Red Metallic Rub Bop Dragon by LASH (MutantVinylHardcore)

Our first custom from LASH! The Bop Dragon arrived in the middle of the week but with Nate's fall semester starting and preparing for survey at work, I really didn't have time to take pictures till now.

He is gorgeous. The colors of the Bop Dragon blend well together. One thing we noticed about LASH's work is that when he wants toys to look metallic it really does look natural, metallic and light.

It's hard to explain.

I've seen metallic that look thick and heavy, it looks like the paint is on top of the toy thickly but his handiwork is smooth. I am not afraid to turn the head or joints. It's playable!

We only have these three Bop Dragons but they kick so much ass it's insane. Just need a Sutfin custom to round it out.

Just wanted to add to Maddie's post that I agree about everything she said about LASH's paint jobs. You can easily see his skill with metallic paints on a lot of his customs and also some of the limited run figures. You can definitely see how well he blends the metallic blue and purple on the Invading Virus Popsoda.

I'm really excited for the MVH figure he is sculpting. The initial body and head sculpts look great. Oh yeah, the Red Metallic Rub Bop Dragon was a such a great treat at the end of the day, especially after a day of bullshit "serving" for jury duty. Haha

I got wood!

Well...faux wood but they look awesome! I'm asking Nate what was the last 8 inch dunny we bought and he thinks it was the Tristan Eaton Tag Team Dunny. He eventually sold it. After that no big dunnys came through our doors. Until Amanda owned the platform with this release.

She completely made the dunny figure her own. When I first saw this I told Nate we're buying a dunny and after looking at it for a bit he agreed. The box for this thing was huge! Love the smiling stump with the little leaf!

We also managed to get the Wood Labbit. We were supposed to back on Saturday during SDCC but seeing how the lines were for Kidrobot's releases we decided to just pass.

My cousin April had this as a grail and she was determined to get it. Her determination yielded her an extra which she traded for some choice dunnys from our collection. Thanks April!

Our favorite decade....the 80s!

Every time VH1 has this damned show even though we've seen it over and over we still watch the whole thing.Nate and I first connected to each other through music. Napster, free Napster, was a haven for us. Until Metallica had a hissy fit and drove everyone off to the nether regions of IRC, the wilderness of FTPs and beyond the far reaches of the internets.

Seeing VH1's special on the 80's is such a flashback for me in particular. I think of 1984 as the year my mind and my ears opened up to the music I was hearing. It was awesome. I don't quite remember the significance of that particular year. It might have been the first time I got or bought a cassette tape.

Some of the choices on that count down I don't really agree with and I think other songs that should have been in there are not. But it had me running to notepad to write out the song for later to download or search at Amoeba, a local used record store Nate and I hit up when we're in the neighborhood.

Nate's recollection of the 80's isn't as clear as mine as he was born in 1982. His perspective on the decade is how heavily sampled the songs are in later music.

As we watch the bands and the songs the question of if we had a chance to see a band live, which one would it be comes up. Nate and I both agree on Queen. Queen with Freddy Mercury. Guilty pleasure would be to see Journey. LOL

I think tonight I'll break out my iPOD and listen to some powwa ballads and remember the 80s.

Dhani Neutered

Dhani's vet appointment was yesterday. I recall I fixed Nodame at 5 months and he does not spray. I don't think he even knows how which is a good thing.

I heard that's one of the bad things about owning a male cat. They get territorial and they start scent marking or spraying and according to Nate it's not a pleasant smell. Nate said he can best describe it as acrid.

Nodame got fixed when he started showing aggression and I didn't even wait for Dhani to start that. As soon as he reached 5 months it was done.

Dhani was already laid back before he may be even more so now that he got snip snip. Dhani has a very quiet meow. On our way home he was quietly complaining with his little meows. He was not allowed dinner last night but I didn't think he was hungry as he was sleepy all evening.

Our poor boy. He just wanted to rest. As he lay sleeping, Nodame came up on our bed and he sniffed him for a bit and started grooming him. He slept most of the night alternating between sleeping with Nodame and sleeping on my head. Dhani tends to sleep on my pillow or have his arms and legs wrapped around my head. Sort of like a cat tiara. =D

The effects of neutering is gradual and Dhani is feeling a bit weird. He'll be fine by next week.

It's Pickles turn tomorrow. XD

Oh Xbox, how we've missed you!!!

