japanese

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: action figures

Rob Leave a Comment

File:Pantystockinglogo.png

The Anarchy sisters, Panty and Stocking, are angels who were kicked out of Heaven due to their bad behavior. They are sent to Daten City (a pun on the Japanese word datenshi (堕天使, lit. “Fallen Angel”)), a place located on the edge of Heaven and Hell. Strange monsters called “Ghosts” besiege the city, but the Anarchy sisters wield a variety of mysterious powers, most notably their ability to transform their underwear and stockings into weapons.

Under the watchful eye of Reverend Garterbelt, and with their pet zipper-dog Chuck, it’s up to Panty and Stocking to destroy these Ghosts, in order to collect enough Heaven Coins to return to Heaven.

RIO:bone Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt - Panty Complete Figure

I feel fans of Mega Man and the Miss adventures of Tron Bon will really be into this toy ! coming out in late December 2011.

Pre-Order here

Transformers:Scramble City

Rob

With the release of the Transformers animated movie being held until 1990, The Japanese market needed a filler show to bridge the gap between season two and season three of the Transformers cartoon series.

This show would introduce characters that only debut in the animated film. Ultra Magnus and many of the films co-stars needed to be seen as soon as possible as well as add them into the mythos of the Universe of the Transformers.

The show starts off with a recap of the Transformers coming to Earth. It quickly covers the story of Devastator as well, and then gets right into the action.

The Autobots are shown in the middle of constructing the powerful “Scramble City,” Metroplex for the G1 purist. Its construction is being held by Ultra Magnus. The Decepticons send out Soundwave’s minions Laserbeak, ravage and ratbat to see what the autobots are doing and soon learn of the build. Megatron sends out his mighty Combiners or if you prefer Gestalts and soon all hell breaks loose!

A battle between them and their Autobot counterparts turns into an old ECW match. This animated one off wanted to focus on their “Scramble abilities “which is their interchangeability of their outer extremities.

(Get it? Cause you can scramble the limbs up!)

So much so that at one point, Breakdown of the Stunticons connects into Superion’s leg to damage him (it looks a bit weird but I assume Cybertron doesn’t have a good sexual assault law). As the show comes to a close, Scramble City himself is activated and Transforms its super cool robot mode Metroplex!

The Decepticons however, have an ace in the hole and from the deep dark part of the ocean comes Godzilla ….wait no sorry about that, it’s the Decepticons’ very own base, Trypticon.

Scramble City is one of those amazing animated shorts that we wished was in our collection but due to a whole bunch of copy right legal mumbo jumbo its only a part of the Japanese continuity.

Hit up the Pop Culture Network forums and thanks for reading

 

“Till all are one!”

Gozan no Okuribi 大文字五山送り火　点火の瞬間

Rob

File:Gozanokuribi Daimonji2.jpg

File:HidariDaimonji.jpg

 

Gozan no Okuribi (五山送り火), more commonly known as Daimonji (大文字), is one of the iconic festivals of Kyoto, Japan. It is the culmination of the O-Bon festival on August 16th, in which five giant bonfires are lit on mountains surrounding the city. It signifies the moment when the spirits of deceased family members, who are said to visit this world during O-Bon, are believed to be returning to the spirit world—thus the name Okuribi (送り火) (roughly, “send-off fire”).

The origins of the festival are obscure, but it is believed to be ancient. Specific families have the hereditary duty of organizing all the logistics of the bonfires, and they spend many hours annually providing volunteer labor to maintain this tradition.

Starting at 8PM, the giant bonfires are lit, each with a distinctive shape. Three of the fires form giant Chinese characters, and two form familiar shapes. The characters, their locations, meanings, and the lighting times are:

  • Daimonji (大文字), the character meaning “large” or “great:”
    • on Daimonji-Yama/Higashi-Yama, Nyoigatake at 8:00PM
  • Myō/Hō (妙・法), the characters meaning “wondrous dharma” (referring to Buddhist teachings):
    • on Matsugasaki, Nishi-Yama/Higashi-Yama at 8:10PM
  • Funagata (舟形), the shape of a boat:
    • on Nishigamo, Funa-Yama at 8:15PM
  • Hidari Daimonji (左大文字), again, the character meaning “large:”
    • on Daihoku-San, Hidaridaimonji-San at 8:15PM
  • Toriigata (鳥居形), the shape of a toriior shrine gate:
    • on Toriimoto, Mandara-San at 8:20PM

The most famous—and the first to be lit—is the character dai (大), on Kyoto’s Daimonji-yama (大文字山 daimonjiyama?). The other four fires are lit at five to ten-minute intervals, and by 8:30, all the characters can be seen. Each bonfire lasts for 30 minutes.

The best place to view the festival is from the Nakagyo Ward, in the center of the city. Many hotels have Daimonji specials where, for a fee, you can see all five fires. Many people also like to go to the Kamo River, between Sanjo and Imadegawa Streets, for an excellent view of the initial fires.

 

 

Headrobots: Butcher

Rob

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/images/products/out/large/HRB10007.jpg

Butcher is an evil Headrobot trained in the ancient art of Kali and well-versed in British Armed Forces lore. Because of this he is most deadly in close-range combat with his Plasma Knives which are able to slice easily through the thickest armor. Extremely tactical and analytical in nature, Butcher rose quickly as a leader. However, dark and violent tendencies has isolated him from the rest of the evil headrobots and he has left to defeat Hothead on his own.

-Remolded face with clear red visor
-Two Plasma knives
-Compatible with Universe or Henkei base toy
-Has all accessories that came with Hothead
-Compatible with vintage 5mm robots
-New artwork and card

NOTE – Silver gun pictured with Butcher in robot mode does not come with the figure.

 

Pre-Order here