Episode 39

CAST OFF! CHANGE, BEETLE!

Scene recreation of Kamen Rider Dark Kabuto's debut.

Celebrating my 100th Figure! \(^o^)/

My 99th and 100th figures since I started my SHF collector career are:

[Misc] SHF Japan ver. vs SHF Asian ver.

If you're a SHF collector, I'm sure you've came across the terms "Japan ver." and "Asian ver." frequently. Some sellers claimed that Japan ver. is better than the Asian ver. in terms of QC, in order to justified why they're selling the Japan ver. at higher price... But is what they claimed true?

So here's the official announcement from Bandai regarding this matter:

Please note that Tamashii Nations product specification does not vary depending on market of release unless otherwise specified. Stickers and packaging elements may differ depending on the territory the product is sold in for license related reasons. With regards to a product series where license labels differ in color or are applied/not applied based on the market which they are sold in, assertions that a difference in licensor sticker color or existence/non-existence of a license sticker reflects upon the quality or production location of the products are purely false. The application of and different colors of the aforementioned stickers solely reflect on licensor policy and are not intended to be used as a measure of value or grade of quality. All official Tamashii Nations products uphold the same level of quality control regardless of the market in which they are sold or color of any license sticker on packaging. 

*You can read Bandai's statement HERE

Apparently, this "SHF Japan ver. vs SHF Asian ver." issue is not new. Collectors had been discussing about this ever since. When I just started collecting action figures, it also puzzled me that Bandai would release two versions of action figures and keep the best one for Japan. But is that true? Is there any difference between Japan ver. & Asia version? Fortunately I've found an interesting article written few years ago, which compare the difference between the SHF Japan ver. and SHF Asian ver.:

[Review] S.H.Figuarts Kamen Rider OOO GataKiriBa Combo

Introduction

Temporary cover art until I find myself the time to make one for GataKiriBa :P

Accessed by scanning the 3 Insects Core Medals, GataKiriBa Combo was the first Full Combo used by Kamen Rider OOO. Debuted in Episode 6 of the series, GataKiriBa form grants Kamen Rider OOO the abilities to unleash electric current from his horns, to perform inhuman jump, and (perhaps the coolest ability) to create massive clones of himself, which is similar to Naruto's Kagebunshin :P

Yes indeed, SHF Kamen Rider OOO GataKiriBa Combo is an old SHF and it was first released in March 2011. Why bother to do review on this figure now? Well, since this SHF is my very first SHF, I figured it would be best if my first figure review is based on it.

So, without further delay, let's get into the business.

Kamen Rider Yami Gaim Black Jimber Lemon Arms!

[Comic] Saturday Outing

BOARD Riders and SMART BRAIN Riders

[Comic + Parody] I AM YOUR FATHER

Sunday Comic :D

*CLASH*

[Parody] Skull x MJ

MJ's Zero Gravity Lean. Skull can do that too :P

[Comic + Haul] Guess the haul

Something came in today...

Let's open it up!

Senpai! You're OK??

....
[Doors opening sound effect]

[Tutorial] How to Extract Image using Green Screen

All this while I've been extracting image in Photoshop using image extraction tools like Layer Mask, Magic Wand etc. I couldn't be bothered to set up a proper background like green screen or blue screen and use the tool in Photoshop to remove the background.

But recently I found that it is much faster and easier to extract image using green screen and Color Range tool in Photoshop, and that is what I'm gonna share today.

Kamen Rider Ryuga & Dragblacker

Scene recreation of Kamen Rider Ryuki The Movie: Episode Final

Happy Malaysia Day

Happy Malaysia Day to all Malaysians :D

In case you don't know, Red, White, Yellow and Blue are the colors of the Malaysia Flag, a.k.a. Jalur Gemilang :)

[Comic] Happy 9-13 Kaixa Day!

Yeap, today is the day! It's 9-13 KAIXA DAY!
Enjoy the comic strips below I made for Kaixa Day one year ago ^.^

Fuuto Hero 2

He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector... 
A Kamen Rider.

