Dance in the Vampire Bund

As I have said, I need to catch up on posts, so thought I would start with some of the more recent shows I watched, and work my way back. That is mostly because the more recently I watched them, the better I can remember the details to comment on. Some of the older shows will be hard to really give a good review on, but to be honest, that is probably a good thing, since those are some shows I really didn't like the most.

Ok, getting on to the review, Dance in the Vampire Bund. I bought this series as a complete set not too long ago from Amazon, who was having a Lightening deal on it. I admit I didn't know much about it, but reading up on it, the premise sounded interesting.

So I watched it all, and to be honest, I mostly thought it was pretty good. This is despite the fact I really felt this show was suppose to be longer and was cut down some. I really felt the main characters had a lot more to their stories that wasn't told. Fortunately, there was enough of each to work with and no obvious holes.

I also have to admit, I was kind of put off at first by the main character Mina, the vampire princess. She gets into situations with Akira, the other main character, in what can only be described as a bit on the provocative side. What is bad about that, is that she looks and usually acts like a little girl. That is just not my thing, and I had to work to get past it. In defense of this, is that she is actually hundreds of years old, and isn't a little girl, but just has that form. She does go into the show later in more normal adult situations, and it does get easier to see past the look she has. It was really difficult at first however.

Anyway, getting down to it, and not spoiling anything, the show mostly deals with vampires coming out into the human world, and how they deal with things. Both with humans, and also how things are handled internally among themselves. It also works to expand the relationship and its complexities of the two main characters. As I said, I did like it a lot, and was disappointed it wasn't a longer series. In letter grade terms, I give it a B+ to A-.

Dance in the Vampire Bund

Huge update to my G I Joe/Transformer collections

Ok, I lied.  I said I would start catching up on my post/reviews/etc a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't delivered.  I guess that is really because things got really crazy after I posted that.  We had a Halloween party that took a lot of my time decorating and planning for, and then having it, and then taking it all down.  Also, there were many other things like yard work, doing things with friends, still trying to finish ElderScrolls Oblivion, etc.  But the biggest thing has been a huge addition to my Transformer/G I Joe collections, mostly G I Joe.

A friend of mine has been telling me for a while now that he had some of those old toys from his childhood in his parents basement, and when he found them, he would let me take a look and maybe buy some stuff off him.  Well, that happened a week or so ago, and when I went over to take a look, he had a ton of stuff.  As I said, mostly G I Joe, but some Transformers as well.  It was too hard to figure it all out, so I decided to make him an offer for all of it, and he took it.

What was cool about it all is this friend is a couple of years younger than me.  In the case of the G I Joes I really collected played with them from 82 to 86.  When I jumped off to be a teenager, was the time he started getting them.  His were mostly 87-90.  There was obviously some overlap/duplicates, but for the most part, it really just picked up from where I left off, which was cool.  In regards to Transformers, I already had over half of what I got from him, but it was cool to get some duplicates of some such as Metroplex.  Now I can display them in both robot mode as well as vehicle mode.  The coolest new additions for my Transformers is a complete Punch/Counter-Punch as well as some Autobot cassettes.

The collection condition itself was a bit rough.  For one, there was no organization hardly at all for things.  It was all mixed up everywhere, with things that weren't G I Joe/Transformers, and also parts of vehicles and figures were just everywhere, and not really with what they all belonged to.  At his place, I spent as much time as I could sorting all of this out, and taking it home in one of those huge Rubbermaid type tubs.  I may have missed some things unfortunately, but I tried my best.

