#im still searching for more images of this merch

[muttgirl]

Vintage Hole amplifier knob pendant necklace

[meat-wentz]

Hi there I was wondering if you knew of any way to identify authentic vintage FOB merch from fakes/reprints, I only ask because it seems like you have a collection of vintage FOB shirts, sorry if this question is directed to the wrong blog ❤️❤️

yes i do have some pointers!!!

investigate sellers. if a deal looks too good to be true it probably is, make sure the seller looks legit and has legit reviews if any reviews. if a collector is getting rid of their collection, there’s a really good chance all of their stuff is legit and they will note any boots or reprints, so i always check a seller’s page to see if they have a series of similar listings (could be say a bunch of fob and clandestine stuff, or even just an experienced merch reseller who has tons of band listings) and if they are i know i’m probably in the clear. a lot of times the opposite is also true! someone might just have a holy grail piece they’ve kept in their mom’s garage for 20 years and decide to finally part ways with it, most often this will be the only listing of that band + other listings of high school clothes or other clothes they’re selling, etc. i’ve found more of the latter than the former, for really good prices! you can also ask questions about the piece, like if there’s a back print, if i can get a pic of the tag, if i can see details (zippers, closeups on design, ink wear).

there are lots of indexes of tags and their approximate date information available out there, gildan for example can be less identifiable because a lot of merch and bootleggers still use gildan as their go to, but gildan’s had a long history of different tags, and if you’re able to find a good resource on what, say a tag from 2004 looks like, you’d be able to see if it matched the tag you’re looking at or if that shirt was printed last week. there are some more easily identifiable tags from the time period like bay island tags are always typically a dead giveaway you’re dealing with authentic merch. tags CAN be faked but it’s not typical for items like merch. another good sign for printed tags is if there’s wear on the tag itself former, real soft, sometimes blank or fading, etc, you just wanna see this thing has been used and abused. lots of people cut out their tags but if you can see any wear on cut tags (lots of soft, loose, threading, obvious it’s been through years of washing), that’s a sign you take if there’s no tag.

item wear. much like the last point, i usually look at items that have been very loved. darker colors will fade, so if im dealing with black shirts i often look for a fade as well. ink will crack over the years, so i always keep an eye out for any cracking or wear and i always like to see if the ink looks a little TOO intact and flexible. ink is not ALWAYS the most reliable way to clock a fake, but it’s a tool you can use.

have a good sense of what merch from the era looked like, if you can follow merch archives or go in the waybackmachine and look at the merch store or follow collector accounts, there’s a good chance you will probably be able to find the design you’re looking at. fob has very distinct logos for each time period so if i see an infinity on high logo on a futct keyhole im like alright that’s not real. they have stylistic moments that adhere to their albums really well. tttyg era merch has a lot of bitey commentary and usually darker colors, more big and bold designs. futct has a whole lot of gold and red and deer and on the other side of the spectrum bright colors and a kind of 70’s-ish almost high school sports-leaning font and theme.

the plus side is i haven’t run into a whole lot of fob fakes! a dead giveaway is if the photo looks funky like it was snagged from off the internet or you’ve seen a pic of that shirt floating around, (you can always reverse image search and see if that photo was snagged from somewhere else!), i like when i can tell a photo was actually taken in someone’s house or space, walls, hangers, carpets, on someone’s bed, it’s just a good way to see someone is a real person. another dead giveaway is if you see multiple sizes and a low price of $24.99 for a shirt you know is super rare, that’s a fake and that is some weird internet swindler who most likely won’t even give you a decent print of what they’re advertising they have. i also appreciate sellers who list measurements, talk about the fit, just give more information than a “BLACK SHIRT 100% COTTON.” fob do have some weirdos on eBay who’ve been selling these bogus reprints, but for the most part i haven’t seen them anywhere else.

so many bootleggers are cool and they will not try to trick you into thinking you’re getting an original print. bootleggers will give you the information about what kind of shirts they will be printing on, what kind of ink they will be using, how long their print runs will be, etc, they will make it explicitly clear that this is a bootleg design, AND they will most likely give you one that’s killer in quality. i own a BUNCH of boots of certain designs im sure will never see the light of day again, at the end of the day i will prioritize my desire for a certain design over authenticity (and also support legit, cool bootleggers who are making sure these designs don’t get lost to time). there are certain pieces i won’t budge on my requirement that they be authentic. at the end of the day it’s your collection and you get to make the rules!

