Holy hell! A non-haul blog? o_O What's going on? I may have been critical of certain aspects of the site, but this place has been my online home for many years and hopefully for many more to come! Congratulations on another year and Merry Birthday to you Niero and thank you once again for everything you've done! <3

WARNING: 85 PICTURE BLOG INCOMING! BE PREPARED!

Dag yo! So, after months upon months of not fulfilling what I promised my mate, BulletMagnet, I am now trying to rectify that, with an extremely large PAL and Japanese Import A Compulsive Collector’s Haul. My last blog post was in MAY 2011! Needless to say, I’ve gotten just a few things! =P Most of this stuff was either imported in by my close homeboy and import specialist Zoel, or from a local seller that I befriended who used to live in Japan and the UK for many years and was looking to unload his collection to someone who could appreciate it. So, enough with the chitchat, let’s get on with the show.

Also, SUPER MEGA LOVE goes out to my homie g ChillyBilly for hosting and helping to resize my pictures, as without his help, this post probably would not have had a chance to go live! <3



We being with a PAL Special Edition of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. It seems that a lot of PSP games in the UK get the Special Edition treatment and it’s something that would’ve been nice to have in North America! The only real difference is that the game comes packed with an art book, but if you know me, I’ll unfortunately not be able to see what it looks like. This copy also completes my North American, Japanese, and PAL collection of this game . . . *sigh* . . . -_-‘ Hahaha!




Next up we have the Japanese Limited Edition of Okamiden: Chisaki Taiyou, better known to us Western folk as Okamiden. This oversized box came with the DS game, came with a plethora of goodies. The first picture is of my sealed box, but the second one shows all the goodies, which include: the game, a soundtrack, a DVD, a storybook, a plush keychain, and some super cool headphones!



Along with that Limited Edition, all first run prints of the game were accompanied by the bonus Okamiden: Chisaki Taiyou Stylus and Screen Cleaner, which in my books, looks much more pleasant and “cleaner” than the ones we got in North America.



Some of you already know that the Breath of Fire series (especially III), has some of my favorite games of all time. With that said, when this Breath of Fire Complete Works art book was available for cheap, I couldn’t resist! It has artwork from all five games and is nothing short of absolutely gorgeous. Even though it’s not overly rare or anything, a true gem in my collection! ^_^







Well, if you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll also know I’m quite the fan of the Kingdom Hearts series, and yes, I can/actually do follow the storyline, so . . . y’all be haters! =P Hahaha! Once again, through my buddy Zoel, I got him to import me a box of the Kingdom Hearts II Formation Arts. I did so, due to the fact that I actually liked all of the figures from this set. The first couple of pictures are just of the box that the figures come in, followed by a couple pictures of the smaller boxes that each individual figure comes in.



First up we have Roxas eating some sea-salt ice cream at the clock tower in Twilight Town. I’m still very surprised at the level of detail that is shown on these figures and was quite pleased with my purchase.



Here we have my favorite (and I managed to get 2 of him in my box of 6 figures! ^_^) of the series. I’ve always been a big fan of Final Form Sora and it seems all of his badassness and glory has been captured in this figure. The detail that went into Oblivion and Oathkeeper is also very impressive.



This was probably my least favorite figure of the series, mainly because I thought it didn’t have any really standout features in it. It’s pretty much just Riku wielding Soul Eater on the Sidecar Glider from the game. It’s not bad per se, just I didn’t find any really cool details in it like I did with the rest of the figures. -_-‘



Here we have Naminé, who played a fairly predominant role in the storyline of the series . . . for those who actually paid attention to it while playing the games! =P I really liked how this figure has mini-figures of Sora, Donald, and Goofy climbing the stairs in Castle Oblivion.



Finally, we end with King Mickey using his opposite colored (compared to Sora’s) keyblade to put a Heartless on the brink of death! It’s not often you get to see Mickey in badass positions, so that makes this figure especially cool in my books.






It seems our European pals once again seem to get a lot of PSP lovin’ with all of their special editions for the much misunderstood handheld. Here we have Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together Premium Edition, from across the pond. It contains a soundtrack along with a hard cover art book in it as well. I managed to coerce TheCleaningGuy to open the copy he got and take pictures, so the latter pictures show what the soundtrack and art book look like. =D





Here we have yet another PAL Special Edition for the PSP. This time it’s The 3rd Birthday Twisted Edition. From what I’ve been told, it’s a pleasant return to Aya Brea and the days of Parasite Eve. I actually remember playing the originals on PlayStation way back in the day, so I’m thinking this one must’ve been pretty fun, but it also seemed not to get much fanfare. Hmmm? Inside of this one, we’re treated to a hardcover art book, a couple of lithographs, and an exclusive costume for Lightning in Dissidia 012 [duodecim] Final Fantasy . . . *groan* Hahaha! The game also comes in a red PSP case!



So, you can tell just how dated this blog is, since I actually managed to get this JAPANESE version of Catherine pretty much on the day of its release across the Pacific. Sexy and saucy? You bet! d(‘-‘d) And we’re not talking just like marinara saucy, we’re talking about probably the sauciest of sauces, alfredo . . . rich, creamy, thick, saucy like none other! ;-D Hahaha!





If you were lucky enough to be one of the first to pre-order or buy the game from Japan, and from a certain website that eludes me right now (my main importing homeboy Zoel managed to get this done for me . . . as usual), you got some pretty ballin’ goodies. Here we have the Sound Disc & Art Book, which also eventually made its way to North American shores. We also have a Cell Phone Card featuring Katherine on it, along with a Mini-Pillow featuring the yin and yang Catherine/Katherine’s that Vincent must decide upon. The last couple pictures once again show Japan’s fascination with clear file folders. There are actually 3 file folders that came with my order, but since I didn’t open the original packaging, you can only see 2, and a little bit of the third. The one in the middle that’s hard to see is the picture of Catherine with her legs spread with stupid Vincent’s head blocking the view, hahaha! =P I actually played a bit of the Japanese version with Zoel and found it thoroughly fun *is a fan of puzzle games* and engrossing.





Something I learnt from my trip to Japan during Christmas of 2010, they still have a mad obsession with card trading/using arcade games (much like the best game ever, World Club Champion Football! =P) Another tidbit that some people may not know, but the Dragon Quest series is FAR more popular in the land of the rising sun, than North America’s “preferred” Final Fantasy. So, long story short, they had this game where you got cards of various Dragon Quest characters, items, armor, etc. and you’d play them on a “field” and use this big sword to attack and stuff. Well, they managed to adapt it to the Wii and the greatest controller makers in the world (Hori), made the controller to play it. As you can see in the first picture with the DS Lite used as a size comparison, the controller is HUGE AS HELL! I’m so dumb . . . T_T . . . hahaha! The “official” name of this thing is the Dragon Quest Monsters: Battle Road Victory Controller.



Now we have the actual game to go with the controller, Dragon Quest Monsters: Battle Road Victory. Obviously a Japanese import. The cards are in the game now, since it’d be far too complicated and crazy if they still used physical copies for the home console version. It was a major seller in Japan and places started to essentially fire sale copies of these for roughly $10.




