Hauls: Shell Games

Time for another tried-and-true pre-holiday clean-up post! Gotta get this stuff out there so you guys can have a chance to see it before the Christmas Fallout beckons!

Min Min amiibo (Best Buy)

Been a little bit since the last amiibo haul! (Over a year if you're keeping track.) Fighters Pass Volume 2 finally hits the shelf starting with the Ramen-based Rumbler herself, Min Min!

Super Mushroom Bag

Imaginext Goldar and Dragon Shield Black Ranger 

McDonald's Knuckles Toy

TMNT 2012 Ooze Scoopin' Donnie

Bootleg Movie Star Raph

My parents did their usual thrifting thing and brought me back this assortment of goodies. That Bootleg Movie Star Raph is definitely the most interesting piece. (Thought he was the real deal at first until I noticed his distinct lack of elbow cuts and off-looking face detailing.) Also of note is the odd Super Mushroom bag. Not entirely sure what it actually is (it feels like a kid's lunch box, but there's definitely not enough storage for that to be the case,) but I still found a use for it.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (Gamecube) (Amazon)

THIS was a fun, albeit sporadic, purchase! It all started when I checked out a fun little deep dive into this particular game and its development on YouTube. (Mostly brought on by my hype for the upcoming Cosmic Shake.) After enjoying said video, I got the itch to play this again after completing it during my childhood. (This was actually the very first PS2 game I got heavily invested in back in the day.) I still had my PS2 copy...but I lacked a PS2 to play it on. That made me shift gears to the Gamecube version I had somehow never previously owned despite having every other standalone SpongeBob game on the system. Were aftermarket prices reasonable enough to finally complete my Gamecube SpongeBob library? Well, I'm bringing it up here, so that's an emphatic "YES." Got a copy in good condition with everything but the manual on Amazon for like 30 bucks. (I still have the PS2 version's manual, so I wasn't terribly bothered by the lack of the GC version's.)

Replayed and completed it all over again over the course of the latter half of August. While it's certainly the most primitive of the SpongeBob console 3D platformers, I still had a lot of fun revisiting it. Game kinda has its own structure and flow that's very fun once you get it down and it even reminded me of Banjo-Kazooie in places, surprisingly. Clancy Brown even reprises his role as Krabs, which is an odd rarity among SpongeBob games, even the most popular ones. All in all, I'm glad that I decided to give it another go and it makes me even more pumped to experience the first completely new SpongeBob 3D platforming adventure in years when it releases in 2023.

128 GB microSDXC Card (Amazon)

Saw that SD Cards were on sale on Amazon, so decided to grab a bigger one to double my Switch's storage space. Simple as that.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection Limited Edition (Switch) (Amazon)

Ooooooooooooh, this is a big one! As you might recall from my 31st Birthday post, one of my gifts was actually pre-ordered, but didn't arrive on time for the actual day. THIS is that gift. A veritable DREAM collection of ALL of the classic 8 and 16-bit Konami TMNT games complete with both a suite of fun enhancements and display options for each title AND a HUGE museum of bonus content featuring everything from boxart to manuals to developmental sketches that had never before breached the innards of Konami's archives. How do you make such a collection even better? Well, how about also releasing a Limited Edition package that also includes a bunch of fun bonus swag such as an artbook and trading cards all wrapped up in a special box adorned with brand new Kevin Eastman artwork? Yeah, everything about this is amazing. I would've settled for just the ability to play Turtles in Time on my Switch, but the sheer extra mile that Digital Eclipse and Konami have gone to in producing this collection just warms my mutagen-pumping heart something fierce. 

NECA TMNT Adventures Slash (AliExpress)

Frozen II (4K Combo) (Disney Movie Insiders)

ANOTHER biggie! I thought I was done with NECA's TMNT figures, but they pulled me back in by not only announcing a new line based off of the Archie TMNT Adventures comic, but ALSO that Slash would be the first character released. If you know me, you know that Slash is my favorite TMNT character and the Adventures version happens to be my favorite classic version of him ("The Vultures named me...SLASH!") so this was an obvious must-have. They absolutely knocked him out of the park, too. While I would've included a mini palm tree with him instead of that weird alternate weapon that he never actually used in the comic, the detailing and look of him are superb. Definitely the best take on Slash that NECA has done so far and one of my favorite toys of him period.

