Sunday Ramblings: The Geek Life episode 6

It's all about Gundam this week!!!!  Well, not all of it, but actually quite a lot.  Not for any specific reason per se, but sometimes things just tend to come together in certain ways.

Like this cute little guy

I adopted him in Tokyo Toys in London last february, and finally wanted to build him.  Now; there are 3 approaches to 'GunPla', which is a recognised term for 'Gundam Plastics' or the building of, well, plastic model kits of Gundam.

Bandai provides the kits in the more or less accurate colours for the main sprues, and there is a category they call 'Straight builds' at conventions and such.  In that, you snap-lock and decalise the kits straight out of the box et voila, all done.

I wanted to give it a try with this fellow instead of with the bigger kits I have lying around (and really should start working on somewhere in the not to far future).  I am not to happy though with the result, and am going to go 'method 2' on it

Which is halfway between straight build and true modelling, in that you snaplock the kits together, and then paint in the non-main colour details.  Expect to see the little guy again in the future, with a better picture.

Method 3 is well, scale modelling, painting and all like you do with airplane kits and the likes...

What Have I been Tapping?

Not much, I managed to reach level 28 after the points of last weeks pre-release where added, but with the heatwave terrorising Belgium at the moment, I didn't want to go and bury myself inside.

I did get the M14 Core Booster box, but even though I ended up with a lot of good rares and no less then 7 mythics, I didn't even get a single copy of the Lifebane Zombie I wanted twice.

What have I been Gaming?

First, allow me a little oversight from last week, it seems I forgot to mention my 50.000th points achievement, Off The Post in FIFA 11.

Bar that, I have barely been gaining trophies myself this week, as I have been playing to semi-orgasms on my japanese import games.

The first on the PS3, Gundame Extreme Vs is an arcade game where you play arena matches of 2 suits versus 2 suits, and you have missions to unlock extra skills and emblems and the like.  Each suit has a rating between 1000 and 3000, and a team has a gauge of 6000 points.  This is reduced by the amount of your suit if you get killed, and the first team to knock the other to 0 wins.

It's fast, it's addictive... and I still even have to figure out what the trophies are, let alone to have popped one so far, but I have been clocking already over 7 hours ingame in the few evenings I got to play it.  And no, I haven't been playing with the Freedom, but with the HeavyArms custom.  Dakkadakkadakkadakkadakka boom boom....

Another game I am having heaps of fun with is the Vita game SEED Destiny, in which you choose a faction like ZAFT and then proceed through the storylines of SEED ans SEED Destiny, meeting, fighting and co-operating with reknowned characters of the anime series.  I just finished the SEED storyline and now am hopping along in my Perfect Grade Strike Gundam.  Time to work towards the Freedom...

Again, only a silver and a bronze came of this, I actually scored most points together with the munchkin, playing an oldtimer.  Dungeons and Dragons - Chronicles of Mystara.  This old arcade game is great fiun to play with the little one, as he just has to button bash, genre Double Dragon, X-Men etc.

Talking munchkin, together with the GF he has been at Wonderbook Book of Spells again, and hauled in over 500 points this week.  I'm glad my back up plan is finally putting in effort now that I am playing less trophy orientated with the lead I have in the PS Challenge at the moment.

What have I been Collecting?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

On the happy happy joy joy side of things, I managed to get two of the missing promo cards from my Saint Seiya Crusade sets, both Buy a Box cards.  From the first Omega expansion, I finally got Ryuho, while from the Hades series I got Ikki's card.

But on the bleugh side... I discovered that my Gundam MS War series is further from completion then thought.  It turns out there where starter sets for the Earth Federation and for the Zeon Principality where released after all, and now I can't find them, nor a checklist.  Did manage to find some of the cards on ebay, so I'll have to work from there.

But even worse, the game also had a set of Invasion promo cards back in 2002, one for each city where the game launched in the States.  I have no idea where I'll ever have to go and find those but we'll keep hunting and searching.

What have I been Watching?

Valvrave the Liberator!!!!  It ain't gundam, but it still is big bad mecha action.  Spanning 12 episodes in the first season and open ended for more, this is like a mixture between Gundam (melancholic teens, love stories etc) and Evangelion (there is something odd with the mechas as they multiply and require you to give up your humanity before activating)

It is fast paced, beautifully drawn, and brutal in action sequences.  Watch it!

What have I been Reading?

Volume 8 of Saint Seiya episode G, see my earlier comments of the drawing and all.  In this volume, Miro of Scorpio takes on the legendary Hector of Troy, while Shura battles a god to a standstill.

Other than that, I finished Star Trek Voyager: Full Circle.   This novel by Kirsten Beyer ties together all the arcs from the recent canon, with the dead of Admiral Janeway, the founding of the Typhon Pact and the end of the Borg by the Caeliar Gestalt, while Voyager and a fleet prepare for a new mission to... the Delta Quadrant and see what the ending of the Borg threat has caused there in the power vacuum.

What have I been Bricking?

I build the munchkin's Pirate ship... for the second time in half a year.  He smashed it before, and to be sure, he smashed it some more.  But she is sailing again now, and I swore it would be the last time, next time he can rebuild her himself hehhe.

Ending this time, I do it with a small limited set from Lord of the Rings, the Gandalf promotional from the Hobbit series.

Now I'm off to pack my bags for a week of vacation, so see y'all again next week in another episode of the ramblings of my life in full geeky galore!!!

Ciao ciao