Sunday, 24 April 2016
Sunday, 17 April 2016
Sunday, 10 April 2016
Molly and Rosie.
So, I may have mentioned I have a pair of cats - one called Molly, the other Rosie. It struck me I've had this blog for almost a year now and never really gone beyond a mention of their existence in my life. I decided to remedy that, because who doesn't love kitty cat posts?
Me and my brother decided around four years ago now that we wanted to get a cat. We had the bunny rabbits, and they were absolutely beautiful, but the age at which they could be housetrained had been and passed long before that, and we wanted an inside companion, one who would sit next to us on the couch and watch Better Homes & Gardens with us on a Friday night, or turn her nose up at us because she just felt like it. We knew we wanted a girl cat - our family has always been determined to have female pets (with the exception of our Doberman dog Sabre, who passed away when I was 5), I think it's something to do with the smell/behaviour of males in general. I dunno.
Anyway, we knew mum wouldn't be hard to convince; she missed having a cat after our first one, Holly, died at 16.5 years old. Lots of life, that old girl, and she was every bit a snobbish, uptight princess (unless she was hoeing into a still-twitching half-eaten pigeon she had caught and dragged from the tree in our front yard). The issue was convincing dad - he doesn't like to spend money, and having a cat was a huge expense in terms of food, toys, bedding, collars, equipment - it wasn't really feasible to desire what we did, but we were all prepared to go in guns blazing when a notice attracted my eye on the internet. I had been doing a search on where to get young cats (we didn't want the 8 week old kittens all the pet stores sold, we wanted to adopt). The Cat Haven - I can't remember where it is exactly, but I know we drove a hell of a lot to get there - was offering a sale, buy one cat get one free for $150, neutering included in the cost if necessary. A bargain - it took ten minutes for us (with mum on our side) to convince him not only to get a cat, but two, one for me and one for Jake.
We went out on a Saturday, all of us super excited - Dad decided to stay home and get the bathroom down back ready for the little kitties to stay in, so it was just us and mum driving out to the Cat Haven. Going there was hard; I was a little stressed out because no one was listening to me when I said not to enter the side of the enclosure labelled 'adult cats', as that wasn't what we were after. I had to usher them into the younger cat section before my little brother (only 9) got attached to them all. There weren't a lot in the young cat section around the age we wanted, 6 months or so, and those that fit the bill mum wanted (age, and ginger coloured) were marked as having been sold. We really had no choice but to enter the little hutch at the end, filled with mewling, sweet little kittens.
There were a couple that were really outgoing; super happy to see us, and usually they'd be the ones you pick, right? Well, they were all predominantly white cats, no ginger, so mum wanted a little dark cat that was curled up on top of a box with another kitten. I didn't even realise she was a separate cat, I thought she was part of the other one! I picked her up and held her; she was a little scrawny, but she had the sweetest little face and when I passed her over to Jake he just fell in love with the flailing awkward thing. I was pretty sure I was going to go with the outgoing white cat when my mum again pointed out an invisible kitten, hiding in the corner of the doorway; one inch right when I entered the enclosure I would've squished her. She was absolutely tiny, and her face was pretty weird, like she'd run into a glass door and her features remained kinda squished. She was all white, save for a couple of smatterings of caramel colour that the volunteer called a 'tortoise shell' pattern. She was pretty unremarkable, until I lifted her up and got a better look at her. Tiny pink nose with a cute little black smudge on it, legs splayed out and holding onto me desperately - and the biggest, bluest eyes I'd ever seen. I'd never seen a blue-eyed cat beyond the kind of stuff you see in those cat calendars of the purebred Ragdoll or Siamese cats, but here was a little mutt of a cat with the most perfect eyes in the world - seriously, they were Gollum-pale blue, almost transparent, like ice. I remember going 'mum, she has blue eyes, she has blue eyes!' And she looked so scared, and I fell in love. I've always had a fascination with animals that are ugly in a cute way, or just look awkward - like pugs, I love them, but their faces are pretty weird.
