Anime Boston Roundup

This past weekend was Anime Boston. I figured I would write up a quick convention report, tho it's actually taken me a long time to finish because I came back from the convention to about 40 tons of work this week... >.<

Anime Boston was where I bought my very first Pinky:St doll some 6 years ago. (Before that fateful purchase, I had a nice neat room with hardly any toys... *sigh*) I am not sure, but I think I actually bought her from HLJ! I don't recall for sure, but I know HLJ did come to AB either the next year or the year after. They didn't bring tons of stuff with them, but I miss the days when they attended. I also remember I bought my first Pinkys because they were on sale on the last day and thus super-cheap. The last day sales are not as frequent these days, you are sort of lucky to find anything on sale at all. You might think this is something else we can blame on the economy being bad, since that is the problem of the day. However, it's more the opposite - everyone seems to go so crazy buying stuff there's just no need to put it on sale! I didn't get to do any of my own shopping for like 3 hrs after the hall opened on the first day, and I swear half the stuff was already purchased by then. Ok, maybe not, but it sure seemed like it! So it's possible when I say there was none of something that it was actually just bought before I got there, but at least for the Pinkys, I sort of think it's just that they are not very popular anymore. Sad. :(

At any rate, I try to take pictures of Suu (my first Pinky) at the convention, but I didn't do very well this year and only got one photo.



Happy Birthday Suu! (Suu probably had her most fun visiting the convention back in 2007. Follow the story here: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, and Page 7.)

Back on my original topic (a sad lack of things I wanted to buy... XD) I only found two stands selling re-ment! This was really surprising to me! I don't think that re-ment is less popular - I mean, it's never been incredibly popular to begin with (I don't think re-ment collectors storm the anime conventions ;P) but it usually seems to be something you can count on finding. I am not sure if the change was because there's been so many straps lately, or if it's just because there's no longer a US branch office. I kind of think it might be more the latter than the former. I see plenty of places at the convention selling cute straps, so I don't see why they would totally boycott the re-ment ones. It must be more that it's hard to find? But maybe it just really isn't popular. I know from talking to the AniMadness guys that they don't really want to carry it anymore because no one buys it. That's sad too. :(

So... basically this just left me with plushies! And oh there were *plenty* of plushies that tempted me.





I tried to restrain myself tho, because I have so many already, and there's just no room for them. But there really were a lot of cute ones! I feel like I bought surprisingly little, overall, I really expected to buy more. Here's what I bought:



Here's a better look at the pins I bought in the artist alley.



And a better view of the super cute necklace I got from one of my friends.



And since this is not flickr, I can provide you with a link to her shop. ;)

All of the plushies I bought are of Kutusitanyanko and his friends. He is currently the main exception to my 'no plushies' rule because a. I love him and b. he is not as crazy plentiful as Hello Kitty so my collection can not snowball out of control quite as fast. Not that it has not snowballed mind you, just not as *fast*.

There were many reasons I didn't go crazy with buying stuff this year besides self-control. XD One is that I was just kind of busy with other things and didn't get to lurk around the dealer's hall as much as I might have liked to. Another is that with all my trips to New York and AniMadness and the Sanrio stores I've been visiting (way too) regularly, I don't have all that much pent-up need for things. And lastly, and maybe related to the previous point, I just didn't feel like there was all that much that was so special I had to have it. So I figured why not save my money for another doll? (Or, you know, other stuff in my life. I have enough non-hobby expenses, unfortunately...)

And speaking of dolls, doll stuff was some of what I did at the convention. I tried for the second time to organize a pullip meetup. There's always a BJD meetup at AB, but I have been really wanting to do our own meet because I don't have a BJD and I don't hang around on the BJD forums. So even tho it's not like I feel unwelcome at the BJD meets (not at all!) it just seems like it would be more fun to have a meet with the type of dolls I collect. I did go to the friday BJD meet too, briefly. I couldn't get over there until it was half over, and after having been on my feet for like 4 hrs already, I was way too happy to sit. So not many pictures ensued.



