It’s Sunday evening (as of this writing) and I totally blew off the final day of the Museum of Moving Image’s celebration of New York Cable Access, aka TV Party. Despite the subject matter being clearly relevant to my interests, I simply could not be bothered; this past week totally kicked my ass and not in a good way. Which I may or may not be elaborate upon further, though let’s just say there’s a good chance that you’ll be seeing me concentrate and write more for this blog, which I guess is one end benefit of all the nonsense that I’ve been going on.
Also, yesterday was my first day as a cameraperson for a documentary that I’m helping my friend produce, which involved me secretly filming him interact with women (more on that later, naturally) and I’m still pretty tuckered out from that as well. All that and how my first taste of TV Party totally sucked. Though it honestly was in my best interest to check out the rest of the programming if I am indeed going to attempt to curate something similar myself (again, something that everyone tells me I should pursue); guess the deal breakers is how the Museum is a bitch to get to, especially on a Sunday.
Instead, got a bunch of pics taken over the past few weeks to share, starting with two Saturdays ago. Which was Katie‘s birthday celebration at our new fave spot, this karaoke joint in midtown that (in addition to showing Miyazaki movies and random Gundam episodes on the TVs when a song is not playing) pretty much has every single song you can think of, always the biggest issue with any such places…
… That other gal is Katie’s pal Alexis btw, who was quite impressed with my ability to bring breathe new life into the works of Billy Joel, Seal, and Scatman! And the following week was the schedule birthday bash at our place…
Highlights include Hilary meeting and immediately becoming b-fries with Michele, along with her main man Rob informing me of the formation of Barcade Jersey City? Hilary also got the chance to go face to face with Dave over the loli-molestation iPhone game; they’ve been topping each other’s best scores for basically years now…
… Unfortunately, neither was able to break the 20-second barrier mark. Current high score is 12.31, held by Hilary, btw.. Hey, there was a ton of booze flowing that evening. Back to karaoke, here’s Dave and Alexis belting the few hits (at least the one any of us could give two shits about) via Lips…
… God, love how someone drank a tall can PBR with a straw. Also, Joe chillin’ on the couch with my reward from Street Fighter 2 Club resting right on his crotch…
… After Lips we moved onto Rock Band 3, and I went from singing to bitching about the horrible interface that RB3 suffers from, but that’s old news, so moving on! I also have some pics from another birthday bash, from like three weeks ago, that went down at Dave’s place (aka Club Denim). Though everyone agrees that not a single person looked halfway decent in them (the party was just that good), so I’ll spare a ton of people the aggravation by saying those interested can check the least horrible ones over at my Facebook. Instead, and going back to Rock Band 3 (sorta), here’s some discarded kids toy that was taken on New Year’s Eve and Colleen rocking out to it…
Speaking of Colleen, we had plans on hitting Toy Fair 2011 together, but I didn’t submit her credentials in time and thusly flew solo. Just as well, this year’s show sorta blew. Granted, I was far more rushed for time than usual, and therefore didn’t have the chance to stumble across some unadvertised wackiness, which I somewhat have a knack for. But nothing really caught my eye, mostly due it being the same old, same old; seriously, a lot of the stuff I saw the year prior. Toy Fair is also super contingent on what movies are coming out, and needless to say, my excitement for Thor or Transformers 3 related toys isn’t quite on par with what I had for Iron Man or Tron Legacy toys.
I also learned from Steve that “the really good stuff” was being shown behind doors, and by appointment only. And since I’m still a nobody when it comes to the blogosphere (or so I’ve been told more than once this past week, but again, now is not the time to air dirty laundry or grievances), I simply had to rely upon whatever I stumbled across. Which in my case last Monday was the Square Enix booth, which for whatever reason had plenty of Microsoft related items (specifically Halo) and Konami related goods (specifically Metal Gear Solid)…
… Now, if you’re response is “hey, but I’ve seen these before” you’re probably right, but I am currently unable to effectively search old posts for potential repeated information (overhauling this blog’s basic functionality is high on my list, truth me). Anyway, Halo was simply everywhere; right next door was the Todd McFarlane booth, which was highlighted Master Chief and pals, big and small…
With Portal 2 coming out soon, again (was disappointed by the news that the sequel was delayed, but it’ll be well worth the wait, trust me… which I know due to my firsthand experience with the game from an EA event that went down a few days ago, but most of the good stuff I can’t discuss due to an embargo), makes total sense that it’s becoming a full fledged franchise with something like this…
I still need to pick up these Mega Man gashaphon, though knowing my luck, I’ll get 6 Bass or Rolls in a row…
Hey, Venture Brother bobble heads! And yes, I can’t believe it any more than you can (they still make bobble heads…
And some Venture Brother figures/dolls/whatever you want to call them…
What’s a Toy Fair without Hello Kitty and friends?
Last year was my first taste of DC manga-izing their characters (here’s a refresher if you need one) and this latest line looks even stupider if that it can be believed….