[dulcevenganzaa]

so earlier i saw the pencey prep poster by gerard, and it got me thinking about the typography used here:

[The font above is obviously a modified version of the original used for style purposes]

because it's a familiar style and honestly it reminded me of the typeface used in the bullets cover so i did a quick search and i was wrong, it's actually a font named Bodoni Poster Compressed

but still i was like, huh, where have i seen that before? oh right.

[Black Parade Logo, 2006 | The Black Parade Is Dead merch, 2007 via MCR merch archive by /onlydressthatway]

but anyway i was still curious about the bullets font and after digging and comparing a bunch of typefaces i came to a conclusion:

the typography used in the cover and the cd design is: Latin Extra Condensed. These are the references i used for my search:

[Src: Left: Image via Amazon Music / 2015 LP Re-issue | Right: Image via Genius / Unknown year re-issue]

i also added the original Latin Condensed bc this is most likely where the extra condensed version comes from imo and there's the added fact that there's an unspecified amount of variations of the bullets cd [2002 (record release), 2002 Version, 2007 (russian?) version] and the print quality changes from issue to issue and in turn it makes the typography look thicker and/or thinner. im still pretty set on the extra condensed tho.

[Booklet from the 2007 re-issue]

one interesting thing is that they started to use a different font for new merch and articles related to bullets in recent years, the new type is a font from Adobe named Birch

[Left: MCR Official website; middle: Hot Topic Bullets Exclusive; right: Exoshop X MCR collab]

here's a quick comparison, both typographies are pretty similar, but birch is slightly thicker

[Above: Birch; below: Latin extra condensed]

as an addendum, the mcr logo that's on the bullets cover is a heavily modified serif type font and if i were to guess super quick i'd say it's bodoni but i can't confirm that, yet.

anyway that's all i have for now. follow 4 more design investigations.

went down a little design rabbit hole just now

[gallickingun]

reality-is-often-disappointing x denki || gallickingun matchups

@reality-is-often-disappointing : I, have shamelessly came here on note for a first tier matchup. MHA, my hobbies are a wild variety that includes mainly singing -as i have an ' amazing' alto voice- writing, drawing -in pencil mainly but also acrylics on canvas- I'm good at cooking -better thank baku if I do say so myself- reading fanfics obv, fangirling/gushing over hot guys with the girls yk? my dress code is ultimate modesty as i dont like showing skin, yet it's classy chic, very picky while shopping yes. my favorite colors are blank and vintage pink. aesthetic is more cutsie unicorn colors -my rooms main colors- but i actually only ever like wearing black. i do know how to swim but cant because *da-dun* i have dry eyes/also wear glasses. my favorite food is dark chocolate w/ those bits of cherries or oranges. as a first date i'm open to anything from a movie in or out, to walks on the beach or even just the arcade. i'm a she/her, and currently feeling like i'm going for a guy as a match triggers: only degradation or backtalking, it makes me anxious, a paranoid mess and i'll most definitely end up crying without even noticing. 165cm or 5'5 dark natural black hair (the 80s lion cut up to collarbone & a fringe) eye color, theyre black/brown when in sunlight. im white with a med and warmish olive undertones, natrually rosy cheeks -holy dark circles- full brows and what i've been called as "doll-like-eyes" or "cat-eyes" since theyre big and long naturally curled lashes. My birthday is on 31st of october, scorpio, INFP personality to cut short for you! I'm a child-free spirited but also am like-mature at maximum effort. I either sleep 3 or 16 hours there is no inbetween (once slept for 24 hrs but I'm not going to talk about how that freaked everyone out) I've been singing since I was three or since I've remembered. Secretly wanted to go on those x-factor shows but bleh, no. Fame is not really for me. Anywho, love you! Have fun with this and drink water! 🎵

