Talking about Robot Anime...

I remember while I was 7 years old, I was amazed and excited by this anime that has transforming robot! It can transform from a fighter jet, to a jet with arms and legs, and to a robot. Sound familiar? Yes, it's Macross.

Back then, I don't really appreciate Macross story line that much; all I want is to see the Valkyrie in action - transforming from Fighter Jet to Gerwalk and to Battroid mode. I particularly like the variation that piloted by Roy Foker. More information about Macross can be found on http://www.mahq.net.

But why am I all of a sudden talking about this? While I was surfing the net, I came upon the upcoming March 2008 release of the new Soul of Chogokin Godmars, of which there are some people who doesn't know much about it. Godmars is one of the series that I watched when I was only 8 years old. I can still remember back then that my dad gave me a Godmars toys made of dia-cast metal. It really stirs me to save some money to get this Godmars again, 'coz I like it very much.

Those are the days that my dad would buy the toys that I like. But because I was so young and I don't know how to protect them, my toys are all broken beyond repair, and all have to be thrown away. If my memory serves me well, the list will be as follow:

1. Macross - Valkyrie (part die-cast metal part plastic) - Variation S & J
   
2. Orguss - 2 variable fighters of main characters and 1 opponents variable fighter
   
3. Gundam RX-78 - It's not the plastic model kit by Bandai, but it's made of Die-Cast metal that comes with G-Falcon (made from plastic).
   
4. Godmars - part die-cast metal part plastic. This toy is really heavy.
   
5. GoLion - part die-cast metal part plastic (height similar to 1/100 scale Gundam). It is a smaller version. My cousin has a bigger version (similar to 1/60 scale gundam).
   
6. Baxinger - part die-cast metal part plastic. This is the only robot anime that I never watched. It's from the series called Ginga Reppuu Baxinger. Height at 1/100 scale Gundam.
   
7. God Sigma - part die-cast metal part plastic (height similar to 1/60 scale Gundam). Same as Baxinger, I never watched the series. It's from Space Emperor God Sigma.
   

If I have the resources (money of course), I would try to collect the toys of the anime that I have watched. But when I look at the Valkyrie produced, it doesn't look nice at all. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, the nose tip of the jet was not that long when it was in battroid mode. Apart from Valkyrie, I would certainly wish to get a Godmars (if extra, I'd get Vikung-fu).

Toyota Isis 2005

Early this month, I booked a Toyota Isis version 2005 from Mofaz. It's a CBU unit directly imported from Japan. It is a very basic model - 1 passenger side power door, no sun roof, no security alarm, no rear A/C, no ionizer, no front-rear sensor; but it has most of the important features - ABS, Driver seat and passenger seat SRS airbag, side airbag (probably), Super ECT (Electronic Controlled Transmission) automatic transmission, and VVT-i engine.

I drove it for about 1 week. Apart from 1 of the fog lamp is not functioning, the rest are working fine. I must admit that it's not a very exciting car because it cannot accelerate from 0 - 100 KM/H within a few seconds. Despite that, it has been a very versatile car and very fuel economic because with 3 quarter of fuel, this car can go for about 550 KM. It's interesting to know that the faster you drive, the more miles you will gain.

It's interesting to know that the difference between this Isis with the local assembled MPV is that the Isis has electronic circuitry that helps to conserve energy, while the local assambled MPV does not have this feature. I might be wrong, but from the specification that I found on the local assambled Toyota Avanza and Toyota Innova, I couldn't see such feature being mentioned at all.

The other things about Isis is because it is built in Japan, thus it needs to comply with the Japan's measurement of fuel consumption and gas emission to protect the environment. With that in mind, they need to produce a car that use lesser fuel, emit lesser gas, but at the same time could more power and more miles. This is something that we should learn from.