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For great justice!

Here are some tokusatsu-flavoured song suggestions for your listening pleasure.

Ultraman the Next ED — Never Goodbye.
This hard rock song from the 2004 Ultraman movie was by Tak Matsumoto Group, a band comprising B’z’s Matsumoto Takahiro, Mr Big’s Eric Martin and Damn Yankees’ Jack Blades.

Ryukendo ED — Everybody Goes.
This new Takara-sponsored show is a little rougher around the edges and seems to have a lower budget than Toei or Toho shows but it features some nifty CG work and giggle-licious comedy. Aikawa Nanase’s energetic song plays during an “Eh?”-eliciting ending sequence featuring a football set-piece.

Dekaranger — Blue is the sky.
Going by Dekaranger, no criminal case is so complex that it can’t be solved through the use of a giant robot. This song may not be “PAH-FECT,” as Hayashi Tsuyoshi’s Dekablue would put it, but it’s surprisingly good for a character song.

Kamen Rider Hibiki ED — Shonen Yo.
The stirring ED song for the series was a classy orchestral tune exhorting directionless youth to find their own way in life and this was the theme of the series as well.

Gransazer BGM — Beautiful Earth (strings version).
Gransazer was a series of two halves. The first was quite good and certainly head and shoulders over typical sentai fare while the second meandered and bogged down. The background music was one of the elements that stayed cool throughout, however, and the album makes for some fun listening.

Seek them out and be sure to strike a heroic pose when you’re listening to them.

Posted in Music.


Make no bones

Mega Bloks Pyrates

A photo of Skullforage, Noricorpse and Sublurker from Mega Bloks’ Pyrates line.

Mega Bloks’ line of magnet-powered action figures, Mag Warriors, hasn’t been released locally for some reason. I could always get them through eBay but that’s a really pricey method especially these days.

To give you a current example, I have to pay a total of USD51 for an action figure set costing USD13. That includes the cost of shipping the set from the US to Malaysia via airmail, the commission for the international bank draft I’ve made out as payment and the cost of sending the bank draft to the US via EMS to ensure the seller receives it within a week.

I expect I’ll be panhandling on the streets a few decades from now.

On the plus side, I’ll be the bum with the coolest toy collection.

Posted in Pix, Toys.


Elsewhere on the web

Takara Tomy history exhibition.
Meant to commemorate the union of the two companies, the exhibition runs from March 2 to 21 at Parco Shibuya with another exhibition at Parco Nagoya at the end of the month. Note the side by side displays of GI Joe, Henshin Cyborg and Microman figures which is of course wholly appropriate considering how those lines are related.

Lego Metroplex. [via]

Stikfas Mecha.
More custom Stikfas here.

Posted in Web.


Grind

Xevoz Sky Grinder

A photo of Sky Grinder, a figure from the Xevoz line.

Sky Grinder was one of the cooler figure concepts in a cool line. I love the idea of a sky-surfing punk wielding dual blades as he slices and dices away in a turf war over the skies of a futuristic ghetto.

Unfortunately, the figure (or at least mine) was let down by poor manufacturing. The ball-joints — especially those for the knees — were far too loose making this figure as stable as Floppy McFalls-a-lot.

Close examination of the problematic joints revealed some sort of residue on the balls of the ball joints. The factory must have been aware of the poor-fitting joints and tried to layer the joints with some clear liquid (clear nail polish? glue?) in a failed attempt to mask the problem.

Posted in Pix, Toys, Xevoz.


Elsewhere on the web

Hibiki digirama.
300yen candy toy + Reader‘s image manipulation = art.

Addiction and games.
It’s a nice article but I wish the author had addressed the fact some games are designed to be addictive. For further reading, go here. It’s a lot more complicated than the fear-mongers would have you believe.

TM Net: P2P clogging broadband.
To summarise: TM Net is surprised its customers are actually making use of their bandwidth. It’s a pity the reporter neglected to ask about the quality of the company’s service.

Microsoft on OS security.

Posted in Web.