Loots Backlog

Apologies for the delay in this week’s post, I know you all wait with bated breath. Been crazy busy the last week with maid café and other stuff that I haven’t gotten a chance to go through all the pictures I’ve taken recently. So here is a quick post of some of my favorite loots over the past year or so.

This is a pretty old picture of loots received during December of 2010. Since Thanksgiving is at the end of November, many of these items came in from Black Friday sales. There are loots from Toyslogic, Hobbyfan, Yahoo!Japan Auctions, and fellow MyFigureCollection.net (MFC, aka Tsuki-Board) members here!

Here is an e2046 Gathering version of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu)’s Yuki Nagato with a guitar and Kyon’s cat Shamisen. Gathering is basically a series of pre-painted and assembled recast garage kits. I’d wanted this figure for quite a while, and managed to get her off a fellow figure.fm/MFC member. Too bad almost all the keys are broken off the guitar. TT__TT

I went pretty crazy with the Yahoo!Japan Auctions (Y!JA) for a while, and got busy trying to collect figures that either came out before I started collecting or never really made their way stateside for whatever reason. I love Mai-HiME (My-Hime), Mahoromatic, Ichigo Mashimaro (Strawberry Marshmallow), and Midori no Hibi (Midori Days), so I bid like crazy! (That Misora Lucy Maria from To Heart 2 is there just because I thought she was cute, lol.)

Yeah, I bid super crazy. xD;; That Midori is actually slightly different than the one in the previous picture. This one was an exclusive release and has a different tie! I also still have not seen any of the Fate series, but I love Rider’s character design. I actually wound up selling this Maid Hallucination version of her, though; the offer was too good to pass up! I’ll have to track her down again at some point. The Misato Katsuragi from Neon Genesis Evangelion was one I hadn’t seen before and wasn’t even in the MFC database. While they make tons of Rei and Asuka figures, I can never really seem to find decent ones of Misato, who is waifu #1 from the TV series.

Ah, this one was a trade with my friend hiro4 on MFC. If you wonder where my R.O.D figures went, you’ll have to ask him. At this point I still wasn’t calling myself a Nendo collector, though I think it may’ve been obvious to everyone else. ^^; Shizuru Fujino in any form is awesome, so I had to get this hard-to-find Shizuru Viola blind-box trading figure from Mai-Otome (My-Otome), and I also love love LOVE Gunbuster and was sad I never got the exclusive DVDs and whatnot from dot-anime.us before they closed. TAT

More Y!JA damage and some figures from a figure.fm user who was selling on eBay. I love Noizi Ito, which is really the only reason I got the Peace@Pieces figures here and in the first picture. I also love large-scale figures, which is why I’d wanted that 1/5 Majikina Mina from Samurai Spirits. I don’t know anything about the character, though. Is she some kind of little person? ’Cause that’s a really small 1/5. *facepalm* I also finally got the complete set of Mahoro phone straps and another Midori (with a different face)! At least I know the 1/1 Midoris are supposed to be that small. :p

Wait, I’m only in April of 2011? lol I picked these up during one of Maridah’s visits to the area. We ran around to a Book Off, where my friend Dancing Queen saw the Noizi Ito/Shakugan no Shana artbook, and Marukai, where I got a box of my favorite snacks. :9 The next day I checked out the Cherry Blossom Festival where a vendor was blowing out his items for half off. When I asked to check the price on the Death Note manga box set (it was marked at $80), the vendor realized it was just manga and not DVDs. He sold the 14-volume set to me for $10. xD

May 2011 held a sad day for English-language manga readers in the USA as Tokyopop finally closed its US division. The closing sale started on a Saturday morning at 9am, and I got there a little after 10am. This, of course, meant I was in the last group of people allowed up. :/ Ah, well. I was able to get some complete sets of manga that looked interesting (including the great Dramacon and the not-so-captivating President Dad), some 24 graphic novels (I LOVE 24!), some awesome poster frames, and a bunch of free stickers! Luckily one of my friends was also there, since I couldn’t lug all this stuff down to my car by myself! <3

Some loots came in from Y!JA after I got back from FanimeCon 2011. Even though there were relatively few items, the damage was still pretty painful due to the final Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou (The Extravaganza of Haruhi Suzumiya) figure I needed to complete the set and the limited Midori figure. I’d also finished Toradora! by this point, and it’s one of my all-time favorites now. Not sure why I went with all timepieces this time; maybe it was subliminal, lol. The Haruhiko Mikimoto book Movement was a steal at 600yen! Robotech (based, of course, on Macross) was my gateway anime and he also designed the characters for Gunbuster, so of course I had to get it.

More Toradora! and Gunbuster stuff from Y!JA (that’s a lot of exclamation points, lol; even more if I go with the Japanese title of Toppu wo nerae! for Gunbuster ^^ ). Couldn’t decide which listing for the Gunbuster storyboard books was better, so I decided to get both. xD;; Doubled up on the Puchi Nendos just b/c they were on the cheap side and from the same seller so shipping (at least domestically) was cheaper by combining them. I also went ahead and got the Gunbuster LaserDisc (anyone else know what those even are?) box set even though I don’t have a player, and finally tracked down Gunbuster’s Noriko Takaya by Kotobukiya (one of my highest want figures). I could’ve gotten her years ago locally for around $50 but at the time I thought that was a lot to pay for a figure. :/ I also found an exclusive Aisaka Taiga Nendo Petit, which was being sold with a Toradora! clock. A Mahoromatic CD/DVD set (which hopefully isn’t a bootleg) and another Mai-HiME Shizuru figure (the others from the set were incidental, ha ha) rounded out the shipment.

Toward the end of the summer I found out about an anime swap meet on Facebook. It was kind of a bust and a rather long hike, but to make it worth the trip I bought the two pencil boards/shitajiki and a fan. I do like Lucky Star (Kagamin is another one of mai waifus, lol) and I love K-ON! I also couldn’t pass up more Noizi Ito art. Not bad for $3!

