#actually most of my scale figures won't fit the box

[boreal-sea]

Moving updates:

Packing, Day 4 (though technically I began packing things as early as May).

The U-Box was successfully finished and taken away yesterday, and I took the car to the mechanic to see if it needed anything. I'd suspected it might need new brake pads since according to the mileage it's WAY past due. That was expensive, but now I know my brakes won't fail half way across the country lol.

I didn't actually do a whole lot yesterday other than loading one item into the U-Box and getting my car fixed, but I was exhausted after 2 days of lifting, loading, and packing. I also knew I had all of today to keep working, so I gave myself a bit of a break.

Today I started bright and early at around 8am, and got the rest of the living room stuff collected. I also picked up all the trash in my bedroom (which was a lot), and consolidated the rest of the stuff in there too. I also got the rest of the car cleaned out and put the bike rack on the back. I wanted to take it to get cleaned one more time but eh. I laid down the back seats, then put down some flat stuff, including some small rugs and mats as well as a bulletin board and some foam boards. Then I put in two boxes on the sides by the passenger doors.

On top of those boxes are where the plants are going to sit, inside more boxes for stability. I'm hoping they'll all fit because there's about 20 of them, but most are pretty small/medium in size.

I'm keeping the middle open because that's where the lizard rack and the lizard terrarium are going to go. He's got his own separate traveling container as well, though his favorite hide is also portable and small and secure, so I may just use his hide as a travel container, which I think would make him a lot more relaxed.

Around the terrarium I'll stuff everything else I have left over like my pillows, canned food, etc. The cans are in separate totes so I can bring them inside during the night in the hotel.

I have my day-bag with some clothes loaded up, and the suitcase is next. Bike has to get loaded as well, but that's an easy job. I also keep forgetting the office chair in my bedroom! To be fair I never ever use it. Oh and I still haven't cleaned out the old big litter box yet.

All of the kitty's stuff is waiting right now. I'm probably going to do most of that today, like the scales and the auto feeder and the water fountain. I already have the fountain emptied and drying out. I'll leave the food in the auto dispenser and just tape the lid on, and packing enough for High Five to eat for a few days. I think I'll take 3 cans of wet food and 2 cups of dry food, that should be enough, but either way I'm taking all of it in the car so I can grab more if I need it.

I think that it? The cot I'm sleeping on will go in last. A lot of stuff will probably have to wait until tomorrow morning, since I have to get the terrarium in first before I can load everything else around it.

Argg now I just have to figure out what order to do this all in...

[ya-killin-me-smalls]

Tell me about Presley (smol gift)

ough he's a little guy I want to squeeze him

he's my orphaned-street-rat turned mercenary turned SQ-asset

Presley (pronounced like Wesley not Leslie) grew up in a bandit settlement that was all but torched by the Agency/Nexus when he was ~14ish, his family included. by that point he was no stranger to crime or death, so once the dust had settled he knew he was on his own and needed to stay moving. no time to mourn

pretty theft turned into the occasional odd job in Nexus City. deliver letters and packages, make evidence disappear, sometimes just playing as an inconspicuous decoy. it wasn't easy but keeping his nose clean and a roof over his head would've been impossible. he found people that needed work done and wouldn't ask too many questions

by the time he was 16, he'd built up a decent network of connections, clients, and long lists of people and places to avoid. by 17, one of those clients needed a loose end tied up, offering more money than Presley would've known what to do with, all he had to do was cut someone's brakes and then wait

blood money became the new game and by 21, he had a full-scale operation running, a sizeable armory, and was taking out high-value targets. much like Icarus, hubris was his downfall. a hit gone far too well on the wrong person caught the attention of far more powerful people. said-people weren't the type to shoot the messenger, but they did send a message of their own in the form of his eye being carved out with a spoon and the nerve cut. overall clean operation and he got to pick which eye got sent to his client, so could've been worse

after that he scaled back quite a bit, picked up work that wouldn't need fully-functional vision to accomplish. body augments weren't exactly cheap or easy to come by

luckily for him, the SQ had more than plenty of freelance jobs that would be a walk in the park for him. more than anything, he needed to stay moving. he'd lament his eye when he died

his relationship with SQ was very on-again off-again for the next couple years but always positive, so it wasn't a surprised when Doc offered him an actual position rather than contracts (Arena Mode). of course he takes it, if for no other reason than Doc's notorious reputation throughout the criminal underground and the protection that would offer. once he proves to be a worthy investment, he's greenlit to have bionic eye implanted (one of the older, sturdier models since he does mostly field work). he still runs his own ops when they come up but is more focused with SQ goals as of right now

he's British as fuck which I'm really glad Krinkels went ahead and stuck British people in MPN because otherwise I'd have to figure out why there's Brits in Nevada

has a tiny little massive crush on Deimos since day one but sshshsshshshhh doesn't matter

has not, will not, won't ever sit down and try to process the things he's been through. everything gets shoved in a box and then buried somewhere where he doesn't have to look at it

he does his best to fit in with all the hardened killers within the organization but the pathetic wet cat energy is palpable so he still gets treated like a kid by most

his backstory did get a pretty big overhaul from when I'd first designed him mostly because of MPN but he's still one of my favorite stress balls

[poppetsisters]

I'm gonna talk about the new Marvel CMF series.

