What did you RECEIVE today? PHOTOS EDITION!
- Thread starter bakum4tsu
- Start date
Scrambled Valkyrie
School Idol
Got my first Rightstuf order in about a year coming shortly via Stackry. Cannot wait. Have been starved of Region A discs for a while. Damn import fees. Really glad these proxy services exist otherwise us UK based fans would be be really desperate for old school releases. I really wish one single retro focused anime home video label would pop up over here, just one!
zappi
Student Council President
Rightstuf sale order finally here!
City Hunter & Cat's Eye are pretty much my ideal of what an 80s anime should look like, no matter how silly the stories get I can ooh and aah at the pretty art all day
Sound Of The Sky has been on my wants list for a few years now, so v happy to finally own a copy. I just loved the atmosphere of it when I watched it, can't wait to revisit.
City Hunter & Cat's Eye are pretty much my ideal of what an 80s anime should look like, no matter how silly the stories get I can ooh and aah at the pretty art all day
Sound Of The Sky has been on my wants list for a few years now, so v happy to finally own a copy. I just loved the atmosphere of it when I watched it, can't wait to revisit.
Attachments
TakamakiJoker
Hunter
Likewise, I’ve never seen any of these before.
2023 HAUL VER 8.6
(note: images are hosted via AUKN for the meantime)
We have some more goodies for this update. All of the items are pretty much arriving to the end of the month which is a common approach given the delays and having to order them at the beginning of the month etc etc.
To start off, another Radiance Films release has arrived and it's the first Hong Kong addition to the label with Benny Chan's 1990 film A Moment of Romance (天若有情), which has a 4K restoration but is on Blu-ray. Like the previous Radiance Film releases we have a Scanavo case with a mini obi cover to keep the main artwork clean. Reversible cover artwork is what I use for my shelf at the moment but the front cover artwork is really good too.
Next we have a haul that has a lot of people curious! So for those who have been following my hauls for the past decade, I have never used a forwarding service from the US and it's been a tactic that I had been wanting to sort out for a long time now. With the recent talk about Stackry, which is one of many services available, I decided to give it a shot and utilise it on Sentai Filmworks' online store, because they are the only distributor who doesn't ship internationally compared to others.
This haul is a test. A test on keeping it short but also affordable, and to see how Stackry handles the delivery. The results are as follows!
Ordering from Sentai:
The next steps for this approach will be to increase the number and value of the order, to see how far it can go. In total this haul costed me $53 (£42) + $18.99 (£15) ($8.99 (£7) due to discount) shipping = £57 (£49 thanks to the discount).
So long story short, I bought three Sentai Filmworks Blu-rays which were on sale coincidently. Kids on the Slope, Negima! & Negima!? collection, and The Pet Girl of Sakurasou. All three titles have been tested and played on PlayStation 5.
The one that's worth noting was Negima! which was going out of print, and I was able to get mine secured whilst a bunch of Blu-ray forum users lost out. Kids on the Slope is the re-release version which is very handy, given the previous release was a decade ago and did have a mono issue at one point. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou is the second release version that includes Sentai's dub.
Next we shift over to video games and here we have our first proper Limited Run Games titles, as my first LRG game (Senran Kagura Reflexions) was not part of the mainline list. This is the first LRG order that I made through VideoGamesPlus thanks to their stock batch earlier in the month, and there are a few more on their way. In this batch we have two bullet hell Cave shoot em ups called DoDonPachi Resurrection and Espgaluda II.
Known in Japan as DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu, DoDonPachi Resurrection is one of the most well-known bullet hell games and was even released on Xbox 360 in the west. It was brought over to the Switch by Live Wire and is one of three to get this treatment from the Cave catalog. The other was Espgaluda II which was also released on Xbox 360 but only for Japan and Switch marks its western console debut.
The third Live Wire game to get the Switch treatment that I don't yet own is Mushihimesama, but I do have the game ordered however I won't know when exactly it will arrive just yet, as VGP had sold out before I started these orders.