As for the DMI redemption, it took a little bit of saving up, but I finally completed my Frozen animation library with the sequel.

Steve & Alex amiibo Two-Pack (Best Buy)

More amiibo! Not a Minecraft guy in the least, but the sheer startling oddity of Steve and his pals joining Smash Ultimate (and breaking Twitter in the process) entertained me quite a bit and they appropriately stand out just as much on the amiibo shelf.

Sonic the Hedgehog Archives Volume 17 (Amazon)

IT IS DONE. With Volume 17 of Archives, I finally have nearly every mainline Archie Sonic the Hedgehog issue for my physical perusal. (Minus an issue or two somewhere around the 120s.) I should give the whole run a read some time. (I started a readthrough before a while ago, but I didn't get far.)

TMNT Sewer Army Tube (In A Sewer Party Tube Box)

Knuckles and Tails McDonald's Toys 

More thrifting goodies my parents picked up! While I'm not huge on collecting toy vehicles, that intact vintage box (for a different toy than the one that was tossed in it) made it a must-have for my TMNT collection. (Especially love the $5.49 Children's Palace price sticker still on it. This box is a piece of history!)

Also, I wish the people who gave these Sonic 2 McDonald's toys to these thrift stores also included their little stand launcher things. They're kind of difficult to display otherwise.

Super7 TMNT Ultimates Slash (Big Bad Toy Store)

ANOTHER amazing Slash! Super7's been seeing mad success with their TMNT Ultimates line, producing wave upon wave of modern action figures directly based on the Playmates classics of old. While I'd never picked up any of them before (I'm usually one to prefer comic and artwork takes on TMNT character designs versus the original Playmates sculpts,) as usual, I couldn't pass up Slash. He's a great, hefty evolution of that original figure and just wonderfully detailed and accessorized. He looks especially nice alongside my other Slash figures. (INSANE to think that just a few short years ago, Slash's only toys were ones geared towards children, but NOW I can build a display with collector-quality figures of pretty much EVERY classic version of him! We really are living in the best timeline sometimes.)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Best Buy Exclusive Steelbook (4K Combo)

This was actually meant to be a Christmas present, but my Dad had me open it early because he feared it might be damaged. (It wasn't. It was just a paper insert flopping about inside.) Not typically a steelbook guy, but the instant I saw that Best Buy's exclusive used the wonderful poster art that directly homages the GAME Sonic 2, I knew that I had to have this version. (Also helped that it was the only version to include both the 4K AND standard Blu-ray.) Excited to give this 3D Blast of a film a rewatch!

Transformers: Beast Wars Volume 3 (Amazon)

Volume 3 completes IDW's Beast Wars series cut tragically short by license migration. While I still wish that it had gotten a few more years in to tell more stories about my favorite beastie bots, I loved all of what we did get and am very glad that they were at least able to collect the full series (including the Annual) in trade form before everything went out of print. Hopefully Rise of the Beasts will spark (heh) a new era for the Maximals and Predacons in media.

Pokémon TCG Trick or Trade BOOster Bundle

My parents found these for me while they were out grocery shopping. While I'm a very casual Pokémon TCG guy, I adore the sheer novelty of a whole Halloween-themed set meant to be given out to trick-or-treaters and had a lot of fun opening them on my Twitter throughout October. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Switch) (Amazon)

Cowabunga Collection wasn't the ONLY huge win the Turtles had in gaming this year! Shredder's Revenge serves as a perfect spiritual successor and evolution of the classic Konami games and is ridiculously fun. Great music, beautiful sprite art, tons of deep-cut bosses, and even the original voices of the four Turtles on board to give it that extra little bit of legitimacy. It's just a complete love letter in every way and I adored my time with it. (Heck, I even got all of the Achievements for it TWICE. Once on Xbox through Game Pass and once on this physical Switch copy. THAT'S how much I dug this.)

Pre-ordered this with my Birthday cash (Knew the INSTANT it was announced that I'd need this game physically) and it arrived like two weeks after the listed date. (Limited Run. Nuff said.) So glad to be able to have this on my shelf. (As well as to have the code for a free Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizza that came with it. Seriously.) 

