Judge Gabranth - Armor up!!

I cant tell you much about this guy. I just know hes one of the bosses in Final Fantasy XII. The last time I played a FF game was back when FF 7 was all the rage. Then I played a little of FF 8 and after that the Final Fantasy hyped left me and I stopped playing them. Well everyone who knows me knows what a freak I am about armor design. So when I seen the judges from FF XII I was blown away at the armor design of these 5 judges. They only made a toy of Judge Gabranth, but I sure hope they do the rest of the judges. So once again just taking some photos of this awsome figure.

Produced by Square Enix Studios it looks like Square is actually producing there figures which I have to say are pretty nice. 20 points of articulation, he comes with alternate hands, and 2 swords which actually join together at the handles to form sort of a giant bladed staff of sorts. Over all an awsome figure, as I said I hope they do the other judges. The armor is more form than function but still its so awsome and great in concept. That helmet is just sick.

MEGACON 2008 ...NERDFEST

Well Megacon came and went. It was pretty cool, while it pales in comparison to the San Deigo comicon, I think its Florida's biggest con. Either way its just a good time. Walked around seen all kinds of wild shit and it was funny because before we got there Luis, Crystal and I were talking and I had brought up the fact that it would be so awsome to see power rangers and I would have to get a pic with them. Well I cant say she was an authentic Ranger but she had the right costume. I only say this cause in my true nerd form, if I think back of all the sentai shows I cant remember there ever being a female white ranger. Either way her costume rocked and it was as close as I was going to get to getting my picture with a sentai character. Unfortunately some big gorilla of a mother fucker blocked me out a bit. Oh well what are you going to do, its a nerd extravaganza and everyone is out for there own. From toys, anime, comics, movies, and artists wandering and mingling around its wild to just walk around and take pictures and say hi to people you only hear about on the internet or see there artwork on deviant art.

So Crystal being the Star Wars fan she is, when we walked by the 501st Legion's booth, we both were talking about joining but for those that know the 501 are no joke. You have to have a costume approved by there higher ranking members...nerdy you say...oh hell yeah and thats what makes it even more cool. So while snapping pictures of the clones and troopers we see Darth Vader walk by and we both were like...we gotta get pictures. While Vader uses the force...Crystal looks like shes grabbing for something... While were taking these pictures another Vader walks by with the same costume but by his side was one of his Imperial Royal Gaurds which both costumes were so awsome.
Crystal also ended up meeting Felix, her con partner for life. She met this guy I think 3 times now at various cons we've been to which this time she ended up buying a Mr. Potato head that was suited up to look like the infamous Boba Fett. Nothing but coolness here folks move along.

Finally we have big spender Luis, who was on a mission to find some of the figures he was missing from Final Fantasy 7. This elusive deviant art celebrity ended up finding his figure as well as meeting up with a few other guys that he talks with on deviant art. This shot I just randomly snapped while walking thru the various halls but I think this was when we were going thru artist alley. As you can see hes in deep concentration while looking at artwork. So all around it was an awsome time and we all had fun. Afterwards we went and grabbed some pizza and headed on home which we still had to go with Luis to pick up Super Smash Bros for the midnight release. Yes I said it folks, even after Megacon, we were heading to get a second dose of nerdiness. We got there around 10 and waited outside like a herd of cattle waiting to be fed. We all huddled together and kept warm, while it was cold that night, there were enough sweaty stinky nerds to keep the masses warm. At midnight Luis heads in and gets his copy, off to his house to play and...wow did we play. Next thing I knwo its like 4:30 in the morning and by the time I went back to Crystals house to get my car I walked in the door and crashed at about 5:30 which with the time change really fucked me up. I'll say it again though, what a great day, cant wait to do it again.

The one True Spartan

Well as if playing the game wasnt enough, Mcfarlane Toys knowing how big the franchise is, capitalized on this when they accquired the rights to Halo 3. So I picked up Master Chief and the Brute Chieftain and I have to be honest on first onlook I wasnt really impressed. For one I was utterly disgusted at how small these figures are. I mean most Mcfarlane figures are about 7 to 8 inches and then out of no where we get some of the best characters ever from one of the best video games ever and blamo Mcfarlane toys shrunk the chief down. Well another thing aside from the size was the fact that....what do I see, could it be, no it cant be...Mcfarlane Toys putting articulation into a figure. HOLY SHIT!!! 18 points of articulation on the chief and 15 on the Brute. Now that Mcfarlane finally got some joints in a figure they decide to shrink it...ok i'll stop talking about that. To the left here we have the chief himself in his standard armor. This is basically the default armor that you have when you start the game. If you decide to play online the higher your rank and as you unlock achievements you unlock more armor which Mcfarlane also is making each individual armor in varying colors so you too can go broke buying each Spartan. He comes with a frag and his trusty assualt rifle. I wish he would have come with more weapons but again it looks like Mcfarlane is going to supply certain armors with certain guns. That pretty much sums up the chief, and to go back to the quality of the figure. I have to say one thing Mcfarlane is known for is the sculpts. Most of his toys are usually pretty well sculpted ressembling there real life counter part or whatever fantasy figure there trying to emulate. So to add, once I actually opened the chief up I was pretty impressed at his poseability and how cool he looks out of the package. Most of the time once you open a figure they sometimes lose that coolness but the chief holds his own out of the package.

Now on to the Brute Chieftain, now as much as I love Master Chief and the Spartans, I always seem to have a soft spot for the bad guys especially when there alien monsters. The brutes are these gorilla type aliens that are basically trying to kick the Chief's ass. So when I seen the Brute Chieftain with his heavy armor and that helmet...I was sold. Im such a geek for armor. Very samuraish in that him being the chieftain he has this elborate head piece while most of the other brutes have smaller simpler helmets. I noticed that Mcfarlane also has some other brutes coming out soon also.
Well, the chieftain comes with his trusty gravity hammer and a frag. Why I didnt get this pic with this hammer...I have no idea. Anyways again 15 points of articulation, only problem to me being the legs, the joints are horrible, its hard to pose his feet correctly without him looking off balance or have his legs look anotomically incorrect. Once you mess around with it enough you'll see where the legs turn...yeah i said turn, for whatever reason (Im thinking the armor) his legs dont bend. If they do the joints are so tight Im scared to break him. Which his shoulders had this problem also and I noticed when I actually did get them moving I could see what looked like some sort of greese. Which explains the heavy plastic/greese smell that he put off. Most toy collectors know that awsome new smell when you first open a toy, its basically the equivilent of the famous new car smell, but in the toy world were a much simpler group.