I’d started slowing my Y!JA purchases by this point, I think, since I’d finally started calculating how much they were actually costing me. DX But, I finally found a sealed Ichigo Mashimaro PlayStation 2 game with the exclusive figure, and it came with the poster and book, too! I think it may’ve even wound up being cheaper than the PS2 figure alone in the second photo. And no, I don’t have a console system. :I I’d also been eyeing the Toradora! Beach Queens series but really wanted the Dengeki Daioh exclusive versions. I’d given up on finding a complete set, so I thought I’d buy them individually, and this Taiga was the first to come in.

I don’t generally buy ecchi figures (or figures from Orchid Seed), but after I saw the Super Sonico my friend ddh4mster had ordered for a friend of his I knew I needed to get her! Of course, she was sold out everywhere and I would have preferred the red one, but beggars can’t be choosers. I got her off of figure.fm for a decent price. She’s gorgeous! My little cousin recently came over and saw her, though. She noted that Sonico didn’t have a shirt and asked me if that was gross. ^^;;

This was prolly my last Y!JA shipment. I managed to get a set of Toradora! Beach Queens, but only Taiga and Minori were the exclusive versions. I figured the price was cheap enough I could resell the regular version of Ami. Look for her soon. ^^; Finally, I was able to get a complete set but the listing said they may have been used. I can’t remember if they actually were, but I think I was just going to mix and match if they were, lol. I’d also been looking for the Natsuki Kruger figure to pair up with my Shizuru Viola. The Nina Wang was extra, since I can’t actually stand most of the Mai-Otome characters. :p The listing said they were new, but they weren’t. Unfortunately, by the time items make it overseas from Japan the time period for complaining is pretty much over.

More recently, I got this “Looks Like Rain” Walt Disney Classics Collection figure from an eBay seller in Canada. Most WDCC figures are very expensive, as they’re made from porcelain and come from Disney. :p But even with international shipping, the price was reasonable and the figure is larger than I’d expected. Donald Duck is my favorite of the Fab Five and this piece inspired by Fantasia 2000 also includes Daisy and some non-anthropomorphized ducks and mice. xD I’ve always enjoyed the “Pomp and Circumstance Marches” and the segment of the film that featured them was prolly my favorite as well.

This artist’s proof acrylic statue is the newest addition to my The Little Mermaid collection, and quite the possibly rarest and most expensive! Entitled “Worlds Apart” and sculpted by Lars Loma, it features Prince Eric above-ground looking at Ariel under the sea. I’d never seen one of these before and information is scanty, but I believe it originally retailed for $2500! :O Of course, I don’t think I could ever spend that much on something that didn’t have wheels or a roof, so I paid much, much less. It’s gorgeous, though, and quite large. It was taller than my lightbox, hence the weird angle I had to use!

I do spend my money on other things and even though I don’t have much time to read, I can’t pass up a good deal. These books cost about $16 shipped! A schoolteacher friend of mine recommended Laurence Yep, a Newberry Award-winning writer who writes stories with Asian-American characters and themes, so I thought I’d give him a try. I have a few of his other books so I will need to find some time to read them. I already have the first Haruhi book, and I’m hoping the place I got these from will have the others so I can continue the series, since I don’t really like reading things out of order.

This Black Gothic Lolita version of Ikki Tousen‘s Kan’u Unchou by Uart is the most recent figure purchase I made. Even though I’ve never watched the show or read the manga, I’d been looking for her for a while. She popped up on figure.fm a few weeks back as part of a set, but it was only just recently that the seller decided to sell them individually so I jumped! She’s great and I love the colors. If I have time, I might put together a review since I haven’t done one of those in a while. ^^;

This isn’t everything I got over the past year, obviously. There were loots from Fanime, AX, D23, and whatnot along with Christmas gifts and other stuff. Expect to see some of the duplicates up for sale soon! And yeah, this wound up not being a very quick post. xD;;

Anime LA 8

First con of 2012, held on the first full weekend of January, was Anime Los Angeles and it was awesome sauce! It’s a small con (less than 5000 attendees), but it’s mainly about hanging out with friends!

I totally missed the Disney Cosplay Gathering. -_-; Of course, I did show up like at 3pm, lol. I found my friends Nos and Radiio, who had never been to ALA before, and we eventually made it over to the pool deck, where most of the cosplay gatherings are held.

I did catch a little bit of the Mortal Kombat one, though! These guys must’ve been crazy cold! :O

There was a photog nearby running an Ariel and Eric photoshoot and he graciously let me take some shots!

I have to admit that in all the cons I’ve been to, including D23 Expo, I don’t ever remember seeing an Eric nor this version of Ariel!

Mermaid ahoy! Not sure if this was from a particular series, but she was swimming around in the pool like it was a normal thing to do, lol.

I actually spent most of Saturday afternoon with Nos and Radiio, whom I met at AX11! We were just goofing around and I was randomly taking pictures; this one magically came in in-focus and everything. It represents all the fun times I got to have with friends at this con! ♥

… such as this epic duel between Misato from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Vash the Stampede from Trigun! Of course, it never fails — when I get an idea and start shooting, somebody will always come in and nuke my shots. :/

Cheated this one by cropping a bit, but everything’s better in widescreen.

Caught a little bit of the Homestuck Gathering. It was huge! I had no idea what Homestuck even was until I read an article about Homestuck fans throwing things at people. Dx

We hung around the little patch of grass in front of the hotel, where it seems like everyone was doing photoshoots! Of course, we did one, too. xD Post coming soon! (EDIT: Post here!)