Power Rangers X Street Fighter Lightning Collection - Morphed Ryu Crimson Hawk Ranger (Big Bad Toy Store)

Power Rangers X Street Fighter Lightning Collection - Morphed Chun-Li Blazing Phoenix Ranger (Big Bad Toy Store)

Wrapping up, HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER! Yep, the Turtles aren't the only crossover characters invading the Lightning Collection, as a pair of World Warriors have ALSO joined the fray, fresh off of their inclusion in the Legacy Wars and Battle for the Grid games. Not a huge Street Fighter fan by any means (mostly because I can't play the games to save my life,) but the sheer fact that I can have a Power Rangers display featuring morphed versions of Street Fighter characters AND the Ninja Turtles just gives me ALL KINDS of jollies as a huge fan of crossovers in general. They even both come with stands! (MORE OF THOSE, PLEASE, HASBRO.) 

That'll do it for this batch! See you guys for the Fallout post and hope you all have a great holiday season!

31st Birthday Haul

31st Birthday was today, so it's time for the obligatory loot post! Got it up on the actual day-of this time because I did most of my official celebrations on Sunday. Today was more of a "chill out" kinda day. Anyway, lookit mah stuff:

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Kirby and the Forgotten Land 

Bit of a smaller game haul this year, but there's a reason for that: one of my gifts was actually a pre-order for ANOTHER game, and ohhhhhhh it's a big one with a lot of extra goodies packed in. Unfortunately didn't get out in time for my Birthday, but it's still releasing this month, so I won't have to wait that much longer. You'll see it in the next post and I'm ALREADY salivating over it.

Anyway, looking forward to taking Kirby into the 3rd dimension for the first time and mastering a whole new way to catch Pokémon. Only played a bit of Forgotten Land so far, but it's just delightful. I love all of the collectibles and optional objectives. Scratches that 3D platformer itch something fierce while still feeling perfectly Kirby. Good stuff.

Sgt. Frog: The Complete Second Season (SD Blu-ray)

The Worlds Ends With You The Animation: The Complete Season

Two times the anime Blu-rays! Sgt. Frog Season 2 on SDBD finishes off the Funimation dub and moves into previously-uncharted territory for the show on US physical media with (sub-only) episodes 79-103. (Which also includes a cute little transition that Discotek added in to mark the point when it switches from dub to sub.) While I got into Keroro through the dub, I'm still overjoyed to finally own these previously-unreleased episodes and the subs are honestly of great quality. Already watched the whole set, in fact. (One of my favorite new-to-me eps was the one where Keroro forces everyone to play along with a Sentai-style TV show that he personally writes where he tries to kill off every other hero character for higher ratings and "drama." 🤣) Super excited for the future Season 3 release as that's COMPLETELY new stuff for me!

As for TWEWY The Animation, it's a great little adaptation of my favorite RPG story ever. Wish they had brought more of the original English cast back (instead of just Kariya) and it's missing certain elements from the game (everything's a lot faster paced, so stuff like Neku's character development doesn't have as much build-up,) but as far as turning a 20+ hour long JRPG into a 12-episode anime goes, I think it was still really well done and any fans of the game should check it out. Animation also looks really nice, so it's great to have it on Blu-ray. (Really wish it got a Special Edition version with extra swag like a Player Pin replica, though. Serious untapped potential there.)

Transformers: Beast Wars Volume 2

Marvel's Secret Reverse

Time for some comics! Added to my shelf's Beast Bot representation with Volume 2 of IDW's recent series (which also happens to include my favorite story from the run, "Thicker Skin") and dipped back into the old Marvel well for a Spider-Man/Iron Man team-up brought to us by the late, great Kazuki Takahashi. (RIP.) Yes, really. The heroes fight a corrupted game designer and everything! Plus, even though it's a manga, it's laid out like an American comic with full color artwork! Needless to say, definitely looking forward to fully experiencing one of Takahashi-sensei's final creative contributions. There's nothing quite like the creator of something you love (Yu-Gi-Oh!) creating what's essentially a giant love letter to something ELSE you love. (Marvel.)