Once again, through my homie g Zoel, I managed to snag this No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle Hopper’s Edition for an incredibly awesome price. These are still pretty coveted amongst collectors, so I’m pretty happy I landed one. The only thing I’m “angry” about, would be that since I didn’t pre-order the game, I didn’t land the pre-order bonus Erotica Comic, hahaha! I’ll snag it one of these days . . . hopefully. Still, inside of this special edition, we have the game, a magazine, a DVD of features, and a soundtrack. Can’t really go wrong with all those goodies can you? =D





Here we have a DS game that comes in an oversized box that houses a fairly large spell book. The game in question is one that was announced for North America and the PS3 not too long ago, but came out in Japan and is done by the lovely people at Level 5 (the awesome people behind the Dark Cloud series, Rogue Galaxy, the newer Dragon Quests, and my personal new favorite series of the past few years, Professor Layton). Not only that, but the company that animates the game is none other than Studio Ghibli, which is the brainchild of Hayao Miyazaki, the guy behind such revered gems as: Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, and most people’s favorite, My Neighbor Totoro. The game in question is none other than Ninokuni: Shikkoku no Madoushi. It’s obviously yet another Japanese import and a pretty fun one from what I’ve played of it. The last picture shows all the contents of it, particularly the large spell book that goes with the game.






Hot damn does the Okami series (it has 2 games already! =P) have great music! So, when Okamiden was first announced, I knew that I had to get the soundtrack for it as well, especially since I got the soundtrack for the first game and it’s 5 discs of pure awesome. The Okamiden ~Chiisaki Taiyou~ Original Soundtrack is a 4 disc compilation in what I call “DVD case” sized packaging. The second picture shows the back of the package and an absolutely adorable Chibiterasu! =3 As you can see in the latter 2 pictures, the packaging has like a simple, yet beautiful aesthetic to it, which is something I really enjoy. It’s nothing but top notch music for fans, so I highly recommend you import it if you can.



So, over the past year or so, I befriended a local seller on Kijiji (think Canada’s equivalent to Craigslist, only better organized and setup by eBay) who used to live in Japan and collect primarily Sega consoles, games, collectibles, and various other doodads. We actually got off on the wrong foot, but luckily we patched things up pretty quickly, plus he literally has a treasure trove of gems that I’ve had to pass on, but I think I managed to snag the “good” stuff if you know what I mean! Hahaha! =D Still, we’ll start off with this boxed Pikachu Nintendo 64 that I got for my Pokémon collecting homeboy possumwrangler.






Next up, we have a Sega Saturn HSS-0136 Fightstick that I got as a gift for my super importer, Zoel, as thanks for all the research and importing he does for me! ^_^ It’s “apparently” widely considered to be one of the best fightsticks ever made. I’m not THAT knowledgeable about fight sticks, but I can tell it’s well made and everything functions nicely. TheCleaningGuy also gave it his backing as a hell of a fightstick, so I guess there’s only a few other people like Cataract (mainly because . . . HE BEAT JUSTIN WONG! =D) that I’d need to double check that “fact” with, hahaha!





Continuing on with things I got for other people from this former Japan transplant, here we have Densetsu no Ogre Battle: Zenobia no Ouji, otherwise known as Ogre Battle: Legend of the Zenobia Prince. It’s the only game from the series that hasn’t had an English translation or release, and pretty much serves as a side story to Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen. It’s also cool, since it’s for the Neo Geo Pocket Color and I bought it for my “apprentice,” Grimstar.



Next up, we have a Japanese copy of Gitaroo-Man and Makai Tenshou (which is apparently a poor man’s Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny). These were just a couple of freebies my befriended local seller just threw in, since I’d been buying so much from him, hahaha.




Hahaha! My newfound friend and I were having a good laugh about this one when he sold it to me. We were talking about how both of our first experience/exposure to this game was the Game Girl Advance article that spread like wildfire back in 2002, about how the Japanese version of the game, came with a “Trance Vibrator.” Click the link for a great and hilarious read about using the peripheral for what it was TOTALLY intended for . . . hahaha! ;-D Still, here we have the game, Rez, and an in box Trance Vibrator. As you can see, it’s still brand new and NOT used, so I guess that’s a plus . . . o_O . . . we’ll see if I can find a lady who’d be willing to “test” it out, hahaha! =D



Now we have some ballin’ Space Channel 5 promo items! In this little bundle of joy, we have a 2000 – 2001 Calendar, some magnets of Ulala and the aliens (seriously, who the hell would actually put pants on her? =P), and the Space Channel 5 planet dance [the world’s greatest club hits] soundtrack!



Once again, another little freebie that got thrown in with one of the various purchases I made. It’s a little beat-up, but still, it’s a NiGHTS Into Dreams… Mousepad. Ah, the good old days of Sega . . . *sigh*





Here we have something that I think a few of you may remember reading about one week and then completely forgetting about that it even existed. This is the Nintendo GameCube ASCII Keyboard Controller, which was basically used only for Phantasy Star Online and never heard of again, hahaha! Well, it seemed that either they were banking on the GameCube being home to many other MMORPGs . . . or that people would REALLY like Phantasy Star Online. Either way, it’s still a good collectible to have in my books.



Once again, we have some more love for Space Channel 5, only this time it’s a Lunch Box. This was actually an extra one my hombre had, since someone else beat me to the other one that still had the promotional VHS and a few other things in it . . . *tears* . . . T_T




Shenmue Promotional VHS? Hell yeah! Sealed too? Ballin’! No continuation of the story or Shenmue III yet . . . *sad panda* . . . =( From my understanding, it’s just a VHS with a couple of trailers and some minor explanation about the gameplay and mechanics.



Hey! It’s a sealed copy of the Sega CD 32X mega hit . . . Night Trap . . . yeeeeeeeeeep . . . nothing much more to say than that . . . right?



I guess I should’ve really organized it so that all the Space Channel 5 stuff was grouped together. We’ll see if I do that in the end, so if I do and you’re reading this, it means I got too lazy to rewrite this paragraph to make sense, hahaha. Regardless, this is the tommy boy silver label: space channel 5 flyer vinyl record. Man, they made a lot of promo stuff for this game!



A few more random odds and ends here. We have a New Post Bank that my pal got in Japan and had no use for any more, therefore just gifting it to me, along with a Sega Sports T-Shirt, and some more Space Channel 5 Magnets.



Now we’re starting to get into what I deem the real cream of the crop of my “import” edition. Let’s start this section off with a Super Mario Bros. 4 Super Mario World Super Famicon Cartridge Holder that is used, but still in pretty damn good condition. The front is also very shiny with its gold printing! d(‘-‘d)



Now onto the super rare stuff! This is a Skies of Arcadia Legends Wooden Sword that was used to promote the game. I can only find one other occurrence of this thing on the internet, and apparently it was given away at some sort of press event. It’s similar in style to the cutlasses that Vyse uses in the game, but the “handley” part isn’t as wide or “hold on-able.” Still, the thing is made out of solid wood and is ballin’ as hell, since it’s for a game that I absolutely love! Top that Dao2-SKP! =P







Here we have the Eternal Arcadia (Skies of Arcadia’s Japanese name) Limited Box! It’s quite the collectible for a fan of the game like myself, even though it’s not overly rare or expensive! There seems to have been a LOT of love for the Dreamcast in Japan, in terms of special editions and the like, which is kind of sad with how it died out and all. Still, the first couple of pictures show off the slipcover that goes over a fairly large box. The following two show the “book-like” box that houses the game and the goodies. Finally, it opens up to reveal the game, a most glorious flag from the game, a couple of cell phone straps, followed by 3 charms. It’s nothing flashy, but still super effin’ sweet in my books! Also, after reading one of Dao2-SKP’s blogs, he mentioned something about an art book supposedly coming with this. After a decent amount of research and trying to get verification, I’m fairly confident in saying that there is no art book that was supposed to come with this Limited Box, and it was something that was completely separate, which makes me a sad panda! T_T Hahaha!





Next up, we have a game that has far too many names in my books, but here is the Senjou no Valkyria Limited Box (which is also apparently referred to as Gallian Chronicles, or better known as Valkyria Chronicles here in North America). The condition Japanese people keep their stuff in compared to us, is nothing short of amazing! The first couple of pictures just show the box that everything comes in, from both the front and the back. The last picture shows off the contents, which include: the game, a World Guide (which is pretty much the same as the rare, coveted, and fairly valuable art book that was kicking around this side of the planet), an 80mm Figure “Alicia,” and a Motortank Collection SP Ver. Edelweiss. The figure and model tank are both unopened, so unfortunately we won’t get a peek at those. Still, this was yet another special edition I managed to procure through my Kijiji pal.







