Mom Birthday 2013.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Mom.

Chloe & Dylan - Scooter.

I don't know what we call this, but been wanting to get one for the kids for a while.

Chloe Birthday 2013.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday CoCo. And special mention of thanks to Sim Yoon for her ice cream cake. It melted, during the cake cutting but its all a-ok. The incredible melting cake!

Unkle T.

Unkle T dropped by for a few days stay from Houston, TX.

Hot Toys DX11 - The Dark Knight : The Joker 2.0

 

 

I started a joke.

Which started the whole world crying.

But I didn't see.

That the joke was on me, oh no.

I started to cry.

Which started the whole world laughing.

Oh, if I'd only seen.

That the joke was on me.

Til I finally died.

Which started the whole world living.

Oh, if I'd only seen.

That the joke was on me.

 

It should have been "will the real 1/6th Joker please stands up?". This is because, if memory serves me correctly and it hasn't lately, I recall that there have been at least three previous releases from Hot Toys on the Joker. Let's see. There's the standard MMS version, followed by the Bank Robber Joker, and the DX01 version, the one which got me into the deep end of the world of 1/6th collection (and near financial ruin). I haven't really seen the original MMS version but the Bank Robber version is on display at BTS xl-shop which looks kinda menacing. Secondary prices are sky rocketing for it during those time, so I am incredibly happy to have DX01 released. All those PERS and additional headsculpt, uniform and accessories, what not makes me feel like a boy whom first laid his ten, skinny little fingers on his very first Transformer (that's the OG Grimlock fyi, now long gone) figure. It doesn't help that the late Heath Ledger's final role and characterisation of the Joker (kudos to the makeup/effect team) is so groundbreaking, even to me, whom had my Batman comic storyline formative years written under the gritty, "for mature readers only" tag by the likes of Alan Moore and Frank Miller to name but a few. The Joker is portrayed truly as a homicidal, sociopathic maniac, instead of the clownish version. 
Hot Toys, which have had evolved from a military/special forces 1/6th figures elitist to Hollywood/Pop Culture 1/6th mass marketing entity, while still retaining the incredible details in their products, has really got everything right and milked them to the last drop and still squeezes out more. The Iron Man movie range comes into mind. Good luck to those fans. Another are the Predator movie series. And very likely characters from The Avengers. Now I would have thought Hot Toys would goes on and release something new, or perhaps even innovative, overlook classic or cult figures but no. When all the supa dupa box office hit figures and variants have been released, Hot Toys, with the Marketing Gurus smiling heavenly at them, decides to re-release so-called "version 2.0". It basically means an upgrade to better products, like cars. Which is good. It would means if there's version 2 of Bruce Lee, he would no longer looks like a stand in or Pan Asian, it means Indiana Jones no longer has that shadowy guyliner, it means there would be hope for a new Rambo or Rocky figures. But it is a double edge swords, working both ways. What about those previous versions or variants? Reminds me of mobile phones and notebooks. Evolution. In figures terms, either it gradually become less realistic when compared to the newer releases or self destruct in the cabinet. Like the Appleseed's Briareos whose knee joint suddenly gave out, Takara's Kerberos Panzer Cop deteriorating uniforms and so forth. Or I could  flog it off to someone (just don't fleece them). By becoming less realistic, I look at the most straightforward example in my display cabinet. Two Face Harvey Dent. Once upon a time, he looked awesome. Now he looks like a caricature of a figure supposedly representing Harvey Dent. Hhhmm, plastic like, on the shorter end with ancient TrueType body and ill fitting wardrobe. The test of time and by logic of improvement are becoming a great, personal concern. At least Two Face isn't popular enuff to be given a take two. No siree. It's the highway all the way. Harvey's gonna be a Ken doll in a couple of years time. Version 2.0 treatments or re-releases include the Predators from the OG movie, its subsequent "it's all downhill from here" sequels, Iron Man MK1 (re-coloured by customiser KAZ?) and of course, here in my hand right now, the DX11 The Joker.  

After the rantings above, and obtaining 1/7th scale Bane, I can smell the burns from the brake pads as I pull off an emergency brake on my wanton orders of any Hot Toys releases. I would still continue purchase Hot Toys stuff for no one can match the incredible details and near likeness of the figures they churns out but not like last time. 220 km/hr kind of purchases.

