Graham

My theory is that when the dead reanimate, then whatever force brings them back also stops decomposition or at least slows it down to a greatly reduced rate, i.e. so instead of completely decomposing in say a year (or however long it normally takes a body to decompose), it instead takes many years. Also, in regards to shuffling vs running zombies, I've always thought that the slow gait of traditional 'Romero' style Zombies is not caused purely by rigor mortis or decaying muscles, but is instead a result of the brain's neural pathways being messed up when the corpse reanimates as a Zombie. This means that the Zombie doesn't have as much control over their body as a normal living person, hence the slow movement. Perhaps like a young child or somebody recovering from a serious illness, the Zombie has to relearn how to use it's body to it's full capability. This could tie in with what we have been hearning about evolved Zombies in Land of the Dead and also 'Bub' in Day of the Dead. Graham

The Destiny MSiA are actually pretty detailed. I'm very happy with mine so far. My favorites so far are the Force/Sword/Blast Impulse and the Blaze & Slash Zaku Phantoms. The Savior, Gaia, Abyss and Chaos are also pretty good as well. Yzak's big double bladed axe can't exactly fold, but the haft (handle) is made of two parts consisting of a long and a short section. You can remove the long section to make the axe shorter for storing it on the rear skirt armor of the Zaku. The spike on the end of the axe does fold. The two beam blades are removeable and the two beam emitter parts are hinged, so that they fold down into a more compact form. Graham

Hmm....looks like it has the same beam rifle as the Impulse. Graham

s_i_t_h_l_o_r_d you are sick, sick, sick, sick I tell you Im official jealous now. Nice photos by the way. Graham

I'd buy a bootleg, but there's no way I'd pay US$700 for an original one of these. US$100 would be my maximum. I just wish somebody would make a VF-17D/S Plush. Graham

Have to be next week, all my Strike MSiA are at work. For now, here's a quick pic of Yzak's Slash Zaku Phantom. I did take some quick pics of the Freedom & Blaze Zaku Phantom, but they came out a bit blurry and as it's getting close to 11pm here, I'm not taking anymore pics for tonight .

Ok, here's a larger scan of the text. Graham

And here's some other Destiny figures, this time by by Bandai. The figs at the top half of the page should be out any day now. The figs at the bottom of the page are due for release in March and appear to have a voice chip in the base. Graham

I'll definitely be picking up the Megahouse Lunamaria figure. Graham

And Lunamaria's younger sister, bridge bunny Meyrin. Graham

Next up psycho chick Stellar. Graham

Oh well, even though Panon has beaten me to it, I'll still post the Hobby Japan pics. First up everybodies favorite female Zaft pilot Lunamaria. Graham

MSiA Freedom Gundam Mini Review Articulation: Fairly good articulation. Ver.2 knees and elbows. Upper-arm rotation point. Head can rotate about 45 degrees side to side and also is capable of some small back & forth movement. 360 degree waist rotation. Ankle articulation pretty good and the toy can keep it's feet fairly flat on the ground even with the legs spread. Front and rear skirt armor is not articulated, but as it is made of very soft PVC, it will bend up if you want to do a kneeling pose. Good articulation of the back wings with solid tight hinges, reinforced with thick metal pins so that the wings will hold their pose when open. Accessories: Comes with 2 x Beam Sabers with removeable blades, 1 x double joined Beam Saber hilt (think Darth Maul), 1 x beam rifle, 1 x shield, 6 x hands (2 x closed fists, 2 x gun hands, 2 x Beam saber hands). Finish, Construction & Sculpt: Pretty good paint job, with a bit of overspray in some areas, nothing major though. Toy is constructed of all PVC, except for the POM elbow & knee joints and the main wing hinges. Sculpt seems pretty accurate, although I'm no expert on the Freedom. Beam Saber blades are ABS, so no sagging, limp noodle blades here. Flaws: The only problem with this toy so far is that the left skirt armor does not hold the beam saber hilt securely at all. In fact the hilt falls out with just the gentlest of touch. The right skirt armor holds the beam saber hilt fine. The problem as I see it is that the two halves of the right skirt armor were not glued together tightly enough at the factory, leaving the channel that holds the hilt slightly oversize . Conclusion: I'm pretty happy with this toy. It's a nice looking sculpt, reasonably well articulated (although not as articulated as the Zaku Phantoms or the Impulse). The back wings/guns are well done and can hold their pose in either the full weapons mode, with the back and hip guns pointing forward or the mode with wings fully open. The hip rail guns also open and close without problem. Overall, I'd give this figure a 7.5/10. Graham

