Toronto Haul list

Traveled extra light this year because I wasn't driving. Plus I was staying with my cousin downtown so whatever happened, I had to lug this stuff around in the subway. Photos later whenever I feel like posting them.

1. Marvel Subcasts Spider-Man statue by Upper Deck. Not because I like this one in particular, but because I was at the famous Silver Snail and that's the one they happened to have in stock. Plus I was feeling sufficiently "metro" to buy urban-art.
2. Iron Man torso T-shirt... because I was feeling like being "funny." I think I rather came off geeky than funny, however.
3. Several booster boxes of UFS cards. Cheaper to buy in complete boxes than individual packs. Plus you get the "box topper" promo card you can't get otherwise.
4. A volume of Yotsuba&! manga.
5. A random assortment of gashapon including a full set of Sakura Taisen (I can't remember which release off-hand), a DS stylus (with Bullet Bill on top), a Nu Gundam, a Meer figure from Gundam Seed, a micro-figure of Gundam Victory, and a sushi meal.

Also conveniently timed... my last order from Maelstrom arrived in the mail the one day I stopped over at my house before heading for Sherbrooke so now I have the Codex Space Marines to browse. Nice to have a colour hardcopy to look through rather than that PDF file I downloaded somewhere up the line.

Intron Depot gashapon

A few years back Toycom was trying to break into distributing anime merch Stateside (this was before Yamato opened up shop as YamatoUSA) and they tried something new: they sold gashapon figures... not blind boxed! Utter insanity ensued. That is, I got suckered in.

While tidying up the guest room (aka: room where I throw stuff when I'm too lazy) I found my collection of "Story Image Figures" inspired by Masamune Shirow's "Intron Depot" artbooks. Being the sucker that I was at the time, I made an effort to "collect them all" including the variants and I even kept them in their blister packs. What? As if I'd ever get around to selling these or that they would be worth more in their stupid American blister versions.

I leave their fate to you, dear readers! Should I keep them in their semi-mint yet utterly worthless blisters? Or should I grant freedom and open up all of them to display all over the house and my office like the geek that I am?