The Dark Lord and the Pirate King (Look What I Got 2014-04-07)

"Inform the commander that Lord Vader has arrived... along with Luffy... and some decals"

Not more than a month ago, in a country not too far away.... a box was shipped.... A few days later, I received a box from HLJ.  And the contents... at last my very own Darth Vader figure and another addition to my POP collection - the captain of the Strawhats himself, plus a few decals for my Gunplas.

Two of the most iconic characters from two different pop culture. Yes, being a huge fan of Star Wars and a huge fan of One Piece, there's no questioning why I ordered these two figures. These were the items that I purchased from HLJ since February, and it has been waiting on my "HLJ private warehouse" till I decided to request for shipping by 2nd of April via EMS. A few days later, an HLJ box arrived at my doorstep.

As usual, my items arrived safe with the way the HLJ staff arranged them inside the box. I paid 4,500 yen for shipping alone, that's because Darth Vader is quite heavy. The total damage is still cheaper if I purchased these items locally though. Aside from Vader and Luffy, I also got some decals for my Gundam model kits. 

Sideshow Collectibles - Darth Vader Deluxe Sixth Scale Figure

First, let's have a quick look on the dark lord himself. I grew up as a Star Wars fan. If some kids gets excited whenever they see Mickey Mouse, I get excited whenever I see Darth Vader or hear the Star Wars opening theme. The first movie that I actually remember seeing on the big screen is Return of the Jedi back in 1983. And as a huge fan of Star Wars, I always wanted to have a nice Darth Vader figure on my display shelf as a representation of how I love the character and the movies. I'm always on a lookout for a nice looking and affordable Darth Vader figure or statue.

The Darth Vader Mythos, also by Sideshow Collectibles actually got my interest, but I find it too expensive, not to mention that it's gonna be more than 6 Kg heavy which will cost me a limb for the shipping cost if I were to order it overseas. Then Sideshow released another sixth scale Darth Vader based on the Return of the Jedi. It looked really great on the promo photos, a real Darth Vader in sixth scale and they dubbed it Deluxe. Well, who am I to resist the dark side of the force.

This is my first non-Hot Toys sixth scale figure and my first Sideshow collectible as well. Since I got this one from HLJ, this is the regular version and not the Sideshow exclusive. The Sideshow exclusive comes with the severed gauntlet and hand. There are some stores that offers the Sideshow exclusive but I find it too expensive. It's nice to have those exclusive items, but I'm not paying too much just for those since I not planning to display it with severed hand. I'd like to remember Darth Vader in his intimidating posture.

The box is wrapped in a plastic bag, but for some reason, the box itself has some scratches. Not a big issue for me though. The box measures 423 mm x 290 mm x 220 mm and weighs 2.440 Kg, bigger and heavier that an average sixth scale figure. Of course with a shoebox styled enclosure like these, the first thing to do is to check the contents and the figure itself. Gladly, mine is in pristine condition and contents are all intact.

POP Edition-Z - Monkey D. Luffy

As always, even if I have been collecting other stuff, I see to it that I don't neglect my POP collection, specially when they release the most important character, the captain himself - Luffy. And as I have mentioned before, I am planning to get all Edition-Z POPs, at least all the strawhats, so it's only obvious that this is to be added to my collection.

This will be the sixth addition to my Edition-Z POPs. Well actually, this is supposed to be my fifth since it has been released earlier than POP Edition-Z - Roronoa Zoro and I actually paid for this earlier, but since it was stocked on my HLJ Private Warehouse and I got it later than Zoro, I'll just count this one as my sixth POP Edition-Z and my 44th addition to my overall POP collection.

The box is with the same theme as other Edition-Z, with red, volcano-ish design and "Z" shaped window. It measures 280 mm x 234 mm x 180 mm and weighs 641 grams. You would notice that it bears a silver TOEI sticker so it can be easily mistaken it as an international version, but looking closely, it has Japanese writing and without any number, making it an authentic Japanese distribution. I would eventually be freeing Luffy out of the box so that sticker won't really matter to me. 

And just showing to you some other items inside the box - the Gunpla decals. A Hex Camouflage Decal White/Light color (Blue) by HiQParts, and GD-77 PG 00 Raiser A & B decals by Bandai. Though I still don't have time to paint my models, I can sleep well knowing that I already have these decals whenever I'm ready to inhale some lacquers and acrylics.

That's all that I can talk about these items for now, but I got one more POP to share to you. Check it out on my next "Look What I Got" post.