Small World of Otaku Collectors

We all know that we are one big family in this Otaku World we live in of Anime, Manga, Figures and Cards. I know we all talk to one another on Twitter, via our Blogs and on collecting sites. It is great to have so many of us that like the same things all around the world.

For me however, it became a bit more surreal. I blogged about a recent trade I was doing on a post not too long ago. I had been contacted by a fellow collector named Trent. He was inquiring about my Queen's Blade cards and wanted to trade. I have done this before and thought nothing of it and we worked out a deal. He had some Ghost in the Shell Clear cards that I needed for my Amada series.

He also happens to live in Australia. Which again would not mean much, except he lives in Brisbane. If you not much of a news watcher, then check this link for the Queensland Flood from the news.com.au site.

If you want to see the reality of it from his point of view (thanks to a friend), this picture is about 500m from where he lives near the CBD (Central Business District) of Brisbane.


Now he is currently not at home, but is in South Australia with some of his collection. It looks like the small trade, may become a purchase of the collection depending on how things look in 5 days. Usually I would be happy about a sale like this, but when it comes because of a tragedy, it looses its luster.

Trent, know that I am (we are) hoping everything is alright for you

As a side note ~ he is also looking for the Resident Evil 2 Chromium Card series.

UPDATE PHOTOS:

For us Nature Photographers, these are some interesting shots. It goes to show that we do everything we can to stay dry and help others - thanks Trent!


This link is even more intriguing as Nature will help its own as well > MSN

Queen's Blade Card Collecting

I have had a binder full of Queen's Blade Illustration and Gaming cards. I was really into it when they came out and worked feverishly to get them. It was an expensive task I must say perusing eBay, and normal Japanese sites to get boxes. I got a binder for them for the 9 card sleeves and just enjoyed opening the foil packs to see what wonders were in them.

First were the Illustration cards I believe. They were a bit of an odd size at about 55mm by 84mm or I think the size of a phone card (but not sure). Each had a full color front with their names and then the book statistics on the back. Like all illustration card sets, there were chase cards as well (rare cards). What made this a bit old fashion for me was that they came 1 card to a pack with a checklist and piece of gum (wrapped as well). I did get the regular series fine, but the special cards, not so much.


Then came the Gaming cards. It is pretty much the book pages in card format. Since I could not afford all the books, why not try this direction. I got boxes from the first 2 series at a reasonable price and got most of them all. Then came the 3rd series and the box prices nearly doubled. When they released series 4 and 5, I was exhausted and stopped collecting them. With the duplicates I had, they were either sold or traded to other collectors I could find.

On top of it all, to get all the promo cards, you needed to buy other stuff as well. I did manage to get some though through normal channels (eBay - LOL). Then there was the Pre-build set boxes that came with the regular series (usually 2 different ones). This did give me some rares, but a large amount of dups as well.


This brings me to what happened the other day. It seemed someone found my card list on my website Green Dragons Den (showcases my original art collection). I have a page setup for my card collections there. From all the way around the world in Australia, they wanted to know if I would trade. Since they have been doing nothing and not sure what to I was going to do with them, I will be trading some of them. I hope to get some cards for my Ghost in the Shell Amada series that I can't find.

Now what this means for you - if anyone knows someone who wants to start or is collecting these cards, drop me a line. As you can see I am open to international shipping. I will trade singles or sell the whole damn collection to any interested party.

For those wondering, Yes, they are Near Mint/Mint condition and are from a smoke free home.

Why I do Cosplay Blogs?

I guess for someone that does not Cosplay himself, it may be out of character to showcase it on my blog. But if you have gone to any Anime, Comic or Gaming convention, Cosplayers are there as well. It is as much apart of the things we watch, read or play as the activity itself.

Don't tell me that you don't enjoy the girls or guys (depending on taste) all dressed up in your favorite character. How many times have we seen a group of fanboys with digital cameras clicking away while a lovely lady is posing. Honestly, please give the girl some breathing room and also get a breath mint!


Though I have to say, there are times they should of just stayed home - WTF were they thinking???

My first actual post about Cosplay was in 2009 for my Labor Day Post. It was all about Queen's Blade of course which I was getting into at the time. But if you were to ask me who my favorite Cosplay character was, I would have to Yoko from Gurren Lagann at this time who was done by Kipi (who I am a big fan of).


