TKK #1 Oroshi

*Warning. Image heavy post.*

Awhile back at the start of the year, Ashley Wood announced something called the TK Klub, exclusively available only to 2013 3AA members. Thus far, only 3 TKs from the Klub have been sold on Bamba, while the 4th that has been hinted at has yet to come. TKs from the Klub are supposed to be a departure from the previously similar looking TKs, and a return to the 'oldschool sticker boxes'. 

Anyway, after a long wait, TKK #1 Oroshi has arrived! Basically a colour variant of the TK Waza that was a Thai expo exclusive, it puts a spin on the usual TK colours by sporting a maroon tone! There were also two chase variants inserted randomly - a dark interloper and a grey interloper. Sadly, I didn't manage to snag any. 

Here's some unboxing photos of the sticker box - essentially a wider but flatter cardboard box wrapped with a printed on paper. A clean and simple design. 

Attack of the Shoguns!

*Warning. Image heavy post.*

The rest of the Shoguns have invaded the house, barring a DIY which I may decide not to keep after all. Here's the unboxing of the Gorei/Tsuki 2 pack and the Shadow/Light set. 

Hold out at dumper set first! Front cover art. While it's a nice sketch, I much prefer the artwork on the single Gorei and Tsuki boxes. Looks like I might have to hunt them down, if I can even find them.

Shogun 7Bones Shiho

*Warning. Image heavy post.*

After a long wait, the Shoguns are here! As usual spam of unboxing pics. Only Shiho featured in this one, as I don't wanna rush the unwrapping of the rest of my Shoguns. 

Cool cover artwork, and both the Tsuki and Gorei singles have their own artwork too! Makes me wish I had bought a set of singles too. Anyway, this one follows the Seven Bones colour theme and numbering.

Greatsword Sheathe + Animation + Photo Spam

 Went back and finished the sheathe today. Here's the kitbashed Gray carrying it.

Custom Greatsword, Part 2

Following the previous greatsword, I was supposed to do a custom sheathe, but the PVC material I bought to use as fake leather tore off specks of paint from my greatsword. Oh well. Will reattempt the sheathe with a different approach in a day or two, but in the meantime, crafted another smaller greatsword.

Blanco Negro TK SBV

One of the fun things of having TKYOs lying around is that I have no hesitation taking them apart for customs. Running out of OG heads though. Hoping I can get my hands on a few more to do some Interlopers. 

Anyway, the moment I saw the DIYs, I knew I had to do a Blanco/Negro or Shadow/Light pair. Since the Blanco/Negro pair is the easier one of the two (no jackets, clean and unweathered), I got to work on them.

Custom Greatsword

Been meaning to do more custom weapons for awhile, and finally got down to making one. What I had in mind was a large buster sword type, a bit FF inspired and a bit Monster Hunter inspired. However, after all my random sketches, I settled for a simple design first to test a few things.

Random Bash

Random bash and a quick sneak of something I'm working on. More will be revealed eventually, but can't help showing bits and pieces as they come along. 

My First RVTK

After a long time of hesitation, I decided to take the plunge and finally buy my first RVHK TK. Despite being released only last year, the price for these guys are hovering in the hefty 500-700USD range. Towards the end of last year, it dipped into the 450-475USD range for some colours like blue and black, but I wasn't able to get one at the time due to shortage of funds. A pity as black would be my first choice.

Anyway, some quick boxart pics.

Standard OG TK accessories of a belt pouch and one sword. Pretty plain actually.

To be honest, after getting my KDA and TKYOs, the RV TKs don't seem that special anymore, especially for their asking price. The only thing they have going for them is the supposed rehash of the OG TKs except in slim body form.

Blue comes with a little plaster across his nose.

He looks pretty lonely here. Guess the RV TKs really show their beauty when all four are side by side in that rainbow colour of blue, black, red and yellow. Remains to be seen if I'll hunt the rest down though.

Blanco Kitbash

A simple kitbash using a DIY TKYO as the base. Would have preferred a wide body, but will have to settle with this for now.

Front and back of shirt and pants made by KC Design. Pouches taken from Vanilla TQ.

The poor DIY disemboweled.

Red Redux

Some TKYO fun with KDA this time!

I'm the bodyguard.

No entry to the backstage!

Because... Tonight... I'm the star!! 

TKYO: Boys, get him!

KDA: Nooo... Let me sing!!!

The show goes on...

Boohoohoo... I'm sorry... 

TKYO, boyband forever!

TK KDA

TK KDA - Bodyguard of the TKYOs! Received this awhile back, but didn't have the time to share my thoughts on it. It's one of the more recent TKs that are available to everyone and is styled like to OGs - single sword, no jacket, OG headsculpt.

TKYO Unboxing

*Warning. Image heavy post.*

As promised, more photos of the unboxing! The box itself is quite large, although it's flatter than the usual 3A boxes. Without any scale reference, it does look very similar to the AP TKYO box size. Box art is a departure from the usual art based design, going for a graphic design look instead.