Here is the first of a trio of Dreamcast Direct (pretty much an online Sega run, Dreamcast exclusive store in Japan) special editions. We start with Space Channel 5 Part 2 Dreamcast Direct Special Package. It seems the game/series and Ulala got a lot more love in The Land of the Rising Sun, compared to what happened over here in The Great White North and Yankeeland! =P As per usual, the first couple of pictures just show the outer box, followed by what the contents look like when it’s opened. The contents are deemed to be: The Game, Space Silver Headphone, and Galaxy Bag, when in reality it is the game, a pair of headphones with the game’s name on them (plus it seems they half heartedly tried to imitate Ulala’s headphones), and a small shoulder strap bag that is pretty much the perfect size for a cell phone. A pretty cool Japanese exclusive if you ask me! d(‘-‘d)







Here we have probably the most valuable and rarest of the items you’ll see in this blog. It is none other than Segagaga Dreamcast Direct Limited Edition. I heard about this game in passing years upon years ago, and it wasn’t until about last year when Wry Guy (I’m not using his lame real name! =P) reminded me about its existence and awesomeness. It’s pretty much an RPG that makes fun of how unsuccessful the Dreamcast was, and it’s your job to save Sega and the console, by taking down the evil DOGMA company, which is very obviously Sony. I suggest you YouTube some videos of it, just to see how crazy and wacky it is. You have a box shot, followed by an opened box shot, which shows off the t-shirt the package came with, and the doodads underneath. You pretty much had the game, a notebook/organizer, and a REALLY COOL pin set in a wooden box that has logos of the Sega Mark III, Mega Drive (Genesis over in North America), Game Gear, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, and Segagaga. This one is very much so a collector’s item and it goes for pretty much an arm and a leg on eBay, so needless to say, I’m VERY happy to have gotten his one! ^_^






Let’s end this massive blog (9 pages in Word and counting), on a super high note! Some of you may remember from my Japan Trip blog from last year that I managed to snag a super coveted copy of De La Jet Set Radio. Well, through my Kijiji friend, I’ve managed to one up myself and I now own the De La Jet Set Radio Dreamcast Direct Limited Edition version of the game! ^_^ Hell effin’ yeah! d(‘-‘d) It’s not necessarily as “goodie filled” as the previous two special editions above, but since it’s from a game that is very near and dear to my heart, it’s totally the most ballin’! The first couple of pictures just show the outer box, which has awesome tags from the game all over it. Meanwhile, the next one shows the still sealed t-shirt and game! I know there’s quite the number of Jet Grind Radio fans on the site and that read my blog, so to save you the trouble of Googling what the t-shirt looks like, I just jacked an image from someone else who opened theirs.

Well, that’s it for this very long overdue (many apologies once again BulletMagnet! -_-‘) edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul. I still need to get a PAX blog up, a PAX haul up, and then like another 6 months worth of stuff up, so we’ll see how long it takes me to get to that. >_< I may also have an exciting side project that somewhat relates to this series, but we’ll see if that come to fruition too. Hopefully you enjoyed this blog, and hopefully I can get back to posting these a bit more regularly. Until next time, latez mates!

Well, it’s that time again, for yet another edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul! This time though, is a very special edition, as it is yet another milestone edition for me to share with you. I have surpassed the 1,500 game mark . . . fifteen hundred games . . . ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED GAMES! The more I type about it and think about it, the more I realize that that is one hell of an obscene number of games! I’ll save my typical reflections I have for the end of the blog, much like I’ve done with my other milestone blogs. This time though, we have incredible stuff from the online Capcom Store, Kijiji gems, a ton of new games from EB Games and Amazon.ca, special editions out the wazoo (including a couple from the online NIS Store), and a once again arbitrarily chosen 1,500th game that REALLY lives up to being such a milestone game! As you can tell with some of the games, I’ve been playing catch-up again, but enough of that. On with the show!



We begin with some stuff from the online Capcom Store that I received towards the beginning of the year. We start off with a Resident Evil 5 Tricell Progenitor Virus Detection Kit, which was essentially a Press Kit for the game that has things like a face mask, gloves, containment bag, etc. It’s pretty much a miniature first aid kit that has a Resident Evil theme to it. I also managed to pick up Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and the Dead Rising 2 Bobble Budd Set, all of which were on sale. The bobble budds are of Frank West and Chuck Greene, which means I now have 2 Chuck Greene’s due to the one I got at PAX 2010.



I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned how freakin’ awesome Kijiji is, but I’ll have to reiterate its awesomeness once more! It’s so satisfying to find local people willing to get rid of awesome stuff for cheap. So cheap that it rivals even the best store in the universe, Cash Converters. Through this one lady, I got Donkey Kong Country, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, Classic NES Series: Super Mario Bros., and Earthworm Jim 2. That’s pretty effin’ awesome if you ask me! Although, it’s not nearly as awesome as what follows . . .



Do you guys realize how hard it is to find decent condition boxed GBA games nowadays? It’s pretty damn hard. I’ve been lucky enough to have found a lot of the good games in box, but it can test my patience sometimes when I see awesome games, but only in cartridge form. Luckily, I managed to stumble upon another Kijiji seller of whom I discovered we have a mutual friend in the form of Grimstar. With that said, I may now have another source to help add to my collection! Here we have Bubble Bobble: Old & New and one of the best puzzle games ever, The Lost Vikings.



Continuing on with the awesome from the last couple of pictures. I managed to also get my hands on SEALED copies of Grand Theft Auto, River City Ransom EX (to replace my somewhat beat up complete copy, plus it’s freakin’ Atlus), and Shining Soul II, which is one of the more elusive Atlus GBA games! Awesome!



Due to the fact that I want stuff in box and complete and despite having like 400 requests on Goozex, I’ve been only getting stuff very slowly. Still, the stuff I do get is usually have pretty top notch quality. Examples would include this complete copy of Dragon Warrior III (with map and poster) to replace my cartridge only copy, Picross DS (which I recommend to ANYONE who likes puzzle games), and Pokémon Dash.



Now onto some of the newer games I’ve bought in recent times. We begin off with a game from one of the series that is closest to my heart (haha, get it? =P), Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, which along with the game, I also got the pre-order Icon Decals as well. Below that we have Space Invaders Extreme 2 and the highly regarded Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective that I really need to get around to playing.



Next up is the third iteration (all physical copies) of Plants vs. Zombies I have purchased. I’m quite a big fan of the slipcover they included with the game, mimicking a zombie bite and just showing off the Walnut when it’s on the game. I also have yet another Atlus masterpiece I need to find time for, in the shape of Radiant Historia, which came with a soundtrack and my good buddy Wry Guy somewhat recently Wryview’d.



Here we have Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version . . . it’s freakin’ Pokémon . . . I’m Asian . . . I gotta catch ‘em all . . . nothing more to say there, hahaha! =P



So, I have a friend who has a friend who used to go out with a Sony rep. Long story short, he managed to benefit by getting a bunch of free “Not for Resale” games and such, and he passed this extra copy of Secret Agent Clank onto me. Sweet! ^_^ Next to it is yet another game I really need to get to, especially with how much I love the series, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. I have 3 versions of the game now . . . >_<



Here is a game I really want to play, but know that the way I play RPGs, I’ll never get to it, since it’ll be too much of a time investment. You really can’t go wrong with Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together though. I also firmly believe that Destructoid got the wrong person to review the game, but hey, a reviewer’s opinion is the reviewer’s. Along with the game, I also got the pre-order bonus Tarot Cards where there are like about 22 of them or so, and are nice thick, high quality produced cards.



