More Blu!

Last payday purchase of the year. All under $8! I have set a budget for my BD buying and I can't go past that.

Dracula - Winona Rider at her cutest and Gary Oldman was awesome as Dracula.
The Dark Crystal - One of my favorite movies when I was a kid! A must have!
Friday - Nate and his brothers are always quoting this movie.
Labyrinth - Another favorite of my teen years. Oops! I seem to be dating myself.
Silent Hill - Best game to movie adaptation in my opinion. I have ALL the games. I haven't played any of them longer than five minutes because I am too scared. T_____T 

You Don't Mess With The Zohan - The only reason I got this movie is for Nick Swardson.


Estimated delivery date around January 18, 2011.

I Like Blu

I've been buying a lot of blu-rays lately since Black Friday. Not for full price mind you. Only when it's on sale. Just like the VHS tape, the DVD format is now a dinosaur and it is time to upgrade our movie collection. Here's a few I ordered after Christmas:

Not all of my anime will probably be ported over to blu-ray if they are available in that format. Some are just meh, i.e. storyline, and don't need to be upgraded. There are a few exceptions however, like Full Metal Panic. I like this series because it's light-hearted and not meant to be taken as a serious mind bender like some other series I can mention.

There's not a lot of anime I like on blu-ray. Most of the time it's ridiculously expensive but these dipped below $18 each for full series sets so I got them all. I used my Christmas gift cards too so total shipped after discount is only $2.47! Estimated delivery time because of free shipping is around January 10, 2011.Can't wait!

Bwana Spoons Blind Box Madness 2010 - Opening the Box

Our family Christmas Party ended at almost at 1 AM. Clean-up took an hour. When we finished it was already 2. Since I am full of sugar from the ice cream cake, cookies etc, I figured I can open one present and I wanted to open my blind box from Bwana.

Opening my box.

Oooo! Getting excited...

I pull an original painting by Bwana! O_____O!!

I find the last bundle in the box...

I pull a Custom Steven #50! So stoked!

The back of the custom!

My blind box loot! I also got some taffy, a couple of cards and a candy cane-like figure of a snake. I hope Bwana does this again next year. I really enjoyed it! Merry Christmas to me!

Blind Box Madness Christmas 2010

I got my blind box from Bwana yesterday. It went straight under our tree. There's presents there from family and from Nate that I am dying to open but I am holding out until Christmas. I love the season and the anticipation reminds me of when I was a kid during Christmas time. I am not about to ruin that wonderful feeling just because I want instant gratification. Some things are worth the wait.

I also got my Turtle Giz along with my blind box. It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be and I am quite pleased with the coloring. I can't wait to see where this sculpt goes!

The Night Before Thanksgiving

I am trying to maximize my holiday weekend by doing what chores I can complete before bedtime. Finishing up on our laundry and cleaning our room. I've been resisting buying stuff tonight as better deals maybe had on Friday.

The sucky part is Nate's working Friday and the weekend. I wish he was off as he could have helped me tackle the garage. So whatever buying I am going to be doing will all probably be online. This might be the year all Christmas presents are bought online.

I am not completely cooking this year. All I have to do is make my stuffing and head over to Migs and April's house for Thanksgiving. Still not sure if I am the host for Christmas. I'll probably find out tomorrow.

My sister and brother-in-law are on their way from Northern California. They will be leaving for their honeymoon in December and will be going to Australia and the Philippines! I am already making a list for my sister to bring me home stuff!

On a sad note, Britney, my Uncle and Aunt's German Shepherd mix was put to sleep on Monday. She was having really bad seizures for the last two days of her life. I don't think there was anything that could be done for her and my Mom insisted that she be put to rest to spare her from suffering. It was too much for my Mom as it was like P-Chan dying all over again but worse as Britney's condition was really bad. My Mom tried to comfort my Aunt as much as she could. She stayed with her and Britney when she was put to sleep. Britney, at this point was very weak and went peacefully. I don't think I could have been able to do that as I would be overwhelmed with emotion.

I was crying at work but my friends/co-workers know how much I care for my pets and family pets that they understood and they tried to cheer me up as best as they could. Last year we lost Pudgy and P-Chan and it's just unfortunate that Britney followed a year later.

I wanted to get a dog this year but maybe waiting till next year is a good idea. My yearning for a canine companion grows stronger day by day. Even though I have three cats already when I only planned for one in the beginning, I think a dog would round it out. ^____^

PK Con! Oops! I meant Designer Con 2010!

Technically, that's what it really was for us. Nate and I probably bought from less than eight booths. I didn't really have much cash for this event and neither did Nate. I've been busy preparing for Christmas since early November so cash was a little tight.

Nate planned to get there as early as we could so he was in bed by 9:30. I followed him about an hour later. He was up and about before 5 AM and we were on the road by 6. It was raining so it was slow going. A little after passing Burbank I realized I forgot my camera. We were too far to turn back.

