Kansai Chopper Keychains! ♥ ご当地チョッパーマン: 関西

Part IV of my gotouchi (ご当地, location limited) Chopper Keychains! ♥ Part I was Chubu, part II was Kantou and part III was Tohoku! 

It's been almost a year since I've added to this collection, and this time I got ones from Kansai!

Kansai is made up of 7 prefectures: Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Shiga, Nara, Wakayama and Mie. 

Sometimes, Mie is not included.

Adorable One Piece chibi-arts ♥

To be honest, other than Chopper, the rest of the One Piece characters aren't very "cute". But chibi-fy them and they become the most adorable things ever! Making something chibi is like rearranging their proportions to give an over-sized head and tiny limbs in proportion to the body.

If you didn't already know, One Piece is a hugely popular manga in Japan, it's been running for ~15 years now. The currently airing anime has over 500 episodes, 10 movies and has been on air for over a decade as well. One Piece is also the series where Chopper comes from! Anyway, it's about pirates travelling the oceans and the adventures they have. The variety of characters is awesome, and the storyline is interesting, amusing and has direction.

So there's a line of figures called chibi-arts, and they make One Piece characters. So far only 3 have been released, but at a recent convention they showcased prototypes of possible future releases. Super cute~!!

Perona and Zoro!

Two of my three favorite One Piece characters (the other is Chopper~)

Perona is slated for release in March 2012, Zoro is a prototype.

Close up of Zoro, holding a barbequed fish and a mug of beer.

Chibi-arts figures usually come with extra facial expressions and extra arms in different poses, but since this is still a prototype, not sure what the other arms will be holding. But at least one should have swords for sure!

Vivi, Nami, Sanji and Nico Robin.

Other than Nami, the rest are prototypes!

(Nami came out in Oct 2011)

Close-up of Vivi.

Close-up of Sanji, holding a cake with Nami's head :P

Close-up of Nico Robin

Another favorite character of mine, Chopper!

A prototype, looking adorable with the mushroom.

Close-up of Chopper.

The above pictures were taken during the Tamashii Nation 2011 event, where Tamashii Nation, the company (under Bandai, remember, almost all toys are made by Bandai!) that produces the toys, showcased future products. Photography was not allowed for the public, these pictures came from HobbyStock.

Anyway, onto the chibi-arts that have been released (and I got my hands on)! Nami, Luffy and Boa Hancock. (Ace comes out in Dec 2011 btw!)

First out was Boa Hancock in July 2011.

Then came Luffy in Aug 2011.

I should've given him a more greedy-looking pose by using the inflated stomach body :P

Nami came out end-Oct 2011.

As mentioned, they come with interchangeable faces, limbs, bodies and for Boa Hancock's case, interchangeable hair and legs as well. The limbs are rotatable, and a stand to prop up the figure comes along with the kit.

The "Looking down so much that she's looking up instead" pose. They even include a bunch of quotes in speech/effect bubbles that you can put on a stand and display together with the figure :D

I'm adoring their cuteness and can't wait for the rest to come get released! Hopefully they do get released and not remain as prototypes, and hopefully they get released regularly, and not like one every 2-3 months -.-

On another note, I've ordered a bunch of brushes from Sigma Beauty! Hoping they'll come soon, they've been shipped out! However my card was charged twice (no I did not click multiple times, the charges were 20min apart, their site was having huge traffic that day and oft crashed) and CS has been taking really long to reply...I just hope I can get my money back! :(

AFA 2011 - One Piece Galore ☆

A long overdue post! Part 1 (overview) here and part 2 (cosplay) here.

Huuuuge Chopper figure!

Sadly it wasn't for sale.

But even if it were I wouldn't buy it cos it's neither soft nor cuddly!

Mini models of the ships Thousand Sunny and Going Merry!

AFA 2011 - Cosplay

There were lots and lots of people cosplaying at the Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2011, but I didn't take that many pictures for a variety of reasons: Fighting with the crowds of guys armed with DSLRs forming a human wall; the overcrowdedness; no idea who the people were cosplaying as; and the cosplayers themselves never held their poses/formations for long anyway. So, the ones I mostly took/tried to take were of characters from my beloved One Piece~ ♡

Kaname ☆ cosplaying as Sanji and Usagi as Nami.

