Author: tharglet

Box o’ Random Part 2

So let’s start with the stuff from series I’ve watched/know about.

First up is a Sheryl Nome gacha figure (she’s from Macross):

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I was considering buying this gacha figure on eBay at one point, think i was looking at an auction for this and some other Macross figures. She isn’t in pristine figure, but I don’t think the marks show up quite as clearly irl. Was a mild pain to put together with no instructions, but worth it :). 

Next, a Nanoha Nendoroid Petit:

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This one even came with the instructions! No box though. Her arms are a bit odd, and she doesn’t hold the weapon terribly well, so I can see why someone would want to trade this one in… but she’s still cute and lookin’ awesome, so decided to have her balance her weapon on her arm, instead of hold it 2-handed. 

Alicia Testarossa, also from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha:

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Never watched the series, but I do like the character designs. Have a feeling I wouldn’t be a fan of the show, but I’ll probably watch some of it at some point, as it seems pretty prevalent in the anime community. 

Tiiiny little Vocaloid figure of Kagamine Len:

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This teensy dude is about 3cm tall, and is sat on top of one of my monitors. Looks far nicer than the Poundland fodder he replaced (a Predasaur). 

Shana from Shakugan no Shana:

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Keep running into stuff from this series, but never consumed any of the media from it. Maybe I should put the anime on my to-watch list, lol. 

And now a character from Bakemonogatari, another series I keep running into merch for, but haven’t researched/watched:

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Love this little figure, nice and brightly coloured, with the autumnal theme. Her name is Sengoku Nadeko. Nearly thought she was just a “box remnant”, what with having no feet, until I found the base. 

And here’s two things from an anime I’ve never heard of, that’s called “My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute”.

This is a character called Gokou Ruri, sat on a character called Comet-Kun:

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… probably should have dusted it a bit before taking that pic.

And this is a character called Makishima Saori:

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The first one I like, the second one is… OK. And that concludes this part of the box o’ random. Some nice selections of smaller stuff here, enough to be deffo not disappointed by this box. 

Bag o’ Random Part 1

This post will cover the expected bits, plus an unexpected item, which pretty much made the box worth it on its own.

So what is this unexpected mystery item? A stand!

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These Play Arts Kai stands can be quite useful, and tend to be pretty expensive to get a hold of on their own, so this one was a welcome addition, It also came with a few different sized “arms”, one of which I’ve used so I can set a figure further back on the shelf it is sat on. I don’t currently have any large figures in need of it, but I won’t be surprised if I eventually use it. It did come with one claw with the screws in, but I suspect it originally would have come with more screws & nuts. Not an issue for me, as I have a ton already, lol. 

Next up, the Rei I saw in the packet… plus the Asuka that goes with her!

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The Rei especially needed a good scrub. Looking closely at the Mandarake pic of the package, you can actually see Asuka’s feet sticking up. Super-happy this pair was in here, as they’re designed to go together and it’s Evangelion. 

Photo showing Asuka more clearly:

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Next up, the EVA-01 that I saw sticking out:

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He’s got a bit of an interesting smooth and almost-soft plasticy texture to him. He has a limited amount of articulation, but is decently sculpted and painted. He seems to be too nice to be a bootleg (even the bottoms of his soles have been detailed and painted!), but no idea what he is, and couldn’t find him on MFC. On his leg he has the following: “© k.G”, and underneath that “B China 19131″. 

And finally… what did that beach base belong to?

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C.C. from Code Geass! She sells for around the same price as I bought the box for, so yeah, was worth it :). Though I did have to give her a good ol’ scrub down first, and there are some minor marks. With the ball, I have it white-tacked to her hand – I thought you were supposed to be able to wedge it in her hands, but it was, uh, not playing ball, so I just white-tacked it. After looking up pictures, I found out that there’s a stand for the beach ball, and it was actually included in the box. Not sure I’m going to bother with it though, as it looks a little naff. 

Figure from another angle:

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So that concludes the larger items in the box. Tomorrow, some of the smaller items in the box. 

