Warlord Games Bad Santa Pike & Shotte Mystery Box

 So I decided to try one of those mystery boxes Warlord Games releases every now and then.

And for Bad Santa, they had the option between a variety of them, so to have a look at what all this is about, I took the jump and ordered the Pike & Shotte one.

The boxes are priced at 60 euro (and 15 euro shipping to Belgium), and stated to have at least double the value in them.  Now, if it is not the epic scale stuff, that would mean a win in any case, as the full range can be used in my budding Empire force, OR if it are Feudal Japan sets they can go into the still someday planned to finish, Great Wall movie inspired Cathay army for 8th edition warhammer.

As they where released to the public on the 20th of january, my box duly arrived at the XXth, and let's have a look at what is inside!  In an ideal world for my Escalation League, that would be a box of Landsknechts with Zweihanders and some sort of Cannon or Mortar, while pure pike armed troops would be of the least use.

 

So those are the contents of the box, and that means it is time to make a little calculation of what the RRP of all the items together is, and it defintily was worth the value!

I will be buying more of these boxes in the future, and even while this box contained basically everything for a starter army in the English Civil War, the models will all be drafted into the Empire of course...

Unboxing My Hero Academia The Evil Villains DX Himiko Toga

 Time to unbox a figure for one of the girls in the waifu collection, and it is our kawaii psycho Himiko Toga from My Hero Academia.

 

And you can never have enough Toga in your life...

From the The Evil Villains DX line by Banpresto, this prize figure was won over at TokyoCatch, and comes with her in full "combat gear".

Armed with her knife and bottles to store the blood of those she cuts, in order to be able to take on their appearances, the figure comes with a mischieveous expression as seen on the box, so let's crack open the box!

 

A lovely figure for certain, and one I've gladly added to the collection!

Warhammer Underworlds: Elathain's Soulraid

 The Idoneth Deepkin, an army that fascinated ever since their release into Age of Sigmar, have at the moment two warbands in Underworlds.

So when I finally got my hands on the first, older, one, I immediatly threw my paint schedule on it's head and went in for them.

I'm even considering taking them to a tournament in the coming weeks, even though I never fielded them, just because they are so cool with the fish and crab members in the band.  And okay, so they are elves and as a result pretty fragile, and a seemingly low damage output, but they do have some cool tricks up their sleeves, like very potent poisons.

And as an added bonus, they are the first unit now for my AoS army of the Idoneth, that I finally will get of the ground in earnest to maybe even play some tournaments in 2024 with.  But that will depend a lot on painting time getting in, because I have a lot of other stuff to do as well.

Special mention goes to the fish though, I deliberatly went for a pink colour on that little model, as Thorin's favorite toy is a plastic pink fish, so we can play "aquarium" together now. 

Now hopefully Santa finds my letter for the new base box, containing another Idoneth warband in it.

Unboxing Taito Kurumi Tokisada bunny version

 Hailing from the Revival line by Taito, this Kurumi is the latest addition to the collection, another win from TokyoCatch.

And she is in a bunny suit, making it extra he-he...

So let's open this figure in the following video clip

All in all, even though I like her more in red, not to bad a figure at all.  And a welcome collection addition for my series of waifu's.

Unboxing Chaos Dwarf Warmaster warriors

 Think of this as an Etsy "try-out" to have a look at the quality and service.

So I ordered some Chaos Dwarf 10mm strips for Warmaster, enough to form a full 3 base unit, from Etsy store RealmOf3dPrints, based in Poland.

Because somehow, Poland is the new promised land it seems for wargame printed figures...  

The sculpts are from the Ankylo line, of whom I have read some good reviews, so with the plan to build a 10mm force in 2024 I went in and ordered the first models for that project.  It was shipped about a week after ordering, and arrived about another week later.

Now, let's unbox the little parcel and have a look:

 

 

Truly clean and crisp little models, this is one store to definetly order from in the future to expand the whole army by a factor of a lot!

 

 

Unboxing Chaos Dwarf suited figures from Miniatures Forge

 Sometimes, the Facebook and Instagram spams lead to nice discoveries.

And this is one of them, a polish RPG miniature creator called Miniatures Forge.

I found them as such from a post that popped up in one of the various FB groups I was in, and went to have a look to see if they had some models suited for my ever grwoing (again) army, and they sure did.