Pokémon Adventures XY Volume 1

Pokémon Adventures XY Volume 2

Deadpool Samurai Volume 1

Deadpool Samurai Volume 2

More reading material in the form of manga! Marvel's up to bat again with Deadpool's take on the medium (complete with thinly-veiled Spider-Man expys, Symbiotes, fights with Thanos, My Hero Academia cameos and Wade's trademark mastery over the fourth wall) while Pokémon Adventures heads to Kalos. (REALLY excited to finally give the XY arc an official read!)

My Little Pony/Transformers: The Magic of Cybertron (Amazon)

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Ominous Omnibus Volume 1: Scary Tales & Scarier Tentacles (Amazon)

Lastly, here's some stuff that I ordered with Birthday cash acquired from my Sister and Grandma. The second MLP crossover completes my collection of IDW TF books that I wanted to pick up before the license changed hands and the Simpsons comic collection gives me a whole tome of frightful funnies to indulge in for the upcoming spooky season. (It's HUGE, too. Over 400 pages of comic-exclusive Simpsons Treehouse material all wrapped up in a large, hardcover book with a slipcase and glow-in-the-dark cover for just under 40 bucks. THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST OF THREE VOLUMES, TOO!)

That officially puts a cap on Birthday #31! Next post will probably be around October/November, so I'll see ya'll again closer to the holidays!

Hauls: OMGcon 2022 and Other Bits

Well, my Birthday is next week, so it's time for another one of those tried-and-true haul roundup posts!

Power Rangers Super Legends (DS) (Amazon)

THIS was the definition of an impulse purchase. Super Legends was a game made for Power Rangers' 15th Anniversary in 2007 and it was released for PS2 and DS. I only had the PS2 version before because it had voice-acting and comic-style cutscenes, but I always regretted not getting both, as the DS version had its own roster of Rangers (including reps from Time Force, a season NOT featured in its PS2 equivalent) and some neat unlockables. (The best of which being the ability to play as Boom the Orange SPD Ranger if you perfect every stage.) Anyway, I saw that someone on RangerBoard had picked it up recently and that made me curious if I could pick it up cheap used on Amazon. Sure enough, I found the right seller and here we have it. I spent the latter half of May completing it. Was fun, though things got a bit stressful trying to beat every stage without dying. (Stingwingers were the bane of my existence.)

Funko POP! Animation SpongeBob SquarePants (Holiday)

Funko POP! Animation Patrick Star (Holiday)

SpongeBob Hula Bobble Figures

Invincible Mario and Red Shell McDonald's Toys

Here's a bunch of stuff my parents grabbed me at a yard sale. Been a while since I've collected any POP figures, but they definitely made a wise call getting this particular set, as SpongeBob, Christmas and Christmas-themed SpongeBob stuff are three of my favorite things.

OMGcon 2022 Swag

Beast Wars II Mini-Figures (Tasmania Kid and Bighorn)

Jakks Pacific Sonic the Hedgehog (Modern) Figure

Funko POP! Movies Tokka

Ash-Greninja Shirt

Retro Digimon Magazines

Kululu, Totodile and Fuecoco Mini-Buttons (Fil Romero)

Digimon Card Game Starter Deck: Ultimate Ancient Dragon

OMGcon returned after a pandemic-related delay and my Sister and I enjoyed our usual fun weekend of buying stuff and watching anime in the comfort of our hotel room. (Despite a hiccup near the end. Never have Mexican take-out the night before you have to travel for like an hour. Nuff said.) I didn't find anything quite as cool as the Nintendo Power issues I got at the last one, but I still wound up with some rad stuff in the end.

Best finds were definitely the little Beast Wars II guys (though I wish the seller I purchased them from had a better selection, as it's odd having two different Tasmania Kids,) the really neat mini-buttons (FINALLY SOMETHING KULULU-RELATED) and, of course, the old Digimon magazines, especially the two issues of Beckett Digimon Collector. I found them at the same seller I got the NPs from before and I was particularly happy to see the one with the Digimon the Movie cover story, as I remember having that one back in the day. Flipping through them brought back some great memories and reminded me of certain old Digimon happenings that I had COMPLETELY forgotten about, like the Taco Bell promotion. That Movie issue should sit comfortably on my shelf next to my issue of Beckett YU-GI-OH! Collector that covered THEIR movie. (The one with the incredibly silly hypothetical live-action Yu-Gi-Oh! movie cast. Adam Sandler as Tristan Taylor, anyone?)

