October Haul. Figure Friday Postponed, Figure Wishlist?

First we’ll get the administrative bit out of the way: I could’ve had a 3 hot, 2 not Figure Friday, or put some models that don’t really deserve the spot up, but as I didn’t want to do that, we’ll have to wait for another double-week feature next week. At least there’ll be Figure Monthly somewhere this week, hopefully.

Chasing the money. Click image for source.

That image sums this month up, sadly. I’ve over-spent. Now, now, there was a big convention, but seeing as most I’ve obtained during the convention were books, well, there’s no real excuse. I am accepting donations ;)
I might get you some loot shots, if enough people will ask for them.
Read on for the lengthy endless list of stuff purchased this month.

Books:

• Legend by David Gemmell, the first book in the Drenai cycle. A very solid and enjoyable read. I should write about the similarity and differences between Gemmell’s books and Glen Cook‘s.
• Dead Until Dark, the first Sookie Stackhouse book. I’ve seen the first in Hebrew, and number 2-9 in English. Finally found the first in English, sadly with the True Blood cover and not the funky covers of the rest. Anyway, it was a fun read.
• Shining Tears Visual Fan artbook. Won it for $0.01 on eBay.
• Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Meant to get something of his earlier. Finally got to it.
• The Complete Chronicles of Conan by Robert E. Howard. Must I explain this?
• The Orphan’s Tales, both books: In the Night Garden and In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M. Valente. Both seem right up my alley after reading some of Tanith Lee’s Tales of Flat Earth series (splendid!), and they’re illustrated by Michael Kaluta.
• Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow in Hebrew. There was a sale at the warehouse of the publication house, and I’ve read this book over a decade ago. It has a brilliant section on why we all go to hell when we die, even the good ones (but we don’t all get tormented, mind).
• Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming by Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley in Hebrew. From the same sale. I read this as well years ago, and turns out there’s a third book in the series, but they didn’t have the second, which I remember to not have been as good as the first anyway. Zelazny is my favourite author, for the record.
• Ordered Megami Magazine volume 114 from HLJ. After seeing Optic’s overview, and seeing the Saber and Rin pencil board, I HAD to get it. Was sad they didn’t have Megumi Creators (14?), as it’d have cut down on shipping costs.
• I did not get this yet, but I’m considering getting Newtype’s August magazine, which has a cute figure of Mari Illustrious. I said to myself it’s not worth it because I’ll have to pay double MSRP, but then again, I have to do the same when ordering from HLJ. Still considering.

Figures:

• Moved Saber Lily Nendoroid order to HLJ, paid for it, and received it. Beautiful figure, caused me some agitation when the rod for her base snapped. You’ll hear more about this at length…
• Received Kotokubiya’s Air from Play-Asia on the first of the month, the review photoshoot is long done. Maybe a post this week?
• Pre-ordered the Megurine Luka nendoroid on Otacute. Since you can’t cancel pre-orders there, I guess it’s as good as “purchased”. It was “Reservation closed” elsewhere.
• Cancelled the pre-orders of Figma Aegis and Plugsuit Ayanami Rei by WAVE. I’ll try to get them later.
• I got some superglue of an average quality to fix Saber Lily Nendoroid. I’m going to put it here. I still didn’t get my exceptional superglue from the eBay purchase, and I couldn’t stand her being so sad.
• My cousin gave me Cloud Strife Action Figure that he had lying about.

Miniatures:

• On a 20% discount sale, and due to USD to Pound conversion rates, finally purchased a Legion of Everblight Striders unit from Maelstrom (free international shipping for orders over 10 pounds!).
• Got a second unit of the Skorne Paingiver Beast Handlers from the same sale. Cheap and useful.
• Paints
• From eBay: Skorne Cyclops Shaman Warbeast(let’s just hope all these things remain useful in the new edition coming out November 24th, so I’m mostly gaining first copies of more stuff, in order to be better prepared).
• Skorne Void Spirit solo.
• Second copy of the Extoller Soulward solo for Skorne, really hope it remains useful in Mark 2.
• 2 soldiers for the Skorne’s Venators. Don’t have a full unit, yet.
• Skorne Epic Warlock Lord Assassin Morghoul, which kicks ass, unlike his normal version.
• A bunch of paints and a paintbrush from the Maelstrom sale. Mostly washes to complete my collection.
• I wanted to resume painting my miniatures this week, but it turns out all of my superglue went bad. So I hopped on eBay and got some more Zap-a-gap. The local superglue is considerably weaker, and I’m not fond of pinning my models otherwise.

Miscellaneous:

• Bought a new fan for my computer. You can hear it, somewhat, but at least it cools things off. You can read more about the situation that was in this post.
• A friend gave me 2G of RAM, for free. That was awesome. Said friend and another also helped with computer maintenance, which was even better.
• The Cities and Knights add-on for the Settlers of Catan board-game (see my review of the main game). This was technically purchased by my mother for herself, and the house.
• I got a new chair. ZOMG. It feels like home, sitting on this chair. This definitely deserves a new post. Also, seeing how much I sit on my chair, it’s probably the most important purchase I’ve made this year. It’s an Israeli made chair, and the company’s site doesn’t have a link to the model I have.
• 100 “Backer Boards” by Comic Defender, so I could organize my whole collection and keep my comics in a good condition.
• A lovely art-piece by a local artist, at the convention. Was pretty cheap, should’ve bought more. Will scan/take a photograph it later.

Total money spent: Half a bajillion over my self-imposed limit. Need to learn better restraint.

I’m wondering if the figures I want deserve a post on their own. But Alter’s version of Yagyu Jubei from Ryakka Hyoran is definitely on the list. HLJ and HS have it out of stock. Also talked to Joseph Tsai of TokyoHunter a bit about the Saber Alter Maid. I’ll probably get some figure really soon, but I can’t get them all, or even close… :(
I’m really fond of Saber Lily Distant Avalon, Saber Alter Maid is hot (and the puchi is adorable!), and the more I look at Yagyu Jubei the more I like her… and Figma Reimu is probably something I’ll get as well. A good thing she’s not a real exclusive.

Another question, should I review my experiences of purchasing from different online vendors?