Voltes V Complete Series on Laserdisc Arrived

My laserdisc set of CHOUDENJI MACHINE VOLTES V has finally arrived.

VOLUME 1:



VOLUME 2:



VOLUME 3:



VOLUME 4:



VOLUME 5:

Unlike the box set version, this one is only 5 volumes but each volume has 2 discs. The box set version has 10 volumes of 1 disc each and each volume has a black and white sketch of the characters with a colored square in the background. This is why I like this one much better - because of all the cool colored art!!!

I only know one other person who has Voltes V complete on laserdisc, and he is the copyright owner of the show in the Philippines. This is a very rare acquisition and a complete set only comes by once in a very long while.

I heard Andrew E paid Php1,000,000 for his set. I can't verify it though.

I still plan to buy the original Japanese DVD that will come out in December this year. Check the archives of my blog for details.

ACTION FIGURES

Bought some action figures, not all from the same place and not all at the same time. I rarely see these being sold anymore so I snatched them when I saw them on sale.
Pictured above: Old XMEN action figures of Wolverine and Sabretooth, sold in Toy's R Us on sale for Php400 each. These two would have to be my favorite bitter enemies in the X-universe ever since I ever read about them in the Wolverine Saga TPB's. Sabretooth is my favorite among the two, though. I don't really know why...

Pictured above: Another kind of X-MEN action figures, Wolverine and Sabretooth again. Also at Toys R Us on sale for Php400 each.


Pictured above: Darkstalkers action figure of BB Hood and John Talbain. It's been years since I have seen one of these in the stores. Toy R Us had it on sale for Php400. Err... I wonder why they paired these 2 characters together? Little red riding hood ripoff with big bad werewolf!?


Pictured above: Master Gouken and Battle Cry Variant action figure. This is part of the SOTA Street Fighter line of action figures, released when the game became 15 years old. Yes, believe it or not, it has been 15 years since I have been playing this video game in Robinsons Galleria and in almost every gaming console I ever owned. Tekken is also a favorite, but Street Fighter started it all for me. Anyway, for those who don't know who this guy is, he is the master of Ken and Ryu and Akuma/Gouki's elder brother. I got this pair at BEST Toys for Php1,000 apiece.

Original Voltes V DVD, Coming Out 12/8/2006

It’s confirmed. An original Japanese DVD release of CHOUDENJI MACHINE VOLTES V will come out in Japan this December 8, 2006! The Region-2 DVD box set will retail for 40,000 YEN, which is roughly abour Php17,000. Preorders are already being accepted in some Japanese online stores as early as now.

I am definitely going to save up for this, either get someone to buy it for me or do it myself. Recently, I managed to finally buy the LASERDISC set and this original DVD set will become a welcome addition to my collection. I might also buy the CHOUDENJI MACHINE COMBATTLER V DVD set.

I know someone who is so crazy about Voltes V, he bought three of the Soul of Chogokin Voltes V when it came out. I have to admit, I feel the same about the original video, although I won’t be buying 3 copies for myself LOL

A short thread about this release is already existing in Robot-Japan, and a member is already mentioned that he is waiting for the bootleg release of the DVD with English Subtitles. I don’t know if he knows, but I already released such a version and sold it in auction sites for over a year. In fact, it has been bootlegged by just about anybody and a machine pressed version has already been made and is being sold in Quiapo and Makati Cinema Square! A Filipino has even made it into a batch torrent and anyone with broadband can download it for free.

This proves just how pathetic majority of Filipino Voltes V fans are. These people are usually bellyaching to sellers online about why bootleg DVDS of Voltes V are all over the place, but they themselves prefer bootlegs over originals! An original release is finally coming out, but these guys are just waiting for a bootleg or downloadable version to come out. I bet only a handful are going to be lining up to buy the original DVD. It is truly pathetic and it is for this reason why I find Filipinos in online auction communities to be unreasonable and intolerable.

To you Filipinos who are always giving sellers crap for selling bootleg DVDS of Voltes V, well I challenge you to put your money where your mouth is. Get in line (or online) and buy this DVD set for about $400. You’re looking for originals, aren’t you? Well here it is and it’s coming out in December!

Dreans About "Going Back to School"

For some really annoying reason I have dreams that have continuity. That means, I dream about something on one night, then the dream continues on another night. Lately, this one dream just wont let up.

As far back as 5 years ago, after I graduated in college and when I was already a self employed businessman, also working part time as a voice actor, also earning off Ebay, well, you get the idea… bottom line was I was earning well, I always had dreams where I had to go study in high school AGAIN. And no, I don’t mean I flunked and had to repeat a grade or two, it’s always about having to go back and take 2 years of high school again. I really didn’t understand the dream and even in the dream, I didn’t get why I was in there again. I was with my high school classmates again, taking the same stuff again, stuff that I knew was already over and done with and that I didn’t need to know for whatever career I chose.

In that same dream, there are certain subjects that I simply chose not to attend. In high school, you don’t have that option – you don’t “drop” classes in high school. In my dream, I chose not to attend certain classes and as the year draws to a close, I felt the anxiety of possibly failing those classes. Lately, something new was added to the dream. There was a huge term paper due. The deadline was in less than 2 days and I had nothing done, I didn’t even know what I was going to write about!

