Pullips and Junk

Anime Boston 2024

Posted on April 1, 2024 by Klein

Although we used to frequently attend Anime Boston, we hadn’t actually gone in several years I think that 2016 may have been the most recent one we attended. After having several interests kind of forced on me as a child, where traditionally feminine hobbies like ballet were compulsary while my interest in things like Batman and comics in general were extremely frowned on (and my toys given away) we had made the decision not to try and unduly influence our daughter and try and force her to have interests in our hobbies like anime. Fortunately or unfortunately, the kiddo is a rather voracious reader and had picked up some manga a few years back and otaku mode was unlocked! We frequently watch anime together now and take turns choosing what will be watched next- she particurly loves Madoka, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, Toilet Bound Hanako-Kun and Tanya the Evil.

We started attending conventions again in general about three years ago, the kiddo loves attending conventions but does have issues with anxiety so they can also be problematic for her. Basically the con has to have guests or panels she is really interested in for her consider pushing past the anxiety to attend and we also go into these things with the understanding if she gets overwhelmed we are either going to a quiet/calm room and/or leaving. We had discussed attending Anime Boston last year but it didn’t line up well with our schedules and the guest list was kind of light. Kiddo has been working on a few long-term projects she is trying to get a Funko Pop signed of each character by their respective voice actor from her favorite anime originally this was just from My Hero Academia but now she is also working on Demon Slayer as well. I think kiddo had a dozen signed Demon Slayer pops and over thirty signed My Hero Academia Pops before Anime Boston. I was absolutely delighted when I saw that Zeno Robinson was announced as a guest for Anime Boston this year because he was one of the kiddo’s top wants because he does the voicework for Genya in Demon Slayer, Hawks in My Hero Academia and Hunter in Owl House (a non-anime favorite of kiddo’s). So off to Anime Boston we go, originally the plan was to only go for one day but then the lottery system for Japanese guests was announced and it’s like we should wait for the results to see what day to attend and then we won different guest lottos on Friday and Saturday so we got a weekend pass.

After losing my camera at Galaxy Con last year, I have been kind of gunshy about bringing my camera with me to cons but decided to take my camera with me kind of last minute and took a truly unfathomable amount of cosplay pics this weekend. After I eventually got caught of burnt out on it, kiddo started running around with the camera and taking pictures. If you just want to look at cosplay pictures here is the link to the photoset (or click on the mha pic below) from the con on my flickr WARNING LOTS OF PICTURES WERE TAKEN AND THIS ISN’T ALL OF THEM. Cosplayers or other cosplay inclined people in the unlikely event you wish to use my photos for whatever reason you may – I just ask that you link back to here or my flickr.

Friday
Since Friday seems to be a somewhat calmer day in general for conventions we decided to try and knock out all of the non-lottery guest autographs then. Kiddo got her Genya from Demon Slayer and Hawks from My Hero Academia Funko Pops authographed by Zeno Robinson as well as a Hunter from Owl House print. He was really nice and kiddo was really excited to finally meet him!

We had intentions to meet Kira Buckland the voice actress for the ~~boob hashira~~ love hashira from Demon Slayer Mitsuri at CT Anime and Gamer Con which we will be going to this coming weekend but the she got announced for Anime Boston sort of last minute, I packed the pop just in case her line wasn’t somehow crazy. We were able to get her signature, I may have influenced kiddo a bit into choosing to get the “premium signature” for $80 from her as I was morbidly curious what all $80 get you. I have to say it’s pretty cool! Kira Buckland was also super nice and gracious with the kiddo. Kiddo also got a signed print of her Genshin Impact character… more on Genshin Impact later.

We also met Alejandro Saab and got a Genshin Impact/Honkai Star Rail print signed, Christina Vee who we somehow caught in a rare moment without a giant line to get a Homura and Madoka print signed (Madoka’s voice actress Christine Marie Cabanos will be at CT Gamer and Anime Con!) and Greg Ayres. We also got to meet Lotus Juice which was sort of a surreal experience and I got a signed CD/DVD. I also now have my Chobits art book signed by Yukana the Japanese voice actress for Kotoko.

We did not go to any panels on Friday, while we did have plans to go to the Queen Bee concert that night we reached exhaustion well before that point.

We did however track down the Hazbin Hotel meet-up, Hazbin Hotel is kind of my shiny new obsession at the moment to be honest though the entire household is lowkey obsessed with it… And while I do refer to my child as kiddo, I should probably note that she is a teenager and not actually a little kid; she is now in fact two inches taller than me.

Holy hell I was not expecting this many Hotel Hazbin cosplayers. Hilariously the first cosplayer we saw at the whole con was a Lucifer who gifted kiddo a rubber duck.

The room was probably too small for the amount of people so apologies for the odd angles on some of these. There are lot more from this meet-up on my flickr I’m just including a small taste here.

Charlie and Vaggie.

Huskerdusk.

Alastor & Lucifer.

This was probably one of my favorite little groups at the whole con, I dunno if they knew each other and coordinated their cosplay efforts or if this was just a happy accident but absolutely loved them! I did get some non-Hotel Hazbin cosplayers as well on Friday including Owl House,

SpyxFamily which is another household family,

and even some Madoka characters.. Tomoe Mami is still my favorite!

Saturday

Oh boy! Saturday was kind of busy. I brought a CD with me and got an autograph from Queen Bee and we also met Chained Soldier. Kiddo looked at the schedule on the app and discovered a My Hero Academia cosplay meet-up as well as a Genshin Impact cosplay meet-up so we ended up attending both of those. I try to mostly focus on what interests the kiddo or myself to a lesser extent when I take cosplay photos, which means sometimes I have no idea what it is I am photographing exactly just that it will make kiddo happy.

