SATURDAY [ONLINE] SHOPPING

Quite a fruitful day. 2 great finds. Both on Ebay.ph and both for a steal of a price...
Been in the market for a second DVD recorder ever since I became a heavy contributor at PINOYCHANNEL.TV. Lots of programs to record, some of which are also on 2 stations and airing at the same time. And since Pioneer is the only brand most shops carry [it's the best one anyway] , I have been looking for a cheaper alternative. Today, I hit paydirt. An Aussie listed this baby on Ebay.ph. He bought it and brought it here to the country, thinking he was going to stay here for a while, but he sold his business and wants to dispose of everything quickly. So he let this go for a real bargain, and he hasnt even used it!

Handsome, isn't he? TF Universe Deluxe SE-01 Optimus Prime. About 7" tall, very articulated, and transforms into truck mode. It isn't metal but I never really cared much for metal. If you want a metal truck, get a Tonka! I found this one for only P500. I was thinking they were just selling this for a bloated price and it was probably on sale in Toy Kingdom or something, but it was out of stock in the big toy stores a long time ago. I heard this came out last year. I would never pass up the chance to own an Optimus Prime with this detail for only P500. And so, here he is.

I also got some cool AA rechargeable batteries from CDRKING for only P500 a pair. The cool factor: the caps of the batteries come off and reveals USB plugs. Charge them by simply plugging them straight into a USB port. Really convenient to use with my digicam that drains batteries like a humvee!

It's been a great saturday, tomorrow I may go to Vmall again to shop for DVD+RWS. Until now, I've been using minuses but this new machine uses the pluses.

All this time, my driver and I have been shopping for these gadgets like Batman and Alfred/Lucius... oh did I mention my driver's name is also Al? LOL

MORE ON MY X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE EXPERIENCE

More on my take on the Wolverine movie…

I watched this movie last night with my driver and his 16 year old daughter. They weren’t too familiar with the X-men story, and that is the point I am going to try to make with this.

While this movie may be a good one for the Wolverine/X-men fan, if you don’t know much about the comic then there’s a lot that wouldn’t make sense to you about this movie. My driver’s daughter could barely understand why Logan and Victor were still alive after fighting in almost every major war in the Us and the world. The movie just assumes you know about mutants and you don’t wonder why some of the characters have superpowers and where those powers came from.

This is sort of a conundrum for me. For the fanatics who defend the movie, they would argue that for me to enjoy the movie, I would have to shut up about how it was different from the comic and just take it as it is. However, if I disregard the comic, then I would have to watch this movie as if I previously knew nothing about it, in which case a lot of things, like the existence of mutants wouldn’t make any sense at all.

And if I leave behind everything I know about the comic and just watch the movie, then the movie just isn’t good enough for me. I have seen the black ops put in the shelf and the remnants killing off all the old members thing one too many times. Was I really surprised that Sabretooth and Striker had a deal going? Even if I wasn’t reading Wolverine, that was pretty damn predictable. Even Gambit being the only one who escaped from the secret lab and showing Wolverine the way back is so “The Rock” as in Sean Connery’s movie in the 90’s. And of course… Weapon XI’s all-your-powers-into-one soldier has been so done to death, how many anime and videogames have we seen that before? Even Megatron did that over 20 years ago in TF Generation 1 when he took weapons from every Decepticon so he’d kick Optimus Prime’s butt in an “honorable duel”.

And Wolverine's claws all hot and red from Weapon XI's optic blast... while pretty awesome, has been done somewhere before. I've seen the predator do that in Scwarzenegger's movie with the blade attachment in its arm... it heats it up using the laser sighting on its shoulders... sort of like a hot knife through butter thing...

But again, in defense or in fairness to the movie, the Wolverine story is quite old. So I am not saying it ripped off other movies or plots. It’s just that I have seen it all somewhere else before. The simple point is this… you can’t really watch this movie and say forget everything you know and do not expect anything. Rather, you have to have some sense of familiarity and prepare yourself for how some things are different and some stayed the same, and somewhere in the between, have a great time.

Lastly, did you ever wonder why Wolverine's claws seem to NEVER have any blood stains of them, considering they go in and out of his arms all the time and each time, the skin rips open? Anyone who watches CSI knows that a knife, when used as a stabbing weapon, has blood stains or even small particles on it. Wolverine's claws seem to be clean all the time. Does the blood slide off because the claws are like non-stick teflon? Hey, I'm nitpicking here...

PREMATURELY BURSTING MY WOLVERINE BUBBLE

PICTURED ABOVE: Wolverine & Sabretooth toys I bought in Toys R Us 3 years ago. My how time flew. Halos di ko na makita yung blog post ko where I posted these pics. Wala lang, just to prove na hindi ako nakikiuso porke may pelikula sya ngayon...