These dreams occurred about 3 times this week. I wake up so annoyed!

I try to analyze the dream. I don’t really have much of an idea as to what it means. To me, high school is over and I really don’t care to look back on it. I didn’t bother to go to my high school reunion and I don’t keep in touch with anyone in my batch. I am not sure, but the dream may have something to do with the fact that sometimes, I have doubts as to whether I really learned anything in high school. Sure, I passed all the subjects and I never failed a single one, but I did I really learn anything? Or was the way I studied simply mechanical?

Termites Kill the X-Men, etc.

When I used to watch movies in Glorietta, they would always play this ad of Sentricon during the intermission. It’s a termite control service and they had a tag line about getting the termites’ home before they get yours. Well, mine got gotten!

It would have to be a collector’s worst nightmare, and believe me, I am a collector.

Last year, termites destroyed my anime DVD collection, which I kept in a big cardboard box by the refrigerator. The fridge soaked the floor around it, making it moist and ripe for termites. Looking at the top of the box, it would seem nothing has happened. But when I opened the box, there is termite poop all over the place. The termites ate the packaging of the DVDS including the booklets inside. They pooped on the discs, scratching them beyond any usability.

Prior to that, termites also destroyed most of my VHS collection. They ate the cardboard box that I stored them in and pooped inside the tapes. I must have lost 50 tapes worth of live action Japanese sci fi shows that I bought from another collector in New York.

At first I thought moving my stuff around the room would help and that the termites only found one part of the room. But I was wrong. Under my desk, which was in another side of the room, was my audio CD collection. Most if not all those CDS were original. Guess what? The termites found them too and did what they did to the DVDS.

Fearing that my comics were next, I moved all the comics outside the room. It’s funny, I could have sworn I moved it all safely downstairs but for some reason, a dozen storage boxes were left on the hallway near the stairs.

The termites also ate the bathroom door of my bedroom, destroying the wood that held the hinges. The door eventually fell off. That was when I decided to move to the room downstairs last year…

And now, the worst has probably happened. The termites found my comics and ate almost all of it. All the X titles that I have bought and collected over the years are ruined. The only consolation I have is that I have already read them all and I have a scanned version of the entire X-universe which I downloaded off the net.

It is such a frustrating thing to lose collection after collection to termites. I don’t know if farmers who lose their crop to pests feel the same way. What a waste!

HIGHLANDER 4 ORIGINAL DVD REPOSESSED!

As I type this, my adorable nephew Epi is sleeping on my bed. Aww...

I finally got my original DVDS back from my uncle. So now, my Highlander movie quadrilogy is complete! I got this one the last time I was in Hongkong. It's original, Region-1, with a ton of cool features. The coolest thing is, it finally got to explain why I saw 2 different versions of this movie - one where I watched it on the big screen, and one when I watched it on pirated VCD. It's not really a biggie, in one version, Jin Ke [Donnie Yen] killed himself and Kate [Lisa Barbuscia] lived happily ever after with Duncan [Adrian Paul]. In the other, Jin was never shown killing himself but Kate was killed. One sad thing about the movie was the fact that Connor was killed so that Duncan would be strong enough to beat Jacob Kell. It's a shame, but all for the best, I guess, considering Lambert was getting too old to play Connor and this paved the way for Duncan to be the Macleod of choice.

EVANGELION JACKPOT!!!

I got this ORIGINAL BOX SET of Neon Genesis Evangelion from bidding at Ebay.ph. The seller is Comic Sale Central, and for only P2,000!!!

RICHMOND'S BIRTHDAY; DVD BUYING SPREE AGAIN

Spent today with my friend Richmond and my translator ChiChi. We had lunch at Burgoo Podium, and while I was walking around Podium I went in Astroplus and I found my prize... original videos of the Highlander Tilogy! Well, Highlander 1 was in VCD only =( but at P150 per original DVD!? That's a find! To my dismay, I found out that the Galleria branch had the DIRECTOR'S CUT of Highlander but not anymore.

DVD buying spree... originals on sale

Just got back from my usual trip to the Greenhills Post Office… had my usual iced latte with Equal at Starbucks. As I passed by the kiosk of Astrovision in front of the theater, I found and bought four original DVDS of Steven Seagal for only P299 apiece. I had bootleg copies of these before, but as time went by, I lost them because so many people borrowed from my DVDS. I was at Metrowalk the other day and tried to buy these again but they were no longer available. I wanted to buy them off Ebay where some of them were sold for only $0.01 (that’s right, one penny or P0.52) but that would have taken forever. So I decided to buy these on sale:

Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Under Siege 1 & 2

I have been acquiring videos for personal viewing for a very long time. Whether it is original or bootleg didn’t really matter as I just wanted to watch them over and over. Heck, there was a time when I would just rent laserdiscs and record them on betamax!

Lately, I have been trying to find all those things that I was into about 10 years ago. It could be old videogames, old videos, whatever… I guess I can blame the fact that everything is pretty mediocre these days and there isn’t really anything worth getting into, so it’s back with the old… even Seagal isn’t really what he used to be anymore.

