Visiting the Square Enix Character Goods Store

20th October 2007, Tokyo - Square Enix are the producers of one of the all time greatest games: the Final Fantasy series. When I was in Japan recently, I took advantage of my weekend in Tokyo and dragged my husband down to the Square Enix Character Goods store to pick up a few goodies. The store is relatively easy to find. Their website has a map (http://www.square-enix.co.jp/showcase/access_en.html) which is pretty straight forward. The difficulty is finding the Hatsudai station which is a 5 minute walk. You need to first locate the New Keoi line which is now easy to find on the standard tourist metro map that you can get. Look for "other lines" and you will likely find it. We had to change trains twice but we eventually got there. It's located on the ground floor of an office block.

When you enter the ground floor, you will find more generic Square toy. The 2nd floor which is really a mezzanine is where you will find all the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts goods. It was a little smaller than I expected but it had the figurines, jewellery, posters, models etc...

The first thing you see when you head up the 2nd floor is the costume for Genesis. I think this is the one that he was wearing in Dirge of Cerberus. Very imressive. If I am not mistaken the muse for Tesuya Nomura was the Japanese rock singer Gackt who actually wore this in one of his videos - Redemption (see below).



Gackt - Redemption Vid (Click here)

The most impressive feature of the store is the model of Sephiroth on the floor. It is built into the floor with a glass casing so you can peer down into the the 'chamber'. He is in stasis... in a similar position to when Cloud went to give him the Black Materia at the Northern Crater in the game Final Fantasy Vll. This version of Sephiroth is also known as Bizarro Sephiroth (If I am not mistaken) where his body from below the torso is covered by his Single Black Wing. Hence he is also known as the One Winged Angel. The detail is amazing. He is so lifelike that you can imagine him opening his eyes at any moment and giving you his evil grin.





The figurines were a little limited. The pictures below show what they had. For Final Fantasy Advent Children, they carried Yufie, Vincent, Reno, Sephiroth and Kadaj. There were also Final Fantasy X figurines, of note Judge Magister Gabranth was available. There were 6 posters for sale, a little limited in choice IMHO. I was a bit disappointd that the Play Arts, Cloud Strife figure not available. In fact I couldn't find Cloud anywhere. The stores in Akihabara stocked the same figurines. I saw a Tifa there but it was a display model only.

Yamashiroya (huge toy store)in Ueno had a big display of Final Fantasy Crisis Core (they just launched in September) with posters at the front of the store. One of their front windows were dedicated to FFVll stuff. However, they had the 1/4 scale Masterpiece Arts Cloud Strife in the window. It was very well done, the detailing was amazing, if you want it you have to order it. Retainling for 47,000 yen.













In the end, I bought the Sephiroth and Kadaj figurines. Very happy with them. The pricing was pretty much the same in Akihabara, although I did find 1 store that had it a litle bit cheaper. But if you've gone all the way there, might as well buy something from the Square Enix store.

World's Most Expensive Apple Juice

Aha! Found another one: Apple Juice. Located at: Bondi Junction Food Hall. Cost AUD$3! This one was an even smaller bottle than the Sunkist orange juice. Maybe it cost the same because the bottle was made of glass instead of plastic. Needless to say that both bottles were drained.

The Most Expensive Orange Juice in the World

Behold! This 'thirst quencher' is perhaps the Most Expensive Orange Juice in the World! Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. On my recent visit to Sydney, I purchased this Sunkist orange juice from a street vendor at the steps of the Sydney Opera House for AUD$3! If you're visiting Opera House and are feeling thirsty but unwilling to pay ridiculous tourist prices, then I strongly suggest you bring your own water.

Prime or Megatron?

If you ever wanted to know if you are more Maniacal Megatron or Optimus Prime, find out by taking this quiz. Me.... well it's easy - PRIME!

I AM 67% OPTIMUS PRIME

Take the Transformers Quiz

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye – You Bet!

07.03.2007

It is the year 2005. The treacherous Decepticons have conquered the Autobot's home planet Cybertron. Now from secret staging bases on two of Cybertron's moons the Autobots plan to take back their homeworld.
*****

“Until the day, till all are one” Transformers: The Movie (1981) rocked my world. It was through that movie that I learned the meaning of the words “fatal” (Perceptor, “I fear the wounds are… fatal” – when describing Optimus Prime’s condition after his fight with Megatron to save Autobot City on Earth). There were so many things that were great about that movie, the script, the one-liners (“One shall stand and one shall fall” - Optimus Prime), the story and the soundtrack!
I just watched it again the other day and the script is even better now! Some of the best lines in the movie can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092106/quotes
But some of my favourite quotes are:
Unicron: I have summoned you here for a purpose.

