#retro reprints

[autismdogg]

Strawberry Shortcake Berry Best Friends coloring book, 2003 🍓🖍️

[darkdragon768]

Alright so if I understand the employee right, tbob is meant to be reprinted in September cuz there just aren't any copies anymore. Probably didn't even leave america or something.

Fucking Americans again...

Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please be there PLEASE

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Apparently Scholastic is selling reprints of Animorphs books 1-6 with their original covers! https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/books/animorphs-retro-tin-set-9781338678833.html

Unfortunately, it's only available in the US.

Excellent news! Hopefully we see these spread to other countries, and maybe even get reprints of the whole series. Link is here as well. Everyone who has ever downloaded the series for free, please consider buying just one book to show Scholastic that the interest is still out there.

[markrosewater]

In recent years, WOTC has printed old frame variants of many of MTG's most popular and powerful cards. These old frame variants lack the holo stamp, much like the original old frame cards did. My question is this: do we really need the holo stamp at all anymore? It was introduced as an anti-piracy measure, but if all the most popular cards are going to reprinted without it, why have it? If all the most attractive piracy targets can be copied without duplicating the stamp, why put it on Mabel?

Because we don't do something on a tiny portion of cards, don't do it at all? I think we're more likely to add the holo stamp on retro cards that get rid of it on normal ones.

[istherewifiinhell]

okay. heres what were all here for. tell me why the fuck im supposed to suck the dick of these uk comics

[ID: A man holding up an aged looking paper, with a medieval style drawing of a giant metal fire breathing man. He leans forward serious asking his son "... Did it look like this?" END]

marveltf story line, MAN OF IRON, 9-12 in the UK, or.... 33-34 in the us. alright lol do whatever i guess. first published in 1985

new vibe same procedure: Script: Steve Parkouse art: John Ridgeway (9-10) Mike Collins (11-12) Colours: Joise Fermin (9-10) Gina Hart (11-12) Nel Yomtov (US)* Letters: Richard Starkings Editor: Sheila Cranna and these caps are from the UK classics idw book so: Original Series Edits by Shelia Cranna and Ian Rimmer, editorial notes and assistance by James Roberts, Collection Edits by Justin Eisinger and Alonzo Simon, Collection Design by Shawn Lee (<- hey i know his work from turtles!)

*so the uk comics were part in colour and part B&W, to save costs... including the american reissues? printing costs i guess. but when reprinted in collected books, they would get the full colour treatment. whats not clear to me is WHO did those colours, its not listed anywhere i can find. ill simply have to assume its the same artists... and hope im not discrediting anyone....

AND ALSO the last page in this reprint apparently uses the US comic page, and i have a cap of that last page, so. Yomtov's in here too..... tf franchise the way u treat ur sacred texts breaks my turtles fan heart.

and lastly! the keen eyed may notice, we are back to toy accurate art, the character model designs haven't and wont make their way over until much later, I'm told.

well with all that perfectly convoluted business out of the way, lets explore what tfs is like across the pond.

[ID: The same man, Roy, driving as he thinks to himself "What kind of bozo would want to bomb the castle? The Saxon Liberation Front? The mind boggles…" END]

[spluttering laugh] so the humours a little different!

[ID: The boy, Sammy, climbing a tree, hand outstretched reaching for the arrow he lost. Standing, with his in the canopy is Jazz. Sammy yells in fear. END]

OKAY. so the vibes are little different

[ID: Caption Box: And the apparition was fearful, being a Man of Iron of great height and girth, seeming unheedful of quarrel, spear or sword…" The robot from the illustration, clearly transformer, but blockier, more retro scifi, standing in the middle of a medieval battle, men with chain-mail and swords looking at him with trepidation. Caption Box: The Man of Iron forded the stream at Eldric's Cross, making great strides for the abbey… and some brave souls followed, though none dared come too close…" Two of the fighters shown following him, a body shot with an arrow lays at the other side of the river. END]

damn okay. so the vibes are ALOT DIFFERENT

(no 10) sammy dreams

[ID: Sammy stands on a house rooftop, in his PJ's, looking down at the cobble street, where a seeker in alt mode rests. END]

