Showing posts with label proxy bidding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label proxy bidding. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Belated Updates Part 1

For whatever reason (usually a combination of procrastination & knowing that not many people read this), I'll take pictures of stuff that I get, but not post them for a long time. In the last month or so I've gotten lotsa little one-item packages & posted em, but I didn't post the more elaborate shipment I got from my proxy bidding service. So here comes the backlog:



In Japan, the Morinaga candy/food company has a mascot Kyoro-chan that I love a lot. Somehow through random searching I found a series of "Campaign Presents" (i.e. - contest prizes) that you'd collect points from Morinaga items to enter with.
These are called Omocha no Kanzume, or, おもちゃの缶詰, which essentially means "toys packed in cans". They go back several years, and they span from cheap plastic toys packed in metal bins of different shapes, to what you see here.
This one is a wind-up music box featuring several Kyoro-chan, dressed up like various musician-in-an-orchestra stereotypes. It plays the Kyoro-chan/Morinaga theme
Close-up




Bleach Netsuke Gashapon, Ichigo & Kon
Bleach Netsuke Gashapon, Hitsugaya, Byakuya & Rukia
More Bleach Netsuke Gashapon, (my first Mayuri figure)
Bleach Soul Ring Swing Gashapon
Bleach Soul Ring Swing Gashapon (again)
Reimu Hakurei Touhou Nendo
Reimu Hakurei Touhou Nendo
Sakuya Izayoi Touhou Nendo
Sakuya Izayoi Touhou Nendo
Marisa Kirisame Touhou Nendo
Marisa Kirisame Touhou Nendo
Touhou Project Puchi Nendo Set 1
And again.
Touhou Project Puchi Nendo Set 1
Another Kanzume, from 2001
Closed up
Opened. When you turn the switch on, the column lights up with a pattern, the Kyoros whirl & dance & it plays music
A spring-loaded Kyoro-Ball candy box, kinda like a variation on the snake in the peanut jar gag
Bought a bunch of random Kyoro stuff from one seller, this huge metal Kyoro Kanzume came with it. He's like 13 or 14 inches tall, he's huge!
Touhou badges that Toranoana threw in with the box of figures you see below.
Toranoana Touhou figures, they were a lot bigger than I thought they would be, and they're very cute!
Another Kanzume, the latest, in fact. I bought it for the chest, the contents were kinda crappy, lol
Another Kanzume, the latest, in fact. I bought it for the chest, the contents were kinda crappy, lol
Another Kanzume, the latest, in fact. I bought it for the chest, the contents were kinda crappy, lol
More Kyoro stuff I bought en masse from one seller
A full set of Bleach Soundrop Gashapon
A really cool Keroro Cuckoo Clock. I was disappointed to see that Keroro only weaves back & forth & doesn't come out on the hour or anything, but still really cool nonetheless.
Had to create a shelf just for all of the new Touhou stuff!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

This Week's Mighty Haul










Decent-sized haul this past week (as in last Mon-Fri, I've been meaning to write this since Friday). I ended up with two proxy service packages in the same week, which is a first for me. I've ceased proxy bidding as of this week, it is waaaaay too expensive. I don't necessarily like posting how much I spent on stuff on here because I think it's rude. Dot dot dot, but for example, I got a new Monster Hunter shirt (difficult franchise, awesome merchandising) and special Puchi Nendoroids that came with a Japanese DS game called Cross of Venus, it's a collaborative (RPG) effort between all/most of Dengeki's mangaka. No matter who you go with it's generally fairly expensive to import something "middle of the road" -- like $15-$75 -- and this case was no exception. For this $30 shirt and $60 set of 'droids it was $164 after all was said and done. That's $74 for fees and shipping in case you weren't counting. That said, I don't dislike or think that these services are a ripoff. They're performing a service that would otherwise be nearly impossible unless you have friends or family in Japan that you're willing to bother, so I think they're entitled to their fair share. I just happen to think that the fees outweight the importance of what I'm getting at this point and I need to just cool it till I make it back to Japan or make more money or hopefully both. I also think that I'm going to let my existing pre-orders run out and just be a grown up (that has impulse control) and wait until I make a respectable amount of money and have my feet on the ground before I buy anything else that isn't a life essential.

Now on to the haul. I keep slowly amassing modeling materials, and heard that Tamiya Putty was the best, so I grabbed a tube of that for 266yen when I was getting everything else from Hobby Search here. The other things that came from HS were a Nendoroid of Kyouka Midarezaki from Kyouran Kazoku Nikki (or Diary of a Crazed Family), Kanzaki Kaori from To Aru Majutsu no Index by Kotobukiya, 1/100 HG Aile Strike Gundam to begin my Gunpla modeling and two Keropla models Garuru and Musha Keroro. Then from Goody Japan came my long-awaited Mama Chapp doll (yeah I totally bought a doll, shut up ^^;). And then from Shopping Mall Japan came the aforementioned Cross of Venus omake Puchi Nendoroids and a really awesome Monster Hunter shirt. In retrospect I sorta wish I would've passed on the 'droid of Kyouka-san and gotten Kotobukiya's Index figure. I may do that this week, depending on how the wind blows (i.e. - how my auctions go). I also have 3 occasions this month where I need to buy gifts, including one that's belated that I haven't forgotten about but still need to get something for. Luckily either people don't like Kotobukiya's sculpts or To Aru Index isn't a popular series (which is honestly not the case) because both Index (released in October of last year) and Kanzaki (released in Jan or Feb of this year) were still in stock as of this writing.

As far as this blog is concerned and how cessation of purchases will affect it, only time will tell. Most of my posts are either centered around "I got this today," or dealing with Company X that screwed me on shipping, or was a delight to deal with or whatever. But I have confidence that it'll continue in some form, fansubs and RAWs are still free, right? ^^;

Friday, April 24, 2009

Interesting Package Note

I really love that little tiger

So I got a package from Goody Japan yesterday that they apparently recycled from ToranoAna, whose mascot I love. So good on them -- twice! But that wasn't the best part. The best part was upon picking it up one of the first things I noticed was the fact that there was a post-it on the side with my "account name" on it from the website. Yes, a post-it, stuck with a narrow margin of adhesive versus regular paper made it from Japan aaaaaaaall the way to my post office intact. Call me "easily amused" but this made me smile. Perhaps it was the placebo effect of the ToranoAna mascot I can hang on my bulletin board. ^^;
napaJapan - candy, bento and more!