Google Adwords $100 Coupon

Hello everyone,

Its been such a long time since I've updated this blog.  4 years... huh.

I recently received another coupon card from Google for Adwords.

"Get an additional $100 in free advertising credit when you spend $25"

I figured I would do what I've done in the past and offer it up for the first person who emails me for a $9.

Please contact me at tomabackspin@gmail.com

I will get back to you as soon as possible.

The offer expires September 30, 2015.

As for why I haven't been updating the blog, my life has been full of ups and downs.  To summarize in a short sentence.  I am now a cancer survivor.

Cheers,

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[Kotobukiya] Kudryavka Noumi - Waffu Ver PVC Figure Review

A few days ago, my Little Busters PVC arrived from Japan. The character name is Kudryavka Noumi from Little Busters, a visual novel made by Key. This character was even popular enough to spawn her own visual novel where she stars as the main heroine. It was called Kud Wafter. So its no surprise that a number of manufacturers created figures using her character. From all the ones I've seen, this is probably the best version yet. Read on for a full review.

I've bought many figures in the past. So many that I can't even count. But for most of the purchases, I've had to think about whether I wanted to buy it or not. Questions like "Is the price ok?" or "Does it look great enough?" or even "Do I like this character?".

But this figure for me was an impulsive buy. I just HAD to HAVE it. Atleast that was what the prototype pictures had me sold. So I preordered it first thing. Waited a couple of months and here it is.

ITS JUST SO CUTE !! !!

While I knew who Noumi was prior to this figure's debut, that had no relation to why I bought it. It was just... *faints*

Ok, finally we can start the actual review. (I finished my prologue. *cough cough*)

Box

Starting with the box, while there is nothing surprising about the exterior, the interior plastic holding the figure in place was kind of unique. Of all the ones I have, it has always been 2 pieces of plastic held together by 4 or so buttons. But this one was a single piece of plastic which folds at two lines to conform to a 3D shape. Interesting. Does it mean anything...? Probably not.

Interior Plastic

The figure itself was as adorable as the prototype. On first impression it did appear to be more glossy than other ones that I own. While not the greatest news, it was alright. Everything else was still perfect.

The smile and pose still captures me just as it did 3 months ago. The sculptor did a great job expressing the character's cuteness naturally. The pose feels just right at home. It gives off a childish aura which breathes out happiness all over which corresponds to the type of character she is.

Smile !

I didn't notice any defects in the product upon inspection and the details on the figure is very well done. The hat especially, unlike other figures with hats I've own, this one has specific engravings on the inside of the hat so that at one specific position, the hat will fit snugly.

Hat (Those weird engravings are for the hair to interlock itself with the hat to create a great fit)

There were other details such as the ribbons on the shoes, socks, and rear side of the shirt. While those weren't factors which would be detrimental to the whole figure, the fact that they were done well and properly helps to improve the image of Kotobukiya.

The hair and her cape was also full of life as it danced in the wind. A common feature with practically all figures of characters with long hair. Here is no exception, creating compelling volume as the wind carries it about. This was anything but dull. And frankly, dull figures just aren't interesting enough to store in my cabinet.

Focus of the Hair and the Cape from behind. (Notice all the different strands of hair and the amounts of bends on the cape. Alot of work was put into this portion to create this energetic sculpture)

In terms of the paint... Nothing too spectacular but nothing disturbing either. Just like any other quality figure by big name companies. I quite like the shading though.

Lastly, the base. Its a generic base. Just a white piece of plastic with the name pasted on the top. The figure is stuck to it by a bolt (or something). So I didn't try taking it out.

Base (Nothing special about it)

I generally like characters who are more cheerful than not. So this figure was a great buy for me and will fit nicely into my cabinet of other goodies. Anyway, the gallery and Amiami link for the product is below. Thanks for reading !

Aside: I apologize for the picture if its a bit dark. On my camera when I was taking them, they were just fine... On my Samsung monitor is not too bad also. But on my NEC one, its a bit dark.

Gallery:

[Kotobukiya] Kudryavka Noumi PVC Figure

Amiami shop: Link.

...

Oh yeah.

There was a hidden surprise in the figure.

What the...

O_O?!

