2010 Shizuoka Hobby Show

Hi guys, here is my once a year update. Just click this link to bring you to the Shizuioka Hobby Show by Hobby.co.jp. Enjoy.

2009 Tokyo Hobby Show

Just found this web has tons of pictures from the 2009 Tokyo Hobby Show. Enjoy!

Project 144

I found some pictures from the "Project 144" in Shizuoka this year. Pictures are a bit small but there are a few close up pictures of the F-Toys Star Wars Vehicle Collection 1 as well as the Heavy Bomber series. Nice.

JGSDF Equipment 2

Will be released in Mid July. Yen450 each.

Here is a link to more pictures.

Shizuoka Hobby Show 2008

Are you looking for info from the Shizuoka Show this weekend? Here is a link to Hobby.co.jp which has over a thousand pictures. In my opinion, the 1/144 Star Wars X-Wing, Tie Fighter, and the AT-ST Walker from F-Toys look awesome. Must buy.

As shown below, the F-22 from Doyusha also looks pretty cool. And now I'm in a stage whether another release of Bf-109, I won't complaint.

I haven't glanced thru all pictures yet so please feel free to share with me if you find anything interesting. Or if you still want more, here is another link to Hobby Stock which also has some nice pictures from the show.

F-Toys Heavy Bomber Collection

Heavy Bomber Collection - F-Toys
Release : Early June.
Yen 500 each.

bayareahobby

I have created a new site trying to reload the pictures from my bayareahobby achives. Why I want to move? It's because this new site is free. I have just started the work so it may take a while for everything to be loaded. Please feel free to comment.

Here is the address - http://bayareahobby.webs.com/index.htm

I don't know whether this will be a permanent move. Unless I find a more convenient place, I will use this site as a photo gallery.

USS Hornet Museum

I went to the USS Hornet Museum here in bay area with my son during the spring break. It was an interesting experience as last time I went on an air carrier was when I was a kid like his age. Anyway, a very interesting experience for him and me. The boat is not the biggest as it was built in WWII but I wrongly thought it was the one fought during the Battle of Midway. In fact, it was a new one as the one fought in the Battle of Midway was sunk soon after that battle.

Not too many plans on board too but at least there is a F-14 and the A-4 actually is one of my favorites. We also went to the bridge but it was quite small. Probably not upto today's standards. Even I said the ship is not too big but we had spent couple houres and couldn't walked thru whole ship (probably only 50% of accessible areas). We need to leave as my wife and son were very tired already. Next time I should go to the Midway which is berthed at San Diego. Pictures can be found below.

USS Hornet Museum

New Look

Yes, you may notice that I have changed the look of this site. In fact, I'm trying to re-organize everything. My another site bayareahobby will be re-started on a free host which I'm still working on. I do not want to restore the old one as I found a lot of thing not to my liking. There will be a lot more changes and I'll let you know when the timing is right.

Nuremberg Toy Fair 2008

Hi fellow bloggers

This is my first post in 2008 and it has been a while since my last post and I know I'm a bit lazy lately but there were not much new 1/144 trading items to talk about. For the few items released in the past couple months such as the new JGSDF or the F-Toys Bi-planes (my order is on the way), I think they were well covered by some fellow sites so I'm not going to repeat here.

As I mentioned, I just ordered the F-Toys Bi-planes as I haven't really checked on 1/144 for a while and when I tried to order, they were all sold out. It seems they are quite popular and I'm very happy to know that so hopefully it would encourage more 1/144 kits coming out this year. (Or may be not as the economy is not so good and the oil price is still so high which makes the cost a lot higher that before.)

Today I came across this Nuremberg Toy Fair 2008 site. Not a lot on 1/144 but the above 1/144 Bismarck is again very impressive. It should be come from the same company which made the 1/144 Yamato. Some very 1/72 items were on show as well so please check them out.

I hope my next post won't take another 3 months. Currently my shopping list includes the 1/144 Macross planes and the 1/144 U-Boat. Will get them when I see a good price.

Project 144

I found a couple links related to the latest Project 144. First one is from Fumi and the second one is from Obake blog and here is the official page. Enjoy!

Midnight Eagle Trailer

I just realised the "Midnight Eagle" movie will be released on Nov 23 in the US. probably on just a few selected cinemas. Anyway, here is the trailer.

Cafereo 1/144 JGSDF

This series has been rumored for a while and here is the official page from Cafereo. 6 types (1 green + 1 camo) plus one special so there are total 13 different types in this series.

Line up -
1. Type 90 MBT (again!)
2. Type 99 Ammunition Transport Vehicle
3. M110A2 203mm Self Propelled Gun
4. Construction Work Vehicle
5. Type 88 Surface to surface missile launcher
6. SUV

Secret : looks like another Type 90 to me.

Will be released in December

Doyusha 1/144 AH-64D

I finally found something interesting to talk about - the 1/144 AH-64D from Doyusha. I quite like choppers so this probably is the next item I'll buy after F-Toys Bi-planes. Release date - December.

Trucks from YSK

If you like the ambulance I posted yesterday, you probably like these trucks from YSK too.

Pro-hobby September Releases

Above are what scheduled to be released in September from Pro-hobby. The ambulance and fire truck look quite nice.

F-Toys Bi-Plane Collection - Red Baron Albatros D.III

I'm still exciting about the F-Toys Bi-plane Collection. What special could be better than a Albatros D.III Special of "Red Baron" Manfred von Richthofen. I did a search in the web and I can't find any red D.III but a model of D.V as above but I think this should be pretty close to a D.III.