Thank you so much for sending in the request for this! You’re such a gem, I really appreciate every time I get the pleasure of interacting with you, darling 🧡

― Denki would love the fact that you sing! He thinks you have a beautiful voice, and even if you’re across the house, if he hears you start to pick up a tune, he’ll join in! ― I think the two of you would pull all nighters together some nights, and other days sleep until you’ve passed the whole weekend by without doing much of anything. Denki can stay up until the sunrise, or he can sleep until noon, whatever you want to do! ― He loves your free spirit, it makes it easy to take you on adventures and experience the world with you. 

⁂ Denki will randomly offer to pick you up from work, and the two of you will drive a couple of hours to the countryside or the beach - windows down, music blaring, singing until your throats are numb - and you’ll spend a night or a weekend away from the world, just wrapped up in each other. 

⁂ He’s a horrible cook, absolutely terrible. Kaminari loves that you cook dinner most nights, because not only does he get to eat your delicious food, he also gets to praise the heck out of you for preparing a wonderful meal. He really adores it when you make too much and he gets to take the leftovers to work the next day. Of course he brags about you to all of the other heroes, and he really loves the note you leave on top of the tupperware. 

⁂ Even if the two of you aren’t actively together, you’ll still stay up late. Sometimes you watch Kaminari while he plays video games, laying on the couch with your legs over his lap while he mashes the controller buttons and speaks to whoever is on the other side of the headset. In between each match or round, he’ll slip the headphones off his ears and run his palm along your calf, massaging your leg, “Whatcha doin’, babe?” And he’ll listen to you drone on about whatever YouTube video you were watching, whatever thing you’re reading, or whatever social media event has gotten your attention. 

⁂ He learns how to harmonize in order to compliment your voice better. He shows it off one night when you’re singing along while cooking dinner - Denki sidles up behind you, arms around your waist, and starts to harmonize in your ear along with the song you’ve been captivated by for the last few weeks. You feel warm at the sound of his voice, and even more so due to the effort he’s put in to prove to you that your interests are his interests. And boy, is he interested in you. 

⁂ Kaminari will be down to try all kinds of fruit chocolates with you - you guys even play a roulette style game where you have to guess what kind of fruit is hidden within the chocolate. You win, mostly, because Denki just wants to stuff his face with sugar so fast that he doesn’t recognize the fruit chunks. But he still plays and is in awe of you getting every single one right because you never fail to amaze him. 

Denki slips in through the doorway, sliding off his shoes in favor of his house slippers as quietly as possible. He notices that the television is still flickering on and off, images bouncing off the glass of the window panes scattered throughout the living room walls. A chuckle parts his lips when he sees you curled up in one of his old hero merch designs - a hoodie that is too large for you, so big that it would seem it has swallowed you whole. Your legs are curled into your chest and your head rests on the arm of the couch, gentle snores making your nostrils shudder.

He tries to pick you up, slipping his arms carefully beneath your frame. But somehow you stir, your eyes peeling open lazily as you smack your lips, slowly sinking away from the realm of slumber. A gentle smile tugs on your lips and you frame his face with your hands, “Another late night?”

“Duty calls,” his voice does not sound as excited as it once did to get those midnight rings from the agency. Now, he just aches to be at home with you at the decent hours of the night, where he can hold you and fall asleep with you and remember why he fell in love with you all over again, every time he gets the faintest of whiffs of your perfume or your shampoo. 

“Dinner is in the oven,” you are murmuring, your head lolling against his chest as he settles you into his hold, “I waited for you to start the next season.”

Kaminari is laughing, but the sound of it sobers you up and you grab him by the collar of his jacket with the one arm that is listening to you tell it how to move, the other pinned between your bodies, “H-Hey, don’t laugh at me! I waited for you to start it, now we’re gonna start it.”

Somehow you’re settled back into the couch, hands desperate for him as you search his torso for somewhere to find purchase. Kaminari leans down and kisses your forehead and then the tip of your nose, his lips hovering just above the bow of your mouth as he whispers, “Whatever you want, honey.”