[ID: Dark and moody art, a barely seen figure towers in the shadows over the residential houses. From a higher angle, its shown to be Mirage, he stands taking up the entire street, backlit and casting shadows. END]

WHAT THE FUCK. that is terrifying

(something about beautiful black inked art + toy model makes them so CREATURE)

[ID: Roy speaks to a man in army uniform. Roy: How large? Soldier: Well… ahh…at a rough estimate? About the size of an ocean-going liner. Roy: Whaat? Roy with a hand to his head in dismay: Well, for god's sake what is it? Solider: We don't know. I've called in extra men and we're going to excavate… END]

somethings! buried under the castle... gee well one wonders what it might be

[ID: Close on Jazz's alt mode dashboard, its filled with lights and screen of alien language. Hes saying: But I'm not a stranger, Sammy. Deep down, you know… don't you? You've been wanting an adventure all your life… Besides. I have something to tell you. Sammy looking doubtful. Jazz continues: Something really important. Sammy has a hand on Jazz's open door: Why not just sit for a while in the front seat? Just pretend you're driving… END]

JAZZ THATS KIDNAPPING BUD....

really get a kick outta this note in the printed version

[ID: REMEMBER: NEVER ACCEPT LIFTS FROM STRANGERS! TO BE CONTINUED! END]

(no 11)

[ID: Jazz speaks to Sammy on the road, a blue and white F1 car pulling up. "My name is unpronounceable in your language… so just call me Jazz! And that's Mirage right behind us!" Jazz takes a exit to a low road, a black camper truck driving alongside. "This is where we rendezvous with Trailbreaker. All set Sammy?" All three driving along, Sammy responds "Sure thing Jazz!" END]

[guitar riff] THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN. im so glad all my good friends are here.

[ID: An fiery explosion engulfing Trailbreaker with a "Whaamf!". Wheels coming off, glass shattering, the truck top blowing to bits. Trailbreaker veering off road, a trail of fire and parts behind him calls out "Jazz! I'm hit... I'm hit BAD! END]

TRAILBREAKER NOOOO. who could have seen this coming...

[ID: Jazz narrowing swerving a missile. Exploding behind him, and speedlines trail him, and a wreath in flame around him. The colours are almost delicate, and a reflective glow in his paint. END]

wha. this just looks so cool.... what the hell....

[ID: Bluesteak, smiling speaking to comms "Autobot Bluestreak to patrol leader +++ Just brushed something off your tail, Jazz+++ try to be more careful in future, hmmm? Bluestreak out+" END]

being a cunt in the work slack. king

[ID: Jazz in profile, lit under the starry night sky, soft line-less colours defining the planes of his head in blue greys, and pitch black. To Sammy he says "Not really. It's a shuttlecraft… now stand back…" To comms "Autobot Jazz To Autobot leader+++ Approaching shuttle with Surveillance Subject+++ Request permission to board+++" END]

Wuh. Huh. Jazz u look so fucking cool right now?? And handsome.....

okay whats going on back at the castle (no 12)

[ID: The army soldier half sitting on a desk, holding a phone to his ear, the rotary cradle held resting on his leg. He's saying "IT's not just a question of scale, sir. We simply cannot identify it. END]

whys he kinda... apparently this style of uniform is called temperate barrack dress?? that answers none of my questions im just kinda... whyd u draw him like that tho...

[ID: A seeker, drawn in blues, walking between the ruins of the castle. Off panel someone says "It just seemed to appear from nowhere!" END]

bigfooting it up... AT A CASTLE. oh lads. im done for [blah blah he telePORTS and thats skywarps power but hes blue so WHO is it. dont worry abt it man. dont matter. they apparently change in the various times its been coloured, which is objectively funny imho. keep em guessing]

