Well, how about last week's storm, everyone? I was able to crank out a whole bunch of reviews, so it was very productive for me (when I wasn't shoveling, that is). So brace yourselves, my friends! An onslaught of reviews are on their way! Let's start by getting fantastical with my first Ever After High review in a loooong time.
Everything you need to know is after the cut!
Friday, January 29, 2016
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Odds and sods
Some exciting news for y'all!
First of all, Humble Bundle has kicked off their big Winter Sale! Tons of games, tons of discounts. Miss Scarlett will be abstaining, though...I think my New Year's Resolution will be to refrain from buying all of these PC games from Steam, GOG, etc, this year and concentrate on playing the games I already have. It will be hard, but I gotta do it! (I checked my catalog of games, and WHEW are there a lot!)
In Ever After High news, we'll be seeing the Epic Winter line released this June, along with the Birthday Ball dolls I was talking about, AND a ballet-themed collection. No news on that yet.
Next month will be the New York Toy Fair, plus the Winter Wonder Festival in Japan, so you can expect lots of toy and figure news to come!
Miss Scarlett, signing out!
First of all, Humble Bundle has kicked off their big Winter Sale! Tons of games, tons of discounts. Miss Scarlett will be abstaining, though...I think my New Year's Resolution will be to refrain from buying all of these PC games from Steam, GOG, etc, this year and concentrate on playing the games I already have. It will be hard, but I gotta do it! (I checked my catalog of games, and WHEW are there a lot!)
In Ever After High news, we'll be seeing the Epic Winter line released this June, along with the Birthday Ball dolls I was talking about, AND a ballet-themed collection. No news on that yet.
Next month will be the New York Toy Fair, plus the Winter Wonder Festival in Japan, so you can expect lots of toy and figure news to come!
Miss Scarlett, signing out!
Friday, January 15, 2016
Hozuki's Coolheadedness "Hozuki" Nendoroid figure Review
Welcome to the Hobby Haven, everyone! Today I've got another figure review for you! It's a bit late, but I hope you won't mind too terribly...
Today's offering is another Nendoroid from the Good Smile Company, which are starting to become my downfall. If I had to choose between Petit Chara, Figuarts, D-Arts, Figma, and Nendoroids...I'm pretty sure we know who'd win.
The series this time is Hoozuki no Reitetsu, translated in English to Hozuki's Coolheadedness. Every spellcheck known to man insists that this isn't a real word, but I think we know better, don't we? Anyway, it's a manga series featuring Hozuki, the right-hand man to King Yama, the judge of the Japanese underworld. Most of the humor derives from the manga's depiction of the Japanese afterlife as being run like a major corporation, and is full of bizarre situations that crop up as Hozuki and his coworkers attempt to appropriately punish sinners in hell (the Japanese concept of hell, might I point out; Satan, Beelzebub, and their cronies make guest appearances, as does Santa Claus, and...yeah, it's complicated). Of course, Hozuki solves every problem that comes his way with poise and aplomb, but half the fun is in figuring out how he'll do it this time.
There's also an anime adaptation of this show, licensed in North American by Sentai Filmworks and available for free streaming via Hulu. It's subtitled only, though. I will say that it's one of those shows where you'll need some knowledge of Japanese mythology and/or pop culture to get the most out of the humor and to understand all the references.
I really enjoyed this series, and happily bought the Blu-ray when it was released here; the manga is still unlicensed, but given that it's 20 volumes long and still ongoing, I have a feeling manga publishers here are not chomping at the bit to license it. Oh, well. At least I have a Nendoroid, now!
Today's offering is another Nendoroid from the Good Smile Company, which are starting to become my downfall. If I had to choose between Petit Chara, Figuarts, D-Arts, Figma, and Nendoroids...I'm pretty sure we know who'd win.
The series this time is Hoozuki no Reitetsu, translated in English to Hozuki's Coolheadedness. Every spellcheck known to man insists that this isn't a real word, but I think we know better, don't we? Anyway, it's a manga series featuring Hozuki, the right-hand man to King Yama, the judge of the Japanese underworld. Most of the humor derives from the manga's depiction of the Japanese afterlife as being run like a major corporation, and is full of bizarre situations that crop up as Hozuki and his coworkers attempt to appropriately punish sinners in hell (the Japanese concept of hell, might I point out; Satan, Beelzebub, and their cronies make guest appearances, as does Santa Claus, and...yeah, it's complicated). Of course, Hozuki solves every problem that comes his way with poise and aplomb, but half the fun is in figuring out how he'll do it this time.
