The Christmas Fallout - 2020!

Christmas has come and gone and I'm sure it was a really weird one for a lot of people for obvious reasons. My own celebrations weren't affected too badly, which I'm really thankful for, but regardless, I hope you were all still able to have a nice holiday despite whatever individual circumstances you've been dealing with.

Anyway, it's time for the annual Fallout post, where I regale you with the pile of excess that my loved ones so generously bestow upon me each year. You can also share your own hauls and celebrations in the comments below, so feel free to contribute some holiday joy.

$20 Nintendo eShop Gift Card

Nintendo Switch Online 12-Month Individual Membership (Not pictured.)

Sonic the Hedgehog Craftables Blind Box Figure (Got Super Sonic!)

Pokémon TCG Dusk Ball Tin Set

Super Mario Premium Tech Decals Heroes Set

Lots of Candy (Not pictured.)

Stocking filling! Renewed my Nintendo Switch Online membership through 2022 and picked up AVGN 1 and 2 Deluxe with the Nintendo cards while the super neat Pokémon tin netted me both a GX and a full art. Not sure how great they are as pulls since I'm only a very casual TCG player, but at the very least they're extremely purty. Rounding things out are some candy (mostly Kisses and Reese's mini cups), some Mario-themed tech decals for whenever I feel like decking out a future device and a really cool if kinda frustrating to build/keep all together Super Sonic figure! (The position of his feet combined with the pegs and peg holes result in some falling out unless you wedge them in just right.)

Super Mario 3D All-Stars 

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch)

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Launch Edition (PS4)

Marvel's Avengers (PS4)

Interestingly enough, this year's game haul ended up being exclusively Mario and Marvel-focused. 

Starting with the Mario side of things, the recently-released 3D All-Stars will be a really fun way to revisit the first three 3D installments in the series (especially Sunshine and Galaxy, both of which I've only played once and the former of which I haven't beaten before) while the Switch port of Captain Toad that released a while back will help me gear up for the upcoming 3D World + Bowser's Fury. 

As for the Marvel stuff, I'm very happy to swing back into Insomniac's extremely fun world as one of my favorite Spider-Men while also entering a new battle as Earth's Mightiest Heroes. They also both come with free PS5 version upgrades, so I'm set for whenever I get around to picking one up. (Probably whenever they announce an exclusive Kingdom Hearts title for it.)

Yu-Gi-Oh! the Movie (Blu-ray)

Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution (Blu-ray)

Blu-rays! This particular set I'm dubbing the "Dan Green Double Feature," as both films star my man Jay Snyder. (His real name for those not in the know.) My Yu-Gi-Oh! DM collection will benefit from a digitally remastered, widescreen version of Pyramid of Light (after owning my old 2004 fullscreen DVD for the longest time) while my Pokémon media shelf will see the addition of one of my favorite films of the year. 

Not kidding about that last bit. I didn't really think much of a CG remake of the first Pokémon film when it was first announced, but the English script sticking closer to the Japanese one than the original First Movie dub combined with the stellar performance by the voice cast (especially Dan Green as Mewtwo) really blew me away and brought me back to seeing the movie for the first time all those years ago. It's a great time to be both a Mewtwo and Pokémon anime dub fan.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Best 200 Episodes Ever

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete Tenth Season 

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete Eleventh Season 

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Pilot, A Mini-Movie, and the Square Shorts 

The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!

Like last year with my late celebration of Power Rangers' 25th Anniversary, I'm celebrating SpongeBob's 20th the year after. This mostly means A BUNCH of DVDs, including the first eleven seasons of the show, some shorts I was missing on DVD, and the fan-freaking-tastic musical that I fell in love with around this time last year. (Check it out if you're a SpongeBob fan. Great music, fantastic cast, and the same combination of weird humor and heart you expect from the franchise.)

