Velvet from Shining Ark by Alphamax

Aah... It has been too long since I did a figure review. Let's hope this will become a habit again. This is 1/8 scale Velvet from Shining Ark released in late January by Alphamax.

Loot from Anime Revolution and Cos & Effect

Not a big loot, but still a loot nonetheless. Having a lot on order, I figured I should hold back on buying stuff at conventions. Not a lot of merchandise, but I did grab a few fanart, and a few new friends ^_^

Pardon some of the photo sizes... I didn't realize I changed the resolution size of my camera XD

NERV HQ & Bday Presents

Here is the NERV HQ base that I got from Yakuri when I was in L.A. I first seen it on her blog and was impressed with it, but this time I have my own and assembled it. It's quite compact at first, but it opens up to a lot of things you see from the anime! Most impressive!

Birthday of Ayanami 2011

It's almost like an annual tradition now that every year I post up an Ayanami Rei related post on her birthday on March 30th. This year isn't as grand as last year's posts... I've only got two things to show you here ^^;

Misaka Mikoto Mania

It's no surprise that I've become a big Mikoto fan since my last blog layout update... So you know I've got a few Mikoto goods lying around the house.

The first one is of course the Mikoto messenger bag by Cospa. Quite a pricey one, but hot damn it's worth it! Mikoto looks big on that bag! Lots of compartments and lots of room for a messenger bag. There's also another set of interesting strap with a clip on it for extra support. I was puzzled about how it worked. I had to look at the product picture again...

2 Girls 1 Hentai

Uhh... I mean... "hen tie". This is my backlog blog loot post from Akihabaka. I told him before Otakuthon in Montreal started that I was interested in the Fakku shirt with the hen tie and he offered to get me one since he knows Jacob. He offered it for $20 and will ship it for free. Though later on he surprised me and told me that I won the Taito Lucky Star figures from his giveaway! What a surprise! And a coincidence XD

Late Night Loot Unboxing

I've finally received my big package from Hobby Search for the end of July. All of these were released in July but I waited for all of them to be there first and combined into one shipping. I'm surprised they all fit into one box!

AX (Suddenly Acquired) Loots

Here comes the loot, everybody knows that here comes the loot! Ok, that doesn't make sense, but anyways after an anime convention, you expect to see the loot post going up :P I kept all the fancy paper bags from J-List and MangaGamer. They're kinda like loot to me XD Honestly I didn't buy too much. I wanted to limit myself because I already spent quite a bit just trying to get to Los Angeles for AX.

So let's get to the loots one by one shall we? I got a lot of small items that may not be too visible in the main picture.

Admirin' Iron Man 2

After watching the first teaser trailer for the first Iron Man movie, I knew I want... nay, NEED to watch it! I regretted not watching Iron Man right away in 2008, and I regretted not watching it enough multiple times in the theatres. So with the release of Iron Man 2, I had the opportunity to watch it right away and I took it! I even stayed up late to get Iron Miku up and running before I go to the IMAX version at 10 AM on Friday... The IMAX screen really showed the details well, but I don't think it's necessary to watch this movie, especially if you have to pay extra $5 to watch it.

Birthday of Ayanami: Shrine Update

So with the additional new Rei figures, I have to update the shrine, don't I? ^_^ This is part 4 of my Birthday of Ayanami series of posts on March 30th. Rei's birthday is actually based on Megumi Hayashibara's birthday, her voice actress. Megumi is also my favourite voice actress.

The new ones immediately gets front stage... Well just because they work better up front, plus I'm too lazy to move stuff from the back to the front. It seems to work.

Birthday of Ayanami: Real Action Heroes

Ayanami Rei, real action hero? Kinda... but this is Medicom's Real Action Heroes series featuring Ayanami Rei, Bandage Version. I was going to put this in the previous figure post, but I had so many pictures already, so I figured giving this one a separate post would be nice. Plus I added some extra bonuses for this post :)

Birthday of Ayanami: New Rei Figures

More and more Rei! The cloning has gone out of control!!!

Durarara!! Ending Parody

You can guess from the title and picture that this will be about the ending song from Durarara!! using Figma in the animation. Well you guessed right... Unless you guessed that I'm making a Saber Lily Can-can dance video, that is. Which I'm not.

Light Emitting Kamen Rider Faiz

Also known as 超発光　仮面ライダーファイズ or Chouhakko Kamen Rider Faiz. Kamen Rider Faiz (555) has been one of my favourite Kamen Riders of all time. I remember hearing a lot about Kamen Rider back when I was younger, but I've never really had a chance to watch any of them. However a lot of people back in 2002 started to talk about how much Kamen Rider Ryuki was quite different from the previous incarnations, especially the costume design. I looked into it. I found that it was more serious than I thought since my opinion of Tokusatsu shows are all corny. I find Ryuki was still a bit corny though.

Yuri Mania 25

Gokigenyou! I can't believe I've been saying that for a year now! Yes, it has been a year since I started these yuri posts on my blog. Though it was never been a regular thing here, the Weekly Lily series that started at dannychoo.com and now figure.fm has been going on regularly without missing a beat, even if I've posted near midnight (PST) on Sunday. ^^;

A Happy New Year to You All!

I hope 2010 is a good year for all of you. 2009 was bittersweet to me, so I hope 2010 is much more sweeter and less bitter.

Anime Stores Around Vancouver II

Been in Vancouver for a while? Can't find your anime & anime goods fix? Let me help you by showing you the anime stores around Vancouver and its surrounding areas. This is a continuation of part I. I've only found fewer than before, so I also moved one of the entries to this post to reduce the loading time of the first one. After this post I think I've covered all the stores that sell a majority of anime-related products in-store around Vancouver.

Anime Stores Around Vancouver I

Dropping by Vancouver for a visit? Looking for anime related stores? Then let me help you. This is an ongoing project to inform the public (specifically the anime fans or people looking to get gifts for anime fans since it's almost Christmas now) about the anime stores around Vancouver. Now to be clear about this, the stores I show don't always sell anime, but anime-related goods and merchandise. And not all the stores are in Vancouver, but in surrounding cities and areas around Vancouver as well. This is but a fraction of what's out there, so I'll continue this project in another post in 2010. EDIT: Scratch 2010... The next one should be posted within the week. The second part is now posted.

Komugi Nakahara

One of my favourite characters from early 2000's is Komugi Nakahara. She is originally a side character from Soul Taker, but either the fans or the staff members liked her so much that they made a spinoff OVAs that focused on her. Thus the Nurse Witch Komugi-chan Magicarte was born!

So it definitely gives me a reason to get this figure of Komugi. Her line of figures aren't exactly all over the place, so this is a nice get even though I didn't find out about her until she was released already.

On the Dinner Table

Saber showing off the chopsticks from Sushi Oyama

Two of my closest friends from college get together once in a while to have dinner and catch up. This time we decided to have it at a sushi restaurant on Friday night. The food is the typical sushi fare that you see in other Japanese sushi restaurants, but the location is quite unique.