DX11 has improved, naturally, from DX01, like in the case of DX12 vs. DX02. It is all in the details. But at least unlike in the case of the latter, of which DX12 has an elbow guards which is turned into an elbow blade, with barely there threads linking the slot and the cape together, and DX02 by now infamous "belly oil", both DX Jokers (I like the sound of dat), are defect free. At least for the ones I got (and about "defects", man, more like flimsy material. Case in point, a snapped pneumatic tube on the Batmobile, Sweeney Todd's barber chair, Barney Ross knee joint, Spidey's wrist peg...and they say I got the strength of a fairy...). 

First, the headsculpt. More details, more wrinkles, now with a subtle, wry smile like expression. The secondary headsculpt is alright but I ain't gonna do the interrogation scene anyway. I would still say the un-disguised Joker secondary headsculpt from DX01 takes the cake. Hhmm, with all these headsculpts around, someone out there is definitely building an army of Jokers by now. The PERS are same ole, same ole. The hair, however, still looks like the aquatic plants in my aquarium. Someone gotta do a rooted hair version of him someday I think. Version 2.5? I am not a fan of rooted hair but for the Joker, it kinda suits him more. The body is the same, not the model but in terms of posing, articulation blah blah. The highlight is actually the trademark purple coat. Coz it is commissioned under Hot Toys to the haute couture of 1/6th world clothing designer and customiser, Kato. No, not the Hornet sidekick. And yes, I don't have a single clue about him. But I have seen some of his work, and I must say I am impress with his work. Down to the single detail and within scale. But that's made via his hands. This is the mass marketed ones. Like a repro denim hand made in Japan by a 80 years old artisan through a shuttle loom versus a projectile loom woven stuffs. From my view, the coat looks like a thick piece of velvet. I am not sure whether this is the case represented in the movie per se, but looks like a piece of, uh, carpet/suede? It looks kinda "furry" too. The silhouette is all there, but the inner lining is now orange-ish instead of red. The rest of the garments - vest, shirt, pants, socks - are more or less the same. The shoes are no longer molded, which is good. It comes with a mix of selected accessories from all three previous release, except for the shotgun (did he uses a shotgun? I thought that's the bank manager. Wait, yes, he did take the shotgun from the bank manager) - switchblades, a balisong, deck of cards, a stack of cash, the sub-machine gun, the handgun. It comes with a metal surfaced table, a chair, interrogation room background, a magnetic table lamp for easy pose, and even a pencil for the "magically disappearing pencil" trick. Neat. The chain on his pants are now gold/bronze instead of silver. Or maybe its the lighting. Limited edition comes with the "Grumpy" version clown mask and a handheld detonator as bonus for extra RM70. I opted for the standard version instead. What I really want to be included are the coat pocket and luggage bag frag and smoke grenades. The pocket grenades for DX01 is a killer, no pun intended. Which by the way, it irritates me how nowadays manufacturers loves to milk us customers with so many versions which differentiating factors consists of almost irrelevant "additional accessories" or "different variants", limited or otherwise i.e. battle damage version, clean version, different colour scheme, material, etc. I heard rumours that some upcoming figures even come with voice/sound features. Well, at least it is not insanely limited or play hard to get way of 3A, particularly if I got snagged into a particularly lovely variant which is a random drop or exclusive, exhibition release only. Secondary market kills. What I mean is, couldn't they just pack everything inside a singular figure? I have a feeling that 1/6th is going the route of the comic/graphic novels industry during its heydays. Chrome covers, hardcovers, signed limited editions etc. And that is not a good sign. Does it mean the 1/6th industry has peaked?

The packaging is not as lavish as DX01, like DX12 compares to DX02. But it is the figures which matters. I really don't care about packaging. But then again, how to justify the retail price leh? Overall, this is (currently) the Hot Toys version of the Joker to get if you haven't got any. But I doubt any fans wouldn't have by now, are there?         

  

Chloe - With Mister Todd.

Letting Todd off as part of the ongoing 1/6th collection trimming exercise. Chloe has an opportunity to take a final pic with it.

Chloe and Dylan - Robot vs. Monster.

...a little bit of fun for Robot vs. Monster. Improv from a cardbox. They loved it. I am the unfortunate Monster though. Makes me wanna find time to do up a proper one for them, gears and all.