Matchups Original Post | Ko-Fi | Patreon | Commissions | AO3 | Writing Tag

Please check HERE to see if I’ve done your matchup already. Remember, I will also post your matchup with the tag: “#emoji-matchup”, using your emoji in place of the word, so if you can remember your emoji, you can search my blog for that tag to see if I have completed it already!

[bawkrya]

ok so im just gonna pick at fr from a web designer pov because looking at this site on mobile will drive me into madness if they don’t fix it at some point. The rest of this post will go under a read more because it’s both super long and image heavy.

before i hit mobile though, I’m going to point out some things i just don’t personally like in general with the site design (and yes i am conscious that they are slowly updating to a new look)

this will come as a shock to no one, if you’ve seen previous web design related posts by others anyways, but i cant. stand this menu

[ID: A cropped screenshot of Flight Rising’s Main Menu]

fr, understandably, has a shit ton of links. it’s a petsite with lore and all that, whatever. The thing that bothers me specifically is the length of links and where some are placed.

1. i BELIEVE this counts as an accessibility issue where longer links kinda trap shorter links, goes into misclicks to other pages in the site, etc. etc.  2. i don’t think. the search link should be under library personally ? Maybe make it its own category. 

Dev Tracker & Media could go under this category, possibly add separate links to forum, player, and dragon searches with updated formatting

Dressing Room and Scrying Workshop could go under the “Play” category 

Forums can be it’s own category with possible subcategories being: Announcements & News, Help Center, and Flight specific discussion forum, maybe more 

Library category could then just be: Which Waystone, World Map, Game Database, and Encyclopedia.

Support should be it’s own category.

One thing on the shop category, and i hesitate to say this because im not CONFIDENT on this one, but I’m not sure Custom Skins exactly fits? or at least, it should be Purchase Gems -> Marketplace -> Custom Skins, not between crossroads and festive favors

Merch should probably go under purchase gems, and they should maybe uhh..... i guess change the name for it overall? because 1. “merch” alone does NOT look good with its placement, 2. its another actual money purchase thing and I think those should go on the same page

Along with that, in putting merch under that page, they could put previews of the merch with a button to go purchase instead of immediately going to their merch site (which to begin with it should open in a new tab if its going to a separate site?!!)

then this is a mix of both not liking it on laptop OR mobile, 

[ID: A cropped image of Flight Rising’s Clan Home page. The Bestiary link has a bright red box highlighting it]

Obviously these pages are old, but the graphics need to be updated, and there needs to be graphics for every link in the category-- seeing with this category alone there isn’t a graphic for the Bestiary already. On top of this they need to be in link order preferably. if they had a normal dropdown menu for mobile, mobile users wouldn’t be able to access the bestiary unless FR wanted to be STUPID and do further dropdown menus w their 200 links which would be STUPID and CLUTTERED

also in my opinion the Messages link isn’t necessary since we have the button at the top. If they put it there as an excuse for accessibility, they can just. add text to the buttons. like here’s a scuffed mockup but. 

[ID: Screenshot of Flight Rising’s Messages, Friend Requests, and Alerts icons edited to have Messages, Friends, and Alerts written next to the icons]

for the friends tab, they could prolly add friend requests at the top like they do for baldwin alerts, then have an online status thing for friends below with buttons to PM, trade, delete friend, etc. I think you’re already able to disable the online status thing with page visibility? but like, make those options separate if you dont wanna block off your entire page, but dont want to be seen online.

For mobile, they can just make the icons bigger.

then. i THINK. last thing on laptop site. 

[ID: A screenshot of Flight Rising’s Social Media links with old Logos to YouTube, Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and DeviantArt]

update these fucking icons they are personally killing me, none of these logos are in use anymore (ALSO UPDATE THE TUMBLR THEME JESUS CHRIST)

ok now for mobile. what this post was originally for.

-

as you all know, if you visit this site on mobile, there is literally no form of a mobile version for it. It is just a condensed version of the computer version of the site which is...Very Bad! 

