So this year didn't see a huge tax refund like I have before (that's both a good thing and a bad thing) so I had to spend wisely to get things that I wanted and things that I needed. It also meant I had to do a whole lot of window shopping to find the best prices on some of the stuff. All told I had about $1000 to spend and this is what I came away with:
Pelican 1510 camera case
Acer Aspire 5050
Porsche "Kills Bugs Fast" poster
Revoltech 066 "Gurren & Lagann"
Figma Ein
Canon 18-55mm kit lens
4gb SDHC card
Battery for the Video Camera
50mm wideangel lens for Video Camera
Eat Sleep Race Bottlecap stickers
JDMego "yuk" stickers
Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne DVD
Halo Legends DVD (picked it up a bit later after everything else)
Gurren Lagann Vol 3 Manga
Picked up a few blind box figures
.22 ammo
While the Laptop was the most expensive item that I picked up it was also one of the more needed items since my desktop is constantly having issues and I wanted to get a laptop for some time. I managed to find a pretty good refurbished Acer Aspire for just under $250 that had a pretty decent set up and I snapped it up. The only problems with the laptop are a few large scratches on the lid but given enough time I'll have all that covered up with cool stickers. Already have a few on there including one of the JDMego "yuk" stickers which I thought were pretty cool. The other yuk sticker is on the Pelican case.
The Pelican Casewas one of the harder to find things that I was looking for not because it was hard to find but getting a good deal on one was the problem. I finally got a steal when I found one with the foam included for a nice shipped price of $135 which was considerably lower than just about any other price that I could find. It was definitely a right time right place kind of deal. I'm really enjoying it and am adding stickers every chance I can to dress it up. Not only did it get the JDMego "yuk" sticker but it also got one of the Eat Sleep Race bottlecap stickers as well. I've also added some Idaho Motorsports stickers and a No Hardparking sticker as well. I need more though. The reason I got the case is because the one I had before was just to small for everything I had and I was getting tired of having to switch thins in and out all the time. Now I don't have to.
I was thinking of picking up a really expensive super wideangel lens but instead of spending $400+ dollars for one I found a less expensive option that would work just as fine. I found a Canon kit lens in 18-55mm that would work just as well for what I wanted for $90 shipped. Oddly enough when I did get it I had to spend an extra $.40 in shipping when it got here...D'oh. Anyways I've used it a couple times now and I love it.
As for the Porsche "Kills Bugs Fast" poster you have to understand that I'm a huge Porsche fan and when I was in High School Porsche started doing these ads and one of them was this image of the then new 993 Turbo with the slogan "Kills Bugs Fast" and I instantly fell in love with the ad and had it cut out and pasted on to my school binder. Fast forward several years and I find out that they had Posters of said image and I had to find one. For years I couldn't find one then they started showing up on eBay for some serious money. Lately though the price fell and I snagged this one up for a little over $25 shipped. I'm freaking happy to have it hanging on my wall.
My anime addiction continues to grow and I picked up some anime, manga and a couple figures as well. One of them was a pre-order that came in last minute and that was the Figma Ein from Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom. The second was another Revoltech and this time it was the Gurren & Lagann figure. I was a bit worried about it's authentic nature but once I got it and got a good look at it I wasn't worried anymore. I also picked up a few blindbox figures from a local place. On the entertainment front I only picked up a much loved anime series Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, and when it finally came out the DVD for Halo Legends. The only Manga I picked up was the third volume of Gurren Lagann.
Finally one of the things that I picked up whenever I could was more .22 ammo it's sometimes really hard to find so when you find some you get it. I've used some of it already though.
And that folks is the swag that I picked up with my tax refund. Now I just need to go watch Rin again since I haven't watched it since I got it.
