it looks like it in it's vehicle glory

All in all Thrust is a great deal. He looks good and is a great add to your collection. He can even dismount his blasters and hold it in his arms like below, which is 100% cartoon accuracy.

By now you're probably thinking, is it all great? unfortunately, no. Sadly with all seekers remolded from Henkei henkei's Starscream they all have really short arms. you won't really notice it with the blasters hanging from the side, but that's just an optical illusion! Just like almost every transformer, they have problems when it comes to stabilizing them while in the upright position. He doesn't pose much poseability because his wings block most freedom for movement of the arms and legs, most of the time if you move the hands, you have the move the wings as well.

One thing i love about the deluxe line is the attention to detail, the one that really sticks out to me in this model is the wheels, if you look at the picture of thrust holding his blasters i kinda forgot to fold the wheels inwards, it's by his chest, if you compare it to the first picture of my toy you can probably see difference. Here's an upclose of the wheel while it's in vehicle mode.

What catches me about this is that they probably didn't need it since in transformation mode you can't see it, and it's such a small detail, why bother? i don't think it would have mattered to the fans. Thats why i really love the fact that they've done it!

Overall it's a great toy, worth every penny. So if you love decepticon seekers. it's a must buy!

the Beatitudes

So, a new year, new dawn. How would we live our lives? A week or two ago in mass the gospel was the beatitudes, i was on Children's Liturgy duty that day, so here i am trying to do the impossible, teaching kids something some adults can barely grasp fully on, the beatitudes. I say this probably cause it's so open ended and there can be so many interpretations.

the Beatitudes are found in Matthew 5:3-12

Anyway these are like some guidelines given to us by Jesus, but how are we suppose to live them? join me now as i explore the beatitudes!

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In general, i think this means to be humble like, i don't think Jesus is forbidding us to be wealthy, but reminding us that we must be humble at heart and not brag? i know, i'm not very deep.

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.

those who suffer will eventually be comforted. maybe. eventually. in heaven. OH, here's an idea, mourning is probably a sign of having feelings for others, so that means, empathy! not being self centered but also think about others.

Blessed are the meek,
for they shall possess the earth.

this kinda just reinstates my idea for the first beatitude, meek = humble in spirit. which now confuses me even more. for i don't think two beatitudes mean the same thing. So they must have different meanings. which comes back to.. what is "poor in spirit"? The word poor often makes us think about money, so in a sense, poor people don't ask for much, they're happy with a roof above their heads, fresh water and food to eat. So i guess it might be telling us to be happy with what we are given and don't ask for so much. Let's stick with that for now.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they shall be satisfied.

there's no deep thought here in my opinion. Justice. is maybe something this community lacks. there is no justice with corruption, stealing, cheating and all that. abide by the rules :)

Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.

mercy, need i say more?

Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they shall see God.

purity of the heart. what could this mean? this one could probably be open ended, is a heart pure after committing a sin of it's free will? Does sexual thoughts, revenge and all that make a heart impure even though the deed is not committed? If we look at it this way, it is almost impossible to have a pure heart. So what could Jesus mean with Pure of Heart. If we think of pure, ( well by we i mean i) we think of purity, like we want the purest gold like 24 karat. if it's 18 karat. it's not pure. Well, if we think about it that way 24 karats are only 99.9% pure. we still have 0.1% impurities. But nowadays we can't find anything thats really "pure", we give 99.9% purity the title pure. So if we think about it this way, an impure heart might still be able to become pure.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.

World Peace is something that a lot of people dream of, especially beauty queens (<- click on link, you will not regret it!). We say dream because some dreams do not become reality, as much as we want this we know it's not going to happen with all the hate in the world. But does that mean we stop trying? Answer: No. who knows, if you can touch just one person with trying to make peace, maybe that person will do the same. And the train of peace continues, eventually the world will be full of peacemakers.

Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And now we come to our final beatitude, the word justice has already been said, so what makes this justice different from the other? It's hard to tell really, hunger and thirsting is kinda a form of suffering in my opinion. So..how? maybe there's an emphasis on Justice because there is no justice in our world today? Well, i guess maybe the first time it's mention justice is the need for us to want justice, yearn it. And this mention is probably for us to act upon it!

**

So with these in mind my friends, let's try to make an effort :)

Gundam RX78-2 Anniversary edition HG 1/144

So. This is wayyy overdue. Luckily for me i have some pictures of it in my phone. even though it's in storage somewhere far far away.

Overall. This is probably my most favourite Gunpla that i own. Every Gundam fan should have some model of the RX 78-2. And if you don't! this would be one that you would like to invest in.

Here's an example why it's so great, notice the particular attention to detail! and this is at the bottom of the feet mind you! Just imagine how good looking the rest of the parts are!