Most of a sites visitors are going to be through mobile, i forget the exact percentage, but like it’s almost a given that people more readily have their phones with them than their laptop or tablet (which. im not going to bother with the tablet version, you can apply both computer and mobile criticisms to the site). in fact a lot of my time on FR is through mobile since I’m not at home 24/7 and I don’t tote my laptop around. Playing this game through it’s mobile site is Not Fun! 

I like, won’t be too pissy or anything bc like. it’s a petsite and I’m making this post for fun. but also like it was made in 2014? 2013? so I’m not going to be u kno. angry. but it nearing the point of ten years with this site and there still isn’t a mobile friendly version. that is lazy. If anything, if they wanted a site update to be the anniversary thing, they should’ve made that update be

Mobile update as primary thing, because designing the site for mobile is a shit ton of work with the amt of pages they have to work through.

Dragon Profile page update (*LOUD SIGH*)

Clan page update

Hoard update (i have thoughts on this too but i wont dive into it this post)

Purchase Gems page update

Dev Tracker update

Forums update

“but that’s a lot to update” well. that wouldve made the anniversary being a website update considerably more worth it, because in my opinion having the dragon profile pages be the ONLY thing to happen during the anniversary was a waste and a bad decision, because other website updates are just. normal whatever updates. it made the anniversary SUPER underwhelming especially bc the past ones (to my knowledge) have only been major game mechanic updates like the eye & ancients update and i believe? the color wheel expansion was an anniversary thing? someone can correct me on that I haven’t played this game as long as most LMAO

as for how i personally would situate the mobile site. shitty graphic time, bc im not putting too much effort into this (warning this will be LONG)

[ID: Image 1. A crudely put together screenshot of the top half of a Mobile View of Flight Rising with comments on either side. It ends with the Latest News segments “Riot of Rot” and “Hoard & Vault Revamp”

Comment 1, Left side: “no banner make it a solid color that matches the burger menu. size the logo correctly etc. Comment 2, Right side: “burger menu w ONLY the categories, goes to the homepages of the categories” Comment 3, Right side: “TWO latest news posts, maybe a button to go see earlier news (which may b something to add to comp too)” Comment 4, Right side: “center dates and comments maybe idfk”

At the bottom of the image there is an added “button” that says “more updates button”]

[ID: Image 2. The bottom half of the mobile view with comments on the left side. There is a put together white box that has the Plague Flight Logo and “plage dom !” written in it. Below it are the Site Status, Random Dragon, and Exalt Bonuses boxes from the site. Underneath that is a red box with “ad space” in the center, with a red footer at the bottom.

The footer contains, “social media! (specifally made icons for site)”, “better formatted links”, and “copyright”.

Comment 1: “idk what they would caption it but the flashy can go here.” Comment 2: “ONE site status update if they keep this format” Comment 3: “probably center these links. i dont know what they use to build the site but im sure you can make icons for social media on just about anything unless this is all handcoded. just. make small icons it takes two seconds and you can copy+paste”]

i dont even want to THINK about how the lair and all that would look on mobile, it was a chore doing the home page alone SOBS

anyways, in ref to these images though--

this is just slapped together and definitely wouldn’t be a final draft, it could use some tweaking

the flashy i refer to is the box that’s above the user box that says what flight is in dom, what festival is going on, etc.

when i mention building the site and “you can make icons for social media on just about anything” im referring to wordpress, wix, whatever is used to format the site. I really only have experience with wordpress thru elementor and divi (so far) so im not CERTAIN about other places but I feel it would be pretty common to have that tool. if not, making icons (or snatching some) is rlly not that hard, probably only costly depending on what their webdesigner(s) charge for icons

I’m not like certain on who does what, how the webdesigner(s) work with/price this site, etc. etc. this is just. going off of my own knowledge. and in general this whole post is my own knowledge abt shit i did no further research to FRs team specifically 

i think this is basically it, i’ll reblog with more if i think of anything, but feel free to add things yourself or in general discuss things. again this post was made for fun so im not taking it seriously or demanding for these changes to be made, just personal annoyances and preferences.

