Toys, toys and more toys...

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Krew wasn't able to go to New York Comic Con this year.

So, I'm going back over my NDK experience and some of the things that I picked up in the Dealer's Room. My favorite purchase for this year was the Revoltech: Queen's Blade figure, Alleyne. Now, people who know me know that I absolutely LOVE Revoltechs and, as a lover of fanservice, this Queen's Blade figure was right up my alley.

Over the years, Revoltech has gotten better and better as I just love the fact that Alleyne's cloak has joints in it to make for "dramatic" poses.

Revoltech purchases come in bunches for me so when the Krew saw this figure, they were inspired to put together a group purchase on Hobbylink Japan. We all bought Queen's Blade figures with mine being my favorite character, Menace. I can't wait to get her...probably be sometime around my b-day...

Sticking with the toy theme, Card picked up some SDCC exclusives this year even though we were unable to go this summer. He has friends in the He-Man community who hooked him up. Among the things that he got was the new 8" Lion-O figure from Bandai. Very nice. In fact, I decided that I wanted one as well.

Going hand-in-hand with the new ThunderCats tv show, the "Classic ThunderCats" figures were a welcome addition to my toy collection.

If I could have only stopped with just the 8" toys, I would be better off however, the 6" figures were for the new series and I dig that size (from my Marvel Legends days).

These toys ROCK as I picked up all three of the first wave of 6 inchers...

It took a while to get used to the new design for Panthro but, I'm kinda digging his new look more and more each day. As for the Mumm-Ra, it's a very nice figure but it's legs are too short and it is missing the wings (you could tell that there was a place for wings on this figure...too bad).

Then there is the "crack" of the ThunderCats toy line....the 4" figures...

You know, I did NOT want to buy these...I mean, I'm trying to collect specific things. The 8"ers I like because they are the classic characters and the 6"ers are right up my alley as a collector but...it was the doggone "ThunderTank" that pried my money from my wallet and led to my picking up the entire first wave of 4 inch figures...

No control, whatsoever....still, the tank is pretty kick ass...

Just last night, I picked up my Marvel Universe X-23 figure and consider me impressed/happy. I remember the Marvel Legends version of X-23 was VERY disappointing. The sculpt was HORRIBLE as she was rocking a head that was too big for her body. Now, this figure....Hasbro got it RIGHT!!!

Proportions are right on, the sculpt is tight and it is an all-around fun/nice toy to own. As a fan of this character, I think I can say for all of us..."it's about time"...

Of course, Marvel Universe has been tearing it up lately with it's last two waves being outstanding. I mean, I've seen the new Steve Rogers and it is SICK. Honestly, I was seriously thinking about dropping this line but, if they keep this up, they will continue to get my hard-earned cash.

What good times were had...

NDK 2011 has come and gone but, when trying to recollect what happened this year, the memories are still pretty fresh on the mind.

One thing I will have you know about this year's edition of NDK was that it was the 15th anniversary of our con. Very impressive! And we (NDKers, as well as the con itself) have come a long way...

I remember when I first heard about this anime convention, it was 1999 and I was living in Westminster, Colorado at the time. Back then, you had to send payment for pre-reg away to California as registration was being handled there. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the con that year and I didn't actually make my NDK debut until 2002. As it was the first NDK after 9/11, it had a pretty large crowd as the 2001 NDK was deeply affected by the tragedies on the east-coast. Quite a few guests weren't able to make it that year but, in 2002, we had a gang of guests...As it was my first anime convention, I pretty much surveyed the situation to see the sights and to get my footing.

Flash forward 10 years to Nan Desu Kan 2011 the 15th anniversary...what a fun trip it has been, overall. Sure, there are some things about this con that are pretty frustrating to me but, all in all, I still enjoy it.

For this year, we (the OtaKrew) didn't spend as much time at the bar as we did last year. Saved a lot of money that way so that we could actually pick up some neat items in the dealer's room.

