 phoenix |  August 19th, 2010 Last night the sky was clear with no cloud coverages. My friend and I drove to a farm near Pickering and did some star gazing. I brought my camera gears along to do some simple astrophotography.
First easy target for the camera is the moon. I’ve posted my photo of the first full moon of year2010 before. Beautiful as the full moon is, it is actually too bright and does not have enough contrast on the moon surface to see some of the craters. A new moon will actually offer much better details than a full moon because of the contrast provided by the shadows on the moon’s surface. Last night is 2 day past moon’s first quarter, the moon is actually about 57% full. However it still offered enough shadows on the moon’s surface so that some more details can be seen.
The same gear as the last moon shot was used. Canon EOS 7D was coupled with Sigma 100-300 F4 & Sigma 1.4x teleconverter all sitting on the Manfrotto 055 Pro tripod. This gives me a relative stable platform for the camera and an equivalent focal length of 672mm. The following photo was shot at ISO 100, F11 @ 1/100th second.
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phoenix | July 10th, 2010 Went to Yorkville Exotics Car Show today. This is a new car show that started this year in the downtown heart of Toronto. I got a bit restless waiting for my new car to come from Halifax so I wanted to go there to check out the other exotics before my exotics arrives. The show is primarily sponsored by Ferrari and Porsche so the car that’s on the show is also only Ferraris and Porsches. Since I was just dropping by quickly during noon time, the lighting will be horrible, and I’m not going to spend too long at the show, I only brought my point and shoot. So unfortunately the photos are all pretty bad to my standard.
 But anyway here goes.
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phoenix | June 12th, 2010 I have posted back in 2009 that I purchased a pre-painted resin figure of Volks’ Hatsune Miku from e2046. This particular Hatsune Miku resin kit was original released by Volks Japan in Wonder Festival 2008 at an price of ¥14,490. It was later released by Volks Japan as a 1/6 PVC figure in August 2008 with an MSRP of ¥7,140. Now e2046 sells recast resin garage kit as well as pre-painted recast resign figures. And in case you are wondering, yes they simply made copies of the original kit and sell these copies. Now I do try to avoid these recast figures, but because garage kits in Japan are very expensive and very limited in production quantity, it is not always possible to get my hand on the original. And because garage kits are typically produced in such tiny small quantities and that they do not have any lost of market outside Japan, I do from time to time buy recast garage kits from places like e2046. However, if possible, I do still want to get my hand on the original.
Around end of 2009 and beginning of 2010, Volks Japan did another re-issued version of this figure as an “Encore Package” during Comiket 77 (December 29-31, 2009) and New Kit Exhibition 2010 (January 1-11 2010). And so my quest to get the original started.
Hatsune Miku Encore Package 1/6 PVC by Volks (初音ミク アンコールパッケージ). Original Sculptor Milchstraße (ミルヒ・シュトラーセ). Released on May 2010 with an MSRP of ¥7,560.
Here’s what the box looks like, front and back.
 
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phoenix | June 3rd, 2010 I’ve purchased Alter’s Saber Maid PVC a little over two years ago. A little over one year ago, I’ve purchased a Dollfie Dream Saber and the Dollfie Dream Saber Maid costume. Give the fact that I own a number of PVCs, nendoroids, as well as a Dollfie Dream Saber, and that I also own Saber Maid in both PVC and as a dollfie dream costume, you can conclude that I’m definitely a fan of Saber maid. And when I see that Alter will be releasing a PVC of Saber Alter in maid costume, I just had to have it.
Saber Alter Maid 1/6 PVC by Alter (アルター セイバーオルタ メイド Ver.). Original sculptor 倉本 育馬. Released on May 2010 with an MSRP of ¥8,000. (Yes it is from the same sculptor and same manufacture as the original Saber Maid PVC but now a little cheaper.)
The box shots front and back. The box is very nice, black box with only silhouette of Saber showing through the matte black color. So fitting for Saber alter.
 
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phoenix | May 29th, 2010 The Touhou Project, for those who don’t know is a Japanese games series that’s primary danmaku (弾幕 which literally translates to bullet curtain) scrolling shooter. The game is developed by a single person: ZUN of Team Shanghai Alice (上海アリス幻樂団). It’s called danmaku because the screen is often filled up with bullets that you have to dodge in between. Even though I’m not all that good with these shooter games but I do love to play them. I find these games to be much more challenging and enjoyable than a lot of today’s games where graphics is everything while the game itself offers no challenge to the player in one form or another.
Good Smile Company started to make Touhou nendoroids in 2009. The first one is Hakurei Reimu, However, it was only offered during Comiket 76 (August 14-16, 2009) as well as on a few online shop that does not ship outside of Japan. It can also be ordered on a handful of Japanese online shops that also doesn’t ship outside of Japan. Because of that, I didn’t get my hand on it. Soon more Touhou nendorids were released. In January 2010, Good Smile Company released Hakurei Reimu’s friend Kirisame Marisa as a nendoroid. And with that, I finally geared up and bought both Hakurei Reimu and Kirisame Maris off Yahoo Japan Auction. Another Touhou character that I liked, Remilia Scarlet, will be released as a nendoroid in September 2010. I’ve got my order placed with one of the online shops she’s available in and had it shipped to a package forwarding service in Japan so that I can finally get my hand on it for a more nominal price.
Okay let’s start with Hakurei Reimu. Here’s her box shot. As you can see she’s pretty old. Nendoroid series #74.
Nendoroid Hakurei Reimu by Good Smile Company. (ねんどろいど 博麗霊夢). Original sculptor Nendoron (ねんどろん). Released on August 2009 with MSRP of ¥3,000.
 
Continue reading ‘Nendoroid – Tohou Project’s Hakurei Reimu & Kirisame Marisa’ »
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