Actar’s Acquisitions – February 2014

It’s the grand and glorious revival of the acquisitions posts! I haven’t done one of these in ages and I really do want to get these back up and running. If anything, it will be an easy way to keep my blog afloat in these troubled waters of other commitments. Despite me not posting them, I have been taking pictures and diligently taking records of all the stuff I’ve been purchasing for the past year and a half (more or less) and I do hope to put them all into one ginormous loot post sometime in the very near future.

Breakdown:

– DX Cherry Energy Lockseed
– DX Peach Energy Lockseed
– Arms Change Kamen Rider Guridon and Dandeliner
– DX PreChange Mirror Deluxe Set
– PreChange Mirror Carry
– PreCard Set 01: Cherry Flamenco
– PreCard Set 02: Sherbert Ballerina
– PreCard Set 03: Fashion Coordinates DX
– PreCard File

– Figma Mikasa Ackerman
– G.E.M. Series – 1/10 Scale Kamiya Taichi & Agumon
– G.E.M. Series – 1/10 Scale Ishida Yamato & Gabumon
– Mikoto’s Coin Replica X 10

So, this month, it seems that Bandai has a firm grip on my wallet with the continued release of Kamen Rider Gaim stuff (honestly, a KR series written by the same guy who wrote Madoka and Fate/Zero? It’s an Anime/Tokusatsu Fan’s wet dream!). But not only that, this month sees the start of Precure’s 10th Year Anniversary commemorative series, Happiness Charge Precure!

Like Kamen Rider, Precure has been a hit-and-miss with me when it comes to the individual series. For instance, Heartcatch was phenomenal, Suite was rather grating, 5 was a great ride, Futari will always remain a classic, so on and so forth. I didn’t have much time to follow Smile and Doki Doki to the end, but both didn’t captivate me from the start like some of the older series. Happiness Charge, however, is setting itself up to be a brilliant series that seems to be borrowing a TON of aspects from Heartcatch. The similarities are uncanny, but so far, it still manages to portray its own unique identity. Since Heartcatch is my favorite Precure series, I’m definitely holding high expectations for this one. Quirky but not overly annoying characters, intelligent mascot characters, great world building, clever gimmicks, it has everything going for it (thus far).

Speaking of the gimmicks, this is where this month’s acquisitions come into the picture. Featuring a very Kamen Rider Decade-ish card gimmick, the toys of Happiness Charge Precure improve upon that by leaps and bounds. The cards are now plastic (something I simply adore) and incorporate a paper dress-up doll-esque layering effect that is also magnificent. Can’t wait to get that upcoming set of cards featuring the previous generations of Cures that will unlock their transformation sounds and phrases in the DX PreChange Mirror.

With Bandai being so aggressive, I’m thankful that there wasn’t much in the way of other anime stuff (mainly because I haven’t been getting into any recent anime). We have that Mikasa figma from that show that everyone seems to be going crazy for, a whole set of replica Misaka coins (rant about that here) and… Digimon figures? Yup. Just like Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Macross and Precure, Digimon is celebrating an anniversary of its own. Finally, we get good figures of the human characters and I can’t say how glad I am to have them. However, truth be told, I would be even happier if we got figures of the female characters. (^.^;)

Out of curiosity, are blogs still the best way to go about sharing stuff? Being a complete amateur when it comes to social media, what other sites would you guys recommend? Facebook? Twitter? Google +?

Whatever the case, as always, thanks for reading and I’ll be seeing you guys in the next post.