Work Experience Day 1

Yesterday i began my long awaited Work Experience at Virgin Media TV. I had been anticipating it for quite some time and i have to say my first day was brilliant.
Since it was the first day my dad drove me. Traffic was awful but we got there with 1 minute to spare until my supervisor came to greet me ^ ^; Along with another fellow Work Experience-er (made up that word), i was then given a tour of the amazing 5 floor complex that was Virgin Media TV. After said tour we then went to watch some DVD's about Virgin Media and thier goals. Very interesting.
Soon after we were greeted by a member of staff from HR (Human Rescources..i think) who took at through health and safety. Then we were introduced to our department, Creative Services and got to work. I spent the day making promo's which are basically adverts where people say stuff....yeah...It was all very fun. I also got given a pass to get in and out of the building. Virgin Media TV is tight on security of course so all staff members must have a pass that they scan into doors to unlock them. High Tech stuff. Not sure if I'm allowed to take photographs but i will if i am since the building is so modern inside. I'm sure you would all love to see some good pictures of what it's like inside. I'm off to my second day soon so, until next time...Sayonara ^ ^



I was given some free gifts upon my arrival. A Most Haunted DVD Boxset and a book about Virgin Media.

Suzumiya Haruhi Manga / Work Experience

Haven't posted in ages. Over two weeks now,i've been quite busy sorting out work experience and coursework but now i have more time. Was in London on saturday to test out the route to my work experience. All went well and i finally know how to get there by tube. After walking around for a bit i decided to go the the brilliant japanese department store, Mitsukoshi which contains an amazing bookshop in the basement. Prices can be steep but this is probably due to import tax and what have you. Managed to pick up the first 2 volumes of the Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu manga while i was there which came to a heavy £13.60. All worth it though.

So today a start my two weeks work experience at Virgin Media TV. Will try to take photo's and post about my adventures in the working environment if possible. Also one more thing. Otaku Blue will be moving within the next few weeks. I'm moving to a paid domain and the site will be http://www.otakublue.com/. Haven't paid for the host but i plan to sometime this week and get the site up and running by the end of June. This is also another reason i haven't been able to post. For a couple of weeks i've been planning this and now my minds made up. Hopefully the more proffessional look and feel will attract more readers than the handful i have at the moment.

Peace@Pieces - 1/8 Nagi Death God Suit

This post is late, apologies, reason being i was really busy yesterday. So today i can finally do my Nagi review. Nagi is a character from the Eroge, Peace@ Pieces, and the character designs by Noizi Itou. I was really pleased to see her at this Expo and i just had to buy her. Cost me roughly £30 from the Tokyo Toys stall which is a good price for a fairly new figure of such quality. This particular Nagi figure is manufactured by ALTER. Never bought a figure from their production line before and i was pleased that my first ALTER buy was a great one. The paint work is great with no faults as far as i can see. Only problem i have with the paint work is that her clothes look a bit too shiny and because summer approaches and the sun is out more, the shine shows more. Also there is the situation with the base. Nagi sits on a green bug type robot but to hold the robot up there is a blue cylinder underneath. It's not sturdy at all and when you fix it into the plastic base you need to be careful other wise the figure will fall off. Almost dropped Nagi out of the window yesterday morning because of this. It would make more sense to make a bigger plastic cylinder as the figure is relatively heavy. Apart from that i have no other complaints.

The weather these past few days has been excellent I've been able to go outside and take some great photo's of Nagi in the back garden. Not all of them will be in this post,only my favourite ones. For the rest of them you will have to go to the photobucket account I'm setting up for blog readers which will be up and running tomorrow evening.

London MCM Expo - Figures/Stalls

There wasn't really anything that "wow'd" me at London Expo this year in terms of figures. Many of the stalls that were usually reliable in getting in the latest figures still had ones that were with them 3 expo's ago > < . Not that it's a problem, but i was expecting to find Mirei at at least one of the stalls but none of them had her. Tokyo Toys' stall as usual was very popular, luckily i was able to get there before the crowds of consumers flocked. Tokyo Toys figure ensemble was mighty impressive, they seemed to be the only stall that had the latest PVC figures. Picked up Nagi from an Eroge called Peace @ Pieces which i will be reviewing this afternoon. A new stall popped up this year and it seems they have a website. www.mech-a.com, a very well priced store that sells Fix Figuration, Gundam Kits, Revoltech as well as some nice little trading figures. Was able to get myself a Keroro Gunso Fix Figuration mech there.
What expo really lacked this year was figures that were actually on display. I only saw one figure on display. I was hoping to take photo's of displayed figures to spice up the figure coverage a bit more. But, i plan on continuing it with reviews of the figures i did buy. I took some photo's of the stalls for you to enjoy, these will also be on the photobucket account I'm getting ready for the readers that will be up when all the coverage is finished.