This is also my first time doing picture IDs for a post so if I need to correct anything or the like let me know and I’ll edit it in the post!

[fishmech]

DaNcInG-iN-yOuR-dUsT.nEt

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Welcome

to Dancing-in-Your-Dust.net. The name comes from the AFI song Paper Airplanes (makeshift wings). This is just a place to express my thoughts and ideas, if you don't like it..simply leave. If you do however, stick around and enjoy =D

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Lizzy. Arizona. sXe. Vegetarian. Sarcastic. AFI. Tiger Army. Nekromantix. <3 <3 Davey Havok. Make-Up. Music. Movies. <3 Johnny Depp. HUGE Dork. Despair Faction. TNBC. Lock, Shock & Barrel. Jack Skellington. Halloween.

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<3 Sadey

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08-11-03: My B-Day 09-09-03: Jeanelle's B-Day 09-10-03: Work @ Merch Booth 4 the Starting Line 09-20-03: EdgeFest 03' 09-24-03: Seeing AFI/Hot Water Music/Bleeding Through in Fresno 09-26-03: Seeing AFI/Hot Water Music/Bleeding Through in Las Vegas 09-27-03: Seeing AFI/Hot Water Music/Bleeding Through in Utah 10-13-03: Kevin <3 <3 & Ashley's Birthday 10-14-03: Nightfall 10-30-03: Seeing AFI/Hot Water Music/Bleeding Through in Universal CA for Halloween Eve show 10-31-03: Halloween AFI'S Halloween Show??

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.x.At the Moment.x. Date:October 1, 2003 Mood: Tired Eating: Nothing Drinking: nothin Watching: nothin Hearing: Transplants Wearing: Night of the living dead Shirt and duck pj's Thinking: AFI IS ONLY 28 DAYS AWAY!!!!!!! Talking to:  nobody Drooling over: Davey Havok Wanting: The 30th to get here! Surfing: Nothing .x.Tagboard.x.                                      Name:               URL:              Message:                      

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October 6, 2003

Hello all..thought I'd write in here since I have pretty much nothing else to do. I've been up to pretty much nothing. Sadey and I went to the mall and bought our AFI limited edition Art & Artisha dolls..which cost an arm and a leg. We also talked to kevin..just him tho cuz Bobby-o wasn't there today. It was hilarious because when we were leaving I go to hug kevin and I accidentally hit his nose...he's all like "oh great she's trying to beat me up too!" good times man, good times. Anyway in other good news, Sadey's mom is thinking about opening a store sorta like Hot Topic @ the mall..and it's gonna be hella rad cuz well, I can work there =D We'd carry much more cooler things than Hot Topic..I mean I like that store at times but, they never really carry anything that cool now. Speaking of HT im gonna start working there prolly in mid november. Im putting my 2 weeks @ Target in tommorow. Anyhoo while I was at HT I saw this rad velvet black dress with like flared sleeves and I want it for the show in Universal but I checked the price and its like 90 bucks so I was like hell no..so Im gonna have my mom make one for me and im adding shit on it like red laced trim...its gonna be so super awesome =D Im trying to think of what else that has happened..Oh I was sick this weekened and I called in for work and Nickey (the LOD) got all pissed and told me im not taking my job seriously anymore and all this other BS and she hung up on me...so she basically called me a liar....and im telling you, I was really sick! So I woke up the next morning and it was already like 11:00am and my shift was supposed to start at 9 and I was like shit...they're gonna fire me. So I called Nickey and she apologized for hanging up on me and that she doesnt wanna lose me as an employee and that she values me and shit..I was just like yea, well you're in for a rude awakening cuz im quitting haha..no I didn't say that but I was thinking it..so she told me to just take the day off. I was like cool ok. So I guess thats all that really happened...I went to this wedding party thing on Saturday night w/ sadey a whole bunch of Italians from brooklyn...awesome as hell im in love with their accents..lol. There was this annoying kid there that was trying to impress Sadey and I by acting all drunk and telling us how much he had to drink when in all reality he wasn't really drunk he was just pretending because all his mom would let him have was one drink..little does he know we're sXe..haha loser. Alright anyhoo I guess thats all for site news.. my wonderful katie (rapturous voice davey fansite) is leaving me ::cries:: she bought a domain,

davey-havok.net

Ill miss you much Katie =D Go visit her now BTW. But the good news is that I got a new hostee,

