Recent Hauls 3: The quest for more stuff

[MAGI_01]

Bought an APC XS 1500G UPS last night.

First UPS I've ever invested in. Just wanted to have something to give peace of mind since my PC was not exactly cheap to build. So far it works great, I tested it last night to ensure there would be no issues with my pc's power supply being Active PFC and the UPS simulated sine wave, since Active PFC supplies take issue with that sometimes.

On idle my pc will have just over an hour of battery backup time, and playing games around a half hour. So more than enough to ensure safe shutdown and the ability to use it to power other devices in case of a long outage is nice also (Like charging my laptop, phone, etc.)

[Catamari]

No, I have to take the pictures... and then censor them. So that they'll be, you know, censored.

No no, I mean the censorship. Unless, by some miracle, you got your paws on uncensored hentai. In which case, you've found the goose that lays golden eggs of the porn world.

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

No no, I mean the censorship. Unless, by some miracle, you got your paws on uncensored hentai. In which case, you've found the goose that lays golden eggs of the porn world.

You mean you don't know?

You see, this is when working in hentai comes in handy. Fakku is currently releasing original, has-not-been-censored-by-any-individual doujinshi from artists like Bosshi and Napata. Project H has been around for even longer releasing works like Aqua Bless and Velvet Kiss (however, they are much less visible and most people don't know about them.)

But yes, I'm very good at getting my hands on uncensored hentai. Having connections is wonderful. So is having a limited edition (anime expo only, only a few thousand copies printed, will be available for digital download but never printed again) uncensored copy of a compilation of Bosshi works with extra-large pages. (Note: on the back, it says "not for the easily shocked or offended". That might give you an idea of what it contains.)

I also get access to everything Fakku releases-- all that uncensored goodness-- through work. I have digital copies of everything.

[Catamari]

Must have missed thah particular memo. You work for Fakki? What, exactly do you do? Translation work?

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

I don't work for Fakku (yet.) I currently work for a scanlation group that will currently go unnamed-- for personal reasons, I feel like keeping exactly who I am separate from here for the time being, although I may change my stance on that in the next few weeks, also for personal reasons.

A scanlation team is a group of people who, for no revenue, scan, edit, typeset, and digitally release manga released in Japan that American companies don't pick up or pick up shoddily. We're not in it for the money; rather, we're in it for the experience and the knowledge that we're helping to send Japanese entertainment wherever it is wanted.

My official titles are Editor, Stylesetter-in-training, and Lead Quality Controller. The more jobs one can do, the more valuable they are to their team. The only thing I can't do is translation, simply due to lack of sufficient Japanese knowledge.

When I'm editing, I'm in charge of taking the original scans, known as "raws", and doing pre-edits on them. This means that I straighten the scans when they are crooked, elevate the white levels to cut down on grit and paper tone, and crush the blacks also to remove grit and make the image as a whole a bit more saturated. That process creates what we call "polished raws". When that's done, I clean all the Japanese text out of the bubbles.

I'm currently being trained up as a stylesetter. It's a fairly self-explanatory job: this is where I take the script that our translator has provided and I put it into the bubbles in a pleasing manner. You know all those fancy fonts when you're watching a girl lose her mind? That's what I get to learn how to do. At this point I'm simply being trained for speed. I have the skill, but there are still people who can do it significantly faster than I can and therefore I can't market that as a skill yet.

Quality control, or QC, as we call it, is the last step before a manga or doujinshi gets published to the internet. It's the final line of defense against anything that we might have screwed up on. This list includes typos, off-center typesets, TL errors, and things that haven't been cleaned or redrawn correctly. (One of our members can redraw behind censorship bars. That's right-- we have an editor skilled enough to release decensored hentai. We like him.) I'm the leading QC member. Ever since I joined back in December and took on my role, I've been leading the quality control efforts on all of our work (and the quality has jumped since then. I'm not going to toot my own horn, but make of that what you will.) Because I'm the lead QC, this means that I'm in charge of giving things a final QC. In short, if something is wrong when it's been released, it's my fault-- but things aren't wrong when we release them, because I'm very good at my job.

I'm sure you're wondering how I get all the Fakku stuff for free since I don't work for them. The answer is that the scanlation team I work for is exceedingly close to Fakku, so sometimes we get a few favors between friends. I also have legitimate access to the fabled Sadpanda, or Fjords as the correct name. I giveth and I recieveth.

I'm still planning on taking pictures, by the way. You can hold your breath: they'll be here soon.

[Ornette]

Haven't bought any vinyl in a while, and found this guy that was selling a bunch of sealed original pressings. Wasn't cheap but boy do they sound good (and clean).



The legendary B.B. King live recording "Live At The Regal", unopened and sealed. Haven't had a chance to spin that yet.

Ornette Coleman's "Change of the Century", is before the freer releases like "Shape of Jazz to Come", but one of my favorite albums. Songs like "Ramblin", "Free" and "Una Muy Bonita" are timeless and really show the kind of prose that Ornette has.

There's also an "Ornette Coleman Quartet" album titled "Ornette", that's much further into the free. A lot of the recordings from that album ended up on a John Zorn album called "Spy vs Spy" (which I recommend the curious to check out, it's a 5 piece: Sax, Sax, Drums, Drums, Electric Bass, and the album are all Ornette covers through the years).



There's a picture of the Quartet album, before it was opened.

Also just opened the Carnegie Hall album. It's actually a reissue from 1975, but it's the single LP original. The CD release of this album comes with 2 discs.

The "GloryHallaStoopid" album wasn't sealed, but it's the original 1979 US release.

