One 'N Only Jem

Here is a recap of my hauls tracked through thumbnails and posts that summarize a year of collecting for me. I’ll try my best to remember things, but my humble beginnings are a bit shrouded in mystery and I can’t exactly pinpoint the first day I started to collect figures or the very last figure I got before I hit the yearly mark.

WARNING: This is a very heavy image post and is not advisable for those who have slow internet connections.

These are some of the very first figures that were ever bought at a local anime store that we happened to stop by at. We were on a search for the, rare at the time, ALTER 1/8 Kos-Mos Ep. 3 figure. I missed acquiring this figure within minutes, but was rewarded with ALTER 1/8 Aegis who turned out to be much more sought after and rare than my initial target. There were a handful of other figures that accompanied Aegis back home such as Kotobukiya 1/6 Hitomi. I don’t remember the rest and could probably figure it out if I really wanted to and dug through the receipts. It was this very same store that blessed us with President Japan’s extremely detailed Abel Nightroad for only $89!!!

It was then that the fangs were set deeply in me, filling every inch of my body with poison. They say that people choose their poison and evidently, I had chosen a new one to consume my being. On a trip to scout out other stores, we drove all the way to Anaheim to buy the exquisite Griffon Enterprises 1/7 Chouun Shiryu. It was a sexy, dynamic figure with strands of hair whip lashed around the Ikkitousen heroine. There was a certain charm to Goodsmile Company’s 1/8 Meiya Mitsurugi that I could not decline. This store had the cheapest price on President Japan’s Esther Blanchett whose iteration more closely resembles that of the manga rather than the anime. You could not have Abel Nightroad without a matching Esther Blanchett, but I would have preferred Noelle instead. The anime for Burst Angel was sub-par, but the figures for the series were beautiful. I snatched up the ALTER 1/8 Sei and 1/8 Amy right on the spot. ALTER’s 1/8 Wind Walker was an impulsive buy and would later befriend the ALTER 1/8 Ignis in the future. After watching a handful of Witchblade episodes, there was an urge to have some Witchblade figures. At the time, Kotobukiya had made some extremely gorgeous, yet rare figures of Amane Masaha from the series. While ALTER’s version is finely sculpted, it does not compare to the meaty porportions in the Kotobukiya one. Upon seeing this I-No figure, I knew that I had to have it. Not only was it a Shunya Yamashita design, but it featured one of the sexiest bosses to ever grace Guilty Gear. Last but not least, Bome’s bunny girls were picked up at a local shop on the way home. This hobby was very fast-paced to the point where it almost seemed frenzied. This is just the tip of the ice berg of things to come and things that have not been documented in any shape or form.

Now, Revy is one of the very first figures that I truly liked but was not in this hobby. I did not start collecting until late March/early April of ‘08, but this Revy had already had it’s second re-release in late 2007. Anyone who can pick up on things that I’ve mentioned in the past before know that I love rough around the edges, violent, crude, gutsy, piss-and-vinegar type of characters whilst being able to ensnare the opposite sex to do their bidding. As a fan of the Black Lagoon series, I admired female characters not for their strong female images. Nope. I admired them for being violent, gutsy characters who know how to take care of business. “Strong” is such a vague term that can encompass anything. The females in Black Lagoon are definitely strong women, but they are so for different reasons. Well, I should have bought her when I had the chance. The second time where I revisit the pvc scene was around the time prototype pictures of Yamato’s 1/7 Poison were released. Talk about a sexy Femme Fatale. So, my husband really wanted the Max Factory 1/7 Kureha and the Megahouse 1/8 Clare. Careful to avoid the rampant bootlegs of Clare floating around, we got ours from a reputable source and threw in the Revy as well. As video game aficionados, we scouted for the best deals for both Max Factory 1/6 Mai and Max Factory 1/6 Kasumi. There are 4 color repaints of Max Factory’s Kasumi and I was very much turned off to the idea of repaints. This repulsion would not last for very long.

