Attack Mode, Metabee!

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and today I have am awesome collectable figurine to show off from an old show I use to love watching as a wee wipper snapper (okay, maybe not THAT old, but fairly old).

This is a figure of Metabee from the Medabots franchise.

First a little bit about the franchise: Medabots, alternatively Medarot, is a Japanese cartoons, manga and video game franchise based on large sentient robotic toys used to fight each other by children. It's essentially Pokémon with robots, but there is a twist to it (that I shan't spoil!)
Metabee here is the main character from the cartoon series. He is fiercely independent, snarky and temperamental, but very hard working and does develop a strong bond with his human "owner" Ikki.

Now for the toy itself. This one was developed by Bandai, for the D-Arts collection. Although I do not see anything about it on the packaging itself, it seems to have Revoltech maneuverability to it (not sure if that technology was applied to it).
I found this guy in Guangzhou's Comic City area, in a small shop and if memory serves well he cost me about 250RMB (roughly £22) if not cheaper. The box was not in wrapping seal, leading me to believe it is either second hand or taken from the factory. This is sadly pretty common in China. It could just be however that the wrapping seal was taken off to allow customers to look inside and inspect the goods beforehand, something they allowed me to do many times before making a purchase.

Anyways, without further ado, here are some pictures:

The box is a nice bright yellow to go with Metabee's colouring. The little window to view the toy inside is shaped like a Medal (the Medabot's soul/computer chip) which is pretty cool.

The box is a little damaged as you can see, but the figure within is secured very well.

The sides of the boxes are pretty cool. I'm particularly fond of the one that appears to give you Metabee's height measurements. 

And here's what's inside! 

I won't bother going into too much details in regards to the accessories. Instead I'll just show them on the figure itself via mostly cool poses! =P

Out the packaging... 

... and ready to Robattle!

Throwing a tantrum again!

Time to cool down, remove his medal!

The movability and pose-ability of this figure is great. The details are also great, not so much in that the figure looks "realistic" or anything, but that they included details in places you wouldn't think they'd need to bother, such as the exoskeleton of the face behind the visor! 

I must admit that one of the joints is sadly looser than the other but it doesn't affect the poses, so it's a small fault that I can live with. It is however not the only fault my Metabee came with. As mentioned above, there's a good chance this is second hand or a factory reject that was taken, some of the paint on the sides is worn off and one of the "eye visors" has a blotch on it. Luckily, the paint is not noticeable unless you look closely, and the eye blotch is not visible once put on the face.

I'd like to point out how awesome it is that the Medal is included as part of the accessories! I should warn you though, it's veeeerrrry small, so make sure to keep it safe and secure so not to lose it!

Eye blotch! Luckily not noticeable once on the figure.

Teeny Tiny Medal, barely a fraction of my palm.

Behind the mask.

Overall this is a purchase I'm quite happy with. I've seen this figure around on ebay, usually from a HK seller, with the toy itself usually going for around £35 and the shipping being ridiculous (international shipping, amaright?)

This figure is a must for anyone who has nostalgia for this old TV series, or who still follows the franchise (it's still surviving in Japan). It is very posable, not too expensive as far as D-Arts figures go and pretty unique as far as mechas go.

Good news to anyone who want more than just Metabee though, he has one of his old friends/rivals joining him in this collection =D

I'll leave you with that last picture above as a hint to what my next figurine post will be about ;)

Also don't forget that my next Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures series is coming up soon, preparations are on the way!

Lots to do, lots to open, lots to show!

See you all next time!

The Terrible Tyrant - Schleich's Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with a none-Pokémon related update!
"*GASP* Blasphemy!" I hear you cry. Calm down calm down, I'll have an update for that up soon.

For today, I want to show off my first Schleich dinosaur toy (as far as I'm aware). Of course I had to start with the king of kings, the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

I bought this toy in a regular toy store that was part of a sort of supermarket/mall hybrid in Guangzhou. It was quite expensive, about 200 RMB, that's about £18 roughly. This figure is available in most countries, generally around that price range. In the UK it goes for between £16-£20, so it's not like I got "ripped off" by because it was an important item or anything.

This T-Rex is from a collection known as "World of History" by Schleich. This is the 2012 sculpt. There is in fact 2014 sculpt out at the moment which looks more or less the same except for a few tweeks and a recolour.