Our Xbox was finally returned to us and boy are we happy. (Considering it was only about a week and a half, haha). We sent it out for repairs the day before leaving for SDCC, and we were quite surprised to hear that it was being shipped back to us in about a week. My brother had the Red Ring of Death about two months ago and it took him almost three weeks to get his back. Sucks!!

I missed the Xbox soooo much, not just to be able to play games, but also being able to stream movies and tv shows through Netflix. It's pretty awesome not to have to wait for Netflix to send you a new dvd. Just peep the movies or tv shows they have for instant queue, add it to your list, and you're ready to go. Been catching up on South Park episodes that I've missed. I've watched from season 1 and just finished season 7.

I also finally picked up our pre-order for Resident Evil 5. I know it's pretty old now, but Maddie and I are big RE fans, and we can't wait to play this one. Maddie's glad there's a co-op mode, cause she knows she's gonna need my help. Especially since she gets scared most of the time playing these types of games. =P Also heard MVC2 has been released recently for Xbox Arcade as well. I'm not extremely good at the game, but it is a blast to play. So here's hoping we don't have to send it off for repairs again. ::Knocks on wood::

SDCC 2009 Day 2: Nothing else matters but Pushead!!

Thursday July 23, 2009. The day I have been waiting and saving my money for was finally here. Pushead & Mike Sutfin signing at the Toy Tokyo booth. I was definitely excited the moment I woke up that day.

We got to the Con at about 7:30 am. We knew from last year that we had to get to the parking garages early or else we would have to walk quite a distance to get to the convention center. As soon as we got in, we decided to just sit it out and not even bother lining up. Waiting till the exhibit hall doors opened, Maddie and I were just discussing the events of preview night and what to expect at the Pushead event.

About an hour later, I get a text from Heng (baronacasino) asking if we were already inside. Maddie likes to tease me about my friendship with Heng calling it a "bromance". lol Heng and I pretty much talk to each other on AIM a lot, about nothing but toys, both Western and Japanese. If there's anyone to blame for my transition to J-vinyl, it would be Heng. I have to thank him though, because if he didn't open my eyes to J-vinyl, I would still be collecting what I now consider to be mediocre toys.

After meeting up with Heng, we pretty much hung out the rest of the day until the time of the Pushead event. As we walked around, everybody we knew was looking forward to the signing as well. Most of them knew Heng already, so thats how I pretty much met a bunch of other Skull Brainers who were waiting just like us. I got to meet rhinomilk and I believe Arin C. from the boards. We got together and pretty much hung around the Toy Tokyo booth just waiting in anticipation.

We all headed over to the Onell Design booth, because Paul Kaiju let us know about a toy release that him, L'amour Supreme and Dead Presidents all collaborated on. When we got there it was already set out on the table. Our buddy Connell picked up a set and took some great pics. The Millenal Masters Dia Kaiju Card Monsters Set. I took some pics but they came out blurry. Connell's pics on his FLICKR page are a lot better and you can also see each individual figure that the artists painted. I believe each set was different from the rest, so no two sets were alike. I considered picking these up, but you know I had to save my money for what was coming up in a few hours. Heng and I ended up going back to wait near Toy Tokyo while everyone went on to do their own thing.

When we got there, we could already see Pushead & Mike chatting and hanging out with people. Me and Heng had a little "conversation" with Pushead. (More like me and Heng were ear hustling while Pushead was talking to Chris Trevino. LMAO). Heng and I were seriously geeking out after hearing what Pushead said. We went to sit down with Maddie and just wait it out. At that time we met up with BobDuher and Henry (not Jordan23) and just hung out, while watching the crew bring in boxes which we knew had nothing but goodies. Around the 2:30 pm the madness had begun.

A group of us went over to start picking our numbers for our place in line. If you weren't part of this group, or had no idea what was going on, you really had no business being there until 4:00 pm. We all lined up to take our turns picking numbers. When I got up to the front, I reached in and pulled my number, 36. At the time I was pulling my number, Jon was talking to Lorne, so he didn't see what number I had. Jokingly, Ryan (melek_taus) told me to "Put it back, he's not looking...". XD

Being the person I am, I couldn't do that so I just waited till Jon was done talking with Lorne and showed him the number I pulled. Afterwards, he gave me the Crowsnest Copa FHP 4 Captain I pre-ordered and the special bandana for us. If this was just the exclusive for the signing, I could only imagine what the hand paints looked like once they were revealed.

