Saku's AFK Corner » Otaku

January and February Loot

Saku — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:53:15 +0000

2 greatest loots (arguably of course) arrive on January and February consecutively and both of them are probably my two most expensive loots of this year.

Nanoha Takamachi Exceed Mode 1/7 by Alter

I just picked up my Nanoha at the post office tonight and was quite shocked with the custom fee. I was charged CAD$37 which is higher than usual because it’s usually around CAD$25. Nanoha and Fate are almost at the same price so I would expect ~$25 custom fee. I guess it all depends the mood of the officer who was examining my stuff. Does anyone experience a sporadic custom fee too in your country?

Side View Left - Magic Circle

Back View - Nanoha Silhouette

I like Nanoha Silhouette on the back

Side View Right - Magic Circle

Side view left and right have the same magic circle.

Top View

“Ace of Ace”….. I like it.

Bottom View

The other loot is Black Rock Shooter. It arrived 2 weeks prior to my Nanoha and I still haven’t opened it yet ^^;; since the box is nice enough to be on display. In addition, it’s a medium size so it does not take up that much space.

Black Rock Shooter 1/7 PVC by Good Smile Company

Side View Right

BSR box is great. I love the photo of the figure on the right side. I wish I can have a setting like that for my BSR photo shoot ^^.

Side View Left

On the left, you are given the illustration of BSR figure. Pretty nice ^^.

Back View

On the back, there are couple BSR photos from different angles

Top View

Bottom View

So how much did they cost ? Lets talk about that briefly.

Nanoha Takamachi 1/7 PVC Exceed Mode
Unit Price: 12,160 yen
Shipping: 4,000 yen
Points: -414 Yen
Custom: CAD$37
Total: ~$221

Black Rock Shooter
Unit Price: 8,867 yen
Shipping: 5,400 yen
Points: -581 Yen
Custom: CAD$25
Total: ~$185

So far, I meet my quota of 1 figure per month, although, I need to keep the cost of each figure down >.>

2009 Hobby Expenses

Saku — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:28:53 +0000

2009 was quite an exciting year for us , figure collectors. Quite a few awesome figures from Alter and GSC were being released throughout the year. Not surprisingly, those figures put a big hole in my wallet. However, I managed to hold my self back a bit in comparison to 2008. I don’t have statistics but I remembered that I bought a lot in 2008 since I just started collecting ^^;;.

Below is full list of my expenses in 2009. It ranges from figures to collectibles. Note that I didn’t include pre-ordered figures because there is no charges on my credit card until it’s been shipped. In addition, I left out BRS from the total because it has not been charged to my credit card yet.

Item	Manufacturer	Shipping (Yen	Price (Yen)	Points	Total(Yen)	Total($CAD)
Saber Maid Ver.	Alter	3,600	7,410		13,725	$169.44
Nendoroid Saber Lion	GSC	3,600	2,715		13,725	$169.44
Signum Alter Ver.	Alter	3,600	8,360		11,960	$147.65
Kanzaki Kaori	Kotobukiya	4,000	6,460		15,685	$193.64
Excellent Model Claymore Clare	MegaHouse	4,000	5,225		15,685	$193.64
Golden Darkness	GSC	3,200	5,881		9,081	$112.11
Holo	GSC	2,400	6,785		9,185	$113.40
Saber Lilly Glass	Cospa	1,500	950	-950	1,500	$18.52
Saber Lilly Cushion Cover	Cospa	2,220	2,375		11,055	$169.44
Saber & Saber Alter Cushion Cover	Cospa		2,375
Saber Lilly Long Strap with Cleaner	Cospa		1,330
Saber Lilly T-Shirt White L	Cospa		2,755
Saber Lily -Distant Avalon-	GSC	5,400	8,867	-2,847	11,420	$140.99
Fatina	Alter	4,000	7,790	-301	14,656	$180.94
Nendoroid Saber Lily	GSC	4,000	3,167	-301	14,656	$180.94
Fate-T-Harlaown True Sonic Form	Alter	4,000	12,160	-532	15,628	$192.94
Dengeki G’s Festival April Issue						$35.00
Dengeki G’s Comic Festival 2009 spring						$35.00
Dakimakura						$80.00
Fate/stay nights Saber Portraits						$50.00
StrikerS Visual collection						$110.00
Otome and Yume sketches (2x$20)						$40.00
Afro Samurai sketch						$12.00
Fate/Unlimited Codes						$115.80
Kobato Calendar						$30
All about Clamp book						$30
Grand Total						$1,976.87

I think I managed to cut it down by half at least in comparison to 2008.