Urban Mine Bag o’ Random

Was browsing the Urban Mine auctions (again!), but only to find there’s less of them and mostly bags o’ stuff. So I combed through all the pics, looking for ones that were potentially worth the postage price. 

Finally I settled bidding on this one:

I chose this one due to the EVA-01 arm sticking out and the Rei to the left. There was also the beach stand that could potentially be something exciting… or just a stand. One never knows with these bags of stuff, and there’s no guarantee anything is complete. 

So a couple of weeks later, I got two boxes from Mandarake. A heavy box containing this stuff, and the Metatron figures I posted about yesterday.

Upon opening the bag above, and having a leaf through, the vast majority of the stuff was really dirty, so off to the sink it went:

Not the usual contents of my draining rack! Surprisingly, most stuff cleaned up a lot better than I thought it would. 

Yep, not the usual contents at all:

As there’s quite the pile of stuff, the next few posts will be detailing and showcasing what I got in my bag o’ stuff. 

Double the Metatron

Been considering buying these since getting the other Eikoh prize figures. These ones tend to go for a bit more on most sites, but on Mandarake they’re around the same price as the others. Initially I was considering one of the other… in the end it was both 😛

So, first up, Dark Archangel Metatron:

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Top-down-ish view:

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Love the colours, and the double-wings looks really good. Assembly was smooth, the wings were clearly keyed (not that it’s hard to work out which went where), the book I had to take a bit of care to ensure I didn’t snap the pole it goes on. 

And now for Archangel Metatron:

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This one was a pain in the backside to assemble, with having to balance her on three poles at once. There’s also a paint flaw on top of her lower left wing (not shown in the pics) where there’s a small dot of missing yellow paint. Bit of a shame, but displayed in the right place, it isn’t visible. 

Out of the two, I prefer the Dark version of her, but both are welcome additions to my collection. 

Displays!

I have bought two new Gnedbys secondhand, and have now filled up my second rail o’ trinkets. 

So here are the Gnedbys at time of posting (I’m sure more stuff will be on them by the time anyone reads this :P).

One in the hall:

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One in the spare room (and this has changed just prior to time of writing :P):

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And the hanging stuff in the study:

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The Harley and Poison Ivy keyrings came from Gloucester Comic Con, and the Hera-Is from Puzzles & Dragons and Irma from Final Fantasy (either side of Ryuk, in the middle) came from a comic book shop in London. The other pieces have either been previously featured in this blog, or obtained before I started doing it. 

Small Miscellany!

Here’s some little bits that I’ve picked up, that probably don’t need a whole blog post of their own. 

First up, two small bits from the Gloucester action figure shop, Mystique and a Lizard dude from Spiderman:

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An Illidan figure from Blizzard’s Cute But Deadly range. Sadly didn’t come with the base, but fortunately he stands up on his own (was looking into modify a base for him, but he doesn’t really need it):

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Love these little figures, but they were pricey! I’ve now got all the series 2 ones I want. Still may pick up a Kerrigan from series 1 if one comes up cheap enough, but not really mad over owning one (seeing as I don’t play SC). 

And finally, a dog alien from Konami’s Alien series:

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And that’s the last one of the Konami figures I wanted! Other ones I’m not so bothered about – mostly the ships, which go for a lot and I care less about them than the xeno ones. If I saw a ship one going cheap, I’d probably pick it up, but I’m not actively searching for them any more. 

And that concludes my little stuff 😀 

Asuna, Asuna and Rei

I bought the Asunas as a pair, from someone on a Facebook buy-sell group. The Rei was one I nearly bought from a Facebook seller, but theirs was without box, and there was a Japanese seller I’ve used before on eBay who had one boxed for cheaper. So I went with that one instead. I do intend to move one day, so I prefer to have the boxes for figures, if possible. 

So here’s Rei and the first Asuna:

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As this is on an upper shelf, the paper doesn’t show from ground-level, and looks OK. I love the Rei figure – it’s a bit shiny, and I love the Rei figures with the transparent hair. The swimsuit Asuna is also nice, and is quite striking, in its simple way.

