Probably the cutest iteration of Miku Hatsune to date, in Nendoroid form, Miku Hatsune HMO version is definitely going to be one of my favorite Nendoroid releases, if only for the fact that there’s so much that you get inside the package. Not only do you get your standard Nendoroid, but this is a Nendoroid that’s fully posable (like Nendoroid Saber). There’s also so much detail on her like the cables that stick out of her headset. Plus she comes with a lot of items: two keyboards, an entire drum set, etc.

These images are courtesy of Mikatan from her newly migrated English WordPress blog. Continue Reading

My cousin and his girlfriend came over for a couple of weeks, the last week having been spent in our house. To hit two birds with one stone, I decided to take my annual vacation around this time so as to be there to take them around as well. They did a relatively good amount of shopping but their main targets were really the stuff that they had trouble getting back in Guam which are manga and anime-related merchandise, certain clothing brands and bargain buys. Continue Reading

Since GSC had revamped their RQ Miku for their Goodsmile Racing brand, I guess they found it “necessary” to revamp the other RQ designs for their vocaloids. You recall that they had already released a puchi Nendoroid set of the first RQ Miku design along with RQ Lin and Luka. So now that they have a new design for RQ Miku pointing around that gas pump, they just had to redesign RQ Lin and Luka to match RQ Miku’s new look. Continue Reading

Oh my goodness, it feels like it’s been ages since I last visited this place and posted something. Things have been picking up at the office lately that I couldn’t find time to write up something for the site during the weekdays which is both frustrating and sad.

I remember having mentioned before (if I actually did) that Nendoroid Megurine Luka has arrived at my desk.

Now isn’t that face absolutely cute. Currently, she’s on display at my office desk along with Nendoroid Drossel. I switched her to this face because one, I love it, and two, it matches Drossel’s eyes. Continue Reading

I haven’t taken a snapshot of my desk in quite some time. Probably because I haven’t had time to decently fiddle around with my office desk stuff. So I decided to take one snapshot of those that keep me company when I work.

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GSC had already released a RQ Miku in the past but it looks like they’re taking their Goodsmile Racing campaign to the next level.

Recently, they released a redesign of Miku exclusively for the Goodsmile Racing franchise. Here, she’s sporting thinner twintails and a unique racesuit. It appears to be pit crew uniform since she’s also holding that fuel lug used at the pits. She still sports her trademark headphones although redesigned to fit the theme and the color scheme. Her eye color also appears to be different. Nevertheless, it’s definitely a design that I’m liking a lot.

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As I had mentioned yesterday, there’s a bigger-than-usual box that arrived over the weekend and Chil enjoyed opening each little box inside. The Vocaloid Puchi Nendoroid set was my first puchi box-of-12 ever and I was quite happy with what I got out of the box. I’m telling you guys off the bat, I managed to get every single design that was released. I’m not sure if that was not the case with everyone else. I did get a double but that’s because there are ten designs plus the jointed Hachune so definitely, there’d be a double. I was hoping the double would be a Saihate Miku but what I got was awesome, nonetheless.

Always been quite fond of this turquoise/green-haired Vocaloid. My only wish was that I was able to acquire the full-sized RQ Miku, the WonFes Hachune and the puchi RQ Miku. I have the regular Nendoroid, the figurine and the figma. Interesting thing about this is that it doesn’t use figma-sized joints for the hair (because the full-sized Nendo used Nendoroid joints for the twintails). Instead, they used a ball joint design for it which was also used for another Vocaloid in the set.

Kaito was actually my first full-sized male Nendoroid. Odd thing about that release was that nobody was talking about Kaito AT ALL. Now, whenever I see someone posting Kaito pics on figure.fm, the replies I see are those of regret for not having preordered him or that they’re having trouble hunting him down.

I liked the full-sized Nendoroid release of Lin and Ren Kagamine, mainly because of the blank faces which reminded me of the blank Qees. But I never really liked them enough to buy both of them. Now, at hindsight, I’m regretting that a bit. But still, not enough to try hunting them down and paying at a premium. The puchi version of Lin will have to do for now.

Such cute characters. Just a bit annoyed with their bent-over pose. Unless you have reflectors or white paper positioned underneath or in front of them, their pose casts shadows on their faces.

One of the newer Vocaloids and one that I liked from the get-go. Megurine Luka is absolutely beautiful. I can’t wait to get the two full-sized Nendoroid versions of her!

Vocaloid Meiko was the first Japanese female voice release for the Vocaloid program alongside Kaito. Aside from the fact that she came out as far back as 2004, there is nothing else that I know of Meiko. Miku was quite popular from the get-go so the first Vocaloid character I was exposed to was Miku and only found out about Meiko down the line.

From the Vocaloid Wiki:

Meiko Sakine is one of the Vocaloid derivatives officially recognized by Crypton Future Media, the publisher of the Character Vocal Series for VOCALOID2. The other derivatives bearing this distinction is Miku Hachune, Haku Yowane, Neru Akita, and Tako Luka.

Sakine means Blooming Sound and can also be read as Preceding Sound since Meiko came out before Miku did. Notice that while the regular Meiko does not have a headset, Sakine Meiko sports one that is a bit smaller than what Miku and the rest have.

