Skip to content

Robolinks

Revell Robotech Robolinks a.k.a Takara Blockman
A photo of a Revell Robotech Robolinks figure.

Robolinks was the US-marketed version of Takara’s Blockman, my favourite robot action figure construction line and about once a year I wistfully hope that Takara re-releases the line. It hasn’t happened yet but who knows?

As I always say, these Blockman figures would be perfect as trading kit figures. Pack each 500 yen blind package with a single Blockman figure along with a few 5mm accessories with the promise that a full carton of 12 packages will contain enough Blockman figures and parts to build a cool-looking robot or vehicle. Since having more Blockman figures would provide greater construction options, this will give fans an incentive to purchase even more packages.

Market the line through hobby magazines and an official site in the same way Plex has been doing with the Mugenbine line. And then sit back as fans help promote the line by setting up fan-sites devoted to custom creations.

Posted in Pix, Toys.

Comments Off on Robolinks

By Gobi – Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Good things, small package

I’ve been trying out a new BitTorrent client, µTorrent, and I really like it a lot.

The first thing I noticed about the app is that it’s tiny. The download is 114KB in size and that executable is the entire program. The memory requirements are similarly compact as it takes up less than 6MB of RAM on average. It’s a phenomenal programming achievement considering µTorrent doesn’t stint on features.

There’s no installation per se but keep in mind that some data files are dumped into the user Application Data directory. I would have preferred it if the data files were stored in the same directory as the application.

In terms of features, here are the main advantages µTorrent has over BitTornado (my previous favourite):

  • Trackerless support. Can’t connect to a tracker? No problem. You’ll still be able to connect to peers and begin downloading.
  • Automation. With µTorrent, you can automatically download a torrent until completed and then seed it at your maximum upload rate until you’ve reached a 1.000 share ratio and then switch to another torrent file.
  • Unicode support. If you’ve ever used BitTornado to download a BitComet-created torrent with Chinese characters, you’ve probably encountered the errno2 error. You won’t face any such problem with µTorrent.

There are other Bittorrent clients with those same features but they tend to be bloated resource-hoggers or dodgy in some way.

µTorrent does have a couple of shortcomings but nothing major. I find it exasperating µTorrent doesn’t quite handle disk allocation elegantly. Apparently the option for compact allocation isn’t quite working at the moment. A bit ironic considering how compact the rest of the app is but I’m confident the developers will fix it. Some users might also rue the lack of support for UDP trackers (e.g. BitComet’s tracker) but the trackerless support feature ought to compensate for that in most cases.

All thing considered, µTorrent is a fantastic program and proof that good things do come in small packages.

Tips

If you need to add an external tracker or delete non-responsive trackers from a multi-tracker torrent, right-click on the torrent in µTorrent, select Properties then add or delete trackers as necessary.

µTorrent creates a copy of the torrent file in the user Application Data directory so you might want to right-click on the torrent and select the Remove And->Delete .torrent option once you’ve completed downloading and seeding a torrent.

To set your global upload and download rates, go to Options->Preferences->Network Options. If you’re a Streamyx 1Mbps user, I would recommend setting the upload rate to 25KB/s when downloading and 35KB/s when seeding. You can also set the IP to announce to a tracker if you’re behind a web proxy.

Posted in Software.

Comments Off on Good things, small package

By Gobi – Saturday, December 24, 2005

Elsewhere on the web

Takara Pepsi Convoy press release.
PDF file, 284KB. “Transformers are sold in more than 130 countries. Over 1000 varieties and more than 300 million units of Transformers have been sold to date … With fans now spanning two generations, Transformers is no longer just for kids. In fact, Takara research shows they have 80% brand awareness among Japanese men in their 20s.”

Magneforce Kamen Rider.
Customs by kyoshirom.

“My First Tattoo Gun.”

Posted in Web.

Comments Off on Elsewhere on the web

By Gobi – Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Elsewhere on the web

BigBuild Gatling.
An imposing Mugenbine gestalt by Gee. The crotch drill seems unnecessary, though.

Bruce Geryk on casual gaming.
“Casual games are that huge segment of the industry that hardcore gamers don’t want to acknowledge – over-35 soccer moms and solitaire-playing old ladies, visiting big portals like Yahoo! Games and Pogo.com.”

The art of Natascha Roeoesli.
Stunning.

Feral children. [via]
There are some truly astonishing and sad stories.

Posted in Web.

Comments Off on Elsewhere on the web

By Gobi – Tuesday, December 20, 2005

A pox

The human body is a truly extraordinary organism which, thanks to millions of years of evolution, comes equipped with numerous methods with which it can gross you out.

For instance, like this:
Chicken pox
Guess who has chicken pox?

I spotted the first red blister ten days ago but I wasn’t too sure it was chicken pox until three days later when a few more popped up. The blisters initially numbered less than a dozen but they’ve pretty much erupted all over the place since then.

There are a couple of things I found surprising about chicken pox. Did you know it’s caused by one of the eight forms of herpes that affect humans? I think I can understand why the herpes connection is usually downplayed, though. Saying you caught the herpes virus instead of chicken pox is probably going to result in one of those long uncomfortable silences. Especially if you happen to be a kid.

“Li’l Timmy can’t come out to play right now because he’s got herpes.”

So, yeah, “chicken pox” it is.

Another surprising thing is that chicken pox can be much more severe in adults than in children. It wasn’t so bad in my case but I felt really — and here I hope I’m not intimidating you with medical jargon — “funky.” I had a fever off and on for a few days but nothing too severe. However, I did feel very uncomfortable and my energy levels were pretty low. You know you have a bad case of malaise when tapping the keyboard and clicking the mouse seems like too much effort.

The itchiness, probably the worst single symptom, was mostly manageable. It was especially bad at night and I sometimes found myself scratching without thinking. Thankfully, calamine lotion helped to alleviate the worst of it. The downside is the lotion dries up in pink splotches. Since I had blisters all over the body (including the face and scalp), I ended up looking like a special forces soldier camouflaged for a mission at the Pink Aisle in TRU.

It looks like it might take a few more days to clear up. I don’t exactly feel like doing cartwheels right now but my energy levels are higher and I feel less like a miserable bastard right now.

Anyway, if you haven’t contracted chicken pox, do consider getting vaccinated.

Posted in General.

Comments Off on A pox

By Gobi – Monday, December 19, 2005