The 2014 re-sculpt is of a light green colour, whereas this one is a dark green - which I personally prefer and why I chose it over the new one. In having said that though, there appears to be some other recolours going around on the market that look pretty sweet. I have not seen them myself but I'll link you to some pictures of them via the Dinotoyblog: The light green version, the gold version and the red stripy version. (Heads up: the two last links lead to the Dinotoyblog forum, you might need to scroll down the thread a little to find the images).

Now, lets take a closer look at this guy!

First thing's first. This guy is pudgy. I get the impression his body has been compacted slightly, perhaps to help with balance. The toy does have a big head and I can tell that the feet have been made bigger to help with the balancing, so who knows, maybe the rest of the body had to be modified for this reason too. It's not an issue to be honest, but it is obvious when you compare it to the more long, streamlined looking iterations of this animal in today's toys and media.

The paint job looks cool, it's not a dreary brown or grey, but it's not a vibrant explosion of colours either. A simple dark green, with yellow spots (for some reason), browns and yellow highlights. As a mentioned above, not as exciting as some of the recolours but in my opinion a lot better than the light green version.

Along with the stocky look and yellow spots they decided to give it a collection of very odd spots starting bellow the eyes, circling them almost and ending on its forehead. Why they did this when there is no evidence to suggest the T-rex had anything like this in real life I don't know. Maybe it's to highlight the scowl it seems to have.

For some reason they decided to give it an explosion of acne around the face and neck. Dino puberty? 

On the subject of accuracy; there is quite a bit wrong with this fella. I am by no stretch of the imagination a paleontologist - not even an amateur -  but I do know that this guy's hands are facing the wrong way. They should be facing inwards. There's also a distinct lack of feathers of any kind. 

These are not actually criticisms that bug me in any large way, the toy is just going by what the mainstream idea of what a dinosaur looks like. There are probably thousands of other inaccuracies that I can't identify that no one aside from an expert would really care about.

The toy itself is made of a hard plastic. It is not posable in anyway except for its mouth, that can open and shut. It's a toy that is clearly designed to look good and allow a kids imagination to do all the actual moving with. From my point of view as a collector, I have no problems with this. Its static pose makes it look more natural, like a moment caught on picture. It means it also lacks any visible seams, aside from the one connecting the neck and head/movable jaw.

Despite its pudgy build and unexciting colour pallet, I do overall like it. Its sculpt it very detailed, especially that mouth! (just look at its tongue), the paint is well applied and it stands upright perfectly well by itself. It's not the most accurate or dynamic of rex toys out there, but it's a cool addition to any collection. Unless you really don't like chicken feet, then avoid this one at all costs!

That's this little look at my first Schleich dino over, hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to update more often with more random collectables and Pokemon TCG stuff, of course.

Cya round!

Unboxing Danboard Mini

Hi all!

Amateur Collector here. Today I'm bringing you a most adorable little figurine. Based on a fictional character made up by another fictional character within a fictional story, I give you Danboard, AKA Danbo:

Danbo is from a very cute Japanese comic (AKA manga) called Yotsuba&! (pronounced Yotsubato.) It is a costume made of cardboard created by a character named Miura Hayasaka for a school project (and to freak out titular character Yotsuba.) Danbo has gathered a cult-following among the anime fandom and so as a result there are many figurines and other merchandise based on it available on the market. This particular one I got is called the Revoltech Danboard mini ("mini" due its small stature. It's about the size of my hand) by Kaiyodo. It only cost me 110 HKD which comes to about £8.30 in the UK and around $14 US. Already that's a good price, and it was the cheapest I found it at (other stores had it at about $118-125 HK.)

Now on to reviewing it! The packaging already has me drawn to it. It is made from actual brown cardboard with no bold colours or striking designs, which suits the character very well and makes it stand out from all the other showy boxed figures on the shelf. I bought the "basic" figure, but there are in fact several different editions of this same figurine and its packaging. If you're willing to pay a few extra dollars more (generally $25 HK more) you can get a Danbo with the figure and  packaging stamped with logos from actual brands, which makes the box seem more "authentic"... as well as provide some advertising for those companies of course haha. Check out this page belonging to collectiondx to see the other variations of this toy.

The other major feature of the packaging is the back:

The staring, the constant unblinking staring, aaaaaaaah!

Yup, Danbo's face is cut into the back of the packaging. It actually looks really cute with lots of personality, despite only being two small circles and a triangle.

Anyways, enough on the packaging, lets check out the figure itself. 

Come out, come out Danbo! It's time to play! 

The figure is quite small, about 7.5 cm tall (3 inches tall). It comes with a base and requires no additional assembly. 