All of the figures in the above image were ordered online. Do I play World of Warcraft? No. Would I like to play Word of Warcraft? No. Do I like MMOs? Yes. The Illidan Deluxe figure is a very sought after commodity in the WoW universe. I just really love the amount of details without having to pay at least $70. I am a very big fan of extricately detailed armor. I plan on buying more from DC Unlimited’s WoW line-up as long as they continue to create beautiful and affordable figures. The oddity in the bunch is Max Factory’s 1/7 Tony Taka’s version of Kotona Elegance. Kotona has this serene beauty to her that drew me to this figure in the first place. As you can see, there are plenty of figures in the back that have no documentation such as ALTER’s Triggerheart Exelica, ALTER’s Fate Testarossa, Orchid Seed’s Ignis Wedding Dress, Yamato’s Poison and the list goes on and on. An interesting thing about ALTER’s Fate Testarossa is that I bought her MISB for $50 along with Enterbrain’s Etna and paid only $10 for shipping. The seller was extremely kind and paid for 95% of the shipping cost.

Okay, I don’t know how I initially missed this original section, but this haul was obtained from a local brick-and-mortar store’s sale. Yippie! Anyways, it was a a great 25% off sale which amounted to a good discount for regular MSRP priced items. I remember being notified on the sale and doing some research prior to going to the store so that I could have a pretty good evaluation of what figures to buy and where to buy them. There were some figures that I called up and asked the merchant to hold for me while I was at work, specifically instructing them that I would not be able to get off of work until 4pm and my workplace’s location to give a general idea of the distance time. The store had the FREEing Yuki Nagato there as well and I literally stood in the store for at least 1 hour contemplating which figure to get first by comparing popularity and supply/demand factors. I finally came to the decision that it would be Tsuruya and I would preorder Yuki Nagato later on. My decision was right on the spot as the place where I preorder some of my figures ended up selling out on Tsuruya. The Megahouse Yumiru 1p is a fairly old figure and it was just by chance that I stumbled upon it whilst my thorough searches through the smorgasbord of figure boxes. I got another spare Max Factory Mikuru for much lesser than retail price which was also a chance situation. It seems that my army is on the rise.

I have admired ALTER’s Louise figure for some time. I was not happy to find out that she was an old release and the markup on her had since gone up. I finally got one for a good price and decided to throw in ALTER’s Tsukino limited and Max Factory’s WF Konata cosplay – also at good prices – in order to save on the shipping. While the swimsuit is a very brief moment within the anime, it’s still a nice figure. The better of the Yakitate! Japan figures features Tsukino in her Pantasia baker uniform striking that definitive pose in the anime that made me laugh.

Sometimes, I curse the fact that I am able to find things so easily or cheaply because it makes the temptation that much harder to resist. The Bome Kos-Mos figure was very nice when I was still trying to find a reliable and affordable (close to MSRP) price for the ALTER version. It was not all that easy to produce results to find this Bome figure at the time and not only did I find it, but I also came across Yamato’s Non-non. I got the extremely rare Goodsmile’s Crouching Rider figure in a bundle with 2 other figures. I am not all that fond of the other figures and would be more than happy to sell them off at a really good price to anyone who is interested. Who knows? I might just end up giving the figures away as a gift or contest in the future.

Here’s Mikuru keeping the 360 Soul Calibur arcade stick some company. The PS3 arcade stick did not arrive on time for some reason. I was ecstatic to receive the newer version of Hitomi as I am a fan of both the fighting and volleyball games. We never realized how rare and limited Chichinoe was until the one store that still had her at a great price sold out. The newly discovered brick-and-mortar store had her one on visit, then she disappeared from their actual store. We asked the owner to call us if he could locate it again and he totally faked that he would. Days later, Chichinoe appears on their inventory as $179. Yeah, screw you, ——! Jokes on you. We found her for $80 something dollars minus the hassle and bullshit. Chichinoe is  pretty and reminds me of Nana from Nana except with big, squishy boobs.