After the group pretty much picked out their numbers, we all got together showing what numbers we picked to one another. I knew my number was pretty far back in the line, but I was hoping to be one of the lucky ones who wins the raffle and moves up in the line. I got to met Stealthtank for the first time as he came over to say what's up to Heng and I. We ended up talking about the recent EVO championships that happened the weekend before SDCC. We also congratulated him on planning to open up a brick and mortar store in Florida. At that time he also let us know that the Florida store that Super 7 was opening up was his. After chatting a bit more, all of us caught a glimpse of the crew getting ready to unveil the case of goodies. We could already see some cool production figures at the bottom.

Oh man was I excited. Before the unveiling, the raffle began. The winners were given a small booty sack which I believe had the GID Skull Captain with hook arm. My number wasn't picked for the first three spots, so I was hoping to be the wild card. Pushead brought out an envelope and told us being this is the 40th Anniversary, the number 40 was significant, so whoever that was ended up being the first in line. Congrats to PusAddict, as I know he was stoked to find out to be the first in line. Pus handed him a bigger booty sack, and Kirkland said as tradition, he was to open it in front of everyone. As soon as he opened, my eyes jumped out of my head. He had gotten not only a GID Hook Captain, but also a GID Bird Catcher and unpainted Journey Pirate. NICE!!!!

As soon as they unveiled the case, all you heard from the crowd was "OHHHHHH!!!!". Everybody began looking inside to see all the hand paints. My jaw literally dropped as I saw the Cococroc, and Stipple Captains and Pirates. The top shelf had some HSP-X Pirates and other production figures, such as the silver KvP Companion, and Circus Punk. (As much as I love Pus' artwork, I still fuckin' hate the Circus Punk platform, bleh).

The Croc and Stipples were on the second shelf. Below them were a bunch of hand painted Captains. Below those were the Bop Dragon/ Mini Damnedron sets Mike painted, which were followed by the Entity 13's he painted on the lower shelf. And on the last shelf, we had more Pushead production pieces. I tried my best to take pics, but it was difficult to get any decent angles because I was behind a table preventing people cutting in line. I only managed to get a decent pic of the hand paint Captains, but the angle sucks.

Even though the angle sucks, it did pretty much capture the best part of the HP Captains which is their backs. Alright, now that I've seen the goods, two things went through my mind:

1. HOLY SHIT!! These customs are fucking sick!!!
2. Fuck....I don't think any hand paints will be left once I get up there. =P

Well, I won't know till I get up there, so I stayed in line to see what happens. Stealthtank tried to cheer me up telling me that he was actually number 40-something two years back, and was still able to pick up a hand paint, so he said there still might be hope. That's all I needed to feel good about my chances.

As the line went one by one, the people already done choosing what they wanted came over to the rest of the people in line to show what they picked up. Kngwiz was kind enough to come over to us poor saps in the back of the line to show what he picked up. I remember him showing us his Bop/Damn set, which IMO was the best one there, and also the HSP-X Pirate he picked up as well. I couldn't help myself anymore, and was just dying to see what I could possibly pick up. Once I got in front of the case, pretty much all the HP's were almost gone except for the ones Mike did. I was happy to hear that there were some HP's that were not showcased, and if purchased they will be shipped to you. Awesome, I might have chance. Unfortunately, the guy in front of me bought the last one. NOOOOOOOO!!!!

Oh well, its all good. You win some, you lose some. I still had a chance to pick up some of the HP's Mike did. After getting a good look at them, I really did like the Bop Dragons, but not so much the mini dams. I didn't want to spend all my money on something that I wasn't going to be completely happy with. Next, I took a look at the Entity 13's. These weren't too bad, I really had my eyes on the one that had crows on it. It also had a anime-ish girl painted on the front, so that also caught my eye as I'm a big anime fan. The only thing that held me back was the Entity 13 itself. Not a big fan of the sculpt, and to be honest, if anything I want a Sutfin HP Bop more than anything. Instead, I came away with these.

The two FHP's I've been hunting for the longest time! Definitely stoked on these, as they both came with their bandanas, signed tags, pins and stickers. On top of that, I also got them for retail. They're no HPs, but I'm still happy with what I came away with. Definite score for me!!