Barbara

. She's gonna open the fanlisting for AFI's

Morningstar

which I am very happy about..it's about damn time someone decides to make a fanlisting for that song cuz it is such a beautiful song =D Alright so..enough of my rambling im out, later =D --Lizzy--[Deadjournal] | [Plug]

(8) are dancing in the dust

October 1, 2003

[EDIT]

Ok Im taking my blog down because it was wayyy too long and for some reason my ftp is not letting me write anything else on to my notepad sorry kids..if ya wanna know what happened just drop me a line on AIM @ dancinginurdust or email me at lizzy@dancing-in-your-dust.net and ill be sure to tell you everything...you can still click the pics and look at those if you like =D

[/EDIT] Happy October..new layout in spirit of Halloween..ill have loads more halloween ones than this..being as this is my fave holiday =D

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17, 18,21,  22,  23,  24,  25 click here for autographs =D --Lizzy--[

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(7) are dancing in the dust

[pwdoremi]

since ppl have asked over time here's where I got these wands specifically and where I buy magical girl wands in general!

For the Ojamajo Doremi items in this pic I just got lucky on eBay auctions years ago. I don't know what they go for nowadays, but in 2014 the Kururu Pollon was ~$175 and the Maho Tap was $25 (it's the American version).

All of the Go! Princess Precure merch I got from a site called Mandarake, a Japanese thrift store chain that quality check all items they get in. They have an online shop that ships internationally! They usually have a good amount of precure stuff, so if you want better prices for more current seasons they're def a great place to start looking! Pay attention to what store locations you buy from on their site, as they do not combine shipping for orders that have items split between multiple store locations. (ex. if you buy 3 items from their SAHRA warehouse and 2 items from their Shibuya store, you cannot have those 5 total items combined into one package, you have to pay shipping for two separate boxes.)

more info abt buying wands under the cut! ♡

Nowadays I mostly try to find deals on magical girl items through Japanese secondhand sites. I use a proxy service called dejapan since a lot of secondhand places do not ship internationally.

I mainly check Yahoo! Japan Auctions, as you can find some absolute steals there sometimes if you have the patience. In 2019 I won an auction for a new in box Parara Tap for ~$60, so it's still possible to find good deals!

I also check Japanese Mercari, and sometimes Rakuten (I found some great deals on HappinessCharge Precure precards there).

For western secondhand sites, eBay and Mercari are still places worth checking. Deals there are harder to find, but you just have to have patience! An eBay seller I follow who lists magical girl items frequently is kawaiiotakujp. Mandarake also has an eBay seller page!

Also, a weird but surprisingly good way to find listings for things you might want is through Google Images, of all places. If you look up an item you want, the images of that item tied to listings should pop up through the search. A lot of those listings can be old/unavailable though, so it might take some effort to find one currently on sale. I have gotten some great finds that way though!

For Japanese secondhand sites, you can search in English somewhat, but you should really search in Japanese to get the best results. here's some search terms to start with in case you don't know what to type:

おジャ魔女どれみ - ojamajo doremi

プリキュア - purikyua (pretty cure)

ポロン - poron/pollon (for doremi items)

タップ - tap (for doremi items)

ぬいぐるみ - nuigurumi (plushies)

うちわ - uchiwa (for character hand fans, this was kind of annoying to find out lol)

おもちゃ - toy (for site categories)

google translate is your friend! You can also enable Windows IME on your computer so you can type in Japanese on your own! I hope everyone can find good deals out there. Happy shopping~! ♡

I now have my two favorite magical girl wands… I’m a blessed weeb™ lol 🙏

[samuellbronko]

Why does 90s Euro Dance like 2 Unlimited have more value than today’s pop idols like Adele?