These are some great figures, but with the new box designs they're going for, bag feeling is officially dead. Don't get me wrong, I understand and appreciate that it's for recycling and sustainability purposes, but this does make it so hardcore collectors have to go back to the dark ages and bring a scale into Walmart. That, or just break into the box and steal what they please. Me personally, I'm gonna check to see whether Bricklink starts price gouging because of this since the prices for CMFs on that site are reasonable so far.

Anyway here's what I think about the figs.

Goliath. Something I should make clear is that I'm not a fan of the MCU. However, since Marvel sets are 90% based on MCU titles, that means the only versions of characters I can get come from those movies. Case in point: Bill Foster. Though the suit looks nice and maintains a stylistic similarity to the MCU Antman costume, as a comics fan, it bears no resemblance to the comic costume and hence I won't be picking it up.

Storm. Oh she's perfect! We already got a decent Storm fig based on the Giant Sized suit, but without the crown thing sadly. But THIS! When people think of Storm, they think of this design, and it looks great! I'm for sure picking this one up!

Beast. Another great fig. I love that the alternate face includes glasses. Such a nerd! Interesting that they chose to make a new hair mold when the good ol' dracula hair would've been just fine. Not complaining of course, it's just interesting to me.

Kate Bishop. I'm not a Hawkeye enjoyer, which means I don't have much stake in Kate Bishop either. It's lucky (heh) that we have a figure of her, so I'm happy for the Kate Bishop fans, it's just not something I'm excited about.

Moon Knight. This was always gonna be a guaranteed buy from me. Of course I wish it was the comics design, but at this point I've grown used to settling for MCUification. Nah but this figure still rocks. Lots of detailed printing, a cool new moon piece, and a brand new hood mold that I hope LEGO makes in more colours soon.

Wolverine. This figure makes me upset that I bought that Wolverine mech only for them to improve on the design in every way. The boots, the arm hair, the everything is just the most perfect you could make a Wolverine figure, and the added sentinel head is a nice touch!

She-Hulk. As someone who bought that one Hulk set with Hulk, Red Hulk, She-Hulk, and She-Red Hulk all in their classic comic colours, this figure has no use to me. It's a faithful design that includes dual molding and nice prints nontheless. One way they could've outdone the original figure was perhaps use the Avatar arms and legs... actually nevermind, that would look kinda awkward.

Hawkeye. I can already hear the AFOLs complaining about the lack of leg printing. Shout out to LEGO finally getting Jeremy Renner's hair right! Otherwise it's fine to me. I can get a better Hawkeye fig from that one avengers video game set.

Mr. Knight. This represents one of those magical MCU moments where the costume of the movies matches close enough to the comics to pass. Hence, I may have to get this one. The figure itself is very basic, but that's all I need sometimes. The fish bowl is a nice touch too.

Echo: I never heard of this character, but I know she's indigenous and is famously depicted with a white handprint on her face. For comics accuracy, this is unfortunate that the minifig leaves this out. For cultural sensitivity, it's complicated. Based on my 10 seconds of googling, a handprint is generally associated with success in hand to hand combat, which seems fine enough, but I also know a red handprint over the mouth has emerged as a symbolic representation for violence against indigenous women. I think this too fits Echo's backstory, but you have to remember this is Disney we're talking about, the same company that made Pocahontas. As a white woman, I'm not at all an authority when it comes to indigenous representation in media. I recommend you do your own research and listen to what indigenous voices have to say on the matter. For now though, the figure looks cool I guess.

Agatha Harkness. The figure looks good, but not gonna lie, I'm here for that Darkhold. It feels weird to buy a minifig SPECIFICALLY for a prop, but it's an important Marvel artifact so I don't want to miss it. Besides, I should probably get Agatha anyway. Who else is gonna babysit Franklin Richards?

Werewolf by Night. With Moon Knight and now Wolfy, I can combine them with Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Morbius, and Blade to make my own Midnight Sons roster. The bloodstone is a nice addition too, just makes me wish we also got Elsa. Ah well.

[houkagokappa]

The Kaze to Ki no Uta books I got are in the bunkobon format which means they’re smaller than the more common tankobon books are. Since I tried to look for comparison shots online before buying them but had a hard time finding any I’m posting this for future reference for anyone who might need it.

On the left we have the most common size for English manga releases, in the middle we have a Japanese tankobon manga and to the right there’s the bunko book. Although it’s smaller I don’t find it too small. The paper quality’s better than in the tankobon (white and shiny, less risk for yellowing), but that also makes it weigh more (more expensive shipping costs). The bunko books are slightly more expensive, but they also contain about 2 tankobon volumes worth of content so eventually the cost will even out.