There were several folks at the meet recruiting for a new forum (New England Resin Doll Society), tho I am not sure if I will join or not, since I'm barely contributing at the moment to the forums I'm on currently... (wah! need more time!) Also, there is the whole "no resin in my collection" thing.

Anyway, back to the topic of Pullip meets. Unfortunately, neither this year or year's meet were terribly well attended. I thought last year that maybe I could improve this year if I picked just one time, was firm about it, and handed out fliers. But I still only got 3 people. >.< Partially this was because it rained that day, but who knows, maybe also the day I picked was bad (?), but the result is that I think I'm giving up on convention doll meets. I'll still go, and I'll still have dolls with me, I'm just not trying to organize anything. Maybe I'll hand out fliers for a later meetup at Animadness or something, we'll see. That said, even if the meetup was small and quick, it was still fun! Thanks to everyone who did come! :)



As of this moment, I think I've got about 4 more pictures to upload, so if you want to check out my whole set of Anime Boston photos, you should click here. :)

Easter

This particular post may be more of an afterthought than anything else, but I had a few easter pictures and felt like I should share them, even tho - as I mentioned earlier - I mostly thought this year's easter offerings were kind of blah. I didn't see any Hello Kitty village houses, or even really any hello kitty stuff in general. Even the stuff I saw from the sanrio store seemed to have been recycled from last year.

I did see one really fun thing with Hello Kitty, this was at Kmart:



I didn't buy it tho b/c the only thing I really wanted was the pencil case. I love the overall effect of it more than I really like any of the other individual items...

The only Sanrio thing (aside from the easter baskets - which also looked very similar to last year - tho I guess I don't have a photo? lazy lazy lazy) that I saw at Target was these stickers:





here's the back too, since I like that they always do a related design on the back of the package instead of just reusing the same image each time....



I think the cutest thing I saw was actually NOT sanrio, and NOT at Target (le gasp!). I was making one of my rare forays into Wal-Mart and saw this cutie:



This is Angel Cat Sugar. I think she's a cute little thing, tho I don't know a lot about who designs her or makes her. She seems to pop up pretty frequently tho these days. So in the spirit of a good blog post, I just went to look her up, and it's no wonder I like her! It appears she was created by the same person who designed Hello Kitty?! Well, that gives her that much more appeal, I guess! Angel Cat Sugar is not, however, a Sanrio product. However, looking at the website's contact page, it seems she has been licensed all over, so it's no wonder I see her everywhere lately!

Yuko Shimizu, who created both kitties, has also created another character recently, I see, called Rebecca BonBon. I've never heard of this one before! That's probably not surprising, since it looks like mostly they are selling products featuring this character at Sears and Kmart - neither of those are stores I shop at often. The characters is really cute, and I could see a lot of people liking her - but yeah, I am not sure how much *anyone* shops at Sears and Kmart anymore. (am I wrong?) When you click on "shopping" part of the page, whether you click on Sears or Kmart, you get the same info. I think maybe Sears and Kmart are now owned by the same company? I can't remember, but that would explain that anyway. It looks like mostly all that is available for this character, however, is clothes (click on the look book). Hopefully someday they will make some other stuff - and maybe sell it somewhere else!

Anyway, back on topic of easter, these baskets made a late appearance at my Target, but they were pretty cute:







The other notable (cute!) thing I saw at Target was this Peter Rabbit candy:



Much too cute to actually eat tho!



There were also new holiday Kelly dolls, which I kept thinking about taking pictures of, but apparently never did. They are the 'new' Kelly, who has a different name, and a taller and skinnier body, but still, it's nice to see Target going back to doing the Kelly-type dolls rather than the mini B's.

