Keripo's Corner Figures, Dollfies, Projects, Gaming, and TYPE-MOON
So right after finishing university, my friends and I decided to go to Japan for our graduation trip (May-June 2012). Japan was a high in our choice of destination for a vacation. For my friends, it was of cultural interest and a new place to see. For me, it was the Holy Land of anime, and also the place where my figure collecting hobby would emerge. But the loots and food blog entries will come at the end.
The following series of “Japan Trip 2012” blog posts will simply be pictorial guides of my adventure through Japan. I’ll try to caption most of the pictures and include as many anime-related pictures as possible. Sets of photos are roughly in chronological order, though some places (aka Akihabara) will have multiple sets since we went back there multiple times. There’s 30 or so albums of photos from my Japan trip, and each blog post will contain 2-4 albums worth, so prepare your mouse for a lot of scrolling. So without further ado, enjoy the tour!
Gundam Front – 1/1 scale RX-78 GundamIf you ever want to hear Keripo squeal like a little girl, you bring him to Gundam Front, Diver City (Daiba)
The famous 1/1 scale life-sized RX-78 Gundam. Awwwww yeahhhhh!!!!
I imagine its like this every day
I came just in time for the show. Unfortunately I was kinda disappointed – the head just turned a bit, steam came out, and some flashy lights. Amuro voice overs and sound effects too. See the videos section at the end.
Little me’s, staring up at the awesomeness
Putting the actual me in the picture
Gundam Front Tokyo in the Diver City mall
Pretty much every gunpla ever manufactured by Bandai minus a few special versions, aka repair, crystal, metallic, etc. versions. Unfortunately none of the gunpla were polished, inked, or painted – just plain built without decals even. See the videos section at the end. They have their Japanese names, but I can recognize probably 3/4 of them – how many can you identify? ^_^
All the RX-78-2s
All the Perfect Grades. I just have the Wing Zero Custom. Freedom looks pretty cool but I already have the MG Full Burst Mode ver. A PG Char’s Zaku would be pretty nice to have if I find one for cheap one day. The Meteor looked ridiculous. The Dendrobium even more so.
Final look at the room, phew!
Stare at Char’s face while you pee
The wait time before the next tour was too long and my friends didn’t want to wait for me so I had to pass (silly friends, not wanting to “waste” their time on Gundam)
Souvenir store at the back. I wanted to buy a T-shirt but the one I wanted ran out of L sized T-shirts (keep in mind Japanese clothing sizes are much smaller, so an L in Japan is kinda M/S in the US)
Kido Senshi Gundam: Senjo no Kizuna – you sit inside the pod with two joysticks and have a battle looking through an overhead display. Kinda like a flight simulator, except for Gundams. The LCD screen and graphics were clearly outdated and the controls were very cumbersome (not to mention my lack of Japanese reading abilities really didn’t help) but it was fun and a nice experience. Of course, I’m still waiting for the day where we’ll have real Gundam piloting simulators like what you see in Mobile Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G
We hung around a bit waiting for the evening show. During this time, we mainly wandered around Daiba, mainly the Venus Fort mall (see previous post). The night show was much cooler since there were a lot more (noticable) glowing and lighting effects. This time around, I got to see the entire show from beginning to end, listening to some techno-y music and sound clips of Amuro launching the Gundam over and over again, envisioning epic battle scenes in my mind. They also projected visuals onto the side of the mall behind the Gundam, but the World of Imagination can be so much more badass. See video section at the end.
Click on the thumbnails to view the full video on Flickr. Some videos were taken by my phone camera and sideways, so sorry for the low quality and rotation :(
The day-time show
Pan of the Gunpla museum
Night-time show
MyFigureCollection: http://myfigurecollection.net/blog/6081
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/keripo/sets/72157641648573034/
