Fast Fish looks like a cross between a Dodge Viper and a Ford Mustang. It looks so futuristic it could be mistaken for a new Batmobile if it were painted black! Since our comic would be focusing on stock cars, I don’t know how we could incorporate Fast Fish inside, but its metallic body and red rims definitely earn it a place somewhere in the story.

Check out the engine of this mean machine.

This Toyota Celica is modified for use in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, an American racing event.

I found a pretty rare Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X by Hot Wheels a few weeks back - I was at Takashimaya just when the Hot Wheels rack was being re-stocked. As you can see in the photographs below, it is not as detailed as the Tomica model, but still a beauty to look at.

The Tomica model definitely is the better-looking model, and comes with suspension and working doors!

One of the rarest Matchbox cars to be found is the Porsche 911 GT3.

And finally, my $3000 baby - a Hot Wheels Ferrari FXX. It’s worth so much because I traveled all the way to Tokyo to get it. The funny thing is, the Japanese hang all these awesome HW models on the racks and it seems like they’ve never been touched before. Here in Singapore the good models get snapped up by those idiots who are only interested in selling them away for profit, aka scalpers. You wouldn’t want to introduce a scalper to me.

The most powerful Ferrari yet, the FXX is an experimental model based on the Ferrari Enzo.

The last post was in April. Hoho. I’m really sorry that we have been unable to produce the introduction page of the comic even with the numerous delays. I guess we overestimated the amount of free time we had.

Over the holidays we were able to get some good hauls, thanks to a Robinsons Hot Wheels Fair held at Raffles City in June. Photos would be posted up over the course of this week. Oh and may I add, I have a new camera - a Canon Digital Ixus 860 IS bought at Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku. The camera store was just two streets away from my hotel. Awesome! And the baby only cost me SGD360 when it costs $599 here in Singapore, although it doesn’t come with international warranty. But who cares?

Anyway Prelims will be in 8 weeks time and then the ‘A’ Levels in another 9 weeks or so. Therefore don’t expect to see any major updates to this site until the exams are over. Sorry about causing the long wait, but once the ‘A’s are done we have all the time to ourselves already. Do continue to support us and we will deliver in the not-so-far future.

I finally found some time this afternoon to hunt for cars and I initially wanted to look for Hot Wheels but seems like whatever Singapore has at the moment has been snapped up by the more enthusiastic collectors, so I got this Tomica Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X instead.

The first time I saw the car on the local roads, I thought it looked ugly. However the more I see them ( seems like it has become popular with Singaporeans ) the more I appreciate its aggressive look. To me it is the perfect design for a Japanese street racer.

Now I can’t wait for Tomica to release the new Nissan GT-R, which has often been compared with the above car in various automotive magazines.

By the way I will be visiting Tokyo for a few days in late May and I’m planning to hunt for some old discontinued Tomica models like the Nissan Skyline undercover police car, and also Hot Wheels models which seem to be more common than rare. I think I will also get a new digital camera - I’ve got my eyes set on the new Canon Ixus 970IS which costs $669 SGD here while at Yodobashi it only costs slightly more than $400, though it does not come with warranty but who cares? I don’t need to pay $200 for my camera to be covered, which again rarely breaks down compared to other electronics. Hopefully I’m allowed to bring my laptop so that I can blog during my time in Japan - I will definitely take some on-location shots. Hint hint?

It’s been a while since we’ve last updated the site, and we deeply regret the failure to complete our proposed comic by the deadline. We underestimated the requirements of Year 2 students at a reputed junior college and thus have not been able to find time to continue from where we left off since we last posted here.

But we are still passionate about the project which is definitely not dead, just stalled for the moment as we gear ourselves for the upcoming National Schools Tenpin Bowling Championships A Division which begins next week and also the next Common Test which is 2 months away. There is still hope that we could achieve something during the June holidays, so do check back next month to see what surprises we have in store for you. In the meantime, here are some cars which I had found over the last 3 months. Not many, but pretty interesting models.

This Audi R8 is a Matchbox 2007 model which I had been hunting since December last year and I finally lay my hands on it late last month.

A BMW 3 Series sedan by Action City. The company recently had a refurbished look for its new line-up and has released many decent-looking licensed cars in the past months.

The old version of the BMW M3, a performance version of the 3 Series, by Action City. Most likely the E46 model, similar to the M3 GTR used in the Need for Speed: Most Wanted video game.

The BMW 6 Series Coupe ( Action City ) which has often been labelled as a Aston Martin or Jaguar XK wannabe.