Its arms are very moveable and its head has quite a bit of movement too. Sadly the legs are not as moveable. Overall the articulations and pose-ability is very limited but I guess that's only natural for something that's meant to be made from cardboard.

The figure stands well on the base it comes with, however I was a little annoyed that the sprew didn't go all the way in to the hole in the foot. The figure might also have a few issues with balance depending on how you pose it but otherwise stands up well.

I'm the king of this here castle, you're all nothing but dirty rascals!

Run Danbo! Run!

You might notice that Danbo has a switch on the side of its head. I initially thought it was a part of the design, but no, it does indeed serve a function.

Well, it turns out that the head is removable, and underneath you'll discover a little panel to open with a bit of clear plastic sticking out. If you remove the plastic you'll activate the batteries inside.

Underneath the head.

Pop the head back on and flip the switch and voila! Danbo has ominous glowing eyes!

Bear in mind, from what I have read these are small batteries that do not last long, though they seem to be replaceable.

So overall I'm very happy with this purchase. Yotsuba& is easily a favourite manga of mine and being able to own a great little figurine from that series for a really cheap price is fantastic. It's not the most posable and dynamic of figures out there, nor complex in its design; but it's cute and a must have for any fans of the series (and very cost effective for those who don't have much to spend!) 

That's it for today! Feel free to share and comment.

My next post will be another Pokémon TCG booster pack opening, so look forward to that. 

For those who are not interested in that, stay tuned anyways for further updates since I have more collectables and figures to post about!

Until next time,
Ciao!

Kinder surprises me with Kinder Bueno - Year of the Horse Collectable Keychains!

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here bringing you some interesting collectables from Asia!
Five months ago it was Spring Festival here in China (more commonly known as Chinese New Year in the Western world), and with it all sorts of stores, products and services had promotions going on for the Year of the Horse. One that caught my eye was by Kinder Bueno.

Kinder is famous for its Kinder Surprise line of chocolates; a chocolate egg with a small collectable toy in it, with several to collect. But surprisingly it was their Kinder Bueno line that had a collectable promotion going on for Chinese New Year. In the supermarket I came across boxes with Bueno bars in them and a horse keychain titled... well I'm not too sure, sadly my Chinese character reading is very limited (feel free to comment below what the box says if you know!)

Anyway, here is a picture of some of the keychains (two out the box and one still in packaging):

The right hand horse is "乱码“ (luanma), which according to online dictionaries is a 'disorganised coding of text'. It's also a play on words, with "luanma" sounding like (乱马) which I think means "Confused Horse" or "Messy Horse", which is why it has all this jumbled writing on it as well as a look of confusion on its face.

 The one on the left hand side is "二维码" (erweima) which is a 2-D code, with the "码/马" play on words also being used here.

The one in the box is named “神马” (shenma) which I would translates roughly as "Holy Horse" or "Divine Horse", but according to nciku 神 could as well be "immortal", "god", "absolute", or more (I guess that explains why it has a halo in the picture below!)

The back of the box showing all the keychains to be collected.

Currently I own four of these, the only one I'm currently missing is the 'merry-go-round' horse (i.e. the pink one). The store didn't have this one in stock and I couldn't find any other stores that had this promotion going on. It's been months now and these collectables are discontinued, Spring Festival has been over for a while now after all! My only other hope to get my hands on that pink one is either through ebay or via someone on here. If anyone knows where I can find the missing keychain or has one to sell or trade let me know! Contact me either through my blog here or on my youtube account The Amateur Collector. 

I find these keychains adorable, highly stylised and highly collectable (just look at how unique each one is from one another) and just an overall a good idea for a promotion - not to mention they came with delicious Kinder Bueno! Well done Kinder!

Keep tuned folks, I have more dinosaur, collectable and Pokémon related stuff to show!

Till next time!

I'm back! And I've brought company (miniature movable 3-D Dino puzzle)

Hi all!

I'm back after a long leave of absence, and with a few collectables to make up for that.

Before I start sharing a few cool collectables I've acquired recently, I'd like to explain why I was gone for so long. Although I mentioned in my last post that I was not going to be able to come on often if at all, I never gave much details as to why other than "I'm going to be abroad". Well, I am abroad and working. specifically as a teacher in Guangzhou, China.