So, long story short, the cats ingratiated themselves into our lives. Both of them were incredibly shy, and I think the staff tried to dissuade us from taking two antisocial kittens home for fear we'd return them. But no. You see, my experience with Holly as a child had led me to believe all cats were finicky and antisocial, and I desperately wanted that haughty feline presence in my life again; it seemed like she knew everything, had all the knowledge in the world, and she would always come and go and act all mysterious. I was eager to put in all the effort to receive the occasional allowance of bodily contact.
They were both three months old; the dark one was named Marmalade, the white one Poppy. Everyone was super sad to see Poppy go; her blue eyes had enchanted them as much as they did me, and she really was ridiculously tiny for her age. We were encouraged to rename them; I had already decided on Molly before we got home with the cat-carrier. I had two names picked out - Molly if she was sweet and cute and little, or Nala if she was feisty or confident or looked like a little big cat. Molly was none of the latter; and it was a nice way to pay homage to our beautiful Holly who had passed away from skin cancer some years before. Jake wanted to rename Marmalade Penny-Muffin. He was originally going to go with Muffin, but I did my best to dissuade him from the awful choice of name by suggesting Penny from the Big Bang Theory (one of his favourite shows); of course, the idiot put them together and made it even worse, until mum just bluntly told him there was no way her name would be Penny-Muffin, because it was torture. I suggested Nala, Boots, Twinkles, Princess, before I desperately cast around my memory for a suitable name. I was watching Home and Away at the time, and there was some stupid girl called Rosie (hated her, but always liked the name) and I suggested that. It's funny, because on first sight she doesn't look like a Rosie; but she owns the name better than she did Marmalade. She is Rosie.
Rosie has established herself as the resident guts and cuddle-monster of the family. She steals the food, eats anything you give her and spends her free time sleeping or invading your personal space to curl up on your lap like a baby, belly up so she can be stroked. Molly is the resident schizo; she jumps at every noise, she acts like a dog a lot of the time, and she has a fetish for crawling under people's blankets as well as anything cylindrical she shouldn't have, like straws from your juicebox or pens from your homework assignment. Rosie is a haughty little bitch, but we love her to absolute pieces, and we are seriously considering getting one of those strap-on baby carriers to cart her around and make her life complete. Molly turns her nose up at most food as a lot of cats do, and she has an unhealthy obsession with her mummy (me) and has separation anxiety whenever I go out, walking aimlessly around the house and meowing until I get home. They're both special little princesses, and we love them.
Molly has conjunctivitis, which isn't great, because she doesn't react well when you force her to do something. I give her four doses of antibiotic eye drops a day, and I have to wrap her in a towel and pull her head back to prevent her from escaping. She, surprisingly, isn't kicking up too much of a fuss about it; a half-hour freakout and avoidance session before she returns to following me around the house and rubbing herself against me every time I move. I'm very proud of her, because she is an anxious cat by nature and she's allowing me to help her feel better. And it's obvious she feels better; she could barely open her eyes the other day and now, after two days, she's wide awake and alert. We hope this stuff will work; if not, we'll be going to the vet and determining what's going on once and for all. We'll likely be going for the acne she has on her chin, and the scab she gave herself from rubbing at her eye to vigorously, anyway.
Hopefully I can update the status on Molly soon. Thanks for reading!
There were a couple that were really outgoing; super happy to see us, and usually they'd be the ones you pick, right? Well, they were all predominantly white cats, no ginger, so mum wanted a little dark cat that was curled up on top of a box with another kitten. I didn't even realise she was a separate cat, I thought she was part of the other one! I picked her up and held her; she was a little scrawny, but she had the sweetest little face and when I passed her over to Jake he just fell in love with the flailing awkward thing. I was pretty sure I was going to go with the outgoing white cat when my mum again pointed out an invisible kitten, hiding in the corner of the doorway; one inch right when I entered the enclosure I would've squished her. She was absolutely tiny, and her face was pretty weird, like she'd run into a glass door and her features remained kinda squished. She was all white, save for a couple of smatterings of caramel colour that the volunteer called a 'tortoise shell' pattern. She was pretty unremarkable, until I lifted her up and got a better look at her. Tiny pink nose with a cute little black smudge on it, legs splayed out and holding onto me desperately - and the biggest, bluest eyes I'd ever seen. I'd never seen a blue-eyed cat beyond the kind of stuff you see in those cat calendars of the purebred Ragdoll or Siamese cats, but here was a little mutt of a cat with the most perfect eyes in the world - seriously, they were Gollum-pale blue, almost transparent, like ice. I remember going 'mum, she has blue eyes, she has blue eyes!' And she looked so scared, and I fell in love. I've always had a fascination with animals that are ugly in a cute way, or just look awkward - like pugs, I love them, but their faces are pretty weird.
