SpartanNerd…250 Blog Posts!

October 12, 2015 by spartannerd

Yep. The SpartanNerd is getting on up there in age! 250 posts. There have been ups and downs. I have covered “all things nerdtainment” that I could afford. I have made mistakes, as well as hit home-runs. I’ve had times of not being inspired or having energy or time, as well as times where I felt a real need to blog.

I thought I would celebrate this milestone with a little pastiche of different stories of interest!

My first ever customized MOTUC figure.

My own Teela, of course!

It has bothered me for some time that I didn’t have a female figure worthy of wearing the extra bit of snake armor that came with one of the weapons packs. I always felt that it could fit Battleground Teela; I was reluctant to remove her hair.

Well I’m glad I did. You can see from the picture that it worked out pretty nice. It took me over an hour of using a hair dryer and other tools to remove the hairpiece, which is really a hard piece of plastic glued on with some incredible adhesive. Unfortunately, it left a hole in her head all across the back. You can’t see it from the front, which is what is important to me. I might try and customize a backside to the hood sometime to completely cover the ugly.

Yes, I can put the hairpiece back on! So its like I have two Teela figures now! pfffttt to all you people who own one figure that cost over $100!

I know what else you’re thinking, and yes I DID remove the bra-armor piece to see if I could make her appear more comic accurate. The problem is…it just doesn’t look right on this figure. She seems too…Well, your eyes go right to her bust. And then it doesn’t look right. She isn’t “that accurate,” ahem. She looks better with her stock armor underneath the hood piece. And no, I’m not interested in doing ANY painting on this figure!

Moving on, moving on.…

Unicorn vs. Sinanju

The SpartanTeen hasn’t played Magic the Gathering in quite a while. This is fine. I have had to find other ways to bond with him. One of those ways is the appreciation for Gundam models. Here is a pic of his best two.

He got the flight stands in the mail, and put them in this pose. We kept them this way on the kitchen table for several days! I love the action that you can sense between the two characters, Gundam Unicorn and Sinanju.

Speaking of MTG,

I bought a box of Battle for Zendikar. And I have been incredibly pleased with my investment. I don’t generally buy cards for their monetary value, but you just can’t overlook it when each pack gives you a full-art land, (in time will be worth $1.00-$2.00.) But aside from that, you also get a rare as in every Magic booster.

But I have been blessed.

I’ve opened TWO Gideon, Ally for Zendikar, and one of those was a “bounty” at The Tangled Web! (They give you a second copy if you open one.) I traded both in for a Snapcaster Mage, which I really NEEDED. (I figure Gideon will come and go. Snap is forever!)

Then I traded the other for an Ugin today, to build this deck for Standard….A Re-Animator deck. It needs some work. Suggestions are welcome! (I modeled it after the four-color reanimator I have been playing in Modern…where the snap caster went!)

The SpartanKid also built a Standard deck (with my help)….He is quite pleased with it. The only thing we tried to do really was use the colors of Omnath, Locus of Rage. We put a lot of landfall in there. And Scythe Leopard and Sliderunner have done all of the work pretty much!

While on the subject of MTG cards and customizing stuff, check out what I did with my Father’s Day present…I made a Commander deck, and used the inadequate deck box that “Graveborn” came with to pretty up a Commander box!

New stuff….

I bought a Battle Droid figure at Mighty Dollar for $1.00. The full real thing!

I purchased and intended to review the Deckbuilders Toolkit for Magic Origins. Maybe I still will. But I’m not feeling it. Here is a pic of the janky deck I put together with it though!

I made a chessboard for MOTUC and similar figures! Don’t steal my idea!

The SpartanKid purchased this incredible item at Toys-R-Us…

You get all of this variety of Halo mini-figures. And a ton of weapons. It comes with a display stand to boot!

Some parting thoughts….

Remember the unfortunate situation with this very expensive figure…. He is still holding up after all this time! His wrist hasn’t let go even once!

The SpartanKid wanted me to mention his Mega-Man Art Book. I have never reviewed this item. So here are two pieces of art…

I about shouted for joy when I saw this page of a recent He-Man and the Eternia War comic! That comic keeps surprising me with its twists and turns! A review of issue #10 is coming soon!

