December Hauls!

[BWprowl]

Alright, I'll go again. Bigass box from AmiAmi today, expressed mailed because it was so huge there was no appreciable difference between the normally-economical SAL and the three-days-from-Japan EMS. Let's see what's inside!

S.I.C. Kiwami Tamashii Kamen Rider Decade - Ooh, this is neat, little GI Joe-sized, S.I.C.-styled figure of Decade. Tons of fun to fiddle with, with everything Decade needs (including a Ride Booker that actually adds parts to change into its sword and gun modes, rather than just being completely separate pieces. Also has a Violent Emotion head!). Love the bright pink stand too. Fun little figure, I imagine he'll be skulking around within fiddle range for some time. And then when things go wrong, I can just blame Decade!

figma Koyomi Araragi - Finally! I got into the Bakemonogatari figmas a little late, after main couple Koyomi and Senjougahara had already been released, and while I managed to get in on the first reissue of Senjougahara, I missed out on our 1/10th vampire lead character. Fortunately, ANOTHER reissue of him just happened, so I was finally able to get myself an Arararararagi-kun. He's as wonderfully expressive as the other figures from this series, with extremely well-sculpted facial expressions (with necessary depth so Senjougahara can actually get her stapler in his mouth) and even an extra 'surprised' hair piece. The little effect part he comes with means he's ripe to be taken on by any of the Bakemono girls you've got around, and he even comes with a bonus pencil-holding-hand for Senjougahara for additional school-supply-assault action! Time to move the Akibarangers, I think the Bakemono cast is finally getting the center-stage on the anime figures shelf of my display case.

figma Kazanari Tsubasa - Kinda funny story on this one. I pretty much knew I wanted it, being the fan of Symphogear that I am, but it came out in November, and I didn't want to add anything to that order since (as you've seen) there was way too much I'd have to pay for anyway. So I had a plan: figma almost always get delayed, so if I saw Tsubasa get knocked back to December, I would add her (alternatively just wait until after my November order had shipped, then hope there were still some Tsubasas in stock and add her for December). Well I saw the alert go up that she'd been delayed, so I went ahead with a pre-order. No sooner had I confirmed this that Max Factory updated there listings *again*: Tsubasa was back on track for November, and Tsukihi Araragi, one of the OTHER figures I had pre-ordered for November, had been delayed til the next month. So...I kinda broke even on amount of toys that shipped anyway, and got Tsubasa on release besides. Yay?

Anyway, this toy, man, you guys, this toy...I have handled a lot of Transformers that required varying degrees of dexterity, and own lots of Japanese figures intended for tiny, delicate, Asian hands; I consider myself to know my way around handling this sorts of things pretty well. And this Tsubasa figma scares the shit out of me. The wing-things pegged into her ankles at odd angles, the bits on her back waist, her posable thin hair piece on top of her head, her long, paper-thin sword...I'm pretty much treating this thing like it's made of eggshells and kitten-whispers, the whole package is not to be messed with. I'm not even getting that much mileage out of the figma accessory storage bag, since there's no way I'm retarded enough to store pieces like her extended leg-blades or that goddamn sword in something like that, that shit stays in the plastic trays when I'm not using them. I really want to take care of this because it honestly is an extremely awesome toy, with killer accessories like the aforementioned leg-blades, and the HUGE version of her sword (which can't even fit in the bag and which I can trouble cramming into her hands). The best accessory though, is a little black circle of thin cardboard. See, in the show, Tsubasa has this small knife that she throws into the ground, it sticks in your shadow, and immobilizes you. So you attach this black circle to another figma's stand (Hibiki's being the obvious choice) to simulate a 'shadow', and then it's got these little slots that you can stick the knife into to recreate this effect! Brilliant! This toy has so much going for it, which is why I'm going to do my best not to demolish it.

Revoltech Queen's Blade Captive Warrior Branwen - 'Captive Warrior' is right, this poor lady was absolutely covered in clear plastic wrap in-package (a lot of figures use bits of this as separators, but I've never seen this much of it). Even if you're like me and don't really care about the cast-off action, you'll get to experience it anyway as you disassemble almost the whole figure to remove all the plastic; her abdomen actually seemed to be legitimately shrink-wrapped! Once that's over though, you've got your figure: a cool-looking gladiator woman with a ball-and-chain around one leg and some conspicuous shackle motifs added to an otherwise, uh, *pragmatic* outfit. It works for Branwen though, even if I do wish her skin-tone was darker the way a lot of her illustrations have it. Her sword is pretty cool, but her shield is a little on the dinky side, and kind of a pain to attach to her hand (you have to remove the hand, then the shackle/bracelet, then put the shield over her arm, then detach the handle on the shield, the peg that handle into her fist, then re-attach the hand-holding-the-handle to the wrist and peg it back into the shield from there! Phew!) Oh, she's got the collar/leash too, uh... I've got Ymir holding it right now, at least my uppity dwarf princess actually has someone to push around now (having the two figures next to each other really makes it clear how different artists designed each character, by the way). Her posable ponytail isn't as ambitious as the multi-point Revoltech hair found on Ymir and Alleyne, but it also gets in its own way a lot less. In fact, all of her articulation is a lot less encumbered thanks to her...lesser armor design, though her thicker thigh pieces still have clearance issues around where they peg into the hips. A cool figure, which is good, since I try to only buy the cool Queen's Blade figures.