So, long story short, the cats ingratiated themselves into our lives. Both of them were incredibly shy, and I think the staff tried to dissuade us from taking two antisocial kittens home for fear we'd return them. But no. You see, my experience with Holly as a child had led me to believe all cats were finicky and antisocial, and I desperately wanted that haughty feline presence in my life again; it seemed like she knew everything, had all the knowledge in the world, and she would always come and go and act all mysterious. I was eager to put in all the effort to receive the occasional allowance of bodily contact.
They were both three months old; the dark one was named Marmalade, the white one Poppy. Everyone was super sad to see Poppy go; her blue eyes had enchanted them as much as they did me, and she really was ridiculously tiny for her age. We were encouraged to rename them; I had already decided on Molly before we got home with the cat-carrier. I had two names picked out - Molly if she was sweet and cute and little, or Nala if she was feisty or confident or looked like a little big cat. Molly was none of the latter; and it was a nice way to pay homage to our beautiful Holly who had passed away from skin cancer some years before. Jake wanted to rename Marmalade Penny-Muffin. He was originally going to go with Muffin, but I did my best to dissuade him from the awful choice of name by suggesting Penny from the Big Bang Theory (one of his favourite shows); of course, the idiot put them together and made it even worse, until mum just bluntly told him there was no way her name would be Penny-Muffin, because it was torture. I suggested Nala, Boots, Twinkles, Princess, before I desperately cast around my memory for a suitable name. I was watching Home and Away at the time, and there was some stupid girl called Rosie (hated her, but always liked the name) and I suggested that. It's funny, because on first sight she doesn't look like a Rosie; but she owns the name better than she did Marmalade. She is Rosie.
 | |||
| Our pretty little Rose, the cuddle-muffin. Ignore my leg, she decided to fall asleep on me. |
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| She's so dark, you can't see her! We trip over her all the time. |
Rosie has established herself as the resident guts and cuddle-monster of the family. She steals the food, eats anything you give her and spends her free time sleeping or invading your personal space to curl up on your lap like a baby, belly up so she can be stroked. Molly is the resident schizo; she jumps at every noise, she acts like a dog a lot of the time, and she has a fetish for crawling under people's blankets as well as anything cylindrical she shouldn't have, like straws from your juicebox or pens from your homework assignment. Rosie is a haughty little bitch, but we love her to absolute pieces, and we are seriously considering getting one of those strap-on baby carriers to cart her around and make her life complete. Molly turns her nose up at most food as a lot of cats do, and she has an unhealthy obsession with her mummy (me) and has separation anxiety whenever I go out, walking aimlessly around the house and meowing until I get home. They're both special little princesses, and we love them.
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| My Molly; she darkened drastically from white to dark brown as she got older. |
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| Cheeky Molly. |
Molly has conjunctivitis, which isn't great, because she doesn't react well when you force her to do something. I give her four doses of antibiotic eye drops a day, and I have to wrap her in a towel and pull her head back to prevent her from escaping. She, surprisingly, isn't kicking up too much of a fuss about it; a half-hour freakout and avoidance session before she returns to following me around the house and rubbing herself against me every time I move. I'm very proud of her, because she is an anxious cat by nature and she's allowing me to help her feel better. And it's obvious she feels better; she could barely open her eyes the other day and now, after two days, she's wide awake and alert. We hope this stuff will work; if not, we'll be going to the vet and determining what's going on once and for all. We'll likely be going for the acne she has on her chin, and the scab she gave herself from rubbing at her eye to vigorously, anyway.
Hopefully I can update the status on Molly soon. Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, 6 April 2016
University life
I was on the fence last year about whether or not I wanted to do medicine. On the one hand, it'd be a rewarding job and I'd likely get the validation I'd always wanted; on the other, was it really what I wanted to do? No. My favourite class was always English or Literature, and I enjoyed the classroom environment. More than that, I enjoyed the ambience of the English office; I'd spend some time in there for school papers and the like, nothing bad. Just watching the teachers all sitting around laughing, marking and cross-marking essays, offering opinions on each other's students' essays - I wanted that. To be in that kind of environment. I know not every school is the same, but still - all the books and the research and the writing. I love that kind of stuff.
Choosing to do English teaching was a last-minute decision. Literally. For university offers here, we are only offered our first course preference from a single university (the first one we make the grades for at least). We can either choose to accept the first round offer or wait for second round offers; when we get our second round offers our first round ones are cancelled. For my first round I was offered my second preference - I'm not ashamed to say I didn't get my first preference into medicine. Still, I wanted to keep my options open. But a couple hours before my second round was supposed to come in, I decided I wanted to do teaching after all.
I enrolled in the Bachelor of Education aimed at secondary students at Edith Cowan University. It's strange. When I was little I never wanted to be a princess or a fairy or a ballerina; I wanted to be a teacher. A primary school teacher, granted, but a teacher nonetheless. My brother said something the other day - this was surprising not only for its astuteness, but because it wasn't carried by an unpleasant tone. He remarked that it was funny how life turned out for me exactly how I had planned it as a child. Everything had come sort of... full circle. And it makes me happy to know that the decisions I had made as a child were the ones I would follow through with as an adult.
The courses at ECU in my major are brilliant; I was still on the fence about what I was going to choose when I researched it. They had classics courses, fiction to film, poetry, children's fantasy, graphic novels, just so much on offer. I think my mind was pretty much made up then; I enrolled not long after. I encountered some difficulties with choosing my minor as a) I didn't know what the hell a minor was, and b) I didn't know whereabouts I was meant to choose from. I ended up enrolling in Social Sciences, so that I might be a teacher of history, economics, geography and politics to years 7 to 10. I might go back someday and major in it; being a history teacher was a close second to my first English preference. I was on the fence about choosing science, but then I'd have to do science and I didn't really feel like returning to that. I was also considering choosing religion, because I had always been pretty good at that, but apparently you have to be a recognised Catholic to do that.
University is hard - harder than high school, though I would say it is definitely less stressful. Even if you have assessments for all classes due in the same week you've still got around five days to work through them all, unlike high school, where you'd probably have to stay up until the early hours of the morning to get everything done. There's no high-stakes testing pressures, either - we're all done with it now, thank God. The strange thing about my uni is that it is multi-campus; I know there are quite a few unis that have rural campuses, but ECU has two separate campuses within a half-hour's travel for me. There's one at Joondalup - the main one - and at Mount Lawley, which I go to as it has all my classes there this year. Apparently if you're a student there you usually end up having lectures and tutorials at both campuses by the time you've graduated. I reckon that's pretty cool - I haven't been to the Joondalup campus yet, but my friend has as she says it's around twice the size of ML. ML's pretty easy to get lost in though, so I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not.
Assessments are weird here. I suppose they're weird at all universities, though. In high-school, you had free reign over what your assessment looked like, or it was handwritten so presentation wasn't even really a factor. But in uni you have to have your margins a certain way, Times New Roman double-spaced and a formatted header and footer. Luckily formatting is to me what cleaning is to Monica, so I'm pretty much set - to the point where I've actually almost finished an entire semester's worth of work in one class and I'm only half-way through. So I'll be catching up with the other classes soon, especially since next week is the mid-semester break. Essays galore for me!
So that's life for me at uni at the moment. I'll be keeping you all updated, hopefully some of my scores come in soon.
Thanks for reading!
The courses at ECU in my major are brilliant; I was still on the fence about what I was going to choose when I researched it. They had classics courses, fiction to film, poetry, children's fantasy, graphic novels, just so much on offer. I think my mind was pretty much made up then; I enrolled not long after. I encountered some difficulties with choosing my minor as a) I didn't know what the hell a minor was, and b) I didn't know whereabouts I was meant to choose from. I ended up enrolling in Social Sciences, so that I might be a teacher of history, economics, geography and politics to years 7 to 10. I might go back someday and major in it; being a history teacher was a close second to my first English preference. I was on the fence about choosing science, but then I'd have to do science and I didn't really feel like returning to that. I was also considering choosing religion, because I had always been pretty good at that, but apparently you have to be a recognised Catholic to do that.
