Well this is something interesting from Mattel.

After losing out to the tween market because of things like Bratz, Moxie Girlz and LIV dolls, the company behind Barbies has come out with a new, tween/teen centric franchise called Monster High.

Read more »

OMG!!!!!

They have finally brought Sylvanian Families to the US!!!!

For those who don't know what they are, Sylvanian Families are small, flocked figurines of animals originally from England. They cover a variety of species including foxes, squirrels and penguins and have their own little houses and towns. They are extremely adorable, and extremely expensive to get in the US.

That is until now! As Toys R' Us now has them. They have been renamed Calico Critters, but trust me, these are the same obscenely adorable little figures. I wouldn't call them *cheap*, but 20 dollars for a family is hella cheaper than 50 like they charge at the import stores or on Ebay.

Gawd, between these things, anime, video games, Barbies, ball-joint dolls and manga even if I get a really well paying job I'm never going to have any money XD

4Kids Entertainment. Two words in the Otaku dictionary that boils the blood of anyone who hears it. Bring it up in any club, forum or con and be prepared for a venomous rant from all sides. But why the hatred? After all, 4Kids brought over some of the most popular anime series of the late 90's/Early 00's, and opened the floodgate for the current generation of Otaku. Back in my day it was 'Funimation' that brought a hiss from a fan's lips, so how did Funimation become the most powerful Anime company, while 4Kids became Cain?

Read more »

For the first time in close to a decade I have purchased a Western Comic book on its release day.

Now, I have plenty of Western comics, I usually pick them up if I find them on a garage sale or something, and I always get stuff on Free Comic book day, but it's been a very long time I've actually gone and purchased an issue full price. It's not to say that I hate Western comics, but the fact is Marvel and DC, as well as many other independent have for many years irritated me with their trends in storytelling. For a while I put up with it, and slammed my head against the desk when they revived yet another 'dead' character, added yet another alternate reality/time twist or utterly changed a character's personality for no damn good reason, and tended to be quite expensive. Then I discovered manga. It's not to say that manga is better than American comics, as there is tons and tons of junk out there (sigh, why do I keep reading Tsubasa?) but in the end I just found I enjoy manga more and find it to be a better value.

So why did out of the blue I decide to buy a Superman/Batman comic? Two words: Batman Beyond. Anyone who's read my blog for a while knows I am a gigantic BB fan. A few months ago DC swallowed their words and announced that they were essentially going to make BB canon, maybe not totally canon, but actually acknowledge it is a part of their greater universe and make a comic outside of the series they did, which were basically like unaired episodes. Because of this I was willing to take a chance on DC again. Did they re-earn my confidence?

Read more »

OMG!

The US/North American release date for Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has been released, and it happens to be two days before my birthday, which is epic.

The release date is September 7th.

Now onto better news, the cast list. Master Xenahort will be voiced my Leonard Nemoy. Hell. To. The. Yeah. Additionally, Mark Hamill will voice a character, and being that he was the Joker, this will be equally both Boss Awesome and Pimptastic. Most people don't know this, but Mark Hamill is actually a spectacular voice actor.

Japanese-version-only-the-English-version-always-sucks people, go shut up now. We have Leonard Nemoy, your arguement is invalid.