Gunpla

Gunpla - the not-so-ancient Japanese art of Gundam plastic model kit building.

Around 35 years ago, I remember my dad and I (well, mostly my dad) putting together a largish plastic model kit of a Japanese mecha. Mecha are giant robots often piloted by kids and a staple of Japanese anime and manga stories. The mecha we built was Raydeen, a Shogun Warrior unit.

At the time, I remember being really impressed by this model. It was just under a foot high and had face armour that could move and a spring- (or rubberband-) powered bow that could sort of shoot arrows - though not very well. I even think the arms could move up and down (just about).

Well, fast forward to this year.

A few months ago, I had been thinking of doing something a little different as a hobby. I considered a couple of things but then remembered that Raydeen mecha I (my dad) had constructed years ago. So, I wondered, did Japan still produce plastic models of robots?

Stupid question. Of course they did!

(Yep, that's a life-sized Gundam)

Gundam models are probably the most prolific mecha modelling kits (though there are other types) and there are hundreds of them. They're based on a number of Gundam anime cartoons shown in Japan over the last 30 years or so. Sadly, they never really made much impact over here in the UK - though I suspect some episodes were shown on a satellite kids TV channel at some point.

Bandai's Gundam model kits come in many different sizes and complexitites - from small 1/144 scale models up to 1/48 scale. Some come with just a few pieces that have to be glued together and painted, whilst others have hundreds of parts constructed in differently coloured plastic which just snap together.

Anyway, I chose a 1/100 No Grade (technically a High Grade) kit of the Aile Strike Gundam. Apparently, it's a relatively easy kit to put together whilst still providing a good degree of articulation and moving parts. And it looks pretty cool. After forking out the princely sum of about £24 - including shipping from Taiwan, because getting hold of these kits in the UK is tricky - I received the kit full of multi-coloured plastic runners and went to work!

And here's the "finished" result:

My Aile Strike hasn't been painted at all nor panel lined to bring out the detail. That's just it straight out of the box after cutting the pieces from the runners, cutting off the excess 'nubs', and assembling it. There's no glue involved - although the pesky little red triangle on his head might require some to keep it in place. It's just like a geeky 3D jigsaw puzzle. Not helped by the fact that the Ikea-like instruction booklet is written mostly in Japanese!

The legs, arms, feet, hands, hand, etc all move. You can swap the beam rifle for a beam sabre (a.k.a. a lightsaber) or knife, remove the red booster backpack, articulate it into a number of poses and so on. This Strike Gundam has a lot more features and moving parts than that old Raydeen model.

Now all I have to do is find somewhere to put it. And decide what Gundam I'll get next. :)

Where's Wall-E?

(click to enlarge)

Vampires are amongst us!

A man has died after being bitten by a vampire bat in the US.

So in three days time will he rise as one of the soulless undead to prey on young women in their nightgowns?

Holiday!

It's time for another family holiday - this time to sunny Menorca! Mind you, the weather here in England looks better than over there right now.

Anyway, I'll be back in a week (when the first thing I'll do is watch the midseason cliffhanger of Doctor Who). Hasta la vista!

Damn volcano!

Another year, another Icelandic volcano erupts and disrupts flights!

Last year this didn't affect me but this time I'm flying up to Glasgow each week during my secondment (yes, the company I work for is mad enough to fly me up/down. And put me up in a decent hotel during the week). Currently many of the flights to Glasgow are cancelled. The Grimsvotn ash cloud may mean that instead of flying back later in the week, I'll be driving back home to just south of Manchester (not a huge distance, I know).

Thankfully the Met Office's current prediction is for the ash cloud to thin out from tomorrow. So, fingers crossed...

More Glasgow

Another week, a different hotel in Glasgow. Here was the view out of my (grimy) window...

The fly-over to the M8 is visible to the left and the tall Hilton hotel is on the right. 'Nice' view, eh? And here's some more of Glasgow's architecture...

At the top is Glasgow's City Chambers and at the bottom is the Gallery of Modern Art. It was very cloudy when I took these so they look a bit dull.

iTunes hacked

When I came back from Glasgow I unfortunately found that my iTunes account had been "hacked". I had a couple of email receipts from Apple telling me that most of the money in my account (from a gift card) had been used to purchase poker chips for a Texas Poker game by some company called Kamagames Ltd.

Seems I'm not the only one and this has happened before to others.

This is just a warning to anyone else out there with an iTunes account. Hopefully Apple will sort things out (they haven't yet).

Glasgow

...or at least a little part of it with some modern architecture.