Slightly NSFW

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My Memories Suite Review

Some time ago, I was contacted via email by someone to help promote their program. I was then given a review copy of the program to test and write a review on it. The program was called My Memories Suite and it was a digital scrapbook software. I have never used a digital scrapbook before, even a physical scrapbook... I rarely used. So I didn't know what to expect when I first ran the program. But to my surprise it was actually pretty simple to use. Having created something, I was able to make a review. Read on for more.

Firstly, lets start off with the program logo.

Software Logo

Nothing much to say about it except since its version 2, one can assume that future updates will be available to either add content or fix up bugs in the older versions. Thats always a plus. No one wants their software abandoned the moment you buy it. Hence one of the reasons for Apple's success. They treat their customers well and still offer support to them several years after purchasing their devices.

Next to discuss would be the layout of the program. Since I am neither a professional nor an art fanatic, I probably could not full appreciate the magnitude of features that the program offers. However, while I was using it, the program felt like an extension of my own moving limbs.

Screenshot of the program

Why I said that was because everything was clear and just made sense. If you wanted to add a textbox or a photo, go on the right side and pick the right tab you need, and there would be the correctly labelled button which did exactly what you wanted it to do. Completely unlike other softwares (Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Powerpoint), which to insert a picture, you need to go to the top menu then insert then picture. While I understand Microsoft Office isn't a software for creating digital scrapbooks, this program showed that simple and intuitive use of shortcuts makes doing things more like doing things. No more need to scour the menus to find out how to do every little task.

Because I've talked with general consumers, they don't need complicated computer programs. Apple knows this and that is why Apple is so closed, they do everything for you. From forcing you to use itunes with their devices, locking you out of a file system, not letting you jailbreak/unlock your phones. Those sound like all bad things. And in a way they are. But in another way, moving songs from your computer to an iphone if it had a file system could be very complicated. Most likely too complicated for some individuals to do. That means losing sales to Apple, so they just made it easy. What they're doing is targetting the general population (which is the majority). Only computer people would enjoy a file system where they sort their own stuff instead of letting Apple do it for them.

That aside was meant to explain while simple GUI or graphics user interface is important nowadays. If its too complicated for some people, they just won't buy it, if they won't buy it, you won't get money. So the plan is to make it simple enough for even babies to use. Because you can never be too sure.

Anyway.. ! That was a long aside. Great thumbs up for the user interface. Since I couldn't compare with other competing software, I'll leave this point at just that.

Next is the customization. While I may not know alot about art, I do know that art is about expressing yourself. Each person's piece must be independent of each other person and no two pieces of work are ever identical. Therefore, for this program to be truly successful in its own sense requires it to be adaptable to hundreds or millions of different artists and thus ideas.

I believe this company and program can definitely accomplish that. What makes me say that?

Well, there are several reasons. First of all this program offers an extensive list of pre-made templates where you can just apply, then simply add pictures and caption/text. It makes for one professional scrapbook with a few clicks of the mouse and a little bit of typing. Or you can go a little bit more by changing the template around to your free will until you find something you like. The template then bends and wraps around your creativity and that piece of work now becomes art.

Wait... what?? Well, if another person were to use the same template and changed it around, it is highly unlikely it would look like yours. Because you applied your own personality into it, it has individuality and is unique, those are what we call art.

While the program offers templates which are fine and dandy if you just want to get the job done. This program is provides much more than that. There is an option to create your own scrapbook from scratch. You decide what to place where, and build it the way you want. You shape it all in the palms of your hands. No restrictions, nothing. Think of it as using a template then deleting everything on the template. So you're left with blank pieces of paper and the easy to use tools to make everything in your imagination run onto paper.

In both options, there are massive amounts of customizations you can achieve. From changing background colour to creating customizable shapes/text. You can overlap text on top of shapes to give the album some depth. You can even change the kind of size you want your scrapbook to be printed on. You don't have to print on 8.5x11 paper all the time !

There is also a feature to export the album as a set of jpegs, or as a movie. Which also means, you can add sound/narration to your scrapbook. As technology advance, more and more features become available. MyMemories Suite is definitely no exception. Maybe its not new but the idea or adding sounds to a scrapbook seems... unreal.