[ID: Moody and still illustrations of a robot identical to the Man of Iron in stasis, plugged into a bed of sorts. The ship around him is dark but for strips of coloured computer like lights in the walls and floor. Caption boxes narrate: Deep beneath the Autobots feet, in a sealed chamber, a special Autobot lay waiting… He was navigator, warrior and guardian of Autobot destiny… In his long, slow, machine world, a million years were as fleeting seconds. Human history had passed over him. Small inter panels. Mid on the Guardian: Locked in his dormant brain was the location of the planet Cybertron. He waited only to be re-activated, re-integrated with his mission… Restored to life. Close on the Guardian: His attendant was no more, the link between them severed. Laying in profile, just barely defined in the pitch black: Alone in the darkness he patiently beamed his signal. The same pattern of impulses… Waiting. END]

What the actual fuck (its even more somberly dramatic than just that)

[ID: Sammy, from a distance, staring at the castle. Caption Box: Autumn came, leaves fell. Sammy was a year older and a year wiser. He never saw Jazz again… Sammy asleep in bed, moonlight pouring through his paneled window. "But on clear, sharp nights, when stars glittered like needles and the night winds rattled his window… Then he slept a fitful, fearful sleep…" Sammy sleeping, with his dreams projected above him. "And the Man of Iron walked once more through his dreams." The End]

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

um well. okay! thats. fucking crazy. and this is the only tf comic this dude ever did. okay... can u tell he was from the dr who comics...... it ALSO means this doesnt actually speak at all for what the rest of tfuk will be like. which is damn funny. LIKE WOW! THAT WAS CRAZY. anyways.

[dielukedie-subaru]

Motor Trend article

Popular Science article (9/94)

*Looks like Subaru highlighted these articles before compiling and printing.

New addition to the collection! It's actually a compilation of scans from different articles/press releases from several magazines about the "new" 2nd gen Subaru Legacy. Very neat!

"The beauty of great press."

[tmntkiseki]

How would a 2003 version of the plot from Issues 24 - 26 of Mirage Vol 1 work, anyway? I imagine the two main reasons why the plot never made it into the animated series (besides, you know, Bloodsucker's entire concept as a character) was because

All TMNT characters and stories created by Rick Veitch (the writer and illustrator for The River trilogy) are presently in legal limbo, as he refused to sign retroactive work-for-hire contracts for his TMNT works; it's why none of his stories for the Mirage comics have ever been reprinted over at IDW

Because of the above legal issues, The River trilogy, along with most of the other stories from the Guest Era that are in a similar situation, are considered to be non-canon to the Mirage continuity. Peter Laird did later clarify on his blog in 2016 that Down to the River, River Hymn, and Old Man River do all fit well into the original Mirage canon, although he also noted that it is merely his opinion on the matter.

Damn it though, now I'm really annoyed that a retro mutation plot with Raphael never did make it into the 2003 series. It would have been really interesting to see Raphael put in such a vulnerable position due to his transformation, and it also would have been an excellent contrast to Don's double mutation plot from S4 (I mean the reason why Don was picked to be infected with the Outbreak mutagen was because him becoming a violent monster was so unexpected of his character. Who would expect Raphael, the most aggressive of his brothers who is always ready for a fight, to change into a tiny, seemingly helpless turtle?)

(Edit: Made some minor corrections to clarify that it is very much the legal status of The River trilogy that prevents it and other Guest Era issues from being considered canon to the Mirage continuity. )

[animefeminist]

Lum Through the Years: Urusei Yatsura's gender roles, then and now

The magical anime girl of the 1980s is a figure of reverence for many a retro clothing company or vaporwave SoundCloud artist. Alongside reboots, reprints, and new adaptations of retro works, the aesthetics of these figures have experienced a reemergence in the past decade, bringing properties such as Devilman, Fruits Basket, and most recently Trigun back into the cultural moment. Chief among these images is a certain girl in a tiger-print bikini: Lum, the cute, sexy, alien heroine of Urusei Yatsura who was cemented as an ‘80s icon, and who floated back onto our screens in 2022 in a new adaptation. While Lum herself unquestionably remains an anime icon, looking to the different ways she’s depicted in the older anime versus the new can shed some light on changing attitudes to the genre and archetype she’s so nicely embodied over time.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[soulmuppet]

All systems are GO!

We are LIVE on Kickstarter!!