I have seen all of My Hero Academia and even read some of the manga. Kiddo and I marathoned it a while back and we have kept current since then so I have some familiarity with the characters even if I maybe don’t remember some of the finer points especially since we were bingewatching 10-12 episodes a day.
Pro-Heroes versus villains! Protect baby Deku!
Personally one of the high points for me in My Hero Academia are the villain characters, they are an interesting mix.
As many My Hero Academia cosplayers as there were I was kind of disappointed that there was not a single Tsuyu/Froppy cosplayer. Lots more from this meet-up on my flickr.

I have never played Genshin Impact, I think I can successfully identify the traveler, Paimon whose voice actress Corina Boettger we just met in New Jersey last month-ish and Yoimiya (kind of looks like Saber, is the kiddo’s favorite) but that is seriously about it. Kiddo is absolutely obsessed with Genshin Impact so I have spent a not inconsiderable amount of money on Genshin merch, voice actor autographs as well as in game (then again it’s not like I haven’t spent way too much on fortnite for myself).

There were probably a couple of hundred Genshin Impact cosplayers that showed up to the meet-up and I have no idea who most of these characters are ^^; Kiddo asked me to try and get as many Yoimiya cosplayer photos as possible unfortunately I don’t think there were any there that I recognized. Kiddo did try to educate me who various characters were before the cosplay meet-up but way too much information for me to digest while navigating the halls of a crowded anime convention ^^;
Lots more photos from this meet-up on my flickr just please don’t ask me who anyone is T_T.

In general we got a lot more pictures on Saturday from a variety of different series like Tokyo Mew Mew,

Kill La Kill

These three from Demon Slayer OMG!

Rozen Maiden!

We did actually attend a few panels on Saturday, we wanted to stay for the Bad, Anime Bad! panel as we had attended it in years past and it’s always hilarious and one of the highlights of the con for us seriously if you ever get a chance to attend one of Brian T. Price’s panels you should totally do so!

While we were trying to kill time between the meet-ups and the panel, I looked at the schedule and saw that HIDIVE was holding a panel for The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen anime where they would be premiering the first two dubbed episodes of the new anime series. The kiddo LOVES the Most Heretical Last Boss Queen manga series so we went to the panel, watched the first two episodes which were entertaining kiddo was super excited for the panel and very enthusiastic . After the first two episodes were over we were surprised by a mystery guest Karlii Hoch the voice actress for the main character: Pride.

Kiddo’s unbridled enthusiam for Last Boss Queen won her a gift bag with the first volume of the manga and a bunch of the light novels as well, Karlii was gracious enough to stay after the panel to sign the first volume of the manga and take a quick pic- Kiddo was beyond over the moon and was even featured on HIDIVE’s post about the event. She still hasn’t stopped talking about it and has been keeping herself busy reading the light novels.

We really wanted to stay for Bad, Anime Bad! but at that point I had a migraine and had not slept between Friday and Saturday we managed to stay for part of it at least and watched Wolf Creek’s Dinosaur Island which was indeed very bad but with surprising voice talent!

Kiddo has already expressed interest that she wants Anime Boston to become a yearly thing for us again! We had a really great time this weekend and if you saw us just want to thank you to everyone for being so kind and gracious!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anime, anime boston, anime boston 2024, conventions, cosplay, demon-slayer, genshin impact, hotel hazbin, manga, my hero academia | Leave a comment

Week 5- 365 Toy Photo Project Days 29-35

Posted on February 6, 2024 by Klein

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to try to get back into toy photography and to challenge myself to a 365 day toy photo project. I’m officially over a month in now, I am trying to see how long I can keep at this although I still have no idea what I actually want to feature yet today. As you can probably tell from looking at the last few posts here my interests are seemingly all over the place ^^;

Day 29/365- Darkstalkers Bishoujo Felicia Figure by Kotobukiya

Tekken 8 recently came out, I’ve been playing Tekken since it came out on original Playstation so I was very excited to get my hands on the new game and productivity has definitely gone way down since then as I tear into it especially since I feel like it’s been years since the last time I got my hands on a new decent fighting game.

Felicia is not a character from Tekken, she is a character from Darkstalkers: Night Warriors which was another fighting game series I’ve been playing since way back in the Playstation days unfortunately that series hasn’t really continued into the modern era of games but characters from it still pop up in other Capcom games. This Felicia figure is part of the Darkstalkers Bishoujo line by Kotobukiya, Kotobukiya also did a Tekken Bishoujo line years ago which I somehow did not buy a single figure from somehow? I don’t know how or why I never did buy any of the Tekken figures. I do have a Funko Pop of Devil Jin and I think a handful of Tekken 3 figures from when the game first came out but unsure where they may have disappeared to currently so decided to feature a picture of Felicia while I was in the fighting game mood!

I’m kind of hoping that they release a few more characters from Darkstalkers, would love to see their interpretation of Q-Bee or Hsein-Ko. I actually do have the Morrigan and Lilith figures already, pictures of them can be seen in my Darkstalkers Bishoujo set on my flickr.

Day 30/365- My Little Pony POP MART Pinkie Pie Blind Box Figure

A little before Christmas I ordered three of the POP MART Blind Box Figures from Amazon, originally I was just going to order the one but then I thought I should maximize chances at getting my favorite My Little Pony all the way back to the first generation MLP when I was a kid: Applejack! The kid still likes My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic so I figured duplicates or otherwise undesirable characters would get claimed pretty quickly. I got both versions of Rarity who is by far my least favorite character and this Pinkie Pie, kiddo gleefully claimed both Rarity figures. While Pinkie Pie is decidedly not Applejack, she is one of my favorites from Friendship is Magic and I thought this figure of her is super cute so I kept this one.

Turns out there is a reason why most of the time we only see the ponies in profile shots they look a little weird when you look at them straight on.

Next time I am in NY or PA I will have to stop by POP MART and check out the store.

