Purchases | Deranged Minds

Archive for the 'Purchases' Category

May

Obligatory Loot Post

By Deranged 4 Comments

Categories: Gunpla, Purchases and Random

So yeah, I said I was at the London Anime Expo this Saturday where I met Ruki, nice bloke. One of the single most fun things to do at the Expo was to check out the many cosplays and try to name the most, compared to whoever you were going with. I saw some cool cosplay, like the Power Rangers, Optimus Prime, Kamina and Simon (there were a few surprisingly, some were good, but some were just rubbish) and we saw a brilliant Shana, she was even loli. Ruki admits that he wanted to stalk her. And he calls me a lolicon! I can’t imagine what he would do if he met Aria cosplayers. Anyways to the bulk of what I did, I walked around and bought stuff. The manga turnout was poor and most of the series I wanted were missing the crucial volume I needed. I also broke my figure virginity. Have a guess what it i, you’ll see at the end.

On the manga front, I only bought three which is a pitiful amount for my usual manga buys but like I said the selection was poor. I did have my eye on the whole set of Rozen Maiden though. Sadly, I couldnt find more DearS, Busou Renkin, Bleach (no one stocked 19 but they all had 20 orz) or air gear of the volumes I needed. And in the end, the ones I did buy, School Rumble Vols 6-7 and Negima 15 weren’t even UK releases from Tanoshimi (The British arm of Random House as opposed to the US’ Del Ray) and Delray releases. Man, I just contributed to the Grey Market.

Apart from so I got two nice posters, a Tsubasa Chronicals one and a Code Geass one (lol, even subconsciously I covered up Suzaku). Kind of a rip off that they were so expensive though. And seems like every Expo, I bought another Gundam. Not just any Gundam though.

This has been a model I have sorely wanted for the last two years and have just never seen in stock any time I was at the Expo. I saw it once but it was snatched up before I got there with some money. After such a long time, wanting this beautiful looking Wing Gundam Ver. Ka I can’t help but appreciate it more and cannot wait to start working on this. I think I will leave it off to the summer after my finals to give it my full attention, maybe even go proper on it, painting and such. I was also reminded I had a Gundam that I hadn’t finished yet as well.

I have had this Strike Noir for going on a year, and I figured today I would work on it, so I needn’t worry about it when I worked on the Wing Gundam. I got more done in this day than a whole year. I remember seeing a lot of Gundam Unicorns at the Expo, which looked absolutely awesome. That may be next on my to buy list. Also, I saw many good Gundam 00 kits but after getting on MG, there is no way I can go for anything less. Wating on the Master Grades.

And the biggest buy of the day, for this pre painted resin kit of C.C. which I found absolutely gorgeous. It was an impulse buy, completely blowing my expected budget out of the water. I had originally planned to buy a Kallen, Rin and Shana (rin and Shana being cheap figures) but I bought this on seeing it. I can say, I am not regretting it.

Impulse buy stories; I saw one guy buy a huge and gorgeous Belldandy for £150 (about $300 I think) and asked on getting the box what series it was from. To buy such an expensive figure without even being a fan. Talk about impulse buy. So there was my loot, about as good as it is going to get on £110 and in the UK. I did see a Gurren Lagann kit I really wanted but it was £250…. very much out of my yearly budget for conventions. It would have been so worth it if I had that much money though.

This has changed my approach to buying now. I like figures and have always been keeping up with new releases and now I believe I will take the plunge and buy them regularly. With me being able to have an actual bank account and will be able to buy online in the next year, this could really boom.

Oct

Teh Expo! (A Fancy Shopping Trip!)

By Deranged 3 Comments

Categories: Purchases

Yes, it is ones of these things again. Anime Expo time again here in London, and I popped down the road to the convention centre and had myself in to the stalls.

Firstly, this was one of larger manga buys ever rivalling when I bought pretty much all of Negima at once. The full list is: vol 2-4 Fruits Basket, vol 16-18 Bleach, vol 6 D.Gray-Man, vol 1 Fullmetal Alchemist, vol 1, 3-4, 7-8 Busou Renkin, vol 6-7 DearS and a DearS offical Fan Book.

Continue reading ‘Teh Expo! (A Fancy Shopping Trip!)’

Aug

More Shopping And ART!!!

