Long Live the King!

I've been strangely silent of late, mainly due to an uncertainty over my next month's employment. Nothing etched in stone yet, but it seems that I'll be back at the same gig again next month. Woohoo!

To celebrate I picked up a Snow Globe for the first day of Spring, King Ghiddorah.
(This is the first snow globe I've ever owned, it is hefty enough to make the proverbial blunt object if ever needed.)

  

Before the snow storm.

  

The storm is in full flurry.

  

The storm is settling down.

This is the package in which it comes. I'm torn between traditional white snow and the golden flakes falling on the King. There is also one for Godzilla and for Mecha-Godzilla but I don't know the colour of their snowstorms and I don't have an extra fifteen bucks to spend in order to find out.

On St. Patrick's Day, I managed to land three different Ultraman beanies. Here is one enjoying a Guinness!

I'm fairly certain these are released in conjunction with the new Ultraman Movie,
ウルトラマンオーブ　絆の力、おかりします! or "Ultraman Orb the Movie: I'm Borrowing the Power of Your Bonds!"



If it's showing at a convenient time on a cheap movie day, I may go see it.

Gamblera!

I picked up this Gamera Pachinko a few years back and decided to finally release it from its packaging.

Here is a video I made in my attempt to get a jackpot. (Spoiler Alert: I don't.)



I captured the readout a few times. As you can see, in addition to the regular Pachinko icons such as SEVEN or Cherries, there are Gamera and some of his more famous nemeses such as Gyaos or Guiron.

Of course there have been actual Gamera Pachinko machines such as this one.



But I refuse to go into those stinky, deafening pits of hell.

Since I plan to utilize this machine to save a few shekels, let's see what other piggy banks I already have.

   

Ultraman and one of his villains (I couldn't find it upon Googling. Can anyone help me out here?)

Also my Google-fu is failing me here as well. I'm pretty sure this is an Ishinomori character but it isn't Kikkaider or  ロボット刑事, Robotto Keiji, I don't think. Once again, help me out.

 

And the rather non-pc Majin, a genie from Dragonball

Of course this happy fellow is Darth Maul before he got mauled.
Some of these even have coins in them. Too bad, they're Canadian otherwise I'd head to the Pachinko now!

The Holy Grail of piggy banks is of course Godzilla. I really need to find a cheap one of these!



WANT!

Happy ReBirth Day!

Yesterday was the 6th anniversary of the Earthquake/Tsunami/Fukushima Plant calamity and I have spent the weekend relaxing at home and doing a whole lot of nothing. I like to pull up this image every year just to show the only damage that befell my apartment. Gamera took a header into my toilet!

He survived fine and is now a proud papa.

March 11th also happens to be the anniversary of the first publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Next year will be its 150th anniversary! Here is a copy of its novelization and I've added most of the pictures from that book.

    

 In the lab.

 Ghoulishly assembling his creature.

All wired up.

No wonder Prometheus* was so angry all the time. Victor gave him a superfluous third nipple.
*(I won't make the rookie mistake of referring to Frankenstein's creation as Frankie or the Monster. When necessary, I'll just call him Prom.)

Prom sees his first sunrise.

Trying to make friends but *Fire...Bad!*

   

Upon entering the village, he doesn't fare so well in making new companions. Who brings pitchforks with them to town meetings? (This is the same plot as every single Casper the Friendly Ghost story.)

Maybe this old blind guy will befriend me.

Or maybe not. Upon seeing his reflection, Prom realizes he is not very handsome.

I'll just proctor this ESL class and learn to speak English good.

He's a quick study and soon learns of his origins once he reads Victor's diary which is conveniently illustrated.

Now that I'm educated, surely the local villagers will accept me.

Nope, we axed you before to stay away !

Two can play at that game.

Ooh, I just know this friendship won't end well.

Too bad Justine the nanny gets framed for young William's murder.

But Vic doesn't mind because he's gonna get some.

Prom warns Vic that he'll soon pay a visit.

I'm getting married in the morning. Ding dong, the bells are going to chime.

I've heard of a shotgun wedding, but not a shotgun honeymoon.

And then the scene skips to the very end of the book in the Arctic wastelands. The End!

This link will take you to an anime adaption of the above story, dubbed into English.

I recently bought another adaptation of the book and perhaps I'll show it off soon.

It's Ash Wednesday!

I love this painting of Ash drawn by Arthur Suydam that I acquired a few years back (click those links for details). I plan to post it on every Ash Wednesday.

As for yesterday (Shrove or Pancake Tuesday), I had a couple of waffles instead of hotcakes.

The school year is winding down now and I'm beginning to bid farewell to my Grade Fivers and Sixers.  I've been giving away some SW stickers as a Sayanora present.

I was rather touched today when my genkiest class ever treated me to a chorus of PPAP, substituting Eigo/Fun and Michael/ Dai-suki for Pen/Pineapple/Apple/Pen.

Speaking of Star Wars, I snagged a Gatcha-capsule of Darth. This one is a memo-holder.

I had a beer with Lego Batman today.

We caught a viewing of Nice Guys, it was quite fun. Ryan does a great Lou Costello impression.