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Anime USA 2010 Swag

Anime USA 2010 Swag
18 Nov 2010 04:14:27

This past weekend, I went to my final anime covention of the year, Anime USA. Like the other conventions I go to each year, I make sure that I have a lot of money for the Dealers' Room (especially given how Sunday was my birthday, and I usually try to avoid putting anime items on my birthday and Christmas lists). The bad news: being a smaller convention than Katsucon and Otakon, Anime USA didn't have some of the better dealers that the other two have (i.e. no Video Games New York, only one table selling recent anime titles not licensed by Funimation). The good news is that I was still able to get a number of good items at the convention.

SILVER MEMBERSHIP ITEMS


The first thing I did once I got my badge and booklet was to head downstairs and pick up items that come with the Silver Membership. Basically, at Anime USA, the convention offers three different types of registration packages when it comes to pre-reg: Regular, Silver (my usual membership), and Sponsor. If you're a person with either a Silver or Sponsor membership, then along with a badge, you'd also receive this year's convention t-shirt and pin (with those with Sponsor memberships having the ability to shop in the Dealers' Room a half-hour before it officially opens and get to move up front in the autographs lines). Usually, the shirt and pin are mailed out before the convention (that way, people can wear the shirt on Friday). However, this year, some delays from the printer that prints the designs on the shirt resulted in con-goers having to stop to pick up their shirts instead of them being mailed out.

DVD'S


When it came to this convention, I actually had a list planned out of some DVD's and Blu-Rays to look for in the Dealers' Room. While the original plan was to limit myself on DVD's, the lack of a certain import games dealer meant that I could buy more DVD's than planned. As I mentioned before, due to only one table selling recent titles that weren't licensed by Funimation, I couldn't find some of the titles that I was looking for. However, given how most of the titles on my buy list were Funimation titles (and the company had a table in the Dealers' Room), I managed to pick up some of their titles while I was there. When it comes to regular DVD, I picked up the second season of Hetalia. Meanwhile, the main haul of my disc-based purchases were Blu-Ray, with me picking up Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu and seasons 4 and 5 of Slayers.

PLUSHIES


With plushies being an impulse buy thing (i.e I usually don't buy a plushie until I see it at the Dealers' Room), I managed to pick up two plushies this past weekend.

The first plushie I picked up was on Friday when I saw the same table that was selling harder to find figures last year (which was where I picked up my Sailor Mercury figure). At that table, the dealer was selling various plushies of characters from Hetalia. Hence, when I saw a plushie of one of my favorite characters in that show, Chibitalia (aka Italy as an adoreable child), I pretty much had to buy that one in all its cuteness (with me pulling it out later on in the convention when I saw a Turkey cosplayer, and I told the cosplayer that I have the one thing that can defeat it).



The other plushie was one of those "don't notice it until later" items that sometimes happens at the convention. In my case, while looking around the Dealers' Room Saturday morning, I saw at one dealer something that I never knew even existed until that day: a plushie of Guu from Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu ( or Hale + Guu for short). Given how crazy that character is, I bought this plushie as soon as I saw it. Now if only the plushie was just like the Guu in the anime. That way, I can have an easy answer to my storage problems.



FIGURINES


When it comes to figurines, this convention featured a couple of figures that interest me, but were sold before I could buy them. The main one that came to mind was the "rape face" Woody figure, which tempted me, but sold out quickly before I could return to the table after my first go round of the Dealers' Room (I kinda want to see what the room has to offer before making some purchase decisions).

However, I did manage to buy one figure (which I saw the first go-round and was still there when I purchased it) in the form of Akari from Battle Athletes. The reasons for buying this is definitely personal, as Battle Athletes Victory (the TV version of the title) was one of the first anime shows that I saw when I began to make the shift to otaku (aka one of the first titles I saw subbed that wasn't of a show currently airing on American TV). Hence, seeing that figure brought back some nostalgia of my early days of being an anime fan, with me purchasing the figure upon reaching the table that was selling it a second time.



AUTOGRAPHS


One thing about Anime USA that's decent is the fact that due to it not being as big as the other conventions that I go to (Otakon and Katsucon), it's usually easier to get an autograph for the American voice actors attending the convention here than at other cons. Hence, during my weekend, I spent some time trying to get the autographs of two of the guests attending the con, Patrick Seitz and Brina Palencia.

For both voice actors, I have brought something for both of them to sign in the form of the Special Edition version of the season 1 Hetalia DVD. For Patrick Seitz, who voices Germany in the Hetalia dub, getting his autograph was a little more complicated than I had planned. Basically, Seitz was originally scheduled to have an autograph session around 7:00PM Friday night. However, as the time for autograph session approached, it was announced that Seitz would be arriving late (not sure if he was at another event or if he hadn't even arrived in the DC area yet). Hence, the person in charge of monitoring the autograph told those people who were waiting for just Seitz's autograph (as another person was having an autograph session at the time) to come back tomorrow at 4:00 PM as a make-up autograph session. Of course, at this time, the big American voice actor guest at this convention, Christopher Sabat (Vegeta and Piccolo) was also signing autographs. Hence, not only would you want to get in line early to get an autograph (as the line actually went outside the hotel), but also there's still the uncertainty that Seitz may not be there again and that all that waiting would be in vain. Luckily, Seitz was there, and I was able to get my Hetalia DVD autographed by him.



Meanwhile, not only was Brina's autograph session easier for me, but also a higher priority for two reasons. First involves her role in Hetalia. As I mentioned before, one of my favorite characters in that show is Chibitalia (of course, both the older and younger Italy are very enjoyable), and it just so happens that Brina is the voice of said character. Hence, I had her sign the DVD as well (in this case the back side).



As an extra, here a combo picture of the DVD and the Chibitalia plushie.



The other reason for attending her autograph session involves a project that I've started two years ago. As I've mentioned before, I'm a regular follower of the Negima manga. In 2008, in honor of 200 chapters of Negima, a limited edition item was released in the form of a "folder" containing the Pactio cards of the seven Ministra Magi (the term used for those girls who have made a pact to be Negi's partner in magic) that Negi had in the manga at the time (of course, chapter 201 had Negi making his eighth Pactio, thus ensuring an extra of some sort when it comes to the volumes containing the OAD's). I was able to score one of these sets via eBay, and during Anime USA 2008, I brought them along as part of a Negi Springfield cosplay that I was doing at that convention. It just so happens that two of the American voice actresses for Negi's Ministra Magi were among the guests at the convention. Hence, I decided that it would be a fun idea to have them autograph the "folder" next to the Pactio card of their respective character. Hence, whenever a voice actress of one of the seven Ministra Magi was a guest at a convention, I brought along the folder in hopes of her autographing it.

That brings us to this convention. In the Negima dub, Brina provides the voice of Yue, the philosophical member of the Library Exploration Club. So, one of my priorities for this convention was to have her autograph the "folder" right next to Yue's Pactio card. Just like all the other people that I showed it to at the convention, Brina was very impressed by this item when I brought it out to be autographed.



BTW, here's photos of the other three autographs that I have so far (two from Anime USA 2008, one from Anime USA 2009).







COMING SOON (Hopefully by Saturday): Cosplay Pics.
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