Review: The Ultmate Anime Guide by SFX

We were at the Barnes & Noble store in Frederick which I usually try to shop once a month. They usually have one of my fav mags called NEO which is out of the UK. I found the recent one (Issue 85), but also find something else in the magazine displays. "The Ultimate Guide to Anime Special SFX Edition".

It was a sealed folder that had the following inserted:

• The Ultimate Guide to Anime (132 pages)
  
• Magnets of Naruto
• DVD of the first 3 episodes of Sacred Blacksmith
• Double-sided Movie Poster

I got all this for $18.99 plus tax which I thought was a good deal. I wanted to see what this "Ultimate Guide' was all about as I was wondering what it covered. I can't say this is the "Ultimate", but it had some nice articles. It had the some nice write ups of Naruto, Akira and Evangelion 2.22. They also have several reviews of anime and books. Some articles are short, while others are in great detail. It even has a sample of manga called Twelfth Night which was done by Williams Shakespeare. Not too sure about a manga done in Olde English, but the artwork is well done for the series.

I soon discovered that most of the articles were written by the same people. You had Andrew Osmond (who I swear wrote 80% of the articles) and Jonathan Clements . Never seen so much written by one person in a magazine.

If you were a Studio Ghibli fan, I would definitely recommend this. It had no less than 4 articles on the studio, the music and the shows produced I really enjoyed reading about the Cécile Corbel, who is the person that did the music for 'Arrietty'. It was interesting seeing how she got involved in the creating the music for the anime.

My wife loves fridge magnets and has them up already. I have the poster showing 'Summer Wars' (other side was 'The Girl who Leapt through Time') hanging over my computer desk.

The only issue was the DVD of Sacred Blacksmith. Since this was a UK magazine, this was actually in Region 1. After some minor tweaks to some things, I was able to watch this on my computer. This is a pretty cool anime and I may actually get the remainder of the series to watch after seeing this.

Besides that bit of a setback, I still feel this was a worth while purchase.  I am a tad upset by the title since this was not really what you would of thought of reading the cover. I have to say though, even I know it was not really going to be an 'ultimate guide'.

I did get introduced to a new anime called Redline. This may have to be added to my watch list and see if it is worth the hype.

READ MORE - Review: The Ultmate Anime Guide by SFX

Haul: Gundam Fix Figuration

Just a quick post of some new Gundam Fix Figuration's I got in. I wanted to post this earlier, but was awaiting one of the shipments. I got all these from eBay again and at a great price. Especially #0044 which was at 25% off - YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Added to the collection:

• #0010 ~ RX-78GP04G Gerbera
• #0021a ~ Gundam F90
• #0021b ~ Gundam F91
• #0044 ~ RX-0 Full Armor Unicorn Gundam
  

Needless to say, I am cash strapped after this - unless something cool comes along. Here are some shots of the boxes. I hope to be building and reviewing them soon.


Anything new in your area that you picked up?

READ MORE - Haul: Gundam Fix Figuration

Weekend Haul

Well, I hope that everyone's Mom had a Happy Mother's Day yesterday. I actually went with my son to visit my Mom on Saturday for fun at a Winery. If ever in Maryland and love wine, check out Boordy Wineries.

I took my wife out for dinner on Friday as she was going to visit a friend for the weekend. Though dinner sucked at Crazyhorse Steakhouse and Saloon (freakishly sloooooow service), we had a blast at Borders getting our fill of books. I picked up 3 Mangas, but wanted to get more as there were a couple more series that had came in.



The rest of the haul came for a store my Mom took me to while visiting called Uncommon Treasures. They had some of the coolest Sake and Tea sets around. When I visit my Mom again, I will have to make sure my wife is along. She has been wanting a nice tea set for a while.

My son got his first Chopstick set (with Dragonflies) and I got some tea. I loved the one as it had a wooden box that the lid slid off. I will be keeping this after I use the tea.

Anything fun this weekend for you?

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Weekend Haul

Had a semi-great weekend as Saturday was really nice. I took the family out to Washington Monument State Park in Western MD. It was the first completed monument dedicated to the memory of George Washington. We had fun taking pictures (which I will showcase later this week) and also picked up out first Tick of the season - ew! It was fun getting outside for such a nice day as Sunday brought the rain again.