Things are quiet 'round these parts...

For the forseeable future, I suspect we'll be seeing a lot of tumbleweed 'round these 'ere parts and not so many posts. I've just started a secondment up in Glasgow for at least 3 months (probably 6) and, due to travelling and stuff, won't have as much time to waste spend on this blog. :(

Happy Geeky Wedding

Apparently, there's some sort of wedding on today...?

Building the Tardis

Ooooh... Building a MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) console inside a TARDIS. Wow. I want one.

And there are also some new Doctor Who images released.

Considering we see the Doctor, Rory and Amy in the pirate-y third episode of Series 6 and River is supposed to return in the cliffhanging seventh episode, I wonder who the heck dies in the series opener as teased by Steven Moffat!?!

Perfection

It was finished.

“He is perfect!” the Professor proclaimed, standing at the side of the impressive figure that lay on metal table in front of him. Behind the prone figure, thousands of similar bodies swam in large embryonic tanks, ready and waiting. The Professor checked the dials and lights above the single extracted body before activating the awakening procedure.

“They called me prodigy but I am so much more than that”, he called out to the large laboratory. “I have solved their energy concerns, eradicated diseases, eliminated hunger and unravelled mysteries. Now I shall bring them perfection and save this world!”

Even as a child the Professor was gifted. Through school he had trained his body and mind, becoming the captain of a multitude of sports and achieving degrees in every sciences possible. He had travelled the world, uncovering eastern wonders, solving dark mysteries and recovering undersea treasures. Then he’d returned to civilisation to share his knowledge and save the world as its hero.

His latest gift would be the ideal Man. Applying his vast understanding of human biology, he had studied the human cell, split its nuclei, manipulated its microscopic contents. He had grown another human being and here he lay, slowly achieving consciousness. Soon, this being and all the others would be sent out to enlighten the world and, eventually, to reproduce their perfection.

Applied electricity completed its energizing revitalisation. The perfect figure opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around, taking in his surroundings before turning towards the Professor, bowing his head.

“Hello Professor”, he said, his voice flawless, his manners impeccable.

“Hello to you too, Professor”, the Professor replied to his exact replica, bowing his head in return before looking up towards the tanks beyond his double.

This was only the beginning. Soon, the whole world would be saved from its ignorance and chaos.

Bend In Time

Dashing around the corner, the mysterious traveller ducked his head under the low pipe and carried on running down the industrial corridor. He glanced back at the rusty pipe, his eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean 'immutable'?" his attractive, headstrong companion cried out, just a step behind him with her head lowered so as to pass under the pipe. They'd been running for so long she was beginning to tire. Hopefully they'd stop soon.

For a moment, the traveller kept his gaze on the corridor behind them before turning toward his plucky companion.

"Unchangeable. The past. It cannot be changed", he replied offhandedly, as if this explained everything. They continued to charge down the corridor past one locked door after another, their footsteps echoing as they went.

The oddly attired gentleman studied the walls and the passing doors as they careened along the familiar looking corridor. Even though he was hurtling along as fast as his legs could carry him, he still took a strange sort of interest in his surroundings as if searching for something in particular.

"But you've gone back in time before. Many times! I've been there with you", his companion argued as she ran next to him, slim arms pumping whilst her long hair streamed out behind her. "And you've meddled and changed things", she added.

"I do not meddle", admonished her guide before continuing, "But yes, any point in time can be accessed and explored. However you can't go back and change things because, relative to the present, the past has already happened. It's in the past so, ergo, it must have already happened. See?"

In the distance they could see that the corridor they were rushing along was leading towards another corner. With a renewed effort, the traveller increased his speed towards it and his companion hastened after.

"Does that mean everything is fixed?" she asked, a little confused. "That we have no control over what happens or what we do?"

"Oh no. No, not at all. We choose what to do, what planet or time period to go to next, who to save, whether to get involved in the first place, whether to stand and fight or just run. Run towards or run away, it generally amounts to the same thing in my experience. Anyway, we choose and we try to make a difference. That's important!"

"But that doesn't make sense! So you're saying that we can change the past?" the assistant gasped as her breath was ripped from her lungs by the air rushing by.

They were now just a few feet from the approaching corner. The young woman stumbled slightly and almost tripped. The man slowed for a moment to help steady her and then together they continued to sprint onwards whilst he answered her question.

"No, because it's in the past. It all makes perfect sense. Time always does. The future is just the present waiting to happen and the present is happening everywhere and everywhen, right now. And the past has already happened so if you modify it, that alteration already occurred so you can’t have changed anything. It's fixed with respect to the present, for a given definition of 'present', of course. And every point in time is the 'present' for someone... or something".