Next we got back to Hong Kong Asian Cinema with five more films joining the collection. The first is the Fight Back to School Trilogy which features Gordon Chan's 1991 film Fight Back to School (逃學威龍) and 1992 film Fight Back to School II (逃學威龍2) as well as Wong Jing's 1993 film Fight Back to School III (逃學威龍3之龍過雞年). This collection all feature actor Stephen Chow plus there's appearances by Ng Man-tat and Anthony Wong. While 88 Films' deluxe collector's edition feature physical items, this release only has a rigid box which I suspect is down to approval and asset issues. Never-the-less it's good to have more Stephen Chow films.
Also arrived are two more slim-type releases with Ronny Yu's 1982 film The Postman Fights Back (巡城馬) featuring Bryan Leung and Chow Yun-fat, and Herman Yau's 1993 film Taxi Hunter (的士判官) featuring Anthony Wong, Yu Rongguang and Ng Man-tat. The latter is often mistaken to be a Category III title but it's actually a Category IIB since some folks had been asking about that over on the 88 Films BD forum thread.
(note: images are hosted via AUKN for the meantime)
We have some more goodies for this update. All of the items are pretty much arriving to the end of the month which is a common approach given the delays and having to order them at the beginning of the month etc etc.
To start off, another Radiance Films release has arrived and it's the first Hong Kong addition to the label with Benny Chan's 1990 film A Moment of Romance (天若有情), which has a 4K restoration but is on Blu-ray. Like the previous Radiance Film releases we have a Scanavo case with a mini obi cover to keep the main artwork clean. Reversible cover artwork is what I use for my shelf at the moment but the front cover artwork is really good too.
Next we have a haul that has a lot of people curious! So for those who have been following my hauls for the past decade, I have never used a forwarding service from the US and it's been a tactic that I had been wanting to sort out for a long time now. With the recent talk about Stackry, which is one of many services available, I decided to give it a shot and utilise it on Sentai Filmworks' online store, because they are the only distributor who doesn't ship internationally compared to others.
This haul is a test. A test on keeping it short but also affordable, and to see how Stackry handles the delivery. The results are as follows!
Ordering from Sentai:
- Sentai's store uses the Shopify approach and ordering was pretty good, you have multiple shipping options but I went with the free shipping option which required having an order that was worth $50 in total. Three titles which were on sale added to $53 total.
- Payment was done through Monzo & PayPal with no issues, which is good given some sites in other regions can reject your card because it's not local.
- Sentai shipped the order 2 days later, but this timeframe can change as my order was placed during a weekend.
- Joining the service was pretty simple, as they do a good job guiding you through its service. You are immediately given an address and it's free to join, with options to pay for more features if needed. As I used a referral link, I also got $10 off shipping which was used automatically.
- The package arrived at Stackry in 2 days, which was done through USPS. Upon arrival, Stackry provided two photos of the packaging box and made note of its weight. Thanks to the photos I decided it was worth shipping out without any repackaging (which was $5).
- There is a VAT form that you sort out, so I noted each one as a DVD product since that's an easier way of explaining what these are for the customs folks. Despite the VAT stuff, this cleared customs without issue and was not shown on the box.
- For shipping to the UK I went with the cheapest shipping option which was Global Mail Direct (DHL) which included tracking. Once it landed in the UK, Evri (formerly known as Hermes) took over but tracking was also updated on DHL's side.
- Because Sentai's packaging has changed ever since they stopped using Rightstuf's warehouse, the protection is hit or miss but everything survived for the most part.
- No invoice was included inside the box for the Sentai order, just like Rightstuf's.
- Journey progress: 12th Aug (Sentai order made) -> 14th Aug (Sentai order dispatched) -> 16th Aug (Stackry received package) -> 17th Aug (Stackry order shipped) -> 19th Aug (processed in the US for UK) -> 21st (cleared UK customs) -> 22nd (arrived with Evri) -> 23rd (delivered)
The next steps for this approach will be to increase the number and value of the order, to see how far it can go. In total this haul costed me $53 (£42) + $18.99 (£15) ($8.99 (£7) due to discount) shipping = £57 (£49 thanks to the discount).
So long story short, I bought three Sentai Filmworks Blu-rays which were on sale coincidently. Kids on the Slope, Negima! & Negima!? collection, and The Pet Girl of Sakurasou. All three titles have been tested and played on PlayStation 5.
