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fourseasonsfigs · 1 year

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Lingyue Love at First Sight

If you have been reading along on my posts, you know from this Wang Yue post that I can't resist a fig on a scooter!

The second I laid eyes on this fig I knew this was a must have! Sadly for me though, this was in the Before I Figured out Weidian Times, and this seller did not allow third party purchases from a warehouse buyer. It was a bummer, because she had quite a few figs for sale.

Fast forward many months (a year?) later, and me and my rudimentary Weidian navigation skills were thrilled to see a remainders sales notice pop up from this fig maker. At long last, this little cutie gets to drive home to me!

This is not the official name of the fig - I was so late to the party with this fig that I missed out on any back story or info about this set. The seller just called in Lingyue in the short sales listing, but I have so many other Lingyue sets I wanted to distinguish it a bit.

Real quick before we get into the fig business, for those new to this blog, the little scooter guy is Zhang Zhang's character Wang Yue from the short film Brother, and the doctor being surprised at just how cute this deliveryman is, is Gong Jun's character Ling Rui from his TV series Begin Again.

These two arrived safely to me in their protective polystyrene cutout boxes. I will admit to being a bit worried about Wang Yue's hat, but it arrived just fine.

Here they are! I'm going to do each fig individually, because Wang Yue's scooter makes it difficult to rotate them together for photographs.

The little scooter does stand on it's own, although it has a distinct lean to it. It's decently stable, but as you'll see not stable enough for my long term peace of mind.

I really like the very cute rendition of him here - from the rounded bubbly lines of the scooter to his outfit and helmet.

This is a good angle to see why it's secure but not too secure. The motorcycle doesn't actually rest on it's wheels so much as on that blue stand you see there. Which is good, since standing on the wheels wouldn't be secure at all, but the stand itself is not a ton of real estate to hold the fig steady. The fact that it does it at all is an impressive bit of fig engineering.

The slight lean on the stand makes it look like he's actually turning into the curve as he drives! I love it.

Here's another good angle to see the lean a bit more. Again, from this angle it just looks like he's driving away! Don't squint too hard to read the stickers on his bag, I'm about to give you a close up...

CUTE! Love all the fandom numbers here and of course that nice big orange sticker! It's very crisp and clean in all the details, I'm so impressed.

There he goes! The wheels don't rotate, they're fixed in place.

I like the fairly monochromatic color scheme with the scooter and his outfit - the colors are bright and cheerful but it's not overwhelming. The blue colors really pop.

I really love all the cat attributes on the scooter, with the sticker itself and also the mirrors looking like cat ears with the rounded front face.

Here's a better look at the underside - you can see how all of the modeling, including the stand, is nice and smooth.

This angle from the top is funny to me - looks like a cartoon character!

That's a little better of a top down view - we can actually see more of the details on his hat and top of the scooter.

Since I grew up in California and have lived through more earthquakes than I can remember, I felt like I needed to put him on a fig stand for my own peace of mind. Since the wheels don't really touch the ground I finally decided on one large fig sticker right on the stand, and one of my few larger square acrylic plates.

It seemed to work perfectly! I decided to put him at a jaunty angle for better display purposes next to the other Lingyue set(s)!

Alright, on to our dear doctor. Poor Ling Rui, he never gets much attention when Wang Yue is around because Wang Yue is always rendered so adorably!

This version is pretty cute himself though! I really like the hearts in his eyes and the awed expression on his face. He's pretty smitten with this driver!

I'm not really sure what he's holding - maybe the delivery Wang Yue has dropped off? Then again, I'm not sure he remembers he's holding anything with the way he's staring off at Wang Yue!

You can really see the 3-D effect of his stethoscope here, it's beautifully done.

Ling Rui's hair is a bit fluffy and piecey here - definitely not too slicked back.

As you can see, both sides of his stethoscope have that 3-D effect.

The fig maker rendered his little shoes with some care - his sneakers are a bit chunkier then you normally see on figs. I like it!

Coming back around we have more detail on his shoe laces, and a particularly funny angle where it looks like he's almost whispering ohhhh under his breath as he looks at Wang Yue!

You can see here all the detail around making his white coat a clean separate look from his pants underneath it. I've seen progress pics in fig assembly at the factory (not for this fig, but for others) and it's probably the torso and the legs separately with them glued together.

And last but not least, the top of our dear doctor's head. I really like how they did his hair - it looks very clean and tidy and professional, yet also like how they styled Gong Jun's hair in the show.

Alright, since I have neither box card nor printed box for this set, I'll leave you with a colorful pic of the two of them:

Love at First Sight indeed!

