toyhaven

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Terminator Salvation - coming soon

Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor (Christian Bale), the man fated to be the leader of the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators, and the future he was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet's operations, where they find out a terrible secret that may lead to the possible annihilation of mankind. [source: wiki]

The opening scene has Connor fighting a Terminator on a crashed helicopter. It is shot as a homage to the climax of the original film, where his mother Sarah, having broken her leg, is chased by a crippled Terminator.

Hot Toys will be releasing the first item from their Terminator Salvation product lineup in April 2009: Terminator Factory - T700 Diorama. This diorama captures T 700 in an assembly line at the Terminator factory. It features T700 light up eyes and light up buttons on the manufacturing machine.

Can't wait for Hot Toys 1/6 scale Terminator Salvation figures. They've already done a crew cut Christian Bale head sculpt before he was Bruce Wayne. Gotta give the man credit for dedication to his craft - Bale broke his hand punching a Terminator prop during filming.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Va-va-vroom!!!

Hot Toys will be releasing another figure from THE SPIRIT in the 2nd quarter of 2009 and this one is SWEET! Introducing Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece 1/6 scale 12-inch SILKEN FLOSS collectible figure from the classic action-adventure-romance movie - THE SPIRIT.

This sexy Silken Floss collectible figure features: Hot Toys 1/6th scale female body with over 30 points of articulation, stands 31cm tall with highly detailed implanted hair and head sculpture with authentic likeness of Scarlett Johansson as Silken Floss. She comes dressed in her movie-accurate costume of military suit, shirt, jodhpurs and boots with a removable hat, pair of glasses, belt, necklace, armband and syringe. Head sculpt by Hiroki Hayashi (林浩己), painting by JC.HONG and clothes design by PEIPER.

I didn't pay much attention to the two previous figures from THE SPIRIT by Hot Toys nor the movie but she is making me sit up and take notice ;p Wasn't too pleased with Hot Toys' previous female head sculpts but this one is a WINNER!

She can stick me with her needle anytime - LOL!!

Silken Floss with her hat removed

Hot Toys seem to have got her proportions wrong - she has bigger ... hair

Sūn Wùkōng (孙悟空) Monkey King

"Monkey Magic!" is a 2007 Japanese movie released following the success of the hit 2006 Japanese television series Saiyūki (西遊記), based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en. Sūn Wùkōng (孙悟空) Monkey King (Son Gokū) is the main character in Journey to the West as he accompanies the monk Xuanzang or Tripitaka on the journey to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India, along with Pigsy (猪八戒 Zhu Bajie) and Sandy (沙悟浄 Sha Wujing). Japan was the first country to adapt this Chinese fantasy tale to television in the 1970s with Japanese television series also called Saiyūki (西遊記) and "Monkey Magic!" was the English language voice-over version produced by the BBC and broadcast in Britain and Australia in November 1979.

Shingo Katori portrayed Sūn Wùkōng in the 2007 version of Saiyūki (西遊記) and Medicom released this 1/6 scale 12" RAH (Real Action Heroes) Figure Monkey Magic Saiyūki Gokū the same year. I didn't know anything about the series or the movie when I saw this Medicom RAH figure but I just liked the look of it (same reason how I ended up getting Medicom's Mad Capsule Markets and Kyoka Gai Kokaku Zero). Monkey King had always been like a superhero when I was growing up and Journey to the West was certainly a most entertaining fantasy tale.

I liked the whole outfit and how it's put together. Another red and yellow armored figure.

Medicom's head sculpt of Shingo Katori seems to have a bit of Jet Li in it. Coincidentally, Jet Li also portrayed Sūn Wùkōng (孙悟空) Monkey King in the 2008 movie "The Forbidden Kingdom", which condensed many of the elements of his character (his mischief, his playing havoc amongst the gods, his magical staff obtained from the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, and his three magical hairs) into a single narrative. It was the first film starring both Jet Li and Jackie Chan with action sequences choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping. Jackie Chan plays traveling scholar Lu Yan, a supposed 'immortal', who is surprisingly alert and agile when drunk - reprising one of his most famous roles in "Drunken Master (醉拳)".

A close-up of his body armor

The boots are quite cool because they are in two parts but yet remain seamless, thus allowing the feet portion to articulate separately from the upper part.

Sun Wukong possesses incredible strength, being able to lift his 13,500 jīn (8,100 kg) Ruyi Jingu Bang 如意金箍棒 (or simply as Jingu Bang, an iron rod which Wukong obtains from the undersea palace of Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea. When it is not in use, Wukong shrinks it to the size of a sewing needle and keeps it behind his ear) with ease. He also has superb speed, traveling 108,000 li (54,000 kilometers) in one somersault. Sun knows 72 transformations, which allows him to transform into various animals and objects; he is, however, shown with slight problems transforming into other people, since he is unable to complete the transformation of his tail. Each of his hairs possesses magical properties, and is capable of transforming into a clone of the Monkey King himself, or various weapons, animals, and other objects.

One of the most famous poses of Sun WuKong, Monkey King.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Hot Toys Iron Man Mark III - Part III

This is the third part of my review of Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece 1/6 scale 12-inch Iron Man Mark III. I certainly had a lot of fun posing him and taking pictures. This figure certainly has all the cool factors going for it starting with the box (yup! the box design and packaging deserves some mention) followed by Hot Toys' fantastic sculpting and detailing in keeping with screen accuracy, all the light-up features (WOW!) whilst still maintaining quite a fair amount of articulation (it's an armor figure, people and most of the things done on screen was computer generated. I seriously doubt an actual Iron Man can accomplish the things Iron Man did - it's a movie and make believe at that. On the other hand, Batman is completely based on a true story and everything's real ;p)

So on with the show: Hot Toys Iron Man preparing for take-off

Lights ON! Iron Man takes flight

Iron Man blasting off!

Close-up view of his light-up eyes and the miniature "arc reactor" embedded in his chest

Now a view of his feet/boots. Hot Toys forgot to light these up - such a pity :(

The repulsor rays from his hands help Iron Man fly

A side view of Iron Man in flight

"Who am I? I'm Iron Man!" oops! wrong movie

This shot shows how the calf armor opens

The whole calf area on both legs can be opened to reveal hydraulics (listed as "leg missiles" by Hot Toys - can't seem to find any "missile")

Here's a view from the side

I wanted to show all the opening, movable parts and flaps on Hot Toys Iron Man Mark III's feet/boots alone.

Now onto Iron Man's back armor

Not only is it superbly detailed, all the flaps open. These were used to help Iron Man slow down during flight, acting as brakes. Yet when the flaps stay down, they do not make Iron Man's back look weird, deformed or distorted. Beautifully executed by Hot Toys.