This one is basically for Simon; hey, UFC!
Not gonna lie; I want the Daft Punk from Tron Legacy Bearbricks in the worst way possible…
Hey look, a flux capacitor for sale!
Again, somewhat slim picking as far as interesting stuff to feature goes, especially as it relates to games. Only posting this Duke Nukem statue as a result (I couldn’t give two shits about him back in the day, and certainly don’t care today)…
There’s a good reason why these Castlevania figures were somewhat hidden; they looked horrible…
Meet “Animal”, who was pitching something called Myachi, aka basically hacky sack for the back of your hand (I know it’s already linked on the homepage, but in case you missed it, the totally tubular video)…
… Like most attendees, I avoid hard sellers like the plague, but there was something about the dude and what he was pimping that I found fascinating, endearing even. Was even nice to give me one for a review, a not in stores yet Houndstooth patterned model, which I’ll try to get to in the sometime near future!
That was Monday, which was also Valentine’s Day, so later that evening I went down to Chinatown for dinner with the gf. Here’s Katie sporting a sailor’s coat that I got for her on her birthday…
And here was the wacky Chinese magazine cover that I stumbled across immediately after the above was snapped…
There were LOTS of weird sights that evening….
… Unfortunately the one scene that pretty much made the entire evening, that of an extremely scruffy homeless dude that was covered from head to toe in dirt, save for a pure white “cape” made out of feathers, and who was loitering in front of a restaurant, with what we believe was the owner of said establishment begging him to get lost, was something that I unfortunately did not get the chance to capture. But trust us, this dude was straight out of a Kurosawa flick. Instead, here’s a pic of the Valentine’s I got from Hilary…
The following day was the long awaited release of Marvel vs Capcom 3, and to mark the occasion, another Fighting Weapon Battle at Dave’s took place. Though it was obviously not like the others, due to MvC3 not being some obscure Japanese PS2 title that featured exclusively maids or construction vehicles. Meaning the game was less about wacky characters and actual technique, so I sucked more than usual. Oh well…
… And yeah, sucks that the game only outputs a widescreen image. As for the game itself, it’s pretty neat! I guess. Sorry, but I suck at fighters, which keep getting more fact paced and complicated, despite the fact that this latest one is supposed to be easier than before. My overall enjoyment is therefore going to be only so much. Though I also have had issues with fighters in general for years now, which led to a discussion on Twitter that perhaps some of you caught earlier this week, about my theories about how they’re one of the major reasons why arcades are in decline, and as also noted, my spell out my notions in greater detail in the near future! Till then, here’s a pic of Peter with a Justin Bieber PSP skin that I got from Toy Fair…
… Note: that picture was much funnier before it was revealed in an interview that he thinks rape is God’s will or some bullshit like that. Oy vey.
The following day was a return to Toy Fair; was not able to locate the Kotobukiya booth my first time around and was determined to track them down. And less than half an hour till the end of the show, found them I did. Which was actually the best possible time, cuz they were in the midst of tearing things down, which allowed me the chance to take some super close pics and without glass doors in the way!
Their line of Marvel x Bishoujo is still going strong it seems, with the definite highlight being Black Cat…
… Truth be told, my interest in sexy figures as a whole has been on the serious wane in recent months (logged into Figure.fm earlier today, first time in ages) and assumed that I had I was completely over sexy slabs of plastic. Wrong! Moving on, is Invisible Woman….
… Will always be more of a fan of their 90′s threads, with the white instead of the black, but so be it. Oh, same goes with Jean Gray; her red & yellow X-Factor garb is still the best…
On the DC front, there’s Golden Age Supergirl…
And Catgirl here is proof positive that whomever did the manga-ization for those other statues needs to fired…
Then you had the new upcoming Ghostbusters animu girl statue was announced at the show (which is still being worked on)…
Here’s Kotobukiya’s line of Mega Man figures…
… Though it was what was next to Roll that got me the most exited. A closer look….
… Isn’t that the cutest?! Was told it hails from Wonder Festival Winter 2011 and I came super close to nabbing it, till the big boss remember it was the only one they had… Though I was told that they’re going to sell them in Japan at least, so I still have a chance (along with everyone else, of course).
Rounding out the booth was Kasumi from DOA….
… And some character from Shining Wind….
… There was also some chibi Patlabor figures, but couldn’t find a good enough angle, plus I felt bad for keeping everyone from wrapping up and getting the hell out of dodge, so I made a hasty exit. On the way out, ran into Lego Master Chief…
Guess that’s it as far as IRL pics are concerned. Was gonna take a way overdue look at the replacement for the forum’s random pic thread, aka the random pic (and video) Tumblr, but I sorta need to wrap things up, so instead, something awesome that someone passed along via Twitter….
There’s also the following courtesy of Dave’s current project…
Back to Tumblr, there?s also this, courtesy of Q Entertainment’s PR dude, but it’s also NSFW, hence why I’m not posting it straight-up. Alright, till next time!