At this, the curious man almost gave a furtive glance back down the corridor but stopped himself. What was behind them was not as important as what was ahead. And what was ahead was another corner. 

"Time is immutable", the man exclaimed as he turned and then added, "Duck!"

Dashing around the corner, the mysterious traveller ducked his head under the low pipe and carried on running down the industrial corridor. He glanced back at the rusty pipe, his eyes narrowed, suspicious.

"What do you mean 'immutable'?" his attractive, headstrong companion cried out, just a step behind him with her head lowered so as to pass under the pipe. They'd been running for so long she was beginning to tire.

Hopefully they'd stop soon.

1977

Nothing to do with anything happening today but I thought I'd just take a short trip down memory lane. Because.

Nineteen seventy-seven was the Queen's Silver Jubilee year, the year when the first personal computer - and the Atari 2600, my first (and probably still the "best") video games console - were introduced, the year when the comic 2000AD started, the year when I won a family bet on the Grand National (Red Rum won for the third time), and apparently the year when snow fell in Miami for the only time in its history. :-/

But it was also a good year for films.

I turned 7 years old in 1977 and, up until then, I don't really remember going to see films at the cinema. I'm sure I had done before then but, given the fact that my sister is 3 years younger than me, I doubt we had been going for long. And when we did we would have gone only to see Disney animations and the like.

But in 1977 quite a few big films came out and these are the first I remember (I realise I may have seen some, or all, of these films in 1978 and not '77 because it took a few months for them to appear in UK cinemas).

Star Wars: A New Hope was probably the biggest of these. I think it is the earliest space-based film I saw and certainly the most fondly remembered. For years after I would collect several hundred Star Wars figures and toys whilst desperately looking forward to the sequels (I had to wait an even longer time to see the slightly disappointing prequels). The one thing I remember - mainly because my Dad would always reminds us - is that just as the film was starting my sister needed to go to the toilet. I remained behind and so, for many years, I was the only one in my family to see that spectacular opening sequence.

I also remember being slightly disturbed and somewhat bemused by Close Encounters of the Third Kind. To be honest, it's not really a film for young kids. I think I liked it, especially the iconic (and colourful) musical greeting, and I certainly remember it. For years after I would shape my mashed potato into a flat-topped mountain.

Those two films, together with Superman a year later (a film I neck-achingly watched whilst sitting right at the front of the cinema. Watch out for that falling helicopter!), kick started the sci-fi movie craze with both me and the general cinema-going public.

Then there was Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger which was probably my introduction to Harryhausen's wonderful stop-motion effects. At heart, I've actually always been a bigger fan of fantasy than sci-fi, and I like this genre more than my Dad, so this was a great treat for me. A pity then that fantasy films didn't get the same interest that sci-fi films did - not until Lord of the Rings anyway.

Of course, there were some kids films I enjoyed during this year - such as Pete's Dragon and the Rescuers (the latter, together with the aforementioned Superman, may have been one of only two or three films I saw with my Mum). The Spy Who Loved Me may also have been the first Bond movie I saw, though I probably only watched that when it appeared on TV years later.

All in all, 1977 was certainly an interesting year.

The WorldWideWeb

The World-Wide Web is apparently 20 years old.

Okay, the whole interconnected computers thing (i.e the Internet), hypertext and the idea of publicly sharing information is somewhat older than that. But the beginnings of what we know as the web started 20 years ago at CERN when Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau published a proposal to build a hypertext project called the "WorldWideWeb" on 12th November 1990. (I am aware that they celebrated the 20th anniversary of the WWW last year but the WWW was actually born at the end of 1990)

This surprises me. First, it seems older than that. And second I remember getting involved with the web during 1994 just 16 and a half years ago. Which meant the web was only 3 and a bit years old at the time. Of course, by involved I mean just using the months-old Mosaic web browser on the Sun Sparc-stations at Manchester University to look up stuff about superhero comicbooks and sci-fi TV shows. Not much has changed really...

Well, except the fact that, in those days, very few people had heard of the internet and the worldwide web. The average person on the street was unaware of this high-tech phenomenon waiting to happen. Even I didn't realise that the web would become such a everyday thing within 15 years time.

Unfortunately, my first web pages no longer seem to exist. They may be backed-up somewhere on one of the servers in Manchester Uni's Medical Biophysics department but I can't find them on the 'net. They existed before caching sites like Google and the Wayback Machine started. I think my old Tesco web page still exists though (which would never have won any awards for design and layout).