Ran into my friend Aoi Mizuno, who was cosplaying Kuroneko from Oreimo! So bummed I didn’t get to see Sai Rei, though. In fact, I didn’t get to see her all con. :<

Snuck this shot of a Celty (Durarara!!) cosplayer while hanging out. I didn’t have a badge this time so I wound up being a creeper most of the con, fufufu.

Finally got to see Super Saki, who is cosplaying PMX’s mascot! Wish I’d been able to get a better shot of her Jolly Roger guitar pick earrings; they were awesome!

Gekisou/Extravaganza versions of Yuki Nagato and Haruhi Suzumiya! Too bad there was no Mikuru… or Kyon or Itsuki or Tsuruya. (Mmm… Tsuruya…)

Another Kim Possible at an anime con! Hasn’t the series been off the air for a while? This is the second Kim I’ve seen at the second con in a row (the first was at PMX 2011). Not that I’m complaining, I love Kim Possible! Glad to see her getting some cosplay love!

I don’t think you want to sit on that chair… your ass might belong to Kyubey afterwards! I love that ALA has all these cool benches kicking around for you to lounge about on. And even though I’ve been spoiled, I still want to watch Puella Magi Madoka Magica!

For Sunday, I convinced my friend sanitynevermore to drive up and hang out. While we were upstairs, I interrupted the conversation to take this picture of Meltdown Rin, lol. You can’t blame me, this was an awesome rendition!

Later on, I managed to find Aoi, who was in the middle of a mass photoshoot with seven other photographers! :O I saw Psylocke, who’s one of my favorite X-Men, so I had to run over and take a picture before she left. Aoi was like, “Where are you going??” (d’awww ♥ ) But she was being pew-pewed by much better photogs than I, so I think it was okay. Photos from that shoot coming soon also! (EDIT: Photos here!)

As the day wound down and I was waiting for my friend Star Cat, I was hanging outside Con Suite when I decided to take some shots of the lovely sky. Yes, photos of Star Cat coming soon also! xD (EDIT: Photos here!)

Loots from a con I didn’t get a badge to?? lol.. I won the Cosplay in America book in an OCAG raffle during AX11 and was finally able to pick it up at ALA. It’s signed by Ejen, and I’ll have to work on getting my friends Aoi and Maridah to sign it too, since they’re in it! ♥ Also got the ribbon from OCAG and oddly enough got the AX09 lanyard from the ALA Info Booth when Ashi-chan and I went over there to ask about a panel, lol.

Spent some quality time with folks I hadn't seen in a while, finally put some names and faces together, and even got to participate in a few multi-photog photoshoots (still have so much to learn orz )!

Be sure to check out the complete set of photos via the link below!

2012 01 07-08 Sat-Sun: Anime Los Angeles, Days 2-3

Christmas Geekation

Today is Singles Awareness Day in the United States, otherwise known as Valentine’s Day. But rather than remind you of how alone you are, I’m going to close out all the fun adventures I had in 2011 with a quick recap of my Christmas vacation and also a little tour of my room! ^_^

I went home for Christmas, as I usually do, and of course I am free to be thoroughly geeky there! I managed to take in a showing of Disney On Ice: Mickey & Minnie’s Amazing Journey. I used to go to Disney On Ice all the time as a kid. This time, my aunt had an extra ticket and invited me along. Of course, I took no stills during Ariel’s part b/c I was shooting video instead. xD

Some of my Christmas loots! The aunt who took me to Disney On Ice got me the Calvin and Hobbes × Back to the Future shirt and Snoopy plaque. It’s hard to tell if the aunt who gave me all the stuff in the top section is starting to run out of ideas or if she’s just mocking me now, since this is the second year in a row she got me mostly Ariel stuffs. In either case, I don’t really care b/c I love Ariel! ♥ My bad influence cousin got me Luka, and his sister got me the Donald shirt. The quote seemed pretty racy for a Disney item!

A run to Dunkin’ Donuts is always required if there’s one within a 50 mile radius! :9 I love Dunkin’s, especially Munchkins; too bad there aren’t any Dunkin’s on the west coast. :<

Welcome to my room! I’m not really a Goofy fan; this was actually the only poster I left behind when I moved, lol. I do love Snoopy, though! I need a quality figure of him.

Quick! Which Fab Five character and which Disney Princess do I love the most? xD;;

Here are a few of the things you’ll see on these shelves: There’s the dealer exclusive Walt Disney Classics Collection lead crystal promoting The Little Mermaid line of figures. Boxed up in the corner is an original Ariel artwork watch I got in Walt Disney World and a Scrooge McDuck watch I got for graduation. There’s also the very first Ariel doll by Tyco and Happy Meal toys from the original release! Scrooge was actually my favorite duck b/c I luffles DuckTales, so there are a few figures of him — yep, before I collected animu figurehs, I collected Disney ones! xD You can also see in the corner the Goofy that inspired/was inspired by the poster behind my door.

.. and I’m pretty sure those gumballs are no longer edible. xD;;

Cupboard full of treasures untold. Looky, Gunbuster and Witchblade trading cards along with LEGOs and Back to the Future Kids’ Meal toys!

More Ariels along with original and Powermaster Optimus Primes! I have a ridiculous number of TransFormers downstairs in our toy room and need to somehow bring them all back with me. xD;;

My first artbooks were Robotech ones, and I also took a class on Disney in school. Kids at heart may remember Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, while scholars will recognize the many many Cliffs and Monarch Notes. xD;;

Mirror, Mirror was one of my fave TOS episodes so I had to get The Next Generation‘s sequel. The Voyage Home was my favorite Star Trek film so that was another must-have tie-in. I also love the Back to the Future trilogy, but I never was able to track down the first film’s novelization.

Moar Ariel-related stuffs!

I somehow wound up with two sets of those Disney Channel TLM mugs! You can also barely see the comic adaptation of TLM on top of the binders and boxes.