Oh, and there's a reason I asked for the 200 Episode set specifically despite owning the first 100 episodes on DVD already:

THIS BEAUTY! This gorgeous cast poster featuring almost every single SpongeBob character that has ever appeared on the show was previously only available at SDCC, but when Paramount decided to also include it as a bonus in their 200 Episodes set, I knew that I HAD to have it as a diehard SpongeBob fan. The perfect addition to my room.

Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution (Manga)

Pokémon DP: Galactic Battles The Complete Season

More Pokémon stuff! I'm not usually for book adaptations of films or television I could just watch, but my love of the movie that spawned it, my own Mewtwo fanboyism, a couple of interesting changes, and the sheer novelty of having a manga version of the classic original Pokémon film all came together to make the first item an easy get. As for the second, my trek through the Diamond and Pearl seasons of the anime continues with the third of four, which promises some very fun episodes to look forward to including new evolutions, blatant HeartGold and SoulSilver advertisement, and a full six-on-six battle. Very much anticipating digging into it in the new year.

The Art of Super Mario Odyssey 

Super Mario Manga Mania 

More Mario love in the form of some books. Been meaning to pick up the ENORMOUS Odyssey art book for a while and the 35th Anniversary provided the perfect opportunity to finally do so. Manga Mania, meanwhile, is probably the Mario-related gift that I'm most excited for. Y'see, it's the very first English release the long-running Super Mario-Kun manga has seen and although it's a "Best Of" collection of chapters from throughout its history rather than the first Volume, I'm REALLY hoping it does well enough for Viz to bring the rest of the series over. I NEED to officially own a Mario manga series that has featured adaptations of everything from Super Mario RPG to Donkey Kong Country to Paper Mario: The Origami King and had characters like Starlow and Goombella featured on the spines of the Volume collections. The US NEEDS more non-game Mario media than just Super Mario Adventures and the American cartoons and comics.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Beyond the Grid Deluxe Edition 

Go Go Power Rangers Volume 4

Go Go Power Rangers Volume 5

Go Go Power Rangers Volume 6

Power Rangers: Sins of the Future

Another Christmas, another batch of Power Rangers comics! We've got an extradimensional epic starring a ragtag hodgepodge team of Rangers from throughout the franchise (including someone who didn't get their Ranger form in their actual show), the remaining pre-Tommy issues of Go Go, and a sequel to Power Rangers Time Force. Looking forward to going through these later. (Especially the first and last as they're both a tad divisive among the fandom.)

Marvel Legends Venompool Wave (Venomized Ghost-Spider, Venomized Miles Morales, Carnage, Phage, and Morbius)

Don't usually go for entire Marvel Legends waves (or entire action figure waves in general), but I simply HAD TO when VENOMPOOL was revealed as this particular wave's build-a-figure. A MASSIVE combo of Venom and Deadpool complete with GIGANTIC katana? Yeah, that ticks just about all my action figure appeal boxes. The other figures are neat as well. Don't really care about Morbius or Phage, but I've never owned a figure of Carnage before and Gwenom's always had a super cool design. Not the hugest on Miles' style guide Venomized look (prefer his design from the actual Maximum Venom show), but I love Miles, so I can excuse it. Still, VP is absolutely the big attraction here and is sure to become the gem of my Marvel Legends shelf.

Jakks Pacific Metal Mario Figure

Jakks Pacific Super Mario Odyssey Multi-Pack

Some more plumber action in figure form! My favorites are probably Metal Mario and Mario with Cappy. I love the Mario Kart trophy the former comes with and how all the Odyssey figures feature more intricate detailing than the normal Super Mario figures, mimicking the Mario model from the game. They'll make great additions to the video game figure shelf.

Tanooki Mario Plush

Kitsune Luigi Plush

With the figures came some plushies! Amazingly appropriate ones, too, considering I just finished a replay of Super Mario 3D Land.

Mario Shirts

...aaaaaaand with the figures and plushies came some cool new shirts! I love the Mario Kart one in particular because it doesn't just use art from one of those games, but rather from the Japan-exclusive Famicom Grand Prix: F-1 Race. Definitely an unexpected place to find art from a semi-obscure game.