Vikor remains my favorite MOTUC figure. Maybe my favorite action figure of all time. While I give serious props to Marvel Select Deadpool, Vikor is continually all that an action figure should be. Incredibly detailed and articulated. Fits any fantasy. Is a MOTUC design. Armed to the teeth. I love to photograph him!

So will the SpartanNerd make it to 500 blog posts? Time will tell! Hopefully the upcoming Star Wars season doesn’t make me go broke! I keep getting tempted to purchase new things. But I have decided that I will only purchase the best things.

So keep reading, Hub City Geeks!

SpartanNerd and SpartanTeen Review…Neo Zeon Mobile Suit MSN-06S Sinanju “Ver-Ka” (Titanium Finish)

July 21, 2015 by spartannerd

Of all of the Gundams we have reviewed, the Sinanju is the most impressive. In several ways. This Gundam has a “titanium finish,” basically vac-metal plastic. It makes it shine! Combine this effect with the size of the figure at Master Grade 1/100 scale and the many accessories and even an additional stand, and you have an incredible item. Above is the box. And longtime readers know that the SpartanNerd really likes his foil!

This item cost $140, and we purchased the stand for an additional $20. (The stand is usable with most if not all Gundams, but is detailed specifically for Sinanju Ver-Ka.) This is a special edition, with the vac-metal. The normal Ver-Ka would cost around $80.

The box is almost entirely in Japanese. As well as the instructions. This is commonplace for basically every Gundam we have built.

Above is the instructions for the decals and stickers. The SpartanTeen used the regular sticker decals, rather than the water-slide decals.

I am going to show the Gundam in pieces, sort of. There is so much here I had to “cull down” the amount of photos.

The head really shows the small details. The two “holes” on the side of the mask are meant to be vulcan cannons! You can see the vac-metal and the plain gray plastic. The crimson color goes well with the flat gray. There is an eye detail that can’t really be seen because of the size and impressiveness of the rest of the head.

Here is the backpack, showing all of its details in 3X faster mode. (The legs also have details for “3x faster mode.”) The backpack was the only truly “stupid problem.” The backpack WOULD NOT attach to the figure as it was supposed to. It works by a little slot mechanism that seemed to be obstructed by excessive plastic. We solved the problem with some super-glue. We checked other reviews of the figure, and found that ours seems to be an exception rather than the rule.

Here the Sinanju stands, unarmed, and without his backpack. It is very articulated. The fingers all move like human fingers. The arms move like a humans, the legs move like a humans. It is a “super-articulated” design. The shoulder armor and knee armor move to accommodate the most articulation.

The stickers are very much a foil item, and the Gundam doesn’t look right without those details. All of the gold pictured here is a reflection of the flash of my camera! That is how shiny it is!

The feet are on a rocker joint, and divided into toe and heel sections.

The cockpit opens, revealing Char Aznable inside. The cockpit is surrounded by yellow “psycho-frame” components. The Gundam came with two different pilots. One to stand beside on display, and one to stay in the cockpit. The SpartanTeen (nor the SpartanNerd) can paint the tiny details required….We would if we could. But that is a little out of our skill level at this point.

Here are most of the accessories. I say most, because, the Grenade Launcher/Shotgun wasn’t ready at the time of the review. Notice the “beam-effect” parts. These are interchangeable with the axe, and with the shield.

You can see, this opens up an incredible array of display options! The shield is very large and impressive. The SpartanTeen doesn’t prefer the axe. (This is more of a SpartanNerd thing. See He-Man!)

The beam saber isn’t a lightsaber at all. The beam effect is detailed and rippled, rather than being a straight lazer sword. It did come with two beam effects, we just wanted the readers to see the hilt disarmed as well as armed.

The gun has expandable options as well. The scope can move, and you can add parts from the shotgun/grenade launcher. (Not pictured.) Notable, the shield has a place to store the shotgun/grenade launcher.