Gambit is one of my favorite X-Men, but I haven’t been able to find decent action figures of two of my other favorites — Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler. :/

I used to want to be a Disney animator. You can barely make out the Ariel I drew on my shelf due to dusty. orz

Collectors Edition VHS sets, binders full of trading cards, and assorted CDs and artbooks! Yup, that’s the original VHS release of TLM and several volumes of the manga series Gon in the corner!

I told you I went to Disney On Ice a lot when I was a kid! I went so often that I became a Knight of the Magic Kingdom! xD

This Donald plushie is huge! He’s also ridiculously heavy! @_@ I included the full door to my closet so you could get a sense of scale.

I have tons of Ariel dolls so you’d think I’d have a Dollfie by now, but thankfully they don’t make an Ariel DD (yet)! … or even an Eliza Doolittle one; I love Audrey Hepburn and My Fair Lady is one of my favorites! xD And yup, that’s an original Megatron sitting on top of The Hunchback of Notre Dame‘s Quasimodo!

So many ZOIDS and LEGOs that need assembled! Need to lug them back with me at some point too.

I was once a captain in Starfleet! My one and only ever cosplay, unless you count the time I put on a yellow raincoat and called myself Doc Brown. xD

Desk drawer of Ariel and other goodies. Used to be a huge Sandra Bullock fan.

Drawer of action figures, mostly Witchblade and Natalie Portman. Yep, I also used to be a Natty P. fan; as you may have gathered, I don’t really like Star Wars. :p

It’s okay, you can admit my sheets are cooler than yours! I also have TLM sheets but my mom didn’t use them this time, bwaha.

Concluding the room tour by going under the bed! No dust bunnies, just more LEGOs!

While my room isn’t nearly as stuffed-to-the-gills as Dancing Queen’s, I also only spend one week out of the year here nowadays. Most of my things are either boxed up or on the other side of the country. Still, I do believe I have a crapton more of the original redhead’s stuff than DQ does. I once wanted to collect all things Ariel, but of course with the merchandising machine known as Disney involved, I soon realized it was an unattainable goal. :/

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this quick look into my 2011 holidays! Next week, it’s on to 2012 adventures!

Black Friday 2011 Reviews Part I: Local Loots Peddlers!

Happy 2012! Hope your holidays were festive! ^____^

Talky Tuesdays™ resume with some reviews of B&M/on-line stores! As you may remember from my posts here and here, I went on a bit of a spending spree during Thanksgiving weekend. ^^;

Pictured is everything I boughted! Of course, the Ui and Yuki nendos I’d wanted so much didn’t make it to me. :<

Here are the first things I did get my grubby little mitts on, since they were from an actual B&M: two pins I picked up at My-D Pins & Collectibles. My-D Pins is like an indoor swap meet/yard sale; people rent showcases and put their goodies in them, and then you buy their stuff! I took a ride down there on Small Business Saturday (11/26), when you could get a $25 statement credit just by buying $25 worth of merchandise at a small business with your American Express Card!

The Donald Duck pin is one of nine limited edition D23 pins released at D23 Expo 2011. They’re so limited, I didn’t even see them when I was at D23! The series has Donald dressed up as several different characters, but I couldn’t resist this pin of Donald cosplaying Aladdin because Donald is my favorite of the Fab Five and Aladdin is one of my favorite Disney movies! It doesn’t hurt that Aladdin was also designed by Glen Keane, who is Ariel’s designer as well. The Donald pin was on sale b/c the owner of the showcase was doing 15% off during Thanksgiving weekend, so I needed to get something else to get to the $25 minimum.

Wait, the Ariel pin wasn’t my first choice? :O Did I have too much turkey and the tryptophan affected my brain? Of course not! (I didn’t even have turkey on Thanksgiving! ._. ) I had seen The Little Mermaid pin the last time I was down there and I’d been considering it, but when I finally took a closer look this time, there was damage to the box and it was obvious that it had been used. Plus, the price had been marked up 25%! But I finally caved and picked up this limited edition pin as well. It comes with a reproduction of the artwork that the pin is based on, and Ariel is just too cute! Plus, with the $25 statement credit, the pin was technically free!

The people working at My-D Pins were great! They were friendly and helpful, and they seemed to be pretty knowledgeable as well. It really seems to be a fan-run shop, and there are many things here besides just Disney pins. Of course there is a crapton of Disneyana, both old and new, but there are also movie posters, TransFormers, action figures, and more! You should definitely check them out if you happen to be in the vicinity of Disneyland!

Okay, well, I prolly just bored you all with my Disney escapade, so on to the figures! Or, in this case, UFO prizes!

Toylet.net was blowing out lots of their accessories and UFO prizes. While I don’t usually go for those types of things, I couldn’t resist the Akira Kogami plushie, especially since there are so few figures of her! And Ritsu Tainaka is one of my waifus from K-ON! (Yui Hirasawa is the other) so I had to get the muffler towel. I was originally going to use it as an actual muffler/scarf but based on the material, I think SEGA intended the accent to be on the towel part. ^^;

Anyway, I ordered these items late Saturday night (technically the morning of Sunday 11/27) and I received the confirmation by e-mail immediately. However, since I selected local pick-up to save on shipping, I didn’t get an e-mail saying my order was ready until almost a week later, early Saturday 12/3. I replied that I would be by on the next business day, Monday 12/5, and was able to pick up my items without much fuss. Of course, I saw later that Toylet included these items in its eBay holiday auctions and they sold for way less than what I paid. :< Oh, well, that's the world of collecting for you!

After I got home, I found three packages waiting for me — the rest of my Black Friday/Thanksgiving Weekend purchases! Check back for my reviews of those retailers that had to ship their stuff to me! (EDIT: Find Part II here!)

Comikaze Expo 2011

During the first weekend of November, I checked out the first-ever Comikaze Expo, which bills itself as Los Angeles’ “first and only large-scale, multi-media pop culture convention.”