I learnt HTML all by myself and just used a basic text editor to write it - same as I do today. I even learnt VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language) because I thought that would be the language of the future. Of course, the whole virtual reality bubble then popped (whatever happened to VR helmets?) not long after. Some of my PhD work was written in VRML.

Looking at the list of websites founded before 1995 on Wikipedia, I remember a number of these. Sites such as the Virtual Library (actually the East Anglia mirror index site), SunSITE, Doctor Fun, the coffee pot webcam, Lycos, and Yahoo (the premier search engine at the time - funny how no one says they'll "yahoo it" when searching for something on the web).

Anyway, happy birthday WWW!

I'm off...

Well, from tomorrow I'm off on my jolly holidays to Florida for two weeks! I may post some rough, typo-filled notes whilst over there - if I have wi-fi access that is! I shall warn you now though that these notes may make very little sense other than to myself and may not appear at all if I'm busy trekking around the theme parks or stuffing myself with American portions of food. Hmmm, burgers...

I have ensured that I've set my BT Vision+ box to record the Sarah Jane Adventures next week as it stars the Doctor and a weird looking Jo Grant (or does Katy Manning look a little strange only to me?). And, of course, I'll be recording Merlin.

TTFN.

Legoland Discovery Centre at the Trafford Centre

Being fans of Legoland park in Windsor and Lego in general, this weekend my wife, daughter (aged 8) and I all decided to check out the Legoland Discovery Centre at the Trafford Centre in Manchester.

It seems they encourage online booking, where you can book a particular timeslot for arrival, and we've been on their website and seen that times can get booked up and become unavailable. However, they also do various vouchers - we have several - and these can only be used on the door. So, forgoing an online booking (all the timeslots were still free when we looked just before leaving) we decided to risk it and pay the reduced amount.

The Barton Square car park and shopping area of the Trafford Centre was very quiet when we arrived at 10am, the opening time for this attraction. However, as we got to the Discovery Centre there was, of course, already a queue. Three queues actually! One was for the pre-booked tickets, one for those paying on the door (like ourselves) and also there was another random queue for others who came in via the shop. I think some of these were here for a birthday party but it did seem somewhat haphazard.

We had hoped that we could get in, buy some tickets for a later timeslot and then look around the nearby shops for a while but it seems you just have to queue and then go in. And the queues would be the main criticism of this attraction. It all seemed a bit vague and, for about 10 minutes, the staff stopped admitting people and deserted the tills. I think this was because of the party I mentioned above, letting them get in and through the "factory" tour, but there was no reason given. Just a general sense of disorganisation.

Lego Factory

Anyway, after a 25 minutes wait, we got in, walked down a short corridor and to a couple of lifts. This takes you to the disappointing "factory" tour. Perhaps I was expecting too much - such as actual machines making real lego blocks - but the reality was that it was just a couple of small rooms with some colourful animatronics. A member of staff would vaguely explain the construction process whilst getting children to turn pretend valves and push play buttons whilst the adults would chant things to encourage them. At the end, we all got a lego brick to take home. Woo!

Kingdom Quest

After exiting this, next was the Kingdom Quest ride which was much more entertaining. Here you sit in a car, which trundles around and you have to fire at Lego trolls, skeletons, bats and so on with an infra-red gun amassing points as you "hit" things. Some of the targets are shown projected on screens whilst others are part of Lego dioramas. Shooting bats, for instance, causes them to emit a little squeak and makes their eyes flash. The idea is to help a Lego princess save a dragon's eggs from the evil trolls and skeletons. Or something like that. To be honest I was too busy shooting at things!

I managed to score 5055 points. Which I thought was decent until I saw that my wife had scored 5700. Beaten!

Mini-World

Following on from this, you head to a Mini-World area where familiar buildings and scenes from around England (especially the north-west) are rendered in Lego bricks. There are Lego versions of Blackpool (including the tower, one of the piers, and the illuminations), Alton Towers, Liverpool (with its own Cavern Club), Chester and the Trafford Centre itself. And many more. This was probably my favourite part of the centre - I love looking at all the little features, spotting tiny scenes and hidden figures (like the ghost on top of Blackpool tower).

Main Hall

Exiting that, you enter into the large main room. This is, quite frankly, a bit chaotic at times. There are various sections dotted around to build models - a Duplo area, a pink princess area, a tower building table which has moving bases to test your construction against "earthquakes", and a race-car construction section where you can build wheeled vehicles (if you can find the right pieces, such as axles!) and test them on ramps and slopes. My daughter liked this latter section the most and loved rolling her "car" (I use the word loosely as it was mostly just 4 wheels) down the slopes again and again.