Now, you can select the scale they are printed in, so I opted ofc for 32mm as most models are heroic scaled, and the option of "no base" as they will go in my forces for rank-and-file gaming.  That meant they came to about 5.50 euro each per figure, not to bad for a heap of characters.  

So let's look which brave (cough) dwarves joined the ranks of the Dawi Zharr:

 

 

I like the quality a lot, and have my eyes on the manufacturer already for some more figures to bolster my ranks, something I`ll get round to ordering in a few weeks I guess.

Now to first clean off the cotton of these guys and galls...

Unboxing the Mist Hashira

 The latest figure that is joining our "mutual" collection of Noshi and me, it is the Mist Hashira, Muichiro Tokito.

Seen in action in the recent Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village Arc, this silent and hazed warrior had some impressive fighting skills.

Noshi liked him so much actually, I went out and grabbed him on TokyoCatch, though personally I liked "Lord Flashy" from season 2 more hehe.

 

But without further ado, let's crack open the box and have a look at the figure: 

So a fairly standard pose figure, but a nice representation of the character for a prize figure, as this whole line has decent quality models.

And it makes Noshi happy, so that is a big bonus...

 

 

Unboxing Ichika Nakano

 One of the recent wins from Tokyocatch, it's Ichika, my favorite Quintuplet.

And as such, let's have a look at this sitting figure!

Now, looking at the box, I hope I will be pleasantly suprised, because the eyes don`t look that awesome at all on the box...

So let's find out:

All in all, not bad, but definitly not the best Ichika I have.

Unboxing Marin Kitagawa

 Yessss, I got myself a Marin, the ultimate girl otaku!

Well, she will be joined near the end of the year when the large scale figure comes out, but for now she is already a welcome addition to the collection.

Produced by Sega, this prize figure was caught over at TokyoCatch, and arrived near the end of july in my mailbox.

So let's have a look at this lovely lady and crack open the box:

 

 

 

A great figure for a prize scaled model, and a welcome addition to the collection!

Unboxing the Love Hashira

 The latest addition from Tokyocatch, Kanroji has joined the collection.

Meaning the noodle stopper I have from her will be traded off in favour of this more anime posed figure.

So, let's crack open the box of the mild mannered Hashira, and see if she looks any good!

Well, indeed a dynamic improvement compared to the noodlestopper, and a great addition to the display cabinet.  I don`t plan on collecting all the hashira, but only the ones Noshi liked as well in the anime, and this lovely little lady was definitly one of them.

Until the next unboxing!

Unboxing Nendoroid Marin Kitagawa

 Marin oooh Marin.  The uber-otaku waifu of My Dress-up Darling has finally arrived in my collection (though more are following), in her Nendoroid form.

Nendoroid number 1935, she comes with a heap of sweet accessories, so which one will I pick?

Well, as you can see in the below video, apparently the hardest one.

Long live unedited klutziness on YouTube!

But all that apart, she is a lovely figure.  Her details (the earrings for example) are well executed and the hair has that same natural flow in colour as she has in the anime.

Truly a nice Nendoroid, and one that happily goes in the display cabinet!

Unboxing The Horns of Hashut for WarCry

 The Father of Darkness is back in the lore of Age of Sigmar, and it is actually the same deity from the World that Was.

Yes, the lore is starting to incorporate the Chaos Dwarves again, albeit in a special way, as these are humans who sold their soul to their dark masters to avoid being eradicated.

And they are one of the warbands in the current season of WarCry, a game I don`t really play, but there is also a battlescroll for them that can attach them to a Legion of Azgorh force.  So needless to say, once I found out about this coming out of my hiatus, I just needed to have them. 

But without further ado, let's open this box I bought at Wayland Games (feel free to go shop there using the banner above this post, it helps me out a lot!) and which arrived a few days later.

So, that looks like a fun side project for the not so near future!

Unboxing My Hero Academia Hawks

 Hawks, the savy, cool number 2 pro-hero.

Who doesn`t like this guy with a dark past in My Hero Academia?

Well, I`m cool with him, so when I grabbed his Amazing Heroes line figure over at Tokyo Catch, I really want him to have a nice place in the cabinets.

But let's have a look at the model:

He is posing heroically, and the wings give him some serious volume to boot, so yes, that is one great figure!

