For a while now I have been a bit busy not being able to keep up with all the shows but as of a day ago I decided to go through the list that has been piling up. I really don’t like not having a complete show to enjoy or having part of it if I like the show. Some are completing and some shows are new additions like Community and Justified. Just the right shows for the summer but 24 I’m going to watch one shot in 24 hours with no disturbances in 10 days.

The List:

• 24 – Season 8 – Planning on watching one shot over the next weekend, I couldn’t watch it week to week the first few episodes were insane and this is said to be the best season yet
• Supernatural – Season 5 – Starting it back up again since the season finished heard its a great season
• Community – Season 1 – A new comedy that people keep telling me about, a guy going back to community college and some insane people to deal with
• Justified – Season 1 – A new cowboy detective show who’s actions speak a lot louder then any words, looks pretty good
• Strike Back – 6 Part BBC Army/Special Forces Drama/Action looks pretty good

I have been passing by Dubai Mall constantly over the past couple of trips to Dubai, and I have never seen this Hobby Center on the third floor. And I spell it “Center” because the other way is just wrong. The place is huge in comparison to a lot of Hobby Shops I have seen, MyToyCo in Kuwait is really nice but this is just something else. They have every kind of machine can imagine helicopters, trucks, buggies, sports cars, planes, speed boats, tanks, and even semi-trucks with trailers. That doesn’t even include the number of models they have laying around. You have a choice of gasoline or electric machines, there is even a plane which is bigger then me hanging on the wall and you can find items ranging from 100KD all the way to 6000KD or even more. They have a huge selection and professional staff, spare parts, and a ton of accessories.

When I was inside I had a strong urge to buy a Speed Boat and RC Truck but I decided not to with what common sense I had left at the time. The kid in me was jumping for joy, I wanted to take one of those cars right out into the mall and start sliding around and drifting. There was one Tamiya truck which looked really cool but I decided not to get it since it was big and I didn’t have anywhere to put it, and I didn’t want to carry it with me since it would be a burden. But their selection is amazing, and if you have any interest then you should seriously go there, it was amazing and really got me thinking about getting a simple RC Truck. The speed boat was pretty cool but the guy said it had to be driven in ocean water since these little machines are basically like bullets on water and would be destroyed within seconds in a pool. I visited there twice in one day and I couldn’t get enough of it!

I’m loving all these new Iron Man models that are being released, I know that all these companies are capitalizing on the Iron Man 2 hype but whats great is that they are really making highquality models. Hot Toys just keeps making it better and better, these toys are extremely detailed and articulate, its insanely cool. I can’t stop wanting more and more of these new toys, you can never have enough toys and these are just amazing. They went for a movie acurate model and came up with this highly detailed Iron Man 2 suit.

The 1/6th scale Mark IV Limited Edition Collectible Figurine specially features:

• Authentic and detailed fully realized likeness as Mark IV in the movie Iron Man 2
• Newly developed alternate head with authentic likeness of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in the movie (photos coming soon)
• Approximately 30 cm tall
• Over 36 points of articulations
• Special features on armor:
• Newly developed movie-accurate helmet
• LED-lighted eyes and Micro ARC reactor on chest (white light, battery operated)
• One (1) piece of detachable chest armor
• Improved articulations on waist armor which allow flexible movement
• Detachable forearm rockets
• Four (4) pairs of interchangeable palms:
• + One (1) pair with improved articulations, movable fingers and light-up repulsors (white light, battery operated)
• + One (1) pair of open palms with light-up repulsors (white light, battery operated)
• + One (1) pair of relaxed palms with light-up repulsors (white light, battery operated)
• + One (1) pair of forceful fists
• Fully deployed air flaps at back of the armor with built-in metal flaps
• Retractable countermeasure dispenser
• Articulated flaps at the back of armor on left and right legs
• Metallic red and gold-colored painting on armor

There have been a few interesting custom Lego models over the past couple of months, and some of these are amazing. These models are made by a 15 year old named Sven Junga, and he has spent months making all these amazing models. For Sci-Fi fans some of these models will seem familiar, he built the city of Stargate Atlantis as well as the Battleship Deadalus from the same show. Then there is the HAVw A6 Juggernaut from Star Wars Revenge of the Sith. It takes a lot of talent and patience to put together models such as these, its seriously amazing what some of these guys do.

Link: iO9

I don’t believe in something being too old or too young to do, I am a man that enjoys working on Legos or models of any king but Jarec took this passion to another level. I’m also a fan of Starcarft so I recognized the machine when I saw it, a fully functional Terran Battlecruiser, this couldn’t be any cooler. After a month of hard work he really has an amazing model on his hands, too bad Lego doesn’t make complex and cool models such as these, I do like their technic line though.

Link: Hellforge

I have had the Technic Lego Motorcycle sitting on the floor in my room for over two months now, I just didn’t get around to it. Until Friday I decided that I have too many boxes in my room and I need to rid of a few, so to get rid of the Technic box I needed to put it together.

