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.