The other Asuna, fairy Asuna:

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She’s a nice figure, but the condition wasn’t 100%. There were a couple of marks on her, which I did manage to erase mostly (one on her back is a bit visible still, but can’t be arsed to completely get rid of it), and she’s a bit unstable on her base, which I may get around to fixing, if it’s ever an issue. Looks like the peg hole the water peg goes in has got a little duffed up, but it’s not a visible factor when displayed. She’s a nicely detailed figure, and happily sits on the fireplace, next to swimsuit Saber XD. 

Star Wars Vehicles

And here’s something random and left-of-field for me: some Star Wars vehicles. Whilst I’m not big into Star Wars, I do find some of the vehicle and character designs really neat. Went in the Cash Converters to look at the random crap, and let my husband roam the electricals section. 

They had a huge bunch of these De Agostini Star Wars vehicles, and set myself a limit of picking my two favourite. Which turned into 3 😛

First up was a no-brainer for me, as I have a thing for Grievous:

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A cool vehicle to match up with a cool character design :). The details in these small models is impressive. 

Next up, something that caught my eye with its unique outline and clear display of weaponry:

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I’ve placed the backdrops behind these, as it does help reflect the light and show them up more, on the shelves they live on. 

And a ship style I’m a sucker for… long, thin and pointy:

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And here’s a shot showing the top (and what it is :P):

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They did come with a plastic tub you can leave on top of them but I find it obscures them too much. The magazines did come with them too, but haven’t got around to reading them, as of the time I’m writing this blog. However, I did have a flick through, and there’s diagrams of the vehicles, which is neat. Probably a bunch of interesting things in the words too, when I get around to reading them. And not sleeping off the cold/flu thing I had recently 🙁

Gloucester Antique Centre

If one trip to Gloucester wasn’t enough…. I went again… the following week. Due to the rainstorms, I never got to go to the Gloucester New Antiques Centre, and still really wanted to go. Managed to talk my husband into going, and he wasn’t disappointed, lol. An amazing place with a lot of things and unexpected finds.

First up, I bought a Warcraft Mystery Mini. The box was sealed, but managed to get a character I’m happy with, Blackhand:

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Neatly detailed, but deffo some sloppy paintwork on it (not really taken pics that shows the wandering paint blobs). I paid around half the going rate, which I think was a fair price to pay. I find the RRP a bit much to pay for these. 

And the super-random finds… Evangelion merch!

First up

Nagisa Kaworu:

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He’s supposed to come with a pole & clip, but this one didn’t have it. He doesn’t really need it though, and hasn’t leaned much. If he does, I’ll warm him up and give him a good straightening. He was on the stand backwards when I bought him, and turning him around made him stand up straighter… lol. 

And a figure that I’ve seen online, that I’ve weirdly wanted, but couldn’t really justify getting imported, of Ikari Shinji:

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A lesser quality than those in the Portraits range, but a rather stand-out trading figure, which is why I wanted to pick it up. 

Eaglemoss Alien Queen

Suddenly…. a wild super-large box appears! Wasn’t quite prepared for the size of this one. Thought they must have padded the box for the figure, but nope, it was taking up the whole of the box sent!

For a metal-based figure, this thing is large. It came as three separate pieces – the tail, her body and the base. Once assembled, it’s rigid, and I’m not worried about it disassembling itself, so that’s good. The detailing and paintwork are both nice. Due to my shit lighting, the base looks a bit arse in the post-editing, but Eaglemoss has some high-quality photos.

And here’s more of my derpy ones:

This last picture has less editing, so the base looks much more like it does irl. Went hunting for a discount code (which I found!) as I thought I might be slightly disappointed by it but nope… totally happy I got this one. With the code, I’d say it was worth it. 

Lara and… Lara

Bought these from an action figure and other geekery store in Gloucester. On the same day as the con. As if I didn’t spend enough money there 😛

First up, this one is currently decorating my box-boxes. I put all of my figure boxes in 80L tubs, and once one or two are full, I take them up into the loft. 