Sonic Select Book 7

Mewtwo Deluxe Figure

A couple of gifts from my Sis's family. Book 7 (collecting the Princess Sally mini-series and other Sally-relevant stories) brings my Sonic Select collection one book closer to completion while my Mewtwo fanboy side gets another tingle thanks to this HUGE, extremely rad figure of him. Not only does he come in a swank shiny window box complete with art of him on the inside flap, but he even lights up! It's not the kind of figure I would've bought myself (articulated ones are higher priority for me), but I'm REALLY happy to have gotten him as a gift. Just a great, pleasant surprise. Now I just need to find a place for him to flaunt his full glory.

$25 Playstation Store Card

My favorite Cousin also dropped by and gifted me a little PSN cash. Used it to finally score the Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind DLC.

$50 Amazon Gift Card 

Detective Pikachu Plush

Pikachu Sticker (?)

Some family friends also joined in on our celebrations and got me a few things. The Amazon cash is always greatly appreciated and the Detective Pikachu plush that their daughter bought for me with her own money is simply adorable and a great piece for my collection. She picked very well and it was one of my favorite surprise gifts this year.

My Grandma also sent me $50 shortly before Christmas (since we couldn't visit her like usual this year) and I used it to pre-order something I'll talk about in the next post, grab the Captain Toad Special Episode DLC, aaaaaaaaaaand order THIS from Amazon:

Final Fantasy VII Remake (Amazon)

Thank you Square for selling one of your most popular 2020 releases at half price around the holidays! Now I can finally experience the world of FF VII after constantly encountering its characters in stuff like Kingdom Hearts and Smash Bros. (Also thank you to Sephiroth in Smash Ultimate for inspiring this purchase.)

Also used part of the previously-mentioned Amazon gift card to finally score this figure:

Power Rangers Lightning Collection Ranger Slayer (Amazon)

Glad they restocked her around Christmas. Now my Drakkon has his Slayer and the Beyond the Grid team has another member on my shelf.

That's all she wrote for Christmas 2020. I'll see you guys in the new year. (Here's hoping it goes better than this one.)

Hauls: Pre-Holiday Clean-Up 2: The Secret of the Ooze

Man, where did THIS year go? Oh...right. Regardless, Christmas is nearing ever closer and I've got some hauls to catch up on. Let's have a run through those, shall we?

$25 Amazon Gift Card

A straggler Birthday haul, courtesy of some dear family friends. (Who are currently going through some COVID-related nastiness, so I wish their household the quickest of recoveries.) Spent it on something I'll get to at the very bottom of this post...and this:

Sonic Select Book 2 (Amazon)

Pure Sonic comic nostalgia! This particular out-of-print collection features some of the very first Archie Sonic books I remember sending away for via the order form pages back in the day. (Because how could I resist titles like "Super Sonic vs. Hyper Knuckles" and "Sonic & Knuckles: Mecha Madness?") 

Also, true story: the little "32X adaptation" blurb on the cover of the Knuckles Chaotix special was my very first exposure to that add-on's existence and I was shocked when I later discovered that Chaotix was a full-on Sonic spin-off game that I was completely unaware of before this comic planted the seed in my head. Got a 32X and the game off Ebay a little after that and started taking in the charming, colorful graphics, the crazy Ring chain gimmick, and the absolutely KILLER soundtrack. (Door into Summer. 'nuff said.) That Genesis and 32X probably went the way of some yard sale of years past, but I STILL have that Chaotix cartridge in my collection (along with the ravaged cardboard box it came in.) Whatever Sonic's 30th brings next year, I'm hoping that includes a new game collection with a long-awaited port of Chaotix. It's well overdue. 

Anyway, Chaotix tangent aside, I've been meaning to get this book for a while due to my previously-mentioned nostalgia associated with said comics. However, since it went out-of-print following Archie's loss of the Sonic license, the prices have been kinda varied on Amazon. (Probably since it's one of the earliest Sonic Select books, but I remember it was even a bit difficult to find in stock even before the license changed hands. Popularity, maybe?) Luckily the prices were in my favor when that Amazon card fell into my hands and I was able to grab this in very nice condition for about ten bucks. Now I'm only missing two Selects for my collection, 3 and 7! (The former of which also has a bit of odd price variation.)