Day 31/365- Gwenpool Nendoroid by Good Smile Company

I actually spent most of this day over at a friend’s house, I was helping him take care of various stuff around the house and he is fairly Deadpool obsessed so we were talking about rumors about the upcoming Deadpool 3 movie and just in general there was just a lot of Deadpool talk, seriously we either spoke about Deadpool or music all day long. Once I actually got home, I was fairly tired and trying to think about what I could maybe feature for that day’s toy of the day I originally toyed with the idea of featuring something Deadpool but while looking around my room for something appropriate Deadpool to photograph when I spotted the Gwenpool nendoroid sitting in her box on the shelf unopened.. and well Gwenpool is ever ~~better~~ cuter than Deadpool.

Gwenpool for those of you who don’t know started life as an alternate cover for Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars #2 and was a mash-up of Gwen Stacy and Deadpool. The cover was so popular that they ended up making up a whole new character based on the illustration. I’ve been reading Gwenpool comics since they started coming out and always loved the meta little fourth wall breaker!

Don’t worry Gwenpool this isn’t the end, we are just getting started…

Day 32/365- Pullip x Sanrio- Tuxedo Sam Pullip

Pullip Tuxedo Sam is the latest in a long line of Sanrio x Pullip collaboration dolls. Hilariously, I actually deboxed Pullip Tuxedo Sam way back in September even did a whole photoshoot featuring her before deciding that I wasn’t happy with the photos when I looked them over before posting and just never posted them. I don’t think that I have ever really completely abandoned a set of photos of like that before, they weren’t even bad photos I just wasn’t feeling it somehow.

I’m glad to see different characters being featured as a part of the Sanrio line, I would much rather see a character like Tuxedo Sam that hadn’t been done before than a new variant of a character that has been done before like Hello Kitty or My Melody. I’m still hoping that we will eventually see a Keroppi themed doll as a part of the Sanrio x Pullip line, I would even be happy with a Keroppi themed Dal or Isul. More photos of Tuxedo Sam can be seen on my flickr there may eventually even be a write up of her.

Day 33/365- Venus McFlytrap Monster High Reboot Doll

Venus McFlytrap was one of my favorite ghouls from Monster High during the first generation, bright almost eye searing green is one of my favorite colors and her dolls always feature some rather vivid greens and pink is a nice contrast to the green. I was very excited when I found out that Venus was returning as a character, while there were some revisions to the character design I love the new hairstyle with the more textured and organic feeling hair and I love her new sort of like leafy ears.

We are even sort of hair twins at the moment as my hair is currently bright pink with a green streak. My hair was approaching a normal/natural-ish color and that just could not be!

Day 34/365- Loki Loungefly Bag with Pint Size Hero & Pez Dispenser

Day to day, I don’t really consistently carry a purse but if I do it’s either a Loungefly bag or Tokidoki purse. I own a decent number of Loki themed Loungefly bags as I apparently like to have a lot of options, which there have been a surprising amount of released over the year, Boxlunch recently got a new exclusive Loki Loungefly bag but I had just recently bought a few new Loungefly bags so it’s like I’m going to wait for a sale and then I got an email advertising 30% off one day only on it so I selected it for in store pick-up at the nearest halfway decent mall to us to go get the next day. We were going to be close to that mall anyway to go to the nearby theater to see Argylle. Before we left the house I had already kind of decided what I wanted to do so grabbed the Pint Sized Loki figure and brought it with me, I normally carry a Loki pez dispenser on me… Why would I have a pez dispenser on me?

For as many photos as I take, I absolutely HATE and abhor having my own photo taken because of that I almost always have a Loki pez dispenser stuffed in my hoodie pocket or purse… let me explain: I always seem to have people call or text me to ask where I am or what I am doing while I am out and about on adventures or going to do something special, always at the most inconvenient timing and I loathe taking pictures of myself. For whatever reason that day I thought it would be funny to just take a picture of something I happened to have on me at the time which was a Loki pez dispenser; I think it’s kind of brilliant in it’s simplicity, they are small and very portable plus inexpensive to replace I can just hold the pez dispenser or put it anywhere and snap a quick photo and et voila.

whether it be the pez visitor’s center…

Or going to see Loki actor Tom Hiddleston on broadway, I do also have a selfie with Tom from one of the Betrayal performance I went to go see where I am holding it but not about to post that.

Over the last five or six years, I’ve gone through a few different Loki pez dispensers and they’ve gone on a lot of adventures with me. And these were just a few random examples of the 100s of places the Loki pez dispenser has popped up in my photos, they’ve been to various anime/comic conventions, concerts, all sorts of performances really and even mundane stuff like going to the movies.

Day 35/365- Harley Quinn Animated Series- Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy Funko Pop

While we were at the mall on Saturday, I was very pleased to find that the recently announced wave of Funko Pops from the HBO MAX Harley Quinn animated series has started making it’s way to store shelves. If you haven’t watched the show, while it can be fairly outlandish and raunchy I really enjoy it and it’s take on Harley Quinn. I found Joker and Poison Ivy in Box Lunch and later found Harley Quinn herself at Newbury Comics, I had to pick them up will have to track down Frank (Poison Ivy’s henchplant for lack of a better term) and Dr. Psycho too eventually.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged action-figures, darkstalkers, dc, dc comics, gwenpool, harley quinn, kotobukiya, loungefly, marvel, monster high, my little pony, nendoroid, news, pinkie pie, poison ivy, popmart, Pullip, tuxedo sam, venus mcflytrap | Leave a comment

Week 4- 365 Toy Photo Project Days 22-28

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Klein

I am making an effort to get back into toy photography after a long hiatus, trying to a 365 day toy photography project to re-spark the interest in me. I have in the past tried and failed to complete a 365 photo challenge but although I have made it relatively far like 144 days or 259 days I have never successfully completed one so it’ll be interesting to see how long I can keep this going….

I will say doing this project has ignited interest in photography in me again but I’ve also been really focusing on completing some much needed updates on this site: I went through and updated/cleaned up all the Pullips and Company release lists, did significant clean up in general and reorganized a bunch of things here. I’m not neccesarily done yet but other than the Pullip FAQ which I need to go back through for extensive updates/edits I feel like things have finally sort of stabilized and I’m to a point now where I can focus on getting reviews posted up (hopefully this week) and just having to update as new things get announced or information pages etc as I debox and photograph dolls… and there are oh so many dolls to debox you guys T_T.

