Dragon Quest VIII Weapon Upgrade

22 months ago...

The standard Play Arts display stand that strangles the figures and their default weapons...

Hero

Liquid Metal Sword and Silver Shield
Liquid Metal Sword (aka: Metal Babble Sword) is the strongest sword in the game for all characters except Yangus. I didn't opted for the Dragovian King Sword (secret from vol. 3) because it looks awkward with Hero if he's not in his Dragovian Armor. I also permanently fused the scabbard of the Liquid Metal Sword into Hero's baggage by removing the Scabbard of the default Soldier's Sword.

As for the Silver Shield, it's only temporary. I still need the Met King shield. :(
This is the third-strongest available shield for Hero in the Legend Items Gallery. The second-strongest, the Ruinous Shield, is available in volume 3: Met King Arms; but the shield in the game is cursed and it doesn't compliment Hero's colors. The Silver Shield, as shown in the picture, is rather metallic blue in color but nonetheless compliments Hero's undershirt.


LIQUID METAL SWORD
ATK: 118
Buy: N/A
Sell: 5000
Recipe: Orichalcum / Rusty Old Sword / Slime Crown
Find IRL: Legend Items Gallery Volume 4 - Hagure Metal Arms (Secret Item)


SILVER SHIELD
DEF: 48
Buy: N/A
Sell: 16000
Recipe: Amor Seco Essence / Magic Water / Mirror Shield
Find: Black Citadel (treasure chest)
Find IRL: Legend Items Gallery vol. 2 Zenithian Equipment (comes with the Gringham Whip)

Jessica

Gringham Whip
I decided not to give her a shield so as for the whip to be given more focus by the person looking at the figure. Click here for the full review and commentary.

GRINGHAM WHIP
ATK: 127
Buy: 200000 Tokens (Baccarat Casino)
Sell: 10000
Find IRL: Legend Items Gallery volume 2 Zenithian Equipment (comes with the Silver Shield)

Angelo

Holy Silver Rapier and Templar Knights Shield
The Holy Silver Rapier is the strongest rapier available in the Legend Items Gallery. That and he comes with a rapier by default. It is the upgraded version of the Templars' Sword.

However, the shield here is not his strongest. In fact, it is the third weakest shield equippable by Angelo. What I actually want is to match it with his character, him being a Templar Knight.


HOLY SILVER RAPIER
ATK: 59
Buy: 6600 (Savella Cathedral, Neos)
Sell: 3300
Recipe: Holy Talisman / Templar's Sword
Find IRL: Legend Items Gallery vol. 3 Met King Arms (comes with the Templar Knights' Shield)


TEMPLAR KNIGHTS' SHIELD
DEF: 14
Buy: N/A
Sell: 875
Recipe: Iron Shield / Templar's Uniform
Find: Wisher's Peak (Treasure Chest)
Find IRL: Legend Items Gallery vol. 3 Met King Arms (comes with the Holy Silver Rapier)

Yangus

Conqueror's Axe and Big Boss' Shield
The Conqueror's Axe is the strongest axe in the game. Though his over-all most powerful weapon, the Flail of Destruction, is included in volume 1; I opted for the Axe because he comes with Axe by default and Axes have better skills in the game than the Flails. XD

The Big Boss' Shield is the strongest shield exclusively for Yangus in the game. Its intimidating appearance and fiery paint job helps balance the orange tones of Yangus' skin.


CONQUEROR'S AXE
ATK: 103
Buy: N/A
Sell: 7500
Find: Howlwind Hill
Find IRL: Legend Items Gallery Volume 4 - Hagure Metal Arms


BIG BOSS' SHIELD
DEF: 50 Buy: N/A Sell: 12000
Special: Give Dodgy Dave (Pickham) a Crimson Robe
Find IRL: Legend Items Gallery Volume 3 - Met King Arms (comes with the Zanmato)

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Highly-recommended

Tamashii Stage Act 1: Stand Support Type

Each box contains three stands which are perfect for your six-to-seven inch scale figures as shown with the Dragon Quest VIII figures in the above article. It's plastic clamp does not damage the figures unlike the standard Play Arts display stand whose ABS plastic buds or the exposed metal could really scratch a detail or two.

Bandai's Tamashii Stage is a simple, lightweight and very much effective solution to despaired figures whose display stands are either non-existent or unsatisfactory.

Tamashii Stage Labels for smaller-scale Play Arts Figures
[DOWNLOAD] Dragon Quest VIII (Ready-to-print hi-res JPEG. 4 characters EN + 2 blank)
[DOWNLOAD] Fullmetal Alchemist (Ready-to-print hi-res JPEG. 3 characters EN / JP)
[DOWNLOAD] Blank Label (PSD file, Single)

For more information on Dragon Quest weapons, check out the FAQ from the earlier entries!

Tekken's Mokujin = A Filipino (ORLY?)

"Gaya Gaya Puto Maya"

After Square-Enix blew my brains out...

For some reason, even if Namco finally spilt the beans, they failed to surprise me.

Why?

Because I always thought that Mokujin looks like a kid-friendly version of the Barrel man (or Barrel woman if you take the female version in mind).

(Visual Explanations below. NSFW)

"Haaay Baste. Patay kang bata ka." XDDD

ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE

No time limit. This is a "manly" deathmatch! XD


PS: The Baste here is not Lili's slave stereotype.


He can pwn you in just 5 seconds.


I'ma chargin' my lazeeers!


"Astral Finished" or in layman terms "PWNED."


"Baka na!" (No way!)
~ Reference to El Fuerte's (SF4) Japanese death grunt.

LUFEEEET? :P

Whether it's a typo on Namco's part (they wrote Philippines as Filipinos but that's not what I meant), still, I won't change my impression about the mimic wood dude being a more kid-friendly version of the infamous Barrel Man.

Tetsujin: Codename ASERO.

Square-Enix makes a parody of Bandai's Action Base

Woah. Would you look at that?
Square-Enix never ceases to blow my brains out.

According to the link below, Play Arts KAI will series come with a better stand which is somewhat similar to Bandai's Tamashii Stage Act 2 and Figma stands...but connectable like the Action Base for Bandai's Mechs.

We'll call it PA-Stage for now, in homage to Figma's diStage. :P

OFFICIAL SITE HERE
Doesn't the term "Black Label Collectors" make you feel kinda LEET? Eh? :/

In case you can't view that site, just view the image at the beginning of this entry.

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According to the blog entry by TAKA dated October 2 2009;

We would like to thank everyone who have visited the Square-Enix booth during the Tokyo Game Show 2009 which ended last week. We are pleased that the crowd increases every years. In the future, we will be more devoted in notifying and surprising everyone with our product varieties.

Well today, we are here to inform you about the renovation of the merchandising WEB. New contents have been added to the introduction of the Merchandising WEB. You see?

Presenting "PLAY ARTS KAI!!"
The banner below is the entrance.

*insert image banner and web URL in pink*

Introducing an evolutionary system of action figures, Square-Enix's PLAY ARTS is now PLAY ARTS KAI!! With the contents of this site, we introduce the features.

Shown are samples and previews of the FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST BROTHERHOOD Play Arts KAI

So far, we were able to reproduce the detail of the characters well based on the animation work.
After all, this is the action figure with unmistakably impressive articulations. <-- I didn't quite get what he meant by this part.

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Oh, okay. He didn't said much with regards to the whole KAI thing.

Moving on...

I finally got my Gringham Whip! :D
Click on the image below for full review.