Shana Candy (transparent) Bikini

Shana Candy Bikini

I don't know if this is a coincidence or not. But as i have mentioned before, this Shana Candy Bikini came together at the same time with Haruhi Metamo.

You already know that you can manipulate Haruhi Metamo's color using room temperature. I just know a little while ago that you can change Shana's bikini transparency also by manipulating temperature.

Heating her up using hairdryer

I did a little searching about this Shana Candy Bikini, and i found something interesting about this figure. They said that her bikini color can change. Yeah... they said color but i would say it's the transparency that change.

By using hairdryer, i can heat her up so that the transparency of her bikini change. Just be careful if you're using hairdryer, don't make the figure melt because of the heat.

Transparent bikini, hmm... DFC (Deliciously Flat Chested)!

See the result? I guess her panties need more heat since it's not transparent enough. But i know that her bra has reached maximum transparency.

There are 2 secrets that this figure has. I have mentioned about bikini transparency, and the 2nd secret is her hair. You can see that her hair is different than the other figures have. It's somewhat transparent and glowing.

How to make her hair glow more? Take a flashlight, turn it on, and light her from behind. You'll see that her hair is somewhat glowing because of the light and hair transparency.

Leaning Kureha - Flaw in her base

Leaning backward

Few months after buying Kureha, i noticed that she leans backward. I don't know if this because of i was unfortunate of getting the flawed product, or every Kureha leans backward.

If you noticed her shoes and the base, you'll find that her shoes heel doesn't even touch the base. It's somewhat floating. With her weight of course she'll lean backward.

Base support for her heel

So her feet are her main problem. I noticed that you'll need something to support one of her heels.

I have an unused gashapon, it's Rin from GSC. And in her package i found something interesting, a base support (or whatever you called it, see the photo above, correct me if i'm wrong).

That base support originally designed for Rin's stand. But since i'm not displaying her around, i used this base support for Kureha.

Kureha stands straight after being supported with the base support

See the result? She stands straight. If you let her leans backward for a longer time, you'll see her legs bending backward or she'll get off her base easily and fall.

Did anyone of you who have Kureha also got this problem?

Middle exam week has started

Let's study hard!

Two weeks of middle exam week awaits me right after this Easter weekend. Oh yeah, easter!

Happy Easter 2008!

For some people, exam week means full-time studying and being busy all the time just for exam. But not for me. I would say that i AM more relaxed in this exam week. If you've ever experienced studying in my place (STTS), you'll agree of what i'm saying.

At normal weeks, assignments will come to you without knowing the word "STOP". But in exam week, there is no assignment. That's why it's more relaxing (for me). You know, doing all my assignments seems harder than studying for exam (that's for me again).

Keeping Figures Parts

SPACE - eternal problem that every figure collector has to deal with. But not only space, figure collectors have to think about their figures' parts. Some of figure collectors will keep the boxes in their room, so they can keep the parts in the boxes.

But i don't keep my boxes inside my room. So putting parts inside the boxes is not an option for me. So how do i keep the parts?

Mitsuru Kirijou's base

Remember Mitsuru Kirijou from Kotobukiya? Actually, she came with a unique base. A 3cm thick base. And there is some little spacing inside, enables you to keep some small parts inside the base.

So many small parts, even Haruhi's hand and armband.

If you look again in the photos. I keep small parts in it. It's from Mitsuru herself, Haruhi, and Ignis the White.

But what about castoffable figures? Mitsuru, Kureha, Haruhi, and Ignis, you can take their skirts off. But where will you put their skirt? In Mitsuru's base? No, that's definitely not an option.

Castoffable figures aren't really the problem. The real problem is, when you got a figure with so many alternate parts, just like Nendoroids. So that's why, you'll have to prepare something to keep the alternate parts safe.

Plastic box (originally not for figure parts)

I bought this plastic box with just IDR 10000 (USD 1.10). It's cheap, light, and useful. I keep my figure parts here. More figures mean more parts, and more parts mean this box will run out of space soon enough. So i just have to buy another one.