Both Shinsekai versions.

This totally made my day~ ♡

AFA 2011 - Overview/Summary

Anime Festival Asia 2011 was held this weekend, 11-13 Nov at Suntec City Convention Hall in Singapore.

A weekend filled with fun pertaining to anything anime~ Lotsa toys and goodies, cosplayers, Hatsune Miku concert, Anisong performances by Kalafina, May'n, Milky Holmes, Flow, Sea*A and more. An event where fans of all things anime could gather and share their love.

However, I admit I went to AFA 2011 mostly to look at One Piece stuff and see One Piece cosplayers...And Fairy Tail and Hakuouki, but sadly I didn't spot any :( To be honest, I don't really care much for other anime^^ And I wouldn't stop to glance at cosplayers cosplaying characters from series I have no clue of...sorry!

Group cosplaying as Shinsekai/New World versions of Zoro and Luffy. And a Mr 3.

Detailed post on (One Piece) cosplayers I saw here!

I saw people decked out in most of the Mugiwara crew, as well as most of the Shichibukai and other characters like Shanks, Jewelry Bonney, Perona and Mr 3.

Kaname as Sanji and Usagi as Nami.

Even Japanese cosplayers Usagi and Kaname, who were gracing the event, were cosplaying characters from One Piece! Usagi as Shinsekai/ New World Nami and Kaname as Shinsekai/ New World Sanji. This totally put a smile on my face as they're cosplaying characters from one of my favorite series, instead of some random series I don't follow or know of ^^ These two were also judges for the Regional Cosplay Competition 2011 which was held on Sunday 13 Nov.

For comparison, here're Shinsekai Nami and Sanji figures :D

One Piece x Hello Kitty ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡

Most girls love Hello Kitty. ♥ Most girls love Chopper. ♥ (Most girls' favorite character from One Piece is Chopper. Mine is Zoro, Chopper's 2nd! But as a mascot and on stationery/collectibles, I prefer Chopper! ) When you mix them together, you get a super cute collaboration set of items! I can't decide who's cuter, Kitty Chopper or Chopper Kitty? ♥

I first found out about the collection after seeing this from Japan's Seventeen magazine. Next month's issue comes with a One Piece x Hello Kitty pouch! I must remember to get that issue, it comes out 1st December.

Anyway, turns out that Sanrio was releasing a series of One Piece x Chopper goodies! ♥ The series launched yesterday, 3rd November, but most of the items on the Sanrio webstore are sold out already :(

Plush dolls!♥

In various sizes, there are keychain forms too!

But I already have my Chopper plush from the UFO catcher,

he still keeps me company every night so I've no room for another Chopper!

Stationery like post-its, notebooks and files. And a mirror!

More stationery like a letter set and clips to hold paper.

Miscellaneous things like hair brush and earphones ♥ (I want these!)

Plus lots of other goodies like keychains, pouches of various sizes, tissue box covers, pillows, bedroom slippers etc! There are more items not pictured here like tote bags, towels, T-shirts, ballpens and pencils! And an Iphone 4 cover to be released 7th December. I don't/will never use Apple products so that doesn't concern me! :P

Since these are produced by Sanrio, I do hope this collection will make its way to Singapore! ♥

Souvenirs from Matsumoto ♥

Remember around 2 months ago I went to Chubu/Hokuriku? One of the places I visited was Matsumoto. After coming back The Straits Times asked for a short write-up, and it came out in the papers a couple of weeks ago.

They asked for a picture as well, all the pictures I had of myself from the trip were self-shots...because I was travelling alone^^ This is one of the less obvious ones I think, at least my arm isn't showing :P The castle in the picture is Matsumoto Castle.

Anyway, sometime late in September, I was notified that the Matsumoto Convention and Tourism Association wanted to pass me a souvenir at the coming Japan Travel & Food Fair. I was quite surprised, wondering why they'd do that, as I didn't recall meeting anyone in Matsumoto, but thought that was such a random and nice gesture.

With the representative from the Matsumoto Convention and Tourism Association, Mr Y.

I don't think I can convey how touched I was by their very kind and thoughtful gesture. I certainly didn't do anything to deserve it, but it was really nice of them to specially give me a souvenir!