That’s all the photos for now. With the new 2008 Hot Wheels and Matchbox series hitting our stores very soon, be sure to see more exciting cars on the site during May-June. Hope to post here again soon!

Sorry everyone, but due to the unforseen hectic schedule which saw both producers participating in the NTU Invitational bowling competition over this weekend, we will not be able to meet the originally planned release date of end December. We will put work into fifth gear once we are done with the competition and hope to publish the introduction to our comic by the 2nd week of January. Thank you for your understanding.

As the countdown to our release continues, here is another teaser which I did yesterday, which has also become the current header picture of the site. But since it is a crop, I’ve decided to do an actual header when I have time.

Click on the image for a larger version:

EDIT: Here is another teaser, actually done right after the one above but edited again today because of some effects which didn’t quite work out:

Heeding advice from a few Netizens, the team has decided to avoid getting ourselves entangled in copyright infringement issues and change the title of the comic. “Legal but Lethal” ( excuse the pun ) will be the new name which describes the stock car storyline.

A statement released by mortifiedpenguin earlier today:

“As the head developer of the project, I hereby announce that the team behind “Need for Speed : The Comic” has decided to change the title of the comic to “Legal but Lethal”. This move was done following the suggestions by a few GameAxis forum users where the comic’s publicity was being spread. The team agrees that the original “Need for Speed” title, despite being a piece of fan-work, may still be a trademark infringement as the title is already registered under Electronic Arts. It must be noted that Electronic Arts have never contacted us regarding this issue and this move was solely based on our judgement. On behalf of the team, I hope that “Legal but Lethal” will still continue to attract viewers and fans. The domain of the blog will remain as it is deemed not a risk towards copyright infringement.”

While we are still waiting for potential actors to audition for the roles mentioned in the post below, here is a teaser for the comic. This ( except for the title which was edited ) was done before the decision to change the title was made, and thus it may not accurately represent the title. However, Need for Speed fans may notice the similarity between the car featured and the iconic BMW M3 GTR from Most Wanted. Click on the picture for the enlarged 1200 X 897 version.

Please sign up for the photo shoot if you’re interested. Thank you.

The storyline for the introduction to the comic has more or less been finalised with the exception of the storyboards which will give us a rough idea on what camera angles to take.

We are now conducting auditions for the photo-shoots of the characters involved in the introduction.. Yes we have decided to use real human characters because currently we are experiencing problems with drawing ( ie lack of manpower ). Below are the list of characters and dress code requirements.

1. Protagonist - male street racer dressed in T-shirt. Jacket and cap are optional but preferable.
2. Main character - male street racer dressed in collar shirt.
3. Side character - male police detective dressed in black shirt and ( if possible ) black jacket.

If you are signing up to be cast as either of the main characters, please make sure that your schedule can accommodate future photo shoots next year as your character will be featured prominently. The police detective character will reappear but not so soon.

To be auditioned send in a photo of yourself in the stated outfit. Please make sure that your face can be seen clearly. Multiple angle shots are very much welcome. Send in your entries to rottersint@gmail.com. Open to Singaporeans aged 17-30 only.

We are also looking to borrow a car as we will be conducting our photo shoots in the driver’s seat.

EDIT ( 16th Dec ) : Some people have asked us regarding the roles of the above characters. We do not wish to disclose full details before we finalise our comic, but here’s a rough idea on who you might be acting as. Names and locations have been withheld as of yet.

1. Protagonist - a street racer who has just entered a new city. He used to be number one in his hometown but is too used to the heavily-modified rides.
2. Main Character - the best street racer in the city and has only been beaten twice.
3. Police detective - serves in the protagonist’s hometown and was in-charge of the failed operation to arrest him, allowing him to escape.

Please audition for the roles now as we really need to get things started so that we can meet our deadline.

This is my first attempt at trying out the editing software for the comic. Note that this is only a test picture and not a real frame for the comic. I used Ulead Photo Express 3.0 SE to crop out the picture of the Honda Civic taken from an earlier photo shoot. I can’t afford PhotoShop and although my software is not as professional as Adobe’s, I’m pretty satisfied with its tracing capabilities.

As you can see, the edges have not been trimmed and the back of the car has been slightly cut off. But this is just a rough experiment and better graphics will be posted next time.

EDIT ( 16th Dec ) : I was experimenting with effects in Photo Express. This could possibly be how our comic frames will look like as we want to reduce the generic photo look.

Watercolour:

Sharpness: