17 Aug 2013 03:01:35
It's August again. As such, it's time once again for my reports involving my annual summer vacation known as Otakon. As usual, I'm starting things off with the main thing that I usually discuss here: the purchases in the Dealers' Room. Sadly, this year's Otakon was disappointing in terms of said room, as it was really lacking any real item that screamed "impulse buy" for me. However, I did pick up a decent haul at the con, with me being able to fit it all in a neat bag.
As for where I got the bag, that involves a little bonus that I'm saving up for the the end. However, one thing's for sure: it's already experiencing some con damage after using it at Otakon (with me having to use duct tape to repair some damage on the other side of the bag).
Like most trips to Otakon, my first priority was a stop at the Otakon merchandise table. With Otakon celebrating its 20th year this year, I was hoping that there would be a good haul in the Dealers Room, especially given how they were offering a limited amount of hockey jerseys similar to the ones worn by Otakon staff members. Unfortunately, the maximum size of the jerseys were only XXL (one size too small for me), while one other item that people were hoping to be sold at the con, plushie versions of the con's crab mascot, turned out to be nothing more than a rumor. As such, when I went to the Otakon merchandise booth on Friday, the only thing I picked up there was this year's t-shirt.
However, the t-shirt wasn't the only Otakon item I picked up at the con. On Saturday night, while in the video game room, I did manage to head to where the a booth for the Hard Rock Cafe was stationed, and the booth was offering pins based on some of the more music-based designs that Otakon used in previous years. With plenty of money to burn, I bought myself a set of the pins.
When it came to the Dealers' Room at Otakon this year, pretty much most of my money went towards adding some titles to my anime collection, with me making a different wave of DVD purchases each day of the con.
The first wave was after picking up my t-shirt on Friday. In this wave, my main concern was picking up the two main titles that were on my DVD shopping list at Otakon this year: Kill Me, Baby! and Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, with me picking them up at the booths of their respective publisheres (Sentai for Kill Me, Baby!; Funimation for Lupin III). In the process, I also received up a Funimation water bottle as a gift for making a purchase at their booth.
The second wave happened Saturday afternoon during some "free time" between the Funimation panel and Iron Editor/AMV Contest Results Show. During my initial run of the Dealers' Room, I checked to make sure that Discotek had copies of another title that I wanted to pick up, Samurai Pizza Cats (the fact that I remember that show shows just how old I am). After putting off purchasing it earlier at the con, I decided that this would be the right time to pick it up. While buying it, I found out that Discotek also had some early copies of the classic space-themed anime Captain Harlock. Hence, being someone who is interested in the older titles (can't wait for the company to release Cutie Honey later this year), I eventually picked up Harlock as well.
The last wave was Sunday afternoon, as I was following my roommate as he made one last run in the Dealers' Room. As he was checking out the selection at the Sentai booth, I remembered that this was the company that was distributing a title that I'm curious in checking out, Acchi Kocchi (released here as Place to Place). As such, I checked to see if Sentai still had copies of this show (as it's possible that some shows do sell out, with my roommate being able to snag the last copy of Haganai after I was able to find it for him at the Funimation booth), and upon discovering that they still have some copies left, I finished off my Otakon 2013 shopping spree by picking up the DVD. Don't worry: there's still a few more things I bought between Friday and Sunday, with the big purchases coming up next.
When it comes to what I usually look for in terms of figures, I was out of luck, as there hasn't been a new Busou Shinki figure release for over a year now (I'm lucky that I can find some figures every now and then online), and the one To Heart 2: Dungeon Travelers figure that I haven't gotten that I want was being sold for way too much IMO (i.e. $160). Also, while I was also curious is some of the resin Monster Hunter figures being sold at the Dealers Room, none of them really had "must buy" written on them.
However, while looking around during my Dealers' Room run on Friday, I did check the Daisuki.net/Good Smile Factory booth. You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, I'll let the following picture do the talking:
That's right, I was able to get both the Sakura Miku and the yukata Miku *which isn't even out in Japan yet) direct from the source, with me saving a lot of money (the two together at the Good Smile Factory booth cost less than how much the yukata Miku would cost alone at other Otakon dealers) and knowing that these are the legit figures. The only problem: when getting ready the figures for display, I had a little "accident" with the yukata Miku figure.
The good news is that I was able to fix it with some tape (with it being pretty unnoticeable in the additional pictures that I took of the figures). However, I may need to find a "back head" Miku Nendoroid piece in the future to replace the damaged piece.
I also picked up one other item at the Dealers' Room Saturday morning: a dealer that specializes in figures and toys was selling some toy Power Level Scanners from Dragon Ball Z for $20. As someone who thought it would be a cute prop for comical purposes (i.e. scanning the "moe" level from some cute characters), I picked one up (with me making sure I had it on me when I attended the Funimation panel, as I had a feeling that the panel would include a DBZ trailer feature the "IT'S OVER 9000!!!" line
).
This year was another "wait and see" year in terms of autograph sessions. Basically, when it comes to the Japanese guests, some years will have a guest in which getting an autograph is a "must do" on your schedule, while other years, it would be nice to get one, but you also have to keep in mind your schedule, especially if there's only one autograph session (one reason why I didn't risk trying to get Aya Hirano's autograph last year, as the only session was Sunday afternoon after her concert).
In terms of this year's guests, while it would have been awesome to get Yoko Kanno's autograph (and attend her "Piano Me" concert), it was pretty much unrealistic given the crowds interested in her. However, this year's schedule gave me a good opportunity to get an autograph of another Japanese guest, voice actor Tomokazu Seki. With the G Gundam DVD that I picked up at last year's Otakon, I got in line for his autograph session Saturday morning (thankfully, it was no where as crowded as the Vic Mignogna line, although, with me having memories of Otakon 2007, it did lead to me jokingly thinking about what would happen if they accidentally placed the sign for Vic's autograph session by Seki-san's line). A few minutes after the session started, I got Seki-san's autograph on my G Gundam DVD (not to mention I got to shake his hand, as he was doing that with the people attending his autograph session).
COMING UP: Cosplay Pictures.
As for where I got the bag, that involves a little bonus that I'm saving up for the the end. However, one thing's for sure: it's already experiencing some con damage after using it at Otakon (with me having to use duct tape to repair some damage on the other side of the bag).
OTAKON MERCHANDISE
Like most trips to Otakon, my first priority was a stop at the Otakon merchandise table. With Otakon celebrating its 20th year this year, I was hoping that there would be a good haul in the Dealers Room, especially given how they were offering a limited amount of hockey jerseys similar to the ones worn by Otakon staff members. Unfortunately, the maximum size of the jerseys were only XXL (one size too small for me), while one other item that people were hoping to be sold at the con, plushie versions of the con's crab mascot, turned out to be nothing more than a rumor. As such, when I went to the Otakon merchandise booth on Friday, the only thing I picked up there was this year's t-shirt.
However, the t-shirt wasn't the only Otakon item I picked up at the con. On Saturday night, while in the video game room, I did manage to head to where the a booth for the Hard Rock Cafe was stationed, and the booth was offering pins based on some of the more music-based designs that Otakon used in previous years. With plenty of money to burn, I bought myself a set of the pins.
DVD'S
When it came to the Dealers' Room at Otakon this year, pretty much most of my money went towards adding some titles to my anime collection, with me making a different wave of DVD purchases each day of the con.
The first wave was after picking up my t-shirt on Friday. In this wave, my main concern was picking up the two main titles that were on my DVD shopping list at Otakon this year: Kill Me, Baby! and Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, with me picking them up at the booths of their respective publisheres (Sentai for Kill Me, Baby!; Funimation for Lupin III). In the process, I also received up a Funimation water bottle as a gift for making a purchase at their booth.