Here we have more PSP games, starting off with the second time this game has been remade, Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle. It’s done by NIS though, so they’ll always be taking my money. Next to it is a game by another company that has an eternal hold on my wallet, which is the Aksys made Jikandia: The Timeless Land. Once again, living in Canada has screwed me over from getting the super cool wrist strap and screen wipe . . . *tears* . . . T_T



Now to start to make the transition to some games I got from the Canadian Amazon site. I’ll start off with NHL 09 and NHL 10 first though, since I got them for free from a guy who was looking to trade them in at my local EB Games, and upon discovering he’d get about $1.50 for both, he just asked if I wanted them, which was pretty sweet, hahaha. I finally picked up No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle for the Wii, and I really must find some time to play the original before I play this guy . . .



Hey! It was cheap and I already had the one for Wii, which is my justification for grabbing Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad. Next to it is a game that I’ve been waiting for forever to go down in price through any of the ways I buy games, and now that I have it, I don’t have time to play it. Wolfenstein does look hella sweet and all the previous games have been pretty solid shooters, so hopefully I’ll be able to get to it sooner rather than later.



Some more stuff from Amazon Canada’s website. I’ve given up on getting the Collector’s Edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum for a price that I find reasonable, so I just got the regular edition of it finally. Another game that took forever to go down in price was Katamari Forever, which upon typing this, I just realized I’m still missing Beautiful Katamari from my collection of Katamari games. To finish this picture off, I came to the realization that there are also 2 different covers for Darksiders, as I’ve totally seen a reflective foil cover in addition to this “dull” colored one I have here.



Heading back towards some more purchases from EB Games and a few other retailers like Best Buy, we begin with 101-in-1 Sports Party Megamix. If you look at the bottom right corner of that game, you see the words “Atlus.” I don’t think I have to explain anything else. In the middle we have a Call of Duty: Black Ops T-Shirt “version” of 12 months of Xbox Live. Due to a sale, I got that baby for $40! Huzzah! Last but not least, we have Metroid: Other M, which was obtained for a cool $10, due to my EB Games participating in the “Deal of the Day” promotion they had going for a couple months.




Once again taking advantage of the “Deal of the Day,” I picked up this DJ Hero Wireless Turntable Controller for $10, as well as DJ Hero 2 for another $10. So, $20 for a controller and game is a pretty slick deal if you ask me! Also, here is the pre-order bonus for Okamiden, which was a Stylus and Screen Cleaner that I forgot to include in a later picture.



After paying $150 for the Halo 3 Legendary Edition, only to see it go down to $60 about 3 or 6 months afterwards, I figured I’d take my chances and gamble on the Halo: Reach Legendary Edition to go down in price eventually. By taking advantage of some minor sales and price matching policies, I managed to get this guy for $60 from Best Buy, which I found to be quite the deal. I’m assuming by now people know what’s in this special edition.




In case you haven’t noticed, we’re entering the “special edition” section of this haul. It’s somewhat lengthy, so you’ve been somewhat warned . . . but not really. I also don’t know why I decided to take a front and back of box picture for this Killzone 3 Helghast Edition, but you guys get two pictures for this guy, hahaha. I’m also pretty choked that I paid full price for this guy when it’s been selling for $80 nowadays . . . -_-‘ I’m not listing what’s in this special edition either, since I’m pretty sure most of you can either read the back of the box picture or saw Jim Sterling’s unboxing video.



Here we have the final remake of the Ys series that forms a nice image on the spines of the other Premium Editions of the games that have been released. Apparently this remake of Ys I & II Chronicles is supposed to be the best version, but if you want a real opinion on it, I’d suggest asking my homeboy and Ys mega fan, Zoel. This special edition comes with a soundtrack with select tunes from the two games.



I’ve been “yelled” at by a few friends and I’ll probably be “yelled” at by someone who sees this post, but I’ve yet to play either of the Dead Space games. Everyone I’ve talked to says they’re really fun and atmospheric and that I’d enjoy them. One day I may get to them, but I’d probably bet against that from happening if you’d want to make some money, hahaha. Regardless, we have Dead Space 2 Collector’s Edition for PS3, along with the Rivet Gun DLC. I’m getting lazy/forgetful, but I’m pretty sure ChillyBilly went over and showed off the items in this special edition.



It seemed this was actually a Collector’s Edition that lived up to its name. It was actually difficult to get a hold of this guy, since they apparently short shipped this special edition to all the Canadian stores. Regardless, I did manage to get my hands on this version of Gran Turismo 5, which included a miniature model, keychain, art book, and some DLC. I also got a DLC code for a Custom 2010 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Stealth Model and the Gamestop NASCAR Car.



Here is the LittleBigPlanet 2 Collector’s Edition. Included in it are a Sackboy Plush, some book/game ends, and a whole crapload of DLC. Basically all the DLC is equivalent to the all the different DLC codes you were given by like 5 different retailers if you bought the regular edition of the game from them.



Let’s end off the special edition section with a trio of titles . . . even though one of them isn’t a special edition, hahaha. We start off with the BioWare Signature Edition of Dragon Age II which I believe had some DLC and a lame non-physical copy of the soundtrack or some other. The Premium Edition of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky came with a soundtrack and pin, plus it’s a multi-part game where your save will carry over to the second part when it’s released. To end off this picture, we have a copy of Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy . . . a totally NOT obnoxious name/title for a game if I’ve ever seen one! >_<



Time for stuff from the NIS Online Store. If you want a game series to test your patience or abilities as a gamer, look no further than the Prinny series. There were points when I was playing the first game, where I questioned if even 1,000 lives were enough! Here we have Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood!, which if you pre-ordered from the site early on, you get a much smaller than expected Asagi Pin, of whom is a character in the game and is in Prinny form too!



Hahaha! So, here we have the console wars put into the form of a video game in RPG form, hahaha. This big box Premium Edition of Hyperdimension Neptunia. You basically have Japanime girls dressed in typically scantily clad clothing fighting for their respective “consoles” and all that good stuff. It has an art book in that big box and once again if you pre-ordered early through their website, you got a set of Playing Cards as well!



Finally we have the end of the Ar tonelico trilogy with Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel. Once again it came in a Premium Box version that contained an art book and soundtrack this time around. I somehow either wasn’t shipped or just missed out on the Purge Party Calendar, which makes me a sad panda, so if you’re reading this and have one that you’re not overly attached to . . . contact me! Hahaha!



Some of you already know I’m a VERY big fan of the Marvel vs. Capcom series and the games associated with it. Well, it was a long 10 year wait, but when the third installment dropped in February, it was easy to say I was VERY excited and happy. Considering I had been lead on by a few traces of the game for years, much like seeing a build that was slightly upgrade Marvel vs. Capcom 2 graphics with Thor already in it, it has been a long time coming. Needless to say, when I heard a Special Edition of the game was coming out, well, it was like being a kid in a candy store, hahaha. I’m not usually THIS much of a tard when it comes to my collecting, but here we have an opened copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds for PS3, along with a sealed copy for Xbox 360. I also got a couple of those Pre-Order Character Cards to go with each game. I freakin’ love the fan art that’s on the steelbook and the comic they included with some background information about how everything came to be is also top notch. So glad to see this series come back, because . . . IT’S MAHVEL BAYBEE!



So, here we have more stuff from Capcom’s Online Store. We’ll start off with Okamiden, which I REALLY need to get to since I loved the first one. If you ordered through Capcom, you got a Chibiterasu Plush Keychain to go with your order, which is the same one that was previously only available in the Japanese Collector’s Edition. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. To make the order and shipping worth it, I also threw in a copy of Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop.



