Jan Solo II

I've known Jan Calleja since preparatory school. Back then he was our batch's - and probably Claret School's - greatest artist.

But apparently he didn't stop with water-colors, crayons and pastels and decided to make his own toys.

He's having his second exhibit this weekend and if you aren't doing anything tomorrow, November 28, 2015, it might be worth your while to catch his latest Star Wars themed exhibit.

The exhibit entitled Jan Solo II will be held at the Artalyer Display Showroom,
#8 11th Jamboree St., Quezon City

To check out some of his completed and works in progress for the exhibit, do read on after the jump.

Star Wars Titanium Series B-Wing

Star Wars B-Wing Starfighter: Round and Round it goes

Presenting the Star Wars B-Wing Starfighter from the Titanium Series toyline.

This is the B-Wing Starfighter or A/SF-01 B-wing heavy assault starfighter, AKA Crosses. Supposedly when the craft is upright the B-Wing's outline makes a "B" shape, but we don't see it. The idea that the name comes from the fact that the wings look like blades, makes more sense.

At the core of the B-Wing is a special gyroscope that keeps the cockpit steady while the entire ship rotated around it. Piloting a B-Wing required a certain amount of skill.

Speaking of Blades, here's where the controversy begins: the traditional canon states that B-Wing Starfighters were developed by the Slay & Korpil corporation and were designed by - Gial "it's a trap" Ackbar - who was then a mere Commander. Star Wars Rebels recently rebuilt the history of the B-Wing by having it created by a mad-engineer named Quarrie on the planet Shantipole.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP:

GI Joe Warthog AIFV

GI Joe Warthog AIFV - Ugly and brings bad news, get out of it's way.

Presenting the GI Joe Warthog Amphibious Infantry Fighting Vehicle (AIFV), with it's driver (didn't seem right that he was driving the thing, so we made him the gunner) Sgt Slaughter.

Released in 1988, the Warthog AIFV is one of the oldest vehicles in the Dungeon that was acquired complete a few years back. It took us a while though to capture the right Sgt Slaughter that went with it and we can only dream about affording the modern version of Sgt Slaughter - maybe one day.

It's one of the GI Joe vehicles that are based upon real military vehicles, the Marine Armored Amphibious Vehicle (AAV). Though it has seen several upgrades, the AAV uses a design that has been in service since 1972.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

Wong Fu Productions: DEALBREAKERS: She's Never Seen Star Wars?!

If she's never seen Star Wars, is it really a dealbreaker? We've pondered this question many times and quite frankly, YES!!! It is a dealbreaker if someone hasn't seen Star Wars. It's a passion of ours and it's something we would love to share with whoever our partner would be in life. Soooo... No Star Wars.... No deal.

Credits after the jump. DO FOLLOW WONG FU PRODUCTIONS!!!  They are strong in the Force.

McDonald's Happy Meal Donkey Kong Kart

Donkey Kong - Bad Monkey

Presenting Donkey Kong from the McDonald's Happy Meal Mario Karts toyline.

This will be a pretty short review. We just saw him and we really like Donkey Kong and we enjoy the thought of him cramped into the cockpit of a cruiser that can transform into a hovercraft.

We believe this particular incarnation of Donkey Kong is from Mario Kart 8.

There isn't much to say about the McDonald's Happy Meal Donkey Kong Kart: It rolls - no mechanics; you have to apply stickers; there isn't much in terms of articulation and you can't take the monkey out of the car.

It's sad that this is just a free-wheeling vehicle. We wish that the Donkey Kong Kart came with some sort of spring mechanism to propel it.

(More after the Jump)

Unite Warriors / Combiner Wars Grand Scourge

Would you classify Grand Scourge as a Nemesis Prime?

Presenting the Transformers Decepticons Dark Commander, Grand Scourge - or Nemesis Prime if you prefer - from Takara Tomy's Unite Warriors toyline - their version of Combiner Wars. 

Personally we don't really think he should be equated with Nemesis Prime, but he will be so let's just leave it at that.

Basically this dude is Jet Li's Lawless from "The One." Grand Scourge is a dimensional hopper that seeks out the bearers of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, and kills them. Armed with his Matrix Breaker Sword, Grand Scourge in the e-Hobby comic book was portrayed to have already claimed the matrix of Reverse Prime. Now he's come for the Matrix of Optimus Prime (Gabriel Yu Law), because there can be only one.

More after the jump

GI Joe Custom Cover Girl

Presenting a GI Joe custom Cover Girl action figure.

Cover Girl is Specialist Courtney A. Krieger from Peoria, Illinois. She's probably best know in the GI Joe community for being the primary pilot associated with the GI Joe Wolverine missile-boat, AND for being a former high-end fashion model.

Sadly despite her success in the modern world, she found the modelling life completely unfulfilling. So she enlisted studied how to be a tank driver in Fort Knox and learned how to build/repair gas and diesel engines.

Eventually, despite her aversion to the use of her natural beauty in her career, she enrolled to study espionage in Fort Huachuca Military Intelligence School.

Sadly Hasbro has not deemed it fit to create a modern version of Cover Girl other than the really, really crappy likeness of the beautiful Karolína Kurková (Who Steven Sommers had Zartan knife in the back while she was flirting with General Hawk). The only modern version of Cover Girl available in the market is the outrageously priced version from the GI Joe Collectors Club.

So we made our own.

Magic the Gathering Liliana Vess Action Figure

Presenting a Liliana Vess Action Figure from the Legacy Collection Toyline of Magic the Gathering.

Liliana Vess, AKA Lili; Liliana of the Veil; Liliana of the Dark Realms, or; A Villainess (Though writer Brady Dommermuth claims this anagram of her name is purely coincidental.)

We won't pretend that we know much about Magic: The Gathering since we as former Dungeons and Dragons players some of us kinda saw Magic as a lazy man's D&D.

In a nutshell though, Magic: the Gathering has an underlying storyline that you can follow on the cards that are produced. The storyline was later reinforced by the various Magic the Gathering novels and comic books that followed.

Marvel Universe Shanna the She-Devil

Presenting a Shanna the She-Devil action figure from the Marvel Universe Infinite series toyline.

There are currently two Shanna the She-Devils wandering around the Marvel Universe. The first is Shanna O'Hara Plunder wife of Ka-Zar Kevin Plunder - the second character to bear the name Ka-Zar). Recently this Shanna the She-Devil was killed on a mission with Wolverine and Amadeus Cho, and was resurrected by being immersed in a bath that involved fluids from the Swamp Thing (gross). The resurrected Shanna the She-Devil had super-strength and stamina.

In 2005, an alternate universe Shanna the She-Devil was released. This Shana was bred in a test tube by Nazi scientists, and was named "Shanna" by someone who thought she resembled a comic-book character. This was illustrated by Frank Cho. Unfortunately this title which was supposed to be released under Marvel Max for a more mature audience was stripped of it's nudity by Frank prior to it's publication - under a PG rating instead.

Now that the Marvel Universe has been rebooted, we're not sure which Shanna the She-Devil will be retained. But given the very conservative look of this Shanna? We'd say it's not the near naked version that does jumping jacks