Guide 01. How to make Vulcan 300

Anyone that collects gundam robots will tell you that one must keep the boxes that they come in. So I keep all my gundam tools in my RX-78-2 box, all my extra runners and accessories in my Strike box but today I wondered what was in my Aegis box.

Opening it up I found that's where I stored my old Pocky boxes. Anyone that eats Japanese confectionery will tell you that one must keep the boxes that they come in. Okay, this is not true but before I explain myself, allow me to do a mini foodview about Pocky. By the way the pink strawberry pocky box was a rare find.

Taste : 1 out of 5 stars. These chocolate coated preztel sticks are too tiny to taste anything.

Value : 0 out of 5 stars. Too expensive for 10-12 sticks.

I rather spend my money on these.

From top to bottom : Cadbury's Brunch Bar Fruit & Nut and Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Bar Original.

and the mini foodview

Taste & Value for Cadbury's Brunch Bar Fruit & Nut : 3 out of 5 stars

Taste & Value for Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Bar Original : 1 out of 5 stars

The only reason why anybody including myself buys Pocky is because its from Japan. Yup, if you are fascinated or obsessed with all things Japanese, you will no doubt have put one of these in your mouth. Pocky can be purchased at all good asian grocery stores throughout Melbourne. Just beware of imitations and govras. I have tried the imitations (you can tell by the Thai writings on the package) and they are even worse than the original - the sticks all clumped together.

Now back to why I kept these boxes is because of Vulcan 300 from the manga, Konjiki no Gash Bell also known as Zatch Bell in America. I read this comic back in 2006, its one of a few comics that genuinely made me laughed hard and even shed a tear. It has been adapted into an animation or anime, here is one of the funniest scenes in the entire show. [Warning : Some may find the following scene very crude and offensive. Also you must be good at reading subtitles] Parco Folgore's song, Groping breast.

Vulcan 300 is a robot toy that one of the characters, Kiyomaro makes to keep another character, Gash company while he goes to school. You must click here to see what I'm talking about.

Now why would I want to make a Vulcan 300? Well, its so cute, tell me who wouldn't want to carry Vulcan 300 in their hand walking around town? Even manly-type men especially the muscular ones should be entitled to like certain cute things.

Now let's make a Vulcan 300.

What you will need

- Rubber bands

- Skinny circular type disposable chopsticks (if you are brave enough you can ask for one of these from all good asian restaurants that does take-away or just snatch them whilst paying your bill)

- An original Pocky box

- Scissors

- Knife

- Black Gundam marker

- Some knowlegdge of Japanese writing, Hiragana and Katakana

Now write and draw as above on the box with a black marker. The first three characters are katakana, 'Ba', 'Ru' 'Ka' and the last character is hiragana, 'N' (pronounced as nnn like "mmm, I love pocky"). These characters put together have no meaning to them but when you say them together, they sound like the word 'Vu-l-can'. The '300' doesnt show up well against the chocolate sticks, lol.

Now with a knife or scissors, make slits or cut a hole to poke through the chopsticks on the sides of the box for his hands and

at the bottom for his feet. As you can see from the expiry date, that's when I stored them in the Aegis box.

Then cut the chopsticks in half with a knife

Next is to tie the rubber bands right at the tips. While never explained in the comic, I found that this is the best way to hold the chopsticks in place yet gives the robot articulation.

Now poke through all the chopsticks in the slits/holes and you have just made your very first Vulcan 300 robot!

Specifications of the robot as per comic

- Vulcan 300 is a friend that will always give you company and even brings you luck.

- Vulcan 300's age is dependent on how fast you can make it, mine is 7 minutes old.

- He can launch up to 300 air missiles

- Vulcan 300 has a hyper body made of confectionery box and disposable chopsticks

- For the ladies, you can use Vulcan 300 as a handbag to safely store your items like handphone. Louis Vutton? Who is that?