Feel free to take a lookie loo and let me know if I missed anything or typos etc. Eventually I will attack the lower priority stuff like the my collection pages but part of that is linked to the photography thing where I need to take pictures of newer stuff and I’ll get to it eventually I swear.

Day 22- Disney’s Alice in Wonderland Funko Shop Exclusive Alice on Mushroom

I’m trying to cut down on the overall number of Funko Pops I purchase, I’ve been collecting since the early days and have amassed quite a few over the years. I love Alice in Wonderland and have most of the Alice in Wonderland themed Funko Pops, one of my few Funko Pop related regrets was not getting the Cheshire Cat tea cup ride pop before the price went completely bonkers. When I saw this one announced as a Funko Shop exclusive I knew I had to have her as she is one I would definitely regret passing on in the future if I didn’t.

Day 23- Metal Gear Solid x Kotobukiya Bishoujo Sniper Wolf
I love Metal Gear Solid, I got it when it first came out for Playstation => officially got freaked out by Psycho Mantis saying “You like Castlevania, Don’t You?” especially since Castlevania Symphony of the Night was the game I was playing immediately prior. Now I know that it read my memory card and was looking for other Konami game saves but then it was like O_O as most video game news was still traveling mostly by magazine at that point. Metal Gear Solid is by far my favorite of the Metal Gear games and Sniper Wolf is still my favorite Metal Gear villain, hell I even met her English dub voice actress Tasia Valenza at Connecticon last year and got a picture signed ^^; . They recently added Solid Snake as a character skin in Fortnite which I had to unlock, I was hoping against hope that they might add a Sniper Wolf skin to the item shop especially since snipers are so overpowered this season.

This is the Kotobukiya Bishoujo figure of Sniper Wolf, I have the rerelease version as I initially passed on this figure due to the lip color ended up regretting it then hopped on the preorder when I saw the rerelease announced. I’m still sort of shocked that we never got a Meryl or one of the other female characters in this line. She normally resides on the billy bookcase that houses my various Playstation games.

Day 24- Darkwing Duck Quantum Mechanix Q-Fig
Darkwing Duck was another favorite series from my youth, I still fondly remember the show and was very excited that I got to meet Darkwing Duck’s voice actor Jim Cummings last year. I’m happy that I can now just watch on Disney + rather than having to try and unearth my ancient copies that I had taped off of the tv back when it was still airing whenever I want to watch it.

This is the Quantum Mechanix Darkwing Duck Q-Fig, I got him for Christmas in 2022 I think? I was thrilled to have a small cute figure of Darkwing Duck. I only have a few Q-Figs but the ones but the ones I have I really like.

Day 25- Pullip Victorian Maiden Classical Doll
I was excited to be able to go back outside for some photos after the weather warmed up some. I decided that the next Pullip to be deboxed was Classical Doll, the Victorian Maiden Collaboration Pullip recently released by Groove. She was in the same box from Pullipstyle as Pullip Rojeune so it only seemed fair that she would be the next doll featured. I am hoping to post a review of both her and Pullip Rojeune soon.
I feel like Groove did a tremendous disservice to both Classical Doll and Rojeune by releasing them so close together, at first glance they are similar dolls both having blonde hair with blueish eyes and reddish somewhat antiquated looking outfits that are actually collaborations with popular modern Japanese clothing companies. I know, I questioned why they announced these two in the same month but actually looking at them in person and photographing them they are both pretty special in their own ways. I think I still prefer Rojeune overall between the two of them as I feel like her face up is a lot more than dynamic than Classical Doll’s but both dolls are truly lovely.

Day 26- Harmonia Humming Cocoa
Harmonia Bloom/Humming dolls have been on my radar for a while, they are big headed dolls made by Good Smile Company they are kind of on the pricier side though. My understanding is that the Harmonia Bloom dolls are the original releases while the Harmonia Humming are different collaboration dolls that really seems to be the only difference between the two. While I browsing the clearance section and ordering some last minute Christmas presents from Bigbadtoystore last month I noticed Cocoa from Is This Order a Rabbit? Harmonia Humming doll for less than $75 which I thought was a fantastic deal compared to the normal 25000 yen price tag. I may have tossed her in the order wrapped her up for Christmas and stuck a from Santa tag on her ^^;

Initial thoughts on Harmonia dolls is while they are very poseable, they also seems kind of fragile her shoulder kept popping out of joint for me even with gentle handling. I do think she is very cute and am happy I found this one as she has a very cute character design. I may try to do a comparison post featuring her soon.
Cocoa is actually my second Harmonia Humming/Bloom doll, I received Nezuko for Christmas last year but somehow she keeps ending up in my Demon Slayer-obsessed daughter’s Demon Slayer collection and seems to be on semi-permanent loan. Nezuko is her favorite anime character so I’m not quite sure what I expected there lol. I guess that I’m just glad to have one to finally play with.

Day 27- Di Gi Charat Dejiko Nendoroid
I’m absolutely thrilled that Good Smile Company has been releasing more nendoroids from classic series recently, I adore Di Gi Charat it was such a cute inoffensive manga/show. I let out an audible gasp when I saw her announcement on Good Smile Company’s facebook page, I just hope that maybe in the future we will see other characters like Rabi~en~Rose and Puchiko as nendoroids as well. I couldn’t be more happy with this nendoroid release!
Apparently I wanted to make myself feel really old this week by featuring so many things from older series, perhaps I was just feeling nostalgic? I was talking to my partner in crime about trying to remember the last time we bought any merchandise from Di Gi Charat and came to the horrifying conclusion that the last time either of us can really remember buying any merch from the show was at Brocolli USA’s Anime Gamers store closing sale back in like 2008… and yes, we still have the Di Gi Charat throw pillows we bought there but they are not on the living room couch they are currently stationed on the downstairs couch.

