Tokyo by night is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever experienced. It’s buzzing with activity and the neon lights shine brightly in the sky. I just found this photo blog of Tokyo, which is tempting me like crazy! Can’t wait to my trip back there in January. Woot! Less than a month from now!

Information on a new Transformers game for the PC/PS3/Xbox 360 has been leaked. Transformers – War for Cybertron apparently has no links to either the cartoons, comics or movies. Though the designs of the bots is a cross between G1 and The War Within comics.

The game is supposed to be in the ‘Gears of Wars’ style of games and targeting to be released in 2010. I’m pretty excited as it has nothing to do with the movie and it’s a new game world. Best it has elements of G1 and War Within designs. Best! I hope the game turns out good. Was pretty disappointed with the two Movie games that came out.

Some more exciting design pics below. Soundwave looks good!

Every once in awhile a new figure/vehicle is a released that captures the imagination of fans and collectors alike. There have been a few figures that have captured my imagination, figures like Fortress Maximus, the Transformers Masterpiece series and the upcoming 1/2000 Macross SDF-1.

The Millennium Falcon was one such figure that enticed me after reading initial reviews and see the pics, though by the time I had an interest in getting one, it was either sold out at the stores or was selling for a ridiculous price.

Good things come to those who wait, and boy was it worth the wait. Shaun had a feeling that the Falcon would be on sale at Falcon Hanger’s annual sale. So after initially refusing to get tempted and go down to check it out, I went down. Heh and so the story goes. I also managed to get the Falcon Battlepack and Princess Leia a few days later at the China Sq Flea Markets.

My first thought when I opened the box was, ‘WoW it’s really huge!’ It looks so much bigger when it’s out of box and fully set up. I realised mine is the Japanese version.

The Falcon is awesomely detailed. I know there are fan boys who want a more perfect Falcon, but this is pretty damm good. The size is perfect to fit the figures, and best yet, the Falcon comes with lights and audio clips from the movies! Sweet!

Chewie and Han who come together with the Falcon are well sculpted and fit nicely in the cockpit. The lights in the cockpit are also nice touches.

A nice sickbay for Luke to lie on while Leia takes care of him.

Obi-Wan checking out his Saber skills.

R2-D2 and C3PO having a game while Luke tries to feel the force.

The Falcon is damm impressive, and I’m still having dreams about it. I don’t have space for it on my display shelf, but it’ll sit nicely on my movable table for the moment. Will have to ensure a great display area for it once I renovate my room next year.

I’ll end of with some pictures of the lights the Falcon comes with. With the lights off at night, it just rocks my socks off!

Ok,, I’m an apple fanboy, even if the only Apple products I own is a MacBook Pro and an iPhone 3GS, the only reason by my main Desktop is not a mac, well it’s cause the PC still is king for games. I found this link on Gizmodo that’s hilarious. It’s funny reading quotes slamming the iPhone when it was first announced 2 years back.

The iPhone has been an amazing success over the pass few years. And thats what I like about Apple, it’s a company that designs and builds products ‘they’ would like to own, revolutionising the industry and media sphere as they release stuff.

I thought redman042 said it best in the comments.

I think the real point here is, even though these guys knew Apple was a threat to their space but wouldn’t admit it publicly (of course), none of them could have foreseen the barnstorming success that the iPhone is today. Apple didn’t just change the smartphone industry, it drastically changed 3rd party app development, the music and movie industries, and now, even before the iTablet is a confirmed reality, the magazine industry is bending over backwards and spending millions to be ready for an unconfirmed, potentially nonexistent product. In a nutshell, the entire media world is begging to be Steve Job’s bitch.

Now THAT’s what I call running a tech company.

Check out this amazing stop motion video! The Japanese director must have spent ages conceptualising the storyboard. So creative, only in Japan…..

There are a few places to visit in Akihabara. The main one would be the Big Yellow Sign Building. At the JR Akihabara station, look for the Electric Town Exit and exit through the left side. Once out, on the right the distance should be the building.

Sept 2011 UPDATE: The shops at the Big Yellow Sign building have moved 1 building down the road to the corner of the street and the main road. The toy stores now take up one whole building and haven’t really changed in what they sell. continue reading..

One of the more impressive toy stores is 7 floors high Yamashiroya. The store is home to carries all sorts of toys and is one of few places that has a good collection of 12 inch figures. Even though they are a bit more expensive than what you can find in Singapore (as seen in the Indy pic below), there is a wide selection of loose clothing, weapons, etc. that is hard to find in SG.

UPDATED Sep 2011

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Nakano is not as well known a place to find toys, but down at Nakano is Nakano Broadway with 4 floors of toy shops. Mandarake’s main shop is situated there amongst a variety of shops where you will find anything from Star Wars, Macross, Otaku, transformers, 12 inch figures, etc. I found this place has some rare finds as well as some good vintage toy shops. So how do you get there? Well Nakano lies 3 stops away from Shinjuku station on the JR Chuo line (Rapid). You can also take the line from Tokyo or Kanda station. The line is the orange coloured line. One you reach Nakano station, there are only two exits, North or South.

UPDATED Sep 2011
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The DX Macross Quarter is beautiful toy. It’s well made and a mix of plastic and die cast parts. It’s a sturdy toy and it looks great! Below are the heaps of pics I took.

The figure even has smaller fighter and mechs that you can place on the ship!

It’s a great, though expensive piece for my collection. Will go nicely with my other Macross Frontier DX figures!

Much better than the official song on TV, this was produced by the National Heritage Board. Featuring a pretty cool tune and a much better MTV.