Embrace the heartbreak of the Blues, travel through a galaxy of trauma and heartbreak on your crew's spaceship. Do what you can to make ends meet in a universe infused with Americana music and retro-future technology

Check out the new range of products for the game: our first hardcover expansion, a VHS box set full of pamphlet adventures, a slipcase compendium of previous Orbital Blues releases. You can also grab reprints of the core book and cassette (along with a fancy exclusive cover)

Please come follow along with the project and share with your friends!

[yodaprod]

1983

Source : Retro Reprints

[watercolourferns]

So I got scammed... or at least that's how it felt...

Longer story under the cut.

TLDR: the girl with whom I printed and cut my stickers never told me the files distorted when she tried to make them bigger, so she left them TINY AF, charged me 249MXN (13.76USD), and when I chose the option of refunding me money she offered to give me 22MXN(1.21USD). So I had to reprint them, lost money, and need to repay my mother the money she loaned me to have them reprinted. On top of that, I couldn't sell everything I had and still have stock on them.

To try and regain some of it I'm selling these pride backgrounds I made digitally.

You get all 10 of them for 4USD or whatever else you wanna pay, and there's two different retro inspired designs!

Thank you for your support, being a disabled person my art is my only source of income, so this is quite a big hit to me even if it sounds like so little.

If you don't see a flag you want you can commission it to me for 1USD.

Thank you again for your support!

Now to the cut to read the whole story!

I ordered my pride stickers from a local person who prints and cuts stickers. I can't be cutting stuff without hurting my joints, so I'm ordering my stickers die cut.

Well this girl said it was gonna be 249MXN, which is 13.76USD. first she took two more days than she said she could to print them because apparently there was a problem with her printer. She did tell me this, but she kept on saying "Tomorrow they will be ready for sure!", yet I've been there with commissions, so no biggie as long as they were ready for the 22nd of June. BUT when the stickers finally arrived they were TINY, like REALLY TINY. I asked her what happened and she said "when I tried to make them bigger it got distorted!". She never told me anything about that!

I asked her what could she do about this, and she offered a discount for the next time I ordered with her or a % of the money for refund.

What next time?! She said her printer was having problems, and with how she didn't tell me the files were getting distorted why would I print with her again?!

So I went for the refund... Guess how much she wanted to refund me? 10%, which is 22MXN more or less. which is 1.21USD.

1.21usd of 13.76... I told her no thanks and that she could keep it. I also found out she steals designs to sell in her shop. One of the stickers she gifted me is a stolen picture from pinterest... And I JUST found out her shop is listed as permanently close...

So I had to have them reprinted... so I had to loan money from my mother. I don't want to owe her anything, so now I have to pay her back...

Honestly this is a hard hit because this is the only more or less stable income I have, making art I mean, so if I need to repay loans and stuff I can't have money for my necessities, which are mainly food and rent as I can't even afford my medical bills.

Above I added links to my Kofi shop and two samples of two different designs of pride backgrounds for your phone. I made them retro inspired, and they're only 4 usd for all ten in each design. If you don't get your flag in the bunch you can commission it to me for 1 usd.

Any help rn is very very valuable to me. Thank you so so much for your support.

Happy Pride!!!

[talkinfanfic]

Episode 306 - Talkin’ U2, Bono, and Bedge with Tory from the Retro Fanfic Retrospective Podcast!

Sara welcomes the great and wonderful Tory, best known for their reliably insightful analysis of fanfiction on the Retro Fanfic Retrospective podcast (found wherever you get your podcasts!) Tory shares their lifelong love affair with the legendary band U2, and their knowledge of the band’s history and music. Tory also digs into the amazing feat of how the band’s joyful, sublime chemistry seeps into the very music they produce, sustaining fruitful artistry for nearly fifty years. 

Other topics include: Irish history, and the Christianity of U2, along with comparisons with Oasis. We also talk Bedge and RPF! And we dig into a mini-RFR discussion of likeamadonna’s Bono/Edge fanfiction within a fanfiction, “Fictitious Characters”.

🎧 Find Talkin' Fanfic on your favorite podcast app such as Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Or stream Episode 306 here!

