Within a Flash of Lightning

Sakura-Con 2013 Loot Preview

2013-04-01T15:24:00.003-07:00

I'm back from Sakura-Con! And I'm really, really tired! So here is my first post for Sakura-Con... The loots!

Unfortunately I didn't buy much from the con... I'm so into Persona 4 lately, so I got this Teddie/Kuma plushie that has a zipper which actually opens up to an empty space!

Here's the other purchase I made. A Chie strap from the Artist Alley. Quite cute, so I had to get it...

Alas, that's it for my loot... The cards above, MEIKO Weiss Schwarz is courtesy of Mamitan from GSC whom I met on Saturday before she had to leave early ^^; It was a good con, but I just didn't spend much for this year, is all... Maybe next time.

April Fool's! This is but the tip of the iceberg! I've got tons more stuff to take pictures of! XD Coming soon!

Birthday of Ayanami 2013

2013-03-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Once again it's Rei's birthday! And sadly, this is only my second post of the year on this blog. I think I'm too involved on Tumblr... I will also be away on Rei's actual birthday. I'm actually at Sakura-Con in Seattle this year on Rei's birthday. I'll be wearing a Rei shirt of course :3 Anyway... I haven't gotten any new Rei things this year, so I'm only posting photos that I'm heavily backlogged on ^^; This has been delayed since last summer!

I've somehow neglected my BJD Rei as well... I need to take her out more often ^^; Dollfie Dreams are easier to bring after all, lol.

I did bring her out close to the beach for this photo above. It was getting dark, but somehow managed to get some good shots of her.

Here she is with her Hello Kitty version of herself and a friend's girl ^^

I bought a new outfit and wig for Rei ^^;; It's Reiku! The wig is a bit tight unfortunately. I'm going to try to stretch it out and make it fit with a headcap.

Here's another version of the wig courtesy of a friend. Looks a bit better!

Well... It's a small celebration for Rei this year, but hopefully I won't be as occupied next year.

Misaka Mikoto Mania 2

2013-01-13T11:59:00.002-08:00

Biri biri! Welcome to another Misaka Mikoto Mania! In this kind of post I will post nothing but Mikoto! Obviously! Also, it just means, I've accumulated a lot of Mikoto figures/merchandise and haven't had a chance to post them all ^^;;;

First up is this exclusive Wave Beach Queen Misaka Mikoto. I actually didn't plan on getting this, nor did I know of its existence ^^; It was kinda luck and misfortune that a friend of mine, KL, bought it twice by accident. It's lucky that she knows another Mikoto fan! And lucky for me since I really like this figure! So cute!

Of course, I had to go for the money shot right away, lol. Lovely striped bikini, eh? :D

Very cute face, no matter which angle you look at her from!

Next up are these two Puchi Nendoroids. They're actually not made by Good Smile Company, but by Sega Prize. I'm curious whether "Puchi Nendoroid" is a trademark or not since many other companies have been making them instead of GSC.

And here is another exclusive figure by Bandai, the Armored Girl Project, Misaka Mikoto! Complete with a giant railgun!

This figure is actually not very movable ^^; Like her legs are solid and her feet aren't flat, so she cannot stand without the display base... Such a weird design.

And here she is with the backpack and the two railguns! It was a PAIN putting on all these parts on her! I can't bear to take them off again...

Looks reminiscent of Freedom and Destroy Gundam mixed together.

Level 5: only my railgun

It's a very detailed pack. I wish I could take photos of all the details, but my camera lens can't capture them yet. But this pack can open up in the back. This is before it opens.

And this is after it opens. It's very subtle, but still a nice design.

A very similar size to the figma version. If it wasn't such a pain to put on, I would try it on the figma right away.

Lastly, here is the Gift Nendoroid Plush of Mikoto! So cute! I now have all of my favourite girls in plushie version! I'll have to take a photo of all of them soon.

The Melancholy of Saber Lily Part 72

Ah Kuroko... You're such a Mikoto-sexual ^^; I also picked up a Kuroko figma sometime last year. Must've been from a sale from Yes Asia because apparently I have the game as well. And of course, as always, you can read more 4koma on my comic site.

Well... Since the 4koma didn't capture all of Kuroko's perversion, here she is in full glory!

She doesn't care if they're in different scales, she'll just think the bigger her oneesama is, the more for her to touch ^^;

I really love this photo ^^;; Kuroko is having too much fun! XD

Kuroko, the lolicon... Sorta.

And there she is flipping Mikoto's skirt... Gigantic plush skirt ^^;

Christmas Doll Meet 2012

2012-12-30T02:24:00.000-08:00

Better late than never... Here is the Christmas Doll Meet from December 15, 2012. I was under a lot of anxiety before and a little after this meet, so I didn't post this until now. I'm much better now, so I thought I should post before the year ends and the New Year's begin ^^;

I won't be writing much between photos and let you just enjoy them. I also posted these photos and more on my flickr.

Even during Christmas Raven had to study in school... Actually it was one of our most creative members made the school desk set in 1/3 scale. Scary good!

My Christmas girls, Raven, Helen and MEIKO, plus one ^^;

This girl is for sale, some info is available on the photo. If you're interested, I can forward you to the owner :)

Chun was there with three cute girls coming along, also someone who tagged along (right photo) ^^

MISAKA had lots of fun with MISAKA's new friend.

After a quick travel from the location to and fro, I was overwhelmed with how many dolls there were when I got back, so I just took some group photos ^^;

This girl is a BEAUTY! Babybluestar's got good taste!

Navci's Tomato looks a bit like Rapunzel near the end of the movie.

DAMN YOU KAITOOOO!!!!

Left: Before the chaos. Right: Mikoto's Travels.

That's it! Hope everyone had a good holiday and have a wonderful new year in 2013!

MEIKO's Birthday Celebration 2012

2012-11-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy 8th birthday MEIKO! This is also my MEIKO Dollfie Dream's first birthday. I officially announced her this time last year ^_^ For her present, I commissioned a dress based on the Nostalogic video with Yumiko as Real Meiko!

I have been planning to get someone (or even myself) to make the Nostalogic dress. A friend asked if she can help with making anything, so I asked if she can make this dress. So Airs delivered and I'm very happy that it's done ^o^ I feel a little bit guilty though since I didn't mean to put pressure on getting this done ^^; But thank you very much Airs for this awesome sexy dress! Since I knew I was going to get this dress made, I bought red high heeled Obitsu shoes almost a year ago. Finally I'm able to use them!

The following photos were posed copying some of the poses from the video. You can watch the video first and compare the DD with the Real Meiko.

Hard to get this pose down, but I was able to get a photo in before I caught her as she falls down ^^;

And end! I think there's one more photo below that I used the video to pose with, but I lost track of which ones I did and didn't copy from the video ^^;

For now, let's see what new videos and songs NicoNicoDouga (via Youtube ^^;) and Pixiv has to offer to celebrate MEIKO's 8th birthday.

Cute MEIKO and Luka cake! By しいな

Present for MEIKO by みけぽ

I love the mantle! By つずら

MEIKO is the queen! By べにこ

shu-t/SonicWave is always reliable for a new MEIKO song for her birthday ^^

Pretty MEIKO! By CAFFEIN

This ends the music video and Pixiv picture segment XD Let's continue with more MEIKO DD!

So Airs told me the red part of the dress on the chest stains, so I put on her original bra made by Chun last year just for some protection. I think she also wore something underneath in the Nostalogic video :)

Similar poses, but one's looking at the camera with lint on her gloves, and the other not looking at the camera but not showing her joints either :)

I showed a quick preview on my Instagram and Animagic4u replied with this:

@lightningsabre Take off bra please! ^^
— animagic4u (アニー) (@animagic4u) November 4, 2012

So then the bra is off now XD She looks quite different, yes?

Mmm... Cleavage!

Sexy back!

When I went to pick up the dress from Airs, we had lunch at Osamu Sushi again. I really like their tuna tataki, but this time I ordered the lunch combo with it.

This is my friend's lunch combo. Looks much better, I think.

Here's MEIKO with Airs' Romy and Mochi ^^ Quite the size difference, yes?

OMAKE: "Why Miku, why did you cut your hair so short and dye it light blue?" ...That's Rei actually ^^; A friend is lending me this Miku outfit so I can try to see if it fits Rei. It somewhat fits but should I get this outfit for Rei?

Took this photo in February, but it's got all of my MEIKO in it ^_^ Once more...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEIKO!

Halloween Doll Meet 2012

2012-10-29T19:55:00.002-07:00

Halloween is upon us! At least the doll meet was XD It's becoming an annual Halloween meet now where a lot of Vancouverites gather and get our dolls to dress up! There are over 50 photos, so I'm going to stay mostly quiet and just post them ^^;

The Azone Army gathers in the classroom!

Blonde Sakura and pink policewoman!

On the left is the costume contest winner :D

The kemonomimi (animal ears) club!

Saber doesn't look amused...

Chun's Paw! Err... That's her name, not her actual paw ^^;

Shiki doesn't like Sakuya much perhaps? ^^;

Angelic!

HIMENO! I WANTZZZZZ!!!

Homura on an alpaca. Your argument is invalid.

Airs' Teddie... "Winter is coming..."

Sexy Raven! Her bigger bust definitely fills up the bunny suit. Maybe almost spilling out 0.o

ALPACALYPSE!

Azone Pureneemo Class of 2012 aka Hideyoshi's harem.

Lollipop Chainsaw's alternate costume?

The following pictures are photoshoots of MEIKO when she wore the witch outfit for the very first time. We were all out at Queen Elizabeth Park in early October when the weather was still nice and sunny.

Do you see the photobombing on the left photo? ^^;

MEIKO's familiars!

The Fourth Blogday

2012-09-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

Konyanyashiwa! Welcome to Nekomimi Tuesday! Err... Oh wait, this is my blog. The Necomimi Maridah above threw me off for a sec... Ahem, anyway, as the title above, this is my fourth blogday. Meaning it's been four years since I started this blog. Usually I try to prepare something special on this day, but time has been lacking lately. So I decided to do a quick project that I asked Chun about way back in the end of May of this year ^^; The fanart above is Chun's Real-Life Nekomimi Saber after hearing about Maridah wanting a Necomimi. I commented that Chun should make a movable one like in Maridah's Necomimi video, but no such luck... So I figured I'll make one. Since I'm no artist, I can only work with what's there, so that's all I can do above. I had more fun animating the ahoge than the nekomimi XD

A lot has happened between the third and fourth blogday, particularly my very first Dollfie Dream, MEIKO! I've kept her quite secret during the process of her creation.

This was one of most sweetest (literally, as well) gift I've ever gotten. It arrived a little later than Christmas, but who's counting =P

And then another addition to my imouto family... Raven immediately got on Helen's nerves after she arrived.

There were a lot of doll meats I've consumed... And attended doll meets too XD

I also went on a lot of hikes! This picture above is from Lake Lindeman in Chilliwack, BC. It was quite a hike to get up here for this beautiful view.

I bought a lot of anime and watched a lot of anime as well.

I was also able to upgrade my gear by getting this Panasonic Lumix G2 DSLR.

In spring, I was able to attend Sakura-Con 2012 with a press pass. My very first press pass. I was so excited I told all my friends about it XD

I was also able to meet Maridah under a somewhat better circumstance with fewer crowds, but she was busy working. One of the nicest person ever! Also, I got to talk to Cosplayshots a lot, including many things I haven't heard from elsewhere. GOSSIP! :D

Urobuchi Gen was the guest of honour at Sakura-Con and I had the privilege to be one of his interviewers during a private press session with the creators of Fate/Zero.

Then right after I came back from Seattle, it was time for Vancouver's first Fan Expo! It was quite a successful first year, but hopefully there will be more things to do next year.

My second Dollfie Dream, Saber Nero, arrived at the end of June. Long awaited and kept highly secretive! My reputation for keeping secrets in my Vancouver doll group has been long established by now. I just like to surprise people, that's all =3

I picked up a new phone right after Fan Expo, though it wasn't until I received my muse that I started loving it along with Instagram. Meet the Misaka Sisters who've been very prominent subjects in my Instagramming. I'm tempted to make a tumblr just so I can post my Instagram on there as well XD My motto is now, "Let's Instagram this shit!"

Though there were a couple of photos that needed the big camera and Instagram just won't do it... Plus I was in the US and I would be charged an exuberant amount of cash for roaming data. The picture above and below is from my recent trip to Mount Baker in Washington State.

And then there was Rei... Who suddenly showed up and stole my heart (along with my hard-earned money). Such a very pretty girl! In the case of previous dolls, I've told at least one or two people about buying them, but this one came out of the BLUE!

A photo of Nakata Jouji from Anime Revolution

So many cons, so little time... I still have one more con photos from last month that I haven't uploaded yet 0.o

And you've seen the last two posts I've made with more new girls! Saber and Ier.

Sadly, I haven't had much time to blog since work and other social things have kept me busy and very tired ^^; So this year seemed like I have a record low number amount of posts... BUT I'm not without ambitions! I have many plans ahead, many posts to post, and so many more events happening! I'll leave you with a few teasers of things to come ^_^

Resin Peace

2012-09-24T02:09:00.000-07:00

Two resin girls came before my Azone Saber arrived, but I never had the chance to introduce them to people properly. You've seen Rei before in a previous post, but I only took photos of her in nature and didn't provide much details. The one on the right is Ier from Souldoll... And I just realized her name is just Rei backwards... How coincidentally funny.

I did mention before in that post that this Rei came from Vispo. Their first in the line of dolls. They usually make garage kits, but added dolls to their line-up. Though this outfit was not her default outfit. Chocolorange gave me this outfit during Anime Revolution ^_^ It fits her perfectly!

A better close up of Rei's face. Very pretty and I see a lot of my friends do like this face. I'm very picky on the face and thought immediately that this is a great face, but it's good to hear other people approve.

She's able to sit like this because there's a notch on her rear that seats straight legged like this. Keeps her stable while sitting down as well. She's very loosely stringed at the moment, so sitting down like this is best, but she's able to stand perfectly on her two feet.

And this is her pantsu ^^; She's got "Rei" printed on her underwear XD

Inside her head is quite an interesting mechanism I haven't seen with other resin dolls. The eyes can be moved around so she can have a different look... I'll try not to make this look too often ^^;

The one minor complain I have beside her stringing is her hands. Her hands have a rather awkward pose. It's very detailed as you can see though.

Finally here is Ier, whom I nicknamed Tieros because of her similarities to T-ELOS from Xenosaga. I've decided to keep her default name because it's Rei backwards. She is a Souldoll Limited Souloid. Basically half human, half robot. Though it's more than half of her that have robot parts.

Rei is slightly taller than Ier, but Ier seem to have a bigger bust than Rei ^^;

She was out at a restaurant, so I had her wear a bra from Helen's collection just so it doesn't look weird XD

I'm just going to mosaic her ecchi bits... I wasn't even going to post these at first ^^; But this is how she came. No clothes. It's a good thing that I only had to cover the upper parts.

She's got a very lovely hair. I hope I don't ruin this hair too much.

You can see more of her robotic parts here.

The unpainted parts in the sample picture were all black for the robot parts. She looks so much better with all these colours.

She came with this crazy bird's cage/nest headdress! Very pretty, but so hard to attach ^^; And that's it for Ier and my desire for having some resin dolls. Hopefully I'll have this desire in peace and in check after these two ^_^

Saber the AmAzone 50

2012-09-16T00:23:00.000-07:00

The return of the AmAzone Saber! This time she's multiplied her scale and became a 50 cm! Before I only had the original Saber in Azone 1/6 form and then a Saber Nero in DD form...

This time it's the original Saber in 1/3 scale! The box is quite huge! I don't usually do box opening, but I was very excited over this Saber. She arrived only two days ago, so I'm skipping a few dolls ahead of this to post her ^^; But if nothing else comes up, I think this will be my last big doll ever.

But by Dollfie Dream standard, this Saber is still smaller... But it's a wider box. I didn't expect the box to be this wide ^^;

The backside shows armor and armorless Saber. Quite an amazing armor, I have to say.

The instructions were all in Japanese again, so I could only follow the pictures ^^;

The Misaka Sisters and Kuroko helps to cover up Saber's naughty bits XD

This is the first Azone 50cm that I have that requires a wig. Very new to me.

EKKUSUUUU... KALIBAAAAAAAAA!!!!

This is the wig. It came on her head not as tight as Saber Nero thankfully. The trademark ahoge is there and with the blue ribbon ^^

The armor!

The detail on the breastplate was so amazing that I was so excited to open it from the packaging! It's super cool!

The cloth part of the outfit. A little bit difficult to put on the blue part of the outfit.

Armorless! Look at that ahoge! Standing up so proudly...

Let's bask in her glory... I love her face more than I expected ^^

To put on the boots, I had to unscrew her feet and screw in the armor parts. I kinda messed it up by screwing it too much and loosened the left feet... It comes on loose though...

Upskirt shot! :P

Armored! Her arms are as skinny as the original especially since Obitsu body parts are quite skinny ^^; Good scaling on the armor :D

The armor in the back is awesome!

The armor snaps on the sides unlike the 1/6 scale Saber. Stays on her much, much better. The side armor plates attaches to the leather corset. Really nice, but sometimes the button comes off easily...

With Excalibur! It's quite heavy on her ^^;

The typical Saber pose :D

Side by side with Saber Nero Dollfie Dream... What a size difference! Azone Saber barely reach Nero's shoulders...

I figured this is what they'll actually say if they meet ^^; Any other ideas what else they would be saying?

OMAKE: Mustache!

First 2 Madoka Magica Movies in US Theatres

2012-09-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

Ever since I had the privilege of interviewing Urobuchi Gen, I've been receiving press releases from the Marketing Specialist at Aniplex. Most emails I've received have been announcements of Blu-Ray, DVDs or CDs. This one though, was a very different email that immediately caught my attention. The first two Puella Magi Madoka Magica movies will be shown in select US theatres come October 19th!

The first two movies are actually the retelling and compilation of the original TV series, but with upgraded animation and possibly new animation as well, like most recap anime movies. The two movies will be playing back to back with each showing.

Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston and San Francisco are the lucky US cities to be chosen for this theatrical release. Aside from Los Angeles, the movies will play for only one night on October 20th. While people in L.A. have almost a week to catch the movies in theatre. Check the schedule on Aniplex's official site.

So why am I suddenly posting about this? Well perhaps I may go to one of these cities and go there just so I can watch these movies :D I almost did this when the Suzumiya Haruhi movie came out and it was going to play in San Francisco two years ago! XD Here's hoping for Madoka showing this time!

Loot from Anime Revolution and Cos & Effect

2012-09-08T22:47:00.002-07:00

Not a big loot, but still a loot nonetheless. Having a lot on order, I figured I should hold back on buying stuff at conventions. Not a lot of merchandise, but I did grab a few fanart, and a few new friends ^_^

Pardon some of the photo sizes... I didn't realize I changed the resolution size of my camera XD

I didn't get this Drossel from the con itself, but from my friend, Chocolorange. Since I got this, I was able to preorder her special bike ^^;

Since I have Saber Nero as a Dollfie Dream, I'm going cheap on the figures... But this Sega Prize Saber Nero do look pretty good even though it's cheap. If more money ever come up, perhaps I'll get her other figures ^^

Couldn't help getting these two fans. I hate Akinari-kun for showing me these, lol. I had to get Saber Lion for sure, but TakoLuka is just too cute to miss.

Double the cute alpacas! I actually have 3 of these Wind Up Alpacas now... Can't help it.

Who can resist that face? I know I couldn't! Just... Too... CUTE!!!

Err... Also got this Kyuubey mask from the Aniplex panel. Seem to fit Rei okay ^^;

I bought these two cute donut and tangerine plushies at Cos & Effect from CASE Boutique. This is a local seller, so perhaps I'll see her again at another convention ^^

The buttons... Saber, Lightning Saber! XD

Here's a few items from the Artist Alley. Bookmark on the left and the print in the middle are from Red Wolf Ink, a doll friend. The bookmark on the right of MEIKO is from Snakeyhoho, who is another artist friend who cosplays ^^ And then a couple of Saber buttons and Lightning and a drunk MEIKO.

An awesome Saber art! This is just too cool! Too bad I didn't want to walk around with a big print, otherwise I would've gotten the bigger size.

I got this art from KL, who some people may know from this famous art of Danny Choo's mascots. I have this on a shirt too! Now funny story about meeting KL... She is a friend of a friend I was walking around the convention with, Sayoko. We introduced each other on the second day, but at that point, I didn't know that she was KL ^^;

The next day I found KL's art and booth and found out that the girl I met the day before IS KL! How surprised I was! So we ended up talking for a bit.

Sometime between the talk, I took out my business card case which had the To Aru Kagaku no Railgun girls and that's how I found out that she also loves Misaka Mikoto!! Talking for a bit became quite a conversation because of it. It was a great meeting, I say ^^ I hope that one day KL WILL draw a Mikoto art ^_~

I had to grab this one because MEIKO's in the centre!

And a great art of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai ^o^

Pantsu stealing Kyouko is the best! Looks like she found a different kind of snack ^^;

A cute custom yarn octopus. I asked the artist to have a similar colour to TakoLuka :D

Here are a few more art I gotten from Cos & Effect. EtchiMango has a friend named Centimeter who drew these really nice art of some of my favourite characters, like Sakura here :D

This Yoko really caught my eye. The face is quite adorable.

And of course I had to have a MEIKO art! Being drunk never looked so cute!

Lastly, I commissioned Snakeyhoho's sister to draw an anime portrait of me ^^ Which one do you like better? Left or right?

Anime Revolution 2012 Swimsuit Competition

2012-08-23T03:24:00.001-07:00

Anime Revolution's Swimsuit Contest was one of the highlights of the conventions for the 18+ crowd. It was quite the no-holds-barred event on Friday night. Lots of innuendos and sexiness! Might be a bit ecchi since this was an 18+ event!

The competitors this year is Super Meat Boy, Pilot from SMS (sorry forgot the name) from Macross Frontier, Korra, Ciel , Princess Zelda and Asuka Langley Soryu.

I think one of the judges was Jessica Nigri... If not then she was just attending the event ^^;

This post is mostly photos that I was able to take clearly and for fun! I had quite a bit of photos so I thought I'd separate it ^^

Ciel is a... boy... no? ^^;;;

DAT ASSUKA!

Strike a pose!

It means business when Zelda takes off her crown and puts on shades.

I took some continuous shots with my camera hoping for a clear shot... Instead they seem to be perfect to be made into gif animations! Enjoy! XD

Hentai Cupcake hosted the event again for Anime Revolution. He also hosted the one at Sakura-Con as Hard Gay... This time he finally changed cosplay :P I have to say this event with smaller number of competitors seem to work out better than the quantity at Sakura-Con ^^;

Though the audience decided that Zelda won the public vote, the judges required Ciel and Asuka to have a dance-off!

The winner was Asuka! But in reality, we all win! Hope to see more of this event! It's always fun hearing all the puns and ogling the swimsuits XD

Anime Revolution 2012 Cosplay

2012-08-22T12:43:00.001-07:00

Anime Revolution Cosplay post starts now! There are a grand total of 51 photos here, so keep calm and don't lose your head!

Cosplayers who'd like to get an unedited copy of their photo or any other requests, you can just email me and I'll reply as soon as possible.

Kouyama Mitsuki of Full Moon o Sagashite... A certain Mitsuki would probably like this ;)

This is my friend Sayoko, who I hung out with mostly at AR, as Touhou's most bullied Reisen Inaba Undongen.

NIKU! Err... I mean... Kashiwazaki Sena from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai.

Ulquiorra Cifer and... somebody (a lil help?) from Bleach.

Akemi Homura and Kyuubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Waver Velvet from Fate/Zero.

I presume Lancer... And Saber from Fate/Zero.

Sakura Kyouko from Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Dat Asuka! From Evangelion.

Irisviel von Einzbern from Fate/Zero. Very impressive wearing this outfit in the almost 30ºC weather in Vancouver that day!

Dead Master from Black Rock Shooter.

Katsuragi Keima and Elsie from Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai.

The Gensokyo Mafioso

From the PSN game Journey!

Makise Kurisu and Okabe Rintarou from Steins;Gate.

Aisaka Taiga from ToraDora.

Bunnygirl Asahina Mikuru and Suzumiya Haruhi from The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.

This is another friend, Steph, as Tomoe Mami from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The first picture of this post is also her ^^;

Darn it, I keep screwing up the framing on the photo XD

Very nice of Steph to let me and a few others take multiple photos of her cosplay ^_^

While I was lining up for Nakata Jouji's autograph, I spy with my little eye, a certain scientific Railgun!!! I was hoping to find her again later after the line was over...

AND I DID! I was shouting, "MIKOTOOOOOO" as I got close to her XD I hope I didn't scare her ^^; If you haven't figured out yet, this is Misaka Mikoto from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun! ^o^

Here's another friend, Sandy, as Tohsaka Tokiomi from Fate/Zero!

A friend of a friend cosplaying Ankh from Kamen Rider OOO.

And here he is trying to eat ramen with that hand ^^;

While waiting for my turn to take photos of the Ghibli heroine group, I took a photo of Arrietty's hairclip that I saw from afar many times during the convention :)

And here's the group... Arriety (The Secret World of Arrietty), San (Princess Mononoke), Sen/Chihiro (Spirited Away) and Sophie (Howl's Moving Castle).

Juliet Starling from Lollipop Chainsaw.

Scanty and Kneesocks from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.

WAH! So happy to find a MEIKO!!! Racing Queen Kagamine Rin and MEIKO ^o^

Another friend, Chocolorange, as... somebody from Homestuck ^^;

Snuck a pic of Jessica Nigri... Not sure what her cos is though...

Sheryl Nome, Saotome Alto and Ranka Lee from Macross Frontier.

And another friend XD Apparently I have a lot of cosplayer friends ^^ This is Snakeyhoho as Fon from Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

ADORABLE! Nano and nekomimi Hakase from Nichijou.

Espeon and Umbreon from Pokemon. How to evolve this? :3

Vocaloid Gumi!

Another MEIKO!!

Group picture this time... With KAITO, Miku and MEIKO!

AND ANOTHER FRIEND! Jess as Taneshima Popura from Working!!

Ryu and Sakura from Street Fighter.

And Chocolorange helped me to find the last of the favourite quartet characters of mine, Ayanami Rei from Evangelion!

So I'm just trying to be artsy and be a photographer and stuff, lol. My direction sucks though ^^;

That's it! There are a lot more cosplay that I couldn't take during Anime Revolution, but glad to find my checklist complete with cosplays of Ayanami Rei, Saber, Misaka Mikoto and MEIKO ^_^ Go see Chun's site for a few more cosplays :D

Anime Revolution 2012

2012-08-21T21:02:00.000-07:00

Anime Revolution is a 3-day anime convention taking place in the Vancouver Convention Centre from August 17th to 19th. This is the first year for Anime Revolution. It features guests such as the English voice cast of Sailor Moon and Nakata Jouji.

The registration line on the first day. Almost non-existent on the second day.

Now that the official description is done, I'm going to try to report as honest and unbiased as possible withholding anything from what other people have said. The line in the above picture is about the same on Thursday for the pre-convention pick up. Took me about 1.5 hours to get my pass. The pass itself is quite impressive. It's professional looking and got a lanyard (some convention stopped giving these out).

The first reaction when I hear "Vancouver Convention Centre" is that the new building that was built three years ago, not the newly renovated Vancouver Convention Centre in Canada Place... A completely different building with smaller area. The dealers hall does look nice with the brightly lit area under the white canopy during sunny days, though on some days we can hear the horn from the cruise ships docked nearby...

One of the liveliest booth with videos constantly playing and a woman dressed up as a bunnygirl for all three days!

Quite a variety of dealers in the hall, but a lot are the same. I still see some bootlegs, but I think only one or two vendors. A lot of them are very official. My friends from my BJD group have a booth here as well selling water balloon yo-yos and walking alpacas.

This is from the Bluefin Distribution booth. They sell everything from Bandai, so FiguArts, Gundam model kits and Robot Damashii.

Other booths include paintball, tattoo artist, Nintendo and art schools. Some are local and some are from across Canada. I saw a small booth for New Irben Entertainment that were selling decent products from Winnipeg. They also ship free in Canada. Of course, Vancouver's biggest DVD warehouse with its own Facebook Anime Club page, C&L, is also there as the official Aniplex USA vendor.

UBC Anime Club was also advertising. I think they were so quiet they were building card houses with their promo items ^^; The pink alpaca is from a booth in the Artist Alley.

Another friend from the BJD group also had an art booth, so I took some photos of her dolls as well.

The first panel I attended was the Ghibli panel. I realized it was the same as the one I attended two years ago at Anime Evolution. Except this time there were a lot more people (my friends and I were standing) and the room was air conditioned.

Now, here's the thing about panels at Anime Revolution... There was one room that was split into two panel rooms...by a curtain. By far this was the most intrusive and distracting setup I've ever been in. Another panel room was shared with the video games room. There was also only one viewing room, so not a lot of choices except for what was playing.

Since some panels weren't as exciting, I thought I'd join my friends seeing Terri Hawkes (voice of Serena/Sailor Moon), Ron Rubin (Voice of Artemis) and Sugar Lyn-Beard (voice of Rini). This was one of the examples for the disruptive 2-panels-in-1-room setup... Everyone was cheering when the three came in, while the Funimation panel host, upon hearing this, announced to her audience that she will be outside to answer any questions; 20 minutes before the panel was supposed to end.

There was a 3 hour gap between the panels we wanted to see and there were no place to sit. If we sit in the hallway, the Convention Centre staff would tell us to move along, sitting outside would be too hot if you can't find a shade. There were lots of seats upstairs, but the con staff told the Convention Centre staff to strictly forbid anyone to come to the second floor... What's a weary con-goer to do? Why, sit at the lobby of the nearby hotel, of course. Aside from people asking for my friend's cosplay photo, we were able to sit and relax comfortably before the next panel.

There were some events in its own room thankfully. The swimsuit competition took place in the Main Events room. I will post more photos later in a separate post. Let's just say the event was very sexy, and they know it, and very pun-derful! A very good treat for my senses!

The next day, we had a doll panel. I came in late unfortunately, so weren't able to hear all of the presentations. I was able to talk to a few people while I was there, including someone who saw my MEIKO during Kotatsu. Chun was able to attend this event on Saturday. The lines for the registrations and pre-registrations were mostly gone by that day.

The one on the left is MysticaGrey's Salem and on the left is one of the Con Staff's doll, whose name I didn't catch unfortunately ^^;

Cirno! Another friend's doll ^^

There were a few panels that were limited to a more private room on the second floor on the second day. I think a lot more panels could've used these rooms so that they didn't have to share panel rooms...

MEIKO was daring enough to pat Taiga's head and call her, "hey shorty!" XD

I was able to got an autograph... Two autographs from Nakata Jouji! Thanks to Chun, I was able to get a copy of my Hellsing DVD and Gankutsou DVD copy signed ^_^ Unfortunately since the Aniplex and Nakata Jouji panel conflicted, I wasn't able to attend his for Saturday. He did have two panels thankfully and I was able to attend one of them.

The Aniplex Guy seemed to be upset with the setup for his panel as well. The sound of the video trailers had to conflict with the video games room and could not get louder than it already is. I'm sure the con staff tried to do their best, but just the whole setup for this con was quite unprofessional and unimpressive.

There was a huge room that was used for people lining up for the next panels. It definitely made less traffic for the hallways, but it wasn't very organized because there were no signs where people were supposed to line up for which panel. This room with people lining up was also used for the maid cafe on Saturday. It would've been a nice experience to actually go to this event, but at $18, a lot of us were quite discouraged especially with not a lot to be offered...

Finally on the last day... Not much to offer, as Sundays at a convention usually go. There was the last Nakata Jouji panel that I was finally able to attend...Which shared its room with a charity auction next to us... I wonder how he felt when he was trying to speak and hear, "$150. Do I hear $160? $160!" Aside from the disruption in the beginning, Nakata was really cool and funny. He even revealed a little tidbit of Hellsing Ultimate OVA. He just finished recording it... So for those who are waiting for the last episode, it should come soon :)

A mahjong game

THIS IS SPARTA!

Otou-san XD

In conclusion, Anime Revolution could've been better, but they've definitely caught some attention with the guests they've invited. The Sailor Moon cast catered to the dub fans while Nakata Jouji indicated that there are a LOT of people who hunger to see Japanese voice actors here. Years of dub voice actors only appearing at local cons made conventions here rather stale, so hopefully this will set some precedent. I only wished they put more thought into the panel rooms. Nakata is quite popular, so shouldn't he get a better room treatment? There are a lot of room for improvements... Hopefully they'll sort it out by next year when they compete with the returning Anime Evolution.

I was glad to be venturing the convention with friends this time around though. Without them perhaps I would've been bored out of my mind. So thanks to Sayoko, Chun, Galamirix, Candyman, MysticaGrey, EtchiMango, Imran, Akinari, Snakeyhoho, Misty and many others... Also nice to meet new comrades! I finally met Shiroyume in person and also Richard from Vancouver Island who somehow tracked me down at the busy con. It was also a pleasure to meet the wonderfully nice artist, KL, who is also a Mikoto fan! A very funny story about this meeting which I will tell at a later time.

More coverage on Anime Revolution to come! Also check out my flickr for overflow photos that I couldn't fit in this post.

Tea, Park and Rei

2012-07-31T04:14:00.003-07:00

On Tanabata, July 7th to be precise, my friends and I decided to go out for tea. It was a nice summer day in Vancouver. A good day to go out especially since it had been cold and raining the week before.

First we had tea at Adonia. There was a bigger group that were already there before us, so we got a smaller table. Rather hard to put in so many food and tea at once ^^;

Each teapot has a candle underneath. It's quite a fancy pot, I have to say.

Forgot what tea it was, but sure looks interesting at this angle.

Some nice decoration around the store.

The Afternoon Tea Set. Lots of food! Real good and surprisingly filling. Some of the foods are the same, but the cakes and dessert varies a little. The shrimp potato salad was really good!

The sugar for the tea.

After tea, we took a stroll around Pacific Spirit Park. Many many routes you can take. Lots of people especially since it was a nice weather on Saturday.

I didn't know they grow watermelons in the park ^^; Actually it's Flamebyrd's Watermelon. Very cute! ^o^

A very gross-looking mushroom... I was going, "EWWWWWW" the whole time.

A fallen tree.

While this tree fell right after we walked past that path. So when a tree falls in the forest and we were there to hear it, it made a very LOUD cracking sound!

Slug! Yeah, sorry, I just like taking pictures of slugs for some reason, especially the yellow ones... So to erase this gross view, come and see Rei right below ;)

This Ayanami Rei is made by Vispo and was originally released in 2010. Vispo is usually known for their garage kits, which are made from resin. These EvaDolls seem to be their first foray into the BJD industry. This is also my very first resin doll that I own. Which I surprised everyone by showing her in the park out of nowhere. I'm becoming rather infamous that my name has become a verb for keeping secret. She arrived the day before but I was only able to pick her up just before tea time.

Rei came with her trademark light blue hair wig (which is very loose on her head), the gothic lolita dress, underwear, socks and shoes (from Leekeworld).

What I didn't realize at first was that if you open her headcap you can move her eyes around so that it's not stuck in this position all the time ^^;

She looks very pretty ^o^

This is my favourite shot from that day. I'm currently using this photo as my wallpaper. Hopefully to take more photos of her soon. Her underwear is very cute :P

Misaka Mori

2012-07-28T15:54:00.002-07:00

The head of the Misaka Mori greets you with this post... The Misaka Mori trading figures aren't new, but it's only recently I've gotten a little fun with them, so I thought I'd give this series another spotlight.

There are 12 figures inside the box which includes nine of the Misaka Little Sisters, one Misaka Mikoto, one Accelerator and one Last Order. I've held back on purchasing this box because it was expensive at the time and I was trying to cut back... Plus I wasn't sure if I wanted more trading figures. Things change when it came on sale. For a while I left it untouched but only recently that I picked up a couple of Misaka Sisters from the second volume box set that I decided to open these.

The head of the family, Misaka Mikoto herself.

The lolico... Err... The ever present companion of Last Order, Accelerator and the loli herself.

Small tower of Sisters. Not sure how many I can stack before they fall over ^^;

The Misaka Mori means Misaka Forest in English. Perhaps because they resemble the Japanese kanji for forest: 森. The stack seem to lean forward though, so I had to angle the camera a little to see their faces. You can see one of the sisters from volume 2 in the bottom row.

The backside ^^;

This is one of the fun I've had with these sisters. Munching on cherries... Of course this isn't the only shenanigan I have with them. Most of them are taken on my phone and posted on my Instagram. Feel free to follow me under 'lightningsabre'. ^^

Below are the photos I've taken on my phone without the Instagram filters. Some of them aren't that great of a quality, but you can see some of the fun I've had with them ^_^

I take a lot of these photos at work ^^;

Pardon my hairy leg ^^;;; She's helping me put band-aid on my wound.

Smelling marker fumes and passing out from it XD

Yes, you can switch their heads :)

They love Pocky, but don't like to share that much...

Misaka can taste the rainbow... Also, Misaka Breading.

Stacking fun :D

This one has to be my favourite photo as of late. I call it, "Smartass".

Extra Ero Nero

2012-06-29T18:21:00.000-07:00

Hand puppet? So who's that handling Saber Nero figma like that?

The Melancholy of Saber Lily Part 71

You know how April Fool's Day jokes can become real? Well I guess it's only half real this time around. I couldn't help with the title of the comic since they mentioned drapes... Umm, but yeah... Here's my Saber Nero Dollfie Dream ^^ Feel free to drop by the Melancholy of Saber Lily site for the other 4koma comics :)

Ero Saber Nero is playing with Saber Nero.....

Just arrived and she immediately fondles Saber Alter XD

"My skirt is already transparent why are you taking photos at this angle??"

Nero has such a pretty face ^o^ I had trouble putting on the wig though, but managed to find some answers from DollfieDreams.com using plastic bag so that it slips inside her head and then pull the bag when it's on. It's not on straight right now though ^^;

She dangerously has many nip slips as I take photos. Love this pose and I can see lots of skin on the torso part ^o^

She did say in Carnival Phantasm that she's letting people see XD So I'm seeing :P

And here is MEIKO! Saber Nero's boots make her taller than MEIKO! Also doesn't help that MEIKO's head is smaller than hers ^^; But at least it's good to see MEIKO with her new sister ^^

Trying to play with the camera perspectives and such.

Nero and MEIKO getting to know each other ^^;;;

A bigger view of that last panel from the 4koma comic ^_^

And yes, she came with the sword. I just didn't want to mess around with it for the moment ^^;

I didn't post the unboxing photos, but you can see it on my flickr.

MEIKO Dollfie Dream Upgrade

2012-06-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

Yikes! This is just the first post I've done in June O_O I need to focus! Also, I haven't taken a lot of photos of MEIKO or any of my girls lately aside from Doll Meet photos... So here is a newly upgraded MEIKO complete with spats (sport shorts)! In this picture it seems like she's saying, "what are you trying to do? You can see up my skirt with these shorts!"

Heterochromia MEIKO is gazing into your soul!

It all started with a very small meet; and when I say small, I mean 3-5 people. It felt more like a workshop really because we did maintenance, sewing and other things... And when I say "we", I meant the host, lol. I can't really sew or use the sewing machine ^^; One of the things I did though was try out different sizes of eyes for MEIKO. She does have nice eyes, but I always think they're too big because her eye slots are really small. The ones above are 18mm glass eyes. Even though they look big, the eyes seem to small for the slot and would require too much putty for my taste.

Somehow MEIKO looks really gentle here.

These ones are 20mm eyes. I borrowed them from Flamebyrd. A bit big, but I think they fit alright. So I'll go with the 20mm eyes... As I've told Gabihime who is making MEIKO's new eyes ^_^

Picture from Vocaloid Wiki

This is the reason why I wanted to get sport shorts for MEIKO. Her Project Diva incarnation had it. I thought she wore it before, but I guess it wasn't until Project Diva that she had the shorts.

So here she is! The upgraded MEIKO! I do need to fix up the length of the shorts, maybe even remake it now that I've seen how it's done. I can already see some people frowning about the black material on DDs. Chun and I have actually tested this fabric for at least a week (maybe more) and it does not stain. Plus, she's also been sprayed with Mr. Super Clear (MSC for short) to prevent or at least make it easier to remove stain from her body.

Pardon the lighting ^^; I'm still new at taking photos at home for my girls since they were all set up for figmas XD

Crack! I gotta fix the back of the shorts too. Either add more fabric or redo it with the back in mind.

"Don't take photos from the front, perv!"

Ehehe ^^;; Missed some stitching in the front so it looks like she's got easy access there XD

The meet host also made a quick black pair of panties for me. Looked very granny-like panties, but looks nice when it's on MEIKO.

Lasto shoto!

Dolls and Beaches

2012-05-25T14:45:00.003-07:00

It suddenly became very sunny in Vancouver in the beginning of May, so the group decided to have a meet on the beach on May 12th. Thankfully Flamebyrd brought an umbrella because dolls don't like the sun much ^^;

Obey your thirst! Drink Sprite! Sadly I spilled some because I must've shook it when I was carrying in my bag ^^;

Lots of people on the beach. It wasn't that warm yet, and lots of wind. Later on in the day it became quite warm in the sun.

Helen's about ready to go swimming.

Oh, looks like she's got her swimsuit underneath.

Sexy :D

Quite a breezy day.

Adjusting the back of the suit ^^;

Rainbike Dash??

Pretty rainbows ^^

Ice cream!

Widdle biddy mermaid ^^ So cute! I wants'em!

Sexy MEIKO! These are Helen's outfit btw. A little bit short, but she fits them quite well :D

Bluestarbaby's phone. Cute alpaca on the back :D

Love this photo ^^ They're so cute together ^_^ A little bit more on my Flick.

Taiga Hunting Sakura and Other Spring Days

2012-05-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy spring. Taiga were sad I wasn't able to post the photos I took of her last month... It was quite a rainy April, so it was hard to take spring photos outside. This is one of those rare days where it didn't rain. Figured I'd take a walk around the neighbourhood.

Since I'm also behind on posting other photos, I thought I'd put them all together here ^^; And also on Flickr!

A lot of streets lined with sakura!

Not sure what plants those are behind Taiga, but I thought it was cute.

Found this cute log decoration outside someone's house. I had to pause a little bit so the resident of the house go in first before I took photos ^^;

Oh, I also got a new phone last month. I posted this photo on Instagram a few weeks ago calling it, "Taiga logging in." ^^;

Cherry blossom not bloomed yet.

A little pot luck dinner with friends... And dolls.

Théo is shy, especially with all the big ladies around him.

Cute Shion is cute! Especially with those pigtails.

Ducks!

Ducklings!

Bunnies! There were lots and lots of bunnies. I'd pick one up as a pet if I could.

Sexy Miu taking a walk in Minoru Park.

Cute lil baby bunnies ^^

Dessert time! Crème brûlée made by Navci!

A new Lego store opened early in May and they built this gigantic Lego R2-D2 at Oakridge Mall!

Then I had a BBQ at a friend's place. Wished i took pictures of the food, lol, but that woulda made you all hungry :P

MEIKO's outfit is actually Helen's! Helen's 50cm but seems to fit MEIKO just fine ^^ A bit sexy with the sideboob, but I'm not complaining :P

Saber's Fake Birthday and the Reality Marble Cake

2012-05-13T12:28:00.001-07:00

It's Saber's birthday once again and looks like they're having a party by eating a "reality" marble cake XD

Edit: Sadly, I found out that this birth date is made up T-T ...I apologize if I somehow caused an argument regarding her real birthday. Her birthdate is not mentioned anywhere in Type Moon's work unfortunately. Oh well, let's just have fun with it regardless :)

This was last minute photos and post unfortunately... I completely forgot since I've been busy and very tired this weekend ^^; The marble cake is made by mom, btw. Also, Happy Mother's Day!

I also decided to put in Saber as my phone wallpaper for a while... I figured a new art by Takeuchi Takashi would be a good one.

Uh-oh... The Sabers are angry... They just finished the cake and they want more 0.o

OMAKE: Saber Nendoroid heads!

Spring Doll Meet 2012

2012-04-24T23:37:00.001-07:00

Right after the second day of Fan Expo I made my way to the spring doll meet that already started, though there were still a few people that arrived later than me ^^; I brought along MEIKO, Helen and my newly purchased alpaca plush from Fan Expo. Quite a popular animal during the meet XD

There were a couple of other SQ Lab/DD customs during the meet aside from MEIKO.

Cute widdle mermaid! Not sure if I like the webbed hands though... Might be something I need to get used to.

Yes, I purposefully angle the photo here so that it looks like Kudo is trying to poke inside Saber Alter's dress behind her.

Helen looks like she's having fun with her new alpaca companion... Though she might be too heavy for the plush still... Don't tell her that I said she was heavy.......

A couple of idols!

I had a story in mind when I saw these two in the viewfinder. He looks troubled while she's asking him, "what's wrong?" ...And go from there.

