Animadness revisited!

kleintoys — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:22:10 +0000

Since I had some time off this weekend I decided to go visit Animadness.

Animadness is my semi-local anime shop they are located in Waltham, MA they are roughly a two hour drive for me but they also happen to live within close driving distance of a friend of mine so I find excuses to visit often!

In addition to anime figures, they also happen to sell Pullips which is like a dream come true to me but a nightmare for my wallet.

Whenever I visit Animadness, I always try to remember to bring my camera so I can take pictures of the shop (which they are awesome about it letting me do). I take photos because I know I personally have driven all around New England/New York trying to find comic book shops/anime figure stores going on very little information before… most of these trips were very much not worth the effort, so I like to take pictures so people can see that Animadness is very much worth the trip if you are in the area.

Some general information about the store: the owners are super friendly and knowledgeable about anime. Prices are very reasonable, various discounts are also offered. Great selection although they were still a bit cleaned out from Christmas time when I went this past weekend, they are expecting restocks soon though. No bootlegs except maybe posters/wall scrolls but honestly the only anime shop I’ve ever seen without them was Anime Gamers when they were still open in Los Angeles. I’m not particularly affiliated with them, I love them so I like to spread the word about them.

There are some additional store pictures from my previous trips on my flickr here.

And now for those curious, here’s what I bought on my latest trip…

It had been my fondest hope and desire to pick up the Mami Pullip from Puella Magi Madoka Magica unfortunately even though they just restocked dolls I was out of luck as she already sold out. I ended up buying three new nendoroids including Strength from Black Rock Shooter, Akemi Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Kudo from Little Busters! I also bought the Magic Knight Rayearth Hikaru doll to strip out to make a Hikaru pullip (I actually already had one but wanted another to use for this). Animadness also gave me some super nifty Dal Coral notebooks.

Get- New Evangelion Asuka Figure!

kleintoys — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:23:43 +0000

Now for something you have not seen from me in a while, a new anime figure! I went to New York City over New Year’s and stopped at Midtown Comics. In addition to the various comics I picked up at Midtown Comics, I couldn’t help but snatch up this lovely new Asuka figure as soon as I saw her sitting on the shelf.

I haven’t been buying many anime figures recently due to lack of space in my apartment. More recently I have been limiting my anime figure purchases to the occasional online order and my semi-regular trips to Animadness (speaking of which I plan on going this weekend).

Asuka is one of my all-time favorite anime characters, so I always have a hard time resisting figures of her so much so that I have far more Asuka figures than any other anime character.

This particular figure was made by Kotobukiya and was released in September of last year.

I will say that Kotobukiya has come a long way in the past few years with facial expressions especially with the eyes, something about the way that the eyes used to be painted made them seem flat and frankly a bit dead but this Asuka definitely seems to have that spark of personality in her eyes.

I love her joyful expression!

Arrival of Dollmore Lukia Coral Mirage Version

kleintoys — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:25:26 +0000

I actually have quite a few new members of my bjd family to introduce in addition to the plethora of other new dolls that I still need to introduce but Lucinda is so lovely that well she has inserted herself to the front of the line.

Lucinda is a Lukia Coral Mirage LE30 bjd made by Dollmore. Lukia is kind of unique because she has similar proportions to pullip, with a large scale head and smaller scale body. While I consider her to be a bjd due to her proportions and overall look she has been declared off topic by Den of Angels but my criteria of what a bjd is not quite as stringent as their’s so she is a bjd as far as I am concerned.

Lucinda is gorgeous but she is also very frustrating which I personally kind of see as it a good thing as I love projects and finding a way to deflop her is going to make for an interesting one. Lukia is exceptionally top heavy, her head is just way too heavy for her body it’s a design flaw I knew this when I got her as I got her secondhand and I knew of the previous owner’s struggles with Lukia. The previous owner used kips to try and help stabilize her, I restrung her as soon as she arrived and while it did help a bit it did not help nearly as much as I had hoped it would. I am sure I will eventually find a way to stabilize her but I definitely would not recommend Lukia as a first bjd or buy another myself unless Dollmore somehow manages to fix her design flaws.

I had to get inventive while taking photos of Lucinda as she could not stand upright so most of these photos were taken by my laying the background down on the floor and taking aerial photos of her which led to some interesting angles.

