Aaaaaaand Keita does it again. This time in HGUC fashion. This is his custom HGUC Hi-Nu Gundam HWS. You probably remember seeing those three letters at the end of the Nu Gundam designation.

I honestly don’t recall seeing a Hi-Nu Gundam with HWS parts. HWS parts were originally used on the Nu Gundam. And for those who played SRW, this was a nifty feature because it gave the Nu Gundam unit a double life ability (HWS gets destroyed, parts are jettisoned, Nu Gundam is new and shiny and damage-free).

Seeing the HWS parts on the Hi-Nu though is an interesting sight to see especially for this HGUC version which mimics the MG version that Bandai had released before. The HWS parts give it the proper bulky feel that the Hi-Nu was known for. See, the Nu Gundam was the slender, sleek version. The Hi-Nu was just a towering unit of massive firepower. Having the HWS parts added gives the HGUC Hi-Nu the girth to look menacing.

But this isn’t the first time HWS parts were considered to be used on the Hi-Nu. I remember Ngee Khiong mentioning Vicious Project and their conversion parts for the Master Grade version of the Hi-Nu. I’m just not too fond of the feet since they look like swimming flippers instead of mecha feet. But the HWS parts are pretty much loyal to the original Nu Gundam HWS parts design.

Hit up the image link to go to Keita’s site and see the rest of the images. It never fails to amaze me how he puts metal parts on such a small kit. And I absolutely love that massive white beam rifle.

Remember yesterday when the Lil’ ‘Uns had an encounter with our resident bloodthirsty bear? Here’s what happened afterwards:

No, Gloomy’s not really dead. So rest assured that you’ll still see him harassing other Nendoroids on my office desk.

Today’s a Friday and yet somehow I feel bah-humbug about it. I’m definitely looking forward to the weekend and I can’t wait to spend some time with my girlfriend. But this past week has been some sort of emotional crawl for me and I don’t know why. It’s like I couldn’t figure out where to start on every work day I had this week. Hopefully, I get my head sorted out this coming weekend because I don’t like being in this sinkhole.

So what are your plans for the weekend?

And so coffeebugg’s Mini Kyoukas are here again for a visit. And this time, they brought along another friend: Puchi Churuya.

First thing they saw was Wadsworth, my DS Lite. One Mini Kyouka wanted to play right away. But it was charging and they couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. Then something else caught their attention…

Uh-oh… And I’m not even worried about the lil’ ‘uns…

So it shall be mine soon~! Much thanks to coffeebugg for the assistance!

This is the secret puchi Nendoroid that comes with the other 10 puchi Nendoroids from the upcoming Vocaloid set that GSC is releasing. This would be the first full motion puchi Nendoroid that GSC has ever rolled out. It has elbows and knees! Elbows and knees!!!

I ordered a box and coffeebugg ordered one too. I just hope that I at least get this one, the blue-haird Miku, Megurine Luka, the regular Miku and maybe Kaito.  If I get at least one of each of these from the box set, I’d be a happy man. ^_^

Hit up the image link to see the rest of the pics from Mikatan’s blog.

I definitely don’t have the biggest Nendoroid collection out there and the variation of selection is quite broad. There are ones that I bought because I was into the series the character was from, there were others that I liked simply because of their facial expressions. None of them were purchased at whim. All of them had a reason for being bought.

Of course, this isn’t the complete set, not by a longshot. I’m still going to add some more Nendoroids to this collection from this month until next year. Will I ever stop collecting them? I doubt. It seems that for every release the GSC makes, the make and build continue to improve so it seems I’ll be getting more and more items from the Nendoroid line in the future.

Current:

• Nendoroid Miku Hatsune (+ spare)
• Nendoroid Melissa Seraphy
• Nendoroid Yoko Ritona
• Nendoroid Kyouka Midarezaki (gift)
• Nendoroid Melissa Seraphy (Queen ver.) WonFes Exclusive
• Nendoroid Kaito
• Nendoroid Zetsubou Sensei Nozomu Itoshiki
• Nendoroid Kagami Miku Cosplay
• Nendoroid Pixel Maritan Battle Assault ver.