University is hard - harder than high school, though I would say it is definitely less stressful. Even if you have assessments for all classes due in the same week you've still got around five days to work through them all, unlike high school, where you'd probably have to stay up until the early hours of the morning to get everything done. There's no high-stakes testing pressures, either - we're all done with it now, thank God. The strange thing about my uni is that it is multi-campus; I know there are quite a few unis that have rural campuses, but ECU has two separate campuses within a half-hour's travel for me. There's one at Joondalup - the main one - and at Mount Lawley, which I go to as it has all my classes there this year. Apparently if you're a student there you usually end up having lectures and tutorials at both campuses by the time you've graduated. I reckon that's pretty cool - I haven't been to the Joondalup campus yet, but my friend has as she says it's around twice the size of ML. ML's pretty easy to get lost in though, so I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not.
Assessments are weird here. I suppose they're weird at all universities, though. In high-school, you had free reign over what your assessment looked like, or it was handwritten so presentation wasn't even really a factor. But in uni you have to have your margins a certain way, Times New Roman double-spaced and a formatted header and footer. Luckily formatting is to me what cleaning is to Monica, so I'm pretty much set - to the point where I've actually almost finished an entire semester's worth of work in one class and I'm only half-way through. So I'll be catching up with the other classes soon, especially since next week is the mid-semester break. Essays galore for me!
So that's life for me at uni at the moment. I'll be keeping you all updated, hopefully some of my scores come in soon.
Thanks for reading!
Monday, 4 April 2016
You know nothing, Jon Snow.
Featuring Margaery Tyrell, because she doesn't have a tagline as cool as Jon's.
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| Jon Snow Funko Pop! - Series 4 Castle Black Jon (muddy variant). |
I was super pleased with this Pop! The detailing was excellent, and I really loved the muddy paint they sort of slapped over his armour. They gave him a weather-worn costume as well, which I find super realistic and cool. I got this Pop! because of the eyebrows; I love Jon, he's one of my favourites, but I wasn't really feeling his other Pop!s. They just didn't really look like him; with the broody intense eyebrows though, it's really easy to tell just who this figure is! There's a little bleeding on the hairline, and the sword is a little bendy, but I'm really quite fine with that, and the quality is overall pretty perfect.
I also got a Margaery Tyrell Pop! because I really admire her character. Sure, she's a scheming manipulative bitch, but she'd be boring if she was just nice. The way she plays Joffrey and Cersei like a pair of fiddles, though - fantastic. Really love this Pop!, the detailing is super fantastic, and I love how they included Natalie Dormer's 'piggy' nose. So cute!
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| Margaery Tyrell Funko Pop! - Series 6 Margaery. |
I got these from Popcultcha.com; the shipping price was really decent, and these arrived within two days of the warehouse guys shipping them out. I was pretty happy with the quality; more so on the Margaery figure than the Jon Snow one, because there's a little bit of discolouration on the Jon Snow, but oh well. Perhaps that can be attributed to the muddiness of this variation. Overall, I'm really happy to be adding these two to my GoT Pop! collection.
Thanks for reading!
Sunday, 3 April 2016
Saturday, 2 April 2016
Harry Potter FanFiction
I'm a fanfiction writer - it's one of my little secrets. I've actually told no one this, so you'll all be the first to know. I'd really like to get into the habit of writing more often for a broader range of stories, but I mainly stick to Harry Potter (because HP is the best). Here are some of the ones I'm proudest of:-
'Requiem'
This was the first Harry Potter fanfiction I wrote - it is Harry/Hermione, because I hate Ron and Ginny, don't ask me why but I just do. It's written from Ron's perspective, and it's pretty sad, so sorry about that. I wanted to write a HHr fanfic that wasn't so ludicrous; you've got so many unbelievable, stupid ones out there that I wanted to return to the Deathly Hallows at the time when Harry and Hermione are alone in the tent.
