Really Gratifying Real Grade Experience

At last I have officiallycompleted my RG model RX-178 Mk. II!!! So jumping right in, I have to say the experience itself is enough of a reason to buy this model. Surprisingly compared to other grades I build like HG, which I usually build to paint, or modify, SD, my guinea pigs for whatever new things I want to try, and MG, which I buy mostly for straight builds, the Real Grade is something I don't know where to place in my categories of fun. As I first tried painting on my first gundam model, the No Grade, 1/100 scale Blitz Gundam, my focus for enjoyment of building gundam models moved on from admiring the finished model, to painting the model and the process of building the model itself. So, when I build HG models now, I actually aim to at the very least paint a little (which now seems to end up in completely hand painting the entire model), and for MGs I aim to complete it without using stickers (I usually paint the eyes, the newer MGs now require almost no painting.

However, the main reason why I think that I cannot place RG in a proper category is because it fits in between 2 of these. The small size makes me feel like painting it, but then just putting it together actually made me enjoy the process more! And panel-lining RG models, it extremely tiring and frustrating sometimes, because all the small details mean that the panel-lines should be very fine not thick. And if you are using an eraser to thin the lines for each detail on a single part, you are going to spend a really long time in this. I spent about almost an hour panel-lining the shield of this model...

So on to the model!!

The thing I really like about this model is, they actually give you magazines for the Mk. II's rifle, if you can notice two of them latched on the shield. All in all they provided 4 magazines for the rifle (1 for the rifle, the others are fitted on the shield and on the hip, if I'm not mistaken) and 2 magazines for the bazooka (1 for the bazooka and the other to be latched on the hip as well).

The eyes and sensors on the head as well as on the chest are molded with clear plastic, as I did not use the stickers for the eyes are sensors as I thought they looked cooler without them, and I always like it when they mold them in clear plastic. The sensors on the hear really shine but the eyes don't. The sensors on the weapons however, don't get the clear parts, and have stickers to replace them, which I don't really like cause now I have to use stickers...

Detailing on the foot, the foot's base while made of 3 separate parts are only movable at 2 points, the 3rd is for show I guess.

The thrusters and backpack. Unfortunately, the thrusters for this model particularly, is very loose, and you easily pop them out while trying to put the model in a pose, and apparently, I'm not the only one with this problem, as my friend who has purchased the exact same model says the thrusters for his model are just as loose.

The shield, much to my surprise is extendable, I thought it was just going to be like any other shield. For this, my friend had problems with it being very easy to extend, it would fall off by itself if put up right, but mine has no such problem, thankfully~

The beam rifle, and as you can see, the 2 extra magazines that fit on the shield, I didn't take out the the extra 4th magazine. I'm also happy that they included separate hands for the rifle. While I enjoy the movable joint hands, I still like a dedicated grip one, which is being shown in the second picture. They do include the movable-finger type hands as well, all in all 4 different type of hands, 1 open, 2 gripped, 2 with movable fingers and 1 gripped for holding the beam rifle and bazooka.

The bazooka in all its glory!! Its much smaller and, you could say streamlined compared to the original RX-78's or maybe because this is RG? Hmmmm....

The removable magazine, as I mentioned earlier.

And comparing it to the original MG RX-78-2 again, this model holds the bazooka much better. I remembered I had problems getting the MG to hold it, nice to see they made it better here.

The headset... thingy. Forgive me for I did not watch this series, but I actually don't really care much for this, it does make the model look like he is wearing a headset, but severely limits the head articulation, as limited as it is already.

And as you can see with RG, no compromises on the detailing, a lot more actually which I missed out cause I was trying to think of whether or not to panel-line them. But the parts which I thought would not be visible with the armour on apparently are very clearly visible...