So, here’s where my stupid collector’s tendency came into its own being. Here is a THIRD copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Special Edition that I bought, this time through the Capcom Store so I could have a sealed copy for PS3 to go with my opened one that I play. Yes, I already know, I’m a tard . . . -_-‘ Hahaha! Another reason/incentive for me to order yet another copy was that the exclusive bonus through Capcom was this “Waste of Flesh” T-Shirt they were giving away with every pre-order that has the great Shuma-Gorath and a bunch of Servbots on it, so I couldn’t pass that up!



We’re coming to the end of this milestone haul and I’m going to end it with some gems I found on Kijiji. Through keeping an eye out for any gems that showed up and actually being serious about my inquiries, I managed to get away with a heck of a deal. As you can see, you have some very popular and pretty coveted Sega Saturn games above. We have Panzer Dragoon (which replaces the disc only copy I had) and Panzer Dragoon II Zwei. They were in pretty much perfect condition (even the cases!) and had been well taken care of. Pretty sweet find if you ask me! If you know your valuable/rare/highly coveted/extremely good games well . . . you may know what’s going to be chosen for my arbitrarily picked 1,500th game . . .




Awww yeah! Panzer Dragoon Saga! Widely regarded as one of the most coveted and valuable games around, not to mention a phenomenal game as well! A great case, sensationally good conditioned instructions, all 4 discs unscratched and pretty much mint, and the three disc sleeves for the other discs included too! I couldn’t really ask for a better game to put me at the 1,500 game mark! It’s the only 4 disc game for the Saturn, was a unique rail shooter RPG hybrid, and was truly a game of its own. There were only 30,000 copies of the game ever released, with an initial batch of 6,000 for the original release, followed up by two separate batches of 12,000 each. The copy I have here is from the 2nd or 3rd batch, since it has the white disc sleeves. The original print had black ones. Still, this was one hell of a find on Kijiji and to find it from a private seller who didn’t list on eBay or anything was quite a shock to me. Getting this is a day to remember for my gaming collection.



So, I forgot to take a screenshot of when I was at 1,499 games and when I hit 1,500 like when what I did for when I hit 1,000 games. So, here’s a screenshot of me at 1,502 games . . . hahaha!



Wow . . . 1,500 games . . . that is an insane number . . . -_-‘ I created this account after lurking for a good year or so in July 2008. I didn’t seriously start collecting games until around the same time but in 2005. That first blog featured my 600th game. A couple months shy of my 3 year anniversary of “officially” being on the site, I’ve hit 1,500! That’s like 300 some odd games A YEAR. That is freakin’ ridiculous! I don’t know how much I’ve spent to get all of these gems (that’s actually being slowly developed to add to my spreadsheet), but all I know is that it’s still something I see as an investment and I’ve only had a few cases of buyer’s remorse. All I know is that things will probably be slowing down due to the fact I have a lot of games on the older systems I already want, and I’m looking into buying a house.

Still, there are some people I need to thank. First and foremost would be pretty much my best mate and fellow collector, possumwrangler. He’s been with me looking for gems all over for who knows how many years, and he’s also been my voice of reason for when I may be crossing the line trying to get some things. Many thanks dude! Next up would have be my other close homie, Zoel. Without him, I wouldn’t know a fair majority of the obscure titles I get, nor would I have been able to import ANY of the cool import things I occasionally show and pretty much EVERYTHING in my next haul. My “second family” at Cash Converters also get a very much deserved shout out, due to the fact that pretty much any game I don’t get new is from there. The sheer amount of awesome that I’ve managed to get from that store would make most gamers drool with the amount of incredible gameplay they’d be afforded. Chrono Trigger, both Lunars on PlayStation, god knows how many copies of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on all 3 consoles, boxed NES, SNES, and Nintendo 64 gems, an in box copyright infringement Tetris, and far too many other games. One man in particular deserves extra praise and that man would be the nicest and most chillin’ dude around, Diamond Dave. I don’t really know what else to say than it’s been very heartwarming and an honor to deal and talk with you whenever I’m in the store, and I’m very proud to have you as a friend mate. Who else? In more recent times, we have another homeboy in Grimstar who is always looking for rare gems that I don’t have that he can hook me up with, with one of his own sources. Much love goes out to you for looking out for me dude. I can’t leave out the other community, collecting nut, ChillyBilly! Your kindness, volunteering to get me non-French covered games from the States, picking up crazy DOMO stuff or me, and all the other stuff you get and box for me, its unparalleled mate. Your generosity and incredibleness are just awesome dude . . . minus your “racist” daughter . . . =P I also can’t forget to include Wry Guy . . . that’s it . . . no follow-up . . . =) Last but not least, thanks to all of YOU, for continuing to read and take interest in this series. Thank you for sharing your stories about some of the games I’ve gotten, like how you remember playing them when you were younger, or your own tales about getting rare gems. Thank you Destructoid and especially Niero for creating this site and allowing me a platform on which I was able to do this! ^_^

That’s it. I’m done. I probably won’t do a milestone post for 1,750 (if I hit that mark) even thought I did one for 1,250. Who knows what the future has in store for me and my collection. In the meantime, many thanks for sticking through to the end if you actually read this; otherwise I hope you enjoyed all the pictures, hahaha! For those of you who have an interest in unique imports from Europe and Japan, stay tuned for my next haul. I know BulletMagnet is already pacing around with anticipation! Hahaha! Until next time, latez mates!

Dag yo! So, it’s that time again, for yet another edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul! This week we have some beyond freakin’ awesome stuff! This isn’t exactly my most video game related post (it was saved in that regard to my homeboy ChillyBilly), but it is very DOMO and Destructoid related! I owe a big hearty thanks to the best MOMerator (Zodiac Eclipse) for what you’ll see very shortly. Still, enough with the intro, on with the show!



So, most of you have probably seen the super kickass Plushtoids that Zodiac Eclipse (one of the Forum moderators for those of you who don’t know) made for the community to buy up! Well, obviously I had to have one due to my affinity of Destructoid, not to mention helping another community member out with their awesome business! She still has some available so go to her site, Story Builder Toys and purchase your very own Plushtoid now! d(‘-‘d)



THIS is why Zodiac is the best! ^_____^ She does do custom plushies that you may have seen in her Custom Corner series. After seeing her Plushtoid post and how she does custom plushies as well, I immediately contacted her about doing something that merged my love of Destructoid with my love of DOMO. After some back and forth emails about ideas and concepts, she got to work right away, and lo and behold, we have . . . DOMOtoid! =) You could get your very own custom delight if you head to Story Builder Toys!




But no . . . just DOMOtoid wasn’t enough! I needed a DOMO who could stay true to himself, but also turn himself in the world’s best mascot! Thus, DOMO with a removable Mr. Destructoid Mask was born! Seriously! How effin’ awesome is that? It’s a mascot within a mascot! The mask is so nice and snug and Zodiac pretty much made a perfect replica of DOMO too! =3 She also has a number of other toys and plushies for sale that may interest you, at Story Builder Toys!



Finally we have a picture with both DOMOs together! Many, many, many thanks once again Zodiac Eclipse for fulfilling my request better than I could’ve ever imagined! You are the best! I’ll be sure to reward you at PAX for making these guys for me! Also, have I mentioned that you should buy stuff from her site, Story Builder Toys, yet? =P



So, long story short, these are some belated Christmas gifts I received in February or so. One of my closest buds that I’ve known pretty much forever, got me these DOMO Christmas 5” Plush Figures, and here we have Elf DOMO to go along with Wrapped in Bow DOMO! I find my DOMO collection is growing far too quickly . . . >_< . . . hahaha!