NECA Super Shredder Figure (NECA Store)

Ohhhhhhhhhh yeaaaaaaaaaah. You might remember my fairly recent acquisition of the original Playmates Super Shredder figure where I made a comment that he'd compliment NECA's then-upcoming film accurate version very nicely if I could manage to score one. Well, I did! Took like two restocks of NECA's site on the same day and the shipping was a bit ridiculous, but KEVIN NASH IS HERE! Dude is a MONSTER, towering over his Playmates counterpart as well as even other large NECA figures like Leatherhead. Combine that with the sheer amount of detail put into his sculpt and his instantly workable articulation points (this is my first NECA TMNT fig where I didn't have to take a hairdryer to the joints to get them moving) and you've got just a fantastic piece for the little NECA Turtles display I'm building up and my favorite of everything they've put out so far. Makes me even more excited for Tokka and Rahzar. (Who should be here pretty soon...)

Pop-Up Mobile External DVD-RW Drive (Amazon)

THIS was a long time coming. Y'see, back in 2017, the disc drive on my laptop crapped out and I've been unable to read CDs or DVDs on it ever since. After years of just living with it not wanting to deal with complicated or expensive repairs, a short while ago I FINALLY managed to have the bright notion in my head to ask "wait, do they make external disc drives like they do hard drives?" THEY DO. IT WAS ALWAYS THIS EASY AND THE IDEA JUST HADN'T DAWNED ON ME THIS WHOLE TIME. THEY'RE CHEAP, TOO. So, I quickly sent away for one and I was quickly reunited with the joys of being able to easily screencap DVDs, rip Space Ghost and SpongeBob songs off of CDs, and burn discs full of English dubs of anime shows based off of American franchises like The Avengers and The Powerpuff Girls. Because that's the kinda stuff that goes on in my head on an average day.

Power Rangers Lightning Collection Dino Thunder White Ranger (Walgreens)

w/Replacement Helmet (Hasbro Customer Service)

Another Lightning Collection addition and one that I was particularly excited for...until actual photos of the final figure got out and the sorry state of its paint job was made apparent. The lack of the extra black detailing on the Dino Thunder White Ranger's helmet on the Lightning figure made it look extremely off, weird, and WAY too plain and for one of my (and many other fans') personal favorite Ranger suits, this was a huge disappointment. I WAS going to pass on it and hope that Hasbro would fix the helmet in a potential future Dino Thunder team pack...but I didn't have to! The fan outcry reached them and they quickly offered free corrected replacement helmets through their customer service! 

So, I quickly ordered one of the figures from Walgreens and was able to get in my replacement request super easily. After a while, I got both the figure and helmet in and now the Dino Thunder White Ranger stands proudly in my display, complete with his fully-detailed, sick-looking helmet. Good on Hasbro's part for both correcting their mistake and doing it WELL. The black detailing on the replacement is IMMACULATE and I'm extremely happy to finally have a great plastic representation of this Ranger in my collection. (All I had of him before was one of those weird bike figures with those random pointy shoulders.)

Super Mario Plush

Gonna keep this one nice and simple. Just a Mario plush that my parents found for me while thrifting.

Power Rangers Lightning Collection Psycho Green Ranger (Hasbro Pulse)

More Lightning Collection fun with another story of complications! When Psycho Green went up on Hasbro Pulse, I quickly pre-ordered him (I'm a sucker for stuff originating from the comics) and awaited his ship date. When that finally came in July, I started tracking the shipment on FedEx and waited...and waited....and waited...aaaaaand waited. Keeping up with the tracker, it originally pegged a specific delivery date...which quickly switched to a big "PENDING" when that date arrived. After weeks of waiting and staring at the now-pending tracker, I had enough and contacted Hasbro Pulse about replacing or refunding my order, guessing it had gotten lost in the mail. They weren't able to replace it (Psycho Green was out of stock at the time), but they WERE able to refund the base cost of the figure.

