Ender's Gamey.

Last week, I finally got to see Battle Royale 2 Hunger Games Catching Fire and it was great. Great set up for the sequel, Mockingjay which will be airing soon (except for in Japan of course.)



While there, I picked up an advanced ticket for Ender's Game and saw it on Friday. Nice thing about buying advanced tix is that you get goodies to go along with the entry. In this case, I got an awesome clear-file featuring an Anime-ted Ender and a pin.

As for the movie itself, not bad. I have never read any of the hundreds of Ender books by homophobe Orson Scott Card and don't ever plan to. But I liked the characters and the actors enough to see another movie if a sequel is made.

Mmm. Doraemon popcorn!

I didn't buy any of the expensive goods such as the t-shirt, towel or poster but I did get another clear-file, though not as Anime-ted.

While there I picked up two more advanced tickets. One of them is for The Hobbit, One Smaugy Evening.
This advanced ticket went on sale a year ago December when the first movie came out with the promise of a sticker with the ticket. I never bothered buying one then. On a lark I picked one up and managed to get the last sticker. To say I'm disappointed would be an understatement.

The other ticket is for Robobobocop

and the premium that came with it is great. It's a mini-penlight.

Last night at the pub, we tried to emblazon it upon my face to limited success. First try, it was too light.

Next try, it was too dark and I looked more like Al Jolson.

Ah, there, that got it!

This Saturday, Mighty Sore, Dark World Mighty Thor, Dark World finally comes out! I can't wait...

I'm Pezzed Off!

While tidying last weekend, I discovered that part of a wooden flat within my closet had almost completely rotted away, taking two paper-bags stuffed full of toys with it.

 
Fortunately, the toys have been salvaged for the most part but one of the bags was full of PEZ. This is when I discovered something that I should have known better. Even though the Pezzes were wrapped in plastic, little bacteria managed to chew away at the candies and turned them to goo. I washed them all and they turned out all right but no more "mint in package" Pezzes for me.In the future, I'll just toss the candy and if I ever use the Pez as an actual dispenser, I'll buy some fresh ones. I have a few more in various different bags and I'll have to make sure that they haven't been affected.

Here is a sextet of Star Wars and a trio of Super-heroes. I know I have some more heroes around somewhere, such as Thor and Hulk. Also a pair of Simpsons, Taz and Gonzo (I'm surprised I don't have more of these Muppet or Warners' characters!)

This is an example of a completely destroyed Pez package. I have no idea who gave it to me because I am certain I didn't buy it myself.

It included this lame Valentine Pez. But I paired it up with this awesome mini-Pez of an Alien Baltran. I don't know why I didn't pick up an entire set of these Ultraman villains, but I don't ever recall seeing them for sale, I must have found this one at a flea market.

As a belated birthday present, my pal Takayo gave me a huge bag stuffed to the hilt of toys. Apart from a few, I'll redistribute the wealth Robin Hood style but I plan to keep the Pez.

Some Chicken Little, Pooh, Disney and Simba Lion King. Not a bad haul.

Once I track down my other Pez, I'll be sure to showcase them. Anyone have any ideas as to how to display these? Maybe within a spice rack?

Sigh. NO, Dontosai!

It's time for the annual "take down the New Year's Decorations and toss them in a huge bonfire" also known as どんと祭 (Dontosai). Rather than recycle some old observations from 3 years ago I'll just offer up today's. 

A huge crowd prevented me from taking as many photos as I'd have liked (click the above link for lots of pics) but I did take a few of the flames.

I didn't partake of much food (those accursed long lineups) but I did have an  お好み焼き (Okonomiyaki) which in this case was an actual rolled up pancake on a stick with some secret ingredients that I couldn't discern.

That little white dot happens to be a waxing moon and a tinier version shows up when I bought a crepe.

Every time I go, I miss out on the parade of half-naked guys and gals marching around the city and this time I managed to get the tail end of the queue.

I picked up an おみくじ (omikuji) just to see if my message is auspicious or not. Because I can't make out heads nor tails of it, I dunno if it's bad luck or good luck. Can anyone enlighten me? (If it is REALLY bad luck, please lie to me.)

Cash Of The Titans.

Ever since I first discovered the "Attack of the Titans" fleshless skull-head (Halloween mask, thank you very much), I have been intrigued with it. I've never read a book (though I got a copy of the manga for my phone on a free download) nor seen an anime episode (soon to be rectified) but it still strikes my fancy. In the past, I bought a bunch of stuff from Lawsons but haven't seen much in the stores of late.
Except for the following...

The other day, I noticed that 7-11 has coffees with little key-chain/ iPhone straps featuring the characters.

To me, they all look fairly identical, some with blond(e) hair, some with brown or black, all with big creepy eyes. Therefore to avert buying duplicates, I bought 10 coffees. They come in handy as gifts for deliverymen.

Other combini crap includes 2/3 glasses and 1/7 badges. I couldn't find the other glass and didn't really want to pursue the badges which came with a piece of gum.

In the Gatcha-Capsules, there are few items yet I got Mikasa Ackerman. I didn't want to shell 200￥ out for more but I found the cool creepy one for 100 yen.

Again at 200￥ a pop, I didn't get any more than 1/10 but this little metallic book marks are kind of cute.

When I went Lucky Bag shopping on the 2nd, I bought a nice pillow for 700￥and managed to find a few other items as well.

A set of Titan Post-its and a couple of mini clear files and a larger clear file that appear to have been part of a Contest. Darn it all, I missed out on that one and only got the dregs.

Then in the Game Centre, I managed to UFO Catch the last two mini-pillows and a pair of stuffed figures.

Finally, if I do say so myself, I have a nice bust!