The One That Got Away? Chapter 2 - Is this even real?

From where we left off, she and me got even closer than ever after a while. Although it bugged me that she is my type and she has a boyfriend, I thought I will just hang out as normal.

Soon, the gang began splitting up with her (call her E) , another girl (let's just call her M) joined in with me while the other girl (call her A) went off with the other dude (call him B).

Although we were supposed to be a band of 3, M always had excuses skipping our lunch meetings and so on, leaving only E and me for lunch all the time. It felt somewhat relaxing and awkward that E and me can hang out so carefree. Even stranger, she had an emotional wall built up around her that people around felt uncomfortable communicating with her. Somehow she could really disable that wall pretty well in front of me.

On one occasion where we were supposed to have a group study time, M was late. E and me were together in one of the study rooms. Suddenly E's faced changed as she started telling me a story of her past about how she ended up here after her Form 6. It was something none of her friends knew but she decided to let it all out to me. Surprised and puzzled I tried to console her and pull her out from the darkness that I felt within her.

After a while, a chain of messages started where we text on MSN each day from morning till night. Yeah, and I wonder what did I do my whole life. MSN then led to daily morning phone calls at around 9am almost every week day to ask me simple stuffs that I had to repeat over and over. People might think she is annoying but I find her cute.

And so....

To be continued...

Is she even showing signs?

The One That Got Away? Chapter 1 - Is she even the one?

Everything happened 8 years ago. Until today, I still remember everything like it's in the back of my head. 

I still remember the day I met her. It was an ordinary day but it was so special that I still remember it clearly. She wasn't someone that is easily noticeable but when I met her with her friends around, I knew she was going to be special. 

Her eyes with those spectacles were just perfect and the bucktooths in front were somehow making her look cuter than ever. 

All went down the drain when I found out she has a boyfriend. I told myself to never get too close to her as I do not want to be the destroyer of relationships. 

Fate however had other plans. Due to character compatibility and everything working the magic on us, we both became slowly closer to each other. 

The first memorable thing I remember was how she let her guard down on me, allowing me to slowly break her 'wall'. It was a surprise to me at first that she actually placed her palms on my shoulders without even happening to other of her friends that she knew longer. 

That is the beginning of many of the beautiful memories I have with her which even-ed out my life. 

To be continued

Terebi Magazine March 2011 Exclusive Panda Medal

Hello again everyone, David here again for another DX toy review. This time, I found a Chinese themed Animal item. No, not a phoenix nor a Dragon but a panda. YES, the Panda Medal from the March 2011 issue of Terebi Magazine. Let's take a look at the packaging for this

Simple and just shows the Panda Medal's front.

The back shows a lot of Japanese wordings. Possibly warnings of some sort that I am too lazy to even decipher.

The inner container is just a flimsy carboard strip folded in a way to create a frame.

The front of the Medal looks like this. The Panda face can be seen on the Medal's surface.

The back of the Medal has 3 stars. This is clearly a sign that it is a Gashapon Medal. Terebi / Terebikun always give bonuses that are of Gashapon quality or build.

The Panda Medal is set in the middle to replace the Tora. The Combo is called TakaPanBa.

Here's what the OOO Scanner will say when you scan this Medal through

 

As you can hear, it just says PANDA!

Let's do the Henshin.

 

This is just soooo dissapointing. No combo song. This means, this is just another crappy Medal to suck money from us poor collectors.

 

With the usual standard random combo, we have the standard Scanning Charge sound. I really have no words to express how dissapointed I am with this.

All in all, nothing much. However, buying this is a pain for me. The Magazine no doubt has many colourful photos of upcoming stuffs but the Medal just don't cut it. I'd say you should only get it if you're a hardcore and serios collector like mua but if you're just a mild one, this one is totally passable. I'd give it only 2.5 Stars for playability and 2 Stars for Value out of 5. So, that's all for now, see ya guys around. Dave Lee signing off and ja ne!

Juukou B-Fighter - Pulsaber Review

Hello again people and fans, Dave here again for another review and yes, this is a sequel to the previous Metal Hero toy I reviewed. Behold, the Big Bad Beetleborgs' ...errr I mean B Fighters' Pulsabers. Yes, this piece came together with my Input Magnum because they are both compatible. Introduced in Episode 22 of Juukou B Fighter, the Pulsaber reacts to the yells and voices of the B Fighters and their roars of justice. Let's dwell in and see how close this toy resembles the one in the show IF IT DID.