Material: Resin

Fig Count: 268

Scene Count: 20

Rating: I was also struck dumb at the total cuteness in front of me, I'm right there in solidarity with you, Ling Rui

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

#jzeu #zhang zhehan #gong jun #lingyue #ling rui #begin again #wang yue #junzhe #woh cast #word of honor cast #shl cast #figthusiast

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thebibliomancer · 3 years

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #246: GATHERINGS

August, 1984

Family feud! Guest-starring SERSI of the Eternals!

She comes!

A portent of times to come! I hear a faint rumbling of leather jackets from distant years...

Also, hey! She-Hulk! I missed you!

The Avengers have been through the Secret Wars and participated in the Wraith War! What’s next for our band of heroes?

Maybe parties? The cover makes it look like a party is going on before some Kirby-looking guys crashed.

But also? Vision’s vague scheming to raise the Avengers’ profile continues as he and Scarlet Witch take a trip to visit President Reagan and First Lady Reagan at the White House.

Weird thing is that we don’t get an unobscructed view of Reagan’s face. He’s either back to the ‘camera’ or cropped on the panel border. Weird, since this wasn’t a problem last time he appeared in this book. Y’know, the time some plant people tried to hold him for ransom? That time?

President Didn’t-Pay-for-the-Likeness-Rights thanks Vision for taking time to personally brief him on all the biz the Avengers have been up to.

President Reagan: “I wish we could talk like this more often! The National Security Council keeps me posted on your missions, but there’s nothing like getting the news firsthand.”

Vision: “I quite agree, Mr. President. In fact, I have a few suggestions for making the lines of communication between Avengers Mansion and the White House more... shall we say... direct?”

He suggests they speak in private which Reagan gladly agrees to, shooing Scarlet Witch and Mrs. Reagan out. To Scarlet Witch’s surprise because he sprang the trip on Washington on her and now he’s sprung this on her.

Also, every time Vision meets someone in private and the conversation takes place off-panel, they suddenly come around to his point of view so.... uh...

Well, I’m sure it’s fine.

Meanwhile, we get back to Captain Monica Marvel Rambeau’s subplot. Remember how she worried after getting back from Secret Wars that she had no explanation to give her family for being missing for several days? And was thinking of telling them about her secret superhero thing?

Well, she calls home to New Orleans and her presumably firefighter dad answers. I presume he’s a firefighter because there’s a firefighter hat and coat hanging up prominently in the background. We call that environmental storytelling.

Monica’s mom isn’t home so Monica asks for her parents to call her back when they’re both available.

Monica: “In a way, I’m glad momma wasn’t home. That gives me more time to figure out how I’m going to tell them that their ‘little girl’ is leading a double life... as an Avenger called Captain Marvel!”

... Geez, her costume looks so weird when there’s nobody in it.

Monica ponders just bringing it up casually by RECAPPING HER ENTIRE BACKSTORY! Which, in fairness, would be an appropriate way to handle it. But she decides that just going ‘yeah I was helping old family friend Professor LeClare investigate a secret lab on an oil platform, punched a machine, got powers, and then joined the Avengers’ would sound crazy and that there must be a better way to tell them.

I say, take it slow and ramp up. Start from ‘I have superpowers’, do a little pew pew flashlight beam and let their questions guide your explanation.

Meanwhile again but elsewhere, Wasp van Dyne is just chilling at Avengers Mansion, bumming herself out rereading the World According to Garp, and receiving a phone call from West Avengers Chairman Hawkeye.

He tells her that he found a great HQ for the new West Coast Avengers, some old silent film star’s home, and he’s overseeing renovations now.

This ongoing Hawkeye real estate subplot is to get you excited for the upcoming West Coast Avengers series. Are you?

I dread it.

Anyway, Starfox comes in after the phone call and recognizes that Janet is in a Mood. A very bored mood. A post-chairperson funk.

Wasp: “It’s just that Wanda and the Vision are in Washington... Hawkeye and his new wife are setting up a new team in California... Cap and Thor are away on missions of their own... Everybody’s doing something! Everybody but me! It’s funny, after all we’ve been through lately, especially with that horrible Magneto, you’d think I’d appreciate a little leisure time. But instead, I’m bored out of my mind!”

Magneto kissing her really teed her off if that’s what she’s focusing on from the whole Secret Wars thing and not having died.

Starfox has just the answer for Wasp’s post-Magneto-kissing blues though.

PARTY.

He was on his way to a great party and Wasp can be his plus one!

