Made the Super Tatoba Medals by painting the symbols with a gold paint pen. The Super Taka Medal has the back side replaced by a First Hero Series Taka Medal to be used for the Tamashii Combo. Shocker Medal is done by printing the symbol to paste over a *forget-what-it-is* medal. Tried to implement the 2 combo sounds with sound recording circuits but due to need to use a new speaker, a lack of space to properly mount the speaker and sound circuits do not produce good quality sounds, the henshin sounds are not good in the end, sigh...
Edit: A clearer picture of the 2 sets of medals for Super TaToBa and Tamashii Combo...
DX OOO Scanner has not much space to put in extra components... Have since purchase some mp3 player circuits and such to re-do the sounds... hope they arrive safely...
.. meaning these switches also need to be changed...
Added a power-on-off switch to the sound circuits. Also restored the sliding sound effects of the Diendriver circuit, else the Decadriver's circuit sound made when sliding will drown the "kamen" / "ride" sound the Diendriver circuit makes.
Edit: Some pics of the internal of the DX Diendriver... not much space, but compared to the DX OOO Scanner, this is considered quite spacious...
Decided to re-do the DX Diendriver modifications as the existing gashapon Diend Gaia Memory just went dead without any reasons... So re-looked at the 2 circuits (previously put in the and decided to use back all of the DX Diendriver's circuit and only need to add in a "Diend!" sound during hensin-ing. Took quite some time to work back and restore the circuits that have been covered with hot glue. Also have to add in a lot of other switches in detail...
Very broke these few weeks... Bought too much things liao... hahahaha...
First up, went to Fujiya at Bugis Cube to purchase the DX Orb Ring for my little nephew's Children's Day or Christmas present... Costs $65... Considering the high price in ebay and Taobao, this is the cheapest I can find...
Next, for me!!!!!!! DX Amazons Driver Set!!!!!! ... First time buying a Bandai Premium item... this costs about $195.90... Bought this from Taobao... could have gotten even cheaper if pre-order earlier, but hey, this price is good enough...
Very very nice fronts on the 2 main sides of the box... I personally prefer Kamen Rider Alfa (or Alpha), as he resembles the closest to the old KR Amazon... But very reluctant to make the driver into a battle-damaged version, hahahaha....
This Bandai Premium version contains the dagger blade (don't know what it is called officially) and the Amazonz Register (including an extension arm strap) which I heard the Amazon retail version does not have...
The main driver/belt itself... Very nice design that is very different from the current Kamen Rider drivers "kiddish" design... which is right, considering this series is catered to adults and not young children... Oh, just a gentle advice: Do not use fingernails or anything slightly sharp to the back of the "eyes" (i.e. from the back of the "mask"). There seem to be a piece of translucent film attached on the back side of the "eyes" to give it a frosted look, but if pressed in with something slightly sharper, it may cause the translucent file to stick closer (tighter) to the plastic surface of the "eyes", leaving "scratches"... I stupidly did that while trying to wipe dry after cleaning the mask with a wet cloth... Sigh, anyway...
The back of the buckle does not have the company and copyrights unlike most of the current KR drivers, as the information is molded on the "mask" piece instead, and that is well hidden when the the "mask" is slotted in...
The belt strap holder has good details too...
The "dagger" blade can be attached to one side of the "handle"... nice... but not so nice when view from the back... hollowed... hahaha....
This Amazonz Register is just a big plastic piece(s), no sound nor lights. May likely to open up and see if can put in some LED lights... Very nice design that is probably paying homage to the Gigi Bracelet... The set also comes with an extension arm strap... which is weird, since if Bandai can be considerate for adult collectors in wearing the Amazonz Register, why didn't Bandai provide an extension belt strap too? Hmm... $-making??!!... Hmmm...
Alfa... Amazon....
And here's a video clip to show the sounds this little gem makes!!!
Haul from Taobao arrived last night!! Impulse buy, impulse buy.. hahahaha... Double-items mean 1 of them is for my little nephew...
First up, my second purchase of the DX Handle Ken, yeap, for my own collection, hahaha... Costs approximately SGD 26.50, quite cheap, similar to those warehouse sale price... sweet... Short sword blade... Probably will make a longer replacement blade...
Pretty weird that the Taobao agent I engaged used to prohibit buying of such toy guns that don't look like firearms, luckily now they seem to have (Kivat says) "Wake up!"... So I purchased 2 of these... Quite a silly gun, needs opening and closing of door to recharge the shots, simply no logic, hahahahahah... Costs about SGD 23 each...
Lastly, the DX Deep Slasher... Yep, this is also on "clearance" in the Taobao shops, pretty weird considering Kamen Rider Ghost series is still airing, and the plot of KR Spectre storyline is still unknown, meaning KR Spectre is still going to be using this weapon for some time (or at least the next few episodes, which are also the final few episodes) ... Costs about SGD 35.50 each... And because of these, I have been tempted into buying the gashapon Toucon-Boost eyecon (couldn't find the Deep Spectre gashapon version)... Extremely happy, hahahaha... Yeap, will also probably be modding the short blade... Maybe a slide-out extension...
Went over to the John Little Expo Sales this morning, and got a few super cheap Kamen Rider Fourze DX stuff... The DX Drivers (Fourze and Meteor), DX weapons (Billy the Rod, Meteor Galaxy) are selling at SGD 10 per piece... incredible cheap price... The Astro Switches are also on a sale, selling at 5 packs for SGD 5... So for a total of $25, I am able to get the stuff as seen in the picture below!!!!
Special mention to these 2 Astro Switches - N and S Mag-Phone Astro Switches. These are the Gashapon LED version, but sold as carded. So they only have half the transformation sounds (speech only, no final music). With the experience from the gashapon Cosmic Switch, I had a feeling that these can be modded to have complete transformation music, so after some search on the internet, my prayers are answered...
CAUTION: DO AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!
When you dismantle the (sound part of) N Mag-Phone Astro Switch, you will find 4 sets of contact points in a column, labelled P20 to P23. First, the SMD resistor on P20 needs to be removed (cut, destroy, etc)...
Next, solder a tiny bare wire to join up P22... alternatively, you can also solder a small blob of solder to connect the 2 points of P22. This will allow full play of transformation music of N Mag-Phone Astro Switch part...
Repeat the process on the other Astro Switch, take note that this time the SMD resistor to remove is at P21 for S Mag-Phone Astro Switch, and the set of points to join up is at P23...
Here's a video to show the difference for a normal vs modified one...
And a video to show how the music will play with both modified...
Received the DX Mugen Eyecon that I purchased from eBay... Costs approx. SGD 57.65... for my little nephew's November holiday present...
Just a quick ranting to get it off my chest... Kamen Rider (and Super Sentai) items are getting more and more "kiddish" in designs now... or at least some elements of "kiddish"... A good example is the use of stickers that screamed out "TOYS" loudly... Sigh... I know Toei working with Bandai to churn out merchandises to sell (to children??) but still.... can't the design be more mature and less outright "kiddish"? Sigh... Not to mention the "format" of the toys nowadays (for Kamen Rider) is Belt/Driver, interface items (e.g. eyecons, astro-switches, toy cars (??!!!!), lock(seed)s, etc... ) that is numbered... intermediate belt... weapons with designs (sunglasses-sword-gun, steering-wheel-sword, toy-trailer-gun, etc...) ... will we have a toilet bowl gun someday??? Hmmm...