Now, I have no real way of conveying how ultimately sexy this Master Replica Signature Boba Fett helmet is just extremely sexy. I found this helmet for a really good price and wish I had the matching Blaster Rifle to go with this. My husband is a really big fan of all things Star Wars ever since he was a child with Boba Fett as one of his all-time favorite characters. We were celebrating our 2-year anniversary and I decided to give him a Star War extravangaza of a gift. I was thinking of getting him the rare, now discontinued Target Imperial Shuttle toy until the helmet and one other sexy item came into view. When we were at City Walk, the comic memorabilia store had a Master Replica Boba Fett Blaster Rifle and something else on display. We were both in awe with the beauty of the memorabilia. Remembering how much he really liked the items, I decided to get him some sexy Star Wars item. This Kotobukiya ArtFX statue is gorgeous and comes with a piece that can ultimately create a beautiful Darth Vader statue. The other pieces can be obtained from the other bounty hunters in the same line. I have to say that it was a great marketing strategy to add pieces to build Darth Vader and that the coolest bounty hunter had the lamest piece, thus causing a completionist or Star Wars fanatic to buy and collect the entire set. I don’t think guys normally react with glee in the same fashion that females do when they are excited or overjoyed by something. Even though I didn’t really get a real indication of how happy he was, I could tell that he was ecstatic when he put on the helmet and Marc Ecko Fett for Real hoodie – which I bought him for a Christmas gift – and modeled in front of the mirror, haha. Right now, the helmet is situated next to the computer monitor and is being protectively guarded by the petite army of nendoroids.

All of these products were overseas packages for the most part. I preordered the Konamistyle Limited Edition of Persona 4 which was sold out quickly. I am still looking to purchase other Konami exclusives, but that could wait for the time being. I just remembered that I had purchased the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya vol. 2 petite nendoroid set because I don’t keep up keep up with all of the releases or make an effort to do so. If it’s the regular scaled nendoroids especially exclusive or limited ones, then I make an even greater of an effort to keep up with the preorder purchases. I found this set at a good price, so I decided to jump on the purchase. Out of all of the figures bundled with a video game, the Goodsmile figure for the Japanese video game Nanatsuiro Drops (sp) is by far one of the best looking ones. I had my friend add the bundle along with Max Factory Tsuruya for an extra $38. I never knew that the game was bundled with an accompanying art book or if the art book was a bonus add-on for purchasing the game. The remaining item is a Japanese magazine with a bonus Shana phone strap. I am not sure, but I think this is a Comptiq magazine. The only reason why I bought it was because it was a necessary purchase to do a mail-in coupon. If the mail-in coupon was for the exclusive Melon pan ver. of the Shana nendoroid, then this is really a Dengekiya magazine.

There’s a funny story with some of the items in this haul. I picked up the exclusive Kotobukiya Myu figure and the limited HP Kagami ver. nendoroid. I found the limited nendoroid for only $49 and Myu was at $80 something. Unfortunately, the seller wrote the name on the address incorrectly. It was beyond wrong. Well, I’m glad that I had a previous slip of his prior mistake – which I informed him to be wary of in the future – as well as being able to describe what was in the package in detail. I have had this happen 3x and everything else about the transaction went smoothly. Now, if you’ve ever heard of the Wave Direct exclusive Elfen Lied figures, then you have an idea of just how rare and extremely expensive these figures are. I didn’t think much to people spending $800 for this set especially if the bonus parts was included. After watching the series, I’d have to say it is now one of my favorite series and the figures are the only figures to date from this series. These figures are among some of the ones that I value highly within the collection.

I was able to acquire a high level priority figure in this haul. I have always liked ALTER’s Takako Kinoshita. The pose was very graceful and accentuated with her long, flowing purple locks weaving around her body. I was more than ecstatic to get this figure for such a good price. During one of the anime annoucements, there was a Wonder Festival Tamaki Kawazoe. Prior to seeing the figure news, I have never seen the anime Bamboo Blade. I really liked the design of the figure especially in her Wonder Festival color scheme. I got her for cheaper than the regular retail price. At first, I wasn’t all that impressed with Kotobukiya’s Shunya Yamashita Mirei-san, but that was probably due to wanting other figures at the time.  I saw this brunette version of Mirei-san and vastly preferred her over the other color paints. The other Mirei-san color paints are nice as well, but there was something more alluring about a brunette in a red business outfit. This Mirei-san is a Hong Kong Festival verson. The FREEing Yuki Nagato was to help complete my bunny girl collection. I thought it would have been complete had FREEing not decided to be evil and release two other characters in bunny form. I preordered the ALTER Mitsuru Kirijo because I really love the series and I can’t really say “no” to ALTER.