Was also able to pick up a couple of things I've had my eye on for a bit, like more Digimon cards to finally support my small collection of mostly identical promo cards and Tokka's POP figure. (CRAZY that out of ALL the possible TMNT POP figures that could've been at this thing, one of the only TWO that I REALLY wanted was the one that I found. Talk about a lucky break.) Also added a base Modern Sonic to my growing Jakks Pacific figure collection, but honestly, I overpaid for it. He was the one from the OMEGA WAVE, too! Omega I would've GLADLY paid twenty bucks for, but nope. All they had were Sonics. Feh. Rounding things out are a pretty sweet Greninja shirt. However, we're not quite done with OMGcon yet. As this was a con and cons typically have guests...

...I got to meet Xander Mobus again! (After previously getting him to sign my Smash Wii U copy and Smash 4 Soundtrack at the 2015 convention.) This time, I had a lot more game fodder for him as I've recently become a Persona 5 fan (brought Strikers rather than Royal because the other two games were on Switch as of this particular weekend) AND he happened to voice a character in NEO TWEWY. Ultimate completed the trio nicely. (Though, I'm a bit surprised he signed it for JUST the Announcer role and not also Joker. Eh, probably didn't want to cover the art in text.) Still a great guy.

Power Rangers X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Lightning Collection - Morphed Shredder (Dorkside Toys)

Oh YESSSSS. Remember when I hinted that someone was missing from my PR/TMNT figure blow-out in the last post? Well, he's finally here. GREEN. RANGER. SHREDDER. Took a while for Dorkside to get him in (he's the ONE pre-order I kept there,) but after many delays, June turned out to be his month. (He also just so happened to ship on the day that I left for OMGcon, so that got me even MORE jazzed for the weekend ahead.) He's an absolutely WICKED figure as well. Probably one of the best Shredders I own. I especially love how the cloth cape drapes on him. Gives him a really badass look. With the crossover crew finally complete, there's nothing more to do than wait for the recently-announced SEQUEL mini-series and see what craziness pops out of THAT.

Kuribabylon (Troll and Toad)

Kuribah (Troll and Toad)

Kuriboo (Troll and Toad)

Kuribee (Troll and Toad)

Kuribeh (Troll and Toad)

Five-Star Twilight (Troll and Toad)

HerculesKabuterimon (Troll and Toad)

Ending things off with a card haul! As a huge fan of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, I always get super excited when they bring more of Yugi's anime-exclusive cards to the game itself. I was particularly amped-up about THESE as he HEAVILY used the Kuriboh Brothers and Kuribabylon in Season 4, which I have a huge soft spot for despite its fillery nature. Also grabbed a HerculesKabuterimon promo card both because I just love that Digimon and because I believe that it's actually compatible with the Starter Deck I picked up earlier. As a great bonus, I got a $5 Amazon Card for making this purchase with Amazon Pay, allowing me to add to my IDW TMNT collection with the digital version of the 30th Anniversary Special. (Which was NEVER available in trade form, yet featured brand new stories from the Mirage, Archie, Image, and IDW continuities.) Not too shabby for under four bucks.

That'll wrap things up! See ya next week for the big Birthday post!

Hauls: I like Turtles.

2022 hits The Lazy Shell! (In mid-April, naturally.) Must mean I've finally built up enough fresh hauls to share!

Captain America: Civil War Collector's Edition (Blu-ray 3D Combo) (Disney Movie Insiders)

Kicking things off, we have the results of a point splurge on DMI because of a sale. I'm not exactly a comprehensive collector of the MCU films, but after seeing Spider-Man: No Way Home, I got the sudden urge to own every piece of cinematic webhead that existed. (Hence why I got the Venom films for Christmas despite having "ehhhh" feelings on them in general.) I already owned Homecoming and Far From Home, but I lacked every other appearance that Peter Parker's made in the MCU, which brings us to this. Since I was mostly interested in adding this to my collection for Tom Holland's debut as Petey, "free" was kinda the perfect price. Now I just need to find a way to snag Infinity War and Endgame for a song!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Complete Banner Print (PIXELs2dio on Etsy)