There's also a new version (with softer fur) of my friend the ridiculous sheep (doll not included):



He was only $5. I think I may go back and buy a second sheep, tho I'm resisting, because how many sheep can I have room for? Am tempted to buy it and some RIT dye tho, so I can have a black sheep... >.>

Finally, these are not for Easter, really, but duckies are like chicks, and chicks are for easter, right? ^^;



Anyway, they are cute!

And that's all I've got for Easter! Not a whole lot. But to shift topic a bit, this weekend is, of course, Earth Day in addition to Easter. So in that spirit, I noticed Mattel issuing this press release:

April 20, 2011 09:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Mattel Plays Responsibly with "Design It, Make It, Live It" Sustainability Strategy

Toy maker showcases efforts, from establishing "green" grant for Earth Day 2011 to packaging improvements and employee culture enhancements

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mattel, Inc. today announced how the company continues to play responsibly with its "Design It, Make It, Live It" sustainability strategy, marking progress in many areas across the global organization to reduce impacts and instill a mindset of sustainability among its workforce.

...boring quote cut...

Mattel's sustainability strategy is focused on helping the company minimize its footprint throughout the value chain and across the organization, and emphasizes the importance of personal commitment in business as well as everyday practices and processes. First, by "designing it" with the end in mind, Mattel is focused on exploring opportunities for sustainability in the design of products and packaging; "making it" with eco-efficiencies that allows the company to identify opportunities to gain efficiencies and reduce environmental impacts through the manufacturing and distribution of its products; and by "living it" with the personal commitment that the company is fostering a culture of sustainability, which inspires employee-led grassroots initiatives.

Examples of Mattel's sustainability progress include:

* Packaging Improvements: In an effort to reduce packaging materials, Mattel has reduced wire/twist ties by more than 90 percent across the company's product lines. In addition, Mattel recently completed a life cycle assessment of packaging across multiple product lines to identify impacts and opportunities for future improvements.
* Resource Expeditions: Mattel continually seeks out ways to conserve energy and water across the organization, and has implemented employee-led resource expeditions that identify opportunities for improvements. To date, Mattel has conducted 16 global expeditions and identified more than 250 initiatives with a potential savings of 22 million kWh and nine million gallons of water, which is equivalent to removing 2,000 U.S. homes from the electricity grid for one year and 13 Olympic-sized swimming pools respectively.
* Composting: Mattel's manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico, opened one of the region's largest composting facilities in May 2010. The composting facility handles more than 50 kgs of food scraps from the facility's cafeteria, as well as materials including coffee waste, paper and hand towel waste. The composting facility diverted nearly 15.6 tonnes of waste from the local landfill during a 12-month period. Mattel also shares the compost by-product with the employees and the local community, for use in personal gardens.

Mattel also sees positive impacts that come out of the company's rich corporate culture, including:

* Café Improvements: Mattel's employee cafeterias at its El Segundo headquarters have also made tangible improvements in 2011, from buying locally-grown produce and improving recycling processes to decrease the use of non-recyclable materials by more than 42 percent.
* Daycare Composting and Organic Garden: Mattel parents who practice sustainability efforts at home brought a composting solution to the Mattel Child Development Center, located at the company's El Segundo headquarters, educating the children of employees about sustainability. Preschoolers at the Center separate food scraps and feed the worms in the composting bin, and use the leachate from the composter in the Center's organic vegetable garden, which the children also tend.

As part of Mattel's sustainability efforts, the company will be hosting two important events this spring:

Mattel's "Green" Grant for Earth Day 2011

Mattel also announced today that it will mark Earth Day 2011 by partnering with "Heal the Bay," a Los Angeles-based charitable organization dedicated to protecting the coastline of Southern California. Mattel will grant $10,000 to support beach cleanups and create employee volunteer events that give Mattel employees and their families the opportunity to participate in community-focused beach clean-ups in the Los Angeles area.

