Camera

(Wow... I'm super late for this.)
Take pictures with your favorite FMA characters with this limited edition collaboration Exilim camera! It comes with 44 templates, special start-up screen and design body.

Blu-ray 2

A bought the second Blu-ray and gave me the post cards again! Wow thanks! (Although I'm keeping them in the box with him.)

Again... there's no bonus episodes... It should be Izumi's story. (T_T) I greatly question the difference in content between the 2 discs. 9 episode vs 4? That's bull sh#t!

Al's loincloth for sale

Actually it's an "apron" (but we all know what it is)... haha! Honestly, who's gonna but that? (Oh... apron, right.)

Final Best Wallpaper

Oops... I'm super late in this one. Free wallpaper download until September 30th.

BD

A bought the first brotherhood Bluray disk and gave me the freebie post cards. Thanks A!!

(But the back of these "postcards" are printed and don't have space to write anything! Strange...)

And I was looking, looking, looking... at all the printed info. Nope, what I hope to find is not there. Then we put the disks into the player and checked the menu. Nope, not there either. It doesn't exist.

I thought the Japanese version comes with an extra shot animation "The Blind Alchemist". But this one doesn't. I know there's at least one more short of this type that's been released. (Izumi's youth story. I haven't had a chance to search for that yet.) I suspect more of Arakawa's FMA vignette mangas will be made into animated shorts and included in the disks as they are released. In north America's case, are they planing to put together all the extra shots and issue another disk at the end? If so, they're evil!

Hmm... unless... that extra piece of animation is hidden and need a password to unlock or something. But unlikely.

Memorial clock

This month's Gangan comes with a special freebie: a FMA memorial clock! Yikes! Since when did magazine give out such expensive freebies? In my days, freebies were either made of paper or cardboard, or plastic bags with illustrations! (Well... nowadays some fashion magazine includes mirror compact or even cosmetics...)

Yes it looks expensive. But the illustration isn't elaborate at all. It's like a page from a colouring book. Quite flat. Hmm... I don't know how much time it takes to manufacture stuff like this, but chance are, they're made in China. (Could someone verify please?) This probably requires extra time. The illustration probably had to be handed in earlier too. Which means, That could be a few chapters before this, when the battle was at it's height. I can understand Arakawa would be super busy and opped for a simple design to save time.

Al cap?

It says "beanie", but looks more like a cap. Are those eye holes??? No information is available on that site (at this point). No dimensions either. Well... to be honest, it looks quite ugly. This could be something someone wears to rob a bank. (Hope that never happens.)

"Pocket watch"?

This is no pocket watch, Amazon!

20100610: Oh! They fixed the photo. But if you right click and go "view image", you can bypass the link and see the original screen shot in full size.

Postage stamps

Wow! Official postage stamps from the Japanese post office! Coooool!!!!! Comes out on June 14. The pictures are pretty good too. They're too nice to be used. Not that I can have any, but at least I'd rather keep them than use them.

There are other anime stamps too. Keroro, Naruto, Case Closed (twice!), Patlabour, Conan, Evangelion, Gundam (of course), Galaxy Express 999, Pokemon, Doraemon, Astro Boy, and a few oldies.


Hey wait a minute... wasn't there already postage stamps from the old series? Oh... they were by Movic.

Automail???

Looks wrong!
But I'm surprised no one come up with this idea sooner. It works well with metal. More punch in a fist, though. No pun intended. (Click the image to go to the site.)


And this "Envy's sword" is completely bogus! Take it out of the packaging and it's just a sword from nowhere. (Click the image to go to the site.)

The logo suggests that these are from the old TV series. Could they be bootlegs? I wouldn't be surprised.

Trading card

Thanks Chiwasaki for the info!

"Alchemist Board Clear Pack". According to Amazon Japan, 3360 yen for a box of 16, which should contain the whole set. 8 normal plate, 8 gold foil clear plate. Well, this is unusual. As far as I know, trading card always scam you by not giving you complete sets so you'd keep buying. Maybe it will snow tomorrow.

DVD archive box set

TV ad of the super expensive DVD archive box set. 5 of these can pay for a trip to Japan. To be honest, I think it's just another scam.

Bootleg DVDs

Ran into an interesting posting about Chinese bootleg FMA DVDs. To my understanding, there are only 2 kinds of bootlegs. Those that look like the real thing, and those that says "bootleg" all over.

This DVD box set is the third kind. It looks decent. The maker seems to (try to) "improve"(?) on the original? There are many differences including the number of disks, and the text on the box was re-typeset with wrong Japanese. For this part, I think only those who can read Japanese will have more fun reading.

Memory card

Haha... this has become a merchandise blog lately. Sorry for another space filler.

8M memory card starting from 5429 yen at Amazon Japan.

The English Alchemist

Sorry, old stuff just for space filler... (>_<;)

Hmm... kind of like supplementary reading material for learning English? Actually, I'm not exactly sure what's inside. Here's its page at Rakuten web shop.

Stamps

Real stamps that you can send a letter with. Comes with 10 postcards in a folder. Actually this came out last fall. I've been meaning to post it but forgot. (^_^;) Here's the order page at Movic.

Ed and Al statue

Thanks Chiwasaki for the info. (^_^)
Here's Kotobukiya's ordering page. Detailed pictures over here.
Released by Square Enix, 37800 yen. 275 mm tall, release date: 2008 November.

Hmm... why is Ed sandwiched between Al and the pile of rubble? Looks like he's holding up a cross or something? But I think that's the "shinning" Philosopher's stone he's trying to reach. Al looks dead too. (T_T) Hmmm... don't like the composition...

FMA archive box set (2)

Thanks Chiwasaki for the info. (^_^)

Release date: January 28, 2009
Price: 68250 yen
Contents: 20 DVDs + 8 CDs, special disk case (4 sets) with original illustration by Yoshiyuki Itou. All in a collector's box
Special order limited edition. (Not sold in stores.)
Order accepted between June 18, 2008 and September 30, 2008.


20 DVDs:

• Complete TV series 51 episodes (13 disks).
• Movie (1 disk) + specials (2 disks).
• Movie Blue-ray version (1 disk).
• Premium collection (1 disk).
• Box limited edition special (2 disks).

8 CDs:

• TV series original sound track (3 disks)
• Movie sound track (1 disk)
• Character Best (2 disks)
• Theme songs compilations (1CD + 1 DVD)

All using original master, except for the 2 box set special DVDs, Blue-ray movie DVD, and the theme songs compilations CD are newly mastered.

Goodies that come with the box:
Art book: 148 page, contains

• concept artwork and unpublished design,
• FMA chronicle,
• special comic strip by Arakawa.

Goods:

• poster,
• handouts,
• movie ticket,
• press kit,
• catalog of not-for-sale items,
• original pinup by Arakawa.

FMA archive box set

More info to come...

Otome (maiden) Road cookies

Thanks Riho again. Cool! Ikebukuro special, right...? (^_^) Gotta love Japanese package design. Will post a taste test when I open the box. (^_^)

It's June already! Aaaargh!!!!