My Shiny Toy Robots

A relatively short OVA series comprising of 12 15-minute episodes, Detroit Metal City tells the story of Soichi Negishi, a shy and gentle young man who dreams of a career as a pop musician. Dreams don't pay the bills, so he ends up as the lead singer and lead guitarist of a death metal band called “Detroit Metal City.” In stage costume he is Johannes Krauser II, rumored to be a terrorist demon from hell, to have killed and raped his parents, to wield his giant death penis with abandon, etc. etc. Negishi despises DMC and all that it stands for, but so help him, he's a terrific performer and can't walk away from that. As DMC's star rises Negishi tries to satisfy both worlds, but can't. On top of this he has to deal with a love interest who loves Negishi's (failing) solo work, and dislikes DMC and his alter ego Krauser, and a foul mouthed record company president who constantly keeps him in his place. It's extremely foul mouthed, some of its implied content i...

Finally, after missing its initial release due to lack of funding and having to scour the aftermarket in hopes of finding one, I've finally bought a reasonably priced (£30) Revoltech Super Galaxy (or Chouginga if you prefer) Gurren Lagann from ebay, thus completing my collection by owning all 5 original TV iterations of the mech. Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann is the robot mode of the giant space battleship Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren, making its first appearance in episode 25's epic conclusion. As per usual Kaiyodo really come through when it comes to sculpt and paint detail, with the figure being covered in small windows from the spaceship mode. Its a nice blend of black, red and gold with some great neon green hints in certain places (would have been fantastic if these were glow in the dark, but I feel that might be a bit TOO much wishful thinking). After the disappointing lack of accessories with the Arch Gurren Lagann figure, its nice to see to return to form for this figure. ...

As promised here are a few shots of the new Revoltech VF-1A which arrived in the post today. While pretty much the same as the VF-1S, this version of the Macross DYRL valkyrie sports red markings rather than yellow and a different head sculpt. Unlike my VF-1S the head fitted on with relative ease (much to my relief!). However the arms of the figure are incredibly floppy and struggle to pull off any decent poses holding the gunpod (which adds alot of weight to the arm). It's easier to pose in battroid (robot) mode, but since I plan to display it in gerwalk mode alongside the VF-1S it's a little disappointing. As you'd expect, the same overall rating applies. And here are the rest of the pics!

From what I can gather, Macross is a very expensive hobby. Looking at the Yamato range of Macross figures (which from what I can tell are the really good ones) you'd be looking to spend £40 and up plus shipping just for one figure. There are smaller ones available, but then the question is raised whether they're transformable or not. Thankfully revoltech have finally gone and made their own transforming valkyries from both Super Dimension Fortress Macross and Do You Remember Love? at an affordable rate (I paid just over £25 for one), have minimal partsforming AND in scale with most of my other robot/mecha figures. But are they any good? Time to find out... The obvious place to start would be the jet mode, which the figure is packaged in. Despite seeming small once you're holding it, there's nothing really I can fault with it. A jet is a jet, and this is a perfect representation of Roy's signature transformation. Gerwalk mode is much the same, although I'd re...

FINALLY released on DVD in Japan, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann the Movie: Lagann-Hen is the direct follow on from the previous movie Guren-Hen and covers episodes 15 to 27 of the Gurren Lagann series, thus concluding the story arc. It chronicles the Dai Gurren Dan's defeat of the Spiral King Lordgenome and his ominous warning, then moves onto the 7 year timeskip when the team must reunite and travel the depths of space to battle the Anti-Spirals and rescue Nia, who became the enemy's messenger of destruction. While Guren-Hen followed the plot of the first half of the series fairly faithfully (until Kamina's death that is), Lagann-Hen , while following the same basic premise, contains far more divergences, meaning that it is almost entirely made up of new footage and has a far more unique feel than its predecessor. Most of these (ie the ones that I can remember/stood out the most) new movie version changes are listed below. * The movie opens with the concluding fistfig...