Remember that other something that was mentioned earlier in this post that my husband fell in love with at the comic shop. Well, this is Sideshow Collectibles Premium Format Star Wars Scout Trooper on a Speeder Bike. It is a gorgeous beauty of an item with a whole lot of love crafted into it. I included the FREEing Yuki Nagato as  a frame of reference for size comparison. There were some very minor obstacles that had to be surpassed before this beauty reached us. The seller had the best deal that I’ve ever seen and it was available for much much much cheaper than the retail price with free shipping. The seller had excellent communication and contacted us about problems on his end. So, after waiting for some time, the seller surprised us by shipping this piece Next Day Air. The exterior package that this beautiful piece arrived in is as big as a coffin. It’s really that huge. The Scout Trooper is big enough to be held in your arms like a baby.

There are plenty of “wants” in this haul such as Goodsmile’s Fumiko and Rin Tohsaka or Megahouse’s Wonder Festival Echidna. All of the figures in this haul were ones that I’ve wanted for awhile with some more coveted than others. I’d have to say that Orchid Seed’s presitgious Ryofu resin statue. I do want some more Ikkitousen representation, but there is so many ugly Ikkitousen statues and hardly any done of other characters that aren’t Kanu. Out of the entire swimsuit Shining Wind/Tear line done by Max Factory, I liked Ryuna the best of them all. I already own the Blanc Neige, but couldn’t find Ryuna for a good price. I got Ryuna for cheaper than retail price from a seller who ended up backing out of the Azusa Wedding figure deal. Oh well. You lose some, you win some. I still know where to get that figure though. Beagle’s Range Murata Pinup Girl was a definite priority figure for me that I couldn’t obtain for a reasonable price. I’m just glad that I was able to get her for a great price in the end. I never even knew about the exclusive Megahouse Wonder Festival Echidna figure until a thorough research of the Queen’s Blade line yielded some results. My husband vastly prefers this repaint over the other ones for this character. It’s amazing that she was only in the $80 range. Out of all the Rin Tohasakas out there – with the exception of the ALTER swimsuit version -, this is the only Rin figure that I’ve ever wanted to own. I believe there are known bootlegs of this figure, but she is so old that even the bootlegs are hard to find on the market. I’m really glad that I got this in the $50-$60 range. Now, the grail item that I’ve been hunting for a long time – Goodsmile Fumiko. Fumiko is from schmup, Castle Shikigami. Ironically, another figure that was released in the same year as Fumiko and is from the same series is extremely easy to find for dirt cheap. It’s funny how supply-and-demand works for figures that come from the same series.

I preordered the limited Hobbystock ALTER Tsuzuri figure upon seeing the gorgeous prototypes. Out of all of the figures in the collection, she is a top ranking general in the figure army. I was semi-late in trying to get ahold of let alone preorder the exclusive Lucky Star nendoroids. I really like the Comptiq versions with the animal ears the best. I still haven’t opened these nendoroids, but then again, this is no real big surprise, either. I was super stoked to learn that Megahouse was doing the Ibuki, R. Mika, and Felicia figures from favorite video game franchises. Felicia, alone, is enough to warrant a purchase, but the Ibuki figure was done with so much grace and elegance. Ibuki is also an awesome character! The retail price for Ibuki is around $65, but I spotted her for $39 and quickly snatched her up. Ibuki is one figure that I definitely can’t wait to open up and display.

Ah, I remember this sexy haul of ALTER goodies. Boy, do I love ALTER! I really can’t say “no” to such awesome craftsmanship. I see some sales of some figures that I purchased such as the ALTER Mina, but it always ends up as the same price in the end unless there is a big substantial  difference. I must have preordered the ALTER Chua Churam as soon as the preorder went up. I like the Goodsmile ChuxChu Idol that is much more ecchi, but the ALTER version is much better in terms of quality. In my early days of collecting, I saw multiple banners featuring Lily Salvatana’s seductive eyes. While her pose is not as dynamic as her comrads, Lily is very sexy. You can’t have the Django gang unless you complete it with the final figure release. I wasn’t sure about getting the ALTER Chou’un because I already own the expensive Griffon ver. whose official name eludes me for the moment. I saw her in person and added her to my cart as soon as I got home. This was the same thing that happened with the ALTER Enma Ai. I loved ALTER at the time, but I wasn’t as fanatically in love with them the way I am now. I love big guns! I am even more amused when those big guns are in the hands of very cute entities. I truly love my Kemeko nendoroid.