Hindi ko pa napapanood ang Wolverine movie ni Hugh Jackman. May deadline ako this tuesday at may gagawin pa ako sa sunday [sisimulan namin ng driver ko na maglinis ng kalat dito sa kwarto at sa kwarto ko sa itaas]. Malamang, kung papalarin, next sunday ko na ito papanoorin, at kung may oras, pati ang Star Trek.


I am a big Wolverine fan... Kumpleto ako sa digital comics nya, Meron akong Essential Wolverine volumes 1-3. Wolverine Saga 1-4, at napakadaming comics, graphic novel at TPB tungkol sa kanya. Yung pagka-forbidden love nila ni Mariko Yashida [I have the TPB version] was one of my old favorites dahil nung panahon na yun, yung girlfriend kong Koreana eh pinagkakait din sa akin ng pamilya nya. Hehe I also had a Wolverine shirt, saka nabili ko yung classic action figures nila ni Sabretooth dati sa Toys R Us.


Pero nung nabalitaan kong gagawan ng origin movie at live action pa, hindi naman ako ganung ka-excited sa kanya. Based on my EXGF Meo's review of the movie, mukhang masasatisfy ako pero as a Wolverine fan, parang maiirita lang din ako. Sa totoo lang kasi, wala akong nagustuhan sa mga XMEN movies [the trilogy] and while kamukha ni HJ si Wolverine, he is obviously too tall for the role.

Nakakatawa na lang yung mga babaeng fan na tuwang tuwa sa character na ito... as usual na-reduce na naman sa pagiging "fafa-ble" si Wolverine... Asus... kung talagang kilala nyo ang character na ito, you'd probably find him cool but definitely not a hunk... bakit ka naman mai-in love sa isang tao na mas matanda pa sa lolo mo?

Anyway, back to the movie I HAVEN'T seen yet... sana nga mali ako at matuwa ako sa kanya. Kaso as of late, disappointing naman talaga ang mga ganitong movie... PUNISHER WAR ZONE ang pinakahuling movie based on a comic na nagandahan ako. Everything else, even Michael Bay's Transformers was disappointing for me. Nakakatawa nga yung mga comment ng TF fans, libog na libog kay Megan Fox na parang ngayon lang sila nakakita ng babae. Eh kung nanonood ka ng CSI MIAMI, linggo-linggo may ganyan... Asus!

Mas okay pa para sa akin yung WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN animated series. Sana kasi magconcentrate na lang sila sa paggawa ng mas magagandang animated series/movies kesa pinipilit nilang pagkitaan ng Hollywood ang mga ganito. As a fan kasi, hindi mo naman maiiwasan na panoorin dahil fan ka nga nya, pero malamang madidisappoint ka lang tapos sasabihin mo sa sarili mong "Hindi naman yan ginawa para sa iyo, para sa mainstream yan."

OVERDUE POST #1: MY COLLECTION

This is the first of two overdue posts. The other one will contain pictures of 2 business establishments that I used to own, more on those later.

For the longest time, I have taken these pictures of my aging collection of toys and posters. It was also for this reason that I got my friend, John who is based in the US, to buy me a digicam when he came home for the holidays some 4 years ago. For the longest time, for some reason, my browser kept crashing when I try to look at them in my computer. Yesterday, I tried copying them all to another hard drive and found out that my pictures weren't ruined. YAY!

This is an assortment of toys that I have kept Most of the Transformers toys were bought when I was a kid. A lot of the newer ones are either store-bought or from Ebay.

My original plan was to make a website to showcase these things, but the plan got put aside until I learned about blogging and now I have a chance to put these up so easily.

So here is my ever-growing and still-growing collection. My apologies for some lousy picture quality. Click on the picture for a bigger view.

Please note that this is not my entire collection. I still have a lot of original DVD's, Laserdiscs, manga, artbooks and action figures, that I have amassed over the years. I will try to post those later, as I haven't photographed them yet.

LUPIN III TOYS

This became one of my favorite anime since the Tagalog dubbing was so hilarious. I was watching this late nights on Txtube. The Tagalog dub pioneered comedic dubbing, which injected a lot of Pinoy humor in the dialog, something not found in the original version. This paved the way for the success of Slam Dunk and Hajime no Ippo on GMA because of the extra comedy. GMA (the TV station, not the president), please bring this back, forget about Richard Gutierrez and your pathetic ripoff of this great show! LUPIN!!! KAM BEK (come back) !!!

COWBOY BEBOP

As recommended by Meowok, this anime was an acquired taste. It suited me just fine! The soundtrack is amazing, BTW, and I have become a Yoko Kanno (the composer) fan ever since. I also bought the original US release of the DVD. I got the chance to be a part of the dubbing cast when this show was dubbed by Telesuccess here in the Philippines. Among the many characters I dubbed (guests), my favorite was Andy the cowboy and the video maniac (the nerd who Spike and Jet bought the Betamax player from, the one who extensively explained to them the difference between Betamax and VHS).