Hot Toys MMS 183 - The Dark Knight Rises : Bane Part 2

 

 

 

Bane, portrayed by Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the conclusion of the Batman film trilogy by director Christopher Nolan, reminds me of Darth Vader when he took off his mask at the end of The Return of The Jedi. In some media I read, it has been reported that Nolan indeed had Vader partly as inspiration when conceptualising Bane. His voice, which reminds me more of Sean Connery, is partly based on Irish bareknuckle boxer, Bartley Gorman. Tom Hardy puts on weight to add bulk to the character but honestly, he looks kinda fat-ish. He looks more menacing in Warrior (2011). Hot Toys offering of this version of Bane is true to the movie version, including the details of his body down from the scars up to pimple-like bumps. The headsculpt, well, nothing to really comment about since Bane wears mask, but is per Hot Toys standard i.e. veins and whatnot, even though there are again comments of the colours and lack of weathering. Be warned though, coz the figure I got has an unpainted strip along the upper head straps of Bane's baldy head. An obvious quality concern, xl-shop graciously changed it for me but one of the two remaining stocks has the same "defect". The gears are minimal as Bane is purely physical but there's still a tad feeling of hesitance when parting with my moola to David. The one sixth hobby is increasingly becoming a game for the ten percentile hehe. Removing the infamous vest is surprising easy though time consuming compare to other more nightmarish gears I had came across from Hot Toys. And nothing break this time. Like Napoleon Dynamite says, "Luckeee!!!". The hand glaives, sweater, leather jacket (which reminded me of the one Kate Hudson's Pennylane wears in Almost Famous) are nice, and so is the supposedly customised Crye Precision GEN 1 combat pants and modified boots (what do I know about military garbs anyhoo?). Well, I still have a beef regarding Hot Toys molded boots but enough said. It looks nice and precise overall.  Take note that I could not slip in the hand glaive when wearing the jacket coz I find the opening to be too narrow. A pity coz Bane wears it all the time. Now here's the setback for this figure...the size. Yes. Hot Toys' Bane is well, a tad shorter than DX12 Bats. I mean, yes, but no, uh...what the heck? I sees it as a 1/7th scale. And this is the antagonist who breaks Bats? Hahahaha...I couldn't stand it, so I did what I needed to do next. Swap the bods with the just released Advanced Muscular Body. The pants wouldn't fit, that's for sure coz its tighter and smaller, so I just grabbed whatever combat pants available at xl-shop, which happens to be a DML camo pants, coupled with a spare ACI combat boots, and bingo. The Bane I wants. Tall (but maybe too tall, almost near The Predator's height) and bigger (the shoulder width is approximately the same) but what the heck. It's Bane, man! The leather jacket does not "hang" as naturally as the on the original body. Also looks shorter, undersized now but it sill slips in without any pressure.

Maybe down the line, I would try to look for a similar combat pants, I realise there're some from Soldier Story's FCS Multicam figures, DiD, Very Hot Toys but they're incredibly rare and only in camo. The Belfast mercenary coat is non-existent, but I've read that even for the movie, they used a Trialmaster jacket. That could be obtained from MC Toys Will Smith's I Am Legend set. The boots are heavily customised. I have seen the Soldier Story Korean boots, but it's kinda not "brutal" enuff and not the same thing, without the details etc., so I'll probably stick to standard combat boots. But that means more money to be spent, so this will do for now. Or maybe not. Sometimes, these sort of things will nag me. To put it out of me head, I got the DiD set but in camo. Would very much tempted to bleach/dye blah blah but nah, camo is good enuff though not for the hardcore fans and purists. The pants should have knee protector in the form of hardshell but DiD seems to take the lazy route and has glued on piece of plastic. I swapped it with the knee pad from the original which are also glued on. The ACI boots sorta makes Bane looks like wearing a battle ship sized gear, so I swapped back the original ones. I am eating my own words ere but ok, for once, the size and molded boots compliment the figure. Nothing is perfect. Managed to squeezed in the glaives, yes both of em (in the movie he only wears one), an incredible exercise of patience, creativity and dexterity, through the opening of the coat. So, goodbye Bane. Off ya go into the cabinet with the rest of the crew.