Behold the package of this 1995 toy piece:

Simple and yet another open window packaging concept item for the 90s.

The bottom of the box shows the Pulsaber toy and the 3 B Fighters.

The top of the box is simpler with just a blue background and one B Figher emblem on it.

At the back, some minor guidelines are shown on how to operate this toy as well as how to integrate it with the Input Magnum.

Contents are fairly standard in this toy. We got the Toy itself, a plastic tray, a seal sheet and this one came with a black and white manual sheet.

The manual sheet shows the basic operations as well as the explanation on how to play the combined mode.

Upon unboxing it, the toy looks quite close to it's show counterpart. The blade part is as usual soft rubbery plastic and is made to be shorter for safety reasons.

The back of the toy has the exact same details as the front and in addition the LEDs can also be seen at the back.

This is the battery cover portion. No screws, no need for pointed pens. Just pull it out and it reveals a compartment for 2 AA batteries. This is an old toy, so it uses AA batteries.

This is how this toy sounds when you press the trigger once. In order to activate the Finisher / Charge Attack sound, hold on the Trigger and yell / make some noise to the speaker. What I did in the video was simply knocking on the speaker since I can't be yelling at it. It still works since knocking makes sounds. This is a very smart function. YES, VERY SMART. For a 90s toy that can do what it could in the show, I give an A+ for the innovation.

Another way to activate the Charge Attact sound is to press on to both sides of the red clear panels. This also emulates what is seen in the show where the B Fighters ROAR and slide the LED part at the same time. Pure genius, pure genius.

Now on to the final gimmick of this toy, connecting with the Input Magnum. There are a few steps in order to do so:

The first step is to fold down the clear red grip on the bottom back of the Pulsaber. This piece grips on to the area near the Power Bolt of the Input Magnum.

The next step is to unlock the clear red piece at the center of the Pulsaber and folding both pieces down. Then relock the red piece with each other and you get:

SABER MAGNUM!

This is how the function of this works. By pushing the Trigger on the Input Magnum, there's another locking trigger that pushes a trigger on the Pulsaber, resulting it to be in CHARGE UP mode. With that, the sounds from the Input Magnum will resonate to the Pulsaber and it will cause something like a charging sequence and when the time is right, the Finisher sound occurs which is another different finisher sound. The requirement of the gimmick is that the Trigger needs to be held for at least 3 seconds and this is mentioned in the manual of the Pulsaber.

The combo I did in the video is 1-1-0-INPUT and that is the basic finisher for the SABER MAGNUM, they call it MAXIM BEAM MODE which fires a beam similar to the respective B Fighters' colours. There was also another MAXIM combo used which was 0-2-6-INPUT and is called MAXIM RETTOU MODE (MAXIM FREEZER MODE).

Looking at the size of this thing, it's really quite accurate in scale. I love this gun really really much. It's a very unique toy and to say it's a 90s toy, it's so hard to believe.

In the West, Bandai America released this toy under the name Pulsaber as well and the packaging was slightly different and was more matching to the Big Bad Beetleborgs line.

The photo above is how the Bandai America Pulsaber's packaging looks like. I do not own or ever seen this one hence, I don't know if the sounds and functions are changed. Credits again to GrnRngr.com for the photo above.

All in all I would say this toy is awesome. Sound receiver and motion receiver makes it so unique. However, the full potential of this toy is fully unleashed if you have both Magnum and Saber. The combined SABER MAGNUM is really a very good weapon. I would give 4.5/5 for both value and playability.

Thanks again everyone for following my reviews and million thanks to Bro Yam for uploading this in his blog again. So, for the time being, RedRacer is signing off again. SEE YA!

Juukou B-Fighter - Input Magnum Review

Hello again people and fans, David Lee here with another exciting toy review. This time, I am backtracking further to history back to the year 1995 for an amazing old school toy. Yes, this is a series in 1995, Juukou B-Fighter or Heavy Armor B-Fighter and the toy I will be reviewing is the standard sidearm that the heroes use in the show, the Input Magnum. This series was dubbed and transferred to the western market just like the Power Rangers but in a name we all are familiar with, Big Bad Beetleborgs. This toy was brought over too. So now, let us take a look at this wonderful toy.