SLAM DUNK

When I first saw this on AXN, I was instantly hooked to this extremely entertaining anime. That was when my fascination started and I just had to buy any SD item I could find. I even went through the trouble of recording every single episode from AXN and converting them to VCD. During that time, digi-subbing and downloading fansubs via bit torrent haven't been so widespread yet.

I also had the honor of being the scriptwriter for the Tagalog version (TSP) and was the voice for many characters in the show such as Kogure and Dr. T. The show still airs on afternoons on GMA and continues to do well in the ratings.

SIDE NOTE: I have to admit that when I first heard that TSP bought SD and that we were going to dub it, I was a little apprehensive. The idea that we were going to dub at least 6 basketball teams with just 8-10 voice talents was not something I welcomed. I loved the show and I wanted it to be done right as much as possible. A co-worker even wished our company wouldn't buy the show because in her words, "mabababoy lang" (it would only be bastardized). However, despite our wishes that this show wouldn't be Tagalized, the fact remained that it was going to happen, and who would be better among the dubbers to write and be in the cast than true blue fans? This was my chance to be more than just a fan of SD, this was my chance to have a bigger part as far as SD is concerned so I still took on the task (and so did she). Besides, I also thought to myself, that if I let the chance pass, and someone else ended up doing a piss-poor job of writing the script, I would have no one to blame but myself for turning the project down, and I would look like a complete fool bashing it in the forums. The simple point is, I had a chance to do what I thought was right for the show and I did it! And as it turns out, I wasn't wrong in making that decision. SD became such a big thing in Philippine anime history and has been re-aired over and over.

TRIGUN

I had an attachment to this series since it was one of the first dubbing projects I became a scriptwriter for. The show is a sci-fi western and the sound effects of the guns is something you will really love. Trigun items were pretty expensive too. I also bought the original US release of the DVD.


POSTERS

I have always loved posters. I don't really know why. Wait, now that I think about it, it's probably because we always had boring abstract paintings hanging in our house, either that or the walls had wallpaper on them. When I had my own room, I felt like putting posters up to make my room a little more "me" (does that mean I've always been searching for my identity?). However, no more room in the walls didn't stop me from collecting. In fact, with the exception of one Voltes V poster, NONE of the posters pictured below are actually on the wall.

SIDE NOTE: I used to collect posters of the actress Phoebe Cates. My room had posters of her, even stuck to the ceiling! I took them all down when when rumors spread that she was dead. It turned out to be a hoax by some dumb college kids who wanted to see how fast a rumor would spread as their thesis. Remember that back then, there were no cellphones with text messaging or even beepers, so rumors don't exactly spread at the wildfire speed that you would expect today with text messages and email. Anyway, I believed it, and I took down the posters. I still keep those posters somewhere in my cabinet, but I think the termites got to them.

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: (Sorry, I feel the need to explain myself.) When I was a kid, it used to matter to me whether a favorite character or actress was alive or dead, and if they were dead, I would stop collecting them. Phoebe Cates was one of such. When the first quarter of the 5th grade came, my friend Tim, who spent the summer in the US came back and told me there was this super cool movie called "Transformers The Movie" (the animated one, this was 1986). I obviously haven't seen it, but my friend told me that Optimus Prime died. It was for that reason that I never bought the G1 Optimus Prime and only bought the Powermaster Optimus Prime, because years later, he was resurrected in the comic book.

Most of these posters were bought on my last trip to Hongkong at the Causeway Bay Computer Center.

(PICTURED ABOVE): MAZINKAISER POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): GETTER ROBOT POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): GAIKING HOME VIDEO PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): GAIKING POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): SHIN GETTER PLAYSTATION GAME PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): SHIN GETTER ROBO OVA PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): GREAT MAZINGER HOME VIDEO PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): REAL ROBOT REGIMENT PS2 PROMOTIONAL POSTER. (This is one of my favorites because Daimos is in it)

(PICTURED ABOVE): MAZINGER Z CROSSOVER MOVIES HOME VIDEO PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): VOLTES V VIDEO COLLECTION MAGNAVISION PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): VOLTES V LASERDISC PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): SUPER ROBOT WARS ALPHA FOR GAMEBOY PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): SUPER ROBOT WARS IMPACT FOR PS2 PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): VOLTES V POSTER. In the original release of the Magnavision English dubbed videos, each volume came with a card and if you get all 20 cards, it forms this poster. This poster of mine is the uncut version. This was redrawn in the Questor office from a picture of the robot Godsigma from the artbook "Super Robots Viewed Broadly".