With the lovely folks at the Shinshuu/Matsumoto booth at the Japan Travel & Food Fair.

A little FYI about the 3 posters in the background:

from left to right they're of Norikura Kougen, Matsumoto City and Kamikouchi.

Mwahahaha I've been to 2 of the 3, they're all beautiful places!

The beautiful souvenir, Matsumoto oshie (松本押絵)!

This lovely lady currently graces my bedroom wall.

Close-up, the details are gorgeous ♥

It's a traditional, handmade, semi-3D craft;

made using different pieces of cloth, which are stuffed, shaped and arranged.

The lady in the artwork is holding a temari, a local traditional craft of Matsumoto.

Temari on a manhole cover I saw while in Matsumoto.

A mini temari keychain I bought while in Matsumoto.

Mr Y found out I was a fan of One Piece and got these as well!

One Piece figures, Shinsekai version~

I was really very touched by this, along with the letter they wrote.

Thank you very much for your kindness Matsumoto ♥

There are 8 different types, each one comes with a character and a bonus part.

When you gather all 8 types, you can combine the bonus parts to make Franky.

The ones I got were Robin and Brook~

Robin and Brook along with the Luffy, Zoro and Franky figures I recently bought ♥

Excuse the photo quality, this came from my phone^^

One Piece 海賊キャラ弁当 Book / Mook ♥

The title gives it all away doesn't it :P I've been waiting for this book/mook to come out ever since I saw ads for it a while back, and it finally became available here! It's the One Piece Kaizoku Chara Bentou Book~ ♥ (One Piece 海賊キャラ弁当 Book)

It's basically a book that shows a couple of ideas on how to make bentous (lunchboxes) with One Piece themed designs, and it comes with a couple of items to help make the character designs! ♥

One Piece is a hugely popular manga in Japan, it's been running for ~15 years now. The currently airing anime has over 500 episodes, 10 movies and has been on air for over a decade as well. One Piece is also the series when Chopper comes from! Mwahahaha now you know that my obsession with Chopper originates from One Piece!

This is the box containing the "bentou kit",

which consists of items to help make food One Piece themed.

The side is pink!

The front of the box.

The back of the box.

It lists the contents and some precautions to take while using the items.

The top flap of the box has One Piece characters!

This is the actual "book".

It's A4-sized but isn't very thick.

Some ideas on the kinds of food to use when making the different characters ♥

Eg, Zoro has green hair, so you could use broccoli or other greens.

Example of a bentou with Luffy! ♥

When making bentous it's quite common to cut out seaweed to make details (facial features) on a "face" (rice ball, bread, etc). There are quite a few examples and recipes inside the book, including what kind of ingredients to use if you want to get a certain color etc.

The bentou kit goodies! ♥

Luffy and Chopper silicon molds! ♥

Suggested uses include rice balls, jelly, pudding.

Outside of the pink Chopper mold ♥

Outside of the red Luffy mold ♥

Inside of the pink Chopper mold.

If making rice balls, the details like the eyes and cross will not show, that's why seaweed details are used. But if making jelly or pudding, due to the texture the eyes and cross will show (:

Inside of the red Luffy mold.

If using rice, you will not be able to see the hair strands and the face, hence the seaweed details in the example bentou.

Zoro and Sanji cutters/molds/imprinters ♥

I call them cutters cos you kind of use them like cookie cutters to make the shape. But you shouldn't actually press all the way through, just enough to make an "imprint". Suggested uses include on bread, luncheon meat, ham, cookies.

The inside.

You can actually also use these to shape hard-boiled eggs!

The Zoro cutter/mold ♥

The Sanji cutter/mold ♥

Sunny stencil ♥

Place it over something like a plain rice ball, then sprinkle seaweed flakes through the stencil holes to make a Sunny pattern! You could also use it on cakes/cookies and sprinkle cocoa powder, draw icing etc!

Merry stencil ♥

Pirate flags x4 ♥

These are made of plastic so they can be reused over and over again.

Just remember to wash them!

The whole set of goodies and the book once again~ ♥

Ohohoho I think I've been on a One Piece overload lately and amassing too much One Piece themed items, ohno >__< But One Piece stuff is really hard to get here, don't think it's that popular. Makes me regret not spamming One Piece stationery in Japan because there's none here! :(((