I'm manning a booth at Anime Fest Asia!

Heads up people! I've just been recruited to sell goods at Anime Fest Asia this weekend, and it's with none other than the KKnM crew! KKnM's a really popular store in Singapore for anime/Japanese goods, and they're also the official distributor in S.E. Asia for Cospa, a major Japanese entity for licensed anime goods. I'm gonna be selling Cospa's Resinya! line of doll products at the Genesis Frontier booth, plus the Obitsu bodies that go perfectly with them.

There'll be several lovely lasses available, but here's a preview of Tamaki Kousaka from "To Heart 2". I hear she's really popular, lol.


Resinya! Portrait Collection - Each box consists of a molded head and torso similar to fixed-pose statues, with the bonus option of attaching the head onto an Obitsu body and turning the character into an articulated doll (see below)


Mini Costume set - Cospa is well-known for their life-sized anime costumes, and they've put their know-how into 1/6 scale doll outfits too! Every character's outfit is tailored to fit a specific bust size according to the character, btw. (Socks and shoes will also be sold)


Obitsu bodies - Both the 27cm and 25cm bodies will come in three bust sizes: S, M, and L. The entire torso is made of a soft, squeezable material


Viola! Put 'em all together and you've got a quality finished doll at a great price (around SGD150, to be confirmed once I check closer to the event), compared to a complete character doll by other companies like Mega***** or Azo** which go well over SGD200. I can say that on my blog, right? XD

Buying a complete set consisting of: a) one Resinya! Portrait Collection, b) one corresponding costume set (includes socks and shoes), and c) one Obitsu body will get you a sweet discount only during this event. The Obitsu doll bodies will also be sold separately for around $29-$30 (prices also to be confirmed).

This is one of those rare times you'll see these products sold locally, so come by and take a look! I know I'm gonna be browsing through the stuff I'm selling, hehe. There will be several Resinya! dolls on display if you wanna check out the quality in-person, plus I'm bringing a couple of my own dolls, one of them being my custom Akiyama Mio from K-On!

*I should also mention my friend Mori will be selling some doll items under his ShowsDoll banner (he has hand-sewn/knitted clothing and Azone merchandise for both 1/6 and ball jointed dolls) at the KKnM/Genesis Frontier booth as well. There'll be lots to see!

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Let's go! Edo-Kimekomi doll making workshop

Hey guyz! I've just heard from a friend about a Japanese-doll making workshop at the Singapore Philatelic Museum on the 14th of Nov. It's a rare opportunity to learn from master artisans from Japan and view a collection of 400 Edo-Kimekomi dolls handcrafted by these artists ¹. Interestingly, each of these dolls requires an average of 2 years to make ², but we'll apparently learn how to make them in under 2 hours, lol.

The workshop also seems to be limited to 40 people, so I hope to book places as soon as possible after asking around a bit. Feel free to let me know if you're interested or have already confirmed your attendance. ^^) v

*Entry to the museum and the doll exhibition is free. The doll making workshop costs $5 per person.

Singapore Philatelic Museum's
"Nov - Dec '09 Holiday Programmes"



Thanks for the heads up, Iwa!

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A Halloween tribute to zombie movies, Biohazard, weird tastes

I'm not the best photographer (granted I'm so cheap I'm using a mobile phone camera, ha ha), but here are some snaps from a 1/6 zombie photo shoot we did last weekend. Our subjects were 3 Sideshow "The Dead" zombies, and one very stoic Hot Toys Leon Kennedy. One of my Pure Neemo dolls also makes an appearance, Resident Evil 2 tofu-survivor-style.

Hit the link below for more!




Straight up, I love me some horror films and the survival horror video game genre. I'm sure some of you guys are feeling me. Especially with Valve's Left 4 Dead becoming just about the most popular LAN game ever. Seriously, it's the reason many guys finally moved on from Counterstrike (I've decided that males don't mind getting repeatedly killed by headshots as much as females), and I've never seen an FPS result in such a huge influx of female gamers before. I'm glad more girls are playing video games, because we can kick butt as much as guys when we do. Which reminds me, I should steel myself and play my copy of Dead Space one of these days. >__>



>>> Zombie attack Pure Neemo style

It's always a good idea not to get surrounded
Attack when you find an opening!
Take that you Barbie-armed zombie lady!

I'm still going through my photos trying to dig up good shots, so check back. Thanks a lot to my sis and her friend Elmo for helping with the shoot!

