Happy Buddy At Happy Valley

Here we are at the obligatory "anong nabili mo?" entry of our blogspot.
A quick summary/rundown as to why the following items are cool and not so much.

Full Metal Alchemist Vol#5
Translated mangas from Hong Kong could be a strange bunch.
For one, they usually have an oversized poster of a previous cover.

Not like that's a bad thing, right?
Yeah, but these sorts of treatment are usually reserved for film books.
The only other time I've seen free posters like these are on Evangelion and Ah! My Goddess tankobons.

Ok, enough about the appearance of the book. Let's talk about it's content.
And more importantly our newest favorite character, Paninya.

We don't exactly remember seeing her on the original series. But then again, it's been years since we watched our old FMA DVDs. Add to the fact that we haven't seen a single episode of Brotherhood. Which Paninya had been featured more regularly. Nonetheless her chase scene with Edward was pretty priceless. So was the Winry-Paninya scene.

And here's to hoping that THIS scene gets included in the live action version of FMA.

Which would later revealed to be ..... Eh, alamin niyo na lang!
And you know who else is a big FMA fan?

A photo posted by jun sabayton (@sabaytones) on Nov 15, 2016 at 7:41pm PST

It's none other than "Bayaw Ng Bayan", Jun Sabayton!

Dragon Ball Vol#34
And even though our copy doesn't really have a dust jacket on.
But this volume is the shiznits right here!
Man-o-man, where do we even begin???
First off, the table of content is being introduced by a urinating Krillin.

Wow, it doesn't get any edgier than that!

Add to the fact that this particular volume is the main event of the Cell Games.

YES!
No more Androids and no more Mr Satan's filler antics just a good ol' fashioned brawl between two of the best, A Super Saiyaned Son Goku and Perfect Cell.

It's 180++ pages of unapologetic fight scenes.

Filled with:

Gut Punches!

Derpy Cells!

Elbow drops!

The seemingly harmless bout that would later be even more intensified when this happened:

This was when THIS cute little guy:

became such a savage ass kicker!

Cell Jr.s were being slaughtered left and right!
This was such a big deal during the 90's. I used to own a copy of this very same volume and had immediately worn out it's condition due to my voracious reading. If you are planning to buy only one DBZ tankobon in your entire life (why would EVEN you do that???) then might I suggest it to be this one!

The two other smaller DBZ tankobons are considerably bootleg copies of the real deal.
Darn it, I was ACTUALLY hoping it to be one of these books:

Read it online over @:
http://thedaoofdragonball.com/m/dragon-ball-zeroverse/
Maybe I was setting my hopes way too high, I guess?
Ah well....

The Vegeta cover features the arrival of the Ginyu Forces in Planet Namek.

Yes, all 5 of them!

What a bunch of dorks!

Five lovable dorks nonetheless.

And there was also THIS rather suggestive scene,

a scene which I refuse to explain any further.
And believe it or not, they made an entire filler episode based on this one gimmick cover alone.

It's a little silly but still a lot better than all of the Naruto filler episodes combined.

Now, on to the Z-Warrior + Frieza one.

Well, that was a bit misleading!
There were no Frieza chapters at all.
Just Piccolo duking it out with Android 17.
And a surprise appearance of Cell in his imperfect form.

The other half of the book is then filled with non-DBZ pages.
I've read about this elsewhere. It's either the pirates are scanning via Shonen Jump or the said tankobon is yet to be released.
Either way, the second half of the book contained Osamu Tezuka's The Three-Eyed One.
TOTALLY NOT DRAGON BALL!
Boooo!

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean #7

I hope I knew what's happening here but my knowledge of the series is solely limited to Stardust Crusader. Hence all of these characters in here are kinda new to me. Most of the story takes place in a prison and with Jolyne Cujoh (Jotaro's daughter)playing the main protagonist role.

Bleach #19: Black Moon Rising
Tite Kubo in the house!

Not that kind of Tite....
This was actually my very first Bleach tankobon.
And despite the heavy criticisms on Kubo's overall laziness in drawing backgrounds, this surprisingly enough, does not contain any of that said problem.

Ang sipag nga niya dito o!
I guess his artwork works best when colored. Observe!

See, what I mean?
So the reason as to why his art looks kinda lazy and uninspired is probably because he's anticipating to color them in later on. Yun na yun, TITEEEEE!

666 Satan or (O-Parts Hunter for all you overly sensitive foreign devils of the west)#8
Again, this contained an oversized poster of the current cover.

And I'm finally seeing all the Naruto related similarities in Seishi's character design.

I guess it's always harder to be in the shadow of your more popular brother.

Most of your accomplishments would usually fall prey to undermining and baseless criticisms.
Again, I am not familiar with any of the characters but the volume I had looked and felt like the earlier chapters of Naruto. My favorite character based on appearance alone:

And last but not the least,

Ah yes, something current and new!
It comes with a notepad, I guess????
But then again, the art is no longer being done by Toriyama hence my interest for it isn't really that high. I bought one just for the sake of owning one and based on a personal experience that of #1 of any kind would eventually be collector's item and difficult to find later on.

Yes, I'm looking at you, Dragon Ball Vol#1!!!!

Free stuffs I got from various places:
Courtesy of EmmAParty:

Courtesy of Clark's Comics:

Fred Hembeck artworks are the best!!!!

I also purchased these things:

Best purchase of the day! 

There's something about these Ben10 toys that are strikingly appealing to me. I guess it has something to do with all those Kirby inspired anatomy (square fingers, square jaw, Darkseid-ish lines on his face), I dunno? 

BEN-TENG KABISOTE!!!

The World War 2 one is history book and it comes with a free CD. And hopefully that CD works.
Speaking of things that work, hopefully the Dredd & Space Jam one works as well.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK are THESE!!!!!

God damn these Character USBs!
GOD DAMN THEM ALL!
These are supposed to be my pasalubong for all my komikero/komikera friends and what not but turns out....these things are bogus products! If you ever see one on Temple Street or anywhere else. Don't buy'em! Warn your family and friends. I guess my point is best explained by this link I found:
http://goughlui.com/2013/05/08/dealing-with-bad-usb-keys/

And remember to be more careful when buying products in Hong Kong. Stuffs like pirated CDs and books are now  subject for inspection or worst confiscation. So are canned goods and shampoo bottles. T'would be best NOT to store these things on your hand carry baggage. Most especially Ivories.

Ok, maybe not that kind of IVORY!

But then again, who the hell keeps elephant tusks in their hand carries.
Either way those are some of the prohibited items despite being sold absolutely everywhere else in HongKong.
That's that! Just wanted to remind everyone, is all!

So stay safe, stay happy and before we forget.....
HAPPY NEW YEAR!