Megatron: Nobody summons Megatron.

Unicron: Then it pleases me to be the first.

Megatron: Welcome, Laserbeak. Unlike some of my [thinly veiled sarcasm towards Starscream]

Megatron: *other* warriors, you never fail me!

Kup: Don't act hostile, I'll use the universal greeting.

Hot Rod: "Universal greeting"?

Kup: Watch, I'll have them eating out of my hands. Bah weep granah weep ninni bong.

Hot Rod: "Bah weep granah weep ninni bong"? Sharkticons: Bah weep granah weep ninni bong.

Kup: See, the universal greeting works every time.

Starscream: Who disrupts my coronation?

Galvatron: Coronation, Starscream? This is bad comedy.

Starscream: Megatron? Is that you?

Galvatron: Here's a hint! [transforms and shoots Starscream. Starscream crackles and falls to dust]

So you can imagine the expectation for the movie. The teasers and trailers were all rather interesting and gave us an insight into the design for the Transformers but sitting on the second row seeing them transform in the big screen in a film rather than a cartoon is SO COOL!
The movie is action packed and although there are pockets of slow dialogue, it is necessary to glue the story line together. Bumble Bee, one of my favourite Autobots (my fav is Hot Rod – not present in this movie but if he was it would mean that Prime dies so it’s alright) takes center stage at the start as he gets acquainted with Sam (not Spike as in the cartoon).
You can find the storyline on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transformers:_The_Movie> *spoiler alert*
All in all I am not disappointed, in fact it has left me anticipating the next 2 (yes they the big studio has signed on another 2 installments of Transformers) movies which rumour has it they will be bringing more Transformers including Soundwave who is epitomized repressed cool.
The soundtrack didn’t have as big an impact on me as the cartoon movie. I mean who can forget the song ‘The Touch’ by Stan Bush when Optimus Prime arrives to “bust some deceptir chops” and save the day “at all cost” or ‘Dare’ also by Stan Bush? Now thanks to YouTube and other Transformer fans out there, we can find the videos for those incredible songs that inspire courage and heroism. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30BFrLl07r4>
I’m glad they made it into a movie, it’s broken some box office records already and I hope that encourages the studios to pump more money into the next installment to our enjoyment. And with that, I leave you with the universal greeting.

Bah weep granah weep ninni bong.

Play! On - A Review of ‘Play! A Video Game Symphony'