Another friend gave me this belated Christmas gift, which would be a DOMO Mustache T-Shirt that actually has a fuzzy mustache that is totally ballin’! There’s also yet another DOMO 2” Qee Collectible Figure to add to my collection and it was one of the rarer ones to boot! Hooray’d!



Also, since I’m a tard, I decided to collect the 4” DOMO Figures that Dark Horse Comics releases and it doesn’t help that they’re pretty limited too. Here we have Polka Dot (Edition of 750), Green Filigree (Edition of 550), Classic Brown, and Black Lightning (Edition of 550).



Here are also a couple t-shirts I picked up somewhat recently. One of my favorite bands are the Goo Goo Dolls and they were touring promoting their relatively new CD, Something For the Rest of Us. This was my second time seeing them and while their opening act was infinitely better this time (Steven Page formerly of The Barenaked Ladies, compared to the first time with Tomi Swick), I still think they were slightly better during their Let Love In tour. Regardless, it was a rockin’ show and I’m one of those guys who has to buy a t-shirt at every concert he goes to. The other t-shirt is from TeeFury and features a merging of two of the most badass characters around, Batman and Boba Fett, to form the ever so awesome Bat Fett!



Hmmm? A mysterious envelope arrived at my house. It bears the Destructoid symbol for the return address. Could it be . . .



Hell yeah it is! It’s the Destructoid Chill Bros. T-Shirt! Behold Mr. Destructoid in his Super Mario Bros. 3 goodness! =D But wait . . . is there some writing on the inner collar . . .



Why yes there is! It appears my shirt has been signed by none other than Pico Mause and Jon Carnage! Hooray for uniqueness! ^_^ Not going to lie though, I’m a wee bit disappointed to get #193 when I know for a fact I was one of the first to order! Maybe they don’t like international fans or something! =P Hahaha!



So, I’m one of those people that get calendars like a month or two into the new year, when they’re like 50% or more off, since I find calendars to be ridiculously overpriced for what they do. Still, there was no chance in hell I would pass up this Manchester United 2011 Calendar!

♪Take me home, United Road;♪
♪To the place, I belong;♪
♪To Old Trafford, to see United;♪
♪Take me home, United Road!♪



So, literally last year (albeit barely, hahaha), Wired’s Game|Life had a contest to win a Super Scribblenauts Maxwell Vinyl Doll. I’m pretty sure Destructoid had a similar contest or some other. Regardless, after a couple months and emails and all that good stuff, this box arrived at my house!



And inside of it was this little guy! The box that actually houses Maxwell got a bit squished in transit, but I’ll live with it, hahaha! Many thanks go out to Wired and Jason Schreier for hosting the contest! You guys rock!



This is a box. It is fairly large. It was sent to me by that pretty chill guy that goes by the name of ChillyBilly. Let us take a journey to see what it contains . . .



Okay, so I kind of lied, hahaha! ChillyBilly actually sent me a small package prior to the new year, which contained a couple of things like Trace Memory and the nothing short of amazing Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors Replica Digital Watch, which never made its way to Canada and was fairly hard to get!



So, as you may have seen from my last post, I purchased a Nintendo 3DS, but I didn’t have any games with it. Long story short, since I’m a collector and I’m paranoid and OCD about the artwork/versions of my games, I pretty much can no longer buy a Nintendo published game in Canada, since by law, they’re obligated to have this REALLY UGLY “Includes French” box ON the actual game artwork. It is so out of place and just ruins the cover of the games. Due to this, my fellow collector and all around awesome guy, ChillyBilly volunteered to be my USA video game buyer, hahaha! So, after an exchange of some funds, he picked up and shipped me Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation, Pilotwings Resort (which is actually a very nice and relaxing game to play, with my only gripe being the lack of the cannon levels from the last game), and Nintendogs + Cats: Toy Poodle & New Friends.



I’m also subscribed to Capcom’s online store, so I can see new pre-orders and exclusives they have. Well, they had a special exclusive where if you ordered Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Editon through them, you would get the elusive Ryu’s Belt Lanyard and Collectible Lenticular Card (it’s like the 3D cover, so you guys get to see the back of it, which says “Accepting All Challengers”). Once again, I got one of my best Destructoid mates to order it for me, since it’s actually cheaper in terms of shipping for it to get sent to him and him to send it to me, as opposed to paying like $25 to get a single DS game and lanyard sent to me in Canada.



Being as awesome as he is, it seems ChillyBilly knows I have a crippling weakness for anything DOMO related. Here he managed to pick me up 3 of the DOMO 2” Qee Collectible Figures! It’s interesting to see how he’s just really starting to get “popular” here in North America, but he was already somewhat passé when I went to Japan during Christmas. >_<



I also think that someone is trying to give me diabetes or something! =P Hahaha! Here we have some Coin Candies, Game Boy Advance 3D Gummy Candies, Super Star Candies, and Chaos Emeralds Cherry-Apple Sours that my zombie avatar friend included in the box!



Being the swag whores we are, it’s commonplace to see some interesting/unique swag that we sent one another. This time I got a Pac-Man Hide & Seek (which I think was a Wendy’s kids meal toy, hahaha), a de Blog 2 Figure (bluetongue), a GameStop PowerUp Rewards Sticker (which is SUPPOSED to be coming to Canada), and a Slime Plush! ^_^



Now we have a lot of DOMO upcoming. Here we have a bunch of DOMO Figurines 1 Inch Toy Capsules that he packed into the box, which have DOMO dressed up as various characters, like a Gangster, Lifeguard, etc.



Here we have a DOMO Pin, DOMO Boyscout Keychain, and friggin’ DOMO headphones . . . HEADPHONES! They’re setup so it’s like DOMO is coming out of your ears! So badass!



Finally, we’ll end this haul with the best item that ChillyBilly sent me . . . a DOMO Fleece Towel! As you can see in the picture, the thing is HUGE and is pretty much 5 feet by 4 feet, featuring my favorite character’s mug! Also, the label doesn’t lie and it IS indeed “SUPER SOFT!” Once again, many thanks dude! You’re the best and in typical response, I’ll be gathering more things to send you! =)



Since we’re on the topic of ChillyBilly, we had a discussion the other day about potatoes, how they’re for white folk (just for you mrandydixon ^_^), and how mashed potatoes are awesome. This inspired me to do some cooking, so what you see are some mashed (Yukon Gold I believe) potatoes with some milk, butter, a couple spoons of bacon grease, bacon, green onions, and chives that I put together.



I cooked for the family that night, so here’s a plate of mashed potatoes, some grilled king oyster mushrooms, and nicely grilled (note the crisscross pattern, hahaha) rib eye steaks. Pretty much multiply this picture by four.



Can’t BBQ something without having some low heat, upper shelf of the BBQ cooked onions and garlic!




Also, to prove to Nic128 that I am indeed Chitalian, here are some grilled red peppers that I sliced up and put in an olive oil and fig flavored balsamic vinegar! =P

Well, that ends yet another edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul. I apologize for it not being as gaming related as most of my posts, but I guess you can blame that on Zodiac Eclipse and ChillyBilly for being so lame . . . =P . . . hahaha! I can PROMISE you though that my next haul will be VERY game intensive, as I hit another big MILESTONE in my gaming collection! Until next time, latez mates!

Dag yo! So, it’s been close to a month and a half since I last posted and that was finishing off my little catch-up series. Well, I’m catching up once again and have close to 100 pictures already separating into 3 blogs including this one. I’m going to try to get these up in consecutive weeks and then all should be well. Some stuff may be a bit out of order, but picture arranging wise, it made the most sense. You have some quick fire hits of a 3DS, some minimal swag I’ve gotten the past couple of months, a few guides, some kickass awesome outdoor hockey game pictures, and more reasons why Cash Converters is the greatest store in the world. Enough with the chitchat, on with the show!