Comikaze’s mascot is an octopus. Wut? I guess each arm represents a different type of pop-culture nerdery it welcomes? Iunno, sometimes I read into things too much, lol.

I hadn’t gone to a comic con in years (and let’s face it, that’s pretty much what this was), so I’m a little out of touch with some of these cosplays. This is a grown-up Harry Potter, yeah?

Just kidding! I don’t watch Dr. Who but I at least know a Doctor (and a sonic screwdriver) when I see one.

Not really being in the loop led to a huge fail on my part here. I’m not normally a fan of body mods (piercings, tats, that sort of thing) nor am I really into steampunk, but fuhuggen shite this girl was gorgeous. Not being up on comics, I thought she was just a cosplayer manning the Nei Ruffino booth and only realized afterwards that she was Nei Ruffino. -_-;

What makes it worse is that I knew I recognized the name somewhere; turns out I have some of the stuff she’s worked on, her art is really nice, and I could’ve gotten some original art. OTL

As a consolation prize, I did get to use the Wayback Machine oodles and oodles. Lots of things from my childhood made an appearance, like the Baroness and the rest of Cobra’s finest!

Spy vs. Spy! I loved these guys as a kid. It’s amazing the hilarious and bloodthirsty stories you can tell without words!

Claudia Wells, Back to the Future‘s original (and best) Jennifer Parker, had a booth in the exhibit hall. I love BTTF, and I thought it was ironic that she was in aisle B8 (as in, the “B” could be taken as an “8″ in 1337, which makes it “88″, as in, “miles per hour”, as in — oh, forget it!).

There were also a few versions of waifu #1 Ariel around, and this one was my favorite! I chatted with her briefly and she was so nice, and she even noticed The Little Mermaid pins I had on my camera’s neck strap!

This couple was definitely the best thing I saw at the con! I love the original Jurassic Park, and they did a whole bit where the velociraptor stalked Game Warden Robert Muldoon. Later, she stole the Jeep and took it for a joyride. xD Check out the videos on my YouTube Channel!

While I do see a lot of crossplay at the anime cons and events I attend, I hardly ever see gender-bent ones like this Darth Vader! Crossplay involves guys dressing as female characters and vice versa, but gender-bent cosplays tend to take it a step further by re-imagining the original character as the opposite sex.

I’m prolly one of the few people who actually liked The Rocketeer movie, but I’m sure this version would make anyone a fan! Some of these gender-bending cosplays are obviously more nosebleed-inducing than others. xD

Despite the expected heavy comics presence, there were a few cosplays from the anime world! I think these were the first Fate/extra cosplays I’d ever seen anywhere. There are so many Fate series that I can’t keep them straight at all!

Though I did enjoy stalking cosplayers (bwaha), I went to the con mainly b/c some friends were going and b/c it was cheaper to get in than it was to park. :p And of course, there were other things to see! Here is a booth that was selling steampunk stuff. These glass heads were so cool!

Zombies are the “in” thing right now, and besides the Zombie Research Society, AberZombie & Flesh also had a booth. I would totally shop there before I shopped at the other A&F! :p

Here was a booth selling some Serenity stuff; I believe it was prints and art. It’s a show I still haven’t finished, unfortunately.

Besides Claudia Wells, there were other celebrities from great to small in attendance as well! Here’s model/cosplayer Jessica Nigri as Anya Stroud from Gears of War!

And here is Elvira, Mistress of the Dark! She was a Guest of Honor and this was apparently her last con appearance. I didn’t realize she had so many fans; there were tons of women dressed up as her!

Well, I suppose I should say a little something about the con itself. Holding the event in the LA Convention Center certainly says a lot about the high hopes the organizers had, and comparisons to the other major con held here during July 4th weekend certainly crossed my mind.

Of course, I don’t ever remember seeing the parking lots full during AX, but there was at least one other event running the same weekend as Comikaze in South Hall, and something else was happening at LA Live. I know this b/c I almost wound up having to park over there. Dx

There were some glaring WTF oversights, such as holding panels in the exhibit hall. I went to one panel and could barely hear a thing the speakers said due to the noise that seeped in through the curtains (similar to the ones seen here) that had been set up for the panel “room”.

Also, in an effort to save money, there was one map (probably no bigger than a regular 24″x36″ poster) posted near the hall entrance. There were no programs and no schedules available, either. In the age of smartphones I guess this could technically work… but not all of us have smartphones. :< Additionally, the exhibit hall chosen was Kentia Hall, which had previously been an underground parking lot (the floor still had the lines for the parking stalls!). Good luck if you can't get a signal!

There were also a couple of serious organizational problems. Since the con was using wristbands instead of the standard badge × lanyard combination, I almost didn’t get the second day’s “pass” due to the box office agent’s inattention. I’d bought my weekend pass on-line through Living Social, but he didn’t look at the voucher carefully enough, I guess. Good thing I went back and double-checked, or else I would’ve been a sad panda the next day!

There was also supposed to be a gift for those who bought through Living Social, but they somehow ran out. How did they run out? It was part of the package (not “While Supplies Last”)! If they sell X number of packages, they should have X number of gifts, no? I’m still debating what I should do about that one, b/c that seriously borders on false advertising.

(EDIT: After contacting them several times, I still never got the gift… nor did I even get a response. Living Social did the right thing and gave me an account credit for the cost of the pass, but thumbs down to the way Comikaze handled the situation — which is to say, not at all. >_< )

For a first-year con, I guess it could’ve gone worse. They did manage to snag Stan Lee and Elvira as GOHs, along with Mark Hamill and cast from All That and various Star Trek series. I did notice the absence of the major publishing houses (Marvel, DC), though. And while Top Cow had a booth, I didn’t even notice it until Sunday. By comparison, Long Beach Comic Con had some huge names and comics companies its inaugural year (including Berk Breathed doing his first-ever con appearance!).