By Deranged 2 Comments

Categories: Original Work, Personal and Purchases

Spurned on by posts from RunningKid, I too thought, ‘Hey, I can go outside during the summer as well, going into London and do some shopping like I used to…’ Well, I did go outside but I just popped out to Illford closer to the outskirts of London. But I sniffed out a Waterstones and quickly found the manga. I’ve found myself buying less manga recently which worries me so I bought another 6; vol. 13-14 of Negima (yay!) and vol. 1-4 of Rurouni Kenshin (‘cause it’s a great classic and they didn’t have vol. 2 of Fruits Basket and yet had all the rest up to 14 :S ). A good haul that cost me less than expected.

However, manga wasn’t the only reason I was out about in the sun (even though it was all overcast, and it even rained… stupid British weather), as I made way to an art store that saw me through my graphic design days, and took the plunge and got me a traditional nib dip pen and ink.

I’ve been drawing for a while but just haven’t shown off anything really except the odd thing or two that I inked half-assedly. Well, I’m am going to try and improve now and get some artwork done. Sadly this may take me a while, as seen above, I will need some practise with the pen to actually get a good effect. (strangely enough I worked upwards on the page :S )

Above is one of my best works which is still sadly pencil. From the stage of getting this inked and scanned is my biggest roadblock at the moment, but I’m working on it and hopefully, I can grow as an artist past the drawing some pretty pictures stage. Making a web comic/manga of my own would be marvellous. Here’s hoping XD

Watch this space and my deviant art account because the dream has never looked closer to me than ever before.

May

Maybe The Expo Was Just An Excuse To Shop

By Deranged 4 Comments

Categories: Anime, Gunpla, Manga and Purchases

Hm, I believe we have been through this before but I have a shopping problem. I guess going to the Anime Expo where there was much stuff peddled was a bad idea for some one of my condition but luckily I was capped at £100. Doesn’t help me at all when October’s Expo comes around with my having an estimated £500 by then….

So the spoils. Again at any chance I get, I went for a bunch of manga. I found it strange actually that after looking in many places, this was the first time I was able to pick up something from the Shonen Jump line. Gladly I did find this as Vol 5 of both Busou Renkin and D.Gray-man are one of my favourites to still get. I would have gotten more Negima as well but alas I only saw a Vol. 14 and no 13 T____T

My best purchase, has to be the RX-93-V2 Hi-V Gundam. I was looking for the Wing Custom KA actually and was about to set my sights on something else until I saw this beauty on display going for £57. I am going to have so much fun putting this thing together being that this is the first Gundam I have bought in a long while… Expect some posts about it maybe…

My friend who I went with bought a heavy arms custom and the Noir Stirke. I was about to blow my manga money on getting the Noir Strike as well because of its sheer coolness but I resided to later on ordering it. That should come in about two weeks.

So yeah, enough of the conquests, onto thoughts of the actual Expo itself. I found it okay, but it really wasn’t that much for me except as a shopping excursion for all of the niche items I would ever want under one roof. About the only interesting thing was seeing some of the really good DDR players and the Cosplayers. A new experience for me, I actually had fun Cosplay-Spotting. Man, was there a lot of Jariya’s.

Well anyways, it was still an enjoyable excursion and was only a twenty minute walk from my house so I was able to quickly arrive back at a place to get started on my Gunpla XD Expect some posts soon, most probably on the gunpla as all of my attention is attuned to that at the moment, and I don’t think I could concentrate on anything else until it is finished.

But after getting back into action with a huge Master Grade Kit, this could take a while… with the Noir Strike afterwards and also probably a 1/100 scale H.M.S. Victory, I may not get off my modelling binge for a bit =P

Apr

It Seems Like the Only Reason I Ever Go Out Anymore

By Deranged 6 Comments

Categories: Manga, Purchases and Random

On Friday, I went out to Greenwich, promising to take my sisters and it was the first time I had been outside in a week at the time, due to my recluse lifestyle while I’m ever on break and weirdly enough, I sniffed out the closest Waterstones, immediately found their manga section and started browsing. I was only able to pick up three books before I was yelled at by my sisters that they didn’t come out to see me obsess over manga. Seems like the only reason I go out now apart from school seems to be for thing like this now. Man, do I have a problem. At least I only spent £13.98. 3 for 2 offers are great.

Dears Vol 1-2 and School Rumble