The one that's worth noting was Negima! which was going out of print, and I was able to get mine secured whilst a bunch of Blu-ray forum users lost out. Kids on the Slope is the re-release version which is very handy, given the previous release was a decade ago and did have a mono issue at one point. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou is the second release version that includes Sentai's dub.
Next we shift over to video games and here we have our first proper Limited Run Games titles, as my first LRG game (Senran Kagura Reflexions) was not part of the mainline list. This is the first LRG order that I made through VideoGamesPlus thanks to their stock batch earlier in the month, and there are a few more on their way. In this batch we have two bullet hell Cave shoot em ups called DoDonPachi Resurrection and Espgaluda II.
Known in Japan as DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu, DoDonPachi Resurrection is one of the most well-known bullet hell games and was even released on Xbox 360 in the west. It was brought over to the Switch by Live Wire and is one of three to get this treatment from the Cave catalog. The other was Espgaluda II which was also released on Xbox 360 but only for Japan and Switch marks its western console debut.
The third Live Wire game to get the Switch treatment that I don't yet own is Mushihimesama, but I do have the game ordered however I won't know when exactly it will arrive just yet, as VGP had sold out before I started these orders.
Next we got back to Hong Kong Asian Cinema with five more films joining the collection. The first is the Fight Back to School Trilogy which features Gordon Chan's 1991 film Fight Back to School (逃學威龍) and 1992 film Fight Back to School II (逃學威龍2) as well as Wong Jing's 1993 film Fight Back to School III (逃學威龍3之龍過雞年). This collection all feature actor Stephen Chow plus there's appearances by Ng Man-tat and Anthony Wong. While 88 Films' deluxe collector's edition feature physical items, this release only has a rigid box which I suspect is down to approval and asset issues. Never-the-less it's good to have more Stephen Chow films.
Also arrived are two more slim-type releases with Ronny Yu's 1982 film The Postman Fights Back (巡城馬) featuring Bryan Leung and Chow Yun-fat, and Herman Yau's 1993 film Taxi Hunter (的士判官) featuring Anthony Wong, Yu Rongguang and Ng Man-tat. The latter is often mistaken to be a Category III title but it's actually a Category IIB since some folks had been asking about that over on the 88 Films BD forum thread.
Gemsy-chan
Diclonius
TakamakiJoker
Hunter
RadFemHedonist
Cardcaptor
Not today but I recently purchased a full set of every Caran D'Ache Neocolour II/2 watersoluble wax pastel colour ever manufactured and they have arrived! I have already started using them for a really colourful picture of an owl and they look absolutely beautiful on white paper, colours are very vibrant and the very small amount of water-colouring I have done with them I was impressed with the results as well, I don't buy art supplies anywhere near as often as I used to these days as I have absolutely loads now but these were definitely a wise investment, you can still get the 84 colour tin I believe and I will buy that if I can't get another 126 colour tin when these are used up, but I'm really glad I nabbed these off Ebay, here are some pictures (the one with my hand is to give an idea of the size of the pastels) 
Basically for anyone who's still confused these are extremely high end watercolour crayons (aka better than Lyra Aquacolours and miles ahead of what you'd find being sold in places like Tiger/Poundland/The Works (you'd be better off buying a smaller set of these if you're on a budget as they'll perform far better though the Lyra ones aren't bad just not as good) Also have attached a work in progress pic of the owl so people can see what they actually look like on paper
Basically for anyone who's still confused these are extremely high end watercolour crayons (aka better than Lyra Aquacolours and miles ahead of what you'd find being sold in places like Tiger/Poundland/The Works (you'd be better off buying a smaller set of these if you're on a budget as they'll perform far better though the Lyra ones aren't bad just not as good) Also have attached a work in progress pic of the owl so people can see what they actually look like on paper Attachments
Girls with Guns
Time-Traveller
I received two newly released Blu-ray titles from Rightstuf today:
The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 Limited Edition
A Couple of Cuckoos Volume 1
The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 Limited Edition
A Couple of Cuckoos Volume 1
Dai
Pokémon Master
Bringing the beige back, baby!
