Huge artbook stash arrives

Just a quick look at a huge delivery of artbooks that came in recently.  Just in case anyone thought I stopped collecting artbooks and was going to just focus on my new found love of kawaii figures… think again ;)

Actually, this is about 8 months worth of artbooks on my “Wish List” that I finally got around to ordering.  I had some extra money left over from Christmas gifts and decided to put it to good use.  Most of these artbooks were ordered back in January but since I’m incredibly cheap, I chose surface shipping for the bulk of them.  That plus my relatively frugal spending on C75 goods allowed me to put more funds to official artbooks.

So here’s a preview of the goodies ^_^/

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Expect more info on each of the artbooks here over the next week or so.  Considering the large number of books here, I won’t be going into great depth, probably an overview and a few sample scans of each.  Check back in a day or two for the first batch ^^

Even more Lucky Star figures announced

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Wow, what’s this?  More Lucky Star figures announced for release?  This year is turning out to be very generous to Lucky Star collectors.  This time it’s a 1/12 scale of the Hiiragi sisters, Kagami and Tsukasa by Wave Corporation.  This is the same company that’s releasing the Konata & Kanata set which I’ve already pre-ordered ;).  The only thing is that they are just 1/12 scale and yet the retail price will be ¥7,140 or ¥3,675 for each separately.  As much as I like Lucky Star, that seems a bit expensive for tiny 1/12 scale figures.  Ah well, I may still end up getting them ^^;  While Kagami while always be my favorite, Tsukasa looks particularly cute in this pose.  Quite tempting :)

More info and pics at Wave’s site.

Yay, my camera is back

Yep, I had to send my recently acquired Canon 40D back to the seller due to a problem with the backup battery. Basically, it didn’t work >_<  Every time I took out the main battery to charge it, the camera’s date/time would be reset since the backup battery didn’t take over.  This caused the main battery to be constantly in use (even when the camera was off) to keep the time.  The main battery drained faster and then I had to remove it again to recharge which reset the time again!  OK, I didn’t want to keep doing that so I sent it back to the reseller who, surprisingly enough, had a warranty program for their used cameras.  After about a week at the seller’s, I get a camera back.

And, yes, I did buy it used.  This model came in out late 2007 so it’s not exactly brand new but buying a new retail kit is still pretty pricey.  On the other hand, since it has been out for over a year, considerably cheaper, used 40D’s can be found.  The original camera I bought was in decent shape but clearly in used condition.  The camera I got back was not the same camera I initially had.  In fact, it’s nearly brand new :D  I ran a shutter count check on it, and it had only been clicked about 500 times.  In the life of a DSLR, that’s really young.  So, you could say I’m pretty happy.  I paid about half the price of a new 40D and ended up with a nearly new one in the end.

Now, back to taking more photos of cute figures ^^;

Some C75 loot

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My Comiket 75 loot finally arrived.  Due to multiple issues with auction sellers and with the deputy service, these items are well over due seeing as how C75 was back in December, 2008.  Oh well, it was worth the wait for these two doujinshi ^_^  Yep, only two this time around.  I was far more conservative with my spending this Comiket, partly due to the bad USD->Yen rate and partly due to me wanting to save money.  I’ve decided I will only be making doujinshi purchases if I can really justify the crazy high prices for the deputy service fee, money transfer, internal + domestic shipping + the actual item cost.  From now on I will probably limit my spending to only doujinshi artbooks that contain lots of illustrations or something unique.  Paying $50 for a something like a 15 page doujinshi + clear file is no longer going to work for me >_<. Continue reading

Good Smile announces 1/4 Lucky Star Figures by FREEing

I just found out about this figure by FREEing which was announced a few days ago.  They are releasing a full set of the four Lucky Star girls starting with Izumi Konata.  These will be 1/4 scale figures which is really big, larger than any other figure I currently have.  Of course, as a result of the large scale, it will be quite expensive.  Hobby Search already has it up for pre-order for a hefty 10,677¥.

The cool thing about this figure is that it will have actual fabric for Konata’s gym uniform.  I haven’t owned a figure with fabric clothes but it looks pretty good from the preview photographs.  I’m really tempted to order this despite the cost ^^;  I’ve been collecting a lot of Lucky Star items and this seems too good to pass up.  I’m just not looking forward to how much lighter my wallet will be…

More pics and info at GSC.  Scheduled release in June.

Nishimata Aoi’s 西又葵です

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This little book arrived today.  It’s by the popular illustrator Nishimata Aoi of Shuffle! fame.  She works at the company Navel which makes eroge (I wonder why female illustrators do this…).  In fact, she worked along side another famous illustrator, Hiro Suzuhira, who is a long-time friend of Nishimata-san’s.  If you’ve seen their work along side the other’s, you may notice a similarity in style.  That’s not a bad thing though, as they both have a knack for drawing very moe characters :)

So, what’s this book about?  Well, it has some nice illustrations but it’s really more focused around a collection of essays by Nishimata.  The book is about herself (hence the title),  her childhood, her work, etc.  It has about 20 illustrations, some taking up 2 pages.  The whole book is 130 pages long with essays, her illustrations, and some pictures of herself (and cat sometimes).

I mostly ordered this book to find out how much BK1 charges for a single book shipped via SAL and how long it takes to arrive in Indiana.  It turns out it’s pretty cheap and takes about 2.5 weeks.  Much cheaper than Amazon’s shipping though no where near as quick.

Some sample images:

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Clayz 1/8 Hiiragi Kagami & Izumi Konata

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Yay, they’re finally here.  These are the first real figures I’ve purchased since last August when I received my last set of Lucky Star characters figures.  Here we have Hiiragi Kagami (Kagamin) and Izumi Konata as made by Clayz.  From preview images of these figures, they looked a tad plain but upon arrival and further insepection, I have to say I like them.  They’re fairly simple but they capture the characters pretty well ^^ Continue reading