This is a Nintendo 3DS . . . many people have one already, not as many as Nintendo wanted, but it’s still awesome as hell. Moving on . . .



So, I was wandering through Best Buy one weekend, to see if there were any awesome deals I could take advantage of, and there was a lady there that was demoing the 3DS. After giving it a go, I was rewarded with a Nintendo 3DS Lanyard and some Nintendo 3DS Retractable Information Cards . . . sweet!



A little dated, but it’s a Gran Turismo 5 T-Shirt. You’ll see the version of the game I picked up in a couple blogs.



Is it just me, or are a lot of retailers using mini-standees to advertise games nowadays? Regardless, here I have a LittleBigPlanet 2 Mini-Standee of everyone’s favorite costume changing guy, Sackboy!



Just a couple of thick guides for a couple of awesome games like Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together and a personal favorite in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.



Here we have 3 more guides for your viewing pleasure. Stupid Prima is starting to print some of their guides in a smaller, spiral bound version, which for actually using the guide and keeping it open and the page you’re on is an awesome idea, but for storing on a shelf with pretty much any other guide, is a logistical nightmare! >_< Still, we have the guides for Kirby’s Epic Yarn (I still need to pick this up), Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation, and the Collector’s Edition for Pokémon Black Version & Pokémon White Version. I was successful in managing to take a picture of the lenticular thing in action. Also, does anyone else think it’s weird how all the “official” names of the Pokémon games have “Version” at the end of them? o_O



On February 20th . . . I got to experience one hell of an event. The 2011 NHL Heritage Classic was held in my hometown of Calgary, Alberta. Even though I’m not a fan of the hometown Flames or the visiting Montreal Canadiens, how could you possibly say no to the chance to go to an outdoor hockey game? Unless you’re not Canadian of course . . . or if you’re CelicaCrazed and just cheers for the worst team in the world . . . =P




The first picture is from a stand they had to build to fit more people into the stadium for the game, which is where my tickets were. As you can see, there’s the ice surface they built, the giant screen on the far end to see highlights and such, and just people all around. It’s probably going to look pretty awful in the blog, but if you’re interested be sure to click the picture to see the full size version at the bottom of this blog, but this is a panoramic shot of McMahon Stadium, where the game was held. You can also see the stand of which I was located in on the far end of the stadium.



Here’s a picture of the players warming up and testing out the ice surface. They’re all wearing toques for a good reason, as it started okay, turned ball breakingly cold for the end of the first period until the start of the third, then everyone either became too numb from the cold, or it warmed up.



If you call yourself a Canadian, you better goddamn know who the hell these two guys are. For those of you who aren’t, these two broadcasters are Ron MacLean and Don Cherry. They are two of Canada’s most famous and well known television personalities, due to their extensive weekly hockey coverage, and just being all around awesome. Note how Don Cherry is being extra awesome and wearing a cowboy hat, which is one of the symbols of Calgary!



This was just a quick snap of the full house crowd at the stadium pretty much right before the game started.



He’s a great personality, but I hate the way he plays the game . . . BUT . . . this picture is included in my blog just for Maya (bushofghosts) . . . =P



Finally, this is a picture of yours truly with about 5 minutes left in the third period. As you can see, it’s pretty damn dark now and I have like 5 layers on, since it was cold as all goddamn hell! Just thought I’d also point out for Aurain or Ali D if they’re reading this, I’m wearing one HELL of an awesome scarf, eh mates? ^_^ The Red Devils kept my neck warm!



All the tickets to the game were like laminated in super hard coated plastic, so that they could be collector’s items and very durable. I thought they were very nicely made.



Since I wasn’t an overly big fan of either team (Go Avalanche! Hahaha!), I didn’t get any memorabilia, aside from this Heritage Classic Mug that held numerous liters of hot chocolate for me throughout the game. Also, every seat in the stadium had one of these Heritage Classic Cushions on them, so that people wouldn’t literally freeze their asses off on the seats and it provided a decent amount of comfort.



Back to games! So, I’ve already praised them like none other but they deserve it once again (especially for somehow getting a gem like this in), but the Cash Converters near where I live is the best goddamn store in the universe! Want more proof? Feast your eyes on the picture above, while I don’t like the game, I don’t see how I could’ve possibly passed up this Final Fantasy XI Original Soundtrack PREMIUM BOX. If you look closely, you can see that it’s all shiny and sparkles, and even if you can’t read moonspeak, you can see that there are 7 freakin’ CDs in this thing.




Look at how gorgeous that by Yoshitaka Amano is! As you can see, the CDs are housed in these oversized folders. The discs actually do not stay in their holders very well at all, but I don’t really care because of how pretty everything looks. The bottom one is the soundtrack for the first expansion pack, Rise of the Zilart.




Seriously, Amano-san’s art is some of the BEST around! Here are the next two soundtracks and the folders that contain them. These two are for the Chains of Promathia and Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansions.




So, this giant honking soundtrack was released before the Wings of the Goddess expansion was released, but luckily the 6th and 7th CDs were of Unreleased Tracks and a nice Piano Collections.



Not only that, to conclude this awesome premium box, a booklet that contained piano sheet music for the numerous tracks in the game was also included. Using my nifty Yen converter, when this box first came out in Japan, it was close to $150. I can tell you that I pay a very small fraction of that from my favorite store out there, so mad props to you guys! ^_^



Slowly but surely, I am gathering all the colors of Game Boy Pockets and Game Boy Colors that were released in North America. Here we have a Red Game Boy Pocket along with a Dandelion Game Boy Color.



Diamond Dave has got to be like the best employee/friend dude around! I seriously challenge any of you to find a more ballin’, nice, and all around awesome guy that works at a store you frequent that is cooler than this dude! While this picture only has Super Off Road, Shadowrun, and the SUPER ELUSIVE DOES THAT GAME REALLY EXIST? (at least in my books) Kirby’s Dream Land 3, the fact that my homie set them aside for me, along with some AWESOME doubles that will go into my relaunched Trading Thread (when I get around to it), just shows how awesome a guy can be! Many thanks once again dude! =)



Here we have a few systems covered, which are a NES Dragon Warrior II, a Wii Punch-Out!!, and an in box NES Mega Man 4. I miss NES artwork on games. I mean the entire Dragon Warrior series on NES had some pretty hardcore awesome fantasy artwork on them, while the Mega Man games usually had hilariously bad artwork that was so bad it ended up working out all right.



Here is another mixed console picture of games. We start off with Azure Dreams for the PlayStation, along with a PlayStation Underground Vol. 2 Issue 4 disc, which my buddy Zoel informs me that while it’s not worth that much, they’re actually kind of rare and collectible. We follow that up with a trio of Nintendo published games like Fossil Figthers (Pokémon clone) for the DS, a freakin’ in box and sensationally good condition Super Mario Land for Game Boy, and Personal Trainer: Cooking (it was cheap and had Club Nintendo points in it!) for the DS as well.



Hell yeah! You don’t want to know how many hours I spent on Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64, as it will probably disgust you! Now that I have a complete copy of the one on Game Boy Color though . . . that’s just so damn sweet . . . it makes me want to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant! (Possibly reward [not sure yet, we’ll see responses, hahaha!] if someone knows where that quote is from). I actually gave it a quick go and it’s a pretty terrible game and nothing like the N64 version. My homies at Cash Converters also know I’m a pretty big Tegan and Sara fan, so they also put this DVD (It’s Not Fun. Don’t Do It!) in my Box ‘O Stuff, which simply delighted me! =3



Down to the last picture for this haul . . . *tear* . . . T_T Hahaha! We start off with a replacement copy of Double Dragon Advance that my fellow collector and very close friend possumwrangler got for me, since this was a sealed copy and he knows how much I freakin’ love Atlus games! Next we have . . . shut up . . . I blame my Asian gene for kicking in . . . <_< . . . >_> . . . Hamtaro: Ham Ham Heartbreak along with Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light from Cash Converters. Finally, we end with a World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Mousepad that I forgot to include in my Christmas-ish post, which I received from my homegirl Ashley.