Her stock outfit is actually quite nice although I did have some trouble getting one of the stockings up (it seems one was a bit tighter than the other) and I wish the top of her dress was a bit more modest (I had to try and rearrange the folds of lace to cover up her nipples ^^;).

Her face up is absolutely stunning.

Such a pretty girl.

Her body is so delicate looking.

I do not regret purchasing her as she is gorgeous and I knew what I was getting into but I wish Dollmore had taken more care when designing her.

First look at Snow White Pullip Collaboration

kleintoys — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:47:42 +0000

Originally revealed at last year’s Doll Carnival some pictures have surfaced of a possible future Snow White collaboration via Pullip.net. There was a slideshow that was originally posted there but has since been reposted on youtube, I was so amused by these releases I decided that I needed to take some screen caps.

First what looks like a storybook which I assume is the short-form version of Snow White but since I can’t read Japanese I can’t be sure what it really says.

Snow White- I absolutely love everything about her.

Evil Queen- She seems a bit underwhelming compared to the others but I think additional pictures could help this impression

Evil Queen in disguise- As a rule I’m trying not to like Isul too much, but this release seems very cool and I love the design of his stock I may end up having to get him.

Prince- He’s very handsome, his face up reminds me a bit of previous taeyang release Jade. I can’t wait to see more pictures of him.

Dwarves- The dwarves have been replaced with clowns, I for one am a big fan of vaguely creepy clowns so I am super excited about these. There are seven clowns in total, three byuls (Dori, Emme and Gibel) and four dals (Abel, Babe, Cici and Favian). I like that Groove Inc is really going all out with these and taking a chance with releasing these as they are not very neutral as many of their more recent releases have been and they are not going to be very versatile.

Arrival of Littlefee Rolly Red Hiding Hood!

kleintoys — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:12:50 +0000

I know my I’ve been busy shtick is getting a bit old but I am now working about sixteen hours more per week than I was previously… while it does mean more money, it also means significantly less free time to do anything else.

Anyway, unto tonight’s topic My Littlfee Rolly arrived just before Christmas. She did not come alone, I ended up ordering a Dollzone Flower Faerie from one of Dollzone’s past events from Denverdoll too but it already got sent away to be customized.
Rolly is actually my fifth Littlefee, my first bjd Marie was a Littlefee so I always have a bit of a soft spot for them. I love tiny bjds in general but the Littlefee/YoSD size are my absolute favorite size.

I decided to name her Hayley after the main character in Hard Candy as I had already used every other name evocative of Little Red Riding Hood I could think of with my various other LRRH themed dolls.

Hayley’s face up is probably the most mature of all my tiny bjds, I just love how she even has a little bit of a smile.

Her default wig comes with detachable twin tails which I personally think is pretty cool as it is nice to have options, I had a hard time choosing which look I preferred though so I ended up photographing her both ways.

Tons more pictures of her on my flickr

My Little Pony

kleintoys — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:44:08 +0000

Sorry for my rather long sabbatical, I don’t really have a good excuse other than I have been very busy lately and had limited time to devote on my hobbies in general. I have a laundry list of posts I’m behind on, including several Pullip and Dal reviews as well as several other things but I decided that I am going to devote tonight’s post to My Little Pony.

At first, when My Little Pony Friendship is Magic peaked my interest I decided I would collect a few of the G4 toys which rapidly turned into as many as I could get my hands on. I couldn’t really understand my attraction to them at first, they did make me nostalgic for my own childhood MLP collection, they are adorable but most importantly compared to the bulk of my anime figure/doll collections they are pretty well indestructible which is important when you have a toddler with a nickname like zilla roaming the apartment.

Here are some of my latest additions to the growing herd of plastic ponies…

While there was not a Christmas themed pony released this year as there have been in past years, there was a Pinkie Pie Christmas tree ornament release. So far to the best of my knowledge the ornaments have only shown up at Toysrus I was lucky enough to get mine as an early Christmas present which was really lucky as my local store sold out of them lightning fast. There is also Friendship is Magic themed wrapping paper, after a disturbing amount of time digging through toysrus’s wrapping paper I managed to find only a single roll which I neglected to get pictures of before stashing away in the closet.