The box is pretty simple with the Input Magnum toy shown with a window on the box. As usual, the leader of the team, Blue Beet, is the main attraction as he is seen at the left bottom corner of the box and is the biggest while the other 2, Green Stag and Reddle are smaller and are shown at the right top corner of the box. The name of the toy should read "Sound Input Power Input Magnum".

The back of the box has the whole manual printed whereby the operating procedures are shown. We can also see that Bandai has provided us with some combo codes to try out. At the left side of the box, the big photo shows and lists down whatever is included in the box which reads to the Input Magnum and a Seal (sticker) sheet.

Basically the Gun looks like this. The keypad has 10 numbers from 0-9 and a final INPUT key to confirm the combo selection. As we noticed on the back of the box, the Magnum only recognises 3-key Combos so if you were to key in more than 3 key combos, it will only take into account the last 3 Key Combos that you did before pressing the INPUT key. From general count, this toy can do over 1000 sounds because the equation goes like 10 X 10 X 10 and with the other sounds like beeping and so forth, it exceeds that. Notice that this is an old toy, the battery compartment is rather large and is located at the bottom of the handle as shown above. It requires 2 AA batteries for its functions to work properly.

The back portion of the gun is mostly empty. No keypads or whatever is seen but only the basic shape of the Magnum.

This toy is made in 1994, a few months before the show actually started airing. Interesting.

This is how we turn this toy on. In the show, the B Fighters would do the same before inputting the Combos and this is truly replicating what's seen in the show.

I am trying a few combos at random but the most prominent combos I have tried are:

110 - Beam Mode

818 - Fire Burst Mode

Do note that the beeping sound occurs every 1-2 seconds when this toy is left idle. I don't see a reason why it needs that but it did come with it.

 

 

More combos I am trying and most are based on the back of the box.

As I mentioned earlier, this toy did get a Western Release under the Beetleborgs line with the name Sonic Laser. I do not know the details on the changes of functions BUT the box of the Sonic Laser did mention it can do over 1000 sounds so I am assuming no changes were made. However, a major cosmetic change was made to the Sonic Laser making the Input Magnum being greatly favoured over the Sonic Laser:

If you look closely above, the Sonic Laser is painted in Purple and Red where the Purple replaces the Gray and the Red replaces the Black. This is an eyesore physically but the basic operations still remain. Photo of Sonic Laser is taken from GrnRngr.com's Beetleborg listing line and credit goes to him.

In whole I would say this toy is very very good. Having to do supreme combos is one big thing to toys. I don't see how toys nowadays can do this. Only a few could like the 2005 Sentai Changer Magi Phone and its US counterpart the Mystic Morpher. However getting it cheap is one issue. I got mine quite cheap and came with another piece which goes together with this where I will review later. I would give 4.5/5 stars for playability and value as a whole.

Gekisou Sentai Carranger - Auto Blaster Set

Hello again, people, David Lee here again for another TOKU TOY review. Let's give a VROOM! to my latest toy review, the standard Gun part sidearm for 1996's Super Sentai Series, Gekisou Sentai Carranger. Yes, it's the Auto Blaster set. A friend helped me buy this in Japan and it costed me about RM100 or so including his shipping to me so it's considered a STEAL. Anyway, back to the history of this product. Many of us will remember this toy as the Gun / Blaster used by the heroes in Power Rangers Turbo. Yes, this is the actual Sentai counterpart and it spots some differences from the Power Rangers version.

I got this toy along with a Chouriki Henshin OhRed figure and a loose Accelular but as you can see, the Auto Blaster's box is in a very decent condition considering its age.

The contents inside is fairly simple. We have the Auto Blaster already set in Auto Punisher mode, a Belt at the bottom right,  a shiny chrome silver Buckle and a big white Holster with the Carranger mark.

The Belt can actually be fitted in the Buckle and the holster hanging at the side but I don't want to open it up too mich since not much playability on that portion is involved.

The Auto Blaster can be fitted on the Holster like that and in the show it really does.

SHIFT UP! AUTO PUNISHER! This is the first step to transform it to Punisher mode. Simply pull the tail of the gun and the Blaster extends.