The second wave happened Saturday afternoon during some "free time" between the Funimation panel and Iron Editor/AMV Contest Results Show. During my initial run of the Dealers' Room, I checked to make sure that Discotek had copies of another title that I wanted to pick up, Samurai Pizza Cats (the fact that I remember that show shows just how old I am). After putting off purchasing it earlier at the con, I decided that this would be the right time to pick it up. While buying it, I found out that Discotek also had some early copies of the classic space-themed anime Captain Harlock. Hence, being someone who is interested in the older titles (can't wait for the company to release Cutie Honey later this year), I eventually picked up Harlock as well.
The last wave was Sunday afternoon, as I was following my roommate as he made one last run in the Dealers' Room. As he was checking out the selection at the Sentai booth, I remembered that this was the company that was distributing a title that I'm curious in checking out, Acchi Kocchi (released here as Place to Place). As such, I checked to see if Sentai still had copies of this show (as it's possible that some shows do sell out, with my roommate being able to snag the last copy of Haganai after I was able to find it for him at the Funimation booth), and upon discovering that they still have some copies left, I finished off my Otakon 2013 shopping spree by picking up the DVD. Don't worry: there's still a few more things I bought between Friday and Sunday, with the big purchases coming up next.
FIGURES AND TOYS
When it comes to what I usually look for in terms of figures, I was out of luck, as there hasn't been a new Busou Shinki figure release for over a year now (I'm lucky that I can find some figures every now and then online), and the one To Heart 2: Dungeon Travelers figure that I haven't gotten that I want was being sold for way too much IMO (i.e. $160). Also, while I was also curious is some of the resin Monster Hunter figures being sold at the Dealers Room, none of them really had "must buy" written on them.
However, while looking around during my Dealers' Room run on Friday, I did check the Daisuki.net/Good Smile Factory booth. You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, I'll let the following picture do the talking:
That's right, I was able to get both the Sakura Miku and the yukata Miku *which isn't even out in Japan yet) direct from the source, with me saving a lot of money (the two together at the Good Smile Factory booth cost less than how much the yukata Miku would cost alone at other Otakon dealers) and knowing that these are the legit figures. The only problem: when getting ready the figures for display, I had a little "accident" with the yukata Miku figure.
The good news is that I was able to fix it with some tape (with it being pretty unnoticeable in the additional pictures that I took of the figures). However, I may need to find a "back head" Miku Nendoroid piece in the future to replace the damaged piece.I also picked up one other item at the Dealers' Room Saturday morning: a dealer that specializes in figures and toys was selling some toy Power Level Scanners from Dragon Ball Z for $20. As someone who thought it would be a cute prop for comical purposes (i.e. scanning the "moe" level from some cute characters), I picked one up (with me making sure I had it on me when I attended the Funimation panel, as I had a feeling that the panel would include a DBZ trailer feature the "IT'S OVER 9000!!!" line
).AUTOGRAPHS
This year was another "wait and see" year in terms of autograph sessions. Basically, when it comes to the Japanese guests, some years will have a guest in which getting an autograph is a "must do" on your schedule, while other years, it would be nice to get one, but you also have to keep in mind your schedule, especially if there's only one autograph session (one reason why I didn't risk trying to get Aya Hirano's autograph last year, as the only session was Sunday afternoon after her concert).
In terms of this year's guests, while it would have been awesome to get Yoko Kanno's autograph (and attend her "Piano Me" concert), it was pretty much unrealistic given the crowds interested in her. However, this year's schedule gave me a good opportunity to get an autograph of another Japanese guest, voice actor Tomokazu Seki. With the G Gundam DVD that I picked up at last year's Otakon, I got in line for his autograph session Saturday morning (thankfully, it was no where as crowded as the Vic Mignogna line, although, with me having memories of Otakon 2007, it did lead to me jokingly thinking about what would happen if they accidentally placed the sign for Vic's autograph session by Seki-san's line). A few minutes after the session started, I got Seki-san's autograph on my G Gundam DVD (not to mention I got to shake his hand, as he was doing that with the people attending his autograph session).
COMING UP: Cosplay Pictures.