Show notes below the cut 🧡

Contact and Credits:

Intro Theme: Kyle Laurin "Oasis Supersonic Theme" (Twitter: @cobrakylemusic)

Clip used - Noel Gallagher on The Late Late Show | RTÉ One 

Outro clip - “Beautiful Day” by U2, from the album ‘All That You Can't Leave Behind’ - pulled from Youtube licensed via UMG (on behalf of Universal-Island Records Ltd. ℗ An Island Records recording; ℗ 2000 Island Records Limited

Tumblr: talkinfanfic.tumblr.com 

Instagram: @talkinfanfic

Email: talkinfanfic@gmail.com 

Time caps:

00:00 - Introduction

06:03 - Start of episode

16:02 - Tory’s music background

24:25 - U2 in bloom right now!

35:06 - A little Irish history 

45:19 - The Troubles, a climate for the formation of U2

56:03 - U2’s Bigness, America, and ‘What is Bono??’ 

01:02:45 - Bono’s useful celebrity, vs individualism of Oasis. Or, “do-gooders” vs “do-badders”

01:08:22 - Bono the Energizer Bunny, and U2 in Vegas

01:13:07 - The other members of U2 (Larry, The Edge, and Adam)

01:20:35 - Christianity and U2

01:31:45 - Religion, U2 vs. Oasis

01:34:50 - Religious imagery in the Achtung Baby-era, and Bono’s ‘characters’

01:41:42 - U2 fanfiction and RPF fandom

01:51:20 - “Fictitious Characters”, by likeamadonna

02:02:26 - Fitting Ali into the Bono/Edge

02:07:20 - Start of Rapid Fire! (which lasts nearly an hour, lol)

02:12:27 - Tory’s Top 5 U2 Tracks

Episode References

U2 Fanfiction.com (Tory mentions they used to read fanfiction from this now defunct archive; link via Wayback Machine) 

The Retro Fanfic Retrospective podcast (Podbean, you can also search for it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts)

Link - Band bio, from threechordsandthetruth.net great U2 overview and biography

U2: The Origins Of The Biggest Band Of The Early 2000s a decent youtube documentary on U2

A live performance of ‘Until The End Of The World’ from ‘Achtung Baby’, filmed during the US leg of the Zoo TV tour in 1992. Kiss for the camera at 2m34s <3 

"One" - U2 Music Video (Anton Corbijn Version) feat. Bob Hewson, and U2 in drag! 

Bono interview with NPR Podcasts -  at 14m46 Bono starts speaking about the concept of ‘Surrender’. “Shut up and listen…is kinda where I’m at.”

Noel Gallagher on The Late Late Show | RTÉ One  - “Who puts the batteries in that guy??” 

Youtube Clip - Noel Gallagher, on U2 (for NME) 

 “Electrical Storm” - U2 Music Video directed by Anton Corbijn (starring Larry!)

Photo via Pinterest - Liam and Bono kissing. According to Bono, Liam had a guitar pick in his mouth and dared Bono to try and retrieve it in front of paparazzi. The photo was printed in a 2002 issue of Rolling Stone.  

Reprint of article - “When Oasis Hit the Road with U2” The Daily Telegraph, June 26, 1997

Bono’s ‘characters’ - Here is MacPhisto making a phone call to a taxi to take him home. This was in Syndey, Australia during the 1993 Zoo TV Tour.

Retro Fanfic Retrospective - Special Episode - Fanfiction Hypothesis The RFR crew discuss…what is and what is not fanfiction? (Spotify link) 

Fic discussion - "Fictitious Characters" by likeamadonna (Ao3 link)  

Bono and The Edge - NPR Tiny Desk Concert (2023) Bono asks Edge to “do an Edge thing!”  

Bono and The Edge - BBC Radio 2 Piano Room (2023) Bono and the Edge vibing together through a string-laden performance of classic U2 songs. Bono serenading the Edge during “Vertigo” around 7m30s, lots of fond looks. 