The Last Step is to push the Red button easily visible above. This will open up the Blaster's front and uncovers a golden chrome internal part. This will result in a super Blaster beam that can destroy enemies and hits harder.

To confirm it further, here's a video of how the Blaster is transformed as well as the light and sound gimmicks of this toy.

 

And now, for the penultimate portion, the differences between the Power Rangers Turbo version are:

1) The Power Rangers version did not include the Belt or the Buckle but instead packed the Turbo Blade (Bi Blade in Sentai) together.

2) The stickers on the wheels read Turborangers rather than Carranger in the Power Rangers version

Henshin Belt DX OOO Driver

Hello again, Dave here again for another Toku toy review. This time, give a hand to OOO!!!!!! Yes, that's right. Today, I'll be reviewing the OOO Driver. Let's get to the bottom of this as to what can this rare and expensive baby can do.

The packaging looks nice but then again it's more of a standard issue by now. The box size measures approximately similar to previous DX Belt releases of Double, Decade and Kiva and it is a tradition now that they are in such a big box.

The big box is not wasted as the contents are really sufficient to cover the area of the whole box. The contents:

Top Left and Top Middle: Packs of 2 Core Medals (DX type) in each slot, making it 4 in total. The left one has Taka Core (Hawk Core) and Batta Core (Grasshopper Core) while the middle one has Tora Core (Tiger Core) and Kamakiri Core (Mantis Core).

Middle: The 2 Belt straps are stacked on each other, with the one holding the OOO Scanner being on top.

Bottom Left: OOO Driver. Don't underestimate this little chunk of plastic. It's not the Holder you see in the Double Driver.

Bottom Middle: Back Holster of the Driver as to many DX Belt sets.

Bottom Right: Canister to hold the Medals, called as the Medal Holder.

The OOO Scanner and the 4 Medals. The Medals are so sharply detailed in colour and are separated by the slot numbers by some patterns at the back. At the back (not pictured), the number of spaces between lines represent the slot the Medal is supposed to be in. In the show, Eiji Hino found his first Core Medal, the red Taka Core from his part time security job at a musuem. The medal belonged to Ankh but later Ankh entrusted him to use all the Medals they both obtained to Henshin to OOO and gather more Medals.

First, let us see what the Scanner will say when we scan the Medals like this separately. To scan Medals, turn it on and HOLD on a button at the handle for the Scanner to activate. As from the video, the Medals are Taka (Hawk), Tora (Tiger), Batta (Grasshopper) and Kamakiri (Mantis). Do you hear the Medal clinging sounds during scanning? From the Scanner, we can see lights of 7 Colours namely, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Blue, Purple, and Gray/White. For those hardcore collectors like me can sure know how much you need to spend on this line.

After setting up, the basic Driver + the first 3 Core Medals (Taka, Tora and Batta) are inserted.

HENSHIN!!

TAKA! TORA! BATTA! Ta-To-Ba! TaToBa, TaToBa!

This is the basic form (called Combo in Kamen Rider OOO) of Kamen Rider OOO in the show, much like Double Cyclone Joker. Interestingly, this is the only Henshin song I find it easy to remember. After scanning through the same set of the medals once, you can scan it once again for the finisher. The finisher sound would be read as SCANNING CHARGE and the finisher for Tatoba is first seen in Episode 3 used against the Fat Cat Yummy.

TAKA! KAMAKIRI! BATTA!

This is the Combo Change whereby a small portion of the body is changed. Similar to forms like Heat Joker or Heat Trigger, this Combo uses the Mantis slicers at the elbows to perform attacks. The Scanning Charge for this Combo is seen in Episode 1 in the show, whereby Eiji using it to Slash one of Uva's Yummy and destroying it. Note that because this form is not a pure form (as in all 3 in the same colour), there's no special Henshin Song after the Medal names.

All in all, this is a very good set as far as future playability is concerned. Why do I say that? Well, since the playability of this whole DX OOO Driver is based on the number of Medals you have, having more Medals and more future Medal releases would mean more playability. As for fans out there who has yet to own one, I would say, just buy one if you can. It's worth the shot. I don't know when I can finally get my hands on Medal Sets 1 and 2 but if I do, the reviews will come here for sure. So thanks again to Bro Yam for uploading this and stay tuned for more Toku toys review from me. So, let's all COUNT THE MEDALS!