Happy Mooncake Festival

My Dark Kiva would like to wish everyone a happy Mooncake Festival... Enjoy the beautiful full moon tonight :D

Unleash The Beast Within

Kamen Rider Gunslingers

[Tutorial] Creating SHF Kamen Rider Wizard Infinity Dragon Gold in Photoshop

Today I'll show one simple tutorial in editing the pictures of SHF action figures. For my first attempt, I decided to give a try in showing on how to edit SHF KR Wizard Infinity into SHF KR Wizard Infinity Dragon Gold, mainly because it's quite simple because it only involves some image extraction and colors shifting.

[Comic] It's hard to befriend every Rider

Ugh!!! Just Ugh!!!

Monday Blues... or not!

[Random] SHF Kamen Rider Wizard Infinity Dragon Gold

 

[Haul] SHF Agito Shining & SHF DragonRanger (Green Ranger)

Today I'm gonna open a new section for my blog, i.e. Haul-Sharing post. So firstly, I wanna introduce one of my hauls today, which is SHF Kamen Rider Agito Shining Form:

SHF Kamen Rider Agito Shining Form

[Random] The Passing Through Rider

ATTACK RIDE: BLAST!

[Parody] Ryuki x Gaim

史上最強のライダーは、戦国武将…
The strongest riders in the history are Sengoku Warriors...

[Random] Kamen Rider Kiva's signature hand looks like rocker handsign to me

[Random] All Kamen Rider suits come with a Doraemon pocket

If you've watched at least one Kamen Rider series, I'm sure you came across these similar scenes and wonder the same thing as I do: Why on earth the Riders can literally pull anything out of their ass?!

Toei's logic: "It's a kids show anyway, who cares?"

[Comic] Is Autovajin considered a Transformer too?

"What do you mean you can't transform like his bike?!"

RX being desperate. XD

[Comic] Choose your starting Pokémon Contract Monster wisely!

[Comic] Respect your Senpai!

Many thought that Kamen Rider Gaim is the pioneer Rider who use fruit as his Rider motif. If you're one of them, you're wrong!

Hipster Momotaros. Becoming a fruit-themed Rider before it was cool.

It was actually Kamen Rider Den-O who started the trend! As expected from our Senpai Momotaros XD

Fuuto Hero

Just back from my vacation and I found that my last post was 1 week ago. So... here's some random photo I edited not so long ago. Well, gotta keep this blog alive :P

[Comic] Prank Didn't End Well

 

WARNING: [18SG] Graphic Violence and Horror/Terror

 

Introduction

Hello! Welcome to my blog.

For introduction, let's begin with talking about me. I'm a Malaysian who just started my 'career' as an action figures collector last year, in Jan 2013. It all started when my gf gave me a SHF Kamen Rider OOO Gatakiriba as present, and now I couldn't stop myself from collecting figures. Of course, every collector will go through a stage where they feel guilty and sinful for spending hard-earned money on these plastics, and I'm no exception. To be frank, I'm still in that stage even after 1 year! But this hobby had been part of my life for more than 1 year, and every time I finished working on photo-editing on the action figures, I gained the feeling of utmost satisfaction. That is why I'm still continuing to fund this expensive hobby XD

Anyway let's get back to the topic.
Basically this blog serves as my platform to share my hobby, i.e. action figures collection! Most of the figures I collect are S.H.Figuarts and Kamen Rider based. I'll share (or showoff) my figure collections from time to time, and I will probably do some review on some of my action figures. Besides that, I will also share the digital artwork I've worked on (something like the picture above) in this blog. I also hoped that I can allocate some time in the future to prepare some of the simple tutorials on how to make your toy photography comes alive by applying these effects on it!

Well, that was the plan and that is why I started this blog. Anyway, hope you guys will enjoy my blog! Stay tune :)

Regards
SmokerBamboo
June 2014