As for the second reason, this company also offers templates for sale, some of them free, others paid, on top of their already massive library of core templates. These additions will give you more building blocks to work with and increase your arsenal of scrapbook tools. I personally believe this is an awesome idea as alot of other companies had already implemented the idea. In games, these are regarded as DLC or Downloadable Content. If it was on an Apple device, it would be called In-app Purchase. And etc. Either way, this has been very successful to previous companies and are sure to do well for MyMemories also.

Next we'll go through an example of something I made using the program. The scrapbook was about the California trip that I took at the end of June 2011.

I started with one of the templates already there, I liked how it used different boxes put together like a jigsaw puzzle. Since we ourselves also drove around California visiting things we passed by. We did have the 3 cities destinations (San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles) but we were pretty clueless as to what to see and where everything was. So whenever we saw something interesting, we parked the car and explored around.

The boxes originally were all separate but I had to put them together so it wouldn't look awkward since I couldn't fit California into a single box. I also changed some of the colours of those boxes. The pictured boxes were already implemented in the template, but it was very easy to add your own.

Here, I added the slanted words on the boxes and added a picture of my own to show how hot it was over there in California. I also changed the paragraphing to fit all the text without overflowing from the bottom.

Nothing special here, that was exactly how the template looked like, I just added the picture.

Also, unchanged from template, you can see how even without doing anything, the page looks great. A balance of pictures with shapes to give the reader some information about the trip without flooding their eyes with photos after photos.

Again, unchanged from template. I should mention that when you add the photos, because these photo boxes are square, parts of the photo is cropped (you can have it stretched if you wanted to, but I like cropping). Simply double click the picture and it'll open up a window which lets you control what is cropped, where is the center of the picture, etc. Very easy to use. Great for old people who are not into computers. And young people who want to share their experiences with friends but not familiar with artist terms like balance.

Picture of the Hollywood Walk in the evening. Shifted the focus down, perhaps a little bit more exposure of the sky would be better (?).

Nothing to add here.

This was probably the most interesting page I worked on, along with the one below. This specific page in the template (you can remove the kind of pages from the template you don't like and add duplicates of others as you see fit) had no place for words, so I decided to put something that didn't need many words on this and the following page. Something that tells itself. Something like an amusement park. And the 8 squares just perfectly fitted Lego Land. Great !

This page, I started with the same template as the previous, but I rearranged everything since Sea was only 3 boxes and World was 5. I added a little bit of overlap to create depth and tilted the words so they were parallel with the boxes.

Nothing in particular to add either.

This template had a good amount of pages without text areas, which was fitting for my trip as we mainly were sightseeing and exploring what attractions were available in California. Also, I dislike writing. Hahaha...

Again, I rearranged some boxes so I could have 3 coloured boxes adjacent to each other to spell out "See" and "You". As I mentioned previously, even though you loaded a template, each item (shape, text box, etc) are completely moveable and removable so you can make it fit your taste. No longer are you confined to the restrictions of the program. MyMemories Suite is made to fit you.

Video Tutorial (Provided by the company):

Welcome to the Family! from Lisa Jurrens on Vimeo.

Lastly, I have 2 things to share with the readers. Firstly, I was given the opportunity to host a giveaway of the program to one lucky reader of my blog.

Entry is simple. Just surf over to MyMemories' website and share your favourite kit (template) in the comments below. Just simply state the name of the template with the URL and why you like it (please write more than one sentence).

For example,

Fireworks Vol 1.
http://www.mymemories.com/store/display_product_page?id=MRKZ-EP-1105-2036
I like it because I enjoy looking at fireworks explode in the sky, they are so beautiful and mesmerizing. I want my scrapbook to have an impact and capture the attention of its viewers.


I will pick one of the comment randomly (I will random generate a number between 1 to #comments, the comment number that shows up will be the winner) on October 31, 2011. That is just about 1 month of time. Hopefully there will be a good number of applicants so it can be a little bit more lively here. (Even if its just once)

__

The second thing is for those of you who either don't want to wait until October 31, 2011 or didn't win in the giveaway. I was given a $10 off promo code to supply to the readers of my blog (Hurray!). So I'll share it with you all, if you wanted to get that scrapbooking software, now is the time !