However, this story isn't quite over. Cut to a random Thursday when the FedEx tracker finally changed from its pending state, giving a new delivery date and current location! I was shocked that it was even still out there after being inactive for so long, so I awaited the new date to see if it would actually come. It didn't and went back to pending. Cut to the NEXT Thursday where it did the exact same thing. (New date that I waited for only for it to revert to pending.) This weekly cycle went on for a little while, the figure bouncing between two locations near my state until FINALLY, IN SEPTEMBER, it moved to a completely new location right near me. The time had actually arrived. It took TWO MONTHS of being lost in the mail, but Psycho Green's journey finally ended. It's great to FINALLY have him and neat that I got him for just shipping cost because of that refund, but this was A LOT of unnecessary monkey business over a repaint with a new weapon. I hope this was just isolated FedEx pandemic craziness and any future purchases I make from Hasbro Pulse don't end up going similarly, because that's enough to put a guy off from ordering off of there, regardless of exclusives.

Prep & Landing Totally Tinsel Collection (Blu-ray Combo) (Amazon)

Mickey Mouse: Merry & Scary (Amazon)

Moving on to a simpler situation, I ordered these great festive Disney specials that I had my eye on for a while off of Amazon for one reason besides adding to my DVD shelf: DISNEY MOVIE INSIDERS POINTS. What could I want to spend said points on so badly that I ordered two Blu-rays/DVDs suddenly just to have enough points to afford it? You'll see a bit further down.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Amazon)

Birthday cash pre-order time! Been anticipating this one for a while. Two of my favorite franchises collide for a super fun crossover tale full of action, fanservice, and gorgeous artwork. It also finishes kind of open-ended, so I'm REALLY hoping there's eventually a sequel. I'd love to see all the elements they could possibly mix together in a follow-up. I mean, this one had a Green Ranger Shredder (I repeat. A GREEN RANGER SHREDDER.) and that wasn't even the craziest part of it. I need more.

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (Blu-ray Combo)

Moving from a Birthday cash order to a delayed Birthday present, Kizuna provides a fun yet bittersweet pre-epilogue ending to the Digimon Adventure saga (at least for now.) While a lot of the Digidestined are mostly left out to focus mainly on Tai and Matt, the animation is absolutely a step-up from tri. with my favorite moments being at the beginning and near the end.

Joker amiibo (Amazon)

Hero amiibo (Best Buy)

Smash DLC amiibo arrive with another story of delivery frustration. I originally pre-ordered both Joker AND Hero from Best Buy and they shipped out the same day. However, Hero was coming from UPS...and Joker from FedEx. I kept my eyes on both trackers, them both quickly switching to delivered. I ran out to get them and...found only Hero. I still don't know what happened to Joker. He either wasn't delivered at all and they still have yet to attempt a re-delivery or, perhaps THE MOST ironic fate of all for the leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, he was stolen. Still don't have a clue but Best Buy and FedEx were calling him delivered. I waited a couple days after that to see if he'd eventually show up, but no dice. Luckily, Amazon restocked and I was able to grab him there, but MAN, is FedEx not doing me any favors this year.

Now about that Disney Movie Insiders item from before...

Wreck-It Ralph Final Theatrical Poster (Disney Movie Insiders)

IT'S STILL SO FREAKING BEAUTIFUL. Yep, this is what had me scrambling to buy DVDs just to be able to afford it before it went out of stock. Being a huge Wreck-It Ralph fan, I have ALWAYS wanted a copy of its theatrical poster for my room ever since it was first revealed. Why? Well, how many theatrical posters for Disney films can YOU think of that double as video game crossover collages featuring everyone from Sonic and Zangief to Coily and Neff? Factor in Wreck-It Ralph becoming pretty much my favorite movie ever and it was a no-brainer to desire this heavily. That's why my #1 goal when Ralph Breaks the Internet came out was to own a poster for it, chiefly because I didn't have an opportunity to get one for the original film and I wanted to flaunt my Ralph love somehow. NOW I HAVE FOUR INCLUDING THE ORIGINAL.