Scaled Figure	9
Nendoroid	2
Art books / Magazines	5
Collectibles (Dakimakura, glass, cushion covers, etc)	9
Figma	1

My scaled figures contribute to the majority of my expenses and my Fate T. Harlaown figure is my most expensive figure in 2009. So what’s your most expensive figures ? did you go over your budget for 2009 because of impulse buying ?. What’s your target for 2010 ? getting more figures/merchandise or less ? As for me, I manage to keep my figure buying limited to 1 per month and it’s even less than 1 per month due to delays. I guess my new year 2010 resolution is to buy less figures/merchandise ^^

New York Trip Loot

Saku — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:59:01 +0000

My recent trip to The Big Apple (New York City) during Christmas (hence why there’s no Christmas post -_- as I had no internet access) added couple more items to my collection. For some reasons, I didn’t bother to get 2010 calendar but visiting New york, there’s one place that I must visit. It’s Kinokuniya japanese book store. It’s something that we, otaku in Canada, are hoping to have it here and will continue to dream that one day, Kinokuniya will open branch stores here in Canada.

I only bought 2 items from Kinokuniya…surprisingly. The first one is Kobato (こばと) 2010 calendar for ~$30 . Kobato is my new favourite anime for this fall season and it’s just because she reminds me so much of Sakura from Card Captor Sakura and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. I scanned each month image for your enjoyment ^^.

If you want the original scanned versions, click here to download. I would appreciate if you link back to my site when you use any of these images on your site ^^.

It must have been a Clamp day or something because I spotted an art book ‘All about Clamp’ which lists all anime/manga series by Clamp for the last 15-20 years. I got it for $28.80 which is a good deal imo because it’s quite thick.

Box is friggin huge ^^;

Saku — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:12:07 +0000

Front View

My Fate-T-Harlaown 1/7 figure by Alter arrived yesterday. It’s been a long wait for us, figure collectors, especially any Fate fanboys/girls out there.Delay after delay, does it really worth the price and the delays ? Let pictures be the judge.

Front Bottom View

Top View

Rear View

Rear View - Option Parts

Rear View

Right-Side View

Left-Side View

Bottom View

I think the box is pretty nice and I like the colour scheme. Now, lets talk how much it cost.

Original Price : 12,160 Yen
Shipping: 4,000 Yen
Points: -532 Yen
Total: 15,628 Yen
Exchange Rate to Canadian Dollar: ~$186
Custom fee: $23
Final cost: $209

Ouchie $209. I complained a bit about the custom fee in twitter but after hearing what James (Exelica-Meteor.com) had to pay ($55), $23 is not so bad after all . So how much did you have to pay for the custom fee ? Anyone pays more than $55 ?

Btw, James got his review/photo shoot up at his blog. I haven’t opened mine yet so photoshoot has to wait ^^;;. Currently, I am satisfied looking at the box.

Saber…..Saber……Saber……and……Saber

Saku — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:15:04 +0000

Did I just say Saber ? A small package of loot arrived just before I left for Vancouver last month. These were more like an impulse purchase rather than a “very carefully planned” one. The lucky blogger to be blamed this time is no other than Zenical from zotaku.com . I tried looking for the post that she posted about bunch pre-orders for Saber -Fate Unlimited Codes- related items but could not find it ^^:; Oh I found the post about it. I pretty much bought every items that she put in her post.

This is a cushion cover of Saber Lily. She has a nice pose and her look is simply to my liking ^^.

The other side of the cushion cover has different pose/image of Saber Lily. Her pose/expression is not necessarily my type but it’s Saber Lily

I bought 2 cushion covers and the other cushion cover shows the original Saber. The magic circle on her background looks great.

The other side shows Saber Alter version. She has the usual pose as Saber Alter and her expression is obviously the ‘don’t mess with me’ type ^^. Too bad that they only show a bit of her sword.

The key chain/strap was not in Zenical’s post but I saw it when I went to Hobby Search page so I might as well pre-order since I could actually use it for my keys.

Now, the T-shirt has a similar pose with the first cushion cover above and the color quality is not as good as I expected it would be so I am slightly disappointed with this one but at least I have an additional cloth to wear at anime conventions ^^. More loots to come this month ^^.