In the end, hanging with old friends, making new ones, and seeing things that wouldn’t normally be at an anime con made it worthwhile. If they improve things next year while keeping prices relatively the same (and there was no shortage of deals this round), I’d prolly check it out again.

Be sure to check out the complete set of photos via the link below; for video, be sure to visit my YouTube Channel!

2011 11 05-06 Sat-Sun: Comikaze Expo

D23 Expo 2011

From 19-21 August 2011, the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim CA was home to the D23 Expo. I went down on Sunday to check it out!

D23 Expo is a Disney convention run by The Walt Disney Company so it tends to have a very corporate feel to it. It seems to be running every other year, since the last time it was held was back in 2009.

If you compare this photo with the first photo, you can see that they updated the monochromatic Sorcerer Mickey Mouse banner to a much larger three-part full-color one. They also changed the tagline from “The Ultimate Disney Fan Experience” to “The Ultimate Disney Fan Event”. I’m bummed that they got rid of the Ariel banner among others. :/ I hope they didn’t toss it out!

The 2009 Expo ran for four days, but this year it only ran for three, which may have had some sort of effect on that tagline. Tickets sold out on Saturday, the day I’d originally been planning to go, so I wound up getting to the Expo around 4pm on Sunday, which gave me about two hours in the hall to check out the proceedings.

I checked out the Collectors Forum first, since the main reason I went was to shop. xD As most of the booths were run by secondary market dealers, there were very many cool, hard-to-find, and expensive items!

Some of the booths belonged to artists who are under contract with Disney, so it was kind of cheating. But they were still pretty cool to look at regardless! My wallet was cringing the whole time. xD;

Here are a couple of Noah’s artwerks; I got a print of his version of Ariel during the Ride Product Debut and Signing at Disneyland!

Papercraft of Ariel. This type of art is always impressive to me b/c you can’t really erase your mistakes!

Mickey Mailbox! Like last time, the USPS was selling Disney-related philatelic items and accepting mail. Not sure if they were canceling postage with a special postmark or not.

Paige O’Hara, the voice of Belle from Beauty and the Beast, was at a booth signing autographs and taking pictures. Apparently, I missed Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel, who was at the Expo on Friday for The Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adventure panel and her Disney Legends award ceremony. ;_;

Leaving Collectors Arena, I started hitting some of the other booths/pavilions on the way to Mickey’s of Glendale. Here, they were selling tickets for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween at Disneyland Park.

There was a pretty sizable pavilion featuring props and costumes from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Many maquettes and such at the Animation Studios area. Here are Disney Fairies Tinker Bell, Queen Clarion, and Silvermist the Asian fairy! xD

Finally made it over to Mickey’s of Glendale! Mickey’s of Glendale is the private merchandise store for Walt Disney Imagineering. Only Cast Members and their invited guests can shop there, and most of the merchandise is exclusive to the store. Found some goodies there, but was pretty upset there was no love for Ariel, especially with the new ride that had just opened in Disneyland and still yet to open in Walt Disney World. >:(

After shopping, went next door to the Parks & Resorts pavilion, which gave guests a sneak peek at upcoming projects at the various parks and properties around the world. This is the concept model for the New Fantasyland at Walt Disney World Resort’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. You can barely make out Eric’s Castle from The Little Mermaid in the center. I think it looks much better than the Victorian-style building that Disney California Adventure uses for the attraction.

Disney California Adventure is also getting a makeover. Here’s the statue of Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney that will greet guests on Buena Vista Street (formerly Sunshine Plaza) as they enter the park.

Model of the forthcoming Shanghai Disney Resort. Doesn’t look like much of a park. :3a

Back out in the convention center, there were some vehicles on display. Here’s the Dharma Initiative van from Lost.

Over at the D23 Expo Dream Store were some neat-looking Giclées that kind of reminded me of Nagel’s work. Wish I’d thought to get a better shot of Sleeping Beauty, as Aurora is one of my favorite princesses.

Over at the Disney Store, they were showcasing the limited edition designer dolls. Each had a different edition size and was to be released on successive Mondays. If you pre-ordered the entire set of 10 dolls, you’d get a limited edition set of lithographs. Had I known that these $60 dolls were actually going to sell out, I might have actually done it! :/

Since the Disney Store will be celebrating its silver anniversary, they had many exclusives that could only be found at D23 Expo. Everything was silver for the silver anniversary!

They were also promoting a new series of vinyl figures called Kidadas. There was a big freaking blow-up Kidada Ariel right in back!

While I think Cars is by far the weakest Pixar movie and am still irritated that they’ve been hyping up Carsland for the last two D23 Expos instead of Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, I have to admit that this Lightning McQueen made of LEGOs was pretty cool. Mainly because LEGOs are the awesomest toys ever.

Incredibly cutesome Alice cosplayer from Alice in Wonderland (quite possibly Tim Burton’s version, as I don’t remember the animated version having such a detailed dress).

There were many more cosplayers this year than last time! Had to use the flash here because it was after 6 and they’d just shut off the lights in the hall. D:

After the hall closed, I wandered about for a bit and found Tinker Bell and Rosetta outside. I’ve watched some of the Disney Fairies movies with my little cousin and I have to say I like Rosetta just because she’s voiced by the awesome Kristin Chenoweth! After I took this picture, Tinker Bell kept going on about how much she loved my Ariel shirt. <3 I should've offered to make her one, but I was too intimidated — she was one statuesque Tink! (Bonus: see if you can find Traci Hines in this pic!)

After I got home, it was time to go through my loots! The guide book, fans, Pooh lithograph, New Fantasyland postcard, and the Prep & Landing Christmas card were freebies. They were handing out fans by the handful after the hall closed, lol.

