Time has flown by and I can hardly been it’s been three months since my last post covering my tri-monthly pickups. Anyway, straight into it!

DVDs!

Ever the fan of B-movies, I gladly added these gems into my collection recently. I’m quite sure I’ve seen some of them before, but after a while, these kind of movies blur into one a little bit, but I’m certain I’ll enjoy rediscovering them anyway.

Blu-rays!

For the longest period, I was happy with buying only DVDs, but somehow I’ve crossed over into Blu-ray territory, and it doesn’t look like Blu-ray purchasing is slowing down anytime soon. This lot consists of Ultra Q and Ultraman, two Japanese series from the 1960s. Both were made by Eiji Tsuburaya, famed for his work on the original Godzilla movies. He decided to turn his special effects talents to TV with Ultra Q, a series revolving around a team of reporters who investigate all kinds of weird monsters and happenings (kind of like the Japanese version of The Twilight Zone). Following the show’s success, and the toy sales of plastic monsters from the show, Tsuburaya followed up with Ultraman, a show about an alien/giant/superhero who combats gargantuan monsters with a blend of energy beams and martial arts. Both shows are regarded as legendary in Japan, and I was pleased to discover that this American Mill Creek release will play on PAL region Blu-ray players. I really ought to just invest in a multi-region player, as regional lockouts are something that really piss me off. Also snagged was the Blade Runner 30th Anniversary collection (a hugely favourite movie of mine), the complete Power Rangers series 1-3, and the first four volumes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe which I recieved for my birthday. So I’ve got roughly twelve thousand years worth of stuff to watch in the near future.

Video Games!

Little Nightmares II on the PS4 was another birthday present but I persuade the woman in my life to let me have it early. An excellent little horror/puzzler, like the first installment, this game manages to be gloriously beautiful, dark and horrifying all at once. It would have been nice if I could have done it justice and taken a decent picture of it, but apparently I was incapable of this. If you like horror and video games, I recommend this title wholeheartedly.

DS games! The DS is probably at the cheapest it will ever be, so now is the time to be adding to Nintendo DS collections. After ordering a Shiren game for the Switch, I decided to try out an earlier game in the series with the Shiren the Explorer Mystery Dungeon game. Rainbow Islands Revoloution was a title my girlfriend bought off Vinted as we both like Bubble Bobble, the game before Rainbow Islands. However she wasn’t keen on this incarnation of Rainbow Islands, so it falls to me to get some use out of it. The final DS game I snagged wax Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, another title I’ve never played before but always had my eye on. It was cheap as hell, so picked it up online from CEX with a few other orders.

SNES games! I hadn’t bought a SNES game in forever, until Christmas where I bought Sailor Moon for the SNES as a Christmas present for my girlfriend. With the SNES set up, I had a look on CEX at what other titles I could snag. I came away with Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I had ROTJ for the Game Boy as a kid, so was looking forward to playing a version of that again. Both games were awesome, if ridiculously difficult at times. For anyone who hasn’t played the Super Star Wars series, they’re basically a retelling of orignal Star Wars trilogy, only every character is able to do crazy rolls when they jump, and you have to fight all manner of ludicrous enemies. Oh, and the screen is constantly full of a gazillion enemies all the time.

The other title which I’ve not gotten around to yet is King of the Monsters, a Godzilla inspired fighting game, which sees players battling other kaiju whilst causing destruction to a city. I’ve not played it yet, but I’m looking forward to it. And on the subject of Godzilla, here’s my newest NES game-

Another birthday present from the woman in my life, this one was a total surprise. It’s not often I get a new boxed NES game, and I didn’t even know this game had a release in the UK, as many NES games that were released in other countries were skipped here. I love the box art of this, which really looks like a 1950s B-Movie poster. I still haven’t gotten around to playing this one yet, but I will.

I also got a bunch of Switch games the past few months. Skyrim and FInal Fantasy IX were again birthday presents from my woman, and I just want to take this moment to get excited about a physical version of FF-IX on the switch! FF-IX! I never thought I’d get a physical version of IX outside of my original PS1 game, so I was very excited to get this one, as it’s one of my all-time favourite games.

Regions of Ruin, Turok, Turok 2 and Oxenfree were all mystery box games from Limited Run Games. I am seemingly addicted to Limited Run of late, as they keep on putting title after title which I want. Although none of these four were massively high up my list of games I wanted, I am pleased to get Turok and Turok II, and I will check out the others. Finally there is Hades, a frustratingly addictive rogue-like title which has already claimed many hours of my life. It has a tremendous art style, and fans of rogue-like titles will enjoy this one greatly.

Two more Evercade compilations! My Evercade has sadly been a bit neglected of late, as I’ve just had so much other stuff to get through, but I will eventually get around to these two. Finally, my last and most impressive new gaming thing-

A SEGA Game Gear! And games. For some reason I almost wrote Nintendo Game Gear then. How silly.

I love the Game Gear. I would play it as a kid in my Dad’s car, using the cigarette lighter power adapter, and then whenever my Dad’s car would stall, the game would cut out and I’d be pissed off. But the alternative was using batteries, which didn’t last very long at all, and six AA batteries at a time was a lot. I’ve already bought a few games for the system as it is, but some from my childhood are more expensive than I thought they’d be, with favourites of mine like Terminator 2 and Power Rangers both selling for fairly high prices, which surprised me. Anyhow, I’m overjoyed to be able to replay some favourites without fear of the game cutting out due to a car stalling these days.

Books!

I really ought to buy more books as I love reading, and I always think it’s a little shameful how many new games and movies I have compared books. Spacewreck is an art book I picked up off a car boot sale as a kid, and LOVED. It features different illustrations of ruined spaceships on different planets. This one stuck in my head as a young ‘un, and even all these years later I can see it when I close my eyes.

There’s something about the skeletal spacesuit and giant wreck, hazy on the horizon that appealed to me massively as a kid. Even nowadays, I play video games like Halo and there are parts that remind me of the image of this unfortunate spaceman.

Oh, and the other book is about Doctor Who, and how the BBC managed to throw away or erase many of their original episodes of Doctor Who after they had been aired. Interesting stuff if you find the history of film and technology fascinating.

Toys!

Whilst perusing Japansese auction sites, I stumbled upon this not-quite-official Star Wars walker model kit. I don’t usually buy model kits, but I loved the artwork on the box of this, and plan to display it with all my vintage Star Wars stuff one day.

Japanese auction sites also got me a bunch more Bandai monster figures. As well as some Godzilla figures, I picked a few Ultraman toys up as I felt okay with buying them after having finally watched the series! This lot consists of Godzilla 1974, Kong from Godzilla vs Kong (a birthday present from my friends in Japan), Mechagodzilla, Anguirus, Ultraman, Red King, Kanegon and Alien Baltan.

I also have bought some figures from Y-MSF, an independant toymaker in Japan who mainly focuses on Godzilla monsters that big companies like Bandai generally don’t really cover. He sells on Instagram, so he’s worth a follow if you want to snag some of his limited releases.

Off him I purchased his Raymundo Kong (1962), Godzilla (1962) Gorosaurus, Hedorah and Minilla. His sculpting his amazing, and I am so pleased to add these into my Kaiju collection.

So there we go! That’s my pickups of the past three months. I hope it was interesting, although it may not be. Regardless, it’s always nice for me to look back and for me to see where exactly my money has gone!