It could just be that it drives traffic to my site. I was amazed to see that the biggest Posts were the ones done about Cosplay. Like they say "Sex Sells" and this is living proof. Here is a screen shot of my Top 5 Post which I took yesterday.
I also did a Poll to see what characters people wanted to see on my Cosplay Post. It was a close race, but Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku won by a single vote over Queen's Blade. Of course I had to have my favorite Cosplayer Kipi in the post as well (she is so beautiful).


With all my research, I have been able to find some great sites for you to view some stunning Cosplayers. If you go to the community links, you will find thousands of Cosplayers that put tremendous effort into their designs to make sure it is as authentic as possible to the character.
Here is a short list of them for you to check out and join.

• Cosplay.com
• Cure
• Cosplay.ps
• Cosrain.com

For some of the best Cosplayers around, you have to check these Lovely Ladies. Mind you these are only the tip of the iceberg of wonderful Cosplayers that are out there.

• Kipi
• Alodia Gosiengfiao
  
• Yaya Han
• Francesca Dani
• Ayane Shiranui

If you have a link you want to add, let me know. I am working on adding a Cosplay Links section to my Blog Rolls -n- Links page soon.

Queens Blade Rebellion 1/6 Ymir Complete

Looks like I get to look, but not buy again. It seems that Queen's Blade as a new version of Ymir. I love the style and pose of this one more than mine. I like how she is standing kind of bent in an innocent way while holding 2 Battle Axes. Honestly, don't you just want to go up and pat her on the head and say "Oh, such a cute little girl"?

Still the price even with discounts, it is STILL not in my price range as seen below, thanks Clayz.

From Japan:
Hobby Search = $181.75
HobbyLink Japan = $205.49
Play-Asia = $209.90

From US:
Hobby Fan = $245.99

Anyone adding this to their collection? If you are, then please let me know. I plan to sneak in like a Ninja and take it in the middle of the night - haha, heehee!

New Haul - Queen's Blade Vante

Not really a Haul, but a box this time. I wonder what's in the box? I was suppose to get this tomorrow by the shipping company, but my wife said I had a box on my desk. "Can someone bring me a damn knife or scissors so I can open this thing!".

I had order this so long ago, I almost forgot about it. Since I had Yuit, I know I needed to pre-order Vante. How can you have one without the other I thought to myself. Any addition to my Queen's Blade collection is always a time of joy and happiness for me (PERVERT).

I had to undress her to get all the plastic off and you can FULLY undress her. The only grip I have right now it the purple plastic over her main body is not user friendly. It is actually a soft rubber and the itty-bitty holes for the plastic pegs are too damn small to get them back in. After I 1/2 hour trying, I just gave up and re-dress her as is.

I liked the fact that they included a small stand for Yuit as well. Here are the final shots for now until I have time to do a full blown review and photo spread.

I Hate Figure Lotteries!!!!

I was looking up stuff for future blogs and happened across this new figure from MegaHouse of CORE Queens Blade EX Excellent color 2P Wild Risty. I have the first version which I love and wanted to see when this would be out. I found it over at Hobby Channel (in Japanese) and know I had to add it to my Queen's Blade Figure collection.

The colors are different and she has battle damaged clothes. Her hair seems lighter and her cloak is also more of a blue color as well. She even has purple pantsu O-o

Here is a link to my review of the original figure ~ Risty.

Sexy 2P Version of Risty

I got my Google Treanslator powered up and punched in the web address to see the release date. I come to find out IT IS A FUCKING LOTTERY for a limited release of 1500 pieces. I tried to translate the Lottery page in hopes of at least giving it a shot and could not get it to work !@#$%^&*()

I really hate lotteries!

Price: 7,140 yen (tax included) plus shipping and handling / registration period
Sales Lottery Period: July 25 - August 3, 2010
Lottery Registration Site: https://hobby-channel.net/ex_risty_2p/ < for those of you that can do it and know that I am looking at you right now with loathing in my eyes!
 
BTW: Good news I got was that my figure of Vante was finally being shipped from HobbyFan so I will be able to place her with Yuit now.

WTF was Revoltech Thinking?

This may be NSFW < nuff said!