Here is the Sinanju standing on his own. The backpack adds a lot of weight, causing some balance issue, but not much. Notable, it was easy not to have the legs snapped all the way in. They kept coming off until the SpartanTeen figured out how to fully snap them in. (Sorry, the lighting system took accidental damage, and so this picture and all the rest are using flash only

Here is the Sinanju holding the shield an on his custom stand. The stand is a separate item, and will be reviewed later. But the stand is the perfect way to display this incredible investment.

As we have done in the past, we are now going to give this Gundam a grade!

Here is our criteria, each item getting a score. We would like to say ahead of time, this Gundam is almost perfect!

Each item gets a score…

1 Too wrong

2 not right enough

3 could be better

4 pretty good, but…

5 perfect

Construction

Was it difficult considering the level it is supposed to be? 4

Stupid problems? 3 (cables around the legs, and backpack had to be glued.)

Instructions easy to read? 5

Diagrams clear? 5

Stickers? Paint 5

Articulation

stands easily? 5

moves without falling apart 5

posable/interchangeable hands 5

lots of articulation points 5

Dynamic poses 5

Accessories

Weapons 5

holds weapons/appropriate weapons 4 (some problem holding the gun and shields.)

Stand 5 (available as a separate item.)

expansions 5 (see above)

Weapon storage 5

playability

durable 4

photogenic 5

holds weapons? 5

Reasonable Facimile to media representation 5

Aesthetics 5 (that shiny plastic is incredible!)

Figure-specific features

morph/ transform/ change form 5

action feature 3

LED lights 1

Diarama 5

Pilot included? Does he fit in the cockpit or is he in scale or not. 5

To tabulate the score, we add up all of the values, and then come up with an average.

The SpartanTeen and SpartanNerd Gundam Evaluation Checklist says that the Sinanju receives a 4.92. So far the only Gundam coming in higher is Char’s Zaku II-S (2.0), which had a score of 5.2.

What do you think? Leave us some feedback in the comments!

SpartanNerd and SpartanTeen…Evaluating Gundams

May 6, 2015 by spartannerd

Just for you, Hub City Geeks, the SpartanNerd and the SpartanTeen have teamed up! Together we created a checklist for evaluating Gundam models!

For now, we are only evaluating Master Grade and higher… We may adjust the checklist in the future.

So without further ceremony, here is our checklist. You can see the checklist in action if you click here

Each item gets a score…

1 Too wrong

2 not right enough

3 could be better

4 pretty good, but…

5 perfect

There are five areas that we will score for our models… Construction, Articulation, Accessories, Playability, and Figure-Specific features. Each area has five criteria.

Construction

Was it difficult considering the level it is supposed to be?

Stupid problems?

Instructions easy to read?

Diagrams clear?

Stickers? Paint

Articulation

stands easily?

moves without falling apart

posable/interchangeable hands

lots of articulation points

Dynamic poses

Accessories

Weapons

holds weapons/appropriate weapons

Stand

expansions

Weapon storage

playability

durable

photogenic

holds weapons?

Reasonalbe Facimile to media representation

Aesthetics

Figure-specific features

morph/ transform/ change form

action feature

LED lights

Diarama

Pilot included? Does he fit in the cockpit or is he in scale or not.

To tabulate the score, we add up all of the values, and then come up with an average.

SpartanNerd…Thoughts on Master Grade Unicorn Gundam

April 12, 2015 by spartannerd

I have personally build about a dozen Gundams. It has been a few years since I did one…I am only really interested in Gundam Wing. However, there is renewed interest among the Spartan-children for Gundams. The most recent Gundam completed is Unicorn Gundam. I am not going to offer a review, because I did not build the model myself, however, I have some statements from the SpartanTeen. Following his statements, I have lots of photos!

“The Unicorn Gundam falls apart easily, unfortunately, especially in destroy mode.”

“It dwarfs Master Grade Heavyarms,”

“Black Light renders the pink details as orange light.” (The SpartanWife says it’s coral.)

“It takes thirty minutes to an hour to transform into destroy mode. It takes less time to return it to Unicorn mode”

“Gundam Unicorn cannot hold his bazooka very good.”