Anyhoo, let's get down to business. These hauls comprise late April through June and I'll be grouping some related stuff together despite obtaining them in different months, so please excuse the not-exactly chronological order.
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG: Duel Power Box (Walmart)
Starting things off with something I bought quickly after finishing the previous post, I picked up the newest "Legendary Collection-esque" Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG collection because those free cards my brother-in-law gifted me last time lit a bit of a fire in the card game part of my brain. A very brief fire, since that want kinda petered back to normal a little after the purchase, but a fire nonetheless. Got some pretty good pulls, too, with the highlights being Card of Demise and Infinite Impermanence.
Ken amiibo (Best Buy)
Daisy amiibo (Gamestop)
More amiibo! Ken adds to my third-party lineup while Daisy completes the Smash Mario roster. (For now, anyway. The final Fighters Pass DLC could be Friendly Floyd for all we know.)
Power Rangers Lightning Collection SPD Shadow Ranger (Amazon)
Definitely had to pre-order THIS guy as soon as he went up, as Doggie is one of my personal favorite Rangers and this figure is siiiiiiiick. Hasbro have done a bang-up job on the Lightning Collection so far and this most likely won't be my last purchase from it. (Especially if what I've been hearing about Magna Defender being a part of Wave 2 is true.)
TMNT 2012 Shellraiser (Goodwill)
Time for something a bit more random! My Mom actually found this at a Goodwill while she was out thrifting and asked if I'd be interested in it. It's missing a few pieces, but I own quite a few 2012 Turtles figures, so I figured adding this to that collection would be a no-brainer. Also can't beat a two-dollar price tag.
Team Sonic Racing (Switch) (Amazon)
This was actually originally a part of my Christmas list last year, but then they delayed it to the next May after it was already pre-ordered and here it is at last. Very fun game that provides more Sumo arcade racing goodness. When this was first announced, I admit that I was a little unsure of the team racing aspect of it and hoped for a traditional racing mode, but honestly, even though there IS one in the game, I NEVER use it because the team mechanics are just so much fun. It really reinvents the literal-and-hypothetical wheel of racing games and actually succeeds with making something super fun and unique among mascot racers. There's a lesson here: Never doubt Sumo Digital when it comes to racing games.
Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Blu-ray Combo) (Best Buy)
This was actually one of this year's Birthday presents that I managed to get early because reasons. It also came like three days before the official release date, so there's a tip: always pre-order your DC animated films from Best Buy. Very fun little movie that adapts the comic while at the same time not making it obsolete by being an exact adaptation. It's also an animated crossover between Batman and the TMNT, so you kinda can't not buy it. (Unless you're a super purist or THAT indifferent to both parties, of course.)
OMGcon Swag
$20 Nintendo eShop Card (Target)
Ralph Breaks the Internet Domez Blind Bag Figure - 8-Bit Felix (Target)
KNEX Super Mario Series 10 Blind Bag Figure (Luigi with Poltergust 5000)
Nintendo Power Volume 6
Nintendo Power Volume 36
KNEX Super Mario Series 9 Blind Bag Figure (Maker/Builder Mario)
Time for the OMGcon stuff! My Sister and I started off our weekend with our traditional Target run to get snacks for our trip. As is usually the case, I found a couple things while we were there.
Seeing a Target toy shopping vlog on YouTube a couple months ago with clearanced Ralph Breaks the Internet stuff in it made my mouth water, so one of my goals was to hopefully find some on this run. No dice, unfortunately, but I DID manage to find a SINGLE Domez blind bag mixed in with all the other similar stuff. Buying it and cracking it open netted me the figure I most wanted of all the ones I didn't already have (8-Bit Felix), so I guess it was fate. Also picked up a $20 eShop card because Duck Game recently released for Switch and I wanted in on that silly party action. (Though, ironically, I've been most addicted to the single-player mode. Spent 10 hours on it!)