Well, that does it for another edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul! Hopefully you enjoyed it. Be sure to tune in next week for some super awesome things I got from our very own MOMerator (Zodiac Eclipse) and a box of supremely awesome and DOMO things from fellow collector and partner in crime . . . mainly misdemeanors . . . ChillyBilly! Until next time, latez mates!

Dag yo! So, I’ll finally be kind of caught up with my backlog of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul blogs . . . kind of! Hahaha! This is my final entry into my “5 Months” mini-series and I’d say it ends with quite the bang! I get to being my January to current editions after this, but I’ll try to get that into one blog. Still, we have the Hardware and Figures I’ve gotten from the past 5 months or so. We have stuff spanning from the NES days to the current day in terms of hardware and peripherals! Also, we have some ballin’ figures from one of my favorite video game series! I have a couple things I could “mock” about in my usual pre-haul mini-rant, but I’m lazy and I guess I’ll be nice this week, hahaha! Still, on with the show!



You may be wondering why you see a plate/bowl of food in one of my hauls. It’s because I almost forgot I had this picture as I was inspired by the super, awesome, kickass, ultra kind and friendly, all round superstar Aubrey (who does PR for Deep Silver and the highly anticipated Dead Island) to make some linguine and clams, after seeing a picture of them she had in Japan. Here is my version, which is slightly edited with I believe to be spaghettini and you can’t see it, but I used a white wine reduction/sauce to cook the clams and pasta in. It was delicious. Many thanks for the inspiration yo! ^_^



So, I’ve only ever had like a light blue Game Gear from Japan that my uncle brought me when I was like 13 or something. I’ve seen many come and go from the best store ever (Cash Converters), but I finally decided to pick this bad boy up, since it was in box and I thought it was about time. Boxed stuff just rules eh?



I know this sounds dumb, but until I actually saw these, it never dawned on me that Nintendo sold separate NES Controllers. Well, lo and behold, they did! Boxed NES Controllers (2 of them) from the best store in the universe as per usual!



Holy hell! I have been looking for this guy for what seems like FOREVER! Let’s put it like this, my homeboy Diamond Dave and homegirl Suzanne have both been working at Cash Converters for like 10 years (I hope that’s right) and this is the FIRST EVER . . . R.O.B. Robotic Operating Buddy . . . they have EVER seen! If you’ve seen some of the stuff I’ve picked up from there (which if you haven’t, then you really shouldn’t be viewing this blog, hahaha!), it gives you a pretty damn good idea how hard it is to get or even see one of these buggers! He has everything with him and he’s in WORKING condition! It even still has like the “disc” warnings on it! You have no idea about the kind of happy I was when I saw this guy! It was indescribable! Seriously, you guys are THE BEST and have made me all kinds of happy with this guy! I’m very lucky to know some of the nicest and best people around . . . <3



It’s pretty damn hard to top the last picture and well . . . this one doesn’t really come close . . . hahaha! Here we have a Disney Epic Mickey Paintbrush, which actually functions as a nunchuk. It’s a pretty damn cool and well made peripheral for the console and it looks cool, plus it wasn’t all that expensive, which is why I picked it up.



Nothing overly special here either. Just another Game Boy Color that I’m slowly collecting every color of. This time we have Kiwi joining the like other two I already have.



Well . . . I’m a tard! >_< I succumbed to stupidity and bought this Mario 25th Anniversary Wii Console, even though I already have a Wii, with like 4 remotes and nunchuks and . . . yeah . . . -_-‘ I mean, limited edition, Mario, different color . . . it was too good to resist! *is trying to make himself feel better*



Yeah . . . well . . . to be fair on this one, I don’t have a DSi XL, but I don’t want to open this one to use, even though they’re way more awesome to play games on, since this is also a Mario 25th Anniversary one. Also, I in theory now have 2 copies of Mario Kart DS now . . . *sigh* . . .






Have I mentioned that my Cash Converters is the HANDS DOWN THE BEST STORE IN THE UNIVERSE? Have I? Seriously? If I haven’t, please do tell me so I can reiterate it is! =) Here we have a Street Figther 15th Anniversary Edition Arcade Stick that works for both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. There’s obviously some noticeable damage to the outer box, but seriously, where and when the hell would you have a chance to pick something like this up, even without the box? Pretty much . . . NEVER! I’m privileged to know some of the nicest and best people. I owe Aron this time for this beauty. So the first two pictures are just of the box, showing off some gorgeous artwork and the characters in the numerous games on the back. The third picture shows how the front flap can lift up and has a nice see through layer to look at the fight stick. That “window” flap can also lift up so that’s how you actually get the fight stick out of the box. The fourth picture shows the fight stick in all its glory. If I may say so, even though this is for the last generation of consoles, this is one damn sexy fight stick! d(‘-‘d)




Even the instruction manual for the fight stick is pretty. I don’t care that it reuses the art from the box and the fight stick and everything, it’s just that it’s colorful and looks like so much care and attention has been put into it that makes me appreciate it. Keep in mind, this was a used product, but it also still had the super long poster of like the entire cast of the Street Fighter series up to this point in like perfect condition! I need to get that thing flattened, framed, and put on a wall somewhere! Still, much, much, much love to my favorite store and people again! ^_^




Okay, this is getting ridiculous! An IN BOX SUPER FAMICON? As the great GOB would say . . . COME ON! I don’t care that it’s the Hong Kong version and not the Japanese one, since it’s still authentic and it still works. Look at that box! Seriously! I live in Canada, I bought this from a used goods store . . . think about that for a moment. Seeing one of these would already be a tough task, but seeing one IN BOX? Look at the console in the second picture! No stupid yellowing or discoloring or anything. A nice clean, sleek, and sexy console, with a controller to boot! It’s so nice I don’t even care that it’s missing another controller with it. Seeing this up for sale at the store I spend more at than anywhere else just simply makes me love my life! =D



So, along with the Super Famicon, I managed to snag this little ditty from Cash Converters as well. At first, I had no idea what the hell it was, then I figured out that it actually attaches to the console through the cartridge slot. A bit more internet sleuthing led to find out that this was essentially a floppy disk extension that you could use to play emulated/downloaded games! Good old piracy and stealing even in the good old days . . . =P Hahaha! I haven’t had the chance to try this thing out yet, but I have literally a box full of floppy disks to try out.





Diamond Dave is seriously the most awesome guy around! Here we have an in box Sega Activator peripheral for the Genesis. It’s pretty much one of the worst “controllers” ever created and sold to mankind, which makes it that much more of a novelty! Even our Robot Founder did an article back in the day about its crappiness! Seriously, open that link in a new tab/window and see how retarded it is, hahaha! You can also see in the second picture the obscene number of instructional pamphlets that accompanied the damn thing. The last picture features the whole shebang, with the thing in the middle being a mousepad, just so you can get an idea of how big the thing is. I haven’t tried it yet, but if you watch the video in the above link, I don’t think I’ll be able to meet all the requirements in order to do so, hahaha!

So ends my mini-series within a series of 5 months of catch-up. There’s actually some stuff I haven’t included, because I’ll be using those things for a separate blog that should be upcoming. Finally being able to finish this mini-series though, means that I’m actually re-backlogged about 2 months. So expect that stuff to come in the next few weeks, a special import edition, plus some kickass custom ordered stuff. Many thanks for stopping by and until next time, latez mates!