As soon as November 1st hit, the days have been colder and the layers of clothing have been bolder! The holidays are soon approaching and so are the pickups - which include Splatoon merchandise, manga, Rotten footwear and more! I decided to combine the two months due to a busy schedule and I’ve been buying less as of late. Anyways, I hope you guys are bundling up, getting those fits off, or enjoying a video game by yourself or your loved ones!
📚🦑Splatoon Ikasu Artbook
Ever since the release of Splatoon 3 in September, I’ve been loving not only the game, but all the merch that been released in the series. What started with collecting the amiibos turned into collecting the artbooks and I’d love to collect other items like the promotional tees from previous titles! This artbook comes from the first game that released on the Wii U and it features all the promo art - my favorite being the water-color style 2D art that contains so much depth and vibrancy. Also included is concept art of all the main characters, every clothing item and weapon cataloged, arena designs, and single player campaign details- all showcased in this book about one of Nintendo’s best series!
📚💀Soul Eater Volume 16
Since the beginning of the year, I’ve made it my mission to acquire every manga volume of Soul Eater and in October, I finally completed my quest! After waiting patiently for each volume to restock, I’ve got the last piece of the puzzle - Volume 16. This volume has to be one of my favorite covers cause I love this duo so much! I’ve only ever finished the anime adaptation and am looking forward to concluding the manga version of the story because boy I did not like the anime’s ending. Now that the collecting journey is over for this series, who knows what my focus will be on next….
🎮Bayonetta 3
The Umbra witch is finally back after 8 years! Bayonetta 3 is here and let me tell you, this one is really BIG in scale. In this title, we see familiar faces like Bayo, Jeanne, Rodin among others, but there’s a new multidimensional character named Viola who acts as a dimensionally lost playable character who plays similar to Bayo, but utilizes a katana that holds parrying abilities to slow down time. As for the main mistress herself, she’s back with her beloved moveset, but many more forms are introduced to spice up the addictive action gameplay! There is also the inclusion of giant summons that act as a backup for the rather larger than life enemies you’ll face on this universe-sized title in the series. I don’t wanna spoil a lot for you guys - being almost done with the game at chapter 11 - It’s been such a fun ride so far and is turning into my game of the year!
🎥⚔️Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children
The year is 2006. Their stands a small boy who’s been sinking his teeth into Final Fantasy X-2 and Kingdom Hearts - being exposed to one of my favorite games of all time. During my playthrough, I’d encounter what happens to be the KH designed one-winged version of Cloud Strife. 10 year old me couldn’t be more impressed by the edgy and epic buster sword wielder setting out on his journey to confront Sephiroth - the antagonist to Cloud who is set to bring Cloud to darkness.
If any of you have been to Blockbuster, you’d know that as a kid, It was video game/cinema heaven! walls lined with dvd’s - far as the youthful eye can see. With laser-like focus, I bat an eye at “Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children” - a continuation to the cult-classic FF7 universe in movie form. I grabbed it swiftly and pleaded my mom to PLEASE rent it out for me and she of course agreed. Not knowing anything about FF7, I was lost at what was going on story-wise, but man those action scenes are what I remember the most.
The reason I’m talking about this now is because I happened to find a Blu-Ray copy at a Half-Price books and I had to get it for the memories of it all. Watching it today and knowing what the story is, I can see why the movie’s reception was very mixed, but to me none of that mattered. For what it is, it is a visually impressive film that still holds today and I love seeing Cloud on his hulking motorcycle - being bad ass with friends and against foes!
🪳Rotten Closet “Morph” Mule
The Rotten man Ryan Kwong and his brand Rotten Closet have been running full stop, no brakes the past couple years - releasing piece after piece and being well-received on top of that. I got to discover the brand from his infamous Corset Derby - being one of my most worn shoes in the rotation. When I saw he was teasing a new footwear silhouette, I was of course staying tuned to what was coming next! This time, he took another classic footwear staple - the loafer! My only experience with loafers was a pair of Bass Weejuns that tore up my feet due to the insanely stiff leather that destroyed me with every step. These beauties however are nothing alike because they come in a soft calfskin leather that prove comfortable with each step I’ve taken thus far! As far as the design, these include overlapping leather straps that wrap around each shoe that gives it that cocoon-esque appearance - a unique design choice I found myself a big fan of! one big feature that he emphasized was the collapsible back heel that provides ease of wear and an option to wear these as a mule or a loafer. To top it all off, they are Vibram-soled for that added durability and longevity so you can wear these for many occasions to come! I love seeing lots of hometown talent coming from the creatives that reside in the Sacramento area and to see Ryan’s designs worn by friends and well known figures Is amazing to see!
Pairing the Morph Mules with the Ben Davis Gorilla Cut pants, Carhartt x Wacko Maria Jacket, vintage Bape tee (copped from Ryan also 🫡) and the Kapital Bucket. Very casual stroll to pick up more plastic Nintendo toys.
Also as I’m writing this, there will be a restock for the Morph Mule on November 19th! If you like what you see, go ahead and cop!!!
🦑Various Splatoon amiibo
My Splatoon amiibo collecting is going very strong! I was able to get a large majority of the amiibo released for Splatoon 2 that include the Inkling Boy, Purple Squid and the pop music duo from “Off The Hook” - Pearl and Marina. the Pearl and Marina two-pack was the one I was trying to acquire at retail price for the longest due to being quite expensive on the secondary market and because of the release for Splatoon 3, Nintendo decided to reprint most of the amiibo that released throughout the years! All I’m missing now is the new Splatoon3 singles and the Octoling triple pack that released around the time that the DLC released for Splatoon 2. I’m crossing my fingers that they will be restocked so I can finally have them all! Real collector activities frfr.
Those morph mules look sick 🔥