These are just for outdoors, in an attempt to force myself to take longer walks by giving me the option to listen to podcasts. I wanted some cheapish headphones that aren't so cheap as to sound terrible, but also not so expensive that I'd be filled with rage if they break while I'm out and about. I've been avoiding in-ear types since they're the likely reason for me developing chronic tinnitus several years ago, so that left me looking for some that aren't so massive they would make me look like a Cyberman.
These are just for outdoors, in an attempt to force myself to take longer walks by giving me the option to listen to podcasts. I wanted some cheapish headphones that aren't so cheap as to sound terrible, but also not so expensive that I'd be filled with rage if they break while I'm out and about. I've been avoiding in-ear types since they're the likely reason for me developing chronic tinnitus several years ago, so that left me looking for some that aren't so massive they would make me look like a Cyberman.
2023 HAUL VER 8.7
(note: images are hosted via AUKN for the meantime)
Two more packages arrived yesterday and today.
Part 2 of the Video Games Plus x Limited Run Games haul arrived a day earlier than anticipated. For this batch we have the physical versions for Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection I & II, which are a series of action platformer games originated from the MSX but the versions that were more popular are on the PC Engine. The first collection covers Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (PC Engine, 1992), Valis II (PC Engine, 1989) and Valis III (PC Engine, 1990) while the second collection covers Valis IV (PC Engine, 1991), Syd of Valis/SD Valis (Mega Drive, 1992) as well as two versions of Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (Mega Drive, 1991 & MSX, 1986).
While physical versions are available in Japan, I felt the Valis titles' story was worth playing in English so this was the only option available.
Ranking of Kings is a series that I have heard a lot about ever since it started airing a few years ago, and I missed out on the simulcast stuff for various factors. The Blu-ray is finally out in its entirely so I have ordered both parts, with Part 2 being the limited edition. You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
While the UK did receive the series, I don't want to support the current distributor's model at this time and so most of the titles I'll be picking up via the US release. Sure it's one less sale for the UK stuff but this distributor's been inconsistent for the past decade and it's gotten to a point where it's burned me out on promises etc so I can't be bothered anymore.
(note: images are hosted via AUKN for the meantime)
Two more packages arrived yesterday and today.
Part 2 of the Video Games Plus x Limited Run Games haul arrived a day earlier than anticipated. For this batch we have the physical versions for Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection I & II, which are a series of action platformer games originated from the MSX but the versions that were more popular are on the PC Engine. The first collection covers Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (PC Engine, 1992), Valis II (PC Engine, 1989) and Valis III (PC Engine, 1990) while the second collection covers Valis IV (PC Engine, 1991), Syd of Valis/SD Valis (Mega Drive, 1992) as well as two versions of Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (Mega Drive, 1991 & MSX, 1986).
While physical versions are available in Japan, I felt the Valis titles' story was worth playing in English so this was the only option available.
Ranking of Kings is a series that I have heard a lot about ever since it started airing a few years ago, and I missed out on the simulcast stuff for various factors. The Blu-ray is finally out in its entirely so I have ordered both parts, with Part 2 being the limited edition. You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
While the UK did receive the series, I don't want to support the current distributor's model at this time and so most of the titles I'll be picking up via the US release. Sure it's one less sale for the UK stuff but this distributor's been inconsistent for the past decade and it's gotten to a point where it's burned me out on promises etc so I can't be bothered anymore.
Invisible Crane
Adventurer
It's from Roger Craig Smith aka Ezio Auditore, the current voice of Sonic The Hedgehog (with the exception of the movies and Sonic Prime), he was Batman in Arkham Origins and Batman Ninja, and a personal favorite of mine, Hawkodile and Richard in Unikitty
Attachments
Lucky_Deity
Stand User
Dragon Ball Z (Season 5) (BD)
farzam1999
Brigade Leader
Gemsy-chan
Diclonius
WMD
Guild Member
Arrived in Spain today so was finally able to get my hands on my Spanish release of Haruhi Suzumiya which I'd had sent to my aunts house.
And more detailed unboxing photos under the spoiler tags
I'll add more photos in a following post as running out of space here.
And more detailed unboxing photos under the spoiler tags
Back of box
Badges held in the box base
And the info sheet has me at 67 out of 1200
Badges held in the box base
And the info sheet has me at 67 out of 1200
A4-ish sized art cards
Massive posters
I'll add more photos in a following post as running out of space here.