Advent Hill Zone: ACT 1!

Happy December! A while back, I celebrated the holidays by cracking open a couple of Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Advent Calendars and sharing what I got day by day alongside a few extra bits of strategy and trivia related to each card. However, 2019 was the last time Konami put out one of those, so I've been unable to continue that seasonal fun ever since. If only ANOTHER franchise that I love quite a bit that's been on a roll across games, film, and animation lately put out their OWN Advent Calendar that was also the perfect mix of really cool and adorably festive! It'd be a great way to RING in the season!

Yep, as you might've guessed from my not-so-subtle hints, Sonic's his name, and this year, Christmas is his game. This is Jakks Pacific's new Sonic the Hedgehog Advent Calendar, featuring 24 full days of toys from their sprawling line. There are also some Christmassy bits EXCLUSIVE to this box, so I certainly couldn't pass this chance up! (Especially since I've yet to pick up any of Jakks' smaller-scale Sonic stuff.) 

Welcome to Advent Hill Zone, a series where I'll be taking you through this box one day at a time until the big man shows up on Christmas Day. If you've read any of my previous Yu-Gi-Oh! Advent posts, the format of this whole thing'll be a bit familiar: I'll crack open a box, share what's inside, give a bit of trivia on each character/object, and finish things off with my own personal take. Now, without further ado...

Who's hiding behind our first door?

Why it's none other than Rad Red himself, Knuckles the Echidna! (Sporting a festive Emerald-green hat!)

Star Post #1: General Info

Knuckles, of course, made his debut in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, having been tricked by Dr. Eggman into fighting against Sonic. (That happened a lot with him early in his career.) The last of his kind and descendant of the mighty Knuckles Clan, he serves as the sole Guardian of Angel Island and the massive, powerful gem hidden upon it, the Master Emerald. Though he can be a bit gullible and short-tempered at times, Knuckles takes his duty very seriously and will do whatever it takes to keep both his Island and the Master Emerald safe from those who would abuse either. For that reason, he spends most of his time alone, keeping watch over his domain. Despite that, over time, he's developed a strong friendship with Sonic and crew and is always willing to lend a helping fist towards thwarting Eggman's ambitions. (So long as he can get back to the Master Emerald afterwards, of course.) Super strong and capable of gliding through the air, digging through the earth, climbing walls, and locating hidden treasures, Knuckles is an Echidna of many talents. A core cast member of the Sonic series and definite fan favorite, Knuckles has appeared in everything from games to cartoons to movies to comics. (He even had his own Archie-published spin-off book for a time in the 90's.) 

Star Post #2: Trivia

Did you know that Knuckles made a brief cameo on Space Ghost: Coast to Coast? It's true! Space Ghost is seen messing around with a Sonic 3 & Knuckles game before resuming an interview in the Season 1 episode, "Gum, Disease." The gameplay featured is of the Knuckles boss fight in the Hidden Palace Zone (while playing as Sonic & Tails) and the game's title theme can even be heard. You can check out this pure 90's mash-up for yourself on HBO MAX!

Goal Plate: Closing Thoughts

Oddly enough, I think this is the VERY FIRST articulated figure of Classic Knuckles that I've ever owned, so I'm super happy that we got him on our first day at this! (Especially with his cute little extra holiday flourish.) Calendar's off to a great start!

We've reached the goal for Day 1, but we've still got another 23 left to conquer, so be back here tomorrow for another Act of the Advent Hill Zone!

Hauls: The Robo Knight Before Black Friday

Surprise! Wasn't expecting to make another post until Christmas proper, but Black Friday (and thrifting) works in mysterious ways. Here's some more stuff:

Power Rangers Megaforce: Robo Knight Before Christmas (DVD)

Another of my parents' thrifting finds, and a very seasonally appropriate one at that! Megaforce isn't exactly a well-liked season by a lot of people, but Robo Knight will ALWAYS be a major highlight of it, so I'm happy to finally have his Christmas special on DVD. (Despite it mostly amounting to a REALLY weird clip show.) Also included are two random, un-Christmassy episodes from Wild Force and Jungle Fury because I don't know and a digital copy that was still redeemable despite it being secondhand! Score!

Vintage TMNT Bandana

Persona 5 Royal (Switch) (Best Buy)

Yet another thrifting gem was this TMNT bandana. I'm not really a person who would wear a bandana, but the vintage art is so cool and it makes for a neat addition to my collection of random Turtle ephemera. (Still thinking of where/how to display it.)

The Phantom Thieves strike again! While I already bought Persona 5 Royal for PS4 LAST Black Friday, I've had my eyes on the Switch version since it was released last month, craving the ability to eventually replay it portably. However, the full $60 price tag for a game I already owned and recently played, even one as fantastic as P5R, made me shy away and decide to wait. Well, Black Friday 2022 came along and did me a solid! Despite the fact that the Switch version launched so recently, Best Buy had it at HALF PRICE, which I couldn't pass up. Probably not going to replay it for a while, but I'm definitely excited to eventually re-experience this amazing game in a new way, with ALL of the DLC along for the ride!

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch) (Walmart)

THIS was a long time coming. I'm a VERY casual Zelda guy, but after very much enjoying A Link Between Worlds almost a decade ago, I've been drawn particularly to the simple puzzle-solving, adventuring fun of the 2D overhead titles. So, when a remake of Link's Awakening was announced, I was excited to check it out. However, the full $60 price tag despite it originally being a Game Boy title and the modest length that comes from that origin made me prioritize other things and wait for a price drop. Said price drop certainly took its sweet time, though, as the best Amazon had it for at any one point was like $40. (Which eventually reverted back to either $50 or straight-up full price.) I got so impatient waiting for a good enough drop that I recently just decided to play the DX Game Boy Color version on my 3DS instead. In fact, I was already several dungeons into said DX version before I heard about Walmart's Black Friday deals FINALLY offering the Switch version for just $30. Needless to say, I jumped on that instantly and restarted my Koholint adventure with lots of wonderful modern quality-of-life improvements. (It's AMAZING playing an old game and its modern remake back-to-back and noticing just how many tiny tweaks improve the game immensely. Especially love how the remake gave the warp points their own map screen so you can actually CHOOSE where you want to go instead of hopping in and out of holes, continually warping until you arrive at your destination.) Having a lot of fun and very happy to finally have this game on my shelf.

That's it for the last of the pre-Christmas hauls, but I miiiiiiiiiiiight have something special planned for December, so you might hear from me a little sooner than I had originally planned. (Not counting this post, of course.) Stay tuned. 🎅🦔

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!