God bless those folks at IKEA. One of the things I’ve lamented over the years is not having a good spotlight to use on something as small as a 1:8 scale figure. There are a number of overpriced photographic lighting solutions, but that’s not what I want to spend money on. I have been using black poster board to create a shaft of light to cut through the darkness, but I’ve always wanted to create a spotlight for an even tighter light beam. On my last trip to IKEA I found the DIODER.
Yesterday, Tomopop posted an interview with me, where I answered a few questions about taking pictures of toys, what I look for when I use backgrounds, etc. Anyway, thanks to Colette for giving me the opportunity to say hello to Tomopop readers. Go on, click the link.
Summer is way too slow a time for figure collecting. Given the heat and the low melt point of PVC, there’s probably a good reason why July and August feel like all the figure companies went on vacation. Commerce happens year round, so it probably has nothing to do with that and I’m just linking two coinciding patterns that have nothing to do with one another. Still, this time of year it always feels like I’ve stopped collecting figures. Thank goodness Narika arrived to push the summertime blahs away.
Haven’t done this in a while, even though about three or four figures have come in since the last show and tell time. There was quite a bit of dust on the table where I usually do these things, a lot of dust for two months. Had her out of the box for a while and sitting on my desk. Hopefully, there isn’t too much dust on the figure for the photos. Anyway, here’s a few shots of Akiha Shishido made by the GoodSmile Company. I don’t imagine she was all that popular a figure, but I could be wrong I’ve been out of sphere pretty much since Otakon so I missed any posts about her.
Lucky for me, Ponyo was playing at a multiplex nearby. Ghibli animation looks great on a theater screen, so I’m happy Disney still sees it fit to put some promotion behind showing Ghibli in US theaters in spite of some pretty weak box office numbers for their previous efforts. Ponyo is different than the more recent string of Ghibli movies. It’s very much a children’s story. As such, I found it beneficial to turn the adult brain off, kick back and enjoy, watching it as if I’ve never seen a fish before.
Just a quick scene between Drossel and Haruhi. Drossel is such an amazing action figure, so expressive, which is funny since it’s a robot character.
I enjoy Otakon every year, but I always get the feeling at the end of each one that I’ve had a good run and might skip it from now on. I’ve been saying it for three years now, so I’ll probably be back. This here is my convention report, panels, loot, and jabber at the end. Didn’t take any pictures of cosplay or anything at the convention. I brought my camera, but I left it in my suitcase the entire time.