Something about her eyes made me feel like this photo didn't do it justice. I couldn't tell which angle I should be taking ^^;

Mmmm... Bacon! XD

By this time, MEIKO does not look like MEIKO anymore... So I'm calling her "MEIKOver" when she's not in her usual MEIKO outfit, courtesy of Flamebyrd who made that pun.

Alna now has a sidetail!

Poor guy... He's trying to be a gentleman while trying not to look down into the valley... ^^;

Love the jewel choker! I have something like that too that I should use more often...

The cool kids.

Two Nendobitsu! Taiga is Airs' new girl... Sorta ^^

Girly long legs! This tan skinned girl has really long legs that she caught my eye quickly. She's the meet host's girl, btw. I had to ask about her, lol.

This pair look so relaxed.

A very interesting pose... He's asking you to help stretch him out, it seems.

A complete MEIKOver... I would never imagine her in a light blue dress like this before... She is soooo not MEIKO XD

And then she grew twin tails XD

Alna was feeling very hot...

Better late than never. This mother and child pair arrived late, but I still got photos of them both!

Once in a while I want to try a different angle when taking photos... I took this right above them. Gives off a different feeling for this photo, but not sure what.

And lastly... Saber Alter and angry bun! Super cute ^^

Since I recently upgraded my Flickr, I decided to frickin use the heck out of it... Way more photos from the meet on my Flickr!

First Fan Expo in Vancouver

2012-04-23T00:24:00.004-07:00

Fan Expo has arrived in Vancouver! Though it is now come and gone when this is posted ^^; Fan Expo have always been one of the biggest combined geekery convention in Canada, but usually only in Toronto. This year it came to Vancouver. I'm hoping the title of my post become "The First Annual Fan Expo in Vancouver", but judging from how successful the turnout was it won't be a surprise if it doesn't happen again next year.

The lines were long! It goes on forever! However, the fire chief decided that it will become a fire hazard if they went over the capacity of the hall. So unfortunately a lot of people were turned away. The tweet from @ExpoVancouver mentioned that they had to cut off anymore admissions but may be available again after 3 pm on Saturday.

Tear/raindrop sculpture outside the Convention Centre

This took place in Vancouver Convention Centre. It was big, but the crowd was bigger! Though I think it was the right decision even though they had to disappoint a few people because it became really hot inside with all of these people and very hard to move in the aisles.

This was the first sight you would've seen once you enter. Huge amounts of shirts! I got one myself.

Comics and comics and more comics in long boxes! Gone are the days of me collecting them unfortunately. Though once in a while I'd look for graphic novels to read some of the more interesting crossovers or collected stories.

The Batmobile is a replica made locally. It's quite the centrepiece for this exhibition hall. You can take as many pictures as you want outside the railings, but pay $20 you can sit inside and do closeup photos for 5 minutes.

These two mechas were popular attraction inside the exhibit hall. The Terminator statue stuck around in one of the booth but it got quite a lot of attention. While R2-D2 was more mobile thanks to the folks from the 501st Legion. It chirped and whined and shrieked just like in the movies while traversing the crowd and waiting for people to take pictures with this lovable astromech.

Awesome looking Hulkbuster Iron Man statue. It was for sale at Fan Expo for $397 ^^;;;

Lots of dakimakura being sold too. Took this picture for Yakuri XD

Golden Age Colelctables is my usual comic book store... If I were still buying comics. This original art was drawn by Todd McFarlane when he just started his first work for DC Comics and lived in Vancouver area. This art is also used for the store's bag and became quite a popular item for tourists.

Some Tintin merchandise. Quite pricey, but they are hard to find items.

Wicked looking sign for Visions Found! Some of the artists found in the Artist Alley.

Anime Revolution was also advertising their convention which will take place in the Vancouver Convention Centre as well. I had quite a bit of talk with one of the staffs. I just remembered that I heard about them when they followed me on Twitter, but back then they didn't look as good as this since they just started. Quite a long ways since then and everything look quite good now.

I also met some friends here at Fan Expo, including Narmi and Chun (as seen above).

On Saturday night, I was able to get a ticket for the Canadian Videogame Awards (CVA. Apparently "videogame" is one word XD).

It was hosted by Canadian David Hayter, who most of you would probably know him best as Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Yes, he was talking to himself a lot during the show XD

An interesting segment during the show where David Hayter (Solid Snake), Elias Toufexis (Deus Ex: Human Revolution) and Eric Ladin (Infamous 2) show off their voice range quoting famous movie lines.

David Genn (54-40) were playing with The Odds to present the nominees for best music. Great music! I was very impressed with their rendition of Deus Ex's score.

Jennifer Hale replayed her role as Naomi for the show.

Billy Campbell, of Rocketeer fame was one of the presenters.

Jennifer Hale was also there to present an award.

The last thing I attended for Fan Expo was the ReBoot panel featuring Gavin Blair (creator), Sharon Alexander (voice of older AndrAIa), Shirley Millner (voice of Hexxadecimal) and Garry Chalk (voice of Slash).

The convention seem to be lacking panels with only two panel rooms for Q&A or events. I guess when you're used to other anime conventions it felt like this was lacking. Though since this is the first year they're doing this they might just start small. Hopefully this will become an annual event in Vancouver. Though I imagine there has to be some improvement that could be made. Like for lineups. It was unfortunate they had to turn away people. And then on the second day, everyone had to line up no matter if they have a 2-day badge or just buying their tickets today... Isn't it easier to let people with passes in first instead of getting them to lineup with everyone else?

Anyway... To end this post, here are the cosplay photos! Though this time around there aren't as many cosplay compared to an anime convention so I've put them together here.

Captain Haddock, Tintin and Snowy. They were actually running a survey on the recent Adventures of Tintin film for the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC and asked the Fan Expo attendees to help their research. But you can also take part and take the survey online to help them out ;)

Saw an unmasked Captain America and a very accurate looking Whiplash from Iron Man 2. And yes, that arc reactor do light up!

Felicia of Darkstalkers.

Rainbow Dash! She's 20% cooler because I know her XD

Collection of Batman characters!

Akira and Saki from Higashi no Eden. Akira looks familiar. Looks like I've seen her from somewhere in a different cosplay... Hmmm.....

A super cute Ayanami Rei! *doki doki*

Tali from Mass Effect series. Tali is misskatcakes who detailed a lot about her Tali costume on her Tumblr.

Fem Predator! One ugly motherf*****! XD

An unlikely pair... Harley Quinn (Arkham Asylum version) and Miranda Lawson from Mass Effect.

Misty as Supergirl from Golden Age Collectables, also a friend of mine, who actually brought me to light regarding the existence of Fan Expo in Vancouver.

Enzo, Mike the TV and AndrAIa from ReBoot!

And lastly a Fluttershy (from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) with Angel the bunny XD

Sakura Con 2012 Acquisitions

2012-04-18T15:45:00.002-07:00

What's a convention without getting some stuff to buy to bring home, right? The strangest part about this loot is the fact that I didn't buy any shirts! This doesn't happen very often! I usually get at least one shirt from a convention... But maybe I just remember that I have too many already as it is... Oh also, that Durarara manga is a freebie and I forgot to take more photos of it. So this is the only time you'll see it :P Ah and pardon the quality of some of the photos. When I took the photos I thought they looked good enough on the display, little did I know I didn't have enough lighting for some ^^;

First up is a unique item and since it's Misaka Mikoto, I had to get it! Sure it looks like a normal wall scroll, right? Well there's a wire going down from the topside and you can plug in a music player into it and BAM! Wall scroll speaker! If I have time I'll make a video of it.