After completing my purchases, I went back to Maddie and Heng to show 'em what I got. Maddie felt bad that I didn't get a HP, but I told her it was alright. There's always a next time, and hopefully then I'll be able to score one that I'll really like.

Well, like I said on preview night, I needed a backup plan if I didn't score a HP. With that said, I had to have this. Seriously, I was tired of passing on it every time I saw it.

This Kaizer Head has got to be the best to date IMO. The metallic red on this bad boy is amazing. It's so bright and vibrant. Mori-san was there when I picked it up, and he recognized both me and Madeline from the preview night dinner. He shook both of our hands and said thank you. I gave him a thumbs up on his new Mutant Zone Series 3 figures, and told him I couldn't wait to see more. I could have bought more, but I was planning once again to hold out for another signing on Friday. Either I would be able to pick up a custom from Itokin Park's signing or L'amour Supreme's signing.
Pretty much called it a day for toy purchases.

We headed back over to the Toy Tokyo booth to wait for Mike Sutfin's mini session. Here we thought it was just going to be a signing and I figured Mike would also have maybe a special something for purchase. As the time came, he began to pull out some HP Pharoahs Babys. These were pretty neat, as he did an awesome job painting them. Like I said earlier though. I only want and HP Bop. Mike still has some of these available on his website. What I didn't expect, was this awesome prototype.

Mad Battle Man by Mike Sutfin. GAWD DAMN it's huge!!! I know it's just a proto, so its made big to account for shrinkage. We were told though, that it will still be about 9.5 inches tall. Awesome. Cannot wait to see the finished product, especially when it gets all painted up. And you know we'll obviously see some HPs in the future as well.

By this time, Maddie and I were starving. I only had an apple the whole day. I guess my energy for the day came from my anxiety, but as soon as the event was over, I was getting incredibly hungry. We called it a day, said peace to everyone we met and told them we'll see them tomorrow. We were seriously hungry, and the only place we knew where we could get a good amount of food for both of us was one place, Hooters. XD Maddie and I love chicken wings and we gotta say, Hooters has some pretty good ones. After eating, we headed to the hotel, and pretty much like the last night, looked over our haul and talked about the day at the con. Watched a bit of television and got a good night sleep for our last day at the con.

Amanda Visell - Wood Donkey

Wow. Nate and I are buying a full size dunny after such a long time. It's Amanda Visell so she is the exception.

But I can't believe the price hike on the full size dunnys now. We still remember when 8 inch dunnys were $30 at release day. WTF. That's a sizeable increase in two years. Despite the price hike we love her work and will add this to our Amanda shelf.

Her style complements the platform and makes it her own. Time and time again we've missed out on her resin and wood pieces so we have to make do with what we can get.

The Itokin Park collaboration is a must have and we're hoping she doesn't drop that too soon. As we are still recovering from SDCC.

Nate's SDCC 2009 Preview Night Experience

Well, another SDCC has come and gone once again. I think both Madeline and I can say this was definitely the best comic con we have experienced. It's not like we didn't have fun at previous comic cons, it's just that this year was exceptional.

On preview night, I didn't really plan on picking up anything because I wanted to save most of my money for the Pushead event happening on Thursday. I only planned on buying the Jade Mongolion from Super 7 because I was afraid it might sell out before I could score one.

After that, I spent the rest of the night walking around, and just taking in all the awesome other exclusives that vendors were offering. First stop, Gargamel booth. HOLY..SHIT..

Just look at those awesome customs. It was so hard to pass up on these but I was too determined for Thursday. I just decided to hang out and talk to a few people I knew who also showed me some of the things they scored at the booth. Big thanks to Kris (wtfunks) for hooking up Madeline with the one main want from this booth, the Camo Killer.

The rest of the night, I wandered around some more, passing up on so many great exclusives. I'm actually quite proud of myself, because last year on preview night, I ran amok just picking up figures I wanted on impulse. I was like a little kid in a candy store buying everything that looked good to me. XD

I did however see somebody with a Gold Rebel Ink, and at that instant, I already knew where I had to go next. I ran straight to Toy Tokyo's booth, only too see a horde of people there shopping. I thought I was screwed and had no chance of scoring one, but I noticed around the side another smaller line. Secret Base had a small table set up and this is where they were selling the Gold Rebel Ink. SCORE!!!

