Toys update

Aaah suddenly I wanted to really really get Squall Dissidia Play Arts Kai. I spent the last 3 days going around to various places (Plaza Singapura, Sunshine Plaza, China Square, Bugis, Iluma, Chinatown Point, Funan IT Mall) to compare prices. Since it is still 3 months old, the price still ranges from $80-$100 T_T However, I found other cheap loots :D

1. Nendoroid #117 Ciel Phantomhive

This is my first time buying Nendoroid series as previously I only know them selling various anime girls. I am not a big fan of Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) but when I saw this I was like "OMG so cute!" because of the chair. Haha.. And I like the super irritating expression that Ciel has here. Lol.. To my disappointment, his butler's Nendoroid was released 1 year ago :'( It is kinda difficult to find it now although I think they should somehow reproduce it because what's the point of giving Sebastian's extra hands and the drink tray if people cannot find Sebastian anymore.

The boxset

In a shop in Funan IT, I saw it selling for $70. Holy shit! I bought it  from Pan-in-the-Box at Chinatown Point for $29.90. Not sure whether the shop really gave discount since it is moving somewhere (the mall is going to be torn down) or the former shop is just a rip off.

2. Final Fantasy VIII Play Arts: Selphie Tilmitt

I promised myself to only buy the main guy and main girl characters for Final Fantasy Play Arts because I am running out (in fact, I already ran out) of space in my cupboard. But when I saw this selling for $25, I bought it! Haha.. I bought this at the shop just outside Kinokuniya Bugis.  It is called Absolute Comics. That is the shop from where I bought my Tifa, Cloud, and Rinoa 4 years ago. Looks like nobody liked Selphie to buy her even until the price was slashed this badly.

Unfortunately, this is a huge disappointment for me as it shows a great sign of aging, I believe because it has been in the shop for many many years. I know light will damage the colour but that shop was pretty dim le :( Anyway my Selphie looked like she just had a sun tan.. The discolouration was quite bad that when I opened the box, I thought I had been wrong all this while: Selphie actually wore a khaki/beige long pants! Of course I was not wrong, Selphie just wore the yellow overall. The discolouration made it as if she was wearing long pants.

3. Kingdom Hearts II Play Arts: Sora

4. Kingdom Hearts II Play Arts Special Edition: Sora Final Form

To be frank, I am not a fan of Kingdom Hearts. The one that I want to buy, ironically, is King Mickey. Too bad he is $90, even more expensive than the latest Final Fantasy XIII Kai and Dissidia Kai. That is surprising. Sora cost me $30 each, again from Pan-in-the-Box. There is significant wear and tear in the box so I really thought these are 2nd hand product and hence explained the price. But when I saw there was one stack of them with similar conditions, I think 2nd hand is unlikely.

I am disappointed in both as they lack in articulation/pose-ability. I can only move the arms and neck. I cannot do anything with the feet, bend the knee, rotate the hips, etc to change the pose.. Sigh :( I hate Sora's baggy pants too as the plastic is kinda flimsy there.. Bleah.. Oh well :(

So yeah, close to $120 spent and I am only happy with Ciel. Lessons learnt:

1) Do go around to compare prices as the price can differ quite crazily. Take for example the shop in Funan which sells the latest Dissidia Kai for $100 and FF XIII Kai for $70. In Plaza Singapura, one shop is selling all FF Play Arts for $80. Again in Funan, there are one game shop next to an anime shop. The anime shop is selling FF VII Crisis Core Aerith for $59.90 and the game shop is selling it for $80.

2) There is 1 anime shop left at Sunshine Plaza so there is no point going there to hunt for anime stuff anymore. China Square Point is not worth visiting too. They have many action figures shop but mostly if tailored for the USA products i.e Marvel Comics, DC comics, Star Wars etc. However, I need to mention one shop with awesome display of super duper expensive Square Enix collections. On display are: Lenneth Valkyrie Diorama (I check eBay is selling it for a whopping US$599), 1:1 scale Gabranth's Dissidia helmet, various Final Fantasy dioramas with average height 3x of the Play Arts or Play Arts Kai figurines which make them of at least 50cm in height. Cool stuff to see!

3) Should I buy new figurines (at least $60) or should I wait a few years for the price to drop but the colour may have faded and the plastic may not be in the optimum condition anymore?? Haiz.. I am in big dilemma..

For now, I cannot wait for Anime Festival Asia 2011 which starts on 11.11.11. I really wanna buy my Dissidia Kai Squall, Zack + Aerith from FF VII Crisis Core, Zidane + Garnet from FF IX, and perhaps Hope and Serah from FF XIII too.. T_T No money.. No space in luggage to go hone.. No space in the room too keep.. No space in the cupboard to show off...