Mattel to Host its Second Electronics Waste Recycling Event:

Mattel and Waste Management will be hosting a recycling event on Thursday, May 12 for electronics waste, or "e-waste," at the company's El Segundo campus for employees and the surrounding community on May 12 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Such recyclable items include personal TVs, computer monitors, CPUs(desk top computer towers), flat screens (LCD/LED/Plasma), printers and computer cables.

Learn more about Mattel's sustainability efforts in the corporate responsibility section of the company's website:
http://mattel.com/corporateresponsibility

While I find all that generally interesting, I mostly wanted to post it to mention the bit about fewer twist ties. That will be a relief! I don't know that it will help the environment any, but it will cause me less aggravation! I have to admit, one of the things that really bothers me about collecting toys is the amount of packaging I have to throw out/recycle. Often the boxes are really pretty, but even still, it's basically trash. I hate throwing so much stuff out! And since I tend to debox a bunch of stuff at once somehow, throwing out all that packaging is really noticeable. I hope that companies will continue to reduce packaging!

p.s. sorry the press release takes up so much space. What's the coding to make type smaller? (Alas, I don't know!)

Blind Boxes

Ok, well this set of photos doesn't really *need* it's own post, but I'm on a roll at the moment, so what the heck.

Last wednesday, local record/comic/toy store Newbury Comics was having a 33rd anniversary sale. 25% off of everything. It wasn't a good day for me to get over to any of their stores, but I couldn't pass up a sale at Newbury Comics. In addition to being one of the few record stores (and they DO actually sell records) standing, they have a lot of great blind box toys. I don't buy so many CDs (or records) since I quit my radio show, but I figured I could pick up one or two, and then a couple of blind box toys. Those rarely go on sale, so that was what was driving me more than the music! (While I was thinking about this post, it hit me that Newbury Comics is actually somewhat similar to Hot Topic, if you are not from this area, but do know Hot Topic. The main difference being that Hot Topic has more clothes, and Newbury Comics has more music. They probably cater to somewhat the same audience, but shopping in Newbury Comics does not leave me with quite the same impression that the clerks and other shoppers are laughing at me behind my back...)

I had to shop fast 'cause I didn't really even have time to be there. This is what I picked up, along with a few cds. (and the Easter lala and Fluttershy, which don't reall belong there since they were from Target, but I guess at the time I was thinking of doing an overall picture of new purchases. But both of those ended up getting discussed in my last post...)



At one point Newbury Comics had pullips. I wish they still did, that would've been a great thing to get on sale! I also wish I had had time to go to one of the other locations, the Harvard Square store tends to get a lot of traffic and doesn't always have as much in stock as some of the other stores...

The Filly Princess toys were pretty cheap, esp. on sale, so I might've bought more than 2 if they'd had more than 2. Still, 2 is probably enough...



I've seen these on flickr, but I'm not sure what they are for. Or from. They look like they might go with a game or something? Whatever the case, the geeky horse-loving little kid I used to be enjoyed the little graph of who was related to who on the insert.



These are the two I got...



Judging by the character names on the back of the package, the splotchy dappled one is Dutchess Romantica, but I can't figure out which one the other one is supposed to be. Oddly, I think that other one is the one I saw on flickr, but I can't find that picture either...



They each came with stickers, which were sadly a bit battered since the package is just foil, rather than a box.





Next up is the Android robot blind box. Here's the box:



And here's what the foil looks like:



(yeah, that's probably super-fascinating. But I always feel bad throwing out packaging, since they put so much work into designing it. But I just can't keep all that stuff in my room! So I started taking pictures. And then I figured why not post them. It IS cute...?)

The actual robot in this box is going to remain a surprise, because I have photo ideas for it I haven't gotten around to yet. So it will make it's official 'debut' later. But this is a second robot, so here's my picture of the first robot...



They are pretty adorable for mascot toys for a cell phone. (Google's Android phone) This is series 02, but judging by the photos I found of series 01, I like it better than the first one. These cost $8 (or $9?) at Newbury Comics, but seem to cost a great deal more at Amazon. Maybe they are actually a little bit hard to find even, so beware of high pricing...