I thought its going to be pretty simple, I was expecting a lot of pieces but only two bags were inside with two sets of tires and the manual. When I opened the bags each one had two small bags inside of them not including the bigger parts in the big bags.

When I opened the bag and started going through the pieces I realized that it was going to be a little bit more complex then I expected. I was siting on the floor, manual to my side, camera behind me and music blaring. I felt like a kid sitting on the floor really enjoying putting it together and looking forward to finishing it. At first I was lost but I remembered that I always had a system to putting them together, I opened up all the bags put all the pieces in each bag on the floor together, and bunched up certain parts together. After the first hour I was on a roll and started putting parts together faster, systematic, piece by piece and completing each part then putting it together. But I had to get up and move every 30 minutes, different parts of my body were going numb after some time.

After 3 hours and 10 minutes I finish the Lego Street Bike which resembles the Ducati 999. I think that’s the main reason I got it a while back, because it resembles the 999. It looked really good and I was happy with what I had, but again I didn’t have any good place to place it.

After Mark‘s visit of the place I had to go check it out, I had the urge to take a look at some RC cars before futoor and luckily they are open from 10 am to 1pm and 5 pm to 12 am. They are odd hours but work out nicely, and its just as Mark described it, the place is huge, its an RC Car enthusiast’s dream come true. They moved it up to the 1st floor right next to Rouche Boubios, not exactly sure of that spelling though.

They have all forms of cars which are ready to race or the buildable ones. The ready to race cars range from 70KD up to 180KD depending which model you take, size and speed have a matter as well, and that doesn’t include that you can get accessories for them and improve them. I was tempted to get a small one which looked really cool and is meant for drifting but I thought I would think about it for now. And then there were the models which had to be built and you can get those in gas or electric and those range from 250 KD up to 600 KD plus with lots of different configurations and types, and some of these machines can go faster then most consumer cars.

There were so many spare parts available for all kinds of vehicles, and you can customize them in many ways. As Mark stated you can have a building area as well as a paint booth and a photography booth. Then they are building a track on the roof right next to them which is going to be huge and perfect for those drifting cars, they can even make some interesting jumps for those off-road machines, I’m curious how they are gonna design the track. This is all located in Tilal Center in Shuweikh right after City Center on Pepsi Street and opposite Home Center.

I was passing by Al Sabih Marine to check out a few items, while I was there I just crossed the road into Tilal to check the Tamiya store. I have had the urge for a very long time but I don’t know why I haven’t been there. Its a very nice store with a nice selection of cars, looks like they will be moving to the first floor into My Toy Company. I looked around the moment I walked in, it reminds me of the R/C Stores in Muthana that used to go to as a kid but a lot cleaner and a smaller selection. They have some interesting cars which are ready made and some to be built.

The ready built cars range from 120 to 180 KD, different models had different sizes and I really enjoyed looking around. There was a cool Humvee with the green camouflage colors and then there was Nissan GT-R which looked like it would be a lot of fun on a smooth street. I walked in just talking a look around and ended up asking these guys a ton of questions. There was an old Landcruiser which is built on a rock crawler chassis and its really cool, and a few other ones are cool like that but the price of it starts at 200 KD and goes up to 400 KD depending if you get the full electric kit which has lights horns and other things. Turns out these complex trucks like the red Landcruiser seem to have gear boxes and you can put it into gear with the remote, it seems they have gotten a lot more complex over the years but still looks like fun.

Continue Reading…

I always look for unique models, toys, and figures which I can add to my collection. Recently in Singapore I came across this store which had the original Takara Transformers from the 1980s show made in Japan, I was shocked and happy, I couldn’t believe that I have found what I have been looking for right in front of my eyes. The Takara models were still in their boxes and in perfect condition, these are not just models but an art form. So much detail and beauty I couldn’t resist getting both the Optimus Prine & Convoy, and Ultra Magnus, he had another Ultra Magnus which was on display in the case but not for sale, it was his own and he didn’t even let me touch it, I couldn’t blame him. And bought both of them right away, he said that he also had the original Starscream and Megatron who also transform but it was too high a price so I thought these two would be perfect before going to watch Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.

Continue Reading…

The Red Gundam Fix Metal Composite was the first Gundam I put together, then there was the Blue one which remained in the box for a couple of weeks since I didn’t have enough time to get around to it or the right place to place it. These models or objects of art need right placement before being put together, I honestly don’t want to work on one unless I have the right spot for it and after looking around my room I found the right spot.

I decided to place the Blue Gundam on top of my desk shelving wear Bumble Bee was previously. This specific Gundam comes in multiple configurations, two robot mode, in regular form which I built the first one or the armored mode which is down right scary. Then there is the plane mode which also has a normal and armored mode. I decided to go with the semi-normal plane mode because it looked really cool in the box.

Now I just need two more of these models to build the other variations of it and I have to say that I would never be satisfied. I need some shelving to present these works of art, I am just happy looking at them wondering how ingenious the Japanese are in their creative ideas and how soon will we have life size robots such as these. I want to thank my very thoughtful friend who bought this for me as a gift.

Continue Reading…