Grand-Dad gave my son $20 for the Easter Holiday. He quickly took that and spent it all on one thing. He got the Pokemon TCG: Victini Box. It had 5 packs of Pokemon Black & White cards, a Foil card of Zoroark and a cute little Victini figure.


As for me, my package came in of my winnings from eBay. I picked up 3 Gundam Fix Figuration figures for $145 including shipping. I was hoping to win another one, but the Quick Bid locked up at 4 seconds and I lost out. I now have figures #0014, 0015 and 0019.

Though the boxes had been opened, the parts were still in the original wrapping, so I was really excited about that. I hope to have a blog review for each in the co,ing weeks.


How was your weekend with family and friends?

READ MORE - Weekend Haul

School Book Fair

On my way home from work today, my wife called me and asked if I could take our son to the School Book Fair. She has been sick the last couple of days, so I said I would.

I picked him up and off we went. When we arrived, they were also having an Art Fair, but nothing of his was on display.


When we got to the Book Fair, it was crowded and not that much that I could see. I let him get ahead of me so he could look around. He came back with a book and to my surprise it was a Manga called Vermonia.

I was shocked to say the least that they had Manga in this rural mountain school. I guess, someone is keeping with the times :)

He then came back with 2 more books (well 3 as one was a 2 pack), an eraser/pencil sharpener combo and a 3D T-Rex book mark. All of these were his pick and I had nothing to do with it.

Not a bad haul for my son, even though it was on Dad's dime.

READ MORE - School Book Fair

Weekend Shenanigans

Well another weekend gone and shopping completed. Did a little bit of buying this weekend with some cards and Anime DVD's.

Went to Suncoast to see if they have Evangelion 2.22 on the shelves.They did not and when I asked, they said it would be released tomorrow (Sunday 04/03). Dude, you have a sign that clearly states it was released on 03/29 of this week, why the are you lying to my face? This is what I wanted to say, but knew that they had a big Anime Sale tomorrow and they were holding some copies back.

My son was able to get a 2 pack of Pirates of the Caribbean Trading Card Game. He loves getting these as they have mini pirate ships that you build.To say that he is a collector, is stating it mildly as you can see by his collection. I took an old wooden Coke case carrier and made a shelf out of it for his collection.

I did manage to go back the next day for there "big Aniume Blowout Sale". I was able to get my copy of Evangelion 2.22 on blu-ray and also got the complete collection of Tokyo Majin - S.A.V.E. version. Everything came to $37.09 USD. THe big sale was if you bought anything anime related, you got the second one at 1/2 off.

Hopefully in the future, you will see a review of both of them on my blog. But for now, I need to catch up on my other reviews. I will have the review of my Transformers Terradive figure up this week. Should be about mid week when it will post with plenty of pictures.

For those playing the Nintendo DS game Transformers: War for Cybertron, I have a code for ya. The secret code is 9871 and it will immediately unlock Ramjet for your game. In the Decepticon version, it is available for missions and the multiplayer modes. For the Autobot version, it is only good for Multiplayer only - sorry.

Have to get back to my Anime watching and hope everyone had a nice weekend as well.

READ MORE - Weekend Shenanigans

Weekend Shannagins

We went car shopping again this weekend as my wife's car is in the crapper. It looks like she will be getting a Subaru. Probably a Outback or Outback Sport. It really depends on if they can get it into our price range. It sucks as this is another car payment and money taken away for the house hunt :(

On to the fun stuff that we got this weekend.

I forgot to get my arse out of bed to watch Bleach and Kekkaishi on Adult Swim. That sucked, but I was tired from a long week. Since we are using one car, I have to get up at 5:30am to beat my wife in the shower. If I don't, I get a cold shower - burrrrrrr.

I am not sure what came over me, but we did pick up the new DSi game Pokémon White game version for my son. Now he can get Victory Pokémon Victini by using his Liberty Pass I got him in the new game. My wife decided to get Death Jr. game for the Wii Root of Evil. She is always trying to find a game that the 2 of us can play. It kind of is a perfect match for us as I am always fascinated by death and she loves boxes. I am not as much into gaming as she is, but it is a good time for us to get together for fun. We are even ordering the Official Game Book off Amazon for $16.66 instead of the $29.99. The store kept trying to shovel this down my throat to buy, but know I could get it cheaper.