There's also an anime adaptation of this show, licensed in North American by Sentai Filmworks and available for free streaming via Hulu. It's subtitled only, though. I will say that it's one of those shows where you'll need some knowledge of Japanese mythology and/or pop culture to get the most out of the humor and to understand all the references.
I really enjoyed this series, and happily bought the Blu-ray when it was released here; the manga is still unlicensed, but given that it's 20 volumes long and still ongoing, I have a feeling manga publishers here are not chomping at the bit to license it. Oh, well. At least I have a Nendoroid, now!
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
A look ahead at this year!
Well, hello there and welcome to the Hobby Haven! I'm your hostess, Miss Scarlett, bringing you all sorts of nerdy fun in my little corner of the Internet.
Right now, I want to squee with you because I had a HUGE pile of delicious toy goodness delivered via the wonderful Miss Momo. First of all, may I nominate her for Friend of the Year? Because that girl accomplished the impossible and found a Fairest on Ice Duchess Swan for MSRP to give to me for Christmas. I don't know how she does it, but I need to learn how because I am clearly missing something. Secondly, I now have both dolls from the Ever After High Dragon Games line that I was searching for! So you can expect to see reviews for Darling and Raven pop up in the next couple of weeks. Also some Sailor Moon collectible roundups, wink wink.
That should carry us into March, when the DC Superhero Girls dolls are slated to be released, according to all of my intel. Whether that will happen on schedule is anybody's guess, but I'll be picking up a few. I am hoping to use the rest of the year to make some dents on my toy backlog, but again, it's debatable whether that will end up happening or not.
There are also some new figures that I'll probably end up reviewing closer to late spring or early summer; so never fear, there's plenty of content to go around.
That's all for now! Miss Scarlett, signing out!
Right now, I want to squee with you because I had a HUGE pile of delicious toy goodness delivered via the wonderful Miss Momo. First of all, may I nominate her for Friend of the Year? Because that girl accomplished the impossible and found a Fairest on Ice Duchess Swan for MSRP to give to me for Christmas. I don't know how she does it, but I need to learn how because I am clearly missing something. Secondly, I now have both dolls from the Ever After High Dragon Games line that I was searching for! So you can expect to see reviews for Darling and Raven pop up in the next couple of weeks. Also some Sailor Moon collectible roundups, wink wink.
That should carry us into March, when the DC Superhero Girls dolls are slated to be released, according to all of my intel. Whether that will happen on schedule is anybody's guess, but I'll be picking up a few. I am hoping to use the rest of the year to make some dents on my toy backlog, but again, it's debatable whether that will end up happening or not.
There are also some new figures that I'll probably end up reviewing closer to late spring or early summer; so never fear, there's plenty of content to go around.
That's all for now! Miss Scarlett, signing out!
Monday, January 4, 2016
Doll Stuff
Hello, everyone! I have a little bit of "down time" at work, so I'm putting up some little bits of news here.
There's quite a bit of Ever After High news to share: first of all, remember the "Birthday Ball" line I mentioned earlier? The pastel-colored basic dolls? Looks like the line will include two "normal" dolls: Rosabella Beauty and Cedar Wood! The dolls are scented (Rosabella smells like sugar cookies, Cedar is citrus-scented, I think), and are Target exclusives, and are available NOW. No word about the basics, though... "Dragon Games" has a bunch of new stuff! The baby dragons that the girls adopt are available as little toys, perfectly sized for the dolls, and are available for $5 each exclusively at Walmart. Also a Walmart exclusive? A Dragon Games Poppy O'Hair doll! I'm surprised, given that the lines have six dolls at a time. So this is quite different. The Dragon Games movie will be released on January 29th on Netflix. Mattel will also release an EAH Castle/School playset this year; no dolls included, no word on price and release date. (Phew, my fingers are getting tired!) "Epic Winter" will get two new "snow pixie" dolls (like the "forest pixies" from Dragon Games), and sometime this year we will get releases of the characters' pets as little toys.
DC Super Hero Girls are launching soon! The release window is spring 2016, but I'm hearing rumors that they could be released as early as March. So we'll see how that goes; it's the eternal struggle between trying to get one ASAP and waiting later to possibly get it a few dollars cheaper. The dolls will be $19.99 on launch, and the 6-inch action figures are supposed to launch at the same time, for $9.99. There will be a "school" playset for the action figures, but it really looks more like a type of obstacle course. But whatevs. I'm just glad to see them committing to this line.