I'm sure 2 of these was plenty, but the problem with these blind box guys is it's so easy to start itching to have the whole set. I'm not going to tho! No! Bad!

The last blind box toy here is the 'Tea' one. I love tea, so this was definitely a must! I had seen these on line too, but had not seen them in Newbury Comics despite being there just the day before. So I lucked out! So far I feel content with just one, since they have pretty basic paint jobs, but even still, I have that minor pull of wanting more... *sigh*

The package is pretty cute on its own:



I esp. love that illustration!



This is the one I got:



Black tea is pretty appropriate for me, I never go in for herbal, and I do still prefer black tea to green tea, on the whole. Tho green tea is good too!

My favorite part about it is how they made the blind box catalog look like a tea bag!



If you check the website on the box, you can some cool customized versions of this series. I really like the "collector's edition" of this series - I wonder if I can find those decently-priced around here somewhere?

Mini Lalas & Liv on sale at Target

Just a quick post here (to be followed - hopefully very soon - by a longer one!) to note that I stopped at Target last night (for non-toy purposes! honest!) and noticed that the mini lalas are on sale for $3.99. Normally they are $5.99, so that's a $2 savings. Which is pretty good in my opinion, so I bought all the ones I don't already have. Except for Peanut. I wanted her too, but somehow in the world of crazy rationalizations, spending $20 seemed ok (it's a nice round number and all) but $24.00 seemed like too much. I thought maybe I'd rather have the ferris wheel version of Peanut (if only because that gives me an excuse to buy the ferris wheel... >.>) instead. But odds are even that I might go buy her later. I might have just picked up a couple and bought the rest later (somehow distributing my purchases makes me feel less guilty...), but this Target actually had all of the minis thanks to a recent restock, and most Targets around here do not. I didn't want to chance not being able to find one later. They *used* to have the easter Lala at this Target as well, but those are all gone. I assume those would also be on sale for $3.99, which would have had me kicking myself for buying them already - you know, if there were any still there! As it is, I'm just as glad I got them.

Also on sale this week is the Liv stuff. The outfit sets are $7.99 now, rather than $9.99. This matches the price I just saw in K-Mart. I was already mildly kicking myself that I just bought the raincoat for $9.99 when I saw it in K-Mart. But the stupid thing had been out of stock for so long, I didn't realize it was suddenly going to be everywhere - and ON SALE! I guess you win some, you lose some. I am not sure if I will take advantage of this sale to buy any of the other outfits or not. $8 is a much more reasonable price, but I'm trying to 'save up' for Anime Boston at the end of the month (not so much saving as figuring I'll spend money there and it would be best if I didn't go crazy elsewhere...). The Moonlight Dance dolls are also on sale for $10. That's not bad at all either, tho I am surprised they still have so many of those. I feel like they should properly be on clearance instead of on sale, but I think they were Target exclusives, so maybe they don't have a fixed length of time they'll be on sale for. I'm waiting for the Alice in Wonderland dolls to go on some sort of sale, because I think those are the only ones I want to buy to swipe outfits from...

Lalas and MLPs

I don't think there is anything too amazing or new in this set of pictures, so I'm going to try to breeze through this post a lot faster than my last one.

I've been on a quest to find myself a Spots, which I don't think is going to happen at this point, but I keep looking. So I've been seeing a lot of the Lalaloopsy aisle at various stores. I still have not seen even one Patch Treasurechest, but I have seen the 'twins' in their new single-doll packaging. I guess this is good, it was pretty expensive to try to buy them both together, but a little bit I think it's a shame to "split them up".