Until the next unboxing!

Unboxing My Hero Academia Denki Kaminari

 Finally I have him, my favorite student of class 1-A, thanks to TokyoCatch.

I grabbed him near the end of last year, and he arrived safe and sound at the end of february.

So let's unbox this figure!

A truly good looking model, in a fun dynamic pose if you ask me.  He is one of the more enjoyable side characters of the series, and to be honest often seems overpowering as well if he is "on his game"... before turning his brain to mush for a period.

But, he took the place on my home office desk now instead of Yamcha, because you need to change every so often after all... and he is just great!

Unboxing Archonia's february 2023 "My Box"

 Time for the monthly box from Archonia to arrive, and it contains some nice volumes once again.

Some new releases, some to fill in the series I have...

Let's see what is in it this time round!

So that is a nice little pile of manga, and some good reading material for the coming weeks.  At this rate, the mangatheque will be filling up nicely, albeit a year later then planned.

See you back next month for the following box!

Unboxing an eBay package from Japan

 Today I am unboxing a small parcel I grabbed from eBay, and which quite amazingly flew from Japan to my front door in 2 days!

The contents? 

Some figures for MechaTop (let's go Gundam ZZ with this one) as well as waifu merchandise.

So this is quite a fun little parcel, and over the course of the year I do expect to order one or two times more some of those gachapon from the seller, as it is a quick service, shipping was alright considering how expensive that became the last two years anyways, and the models themselves where quit cheap.

Now to plan them into the painting line somewhere...

Unboxing Lunamaria Hawke Destiny Heroine DX Figure

 Beginning of december, I received a notification alert from Mandarake that they had a Lunemaria figure in their used selection that I missed.

The condition read that the problems where with the packaging, so at 500 yen for the model, I immediatly swooped in.  It is only a box after all, and for a 1/8th scale, 3.86 euro was a steal.

So selecting airmail, and the necessary import duties, the model arrived the beginning of february.

The box indeed had seen better days though not at all a disaster, but let's unbox her and look at the important stuff, namely the actual figure!

 

 

This is definitly one of the more kawaii DX models of my Lunamaria, I love the facial expression on this figure and she will get a nice spot in the cabinet.

Unboxing Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash Gigi Andalucia

 Aaaaah, the classy lady from Hathaway's Flash, whom I won over at TokyoCatch has arrived.

Miss Gigi Andalucia herself, produced in the Banpresto Glitter and Glamours line.

I always love when they get Gundam figurines in the crane games, as that is not something that happens frequently, and then try my best to get one, like last year with Lala Sunue, and now with Miss Gigi.

So, without further ado, let's open those seals and have a look at the figure!

 

 

And that is a winner to start the year with for sure.  Gorgeous figure, excellent detailing for a prize figure, I`m one happy camper with this one for sure!

Big lot of Manga unboxing

 Okay, so today I`m ripping open a nice big box of manga.

And they where a damn fine deal, found on a Facebook group.

The seller, a lady from The Netherlands, was selling of various series, but also this lot of 45 manga, all from various series and mostly volume 1's, that where in her way.  Asking price?  A measly 55 euro.  Add in 11.50 for shipping with Mondial Relay, and I got myself this box at under 1.50 euro a volume, and a sheer stack to discover.

Which books are inside?  Well, let's see in this unboxing video!

So that is in total 32 new series to discover and sample.  Now being the collectionist that I am, that will also mean I'll be trying to complete all those series over the coming months and years, but that will be slow and steady progress which you'll be able to follow on this little corner of the internet.

Now, it's time to read!

Unboxing Pop-Up Parade Zero Two

Oh how have I been waiting for this preorder to arrive.

Finally a decent sized Zero Two to go into the cabinets!

Because admit it, she is one of the hottest anime girls to appear on the scene in the past years, even more so if you are a mecha anime lover like myself.  To that end, as soon as she appeared on Archonia for pre-order, I placed it.

And now I have her in my hands, so let's unbox this lovely lady!

A truly good figure for my collection.  While I still hope they will re-release the jump suit scale version, that means that for now this version has to do!

Not that I mind, but one day, I want a true scale of her (and yes, she IS on my tattoo shortlist, probably to go on either the ribs, or the lower leg) to grace my collection.