So here’s Lara and a Doberman:

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And here’s Lara with a tiger:

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The “spear” in her hand is a magic arrow from the NECA Sylvanas figure, seen in an earlier post. Not really sure how you’re supposed to combine it with Sylvanas (and other people who have reviewed her aren’t sure either!) but thought it looked perfect in Lara’s hand :D. Was also pleased this one fits quite neatly into the “new” Gnedbys I got recently (full pic coming in a later post). 

Gloucester Comic Con

Went to yet another con (yeah, bank balance miiight be lookin’ at me funny) and yep, bought some more stuff! 

First up, we have Sylvanas, my favourite of the things I picked up. Been trying to find this online, and so few places are selling it… basically only eBay sellers, and none of the retailers would provide any info of if they have it in stock/will have it in stock. Plenty of Raynor, either for sale or pre-order but no Sylvanas! Fortunately I spied her at an OK price at the con, and just had to buy her:

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Yeah, she’s a weird shade o’ blue, but other than that, she’s well-painted and sculpted. The cape came out better than I was expecting, and is a decent bit of material… not packed particularly well in the box though. I’m a bit of a sucker for Sylvanas so had to get this. 

Next up, an alien warrior. Kinda wish I didn’t buy this, as it isn’t in great condition, so it gets to live in a slightly random corner:

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Next up, a little Doc Oc:

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Bought it from the same dealer I bought some stuff from in one of the other cons, he was cheap n’ cute, so picked him up. 

And finally, Ursol from Dark Crystal (a Reaction figure):

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And just to show her longitude:

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Looking at the eBay sold listings, I paid a fair price for her. A nicely detailed figure, with the added bonus of it annoying my husband. who really dislikes the Skeksis. Is a little bit of sloppy painting if you look too closely, but on the whole a nice figure imo. 

Ame-Comi Brainiac!

Had this one shipped all the way from the US. Once I knew it existed, I had to get it, and managed to find one reasonably priced… mostly because the box had seen far better days. Impatiently waited for this, especially as it took the seller at least 5 days to dispatch:

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And here’s her back, also pretty:

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An’ a side shot for good measure:

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Really love this figure, and it is nicely detailed. Am a bit of a sucker for cyborg creations, so this figure is right up my alley. Used to play DCUO, so kinda got into Brainiac and his creations there. 

One downside of this figure was how they designed the packaging – one thing I’d read up about this figure was how it rubs against the packaging, and my was certainly not an exception:

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Fortunately the missing paint on the middle dot isn’t very visible to the naked eye, so it doesn’t dent my enjoyment of this figure. Glad I was able to pick this figure up at a reasonable price, as most were more expensive base price & shipping. Also there wouldn’t have been a guarantee that the paint wouldn’t be scratched, even if I was paying more, as it was a noted issue with this figure. 

Man-Bat

This figure was also bought at Forbidden Planet, alongside Catwoman and the redstone ore. Here are some shots of him up-close:

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The articulation on this dude is rather disappointing, especially what they’ve done with the wings. Was hoping for a bit of flex and poseability, but there is none to be had :(. Still a cool-looking figure though. 

Here he is taking on Koto’s dog alien:

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I decided I wanted to display him dangling, so I had another bar put in on one of the Ikea cubby holes:

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Awesome to have him dangling there, also takes up “wasted space” where I can’t put much else :). 

Saber, Catwoman & Cube

Un-hiatusing my blog! First off, we have Saber and Catwoman:

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Saber I bought from an MFC user, and collected on a trip down to London, Catwoman was purchased from Forbidden Planet…. also in London. 

Here are some closeups of Saber:

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A simple, yet attractive figure. Happy with this one, though she does like to drop her sword now and then.

Onto Catwoman:

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Love the detailing and paint job on this figure… but… she has no stand holes! Which makes her more than a little annoying to pose, and you can’t really pose her dynamically, without her falling over. After she fell over a couple of times, I resorted to putting a glue dot under her foot, which has fixed the problem, at least for now. One other minor disappointment is you really want to put the side whip in the hole provided, otherwise she has a weird dent on her side. Would’ve been nice to have something else to go there, whilst she’s holding her whip. 

