POP! Funko Collection Addition.

I love the Funko Pop! Figures and today I headed to Minotaur with a bit of cash to blow hoping to add to my collection.

I was so happy to see they had restocked, though still no Grey Wind (Game Of Thrones) or Sam (Trick R Treat). They did, however have two of the Dragons from Game Of Thrones, Drogon was restocked and Rhegal was finally in for the first time.

I only had enough cash for one, so I tossed up between the two and decided on Drogon.

I then went to have a look around and see what new things they had in, and that is when I saw him!

They had the lot of How To Train Your Dragon 2 figures in and they had Toothless.

 Obviously at this point Drogon would have to wait and ended up back on the shelves.

He hasn't joined my other Pop! figures on my bookshelves just yet, he is positioned on top my "jar of awesome things that happened in 2014" until I can figure out exactly where he is going to fit in.

Toothless is the 9th edition to my Pop! collection and my first dragon.

May Book Haul!

While May is far from over, I still have not secured employment so I seriously doubt I will be purchasing more books this month. As it is I only purchased 3 anyway.

First some vintage books from the Op Shop

 As you may already know from my review earlier in the month, I went to see Only Lovers Left Alive at Nova. It's about the lives of some Vampires, and Tilda Swintons' character Eve has the most amazing collection of old books which she has obviously collected over the centuries in many different languages. This enticed me to check out the vintage book section in my local book store.

And that is why I bought these books;

 Both have pencil notes in them and A Tale of Two Cities has information about the previous owner and what classroom he was in at McKinnon High. Both books set me back a mere $3.50.

I have to say I love the history contained in old books and all the signs of the previous owner.

Now the op shop doesn't seem to check the books for whatever bits and pieces the previous owners may have used as a book mark, and I have collected various bookmarks from preloved books, vintage books are no different.

 German Classics had this little bit of cardboard inside, used as a bookmark.

Now the book itself I couldn't date because its an Oxford print which doesn't seem to contain a date anywhere, but the train timetable is from 1st March 1916.

 So I also got this cool little card from the past in the bargain.

It is a train time table from Melbourne to Camberwell to take effect from the 1st March 1916 until further notice.

 

The only other book I bought, stemmed from watching The Hobbit too many times last month.

I rented An Unexpected Journey and Desolation of Smaug from the kiosk for $4.50 then I rented An Unexpected Journey again later in the month before caving and buying it later as an ex-rental.

I then decided I couldn't wait for the next movie and had to know what happens. First I looked in up on Wikipedia but found I still wanted to read the story.

So a quick stop at Dymocks after a job interview and I had this  

I chose the pocket edition because I love hardcovers and thought the pocket edition suited the fact that it was a story about a hobbit.

I immediately read it and loved it, you can read my review HERE

 

You may also note that I have lost all my previously uploaded photos.

I had an argument with my Google+ account and accidently deleted the wrong folder where apparently google store all my blog photos. Oops!

So that's it, they are all gone.

Live and Learn

Trade Review: Coffin Hill

Coffin Hill Vol. 1: Forest of the Night by Caitlin Kittredge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A dark and creepy tale of Eve a self destructive 15 year old, who messes around with dark magic not really understanding what she is capable of. Waking after a night of witchcraft she finds herself covered in blood and a friend short. Years later she is a cop in Boston who has just cracked a serial killer case, when she is gunned down. After she is released from hospital and heads home to get away from the press, only to discover that night years ago has started something that has been taking victims ever since and its been waiting for her to come home.
The main character is not really likable, she is a spoilt rich teen who has never really grown up and keeps mouthing off to everyone she comes into contact with, but I guess her hearts in the right place and she is trying to set things right.
I like a good legend and the Coffin Witch legend is interesting spanning decades, right back to the first witch to leave Salem.
The art is fantastic and helps to really build the aura and set the scene for the story.
The character design is brilliant, bringing a lot of punk into their clothing and the detail of the tattoo designs is wonderful.
The crows are beautiful and present throughout the comic.
The sketch pages at the back are a nice touch.

View all my reviews

Trade Review: Death

Death by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A beautiful dark look at Death in all its forms, everyone goes sometime its the one guarantee in life.
Death has a beautiful smile, and is always polite, she is friendly and no matter wether you are expecting her or not, she will be there for you in your final hour to take you across to the shadowlands, until the last soul on earth is dead. Its her job at the end of time to turn off the lights and lock up the universe.
A darkly beautiful collection of stories showcasing Death in all her glory, she changes lives and enjoys a bit of free time.