The code is below,
STMMMS2796

Conditions (Taken from the site):

1. This unique code is ONLY good for My Memories Suite v2
2. MyMemories reserves the right to modify terms or conditions

Thank you for reading and best of luck in the giveaway ! If anyone wants to leave any comments or questions, please do so in the comments section below. I will try my best to answer them.

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The time I lost my wallet...

It was on a normal day much like August 21, 2011. I ate breakfast outside at some Hong Kong style restaurant like a typical weekend. We ate till we were full then set out to shop since none of my family (my brother aside) had work. Since we were a techy family, we went to Futureshop down on Kennedy Road and Lawrence Ave. It was there we had a nice little encounter with Microsoft. I thought it was going to be a fine day... But...

I had no idea what was going to happen.

It was afterall, a very long and interesting day.

The day before this day, I had received word that HP's TouchPad had gone from $399 retail to just $99. We went to FutureShop to try to grab a copy. Needless to say, our attempt were futile as it were sold out at the store as well as any other FutureShop or BestBuy.

Then we continued to our other routine tasks of grocery shopping. This time around, we picked Walmart, since I am into building Yugioh decks, Walmart was a great place as I can sometimes pick out cheap packs of cards (when those 30-70% stickers are on the merchandise). It didn't take very long until we finished and the shopping continued.

My mother doesn't really like technology so we dropped her off at Winners in the Eglinton Square Shopping Centre. Afterwards, my dad and I went to check out another FutureShop, since we were skeptical. Of course, nothing.

Disappointed, we went to the dollar store, Dollar Giant, to get some cheap tools and utensils for some event he was planning. While there, we also picked up 2 BB guns for $1.25 each. It came with bullets and we shot a few rounds around (not aiming people and picking up the bullets after firing). The projectiles didn't fly very far, but a good toy for a little over a buck.

Since my mother can shop at Winners for a surprisingly long period of time, we decided to drop by a flea market which was very close by. We spent about 10-20 mins in there doing nothing more than window shopping then went back to Winners to pick up my mom.

Our last planned trip was to drop by a card/hobby shop at the Agincourt Mall before going home. I stayed there for about half an hour to an hour looking at what single Yugioh and Magic the Gathering cards they had. It wasn't as cheap as Dollys but there were many cards not found in one but in the another. While there, heavy rain and lightning storms were seen and heard everywhere. To avoid accidents, we stayed in the mall for a while longer. To spend time, we shopped at No Frills to see if anything else were cheap.

Everything was fine at this point... until we reached our car after shopping. It was then I noticed my wallet was missing... Sh!t.

With my forgetful brain, this crisis was a bigger crisis than it could have been. If I was able to accurately recall when was the last time I had my wallet, I could create a time range in which we would backtrack and search. However... I had no idea.

First we had to go home to drop off our groceries. It was then that I also called my credit and debit card companies to let them know I had lost my wallet. That way, they could disable my cards before I would be charged for things I didn't buy.

Then we backtracked the whole day's event starting from the most recent. So that meant going to all these places in order;

- No Frills
- Agincourt Mall
- Flea Market
- Dollar Giant
- FutureShop #2
- Walmart
- BestBuy
- FutureShop #1
- HK Style Restaurant (Where we had breakfast)

And after all that... nothing. No one reported a lost wallet... Sh!t...

Now broken and defeated, we went home to call the police to file a report. And so I did. They said they would call me back in an hour and told me to prepare some information to help me file a report. During that hour was long and rough... I kept thinking what would happen to me. After all, unlike most people, I carried my SIN (Social Insurance Number) card with me. They would also have my Health Card and Drivers License which had my address. And the entry card to enter our townhouse/apartment complex. It was very frightening for me indeed.

My parents at this point was very optimistic, they kept telling me that maybe someone has already turned it into the police and that everything will be fine. I'm sure they know deep down that I messed up so bad. They just don't want to say it.

I was so worried I didn't even notice I had a voice mail on my phone. I listened to it. It was our gatehouse speaking. Told me that a lady came to ask if I lived here, claiming to have my wallet. !!! Was I hearing this correctly? I rushed down to the gatehouse. And sure enough, she had left me a sheet of paper with an address and a note stating exactly that she had my wallet. There was also a contact info. Ecstatic, I called the number when I got back to my townhouse. She picked up and I scheduled a meeting time (in the next half hour). I got there and thankfully recovered my wallet. I thought it was awfully nice of her to drive all the way to my address to let someone know so I brought over a can of egg rolls as gift. My wallet was also lighter by $45... but I didn't say anything at that point. I was just glad it was back in my possession.

