Friday, May 27, 2016

Blind Box Review: Pusheen Surprise Plush! Series 1: Snack Time!

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Hobby Haven! Today, I've got a review of something that I haven't had in a long time--blind boxes! I kind of miss collecting them, even if they're designed to bewitch, bother, and bankrupt you.

But first off, let's talk about Pusheen. Pusheen is love. Pusheen is life. Pusheen is pretty much my spirit animal. She's a chubby grey tabby cat who loves eating, playing, eating, being lazy, and eating. I don't have much Pusheen merch, which is a shame, because I just want to plaster her over everything. But then I found these. (Check them out after the jump!)

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Odds and ends!

A little different than "Odds and sods," since I don't tend to include my own shopping details in those. There's a new review coming up in a few days, and since I was able to put in some overtime earlier this month, I'm hoping to get a doll or two once HR gets me my bonus check. ::rubs hands together evilly::

After all, the budget line of the Birthday Ball dolls have hit, and they're available on Amazon for $15. I need to snag Duchess while I still can!

(Although, I...might have spent some cash in anticipation of my bonus check. I was doing a periodic browse through my Amazon wish list. If any of you anime fans are interested in picking up the fantasy action series Moribito, the complete series on Blu-ray is $24; it normally retails for twice that much. For the curious, you can check it out on Hulu; it's available both subbed and dubbed.)

Good Smile keeps showing new prototypes of stuff (although I want to know where all the figures they displayed at the Wonder Festival are. Huh, GS????), including a figma of Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney. Supposedly we'll see him later this year, but I'm not holding my breath. And no new Sailor Moon Figuarts yet (although with summer trade shows coming up, that could change), although BBTS has announced that the Sailor Pluto and Sailor V Figuarts will be getting replenishments, starting in June. You can head to their website and pre-order one. I'll get around to reviewing mine one of these days... (The Lupin III and Fujiko Figuarts are also now available for purchase, and are super tempting...)

The summer convention season has started; last weekend was host to a ton of conventions, including A-Cen, where we got our first anime license news of the season! You can check out all of the announcements at ANN, but some of the highlights (for me, at least): Vertical has licensed the "Flying Witch" manga series--the anime is airing right now on Crunchyroll for the curious--, and Viz has FINALLY answered my prayers and will be re-releasing Bleach on Blu-ray. The BD sets seem to have more episodes per set than the prior DVD release (27 as opposed to 20), and will be sold for about $45-50. Assuming they don't pull any crap like they did before and try to sell us 11-episode box sets, I'll be happy to finally pick up the whole series in a more space-saving format...although I am hesitant to let go of my old DVD boxsets, if only for the memories. And my slight hoarding tendencies.

But from now until the end of summer, just about every weekend will have at least one convention, so we can look forward to tons of awesome announcements and surprises!

ETA: I forgot to mention that I signed up for the new Nintendo Rewards program, My Nintendo. I like this new rewards program better, since it's easier to get points, all you really have to do is log into certain apps once a week. Although now the majority of what I buy (physical 3DS games) won't count towards points. And I don't really care for the rewards so far. It looks like they're trying to move away from offering you physical rewards and are just offering coupons (WTF?) and game downloads instead. We'll see how it goes once summer hits and they refresh the rewards. I don't like that the points expire, and I'm somewhat worried that by the time their expiration date rolls around, that there won't be anything I like to get!

Miss Scarlett, signing out!

Friday, May 13, 2016

Sailor Moon Collectibles Roundup: Minako & Artemis UFO Catcher Plush

Yahoo! It's another Sailor Moon Collectibles Roundup, everyone! Let's gather 'round and take a look at the Moony goodness I've got in store today:

You may or may not remember the Rei "UFO catcher" toy that I got a while back. As a quick recap, back in the early 1990s, Banpresto made a series of Sailor Moon plush toys to be won as arcade prizes in Japan. These little darlings were found in the crane-type machines, known as UFO catchers. This particular set has Sailor Moon's four friends in their civilian forms, going about their everyday lives. I would like to complete this set, but had the worst luck finding Minako (my favorite, if you haven't already guessed). I ended up finding her by complete luck; my dear friend Miss Momo belongs to a Sailor Moon-themed buy-sell-trade group, and one of the members decided to sell off her plushie collection. And what should happen to be in there?



BE STILL, MY BEATING HEART.