Ever since this GORGEOUS artwork showcasing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's extensive, dream come true character roster was first shown at E3 in 2018, I've never stopped thinking, "imma need that amazingness in my room when it's completed." Fast forward to almost four years later after the base game announcements and two waves of DLC have come and gone and said artwork was finally completed and ripe for my purchasing. (Well, after finding the right Etsy store that had a good quality print at the right size and price since Ninty themselves never thought to capitalize on this gold mine.) It took its sweet time getting here (four weeks after shipping,) but it was OHHHHH SOOOOOO WOOOOOORTH IIIIIIIIIIIIT. Just having a poster of OFFICIAL artwork of the likes of Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, PAC-Man, Ryu, Cloud Strife, Sephiroth, Banjo and Kazooie, King K. Rool, Mewtwo, STEVE MINECRAFT, FREAKING SORA and SOOOOOOOO many others ALL TOGETHER above my TV just makes my heart so, soooooooooooooo happy. It's like a direct window to my love of gaming and it's definitely my new favorite decoration.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Volume 11 & 12 (IDW Publishing)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Volume 13, 14, 15 & 16 (Atomic Empire)

Now we come to what I guess could be considered the "feature presentation" of this post. See, I'm presently on a TMNT kick fueled by a couple recent flat-out AMAZING announcements. One of said announcements got me to thinking that I should REALLY get around to completing my collection of IDW's trade paperback releases of the Archie series, TMNT Adventures. I had picked up Volumes 2 through 10 (since 1 is entirely composed of direct adaptations of Fred Wolf cartoon episodes rather than original stories) back in 2015, but I never got around to picking up the rest. Doing a bit of digging on a couple different online shops, I found that stocks were getting pretty low on a lot of the ones that I needed (particularly Volume 12, which was completely out of new copies on Amazon,) so I decided to order the next two directly from IDW to make sure that I COULD get them. I was originally going to stop there for the time being, but as the Amazon stock was also pretty low on the remaining four Volumes (with fluctuating prices,) I decided to do even MORE digging and found a comic shop that had the rest of the books available to order for cheaper than anywhere else. So yeah, I'm all set to read the rest of this series. I'm particularly looking forward to finally getting to enjoy some Future Turtle Cyber Samurai action and Slash's last few appearances.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Movie (VHS)

Power Rangers Super Megaforce: The Complete Season (DVD)

American Dad Volume 5 (DVD)

The Official Ninja Turtle Handbook (Book)

Jakks Pacific Goomba Plush

Funko Black Ranger Plush

Funko Yellow Ranger Plush

Some thrift store spoils from my now-annual post-dentist appointment pilgrimage there. My favorite find is probably the Super Megaforce set since it still included the code for a free digital copy of the entire season. Speaking on the TMNT items, I don't really have easy access to a VCR anymore, but how could I resist a copy of the original film WITH THE BOX??? I mean, c'mon. Also, the entire reason I picked up that Nickelodeon TMNT book was because it had a page on Slash in it. (I have a problem.)

Transformers: Beast Wars Volume 1 (Amazon)

BEAST WARS!!!! Been waiting to add this trade to my shelf for quite a while since I've been loving IDW's BW book ever since it started last year. (Especially some of the new twists brought in related to the new Predacon, Skold.) It's a huge shame that they'll be losing the TF license next year and the book'll be ending at 17 issues. (Figures they'd pull the rug out from under me right after they finally gave me a reason to read Transformers comics.) Oh well, at least it'll have an actual conclusion to the story and they communicated that they were losing it ahead of time unlike some...other dropped licenses of theirs I could mention. *COUGHghostbustersCOUGH*

Mephiles the Dark Plush (Amazon)

Coco: Ultimate Collector's Edition (4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital Code) (Disney Movie Insiders)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 might not be the best game in the series (to put it lightly,) but I've always loved Shadow's story in it and, by extension, MEPHILES THE DARK. Love the design, love the powers, love the gleefully wicked voice supplied by one of my favorites, Dan Green, just love, love, LOVE him. So, when word first got out that Great Eastern was making the FIRST EVER PLUSH REPRESENTATION OF HIM, OF COURSE I had to make sure I grabbed him! Naturally, I now have him hanging out over my Shadow GE plush. (Now I want to grab the Infinite they put out a year or two back so I can surround Shadow with two guys who canonically hate his guts. 😂)