[November Haul<.A>] – I tried to get the Kotobukiya Tales of the Abyss figures for a good price. I prefer Tears’ character, but like Natalia’s figure much more. I must have been in a video game – specifically Tales – mood because I hunted down the Kotobukiya figures in addition to the One Coin trading figures. Natalia was really cheap at around $30 something dollar and Tears was in the $40 range. I really wanted to own Tales of Symphonia One Coin trading figures, but I never bought them in the end. I almost preordered one set of figures, but I found the entire set for much cheaper somewhere else. I couldn’t really stomach playing Tales of the Abyss for all that long because Luke was so damn annoying. After watching some of the anime, the decreased amount of whining has renewed my interest in picking up this game. Playasia was advertising their seasonal sale which just happened to have both Megahouse R.Mika and Goodsmile’s Shuraki Rize in the $30 range. I decided to snatch them up and was only allowed to get Rize because she was so dirt cheap. I am just missing Meifen, but I figure that she’s so low priority that I’ll just wait for a sale or something. The Max Factory MM figure always threw me off. I never knew what to make out of it other than that it was connected to the Kemeko figure which was pretty cool. I was only interested in the figure and would have bought the scaled figure to complete the nendoroid at a much cheaper price. After watching the anime, I was even more inclined to buy the figure. Luckily, she was on sale and was quickly snatched up.

That’s how you know when you are buying things in bulk and very often if you no longer have a good indication – aside from receipts and bank statements – of the time period in relation to when figures are being purchased. Looking back at this post, I had no idea that the limited color variant of Shizuka – who is total win – was added to the collection later than other figures. Aside from Echidna – whom my husband loves -, Shizuka is the only other character from the Queen’s universe that he actually takes notice of. I never had the intention of getting the Sumomo nendoroid from the limited DS bundle because import, limited bundles always fetch some type of hefty price. Luckily for me, Playasia put her on sale twice with the earlier listing being the cheaper of the two. I was awake late at night when I was messaged by a friend about her being on sale and the next moment was spent reading over my email confirmation. I still haven’t opened the game up to this day. I already own the limited Tsukino figure, but really wanted the one of her in her Pantasia baking uniform. As much as I love bathing suits, it was only featured for a split second that isn’t even substantial enough to qualify for authenticity. Oh well. I guess for technicality purposes, it is authentic to the series. For some reason, the Pantasia uniform version was a bit more expensive and I definitely didn’t feel like paying anything past $50 for her. After redeeming a coupon on Amazon, I got her for much lesser than $50. I love video game merchandise especially peripherals such as arcade sticks. The PS3 arcade stick came a bit later than the 360 version – which I already own – despite having an identical release date. At this point, I own 5 arcade sticks [ 1 PS3, 3 360 and 1 PS2]. Out of all of the arcade sticks I own, my favorite would be the Street Fighter Anniversary Arcade Stick or the Dead or Alive 4 Arcade Stick. I still need to get me a sexy Street Fighter IV arcade stick on top of some other old school gaming ones.

If you’ve never seen this Daiki Kougyo figure in all of it’s glory, then you definitely need to see her in the flesh for she is a gorgeous piece of plastic. Two different versions of her are on display at two stores that I’ve done business with. I never bought this figure because the price is inflated by the sheer size, quality and limited production of this figure. I stumbled upon an auction of her that started cheap and decided to try my luck. Keep in mind that the auction ended at 4 am in the morning, so I literally forfeited sleep to make sure that I’d be awake to stalk the auction. I couldn’t believe my luck that I won her at ~$100 and that’s with other people trying to beat me. This Daiki Kougyo figure also marks the beginning of my Twelve Days of Christmas Blogs.

Here is [The 1st and 2nd Day of Christmas]

Ugh. It’s Emiri!

[The Third Day of Christmas] – The Fate/Stay puchi are very cute, but the Berserker “castle” is the real reason why I got this set. Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I’m a completionist. I didn’t go my usual route and order these through my friend. At the time, I didn’t think much of it at the time and just wanted to secure my order. Next time around for Wonder Festival, I’ll definitely order through my friend unless there are other factors that take precedence e.g. substantial price difference.