With Harmony Gold (Robotech peeps) back in the house for their 4th straight year, you just know that I went to any and all panels Robotech-related. We even got Zormaster to come on down for dinner with the Robotech crew on Saturday night right after their panel. (He missed last year's NDK due to a scheduling conflict) After finding him a pass (shhhh), ZM was able to enjoy the con with us for Saturday night and for Sunday. Saturday night saw my return as a judge on the "Robot Rumble" panel(from my view on the panel)
...it was also cool because one of the other judges on the panel actually reads this blog! How cool is that?

Below is just a sampling of the cosplay that I was able to snag pics of. I have a lot more that I may post throughout the rest of the year.

Below is an OtaKrewer who cosplayed as Bonta-kun from "Full Metal Panic" on Saturday night...

He was VERY popular...

Good times Bonta-kun, good times...

Below is an OtaKrewer with one of this year's Japanese guests...

This is Ryusei Nakao who is known as the voice actor for Frieza and Cooler from Dragonball Z. He has also done voice acting for Bleach (Mayuri Kurotsuchi), Armitage III (Rene) and Weiss Kreuz (Farfarello) among others...

As I said above, this was a very fun con. While there were some panels that I really wanted to see, I went to several that I was pleased with. "Olde Tyme Anime" (brought to us by the good folks at "Gimme Anime") was a blast like usual. Too bad I missed the other panels that they produced "Nan Desu Video" and "Mystery Anime Theater" which featured Tekken: The Movie...I heard it was craptacular (which is actually good in this case). I also missed the panel that I suggested a few years ago "NDK Late Night". Bummer...It was at the same time as "Robot Rumble"...

With the amount of fun that I had this year, I look forward to what the future brings for Nan Desu Kan.

Some catchin' up to do Part 1

Inspired by all of the tweets that I received from San Diego Comic-Con this year, I have finally decided to get back on the blogosphere with a little overview of last year's SDCC.

Our first day in town, we ventured out into the Gaslamp District to see what trouble we could get into during our stay. We ran into this Cartoon Network-themed pizzaria and decided to step on in.

The food was pretty good and we kept it in mind for a future visit...

Preview Night was on the menu afterwards...as we stood in a long, yet speedy, line to get our con badges and swag... Once inside, I finally understood what all of the hullabaloo was about.

This convention was BIG!!! Bigger than any other con that I have ever had the pleasure of going to...and we, the OtaKrew, geeked out... I saw the above Gundam-themed backpack in the dealer's room on Preview Night...Honestly, I could have taken more pics from that night but I was just overcome by the vast amount of geekiness that I was engaging in...

The next day was spent standing in more lines in order to pick up Con Exclusives like the Carded Marvel Universe Galactus, Zentradi battlepod, etc.

While in line, we met this guy with this cooler than cool tattoo. You know, one thing about this con that I noticed early on was that the con-goers where really, really nice. I mean, if you wanted to take pictures, they took time for you. People were very polite. I was very impressed.

Another neat thing that happened while standing in this line was that someone recognized my KCUV t-shirt (a radio station from Boulder, Colorado)...It really is a small world as we met quite a few people from Colorado in San Diego.

Then there were the cosplayers...

Gotta love this version of Leia...

Then there were quite a few Baronesses but this one was easily among the best that I saw...

We went to the Robotech panel the first official night and saw this awesome Misa/Lisa cosplayer...afterwards we went out with some people from RobotechX as well as Tommy Yune and Tony Oliver (Rick Hunter)...a good time was had by all at Dick's Last Resort.

While we were there, we met World Champion pole dancer, Felix Cane...

She was nice enough to take a picture with me before heading off for the evening...

As for us, after the bar closed, we went back to the pizzeria from the previous day to munch on a few slices of pizza...

The first "official" day of Comic-con in the books and we were just starting to get loosened up...Here's Card and I sporting our Galactus gear while waiting in (another) line... Is there a theme here?