Day 28- Mega Loki Funko Pop and Avengers Loki Entertainment Earth Funko Pop
I’m not sure where to start with this one, if you have been following me elsewhere you already know I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Loki is my absolute favorite character both in it and Marvel comics. Tom Hiddleston’s empathetic performance just added so much depth and humanity to the character. Over the last couple of years, I have started collecting some Loki things – to give you an idea these pictures are over three years old now there is so much more stuff now and I’m waiting on the Queen Studios Loki Avengers bust as well as their 1/4 scale statue- it’s just it’s bad guys especially since the TV series started as there was a definite onslaught of merchandise associated with it.

Whenever anyone asks me what I want for Christmas or my birthday my response is always “I don’t know? something Loki I don’t own!” which has only become more difficult over the years as my collection continues to grow. Funko recently released a Mega Pop of Loki that I resisted buying before Christmas because “oh look, it’s Loki and I don’t own it!”. I finally deboxed it a few days ago after playing the -okay, now that I have it where exactly am I going to put this giant thing- game and finding a corner for him to sit in and could not resist snapping a quick size reference photo of him with an average sized Loki funko pop before doing so.

I am hoping to get at least a doll review posted this week. In general, I will note that productivity has gone way down since Tekken 8 came out as I have not had a new Tekken game to play in quite some time.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged gaming, photography, toys | Leave a comment

Week 3- 365 Toy Photo Project Days 15-21

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Klein

Things I learned this week, all good things must come to an end like New England having a relatively mild winter. In addition to having to contend with an early setting sun it has been bitterly cold outside so this week while I had hoped to do some more outdoor photography was far too bitter cold for me to be playing around outside for very long.

Day 15-MINT NeKO MaO Pullip

MINT NeKO MaO at least seems somewhat dressed for the weathter, she is the one I really wanted to go outside to play with photo-wise unfortunately it was just too damn cold. I tried to channel the idea of trying to keep warm in this photo.

Day 16- My Hero Academia Tsuyu Break Time Figure by Bandai Spirits

My Hero Academia is one of my daughter’s favorite top five anime, she loves it so much in fact that last year over spring break she decided we should binge watch it together over the 11 day school break, when I agreed to this plan I did not realize it had over 100 episodes at that point. I actually enjoyed it, though I was kind of caught offguard by some of the casual body horror caused by some of the people’s quirks (Tenya Iida’s engine legs especially when he upgrades them gross me out). My favorite character is Tsuyu she has the quirk of powers of a frog, I like frogs and think she is adorable. I happened to see this figure at Gamestop and had to have it. My daughter has dozens of My Hero Academia Funko Pops, various other figures and probably enough T-Shirts to go a month without duplicates but I literally own this figure of Tsuyu, a T-Shirt and two Funko Pops: the normal one and the Sanrio x My Hero Academia Keroppi Pop which I bought before I watched the show because Keroppi is my favorite Sanrio character (told you I like frogs).

Day 17- Tokidoki Winter Wonderland Series 2 Chilly Unicorno

Remember how I mentioned it was bitterly cold this past week? The day before this photo had been a snow day, this was the one photo I took truly outdoors this week somehow I couldn’t think of anything more fitting than the Chilly Unicorno trying to make a snowman.

Day 18- Fornite Ghost Midas Funko Pop

I did not necessarily mean to feature another Fortnite item so soon after the last one but I had preordered the Ghost Midas from Amazon a while back then promptly forgot about it until it showed up in the mail the day this photo was taken. I love the Midas skin in general as well as Halloween so I absolutely LOVED the Fortnitemares event a few years ago featuring Ghost Midas.

Day 19- Shadow High Zooey Electric Doll

I love the colorful aesthetic of the Rainbow High dolls and their Shadow High counterparts, I have a handful of them that I have collected over the last few years. I really have to try to focus on being very selective with my Rainbow/Shadow High purchases as otherwise I think it would quickly get out of control as I adore all the bright colors and I fear it would just escalate quickly and there would be rainbow dolls everywhere >_< . I have never watched the show, so I admit I am not really familiar with the characters but I was drawn to the alien-esque Zooey Electra doll. I was really taken with her minty green skintone, my favorite colors are green and orange so most of the Rainbow/Shadow High dolls I own are themed those colors.

I love the little “baby hairs” detailing on these dolls, I also really love how bright and colorful her make up is in general.

Day 20- Poison Ivy Deadly Nature Green Variant Premium Format Statue by Sideshow

I am a huge Harley Quinn fan and have dozens of figures/statues etc of her including four larger scale statues of her from Sideshow and her various different iterations over the years, I even have a few larger scale Joker statues but somehow I never had a larger scale Poison Ivy until now! She is probably my second favorite female character from DC Comics so it’s kind of surprising in a way I didn’t have a larger statue of her before now. I guess, I was kind of waiting for the right one to be released before buying there had been another recently released option but I like how this one feels a lot more dynamic and actiony than the other one (plus I feel like that one is almost too demure? just me, maybe..) . This is the green variant of the statue, there was a normal skin tone available as well but I liked the green version and it was limited to only 200 so I immediately hopped on the preorder/flexpay schedule for her. I received number 102 of 200.

We had to take a run to IKEA last weekend to buy a new glass display case for her to fit in, even though I had the measurements beforehand from Sideshow’s listing for this statue I vastly underestimated just how big she was. Finally got a chance to build the new display case a few days so decided to take some quick pictures before putting her inside the case, I may actually post a review of her- I haven’t fully decided yet. In the meantime, if you’d like though I have plenty more pictures of her to look at on my flickr . She did come to me broken luckily it was fairly minor (one of the hair curls from the back of her head was broken off in the box when we received her) I have reached out to Sideshow and am waiting to hear back.