23.06.2007
Although not an avid gamer, not having the patience to actually complete a game… I have been able to play quite a few good games in the last 20 years. I have also become introduced to the magical work of Nobuo Uematsu through watching Final Fantasy Vll Advent Children (hereon referred to as FFVllAC). For those of you not familiar with Uematsu-san, he is the composer for most of the music from the Final Fantasy games as well as the 2005 CGI movie Final Fantasy Vll Advent Children.
Through his music, the games came to life for all who played the game and created new depth through the soundtrack for FFVllAC. There have been a few concerts dedicated to music from games and in particular Final Fantasy like ‘Voices’, ‘Dear Friends’, ‘More Friends’ and ‘Play!’. While trawling through the AdventChildren.net website I saw on one of their banners that new tour dates for Play! was out and it was coming to Singapore!
A quick visit to the ticketing website told me that I was out of luck. SOLD OUT!!! I could not believe it! But hang on… the next leg on their tour was Australia and they would be playing in Sydney. As I so happened to be going to Sydney around that week that they are playing there, I thought “This is it… I cannot possibly pass this up” and bought my tickets immediately. So the tickets were more expensive, so I will be watching it by myself (I don’t even watch movies alone on principle) at least it will be at the famed Sydney Opera House.
The day rolled around and I was so excited. I had landed at 5am in Sydney and was standing at the steps of the Sydney Opera House at 1.30pm. The show started at 2pm and it was a good crowd and I was pleased to note that it wasn’t just teenagers but people in their 20’s and 30’s who grew up at a time when video games became more affordable and were fans of not just the games but the music that created the compelling environment. I was one of the few saddo’s who turned up by myself. But who cares!?! It’s Nobuo Uematsu’s music live!
The ‘show’ started on time and Arnie Roth, the conductor for the Play! symphony rocked up to friendly applause. It was all very exciting as the orchestra prepared and the first song was music from Mario Bros. A favourite among many, it was incredibly cool to see gameplay shown on the screen as the orchestra recreated the music. It brought back so many memories! They showed the early versions of Mario from those that you can still find on handheld game consoles, to the later 3D version on the N64 which was an amazing game. It made you think back on the time when you were playing the game, the frustrations, the joy of completing a level... priceless.
There were many songs played that afternoon including some newer compositions. One that stood out was music from the game Blue Dragon that looked amazing. I think that one is only out for the XBox 360. Music by Nobuo Uematsu again.
The main reason I went to watch Play! was of course for music from Final Fantasy Vll. I almost despaired when the long awaited One Winged Angel (OWA) was not played in their line up of music. Luckily, Mr Roth decided to save the best for last and played it for the encore. It is really an impressive piece of music and the choir did a great job. As I am used to hearing the OWA sung by a Japanese choir, it was a little strange hearing the Australian choir sing the chorus pronouncing “Sephiroth!” correctly as spelt. The Japanese choir pronounces it as “Sephirosu” so it seemed a little cut off when they sang “Sephiroth”.
Maybe it was me but it just didn’t seem as menacing. Having the Black Mages perform the OWA version from VFFVll AC would have been incredible but I’m happy settling with just the standard orchestral version.
Also, was very disappointed that they did not show clips of Sephiroth in the big screens above the choir! What was with that? That was probably the only song that didn’t have accompanying scenes from the game. It kind of loses the effect a bit. I know for a fact that they do normally have the scene where Sephiroth is surrounded by flames (taken from FFVllAC) when they play OWA, I’ve seen clips filmed from other concerts on YouTube.
Besides that little glitch, it was a really nice experience and I hope Square Enix or Nobuo Uematsu will do another tour for Voices or just any tour that will play his wonderful compositions and of course with the Black Mages in tow of course. Here are some pictures I took with my phone:

Uematsu-san with a message for the fans

‘Doh – Homer Taken For a Ride

For those of you who’ve paid a visit to your cinemas recently, would have noticed that “The Simpson’s” movie is listed as ‘Coming Soon’. Some cinemas even have a nice 3D display with The Simpson’s family sitting on their couch and Homer holding out a control. Well some kids in Malaysia decided that they really wanted a keepsake, so in an ill planned (I will explain this later) heist they stole the Homer ‘life size’ doll from the TGV Cinema in 1-Utama!!! (scans of the clipping can be seen on this blog http://nineoverten.blogspot.com/search/label/1%20Utama) This doll is not small (see the picture below taken in another cinema in Sydney) and could barely fit into the car… you must be wondering how I know this? Was I a party to the kidnapping of Homer? No. These guys were stupid enough to get caught on CCTV. Screenshots of their act taken from the CCTV and published in a local paper shows them removing Homer from the display and another of Homer sticking out of the car.

A reward for RM1,000 was put up for the rescue of Homer. Last I heard, Homer was returned. Not sure if the kids fessed up to taking it, bet they had a joyride of it. I can see why they wanted to take it as the doll was really cool. It’d be an impressive mascot! All the same, I managed to get a picture with the most dysfunctional family on TV so, I’m happy.

L-R: Gerry, Homer, Marge, Maggie, Lisa and Bart

Dancing Fonzies

I have a problem loading the video of the Punk Rocker onto YouTube but here's another cracker. Remember Fonzie from Happy Days?

Dancing Fonzies in Harajuku Park. These guys dress up like Fonzies and most of them even have the hair style to go with it! They gather around, blast the stereo and start getting down and doing the twist. A crowd of people are constantly around watching their performance. Only in Japan...

Crazy Punk Rocker Dude in Harajuku

Catch him at the bridge on a Sunday with his fan club.

Reintroducing... Me

Alright, strong armed into finally putting up a blog I am stumped. What goes into the blog? Random thoughts? A friend of mine reviews food... nice, tasty... what's mine going to be about? I think since I rant, rave and laugh so much at some of the things that I encounter on a daily/weekly basis, I am going to use my blog to share these incidents with my readers.

Expect some colour in the form of pictures wanted or unwanted, expect colourful language and links to all the things I find cool (which you may not!) on the net... or in general.