You may or may not know this, but Youtube, Blogger and various other video, blog and social sites in China are blocked. This is the main reason I was not able to maintain any blog or video updates. That as well as the fact that Pokémon merchandise is not sold out here, at least not legally and unlikely in English. So that made any Pokémon TCG Opening Adventuring plans impossible.
On the plus side, I have a VPN so I'll now be able to access certain websites including youtube/blogger, and I'm in Guangzhou - the manufacturing heart of the world. If there is one place to randomly come across cheap collectables this is the place. In having said that though, Geekdom is even more niche out here than in most other countries (which is saying something cause lets face it, it's very niche even in West despite growing mainstream acceptance) so don't expect that many updates.

Anyways, enough babbling and back to collecting. Here is the first collectable I bought in China; a 3-D dinosaur puzzle!!

This is a puzzle I found in a small quirky store in Shenzhen's Children's Palace mall. There were several different puzzles to get including Tyrannosaurus, a gorilla, a rhino, a Xenomorph from Alien, some zombies from an app game I've never played (sorry totally blanking on the title), etc. I opted to go for a Triceratops. This little brute (now named Lil' Dude) cost me 25 RMB, that roughly £2.50 which isn't bad at all. I'm not in a position to translate the name of this product right now, but I can at least spot a "Vv Life" (I'll more into this as I buy more of these puzzles.)

As you can see from the image on the packaging it's not just a 3-D puzzle, but a kinetic one at that! It walks! 

Now let me admit, I'm rubbish at complicated puzzles and this was not made easy by the small parts and a very, very tiny little basic instruction manual. The manual was literally the size of one of those supermarket receipts you get at the checkout till.

So many incy wincy peaces!

After about an hour of squinting at the manual and putting everything together I finally finished and ended up with this handsome fella:

 
(sorry for the poor picture quality)

Handsome fella indeed, but there is a catch. He can't walk properly. For what ever reason the little motor doesn't get the dinosaur moving, no matter how much you wind it up. It's a real shame, but considering I got this for such a low price (I bet this would cost twice the amount back in the UK) I can't complain too much.

Overall I'm happy with this guy and hope to continue the collection. I think I'll focus on the 3-D dinosaurs first, then the animals and work my way up to the Xenomorph.

Well I'll end this here. Glad to be back and hope to make more of an appearance. Till next time!

Pokemon TCG Openings - Adventure Begins!

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and I am eager to share with you a little project I'm going to get started.

But first a little exposition. (if you're not interested in that, skip to the 4th paragraph!)

One of my all time favourite franchises is Pokémon. I've been a fan of it ever since it came out in my country. I had always enjoyed comics, cartoons, toys, etc- when I was young but Pokémon is what solidified my love for these things. Pokémon Red was the first video game I ever owned, The Electric Tale of Pikachu was the first manga title I ever owned and the original Pokémon cartoon is what renewed my interest in Japanimation. Needless to say, I owe a fair amount to this franchise.

Sadly there is one thing I failed to keep up with and that was the Pokémon TCG. It's something I would have continued pursuing for all these years if not for other interests, money and peer pressure. Yes sadly it got continuously hard to find others to play with as time went on, and increasingly more expensive to continue buying too.
But no more, i say!
My interest was peeked again when I started looking up the value of some of my old cards to sell off, but instead came across loads of sites and videos of peoples' collections. In particular videos on youtube of people opening up boosters packs brought on a flood of nostalgia and I just fell back in love with these cards.

And so this is where my project comes in. Over the past month and a half I have been stockpiling a little collections of Pokémon TCG merchandise, all unopened! What I plan to do is to record me opening them up one by one and uploading the videos onto youtube and here, so as to chronicle and share with everyone my re-discovering of the Pokémon cards! I plan to have a steady flow of videos throughout the weeks to upload of booster packs, promotional boxes, blisters, tins and whatever else I got my hands on. This will include cards from all sorts of different sets, from old to new- I have a lot of catching up to do after all!
And here's a taster of what I have to open:

So if you're interested in sharing in the adventure don't hesitate to follow me on this blog and/or subscribe to my youtube account at The Amateur Collector.

Let the journey begin!

Blog Start!

Hi all!

I'm the Amateur Collector and this is my blog.
I'm a self confessed geek and have an interest in most things related to fandom. This includes but is not limited to games, sci-fi, animation, toys and collectables, comics and more.

I'm just an average person in real life with little time and disposable income. But I decided despite of that I should still follow my hobbies and interests, even if I only get to delve into them from time to time. And so, I have started to this blog to chronicle and share in my (albeit slowly) growing collection of stuff, and I have a little project to start this going which I'll post in my next blog update- straight after this one!

For now, don't hesitate to follow if you're interested in geek-related paraphernalia and are curious to see what kind of things I'll be putting up!

Till next time!