Meanwhile, on the Washington to New York plane, Vision and Scarlet Witch.

She’s confused why they didn’t just take the Quinjets that they have instead of flying on a commercial airline but Vision says that getting out among the people is just good public relations.

I mean, he’s not wrong. But also flying in public, in your costumes, seems like it runs the risk of aggroing a supervillain attack.

It doesn’t happen but I wouldn’t have been surprised if it did.

The flight attendant asks Vision if he drinks before course correcting into asking him if he wants a drink.

I don’t know what’s more amazing here. Wanda going ‘he never has coffee at home’ like that coffee ad that Airplane spoofed.

Or Vision patting himself on the back for connecting to the common man with his drink order.

Simply superb.

Back at the casa Rambeau, Maria Rambeau returns and then returns Monica’s call. Monica says she’s going to come over for dinner and then a panel later, she’s knocking on the door.

Her parents are confused because it’s a twenty-minute drive between Monica’s house and theirs but that’s just part of what Monica wants to explain to them.

I see Monica decided to just jump into her explanation.

Back in New York, Janet frets over whether she’s dressed right for the party but Starfox just dismisses that as one of Earth’s weird mores. Why, he only wears the one outfit and that’s just gonna have to be good enough.

They arrive at the party and it seems to be a hobnobbin’ sort of event, with people discussing court settlements and acting. Also, She-Hulk is there. Hi, She-Hulk!

Glad Stern found another excuse to include you after Byrne stole you away to the land of the Fantastic.

She-Hulk says she met the host at an exotic bakery shop just last week and that’s how she scored the invite.

I wonder what made these baked goods so exotic. And I’m wondering if it wasn’t actually erotic. Do I think that She-Hulk would purchase a butt cake? Yes, yes I do.

She asks Starfox how he knows the host and, well, he doesn’t. He heard about the party and decided to invite himself (and Wasp) along. I.e. crash.

But the host...

ITS SHE!

SERSI!

SHE COMES!

But the host, Sylvia Sersi, isn’t too bothered by the pair of party-crashing Avengers and has She-Hulk introduce them.

Starfox is enchanted to meet Sersi and she likewise but they’d best not be too enchanted to meet each other because I’m pretty sure they’re not too distant relations.

Mentor founded the Titan colony of the Eternals and the Eternals have all been around a while so there’s not that many branches between Starfox and Sersi, I don’t think.

Anyyyyyway.

A drunk man pauses before a mirror to tidy up his tie and gets a startle when a Watcher-looking guy that isn’t the Watcher because he has hair appears in the mirror instead of his own face.

When Sersi comes over to investigate she tells him he must have imagined it and sends the guy away for some air but then interrogates the mirror face man and calls him Domo.

Domo, in the mirror: “We need you here in Olympia! Everyone is needed for the final decision!”

Sersi: “I told you before, I don’t care! Go ahead and make your big decision! It won’t affect me, because I intend to go right on doing as I please!”

Then she turns the mirror into a picture of penguins??

Her powers are great indeed.

Although her investment in the community is less so.

Whatever this mysterious decision everyone is voting on, it is clearly less important than this rockin’ party. This party has a She-Hulk!

Back over at the Rambeaus, Monica decides to just rip off the band-aid and tell her parents that she’s Captain Marvel. They find it hard to believe so she just pulls out her costume and lightspeeds into it.

Harder to hold doubts when your daughter glows with an awesome power.

Frank Rambeau: “It’s true... my little girl’s an Avenger. Hey, that means... you’ve met Captain America!”

Frank jumping right to the important points.

Thankfully, Monica’s parents are very supportive. And actually like the Avengers. You have cool parents, Monica.

Frank Rambeau: “Monica, I don’t know what to say! The Avengers are heroes... like Cap and the Black Panther and Thor... They’re like a legend! To think that you’re one of them -- !”

Maria Rambeau: “We’re very, very proud of you, dear... Prouder than we ever thought possible!”

Very cool parents.

Meanwhile, back at the party, mirror spooked guy (apparently Harry) goes out for air like Sersi suggested and then sees something else which spooks him even harder!

He runs from the party babbling about seeing things or not seeing things and not sticking around to sort out which.

Then a bunch of goons crash the party by flying through the terrace doors.

Look at these total goons.

Starfox steps forward and tries to defuse the situation both by words

Starfox: “Easy, my friends! I’m sure you don’t want to hurt anyone!”

And by shooting pleasure beams from his mind.

Predictably, his pleasure beam, besides being creepy, can’t be allowed to be too effective.