Fic mentioned - The Scientist or: How Edge Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bono by spacemonkey 

Tory’s Top 5 U2 Tracks (slightly deeper cuts, in no particular order): Red Hill Mining Town , Bad, Lemon, Every Breaking Wave, and Stay (Faraway, So Close!)  

“Ordinary Love” acoustic version, U2 on Jimmy Fallon (2014) with Roots. One of Sara’s favorite U2 live vids ever!! 

Tory is listening to - Leith Ross, an indie-rock Canadian singer-songwriter. Here’s a song from their Youtube channel.

Bandcamp - Her Dilemma the bass player that played for Leith Ross during the set Tory watched. “Mathy”, a bit like Slint!

[imasloid]

SHINY COLORS FASHION ANALYSIS - Kogane Tsukioka (月岡恋鐘)

"Ya make me an idol and there'll be no one better! Jus' leave it to me!"

This is a project analyzing and taking a look at the fashion design and application in the multimedia series, The IDOLM@STER: Shiny Colors. This section is about the countryside positive girl of the series, Kogane Tsukioka! If you want to jump to a specific section, go here!

(This is a reprint of my thread on Twitter. I put it on Tumblr for easier reading and for archiving purposes. Enjoy!)

-----

INTRODUCTION

“Kogane is a confident girl who always has a bright smile on her face, stylish with an eye-catching cuteness. Though known for being quite clumsy (falling down & making mistakes while dancing), Kogane’s natural positive attitude allows her to quickly recover from her failures.”

---

Profile

Age: 19

Birthday: February 25th

Height: 165 cm

Weight: 58 kg

Blood Type: B

Hometown: Nagasaki

Hobbies: “My excellent home cookin'!”

Special Skills: “I can draw the spittin’ image of ya!”

CV: Carin Isobe

---

Before starting the analysis, I would suggest if you haven’t already, read her W.I.N.G. (introductory) commu (through the broswer game's English patch or on YouTube). If you don’t play the game, I would listen to her image song and read the lyrics to get a better sense of her character.

-----

STYLE BREAKDOWN

Out of all of the Shiny idols, Kogane’s style is the most consistent from her debut to current day. Her fashion is polished and elegant, cutie-sexy while also modest. Kogane’s style is a Japanese take on 1950s fashion, highlighting her figure, fashion sense, and love of pink.

Most of Kogane’s earlier outfits were in the “girly” style, very cute and sometimes tacky with a bit of a playful edge with oversized floral and bow features and a predominantly pink color scheme. As seen in later outfits, her clothes compliment her figure very well.

A substyle of her girly fashion, the “cutie sexy” style (as I dub it) keeps her hyperfeminine style, but adds a coy maturity to her outfits that add a bit of sexiness to her cute ensembles. Details include exposed shoulders/cleavage, sheer fabric, & darker/more neutral colors.

Another notable girly substyle featured is “retro girly,” mostly taking influence from 50s American “housewife” style. A reference to her “countryside hospitality” and love to cook for others, it shows a bit more elegance and class compared to previous style inspirations.

I want to go more in-depth into the 1950s retro influence in her style, so I made two more graphics detailing the “New Look” style by Dior (made in late 40s but popularized in 50s & beyond) and the “American housewife” influences in her fashion.

Her final major style influence is “adult girly,” a substyle that still has cuteness that the “girly” style is known for, but leans in more to an elegant/classy vibe. A visual shift that shows her character growth as an idol as well as the leader/center of L’Antica.

Kogane’s image color is a medium shade of magenta-red, referencing her status of being the center and leader of her unit L’Antica, a trait of pink image color idols. Compared to Mano’s pink, it’s much more vibrant, pointing to her outgoing and larger-than-life self.

The main colors in Kogane’s wardrobe are pinks, browns, and yellows and are mostly a constant throughout her fashion through time. These colors are often paired together and with white/black as accent colors. Kogane also infrequently wears blue/purple, mostly in earlier outfits.

-----

FASHION ANALYSIS

Kogane is known as the leader and center of L’Antica with a huge love for her hometown of Nagasaki. Because of the overwhelming support and love she’s received there, she possesses unbudging positivity. She can say “I am the best idol!” without any self-consciousness.