The shirts and pins were all from Mickey’s of Glendale. Most of these items will be gifts for my family, but of course I will be keeping one each of the Sebastian and Donald items and also the Fantasmic! pin b/c it has Ariel on it. Prolly should’ve bought an extra Sebastian shirt so I could wear one and keep the other. :/

The only other thing I bought was the 24% lead crystal of Ariel, which I found in the Collectors Forum. I remember when she first came out years ago back when the Disney Store was The Disney Store, and now I’ve finally got her! Cheaper than the price she came out at, even. xD All in all, well worth the trip for a Disney geek like me. Next time I’ll be sure to plan ahead and maybe go for the entire weekend.

As always, many more photos on my Facebook!

2011 08 21 Sun: D23 Expo 2011, Day 3

SOUNDsational Undersea Adventure

Growing up, I was a huge Disney geek and dreamed of one day running the company. When I moved to California, I fully expected to spend every day at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Of course, that didn’t happen. In fact, I think up until this summer I’d actually spent more time at Disneyland Resort before I moved out west than I did after. ^^;

That said, Ariel is still my #1 waifu and when the new “dark ride” I’d been waiting over 20 years for finally opened, I had to go back. Armed with a 3-Day Park Hopper Ticket, I was off to Atlantica (aka Anaheim CA)!

The first day I went to the theme park was the day after the attraction opened, Saturday, 4 June 2011. I’d thought about going on Friday, but I had work. I also don’t have an Annual Passport, so I wouldn’t have been able to buy any of the exclusive items anyway.

I saw a sign in one of the gift shops that said there was going to be a Ride Product Debut and Signing the next Saturday, so of course I had to go back on 11 June to check that out. I’m not an early riser so it was a struggle to get there during the signing hours, but I did it!

The next few weekends were very busy, including Summer Geekation, FriendCon (aka Anime Expo ^^ ), and a post-AX party with friends. Good thing the pass didn’t expire for 45 days instead of the usual 15! But time was running out, so I planned my third trip for Saturday, 16 July. Wow, I always do everything last minute! ^^;

Ride photos from The Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adventure were really hard to get since it was dark and the clamshell carriages (and Audio Animatronics!) never stopped moving. Also because I was shooting video at the same time with my other hand. xD;

I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed the first time I rode it, though. Perhaps I was expecting too much? I did ride it a few more times over the summer and it grew on me somewhat. Maybe I need to ride it with my younger cousins and see it through their eyes.

Had been thinking about hitting up Walt Disney World next year since the ride will be opening there in late 2012, but this takes the wind out of my sails a bit because the ride will be exactly the same.

But according to the miniature model of the New Fantasyland at D23 Expo (EDIT: blog post here!), the surrounding area at WDW is supposed to be more immersive, featuring Eric’s castle and a statue of Ariel instead of just a Victorian Exposition-style building. Maybe it’ll even have a gift shop. Ah, we’ll see.

While I did ride Ariel’s Undersea Adventure quite a few times, that’s not all I did! I got to see the water show World of Color. Me and my camera got soaked! Dx

The new Star Tours: The Adventures Continue also opened the same day as Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, so I only rode it once. It seemed to be the same as the old ride with a few new bells and whistles.

The refurbished it’s a small world is a rather tame ride, but you can’t help be cheered by it. Plus, there are now classic Disney characters hidden throughout!

Mickey’s Soundsational Parade was a new parade they had during the summer. It featured Ariel among other characters, so you know I had to check it out! In fact, I chased this float down Main Street USA! xD

According to the signage, the parade finished it’s run in early September. However, you can watch it in its entirety on my YouTube Channel!

Disneyland Park and California Adventure are always changing. I’m glad I got a chance to visit them both this summer. Hopefully I’ll be able to go back again “real soon”!

This is just a small portion of the over 2000 (!) photos I took during my three days at the Disneyland Resort this summer. Videos of select attractions and shows are also available on my YouTube Channel!

SOUNDsational Summer 2011
The Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adventure (DCA)

Anime Expo 2011

Back for another year at AX11! ^_^b So happy to actually have people to hang out with this year that I like to call this year’s con FriendCon. xD Of course, this also meant missing out on pretty much all the cosplay gatherings and panels I wanted to check out, but it was worth it!

Was thinking about checking out AM² but then I heard some of my dearest con friends were only going to AX on Friday so I had to skip it. Since we were spending time catching up, I didn’t really get to stalk as many cosplays as I would’ve liked.

I did run into Danny Choo, who graciously pretended to remember me from AX10 and his websites and then posed for photos. We exchanged business cards and he invited me to his panel later that evening.

Since I was having dinner with my friends, I only managed to catch the tail end of it. But I did get some pictures of him and my friend Maridah, who was the official Mirai Suenaga cosplayer for AX!

Had to get up early on Day 2 because my friends Maridah and CosplayKitten were doing their Fate/stay night (or was it Fate/hollow ataraxia?) group at noon. e.e

Of course, when I got there the South Hall was being evacuated due to a suspicious package. Dx Despite the confusion and a hasty rescheduling, I was finally able to see the fabled “Real Saber” as well as my favorite Fate/stay character, Rider, before I had to run off for a lunch meetup.

After meeting some great new friends at lunch, it was back to the exhibit hall to meet up with more new friends from MyFigureCollection (aka tsuki-board). Always fun to geek out with fellow figure collectors in the dealer’s hall!

My phone died during the day and I despaired that FriendCon would come to a grinding halt, but luckily I ran into a couple of friends I already knew! So happy to hang with friends into the wee hours!

Day 3 actually wound up being the shortest day — even shorter than Day 4 — b/c I got such a late start (got there a little before 4 orz ) and had to cut out for a few hours.