2 Unlimited were one of the first electronic acts i loved in the 90s and was an important part of my own musical evolution. they will always be something i treasure and reminisce, even tho i don’t listen to that sound much at all nowadays. my musical palette has expanded a lot since my teens. most people tend to evolve musically into their 20s then drop into nostalgia and lose interest in new sounds before their 30s... i am not one of those people as I’m constantly sourcing new sounds in the present, researching genres, periods and movements of the past. however i still have a soft spot for my musical journey of the past.

Adele does have talent no doubt, she can sing, but she's just another pawn in pop culture, the majors exploiting her vocal talents for global domination & continue lining their pockets... regardless of what emotional notes you can hit like Mariah Carey or Celine Dion, it's just a means to make shit loads of money, never for creative evolution or innovation... it's always within a safe bubble of pop culture and to get a substantial return on their investment, time and resources.

I dont listen to nowhere near as much techno than what i did previously when I was DJing this sound regularly but still keep an eye out, chase down artists and labels that i admire. does that mean techno is a waste of my time as it's not one of my musical priorities? should i disregard all techno cause i think it's not good enough or not evolving enough or "only the old stuff is good" so give up on new techno? no. i will continue to spend time searching for good techno and derivatives/sub-genres, i have so much respect for the sound & see there is still new ideas being produced.

Pop culture in my eyes has gone down the shitter since the 00s... look at the names that dominate pop today - Beyonce, Gaga, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Weeknd, Sam Smith, Katy Perry, One Direction, Nicki Minaj, Justin Beiber - these pop idols are worshipped, mimicked and have massive influence over the youth of today. yet how much raw talent do they actually have? having great range and impressive singing ability is only 1 part of it. it is the manufactured nature of pop music and how the record execs create these artificial fantasies & stereotyped images of the artists as they please. there's nothing raw about any of them, just over produced to push their talent into outta space. without all the production techniques, bells and whistles, the hypetrain hashtag trending, what do you have? not much. an artist could be the best singer in the world, but if i dont like the song or what ur singing about, then it's as rubbish as the dribble they are spouting. 

How are they contributing to the evolution of pop or music as a whole? minimal if anything productive. it’s creating a devolution of society and creativity. it has a destructive effect on society as they accept more tripe as talent. deprived sexual promotion and exploitation is the norm, gullible youth swallow it up and replicate their idols in the mirror or on social media. that’s where the selfie obsessed culture has stemmed from, all this media hype to look as beautiful or as cool as these artificial celebs, trying to be accepted by their peers only increases insecurities, consumerism and mental health. 

90s pop music i feel was the last time mainstream music was really interesting, fun and evolving. even tho the 90s was still manufactured, it still had some innocence and playfulness that is missing nowadays... today the formula is so refined, they all end up sounding and looking the same, quite often singing about the same vulgar materialistic slutty crap. since then it's all been done before, just rehash or recycle. ive avoided pop music today like the plague so im no expert compared to the 90s, although ive had decent exposure working at JB Hifi for 4 years so i have every reason to avoid it rotting my soul...

So i would conclude that 2 Unlimited has a lot more value than Adele for the reasons ive mentioned above. i have a bias which is embedded in nostalgia and respect for my musical journey. still i would take a Dutch Techno/Euro Dance group who grew to fame over some manufactured over hyped talent like Adele who is worked to the bone, so the record labels can continue to cash in their cheques. i dont buy into over hyped hot trends nowadays, it's just marketing in my eyes for more clicks, trending topics, social media shares and youtube views which in turn creates more sales, concert tickets and merch sold incrementally.

Weather u admit it or not, Euro Dance had a lot to do with the evolution of Techno and Club music culture in the 90s. a lot of people ended up becoming DJ's, producers, promoters etc cause of this sound like I did. so i will always salute my hat to this period of my life, even tho it seems quite cheesy now in retrospect. it was still much more underground and real than anything today's manufactured pop acts could deliver cause it’s too far gone...