Trading Figures: Tales of Symphonia

Long before we got into vinyl we collected anime figures. Mostly gashapons and trading figures.

We've since put 90% of the gashapon in our sale bin and winnowed through our trading figures to see which ones we wanted to keep. We technically have enough to fill one shelf. Which is an acceptable amount.

Some figures stand out though and in particular the three Tales of Symphonia ones I have. I wish I got the full set. It's going to be difficult looking for these as they are a bit old.

I loved the game these figures are based on and the characters are endearing which makes the figures more meaningful.

Lloyd and Sheena are pictured above. I think there's a variant of Sheena with a different weapon. But I dig Lloyd's two swords which he actually has in the game.

A good majority of western vinyl coming out falls into what Nate and I call an "ego hand-job" Self gratifying and just because they can release a toy type of thing. Only a handful are really interesting AND beautiful sadly.

Which makes me nostalgic for our old collection of figures. They still make me smile and I find myself dusting and handling them again.

I'll be adding more of my trading figures on my FLICKR. I've got some neat ones that deserve attention.

Jesse Hernandez's Ozomahtli

Ever since I've started collecting Japanese vinyl figures, I've really been more fascinated about toy sculpts and artist designed figures. Platform toys really don't do much for me nowadays except for a few.

Jesse's artwork has always caught my eye, and I always wanted to commission him one day for a custom. He's a great guy to talk to and I'm just happy to see him getting some deals to do production run toys. With that said, I think his Ozomahtli figure by Bic Plastics is absolutely sick. The detail on the sculpt itself is amazing. Honestly, I would pick this figure up even if it was unpainted, but I know we are going to see some classic Aztec colorways, just like some of his other production toys.

Pic via Vinyl Pulse

Can't wait for this one to drop, as it's probably one of the only Western toys I'm anticipating at the moment. Checkout more of Jesse's artwork on his website at www.immortalstudios.net . You should also be able to see a pic of the possible colorway of this figure on his site.

Gamers 4 Life!

I never really thought much about blogging, but Maddie believes I should add to the blog as much as possible since both of us mainly share the same interests and hobbies. I feel our new site should also include a lot of the other hobbies we have, not just our hobby of collecting vinyl toys and art. Hence the name "Enjoy Everything".

One things for sure, Maddie and I are huge gamers. We love a broad range of video game genres i.e. RPG, Action/Adventure, FPS, etc. The current game I've been playing is Midnight Club Los Angeles.

I've been into the Midnight Club racing game franchise for quite sometime ever since my brothers put me on the 2nd game. I remember playing the first release of Midnight Club. It wasn't that great, but Rockstar games really stepped it up in the 2nd installation. I was drawn into the game not only because of the gameplay, but the soundtrack of the game. It has great Trance, Electronica and Drum & Bass tracks. The only drawback to the game in my opinion was the difficulty of finding some of the race markers. Many times the direction it points you in doesn't even lead you to the next one, consequently making you fall behind in last only to try and catch up with the rest of the racers.

The third installation was called Dub Edition, which began introducing customization to your cars. You could enhance performance aspects to your ride and also customize the look of your ride with body kits, different style paint jobs, neon, etc. The gameplay was solid just like the 2nd game, but they improved the race markers a great deal, making them brighter and very visible even from far away. A Remix edition was released later on that added Tokyo as another city to race in. The soundtrack was also changed in the 3rd game, where it featured lots of different genre's of music, such as Rap and Rock.
Now the latest installment, Los Angeles is pretty straight forward. It pretty much has the cliche story of most racing games. You're an out-of-towner looking to get into the street racing scene in Los Angeles. Unlike the other Midnight Club games, you actually get to see what your character looks like. Wish there was an option to customize the look of your character, but it wasn't that big of a deal. What's great about this game is also how close Rockstar games captured the city of Los Angeles. It's not 100% identical, but it's pretty close with Los Angeles' landmarks and popular streets are put into the game. Even the freeways are pretty much spot on.

Throughout the game, you work your way up to the top of the racing scene in order to become the city champ. Sounds simple enough, but there are many other "missions" in the game. I believe the game has improved significantly from the previous games in the franchise.