My son was getting a bit upset that our local Borders store had the 100th issue of Shonen Jump in, but his has not made it to the mailbox. After 2 weeks of him looking at the bagged up version of Manga on the shelf, I bought it for him. I swear the only thing he wanted was the Yu-Gi-Oh! card again. They had a 'signed' edition of the Dark Magician card that was 'shiny' and stuff. I did write to Shonen Jump and make them aware of the issue. It will take 4-6 weeks for us to get it in - WTF, by that time, we would have moved on - oh well.

I will have to do a review of it this week as they do have a cross over Manga with Dragon Ball and One Piece. This should be an interesting edition to read.



What fun did you have this past weekend?

Pick up anything to read or watch?

READ MORE - Weekend Shannagins

Weekend Fun and Manga

I know it is Wednesday and a bit late for some weekend fun we had, but I was busy in the earlier part of the week.

I took my son to GameStop this weekend so he could get Celebi for his DSi Pokemon Soul Silver game. It is still available until March 6th. You needed one of several Pokemon games to get this download. It is cool because you use your wifi setting in the game to get a 'mystery gift' that you have to pickup at one of the shops in the game.

I actually pre-ordered Pokemon White Version for him so he can get the next download as seen in the poster.

I went back to the Hallmark store closing up and got some more acrylic displays. My son wanted some more and helped me pick them out. I was able to find 2 extra large ones for on top of my cases.

He had a blast making int Gundam Gashapon display and even used on of my old stands. He was so proud of himself and it turned out nice.

He even got one to make his Mega Blok Dialga Pokemon look like it was flying. I was amazed at how inventive he was in doing that. I have to hide the rest of them as I am sure he will be back in to grab even more of the displays for his other stuff.

We even picked up some Manga this weekend at Borders and Wonder Book. Borders had a couple I have been looking for like Soul Eater 5 and Tegami Bach 4. I did also pickup a book called 'Your Chinese Horoscope for 2011' as I love astrology. I am a Wood Dragon myself and loved reading about what is coming up for me this year.

Wonder Book is a local book shop which reminds me of your hometown book store. They even have rentals which included to my amazement - Anime. Mostly older stuff, but some I could get into to back fill some time as needed. I finally found the Manga on the furthest side of the store.

Not really anything new, but will be worth picking through as you can see in the photo above. I did manage to get a Jing, King of Bandits Manga to tied me over for a while. My son got some Duel Masters books and other fantasy reading books. Here is a shot of our 'haul' this weekend in Manga this past weekend:


Did anyone have some fun adventures this weekend as well?

READ MORE - Weekend Fun and Manga

Fye Store Closing Haul

We went out to Valley Mall here in Hagerstown to find some "ship" cards for my son (the Pirate Ship building card game). We know that Fye was going out of business, so we stopped there first.

It was a good idea as they were now in the last 7 days and the clearance was 30 to 80% off. New and used DVD's were 50% off and Blu-ray's were 40%. Needless to say, we spent a few dollars and got this nice haul below.


My son found what he was looking for in spades while me and my wife had to do a little hunting. I got some Anime as did my son. While my wife went for some CD's and patches (for my son's pants). We even picked up some food and drinks before leaving. The only bad part of this was that I need to find Gunbuster 2 Vol 1 and my son needs to find SD Gundam Vol 6.

We are planning to go back tomorrow as my wife wanted to research what she wants to buy. I nearly (and probably will) pick up some Hentai as they had F3 there and some others. The Anime selection is a bit dated, but still worth the time. Bonus was if you found something with an orange dot, it was 70% off. Anything that ended in $0.88 (eighty eight cents), than it was 80% off.

All in all, we spent $95.20 on everything, while saving $130.66 in the end. We averaged out at about 60% the prices.

Here is a breakdown of each of our separate hauls.

My Wife's Haul

My Son's Haul

My Haul

Food and Drinks

READ MORE - Fye Store Closing Haul

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.

READ MORE - New Haul - Queen's Blade Vante

Weekend Haul > Manga, Mags & a Light

We went down to visit my mom in Baltimore today. It has been a while since we were there and wanted to drop by. It is also a great time for me and my wife to escape from our son for a few hours and be on our own.