Even though there was only a few cars on the road we passed by a bad three car accident on our way to Pasadena. Lots of people underestimating the rain.

When we got there we were fifth in line. First in line was Tom, a.k.a. Revolux, on the board. He said he got there at 6:15 and all the lights were off. A little after he showed up, people started trickling in. Also the rain was pouring on and off as we waited in line.

An hour or so before opening David, a.k.a. animator, joined us in line. We've been talking and speculating about the releases we were interested in days before the event.

When the doors opened Nate headed off to Paul Kaiju's booth and I sprinted down to Bwana's. When I got there Bwana was nowhere to be found! Amanda was manning the booth and she said he must be wandering around. I was checking out the goods and spotted two Pocket Killers I have never seen before. One was black and the other a nice lavander. After scrutinizing the custom I decided to pick it up and the Clear Green Boris.

I ran back to Paul's booth. I was too late to see what Boss Carrion customs he had. Many were already in buyers hands and Tom was kind enough to show me what he picked up. I think I saw Carl holding a clear one with peanuts and I swear I saw a clear one with pink stuff inside. The Pinkysnout was literally flying off the shelves.

Good thing Nate decided to get there early. He knew with the hype it was going to be more of a hassle to secure one for our collection. We've been fortunate enough to have good friends and good luck so far.

This is our combined haul from Paul's booth. There were figures that I wanted that were different from Nate. After the initial pandemonium, we all took a breather and caught up with some friends for some chit chat. It's always fun to get together, catch up and relax for a bit.

My haul from Bwana. The Garys were offered by Bwana as a made to order item. Since I love the sculpt so much I was able to order two. He brought them down to DCon and technically, not really part of DCon purchases. He's got a whole mess of stuff planned for next year. Rootbeer Randall painted colorway and I think a painted Boris. I am definitely looking forward to next year's offerings from Bwana!

Our last circle of D-Con before heading home netted us some bargains. Fungus Mutant Chaos and SB Masked Ranger Barbarian. You can't beat $20 a figure and the Chaos has been eluding us since we started collection RxH and to get him at such a great price was a great satisfying moment in our hunt for certain toys.

All in all we had a blast.We all got what we wanted, ::highfive David::, and we came home and spent no more than what we were capable of spending. Christmas is right around the corner and it's time Nate and I bought presents for our family.

Goodbye Vox...again.

I got the news that VOX is permanently closing it's doors as of tomorrow so I had to move my old archive to a new location.

I know we haven't posted in a while but life is keeping us busy. I'll be fiddling with the old blog so the design suits my taste.

SDCC 2010 Wishlist

It's that time of year again. Time to build the wishlist. Surprisingly, slim pickings this year which is good as we'll set aside more money for customs hopefully.

DKE TOYS: Booth #4372

Baby Treesons. One for sale each day for $16 each.

Mike Sutfin x Reckless Toys: Booth #???

Mad Battle Man Dusk Edition SDCC Exclusive. Unknown price. Pic courtesy of ToybotStudios.

UAMOU x Onell Design: Booth #4937

Clear Fortune Cats plus others I am still thinking about. She's bringing a lot!

Morphy Auction - I won what?

One of my big toy regrets was hearing about the auction of auctions late last year. So many I would have gone for but alas, that boat has sailed.

A smaller collection was recently offered again at Morphy's. Most of the lots had a piece of two we were interested in but not enough to bid. I was attracted to five lots. One had the Canico Cats, a Charactics lot with a mini Gezora I needed, the Buta no Hana and two Booska lots.

Nate and I just spent money at Super7 Anniversary so we couldn't really bid at all. My eyes kept wandering towards the Booskas. I was like, what the hell. I bid on lot #551 but the reserve on it was past my budget. So I went for my second choice, lot #550 and my bid was accepted.

I was able to see the auction live and saw the one lot I bid on go past my reserve. I was like, "Oh well." But a day or so later I got notification I actually won the lot. o___o

I then paid for my win and now the waiting ends as this big box arrived at my home. It's a great way to come home from a tiring day at work.

Nate opened my box as I watched the cats gathering around the couches for a chance to go in it.

The giant Marusan and M1Go Booskas are the primary reasons I went for the lot. The rest I don't mind and I can use with the Yotsuba project. There's one piece I am not really into and I will probably sell that off to the board if I can.

This was our first non-Ebay auction win and I kind of enjoyed it. Granted the 17% buyer's fee hurt but in the end with just the two pieces in this lot, I got a steal. Plus a new obsession with Booska begins to Nate's dismay.

The Yotsuba Re-Ment Project

All my Re-Ment are stored in a tub in individual plastic baggies which is not the best way to store them as it's hard to see what I have. I bought two Akro-Mills storage cabinet from Amazon.


