Latest Purchases #83

Wii Sports Resort is a title I'd seen a few times for various prices on the used market. The original Wii Sports made the Wii fly off the shelves and Wii Sports Resort was just as much, if not more popular than the first game. This has been a Wii game I've always coveted, but I was just unwilling to fork over $40 or more for it. When I was picking up Splatoon and Pikmin 3 a few weeks ago, my local GameStop had a used, complete copy of Wii Sports Resort for $20. I didn't want to spend anymore than I already had so I took a chance and left the store without it, thinking, hoping, that it would still be in the store a few weeks later. Sure enough, it was, so I immediately snatched it up.

My original plan was to leave GameStop with an amiibo or two, one of them being Ness, but with Nintendo and scalpers making it infuriating to buy amiibos that aren't the usual suspects (Mario, Peach, Bowser, etc.) I opted for a trio of plushies instead. Blue Toad, has always been my favorite Toad since blue is my favorite color and he was all kinds of awesome in Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario 3D World. This one is as cute as a button. I've got more Luigi plushies than I do of Mario but I wanted this one to go along with a Mario I've got, who is also of the sit down variety. There are actually a ton of Kirby plushies I've seen online that consist of the little pink puffs numerous copy abilities. GameStop had none of those, but they did have this little guy and I couldn't just leave him there.

Since this year is the 30th anniversary of the Super Mario Bros. series, I decided to invest in some more Retro Game Cases to better show off my Super Mario Bros. collection. These take up more space on a shelf as opposed to displaying the carts lose, but when the cases are this good, the trade off is well worth it. With SNES games, you sometimes get the choice between the American or Japanese box art. I have nothing against Super Mario World's North American box art but I've always liked the extra details that the Super Famicom version uses. I'll probably end up getting the North American version somewhere down the line just to have both.

Latest Purchases #81

Did you ever do something stupid like throw away the boxes that your NES, SNES and N64 games came in? Since this was long before companies thought to put games in lasting cases, I'm sure more than a few of you did just that. Thanks to Retro Game Cases, I'm now able to pimp out my retro games in style and keep those cartridges from getting dust in them. These cases are of excellent quality and for some games, you can choose to go with the Japanese box art, as I did for Super Mario 64. When I looked over the back case for Super Mario Bros. 3, I realized how much I missed reading the text on the back of those old NES boxes. Most cases are under $10 and I can't wait to order some more.

I think plushies may be my favorite video game collectible memorabilia. In the four years I've been living in Virginia Beach, I've amassed a ton of these things and now I've got three more to add to the pile. To my knowledge, this is the only Mega Man X plush available and its done in the same style as the Mega Man and Proto Man plushies that I've got. No surprise since X is also from Great Eastern Entertainment. All X needs now is his partner Zero, which I'll get around to ordering in due time.

Wind Waker Zelda has one of my favorite designs of the Zelda character, right next to Skyward Sword Zelda. The art style of Wind Waker lends itself quite well to plushies and now Toon Link won't be so lonely. I love the attention to detail on this thing. I think she's a little bit bigger than both of my Toon Link plushies, though.

I found this Blue Pikmin behind a set of Nintendo and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic plushies. He was really tucked away back there. I saw something blue in the back and thought "Could it be?!" And it was! The original three color Pikmin are present and accounted for. The Purple and White Pikmin gotta be comin' down the pipe line next.

Anyone remember The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past manga? I'd seen this in the issues of Nintendo Power way back in 1992. Looking at it a again having now read numerous manga, the art style looked very familiar to me. It turns out the story and art was done by none other than Shotaro Ishinomori, the guy that did, among other works, Cyborg 009. Ishinomori's art style is very similar to the famed Osamu Tezuka, who has a very unique, round style to his drawings, giving it a very classic look. I never did get to read this entire Link to the Past manga. I didn't start buying Nintendo Power regulalry until 1993 and by that time, the manga had already run it's course. Naturally, I'm pretty excited to have this baby among my Zelda stuff. Viz published this thing so hopefully they'll do more reprints of Nintendo stuff like the Super Mario Adventures manga that also ran in Nintendo Power or Ishinomori's other projects like Cyorg 009, which really needs to get reprinted. I believe he also had a Rockman manga and I'd really love to see that.

I've seen this Bowser plushie online for a few years now and having finally him in my posession, I can see that he's much, much bigger than I thought he'd be. He might be the biggest plush that I own and he's detailed and stuffed quite well. He's so massive and bulky that's it really is kinda hard to capture him in a photo. That and it's tough to get him to stand up on his own.

Some amiibos are much harder to find than others. That's not exactly breaking news, but its still quite infuriating that scalpers continue to get their way since Nintendo does not understand the concept of supply and demand for their amiibo line. I was really surprised to walk into my local GameStop, which I hadn't visited in months and see a lone Pac-Man amiibo sitting with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD plushies. I'm guessing someone decided not to pick him up, because that's the only reason I can fathom that he wouldn't be in the amiibo section. I never expected it to be that easy to snag a Pac-Man, but in this case, it really was.

Mario & Toad Join Luigi & Yoshi

Months ago, I picked up my first gaming plush toys in the form of Luigi and Yoshi during a trip to Barns & Nobles. The last few times I went in there, they had restocked the Super Mario line of plush dolls with the plump plumber himself present among the bunch. I guess timing really is everything because they were having a buy one get one free on these babies. With that in mind, I picked up Mario along with Toad. I would have picked Koopa Troopa over Toad because outside of being awesome in Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64, the little fungus is pretty much worthless. Don't even get me started on how much he sucks as a guard. Koopa Troopa's on the same level of cute as Yoshi in this plush line. Still, Toad is part of the set so I figured I'd pick him up now and save Koopa Troopa for last.

Buying gaming toys and figurines is as fun as buying games. There are some other game related merchandise I've got my eye on, including a VERY cool Mario-themed version of one of my favorite non-video games (No, it is not Monopoly) and when I pick it up, you'll hear all about it.

The buy one get one free was still in effect when I went back on Saturday so I got Mario & Luigi for my two nieces. Gotta live up to my uncle status and spoil them every now and then.

Super Mario Plush Dolls Get!

One of the first things I got for myself in the new year were some genuine Super Mario Plush Dolls in Barns & Nobles. I was really surprised to find these things in a book store. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't even looking for them. Yeah, I knew there were video game plush dolls out there, but I'd never actively sought them out. When I actually saw some, and some of Super Mario no less, I was ecstatic.

My mom didn't understand why I'd actually want something like these. This coming from a woman that has a glass shelf to display her collection of clowns. Clowns! (Not that there's anything wrong with that) As a huge Mario fan, how could I not be interested in Mario plush toys?

From what I saw, they had everyone but Mario (figures he'd be gone), but that was OK because Luigi has always been my boy. I just had to get Yoshi as well because he looked so cute.

When I get some more cash, I'm definitely going back to pick up more.