Seeing RED!

Some quick snaps of my TKYO set! More photos to come later.

AP TK: The Gathering

Just a quick snap of my current collection of opened APs. Have a couple more MOC TKs that I'm waiting to break open when I collect the remaining three APTKs that I'm missing.

Two Random Poses

Two random photo ideas popped into my mind, so decided to take a quick try.

Was going for a run 'n' gun look with my princess, but the ankle joint simply couldn't support a more forward leaning run pose. Fell quite a number of times and got the paint on the sword handle chipped off as well.

A little balancing act on this one. Was thinking of a tag-team duo, one is running low towards the enemy while the other runs up his back and makes a leap for the kill. Unfortunately, it's a lot hard to execute than to imagine. Ended up with a kneeling Ono and a Kyoku looking like he's about to impale him. Should have put the loper in front so it looks more like they were fighting an enemy than among themselves. But at least now I know it's possible to balance one TK on another's back if adjusted correctly. May have better results if I remove the jackets as they are too smooth, but running short of time today.

The Mini Slicers

*Warning. Image heavy post*

The AP Slicers have landed! I managed to get my hands on both the 3 pack and the Kyuuketsuki + bothead, so now I got too many Kyuus.

Front of sleeve

Thailand Toy Expo Aftermath

WAZAP GUYS!!! Ok, lame shit. But yeah, I got me a Waza and an Irimi from the Thai expo!!

BBICN ACG Exclusives (not)

The ACG at Guang Zhou just concluded recently, and with 500 sets of the show exclusive toys available only to attendees, people were going crazy for it. Adding to that was the peak holiday period of the show, 30th Dec - 2nd Jan, hotels and airfares were on the pricier side as well. 

KDO, the TK so many crave after!

A lot of people were clamouring for the KDO, while a few like myself were highly interested in the Munich NTQ as well. We waited eagerly to see what crazy prices eBay would command, and it soon popped up at around 500-800USD, with the KDO on the pricier side. The Hard Nipple set received less love unfortunately, pricing at around the same range as NTQ, despite being more expensive at retail. 

Seems like not many people are into Hard Nipples these days.

3A obviously anticipated this, making the Hard Nipple set the compulsory purchase at ACG before visitors got a chance to purchase the KDO and NTQ. Smart business move on their part. 

Anyway, with the crazy prices, most of us were hesitant to bite the bullet, though some with friends in places managed to get somewhat more palatable prices. I managed to get a price lower than eBay as well, but not much lower. 

Queen indeed, you costly woman!

As I was busy patting myself on the back, BBICN dropped a bomb. The ACG exclusives were no longer show exclusives and could be had at any BBICN retailer worldwide!

From the perspective of the masses, this was great news! I would be terribly excited too if I had not gotten my fix from more expensive sources. :( Moral of the story here is to be patient. 

That said, depending on whose side you're taking, this could also be seen as an extremely unscrupulous move. A show exclusive that people paid hundreds in airfare and hotel to attend, only to find out that it's now available for retail? If I flew there, I'd be whopping mad! Furious! I'd knock down the door of BBICN's office and personally behead the chief there. (All this angst is from my Thai Expo angst, haha)

On the other hand, it just killed a lot of flippers. Those who bought to resell at a high price just had their ship sunk. A quick look on eBay saw the local prices quickly spiralling down.

At the end of the day though, I see it as a greedy profiteering move on BBICN's part more than anything else. Why limit to 500 sets when you can sell way more? The requirement that retailers buy equal number of Hard Nipple sets as KDO and NTQ sets is just as telling. It's a tactic to move more stock. 

Seems like BBICN, and 3A as well, are more about business and profit than generating customer loyalty and goodwill. While I still love their stuff, I'm approaching it with a lot more caution these days, and I'm definitely gonna think twice before going for any show. 

Imagine the Thai expo exclusives becoming available shortly after the expo as well! I could have just stayed home and clicked online. Oh well. There are school fees to pay and risks to take, so here's another expensive lesson for me. 3A, you really know how to hurt a man's wallet.

Thai Toy Expo 2013

Guangzhou Comic Con starts today with the Munich NTQ that I so dearly crave out of my reach. Thailand Toy Expo is coming in January too with another set of exclusives. So many toys, so little money. Sigh.

Photos of the 1/6 Thai exclusives are out, and from what I know it's limited to 1 set per person on a queue basis. 

Here's the Thai TK called Waza (technique). The hair is flopped down like what some call a wet Baka hair. Not too big a fan of carded as it makes it harder to keep after taking out to play, and don't really want to keep it carded if I ever get one of these. 

Thai TQ Irimi (entering) looks interesting with the jacket and frock. This is something I'm definitely keen on and hope I can get my grubby paws on. 

Still too early to say, but hopefully they won't be too expensive on the aftermarket.