That unfortunately was just the start.  Once I had them home, I have started using my spare time and  the internet to identify all the parts and figures, and put everything back together.  Again, that isn't the end though, because most everything was very dirty (both from him playing with them during childhood outside alot it seems, as well as just sitting in dust/dirt for over 20 years) and needed a lot of maintenance.  I have had to take most everything apart as much as I could, and really wash it all down, dry it, and then put it all back together.  I have only done the maintenance on a few of the vehicles so far, but the most notable one is the Rolling Thunder, a huge missile carrier vehicle from 88.  I have also had to tear apart each of the action figures, throw all the parts in a bowl of soapy water, scrub them down real good, and then put them back together with new waste bands I bought some time ago.  Tedious work, but fun at the same time I guess.  Very time consuming for sure, and I have a ways to go until completion.  I will try to post updates of my collection with all of this, as well as maybe some photos, but as anyone who follows this blog knows, I suck at keeping up, so don't hold your breath....

Now I will try to do an anime review or two, as I know I am way behind on those.

Back to Anime Reviews

Okay, I admit it. I did what I said I wouldn't do, and fell off the boat on keeping up with my Anime reviews the last four months or so. I have two excuses I guess.

One was all the work we have been doing on our new house. We had a new roof put on, ripping off the deck, waterproofing the basement, and many other smaller projects. That really limits your free time, and when I have had it, I actually spent it on the things I actually enjoyed doing, and not really write about it.

The other reason is I kind of fell off the bandwagon because I watched a couple of series that I really didn't like, and it killed my enthusiasm with Anime. I watched a couple of better series afterwards that has slowly been bringing me back, but one series in particular was a real downer that dug me a big hole that I had a hard time climbing out of. I will wait and go into the actual review I will do to discuss it. I will try to do at least one review a day, if not more, until I am caught up. I have at least 5 to do I am sure. Here they come....

Site/Collection updating Pt 2

The last couple of days I have updated the following Autobots including finally adding pictures for Jetfire and Kup:

Hoist
Hot Rod
Jetfire
Kup



Stay tuned for more updates....

Fortress Maximus

I finally got it today, so I can now officially post it. I finally got the unreachable Transformer for me, Fortress Maximus. I have wanted him so badly over the many years I started working on my Generation 1 collection. With a little bit of luck, and saving I finally got one though I admit that as of this post, he is far from complete. I got him on eBay missing many parts, but as soon as I won the auction, I immediately started getting the parts that are missing that I could afford. I got some of the parts I ordered for him yesterday, before I even got him today. When I did get him today I added the parts I got, and will continue to do so as they come in, and my budget will allow me to purchase more. At this point, I have purchased all of the parts that make his main body complete, with the one exception being his radar dish. With any luck, I can get it in a few weeks, and then I will proceed to work on getting his other missing parts, namely his large rifles, and then new stickers for him, and finally the parts needed for gasket/grommet. As I said in my previous post, I am really working to get my collection pages current, so I really feel I can say with certainty that I should be keeping his page updated as I go. I will try to keep this blog updated as I proceed.

Site/Collection updating

Lately, I have realized that when I have been updating this site, it is unfortunately not with the most important parts, which is my actual Transformer collection. That is a shame really because it is suppose to be the focal point of my site, and has really been needing it from when I started it as a class project many years ago. That being the case, I am trying to rededicate myself to making my site better, primarily by cleaning up my collection pages so they are better formatted with pictures, have the correct pictures, have the pictures taken nicely from my collection instead of eBay pictures if there are pictures at all, and also update my personal descriptions, which in most cases out dated since I have added to many figures. I already took a lot of pictures last night and already updated the following Autobots:

Arcee
Bluestreak
Blurr
Fortress Maximus
Grapple
Ironhide


Stay tuned for more updates. They will take a while, but I do plan to really work on them and not let this fade away as in times past...

Added Technobots Strafe and Scattershot to complete Computron

This is a couple of months overdue for various reasons, but I finally got Strafe and Scattershot to complete the Computron portion of my collection.  I got both of them complete, and Scattershot even has his box.  I should have listed this months ago, but as I said..... 

Plus I am doing it now, because I anticipate the missing "crown jewel" of my collection coming next week.  I will definitely post when I get that guy (though I admit I already preemptively put a page up for him.... too excited......), so stay tuned.....