If it actually worked we wouldn’t have conflict and plot.

So like the Hulk in Incredible Hulk #300, these dudes called Delphans just slap Starfox out of the way.

Then superhero number two steps up.

One of the Delphans say that they need to get “that witch” before she can cause them any grief and She-Hulk was in proximity and assumes they meant her and takes exception to that.

She-Hulk: “‘Witch’, huh? You wouldn’t mean me, would you? That’s a bad choice of words, but you’re right about one thing... I can give plenty of grief!”

The Delphan just immediately hits her with an energy pole which just pisses off She-Hulk and ruins her party dress. Thankfully she had the unstable molecules FF costume on underneath.

She dresses in layers.

Delphan: “You’re still standing? But that photon-burst would have stunned the mighty Karkas!”

She-Hulk: “You stupid jerk! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find nice things in my size?!”

She-Hulk and Starfox start beating on the Delphans but its Sersi’s party and she can shoot eye beams if she wants to, eye beams if she wants to.

Sersi: “I should have known Domo would send you Delphans after me! Well, it won’t work! You’re not taking me away without a fight!”

Not just eyebeams but apparently a piggifying beam!

A singing piggifying beam!

Oh, sure, the Delphan says that its a transmutive ability but I know whats what.

Her name is Sersi, which is like Cerci, and she can shoot pig beams at people, especially Greek soldiers.

Unfortunately, like other witches before her, she needs some wrist range of movement to do her business and grabbing her by the arms will just nullify her.

Sigh.

If only he didn’t have armored outpanties, she could kick him in the business.

But fortunately, Wasp “can blow up a small house” van Dyne won’t be stopped by armored outerwear and shoots the Delphan grabbing Sersi right in the butt.

That is, Wasp shoots him in the butt, not that he’s grabbing Sersi in the butt.

Meanwhile, over in the Vision and Scarlet Witch subplot, their plane lands at LaGuardia and they’re instantly accosted by journalists who wants Vision’s take on rumors that the president is going to make chairmanship of the Avengers a cabinet-level post.

Vision coyly tells them that he and the president discussed many things but he’s not at liberty to confirm anything.

Hmm.

Then Vision excuses himself, saying that he and Wanda have to get back to Avengers Mansion.

Scarlet Witch: “We certainly do!” And when we get there, we are going to have a little talk!

Seems Wanda is annoyed at all this being left out of the loop.

Back at the A-plot, where A stands for Avengers go to a party and then get into a fight, Sersi gets fed up with these shenanigans and threatens to turn the Delphans into worms but she gets grabbed by the wrists again, this time by power-dampening chonky handcuffs, and dragged away by the Delphans to their spaceship that was hovering right outside the party.

Starfox and Wasp fly out in pursuit, with non-flying She-Hulk complaining about being left behind.

Wasp: “After them, Starfox! We mustn’t let them get away!”

Starfox: “I quite agree! Hostesses such as Ms. Sersi are all too rare!”

Wasp: “No kidding! Once we rescue her, I want to find out how she does that trick with her eyes!”

... Really.

The eyes specifically? Not the singing pig beam?

Huh. To each their own.

The ship takes off shortly after Wasp and Starfox stow aboard and the two heroes resume beating Delphan ass to try to save Sersi.

Lead Delphan: “We have the advantage in number, but they’re still making us look like idiots! We can’t let them beat us now! Have to initiate transport... while there’s still a chance!”

The ship then disappears with a FWOF!

And reappears above the mountains of Northern Greece.

Apparently, Eternal transportation is like the kind in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy because Starfox and Wasp are discombobulated and nauseated by the transport.

The Lead Delphan seizes the opportunity while the bull is hot and pulls the lever to make the ship just completely disassemble.

The Delphans take advantage of the heroes startlement to beat the shit out of Starfox in midair.

Clever. But rude.

Sometime later, Starfox comes to in Olympia to discover that he and Wasp are completely surrounded and in the shit.

Domo: “Citizens of Olympia!! At last, we all stand together... reunited with our Polar and Pacific cousins! Our destiny beckons! But before the ritual may begin, we must first deal with these two... who have intruded into the affairs of the Eternals!”

Hey, dick! They don’t come to a party you’re crashing and slap the host!

But I guess we’re going to meet all the Eternals next time.

What a fun coincidence that I’m hitting this point of the story when the Eternals movie is just a few months away.

Follow @essential-avengers because one day I’ll read comics about Sersi wearing a leather jacket. Like and reblog for the same reason or for different reasons.

