Cool One Piece Strawhat Figure Sets

Eh, I'll post the rest of the One Piece Sets I was looking at.  If you look at my last few posts, it's obvious I've been looking for a really good full Strawhat set.  I ended up going for Megahouse's Chess set, but here are the various sets I was considering.  I think they're all pretty nice.

1. Ichiban Kuji

2. Megahouse Chess

3. Half Age Characters

4. Chozokei Damashii One Piece Straw Hat Pirates Gekitou! Fishman Island Battle

Some other sets I considered were the New World Figuarts Zero and POP Strong World.

By the way, if you don't know about it already, the One Piece Toys Tumblr is really fun to browse through and keep up on One Piece figures.  I've definitely spent my quota on figures for the year... but there's no harm looking.

One Piece Ichiban Kuji Strong World

Since I posted the One Piece Chess Set, I'll post this other Strawhat set I really liked.  I saw this rare set in person and loved it, although not many share my appreciation. It's an Ichiban Kuji One Piece Strong World set. You had to buy tickets to win these toys instead of buying them outright.  You can read more about Ichiban Kuji here.

What I love about this set is the cohesion. Not only do the pieces link together, but more than any set, I think these figures show the Strawhats as a unified group. Each piece is pretty large, about the size of a figurearts zero. The major downside is that the quality isn't anything to write home about.

If you'd like to buy the set, I've seen them on ebay and mandarake. They're expensive, but I really do like them.

One Piece Megahouse Chess Set

The Megahouse/Megahobby One Piece Chess Set Collection R looks awesome.  All the current Strawhats are represented, the poses look cool (it's a more serious looking set), and I've heard the quality is good.  Each figure is 90cm, or 3.5 inches.  There are two versions of each figure, one with a black base and the other with a white base.  Take a look for yourself.

http://www.megahobby.jp/products/item/814/

Luffy: King

Nami: Queen

Sanji: Bishop

Zoro: Knight

Usopp: Rook

Chopper: Pawn

http://www.megahobby.jp/products/item/894/

Luffy: King

Shirahoshi: Queen

Zoro: Bishop

Robin: Knight

Franky: Rook

Brook: Pawn

The first set came out April 2012.  The second set comes out in September 2012.

The R in the title apparently stands for Rebirth/Reborn/Return. Megahouse did another set in 2004, you can read about it here.  This new set is also post-timeskip.

It's a really nice Strawhat set, right?

It's good enough for display, using them

for Chess isn't really neccessary.

I really do love the set, but of course I'm not without my wishlists and minor complaints. First off, I don't like that Shirahoshi is in the set and I don't like that there are two Zoros. For me, they disrupt the cohesion of the set... like a nickel in a collection of quarters. I'm fine with the two Luffys, but I don't really like the legs crossed version... it just looks awkward to me, although I know that many men do it.

If I was in charge of the line with the same cost/set constraints, I'd do the following. Two Luffys still make sense to me, but I tried to make the sets Strawhats only, match characters to pieces better, and balance the sides. Ideally, there would be two versions of each of the strawhats, although it wouldn't be neccessary. What do you think?

King 1 - Luffy

Queen 1 - Nami

Knight 1 - Sanji

Bishop 1 - Brooke

Rook 1 - Franky

Pawn 1 - Thousand Sunny

King 2 - Luffy

Queen 2 - Robin

Knight 2 - Zoro

Bishop 2 - Chopper

Rook 2 - Usopp

Pawn 2 - Going Merry

Personally, I prefer all the strawhats to be on each side. Yeah, it still means eight pawns, but now there's just one of everyone else. It would also allow an option to create rival chess sets. With all the characters, it would probably be confusing to play this way... but sets like these aren't really for real use. This set is actually doable with the current set.

King - Luffy

Queen - Nami

Knight1 - Zoro

Knight2 - Sanji

Bishop1 - Robin

Bishop2 - Brooke

Rook1 - Franky

Rook2 - Usopp

Pawn - Chopper

You can find the blind boxes at several figure importers such as www.amiami.com.  If you want a complete set of figures, you can find some on ebay or yahoo auctions japan.  So... all the usual places.  If you want a complete chess set... that'd be pretty expensive.  I would love to see images of a complete board though.  I ordered a black base set myself... I'll post pictures when I have them all.

Easy Youtube to MP3

FYI, this is a pretty nice tool. It allows very easy conversion from a youtube video to an MP3. The URL is http://www.youtube-mp3.org/.

There are also browser addons that add a button to the youtube page itself so that the tool is even easier to use.

Firefox Youtube to MP3 addon

Just do a search on your own for other browser addons. I haven't tried them out and I don't want to recommend anything potentially dangerous.