All in all, I enjoyed putting it together (forgive me if I put this out too much, but I really DID have fun!!!) but the inner skeleton of the RG model, not sure whether its just my particular model or this model, seems to be quite fragile. I cringed at trying to bend the legs the first time as they were so thin and looked so fragile. The skeleton for the arms especially, I realized that as I tried to pose the left arm (the arm with the shield)  in a particular way, it would start drooping as the weight of the shield might be too much for it. Most of the joints for this model are nice and tight, and hold up in almost any pose, exceptions for this are the hip, waist (which is made out of 2 joints, so posing him to be standing straight was a real pain) and the shoulders. So most of my time trying to pose him was spent on fixing back his hip and waist, and then having to put the thrusters back on as they pop out.

I do apologize for the long delay, and as you might know it is Ramadhan!! So I try to not build too much or update during this period, but as this is the end of this post, THAT IS ALL FINISH!!!

Farid

A Little about Opinions...

Recently, I have been spending a lot of my time watching videos on YouTube, most of them being news about gaming news, and I noticed something very interesting, as unbiased and neutral some people try to be, and I acknowledge and respect that of them, it is almost impossible to be entirely unbiased or neutral. Well the main reason for this is that, its is natural for some people to like or dislike certain things for their own personal reasons. For example, when you see a new game, or a new toy, and somehow that game or toy appeals to you so much that the only reason you can come up with to buy it would be "It looks cool/nice/interesting/etc." And you know very well that not everyone can say the same for that exact same game or toy. Some might not even give it a second look, some might look at it, and for no reason hate it out right, and so on.

The main reason I started this post is, mainly to rant and voice my thoughts on this very topic, someone's or one's OPINION on certain things. I used to watch the videos on YouTube and read through the comments and see a war brew or go on on almost very video that has to do with which games/music/singer/series/movies/anime/and so on are better, top 10 games/music/music genre/singer/series/movies/anime/and so, or even just one YouTuber's opinion on that certain game/music/music genre/singer/series/movies/anime/and so on. And it just occurs to me that maybe some of them do it for fun, or because they fail to read the title for certain videos like "My Top 10.... " or "My Opinion On..." or maybe because they do it for their own personal fun, or maybe they cannot handle the fact that someone does not find something which they find to be the most exciting thing ever to be not as interesting (those are a lot of maybes, but its always uncertainty when it comes to humans, as I am human).

And you see this go for everything. For example in the gaming universe, certain people, fans mostly go on and on about how awesome or good a certain product. For example there's this gaming war and console war about which product is better, the PS3, PC, Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii. Or about which gaming experience is much better on a console (and if console which one Xbox  360, PS3 or Nintendo Wii) or on a PC. And the list of facts they bring up is both surprising and sometimes, well, not even worth to mention as they are pointless. And when it comes to games the list goes on for pages and pages and pages to come. For example when the game The Last of Us came out for the PS3, some people thought its was the best game this generation, while others gave it an all rounded and even review (to the best of their abilities of being unbiased) and were criticized for it (mostly by those who thought is was awesome I guess). The whole things just makes it so hard to appreciate certain things, for example, the game Call of Duty is criticized so much, but it is a decent experience in my part, if not good and fun to enjoy.

Next, music. I personally like any song or tune, if it sounds nice to me, which is how I thought this things work, you like something, you listen to it, simple. But there are those people (I mean no offense to them in any way, I'm just stating my point) hate a certain genre or music, or any kind of music that is not the kind of music they like. I've been spending a lot of time searching for new electronic dance music recently, because I need a nice fast tune to listen to while doing my homework, and I see a lot of people saying that this kind of music is garbage, and some other genre is better and worth listening to. For example, I don't like Taylor Swift's songs, this is my personal opinion, and my sister likes her songs, and because of her I actually memorize some of her songs (thanks for that by the way =P). So one day, I told a friend that I didn't like her songs, he was actually quite surprised and I guess couldn't comprehend the fact that someone in this world, his friend of all people would not enjoy her music. I thought I saw his expression change a little, but the story goes on. He was even more surprised that I memorized some of her songs (credits go to my sis, and Taylor for making her songs catchy) and told me "Hey, I thought you didn't like her songs?" in kind of a sarcastic tone. Well, I memorized them even if I didn't like them, so what can I do.

