monoqlo

Monoqlo (家電批評 monoqlo) is a new monokei magazine that hit the shelves of convenience stores and bookshops throughout Japan (and available at #''#4883806561,monoqlo,Amazon#''#).
In this case, "monokei" refers to mags like Best Gear, Mono Magazine and Begin which cover electronic gadgets and other "cool" stuff.
I have been asked to write for monoqlo and the first edition contains my article on one of my favorite subjects...

Which is figures! ^^;

Unlike most of the other monokei magazines which only tell you how good a product is, monoqlo takes a different approach and endeavors to help consumers by telling them the truth. If a product is crap, monoqlo will say so. Monoqlo also gives pointers on what consumers should look out for when buying a particular product. Also covered are things like why X is so expensive and Y is so cheap.

My first article is about things that newbie figure buyers should look out for like gloss paint used on hair (ugh), glue between the seams (double ugh), gaps between joints (...), bad paintwork and most importantly, if the figure has a skirt - it must have cast off ability ^^;

Am planning on talking about the different types of figures available in the next issue.

An example of a spread giving you details on what you should look out for when considering buying a projector.
Other monokei mags just end up having a ton of projectors with good things written about all of them.

Info on SLRs. Monoqlo gives you pointers on what you can ask shop assistants to see whether you can trust them or not. While some shop assistants in Japan know what they are talking about (and hence give you good advice), some other shop assistants have not a clue what they are talking about (where you should promptly walk away). The worst shop assistants are in Sakuraya and Bic Camera - a bunch of lazy students.

This edition of Monoqlo also covers the dodgy batch of NDS that are out. The screens are yelowish and blur when scrolling. The lot number to beware of starts with UJH.