A couple of days ago, I was at Metrowalk and since I couldn’t find the latest season of NYPD Blue on bootleg DVD, I ended up buying the James Bond box set. 20 007 films in one box, not including “Never Say Never Again” (favorite ko pa man din) and “Casino Royale” (the first Bond Film).

On a slightly related note, if anyone remembers the first time Voltes V was aired on GMA7 back in the 70’s, they would remember that the background music was different than the version we all get to watch now in those VCDS sold just about anywhere. This is because at the time, Telesuccess didn’t have the original music and effects track for Voltes V and had to make their own music and effects. So as background music, they took music from the 007 movie “You Only Live Twice”, which was shot in, you guessed it, Japan! I used to have a copy of this version in Betamax, but I didn’t keep it…

MY CLAIM TO FAME AS A VOICE TALENT

Okay since I knew of some stuff I wanted to put in this blog long before I started it, there’s going to be a backlog of some sort when it comes to subjects that I want to tackle. Here is one of them.

Before I end up forgetting (some of which I may have forgotten already), here are the roles I have played or should I say, characters I have dubbed in my 6 years as a voice talent.

Unless otherwise stated, the show is owned and was dubbed by Telesuccess Productions and more often than not, shown in GMA-7. However, I also dubbed for shows in ABS-CBN, some went straight to home video, and some home videos were for distribution in other countries. My apologies for no timeline, I don’t really remember what year it was when I did these… but they were all from 2000-2006. Also, “(S)” also means I was the scriptwriter for the show.

I will try to list it with the earliest roles at the top. Show is on the left, followed by the character I played:

SHELVED PROJECTS [IN ENGLISH]

COMBATTLER V (S) – JUZO NANIWA

TAGALIZED PROJECTS [ANIME]

FLAME OF RECCA – DAIKOKU
DAIMOS (S)
FUSHIGI YUUGI – CHICHIRI, MITSUKAKE
MONSTER RANCHER – GOLEM
MASTER OF MOSQUITON – FRANKY, BUTLER
TRIGUN (S)
HELL TEACHER NUBE – KATSUYA, MR. TAMAMO
GRANDOLL (S)
GHOST IN THE SHELL (S)
STARLIGHT SCRAMBLE (S)
DANGAIZER 3 (S) – PROFESSOR
BUBBLEGUM CRISIS 2040 – NIGEL, BUTLER
CAT’S EYE – GUESTS
HUNTER X HUNTER (S)– HISOKA, MILKY
SLAM DUNK (S) – KOGURE, ODA
KNOCKOUT (S) – AOKI, HAYAMI, MASHIBA, YAGI
COWBOY BEBOP – ANDY
KIDDY GRADE (S) – TWEEDLEDUM, DEXTER
TENHJO TENGE (S) – TAWARA, BOB
CHRNO CRUSADE (S)
DEAR BOYS (S) (ABSCBN) – KADOMATSU

TAGALIZED PROJECTS [TOKUSATSU]

MASKED RIDER RYUKI (S) (ABS-CBN) – REN/KNIGHT
SHAIDER (S) – DRIGO

TAGALIZED PROJECTS [ASIAN DRAMA]

ALL ABOUT EVE – WARREN KIM

TAGALIZED PROJECTS [US SHOWS]

24 SEASON 1-3 – TONY ALMEIDA

ENGLISH PROJECTS [LOCAL HOME VIDEO MARKET]

LUPIN III – GOODBYE LADY LIBVERTY (S) – JIGEN
LUPIN III – BANK OF LIBERTY (S) – JIGEN
STARLIGHT SCRAMBLE (S)
KNIGHT HUNTERS (S) – KEN
BURN UP EXCESS (S)

ENGLISH PROJECTS [SINGAPORE HOME VIDEO]

ROCKMAN.EXE – DEKAO, GUTSMAN, COUNT ELEC, HINOKEN

Whew! And these are just the ones I remember from the top of my head. I’ll try to update this post in the future if I remember any more.

Time for breakfast… oatmeal is getting cold. Bye for now.

Opening Salvo

Well, this is my first crack at blogging and I really don’t know where to start… I actually signed up for another account last year but I never got around to posting anything. Heck I don’t even like the username or nickname I chose back then so the heck with that one, I just signed up a new one.

Some may wonder what “giehar” means. Actually it has no real deep meaning. It’s short for “AnGIE HARmon”, that’s the name of the actress who plays ADA Abby Carmichael in NBC’s police/courtroom drama “Law and Order”, which I was very much into lately. I was trying to think up a unique username that wasn’t already taken. I was getting sick of all the Japanese names I was thinking of (shades of being an anime fan) so I decided on a different genre to coin from.

I really don’t have a plan as to what I want to say in this blog. I might be using it as a personal rant zone or soap box to voice out my opinions about what’s been ticking me off about the world lately… or maybe just to narrate everyday things happening in my boring life. Well, I am not writing this to give people something exciting to read… I guess it’s more for me than for others…

Anyway, that’s it for now… “You Only Live Twice” is on Star Movies and I am missing one of my favorite Bond movies.