The Legs by itself. The gunpla poses great poseability, check out how articulated the joints are in the legs. I don't have a picture of the hands but the hands can pretty much move in any direction. Most gunpla at the 144 scale have stiff legs but this one is awesome. Also it can do a alsmot 90 degree spilt!

This is what all it's parts seperated looks like! The joy of making a gunpla!

Just like any Keroro Fan would, the head goes in at the last! yup yup.

Here's a posing shot, with all of his weapons! I have to admit it's not the best of angles. Hence why it's not on flickr. And here are more better looking shots!

Looks fantastic overall doesn't it? There's more pictures of it on Flickr! you can view them here.

Totally an awesome figure. Has tons of poseability and great articulation, Colours and details are great. And not to mention he has an awesome arsenal, bazooka, lightsaber, gun, shield and that chain hammer. The probably only downside is his lightsaber is a onepiece. If you collect gunpla you'll know what i mean! But this is a definite Must Have :)

Flickr?

harlow there sports fans. So. yep. I think i'm falling behind again on this blog thing. I really really should put more time and effort into it. Probably as much time and effort i put into watching my tv shows. I do have quite a lot to blog about! Gundams, heroclix, transformers, tv shows, animes, etcetera. I guess the hard part to do is take pictures and upload them. Its quite hard to take relevant and nice looking pictures. You don't want too little, cause then reading text would be an eyesore. But you don't want too much, or it'll be like "Oh, this again?".

Speaking of Pictures, if you noticed, i've found a different approached into putting pictures on my blog. I've instead of using the normal Upload a photo, i've used linking them from Flickr! which means YES! i do have a flickr account!

Flickr is basically a facebook for photo's. kinda. well you get the jist of it i guess.

I've decided to organise my uploaded photos so it can be easily viewed when necessary. This is mostly as you will expect it to be. Photo's of my toy collection.

Anyway my current Photostream you can click here.

It's been organised into 3 sets for now. Lego, heroclix, and transformers! i'm going to upload everything, past, present and future. Probably stuff that i won't even post here. And many stuff before i post them here! So do check it out :)

I've also put links on the Right hand column under my profile if you want quick and easy access!

The thing about flickr is though, there are so many nice photos uploaded with really expensive cameras. And i feel really noob with my little handphone cam. :( but it has a big heart and would like to share it with the world!

For now, enjoy this random set of photos from my flickr!

Discipleship

What is a disciple? Loosely it's defined as someone who follows a teacher. Basically a student of a mentor. Although true, the word disciple has been often linked with Christianity. Probably being since Jesus started off with 12 Disciples, now more known as the 12 Apostles, and later more and more being his disciples, following his teachings. All in all, Jesus was probably the greatest teacher to have walked on earth. Having thousands of Disciples. Now every follower of Christ is known to be his Disciples.

But what does it mean to be a disciple? To be a disciple is not to be static. It's sometimes easy to just live with what we know and not what to learn more and assume we know everything we need to. But that's wrong. Discipleship is a learning process. If we knew everything we wouldn't be disciples! We would be mentors.

Also, being a disciple means much more than learning. We must follow, in the footsteps. Disciples want to be the as good or even better than the mentor. Although impossible in this case, we must still try our best. Maybe it isn't important to you, but how would it be if someone were to be acting like you and making you look like a fool in public. So act like a disciple!

... Comes Brightest Day!

Welcome to Part 2 of my 2 part heroclix review. I don't think it was too hard to guess that after Blackest Night was obviously the Brightest day, any DC comic fan should know this, it was pretty much the biggest event of 2009-2010. Now let's see what we have in store for us today.

Here's a look on the complete set of 7 new figures in the Heroclix Action Pack Brightest day. Unlike their predecessors, Blackest Night, these Figures are not dynamic poses but are more of a standstill. Even so, these look grrr-rreat! And come at a cheaper price! New figures comes new powers which brings a whole new playing field into Heroclix. Each figure also have the ability Regeneration, since they did come back from the dead. And the best part about these figures are....wait for it .... KEYWORDS! Not only do all of them possess the keyword 'Brightest Day', some of them have their own keywords. Now lets take a look at these figures up close.



Here we have Aquaman and Osiris. It looks to me they're pretty much similar in sculpt if you look at the poses. Probable only difference is that Aquaman stands on a tentacle. Aquaman gives a whole new playable field for the keyword "Atlantis", i mean he is the king of Atlantis after all. His Trait, allows him to deal damage to opposing characters whenever a Player with the keyword Atlantis is KO'd. This is generally attributed to the fact that the current revived Aquaman no longer controls aquatic life but only dead aquatic life. Fun Fact: every aquatic life he goes near dies. Anyways, imagine having an army of Aquaman. Lets say 4 Aquamans, If 1 got KO'd, the other 3 will be doing damage to each opposing character that attacked that Aquaman! Thats 3 x 2 = 6 Damage! Dangerous. Although it would be utterly useless against damage reducers.