Officially, Branwen is a pack-in incentive/bonus for a 'book' called 'Vanquished Queens 2', which is a 'book' in the same way that Cool Whip is 'food'. There honestly are some very nice Queen's Blade art books out there, not shying away from the inherent sexualization of the series while still maintaining an air of artistic dignity and illustrative talent, but this is not one of those books. 40 color pages of Queen's Blade gals in various degrees of 'defeat'/humiliation, only reminding me how annoyed I am with Queen's Blade for wasting such neat character designs on such menial content. This one's getting chucked straight into storage.

D-Arts Terry Bogard was also in the box, but that's an order for my brother, he just had it shipped with mine because why not.

Wait, is Araragi seriously my first/only male figma? For real?!

[andersonh1]

Transformers Prime season 2 on DVD. I've really enjoyed the few episodes I've seen, so I'm looking forward to actually watching an entire season.

[Onslaught Six]

A cop showed up at my door and wanted $700 in unpaid fees and shit.

Merry Christmas.

[Dominic]

Hoooboy O6. That makes my macabre holiday haul look positively pleasant.

Some new forensics free-ware:
-RegRipper
-FTK Registry Viewer
-Hash Tab
-MD5 Deep

And, a failed attempt at aquiring Metasploit netted me

-some bonus viruses, likely costing me a flash drive, necessitating


-a new flash drive.


Dom
-sorting things out with IT at the moment.

[Shockwave]

A cop showed up at my door and wanted $700 in unpaid fees and shit.

Merry Christmas.

Right smack in the middle of the holidays? The cops in your are are dicks.

[Tigermegatron]

Yesterday 12-06-2012,I went to a Target store & found a few newer TFP Voyagers. I Found & bought one TFP Voyager Ultra Magnus & I found & bought one TFP Voyager Thundertron. Target has a sale this week or month that TFP Voyagers are priced at $17.99. I didn't know this till they rang up at the register. I was shocked & happy by the sale price. I gotta say these are in the top 3 must get TFP voyagers for the 2012 TFP toy line. the other/3rd voyager mold that I put in the top 3 must get list is the Skyquake/Dreadwing toy mold.

Sadly someone else bought the TFP Voyager Skyquake toy before I arrived at the Target store yesterday that had the ultra magnus & thundertron that I saw & bought.

I saw a few 2012 SDCC Combaticons deluxes. But since I already own the SDCC Combaticons gift set,I don't need the Mass release SDCC Combaticons. The mass release versions seem to be colored in the energon toy line combaticons toys. I do think the red & purple mass release vortex is the best colored version for the vortex mold compared to the horrid SDCC,2013 Wreckers,Takara version & the G-2 Version.

GEEZ FOUR FOC VORTEX COLOR VARIATIONS & NONE OF THEM ARE IN 1986 MEDIUM GREY COLORS,ALSO ALL FOUR FOC COLORS LOOK HORRIBLE.

[BWprowl]

Oh yeah, I got Guilty Gear Λ Core Plus off of PSN, because fuck yeah Guilty Gear, we don't need no BlazBlue (Persona 4Arena is cool, it can stay). I'm so glad they finally got this thing out on PSN over here, my friends and I are gonna kill some serious time on this thing.

Six, keep us updated on how your situation turns out. I know I don't come off like it too much, but I do worry about you.

[Onslaught Six]

Six, keep us updated on how your situation turns out. I know I don't come off like it too much, but I do worry about you.

Thanks, I know you guys all do. I'm still eating and still making rent, and still using whatever extra money I have to make frivolous toy and gaming purchases, so nothing's really changed.

[BWprowl]

Thanks, I know you guys all do. I'm still eating and still making rent, and still using whatever extra money I have to make frivolous toy and gaming purchases, so nothing's really changed.

What the hell did the cop want money for, then? Do you owe money to the mob or something? What's next, kneecap-breaking? Toy-taking?

[Shockwave]

Glad to hear you're able to meet your obligations at least. But yeah, that's still pretty messed up to owe that much right in the middle of the holidays.