Figure Leering

When I began collecting figures, almost all of them fit into the same category. Before I get into the particulars proper, you need a little bit of background.

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I picked this mouse and mousepad set up for $40, which is admittedly a little steep for a standard mouse, but I'd had a DESPERATE NEED for this ever since I saw a picture of it, so I wasn't going to let the opportunity pass by when I happened to find it. $40 for a very rare Ichiban Kuji prize from three years ago seems like a good deal to me at any rate. So let's take a look at it!

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OH MY GOD YOU GUYS

EARTHBOUND IS NOW AVAILABLE ON NINTENDO'S WII U VIRTUAL CONSOLE

YOU CAN PLAY EARTHBOUND ON YOUR WII U

It is TEN DOLLARS and you should buy it and play it, EVERYONE NEEDS TO PLAY THIS GAME

oh my god I have waited so long for this to happen and FINALLY IT'S HERE so many new people will be able to play this game now and aaaah AAAAAAAAAHHHH

I have literally just now taken a break from playing to make this entry because I CAN'T CONTAIN IT, I AM SO HAPPY


(normal blog entries to follow soon) but my joy at this CANNOT BE CONTAINED

I finally saw Evangelion 3.33 [Q] You Can (NOT) Redo. I came away from it with a massive cluster of some very mixed feelings that I'm not going to go into here because I could write a whole essay on that by itself. However, appropriately enough I recently picked up some items designated specifically as Evangelion 3.33 merchandise, so let's take a look at them. Both are stationery items--a 2013 monthly schedule book and a "loose leaf note."
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The story of my acquisition of these awesome Evangelion socks is a long one.
It started a long time ago with a "tentative backorder" on the now defunct Otacute. I saw the socks and instantly knew they needed to be mine. So I placed an order.
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There's a predictable pattern to one of the most common questions I hear from other collectors. "Why won't [company] make a figure of [character]?" I have heard this lament over and over again for a myriad of characters and have lamented it myself at times, but today, let's examine the possible explanation. Why indeed. At the end of the day, it's a market question.
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HOLY SHIT. I'M ALIVE!
That was longest hiatus ever and it happened without any warning, so I'm sorry to anyone who follows my blog! I didn't just forget about it or decide not to do it anymore or anything like that.
Skip down to "MOVING ON" if you don't care about the explanation. Otherwise, read on!
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Today I'm going to review a book from something most of you have probably never even heard of!
First, some background on the source material so you aren't completely confused. It's a visual novel called Hatoful Boyfriend and it is an otome game where you date birds. The name is a dual-language pun; hato is pigeon or dove, but the game's title is written はーとふる, which can be translated as "heartful." You could say it's both "full of pigeons" and "full of heart."
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It's a bit hard to be a Lain fan. The series never enjoyed more than niche popularity (even in Japan) and consequently it doesn't have much in the way of merchandise.
The visual novel, which came first, never got an official translation (and the game itself is incredibly expensive to acquire even if you are fluent AND have a Japanese PlayStation on which to play it.) My very first blog entry was a review of the Vice 1/8 Lain figure, the only scale figure produced for the series discounting garage kits and a personal favorite in my collection.
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As many Eva fans already know, the Evangelion franchise is a merchandising giant. No matter what it is, you can probably buy an official Eva version of it, even if it's just had the NERV logo slapped on it somewhere. (I'll leave discussion of the alternating coolness and utter incomprehensibility of Eva merchandise for another entry.)

I picked up this set of playing cards completely on a whim, since they were only 1400 yen (and my rationale of "BECAUSE EVA" was not countered by anything this time.) Because there's a minimum shipping weight, I decided to add a couple other small items to round out the order. I grabbed a pack of my favorite Tamiya Epoxy Putty and also a REALLY cool rubber bracelet.
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