Since leaving her hometown to chase her dream, she has went to and failed several auditions but never gave up, strongly persevering. Even after becoming an idol, she tends to mess up often, forgetting dance steps or lyrics, but doesn’t worry too hard and keeps moving forward.

In game, she’s known for having a very cute and “outrageously stylish” image, which fits her perfectly to be a center for an idol unit. Her fashion takes very accessible pre-existing styles like various “girly” substyles and makes a visually clean and unique style that is hers.

Kogane’s clothes heavily flatter her figure, such as a cinched waist, above-te-knee dresses/skirts to show her long legs, and tops that accentuate her bust. Contrary to assumptions, she doesn’t wear clothes to impress others, but just because she likes the clothes she wears.

She actually has a sizeable complex about her body type, not liking comments on it or being stared at/touched. Many agencies offered to produce her as a gravure idol, but she turned all of them down. Kogane has even wished to have a smaller frame/body type like Yuika’s.

Though some elements of her fashion are mature, there is a pureness in it seen in the styles it is based off of, especially the “girly” substyles. It balances many contrasting elements (e.g. cute and elegant, pure and mature, sexy and modest) which is quite commendable.

Though Kogane has such a positive outlook on life, she is not without insecurities. Perhaps as a side-effect of failing auditions due to being a “normal cute girl one can find anywhere,” she sometimes desires traits of others, like Kiriko’s gentleness and Sakuya's dependability.

Despite this, Kogane doesn’t change herself to appease anyone and wants to fulfill her dreams by being her authentic self. This can be seen visually in how her style evolves over time, keeping the same elements (e.g. silhouette, composition, color) constant with subtle changes.

Kogane has one of the most consistent styles out of all the idols, a testament to being a steady pillar of support for L’Antica. If you look at all of her outfits, there is little variation in categories like color, composition, fabric, or design elements.

One variation is how her silhouette changes subtly over time. Her first outfits were very girly and featured more tacky design elements but slowly started to become more clean, elegant, and mature. Her bottoms got less volume but longer, leading to a more linear silhouette.

Symbolically, this stands for her character growth through being an idol. While her positive & strong-minded personality doesn’t change much, her newfound relationships with her unit members & Producer have changed her worldview tremendously, hence a mature albeit subtle change.

Additionally, due to her family owning a restaurant, she is very skilled in cooking and often cooks for others as a sign of affection. This is a probable reason why there’s 1950’s housewife influence in her fashion, symbolizing her hospitality and love for taking care of others.

Overall, Kogane's fashion style is simple but effective, transmitting her traits of unyielding positivity and cutesy perseverance well. Though it doesn't change much compared to other characters, it shows her commitment to stay true to herself and her subtle development & growth.

-----

This is it for Sakuya Shirase!

If you liked this thread, check out my Twitter and give me a tip on Ko-Fi so I can do more things like this with other idol series! Thanks for reading <3

Next section: Mamimi Tanaka

[bitmapbooks]

Sinclair ZX Spectrum: a visual compendium

Featuring classics such as Ant Attack, Monty Mole, Dizzy, The Lords of Midnight and, of course, Manic Miner, Sinclair ZX Spectrum: a visual compendium is a retro gamer’s delight.

Reprints are due 28th November. Sign up for an email reminder here: https://www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/all-books/products/sinclair-zx-spectrum-a-visual-compendium

#bitmapbooks #book #retrogaming #retrogames #gaming #art #reading #foryou #zxspectrum #bookstagram #booktok #fyp

[prophbuilds]

Buying through Buyee

OR!

How I Found a Pair of Unobtainium Kits and used a Proxy Service to Increase My Backlog by Two

First and foremost, this is not sponsored. I don’t even take sponsors for my comic – the thing that is effectively my career – so there’s no way I’d do so for the thing I do as a fun hobby. This is all me and my personal experience using a proxy service to buy stuff from Japan.

Anyhoo! What follows is my experience using the proxy buying service called Buyee to purchase a pair of Catsith kits on the Japanese version of the Mercari website. I went into this knowing that many a Retro Tech and Gunpla YouTuber I’ve watched has used it to get stuff. Figured I’d give it shot.

