Past News Archive: June 2006
June 29, 2006
Last week, I picked up a copy of Monster Hunter Freedom for the PSP. It was on sale & I decided to get it since I was thinking about it since it's release date. Didn't want to pay the suggested retail price for it. Picked up the last copy at the store after work & I'm pretty surprised that the game is still highly sought after since I assume a lot of people have the game already. But, I don't think I'll be playing this occasionally until I get most of my unfinished PSP games out of the way.
Alright some new stuff on this site! Mostly in the Anime section:
Lately, I've been working some collectable reviews. I plan to get some of those up next month. Until then, to all the Canadian out there, Happy Canada Day!
June 22, 2006
This week was the release of The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch for the PSP in North America. Experiencing what happened last time with the 1st game, I rushed to get it today at EB Games. However, I was surprised that they didn't have. What surprised me more was that fact that I got it from Future Shop instead & they had about 3 copies of it after getting mine's. It's pretty shocking since this game is 1 of those that gets very little distribution & they didn't have the 1st game before. However, I don't think I'll be planning to play this right away since I still have Ys, Samurai Warriors, & Generation of Chaos to deal with.
There are no updates here really since I've been very busy with work & home chores. I think I should have made a blog website instead, but I don't know how that works since I'm still a newbie in making web pages. I'll see if I can update this place before the end of this month.
June 15, 2006
This past week, I got my Fate/stay night Sakura plushie in the mail. It's an official one since it has the original packaging bag & the TYPE-MOON licensed product sticker. What's weird though is it doesn't have a tag on the doll itself. No Fate/stay night label, TYPE-MOON label, nothing. Not even a "Made in China" label (which I assume it was made in) on the doll. It makes it more bootlegged than the bootlegs that I currently have. Very strange. Also, I brought a Pinky Cos: Sakura Wars Sakura Shinguji from a local hobby store. I thought about buying it from eBay, but it was cheaper to get it here since the shipping is what prevented me from buying it from the 1st place.
In anime news, some more anime have been licensed. FUNimation licensed Black Cat & Geneon licensed Zipang & Disgaea. I've updated the Black Cat anime review to reflect the licensing status.
Recently, life hasn't been too tough so far. That is from working at the hotel. Majority of the problems occur when I do the morning shifts as I check people out & people checking early when I don't have rooms ready. I'm not sure how business the hotel will be as summer is approaching more closer. Because we are still understaffed in my view, I think I'll be stressed & worn out for the next couple of months. Also, I don't see myself updating this site a lot for a while since I'll be very busy with hotel work, house work, & tamago toys work. I'll try to update this place when I got time to.
June 7, 2006
Lots of PSP news to mention. If you didn't know, on May 31 Sony released firmware version 2.71. The update basically allows you to download game demos directly into the PSP using its own browser & improve video output when using the Location Free Player. Of course, there should be the minor security fixes here & there. Also, if you didn't know, there will be a modchip released for the PSP during the month of June. It was announced in May. The chip basically allows you to switch firmwares from 1.5 to 2.7 PSPs & unbrick your system. Also, you can play games that require a certain firmware to play by bypassing them. Personally, I don't know if it's true but news about it has been moving fast. Because of the PSP's ability to upgrade it's firmware, I don't see myself getting the chip. Because the chip is physically soldiered to the system, I have a feeling that the firmware updates will beat the chip & make it useless in the future. If a newer modchip comes out to bypass that problem, you would need to remove the old one & replace it. I think this kind of process will damage your board in the future & the money spent to do this isn't worth it.