Master Builder Workshop

To one side of this main area is the Master Builder Workshop, which is something of a misnomer. Essentially, a small group of people sit on some small seats whilst a member of staff stands at the front showing them how to make a very simple model - in our case, a halloween pumpkin. However, the model is so simple - whilst the "master builder" so poor - that you might as well do it yourself. We also thought you'd get to keep the small model you constructed but, alas, this was not the case and you have to hand the pieces back at the end.

Lego Studio

On the other side, is the 4-D cinema showing 3-D films with added effects. This is quite entertaining. Two short films, around 15 to 20 mins each, are shown throughout the day alternating between one another. We saw the Spellbreaker film - there's also a film starring Bob the Builder. The added effects are quite good - things like "snow", light water sprays, smoke and wind - and the 3-D effects were impressive. However, young children might get scared at some of the scenes in the Spellbreaker show; perhaps the Bob the Builder film would be better for them?

Fire Academy and Cafe

In the middle of the hall is a small version of one of those padded play-centre places, where shoeless kids can climb up and then slide down a twisty slide. Near to this, there is also a cafe that sells hot'n'cold drinks, sandwiches, and snacks at reasonable prices. The little snacky cakes were quite yummy.

General

When we first entered, the main hallway wasn't too busy but by lunchtime it had become quite hectic. It wasn't packed, but was busy enough to be a little off-putting. A weekday during term time would no doubt be quieter.  After spending lunchtime there and playing around a bit more, we headed to the Lego Universe area - which was a disappointing step on lights to make sounds area - and then back down the lift to the extensive shop. Loving Lego, we did purchase a few small bits before heading out at about 2:30pm.

Overall, the place is reasonably entertaining (though aimed more at kids than adults) and we managed to spend 4 hours in there quite easily. Highlights would be the Kingdom Quest ride, the 4-D cinema and the Mini-world, but if your kids love building things with Lego then you could spend all day in there. And you can go in the 4-D cinema and on the ride as many times as you want. Full price admission is on the expensive side but if you have a voucher then it is worth it. My main faults would be with the bored, unenthusiastic and young staff, the somewhat chaotic nature of the queues and the hectic main hall area. Otherwise, worth a visit.

(Although, now done, I don't think we'll be rushing back for a while).

Testing...

Thought I'd try a test post from my iPod Touch to see how easy it is. And whether it actually works! This is all in preparation for a forthcoming trip to Florida and the Land of the Mouse-ears (ie. Walt Disney World) where I might post something. If i have a wireless connection, that is.

Anyway that's it for now. Heck I might even do some other posts about Merlin or Smallville or something. :)

One Giant Leap

Almost a year before I was born a couple of Americans landed on the moon.

I still find that amazing (and yes, that makes me 39). There are some big ideas out there but blasting off into space on a huge rocket and then guiding it to the surface of the moon is just massive. Thinking about doing it now seems difficult enough but forty years ago...?!

My dad was a big sci-fi fan, brought up reading Dan Dare and watching Flash Gordon. When he was a teenager in the mid to late 50s, he believed that in the near future - and certainly within his lifetime - man would travel into space and walk on the moon. Other kids teased and ridiculed him - I guess it would be like saying some one will travel back in time in the next dozen years or so. But, when he was only in his late twenties, he watched as one small step was taken on the surface of another planetary body.

Sadly, since then, things seemed to have slowed down. After landing on the moon, I suspect many people thought we'd have visited Mars and perhaps a few other planets by now. Perhaps by 1999 we'd have a base on the moon and by 2001 we'd be embarking on missions to Jupiter from huge space stations. If we could reach the Moon by 1969 after ten years of hard work then think of what could be achieved in another 40 years!

I'm sure many consider space travel a waste of time and vast resources. People probably thought the same about sailing off to the Americas or travelling beyond the limits of their own town. Each to their own, I guess. It still doesn't take away mankind's amazingly giant leap that was achieved in July 1969.

My Brute

I saw this little web-based fighting game over on Heropress and thought I'd have a look. The animation and artwork is definitely very cute!

You create a little fighter, decide on his name and look, and then challenge others (usually of the same level as yourself) to a fight in the arena. And that's pretty much it. Your character gets experience for each fight (more if you win) and as you advance you get different skills, weapons and objects.

My Brute is yet another way to waste time on the internet!