[The Fourth Day of Christmas] – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya bunny nendoroid set, but the market is flooded with counterfeit nendoroids. Even if you end up trying to seek other outlet such as auction sites, you are still never safe from buying bootlegs. The Max Factory Haruhi Suzumiya figure is one of those figures that almost every collector has in their collection. I enjoyed the show (at the time), but I still wasn’t interested in getting the figure. It wasn’t until I saw the Max Factory Mikuru Asahina figure that I felt compelled to round up the rest of the gang. There is a Wonder Festival version of this Haruhi Suzumiya figure aptly named the Summer Expansion ver. which comes with accessories to mimic the famous first scens in the anime. If you’ve followed along with my figure preferences, then you know how much I love and vasstly prefer limited or exclusive figures. I am still missing the Max Factory Yuki Nagato, Ryoko, Mikuru Asahina and Tsuruya waitress forms, but they are really low priority right now. So, what’s a better way to match up the Wonder Festival Haruhi expansion set and increase the limitedness? You hunt down the elusive Max Factory Mikuru Asahina Mikuru Beam ver. figure. This figure is not as elusive as I would have thought it to be, but it wasn’t very publicly advertised for preorders, either.

[The Fifth and Sixth Day of Christmas] – I love ALTER. I don’t like setting myself up for future disappointment by stating that I’m gonna collect every single piece of merchandise from a series or things of that nature. So, you’ll never really see me say, “I’m gonna collect and have a complete collection of ALTER or nendoroids”, but given my spending patterns, it’s safe to assume that I do have unannounced goals and milestones. I’m a firm believer of quality and ALTER has not left a bitter taste in my mouth, yet. Sure, I hate exclusives and damn ridiculous ones at that, but I trust ALTER and the exclusives are your standard fare, so it’s all right.

And just like that, I’ve added 6 more nendoroids and counting to the nendoroid army. Of this entire batch, the Wonder Festival Primula with glasses and Wonder Festival Necoarc were the best acquisitions in terms of rarity and price. I read somewhere on how a consumer was tricked into getting a “regular” version of the Deathnote Christmas nendoroids, but I always thought there was only 1 version ever produced.

[The Seventh Day of Christmas] – This is just a hodge podge of random assortment of goodies compiled for the 7th day of Chrismas post. I never planned on getting the online exclusive Dark Elf as I absolutely hate Lineage. Well, to say “hate” is being kind on the matter as mention of Lineage anything drives me insanely furious. After securing an order on the Human Mage, it only made sense to give her a companion. Ru Li Lu Ra is a Hobby Japan exclusive figure that has a really weird display base, but has a magnificent sculpt. I’m glad I lost an auction on her because it gave me the opportunity to find her for much cheaper than what the eBay ended at. While I’m speaking about lost auctions, I’m really glad that someone bought the Buy It Now for Koyori as well because I was able to get her significantly cheaper than $179.

[The Eighth Day of Christmas] – What a Max Factory extravaganza! Don’t you just hate it when you try to get something for as low as a price as possible and end up simultaneously winning both listings. I mainly wanted the Max Factory Chun-Li because she is so gorgeous, but I ended up liking the Max Factory Sakura and posing all three girls together created a nice diorama. I love mechs, so I instantly jumped on the chance to get this discontinued Dann of Thursday action figure. It must be luck or intuition, but this Onegai figure was less than $30 and authentic to boot.

[The Ninth Day of Christmas] – These are the figures or other goodies that don’t quite belong into one of the other groups.

[The Tenth Day of Christmas] – Strangely enough, I own a massive quantity of Goodsmile figures despite having problems with the company.

[The Eleventh Day of Christmas] – This is a really small spending spree for video games in comparison to how much I used to buy. I wish that I bought video games to the extent that I used to.

[The Twelfth Day of Christmas] – I really don’t know how insanely hard it is to find this box set, but it wasn’t all that hard. As a matter of fact, it fell into my lap.

This is what happens when you are very good at hunting things down at great – excellent prices. I actually have a lot more that was received in this massive package, but I split up the loot because of the Christmas spirit. So according to what has arrived in this shipment, I tried to split them up in a way that could be synchronized to the twelve days of Christmas.

[January Haul] – In terms of price, Joshi-chan and Gatchapin nendoroid were extremely cheap. Max Factory Emma, Beagle Skipper and AlphaxOmega C.C. vie for outstanding price and sought after figures on my want list. I don’t actually make a list and actively seek out all of the figures on that list. If I come across a figure for a very good price, then I go for it or I weigh priority against a bunch of figures I can find for good prices which happens way too often for me.