Osiris is pretty much just like most Mystical character that receives their power from Shazam, only plus side is if he rolls a critical hit, the remainder of the game he modifies his combat values by +1. Try your luck with him.

Here we have Martian Manhunter, (The not so) Deadman, and Captain Boomerang. Martian Manhunter is probably one of the cheaper Powerhouses that comes with a lot of pow! Here he has a trait that allows him to use Exploit Weakness, Outwit, and Probability Control until your next turn whenever an opposing character is KO'd. Here's another character that has a new power after reviving, conversing to dead people. Overall he's a great fig, and i absolutely adore his sculpt, maybe just because it's half Black Lantern, and since i don't own any Black Lantern Figs, this kinda makes up for it! although sometimes i wish he was full black lantern.

Deadman, Now not dead, is my favourite figure in terms of stats. He's got a great healing power, and he doesn't die easily since he has a amazing ability to stop taking damage on the last dial. He's a wonderful tie up figure, and he has the ability to summon any figure with the brightest day or White Lantern Corps Keyword. Oh, did i not mention? He owns a White Lantern Ring, not sure why yet, but i'm sure will be revealed in the Brightest Day storyline eventually.

Captain Boomerang, One of the cheaper and weaker figure but with the ability to attack all characters in his boomerang path, it might come handy after all if you use him well! Great addition to the keyword Rogues.

Alas, our last two figures, Firestorm and Hawkgirl. Firestorm is probably one of the rarely used figures as his special abilities don't really give much options and you can use better figures for his cost. Not to mention his lack of keywords :/

Hawkgirl on the other hand is a cheap and strong warrior. Her trait Master Aerial Combatant allows you to modify her attack and damage values by +1 whenever she attacks a character with the Flight ability! Now that's what i call power!

All in all, a fantastic set, another must buy for DC Heroclix lovers, this set has not failed me. Great Quality overall, although there is some complains where Hawkgirl is weak at the legs and tends to snap, i haven't had that problem but it always doesn't hurt to pay extra attention to them.

So this wraps up this weekends Heroclix bonus edition by me. I hope you enjoyed it as much as i did. :)

From Blackest Night ...

Welcome, I've finally decided i should get going on my collections, today i bring you part 1 of a two part Heroclix review. I give you, my Heroclix Blackest Night Starter Set.



Here we have a complete view of all the Figures from the starter. I will briefly describe each figure later. One of the best parts about this set is that the figures have fantastic dynamic poses. It's been highly regarded as one of the better sets and a must for anybody who plays Heroclix.

These only downside of these figures really is that they lack the keywords to make them highly playable in Heroclix, regardless though they can still pack a punch! I mean think about it, superheroes and villains with power rings, surely they'll do more damage than they normally do.

Here, from left to right order, we have Indigo Lantern Atom, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and Violet Lantern Wonder Woman. 3 classic superheroes, Atom is highly used because of his pretty awesome healing powers. Green Lantern has a special ability that lets him regenerate instead of taking pushing damage. And Wonderwoman is basically a high damage powerhouse. Atom's sculpt has been deemed one of the best heroclix figures, and if you look at it, you can see why. My only upset with this is the Green Lantern figure. He is so tiny. he looks like a small boy when standing next to wonderwoman. Atom's small but that makes sense, he is the Atom! he can shrink!

Red Lantern Mera and Blue Lantern Flash, Mera is somewhat evil since red lanterns are all rage, This gives her highly large attack and damage stats for a cheap cost. But the downside of her is she is easily taken out with low life of 6 clicks. Blue Lantern Flash is probably my favourite figure to use, a well all rounder with good stats, and useful Powers and Abilities like Hypersonic Speed, Enhancement, Perplex, etc. This figures are probably the most fragile out of the set. So pay careful attention when handling them.

Here's our two villains Orange Lantern Lex Luthor and Sinestro Corps Scarecrow. Lex Luthor is probably the most useless figure in my opinion, his stats are mediocre and his special ability is hard to use in expert games. Scarecrow on the other hand, doesn't play out well but i have to say his figure is probably the best looking one for me. I mean, check out the yellow lantern crows. Not fairly used but will probably have some usefulness in a Sinestro Corps theme team.

Overall a great starter kit, anyone looking to start playing i highly recommend getting this kit. Its just appealing, and one of the coolest Dc comics Collectibles you will find in the market.