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Halloween costumes! Plus how I spent my favourite non-holiday of the year

Happy Halloween everyone~~~! \o/

It may be the season for Xmas decorations to go up along Orchard Road, but I'm dead set I celebrate Halloween in some manner. So yea, we did a photo shoot with zombies, and I dressed a couple of my Pure Neemos in Halloween costumes. 8D

Recreation-wise, it's a shame Halloween is mainly a non-event in Singapore. Ya know, minus the clubs that have Halloween costume parties, there's not much else available to the public. So what my boyfriend and I did was go to the Science Centre for their "Haunted Halloween Nights". Boy was it exciting! The Science Centre staff and folks from the Asia Paranormal Investigators (API) were really sporting and put on a great show. I mean, everyone from families with kids, teenagers and adults had a rip roaring time. I think so cuz I heard many of them scream. It's the Science Centre turned into a Haunted House --- isn't that cool or what?? XD



If any one local is still looking for something Halloween-themed to do this weekend, head on over cuz it's still going on on Sunday - the Haunted Trail opens at 7pm and goes on till 11pm. It's just $8 a ticket! (An exhibit about Formula 1 racing as well as the Body Worlds "plastinated people" showcase is going on at the Science Centre too if you're interested)

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Custom figure: Manji from Blade of the Immortal

Hey peeps! Here's a custom I did a couple of months back but didn't get around to take photos of. He's a bad-ass, almost invincible swordsman known as "Manji" (which also happens to be the Japanese name for the swastika on his back - note that the swastika has origins in ancient Eastern culture and religion, and should not be confused with the version perverted by the Nazis). Manji is the main character from the manga "Mugen no Jyunin" which is also published in English as "Blade of the Immortal" by Dark Horse. The manga, written and illustrated by Hiroaki Samura, started in 1994 and is still ongoing, while an anime series was shown (and concluded?) in 2008.

More pics after the cut.



I've been a fan of the art (few manga artists give as much life-like detail to hands and feet as Hiroaki Samura does) and story for years, so I really wanted to do Manji justice and create something better than the official figure released years back. There's still lots of room for improvement though. His hair has too much volume, the clothing could drape better, and I'm not crazy about the exposed ankle joint on the Hot Toys body. Fact is I haven't painted scars on his chest yet because I'm uncertain about sticking with this body for Manji. I didn't sculpt the head either (it's from DID's Date Masamune figure), so it's not a perfect likeness but at least he's got a head full of "real" hair, lol.




All the weapons I've used are from the excellent set of official Mugen no Jyunin 1/6 miniature weapons. They have real metal blades, and painted weathering effects for added realism.

Eh?

What's up with the goldfish lantern you ask? It's a miniature prop I made recently for the Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as Mooncake or Lantern Festival over here). Seemed like an easy task before I started, but working on a miniature scale has its challenges. :P

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District 9 is so sci-fly

Photo of the custom Prawn mech belong to creator Sabretooth

Sorry to go all fan-girl on ya, but I kinda coined a term to describe District 9: "sci-fly" (good-looking science fiction with a concept and script intelligent enough to digest without regurgitating upon leaving the cinema). Haha. Anyway, it's been less than 24 hours since I've seen District 9, and I'm in peak condition to gawk over movie-related collectibles.

But what?! There isn't anything official yet? Then I'll just briefly review this custom made Prawn Mech some very talented and enterprising guy made and sold for US$5,300 on eBay.

I gotta admit the artist did a remarkable job creating the D9 robot, using a Transformers toy as the base and applying expert paint and weathering effects. While I'm impressed by his work, especially on the top half, I still feel that it isn't accurate enough to satisfy my inner nerd. You can draw your own comparisons with high res stills I extracted from the second movie trailer (click to view in full resolution).




Click through for more photos of the Prawn mech and screen captures from the film.









Anyone thinking what I'm thinking? I want Hot Toys to make one of these babies. (So my inner sci-fi nerd my bf can get one, lol)

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Coraline bendy doll

Still a few weeks before the film opens in Singapore, but I've fulfilled my goal of collecting at least one of the awesome Coraline bendy dolls from NECA.

Visually, I'm impressed by how accurate the doll looks to an actual Coraline puppet. Although you can't pose her arms and legs "realistically" because the bendy doll articulation is far too simplified, you can remove Coraline's faceplate and adjust the eyes, or maybe swap expressions with the other three versions. I wouldn't mind collecting all of them just to try that out. :)

This version of Coraline wearing the sweater with stars was actually a SDCC-exclusive, but I was really fortunate to purchase her from someone in Singapore. He's a friendly pop-culture collector who runs the action figure section in a store called "Titanium" (level B4 of ION Orchard). Thanks so much Alvin!

Just one gripe: her molded hair looks a bit too translucent up close

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