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!

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.)

June Hauls

Got a bit behind on posting the stuff I picked up in both late May and June in general (in addition to just neglecting the blog as a whole), so let's play catch up! Starting off, a lucky amiibo restock at Amazon landed THIS pump in my hands at last:

       
                          Bowser (Wedding) amiibo

Might come in handy should I ever get around to rounding up the rest of the Kingdom Coins in Odyssey!

Early June, I ventured with my sister to our annual nerd out weekend at OMGcon. I picked up quite a lot along the way:

    OMGcon Swag

Marvel Legends Deadpool (Back in Black)

Super Mario Series 9 Blindbag Figure (Mario)

Digimon Tentomon w/ Izzy's Laptop Keychain

Super Mario Series 9 Blindbag Figure (Bowser Jr.)

Funny story about Mario and Jr.: I originally tried for the latter with a random blindbag purchase by just feeling around for spikes. Turns out, my feeling skills

are very much lacking, resulting in my like fifth Mario figure from this series. Afterwards, I found the codes for each figure online and my Sis and I searched the entire box for Bowser Jr. However, we still didn't find him. It turns out that I had misread the method by which you use the codes to determine the figure inside each bag and I didn't realize this until we were back in the hotel room. I actually went RIGHT BACK DOWN to the dealer's hall to claim my Bowz Child. This is the the life of a Bowser fan and Bowser Jr. main in Smash.

Anyway, I also got some stuff signed, courtesy of Bill Rogers! (Who you might know as the voice of Brock in the Pokemon anime from 2006 onward, the voice of Lucario in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and voice of the King of Hyrule in Breath of the Wild! Great guy! Even commented on the Pokemon shirt I was wearing!

That does it for OMGcon, but we're not quite done yet. Finishing things off, I also went to stay with my sister and her husband for a week and did a bit of shopping while there. My first stop was ToysRUs, but it was unfortunately but unsurprisingly picked clean of anything of value. I had better luck at Target, where I purchased two films I've been meaning to pick up on Blu-ray for a while:

The Lion King (Walt Disney Signature Collection)

My Little Pony: The Movie

One last thing: At the end of June, I picked this guy up on a grocery run at Walmart:

Funko Kingdom Hearts Mystery Mini Blindbox (Axel)

That wraps things up! July should be an all-around slower month in terms of me buying crap I don't need, but my Birthday is in August, so look forward to seeing some neat stuff next month. I also plan to publish my first game reviews on the blog soon, so look forward to that as well!