I asked where she picked it up. And it was at Agincourt Mall. Outside the card/hobby shop. I kind of knew it was there, but when we didn't find it, we couldn't just stop looking. While I couldn't say I was sure, I knew I frequently feel my pockets to make sure everything was fine. Surely today couldn't have been an exception. My bad memory made today just a terrible experience. I'll probably have to change where I place my wallet, or maybe not to put the wallet and my phone in the same pocket. I don't know yet, I'll think of something.

Oh, regarding the police, I left them an email saying I retrieved my wallet, although lost $45, I chose not to followup on it. If they need me to file a report, I'll let them know whatever they need me to know. But I won't search for compensation. It was my fault afterall.

Yes, I indeed lost my wallet today, on August 21 of 2011. Luckily I got it back. Just short $45. But nevertheless, no hassle to reapply for new cards. Maybe the gas was a bit of trouble too. Afterall, we went all over the place.

I'll have to repay my dad good in the next few weeks. Thanks for listening. If you ever do lose your wallet, don't panic too much. We do live in Canada and the people are generally nice. Do remember to temporary or permanently disable your credit/debit cards though. The police will also lend your assistance if you give them a call. And if you need extra comfort, my mom always tells me to pray when there are things outside your control which you need help in.

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Writing on the go: Windows Booth

On Aug 20, 2011, outside the Futureshop north of Lawrence ave on Kennedy road, was a Microsoft booth to educate the general public about Microsoft Windows. I originally went to futureshop to buy the HP tablet for $99. But unfortunately it was sold out. Read on for a more comprehensive of what was there.

The tent had several laptops and TVs for displaying some features. One of the displays were about windows Internet explorer 9. The only thing there that I have yet to know anything about. The TV showed a comparison between IE9 and Google Chrome. The webpages were identical, a html5 webpages of an aquarium with fishes. IE9 had 1000 fishes running at 16 fps. Chrome had 10 fishes and 11 fps. While I don't know if it's 100% legitimate but I will definitely try out IE9 when I get home. I also asked then about new features of IE9. They are;
- Drag-able tabs to window 7 task bar on bottom
- Drag-able tabs to edge of screen and maximize them like any other window explorer
- Uses computer processing power to shorten load times (unable to comprehend, just stating what they told me)
- Simple GUI with little clutter

I also asked about their windows live messenger but nothing much was new. Only;
- Supports skype
- Link with Facebook

There were a couples of mid to high end computers present to let you feel the windows experience. All in the $1000 range computers.

Lastly if you talk with those people for 5 minutes, you get a free pair of sunglasses. Also there's food. Free hot dogs or hamburgers with water and chips. Great stuff.



Yummy!

Come drop by sometime if you're close. It probably won't stay open for long so hurry!

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

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Come Play Grandchase !

I've been playing this game for a long time now. Today I would like to try to recommend it for all the readers out there. Its a 3D side-scrolling dungeon crawler game with mmorpg properties. You can level up and get items which (like diablo, has different special properties). So no two equipments are ever the same ! Read on for more details.

The game's plot is a bunch of children (Its funny, I know) travelling different continents to save the world from evil. They call themselves the "Grand Chase". You start with 3 characters who level independently from each other which gives replay value to the game as well as more options to find out what you like. There are quests which you can buy from the shop and complete to unlock and play additional characters. Each character has 4 jobs except for Mari, Dio, Zero, and Ley. Each job plays different from the previous and are unlocked via level requirement and quest completion. In addition to jobs, some has skill tree to enable further customization of comboes, special attacks, and additional skills such as evasion or berserk mode.

List of Characters, taken from Ntreev Grandchase website.

Elesis, typical swordsman and leader of the grandchase. Melee.

Lire, archer with unique gameplay which reminds me of gunbound (though not exactly). Ranged.

Arme, magician with overwhelming power. Melee/Ranged.

Lass, thief with speedy attacks and typical hard hitter. Melee with some ranged.

Ryan, druid with ability to morph into a creature for additional power. Melee.