#avengers #Eternals #Delphan Brothers #Sersi #Starfox #the Wasp #She Hulk #the Vision #Scarlet Witch #Captain Marvel #Monica Rambeau #the parents Rambeau #since when did Sersis have a first name?#essential avengers #essential marvel liveblogging #avengers can't even go to a party without it becoming a whole thing

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fightingtheflab · 7 years

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September 09th: It’s been awhile!

I feel like life has been really hectic and when I scroll through to find my last personal post it was in July! And i think to myself for a moment, well what’s happened since July? What have I been doing? I almost feel as if I need to make a bulleted list to keep track and I’ll probably forget a handful of things I’ve actually done.

First, I ended up getting my car back three weeks later, it feels like that was so long ago, but alas it’s back. It was $7,000 in damages that I didn’t pay for because it wasn’t my fault... this is why you get insurance folks. I also got my phone replacement a week later, since mine was stolen 3 days after getting hit on the freeway. Remember all of this? I do. It was a great week.

I also bought my mom an S8 and bought a backup by exchanging a phone I had bought super cheap that qualified. The deal was too good, so we ended up getting two S8′s for the price of one. My plan is to always have a back up of a current phone so that I can do an exchange when new phones come out, smart yeah?

In terms of fitness, I’m down about 10 pounds, haven’t stepped on the scale in awhile and I’ll explain that after, but a majority of my pants are huge, so I’ve at least lost weight. It’s been a great confidence booster, seriously. I just feel like I’m coming out of my skin more and more because I’m getting stronger.

I transferred jobs about two weeks ago and my life has been very stressful. I wanted the transfer, but the commute is tough and my director ended up leaving a week later lols. The temp replacement, while my company searches for the permanent person, is the reason I left my old job and requested the transfer. Funny how life works. So now I’m working with this dude who is hands off and makes me internally scream to myself and I’m working long hours. I’m usually at work around 4:30 AM and I’m leaving around 3:00-4:30. I don’t take lunch breaks too often and I eat a meal or two a day, but the work is rewarding. It’s just seriously throwing off my balanced diet and healthy lifestyle with the minimal amount of sleep and lack of nutritional eating. I’m in a job that has me on my feet rushing around half the time and I’m basically doing it on my own. For example, on Friday I got to work at 4:45 AM and left at 10:20 pm. Bonkers I tell you! But I’ve been so behind on back of the house paperwork that I needed to stay and just get shit done. So I did.

I signed up for classes this fall, and had my transfer not happened I would have managed, but I unfortunately ended up dropping them today. I missed a deadline, albeit a small one, which I would never do if I was just doing school, but I made the quick decision to wait and maybe do classes for the second term starting in October. Right now, I have absolutely no support in my job and I’m juggling responsibilities meant for two skilled people by myself who is also new. It’s overwhelming and not leaving me much time to focus on anything else. Everything will eventually happen, it’s just not happening right now and I need to acknowledge that and realize it’s not even lack of time management, I literally have no time.

I also bought decor for my house and it’s making me very happy! A new plant, some new hangings, picture frames that I need to buy photos for. It’s making my apartment feel that much more homey. Now everything just needs to be actually hung up and not left lying against my wall in the corner... I’ve also for the most part confirmed I will be here for another year. After that I plan on buying, that is my goal and I’m hoping it works out.

So yeah, life has been happening. It feels like it’s been a whirlwind. I went home last weekend and it was super nice. I caught up with friends and had family time. It was just what I needed. It’s also been three months now since I put my dog down and it feels very surreal still. I have moments of weakness here and there and even on Friday, I was in an area where these two women were talking about one’s dog who has Alzheimer’s and she was saying how she didn’t expect it to be so soon, and she wasn’t ready. I was in such close proximity that I could have chimed in, but the thought of bringing up my own personal experience made my throat close up. While it’s been three months, it’s also only been three months and the wound is still sore and probably will be for awhile. I think happy memories of my girl, but they’re bittersweet and sometimes still leave me a bit more sad than happy.

I’m excited for fall to start arriving. We’ve had insane heat and fires here in California, which in the grand scheme of everything going on in the world is pretty insane. Hurricanes and earthquakes and massive flooding in other parts of the world, can’t deny that mother nature is a force to be reckoned with. I wish I could do more than donate to reputable source, but at the very least I do hope the funds donated provide on the ground relief.

Goals as we get closer and closer to the end of 2018:

Continue with my weight loss and keep at it. Figure out plans for the next position I want to be in. Continue reconnecting with people. Take real estate classes and pass them.

#personal #fitness #life #adulting

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