As for Coco, I've been meaning to add it to my modest Pixar collection since I first saw it in theaters, but I never got around to it. However, when it was added to the DMI catalog, I saw that as the perfect opportunity and a bunch of unredeemed Disney codes I found on that previously-mentioned thrift store trip helped me seal the deal. Now to start saving up for another on my to-buy list! (Especially since they just added like FOUR I've had my eye on to the catalog in the last update.)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Micro-Series Volume 1 & 2 (IDW Publishing)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Villains Micro-Series Volume 1 (IDW Publishing)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Secret History of the Foot Clan (IDW Publishing)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Utrom Empire (IDW Publishing)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Casey & April (IDW Publishing)

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Volume 10, 11 & 12 (IDW Publishing)

My Little Pony/Transformers: Friendship in Disguise (IDW Publishing)

More comics and toitles! Recently, IDW's site ran a Spring Sale that resulted in a TON of their trade paperbacks dropping to like six bucks a pop, so, of course, I went a little nuts and filled pretty much every major hole in my pre-issue 100 IDW TMNT collection. Also grabbed the next couple MLP FIM Volumes I needed and the first part of the historic MLP/Transformers crossover. Needless to say, I got A LOT to read.

Power Rangers X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Lightning Collection - Foot Soldier Tommy & Morphed Raphael Two-Pack (Gamestop)

Power Rangers X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Lightning Collection - Morphed Donatello & Morphed Leonardo Two-Pack (Gamestop)

Power Rangers X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Lightning Collection - Morphed April O'Neil & Morphed Michelangelo Two-Pack (Gamestop)

Can you say "MORE TURTLES?!" OF COURSE you can! Originally pre-ordered these guys from Gamestop, but they randomly decided to cancel my order like four months later. Then I pre-ordered them at Dorkside Toys, but their policy of waiting until every item in your order is in-stock before shipping them made me unsure of when and if they WOULD ship. (Especially since they got in the Raph set, but it quickly went out of stock before the listing for it disappeared altogether without explanation.) So, I cancelled my Dorkside order and who should have them in-stock and ready to ship but GAMESTOP. It was a real full-circle kinda moment in the most exceedingly stupid way possible. But it's over! I got my Turts!

Anyway, I spent so much time on the ridiculous process I went through ordering these guys that I still haven't actually talked about them! THEY'RE NINJA TURTLES MORPHED INTO POWER RANGERS AND THAT'S AMAZING. Based on the comic book crossover from a couple years back, Hasbro has done a fantastic job of capturing each Turtle's (and April's) Ranger form in plastic. One of my favorite aspects of the Turtle Ranger designs from the comic were the custom versions of the Power Weapons based on each Turtle's signature weapon and I'm happy to report that they look EVEN COOLER in toy form. (Especially the Power Sais.) Throw in the optional unhelmeted Turtle/April heads, the Foot Soldier Tommy who can either specifically represent that part of the comic or just be a general super-articulated Foot Soldier for your collection (my preference) and all the different hand and effect parts and such and you've got three must-have sets for fans of both TMNT and Power Rangers. The comic was already an extremely nerdy dream come true and these figures have easily TRANSCENDED IT. Definitely a fitting choice for my only complete Lightning Collection team.

However, those of you who've read the comic and/or originally found out about these figures when they were first announced may have noticed something...or someone missing from my haul. Stay tuned for the next post. 🐲🥷

Sonic the Hedgehog Archives Volume 13 (Amazon)

Finally, we have yet another hole-filler for my comic collection. I've previously mentioned that Sonic Archives 13 was ridiculously expensive on the secondhand market. (Presumably owing to both it being out-of-print as well as the major point in the comic's story that it collected.) I honestly thought that it was just one of those books that I outright missed out on altogether, but as I was browsing Amazon a little while ago, I noticed ONE decently-priced used copy had popped up on the original listing. Needless to say, I jumped on it ASAP. It's only acceptable condition with a good amount of wear on the spine, but it's still perfectly readable and looks great lined up on the shelf next to Volumes 0 through 12, 14, 15 and 16. Now I just need to get 17 for a good price and I'll have almost every main Archie Sonic issue in some form!

That's all for now, but I'll see ya'll next time. Heading back to OMGcon in June after a decent-sized pandemic delay, so that's probably when you'll hear from me next. Until then!