Yesterday, I received my Saber & Rin plushes. However, they weren't what I excepted. I believe they are bootlegs. They didn't have the original tags attached to their hands or come in original palstic bags. They were shipped in 1 bag. Although the quality is very good, some of the parts are wrong. The dolls have the legs wrong. Saber has "Rin's" legs & vice versa. Saber's & Rin's shirt is too long & Saber's back ribbon is positioned wrong. Also, Rin doesn't have her cigarette. Plus, the eyes seem to be backwards & on the wrong sides. Strange thing is that the dolls come with those "logo" & "All rights reserved" white tags that you find around the bottom of plushes. Looking at the dolls very closely, I came up with 2 possible answers:
There is a good chance that it's #2 since these were re-released again at the same time & could be possible for the factory to screw up on these dolls somewhere along the production line. With screwed up dolls, they would chuck it out & possible someone picked them up before they were actually trashed. But, I'm aiming more towards the bootleg side. Because of this & being some whacked out collector, I plan to sell them & create a new section on my website.
The new section is to sell off some of my personal items. It will be called Selling. Although I could use my forums at the tamago toys website, I did make a rule where you can't sell bootlegs there & I can't adjust the rule to my liking. So, the selling section here will mostly be my bootlegged items before I turned into a collector & some non-anime/manga stuff. Click here for the new section or find it at the frame section.
In anime news, Witchblade has been licensed by FUNimation & Comic Party Revolution by ADV Films. Strangely enough, Right Stuf didn't get Comic Party Revolution since they had the 1st TV show. I'm not sure if ADV Films licensed the OVA as well, but I assume they did since the OVA are just slightly longer forms of the 1st 4 TV episodes. I've updated the Comic Party Revolution TV & OVA reviews to reflect the North American License status. Also, I've put up a anime review of REC.
Enough ranting here, I'll see if I can update this place more next week.
June 1, 2006
New month meaning new archive for the Past News Archive section. You can find past May's news stuff here.
Also, since June is coming, it means I'm going to be working my ass hard at my hotel job since it's considered as high season now. However, it's not like I'm working like crazy already. I'm already making too many mistakes & it's not too acceptable in my view. Since high season is approaching, I'm going to be making less updates here maybe. Also, since we are still understaffed (in my view), I may be overworking a lot of overtime for the summer season.
Last week, I went to my local Japanese hobby shop & picked up a couple of items: a SNOW gashapon set & a 1/8 PVC figurine of Sakagami Tomoyo from CLANNAD. The SNOW gashapon set is the 2nd hentai/ero-related item in my collection that has nudity. The secret figurine has nipples showing. Chances are I'm not going to display it unless I put black tape or something on them. However, I don't think I'll be displaying them for a long time since I got other gashapon sets that have yet seen light in my room. The same may apply to Sakagami as well. I'm starting to thin out my collection a bit by getting rid of stuff that are losing interest for me. I'll probably be asking my sister to post some on eBay or I'll be listing them in my anime business' trading/sale section of the forums.
Not too long ago, I got some more anime crap from the mail. I got my 1/8 Hinatabokko Hiiragi Hinata PVC figurine. Looking at it in it's box & surrounded with bubble wrap, it looks pretty nice. A couple of days later (today), I got my Rozen Maiden Figure Collection. Opening it, it's not too shabby. But the paint job could use some work really. All this, plus the ones I got from the store, are updated in the Collectables section in their respective sub-sections.
Looking into the future products of the otaku world for the summer season, there are lot of PVC figures that I want. Most of them are in July & they are the expensive type. Around the ¥6,000 range or more. The reason behind them is basically the large scale size of 1/7 or 1/6.
In the past 2 months, there have been some anime series that have been licensed in North America:
In April:
In May (From Anime Boston 2006 mostly):
I'm kind of surprised that FUNimation got FMP: TSR instead of ADV Films since they got FMP & FMP Fumoffu. I guess ADV either didn't have money & got outbid or they found the series unprofitable for them (highly unlikely). I updated the Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid review a bit just to input the licensing part. Also, I put up a review of Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid OVA.
We'll see if I can get updates here once a week or 2 here with the busy summer season coming up. Also, as a side note, my anime collectables web store, tamago toys, will have a 5% sale on all items. This excludes the tamago's Pick of the Month. It's a limited time offer & will end without notice. I'm going to start the sale either tonight or tomorrow night.