'Throwing Away Expectations'
This one is an extension of the first one; it's the first of a two-parter series, the second following. This is M-rated or mature - it does have sexy times, so read with caution! Of the three I've put here, this one is probably the one I'm proudest of.
'The Wish'
Second part of a two-part series. Also mature rated. Neither this one nor the previous are sad, because I couldn't bring myself to complete this extended version, and I think the story's better left this way until I can go back and make the decision to either deviate from the original story, edit 'Requiem', or re-write a more detailed ending from Ron's perspective. I do think it'll be from Ron's point of view, because I like the idea of having the Trio all contribute to my one-shot trilogy.
Well, that's all from me tonight. Happy reading!
Friday, 1 April 2016
A Guide to Buying: Funko Pop! Edition
I'm doing a little segment within my blog on where best to purchase items if you live in Australia like I do. I'd do a broader version, but I'm a little unsure as to where best to go internationally. You can forgive me, I'm sure - I've never actually been out of the country.So, here goes! Hope someone gets something out of this!
Buying in-store
This is probably the best way to go if you're looking for Pop!s without
design or manufacturing flaws, and you want to check it out yourself
before buying. You can examine the stock in-store and make an assessment
through the packaging as to whether or not the product is suitably
constructed for your liking. If you live in Australia, you just don't
find these in run-of-the-mill department stores, so you generally have to go to gaming or specialised stores for your Funko Pop! needs. Here are my recommendations for stores.
EB Games
To check in store, probably the biggest contender is EB Games. If you live here, you've definitely heard of EB Games, and I think there's even a few in New Zealand as well!
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| EB Games Store, Perth, WA - Lakeside Joondalup. |
The store's really great, and the staff as a general rule are super nice and friendly, and really helpful too! They're pretty invested in making sales, so you're guaranteed assistance if you need it. I've never really needed to ask, but I'm pretty sure you can go up to them at the counter and ask after a particular franchise or character Pop! you're looking for; if they don't have it I think store policy is either to ask to order it in for you or direct you to the nearest store that has what you're looking for. My city is practically crawling with these stores, they're seriously everywhere, and I live in the far west of Australia. I can only imagine how many of them are concentrated within a square kilometre of Sydney.
The issue with this store is that they really only sell kid-friendly stuff; their main demographic is young children and adolescents, so they don't typically have some of the more specified Pop!s in-store, especially in the smaller stores. For example, they don't have things like Outlander, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who (yes, this is kid-friendly, but I think people who are a little older appreciate this more). If you expected to find anything by way of those categories, you'd likely have to pop into the city and take a look at their stock. And, good luck sifting your way through the copious levels of Marvel and Adventure Time figures!
A really great store I came across in Midland a couple months back was Games World. It is a chain store, but there aren't very many; they're mostly concentrated in Western Australia/Perth, with about three or four in Victoria. Their range isn't as broad as EBG, but they definitely cater to some of the more specialised collections of Pop!s. For example, I found heaps of Outlander and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Pop!s there last time - I was going through a massive Outlander kick at the time and Claire was pretty much my hero, so I had to get a little Pop! of her. I'll probably do a video review of it at some point. The staff are also pretty great - I should say is, because it's a one-man store. I was really trying to find a Jamie Fraser Pop! to go with my Claire, and I just couldn't find it anywhere (still haven't found one) - the guy there was super helpful, and even checked through his arriving stock for me to see if he could place one on reserve for me! It was pretty great, so I do really recommend this store.
I love JB HI-FI. My dad calls it the 'devil shop' because every time he drives past it on the way home from work, it tempts him to come in and buy something. He quite often does. It has a really great range of entertainment media, accessories and the like. None of my local stores actually stock Pop!s though, which is a little annoying - but I've had a little look interstate and I'm pretty sure they stock them in-store over there. Correct me if I'm wrong!