I just don't know what to do about Monster High anymore...Mattel has confirmed that they are changing the face molds for the dolls. Apparently, too many parents were complaining about them being "dark and scary." so our favorite characters are getting a more "child-friendly" makeover. I will commit to buying up the dolls on my backlog, but I really don't want to buy the new dolls, and I'm not the only one. The face molds just aren't up to snuff; they look way too Barbie-like for my tastes.The outfits displayed on the new "rebooted" dolls are plain and uninteresting. Really, it's like all the energy and creativity has been sucked out of them. The same with the face molds for Ever After High...although all Mattel has been doing for those is changing them to be more "smiley." Not as bad, but still annoying.
There might come a point where I just stop collecting dolls. I'm not looking forward to it, but if it happens, then so be it.
Miss Scarlett, signing out.
There's quite a bit of Ever After High news to share: first of all, remember the "Birthday Ball" line I mentioned earlier? The pastel-colored basic dolls? Looks like the line will include two "normal" dolls: Rosabella Beauty and Cedar Wood! The dolls are scented (Rosabella smells like sugar cookies, Cedar is citrus-scented, I think), and are Target exclusives, and are available NOW. No word about the basics, though... "Dragon Games" has a bunch of new stuff! The baby dragons that the girls adopt are available as little toys, perfectly sized for the dolls, and are available for $5 each exclusively at Walmart. Also a Walmart exclusive? A Dragon Games Poppy O'Hair doll! I'm surprised, given that the lines have six dolls at a time. So this is quite different. The Dragon Games movie will be released on January 29th on Netflix. Mattel will also release an EAH Castle/School playset this year; no dolls included, no word on price and release date. (Phew, my fingers are getting tired!) "Epic Winter" will get two new "snow pixie" dolls (like the "forest pixies" from Dragon Games), and sometime this year we will get releases of the characters' pets as little toys.
DC Super Hero Girls are launching soon! The release window is spring 2016, but I'm hearing rumors that they could be released as early as March. So we'll see how that goes; it's the eternal struggle between trying to get one ASAP and waiting later to possibly get it a few dollars cheaper. The dolls will be $19.99 on launch, and the 6-inch action figures are supposed to launch at the same time, for $9.99. There will be a "school" playset for the action figures, but it really looks more like a type of obstacle course. But whatevs. I'm just glad to see them committing to this line.
I just don't know what to do about Monster High anymore...Mattel has confirmed that they are changing the face molds for the dolls. Apparently, too many parents were complaining about them being "dark and scary." so our favorite characters are getting a more "child-friendly" makeover. I will commit to buying up the dolls on my backlog, but I really don't want to buy the new dolls, and I'm not the only one. The face molds just aren't up to snuff; they look way too Barbie-like for my tastes.The outfits displayed on the new "rebooted" dolls are plain and uninteresting. Really, it's like all the energy and creativity has been sucked out of them. The same with the face molds for Ever After High...although all Mattel has been doing for those is changing them to be more "smiley." Not as bad, but still annoying.
There might come a point where I just stop collecting dolls. I'm not looking forward to it, but if it happens, then so be it.
Miss Scarlett, signing out.
Friday, January 1, 2016
Holiday Shopping Guide 2015
2015 Holiday Shopping Guide!
It's all below the cut! I've tried to add highlights of each sale, because there's no way I can go into exhaustive detail and list all of the deals. Links to the flyers have been added for each entry, so you can check whichever retailer you would like.
Also, just gonna leave this here for now: Kinja's one-stop "how to Black Friday" guide
It's 2016!
Happy New Year, everyone!
Another year has come and gone. But now there's a new year sure to be filled with fun! Here's what you guys can look forward to in 2016:
Another year has come and gone. But now there's a new year sure to be filled with fun! Here's what you guys can look forward to in 2016:
- Sailor Moon all the time, every time.
- DC Superhero Girls!
- The all-new Holiday Cookie Blitz!
- Maybe finishing all those crafting posts I started!
- Recipes!
- 20% more posts beginning with "I shouldn't have bought this, but I did!"
- Approximately two weeks without posts because I'll be playing Persona 5!
I'm hoping to get a chance to maybe buy some more of the dolls on my backlog, but no guarantees. (I find that every time I tell myself, "I'm going to get this and this and then this other thing," something comes up to prevent that from happening.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)