Dengeki G's - June Issue

Thought i may take a break from Expo footage while my friend and I sort out the photo's we took at the figure stalls, will have that post up tonight or tomorrow so keep checking this evening. Today i got the June issue of Dengeki G's in the post. It's basically a magazine for Otaku that covers most things Bishoujo like Eroge and bishoujo related anime. This is the first issue i have ever got and i am mighty pleased with it. The supplements are ace aswell. Got a D.C.II Spring Celebration Fan book and a double sided shitajiki featuring characters from an Eroge called "Little Busters!". I'm going out soon so i will read the magazine when i get back home. If you want more information on the magazine go to the Dengeki G's Official Webiste.

London MCM Expo - Cosplay

Of course at any anime event, cosplay is plays a big role. This London Expo had tons of cosplayers. Over the past few years i've noticed how popular Final Fantasy cosplay is in the UK. But recently i have noticed how popular Naruto cosplay has become. I remember when i was 10 years old and no one had a clue what i was talking about when i mentioned Naruto. It's become very popular. What was a huge shock to me aswell as my friends Alex and Rob, being Haruhi fans living in the UK, was the fact that Haruhi cosplay seemed to dominate the Expo. Not only this but when we sat outside for lunch we saw two Hare Hare Yukai dances and then one inside the center. It's good to know that the series is becoming more popular and widespread in the UK. Hopefully this will allow for DVD releases in the near future.

There were quite a few cosplayers that shocked me in terms of how good they were. Kerry, a fellow member of Tokyo Toys Forum made a fantastic KOS-MOS from Xenosaga. There was also a girl who i met last year who dressed up as my favourite anime character, Uchiha Sasuke. This year she dressed up as Sai and i was able to take another photograph with her. It was only after Alex uploaded the photograph that i realised what was written on the scroll he let me hold. Many other amazing cosplayers graced the London Expo but if i were to list them all this post would stretch several pages ^ ^; So i will leave you photographs some of the ones i found amazing. Also, sorry for the picture quality, the flash on my camera kept turning its self on and off, i think its because i dropped it several times during the event, may need to get a new one before i go to Japan in August =_=

I look back now and laugh at the scroll as well as myself

Didn't realise how far away i was when i took this photo. The Yuki is a man,but, the cosplay is brilliant. The Mikuru and Haruhi costumes are brilliant as well.

Brilliant Final Fantasy X-2 Group Cosplay. -Photo taken by Alex-

Awsome cosplay by Otaku-jin of Tokyo Toys Forum. Need me one of those swords.

This KOS-MOS cosplay by Kerry is super. Due to the quality of the photograph you cant really see how detailed it is. But if you were to see it close up in person you would be surprised. Its amazing and she did it all by hand.

So many more cosplayers i would love to show on the blog but i just don't have enough space. Later in the day i will set up a Photobucket Gallery with the photo's i took as well as the ones Alex took so you can see them close up.

London MCM Expo - Journey

I apologise for not posting yesterday. I was really really tired due to expo, then deciding to have a late night. Those two things can shatter just about anyone. So today my coverage of the Saturday event starts. I thought i would start off with something a little boring but it will build things up over the next few days. The journey there was quite the journey. A lot of getting on and off trains. One thing i don't think i will ever get used to is the DLR. Since a lot of London Expo-ers get on the DLR after us its not crowded at all. When you get to the stop before the ExCel Conference Center, that's when it gets crowded. Suddenly there is this influx of people, all of them travelling to London MCM Expo.

When we actually got there, there was some confusion to how we actually get in. See, when i first started going to London MCM Expo, there was one line, and you paid for your ticket at the entrance. This time they complicated the situation. There was one huge line to get your tickets. Then when they were bought you and to join an even bigger line to actually get it. Guess it was all worth it though because we were able to get into the first line. Whats good about the first line of the day is that as soon as Expo opens at 11 a.m the line goes on quickly. Its if you are in a line at say 12 p.m, that's when it can take nearly 2 hours to get into the Expo. What actually awaited us was the best London MCM Expo i have ever been too.

Tomorrow i will be doing a mega post on Cosplay and on Wednesday i will be doing a smaller post about the stalls an figures that were there. Not sure about the rest of the week but that will be sorted soon i think.