The Booker T. album, called "McLemore Avenue", and no surprise from the cover, it's a Beatles cover album, mostly of Abbey Road. Also original 1970 US release, sealed and unopened. McLemore Avenue is where the Stax studio is in Memphis. Booker T. said that the Abbey Road album was "incredibly courageous" and that he had t pay tribute to it (Abbey Road was released a year earlier). It's really a pretty incredible album.



Somewhere in the mix, was the Stevie Wonder compilation double album from 1982. This also wasn't sealed and is kind of a cheapo music club version, but it was cheap and the condition of the vinyl is like new.

[Sailor Star Dust]

Very cool stuff. I think you made Zap a little jelly.

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

Remember all that stuff I was talking about? As promised... I have photos. However, I do have a few disclaimers to put up here.

The following images are highly, highly risque. Some of them I have personally censored due to visible anatomy that certainly falls under NSFW. The others, while perhaps not containing this anatomy, are definitely as lewd as some of the lewd photos that you could find in the pictures thread. Don't open these spoilers if you're not certain you're in a safe place to do so.

And rest assured, mods, I'm not planning on making a habit of puling a Twili and posting porn everywhere. This is a recent haul, so I'm posting it here and making every effort to tell people to stay away if it ain't for them. And now, we begin.

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This is the convention exclusive. Totally uncensored, it's a compilation of works by artist Bosshi. He's really good. I like him. Due to the content of the book, Fakku was kind enough to put a warning on the back...

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Man, I'm not easily shocked or offended, and while I wasn't offended, I was shocked.

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When you're watching a girl bone a dragon with a dong as big as she is, you can't help but be a little shocked. I have links to scans of this (censored ones, since the uncensored stuff is licensed) if anyone wants 'em.

But, moving on... This is Comic Megastore. It's not bad.

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This is Kairakuten Beast. It's pretty good.

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And this is normal Kairakuten. It's awesome. I'd consider subscribing to this, and maybe Comic Unreal. (They didn't have that one. Sold out of it in five minutes and I was off getting other goodies.)

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The reason why I cared about picking up this stuff is that I'm a scanlator and I've been reading this stuff without paying the artists for quite a long time. The two mags I bought under the Kairakuten label are licensed by a group called Wanimagazine, and they have many of my favorite artists under contract. Being able to support the artists I love was something that I felt was special for me to do. The exclusive Bosshi work... well, it'll be released digitally later, but there were only a few thousand actual prints made, and they were Anime Expo exclusives. I own one of the few thousand prints that will ever exist.

And there you have it. That's my hentai stash from AX!

...

Oh, yeah. I also got this. It's by the guy who did Scott Pilgrim. It's good.

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[Squigsquasher]

Went to HyperJapan yesterday. Didn't buy much, but what I bought was good.

-S.H. Monsterarts Alien. I love this guy. Sure he isn't perfect (the tail is pretty floppy, the inner jaws rattle a bit and the dome is oddly clear compared to the suit) but he's a lot of fun to pose and he looks fantastic.
-Figma Sakura Kinomoto. Without a doubt one of my favourite figures ever. Joints are tight, sculpting is fantastic, paint is crisp and she's just so CUTE! She's more accurate to the manga than the anime admittedly but I don't really care.
-Okami for the PS2. Haven't played it yet but I will.

[MAGI_01]

Grabbed me a Distant Worlds T-Shirt last night before the concert to mark the occasion.

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[r1cepurin]

This thread is certainly in need of a bump, yessir


Okay, so I went to central Suwon a couple of days ago with my sister (plan to go again next week) and look at this shit I bought



Okay, so we have a Doraemon keychain on the left, a Majin Buu phone case, and robot socks.
The Buu phone case is technically my sister's, but it doesn't actually fit her phone. We're trying to figure out how it'll fit, so hopefully that happens without breaking it. I think I'm gonna go back to the area tomorrow :3

[Stryker]

Just found blu-ray discs of My Neighbor Totoro and Nausicaa at my local Costco.

Fucking score.

[MAGI_01]

Sooo, I bought a Kilt. >_>

A Khaki colored one at that... but man, it's like wearing a pair of shorts but more comfortable.

Cost me a good ~ $200 though but they are handmade locally so the price is worth supporting a local business.

[Ari]

Not exactly a new haul per se, but i just unearthed my old pokemon collection and am putting it back on display! I can't believe I ever put this thing away. I did lose my mew figurine, though :'(

[BrikHaus]

I got my copies (regular and NSFW) of Exploding Kittens in the mail last week. So, that was pretty cool. Anyone played it yet?

[::KL7::]

Completed

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And...

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[r1cepurin]

First of all I just want to say Korea's Toys R Us is
vastly superior to the US version. Lots of Japanese
imports, including this guy I picked up

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Tamama is best frog. Anyway, it also came to my surprise that this will require A LOT of assembly. In fact, Tamama was the only thing I was able to assemble, and that took about an hour of cutting out the pieces and assembling them.

I think I'm going to get Catamari to help me, and I'm sure he'd enjoy it since he loves to build things. Besides, he could probably read the instructions better than I can.

[Shinoyami65]

And...

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Wait, is this official? I mean, I know it was stated that Jeanne was a magical girl and it was only a matter of time since Japan loves Jeanne for some reason, but I didn't actually expect it to happen...

[pwhodges]

[url]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Puella-Magi-Tart-Magica-Vol/dp/0316383147[/url]

[Squigsquasher]

[url]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Puella-Magi-Tart-Magica-Vol/dp/0316383147[/url]

Heh heh. It says "tart".

(In all seriousness though that sounds pretty cool.)