After the previous shipping mishaps, I kinda lucked out on this one. Despite DMI's transition back to offering physical rewards being a little shaky (with shipping notifications just not being sent out at all and certain members' items being damaged or missing altogether), my poster arrived in tip-top condition about a month after I redeemed it despite no follow-up email. This was a HUGE relief, as I had heard horror stories of other members who ordered this particular item mistakenly getting Pop figures from the Mulan remake instead and was prepared for the worst. So glad that luck was on my side in this particular case.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G

Upgraded my phone! Been rocking the same Galaxy S8+ since 2017, so this was a definite step up in terms of both power and storage. (It's nice not having to worry about space anymore when I download a game or a new Purple Stuff Podcast.)

Latios and Latias (Bootleg?) Plushes

More of my parents' thrift finds! When they first showed me images of these guys, I thought they were super cool, especially since I didn't have anything representing either Eon Pokémon in my collection. However, when I looked them up on Google, I couldn't find any official plushes that matched them and when I DID find the plushes themselves, they had completely different tags than the ones I had. That, plus their slightly off-model designs and generic Pokémon Best Wishes anime art tags lead me to believe that they're bootlegs. Still super neat plushes that I really appreciate them picking up for me, but bootlegs nonetheless. Whatever their origin, they still make for neat entertainment center decorations.

Darkwing Duck Popsocket (Amazon)

Starlow and Geno Stickers (RedBubble)

Phone Case (Amazon)

Some protection for my new phone along with a couple sticky things to personalize it! Sadly, Starlow was too big to be used, so I substituted a sticker of her I already had from a Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Sonic Wacky Pack promotion (because the Mario & Luigi series is my heart and soul and I cherish every part of it) and was even able to transfer my Ralph and Vanellope sticker from my old case to my new one. Also Geno, because I needed the perfect case to go into the year of Super Mario RPG's 25th Anniversary (2021) with and I thought teaming him with Starlow, a fellow messenger of the stars from a Mario RPG, was a neat idea.

x4 Digimon Card Game Ver. 0.0 Promotion Packs

x4 Perforated Demo Half-Deck Sheets

Premium Bandai was having two different Digimon sweepstakes and I entered both. One offered figures while another had a larger chance at scoring some swag from the upcoming English version of the new Digimon Card Game. I won the latter, completely surprising me when the package of all this stuff came in the mail. (This was the kinda giveaway where they just send you your winnings without informing you of your win.) 

Having played the demo app, it's a pretty fun game and kinda gives me Duel Masters vibes. I hope they can go big places with it and we can actually have a fun, long-running English Digimon card game for a change. Anyway, for now, these are all super neat collector's items for me as a Digimon fan and the promo cards are nice and shiny. I'm currently torn between opening only half of the packs and keeping the others sealed (since they all have the same six cards) or throwing caution to the wind and opening all of 'em, though.

My Little Pony: Holiday Memories (Amazon)

Let's end on something festive! Holiday Memories collects all of the IDW MLP Holiday Special comics in one compact trade that fits nicely next to the Omnibuses on my shelf. This is what I spent the rest of the Amazon card that opened this post on because I figured what better way to kick off the Christmas season than a thematic collection of colorful magical equine funnies?

Speaking of Christmas, that should be the next time you hear from me, so I hope ya'll have as peaceful and happy a holiday as you can given the circumstances and I'll see you for the Fallout post next month!

29th Birthday Haul

Birthday number 29 is in the can. Hard to believe that 30's only a year away. Something tells me it won't feel much different, though. Had a fun time yesterday with friends, family, pizza, and ice cream cake. (All the classic makings for exhaustion and an overly full belly.) Anyway, let's share some Birthday loot!

