Ginga custom pt. 6

 As promised, here is Jerome and the secret character, which turns out to be an old OC of mine. Surprise surprise!

Let's start off with Jerome.This is the first time I had to mutilate the figures somewhat before painting them. Okay, I didn't necessarily need to, but I wanted to do it. I was going to leave Jerome's ears alone at first, but then I thought that cutting off the ear might give the figure more personality. Besides, after I cut it off there was no turning back.  I kinda regret I didn't put a reference picture here where his right ear is chewed off.  But, I couldn't resist taking screenshots from those episodes that are actually well animated.

Then we have "Kadi", a female German Shepherd. I'm going to tell you right now that this is NOT a pairing. Kadi is based on a real life dog that I knew for a short while. There is no backstory for her, as I was just trying to transfer the stylized look of the real dog into the world of Ginga. "Kadi" it is just a temporary name. If I ever were to further develop the character with a backstory and personality, I would probably want to change the name. Anyway, I took the extra step and removed any male-junk between the legs. Why the heck are most of the dog figures made males anyway?

Someone might be asking, why did I paint the other figure into some bland no-personality OC when we have Lydia, a female German Shepherd who is Jerome's partner in GDW. The reason is very simple. I don't like Lydia. She's the biggest disappointment if I ever saw one. I thought we were getting this badass Russian bitch who knows how to fight. But oh no! She's just as useless as the rest of the females in the Ginga universe.....

Please right click and open in a new tab for a larger view!

Overall, I'm kinda happy how they turned out, but on the other hand, I'm not. The eyes turned out terrible on both dogs. Jerome's markings should be darker grey. Kadi's should be lighter, now the darker colors just blend in with each other. Yeah, I like complaining about stuff I should've been able to fix. I just get easily tired of constantly painting such small details, when all of a sudden OOPS! my finger slips and I have a damn mess to cover up, over and over again. At some point, I just have to admit defeat and quit while I still have some sanity left. Excuses, excuses!

The pack just keeps getting bigger!

SW Easter egg unwrapping

Yeah, yeah, Easter was like forever ago, but I'm a Slowpoke, alright? Besides, I very recently happened to find a store that actually still sold their leftover chocolate Easter eggs on sale. So technically, this isn't old stuff, even if I did first come across these around Easter, and only now am I posting about it. :P

Vader and Yoda are, no doubt, the recognizable characters of the franchise, but I'm kinda disappointed they slapped them on the same page. I would rather have seen them appear on two separate eggs, one with black colored foil for Vader and green for Yoda. I don't think that orange color works very well with either of them. 

Oh, I get it! They have STARS on them because this is STAR Wars right? Well, I have seen the star pattern on other chocolate eggs as well, but as I do not know what those people are thinking who make decisions about this stuff, I guess it's a plausible reason. But I don't think so.

Not that it matters, but the grey container looks cooler. The mystery of what's inside lasts for a bit longer. With the semi-clear one, the disappointment is imminent.

Mini bouncing ball! For some reason, these things aren't as fun as they used to be, back when I was a kid.

These heads/helmet pen tops are my favorite gift to come out of these eggs. Unfortunately, they seem to be quite rare or I really didn't have any luck on my side while blindly picking the ones to buy. I wanted the Vader and clone trooper ones. U_U

Here are the various surprises I managed to collect during Easter and from the ones I bought just now. Bouncing balls, erasers and different kinds of pen tops. I would have liked that those images on the erasers would have been made into fridge magnets or some small badges instead. There's no real point having an eraser you don't want to use.

Other surprises were a magnet, a Domino game, a memory game and some stickers (Vader and C-3PO) I forgot to add in the shot.

Oh! and the chocolate? Well, it was good, but not great. Three stars out of five! ⋆⋆⋆/5

Finally, here is a video of an unwrapping:

Flea market findings 2

Akita Cost 1,50€ 

On the dog's belly it reads Akita F and Made in China. Naturally, I thought the "F" stands for "female" but the dog has male parts, so it's a she-male? I was unable to find any information about this figure so I'll never know what the F stands for. Well, since this one supposedly is an Akita, it would only be fitting that I'd paint it for my Ginga customs to be one of the main dogs, but will it be Riki, Gin, Weed or Yukimura? Who will it be!?

American bulldog Cost 0,10€ 

On this dog's belly it reads American Bulldog and this site tells me that it belongs to New-ray: My Best Friend -series. No clear plans for customizing this one yet. :P

Sonic key chain Cost 0,10€ 

On the bottom it has the Sega logo and Made in Japan engraved in it. I like Sonic, but I have no desire to collect anything Sonic related except a few games that I already have, so I'll probably give this to a friend who is much more Sonic crazed than I am and hope he enjoys it much more than I would. 

Patamon plushie Cost 1,00€

I swear I'm not going to start collecting any more Digimon stuff! But it was so cute and cheap, how could I have said no?

Piplup and Minun Cost 0,05€ each 

I was so sure these were going to turn up as bootlegs, but after I removed the price tags, the copyright marking were revealed. Piplup © 2008, Minun © 2005 Pokémon Nintendo

Pokémon drinking cup Cost 0,50€

From 1999. This one is in such a good condition that I dare to proclaim it has never been used and it's going to stay that way.

Cartman mug Cost FREE  

At the entrance/exit to the flea market there were a few shelves that were labeled with "free stuff" signs and that's where I found this ....loveliness. The condition is quite bad which explains why it was put it in the free stuff pile, the other reason I imagine is  the fact that anybody other than a South Park fan might find this mug a bit ....tasteless? The images are from "Weight Gain 4000" which is the second episode of Season One. TM & © 2000 Comedy central. Beefcake!! 

Churchill's Four Seasons Tin (with Biscuits 250 g) Cost 4,50€  

Four Seasons: Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer

top and bottom

I actually thought it was a coffee can when I bought it, didn't notice until I was home it said biscuits on the bottom. Anyway, it was empty, so no biscuits for me. The main reason I bought it was of course the beautifully embossed art of Alphonse Mucha’s Four Seasons on each side of the tin. The Czech Art Nouveau artist is one of my favorites of all time. If it were any easier to find any more items with his art on it, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Moominsummer Madness Cost 1,00€

The Finnish 18th edition of the fourth (or fifth) book in Tove Jansson's Moomin series filled with awesome illustrations. The price tag says 2€ but they only charged me with 1€ for unknown reason. Almost every page has some degree of damage on them, but nothing too critical as it's still perfectly readable.

The Autobiography of Henry VIII Cost 1,00€ 

Written by Margaret George and first published in 1986. This Swedish edition is from 1991. Yes, I have an interest for the Tudor dynasty too. I can't say anything about the book yet, I have to find some time to read it first. The books just keep piling up...