Then came the actual con and I also had a particular purchasing goal in mind for it: the Builder Mario and Poltergust Luigi KNEX Mario blind bag figures, mostly because Mario Maker 2 and Luigi's Mansion 3 are on the way and it seemed too perfect a chance to pass up. Took a try or two, but I managed to accomplish said goal and netted both figures from the same dealer that I bought the Bowser Jr. from last year. Luigi's Mansion merch always makes me happy.
Last but certainly not least on my list of purchases is my coolest find: vintage Nintendo Power issues! I NEVER find these in the wild and in such good condition, so to find an entire STAND of them going for five and ten dollars a piece was a dream I simply couldn't pass up. In terms of which issues I picked, I mostly purchased based on the covers since I didn't exactly have a photographic memory of what each issue covered. I think I did pretty well, with the original TMNT NES issue being a highlight. (I NEVER thought I would EVER own one of the first ten issues, let alone the one with the Turtles on it!) The other I got just based on DW being on the cover, but going by its entry on a wiki, it was definitely the weaker of the two. Kinda wish I had went for that Mario Paint issue instead because it covered Turtles in Time, but eh, at least 36 has a cool cover.
To finish off the OMGcon section, another voice actor was a guest this year and very relevant to my interests: Michael Sinterniklaas! (Voice of Mahad/Dark Magician in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Seviper and some bit players in the 4Kids dub of Pokemon, and Leonardo in the 2003 TMNT series!) Naturally, I asked him to sign some things:
Extremely cool guy. Despite the fact that he was a little late to his signing, he chatted it up with everyone who came to see him and shared some fun anecdotes about Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and TMNT with me and Sis. (He was also rather surprised when I brought up his reprisal of Leonardo from a sketch on the CN MAD cartoon.)
To wrap things up, let's talk about an insane bit of luck I've been having with Twitter giveaways in the past month. Y'see, ever since 2010, I've tried and succeeded with winning something from an online giveaway at least once every single year. (How do I do it? Well, it's simple: I just enter every giveaway that has something relevant to my interests up for grabs but requires little to no effort in entering. If you enter EVERYTHING, you've got to win SOMETHING, right?) However, I rarely, if ever win Twitter giveaways due to the usually-high volume of people retweeting to enter. This year changed that when I won THREE different Twitter giveaways within the span of a month. Here's my winnings:
Power Rangers Lightning Collection Dino Charge Red Ranger
First off is another Lightning Collection figure that I won from the lovely folks over at Ranger Command Power Hour. (Check them out!) This allowed me to add a more recent Ranger to my Hasbro shelf and the future Beast Morphers Red in Wave 2 will compliment him nicely what with the recent team-up pics that leaked.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Pink
Next up is another PR prize with the MMPR Pink Boom mini-series trade courtesy of razzle1337 on Twitter. (Follow him if you're a PR fan. He shares tons of Ranger news and pics and constantly has giveaways. He also packages prizes extremely well.) This was a great thing to win mostly because I could never find an opportunity to fit this into my PR comic purchases because of its weird position as a mini. In my opinion, it's just okay (would've better served as a graphic novel rather than being stretched out to a mini), but it's nice to finally own it.
The Art of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Finally is probably the coolest thing I won: the Art of TMNT book from Dark Horse Comics! Ever since this was first announced, I've been interested. The 2012 TMNT had so many unique characters and visuals that an art book was a foregone conclusion and to have Ciro Nieli writing it to give background on each and every aspect of the series is a great bonus. Haven't read it yet, but I've already gleaned some pretty interesting trivia bits. (For instance, did you know that Spike was originally going to be Klunk, Mikey's kitty from other incarnations, but changed because they thought it would just be funnier for a mutant turtle to have a pet turtle? Or that his mutated form as Slash was based on Godzilla and a Koopa, giving him a canonical connection to Bowser and making my brain rocket out of my head in delight? Yeah, it's good stuff.)
That's all she wrote for this post, but I'm expecting a couple of things in the mail next month, so I might make a smaller post before my 28th Birthday the next. Until then!