Paper Mario: The Origami King 

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX

Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection (Switch)

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated (Switch)

A Hat in Time (Switch)

Another Birthday, another crop of games! This year we've kind of got a theme going with "old games on new systems and 3D platformers." Y'know, aside from Origami King. 

I've already 100%'d it, BTW. Got it early on its actual release date and put SOOOO much time into it. It's so fun. I wasn't that great at a lot of the more complex ring puzzles even by game's end because I'm just terrible at thinking on my feet, but the graphics, music, writing, sheer variety, charm, and explorative nature all came together to create just a joyful experience overall. Olivia is also a precious ray of sunshine and I have so many more emotions associated with Bob-Ombs than I did previously.

As for the others, I'm always up for more Mystery Dungeon, I've never actually played the ZX games before, THQ SpongeBob games give me joy, and I heard a lot of good things about the last one and I LOVE me some 3D platformers, so it was finally time to see what all the fuss is about.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales Omnibus

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

COMICS! Skipped out on my usual yearly dose of IDW TMNT volumes yet again (thinking about finally starting to catch up at Christmas) in favor of a HUGE Omnibus of the 2016 Miles Morales Spider-Man series which both brings him into the main 616 Marvel universe for the first time and finishes out his original writer, Brian Michael Bendis', run with him. (Before he jumped ship to DC to create some very controversial runs with established characters.) Best thing is that I already have the first volume of Saladin Ahmed's run digitally so I can immediately check his stuff out after I finish this and decide if I like it enough to keep up with it.

The Turts aren't fully left out, though, as the final chapter of the Batman/TMNT trilogy represents them with probably my favorite of these team-ups they've done. Seriously, if you check out ONE Batman/TMNT comic crossover, make it THIS one. Where else are you gonna get a tale where Krang takes control of the freaking Anti-Monitor to combine the Batman and TMNT multiverses together and Mirage Raphael from Turtle Prime has to venture into the combined world to convince the heroes that their entire world is a lie before Krang can make his move? Also the Joker (called the Laughing Man in the new world) is leader of a ninja crime empire called the "Smile Clan." God, I love comic books.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Blu-ray Combo)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Tangle & Whisper

Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 4: Infection

Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 5: Crisis City

Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 6: The Last Minute

I looooove that Hedgehog! Being that Sonic recently made the shift to headlining a film franchise (after a career of nothing but cameos in stuff like Ready Player One as well as his bit parts in the Wreck-It Ralph movies), of course I had to grab his new movie on Blu-ray. (It'll probably end up being the only movie I'll see in theaters all year at this rate.) 

Continuing the Blue Blur train, we have more of the excellent IDW comics including both a buddy adventure dedicated to original comic characters Tangle and Whisper as well as the majority of the Metal Virus Saga storyline that's been running for a while. (Yes, the Sonic comics have a major story arc about a contagious pandemic that turns everyone into robot zombies. It's the very definition of "morbid coincidence.")

Banpresto DBZ Grandista Resolution of Soldiers Gotenks Figure

Bandai Spirits Mewtwo Model Kit

Funko Marvel Venomized Mystery Minis Blind Box (Captain Marvel)

Sailor Moon Blind Bag Magnet (Luna)

Finishing things off, we have the pile of stuff my Sis and brother-in-law got me courtesy of Hot Topic sales. Pretty nice collection of nerdy bric-a-brac, representing a variety of franchises I'm into. I got into DBZ through the Buu saga, so Gotenks here is a nice choice for my very first high-end DBZ collectible, I've been keeping up with Spider-Man: Maximum Venom on TV, so one of these Minis was a no-brainer (Kinda wish I had gotten Spidey, Deadpool, or Miles though), I hadn't built a model kit since the old Yu-Gi-Oh! ones that Mattel brought over back in the day, so Mewtwo was a fun little project (I want the Lugia one now), and Luna does an adorable job of guarding my manga shelf.

That about wraps it up! Next post shouldn't be until the Fall, but expect to see a couple of really neat comics as well as the odd figure and maybe even a Blu-ray in it when it arrives. I'll see ya then!