35th Birthday Haul

Celebrated my big 35th (!) b-day this past Sunday by seeing Spider-Man: Brand New Day with my sister and brother-in-law. Fan-freakin'-TASTIC Spidey movie. Great action and humor, plenty of nods to the comics, appropriate MCU cameos that actually contributed to the story, and it was just nice to see another grounded, street-level Spider-Man tale on the big screen after years of international and multiversal adventures. It also ended on something that made me REALLY happy, so I can't wait to see more of Spidey's journey in the MCU. Destin Daniel Cretton should definitely be brought back on board for the next one. He's a natural fit for the web head.

Anyway, aside from that, it was a pretty normal Sunday, only with more family over than usual and three different cakes. (Seriously.) Pretty mellow celebration all around this year, which is a-okay with me. I still raked in a nice selection of goodies, though, so let's officially start this year's gift rundown:

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book

Mario Tennis Fever

Star Fox

Marvel Cosmic Invasion: Deluxe Edition (Switch 2)

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection (Switch)

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (4K Combo)

This year's game selection went pretty heavy on the SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE! Besides Yoshi's latest (gorgeous) adventure and another tennis outing for our favorite plumber, Star Fox made a grand return with a sleek, modern take on their most famous mission, Marvel's heroes headed to the outer reaches of the universe to take on Annihilus, and Geo Stelar and Omega-Xis brought all of their past battles to modern consoles for the first time. (I really need to finally buckle down and play through the Battle Network collection so I can start this one. I've heard great things about these games.) Rounding things out is Mario's newest big screen escapade, which somehow holds equal relevance to those first three games I mentioned, rather than just the one with "Mario" in the title. (Never thought I'd see the day where Fox McCloud and friggin' WART made their cinematic debut in the same film.)

Also, if you're wondering why there appear to be  two copies of Mario Tennis Aces in the first photo of this post, it's because the first one that my family bought from Amazon was missing its game card, so we had to order a replacement. (Seriously, this crap happened before with my copy of Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe. Amazon, PLEASE crack down on this kinda bull. This should NOT be able to happen multiple times.)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Saturday Morning Adventures Volume 6

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Saturday Morning Adventures Volume 7

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Saturday Morning Adventures Volume 8

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Across the Morphin Grid

Turtles of Grayskull

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Compendium Volume 2

On to my yearly TMNT comic fix, the 1987 Turtles return to take on mummies, interdimensional duplicates, spy missions, and more in three more volumes of Saturday Morning Adventures (two to go!), the brothers cross paths with the teenagers with attitude for the third time and the most powerful man in the universe for the first, and more of Archie's turtle tales are immortalized for the first time in hardcover form. (I'm really excited for Volume 3, since that finally gets into the issues that the previous trades skipped.)

As for the lone Power Rangers book amongst all the TMNT goodness, it's actually a collection of three different one-shot comics. However, I got it for one specific story: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Usagi Yojimbo, bringing together Angel Grove's finest and the rabbit ronin himself. Ryan Parrott actually wrote both this AND MMPR/TMNT III, so the two are actually in continuity with each other! Heck, the magical MacGuffin from the Usagi crossover is actually brought back toward the end of the TMNT one, meaning that you'd have to read both to fully understand everything! It's NUTS! I'm really glad that Boom found a way to collect it in a trade, despite it being a one-shot. It's also just really funny that despite this seeming like the outlier amongst all the TMNT books, it's actually still very relevant to them. Comics are fun.

Wrapping things up, my sister's family not only gifted me 20 bucks of eShop cash (which I'll be putting towards the next Cosmic Invasion DLC and adding mah boi SLASH to Splintered Fate), but also three lovely pieces of custom-made artwork. We've got a double-sided birthday greeting starring my favorite Spider-Man, Kaine Parker, courtesy of my sister; a probably cursed Bill Cipher birthday card from my nephew; and...I'm not really sure (but she's turning 4 this weekend, so she's got the spirit) from my niece. I'll need to find just the right place to keep these masterpieces.

That's my 35th Birthday in the bag! I'll be back with more fun this Fall!

March/April Hauls: Cards, Crafts, and Kaine!

Another month passes and another haul post appears! (Though, decidedly less packed than the last few.) Here's what I picked up in March/yesterday!

Skullcandy Hesh 2 Wireless Headphones (Amazon)

First off, remember those new wireless headphones I picked up in the last post that had that issue that I hoped I'd either find a solution for or learn to live with? Yeaaaaaaah, those didn't work out, so I sent 'em back to Amazon and got a new pair of the brand I'm used to. Already WAY better, with no audio stuttering whatsoever, the ability to be used via wire even if they're dead which the last ones lacked, and even a nice upgrade from my old Skullcandy pair in the form of a more easily accessed charging jack. If you're looking for wireless headphones, I honestly can't recommend these enough.

Ralph Breaks the Internet Stickers (Disney Movie Rewards)

Had a couple points left after my last DMR splurge, so decided to redeem one last Ralph item before the sequel became old news and all the rewards disappeared. I don't know where I'm gonna stick them, but if I ever feel the need to deck something out in Ralph, I'll have the means.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards (Various)

This was a really fun sort-of surprise! See, back in January, my brother-in-law asked if I'd be interested in some Yu-Gi-Oh! cards that HIS brother was looking to get rid of. I, of course, graciously accepted his offer and then quickly forgot about it. Cut to when I went up to visit my Sister's place in late March and he comes out holding two Legendary Collection boxes filled with cards and game boards. Needless to say, I felt like a kid in a candy store looking through the huge selection I was gifted, which included a ton of more recent stuff than I was expecting! I now own Orgoth the Relentless, a couple of Leon Von Schroeder's fairy tale Monsters, one of those Zexal manga Monsters with the silly names, my first Link Monsters, and enough Dinowrestler cards to build a deck! This also gave me that Yu-Gi-Oh! itch to pick up even MORE cards down the line, so thanks again, Jake!

Yoshi's Crafted World (Amazon)

Had this puppy pre-ordered since 2017, so very happy to have it in my Switch finally! Got the first two Dream Stones and it's very fun and charming so far. Music isn't the best (I'm probably in the minority of people who actually prefer Yoshi's New Island's main theme to this one, instrumentation aside), but just about every level introduces some inventive new gimmick to switch things up and format-wise it's the most unique Yoshi game in a while, which is pretty refreshing after the last couple have largely been following in Island's footsteps. The mini-bosses are also MUCH improved over Woolly World's reused ones and I'm very excited to see what else intends to halt my path when I get back into it.

Marvel Legends Scarlet Spider (Kaine) (Gamestop)

Finally, I ordered this guy from Gamestop a couple days back and got him in yesterday. Kaine is a lot like Doppelganger in that I randomly picked up his original Marvel Legends figure first before I even knew who he was. Unlike Doppelganger, though, he kinda stayed that way as just a random figure on my shelf until I watched Ultimate Spider-Man's final season and got really engrossed in his counterpart from that show. Since then, he's been one of my favorite alternate Spideys and I've even been reading through all of his comic appearances recently on Marvel Unlimited. (That's actually what inspired me to finally pick up this figure.) 

Needless to say, this figure's a VAST improvement on his old one, which had stuck joints, weird proportions, and no stingers. Now all he needs is a Marvel Legends Hummingbird to back him up! (Maybe whenever Aracely's whole demigod thing finally pays off.)

That's all I've got! Barring any unexpected pick-ups, my next haul post should coincide with my yearly OMGcon trip, so see ya'll in June!