Author Archives: xjaymanx

Blog 144 > Operation Woodstock

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Hey all, pretty big news!… After 6 long uncertain months (since Feb 2008), 2 different agents (Toni then Angie), and over $100K drop in value (from $360K down to $249K), I finally emailed Angie the Realtor my decision to *NOT* sell the house after all. And guess what? When she called, she was laughing because *THAT* was what she wanted to hear! She couldn’t or didn’t want to tell me that, because she wanted it to come from me, my own decision. Can you believe that? Although she lost a client, she hasn’t lost a friend… or a possible blind date for one of her girl friends, haha. ^_^;

Here’s the email I sent her on Friday (July 25th).

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Blog 143 > Christine the Blade – Part 1

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Yes, she’s finally done! Following *Akiko* in my *Girls with Attitude* series (lol) is *Blade* (black/white version), based on the Muay Thai (kickboxing) fighter Christine Toledo, and commissioned by Alias Fight Wear. Can’t wait to see how the T-shirts look, lol. ^_^

P.S. Coming soon is *Blade* the COLOR version! And after that, *Bleach* for Jennie L and *Violet* for Miko. That is, unless something else pops up to disrupt the order? =.=;

Blog 142 > My Ancient Anime Art

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Has it been a week already? Well, a few days ago, I told *Chun* the following: “I always plan to scan or take photos of my ancient anime line-art from the 1990s (when I still believed in pencil-and-paper, lol), but something always seems to pop up and get in the way…” So finally, after some shooting and digging, here they are! ^_^;

1> The first 5 photos were taken a few days ago: Orange Arria in Colored Paper. Completed March 1990, it took about 20-30 hours total. Wow, except for some fading in her blue armor, the design still holds up 18 years later! One of my proudest works, hehe. I just threw in the “Pocky” box to give a better idea of the 20×30-inch scale.

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Blog 141 > My Toybox Blog Layout

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Hi, in the same spirit as Danny’s newest blog changes, I’ve decided to update the layout of my *Toybox* blog. Essentially, I’ve reorganized the center column: (1) moving my favorite blogs and sites to the top, (2) inserting the “Daily Updates” from my website to help fill in the gaps between less-frequent posts, and (3) lifting the more-lively “Danny Choo” posts above the lengthy “Category List”. That’s about it! Plus, it’s a good time to take a snapshot of my blog, more than a year after its rebirth, lol.

P.S. Okay, after a morning of packing more magazines and books (arghhh), gotta get back to drawing “Blade 1” (Day 2) for fighter Christine Toledo (Blog 136). My first commissioned anime-art project! ^_^;

Blog 139 > Your Rarest Figure

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Which is your rarest figure? We’ve seen the newest favorites, and the biggest wastes, but the rarest?

For me, I’d have to say my 1/8-scale-resin figure “Arima & Yukino” (from the classic-anime love-story “Kare Kano” or “His & Her Circumstances”), released by the now-defunct Tsukuda Hobby back in the late ’90s. If I hadn’t seen the anime, I would never have found it. But in January 2007, through sheer luck in the Amazon Marketplace, I stumbled upon it (original box included), and after several months of waiting for the perfect time, I finally used 3 Amazon gift certificates to afford it! Luckily, nobody else was looking for it, lol.

Here’s the March 2007 photoshoot.

P.S. Just for my own reference: Blog 044 and Blog 093.

Blog 138 > Operation Rebox – Completed

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Mission accomplished! You didn’t think I’d make it, did ya? ^_^;

Back on June 22nd, I launched Operation Rebox. And now, less than 2 weeks later, the operation is complete (sorta, since I don’t really wanna take apart Darth Vader or Storm Trooper). If you threw your two cents of reluctant encouragement, thanx, lol. So to commemorate the event, here’s a nice sampling of the cleaned and *reboxed* figures… Photo Set 1 and Photo Set 2.

P.S. By the way, thanx *Chun* for our debate on commissioned art, thanx *Kris* for our discussion on anime blogging, as well as *Gordon* and *Meronpan* for your random blue-haired replies, lol. I’ve added u guys to my blog list. (If I missed someone, yell back!) Without doubt, the interactivity of the anime blogging community is another reflection of Danny’s tireless efforts. Speaking of tired… Orz

P.P.S. Ahh, what the hell~ *Team Blue* did it, so why not? Self Portrait 1 and Self Portrait 2.

P.P.P.S. Here’s the link to my DC Member News post, hehe.

Blog 137 > Operation Rebox

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Ah, my sad but necessary “Operation Rebox”…

Whoa, while I can’t beat the number of boxes in the earlier “Room O Boxes” post, I’m grateful too! Especially if I have to “rebox” all of my opened figures before my eventual house-move in the next few months. So, as a loose follow-up to the Triple Monitor post, here’s my 12-step “Operation Rebox“. Wish me luck! T_T;

P.S. Here’s the link to my DC Member News post, hehe.

Blog 135 > SOS Danny – A Wikipedia Tale

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For the humble readers of DannyChoo.com, I’ve got a short-lived (March 2nd to April 9th) tale which I’d forgotten to tell till now… Several months back on March 2nd, I was writing a blog entry quoting Danny, and wanted to reference him without citing his blog. Instinctively, I searched Wikipedia. But nothing. No Danny Choo. So what did I do? I decided to create an entry for him.

From that point on, 95% of the credit goes to *DOSGuy* (thanx dude!) for developing the Danny Choo article to its fullest. However, despite attempts to reinforce the entry over its several-week history, the article was speedily deleted on April 9th for failing to meet the guidelines of “notability”. Which, I admit, is understandable. Self-advertised popularity doesn’t necessarily equal encyclopedic noteworthiness (and vice-versa).