Introduction to Finality

My Community Season Three Wrap Up

Another season of Community ended. I'm not sure why I'm writing this post... but watching the finale gave me the same feeling as finishing a huge project. I just need to spend some time to reflect and write a wrap up report. It's all part o' the process.

If you asked me to choose one word to describe this season of Community, I'd instantly respond with "Ambitious." Dan Harmon (the series creator) has this big focus on story circles, his take on the "hero's journey" concept. In the past, these circles were mostly contained to individual episode. In this season, the circles spanned episodes. There were large story arc circles regarding the Air Conditioning Repair Annex, Chang as a security guard, and Pierce's father as well as many, many personal circles, such as Troy/Britta, Annie/Jeff, and the Dean finding himself. In contrast, Season 2 only really had the Shirley's baby story arc.

Now if you asked me if it worked... honestly, I'd say no. Don't get me wrong... I loved watching every episode and out of all the shows I've been following this season, it's definitely been my favorite. But all my favorite episodes were the more self contained episodes (Remedial Chaos Theory, Basic Lupine Urology, etc...) For the most part, all the episodes dealing with the story arcs didn't work for me. They all felt like they either weren't explored in enough depth or just weren't that interesting to begin with. (To be fair, I felt the same way about Season 2's baby story. Maybe I'm just not a fan of Harmon's plots.)

But the thing I disliked about this season of community the most wasn't the (all IMHO of course) failed ambitions, the meanness of the characters, or life message that didn't really resonate with me... it was the zaniness of everything. I missed the backdrop and characters of Seasons 1 and 2 where everything seemed much more realistic. This season, the situations just seemed too far fetched to me and the characters, while still great, seemed like completely different people from before. The show even poked fun at that. Also, there was a big push to take the characters out of Greendale Community College this season... I didn't really like the result. I kinda wished the characters would just go back to school. So my personal ranking of the seasons is S2, S1, then S3.

Anyway, those are my gripes... despite how much I wrote, they're actually minor. And like I said, Community is still the show I look most forward to watching. I never know what they'll try next and, in general, I love genre-bending.

Besides the show itself, I was amazed at everything that happened outside the show and how fun it was. All the Soup shout-outs and other external media (Danny Glover's plea and A Day in the Life of Joel McHale) were great. The subreddit for Community was great and the avclub reviews/comments were always fun to read the next day. I don't know if a TV comedy sitcom has ever been dissected and discussed as much as Community. A show like Lost I can understand... but a TV comedy?

Surprisingly, Community really deserved it. A lot of detail and easter eggs go into each episode. To catch all the jokes, not only do you need to have watched every episode, you need to read the website (eg Britta's background story) and know about the lives of the cast and crew. (Or, of course, you can just lurk on enough discussions.) Granted, these inside jokes and overall chaotic feel of the show are why I completely understand Community is not for everyone (the casual viewer won't understand the meaning behind "#SixSeasonsAndAMovie"), but it works really well for me.

Not only were there a lot of hidden on-air details to discuss, there was so much happening in the real life background. The fans had a chance to "save the show", Dan Harmon is his own worst enemy, the Chevy Chase feud, the twitter talk, and all the sneak peaks n' speculations. It all ended with a 13 episode renewal and a real life cliffhanger on how much the next season will involve Dan Harmon. So of course there's a lot to discuss and it's been really fun. I wonder if the reboot of Arrested Development will reach these levels of discussion.

Dan Harmon says each season of Community has a theme: Season One was communication (Spanish), Season Two was civilization (Anthropology), Season Three was life (Biology). Life is very complicated and season three was such a big circle with so many parts buzzing around it. That closing montage in the finale felt more like a series finale than a season finale. I guess it's obvious why this finale felt so monumental, it had such a strong sense of closure. It was very satisfying and I'm glad I spent the time watching the show.

That said, I'm looking forward to this season's DVD and the next thirteen episodes! Six Seasons and a Movie!

Links:

Community Season One DVD:
Community Season Two DVD:
Community Subreddit
AV Club Reviews
Season Three Easter Eggs List
NBC Official Site 
TvTropes

Skyward Sword

In my opinion, the best part of the Skyward Sword was the staff credits.

The video is completely spoiler free, just awesome music.

I especially love how the main theme is Zelda's lullaby reversed.

It's too bad that besides the main theme, the in-game music is pretty dull.

Totoro For Every Season

Totoro for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.

Spring is a flower field, it would be nice to find something more obvious.

Summer is a sand sculpture, not too many cool Totoro Sand Sculptures out there.

Fall is a Halloween Pumpkin, there are lots of those.

Winter is a Totoro Snowmen, there are lots of cool ones.