Loaded Up With Loot!

The loot gods have smiled upon me! I'll order stuff on different days, from different places and don't get anything for a few weeks, and then bam, I get three packages in one day. Yesterday I got my Biribiri back. Robert's Corner Ripoff Store tried to give me some story about how they had a "powwow" (their word not mine) with the staff about what to do about the figure after 2 weeks of being incommunicado with me. This response happened a day after I filed a Paypal complaint about them, luckily I had the foresight to use Paypal as I'd never dealt with them before. What a coincidence that they FINALLY contacted me a day after I threatened them! At any rate, they amicably gave me my ducats back and amazingly enough I found this sold-out-everywhere figure at frigging Amazon of all places the day before I got the refund issued. So I got her for $4 less than what I paid at RCAS, and guess what?! They were wrong! The orange missing paint spot on the original figure I got that RCAS claims was where they pulled her from the runner? Not one paint spot, scuff or other marking on this new one.

So with Misaka Misaka <3 Axis Powers Hetalia figures and finally a box of Gurren Lagann Fortune Club (aka - Chara Fortune) "The Start of a Journey, Believe in You Who Believes in Fortune Telling" (笑).

A perfect sculpt if I do say so myself!

She is goth punk, it just seems kinda funny in the world of Zero no Tsukaima. She's adorable, and this is the best sculpt of Louise I've seen since bustier version that I purchased many moons ago which was also made by - surprise - Alter!

Biribiri makes her triumphant return!

Misaka-san again, a generic pic. Many more pics of the previous version here. Still waiting on 1/8 Index from HLJ to complete my Kotobukiya To Aru Majutsu no Index collection. I didn't really like that Misaka and MISAKA set that Chara-ani produced. The paint transfer of their eyes and mouths looks way flat and 2-D, and Misaka's hair looks lopsided. Also, what's up with not making male figures? I'd love to have a figure of Touma, and Himegami. Can't wait for To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun)!

When I was shooting this France kept falling over =P

まる書いて地球・・・

The Hetalia box was awesome, it looked like a package that was tied with twine that was shipped to the US from Japan. I'm such a whore for packaging, and this one had some nice imagery, or　映像 eizou in Japanese. The packaging for collectible figures in blind boxes is usually very visually appealing because they're used as POP advertising displays, and they need fancy colors and eye-catching imagery to draw peoples' interest so they can justify spending 714yen on one of these. =P As for the figures, the main characters or anthropomorphized countries are all represented here. You'll probably notice that all of them have a base with a metal rod peeking up over the characters' heads. Every figure has a magnet in its head and it stands by sticking to the pole. They can be posed by moving the ball-joint in their neck to move their body around to the place/position you want it. This is the first time I've seen something like this. I don't know how much I like it, but I don't hate it. Though I'll admit, the metal rod is kind of obtrusive, I like the other ball-on-a-stick things you put into the back of other figures, to keep them standing.

グレンラガンの塊

"Believe in you who believes in fortune telling"

Last but certainly not least, my obsession, Chara Fortune. In this case it's Gurren Lagann. These are fairly expensive for a box, but 24 come in a box and there are only 12 to collect, so I buy a box and recoop over half of what I spent by selling the other 12. The first sets of Chara Fortune used to have paper fortunes packed with them. Since last year they've been giving each figure a "serif plate" with a category of "luck" (i.e. - Money, Health, Love) on one side and then a saying/advice pertaining to that category on the other. Usually worded in the way that that character speaks. In this box they introduced a "lucky character", the series' mascot Boota, that comes randomly included in each box. In my box there were 2 Boota included with the 2 Enkis (Viral's mecha) that were in there. These are really cute, as all Chara Fortune sets tend to be, but I don't keep them as keychains. I take those off and then glue them to plastic that I take from window boxes (in this case I took one of the panels from Louise's box) and make stands out of them so that they all stand up. I'll take a photo later of what exactly I'm talking about. The box for these was great, too. The boxes for all of this series that I've gotten so far have had no shortage of unrepititious artwork for the reason I said above. I've taken a generous amount of pics of this box, as well. This series goes the extra mile, too, in including a "box purchase only" figure in their last few sets. It's a specific figure I'm guessing that retailers are supposed to display with the box in its POP display form to entice people, because it just comes in clear plastic taped to the cover of the box, no package with a UPC or anything. This time it was a 3rd version of Kamina with his trademark sunglasses on. When I bought the D Gray Man box, it had a special Allen Walker in an envelope marked "NOT FOR SALE" taped to the inside of the box.

All in all I'm pretty satisfied with this week's haul, though I have yet to get 1/8 Koto Index, Nendoroid Louise and Nendoroid Neuro Nougami (on sale! yeah buddy!) from HLJ due to Golden Week. It should be shipping within the day, but I'm in no hurry. I'm playing Monster Hunter. ~_^