Here is the line up:

1. British Swordfish
2. Japan Type 93 Trainer
3. SPAD S.VII
4. Albatros D.III

Here are a couple more pictures from the web, a bigger picture of the back of the box:



And these from the latest model shows:

F-Toys Bi-Plane Collection

Long time no talk and I had some good time in the past few weeks as I spent sometime in South California with my family and I visited a couple model shops there. Will post some pictures later.

Above is the new Bi-plane Collection from F-Toys. I always love bi-planes so for sure I will buy this set. How about you?

Release date : Mid-November

Takara Midnight Eagle

Here is a new picture of this series. The B-5 Midnight Eagle used in the movie is just a B-2 Bomber and should not be 1/144.

Release date : Mid-November

Furuta Combat Vehicle

The above gashapon tanks from Furuta will be released in Japan on Sept 17. But it seems these are non-scale items which you may get a Japan Hummvee which is the same size as the M1.

Takara 1/144 "Midnight Eagle" Trading Kits

Takara has just announced in this November, they are going to issued a new 1/144 trading kit set partnering with the movie "Midnight Eagle" - which is a stealth bomber coded B-5. Here are details:

Scale :1/144 (B-5 excluded.) All 10 different kits (9 + 1 hidden item)
1. F-15J (Komatsu base 8957)
2. F-15J (Komatsu base 8953)
3. F-15DJ (Komatsu base)
4. B-5 midnight eagle (the low profile painting)
5. B-5 midnight eagle (the WEZARINGU painting)
6. JGSDF UH-1+ Type 73 heavy truck (new)
7. JGSDF UH-1+ Type 73 heavy truck (older model)
8. JGSDF UH-1+ Type 73 medium truck and pickup truck
9. A set of 3 JGSDF Type 73 trucks (new)
10. Hidden

Most items have been issued in other releases before, such as the Type 73 trucks in "Japan Sinks", UH-1 and F-15J in other Takara or F-Toys issues. (They may be different than those from F-Toys though).

Tokyo Toy Show 2007

Here are some pictures from the Tokyo Toy Show 2007. Not many military items and the above is one of the exceptions - the 1/144 LCAC which you probably have seen before. Looks pretty good but probably too big - storage becomes a big problem to me.

Updated: This link has a B-2 and it looks quite nice but too bad it's 1/120, not 1/144.

Tomy Machinami Collection 7

This Tomy Machinami Collection 7 series look good as they are quite useful for a diorama.

Pro-hobby

Long time no talk as I was busy working on a project. Will announce it later when it's ready. Regarding the news, besides the JW3, not much to talk about as 1/144 has slowed down significantly in Japan. Except this company, Pro-hobby. Pro-hobby has just updated the site with some interesting pictures. You can find them here or here. They are not military related but just showing the 1/144 world can be more than just tanks and planes.

Dragon 1/144 B-1B

Dragon US has just posted this B-1B and I think it should still be pretty big even it's a 1/144. You shouldn't miss it if you collect planes.

Project 144

Fumi's blog has some interesting pictures from the latest "Project 144". Check them out here.

Another link on Shizuoka 2007

Here is another link to hobby.co.jp on Shizuoka 2007. Besides the Panzer Korp Tiger I's, I can't find anything else special on 1/144. The 1/72 Dragon Armor M4s as shown below look quite nice though. Please note the link has over 500 pictures so the page load may be slow.

1/48 X-Wing

I haven't seen any 1/144 military kits so far and most interesting items to me are some new Gundams. But I like this X-Wings very much. However, I probably won't buy as I don't think I will build it anyway. I have a garage a un-built models already which my wife complains all the time.

Oops. I forgot the link. Here it is from Run Chickens.

Shizuoka Hobby Show

The show has just started today in Japan. I saw a couple Gundam's pictures and I'll keep you posted if there are any news on 1/144 scales.

New Panzer Korp - Tiger I

It's not a surprise Dragon is going to release the new 1/144 Tiger I in kit form (Panzer Korp) before the Cando release. Unlike the Cando releases which are pre-painted, you will get 3 identical tanks (112, 141, 142) as you need to paint them yourselves. I will still buy the Cando version to complete my collection but I don't see any reason to buy these.

Finally. We have soldiers.

I know. I know. You may say we already have something from Trumpeter/Pegasus, Preiser, or CGD or some other metal wargaming figures. But these figures from Japan looks awesome. At least from the picture. Check here for details.

Targa 1/144 U-Boat

This 1/144 U-Boat Type VII-C looks very impressive with interior details and crews. Yen 4000 sounds reasonable too. 2 different paint schemes, camo and grey. And also it looks like a die cast model. Release date: Jun 25.

Windows Vista

Hi guys
Long time no talk as I was struggling with my new computer with Windows Vista installed. I know it's not advised to use such a new OS in the first few months, my old PC crashed every 30 minutes so I must buy a new one as it'a 5 years old machine.

If you're an ebay seller like me. Please be careful before you upgraded to Vista as I had waited for a while until ebay finally came up with a Beta version "ebay Lister" which some how fixed the bug with Vista. However, it's not fully functioning yet. Beware.

Anyway, no big news lately except there was a rumor in a Japanese site. If I understand correctly, probably it mentioned WTM 10 actually was on show in the Kaiyodo booth in WF2007 and probably behind doors also everyone saw them had signed a NDA (Non-disclosure Agreement). I don't know how much truth is that but that piece of message excited me already. It would be wonderful if anyone can provide more info.

I have many items need to load them into my ebay shop these 2 days as I haven't done that for a while due to the Vista problem, that's it for today and hope you like the above big bird 2 picture.