I ran across this while browsing over the latest postings on Sankaku Complex. I really love how Revoltech makes there figures fully pose-able. This is especially true for their Queen's Blade series which is over the top any way. They are releasing a Queen's Gate figure of Alice (QB spinoff).  She even comes with parts so she can be in 2 different Modes.

I do have a thing for Goth Lolita's and Alice sure fits the bill in all ways. But at my age, I will have to take her after she transforms into her more adult form.Reminds me of Moka Akashiya from Rosario + Vampire.

 With that said, they really threw caution to the wind and went to what I consider a bit on the fetish side of figures. I did find this a bit disturbing and not sure I would want this in my case of figure accessories to play with. Take a look at the picture below.

What could this yellow gelatin substance be - hummmm one wonders. Lets take a look at the other accessories > there seems to be a pair of pantsu that have a yellowish stain (above the yellow shape). Thinking hard about this now . . . OMFG . . . she pee'd her pantsu!!!!

Now we have officially entered into a place that I am not sure we wanted to go. Have we really gotten ourselves so low in figure collecting that this had to be brought into the main stream . . . I said "stream" . . .  lmao!

So, how many of you have this on pre-order?

Source: Sankaku Complex

Review: Queen's Blade 1/8 Risty Figure

Lets change up the figure shots to one of our favorites - Queen's Blade Risty. Nothing says Loving like a Hot Muscular Babe with a Large Mace. This was a present to myself back during the Christmas Holidays.

I wanted a figure that more reminded me of a sculpture and this one definitely fitted the bill. The pose isn't bad, but I would of preferred something that didn't remind me of a "Runway Model". Still the details on this are stunning and the colors are great.

I have never seen a figure with so much muscular detail that was done correctly. She looks like an ass kicker without looking like a man-woman. Some of her clothes do come off and you can check the link at the bottom for those shots.

So without further a-do, lets get on to the show:

4 Rotating Poses


Random Shots


Infamous Pantsu Shot

For the Money shots, check out my ADULT figure shoots over at Finally Anime. These are NSFW pictures - ack!

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.

But first let's get some things out of the way. Durarara!! is a new anime that started airing in January. I've only started watching it in the middle of February because of all the parody that has been made out of the ending animation. The anime is quite good actually. Different individuals with different background stories all live in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo and somehow their lives are all connected in one way or another. The ending song, Trust Me, is done by Yuya Yamashita and a lot of parodies have been made out of this video.

So after seeing so many parodies on YouTube and NicoNicoDouga, I decided to make one of my own. Since I can't draw to save my life I use what I have available; my Figma (and one Revoltech). I needed 15 of them which I do have, but I decided to use one Revoltech because I wanted to use Rei and the Figma isn't out yet. Also, the purpose of making this video is to make a promo video for The Melancholy of Saber Lily comics, lol. So the characters that are in this video is either in the comics or will be there eventually.

Yes, I keep all my Figmas in their original boxes... Which was quite a hassle for this project. Anyway, enough talk... I'll show you the video first.

The Melancholy of Saber Lililily

I started this last Thursday and it took a few hours just to get all the characters off the original background. Taking the pictures took a couple of hours as well. And then I wanted to time the pictures to the song as well. Quite a pain, I tell you. I added the pictures in the beginning instead of the scenery ones in the original video. I also had to change Rei's hands position so it fits properly so that it looks like she's holding Ryomou's legs.

I used this Maria-sama ga Miteru parody art as a basis for my sizing and template for the pictures. I changed the colour a little bit in my version to fit Nanoha and Fate's colours ^^

This is an unused picture for Cute. She's one of the new Figmas that I have to open for this project. She'll be in the comics soon. I have quite the plan for her... Mwahahaha! Oh the MEIKO was supposed to be a size reference, but I didn't really use the reference point, lol.

Nanoha gave me the most trouble! First... I couldn't find her at all! I searched high and low and I decided to give up and created a new roster for the video. It would've worked too, but I think a lot of people made me look for it and I finally found it. Then when I started to pose her, her shoulder started to stiffen up... Seriously, what a pain. I took off her arm to "massage" the shoulder joint.

Another thing I have to add is that even though I thought about making this video on my own, there was already a Durarara video made with Figmas. Ah well... I made it according to my storylines, lol. But anyway, to be fair to MrKammy, here is his version:

Anyway that's it for me... I'm really tired and this project really wiped me out! "Trust Me!"