[Concentrated Haul of Sexiness] – I was a bit worried with the arival of the limited Kuroshitsuji figures. Sure, I already owned a complete set, but it was a matter of principle in having my order fulfilled. My order for the limited Nanael and limited Yukiko are part of this haul as well. Now, everyone is so quick to claim that their figure is limited or exclusive in some attempt to boost the prestige of their collection. There are two versions of the Yukiko Amagi figure being offered on the webshop. The only difference is th choice of fan with the exclusive version receiving the better in-game fan. By default, the regular version is “limited”, but the Peacock Fan version is considered as “exclusive”. I remember a bunch of individuals just jumping on the bandwagon to buy the Amagi figure just because it got offered up for preorder and exclaiming their newfound fanatical “love” for both the character and the series. This display was really laughable because a real fan tries to go get something because they are fans and individuals that propagate the hype machine do it out of convenience. I think this is another reason why I really love my figures despite not having any type of familiarity with each and every one of their background.

[End of January Haul] – I find it funny how my husband was indifferent to the Saika Farnese figure when he caught a glimpse of me admiring the figure online. Then, he had renewed interest upon seeing it in real life. Oh, how I love Megahouse’s Felicia.

[Insert Post] – I don’t know why my picture of the overall haul post disappeared, but I still was able to salvage individual pictures. We were both shocked by the size of the Hayate Yagami box, but it was to be expected.

[A very merry unbirthday to me!] – The first picture is just a side-by-side comparison of the regular and limited Miku Hatsune nendoroid. Miku Hatsune is a great character, but I grow sick and tired of great characters that get a mass production of merchandise to the point of ad nauseum.

[It's raining nendoroids + Ink Nijihara] – More, more, more nendoroids!

[Long overdue haul=byproduct of procrastination] – Some more goodies left over from the Christmas haul.

[Bunnies, swimsuits, maids, and Street Fighter. Oh My!] – So awesome to have some video game connection and get Street Fighter IV Collector’s Edition for the PS3 when it’s been sold out for weeks :]

[What does 30 lbs. of sexy look like?] – Free goodies let alone figures is pure awesome.

[Limiteds to the right and left of me] – Even though a lot of people are turned off by the massive pink in the limited Alice, the sculpt is still fantastic and I am super happy with the “sweet” Alice. I’m glad and lucky that my friend won the lottery after the preorder sold out. I’ll still get the “bondage” version at some point.

So, please excuse how random and dispersed my thoughts were for this post. A lot of what was mentioned is reminiscing about the past and how I felt about those hauls. I don’t quite remember my last figure I acquired before hitting 1 year, so 478 figures was a rough approximation. I am also missing some pictures of hauls that disappeared in thin air or were never taken of in the first place for whatever reasons.

In the beginning, I got carried away and bought things that I could have done without buying. I’m not saying that they were unwanted figures, but I feel less strong for them than others. Fortunately, I only have a handful of figures whom I feel that way. Familiarity is often the driving force in fueling one’s desire to obtain certain figures, but that seldom becomes the final factor throughout the collecting process. The initial accumulation of figures was a rush to, what I felt to, get caught up this hobby. There’s no telling which figures insanely inflate or become difficult to acquire. Then, there are figures that are difficult to obtain that only become more difficult with the passing of time. At around 478 figures and then some, I’d say that I’m fairly caught up with this hobby. Despite the amount of figures in the collection, upcoming figure announcements – whether regular or limited – is an efficient way to deter one from really being caught up. I take enormous pride in the figures in the collection as there was some type of attachment that made me feel compelled to buy the figure in the first place. Unlike other collectors who grow “bored” or “tired” of their figures because they no longer value them, I’m in it for the long haul.

I’ve neglected the blog often and blogged in what I would consider random spurts. Unlike other bloggers, I don’t intend to write 1 year of blogging post to chronicle the time that I’ve blogged because there were far too many gaps in-between. I will, however, mention some individuals, in no particular order, whose insight has been a pleasure to be a spectator of during my year of collecting – Blowfish, Jayman, Lyllibelule, ELTBoy, Noele, & Balance. To the two people whom I’ve come to trust my money with, my collection would not be as grand and awesome without your great service and help.

I am beyond belief tired with my 12 hour – 6 days/wk work schedule. Gotta work hard and make sure the video game project is a success.

//