The Holiday Haul

So, for the most part, I bought myself my presents for Christmas/Birthday purposes, with the exception of the much anticipated Bawoo (from my best friend). Other than that, I got the P-Bandai Geara Doga kit (my first P-Bandai), the Play Arts Kai Commander Shepherd (which may be defective), and the SH Figuarts SSJ Vegeta.

Adéwalé

Adéwalé is an Assassin's Creed character I only know a little about. He first appeared in Black Flag, which I played, and was the main protagonist of the DLC Freedom's Cry, which I did not play. He also appears in Rogue, which I own, but have not played. He was an entertaining character in the time I spent with him, and was one of the best characters in a game full of great characters. He also makes for a great figure.

 

Edward Kenway

I, like most others, really enjoyed Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag quite a bit and really liked Edward the pirate. But I was left wishing for a little bit more. I think that the lack of much modern-world building, and the lack of Desmond and his team, ended up creating a story that was a little less grounded. Assassin's Creed III had a terrible protagonist and a weak story going through the Revolutionary War, but it meant something to be going through those memories because they had an impact on the modern world. We don't get that anymore.

 

Merry Christmas from Kira "Jesus" Yamato!

Kira Yamato is the main protagonist of the Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny series. He is known as Jesus Yamato on the internet because of his tendency to come back from what is assumed a grisly death (three times throughout the two series). Today, I'm posting all three of his mobile suits.

MG Aile Strike Gundam ver. RM

I managed to pick up the Strike Remaster after being impressed with the Strike Rouge remaster, and getting excited about the catapult display stand. Again, the Strike Rouge impressed me, but the Aile Strike was the kit that single-handedly turned me into a fan of Gundam Seed. It is a beautiful kit, and perfect in almost every way. It launched an obsession with Strike variants.

One of the things I love most about the Gundam Seed line of gunpla is their great use of markings (stickers, decals, dry-transfer, etc), and nowhere is that more apparent than in this kit. It was well detailed before the markings, but after you apply everything, there is something to see from literally any angle on this kit.

MG Freedom Gundam Ver 2.0

When the Freedom 2.0 was announced, I really didn't think much of it. I already had the Strike and the Strike Freedom, and I didn't really think the regular Freedom would be different enough to justify picking it up. But when I started to see pictures of the kit hit the internet, I realized I couldn't resist getting it. A friend of mine even asked why, and I think it's just because it is a 2.0 kit. I've seen the difference between a 1.0 and a 2.0 before (Gundam Mk II), and I knew that this would be an insanely fun kit to build.

 One thing about this kit that did leave me disappointed, however, was the lack of moving knee armor. The Aile Strike and even the much older Strike Freedom both included some sort of floating kneecap to help hide that big ugly joint.

MG Strike Freedom Full Burst Mode

After receiving the Destiny Extreme Blast MG for Christmas last year, I went out and got the matching edition of the Strike Freedom, dubbed Full Burst Mode. It is, essentially, the Strike Freedom kit with more gold and some effect parts for the dragoons. It's a nice kit, but especially seeing as how ineffective the included effect parts are for the dragoons, I would probably go back to the regular edition if I ever had to replace this kit.

Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn has become one of the fan-favorite-est characters in the DC Universe in a relatively short time. Created in the 90s for the Batman Animated Series, she worked her way into the hearts of most fans of Batman and is considered to be a pretty good character capable of carrying both comic books and movies on her own.

Joker

The Joker is one of the most iconic villains, not only in the history of Batman, but in the history of fictional villainy. He's a crazy badass. He became one of the mainstays of the Arkham series, and was perhaps as important to that series as Batman himself. Not even death could stop the Joker.

 This iteration of the Joker comes from Arkham Origins, the weakest of the Arkham titles. I tend to enjoy this version of the Joker the best out of the series, at least visually. Here he's younger and looks a little more sinister, as opposed to the older versions of the Joker which seemed to focus more on his wackiness.

Scarecrow

As a child watching the animated Batman tv show, even the kid friendly, kind of silly looking Scarecrow pretty much unnerved the hell out of me. So I was very happy as an adult to see that he became a main villain in the Batman Begins movie, played pretty much as a horror villain. I was damn near giddy when he became one of the main antagonists in the Arkham series of games. His levels and challenges were some of the highlights of those games, which is saying something in a franchise of that calibre.

His appearance in Arkham Knight was far and away his most horrifying. Most of that stems from his visage alone. He was already creepy, but after having his face torn off and embracing the weird pharma-terrorist-frankenstein vibe, he truly became a horror villain.

MG Anavel Gato's Gelgoog

Anavel Gato is probably my favorite Zeon pilot (besides, of course, Char). This is his custom Gelgoog, painted blue and green. I don't believe it was ever seen in any of the anime, but this is the mobile suit in which he earned the nickname "Nightmare of Solomon" during the One Year War. Gato would later go on to pilot the more famous GP02A and Neue Ziel.

Another one of my older kits (2003), it doesn't boast exceptional details or articulation, but it does look great. I was never a fan of the original grey/green color scheme of the Gelgoog, but the blue/green of the Gato version just works. Plus, it came with a figure of Anavel Gato, so that's a plus.

The long beam rifle is one of my favorite guns as far as the monochromatic ones go. Obviously, as soon as you see color separation on a weapon, it immediately starts looking better. The double beam naginata is menacing in games and anime, but doesn't pack the same punch in gunpla form.