And this really goes on for almost everything, e-sports (basically gaming as a sport with their own sport stars and brands like, well, almost any other sport), brands, and basically ones like and dislikes. For example, I never really Apple as a good company in my eyes, and some of their products are way over priced, but you can see a lot of quality in their products. Their operating system is always made to be very smooth, and almost never lag or glitches, but it is undeniable that when you have certain limitations, the easiest being money limitations, that you have to get the best performance per dollar, or in my case ringgit. And Apple, isn't really a winner in this category. A good example being the Apple iPhone 5, where I'm from you get it for RM 2000+, but if you want a good phone, for let's say RM 1000, you have make a few compromises. Another good example being laptops, the Macbook Air, has decent specs, but for the same specs you can save so much money just to have a different operating system (which is capable of playing more games if that is your criteria for choosing a laptop), almost the same build quality, and maybe even thinner than the Macbook Air. The Asus Zenbook is a good example for this, you save up RM 2000 for a laptop that is even thinner than the Macbook Air, and lighter. But in the end you buy what you like, and no one can tell otherwise. Its just that 1 product can be better than the other, BUT in what way? Build quality? Performance? Value? Personal preference? If you take into account value, your choices will be different, way different...

So why did I post this? Just to vent my thoughts, the issue didn't really get me mad, it was just a topic I wanted to post about, hopefully to get people to think a little before just stating their like without taking into account the feelings of people around them. I mean no offense to anyone who feel offended by this, I am merely making my point. I'm just trying to say that No matter how much you like something, be it a brand, company, game, sport or maybe just feel like certain things are important, certain should not exist or happen and so on, it is your opinion, and there maybe people who share your opinion, but there are also those who complete disagree, and there's nothing wrong with that. No one really cares which console is better, I like PC, and that is my personal preference. And in this very topic, all my claims, are all my own, and I may also be entirely wrong about this, as it is an opinion.




Farid

PS I also posted this for that sake of updating my blog, but is has been on my mind for a while. And also, I feel like my posts need to have more substance to them, what do you think? =D

More About Pokemon~

If there is one game I have played more than any other game throughout my childhood, it would have to be the pokemon franchise. And I especially spent a large amount of time playing it during my school holiday when the drive to finish the game and catch em' all!! The version I spent the most time playing is the Diamond version (though I did spend quite a lot of time on the original red version since at that time, I didn't really know any other game and played it over and over again) on the Nintendo DS. Most of the time spent looking for pokemon to catch, evolve existing pokemon and also updating my party pokemon to battle with when playing with my brother or friends.

(Above) My previous team, brought me great victories!!

However, where I'm from, Malaysia, there aren't that many pokemon fans whom I have found or met and I noticed, as well as a point my older brother pointed out to me which I agreed on, is that in my country, we go by trends, and as a new trend gets caught on, the older one logically dies out. And this pretty much happened when I went to high school, I remembered very clearly that pokemon was played a lot during my primary school that stacks of cards were confiscated, and the next week the same amount confiscated. So where am I getting at in starting of with this? Well, its kinda just my disappointment in the amount of pokemon competitions or events that happen here is, well never happen here.

Though I could understand the reason behind this, trends don't last that long in my country, and making an event here might not be worth the effort. But watching videos on youtube of pokemon fans posting going to pokemon events or even pokemon competitions makes me wish I could go whenever it was held.

 

(Above) The Pokemon Nationals 2013, which is covered here by TheJWittz. And, oh, how I wish I could experience this event!!!

That aside, second thing, the new games for pokemon x and y will officially be released on October the 12th, this year, and I am really looking forward to this uncoming pokemon game (forgive me if I had mentioned this  in a previous post, but I am really excited). So last but not least, the new special edition 3DS XLs which will be released at launch I think :

Should I wait for these, or just get a regular 3DS XL and be done with it... Hmmmmm....

Farid