I have had on my old “Kits to Buy” list the HG Catsith – a cute looking grunt suit from the series Mobile Suit Gundam: Reconguista in G (G-Reco for short) – for a while now. It's been sitting on one of my Amazon Wish Lists for so long it’s kind of become a marker for old stuff that never really comes up for a decent price. I say “Decent" because the lowest price it’s ever popped up at was around like $40? It usually runs around $60 or more if it ever pops up for sale.

This is a kit that's Supposed to be priced between $15 to $24 give or take where it's coming from.

Unlike the Hero suit, the G-Self, the Catsith is stuck in relative obscurity thanks to Bandai never reprinting the thing. It may be a Grunt suit but it’s not like a GM or a Zaku. Most of the other characters ended up with fancier mechs that got their own kits. That and G-Reco isn’t all that popular compared to some other Gundam series so you don’t end up with random reprints for the toy hungry fanbase.

Time passed and I’d recently found that it’s harder to find neat stuff for my various family members and myself for the holidays and whatnot. My getting the younger folks into Anime and video games is proving to be double-edged sword. Now… I've known about proxy services like Buyee for a while now. They tend to be talked up in Retro Tech and Gunpla videos as a place through which the various YouTubers have purchased stuff. Having seen their results so many times, I figured it was time to give it a try.

Setting up an account was easy enough. Nothing really too different from setting one up at any other online shop. The one thing that’s really different is it's more akin to the old Metacrawler search engine. You can select the shop you want to search but I kinda’ just winged it and tried out Mercari. No rhyme or reason to it. Just the one I though might have something neat that wasn’t a straight up auction site.

At first, I just kinda’ popped in “Gundam" and saw what dropped. Then I remembered something important: It's searching Japanese sites. It makes more sense to use the language of the folks who post things there. So I took a leap and looked up the Catsith’s Japanese name and BAM! I got a whole bunch of hits. Not just the usual “This is a Gundam Kit” results that I normally get searching English language sites but actual kits – both prebuilt and unbuilt kits. It was here I found a listing for two unbuilt kits.

Needless to say, I bought it as soon as I could.

Now things get fun.

Whenever I do something like this (buy something through a site I’m personally unsure of), I use my PayPal account. It acts as a buffer between my personal bank account and the site if things get squirrelly and, if it works, acts as a buffer between my personal bank account and the site if I decide to go on a spending spree. The more steps I put between myself and buying things, the better I am at not putting myself into debt.

I say this because I’m kinda’ to blame for the added time on getting these into my grubby little hands. It took a bit to transfer funds into my PayPal account to use on both buying the items and paying for shipping. -.-

The price for the two kit bundle came out to 4300 Yen or $30.50 at the time of purchase. That’s 3800 Yen for the item, 300 Yen to Buyee to buy the item, 500 Yen for their in-house checking and a 300 Yen coupon to save a Little bit of money on the whole dealie. This all gets the package to Buyee’s warehouse. They can hold stuff there free of charge for 30 days. You can also buy more and consolidate it later… but this time I did a single package.

After some doing and some waiting on money transfers on my end, we get to the hardest part of any international buying: Shipping!

Buyee gives a Bunch of options for shipping. Everything from fairly quick choices to ocean shipping that will take months. Needless to say, I took them up on their Buyee Air service that would take around a week to get here. It cost me 5188 Yen or $37.05 for the one package. Again, Proxy Services (or just international shops that let you consolidate items) tend to work best when you buy multiple items. That’s when shipping gets low enough to not be more than the original item.

All in all, I’m in $67.55 for two kits that would’ve run me about $7 less if I could find and buy just the one on a site like Amazon. The time from start to finish was a little under two weeks. I ended up with not one but Two unobtainium kits and a way for me to shop for the Holidays when my nieces and nephews ask for items that just never come to or came stateside. = )

[markrosewater]

Hey Mark, we've had Retro Artifacts, Mystical Archives, and Multiverse Legends for artifact, spell, and legendary creature reprints, respectively. Are there plans for anything in the same vein for enchantments?

Is that something you all want?