And for the Bonus Item:

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… redstone cube! This was sold as “Broken: light not working”, so I got it for £4. One strategic disassembly later, my husband saw it and kindly soldered the switch back to the board. It has a switch that dangles midair in the cube, which is formed of two cylinders. When the cube is hit, the switch is triggered. To make it sensitive enough, it has two long, thin legs, and this had snapped. One solder job later and it was fully working :). 

It has three levels of brightness, which it cycles through when you hit it:

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As it is aimed at kids, it also turns off after 5 minutes, which is minorly disappointing, but ah well, I won’t be flattening the battery any time soon. Gets pretty bright too, which is nice. Currently sits in random parts of the house, wherever I feel the need for more redstone 😛

Protector Of Earth

Whilst perusing the eBays, I found this dude going for a decent price, so picked him up.

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He was already constructed in the box, so didn’t need to build him… though his arms fell off, so had to work out which way round those went :P. 

And here’s a side view:

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Did want to add him to “earth corner” with my other earth Bionicles, but there wasn’t enough room… so he’ll have to be alone somewhere else, until I go for a rearrange. 

Shiro & Co

Someone was selling this on MFC, and almost didn’t go for it – was a bit more than the re-release would be, but wouldn’t involve waiting 6+ months for it. This is now my most expensive figure!

Here she is in her box:

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And here she is outta the box:

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Top-down view, with her holding the globe:

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Closeup of her face, without the globe obscuring it:

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And here’s her chibi-mates she comes with:

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Overall, I’m happy with the figure, though it was a lotta money to shell out in one go. She has a space in one of the Detolfs… don’t wanna risk this one getting damaged :P. 

Dark Void

This figure I picked up just after the con at MT Games. Who also had a stall at the con. 

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Small figure, came unboxed, but was cheap. Never did play the game, but I always liked the look of the artwork as a kid, so I decided to pick this up.

Here’s a pic of the side and one of the back:

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Bionicle Comic

Saw this as I wandered around the supermarket, and decided to grab it as I have a few of the Bionicle Lego sets:

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That, and it came with two things, which makes it more worth the £5 asking price. As expected, the comic wasn’t much to look at. However, the figures were a bit more than I was expecting. I also appreciated that the sets were in resealable packets – means I didn’t have to destroy the packaging to get the stuff out (and I can put the mini-sets back in the bags if I choose to put them away at a later date). 

First one lived up to my expectations:

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Yep. It’s a pretty basic Skull Scorpion. Does the job of being a small thing. 

Side view:

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However, the second had an interesting feature. So here’s Ekimu’s hawk:

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…. but what’s that he’s standing on?

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Ekimu! One of the sets I do have ;). Originally his shield is to be placed on his arm, but with this hawk set, you get a clip to store his shield on his hip, and can then put the hawk on his arm :D. So this one exceeded expectations and does look rather nifty with Ekimu! Maybe if I had remembered his name, this would have come as less of a surprise, lol. 

Here is Ekimu back on his shelf:

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Whilst I have Ekimu, he’s a retired set, so I can see this magazine purchase potentially being awkward for younger fans without this particular set… though you could sit him on the arm of another Bionicle, or sit him on the part that goes into Ekimu’s hip, as pictured on the packet. Bionicle is going through a bit of a weird time right now, though still find it a bit on the odd side they release an addon to a retired set. I’m not complaining though!

WSM Comic Con – Yamato Intron Depot figures

So for these… initially picked one of them up, asked how much it was, expecting it to be something that I’d maybe buy one or two of them for. In the end, I picked up all but one, and paid for those to start with. Wasn’t so interested in the 6th – the silver octopus dude – but he let me have it for cheap, and in the process I realised I bought an entire set… so that’s a rarity for me! An entire set of something!

Here they are in all their boxes:

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Some of the boxes were certainly the worse for wear, but they were all still sealed. 

And here they all are outta the boxes:

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When I was adding them to MFC, I realised that the catlike one is the “special” gold version, and not the one on the packet XD. Initially I thought it was just inaccurate box art, but nope, ‘tis the unadvertised version… so technically still one away from a set 😛