Dio, demon which introduced another way to use special attacks, very powerful and cheap. Melee.

Ronan, magic knight which plays similar to elesis and has good defence. Melee.

Zero, wanderer and with new special attack input like dio, another powerhouse. Melee

Seigheart, gladiator with berserk mode for increased damage output for a short duration, very similar to Elesis. Melee.

Amy, dancer, probably fastest of all the characters with low hp and def, damage is mediocre but can regenerate allies' MP. Melee with little ranged.

Jin, fighter using hands and legs to attack, speedy blows with good attack power, can charge up ki to shoot fireballs. Melee with one ranged attack.

Mari, rune caster with very unique play of building structures such as towers and portals, uses machines to fight. Melee/Ranged.

Ley, summoner with ability to call creatures to fight for her, also uses unique special input like dio and zero. Ranged.

You can get more information about characters here,
http://grandchase.ntreev.net/guides/Characters_elesis.aspx

There are 2 main gameplays for Grandchase. The first is a dungeon crawler which is a party of up to 4 people going through a dungeon and defeating the boss. After winning, you are rewarded with a chest which could be equipments, items (potions and alike), or ingame currency, or nothing at all ! Monsters in the dungeon may also drop items to aid you. There are dialogues (not spoken) for the plot in each dungeon. Whether you choose to read it or not, is up to you, most people skip it. Of course, you get experience which lets you level up to improve your character. Also, a quest system exists to help speed up levelling. All quests involve crawling one dungeon or
another. There are 6 continents to explore in total with countless dungeons.

Continental Map, 6 continents, many dungeons in each. Including hero dungeons.

Equipments, common is white, rare is blue, epic is yellow, relic is pink. Common has no special properties, rare has 1, epic 2, relic 3. Shops gives commons, dungeons drop rare and epics, events gives relics.

Dungeon Crawling, up to 4 people per room for dungeon.

I personally only do dungeons, I enjoy coop play with other people so if you do sign up, add me. I use AznWizzie for my character name.

The second gameplay is pvp. It stands for player versus player. As you can guess, you face other people who also play Grandchase. Here, mostly skills are required but items also matter alot. So just go blindly into battle ! Most rooms will state its requirements in the room title so it will be roughly a fair match assuming everyone met those said restrictions. Pvp also rewards experience but no items.

Those are the two main attractions to the game. There are plenty of other features in Grandchase, for example the hero dungeons which are dungeons for level 40+ (Sanctum of Destruction) and 30+ (Crucible). These dungeons are different because monsters' strengths are equal to the averaged stats of all the players in the room. Where as normal dungeons has a level range, where if you're 30 levels or so above the dungeon, you will mostly 1 hit ko the monsters. This proves a challenge to even the long time players in Grandchase.

Another feature is the workshop where you can create or disassemble equipments you picked up in the dungeons or bought. The created items are usually only found as dungeon drops or created via workshop.

There are also guilds and a friend system which is normal to all mmorpg by now.

Theres a couple system which could be interesting or not. Couples boost each other's experience multiplier when levelling up so you level up faster. Aside from that, nothing special about it.

This game has alot of benefits for being a casher, however I was never one for online games and probably never will be. Cash can either grant you better equipments than other people, special skills for characters, unique pets (which aid in combat, non-payers can also get pets though), and gacha and spell breaker gacha.

Both gacha work like a lottery, it takes coins or seals to unlock either pets or equipments which are usually limited time.

For those who don't cash or even those who want more cash. Ntreev do offer "free cash" methods, such as completing surveys or watching a video, or installing spyware (don't do that one). Some ask for your mobile phone number then they send you a pin where you have to enter on a computer, but I never tried that cause giving them my phone number seem like a bad idea.

But thats about it for what I can say about Grandchase, if you have any other questions, feel free to post in the comments below. There are alot of other small features I neglected but there are alot more things Grandchase has to offer so give it a try !

Once again, if you do join and quite like the game, you can add me at AznWizzie. I don't play too often, I usually play when theres a good event. Speaking of events, Ntreev does provide a good event every now and then, completely unlike their other game Pangya which seems only to have events which require cash.

Also note, if you do plan to start, you should start sooner, because they have an event at the moment which gives you special items for completing level checkpoints (level 1, 5, 10, etc).