A lot of people I know who love these figures always tell me how iffy they are about buying them online. Understandable; it's easier to make a decision about a product when you've seen it up close, or at least a more thorough view of it. Photo lighting is always flattering, and sometimes you just can't be sure until you've had a little look-see at the product itself. Many just take the risk - they click that 'buy now' button and hope for the best. And those people are quite often disappointed, because - unfortunately - Funko production is fairly uneven, and you're really likely to get a figure with some kind of visible flaw. What a lot of people don't seem to realise is that you can contact the web staff from whatever site you've purchased from to ensure they select a Pop! that has the lowest possible number of flaws as they can find in the warehouse. You just go down (or up) to the contact information - sometimes they'll have a specific order inquiry section there, or if not just go to general inquiry and place your request for this there. Make sure you put in your order number and name/account name! They are always really obliging, and obviously they expect to get these sorts of requests a fair bit, so don't be afraid to ask!
It may seem kinda weird, given the next site I'll be putting down, but I actually favour JB HI-FI the most. I've ordered about three Pop!s from them now, and not one of them has had any noticeable flaw in them. I put in the request for a flaw-free set of Pop!s and they definitely delivered.
My biggest issue with this company, though, is that it seems like they physically open the packaging and check the Pop! itself. I'm not personally bothered by this, but I know there is that obsession about keeping them in mint condition, and my Dany Targaryen Pop! came to me half out of the inner plastic packaging. When I removed it from the box I noticed some white chalky dust on the sides of her head, and it made it really obvious it was handled and placed back incorrectly. This was a pretty big fail, especially if I as a customer had been an OCD mint-condition collector. However, none of the other Pop!s came to me like this, and the dust was wiped away super easy. All three Pop!s were in brilliant condition (especially the GoT one, which are notable for their inconsistencies), so I was really happy with this. For mint-condition junkies, I don't recommend you use this site for Pop! quality checking as they do handle them out-of-box, but for everyone else, this is the sure way to go to find the best-quality Pop!
Popcultcha.com was a really recent discovery of mine. It's mainly operated online, but I think there's a store over east somewhere. It has the self-proclaimed biggest range of collectible items in the country, and I think that's pretty true; they have an absolutely huge stock list, and purchasing from them is pretty fun. The Pop!s on the site are comprehensively categorised, and they don't have the entire range of every Pop! in existence, but that's to be expected, I think.
I recently ordered a couple Pop!s from them, and while they were absolutely amazing, a part of me niggled a little at the flaws they displayed - it isn't like they were incredibly noticeable, in fact I'm just being picky, but the quality just wasn't as good as the ones from JB HI-FI. Not at all complaining about the service though - they were shipped to my place within two days of me placing my order. Coming from a warehouse on the other side of the country from where I am, that's pretty impressive. And the packaging they came in was really sturdy; a thick cardboard box with green tape sealing all the cracks. Bloody hard to open, but at least you know it'd take a lot to tamper with it or have the weather get in.
EB Games also has an online presence - the shipping price is pretty good and the Pop!s are priced reasonably well at $19 AUD. They have a pretty large range too, so I definitely recommend giving this a try. I can't give a statement as to the quality of the product shipped out, but I'm sure it could be guaranteed.
That's all for tonight. For all my readers who don't live in Australia: what stores, both physical and online, do you buy Pop!s from?
Thanks for reading!
The issue with this store is that they really only sell kid-friendly stuff; their main demographic is young children and adolescents, so they don't typically have some of the more specified Pop!s in-store, especially in the smaller stores. For example, they don't have things like Outlander, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who (yes, this is kid-friendly, but I think people who are a little older appreciate this more). If you expected to find anything by way of those categories, you'd likely have to pop into the city and take a look at their stock. And, good luck sifting your way through the copious levels of Marvel and Adventure Time figures!
Games World
A really great store I came across in Midland a couple months back was Games World. It is a chain store, but there aren't very many; they're mostly concentrated in Western Australia/Perth, with about three or four in Victoria. Their range isn't as broad as EBG, but they definitely cater to some of the more specialised collections of Pop!s. For example, I found heaps of Outlander and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Pop!s there last time - I was going through a massive Outlander kick at the time and Claire was pretty much my hero, so I had to get a little Pop! of her. I'll probably do a video review of it at some point. The staff are also pretty great - I should say is, because it's a one-man store. I was really trying to find a Jamie Fraser Pop! to go with my Claire, and I just couldn't find it anywhere (still haven't found one) - the guy there was super helpful, and even checked through his arriving stock for me to see if he could place one on reserve for me! It was pretty great, so I do really recommend this store.