This version of Miku is from a video of the song Saihate by Kobayashi Onyx where the song speaks about dealing with the loss of someone special thus the mourning clothes that Miku us wearing in this figure. In the set, she’s my favorite puchi as well as my present favorite iteration of Miku.

Akita Neru is derived from the phrase ???????which means going to bed. This character was born out of the time Miku users were degraded by a TV show in Japan and the flaming that happened in 2ch. Afterwards, to make the issue die down, writings and replies included phrases like the one mentioned above, thus establishing a base for the personification of the character.

Yowane Haku is a play on the words to say negative thoughts. Basically, Haku is used to mark badly-done Miku Hatsune songs. Poor thing. No wonder she’s got that facial expression.

Hachune Miku is basically a mispronunciation of Miku’s name to show childishness and foolishness. This particular puchi is quite interesting because of the fact that she is the first puchi Nendoroid to have joints. You’ll find one in every Vocaloid Puchi Nendoroid box.

*phew*

That was quite a mouthful. So those are all the puchi Nendoroids I acquired in a single box. Quite happy that I got everything in the set. And I did mention that I got doubles, right?

Chil gets to keep the double. ^_^

Vocaloid information was taken from the Vocaloid Wiki.

This is the secret puchi Nendoroid that comes with the other 10 puchi Nendoroids from the upcoming Vocaloid set that GSC is releasing. This would be the first full motion puchi Nendoroid that GSC has ever rolled out. It has elbows and knees! Elbows and knees!!!

I ordered a box and coffeebugg ordered one too. I just hope that I at least get this one, the blue-haird Miku, Megurine Luka, the regular Miku and maybe Kaito.  If I get at least one of each of these from the box set, I’d be a happy man. ^_^

Hit up the image link to see the rest of the pics from Mikatan’s blog.

I don’t really buy spares ALL the time but I can count two instances of buying two pieces of a certain Nendoroid: Miku Hatsune and the upcoming Megurine Luka.

First Nendoroid I ever puchased was Nendoroid Miku Hatsune. She started my Mikutard streak. I got this from my colleague Coffeebugg. After that, I had added a select number of Nendoroids to my collection. I’m not like Coffeebugg who has craploads of Figmas. No budget and I’m not really that into the other Nendoroid releases although there are some that have been discontinued that I wished I had been able to purchase/own.

Nendoroid Miku is a second-hand Nendoroid so although it was still in pretty good condition when I got her, she’s not as spic-and-spam as the other Nendoroids in my collection. Also, since this is, I think, a first generation Nendoroid Miku Hatsune, the quality of the paint and the topcoating is significantly different from the newer releases.

Nendoroid hair normally come in two pieces (front and back). For this particular Nendoroid Miku Hatsune, the back piece’s color faded faster than the front piece. T_T You won’t really notice it until you look at it from above.

Being one of the first few Nendoroids that could stand on its own, I enjoyed carrying Nendoroid Miku Hatsune around without the stand. Same for its previous owner. Thus the paint at the tips had worn off over time. Now I ALWAYS use the stands.

There’s also some paint fading going on at the back. This particular Nendoroid also had a loose joint on one of its twintails. We had to use blu tac to fasten it back.

So when I managed to find a Nendoroid Miku Hatsune on sale, I jumped at the chance to own a second one. This one’s staying in the box though.

I said earlier that there were two instances where I ordered spare Nendoroids. The other instance is for the Nendoroid above: Megurine Luka. Yet another Vocaloid. I had already contacted my local supplier to reserve two of these for me when they put up the pre-order list.

I already have a coffee press at the office which I had purchased from Starbucks. But what annoys me sometimes is that when I use it, there are still a good amount of grounds that go through the press’s filter. I guess the rubber seal on the side of the press doesn’t work as well as its stainless steel screen counterpart. So I decided to get myself a coffee dripper as another option. There was a mug + coffee dripper item on one of the shelves on Starbucks but when I tried to place that on another mug in the shelf, it didn’t fit so it was only for a single mug: the mug that the dripper comes with.

I had to find a dripper similar to Mark’s (aka coffeebugg). Found one yesterday. For only Php85.

So here we got Kagami-chan showing off the two items I had bought from Saizen yesterday while I was waiting for Chil to meet up with me at Robinson’s Galeria. She looks cranky because she hasn’t had her coffee for the day and her owner refuses to open up the bag of coffee filters. Well, there really isn’t much to do since I left the bag of Muan Chai at the office although I would prefer to drink some Tanzanian coffee right now.

The bag-o-coffee-filters also cost Php85 pesos. I always enjoy shopping in Saizen because the place is just packed of lots of items that come from Japan. When you step in, you get some attendants scream irashaimasen at you and you hear Utada Hikaru singing in the background. There’s so much more that I want to get from that place like chopsticks, office supplies, resealable plastic bags, plastic containers and some utensils and plates and whatnot.

Got me the clear version of the coffee dripper…errr…well it’s not like I have a choice. Clear is the only version that is available at the store that time. But either way, if there were other colors, I would have only gotten one of three: clear, turquoise or pink. Mark’s is blue. For some reason, I like my gear color matching somehow and if I got something similar to Mark’s, it doesn’t mix well with my Miku Hatsune itasha Starbucks mug.

How often do you drink coffee in a day? In a week?