View all my reviews

Kickstarter Rewards! Serenity Rose

Today I got another kickstarter reward in the mail.

Serenity Rose

I'll admit most of the kickstarters I have backed have been comics but I usually get the pdf. rewards for those, mainly so I can get so many. This comic however seemed super cute and the video had the main character pleading her case in a very awkward and shy way.

Even though I had not read any of the comics in the past I went straight for the hard copy.

Now the basic hardcopy reward level was US$25 plus postage (because I'm international) but I was working at the time and had a bit of cash so I chose the $50 tier with the cute skull heart pendant that the main character wears on top of the book.

The projects original goal was US$5,500 and it blew that away in the first 24 hours, raising a total of  US$61,575 by projects end.

Usually this means stretch goals and the creator of the comic Aaron Alexovich used the stretch goals to make the book even better than first planned.

This did impact the shipping prices but people rallied and threw in some extra $$ to help out.

Kickstarter Page

 

And finally its here!

The post man buzzed up this morning and delivered my book and pendant.

Kickstarter Pledge

Pledge $50 or more

249 backers

CRAFTY GOBLIN level: The BOOK + the PENDANT + a PDF copy of the full book + your name on the "THANK YOU" page

Estimated delivery: Jan 2014

Add $15 USD to ship outside the US

There was also a pdf. copy of the book and it is a HUGE file.

 The skull heart necklace is so cute!

I love it and put it on straight away.

The book itself is HUGE and I have no space on my shelves at the moment (and I only just reorganised everything) but its sitting in front of my Anne Rice collection until I read it.

Super happy that the book has been entered into Goodreads at last.

Review to follow soon.

Pictures from the kickstarter campaign

 

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fun quick read helped along by the fact that I have watched the first two movies before starting this book. I can also see where the movie had to add or change bits as most of the story if following the book wouldn't have been very interesting on the big screen. however there were little things that could have appeared in the movie that would have explained things that weren't making much sense in the movie.
The book itself is colourful and funny. The dwarves made me think of the seven dwarves in Snow White rather than high fantasy novel dwarves but this is suppose to be a kids book so they did suit the narrative. Though I got to picturing the elves as wee little creatures which didn't suit certain passages, mainly with the elven kings.
It was certainly an entertaining read and fun besides the dangers faced and that point in which I could have seriously throttled all the male characters with their pig-headedness towards the end.
I bought the pocket size edition because its about a hobbit and I thought that suited. This edition also comes with the first chapter of Lord Of The Rings and is filled with drawings that the author sketched which added to the overall feel of the book. My copy only actually had 276 pages of the actual story though.


View all my reviews

Movie Review: Only Lovers Left Alive

 On a dark a dreary day, with nothing much to do I discovered a little cinema a little whiles away was showing the much anticipated but allusive movie Only Lovers Left Alive.

So two trams and a short walk later I ended up at the Nova Cinema, nearly 30 minutes early mind you, and headed straight upstairs to the cinemas. Nova sends you the ticket so you don't have to go to the box office when you purchase online.

My ticket was scanned and moved through to the waiting area.

Shortly after, cinema 2 was called in and we all moved in to take our seats.

The cinema was smallish and the seats didn't line up exactly but it was cute, and there were cup holders in the rather large seats.

There were still heaps of ads before the movie for local business but it didn't get to the point where you forgot what movie you were seeing, unlike at the bigger cinemas.

The movie itself was dark and delicious. We are introduced to three of the Vampires at the beginning in a scene in which they score their blood and feed. I say score as they don't hunt, and that the blood itself seems to give them some slight high.

 

Adam, played by Tom Hiddleston, is our brooding musician sick of the "zombies" (you and me) and slightly suicidal.

Eve, played by Tilda Swinton, is his wife living abroad, she is caring and loyal and enigmatic.

Their love is gorgeous and the sets are beautiful and dark.

From Tangier to Detroit we are shown a beautiful dark world long forgotten and decaying.

Its dark and grungy, romantic and beautiful.

I left with the biggest feeling of nostalgia for my grungier days, when every night was our day and we only worked enough to pay the bills.

There was a long wait for this movie, and I've only found it being played at this one cinema, but it was well worth the wait.

I hope to go again at least once before its finished.

5 out of 5 stars.