It's Minako and her cat guardian, Artemis, just chilling. Like they do. My guess is that they're sitting on a yellow cushion on an orange carpet? Minako is doing her best ojou laugh, and Artemis looks concerned, so this is probably everyday "Minako daydreaming about her crushes; Artemis wonders why the fate of the world rests in this weirdo's hands" sort of life.

I gotta appreciate the mad detail put into Artemis, especially his itty-bitty plastic wire whiskers. This is solid craftsmanship, especially considering it's a mass-marketed plush toy.


The tag, giving you an idea of when this hit arcades...


...and the Toei sticker letting you know that it's legit. I had to search for it, though.


It even comes with a convenient hanger in case you want to...uh...dangle it from your rearview mirror? IDK, it's for whatever you want.

I'm stoked, though, because this is awesome. It's about the same size as the Rei plush, and the quality is great. I love her sheet of felted hair! They're a little hard to find, so if you're looking for a Sailor Moon plushie, you might be better off getting one of the more recent ones that are in plentiful supply. But if you like collecting rarer merch, this series is SO WORTH IT.

My "Miss Scarlett Suggests" is going to be the same as for the Rei plush, so I'll just sign out now! See ya later!

Friday, May 6, 2016

Miss Scarlett Cooks! French Toast Casserole

I don't know about you, but when I think of spring, I think of brunch. Easter brunch, Mother's Day brunch, Sitting-at-home-on-a-Sunday-and-watching-the-flowers-bloom brunch. So I figured, what better way to celebrate the beginning of warm weather than sharing one of my favorite brunch recipes! It's French Toast, but with a bit of a twist; it's in an delicious casserole form. You make it a day ahead, and just pop it in the oven when you're ready. (Although it doesn't have to be just brunch; this is great for whenever you're in the mood to make a delicious breakfast-type meal.)

Everything you need to know to make this scrumptious casserole is below the jump!


Thursday, May 5, 2016

The Persona 5 Post!

Ohhhh boy, you guys. Toooooonnnnns of info just got released after months of waiting and waiting.

Atlus hosted a livestream earlier to announce more information about Persona 5. The whole event was themed around the "phantom thieves" who are the protagonists of the game coming to "steal" Tokyo Tower. I managed to find a user on Hitbox who was mirroring the livestream in her channel and providing rough translations. After about a half hour of watching fake reporters feign shock and suspense, we finally got the goods.

First, we got a brand new trailer, chock-full of info. Tons of new characters, right off the bat. There is a brunette girl dressed like a knight, riding a sort of motorcycle, a long-haired computer hacker girl who serves as the dungeon navigator (who rides around in a spaceship-shaped Persona), and a "pretty girl thief" who dresses like the Scarlet Pimpernel and has a finishing attack involving her sitting down at a table to drink tea. There are glimpses of a fourth male character, but nothing on him yet. No names or other info for the girls beyond what we see in the trailer.

Lots of gameplay footage shown, plus many of the bosses. The mechanics look very stylish; there's a "baton toss" that you can use that looks like one character attacking an enemy and then asking a teammate to deliver a follow-up attack. The dungeons look amazing. No new dungeons shown, just more footage of the ones already revealed.

Second, the Japanese release date will be September 15th, which oddly does fall into their estimate of "summer 2016." The fall equinox isn't until September 22nd this year, so it's just...very late summer. There is, as yet, no release date beyond "2016" for North America. Even if Atlus is generous and gives us a simultaneous release with Japan, we won't get it until the last quarter of the year. I was really hoping to play this during the summer (I was secretly hoping that Japan would get this in, say, late June/early July and that we would get a fast localization for maybe August. Oh well.)

I'll admit, I'm grumpy about this because I wanted to play it this summer. C'mon, Atlus! Autumn is a busy time at work! Don't make me use by vacation time then!

The livestream ended with an announcement that more information would be revealed at E3--which says to me that this has something to do with the localization outside Japan. After all, E3 is an American event, so I would be shocked to see Japan-only news. So now we wait until the middle of June to get what I expect will be a NA release date.

Whew. That's it for right now, although I might post again later because I know that I'm forgetting some stuff. Miss Scarlett, signing out for now!

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Sales Post!

Whooo! Hope you're in a spending mood, guys!

Steam is running a weeklong sale on all different kinds of games, plus another sale on Star Wars games in honor of May 4th, Star Wars Day. ("May the Fourth be with you!")

Amazon is running a sale on tons of Monster High toys, from dolls to vinyl figures, to licensed merchandise. There's stuff under $5, so tons of bargains are to be had!

P.S. The Persona 5 livestream is this Thursday! Soooo excited!

Miss Scarlett, signing out!