MSiA Blaze & Slash Zaku Phantoms Mini Review Articulation: Overall very good articulation. Ver.2 knees and elbows. Mid-bicep rotation point. Head can rotate 360 degrees and also is capable of some back & forth and side to side movement. Excellent waist articulation. Full 360 degree waist rotation, plus can tilt back & forth and side to side as well. Ankle articulation is fairly limited though as the armor gets in the way. All waist armor segments can be raised to horizontal so kneeling pose is not a problem. Accessories: Comes with 2 x arm shields, 1 x beam rifle, with detachable disc-shape power pack, 4 x spare beam rifle power packs for attaching to inside of arm shields, 1 x back mounted double beam gattling pack (Slash only), 1 x beam axe with removeable beam blade, 1 x large beam axe consisting of double bladed axe head w/removeable beam blades, haft section and end spike (Slash only), 6 x hands (2 fists, 2 gun hands, 2 axe hands), 1 x large thruster back pack with opening missile pods (Blaze only). Finish, Construction & Sculpt: These figures are mostly molded in the correct color PVC, so there is not a great deal of painted areas. The paint job on the painted parts is normal to good for MSiA. Construction of these toys is pretty much all PVC, except for the POM knee and elbow joints. No hard plastic used for the weapons, except for the haft of the Slash's double-bladed beam axe. Sculpt seems accurate to the lineart and anime, although I do think the haed sits a bit too high on the neck joint. Flaws: No major obvious flaws so far. Nothing really loose and no parts falling off except for the beam rifle power pack which doesn't attach to the rifle very securely. I'll probably glue it on. My only other minor complaint is that the missile pod hatches on the Blaze's back pack do not open far enough. Conclusion: With good articulation, no obvious flaws, a decent selection of weapons and a nice looking sculpt, I'd give these figures a 9/10.

OK, just got back from my little shopping expedition. Went to my regular shop that I buy Gundam toys from and gasp..........on first glance, none of the new January MSiAs are on display. So I rumage through the shelves and 1 row back manage to find a single Slash Zaku Phantom (Yzak's blue one) for HK$99 (US$12.70). It seems that the shop only received a few pieces of the new MSiA yesterday and they sold out very quickly. So, being somewhat disheartened at not finding the Freedom MSiA I walk to a nearby shopping mall that has about half a dozen small toy shops. First shop I visit also has a single Slash Zaku Phantom only, but selling cheaper for HK$79 (US$10.12). Gah, knew I should have shopped around! Next two shops, nothing. Next shop........yes! I spot the Freedom MSiA, but it is the last one and the shopkeeper wants HK$178 (US$22.80) for it. Hmm.....this is an extremely high price for an MSiA. So, do I do the sensible thing and wait until next week, when more stock will probably come in and I can get it for a cheaper price, or do I buy it now? Heh, heh, what do you think? Let no man accuse me of being sensible . Of course I bought it . Final shop, luck is with me again. They have the Blaze Zaku Phantom (Rey's white one) selling for HK$79 (US$10.12), which I buy. They are all sitting in front of me now in their boxes. I'm just going to break them out and I'll write a quick report after I've had a chance to play with them. Graham

Regular uniform with that oh so lovely, oh so short miniskirt . Graham

Hasegawa could easily relase three versions of the VF-11 to get more use out of the molds, Mac Plus VF-11B, Mac 7 VF-11C and VF-X2 version. I'd probably buy a couple at least. Graham

There's been pics of these in the last few issues of Hobby Japan magazine. I'll try to get them scanned tonight. They look really nice. I'm definitely getting the Lunamaria one. Graham

Yeah I know . I put it down to a mixture of old age & sleep deprivation. Plus a few sites listed the release date as January 22nd, so I didn't really think they would be released so early. Damn, never believe anything you read on a website . Graham

Stupid me, I went to the shop where I normally buy my Gundam toys yesterday, and they had a load of Bandai cartons just in. But as none of them were obviously marked as containing MSiA, I didn't bother to hang around. I bet they did contain the new MSiA...I should have asked . Oh well, only an hour and a quarter until I can get to the shop again . Graham

Heh, perhaps Lucas will treat us to some Wookie rap Graham

Modern riot armor (which my company sells among other things) is light enough that it doesn't hamper mobility too much. Yes, you can still run in it, even with full arm, thigh and shin protection. I'm not talking about ballistic (bullet resistant) armor. A full suit of that like an EOD bomb suit for example is far too heavy to run in. Yes, if you are unlucky enough to be down on your back on the floor with 10 or more zombies all over you, you are probably history. However, the use of armor is more to prevent an accidental or suprise bite when you are grappling with or plowing through a crowd of zombies, or if one suddenly jumps out at from you from behind a door. If he latches onto your forearm with his teeth, all he is going to get is a mouthful of plastic armor, rather than your flesh. The result being, you live and do not have a nasty infection which would turn you into a zombie. Looking at the Romero Zombie movies, it seems that the most common areas for bites when in melee combat with zombies are the lower leg, forearm and neck, so even some light padding on these areas could prevent potentially lethal bites. Graham

Bet you always play with your Monster as well right? Graham

I'll see if I can find them today then. Graham

Does the VF-0D kit include a color guide for painting it as a standard grey VF-0D, instead of Shin's blue version? Grahan