JB HI-FI
I love JB HI-FI. My dad calls it the 'devil shop' because every time he drives past it on the way home from work, it tempts him to come in and buy something. He quite often does. It has a really great range of entertainment media, accessories and the like. None of my local stores actually stock Pop!s though, which is a little annoying - but I've had a little look interstate and I'm pretty sure they stock them in-store over there. Correct me if I'm wrong!
Buying online
A lot of people I know who love these figures always tell me how iffy they are about buying them online. Understandable; it's easier to make a decision about a product when you've seen it up close, or at least a more thorough view of it. Photo lighting is always flattering, and sometimes you just can't be sure until you've had a little look-see at the product itself. Many just take the risk - they click that 'buy now' button and hope for the best. And those people are quite often disappointed, because - unfortunately - Funko production is fairly uneven, and you're really likely to get a figure with some kind of visible flaw. What a lot of people don't seem to realise is that you can contact the web staff from whatever site you've purchased from to ensure they select a Pop! that has the lowest possible number of flaws as they can find in the warehouse. You just go down (or up) to the contact information - sometimes they'll have a specific order inquiry section there, or if not just go to general inquiry and place your request for this there. Make sure you put in your order number and name/account name! They are always really obliging, and obviously they expect to get these sorts of requests a fair bit, so don't be afraid to ask!
JB HI-FI
It may seem kinda weird, given the next site I'll be putting down, but I actually favour JB HI-FI the most. I've ordered about three Pop!s from them now, and not one of them has had any noticeable flaw in them. I put in the request for a flaw-free set of Pop!s and they definitely delivered.
My biggest issue with this company, though, is that it seems like they physically open the packaging and check the Pop! itself. I'm not personally bothered by this, but I know there is that obsession about keeping them in mint condition, and my Dany Targaryen Pop! came to me half out of the inner plastic packaging. When I removed it from the box I noticed some white chalky dust on the sides of her head, and it made it really obvious it was handled and placed back incorrectly. This was a pretty big fail, especially if I as a customer had been an OCD mint-condition collector. However, none of the other Pop!s came to me like this, and the dust was wiped away super easy. All three Pop!s were in brilliant condition (especially the GoT one, which are notable for their inconsistencies), so I was really happy with this. For mint-condition junkies, I don't recommend you use this site for Pop! quality checking as they do handle them out-of-box, but for everyone else, this is the sure way to go to find the best-quality Pop!
Popcultcha.com
Popcultcha.com was a really recent discovery of mine. It's mainly operated online, but I think there's a store over east somewhere. It has the self-proclaimed biggest range of collectible items in the country, and I think that's pretty true; they have an absolutely huge stock list, and purchasing from them is pretty fun. The Pop!s on the site are comprehensively categorised, and they don't have the entire range of every Pop! in existence, but that's to be expected, I think.
I recently ordered a couple Pop!s from them, and while they were absolutely amazing, a part of me niggled a little at the flaws they displayed - it isn't like they were incredibly noticeable, in fact I'm just being picky, but the quality just wasn't as good as the ones from JB HI-FI. Not at all complaining about the service though - they were shipped to my place within two days of me placing my order. Coming from a warehouse on the other side of the country from where I am, that's pretty impressive. And the packaging they came in was really sturdy; a thick cardboard box with green tape sealing all the cracks. Bloody hard to open, but at least you know it'd take a lot to tamper with it or have the weather get in.
EB Games
EB Games also has an online presence - the shipping price is pretty good and the Pop!s are priced reasonably well at $19 AUD. They have a pretty large range too, so I definitely recommend giving this a try. I can't give a statement as to the quality of the product shipped out, but I'm sure it could be guaranteed.
That's all for tonight. For all my readers who don't live in Australia: what stores, both physical and online, do you buy Pop!s from?
Thanks for reading!
Thursday, 31 March 2016
Find me on YouTube!
I've started posting on YouTube! Please don't hesitate to check me out, let me know how I'm doing. I'll confess I recorded the entire video on my iPhone 5, so sorry if the quality's shit. But I'm pretty excited about this new venture, so bear with me guys!
Thanks for reading!
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