Just over a month away...

It's kind of embarrassing for me to admit but, while looking over some of my pics from last year's NDK, I came upon a pic that I really liked.

Taken on Saturday while I was on my way to a Robotech panel, I came upon this gorgeous cosplayer and I had to take a picture. It wasn't until months later that I realized that this was none other than the COSPLAY IDOL, TristenCitrine. This is somewhat embarrassing for me due to the fact that she has cosplayed the BEST Cutie Honey I have ever seen and that I have always wanted to meet her.

I had pictures of her donning the Cutie Honey togs in a photoshoot from 2008 when she debuted the costume but, I always wondered if she ever took it to a con before.Upon further investigation, I found that the lucky con-goers from Sakura Con (2008) were graced with the awesomeness of TristenCitrine's Cutie Honey. Oh, I am sooo jealous...

Hopefully, she makes it back to NDK again this year.I wonder if she will break that costume out ever again?

Anywho, with ComiCon coming up in just over a month away, I'm putting the finishing touches on my wishlist.

Near the top is this Microman Cutie Honey.
I have a history with this VERY hard to find toy.

I have been known to bid on items from Yahoo Japan from time to time. It's where I get a lot of my cels (as well as hard to find Japanese toys) from. I actually won this in an auction for just a little over $100. Imagine the disappointment when my auction was cancelled without warning.
Bummer...I know that some Japanese sellers don't like selling to overseas buyers. That's why I use a proxy to act as an in-between. Oh, well...you win some and you lose some. Thankfully, I didn't lose any money in the transaction.

MONDAY NIGHT FORUM
So, we have been watching Gundam ZZ at forum for the past couple of months. Being the UC-based Gundam freak that I am, I was really looking forward to seeing it.Sure, I had heard bad things about it but I wanted to see for myself what the big fuss was about. Initially, I can honestly say, Gundam ZZ deserved all of the bad reviews that it had received but around episode 22ish the story began to get better. It began to actually FEEL like Gundam again. We are currently on episode 32 and it looks like this is going to turn bloody soon.

One of the things that initially sold me on Gundam ZZ was the main antagonist, Haman Karn (or Khan in some circles). She is, quite possibly, one of my favorite characters in all of anime and easily one of my favorite characters in the Gundam Universe. Very strong-willed woman who is a very charismatic leader. Of course there is that undying love of Char Aznable that she has to contend with.What the world needs now is more Haman cosplay...Looking for a Haman I-Doll at ComiCon, for sure...Then there is the RAH-DX figure.From some of the reviews that I have read about it online, it tends to be a leaner and needs a little doctoring up and some TLC. However, with how much I love my RAH-DX Lunamaria Hawke figure, I can see myself springing for one of these too.

Ah...ComiCon could be a VERY expensive trip. Especially if the cel dealers that I normally buy from show up....

DECULTURE!!!

Moving sure is a pain...

I absolutely hate moving.... Since I have so much...stuff...I found that I had a lot to pack and that I will be unpapcking for quite a while. The neat thing about my home is that I have a lot of room for storage. My garage has lots of shelves and my basement has both a crawlspace and a storage room as well.

It looks like my office upstairs is going to be geek central as I have broke out some of my older toys and most of my anime collection will be housed there along with my favorite comics.

Speaking of favorite comics, I am a huge X-Men fan and something of a Romy (Rogue/Gambit) shipper. So, when X-Men #224 came out recently, I was quite pleased with the outcome of the Australian arch of Xavier's odyssey. For fans of the Rogue/Gambit relationship, this comic was a MUST read as it pretty much centers around Rogue and her attempt at learning how to control her powers. At the end of the book, we all get a pleasant surprise.

Then there was the X-Men Origins: Gambit that came out last week. Remy's story has been told before but it was nice to see everything put together as a summary in one issue.
Truth be told, I wouldn't mind if this was turned into a 3-issue mini-series.

MISC COSPLAY

Spotlight on one of my favorite anime of all time, Gatchaman. This is one of the shows that was my EARLY introduction to Japanese animation (anime). These cosplays were done to the updated Gatchaman that was released back in 1994.

Ken the Eagle

Jun the swan (my earliest anime crush)

This OVA totally rocked! I only wish that it was longer than 3 episodes. A little bit of trivia: Maurice White (Co-Lead singer for the R&B group Earth, Wind and Fire) helped with the music for the OVA.

Gatchaman got a remastered release from ADV back in 2005 which featured what was perhaps one of the funniest dubs ever. There were quite a few, "Can you dig it's" and some "Right on's", too. You could tell that they were having a good time with the dub making for a good watching experience. Currently, I own eight of the nine volumes that have been released. Finding that ninth volume is going to be like finding gold. Looks like it might be an Amazon purchase.

So, we broke out episode number 5 of Hellsing Ultimate recently at forum. It has been soooo long since I have seen or read any Hellsing, that I forgot where we were in the story. Let's just say that there was a lot of blood. LOTS of blood. I really don't want to give any of the store away but I will say that it takes place during the events that occured in volumes 5 and 6 of the manga.
The really cool thing about Hellsing Ultimate is that it is following the manga pretty much to the "T" which makes me happy as the manga happens to be one of my favorite reads right now.

When I went home from forum, I decided to finally break out my season one boxset of "True Blood" and watch episode one. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love vampire stories and having a vampire story set in Louisiana is right up my alley.
I was pleased with the first episode as it introduced us to Sookie Stackhouse (played by Anna Paquin), the main character. She works at a bar in a small (fictional) Louisiana town named Bon Temps. The story takes place in a world where vampires have "come out of the coffin" and live among us as a substitute for blood is invented.
Honestly, I'm surprised that I hadn't picked up any of the novels that the TV show is based on until recently. From what I have seen, and read, it looks like I am going to have to do some purchasing of Charlaine Harris' works. Since I prefer hardcovers, it looks like I'm going to spend some $.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

When I was at the gym just yesterday, there was a guy doing some lunges with a medicine ball. When he reached the bottom of his lunge, he would twist his upper torso with the medicine ball extended in front of him. Honestly, it reminded me of the Fusion Dance that Goten and Trunks from Dragonball Z did to form Gotenks. Man, I am a geek...

DECULTURE!!!