I think I spent most of my money that I brought at the Obitsu booth... I was hoping they would have the Obitsu 1/3 scale stand and they did! Glad I saved on shipping for this one. They didn't have all that I wanted though, but my friend got the ones she requested of me before the Con. Obitsu 11cm bodies which comes with underwear this time around. Or as I'd like to call it, "tiny panties." I think the Obitsu VP remembers me from last year or perhaps it was a special thing they had for Sakura Con; they gave me free two pairs of shoes for the Obitsu 11cm :D So nice of them. The dresses I had to buy separately though and cost me some pretty pennies ^^;

I really need to get going on watching Gundam AGE. I'm missing out a lot it seems. I love the designs on the grunt unit better than the Gundam, so I had to buy an Adele, while I bought the Titus so I can modify my Madoka figma :3

Ika Musume Blu-Ray was released early and quite cheap, might I add! Now I need to get rid of the first volume DVD that I bought ^^; I bought the Vocaloid keychain from Kinokuniya, but mostly for MEIKO, lol.

I also got to look around the Artist Alley. I was mostly looking for doll things, but couldn't find any... But I found these little gems! Marle and Chrono's cat are beads with magnets attached at the back! Really cool looking. I had to get them right away! I need to track down the artist because I wanna see if she has more of them :D Azumanga Daioh and bubble tea... What more cute you ask?

New dresses for MEIKO! Yes, that is MEIKO under that blonde wig XD These new dresses aren't from Sakura Con itself though. I ordered from Maridah's BJD Atelier store and got them there :D Thank you Maridah!

I would enlarge these photos but the colour and lighting was awful ^^;

She also included these two items in the package ^o^ Thank you very, very much Maridah! For that, I made an extra comic here for her ^^

The Melancholy of Saber Lily Special 9

Ya... Saber just can't do nice things ^^; If you know your film and big budget movie techniques you know what green screens are used for. If not then it's basically used to add a new background later on that replaces the green screen. Oh and I have to credit CosplayShots too, the photographer of the original Maridah casual Saber. I had quite a chat with him while we were at Sakura Con :)

And of course you can always read the whole series of 4koma comics at The Melancholy of Saber Lily site.

Here's a bigger version of the edit for the first two panels. I tried to match the colour, but well... It's a bit off ^^; Thanks again Maridah for letting me use this photo :)

And here are the signed stuff! Got my copy of Phantom of Inferno signed by Urobuchi Gen! I wanted the boss of Nitroplus to sign it at AX last year, but I forgot to bring it =( I still have the old passwords inside the case! Copy of my Full Metal Panic signed by Tateo Retsu, who is such a cute lady ^^ While Iwakami Atsushiro and Ota Katsushi signed the Fate/Zero postcard!

I was also able to exchange some business cards with some people there :D I finally got a card from Obitsu since I didn't have my business card last year at Anime Expo... The Wonder Woman cosplayer is Pink Bunnie, a friend of Maridah, also from my home province of BC. Ashe sorta greeted me out of nowhere and I wasn't sure if I've met her before or not ^^; Apparently I looked like one of her friends. She was cosplaying as Saber from Fate/Zero. I exchanged cards anyway, lol. I got the Aniplex card after the interview with Urobuchi Gen just so we can co-ordinate the interview articles.

This is the back of Ashe's card. Really cool!

My press pass badge :)

Not really mine, but I took this at an Artist Alley booth and this artist (whom I should've gotten a name/card from...) had a Blue Fairy Xiao sitting around and I asked if I can take a photo.

And lastly... I really wish I took this home as a loot. I want a Chogokin God Sigma now!!!

Obitsu at Sakura Con 2012

2012-04-13T02:55:00.000-07:00

When the president of your favourite doll company is invited to Sakura Con as a special guest, you tend to want to go... So I did. He is Obitsu Saburo, the President of Obitsu Company, a company that is 100% made in Japan! All the design and manufacturing are made in eastern Tokyo in Japan.

Obitsu had the honour to be one of the first panels you can attend on Friday. Unfortunately they had some technical difficulties and their presentation was delayed for about 15-20 minutes... The downside of being first =/

So Helen took some time taking photos right behind Saburo himself!

Even with the delay, the technical problems were still not able to be fixed, so they had to resort to showing the slideshow on the laptop. Thankfully it was a small crowd and we were able to huddle up close to see their presentation which included some videos. One of them is from Culture Japan when Danny Choo visited their factory for inside look at the Obitsu factory.

One of the reasons why Seattle is popular in Japan is because of Ichiro who plays for the Seattle Mariners, possibly Obitsu's reason to come to Sakura Con. Incidentally, his name, Saburo, means he is the third son in the family, Ichiro being the first. Despite being third he does not want to lose to his older brother!

Obitsu Saburo holding up the popular 50cm line bodies, one with vinyl body parts and the other just the inner skeleton. Obitsu is famous for their slush mould. It's the process of creating doll mould from baking and rotating at the same time which makes the parts seamless and have a handcrafted feel to them.

He proceeded to take apart the skeleton showing how easy it was to replace if a part broke.

In the box in front had in some of their creations using slush mould. I was slightly confused because the translator kept saying "slash" but I looked it up for accuracy's purposes and "slush" seem to come more often.

I was sitting in the second row so I was close enough to read the subtitles on the laptop... But I know I could watch it at another time if I had to :P

One of the best demonstrations of the slush mould is the monster Garamon from the Ultraman series. The slush mould made it possible to make the scales all in one piece.

Here's a closer look inside Garamon's body. Very interesting to learn about this process.

This shoe is made to look like it has seams, but it is all moulded in one piece. The seams were part of the design for the shoes. I purposely compare it to my shoes when I took this photo XD

This is also one of the products that they're able to create with the slush mould. I was wondering what exactly this was because it's a bucket but a very long and narrow one... It turns out to be a bucket you can put on a belt if you work as a window washer. Towa Safety Bucket, to be exact.

The next sample Obitsu showed us were stomach samples. It was created for a doctor who was testing an internal organ camera. The doctor did not want to use a cadaver to make a layout of the stomach so he used his own! The doctor asked many other companies who can make these samples, but to no avail, until he came to the very last one on his list, the Obitsu company. These models were also used for medical conventions in Japan!

This one really caught my eye since it's The Terminator! It looked like a very high profile work too. I was able to find it in Hobby Search's catalogue. It looked very heavy, but in fact, a very light figure.

It looked kinda funny here, but I found it very interesting that this is how they made it. They could easily make multiple features to attach his arms without the jacket.

The next piece is Cthulhu! Helen and Raven bravely posed with him ^^; This was contracted by an American company who started out with a Chinese company at first. After six months that company showed a lot of defective products, so the American company decided to go with Obitsu to creating this monstrosity.

Prior to this Matrix-like demonstration, Obitsu showed us an old style doll that was very floppy and had lots of screws in the back. After people saw what Obitsu can do, the styles quickly changed for dollmakers.

That marks the end of their panel. They have another panel on the Saturday but it is the same as this one but perhaps they fixed their technical difficulties by then. I wasn't able to attend unfortunately, so I was not able to see anything different from the Friday one. But moving right along, they had a booth in the Exhibit Hall which I visited soon after.

I feel like I didn't do these dolls justice with the bad angle I had when I took these photos... They were actually selling them though these dolls are only for display. They would be taking your order and then ship them to where you live.

These two look so cute that I was tempted to buy them right there!

The Obitsu 11cm have their own heads and they were for sale, but my friend who wanted me to buy a couple of these had Nendoroid heads in mind.

These two look rather resin and much bigger than the anime style dolls to their left.

They do more than just dolls!

Many mini Kewpies!

Kewpies are one of their popular line of toys, so they had many variations of them.

A parting shot of the booth! It was nice to meet the staff again and talk a little. I think I spent most of my money at their booth ^^; I wonder if they remembered me from last year at Anime Expo or not... Oh well, it was still fun looking around their cozy little booth. They keep having new things showing up the next day which prompted me to spend more money, heheh.