Day 21- Rozen Maiden Hina Ichigo Nendoroid

Without Rozen Maiden and Hina Ichigo in particular, I doubt we would be here today as Hina Ichigo was my start of darkness with doll collecting so to speak. I became aware of Pullips through Rozen Maiden and had asked for the Rozen Maiden Hina Ichigo Dal for my birthday my fiance at the time saw her but thought the Shinku Pullip would make a better present (wasn’t totally sold on Dal’s aesthetic at that time) and she was my first. Hina Ichigo did go on to become my first Dal as well as my first of the Rozen Maiden Volks dolls (I have Suiseiseki full set and a one-off Shinku now as well) and well I just adore the character, she is just so adorable! She was also my namesake in the doll community for years. I received the Hina Ichigo nendoroid as a Christmas gift this last year, I have the other Rozen Maiden nendoroids as well but none of them are as cute or as well executed as little Hina Ichigo. She also came with some really great accessories like crayon box and art work.

I wonder if I can sell the kid on watching Rozen Maiden…

At least, I have caught up on this let’s see what else I can hopefully maybe accomplish…

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anime, Doll, rainbow-high, shadow-high | Leave a comment

365 Toy Photo Project Week 2 Days 8-14

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Klein

I realize this is a little overdue but I am trying to play catch-up on getting the next batch of photos posted. One of my goals this year has been to get organized so I have both been busy in real life working on getting stuff around the house organized as well as working on making some rather extensive updates to the site (still a lot to do on that front T_T) and getting that better organized as well so I never got a chance to make a post last week…

Day 8- Spy x Family Anya & Bond Forger Figurarts ZERO

Spy x Family is a big hit in this house, we started watching it when it debuted as I was looking for a new series to watch with my daughter and we were hooked from the first episode. This is not actually my figure, I bought this one as a Christmas gift for my daughter I had asked her for a suggestion on what I should do this day and she immediately responded that I should photograph this figure because it’s so cute. She has a small multitude of Spy x Family figures because she has so many of the figures herself, I only have the Volks Yor Dollfie Dream Dynamite myself but I do have the Volks Anya preordered as well.

Day 9- Marvels Flerkittens AMC exclusive popcorn buckets & bottles with Funko Pop

I was perhaps not the biggest fan of the Marvels movie, I think it doesn’t neccesarily deserve all the hate it gets and it’s a fun enough popcorn movie but the MCU overall is in a bit of awkward phase post-Endgame where it seems they are unsure where to go next and some of the newer movies/shows have been hit or miss in terms of quality. That being said the one thing I did love about the Marvels movie were the Flerkittens especially since I am a bit of a crazy cat lady myself. AMC Theaters made exclusive popcorn containers & drink bottles, the popcorn containers are shaped like their eggs (?) and what flerkitten you get inside is a mystery with their being five possibilities options: orange & white, black, grey, Siamese and gold. I was aware of these but we did not see Marvels at an AMC Theater, we went to go see Migration Christmas Eve at an AMC and I noticed they still had them and that they were a bit cheaper than currently listed on their website at least at my location. I bought one before the movie and got the black flerkitten, on the way out of the theater we decided to buy a second one and received the grey one. We went to a Screen Unseen viewing of Origin at a different AMC Theater last week and they had them there as well so I bought one last and ended up getting the orange and white flerkitten.

The intention was for this photo to be the photo of the day the AMC Flerkittens with the Funko Pop Collector Corps Goose with Flerkittens but one of our own Flerkittens, Dusty decided to become very interested in what I was doing and photobomb the picture which I thought was too perfect not to use.

Day 10- Tokidoki Gamer Girl Unicorno

I happened to find a Tokidoki blind box with the box opened but not the bag at the store, I don’t know what unicorno the person was hoping to find. I have a number of Unicornos from Series 11 so I felt the inner bag and realized that while it could be one of a few it was one I definitely didn’t own yet so I ended up buying it. I actually like this Unicorno because I am a girl that definitely loves to play video games!

Day 11- Monster High Clawdeen, Frankie & Draculaura Funko Pops
This set of Funko Pops is based on the Monster High School’s Out doll line, this is actually the second set of Monster High Funko Pops to be released the original came out 2017-ish. I had a slight out of body experience when I first found this Frankie Funko Pop on the shelf in the store and had the realization that the Monster High Funko Pops were now being released as a part of the “Retro Toys” line, the first set didn’t really have a designation. I vividly remember hunting down the doll counterparts of these on store shelves so it is hard for me to wrap my head around them being considered retro toys now. I think Frankie transitioned to Pop form the best, Draculaura I think struggles the most her face looks too big/wide to me.

Day 12 Cowboy Bebop Funko Pops (signed by their English dub cast)

I’m going to be 40 years old this year, which is older than probably most people realize seeing how I post almost exclusively about toys here. One of the things we have been doing in recent years is going to a lot of different conventions now that our daughter is interested in such things and we have starting collecting signed Funko Pops, she has the goal of having each of the English dub cast members sign their respective pops for Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia and well we have made a lot of progress on that. While I do love getting Funko Pops signed most of mine aren’t anime related though I do have a few different Tokyo Ghoul Funko Pops signed as well as Enmu from Demon Slayer because he is a favorite. I have been around a while and for the longest time, I didn’t really watch dubbed anime that much dubs in the old days weren’t always the best quality with some rare exceptions Cowboy Bebop is an old favorite in this household. This picture is a culmination of traveling to a lot of different cons to track down specific people.

This all started with Fan Expo Philadelphia as we got Spike’s voice actor Steve Blum there (waited several hours in that line), Jet’s voice actor Beau Billingslea was at Colossalcon East 2022, Faye Valentine’s voice actress Wendee Lee was at Derpy Con 2022 and last but not least, a dear friend got us Ed’s voice actress Melissa Fahn at Galaxycon which is sort of cheating BUT we previously met her years ago before the pops came out (somewhere I have an Invader Zim Gaz picture signed by her) and she is not as active on the con circuit…still ideally need to get Julia and Vincent but am content for now!