Thanks for reading. The link below is to sign up under my referral, it gives me certain benefits if enough people sign up. I won't keep my hopes up but it'd be nice if there were some people who do start playing because of me.

Sign up link:http://grandchase.ntreev.net/entrypoint/etp_rf.aspx?r=bAmbnlWeiZqQekEj0dSjDcI47GsHE87GCrApzuqRrDm8N1TiKVkFN0BZTMXefpoT

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[QuesQ] Moriya Suwako Figure Review

July 6, 2011 was when my first figure from QuesQ arrived. I really had no expectation from a company who I have not yet purchased from. So I could not say how the figure would turn out. I would be delighted if it turn out like the prototype. But most figures I've preordered had been spectacular and I haven't been devastated yet. Lets hope it doesn't start now. Read on for the full review.

I first read about it on Nekomagic, my one stop place for figure news. And instantly I was sold on the face. Usually if I buy a figure its because I love the face. While the pose or other elements are important, when I look at something, its the face. Regardless or if its a person, an artwork, a photo, everything.

First thing I saw when I looked at the box was... its SMALL ! D8 Kind of the same feeling I got when I received the the Ameri figure. Then I looked at the box, and didn't find a scale ratio. Boo.

But size isn't everything, yes, it looks strange when put beside my other 1/8 Touhou figures, see below.

But adding details on small figures is much more difficult than on larger ones. Atleast thats what I believe.

In terms of the photos, I first took them using the photo shooting box my dad got me a long time ago in broad daylight. I thought it was fine, but when I got on my computer they were dark +_+. Someone must have messed with my camera setting cause when I checked it afterwards, the exposure setting was set to -1.0 (0.0 is normal). Not cool. And by then it was already evening, so I took the stuff up to my room and shot it there with a desktop light lying around.

Here was the contraption, because the nature of the lamp, the colour was tinted yellow. (Don't give me those eyes if you see spongebob, its a great show. And I happened to have won it at Seaworld on my trip to California.)

This was taken in the morning with the reduced exposure setting. But notice how the image is not tinted yellow like in the ones below. Would be perfect if the settings wasn't changed.

Anyway, moving on to the review.

Luckily, the product arrived as anticipated from images I've seen online. Not much deviation was spotted and I like it as much as I did the prototype images. Great thing considering prototypes are usually meant to be perfect copies for the product to appeal to customers.

The face still captures me like a rock versus paper... (ok, thats bad.)

Smile ! ^_^

The colouring was well done upon closer inspection (Unfortunately, macro shots are not possible with my camera, so you'll just have to take my word. Sorry, hope to get a macro lens later.). Also, I didn't see errors like chipped or cracks. I think for quality this is pretty well done.

The gimmicks are pretty nifty too. It comes with 2 right hands which uses a tube mount to connect to the figure. Part of the tube and the mount is squared so you wouldn't be able to rotate the hand and there is only 1 correct way to connect the hand onto the figure. This is actually nothing new but as T's System's Kochiya Sanae had it too for the head (Though, why the head was removable on that figure remains a mystery to me.)
The second thing was the hat. It sticks on magnetically, just like the Pixie Hiyori from Good Smile Company, but a bit poorer made. The hat on Hiyori didn't have grooves from inserting the magnet, but it clearly shows up here. Luckily, if you put on the hat, no one knows. They won't even see the line across the forehead thats on basically every figure.

Magnetically attached hat but you can see the groove where the PVC was cut to insert the magnet.

The left hand softly wraps around the hat when you put it in place. Very life-like !

Nice detail on the clothes, the decal (?). Those are frogs because Suwako is portrayed as a God whose a frog. However that may work.

The pose fits the character, Moriya Suwako very well as being cute and childish. While I don't exactly know her personality in the official Touhou Games by ZUN. But fan works have given her that kind of chara. She can also be portrayed as a dark character. Clearly not the case here.

I've rarely regretted buying anything and certainly I haven't regretted buying this. Though the price was somewhat expensive for something this small. Its a nice piece of addition to any Touhou Project fan or just any collector looking for a cute figure.

My display case as of July 6, 2011. The new figure is on the top level to the right.

Gallery is below, thanks for reading.

[QuesQ] Moriya Suwako PVC Figure

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