I managed to complete my Fashion Style mane six pony collection, I was able to get Rainbow Dash (along with wave 4 of the smaller ponies) via Hasbrotoyshop during one of their sales Twilight Sparkle was much trickier. I had Twilight Sparkle preordered on BBTS but they canceled the order stating that Hasbro had canceled the item and since she hadn’t surfaced on Hasbro’s site at all I panicked. I had heard of a few people finding Twilight Sparkle in stores so I hit a total of seven stores before finally finding her in the last store that was even remotely local. I was so happy about finding her I gave a little victory squeal, I turned to leave the store only to come face to face with a very amused coworker who had seen my desperate searching of the shelves and my victorious exit. Thankfully I haven’t heard a peep from him at work about the pony incident yet, I did however come back to an unexplained box of MLP fruit snacks on my desk one day X_X

I managed to snag all of wave 4 off of Hasbrotoyshop during one of their sales, my favorite is Honeybuzz but they are all pretty cute I just wish we had a bit more diverse color palette sometimes as I get awfully bored with pink/purple ponies (I would kill for a green pony) pretty quickly.

My personal ranking would be Honeybuzz, Feathermay, Plumsweet, Twinkle Shine, Snowcatcher and Flitterheart.

I engaged in a bit of lunacy and tracked down all of the Friendship is Magic McDonald’s toys that were released earlier in the year. Traditionally the McD ponies are not that in demand and can be picked up quite cheaply, sadly this is not the case with the FiM McD ponies I paid about $35 for my set and that was quite cheap compared to the prices I had been seeing. I did end up buying one of the South American McDonald’s toys too but I haven’t taken any pictures of my light-up Pinkie Pie just yet.I need to take new pictures of my pony shelves…

I decided I needed a G3 Applejack to go with the rest of my Applejack family (next target G1: Baby Applejack) which turned out to not be such a good idea as I am now really liking G3 ponies and have a wishlist of like 30 + now.

G3 Applejack is awesome, I love her vibrant colors and the literal apple in her eye. I actually really love the colors they chose despite the fact that it makes her stick out like a sore thumb in the Applejack family photo.

Unfortunately for me, the same seller that I bought Applejack from had the Comic-con 2009 exclusive pony the same pony I had debated buying multiple times when I was not even collecting ponies as I thought she looked cool. The Comic-con 2009 Pony is a split between a hero and a villain as in hero pony on one side and evil pony on the other.

What makes it even more awesome is it’s coloring/theme works really well alongside my beloved custom Pullip Duela Dent which didn’t even occur to me until I had the pony in my hands.

Lalaloopsy!

kleintoys — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 04:08:45 +0000

During summer of last year, I spotted a rather peculiar looking doll in the toy aisle. Back when they were first released they were known as Bitty Buttons but have since been renamed Lalaloopsy. I ended up buying one under the understanding that it was a lark, and I would only ever have the one; I ended up choosing Crumbs Sugar Cookie but it had been a very hard decision between her and Peanut Big Top. As time wore on I ended up picking up a second Lalaloopsy Marina Anchors and then I started to get into the minis a bit then I guess a few more of the big ones wouldn’t hurt anything…. I decided I was finally going to get Peanut Big Top unfortunately she could not be found in stores and the prices on eBay were ridiculous for her, I even had friends in other countries looking for her with no luck.

Apparently I was not alone in my plight as a lot of people complained about the unavailability of a handful of the earlier girls so they decided to do a rerelease so I pounced on the first reasonably priced Peanut Big Top I found online. Around the same time Toys R Us was offering a free shipping special and I happened to have a $20 TRU giftcard handy so I was able to get Peanut’s little sister Squirt Lil’ Top for a steal (I think I paid $1.45 out of pocket for tax). Coincidentally they both managed to arrive on the same day.

They are so adorable together.

Squirt Lil Top is my first Lalaloopsy Littles doll, I have to admit these are probably going to be kind of dangerous to me as the only thing holding me back from unbridled dolly love with the larger Lalaloopsies is their inability to stand on their own. While the Littles are top heavy, they will actually stand on their own without too much of a fuss.

Other recent Lalaloopsies..

I got Rosy Bumps ‘N” Bruises as a present recently, I had been wanting her since I saw her pop up in advertisements but hadn’t had any luck finding her in stores unfortunately. I was absolutely delighted when I got her as a surprise.

I really how unique she is, she has a cute retro style I especially love her hair since she doesn’t reuse any of the standard hair molds.