Day 13 Cleo De Nile Monster High Doll (reboot)

Cleo De Nile has never been one of my favorite ghouls, I am also trying to be very selective with buying the reboot Monster High dolls because well I just have so many Monster High dolls and hell dolls in general already. I never really looked that hard at any of Cleo’s reboot dolls until I happened to find this one on clearance, so I took a harder look at her and realized she is actually quite pretty and that she needed to go in my cart especially at $10. I think I was particularly drawn to the gold marking in her lipstick and how it just seemed to bring everything into balance.

I was torn on which photo to use as the picture of the day, the other photo shows off a bit more that she has “wrapped bandages” detailing on the one hand and arm but I also love her bandage fringe jacket.

Day 14 Jenny x Miku Youtooz

This is actually my one and only Youtooz figure, I’ll likely end up with more of them eventually though. What really drew me to this figure was that it’s a collaboration mash-up of Jenny XJ-9 from the criminally underrated My Life as A Teenage Robot nicktoon with Vocaloid Miku. There just isn’t any My Life as A Teenage Robot toys or mechandise so I was estatic when I saw this announced, I hope we eventually get a non-cosplay edition of Jenny as well or just some more merchandise from My Life as a Teenage Robot…

Still working on updates, drafting up a review on Pullip Rojeune and hell maybe my new Sideshow Premium Format Poison Ivy as well. I have so many different things I’m working on concurrently that is hard to prioritize what to focus on especially when some of them are so time consuming (the pullip release lists T_T).

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anime, anime figure, cowboy-bebop, Doll, funko pop, monster high, movies, spy-x-family, toys | Leave a comment

Starting off this year with a new project…

Posted on January 7, 2024 by Klein

It’s been a long time since I’ve made a post here, in a lot of ways it feels like it’s been a lifetime ago since I was regularly posting here but with the start of the new year I decided to embark on trying to push myself to get back into photography. To jumpstart this, I have decided (again) to try doing a 365 day toy photography streak my focus is to feature a variety of different toys so it’s not going to be all Pullips or dolls. My current ideal is I would like to feature photos no more than once a week of the following category: Pullips, other dolls (bjds, monster high, rainbow high etc) anime figures, funko pops, blind box or other small figures like Tokidoki, action figures (fortnite, marvel etc) and other- what’s other? Could be collection shots or something that neatly doesn’t fit into another category.

You can follow my progress with my 365 toy photo project on my instagram or flickr , I am currently posting to both places I may eventually fall behind in one location or the other but all the photos will eventually be in both places (sometimes it’ll be uploaded to one place or the other depending on if I use my phone or camera too).

I haven’t been publicly posting photos with any sort of regularity for a long time but I had at least still been pursuing photography on my own terms at least with the eventual ideal that I would be posting a bunch of the photos I had taken then I went to Galaxycon Richmond last year and lost my damn camera along with 100s of pictures I hadn’t posted anywhere. My camera was replaced fairly soon after the loss but the loss of all the photos on there hit me pretty hard. I was honestly gutted by the loss of my camera and have barely touched the new camera. I’m hoping that small consistent efforts that it will reignite the passion for photography in me and even though I haven’t been focusing on this very long I am already getting enjoyment out of it.

I’m going to post a quick rundown of my first week, I’m unsure if I’m going to try and do this here every week or not but I’m going to try and start off with in anyway… also hopefully put some effort into some long overdue updates on this website T_T.

Day 1– Q-Posket figure of Eternal Princess Saturn from Sailor Moon.

I had been toying with the idea of restarting photography but didn’t really decide to pull the trigger until the 1st and at that point it was fairly late in the day. I chose the Q-Posket because I have a fondness for the Q-Posket series of figures they have similar proportions to Pullip/other big head dolls that I like, Saturn is my favorite of the outer sailor senshi and this particular figure happens to live in my living room at the moment.

Day 2- Funko Pop Barbie and Ken Black Light Hot Topic Exclusive Two-Pack

I LOVED the Barbie movie, surprisingly I haven’t actually bought myself any of the merchandise from it so I was delighted when I received this pair for Christmas. I know this is probably sacrilege to most Funko Pop fans but normally I don’t really like the black light themed pops but somehow with this set with their obnoxiously bright colors it just works. I tried to pick a colorful yet neutral background to really make their colors pop.

Day 3- Tokidoki Unicornos – Mekacorno Unicornos U9 & U10 (bambino series) and Mekacorno U9 (Unicorno Series 9).

I adore all things Tokidoki especially the Unicorno blind boxes. These two remind me of Gundams and with their being a Gundam Unicorn series I thought these two were sort of hilarious as a concept especially the bambino one with the little baby Mekacorno (where do baby Gundams come from?). I bought a lot of their two respective series blind to find these two T_T. Hilariously these two often leave their assigned Tokidoki shelves to go chill on my Gundam loving hubby’s desk (the stated reason is because they don’t take up much space).

Day 4– Pullip Rojeune

Finally proper photography and like it’s outside and everything which is kind of tricky in the winter in New England, first new set of new doll photos I have taken in what seems like forever. I recently received Pullip Rojeune in the mail, when she was announced at first I admittedly questioned why her and Classical Doll two dolls with such similar colors and styles were released so closely together as it just seems to make the two releases blend together but I was wrong Rojeune is absolutely stunning in person. I had an absolute blast taking photos of her…

So much so that I actually posted a bunch of additional photos of her on my flickr account, I’ll post one of the other shots took but you can check the whole set on my flickr. I wanted to take even more photos of her but I was really rapidly losing the light unfortunately hopefully I can sneak some more photos of her this week.

I technically took all the pictures I needed to build her page so will probably try to prioritize getting that done asap before I forget, if I do manage to get additional photos of her soon maybe I will even post a full review of her.