I decided that since I hadn’t spent much time in Artists’ Alley I would check it out and also visit some friends who had booths there. It was cool to finally meet some of the many talented people I’ve gotten to know on Facebook, Twitter, and deviantART! ♥

Afterwards, it was lion-hunting time as I’d received word that Maridah had donned her Saber Lion cosplay! I’d missed it at Fanime so I was thrilled to have a second chance to see it!

I also managed to spend a little bit of time with one of my friends before her appearance at the Last Comic Standing finals. You can see some of the performances on my YouTube Channel.

Day 4 is generally a short day since the hall closes early and there’s really only the Charity Auction and Closing Ceremonies afterward, but it was so filled with awesome this year!

Despite showing up like an hour before the dealer’s hall closed, I managed to take one last little look-see and wound up running into the lovely Traci Hines and some other awesome cosplay/ers!

Then while I was puttering about after the hall closed, wallowing in the beginnings of post-con depression, Aoi Mizuno and shyot found me in the lobby. I was bummed that I hadn’t seen them all con (they’d split their time between AX and AM²), so yay!

While I was catching up with them, I happened to spy the one and only Vensy cosplaying Touhou Project‘s Suika Ibuki nearby. After many years of knowing her on-line, I finally got to meet her in person!

And then… I saw a naginata. Was it? Could it be? I ran over and I finally got to see my two favorite characters from one of my favorite series, Mai-HiME (aka My-HiME)! It’s not a hugely popular series, so it was a rare treat. Leonore13 as Shizuru Fujino and sanitynevermore as Natsuki Kuga pulled off the cosplays quite well (especially for being relatively new to the hobby). I’m delighted to report that they’re not nearly as tsundere/yandere as the characters they dressed as. I’m so happy to count them among the new friends I made at AX11!

Afterwards, I took in the incredibly delayed Closing Ceremonies before heading off to a small post-AX party. It’s always a little sad when a con ends, especially one as awesome as this one was.

Thanks again to all my friends, new and old, for making this the best AX ever! ♥ I didn’t get to see everyone, and I certainly didn’t get to spend enough time with all of you, so let’s get it right next time and make AX12 even better! ^_^

Check out the complete sets of photos via the links below; for video, be sure to check out my YouTube Channel!

2011 07 01 Fri: Anime Expo 2011, Day 1
2011 07 02 Sat: Anime Expo 2011, Day 2
2011 07 03 Sun: Anime Expo 2011, Day 3
2011 07 04 Mon: Anime Expo 2011, Day 4

Trektacular Summer

I think it’s fitting that my procrastination allowed me to put up this post right after I got to meet my one of my heroes and idols, the one and only Mr. Spock: Leonard Nimoy!

I had the pleasure of meeting him after a lecture/discussion he had (with new Spock Zachary Quinto) for his latest photo project, Secret Selves at UCLA’s Hammer Museum. Before anime, there was Star Trek, and I have always been a huge Trekker. It’s unfortunate that photography was restricted inside the Billy Wilder Theatre, but you can watch UCLA’s recording of the lecture on their website soon.

Anyway, how is that appropriate? Well, this summer I went to Orlando, Florida, for vacation! (Yes, I’m aware that’s a banner for Star Tours. -_-; )

You may already know that Orlando is home to many theme parks, including SeaWorld Orlando. Their One World killer whale show with Shamu was beast.

And of course, right down the street is Walt Disney World. Okay, not right down the street, especially since WDW is not the same as Disneyland Resort (while Disney’s California complex is pretty much boxed-in by streets and hotels, WDW sits on 25,000 acres of land!). But still, with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7′s 12x zoom, I was able to get a shot of EPCOT Center’s Spaceship Earth from SeaWorld’s Sky Tower.

Ironically, this trip marks the first time I’ve ever been in Florida and not gone to any of the Disney theme parks. :<

But, I did still manage to step foot on Walt Disney World Resort property by spending an hour or so at the World of Disney store in Downtown Disney.

Only managed to get a few shots, and of course most of them are of my girl Ariel. xD

Besides SeaWorld and Walt Disney World, there is also Universal Orlando Resort. While I’ve been to Universal Studios Florida during visits past, I’d never been to Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

Somehow I vaguely remember the Jurassic Park stuff (maybe they moved that part of the park? lol), but everything else was new to me!

Seuss Landing was pretty fun with my little cousin, to whom I used to read many of Dr. Seuss’ books (Fox in Socks is still my favorite!).

The Lost Continent had some interesting things in it, including this attraction called Poseidon’s Fury. It was essentially a live stage show with an actor and special effects. A good way to beat the heat! At least, until the fire effects got turned on. xD;

Although I’m not much of a Potterhead, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was quite impressive. And I did wind up having a pleasant conversation with a sales clerk about my Maho? T-shirt. East Coast represent! xD lol

Toon Lagoon brought back memories of some of my favorite Sunday funnies. I love Hägar the Horrible!

On the other hand, I found Marvel Super Hero Island to be pretty lackluster. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was hoping for more than just up-scaled 2D images stuck to buildings. :/

But there’s more to Florida than just theme parks! It’s also home to Cape Canaveral, an integral part of our nation’s space program.

The original launch date of the final space shuttle mission had been scheduled for 28 June and I’d been hoping to see it. Unfortunately, it got delayed, but it was still cool being able to see the shuttle out on the launch pad!

Even cooler was the fact that the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex was running Sci-Fi Summer: Where Science Fiction Meets Science Fact!

So apologies to all you Star Wars fans, but even NASA now confirms that Star Trek is awesomer! (Plus the fact that Star Wars technically isn’t science fiction; it’s science fantasy.)

While I didn’t get a chance to try the Star Trek Shuttlecraft Simulator Adventure, I did manage to take in Star Trek: The Exhibition and the Star Trek LIVE show in between all the other things to see and do there.

Had to beam back for AX, but it was a wonderfully Trek-filled summer!