My only other recent Lalaloopsy acquisition has been the lovely Suzette Le Sweet. Suzette is limited edition, she costs more than regular Lalaloopsies but I don’t think she is particularly hard to find as every time I go to the store it seems like I see at least half a dozen of her sitting on the shelf. She is really cute but if I didn’t have a coupon I’m not sure I would have paid the full $30 Toys R Us wanted for her.

Even though she was expensive, she is quite adorable I love her color scheme and I think her pet Poodle may be my favorite of all the pets released so far.

Dia de Muertos custom Monster High

kleintoys — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:33:19 +0000

Requiemart made a series of three custom Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) custom Monster High dolls recently. While all three of the dolls were stunning, I instantly fell in love with Ghoulia and well I was powerless to resist her…

I still haven’t figured out a name for her just yet, so she is just Dia de Muertos Ghoulia ^^; I’m kind of hoping she remains my one and only Monster High custom doll but well who am I kidding? I already have a custom Lagoona too ^^;.

Close up of her face, the way the lips are done is what absolutely killed my resistance they are just so perfect. The way her hair is done reminds me a bit of Dracula in the old movies it really adds to her unearthliness.

I like her shroud a lot it allows her to keep some modesty and saves me from trying to find something that would work with her face up.

Boo! I love her painted on ribcage.

To anyone interested in getting your own Dia de Muertos custom MH (only Frankie is left!) from Requiemart or any of the other items from her new etsy shop I recommend you read her blog post first on them for a coupon code ^_-

Arrival- Lati Yellow Pumpkin Lumi BJD

kleintoys — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:42:28 +0000

I just realized that I never blogged the arrival of my newest bjd, my beloved little Trixie Treat. Trixie Treat is a Halloween Pumpkin Version Lumi Lati Yellow. I’ll be the first to admit that I never anticipated owning a Lati Yellow, I didn’t really see the appeal in them for a long time but they have been steadily growing on me this process has been helped of course by several of my friends getting them and flooding me with absolutely adorable photos of them. I had been looking at Lati Yellow photos more and more even beyond those taken by my friends and had become rather smitten by them, then I happened to get a little bit of a bonus so I decided to treat myself.

I went through photos of every Lati Yellow release ever and made a shortlist of who I liked (Pumpkin Lumi was at the top) I searched Den of Angels for a few days without really finding what I was looking for but I remembered one of my friends recommending the Lati Yellow Yahoo Adoption group and luck was on my side as I had someone contact me within a few hours.

I’m so glad I decided to take the plunge and get her as she is quite possibly the most darling thing ever.

While she may not have arrived in time for Halloween (she came November 1st), this girl is all Halloween so I decided to name her accordingly so she is Trixie Treat.

I love her bright face up and the coloring scheme, I adore her lips and her blush oh and those marvelous green eyes <3

Button (Pullip Papin) was still out from when I took pictures the day prior to Trixie Treat arriving when I saw how close in colors their wigs were and that Button was still dressed up for Halloween I decided to take a couple of pictures of them together. I think they make a cute pair.

More pictures of her on my flickr.

Halloween Pictures!

kleintoys — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 05:09:51 +0000

Before it gets much later, I figured I should really blog the pictures I took for Halloween (especially since they are already three days late going up here).

A couple of my Pullip Papins got together for a little Halloween party, the green haired Papin named Punky dressed up as Pullip Chicca while the orange haired one named Button decided to dress up as a cute witch. In stark contrast to the Papins’ cutesy costumes, the Nameless decided to go as something truly horrifying this year namely herself. It does seem that no matter how evil someone may be they can not deny the inherent goodness that are KitKats. Duela wasn’t really invited to the party, she just kind of crashed it in her batsuit so she could steal all the candy!

Punky and Button enjoying their candy haul!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween this year! Halloween was effectively cancelled for a lot of areas of the northeast this year because of the snowstorm over this past weekend (many people still don’t have power :/) but we were very fortunate here and only got about an inch of snow so the zilla and I were still able to go out trick or treating.

I’m admittedly getting a bit backed up here but I’m hoping to become more active in the next few days things to look forward too…
Halo Megablocks
Arrival of Lati Yellow Halloween edition Lumi (Trixie Treat)
Arrival of Isul Sith
Isul Sith/Pullip Banshee Photos
Madoka Nendoroid
Mirai Figma
Lalaloopsy
and Monster High
(also possibly December and January Pullip releases as I just realized I never blogged them ^^;).