I got the dividers as well to maximize the spaces in each drawer. At first I tried to organize my Re-Ment by sets but due to the large amount of sets I seem to have accumulated, that was soon turning into a cluttered mess. I wanted to be able to pull forks, knives and plates easily.

The only way to do that was to split the sets into its core parts and store them away that way. I was hesitant to do this as I would forget which came with what. In the end I decided to photograph the set before I separated it. I can always use the photo archive for reference.

With that decided, my thoughts turned to Yotsuba. Revoltech did an awesome job with her and she is almost to scale with most of the Re-Ment items I had. I wanted her to be part of each set I photographed. I tried matching each scene with her many faces.

I can't tell you how much I am enjoying this project. Yotsuba and Re-Ment go perfectly together! The photo archive is taking longer with Yotsuba in it but the images I am capturing make me smile.

The long weekend is presenting an opportunity for me to do as much of this as I can. It's great way to relax and I am hoping to finish more sets soon.

I heart Re-Ment!

I really missed playing with these awesome miniatures. I was looking for the Re-Ment house but I can't find it now and it's selling for ridiculous amounts on Ebay. I figured I might as well make my own room box. It'll be more to my taste and a little creativity over the summer might be just what I need to de-stress.

I knew I had the furniture to at least make a decent kitchen. I just wish I got more of the white cabinets as all I see are the brown which kind of throws off my white kitchen. =/

I am thinking I might need Nate's help with the measurements and possibly cutting but I kind of want to do this project by myself. Hopefully, I'll have something done by the end of the year.

Busy Bee

Nate and I have been so busy these last couple of months. Home repairs, school, work, my sister's wedding and searching for a new canine companion has made our lives quite hectic.

Project Cat Trap - Was a success! We missed only three males but without females to breed with the colony is basically stable and not exploding with new kittens. 

Myaa died - An un-diagnosed heart condition took our sweet little stray cat. We did our best to make her comfortable in her last days. 

Wedding Frenzy - Finished! My sister got married on a rainy day last February. Nate finally danced with me for the first time. LOL

I am job! - My sister got a job and is no longer unemployed! YAY! 

Litter Robot - Got it and my cats are happier. Especially Nodame, clean freak!

Breeder Quest - Found a breeder I am pleased with and we're in the middle of negotiations. 

Home Repairs - Nate completely replaced our toilet which was not functioning well, replaced the tub spout that he broke and re-caulked the tub. He's learning man fix skills!

I also splurged on a butt load of games and currently playing Final Fantasy XIII! I got Bayonetta, Dead Space and Gears of War 2.

We've got family coming down from up north and we'll probably clean this weekend in preparation for our guests.

Toy wise we've been getting some nice pieces here and there. I again splurged on some Sarumons and Uamous.

I need to sell off a bunch of Western stuff that I can live without. It's just a matter of taking the pictures, packing it up and listing them on ebay is very tedious. Gotta build that SDCC warchest!

Cat Trap

My sister was about to implement the capture of our small cat colony in our neighborhood. At the same time, Nate and I were busy packing for our trip up North for his birthday celebration.

There's a certain urgency to complete the trapping as a new law regarding trap and release of feral cats was going into place for LA County. Some bird conservationists complained and they want the program to end.

My sister and her boyfriend made the trap, scheduled the appointment and started catching what cats we could to get fixed. She has a video of it somewhere that she still needs to edit to post.

We were not really sure how many cats were in our colony but the final tally was 8. The first night we caught 5 cats.

When the trap dropped on them they panicked like crazy. We had to cover the whole thing with cloth to calm them down. When they settled a bit we opened a small door in the big trap that lead to a small cage trap to hold individual cats. The big trap was more like a holding pen.

We caught the two little kittens and one of the most prolific breeders in the colony. So it was a good first day. They were not very happy but it's for the best. It's a great way to control the cat population in our gated community.

I know of another family that feeds the cats other than us but the rest of our neighbors are pretty indifferent about it.

After we left for Northern California, my sister caught another 3 cats. We got everyone except the Alpha Male, Boomer. He was too smart for the trap. Everyone that was caught got fixed and they stayed in our house for a day to recover. They're a little wary of us right now since they got fixed but at least there will be no more cats reproducing. Even though Boomer escaped being neutered he will have no one to mate with as all the females are fixed.

After having my own cats there really is nothing to fear with feral cats and I grew to love them dearly. Since my cats came from the strays outside, it was only natural that we do what we can for them. MomCat is to be credited for this. Her and Impostor Cat get to eat wet food when they come around the house. They have gotten so fat they look adorable.

The last thing we did before we released them was put collars on the cats. So that animal control will leave them alone. A collared cat would be more thought of as a pet than a stray so it offers some protection.