I wanted to go to Barnes & Noble in hopes of getting some Manga I have not been able to find at Borders. I did not find Gurren Lagann 05, but managed to get Dorohedoro and a couple magazines my wife found for me Neo and Otaku USA).

I picked up Dorohedoro as I have been liking what VIZ Signature has been putting out and this had plenty of bloody violence. You can check out a quick review I did of the first volume of Dorohedoro.

Since NewType USA went the way of the Dodo (along with stupid PIQ), there are only a couple mags that deal with stuff form Japan. Now Otaku USA ($5.99 USD)is a good well round US Mag on the wonderful stuff we all love (Anime, Manga, Movies, Games, Cosplay, Music . . .). I enjoy that they have Manga Previews to read. I like most of their articles, but sometimes seem one sided at times.

Now NEO ($8.99 USD) is another magazine I like, but it is from the United Kingdom. Though it seems to be a bit behind stuff here in the US in reference to Anime, I do like the fact it goes more indepth with Live action movies. They seem to not dwell on the popular stuff and get into stuff that I guess would not interest us in the US. I however love the fact that they do that :) I do get into Live Action Asian Movies more than most other people.

Personally, I like NEO more than Otaku USA < sorry guys :(

We also hit IKEA and I wanted to get a small light for my desk. I get tired of having the overhead room light on all the time. I would rather have a just enough light to work by. I was able to pick up one called Jansjo for $9.99 USD.

It is a cute little blank light that give just enough light to type by as you can see below (bit blurry, but you get the idea). I need to tidy up my desk as it is getting cluttered again. I did have an issue with it on the outlet my UPS uses for my computer as it kept flickering. I had to move it over to another power outlet to get it to stop. I guess too much of a power drain :(
 

Are there any cool Magazines in your area that showcase the wonderful world of Anime, Manga, Games, Music Movies .  . ?

READ MORE - Weekend Haul > Manga, Mags & a Light

August Haul & Back To School Supplies

My wife is back from training and we should be getting back to a normal schedule now > I hope!

I did get my box in from ABCTOY4ME and everything arrived safe and sound. I had to pick it up from the local UPS terminal as I will never be home to get it. This is one reason I am happy to work later in the day.

It was funny because I had my son with me and he thought I got a box of Ramune soda and was excited. I told him it was figures and he was still excited. I told him "No figures for you!" and he was no longer excited - LOL.

You got a case of Ramune Drinks??

I did however get something for my wife who is a HUGE Fruits Basket fan. As for me, I got the 3 R-Style figures of Yoko & Nia as well as Dark Brigade Asuka. If anyone has and is willing to sell Dark Brigade Rei, PLEASE let me know!

I got TOYS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For us in the US, it is the beginnings of getting our kids back to school. It is no fun as you have to fight with other parents on getting supplies while you check over a list of needed supplies from each school. 

I got lucky however as Borders stores has some school supplies at cheap prices. Like pencil holders for $0.98, 5 pack of pencils or colored pens for $0.98, pencil sharpeners for $0.98, 6" rulers for $0.75 and single notebooks for $1.98. But why the hell would I get my school supplies from a book store?

BECAUSE THEY ARE ANIME SCHOOL SUPPLIES!

CLEARANCE SECTION

That right, all the stuff above can be found with one of the following series:

• Bleach!
• Naruto
• Fruits Basket
• One Piece
• Soul Eater
• Negima!

Cool Stuff!

 Sorry for sucky photos on these as I took them with my camera phone :(

Have you gotten anythihg cool for yourself or your kids for back to school supplies?

READ MORE - August Haul & Back To School Supplies

June Haul

I wanted to get this up before the month ends. I had gotten the green light to order some stuff from HLJ and went for it. I got a mail slip last Friday and was able to pick them up on Saturday. I almost didn't get them because my wife told me the Post Office opened up at 11am. Luckily I checked out the slip and saw they CLOSED at 11am - I think she was trying to sabotage me in waiting another week.

What's in the boxes?

I actually order some things for my son as well, but he has not seen them yet. I know he will freak out at the Lego's Pokemon I got him as well as the Gundam Collection. I have been busy taking pictures and assembling these. I have to say the only disappointment was with the Gundam Fix # 0035. One of the shoulder joints was cracked. I was able to fix it, but the damn arm kept falling off anyway at times.