Upcoming/Planned/Pre-ordered:

• Puchi Nendoroid Mini Kyoukas (from 1/8 Kyouka Midarezaki)
• Nendoroid Sebastian Michaelis
• Nendoroid Saber Lily
• Nendoroid Arawn
• Nendoroid Drossel
• Puchi Nendoroid Vocaloid Set #1
• Nendoroid Mio Akiyama
• Nendoroid Yui Hirasawa
• Nendoroid Ritsu Tainaka
• Nendoroid Mugi Kotobuki
• Nendoroid Megurine Luka (+ spare)
  
• Nendoroid Canaan
• Nendoroid Alphard
• Nendoroid Ein

My toy purchases are definitely not just limited to Nendoroids. I have a couple of Figmas coming in. Once I finish my model kits, I can bring myself to purchase some more Gundams or maybe even save up for that Metal Composite Unicorn Gundam I’ve been eyeing ever since it was announced. There’s also that 7/11 exclusive Evangelion Revoltech I’m still waiting to arrive at my doorstep to complete my trio of Eva 2.0 Revoltech action figures.

But yeah, one can obviously see that I have a liking towards Nendoroids.

So while Yoko and Pixel Maritan were playing around in their sandbag fort, thinking NOTHING could go wrong with the firepower they were packing, the didn’t notice someone sneaking up from behind an upturned Zaku military mug.

At the moment I’m sipping coffee at my desk surrounded by Nendoroids so I figured I’d cook up this scenario since the primary reason I got Pixel Maritan is to be the other half of this gun-rage duo I had pictured in my mind before. As I mentioned before, Yoko is using one of the faces of Nendoroid Kyouka. I’ll have three more gun-wielders in the form of Canaan, Alphard and Ein so my office desk should see more action. For the meantime though, it’s Gloomy livening things up on the desktop.

I recently found a decently-priced 1/8 Kyouka Midarezaki figurine and I’ve already made arrangements to acquire it PRIMARILY for the mini-Kyoukas that come with the figurine. I had passed on an item almost a year ago that I had seriously wanted to own: WonFes Miku. Now, I’m not going to let this other one slide. It’s not an exclusive but it’s quite a rarity now.

So what’s on your purchase/pre-order list right now?

I’ve played a good number of Super Robot Taisen/Super Robot Wars games back when I was still in college and I’ve always loved the mecha designs for the original robots featured in the game. One of my favorites was the Alteisen/Alteisen Riese design. It’s red, mean-looking and bulky. But another version I liked was the Alteisen Nacht which came from the SRW Compact series. It’s pretty much exactly like the Alteisen except for the color which is now blue instead of red, and it wields a katana aside from its main weapons (Revolving Stake, Square Claymore, Heat Horn, etc.). I wanted to get the Deformover version of the Alteisen since I could not be bothered back then to build the 1/100 Alteisen model kit (I could not even complete my two Unicorn Gundams!). But seeing that most of my cashflow was going towards Nendoroids, I could not afford to get the Alteisen.

And now, they’re releasing the Alteisen Nacht for the Deformover series. Like I said earlier, between the Alteisen and Alteisen Nacht, the main differences were the colors and the katana.

What I like about this series of super deformed toys is that they remind me of how the robots/mecha look like in the actual SRW games. Back when I was still part of the Simulation Chamber community, I used to extract and work on game sprites for the community. And all the game sprites are in SD form except for one SRW game where all the game sprites were in their regular form. Not too fond of those, of course.

There’s still that Deformover Alteisen on the shelves of one of the toy stores I frequent in Greenhills. I’m still contemplating whether I should get it or not. If I do, then that would be my first and only SRW-related merchandise.

Hit up the images to go to Amiami.com for more pics of this merchandise. It’s already up for pre-order and will deal 4,850yen worth of damage to your wallet should you decide to get one. Expected release date would be around late February 2010.

This place has had two CotW articles ever since my officemates and I started doing the Coffee of the Week habit. And for this week, we have two coffee blends instead of just one! Well, that’s because I bought the Christmas Blend from Starbucks last week then Emrys got the Black Apron Special from Starbucks as well. So we have two bags going around. But since the Christmas Blend bag as at my desk, we’ll start with this one.

The Christmas Blend is actually primarily Sumatra beans aged up to five years then mixed with Latin American and Asia/Pacific beans. Obviously, by the name, this blend only comes around every Christmas time. I think they release the same blend for two years and then they change the mix on the following year.

I like a lot of sugar in my coffee and I like my coffee to give me a big kick in the head to wake me up. The previous Sumatra Peru blend did that quite amazingly, as well the series of weeks where we had African coffee. This blend, being primarily Sumatra, has that same effect and I absolutely love its flavor. It may not have that bitter kick that African coffee has but its flavor is like no other also. The aroma of opening a bag of this blend brings you to a warm Christmas morning indoors where it’s all toasty inside while outside, it’s a bit nippy.

The Christmas Blend is definitely a worthwhile purchase in my books.