Iron Man Mark III and Mark V miniature figures

HBO Asia finally premiered the movie "Iron Man 2" a couple of days ago and it was just as awesome as ever! Aside from the fact that Tony Stark gets to whoop Whiplash's ass, the movie also featured the debut of James Rupert "Rhodey" Rhodes' badass alter-ego, War Machine! I was so drawn to that movie that I even got to watch one of its scheduled reruns yesterday. Though I've got to admit that my liking for Iron Man isn't as huge and "hardcore" as my adoration for my childhood comic book hero Ghost Rider, but there is something about this superhero that really kicks butt... maybe it's the cool suits or Tony Stark's attitude and flair for rock and punk music, kinda hard to say... but altogether, personally, Iron Man is a-OK!

Iron Man Mark V

Iron Man Mark III

It was recently that I got to buy my very first Iron Man Mark VI miniature figure which was on sale at Toys R' Us in Trinoma, the entire collection from Hasbro consists of five figures, three Iron Man suit versions, the Tactical Assault Drone and War Machine. But it seems that the Drone and War Machine figures are nowhere to be found for unexplained reasons, so I decided to finally complete the entire Iron Man suits by purchasing earlier this afternoon the Mark III and Mark V figs which are still available at Toy Kingdom The Block (SM North EDSA).


I'm still keeping my hopes high that someday, somehow, somewhere I might be able to find the two missing figures from the collection, but for now I'm just going to enjoy these ones first...

Toys and Creative Lighting

Earlier today (or make that yesterday) I decided to spend a little more time in having a little "trial and error" moment with my camera as I was bent on learning the tricks of the trade when it comes to applying creative lighting principles to my toy photography. Having to photograph your toys in low-light situations posed as a big challenge for me since I have tried it over a dozen times yet failed to capture that perfect mood over and over again. Whenever I get too lazy to take out my DSLR, my next best option would be using my trusty ol' point and shooter... but it made me realize later on that some of these compact digital cameras have their limit, and attempting to do low-light photography with a digital point and shoot camera resulted in poor, disappointing photo quality, oftentimes getting grainy pictures with a lot of noise going on. So it was high time to take out the big guns and let 'em do all the work for you.


After spending a good number of hours inside my room trying all the different shooting modes that you can find on the dial, I personally find the Shutter Priority mode to be the appropriate one for me since the camera captures only the details that you wanted to see on your subject while it gets enveloped in a background of total blackness. Using a mini LED flashlight and a gashapon figure of Rei Ayanami from the anime Evangelion as my subject, I was somehow making progress with my trial and error with creative lighting though I know I still have a long way to go in perfecting that skill. But as I look back and compare the previous photos with the ones I took earlier, I can humbly say that everything looks more better now than it used to be. Here are some samples of the test shots I did:

Rei Ayanami test shot 1

Rei Ayanami test shot 2

Rei Ayanami test shot 3

Great buys: Iron Man 2 3-inch action figure from Hasbro

For the longest time I wasn't able to get myself a new toy for my collection since I have been stuck inside the house, most of the time doing nothing for some unexplained reason... maybe I was just too lazy to go out or I might be just too conscious to spend my money on cab fare since getting a taxi nowadays is gold, so to speak. It was only last July 16 (Saturday) that I got the chance to buy me a toy when I visited the Toys R' Us branch in Trinoma while waiting for my other buddies to appear for our 15th anniversary celebration at Yakimix. After getting my sister the Moxie Girlz Alice in Wonderland edition, I headed towards the action figures section where luckily I still found a number of Iron Man 2 3-inch toy figures being sold on sale for only Php 100 each.

Iron Man 2 Mark VI edition from Hasbro

These Iron Man 2 miniatures have been selling at Toy Kingdom and Toys R' Us for quite a while now and since they are still in circulation, I never hesitated to get myself one or else I might regret it later if they decide to take it off the shelves one of these days! Looking at the back of the packaging, the line-up consists of 5 action figures which comprises the Iron Man Mark III, Mark V, Mark VI, the Tactical Assault Drone and of course War Machine. So far only the three Iron Man versions are available in both stores but the Tactical Assault Drone and War Machine figures are rather elusive and nowhere to be found! It really sucks big time since I've been constantly searching for the War Machine figure in every shop or stall that I went to but to no avail. I'm pretty sure that sooner or later I'll be able to complete all three Iron Man figures, but I won't rest until I get myself that elusive War Machine fig to finally complete my collection.

Discovering a world of toys at CSCentrl.com...

I was Makati-bound last July 02 to drop by my friend’s place and help him work on the light box I have promised, and since he still lacks a couple of things needed to make one, we went straight to Greenbelt One and bought most of the stuff at National Bookstore. As soon as we were done with our task, we decided to hang out for a while since I rarely go to Makati and leaving Greenbelt that soon would be such a waste of opportunity. Of course one of the things listed on my agenda is to check out the toy shops there and since my pal Adi knows the place by heart, he led the way and it wasn’t for long that we stumbled upon Great Toys… there were a lot of goodies in store but unfortunately I wasn’t able to find anything that was affordable enough to fit my budget and all I did was drool at all the figures and collectibles on display. On our next stop Adi showed me this other toy shop called CSCentrl.com and as soon as we entered the store, I immediately got this groovy feeling that I’m into something good… and I even told Adi that I’m pretty sure I might be able to take home some lovelies for my toy collection, and so I wasted no time in switching on my radar and do some serious toy hunting inside this new-found toy oasis!

CSCentrl.com's awesome line of toys for sale

Gashapons and anime figures galore

As soon as you enter CSCentrl.com you’ll be greeted with a tower-like glass display on the left loaded with anime figures and other toys, but once you get inside, there’s this even bigger glass display behind the shop’s counter stuffed with literally a sea of gashapon figures, and the neat thing about it is that you can get to buy the figs individually… Olleh! Since I’m a random toy collector and buying toy figures in sets was never really my cup of tea, it was a good thing this awesome shop sells some, if not all of their anime figures by the piece! Adi was eyeing on several items there while I on the other hand have spotted a couple of possible candidates to be added to my growing collection of toys. The owner, Raymond (Sorry folks, I was too overwhelmed with the toys on display that I forgot to ask for his surname), was there at that time and he was so friendly and accommodating that he treats his walk-in customers like his buddies, a plus factor for me since shop owners with good and commendable customer-relation skills can make or break one’s impression as a first-time customer walking into their respective stores. I left CSCentrl.com with two gashapons on hand and went back to Adi’s place and worked on his light box the rest of the evening. Though I may not be able to visit the place regularly since I live in Quezon City but I will definitely drop by that cool toy shop as soon as I get the chance to visit Adi’s place once more… or if by fate that I strangely find myself wandering within the Makati area.


CSCentrl.com is located at the 2nd floor of Greenbelt One, Ayala Commercial Center, Makati City or you can visit their official website at cscentrl.com