Nendoroids inside

For now, only nendoroids parts here. But next month, i guess figma parts will fill this box.

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Camera info :

Canon EOS 400D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Canon EF 50mm

Nendoroid invasion - Haruhi, Yuki, Mikuru

Nendoroid Haruhi, Yuki, and Mikuru boxes

Some of you people may have known how Nendoroids work or how many parts a nendoroid has. But still, i'll post it right away because i just got my first Nendoroids. Three nendoroids came and invaded my room. They're Haruhi, Yuki, and Mikuru. I didn't get them in the last re-release, and they will be re-released again in May this year, it's a little long wait.

But chance came at the right moment. I asked my favorite local figure store about nendoroids and yes, they said that they can get me these figures. I ordered three of them and got it 2 weeks later. Some figures are sold at a higher price if they sold at the right time, especially when there are no stocks around. But i still got them at normal price, JPY 3000.

Nendoroid invasion

Enough talk about getting the items. Here the items info:

Nendoroid Suzumiya Haruhi - Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
Scale : Non-scale
Manufacturer :Good Smile Company
Price : JPY 3000

Nendoroid Nagato Yuki - Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
Scale : Non-scale
Manufacturer :Good Smile Company
Price : JPY 3000

Nendoroid Asahina Mikuru - Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
Scale : Non-scale
Manufacturer :Good Smile Company
Price : JPY 3000

Basically, nendoroids are popular because of their cuteness. Big head, small bodies, and chibi art style. Those factors are factors which made nendoroid is different than the other figure. Playing with them in your spare time might be fun. You can't play with most PVC Figures, that's why it's more fun to have these nendoroids around you. Another type of figures you can play with is figma series.

Suzumiya Yuki, Asahina Haruhi, Nagato Mikuru

See? The photo above is one of many reason why it's fun to play with Nendoroids. Thanks to GSC, they made nendoroid parts just like computer parts. It's easy to switch parts between one to another nendoroids. As far as i know, i can switch the heads, legs, arms, and the body. Only the face that can't be switched one on to another.

So many parts for each package of nendoroids

These nendoroids come with many parts. I know it's confusing, but if you know the anime and the characters well, you won't get lost at dividing these parts. Another reason why these figures are fun to play with. Many parts means many combination, so you won't get bored faster than normal fixed pose PVC figures. But you have to be careful at keeping all the parts safe and sound. There are so many small parts, so small that you'll have a hard time to find the missing part.

That's it folks. Sorry if the photos still in bad quality. I haven't got any time to build my mini studio and take a good photograph of them. But if the time comes, then i'll have all my new figures and my brother's new Gundams to be photographed at once.

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Camera info :

Canon EOS 400D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Canon EF 50mm

Sparkling Surabaya - Random coolness of my city

Sparkling Surabaya

I don't know why i posted these photos of my beloved Surabaya in the night. Just playing random, i guess. I don't plan on leaving this city until i finished my study in iSTTS, so posting these photos on my blog might be a little relevant.

Ever heard of "Korea, sparkling"? It's Korea's tourism symbol / logo / motto / whatever you want to call it. I've made this Sparkling Surabaya not because i want to made a logo that similar to Korea. It's just a symbol of my randomness.

Bambu Runcing (Sharp bamboo???)

I had a hard time to decide what to write for this photo caption. Some Indonesian words are not fitting if they were translated directly to English. Anyway, Bambu Runcing is one of many historical monuments in Surabaya. It's a symbol of Indonesian (Surabaya to be exact) people's struggle against colonialism. They used a bamboo with sharpened tip as a spear.

Galaxy Mall

And this is one of many malls in Surabaya, Galaxy Mall. There's not much i can tell about this Galaxy Mall. Just randomly shot this object at night.

Printer vs figure = Broken figure

Broken Haruhi

Too many assignments can kill me, damn. This story happened at Sunday March 9th, 2008. But because of my assignments, i kept myself from fixing the figure and posting this story in my blog.

My figure, Haruhi by Toranoana, fell of from at least 60cm high. It fell off from the top of my CPU (system unit) down to the floor. While the body was still in good shape, the head got a little problem. One bunny ear snap off from its head.