I know I was holding out for Thursday, but I had to have this one. I was seriously stoked to be able to pick this one up because they only had a few available. I totally spaced out though because I was all juiced to score one, that I didn't even think to pick one up for my homie Heng. By the time I realized this and went with Maddie to see if I can have her buy him one, they were already sold out. Ugh, I felt so bad not being able to hook Heng up.

Madeline and I continued to walk around checking out the rest of the toy garden, and lo and behold, Mori-san was in attendance at the Onell Design booth.

It was a pleasure meeting Mori-san. He was such a nice guy, and I think he was very happy to be at comic con to meet a lot of his fans. We enjoy his Mutant Zone figures, and are really impressed with the new sculpts he has been working on for the Mutant Zone Series 3 line. Check 'em out. These were just a few of the exclusives that was hard for me to pass on.

The amount of awesome figures at this con was insane. I kept circling my main booths of interest. Gargamel, Grass Hut, Super 7, Onell Design and Toy Tokyo (only because they had some other cool Japanese vinyl figures). There were a lot of other great booths to check out, but I was only scoping these out for one main reason. If I wasn't able to score a hand paint at the Pushead event, I had to have a backup plan on what toys I wanted to buy. Haha!

As Preview night came to a close, we headed over to Yardhouse for the Skull Brain dinner. As we walked down I believe 5th Street, we witnessed a couple having a fight, and the girl was just wailing on the guy, punching him in the face. She then ran past us in tears. It was pretty crazy to see, but I kind of wonder if it was a sign of something bad happening at the Yardhouse gathering. Either way, we continued on. Once we got there, we met up with Hank and also met CannibalKaiju. It was great meeting a bunch of new people and putting faces to screen names. We had a lot of fun talking about toys and what we liked to collect.

The experience did get a bit interesting, as Mori, Ayako from Uamou, Hossy from Popsoda and Kazu-san (Itokin Park) at one point were all sitting at the table we were at. Sometimes I wish I knew how to speak Japanese. XD It was also awkward and disappointing a bit of the time, but I'm not really gonna go into much detail about that. Let's just say Madeline and I felt a little out of place at the table. Nothing to do with any of the Japanese designers, but we kind of wished we were sitting at another table.

All in all, Madeline and I had fun at the dinner, and would like to thank Joe for organizing the gathering. He and a bunch of other Skull Brainers brought a gang of goodies for sale. It was hard to choose from the variety of goodies, but I was able to pick up a Cure Suck Fly for Heng and I. I know this doesn't make up for the Rebel Ink, but I was glad I could hook him up with something he was looking for.

If you purchased something at the dinner, you were also given a raffle ticket for the prizes that were brought as well. I was hoping for one of the RealxHead figures datadub brought to be raffled. I didn't win any of them, but we came away with some cool T-shirts. Got a Mutant Massacre x Vinyl Fiends tee, and also a Pop Monster tee. I wasn't disappointed about losing out on the RxH figures because they went to a few awesome boardies who we met previously inside the con. Monkey & Sappy scored the Mutant Head and Kevlo9 scored the Yamazakura one-off. Congrats to all three of them. After the raffle, we were pretty pooped and decided to call it a night.

On our way back to the hotel as we were leaving the parking garage, we were driving behind somebody who I believe was drunk. They didn't seem to know where they were going, and didn't even bother looking at any of the signs which pointed to the exit. As the driver came to an exit that was closed, they began to back up, nearly hitting me in the process. Thank God I reacted quickly and backed up to get out of their way. Although they missed me, instead they backed up into a parked car. BAM!!! The impact wasn't hard, but I don't think they even noticed they hit the car. Thinking everything was a-ok, they proceeded towards the attendant at the exit. Little did they know, the car they hit was the car of the attendant. Busted!!

The attendant told them to go back and park next to the car, cause she was pissed and was going to call the police if they tried to leave. Once we got to the attendant, we told her that I believe the driver was drunk and that we were sorry to see her car get hit. Fortunately she said it was just a rental, but she was still extremely pissed. Wow, crazy night indeed.

Once we got back to the hotel, Madeline and I were still so excited, it was hard to go to sleep even though we were dead tired. We looked over our preview night haul, talked about the con, and also the dinner. Finally we feel asleep, only to wake up in a few hours for Day 2.