One new feature in the game is police pursuits. In the previous games, the cops showed up during races and pretty much just tried to sidetrack you to prevent you from winninng. However in Midnight Club Los Angeles not only do the cops show up during races, they also are patrolling the streets even when you are just cruising. So if they catch you going to fast or driving recklessly, they can try to pull you over. You either have the option of paying the fine or running from them. If deciding to run from them, you have to lose them in order to get away, even if a race has ended with you winning. I thought this was a great addition to the game because I pretty much thought they were pointless showing up in the previous games.

Their are many other new features in Midnight Club Los Angeles that I could talk about, but there's way too many to talk about. All in all, I think this is the best game in the franchise, and if you love to play racing games I suggest you check it out. The only thing I would warn other gamers about is most of the Midnight Club are very difficult. I've read many reviewers stress this, but to be honest, if it weren't difficult, I think it would be pretty boring to play. Maddie can attest to this, because I was literally going ape shit when things were getting frustrating in the game.




I know there's countless racing games in the video game market that have pretty much the same story lines and features. I haven't played most of them but I can say that I feel Midnight Club is a lot better than the Need for Speed franchise. Haven't given the Burnout franchise a try yet, but I hear it's pretty fun.

The Cloning of Bossy Bear

TOY2R is at it again with their multiple colorway milking machine. This time, I know better and will only get what I want instead of being a stupid completist.

I just want the original three blue colorways and the black one. That's it. I've seen the post at Vinylpulse where they've got a ton of colorways planned for Crocadoca. Pumping out all these different colorways tends to make things boring. Meh.

Sometimes you have to draw the line with the exclusives and multiple colorways and I'm drawing it on the sand with my pocketbook.

SDCC Wishlist Redux

SUPER7

Citrus Steven the Bat $25. All days.

Magenta Massacre Hollis $25. All days.

Jade Mongolion $65. All days.

TOYTOKYO

Cosmic Pennie $20

DKE TOYS

Winking Treesons $20. Only 50 available.

Treeson Blind Box Series. Not sure if this will be available with DKE but I am hoping it will be.

NECA

Gears of War Lambent Grenadier $20

KIDROBOT

I've seen the full size at Switcheroo. $50 a pop and only 300.

1 vs 100

Nate and I don't really watch too much game shows but we've been curious about this offering on the XBOX 360. Every time the beta was available to play it was hard to get in so we didn't bother.

For some weird reason, tonight it was easy to download and play the game. It was fun! But I wish the questions were more challenging. Quite a few questions were too easy and the ones that were hard we're really hard.

I think I'll play the extended editions to hone by trivia skill. They have a ton of those scheduled for the weekend.

R.I.P. Pudgy Bugoy

Unfortunately, our first post in our newly launched blog is a sad one. Earlier this morning my Aunt called our house in tears talking to my mom. I accidentally picked up the phone and they were both crying.

At first I thought something happened to my Grandpa but it turned out to be P-Chan's older brother. I was somewhat relieved it wasn't something bad about Grandpa but I am heartbroken knowing Pudgy Boy had died.

Pudgy Boy is the oldest of P-Chan's litter. He's a sweet dog but not as smart. He looks nothing like P-Chan and takes after the cute terrier their mother was. He always made me laugh when I gave him baths as he did not blink when I poured water over his head. He would just give me his blank, earnest look.

Pudgy and P-Chan have the same exact bark. If they were barking at the same time it was like echoes of little dogs barking. I remember when I first saw Pudgy. I wanted another dog like him. My Aunt said the litter had another one that looked just like him and she would get him for me. Instead I got P-Chan who was supposed to go to someone else but my Aunt insisted on having her and the rest is history.

Now all that's left is P-Chan. Everyone from her litter is gone. Now more than ever I know I have to cherish what time I have left with her.

The last few years Pudgy had been unwell. I asked my cousin Ira and she indicated Pudgy had been out of sorts the last week. I was told he did not eat at all yesterday and did not want to do anything. Before bedtime he drank a lot of water.

This morning they found him already cold. He must have died soon after bedtime. Ira said he looked like he was in deep sleep and I was thankful he passed away peacefully.

Pudgy was born on 10/23/1994 - 06/25/2009. He lived to be 14 years old despite being ill the last few years. I have a picture of him somewhere but I have to scan it. He will be sorely missed.

Oh yeah I heard Farrah Fawcett and Micheal Jackson died today too but they're not close to my heart. There's enough people blogging about them anyway.

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