That said, I tend to think if I ever bought one of them it would be Berry. I just like her outfit a lot better... Well, that's not entirely true. The overalls on Sunny are actually really cute, it's just that the dresses are easier to share with other types of dolls, I think, so it might be better to get Berry. I probably won't though, simply because I don't want all of the big lalas, so I'm trying to concentrate on getting the ones that are most different from each other. Berry looks a bit like Crumbs, since they both have pink hair. Plus, how can I not want a doll that makes pancakes? XD



As you can see on the packaging, I guess the twins are Toys R Us exclusives. I'd say that makes sense, since I don't ever see them at Target, but I see hardly any of these at Target. It is rare for them to have more than 1 or 2 dolls there at a time...



I always love the back of the box illustrations - they are so cute! Lucky whoever gets to set these pictures up too, I bet that's really fun!



Here's Sunny too. I do find her orange hair and little chick pet quite adorable!



It looks like Sunny is billed as an early riser tho, so maybe she's not the doll for me... ;P



The closest I've been able to get to Patch is the little picture on the back of the box. Ah well!



I always love the handle designs. I wish I could do some sort of crafty thing with them...

The other Lala news is, of course, the mini Easter Lala that is a Target exclusive. Pictures of these have been floating around flickr, but in case you haven't seen her:



(I really should've taken a better photo...)



The little origin stories they give them are so cute and funny!

These are a bit hard to locate in the store, but I was able to pick up one for me and a friend. (I will do out of box photos soon). The only problem is that all of the ones I saw had some paint imperfections...



They aren't super-obvious in the photo, but then again they are probably even less obvious in person, unless you have your nose right up to it. The biggest problem is that they ended up with circles around their eyes. Which is sort of funny in a character wearing pjs, actually... XD

I also did finally take my Blossom out of her box. She's been hanging out on my floor in her box for over a month now I think... ^^; I tried to do a nice springlike photo for her tho!



In addition to the Lalas, for whatever reason I took photos of just about all of the MLP stuff that they had in stock... I think it started because I noticed a whole bunch of stuff that made me laugh, and then just went on from there.

The most interesting thing to me is the 'hot air balloon'.



It lights up and plays music. It's probably about the most ridiculous thing ever, so of course I kind of want it... XD I don't think I can fit something like this into my room tho honestly.

This is also pretty ridiculous, and therefore awesome:


It seems to be basically a remote control car. But you can tell it's for girls 'cause it's pink and has rainbows and PONIES. sigh.
(But I do love that they gave Dash an aviator's scarf. Now if only she had goggles...

This one sort of boggles my mind:


It's a... horse-drawn carriage for a horse? How does that work exactly?

The ponies seem to like carts this year...


But I guess if you are going to give horses accessories, I like that they are things a horse might actually have, rather than the tennis rackets and stuff they were giving them a year or two ago. (how could a horse play tennis? I mean, come on!)

This is not as cute as re-ment, but still pretty cute...





I think I had a photo of that one up before, but oh well. You can admire Fluttershy's out of control hair... XD

Even tho they aren't *all* that horse-like, I like the faces on the smaller size ponies out now a lot better than I like the faces of the slightly bigger ponies that are also out now...



Finally, some sort of giant gift set that I don't recall seeing before...



I ended up buying a Fluttershy, because I think she's my favorite of this lot.



The illustrations on the box are so cute!





Even the illustration on the inside is kind of neat, even though it's difficult to see when the pony is in the box...



Because of the joy of unlimited space when working with a digital camera and a free blogging host (well, flickr hosts the pictures and it's not free, but since I pay for it anyway...) I took photos of the whole catalog insert...





I don't think I've seen any of these light up ponies...





Don't think I've seen the fashion ponies yet either...



I rather like Princess Celestia and her crazy stylized look. I may have to get her eventually too... (And NO! I am NOT going to start collecting MLPs! I'm not!)





Newborn Sweetie Belle kind of scares me. I'll leave her for the little kids...



Then just for random amusing contrast some other 'horse' toys:



Cinderella has a nicer carriage, but she doesn't let the horses ride in it with her...



And then this giant horse is a taxi for a bunch of tiny animals - including what may be a tiny horse? Ah, toys can be so confusing!! ;P