Reconstruction of crime scene

Look at the photo, and you'll understand why it fell off from the CPU. I turned on my printer, and printed a documents. The papers that came out of the printer pushed Haruhi's base, in the "DAN" kanji (look at first photo) in the base to be exact. I'm surprised on how strong the push that came from printer. And yeah, after that push, Haruhi freefalled for over 60cm high.

A glue trace on her bunny ear

I fixed the ears just yesterday night. By using super glue, i can make that ears stick back on to the right place, but you can see a little glue trace on her bunny ear.

This is a little experience for me. The main cause of this problem is SPACE. Yes space. I don't have enough space around my LCD monitor, so i had to move my old figure to another place, that is, above my CPU.

If you look again above my CPUs, it's a little weird to put a printer over 2 CPUs, isn't it?


Camera info:

Canon EOS 400D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Canon EF 50mm

New header - Just another random coolness

Stock image for the header

I planned to change the header a long time ago. And here it is, new header and a bit of changes in layout colors.

Black border color, black header background color, and white header corner color plus new black and white header image featureing Teana Lanster from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. I guess it's a heck of a black white combination.

This layout it's still in development, especially the header image. I'll try to make it better. Comments and critics are always welcome here.


EDIT : Did a little bit of a cleaning in SONICVER2, erased Teana's sweat (look at stock image for detail), changed the font for "Just random things around here".

So many spending, so little income

Nothing relevant with this topic, just playing cool

Two figures in February and more to come make me think that i spent too much for this year. But from January to February i haven't received any gains. I said gains, but it's not fixed income. The question is, where does the gains come from?

It's rare for an otaku's blog to have an article about fundamental economics, but you'll find it here in this post.

Nanoha-san will teach you about economy

So back to first question, where does the gains come from? The answer is Share / Stocks investation. Who said otaku can't do business? I'm an otaku and i do business, stocks business. JSX or JKSE (Jakarta Stock Exchange), i invested my money to some Indonesian company stocks, and using JKSE index for indication of gain or loss.

So what's the connection from stock investation and otaku's needs? The gain that come from stocks investation can be used for buying new figures, or buying new camera accessories (next target Canon EF 100mm macro lens). Last gain came in December 2007, and i spent it for Ignis The White.

Learning economy too much will hurt your head

From January up to now, all i've done is 1 buy-sell transaction and all i get was very heavy loss (not 100% loss though). US recession, Crude oil price hikes, will affect stocks price to go anywhere but down. Unstability of regional and international economy is bad for investation, while professional investor may find it interesting to play in fluctuative economy, but not me man. I can't really predict where and when to put my money, to get some gains.

How about you otakus? If you're living outside of Indonesia, then part time job is enough to get you money for otaku's needs. But in Indonesia, it's rare to find part time job, all you can get is full time job.

Another irrelevant picture

Let's put investation talks aside. In Indonesia, figures collecting is an expensive hobby. Most of you should be agree with me, but figures is really expensive if you're comparing their price with food price around Indonesia.

Do you work like Konata?

I heard from my friend in Aussie. She's working part time while studying as a college student. With 2-4 days worth of part time salary, she can afford a new figures (JPY 5000). I don't know for sure, but please correct me if i'm wrong.

Indonesia's currency value is way too low, so you'll see big numbers here. A figures can cost you around IDR 400k-700k. While cheapest food (let's say a plate of fried rice and a glass of tea) costs you around IDR 4k-7k. So a figure worths 100 times eating in that place.

Let's join SOS-Dan to find alien, time travellers, and espers figures!

How about fixed income / salary? If we're talking about first grade salary, you'll get IDR 1-2 millions per month. But if you're talking about high school students who still live with their family and eat at home, then they'll get IDR 300k-500k per month. So a figure is very expensive if you're comparing its price with their salary.

Yet another irrelevant picture of Yoshida Kazumi goodness

So, as an otaku, have you ever think and count all of your spending for otaku's needs? For me, my figures have already reach total worth of IDR 3.6-4 millions (around USD 400).