Day 5 Fornite Battle Royale Series Skye (Ghost Version)

I actually play Fortnite! Like a lot, most days really I play at least a few matches. My daughter used to play but had trouble sometimes with different quests and requested I assist her because “dad sucks at fortnite”, I got my own account and started playing Season 2, Chapter 1; it was fun but I was mostly doing it to help her but then Season 2, Chapter 2 came and I adored the spy season I think it’s still my favorite season! Midas is still my all-time favorite Fortnite non-collab skin but I am also quite fond of Skye so when I happened to see this figure I had to pick it up.

Kiddo no longer regularly plays but I do! If in the unlikely event anyone wants to play with me I’m SpydersandSugar, I play almost exclusively zero build though ^^;.

Day 6 – Kingsman Harry Hart “Gallahad” Nendoroid

I LOVE the Kingsman movie, really I think I adore the entirity of Matthew Vaugn’s filmography- I mean Stardust is my absolute favorite movie. I was lucky and got into his panel at NYCC last fall where he spoke about his upcoming movie Argyle which I am dying to see.

I remember seeing the nendoroids of Harry and Eggsy announced but then it kind of fell off of my radar, I have ADHD it happens I can be really excited for something then it like completely slip my mind. Lucky happenstance I happened to spot both of them on sale at Entertainment Earth recently so I had to order them. I love that Harry came with a butterfly leaning into his love of the study of butterflies lepindopitery so I decided to kind of play that up in my shot.

Day 7– Monster High Doll Abbey Bominable Reboot Doll

I actually started off today with a completely different plan, I knew we were getting a snowstorm and it’s like I’ve got a gameplan I know what I am going to do then it’s like you know what! I want to take one of my favorite ghouls out to play in the snow today so that’s what I am going to do! I hardcore collected the original Monster High line of dolls so much so that I think I have all but the Ghouls Alive series (I just didn’t like them), although I am excited to see them back on the shelves in stores now I haven’t really bought that many of them. Some of the new design choices like Lagoona now being pink are just not my cup of tea, I absolutely had to have Abbey though as is one of my favorite characters.

One of the things I always really loved about Monster High is how unique they are, they have a variety of skin colors and body types- they even have like details sculpted on that only one particular character may have like Abbey has little horns plus little sculpted on fur detailings on her limbs which means she has a unique mold which blows my mind especially when used to playing with dolls that have all had the exact same body type since 2009 (shots fired!).

Note – I absolutely despise WordPress’ newer control panel.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 365toy, Doll, funko pop, monster high, Pullip, sailor moon, tokidoki | 1 Comment

JPGroove Holiday Sale

Posted on December 6, 2022 by Klein

JPGroove is offering a limited time holiday deal on their website from now until Christmas Eve for every $100 you spend you will receive a special coupon for $15 off your next order of $100 or more. It’s a great deal especially if you want to buy something now and then maybe treat yourself to something nice after Christmas ^_- . It is worth noting that they have several different beginner sets in stock too which come with a doll, two pairs of eye chips, an extra outfit set, a wig and some other goodies which would be great if you are just starting out on your Pullip collection journey or if you just like getting extra surprise stuff with your order! You can view the whole selection of beginner dolls here.

Just don’t forget to use your coupon!

HOLIDAY MONTH DEAL
Get Special Coupon Code Reward

Every purchase $100.00 at GROOVE STORE
You can get $15.00 Coupon Code!! (*Total Purchased Item)

START 11/25/2022 AM0:00 (PDT)
END 12/24/2022 PM11:59 (PDT)

    To use your $15.00 coupon code valid to use until 12/31/2022 PM11:59(PDT)
    Coupon Code can use one time only
    Not include shipping fee

** How to get your coupon code? ***
– When we,
GROOVE STORE receives your order at GROOVE STORE from
11/25/2022 AM0:00 (PDT) to 12/24/2022 PM11:59 (PDT). We wil contact you to tell your coupon code.

– You can use your coupon code when you will purchase at GROOVE STORE to fill in your coupon code yourself, you order cart can automatic discount $15.00 or more.

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JPGroove 15% off Weekend Pullip Sale!

Posted on August 13, 2022 by Klein

JPGroove is having a sale this weekend from 8/12/22 2pm PST time until 8/14/2022 23:59 PST you can get 15% off merchandise on their website with code BTPS15 it seems like preorders have disappeared from their website at the moment but they do have a lot of in stock dolls including Ozz on Cho-ran who just got released not to mention a lot of sample dolls which are dolls that were previously on display at different events in Japan etc. and a great way to get a discount on a doll especially if you aren’t too picky and don’t care about the box/card. Too bad I can’t really think of anything I need at the moment >_>

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged asian fashion doll, Dal, fashion doll, groove, Pullip | Leave a comment

JPGroove Weekend Sale !

Posted on July 1, 2022 by Klein

I just happened to check JPGroove’s website for the first time in a little while and was pleasantly surprised that they are having a sale this weekend that opens really soon! https://jpgroove.com/ 15% off with code 22summer15 runs from July 1st 14 PST until July 4th 23:59 PST .

They have a lot of deals already that this would take that much more off from while I unfortunately am probably going to have to sit this out myself as I think I have just about everyone I need at the moment.

If you are looking for recommendations though you can’t go wrong with ACDC Rags Emo

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Pullipstyle Black Friday Deal Now Live! Use code FRIDAY10 for 10% off

Posted on November 19, 2021 by Klein

Hello, everyone it’s been a little bit since my last post but I saw something that might be of interest to you all Pullipstyle has started their Black Friday deal a little bit early this year. Use code Friday10 to receive 10% off on any in stock dolls, wigs etc on their website, Pullipstyle already has some of the most reasonable prices around on Pullip so I feel like this is a pretty great deal although I personally get the dolls as they release so not that much use for myself… although, I guess I could always use more wigs? Pullipstyle has not announced an end date for the coupon but did say in their newsletter that they would try to give at least 48 hours heads up on when it does end.

Pullipstyle currently has a lot of great dolls in stock including several of the Sailor Moon Pullip collaboration dolls so treat your self!

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