Luckily and incredibly, *DOSGuy* saved a copy of the article and still hosts it under his user page here.

So months later, the question remains: Do we have anything to add to the article that might make it good enough (notable enough) for resubmission? Should we care about Wikipedia or “notability”? After all, if indeed we have something, we can still edit it. In other words, S.O.S. = Save Our Stormtrooper Danny. ^_^;

P.S. Thanx *Chun*, I hope I can borrow your “seal of shock”. ^_^;

Blog 134 > Blue-Haired Babes

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Thanx *nomadicotaku* for the idea… Got a fave blue-haired babe? (Bad captions not included, lol.)

Here are pretty much all of the blues in my collection. Seems like anime has the monopoly on blue hair, lol… Though I’m not including Kaname (from FMP) since her hair is kinda aqua-turquoise green, or Hazuki (from Moon Phase) since her hair is kinda violet-purplish. I think? ^_^;

Blog 133 > Mirai’s Rival Akiko – Final

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Yup, Mirai’s Rival *Akiko* is finally complete! Well, sorta, 1 of 4 is complete, lol… Compared to my previous *Akiko* post, I’ve added shading/lighting to the eyes, hair, arm, gun and body. Vector is so much more efficient and effective than conventional bitmap, especially at 1680 or 2400 pixels. Keep in mind, she’s only 1 of 4 pieces in an overall *Akiko* layout, hence the 25-percent (25-day) per piece estimate. But I’ll manage, lol. And as always, thanx to Danny for the inspiration and creation of the Mirai Universe. ^_^

BONUS – For an added bonus, here’s my *Akiko* fanfic below… Coincidentally, I too was a high school salutatorian (class rank #2 of 500+) with a crush on the tall pretty blonde athlete (rank #3)… EDIT – Added link above to 1680 x 1050 textless wallpaper.

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Blog 132 > Triple Monitor Goodness

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Yeah, why not? A photo of my *anime*-style workspace at home. Very little attempt to clean up. Just 48 of my 79-figure collection, plus lots of goodies (and bills, argh).

My setup: (1) Left. 15-inch laptop. About 2.5 years old. My main machine, hooked up to center monitor. Working on Akiko. (2) Center. 20-inch monitor. To watch anime, movies, and check Photoshop graphics. Akiko on top of Purple Mirai. (3) Right. 17-inch desktop. About 4.5 years old. For BitTorrent and Pandora to free up laptop resources. Shiro Otoko & Mirai.

P.S. Planning to buy a 24-inch iMac and 50-inch plasma after I sell my house. ^_^;

P.P.S. Wow, lots of international comments too, hahaha. ^_^;

Blog 131 > Mirai’s Tsundere Rival!

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Got tsundere? Impressed by *Demi-Alucard*s and *ETERNAL*s brilliant suggestion last month to create a *dark-side tsundere rival* for Mirai, I decided to take yet another (my 3rd) fanart risk. (No guts, no glory, eh?)

Although she’s still a rough 14% (14-day) draft, I finally present Mirai Suenaga’s tsundere rival — Akiko *Lucky* Yoshikawa — Class Rank #2 after Mirai’s Rank #1 at the Sorunian TimeSpy Academy. Her slick blue-haired look is based on my Facebook friend Jennie in May 2008, lol. Not bad for my very-first vector-art anime piece, huh? I hope to finish Akiko and her gun’s shading/lighting in the next few weeks. ^_^; Till next update!

P.S. Heartfelt thoughts and wishes to the victims of the Akihabara tragedy. Thanx for the coverage, Danny.

P.P.S. When you click the pic, don’t forget to check out my little sketch-script at the bottom. ^_^

Blog 129 > Motorcycle Asuka, Baka!

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Damn, over two months since my last anime post! Sorry about that, lol. Crap happens. Nevertheless, better late than never, eh? ^_^

Well, back on Feb 28th, when I received the E2046 Newsletter #110 “Asuka with Motorcycle 2” in my email, I was totally blown away!!! A breathtaking 1/6-scale depiction of the fiesty Asuka from the classic anime “Evangelion”, boasting her sexy leather outfit, straddling her heavily detailed bike, and grasping a tall can of who-knows-what in her left hand, haha. In both a red version and a black version! Simply amazing! Obviously not PVC material, but is she still worth the $280.00 USD price tag? Wow, if I could only add her to my collection…

Hmmm, I think I like Asuka more in her signature red, but then again, she looks good in black too! If you could, which would you choose? ^_^

Blog 127 > Vinyl-Inspired Wackiness

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Vinyl bowls?… Yup, once more, just one day (Feb 10th) after her gun photoshoot in Blog 126 (Feb 9th), Lisa appears in yet another impromptu photoshoot! This time, she’s in my kitchen, heating old vinyl records in the oven to mold them into funky-looking bowls for gifts… Not only that, thanx to Lena and her amazing night-club photos, I was inspired to attempt my own HDR (high-dynamic range) photo-editing experiments… What do you think? Enjoy the rest of the vinyl-inspired wackiness, lol.

P.S. Yeah, I know, it’s been ages since my last anime-oriented entry. Unfortunately, more life-important work-editing, friend-helping and house-hunting activities have shifted my priorities around into a routine 5 hours of sleep per night… But hopefully, I can cram a figure photoshoot sooner than later. ^_^;

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Blog 126 > Skirts, Boots & Guns!

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Hahaha, Lisa returns in another impromptu photoshoot! Killer skirts, boots and guns, lol… Wrapped in her vintage dress from the 1950s, donning her favorite bright-red cowboy boots, and gripping my favorite Tomb Raider air-gun, Lisa finds some time to breathe before her Saturday night date (again), lol. Totally unscripted, flawlessly unplanned and unexpectedly cool!… Enjoy the rest of the shoot!

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