Sunday, January 26, 2014

One Piece Miracle Battle Carddass: Part 16 Kyoto Domei Booster Box

Yikes what a long title! I recently received a very cool box and since my last post about cards seemed well received here is another one.  Here is a review of my most recently acquired One Piece booster box, the Toriko cross One Piece:

First off, the box is lovely! These boxes are always brightly colored and have attractive lettering/kanji.  I imagine these would be easy to spot in a card/comic shop.  I also wanted to feature this box because it is still up for sale on amiami.com for 2,940 JPY (30 bucks USD) which is rare, as these booster boxes sell out really fast!
I have a feeling this box scares people who are either only into One Piece or only into Toriko. I will say if you are buying this box for Toriko cards....you will be disappointed.  only the uncommons (and a couple more rare cards) are Toriko cards, so all in all a person would pull mostly One Piece cards.

I'm not gonna lie, I bought this box because of the omega rare options.  Ace, Boa Hancock, Shanks or Doflamingo!?  Yep, I had to try my luck on getting one of these cards.  It's rare to have so many of my favorites as omega options. Plus Boa Hancock's purple card and Doflamingo's pink card are visually stunning.
 More box shots.  I really like the separator with the character art from the box on it as well.
Previously I neglected to show what opening a pack looks like.  Actually a lot of people do pack openings on youtube, and they are fun to watch.  I recommend taking a look sometime if anyone is interested (most are in Japanese or French).
Packs will consist of 1 rare/super rare/ booster rare/omega card, 2 uncommons, 5 common cards, and a cardlist card.  This one has the next box advertised on the back, the Jump stars booster box! Like I said before these boxes have usually 1 Omega rare and 2 boster rares (miracle rares in older boxes).  It makes completing sets like these very difficult.Time to look at my rares for this box:


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I couldn't ask for better cards! I have my all time wanted Doflamingo card!  Plus Flower Vista and Trafalgar Law? Too cool.  I'm really digging the new foil on these cards too, they catch the light better than previous sets.  I really like my super rares (below) baby 5!
Here are some of the cooler rares and the Toriko cards.  I enjoy Toriko as well, so it's nice to have these in my collection.  Toriko and Sunny look particularly good to me.
Seasoned Collectors of these card will notice the changes on them.  Like the new booster rares vs. miracle rares, the cards have new foils, larger corner numbers and even English writing denoting character cards, action cards, support cards, and dramatic cards.  Nice changes over all, and I think I'll be opening more of these boxes in the future.  That's all for now, and thanks to anyone who is still following my humble blog.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Cards, Cards, Cards!

This post may be slightly strange since it doesn't have any figures.  What gives?  Honestly I have been really into card collecting lately.  Well pretty consistently actually.  Like my previous pokemon card post I felt like it was time to update on some of the card sets I've been collecting.  I'll try to recall prices and places I bought these from. This is months of pictures compiled into one post so I may be fuzzy on details.

First up: Pokémon TCG Sylveon Collection

I picked this set up at my local grocery store, of all places, for 19.99.  It's pretty hard to walk by this box and not pick it up!  I've seen this set floating around online at different card shop sites, Amazon, and Ebay for anywhere between 20 and 30 buck on average. 
This box, and I quote:
Includes 4 Black & White Series booster packs
Includes Sylveon and ALL the Eevee evolutions as special foil cards
Includes a Fairy-type Energy card to power Sylveon's attacks
Includes Sylveon as an awesome collectible figure
If you or someone you are buying for, is an eeveelution fan, this box is a steal at 20.00.  Most promotion box sets like this are around those prices anyway. The real bonus to this set are the 9 promo cards! It also introduces the new fairy type cards with a holo Sylveon to boot.  Which is actually a really cute card in my opinion ^^;  Plus these sets are one way to get promotional figures.
 


 
 

 
 

This figure is no slouch.  It's larger than a lot of my other promotional pokemon figures.  It has a few dings on the white parts, but this can happen with smaller figures anyway.
The real draw to this box is the guarantee of cool Holo cards.  These really stand out with the patterns and clean cut art.  I completely forgot to check if these were decently playable (Espeon has Solar Revelation at least) but I have a feeling people will still prefer to use eeveelutions from the plasma packs anyway.  This cardboard card display wheel was really interesting to me, and it was easier to pop the cards out of it safely than some of the plastic panels on other box sets.
Here are close ups of the promo cards since these are the real draw for this set.  These are what made me purchase this box anyway.  A lot of online stores and local card/comic shops will sell these individually for collectors that are more selective.




Here is what feels like the bonus to this box, the B&W series packs Next destinies, Exalted Dragons and two Legendary Treasures.  I've opened so many B&W packs so far, but it's always exciting to try my luck on packs!  Here are the a couple of the cards out of Legendary Treasures that I pulled.  I love the designs on the Rare Collection sets.

Second Round: One Piece Miracle Battle Cardass: Part 10

I am very new to collecting Miracle Battle Carddass cards, despite knowing about them for a long time.  I really should do video recordings of my card openings because I'm always delighted by these cards.  I tested the waters with a Film Z box and loved them.  At least I remembered to grab my camera for this one:
(Sorry my walls still aren't painted) I've always liked the fishman island arc so getting cards from it were a major draw.  I paid 45 bucks for this one from an online card shop (free shipping).  Usually these sets are 30 or 40 USD if you can preorder it from amiami.  I'm not sure where else to purchase these; anyone else out there know?  These boxes can be 60 to 70 bucks on Ebay!
The card ratios are 40 commons, 20 uncommons, 10 rares, 8 super rares, 7 miracle rares and 6 omega rares.  These ratios change from set to set but are mostly around the same amounts.  I loved the miracle rares in this set which were on the back of the box.  I wanted X drake, Pell, Marco, and Chopper super bad, so I was hoping my 2 cards would be one of those.  Boxes usually only have 1 omega rare, but every once in a while they come with 2.
Here is the inside: 20 Packs, 8 cards per pack.  And some come with promo cards!
I was grinning so much when I pulled X drake and Pell as my Miracle Rares, and Red Haired shanks as my Omega!  I Love having cards of my favorites characters! 
 I Love the Promo Luffy too.  It came with 5 Luffy promo cards so my other ones are still in plastic.
Here are just a few of the Super Rares and Rares.  These cards are just lovely.  Gotta sa,y I am shocked that they still aren't translated (French, English, etc.) and sold in other countries.  I would love to play this game! And buy these easily.  I'll enjoy what I can get when I can though.
 
Lastly:  Persona 4 The Animation Trading Cards

This was a random pickup from many months ago when I was filling up an order from amiami.  It was a sale item that is no longer up for sale.  (Sorry guys)  This box is nice and only highlights from the show/character arts.  There isn't much to say about these, other than the pure fun of collecting cards from a series you like:















That's all there is! At least for now.  I'll try to do more types of reviews and photo shoots.  I look forward to another year of fun collecting and silly posts.  Thanks guys!