(PICTURED ABOVE): UNKNOWN SUPER ROBOT WARS POSTER FROM THAILAND

SUPER ROBOTS

Okay, it's no mystery that I have loved super robots (Japanese mecha) ever since I got to watch Voltes V and Daimos and others back in the 70's. Whenever I had a little extra money, I try to buy some. However, my fascination with these things seem to be fading...

(PICTURED ABOVE): MAZINGER & GETTER DOLLS, COMBATTLER & RAIDEEN RUBBER PLASTIC FIGURES

(PICTURED ABOVE): A HUGE MAZINGER Z STUFFED DOLL THAT I FOUND IN THE TYANGGE (No, I don't sleep with it), & 2 MAZINGER Z SD COIN BANKS ON SALE AT COMIC ALLEY.

(PICTURED ABOVE): VOLTES V COIN BANK [MY NEPHEW'S], SRW HARD RUBBER VOLTES V, AND A MACROSS BATTROID.

(PICTURED ABOVE): SECOND HAND SOC MAZINGER & GREAT MAZINGER, & SOC APHRODITE A & MINERVA X. THE APHRODITE A WITHOUT THE STAND IS A POPY FIGURE, I THINK. (I got the second hand SOC's and the Mazinger & Getter dolls for a real cheap price from a guy in Cuba)

(PICTURED ABOVE): HARD RUBBER MAZINGER Z & GREAT MAZINGER, YUJIN MAZINKAISER

(PICTURED ABOVE): ZAMBOT 3 RUBBER FIGURE THAT DISASSEMBLES INTO THE VEHICLES. (Pepsi can is there to give you an idea on how big the toy is).


(PICTURED ABOVE): MY SOC BLACK MAZINGER Z. (This is my first SOC. This was what was left of it after my nephew, who was very young at the time, played with it and got a little carried away. I think he was pretending to be Ankoku Daishogun. LOL)

(PICTURED ABOVE): SOC HOVER PILDER (second hand from the guy in Cuba) & SOUL OF POPYNICA MAZINGER Z HEAD (from Ebay)

(PICTURED ABOVE): SOC GAIKING (from Best Toys)

(PICTURED ABOVE): SOC UFO GRENDIZER (I bought it when I was in Hongkong)

TRANSFORMERS

This was my first real hobby that I got to start when I was in the 4th grade and I had just transferred from Trinity College to Brent International Manila. I found about these robots and the show from my American classmates who saw it in the US and eventually when it was shown here on RPN9. Among the roomfull of toys I had with my brother, I had always kept these with me. And I am glad I did, because they eventually became a part of my nephew's childhood as well and one of the reasons why my bond with my nephew is so strong to this day.

(PICTURED ABOVE): My pride and joy. My extremely adorable nephew at age 3 (He is 8 years old now)

Most of these were bought from Best Toy store, either as gifts to me from my Tita or parents. The rest I bought myself. I think that is why I helo onto these toys - I bought most of them with my own money, unlike my other toys, which were given to my by relatives. I still keep them all in a big plastic box.

NOTE: None of these TF toys are fake or knockoffs. I know that China-made fakes of most of the G1 combiner robots can be bought in Tyangges. These are all either Hasbro or Takara original toys of the G1 TF line that I bought when I was a kid.

NOTE: the big piece of cardboard behind the robots in the picture that seems to look like sand and a railroad is actually from an original Transformers TRAIN SET that I had when I was a kid. It was the size of a pool table and I used to have all my transformers in fighting form on it like a battlefield. Of course, all Autobots were on one side and all Decepticons were on the other.

(PICTURED ABOVE): COMBINERS (5-6 robots that transform into other things but each team transforms into one big robot. My fascination with this line still stems from my love for Voltes V) - Terrorcons, Seacons, Constructicons, Predacons, Combaticons, Technobots, Aerialbots, Protectobots. (For some reason, I can't find my Stunticons. WAAAH!!!)

(PICTURED ABOVE): FORTRESS MAXIMUS W/ HEADMASTERS (human cyborgs transform into the robots' heads) & POWERMASTERS (human cyborgs transform into the robots' power source)

(PICTURED ABOVE): ASSORTED AUTOBOTS & DECEPTICONS

(PICTURED ABOVE): "BIGGER SIZE" TRANSFORMERS, LIKE THE CITY ROBOTS FORTRESS MAXIMUS, TRYPTICON & METROPLEX, W/ ULTRA MAGNUS, OPTIMUS PRIME (POWERMASTER VERSION), PREDAKING & GALVATRON.

(PICTURED ABOVE): METROPLEX & TRYPTICON IN CITY MODE

(PICTURED ABOVE): METROPLEX & TRYPTICON IN CITY MODE, BIRD'S EYE VIEW

(PICTURED ABOVE): TRANSFORMERS PRETENDERS.

Anyway, that's all for now, more picturess of other items in my collection later.