Ta Da

Here is what is in the shot:

• Mega Bloks Chara Blok Dialga Set
• Gundam Fix Figuration Shin #0035 - Musha Gundam
  
• Gundam Collection DX #8: 1 Box (9pcs)
• Gothic Ymir PVC
• Perfect Piece Ita-chikoma
  

READ MORE - June Haul

Free Comic Day Haul

We had a blast yesterday at Beyond Comics in Fredrick Maryland for the annual Free Comic Book Day. As you can see by the stuff below, we got a lot.


They had 25% off everything in the store (except for some recent comics and specific merchandise). The also has some local artists and writers from various comics, so I was able to add to my Sketch book. For more on that, you can check ot out on my Green Dragons Den website later this week. They had some cool displays like a full sized Hulk and a female manikin wrapped in comic book pages (sorry for the poor shots as it was taken on my cell phone)


I was surprised that they actually had a small niche of Anime/Manga stuff. Mostly Gundam, Final Fantasy figures and one book case of Manga. I wish they would of had more, but I guess I got spoiled with Tate's. I was still able to find something though - heeheehee.

As you can see in the shot, I have finally purchased my first Gundam Figure for myself. I went all out on the Gundam Fix Figuration #0034 GP03S Stamen. It was $79.99, so with the discount, I was able to get it at $60.00. My wife thought it was pretty cool and gave me the green light to get it.

I will be doing a photo shoot of the new Gundam figure and hope to have that up in a couple weeks.

Did anyone go to any of the Free Comic Book Day celebrations around your area?

READ MORE - Free Comic Day Haul

Manga Haul

I finally landed a job (about damn time), so I went and splurged a bit on a recent Right Stuf Manga Sale. I wanted to get stuff that I was planning on getting anyway and saved about 33% on each book. Since I went over the $49 minimum purchase, I got free shipping to boot.


Since I got both the Yokai Doctor v1 and Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei in February cheap, I wanted to get what I could from the series. I wanted to get both series a while ago, but never really had the funds to get a mass purchase like this. I like being able to pickup the next volume instead of waiting months before the next one comes out.

I am following Fairy Tail (which is a riot by the way) and the Official xxxiHolic Guide to finish off the purchases.

I need to get some Manga reviews started on the first 2 series soon. At least now I have some reading material for my 1/2 hour lunch at work. I hope that I do not freak out anyone with them - LOL.

BTW: I have been reading the Kurohime series and volume 15 was suppose to come out on 01/05. I have never been able to find it anywhere - eBay, Amazon, Borders or Barnes & Noble. Does anyone have any ideas of where to pick it up? I will have to end up reading it online soon.

READ MORE - Manga Haul

February Haul

I know that I don't have a lot of cash right now. I did need to get some Manga and one missing Anime for my collection. All in all the haul was only a little over $30 for everything. So here is the list of items I got in my shipment yesterday:

Manga - Soul Eater 2, Shaman Warrior 9 and Dance in the Vampire Bund 6
Anime: Outlaw Star Disk 2 Set


Soul Eater is cool because of 3 things, Death Weapon Training, Sexy Cat Witch and it is Funny as Hell at times. Vampire Bund was my first "moe-ish" Manga I got. I was not sure if it was something in my tastes, but read it a little and got interested. If you like Vampires, Werewolves and Human interactions, this is the book for you. Now Shaman Warrior was my first Manhwa (Korean) and found it was a bit different from the Japanese style. It was not only a great read, but the art was stunning just by itself. You should check these out if not on your list as yet.

Reason for the Outlaw Star DVD purchase was because I had gotten the box set from the library and one if the disks had an issue. I wanted to see it, so I picked up a used copy ad a cheap price. I will probably be cool and switch out the broken DVD for the one I got for them. I know it is a bitch to borrow/rent a dvd series set and have one disk that is a problem child. If you haven't checked out this old series, you really should.

I was at my Dad's going through our boxes we have stored there. I came across my Evangelion EX Sweet Witches Figure feat. Okama A: Rei Ayanami. I will be doing a photo shoot with the figure soon. The shots will definitely be better than the one you see here.

READ MORE - February Haul